Sorry, I didn't write anything for the last 2 days because 1. I didn't feel like it, 2. I didn't have much time. I didn't take pictures either, so I'll start today! Hehe, I've been slacking off so much after I came to Hong Kong. :P

So this is what happened the day before yesterday.

I ate lunch with a bunch of relatives at a restaurant. There were about 14 people in total, so half of us sat at one table while the other half sat at another, but both were right next to each other. So every time my table ordered food, we would eat half of it and give the other half to the other table. Since I was closest, I was always the one to bring the food over, so they called me "Santa Clause." : ) It was nice having people call me that; it's pretty cool!

Then nothing interesting happened for the rest of the day until my cousins (Faith and Will) came over for dinner! Faith is 5 years old and Will is almost 3. And guess what? Faith already wears glasses!!! Anyways, last year, both of them (especially Faith) were so shy so it wasn't that fun playing with them. This year, however, they are both so outgoing and active, so I can't wait for them to come over for dinner again tonight! When they came the day before yesterday, I showed them my French Horn. I played Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars for them, and Faith wanted to try. On her first try, she got a lot of notes out! I think she has a talent for Horn, because it's one of the instruments that are really hard to play in general, but especially when starting. After they got bored, I showed them a handstand. Both of them, especially Will, wanted to learn how to do one. After around 5-10 minutes of trying to do handstands, they became so excited that they started to jump around on the bed and screamed and laughed. I could tell they had a lot of fun, but at that point, they had to go home because it was late. It's weird how everything (all the jumping around on the bed, etc.) started with a handstand. Oh I almost forgot to tell you about Will! He always hugs me, and it's really cute! But I never notice him coming up to me from the back, so when I turn around, I see him hugging my legs! (His head only goes up to my waist.)

I have to go change out of my pajamas now, so I'll write more later!

Haircut (again)

I just arrived in Hong Kong in the morning. I only get to stay here for a few days though, because I'll have to leave to Shanghai to do wushu.

Anyways, if you look back at the post from last year, it's also called, "Haircut." That's why there's an "(again)" next to it. Every year, my mom brings me and my brothers to a place in Hong Kong for haircuts. This time, I just got my hair (including my bangs) layered so it's not much of a change.

Before lunch today, we went to get China Visa Cards for my brothers. I already have one because I was born in Hong Kong. We went there and the lady at the counter told us that we needed to bring their passports. My grandma went back home to get them while my brothers, my mom, and I went to get a table at the dim sum restaurant for lunch. When my grandma came back, we ate lunch and went back to the place. We were so late that we missed 20 something numbers! They let us go ahead of everyone else though, so we didn't even have to wait! We had pretty good luck today, because this kind of thing always takes at least a few hours to get done with.

Now, let's go back to when I was on the plane! Personally, I hate plane rides, but I used to enjoy them until my brother threw up. It was sooo gross! This time, the ride seemed longer than usual and the landing took a really long time. Maybe the pilot was dozing off or something, which I doubt. When we boarded the plane, it was around 1:30 so I slept for a while. When I woke up, my mom said that there was about 5 hours left. I slept for at least 4 hours longer, then I asked my mom agian. This time, she said there was about 2-3 hours left. I was like, "Hmm, weird." Then I slept for at least 2 hours more. (Sorry for the people who are really bored right now!) This time, my mom said there was about 2-3 hours left again! Then 2 hours later, the cabin crew people served the breakfast, which meant that there was about 3 hours left of the flight. So the time was really confusing throughout the flight, which was really annoying. I should bring my own watch next time...

So that's all I have to say for today! I'll post more tomorrow about more interesting topics, hopefully.

Blog's 1st Anniversary!!!

Guess what? I just realized that the 27th is the blog's 1st anniversary! I don't actually post very often; most of the interesting ones are the ones I posted during the summer last year. I'm leaving to Hong Kong at 1:00 ish today/tomorrow, so things will start to get more interesting.

