HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

IT'S THE NEW YEAR!!!!!!! IN ABOUT 3 HOURS AND 15 MINUTES IT'LL BE *2010!!!!!!!!!*

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'LL BE THE LAST YEAR OF THE DECADE!!!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! WHAT ARE YOUR RESOLUTIONS?

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!!!

Merry Christmas!!! Happy Holidays!!! Happy New Year (even though it didn't come yet)!!!

Catch Up

Hi guys, sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been so busy! Las Vegas, about 10 million parties, getting sick, WHEW!

Anyways, I hope you all had a great Christmas! Can't wait until New Year's!

I have a few posts coming up because I went to a LOT of places and did a LOT of things (and by the way, I won't be posting China Pics for a while... it was about half a year ago! I couldn't remember the names of some places we went, so I have to ask my dad about some places and he's always busy!!!). Not all of the posts I'll be posting have pictures.

Las Vegas
Christmas Party
New Room Color

There might be some more, but anyways sorry for not posting for a long time, but I'll be posting more soon!

News of the Day: CalSkate and the Last Day Before Christmas Break!!!!

AHHH today in school we went to CalSkate!! It was so fun... we didn't have to bring backpacks and we didn't have to wear uniforms!!! :D :D :D

It was really fun... we played some skate games (haha I didn't play any of them though, because I wanted to watch them).

Yes, I fell ONCE, but it was because I was tripped by someone (haahaha).

That was basically the whole day, and then it's done and we're FREE!! Hello winter break! :)

The Clouds

I told you I would show you the video in a separate post, didn't I? Well here's the clouds rushing upon us. (Note: If you have NO IDEA what I'm talking about, you should check the post before this... that goes for all posts on my blog whenever I update it, because I often refer to posts that I put up earlier.)

China Pics 10!

FINALLY some more pictures from China! This was my FAVORITE place that I went to in China! It's called Shan Qing Shan (Three Distinct Mountains) and it had some SPECTACULAR views!!! I loved it because we were so high up that the clouds actually washed over us! At one point we were walking IN the clouds!!! We could see the clouds sweeping over us!!! It was AWESOME! (I'll post the video in another post because it's too big to fit with all the other pictures).We were also hiking with some doctors from Run Run Shaw Hospital (LLUH supports this hospital in China) that are also my mom's friends... and that can speak english!!!!! Yay!!!!!! So yeah... it's about time you should see these beautiful mountains for yourself.

We had to take an ENORMOUS cable car ride to the middle area of the mountain... to hike up the entire mountain would take more than a day! This part of the cable car is climbing up...


Now we're looking back at what we just climbed!


At this point we could see the jagged peaks of the mountain.


We saw a couple of people like this. They hike up the ENTIRE mountain EVERY DAY, and CARRYING heavy loads! They can't take the cable car because of their cargo. I guess they take it to the top as resources... and they get paid for the climb. Then they hike down the entire mountain again... eat... sleep... then go up the next day. :[


We could see more rock peaks now that the sun came out. They were beautiful.


This was the point we got off the cable car. The ride took about half an hour! But it was worth it-- look at the folds of mountains!


I looked around and saw some amazing rocks!


This was an interesting building... it's masked by rocks!


I looked higher up and saw these HUGE rocks!


I just thought these rocks were amazing.


At one point while we were hiking, I looked over the railing and saw this REALLY steep fall!!!


China must specialize in enormous flies.


What does this stone look like? Yes a cobra!! It was SO cool!


That is so cute! This HUUUUGE rock.. with a single little tiny tree standing on top of it!


After about an hour of hiking, we got to some slippery stairs we had to climb. There was no railing, just the rocks closing in on the sides of us. The stairs actually narrowed to this point!!! (And this is about 2 feet from my face, it was that steep!)


What does THIS rock look like? I know! A woman looking to the left! It's amazing!


Look... we circled that entire area to the other side, where we could see the little tree and the cobra rock both (and bonus: encircled by clouds!)


The area was so cloudy (COOL!)... but I could still see this tree that ALMOST tumbled down the side of the mountain, but it stopped (for some reason) and it just got stuck there!


Believe it or not, this is a natural rock! It looks like a mushroom...


Along the route (near the end of our hike) was a set of steep stairs...



...but these are even steeper!!!! They were slippery too!! And almost 100 steps!! I was scared out of my skin... and I almost had a heart attack when I slipped and (OMG) fell, but I caught onto the railing JUST IN TIME!!! That's why going down these stairs is harder than going up.


After we finished climbing the mountain (WHEW) we ate a meal in a hotel... and I thought this dish was pretty interesting. It's fish... in a fish bowl!


Ugh... this chicken is a little too fresh...

I'M SO EXCITED!!!!

I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL CHRISTMAS COMES!!!!!!! I've already made a Christmas playlist with all the carols and modern versions and stuff... it lasts 3 hours :)

Even my parents are feeling the Christmas spirit early... my mom says that listening to Christmas songs now are making her feel like Christmas is close too :)

News of the Day: Science

I'm starting a new series called "News of the Day" and... well the title is pretty self-explanatory. I just tell you guys interesting stuff that happens from day to day. I won't post this every day, or maybe even not every week, but it's just a little thing for you guys to know what's happening here.

