BAM! And Then There Was Me

Mood: Proud

Playing: New Perspective-Panic! at the Disco
Hello! Well readers, this is a big day for my blog and I guess, for me too. I decided it's time to post some pictures of myself on my blog to prove to all of you that I'm a real person. Heh, does that even make sense to you? Now, I know not all of you care about this, so I decided I'll make this a post about who I am as a person.

Photo Courtesy of Sophie 2009

I am three quarters Chinese and one quarter Japanese. My mum is from Taiwan and moved here, when she was 9. My dad is from Hawaii and his side of the family is extremely Americanized. In fact, I think my dad is either 3rd or 4th generation.  Even though I'm mostly Chinese, I can't speak Chinese fluently. I only know a few words, but I am learning French at school and Tagalog from my friends, in an attempt to make myself multi-lingual. Overall, I don't have many Asian characteristics other than the working hard in school part and the practicality, when it comes to life. Something odd about me is my freckles. I'm the only Asian girl with freckles that I know of and I don't get tan. If I stay in the sun, I get really pink!

Photo Courtesy of Sophie 2010

My parents constantly tell me I'm fairly "well-bred." Haha, I think it's because my mum is a direct descendant of Confucius and her grandfather was the general for Chiang Kai-Shek's air force. This is rather interesting, I think. My mum's side of the family fled from China to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-Shek in order to escape persecution from Mao Tse-Tung. Due to this, my parents think I'm well-bred. I tell people at school that I'm related to these people and they always think I'm lying, but I pinky promise, I'm not lying.

Photo Courtesy of Tina 2011 (Me with Tina and Tiffany)

I've had the same glasses and haircut for years now. I feel some change is necessary. I really want to cut it short kind of like this, only choppier and messier. I tried to fix my boring hair problem by dying it brown, but that only made me realize how dying my hair wasn't enough. I read this article in a fashion magazine (either marie claire, Elle, or Harper's Bazaar) that people who dye their hair blond have a hard time going darker later on. The author talked about how lighter hair makes your feel more optimistic and how it's a psychological thing. She was talking about how it doesn't have to be blond, any color that's lighter, makes you feel more cheerful and such. I didn't believe her until I pushed my brown hair back one day with a headband and started to freak out, when I saw my natural black hair. In my mind, all I could think about was how dark it looked and I realized, dying my hair brown might've been a bad thing. I'm going to have a hard time going back to black!

Are you going anywhere this summer?

P.S. I am very much aware of how self absorbed the title of this post sounds and this is why WikiAnswers isn't a good source for homework.Click here to see why.

Winchester Mystery House

Mood: Frustrated
Playing: Come Dancing-The Kinks
Ok, so I haven't been blogging as actively as I would like because Biology is taking up much of my time. We're dissecting a fetal pig in class and we have to do these Human Trivia Questions for homework. There are over 150 questions and I don't know when the due date is, so I'm going to do 10 questions a day. Yay for not procrastinating! Also, my Geometry teacher is so funny! In class he was teaching us Euler's theorem and then he pointed at a drawing of the mathematician and said, "He's one of those dead white guys on my wall over there!"
This weekend was pretty good, though. On Saturday, I celebrated my very good friend's Confirmation. My family went to their house and celebrated with his extended family. We had a great time and it gave me a great idea of what I should expect next year, when I'm confirmed. Last night, my brother watched Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Adventures with me. We got through 6 episodes. How mature are we? VERY MATURE! We did is more because I watched it, when I was little. It's so cute and guess what? It's from the 80's!

Anyways, I'm supposed to tell you about my trip to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose from almost a month ago. I visited it before I preformed for History Day. (The way I talk about History Day, you'd think it was all I do in my free time.) When you walk in, you're greeted by cheery pastel colors and calliope music.

There are 160 rooms and all the rooms are just built over each other. It's just a rambling, twisting mansion. Legend has it that Mrs. Winchester was told by a psychic that in order to appease the spirits that killed her husband and newborn daughter, she had to build on her house continuously for the rest of her life. For 38 years, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, people built more and more onto her mansion. Where did she get all this money to build the house? Well, her husband was the owner of the Winchester Firearms Company, so she made $1,000 a day. (We aren't allowed to take photos, while on the tour, so this photo was rather rebellious of me!)

We're allowed to take photos from the outside, so look at how amazing this house is! It was an expanding mass, kind of like our universe! The architecture is quite beautiful, really, and you all know how much I love looking at pretty buildings...

This house is pretty crazy. There are doors that lead nowhere, doors that lead you into a wall, rooms with one way in and no way out, and sets of stairs with over 40 steps that only take you one floor up. See that black hole in the side of the house? That's the door that leads to nowhere. It's basically a window that can be opened all the way. Overall, I guess it wasn't that creepy, but I bet you $5 that if I had gone at night, I would've been scared out of my mind. On Friday the 13th, they let you into the house at night with only a small flashlight, so you can scare yourself silly.

