Stressful Week

This week has been the most stressful week I have got to have so far in my college life. It's so hard to practice every night and learn pieces just days before the concert. AYE!! I want to get it over with and just get to see family again. I want to play well though so that she can hear that I have improved. :)

This week has been okay since I don't have any tests and quizzes, and I get to focus on practicing the pieces set out before me. I want to write so much but I can't really find the words to say. I'm tired and it's very inconsiderate for wind instruments because our lips can't take that much repetition in how many hours? 5!!! I did well last night on the first run through but when we did it again, I couldn't do it as well. I wish I had more endurance.

Maybe in the summer I will practice the trumpet and help out in basketball. :) Get some exercise and endurance. Reminder: Don't waste sound because you're conserving breath. I CAN DO IT!!!

On Saturday:

8:30 - 2:00pm - Filipino Field Trip

1:00 - 4:00pm - Intact CBA

3:00 - 8:00pm - Blue Symph Concert

As you can see, time overlaps a lot. I have decided to cut the CBA because I really need time to get ready and sleep. :(

*i haven't been able to write much because i haven't gotten the time, hopefully, i'll get to have time to write more in the weeks to come....JIAYOU!!

-choco

Ateneo De Manila Culture Shock Extravaganza

I see that I haven't written here in a long time. It's already past high school and off to college. Seems like the days and even weeks have gone by so fast. I still remember how I reacted to the college life, it was pleasant at all. I cried in front of the guidance counselor!! She was helpful and gave me a rock to visualize all my emotions. Anyway, it has been the most hectic three weeks of Ateneo. A lot has happened and I'm actually getting the hang of things. I'm glad I am because I was so pessimistic about living in the dorm. I would go to my sister's place every single day, as much as I could because I wanted to get away from the dorm. I didn't know anybody then but now that I know some and would say a lot, it's getting quite comforting to live in the dorm. Although I haven't gotten the time to really be serious and fix my space, I manage.

I'm just sort of writing these things because I want to let out everything in my mind. I'm the kind of person who has to tell someone so that I'll feel better. I'm just glad that today's Friday and I only have one class tomorrow. Hopefully he'll let us out early. I'll try writing as often as I can but I can't really promise anything. I'm not that good at updating things, but I know I'll learn in time because I really have to motivate myself to get up in the morning. I'm hoping I can find that push, that drive that will keep me going even though times are tough and I want to give up.

I haven't quite exactly gone to Rec Week yet. I think I'll go after Botany class. The reason why I haven't gone is that I don't know what org I want to join and it gets too crowded there. Maybe now that it's Friday, not a lot of people will be there. (crossing fingers)

I better sign off and fix my things before next class. Oh! and before I forget, I got caught not wearing my ID today and I totally feel bad, but then hey, you can't blame me. Brent wasn't so strict to make you wear your ID. Anyway, that's all so tata for now. :)

First Win

It has been a long day for us here in Korea. Leah is staying with her parents tonight, both coaches and hosts agreed and I’m back here because I wanted to fix my things and I didn’t bring stuff with me. J Anyway, talking about the last game we had. We won 2-1. Guess who started and made the first goal. LEAH!! I’m so proud of her. She’s fighting for the ball and getting along really well with her teammates. I didn’t start but then coach put me in Sofia’s spot and so got to work with Leah in the middle, which was really cool. We both had really nice touches on the ball. Sofia’s chill kick, to Kayla’s good through pass and BAM! Leah’s goal! Then the next one was Kayla’s cross and Allison’s finish. It was an awesome game! Everyone had fun even though there was a time of frustration. We all pushed each other to being confident and trusting each other and we communicated a lot, which was really cool because on the first game we didn’t do any of those so much. By the way, I played the whole of second half and 10 minutes of the first half. I was supposed to play like 20 minutes but the dead balls were always WAB’s possession. Leah played like half of the game. She was in and out as forward. J I think coaches like her as a forward and not so much as a midfield, but then she still plays both positions.

