We Broke a Bus!

It took us a total of 5 hours to get to the Tahoe Environmental Research Center (in Nevada!). Reason? Our bus broke down for approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes due to overheated brakes or something or the other. We stopped at like 9-ish, and the replacement bus arrived at like 10:45. We stopped by this Indian tribal site or something; it was sort of weird, but there was also a Burger King... o.O It was pretty awesome though, because Chris, Brandon, Toto, Shiori, and I just played a crapload of 99 and walked around and stuff. We were supposed to get there around 10-10:30 and we ended up getting there at like 12:40... Oh well.

Our bus driver Steve was AMAZING. For one, he had a crazy sense of humor, like when he was explaining the emergency exits. He got to the ones on the ceiling and was like, "For your convenience, I'll actually lean the bus on its side!" He was just really chill. =]

The actual research center was pretty cool too - it was way better than the other recent field trips we'd been on at least. We actually did a legitimate lab too. It was like the arsenic testing one for Professor Guo, except it was testing for phosphorous this time, and our results actually WORKED.

We visited the beach (the water was absolutely FILTHY), but only for a few minutes. Pretty much enough to take a few pictures and fool around a bit. And visit the 7-Eleven across the street.

Played more 99 on the way back, then completely conked out. Like always. And, like always, I was apparently rather hard to wake up. We got back way too late to go to the DC to eat, so we just ordered a crapton of pizza and ate in the first floor lounge/conference room. It was a pretty awesome day, definitely way more fun than if we had gotten there on time and stuff. I think a large part of it is just being able to hang out with people and do completely random, pointless stuff...

*****

COSMOS is more than half over... It's so depressing - I would totally stay here forever if I could... Who am I going to find that brings out the fail in me as well as Brandon and Chris? I'm completely getting used to the freedom and doing random crap with people every day just because.

Thrift Stores ROCK!

I went to a thrift store with Leesaw, Suna, and Ysa and got 4 really nice hardcover books for 80 cents. Total. Then we biked to the Dollar Tree and got little plastic pinwheels that we tied onto our bikes, so now they spin! It made me completely entirely ecstatic.

Brandon, Shiori, and I met Chris's dad and grandparents today. It was hilarious because Brandon brought a mug of coffee to "look sophisticated," but managed to laugh and spill it over his glasses (yes, glasses) while saying hi to them. So sad... Daily fails persist.

Watching some Louis CK, which was hilarious. Plus Brandon sent this link, it's freaking amazingggg!!! ♥

Highlights!

1) Golfland/Sunsplash was super fun. Lines were way too long though; I only ended up being able to go on a handful of rides. And Chris was a loser and didn't even go on any water rides... I also suck at minigolf.

2) I completely tripped over a rock outside of the DC. Like a HUGE boulder thing that goes up to my knees (at least). I was talking to people and just didn't see it, crashed into it, and flipped over it. It was amazing, because this guy from the other cluster was standing there awkwardly while Shiori had a "Oh, not again..." face, and Chris/Brandon were both rolling on the floor out of laughter (literally).

3) I went to recharge my laundry card but only had a single dollar bill, so since I wasn't planning on doing laundry today, I sort of went, screw it, whatever. Chris, however, apparently thought I was doing it today, and went like, "What, so you're just going to wash it and not dry it?" This random guy in line behind us just burst out laughing...
Oh. And I completely got rejected by the machine the first time around. It spat my dollar back at me. It literally SPAT it back at me.

4) Talked to Leesaw, Suna, and Ysa about random stuff, like stalking guys. Very interesting.

5) Jamba Juice. Yum.

Close Call

Professor Guo never has enough time to finish his lectures... He seriously spent an hour on a single slide of a PPT show. ONE SLIDE. He's awesome though - I brought up a rather stupid/just-for-kicks simile and he used it throughout the rest of the class. =]

Cheerleaders are invading Davis for some competition or some crap. It's sad, because now the DC needs people to serve them, make them ice cream cones, and put their dishes away because of their insane incompetence. They also cut people in line, expect bikers to magically get out of their way while they're walking on the wrong side of the road or veering towards us, and are just troublesome in general. It was funny though; I told the lady serving ice cream that "I can do this myself; I'm slightly more competent than them," and she looks at them, looks at me, smiles and nods. Then the cheerleader behind me said she could do it herself, and the lady went, "No, it's okay, I got it."
Chris mentioned that we should get shirts that say, "It's a science thing, you'll never understand it," because the cheerleaders have shirts with, "It's a cheer thing, you wouldn't understand it."

