PE Swimming Unit

It actually isn't that bad... yet. Of course, I've only had it for one day. XD Anyways, we just did a lot of kicks, flutter kicks, backstroke (which I so totally can't do, and water keeps getting in my face), freestyle (which I totally suck at), and some poorly attempted flip turns. Which I tried once, and got water up my nose for. Haha. Sasha and Toby and everyone who actually knows how to swim and is pro is like so lucky though. This unit is probably a total breeze for them... Oh well. Anyways, it's pretty cool, plus it's awesome that we swim when it's actually hot, and not in like January or something. The locker room showers are pretty good, they have hot water and everything. Blow dryers too!!! =) So yeah, it's not that bad, ad I'd rather do this than run a mile or whatever, but i's probably going to get worse. Basically, all the girls wore like two pieces except for a few, and all the guys just wore their swimming turnks, but some jumped in with shorts and a T-shirt or whatever. So yeah, all in all, not as bad as I thought it'd be, but definately not my favorite activity.

First Even Day!

I officially like odd days better, even though I have Foss. Mock Trial is every day, Turbeville and Foss cancel each other out, Tussy and Block are both hecka easy periods, and Goldin and Pence are both nice, but the fact that my favorite teacher is Pence, and my favorite class is Ceramics 1 (which are both on odd days), makes odd days more fun than even.
Anyways, we have to swim starting this Friday for PE =/ and I can't swim, so... Little bit of a problem there. I'm going to talk to Ms. Block and maybe she'll teach me. XD
Anyways, apparently I'm three people's freshman. Melanie, Jung, and Ellen. Which is weird, because I barely know Melanie, and Jung keeps hitting me on the head with some textbook. Ellen's cool though. Speaking of Jung, today, I was jumping, and I jumped straight into the textbook. XD It was hilarious.

Colorguard today was... interesting. Just drill, but we furthered he "matador" tango thing. Basically, we still get picked up, carried around, and cartwheel off, but instead of spinning, the guy gets on a knew, and we do a front flip over his shoulder. XD It's so weird, but whatever. The band sounds hella good though. =D I have to go do math homework know. Ugh. Lol.

Block Schedule...

...is SO. FRIGGIN. AWESOME! Well, if you can't sit stil for more than n hour, sucks for you, bu I love block schedule! So like today, it was like: Mock Trial, Ceramics, BRUNCH, English, LUNCH, Biology. I love that you have like, a break between every class except for A and 1st. But anyways, I love my odd days. Ceramics and Biology ROCK!

I swear I'm going to fail Mock Trial though... Too much improvisation and public speaking, and I have Guard practice, so it's like, I won't have time to prepare at all.
Ceramics is so awesome though! Excluding the fact that we have to draw our projects, I love that class.
English is... English. Foss made us interview people, then present our interviews, then she gave us a QUIZ on the people in our class. I mean seriously, who does that? Thank gosh there's only 17 people in our class. Lol. There's this guy that has a really interesting name. Tell me if you've ever heard of a guy named Tedmund. It's like a cross between Ted (or Theodore) and Edmund. o.o Oh well.
And then in Bio, Mr. Pence talked for like 99 minutes, but amazingly, I didn't get bored. He makes everything funny. I so love his class. =D So like, he was saying how he wasn't allowed to let us out early, but sometimes he would, so he was like, "But, if anyone sees you outside early and asks what class you're from, remember you're from Mr. Mason's class. Or Ms. Bitnoff. Or Mrs. Anderson. Just never Mr. Pence. Okay?" So yeah. That was completely awesome.

Anyways, I love block days. Breaks between almost every class, two days to do homework, longer periods of classes you like, not as much running around to your next class an such... I love it. Period. Of course, there's also the fact that I'll be stuck in Turbeville for 100 minutes straight, but math is pretty simple for me... usually... so I'll be fine... I hope... Then there's the issue of PE, which I totally suck at, but I hope I'll be okay. Lol. But whatever.

Block Schedule Rocks!!!

First Day of HS!!!

So fine, it wasn't that bad. I didn't get lost, but I DID have to ask for directions... twice. I friggin had to ask Melanie where the office was. XD That was so sad... But whatever. Anyways, I went in the morning, but Ms. O'Malley wasn't in, so I ended up going to Health and everything. Lol. Sasha was stuck in Health too, so when the teacher passed out policy sheets and stuff, I was like, "We can just go home and chuck these in the trash." XD

Adv. Algebra 2: Turbeville was okay, she seems like Mrs. Beggs. Like, by a lot. But the only homework we got was to cover our books and sign the policy sheet, plus a really easy algebra review worksheet. Lisa, Shannon, Tommy, Eric, and Linda are all in my Adv. Algebra 2 class, so at least I'll have some people I know.