SO ANYWAYZ

Today in science we dissected owl pellets!! Fun!! If you don't know, when an owl eats, it swallows the small animal whole. When it reaches the stomach, the owl digests the meat and the remains of the animal (fur & bones) comes out... like the owl throws it up. These are the little pellets we have to work with. DON'T WORRY, Dr. Penington says! They've been sterilized and cleaned!

Ok once we got our owl pellets, you have to first break it into two halves and you and your partner take one half and extract the bones from it. Everyone was too scared to touch it with their bare hands... until someone like poked theirs and he was like "IT'S SAFE" hahah but still, most people tried to take the bones out with their wooden probes (they look like solid wood pencils). I finally worked up the guts to just rip it apart and take out the bones. A girl sitting diagonally across from me watched me and she said, "You are the bravest girl I know to be touching it like that!!" so I was like "Uh.. thanks.." because I thought it was no big deal after you get over it. My partner was still too wimp to work with their hands, so they just (OHMYGOD) STABBED THE PELLET AND WE. HEARD. CRUNCHES. HE. CRUSHED. THE. SKULL. THE MOST VITAL BONE THAT WE NEED!! HE JUST STABBED IT AND IT BROKE!!! UUUGH!! I am so mad at him. Then class ended, and I looked over at my friend's desk. He had like black fur all over the place! I was wondering how that much fur could fit into one little square inch pellet!!! It was really gross, but it was also really fun. I hope you guys have the experience of dissecting an owl pellet!

(You know, I think this is my longest post ever... I mean the one with the most words! Wow! It didn't take me very long to type it!!)

FIRST OF ALL

I'M SO SORRY I HAVEN'T POSTED IN A LONG TIME!!!! Both weekends, I had stuff to do and places to go so I had no time to post... and during the week I've had endless amounts of homework!!! So yeah after this post I'll start posting material like mad.

Sorry again! Thanks for the people who actually check this blog!

Updates

Hey guys I just updated My Favorite Songs EVAH! Pleeeease comment on it (not this post)? I'm curious to know what your favorite songs are!

China Pics 9

YAY we're about halfway through!!! (crowd groans)

So anyways, this post has pictures from one of my favorite places that I visited in China-- it's still in Tong Lu (the city where Grandma's Bridge is (see China Pics 8)), but it's totally different than those pictures you saw last time. We went to a building with these intricate paper cuttings (you'll see) and this BEAUTIFUL cave with amazing rock formations that are all NATURAL!

I couldn't believe how exact the cuttings were!! The sign said that these were cut by a 96 year old woman!!!!!!!!


Let's get this straight..... the BLUE is the PAPER. The WHITE is the BACKGROUND! Can you believe it?!!


This is the entrance to the rock cave... the day we visited it, it was SOOOO HOT OUTSIDE! There was cool air wafting from the entrance... it felt so good (until we got to the middle of the cave, when I started shivering haha)


The tunnel leading into the cave. The entire cave is lit up with colorful lights like these (they made the rock shapes look pretty cool!!...)


...as seen here :)


This is called the Waterfall Rock.


This AWESOME rock pillar is called Tower of Heaven.


Do you see the really small frog?!?! I went WOW!!! when I saw it!!!


These are called the tree rocks, because they resemble the thin trunks of trees! It's so cool!!!!


CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?? A STORE. IN THE MIDDLE OF A CAVE. They sold beverages and they had [damp] stone benches, so I guess it's a resting place. I feel so sorry for those people working there. They have to stay there all day :[.


This is just an impressive rock figure-- it has no official name, but I took a picture of it anyways :]


This whole rock scene is called "Heaven" because it looks so magnificent!


See, look-- proof :P! Well actually it was named Heaven because it had 33 large-ish rocks in the same area-- in China, heaven is said to have 33 layers.


* heavenly music! *


You see here a pool of water-- it was the most AMAZING thing I've ever seen in my ENTIRE LIFE!!! I'm not joking!!! My camera can't capture it (with or without flash), but our guide told us to look at it. What we saw was the image of a cavern that stretches down, down, down, about 200 yards down!!!! Then he turned on his flashlight and we saw that it was just water!!!! It was the most amazing thing ever!!! The water was just reflecting the ceiling!!!!!!!!


As you can see, this rock is called "Fairy Stalagmite" (don't ask me! I don't know how in the world they came up with that name!)


This is part of a rock structure called "Dragon's mouth" because that white bit looks like a long tooth.


Here's the bottom half of Dragon's mouth (the bottom tooth).

THINGS I CAN'T STAND

Chinese rap - NEVAH LISTEN TO IT-- it'll probably be the last thing you do before you faint of horror

Chinese DANCING - UUUUUUUUUGH AMERICAN MOVES + CHINESE INTERPRETATION OF THEM = HIDEOUS!!!

Farts - even just a little one released can stink up a small room in SECONDS (TRUST ME-- I'VE WITNESSED IT IN ACTION)

100+ temps - Oh em gee I cannot stand the heat! I'm a cold weather person... even though I'm like super tan... being cold is better than melting in the sun!

I might add to the list later on...

Flower Origami

There are just too many flowers in the world, and many more that can be made with origami, so I included *10* in this post!

A water lily!


Golden flower


I can make this flower! Except better :P


A lily


Another water lily (I can make THIS ONE too!)


Roses





A poppy


Beautiful flower


Yet another water lily-- this one has a dragonfly on it :)