Speaking of Chris, he almost killed me today (or at least given me a concussion). We were hella rushing back from the MU, so I put my helmet on and was bending over my bike to unlock it. Chris gets his bike lock key from his bag, then while putting it back on, manages to swing it. Now, his backpack is one of those string-close ones. And he has a padlock on the string. So the padlock swung into my helmet and made a pretty scary sound, and I could feel the vibration. Basically, if I had put on my helmet after unlocking my bike, like I normally do, I would, at the very least, have a pretty bad head injury. I feel like I endanger my life every day here...

Bowling was fun - I got a 67! Pretty consistent with last time. I completely sucked at pool though; Chris freaking demolished me in 1v1, although I sort of got close to catching up at the end... Played Time Crisis and the random basketball free throw game too. I spend so much money on snacks and games here, it's ridiculous.

*****

We went star-gazing - Saturn through a telescope is freaking amazing. It's super pretty outside; I wish I could do that every day...

Ivan also told us how he asked a girl to prom - he apparently got the administrators involved. So he got an iPod from a friend, put it in the girl's bag, and then reported it missing. So the administrators call the girl in based on a "tip" that she stole an iPod, check her bag, and find the thing. She almost starts crying, then they bring in the suspension papers and say, "You can either get expelled today, or you can go to prom with Ivan." Then he walks in with flowers. =D
It's so cute! I would be absolutely terrified if I were the girl, but I though that was amazing...

Golfland/Sunsplash tomorrow! Yay!

I Wish They Actually Worked This Way =D

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COSMOS Recap - Super Quick!

CBST - Boring except for staring at super complicated machines in the labs.

Lab - I fail miserably, yet again...

Fails - Overslept this morning (turned off the alarm, swept my phone to the ground, rolled over, and slept way past the meeting time), knocked over a chair while getting up to leave the DC, failed numerous times while watching Totoro, fell off a ledge when Brandon poked me, and fell asleep outside and was almost late for the 10 o'clock curfew.

Even in a nearly supremely uneventful day, I fail in great magnitudes...

Miscellaneous - We have also all become extreme chem nerds, as in, there is literally no longer a day during which no less than 5 science-related references are cracked...

"You just hit me with like 1000 newtons of force!"
"So, is there any intracluster chemistry going on?"

My personal favorite is still "Ag in Motion" on the side of a truck. They meant Aggies, but Brandon, Chris, and I all went, "Wait, silver in motion? Wtf?" So amazing.

COSMOS ♥

We had a nice lecture by Professor Allen today. He made liquid nitrogen bubbles!!! As in he dumped a crapton of liquid nitrogen into a bucket, and dumped a solution of detergent and water into that. The thing freaking EXPLODED all over the place, it was absolutely amazing.



Chris popped his back bike tire, so his dad brought him a new bike, but apparently the brakes don't work. So he and Brandon decide to continue their game of cutting each other off regardless, and as a result, I almost die three times today. I don't even remember how for one of them, which is amazing because you'd think you would remember life-threatening situations...

There was this chemistry magic show which was rather lame. The experiments were sort of cool, but I'd seen a lot of them already and they were super abrupt. You could sort of tell the presenters weren't really into it, but ah well.

We later had a lab which no one did - everyone worked on research projects or just hung around. I was on a rolling chair flipping a coin (to decide who gets a topic between Chris and Michelle, since they chose the same one), and the coin flew up and out, so I reached for it and completely toppled the chair over. Apparently I was a few inches from hitting my head on the metal bar of David's chair. Woops.

We later went bowling - I did better than last time! And played pool, where I epically owned the first round by sinking like 4 balls in a turn. Then I lost it, but whatever, it was fun.



I love hanging out with COSMOS people, especially Brandon, Chris, and Shiori. Shiori's just the one who is perfectly normal - I really wonder why she sticks with us. But Brandon, Chris, and I make the perfect fail trio - we bring out the epic fails in each other. It makes for super eventful and fun days, but also for very dangerous and life-threatening incidents.

Gutter Balls!

Today was semi-uneventful. The Novozymes speaker dude had the most monotonous, sleep-inducing voice ever. I dozed off at least 3 times during his presentation... The actual facility was pretty cool though.