Adv. English 9: UGH. I don't like Foss... Basically, she told us to get in alphabetical order, only she said, "Now, you guys are going to do a orthographic spacial!" It was like, "Uh... okay?" Then we got vocabulary words and we had to find a synonym, and Courtney and some other girl won, and their words were actually synonyms. Most of the words we got had like 5 different definitions and two of them were distantly related. But whatever. I don't plan to fail her class, so I hope I won't need the extra 2 point bonus.

Then after that, I went back to the counseling office and complained for my new schedule and got it, but the only two things that changed were my A period and 1st period.

PE: Basically, Block just told us to get our PE clothes and throw them in our locker. Technically, she told us to go up on the stage. Then I didn't see her again. For the whole day. But whatever.

Biology: OMG Pence is SO FRIGGIN AWESOME!!! Like, he was talking about the ocean, and he was like, "I like the ocean... and DAMMIT if I like the ocean, YOU'RE going to like the ocean too!!!" So yeah. Hard to believe he's like 60-70 or something. But he's so cool! Biology's going to be my favorite subject, like seriously. Oh yeah, and he said we were going on field trips and making sushi and calamari!!!

French 3: This was okay. Mme. Goldin seems really nice. She has this awesome French accent that she can turn on and off like a faucet. It's amazing. Anyways, I'm not really behind any of the French 3 people, so I think that I should be fine. Like, I might still have to work a bit harder, but I won't be as behind that I was afraid I would be.

Colorguard: We got our outfits today. They're so weird. o.o But whatever. I am officially a really bad Colorguard-er. Seriously. But whatever. Screw that. I just need the extracurricular points for my college application. XD Plus it's sort of fun. Haha.

So basically, my schedule is now like this:

A: Mock Trial, Barr (this should be okay, I hope. Probably lots of homework, but Pink Bunny and Alex can help me with that I hope.)
1: Ceramics 1, Tussy (they ran out of 3D Art 1 spots, but this seems pretty fun. Tussy seems really nice and funny, so that's a plus. Besides, I wanted to learn ceramics anyways, so yeah.)
2: Adv. Algebra 2, Turbeville (it's okay... I don't think I'll like it like Shack's class, but I guess I won't hate it either...)
3: Adv. English 9, Foss (this class I shall dislike. But whatever, I'll pass. I hope.)
4: PE, Block (it's PE. Running. Swimming. Cardio. What more can I say?)
5: Biology, Pence (COMPLETELY. TOTALLY. AWESOME. *see above description*)
6: French 3, Goldin (seems cool. Probably another of those, okay I'm in this class classes. But Ellen's there, so it should be okay.)

First Day of School Tomorrow! =(

Dammit! I didn't even do anything this summer... besides volunteering, tutoring, and band camp. Yesh, all the Asian stuff. I barely finished French 2 and I don't remember any of it. XD Oh well. Ms. O'Malley still didn't mail me back... My parents are convinced that she's a sucky counselor. I prefer to think that she has a life and doesn't check her e-mail every weekend. Although it'd help me tremendously if she did. I'm still stuck with my totally screwed up, stupid schedule. ugh. So friggin annoying. Oh well. Anyways, school starts tomorrow... Yuck. I don't want to go to school... And I have Guard practice from 5-8 too... I still can't do a dropspin without rolling up my flag, so I'm totally screwed... Oh well. I bet $10 that I'm going to get lost tomorrow! Especially since I'm changing my schedule like, 10 minutes before A period. So yeah. I'll update you on my absolutely horrifying first day of high school tomorrow. =D I still can't believe I'm stuck with Foss! Ugh! Hopefully when I change my schedule, I can get Kinavey though, since according to Sharanth, they don't have Adv. World Geography and Culture 1st period, which is when I currently have Health...

Colorguard/Melanie's Party!

So Colorguard was okay yesterday. Hella tiring. Tons of drill, plus 3 laps. But whatever. Afterwards, we did the Circle game, and I got boring parts, but it was sort of fun. At the end, all of the freshmen went outside to get cookies, but it was a trap (obviously) and we all got pummeled with water balloons, except for me, cuz I was smart enough to run after the seniors and grab like 3 water balloons. I wouldn't have gotten wet at all, except Justine smushed a balloon over my head. XD Then I threw one at Guilio and it totally bounced off of him. I was like, "DUUUUUUUUUUDE WTF?!?!?!" Haha. And I got the bag of cookies, except some dude ripped it out of my hands, so that sucked. XD Then Ross chucked a water balloon at his mom's car. I totally cracked up when I saw that. Speaking of Ross, during lunch break or whatever, I was laying on Courtney's backpack, but she stole it back, so I was using Ross' as a pillow, then he came back and was like, "Uh..." so I got up and he had this really weird look on his face and was like, "Um... well, you can use it..." I was like LOL. But Colorguard had to leave anyways, so yeah. Then after the water fight, I went back into the band room, and the Colorguard was gone, which made me kind of freaked out, since we were supposed to walk to Melanie's house together for a Guard party.