If you're not into the creepier side of the Winchester Mystery House, I suggest spending your time outside, exploring the gardens. The gardens are stunning and you can look at all the pretty stained glass from the outside. It was such a nice distraction from the competition, but it was extremely expensive. It costs $30 a person! There are 3 tours, so there are cheaper options. Also, be warned, you aren't allowed to bring food or drinks inside and the food there is really expensive! It's really rather lovely. It's nice to imagine what it would've been like, when Mrs. Winchester was alive.

Have you gone through Confirmation or has anyone you've known gone through it?

Another Haul And Food!

Mood: Tired
Playing: Just For Tonight-One Night Only
I wrote a whole speech for history class revolving around John Lennon's dream of a peaceful world today. I think my speech is going to be pretty epic because I'm bringing my ipod to school, so I can play parts of "Imagine" to the class. I also bought a book on the Beatles called Can't Buy Me Love. You hear that, Sophie? I'm actually researching more on the Beatles after History Day! But today isn't about my school affairs, but about what some of my lovely friends brought back for me from their vacations.

My friend, Katrina, went to New York City to see four Broadway musicals! She loves musicals as much as I do, so we had tons of fun talking about it. She brought me back a Playbill from How to Succeed in Business and a key chain. My hairstylist, Sunny, went to Taiwan and brought me back a cute hair clip. She always brings me back something cute...Or tasty!

My friend, Sarah, went to both Japan and Indonesia. She brought me back these two snacks that I love from Indonesia. Rebecca and I used to steal it from her during lunch/break, so she brought some back for us. She also brought back cute charms for us from Japan. I love the Totoro and Domo charms she gave me, so I need to find something cute to do with them!

I went to the Daiso in Berkeley, while I was there for History Day,  because Tina told me you can get Deco stuff there and I was more than up for it. I went inside and I was so amazed. For some reason, I perceived Daiso to be a Japanese craft store, but it turned out to be messier than I thought it'd be. I liked it, though, because it's so cheap and had such cute stuff! I  bought everything above for $1.50 each! I bought one of the blue/yellow/pink pompom hair thing-y for my friend, Alicia. (Edit-I also gave her the stationary notebook on the right.)

I bought some Vinegar Juice because I heard that vinegar is good for you. You can smell some of the vinegar scent, but you can't taste it. The juice is sour, but you can taste the fruit still and I think it's actually pretty good. The peach is definitely better than the apple one.

I've been really into Aloe Vera juices lately, so I bought three different brands. My favorite one is the one in the thin, dark green can. The other two were way too sweet because of the honey. I prefer the slightly sour ones. Hmm, that's all I have for now. Sorry not blogging and commenting as much as I usually do, but I'm getting back on track. Expect some more posts, hopefully!

Who inspires you, when it comes to dressing? I want to do a post with all the people who inspire me!

State History Day in San Jose

Mood: Relieved
Playing: She's Got you High-Mumm-Ra
My apologies for not blogging in a long time. I've been busy with various things including History Day, but that is no longer an issue because last weekend (April 29-May1), I was in San Jose to compete at State level! I'm not going on to Nationals, but it was nice to get out of my town for a few days. This year, I did my project with Tiffany and Tina. It was a performance called The Great Debate on Neville Chamberlain's Appeasement of Hitler. Pretty serious topic for me, eh? Vivian was there too, but she did an exhibit on Nixon's Trip to China. Overall, it was pretty fun exploring San Jose, but we started off the trip by driving to Berkeley right after getting off the air plane to grab my brother.

I thought an obligatory photo of the drive there was quite necessary for this post. Look how pretty it is with the sunset slowly seeping into the ocean.

Since I'm a connoisseur of fine art, I had to take a photo of this painting. (It's hard to tell sarcasm through the internet, huh?) Of course, this painting is absolutely epic and I saw it at an art gallery in Berkeley.

My brother took me to this Italian restaurant in what the Berkeley students call the Asian Ghetto. It has amazing food and it's so cheap. My whole family got seafood dishes and it was only $7 a dish. Not to mention, it tastes great, especially the Alfredo ones.

Afterwards, we went to this crazy place called CREAM, which had these really amazing cookie and ice cream sandwiches for only $2 each. The cookies are still warm too, which is a major plus for me! Oh my goodness, just looking at the photo makes me want one! Haha, the guy working there randomly breaks out into song and he does a good rendition of Katy Perry's "Firework."

I stayed at the Double Tree in San Jose because that's where National History Day was hosted. It was a very nice hotel and it had free Wi-Fi. If I had known that, I would've brought my laptop. I also loved how they had these water stations everywhere with all these fruits in the water. It gave the water a nice crisp, citrus taste. Overall, I guess History Day was pretty fun other than the fact that my group didn't move on and dominate in the performance area, like I was hoping for! Haha, but they had this ceremony-like thing, where they announced who was going onto Finals and there were two very attractive guys there. One was a brunette with short hair wearing a green and navy striped shirt, while the other had long-ish blonde hair and was the brunette's friend. If either of these vague descriptions is you, let me know. I think we can be friends.

Have you ever competed in a national academic competition?

Edit-Blogger was down for awhile, so I couldn't reply to any of your comments. Unfortunately, Blogger deleted the 4 comments on this post from before, so if you wouldn't mind re-commenting, that'd be nice.