The presenter for Keck Caves was amazing, and the actual thing was super awesome, although it sort of hurt my eyes.

I went bowling with Brandon, Chris, and Thomas, and got 6 frames of gutter balls in a row (8 frames total). Final score = 19 points. I don't remember being THIS bad...

I talked to Ross for a while afterward, like an hour, about completely random stuff, ranging from COSMOS to Harry Potter to me crashing into a fence (that seems to pop up a ton now). I also rambled and made him listen to me stress. He's such a sweetie. xD

Lots of stuff to do before Sunday! -stress-

Fence-Planting and Illegitimate Dreams

We had our first lecture with Professor Guo today. He was talking about nanorobots and mentioned that it was the dream of a scientists by the name of Eric Drexel (or something). Then he said some things along the lines of...

"But I don't know if that dream is legitimate. Some dreams aren't legitimate. Actually, most dreams aren't legitimate. But keep following your dreams! ...Whether they're legitimate or not."

It was hilariously depressing. I like Professor Guo - he goes on the most random tangents and they're rather amusing...

*****

I have also apparently become the go-to person for the people around me for Mascal's lab. Everyone asks me questions, and I'm lost half the time myself, so it was funny. I titrated a total of 4 solutions today, including mine, because people couldn't get theirs. I thought this ended with AP chem, but I guess not. Ah well, I guess I'm not really complaining. It's nice to feel needed. xD

*****

On the way to the dining commons for dinner, I was biking pretty fast - about 15 mph - and entered this roundabout. And since I was biking so fast, somehow I couldn't make a tight turn so it went too wide, then I couldn't brake in time, so I completely crashed into one of those construction fences. It actually hurt too, which is surprisingly as I tend to hurt myself without actually... hurting myself. But basically, I now have lots of bruises, scrapes, a bump on my head and a cut on my lip (which has swollen up and looks like it has a blood blister).

I was debating playing it up a little, like crying a bit and stumbling all over the place, but decided against it because while it would be funny, it would totally freak out my friends, so yeah. My bike was fine, thank god. It had some scrapes but definitely still usable. Chain got sort of whacked up and the handlebars went off center, but those were easily fixed.

I sort of wish someone caught that on tape - I could totally send it to AFV, this random girl biking really fast, then an "Oh shit!" and smashing head on into a fence. Plus a bus came by a few minutes later while we were still in the middle of the roundabout inspecting my wounds, and had to wait for us to get out of the way. It was sort of awkward, but whatever.

I'm just super surprised I didn't hurt myself seriously, because that was a pretty hard crash... I landed on one of those orange traffic pole things and a segment of the metal fence, and my bike half collapsed on me. But while I feel amazingly beat up and my lip is starting to hurt rather badly (it's also now rather hard to eat), I didn't break anything!

*****

I also choked on apple juice during dinner. And tie-dyed a face towel. Hm. Brandon, Ryan T, Shiori, and I went to The Old Teahouse and got boba; that was pretty delicious. I also took like the fastest shower in the history of my life - it was like 3 minutes long because I didn't wash my hair or shave - I also had to use a face towel as a towel because I forgot to take one into the bathroom with me. xD

We suck at pingpong. Pretty much enough said. We have decided to modify it so that we're allowed to play off fixtures too, like door frames, lights, exit signs...

It was a pretty eventful day. After having crashed into that fence, I am SERIOUSLY surprised I have never broken a bone in my life.

Oh, the Fails...

I swear, Brandon and Chris have got to be THE most amusing people to hang out with. Between the three of us, we fail so much that we're laughing literally 95% of the time. It's pretty amazing. Then Shiori's just sitting there normally looking at us like the crazy people we are.

We saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 on Friday - the whole movie theater was full of COSMOS kids, it was pretty funny. The line was super long. Leesaw (my roommate) drew a Dark Mark on my forearm and it came out amazingly awesome. It was pretty fun getting there and back too, since there were hoardes of people biking... The action in the movie was awesome, but they cut out SO much (it was sad and sort of disappointing) and plugged in some (like jumping off a cliff thing), but at least they kept Molly Weasley and her, "Not my daughter you bitch!" I liked some of the liberties they took - added a lot of humor - but I wish they could have had more scenes. Not once did Grawp show up, and they didn't even show Fred's death or Percy's return... It was a good movie with the action, but it just didn't follow the book. Oh well, it was super fun. =]

*****

John's Incredible Pizza was freaking AMAZING. So we got a free 50 credits (I added 40 more), so we pretty much just played a ton of crap. We did this token drop Winner's Wheel thing, which was amazing after we timed it. It was funny, because Chris went and started playing a game, and Shiori and Brandon were watching him, so I was like, "I think I'll go play that drop game again..." Then they come over EXACTLY as the ball drops into the bonus section. =] Chris and I got the bonus a total of 4 times, twice each.