So anyways, my mom gave me a ride, and Melanie's house is freaking AWESOME! They have this saltwater pool with a jacuzzi section, a HUGE backyard with swings, a separate game room/house, a playhouse that's like a fourth the size of their house, and their house is basically the size of my house! So we were totally fooling around in her pool (which also has a SLIDE!) and trying to do Guard exercises in the water. We played 10 fingers, and shot water at each other, and ate all the food her mom provided (pizza, candy, chips, cookies, lemonade, apple juice, soda, Otter Pops, etc.) and basically had an awesome time. Then we figured we should watch Mask of Zorro, or else Kelly would probably get pissed, so we went inside her game room, where she has a GIANT TV, and fast forwarded to the important parts, obsessing over how pretty Elena is, and how awesome the fight scenes are. XD Then some people left, and we all played Brawl, where I totally got pwned by everyone, since I didn't even know how to play Brawl. Then we played this Asian version of Street Fighters, where I got pwned yet again. XD It was hella fun though!

Frosh Orientation/Schedule

Orientation was okay. Sort of boring, and full of seniors trying very hard to get us enthusiastic. It was funny, cuz there were a ton of seniors welcoming the freshmen when we went through the gate (like two huge lines, with people reaching out for high fives), and all the freshmen were just walking through looking embarrassed, so I was like, "Hm..." and took off running through the people. Then they were all like, "OMG, SHE'S RUNNING!!!" It was really fun and funny. XD Anyways, we got a grand tour and learned the Grizzly Fight Song and Rumble. As for my schedule, I don't really like it, plus it's totally messed. Right now, it's:

A: Unscheduled (and I'm supposed to have an A period)
1: Health, Fitch (even though I passed the stupid test)
2: Adv. Algebra 2, Turbeville (this is fine, since I knew I'd get Turbeville anyways)
3: Adv. English 9, Foss (I freaking wanted Kinavey! Gr! But I at least have Courtney in that class)
4: PE 9, Block (I heard that Block's okay, but I don't know. I don't really want PE in the afternoon...)
5: Biology, Pence (I don't know about Pence, but apparently all the Bio teachers are nice. I sort of wanted Bitnoff though...)
6: French 3, Goldin (this one's awesome; Ellen's in my class, and Goldin's really nice)

So yeah. I mailed my counselor (Ms. O'Malley), and I'm waiting for a reply. But whatever. If I have to keep this schedule, I'm going to be so pissed. It'll mess up my whole planned out Cal schedule...

Registration

So anyways, I went to registration today! I saw Taehyun's ID card that he forgot to take yesterday, and I thought he was actually there, but I left after waiting 1 minutes. Lol. Got my fees paid, my lock for my locker, my t-shirt, and ID card! PE clothes come on the first day of school though, and I have to wait for Freshman orientation for my schedule (grrrrrr). So I made a new friend already (she's in my grade), and her name's Kira (I'm not sure if you spell it like that, but it's pronounced like that). She just came from Canada. =D Anyways, the class t-shirts are hella ugly. XD It says Cal Grizzlies on the front, then it has the year you're graduating on the back. But whatever. My ID card looks okay, but I'm just not photogenic, so yeah. Then I'm totally pissed that I have to wait until Friday (the orientation) to get my schedule. Everyone else (non-freshmen) gets theirs at registration. Argh. Anyways, speaking of orientation on Friday, all the freshmen in Marching Band and Colorguard have practice right after (orientation is 9-12, practice is 12-6), so we don't even have time for lunch. o.o It sucks. But oh well, the woes of having stuff that looks god on your college application... XD

Matador "Tango"