After the game I went with Leah and her parents for dinner. Guess what we had? Something even better the sanggyeupsal. Seounggalbi! It was like a barbecue. We went to this place that you sit on the floor and you’re just cooking. It was so GOOD! And for dessert we had mulnaemyon, which is like cold noodles. It really tasted good and couldn’t believe they eat it as a dessert. Oh yeah! And with the meat thing, we had this galbi sauce which they don’t serve to us in the Philippines and I wish they would because it makes the meat TASTE BETTER! J Anyway, I’m just packing up my stuff for tomorrow and fixing my luggage. I’m so ready to sleep right now. Coach gave me this Tylenol for sinus congestion and it will make me doze off so I better get off the laptop.

By the way, they didn’t have internet accessible in KAIST so I’ll email you guys every night. J Let me know how it’s going.

Love, Choco.

First Loss

How’s it going? It’s currently warm here now that we’re warmed up for a game. We were first game of the day and we had a long opening ceremony. A well known Korean opera singer came and sang for us. Her daughter goes to TCIS and sang “You Raise Me Up.” There were also these little kids that led us to march around the field. They were so cute!

The game didn’t go so well. There was a girl referee that didn’t call handballs, but called pathetic pushing fouls, and NEVER CALLED BAD THROWS. It was so bad, but then we still played. Leah and I played for like 50 minutes. We played the whole second half. It was awesome. Everyone liked us. Coach liked me as defense but then she didn’t put me in the middle, she put me in the right side, which was fine with me. I threw all the balls on the right side of the field.

We lost the game, 2-0. The coaches said we did much better on the second half than the other one. We could have done better though. Our next game is the last game of the day. So, technically, we had the first game and then the last game of the day. How fun. How are you guys?

We’re just resting now and I actually wrote this on word because KAIST doesn’t have wifi reachable to the field, which is okay. Korean internet is the fastest in the world, but all of the wifi are security enabled. Shucks. TTYL.

Love, Choco.

Baskin Robins Fun

Hey! Just writing to update you on what I've been doing. :) If you want to know, I am safely in the hands of the hosts. They're a really nice family. The father is the pastor and the mom is the bible teacher at their school. Leah met up with her parents and I ended up staying home for dinner and meeting four Western Academy Beijing girls. It was fun getting to know them and we played wii afterwards. We did all sorts of stuff. We went down on an escalator going up and we were running on the playground track. It was really cool and neat. Before we went running on the track we went to have some Baskin Robins for dessert after a good meal. :)

It was so GOOD, we had yogurt, trin-something yogurt and cherry jubilee. Talk about fruity flavors...We also had fun imitating wolf dances with a hat that our host owns. :) Anyway, getting ready for a big day tomorrow so Leah and I are going to brush our teeth and get ready for bed.

Night!

Love, Choco. :)

After Awhile...

We basically had only 3 hours of sleep during the 7 hour travel to Daejeon. Leah's doing well with everyone. I've had fun eating Korean food with her. Everyone goes to her when they have a Korean question. :) We haven't seen her parents but hope to see them tonight. Will let you know when we do. :)

We had lunch at this restaurant and I got this tonkatsu thing. It was really good. We were all sharing our food: chicken curry, sweet potato pizza and frenchfries pizza. :) It was weirdly good tasting. Then we went to this dessert place and Leah got strawberry halo halo and I got cheesecake. SO GOOD! :)

Now, we're back to school waiting for hosts. TTYL!! :)

Love, Choco.

Korean Quest

Greetings from DAEJEON!! It was such a hectic travelling from Manila to Daejeon. We boarded at like 12:05 am and then left at 12:30 am. Everyone was so hyper before we boarded. We were like playing ABC and the hand game Mrs. Aldrich taught me before. It was fun! In the plane, people were so tired and ended up sleeping, I only ended sleeping for like an hour. It was like another 3 hour bus ride to get from Incheon Airport to the school.