We did this weird platform ice game too. Basically, if you get a coin to roll into the 50 ticket slot, the platform lowers and you get a shot at 500 tickets. So we got that too; watching the tickets come out was awesome.
Chris and I also played some Time Crisis, and semi-owned at this NFL game. I got hit in the face with a football a total of 4 times and once with Chris's elbow when he was throwing a football. We played some skeeball too; it was fun.

There were these guys who calculated the timing for a blackjack game, so they were just owning at it. I think that place lost SO much money that day in terms of prizes... I got a lava lamp! I've always wanted one of those things, so that was pretty awesome.

*****

I can't believe I've only been here for a week, but at the same time, I can't believe it's already been a week! I've been getting these times when I'm on my bed and forget I'm at Davis and feel like I'm at home. I love this program; I think it's way better than BLIPS or SIMR could have been. I love the people I've met and the vast variety of things I can do. It's absolutely amazing here. =]

Simply Five

The exploratorium was pretty fun today - saw lots of cool stuff and did some weird interactive exhibit things. The stuff there is really neat; I'll have to go back sometime. Our cluster fed a ton of pigeons and seagulls during lunch. They started attacked each other and swarming and stuff. When they got scared off by people passing through, they'd make a turn in the air and come back like a dive-bombing squad. xD

The most fun part was blowing bubbles though. They had the huge bubble makers. I felt bad since a ton of kids were waiting there though, so I gave the bubble blower back and got suds on my hands and blew them at my friend instead. It was just as fun, but now I'm apparently only five years old. I would be three, but Brandon and Chris decided my motor skills were too developed for a three year old... But our cluster is obsessed with bubbles - at our daily share-in, at least 5 people mentioned them, and our nightly "break-chant" was "BUBBLES!"

I also failed at trying to attach a bike lock holder to my bike. After examination by Brandon and Ivan, we came to two conclusions. 1) My bike is awkward like me, and 2) I'm too short. We can't attach the holder to the frame (because it's awkward and weirdly shaped), and because I'm too short, we can't attach it to the bike seat pole either. Ah well, I'm only five. =P

Free Stuff!

We got a lab coat and a pair of safety goggles today! The guy looked at me, handed me an extra small, and said, "I won't even ask you to try it on; that's your only option." The lab is pretty awesome, I can't wait until we start experiments! =]

Shiori and I tried to bike to this plaza with a Border's, Jamba Juice, Pinkberry, etc. and what would have been a 30 minute trip by walking turned into an hour trip by biking because we got so hopelessly lost. xD I got my Jamba Juice though! And I can ride a bike holding it in one hand!

The bowling alley closes at 5:00pm, and isn't open Sunday, which is lame because that means it'll be hard to go use those free games. =[ Oh well, at least there's other stuff to do... We're going to start biking to class tomorrow; it'll be fun!

Off to do some homework and try to start on research + summer homework (and probably fail miserably)...

Jet Lag

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It's a good song. =] Of course, I'm not really going anywhere, nor is anyone far away. xD Although I AM wondering how everyone is doing back home though! If you guys need anything, I'm still going to be online!

I feel like I've been here forever already - I'm super used to eating at the DC and classes, etc. I feel like I've known some of these people forever, and it's pretty awesome. Tons to do, tons to see. I feel so independent, even though I'm in a program. It's fun to just bike around downtown and stuff. My internet finally works too! The gym here is also REALLY nice. If I actually had the motivation to work out, this place would be amazing.

I've been talking to Professor Mascal and he's a pretty cool guy; I hope Professors Allen and Guo will decide to sit at my table at some point so I can talk to them. They're really friendly and easy-going; it's nice because I thought they might be sort of distant.