For the past few years, I have been doing gymnastics in Shanghai. But as many of you should know, I quit gymnastics (sorry gym friends!!!!) so I'm doing Wushu instead. I'm so scared, because everyone in the Wushu place are boys/men and are WAY older and WAY better than me! When I visited the place last year, they looked like big, scary giants. : (

Well, I'll post later after I arrive in Hong Kong!

P.S. Didn't this year feel like it passed by so quickly? I told a lot of people already, but doesn't it feel like 2nd quarter has just ended? This break feels like a Staff Learning Day weekend so far.

Sleepover

Yesterday to today, I had a sleepover with my gymnastic friends: Qian Yi, Janicia, Roxanna, and Rhea. It was supposed to be a farewell sleepover for Janicia since she's moving to L.A. :(((((((((( NOOOOOOO. But at least we had fun for the time being! Now, I'm going to tell you EVERYTHING that happened in chronological order. You don't have to read it though; just read this paragraph and the last 2 paragraphs.

First Day
- came at around 9:30 and drank strawberry lemonade that the others made before I came
- prepared Janicia's farewell present (photo album w/ photos and notes from us, and a signed photo frame with a picture) while she played on Rhea's iTouch
- Janicia was obsessed with the game on Rhea's iTouch where you torture little people by burning them, feeding them to the dinosaur, etc.
- played on the iTouches and Qian Yi's dad's iPad
- played "Life"
- slept at 1:30-2:00

Second Day
- woke up at around 8:45-9:00
- ate shiu mai and and pork buns for breakfast
- watched yogurt commercial while eating breakfast which gave us idea of freezing strawberry lemonade into popsicles
- made strawberry lemonade/popsicles
- gave Janicia her present
- cooked lunch (pasta w/ corn, minced pork, green onions, carrots, cauliflower, and alfredo sauce, and garlic mashed potatoes)
- played cards
- made more strawberry lemonade/popsicles
- went to front yard and designed routine for Janicia
- practiced and showed Janicia routine (videotaped routine)
- made "Funfetti" cake and icing (Funfetti=vanilla cake w/ confetti-looking rainbow sprinkles)
- watched "Good Eats" (T.V. show) episode about buffalo wings!
- tried some cake - it was REALLY sweet

The things that were most fun and memorable was when we made stuff in the kitchen and the routine. If you read the middle 2 "paragraphs" anyway, then sorry if that was really boring. I just wrote it so I could remember exactly what happened during Janicia's last sleepover at Qian Yi's house before moving. The routine we made/performed was so cool, and if we had more time, then it could have been much better. Janicia will (hopefully) post it on Youtube soon because she said she would.

Graduation

Two days ago, on the 9th, my brother (Mark) graduated! He had to play in the Band last year and he said it was really tiring because we have to play for the whole time the graduates are walking in. He described it as if it was really hard, so I was so scared! But then, during graduation practice, we basically practiced the whole thing once and it was really short. We play when they're walking in and when they leave, plus another song in between. It still wasn't that bad! My lips were just burning a little at the end.

It's hard to believe that my brother will be in high school next year! At home, he acts more like a 6th or 7th grader.

The 18th Annual UC Berkeley Chinese Martial Arts Tournament

Yesterday, I went to my very first wushu competition! It was really different from gymnastics, mostly because gymnastics was really formal and official and wushu wasn't. When people were doing forms, people can still talk and for some reason, it feels like not too many people are staring at you. But I like that; it made competing seem less nerve racking. I wasn't even nervous when I went up and did my form!

This competition worked way differently than gymnastics competitions. There were 8 different floors; they called it "rings." I was in Ring 2 for both events. Every event in each ring is like a mini competition itself, because they give the score within the ring after every performance. After everyone within that event performs, they give out the medals (1st, 2nd, and 3rd.) I think the most people competing within one event was 14 people, which was the one I was in. And since they only gave 3 medals, they were really good quality. They were pretty heavy too.

The divisions were also really different. There are Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced groups, and you can apply in whichever group you want! I applied into the Intermediate. But within those 3 groups, it is also divided again in terms of age; there were groups with really young people to 7 yrs, then 8 to 12 yrs, and 13 to any age over 13. I was in Intermediate 8-12 yrs, so some people in my event were 8 years old. That's why it was easy for me to win.