We're still at the school right now and waiting for lunch time. We're at the dorm hanging out and playing ping pong. Gladly, there is wifi here. Anyway, the games aren't hosted in TCIS but rather in the KAIST campus, which is like the MIT daw of the US. At least that's what Mr. Suhs said. :)

By the way, we had bibimbap in the plane ride and it was so funny because they even had like a how to poster of how to make bibimbap. :) We'll be out in the KAIST campus all day long outside under a tent. So i'll try to email you guys from there. So far everything has been good. I changed $150 for now. I'll try to email you when I get to the host's house if they have wifi. If you don't hear from me, it's probably because they don't have any.

It's FREEZING here!! You could practically see your breath until now and it's expected to become cooler as the day passes. Oh My! They said that it's been the coldest in this particular season. Good thing I brought lots of jackets and a scarf. Anyway, will email you again when there's more to talk about.

Love, CHOCO :)

Tired....

Hey! I haven't been able to write much because it's been a hectic month... I feel like being a senior is really kicking in now. Lots of work handed to us from teachers. I've got the last ISAC of my high school year coming up this Wednesday. I don't think I can handle all this. I feel like I won't be able to enjoy my time being a senior for the first and last time in high school with all this pressure and work passed on from coaches and teachers. Hopefully, our team will do well this year in the competition. I know that we can do it because I am bringing my A game, no giving up and no regrets. It's now or never. Reminds me of a song.

Anyway, last night was Trysha's party and the night before was Laurelyn's Debut. It was all fun especially when we performed for Laurelyn. It was an awesome night seeing Johnson, Akber, and Jericho all dancing to Macho Macho Man. Hilarious!! I'll write more about it, but now I really worry that I won't be able to finish everything on time generally so making a life planner/ organizer. So yeah!

Laterz! :)

By the way, I babysat for like 8 hours today. I was like living a job today. :) Tired and hungry...

My New King Silver Flair Trumpet. . .

Today I was surprised by the Davis family this morning. From the previous night, Mr. D had spilled that Mrs. D had an idea to get me something. I thought to myself that maybe she got me a shirt that said like I love Band. Something like that and to my amazement, it was better! A brand new trumpet! This was no ordinary student trumpet, this was a step up according to Mrs. Davis. It was so nice of them because it was actually all the way from the States. Mr. D's sister brought it here and if the Faith concert had been a week later as of the original plan I would have been able to play it then. I was so shocked, I didn't even know what to say at first. I hugged Mrs. Davis and cried a little bit, I couldn't show all my emotions.

I went to the Band room at study hall and played it. Let's just say that the more I play it, the more I love it!! :) I read a pamphlet saying that it was a very good trumpet. Now, I feel pressured to play at the concert because Mrs. D decided to not do Flight of the Bumblebee and do my solo which is the Trumpeter's Lullaby. She said that Ateneo ends around April so I should go back to Subic and play at their concert. How sweet is that? Also she said that she's not used to hearing the intermediate band and when she taught it, she thought to herself that they're going to be in upper school next year in her class. Oh oh daw. :) I told her to be patient like she was with me. Hopefully she'll find someone who can play the parts for her when she needs it.

Every year, I'm going to celebrate February 23, the day I got my new King Silver Flair Trumpet. :) I love you Davis Family!!

Hugs and Kisses Disaster

This week hasn't started yet and already there is some things going on. NHS and Student Council are selling beside each other and he thinks it's weird. We both sent him a letter proposing this. I don't understand. Anyways, what's done is done.

Baking took forever yesterday. Just the series of events, it was all tiring. We should have started baking at 9 am but then ended baking at like 3 pm. Oh my stars, I am beat! We finished everything like at 1 in the morning.

I'm so tired and i'm fighting to stay awake. Hopefully, the situation between NHS and Student Council can be resolved soon. We've already had this idea from way before. I don't understand why it's becoming an issue. Anyways, I have TOK now. Later. Sigh.