We have free time right now for like an hour, but I think it's just the chemistry cluster because none of my roommates are here... Oh well. The front door to our room is also SUPER hard to open, so that's annoying. I always look retarded standing in front of my door for like 5 minutes fiddling with the lock. xD

We're off to a lab safety course later on, then dinner and I'm going to go bowling with some friends. I should start taking some pictures too; I don't want to have brought my camera for nothing. =P

Biking Around Davis

We went to classes today (all bright and early, I woke up at 6:50), met our professors. They're all pretty awesome - two of them came to eat lunch with us. I think I'm probably going to do my project on nanotech, but I might do alternative fuel sources... Ah well, I think no matter what I pick, it'll be awesome. =] We also walked around the chem building, saw some X-ray crystallography machines and the computer room and stuff.

We went around campus too - we get one free game to bowl per day, so I should get around to that. There's so much to do here! They have like every sport imaginable, and a pretty awesome arcade, plus board games and activities set up pretty much every evening.

I went biking with Shiori and Ryan afterward too - I didn't fall except for once, and that's because I fell off the edge of the paved path. xD I feel like I'm going to be a lot better after I start biking to classes. So we went to downtown Davis - there's a lot of shops, like Chipotle, Border's, Ben&Jerry's, Pinkberry, Jamba Juice, Baskin Robbins...

Hopefully my ethernet works now; I'm still in the lab as of yet. I wouldn't care too much, since there's so much to do, but I have those stupid online classes, plus I need to write a research paper for COSMOS over the course of this month...

I'm already getting used to the schedule here (except waking up so early). But I feel like I've been going to the DC for forever, and it's a good thing they have good food too. =P They don't make us sleep at 10 either, which is nice. And they gave us a ton of stuff, which combined with food and board, probably makes up the fee for the program.

I'm having a pretty awesome time here, everyone's nice, and I'm keeping myself busy. It's lots of fun too; I'm glad I came!

Yay for Harry Potter!!!

We get to watch Harry Potter on Friday! I'm so happy they're taking us, plus we get a discount, so it's $7 for a 3D movie. =]

So COSMOS is pretty awesome so far, the people are super nice and easy to get along with. I'll have to get adjusted to the schedule and living "alone" though. The DC seems to have pretty good food, at least it's tasty. =P It's a bit far from the residential hall though, so I'm seriously going to have to get used to riding my bike. Plus we get homework... D= Oh well this will be fun!

My internet also is not working. -sighs- So for now, time to do homework in the computer lab! xD Hope everyone's having a cool time back in San Ramon!

COSMOS Calls!

Off bright and early tomorrow! I'm excited, but packing is a HUGE pain. Especially when you're not living in a hotel, and you're staying for a month... I'll need to learn how to use washing/drying machines too. Independence, yay? Debatable, and we'll see. =P

Went swimming with Clarie, and biking with her and Ross to improve my previously non-existent cycling skills in preparation for using it as a major mode of transportation for the next month. Must practice more, but I'll do my best. Proud to say that I can now bike pretty safely over flat surfaces and down hills. Poles still have a thing for me though.

Tappy's so cute too! I'm glad he likes me, although he slobbers over my arm and my face when he can reach it. He still loves biting things though. And I'm sure he doesn't dislike Ross, but he acts like he does; it's rather funny. xD

AP Scores

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Yay for my all 5s. Made up those freaking fail scores from last year. But they still remind you of them on the sheet! Gah.
Now I just need to maintain a 4 average and get at least four more 4/5s to be a National AP Scholar. Woohoo. Not like it even helps with anything... By the time you know if you got a scholar award, it's too late to put it on college apps. xD

Missing Band Camp

Never thought I'd say it, but I really do. I miss those blistering hot summer days full of sweat, aching muscles, sweat, weird tan lines, and more sweat. I can't wait for August 15th! And Laura's in charge of PT, so it's going to be rough this year. =] Yeah, weird thing to smile about, but it doesn't feel right to never get yelled at and cry a few tears during the season... Excited!

In other news, I'm pretty excited for COSMOS too. More nervous though... I hope it isn't too strenuous and that my roommate is easy to get along with...

I took senior portraits today. Those drapes are comfortable but heavy. I think they're made of velvet or some crap. xD I look the same in all my photos; I'll have to get my sister to pick one for me or scan it or something, since I probably will be off at UC Davis having an absolutely wonderful time trying to suck up to professors there. =P

On a related note, I wrote a mini-essay comparing colorguard to chemistry. Yeah. xP

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