So anyways, I curse my petite-ness. Since I'm in the smallest third/fourth of the Colorguard (I'm basically the smallest there), I have to "tango" with a band member. It's not really tango-ing though, since we ALL have to actually tango. It's more like opening the performance. Kelly, our coach, had an "awesome" metaphor. Basically, the band member is the matador, and the Colorguard member is the matador's cape. So, the band member gets to "do whatever he wants with the girl." Basically, the guy (band member a.k.a Alex in this case), has the girl (me in this case) upside down on his back and is walking with me like that, then I cartwheel off, do the spinny in thing where you twirl in, then he leans back, and pushes me out, effectively untwirling me. And throughout this, we're supposed to be looking at each other in a way so that it's (I quote Kelly) like we're "attracted to each other, but sort of *pause* *makes catfighting motion and noises*." But yeah. It's really interesting. o.o And while we were rehearsing this, all of the other band/Colorguard members were off to the side, staring, and laughing their butts off. But whatever. Anything for the sake of Colorguard, right? DX

Feline Socializer Class

So I missed mine today, UGH! I'm so pissed. (By the way, it's a volunteering shift thing.) Like, I sort of forgot, but this morning I asked my mom if we were going anywhere today, and she was like, "No." Then at like four I was on Facebook and all of a sudden I was like, "Oh sh*t!" So I told my mom that I missed it, and she's like, "What? ....... Oh. Right." Then I asked if she wrote it on the calendar, and she went to check, and she was like, "Yeah." So I went back to my room and got all pissed because she said she checked if we had to go anywhere this morning. So then my dad shouts up at me and is like, "It's your fault that you didn't remember!" So my mom asked me to check when the next one is, and it's in Oakland, and she refuses to take me to Oakland because apparently it's too far, even though she shops there like, once every two weeks. And I can't go to the next Dublin one because I have Colorguard. It's so friggin stupid. UGH! Dammit. So yeah, I'm friggin pissed at my parents right now. I mean, I'd be okay (sort of sad, but not pissed), if my mom either forgot to write it on the calendar, or if I didn't ask her if we had to go anywhere, and if my dad didn't try to blame the whole thing on me since she DID write it on the calendar, and even checked it because I asked her too. But whatever. Grr.

Ringling Bros & Barnum and Bailey

So today, Jason, Jess, and I went to the Oracle Arena to watch the Ringling Bros & Barnum and Bailey circus, "The Greatest Show on Earth". Personally, I've seen better circuses on TV. But whatever. Anyways, it was pretty good, not extraordinary, but decent. It was pretty funny too. The food and souvenirs there are SUCH a ripoff though! And I'm not even talking about normal ripoffs. I'm talking about ripping off ripoffs. If that makes any sense. XD Oh well. But whatever. it was fun. Check my Facebook for pictures and videos.So anyways, they had horses (Shetland ones too), ponies, dogs, elephants, and tigers. The dogs were awesome! =D The ponies were cool too, and the horseback riders did tons of tricks, plus there were a few dressed up like royalty, so that was kind of cool. The elephants were what you'd expect, the cancan line or whatever, and elephant riders. I kind of expected more from the tigers though, all they did was jump from stand to stand and go on their hind legs. Jason was like, "I thought there'd be a flaming hoop or something!" And although that'd be cool, it'd be hecka dangerous, but a regular hoop wouldn't hurt. As for the people, there were tons of acrobats and trapeze artists, and those were pretty cool. A few clowns too, but they weren't really funny. I think my favorite part was probably the dogs. Which is kind of sad, since if I wanted to see a dog show, I would have went to a dog show. But the trapeze artists were cool, plus they had that big steel sphere that motorcycle riders go in. So all in all, it was pretty good, but not exemplary.

Sunburnt! =(

Not like AMAZINGLY sunburnt, but I am quite sunburnt. Haha. I guess I didn't put on enough sunscreen? My shoulders burn hecka easily if I'm in the sun for more than an hour though, and I don't really want to wear an inch of sunscreen, since we're sweating at the same time, and... yeah... Oh well. Anyways, we marched for the first 8 sets of our opener today, and it was kind of confusing, but whatever. Then all the Colorguard people went home after that, and when we arrived back at Cal for our evening practice, I look around, and I was like, "WHOA! Everyone's sunburnt!" Worst of all was definitely Kelly and Kyle though (two of our instructors), because unless I was mistaken, both of them had their whole back and shoulders/arms totally red. it was kind of freaky. o.o Haha. Anyways, today was one of our most relaxing days, and all the HARDCORE (yeah!) Colorguard members were totally cracking up when we heard some band members going, "OMG that was so hard!" (They're wusses. XP) So yeah, today was okay, but next time we're marching, I am so totally wearing LOTS of sunscreen.