Back from ISAC

Hey! We're back from Baguio. We had our highlights and our lowlights and altogether we got 5th place. We were 3 points away from being in the playoffs. :( It was sad but I guess it just wasn't our year. Well, she got it and I got to say that she did well but not as hard as Leah. Coach Stocking chose her and I just got to accept it. I have bigger fish to fry. It's nice to vent out your frustration so that you don't keep it all inside you. Then that will bring you down. Basketball season is over and now it's soccer. I'm going to work hard and try out for UP varsity teams. You never know, I might end up being a volleyball player, which I love also. :)

I just hope that it doesn't go to her head. If you know what I mean. She's the kind of person who likes to show it and I wish for her to have a reality check. This isn't the same when you get out of high school. I hope she learns that soon enough, she won't have friends like I do because she uses them for her own benefits. I better stop complaining and get back to work. :)

Later y'all.

Blue Eagle Atenean

I just found out from my sister last Saturday that I got into ATENEO!! I'm so happy because now I really know that I have a life after high school, even though I will only have two weeks of vacation before attending school again. I also got into BS Psychology and that is one tough course to get into. Now, that doesn't mean that I'll stop working hard to get salutatorian or valedictorian because that will help pay for some tuition. Still can't believe how I found out that I got in. "Do you want to know something life-changing?", my sister said. "You got into Ateneo!"

Hopefully, they'll have something that I can do as for activities. Maybe i'll try out for varsity sports or you never know... :)

Anyways, later...

Tennis and Rockband 2 and Puzzles

This vacation I got to learn how to play tennis. I went with the Davis family and then went with Mrs. Davis. At first I thought I would never be able to get it right because I always kept going back to my badminton ways. But after four lessons I became much better than I was before. I could actually play a real game! Service, Forehand, Backhand, Volley, Smash! The change in grips I couldn't get used to until my last lesson before I would return to Basketball. I really had fun learning. Mrs. Davis said that if I had one more month of training then I would be better than her. I doubt that because she is so dang good. :)

And now for Rockband 2. The first time I tried it was before going to Punta De Uian, which was also a nice getaway. I kept hitting the rim and found out that I was too close to the drums. After a tennis lesson, Mrs. D had fun trying Mario Kart and Rockband 2. She closely became addicted to the game and wanted a Rockband 2 Party with Chocolate Fondue using the leftover chocolate from New Year's. The day was full of fun, having played with the kids and sort of tutoring Michael and then tennis with Mrs. Davis. We went home afterwards to take our showers because we... were... sweaty! :) We then ended up going to Hangang because Jewel was reserved. By the way, the Davis' got locked out of their house and ended up having to break in through a window. What fun!

After dinner, we went to the Davis house and played ROCKBAND 2 'til 12 midnight!! Oh my goodness, it was so much fun. We had chocolate fondue with funnel cake. At first it wasn't that runny to go through the funnel so Mrs. D added some more milk and it was good after that. There were marshmallows, pears, apples, bananas, grapes, and pretzels. :) We also played a little Twister in the night and day.

Yesterday, I went to the Davis house after deciding that it was late to go to a massage and had to reschedule it. I tried doing this puzzle that was a 1000 pieces and the princesses were all wearing gold dresses! It was really hard and they had only done about 380 pieces. I left pretty late and was at least able to help with the border and the princesses. :) That was a fun last night of vacation.

Welcome Back!

Today is the first day we come back from vacation and so far it has been great to see my friends although I saw some already yesterday. :) I gave my very good friends earrings. I'm really glad that I went to Isabela this vacation so that I could give them gifts for Christmas. It's really nice to see my friends after three weeks.

Oh yeah! And I am actually able to do my NHS Proposal, so I'm happy about that too. Now it's just a matter of finishing it you know. Also got to get ready for Student Council today so better get going. Later.

Allergies

I've spent most of my vacation either being sick or being sick, literally. I've had allergies and a cough and a cold. I've been trying to workout since ISAC is coming up and I play a big role but me being sick hasn't really helped. Hopefully, tomorrow I can workout some and shoot hoops as well as run some.

It's almost time to go back to school and I'm going to have to worry about college applications and Student Council as well as NHS. Ugh! Senior video I also have to start. :( I'm sad and happy to graduate soon.

Don't really know what to say right now so I'll go. 'Til later.