I competed in 2 events: Contemporary Long Fist (Chang Quan), and Contemporary Straightsword (Jian Shu). I got 1st place/gold medal in Long Fist and 2nd place/silver medal in Straightsword. I think everything was pretty fun overall!

Certificate of Merit Piano Test: Branch Honors Recital

Sorry, I accidentally pressed "enter" before even writing anything so that post got published because of that. Anyways, I just went to the C.M. Test Branch Honors Recital. I played the Mozart Sonata in F major, K.332. I kind of messed up but I guess it's no big deal. At the recital, I also saw Meera there (we have the same teacher.) If any one you have ever been to recitals, someone usually says something before the performances like, "We are so honored to have all of these hardworking people play here today. We give many thanks to the teachers and especially the parents; if it were not for them, this event may not have turned out so well..." or something like that, right? So today, this recital was at a piano store that sells Steinways. The person who said the stuff was a worker there, and she was advertising for the company more than talking about other stuff. She kept on saying that the company was one of the only stores in the area that sell Steinways and that there is a upcoming event there about Steinway pianos; stuff like that. It was kind of funny. : )

Off Road Kick-off

Yesterday, my church had an Off Road kick-off. (Off Road is the name of my church's middle school/junior high group.) We usually have kick-offs to celebrate something new that's going to be happening; this time, there was the kick-off because we're not going to have Sunday Off Road services anymore. So I'll have to go to church on Saturday nights from now on, which I kind of already did before. Also, it was to celebrate the 5th graders coming next school year, so a bunch of 5th graders were there too. And I guess it kind of was like a farewell to the 8th graders who would be leaving soon to the high school group.

Anyways, it was sooo fun!!!

There were 4 or 5 inflatable games. One was just a regular jump house thing that's not really fun, one was a game where you get tied up and behind you is a bungie chord, and you have to try to stretch yourself to the border (with holes) and to the balls out of your side. But then if you're really light, then the bungie chord with throw you backwards when you move forwards and it's really fun. There's also a boxing ring where you have to stand on small platforms and you try to knock your opponent off their platform. Lastly, there was the...laser tag!!!! I was in one of the last groups to play it so it was really dark inside since the sun had set outside already. Since it was really dark, every time someone from my team comes out from behind a wall or something, then we would all start screaming and stuff. And just in case you were wondering how we played laser tag inside an inflatable thing, we would have sensors around our arm and we each had a gun. If the laser hits anywhere near the sensor, I would lose a life. In all, there were 10 lives until we were out. That was sooo fun but scary at the same time. : )

There were also raffle tickets for prizes like Off Road t-shirts, live goldfish (the kinds people keep as pets!), and the grand prize was a $50 gift card to Target. So you might by wondering why they would give out live goldfish, right? Well, they needed some for the leaders to eat but they bought a lot of extras. The deal was that if everyone from Off Road invites 150 or more friends all together to this kick-off, then the leaders who volunteered would eat a live goldfish! 3 of them (all men) ended up eating it because there were 170 newcomers. It was gross; I was so afraid that they would throw up or something! But they did it. They ate it the way like we would swallow pills. If they chewed the fish before swallowing, then that would be really weird.

So that's pretty much it!

C.P.Y.O. Spring Concert 2010

The spring concert was actually a while ago; I just forgot to post stuff for a long time. You can search C.P.Y.O. on Youtube and you can watch the senior orchestra. They didn't record anything for the associates so I wouldn't be anywhere in the videos. Well, here are the links just in case you didn't want to go to Youtube...