Band/Colorguard Camp

Anyways, it's tiring. Very tiring. And it makes your muscles sore like crap. So basically, we've done lots of ballet stuff, like (I might spell these wrong) plies, tendues, and degagers. Then we have the "basic" stuff like side/right/left splits, right/left cartwheels, butterfly stretches, bridges, etc. Then we have a lot of stretching "routines" like the secre (sp?) stretch, which is hard to explain, but your hands sort of form a half oval, and it goes up and down and some weird stuff. Lol. Then there's one for your legs, which involves plies, attitudes (it's like a curved kick with a pointed foot), batmas (sp?), batmas with curved arms, and a hop + an attitude (a hopping attitude! XD). Then there's the hip stretch, which is... nevermind, you don't want to know. So we do lots of miscellaneous stretches, all of which actually stretch your muscles, not like those wimpy ones we do in PE. Then we do 16 sit-ups in 6 different leg positions, plus 16 alternating oblique sit-ups, then 16 sit-ups on the right oblique, and 16 on the left. So that's... 144 sit-ups? o.o Wow. I didn't know we did that many. Then we do about 10 push-ups. And we run.
As for actual flags/rifles/sabers, we learn to spin them first, and trust me, a flag is way easier than a rifle or saber. Flags are still hard for me though. Anyways, after we spin, we learn some flips, which are also kind of hard, and seeing as how the flagpole is about a foot taller than me, it's hard for me to flip. But it's better than tosses. You don't want to see me try to toss a flag. It's catastrophic. So, we separate our 15 or so people into flags, rifles, and sabers, and I'm a flag (thankfully), even though most people want to be a weapon. I like flags because I can actually do SOME stuff on it, plus the fact that flags are like 2-3 lbs, rifles are 3-4, and sabers are like 5.

As for marching, Colorguard FINALLY learned how to march today, and I was totally confused for the first 10 minutes or so as to what we were doing. XD But at least I can (sort of) march now, so that's all good... sort of. But I can't spin a flag and march. Which is really bad, since I have to spin and march. Oh well. Anyways, it's pretty tiring, but I feel worse for the Marching Band, since they have to be in the sun virtually the whole time. What I don't get though, is why some band members fainted on their first day out (or so the rumor says), since they were just standing/stretching outside, whereas Colorguard was running across the football field, stretching, and traveling outside. And we got the same amount of water breaks about.

Anyways, for our program this year, we're doing Zorro, which is really heroic or whatever. And all the girls are wearing hairpieces, fake eyelashes, lipstick, eyeliner, and probably eyeshadow. All of which I hate. And then we have this black fishnet top with a red pattern underneath, paired with black pants with a red pleather design, and black canvas jazz boots. And we're supposed to be all seductive and independent or whatever, which I am DEFINITELY not going to be. I don't even want to try. Ugh. But I have to, or else it's like totally no point in being in Colorguard. By the way, if you go to my school, pretend you either didn't hear this, or you didn't hear it from me, because apparently this is top secret or whatever.

So all in all, band/Colorguard camp is tiring, hot, and hard. And annoying.

Olympics III!!!

So anyways, I'm not sure about the medal rankings, but I think they're still the same (USA in lead for overall, China in lead for gold). Phelps and Coughlin both got gold medals, and the USA Men's Gymnastics got a bronze. They messed up really bad on the pommel horse (Tan got lower than a 13), but Germany was around 4 points behind, so they weren't able to cover that distance. China obviously got the gold for Men's Gymnastics. I'll post more tomorrow, must go sleep and rest up for the band camp tomorrow (8:45-12:30, then 5:30-9). Do some stretches too. Night guys!

Band Camp!

It's interesting. You have to be HELLA flexible for Colorguard (if you want to do it right, which no one really can, but whatever). o.o Anyways, it's really hot in the Commons (where we practice), and add that to tons of conditioning and stretching (we're supposed to be able to do splits, which no one can do...) and it equals lots of tired Colorguarders. Lol. But some of the routines are sort of weird, and I SUCK at footwork. So I'm going to need a lot of practice at home... DX Oh well. I think Colorguard should be worth more than a semester of PE. Like, sure, Colorguard's only the fall season, but we work way harder than Marching Band in terms of physical exertion. Whatever. So basically, we have around 20 people in Colorguard right now, and we just stretched and did some interesting "routines" today. Tomorrow we're going to learn the "Basics of Marching" and work with some flags. I'm probably going to smack someone on the head, and I'm wondering whether or not I should request a 10 foot radius so I don't give anyone else (I mean, I'm almost certainly going to give myself) a concussion. So anyways, band amp isn't bad, but it's pretty damn tiring. Marching Band isn't hard, from what Courtney says, just fast music basically. And the weather plus marching, but we all have to deal with that.