William Tell Overture:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=injYO3y6Glc
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=3olCR4L8CM8&feature=related

Leonore Overture:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRxFiBVSRQE
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMFdcX-qbJs

Level 7 States

I heard from Qian Yi that the Level 7's had states this weekend or something! How did it go? I hope it was fun, and I'm sure everyone did well. :D

P.S. I miss moving panel mats at gym. : (

Certificate of Merit Piano Test

I just took a Certificate of Merit (also known as the C.M.) piano test this morning! Originally, I was going to take it tomorrow at 3:15 (same time as Rhea!) but because of the orchestra concert tomorrow, I had to take it today at 8:35. : ( Well, at least I'm over with it! Yay!!!! No more theory until after the summer!!! :D

USOMC

Most of you are probably wondering, "What's USOMC and who cares about it?" Well, it stands for U.S. Open Music Competition. So, who cares about that, right? Well, I competed in it (this year and last year). And now, you're probably thinking, "Who cares if Jane competed in some random music competition?" Well, I got 4th place and I was in the Senior division! You're thinking, "Who cares about whether or not Jane gets any place in some random competition?" Well, you don't have to care but I do!

What's weird about this is:
-I got 4th place when I was in the Senior division
-I didn't get any place when I was in the Intermediate division with a bunch of kids
-I got 4th place when the song was much harder and longer
-I didn't get any place when I was playing the easy song that I never mess up on

So I have no idea why I did much better in the Senior division. When I was playing in the Intermediate division, my mind turned all blank and clueless in different parts of the song.

If I was to think the superstitious way, then here are things that might have caused this:
-My dad had to rent a car to drive me there the second day for the Intermediate competition because my mom had to go to work
-I didn't have as much stage fright (I know, this has no way it could make me do worse)
-This person from school was playing in the same competition as me (her name is Jane Wei :P)
-The judges were both men
-My dad and I were in a rush because he still had to fill gas into the rental car

Most of these things have nothing to do with the competition so I was just putting down the main things that were different between the two days. But I'm still really happy because the U.S. Open is pretty hard if you haven't already guessed, and I actually got a place in the SENIOR division!!!!! There's only 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place so I barely made it.

Anyways, that's basically all I wanted to say about this...bye then!

Year of the Tiger

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

and

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Riddle!

Which building has the most stories?

Red Cross Club Bake Sale (at school)

Sorry guys, I didn't get to post anything for a long time; I had been pretty busy lately with piano and stuff.

Anyways, last week, Red Cross Club hosted a bake sale at school! It was so successful! They ended up raising $495.50 which will be donated to Haiti. I'm in Red Cross Club and Builder's Club, and the Builder's Club bake sale (no offense) was way worse than the Red Cross Club one. They raised about $100, if not, less. But I guess that's still good because they only did it for 2 days or something.

I have a question for everyone here. WHAT'S UP WITH HI-CHEW NOWADAYS!!!! Julia (the president) bought 295 Hi-Chews for $30, and that filled up about a box or two. After the first day, I think about a half the box was already sold! By the second or third day (I forgot) the Hi-Chews were all sold out. Well, Julia saved some for the club, but still! She probably only saved about 20 of them which is not much compared to 295.

I brought Valentines iced sugar cookies, chocolate glazed doughnut holes, regular glazed doughnut holes, Milky Way (minis), Hello Panda (chocolate), and Hello Panda (strawberry.) Even though some of them aren't baked goods, they still sell pretty well! (e.g. Hi-Chew, Milky Way, Hello Panda). So if anyone ever has a bake sale at their school, it's okay to bring those types of stuff!

Here's a list of stuff that sold pretty well at my school (they are just rough estimations):

#1=Hi-Chew
#2=Chocolate Chip Cookies
#3=Brownies
#4=Cupcakes (don't forget the icing!)
#4=other types of cookies (NOT Oatmeal Raisin though)
#5=Chocolate Pound Cake
#6=Doughnut Holes (both flavors)

Here are some things that I think are not so popular:
-Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
-Banana Bread
-Hello Panda (strawberry)
-Milky Way (I think if they were bigger, than more people would buy it)

Some things were a little expensive for their size, like Hello Panda or Milky Way so people won't buy it. But if you don't make it that price, then we'll earn almost no profit, right? (I sold Hello Panda for 75 c. each pouch and 25 c. for a Milky Way. The cookies, brownies, cake, etc. were only 50 c. so they were cheap compared to those.)

You guys probably think this post is super boring. I just wanted to know about the Hi-Chew, but then I couldn't stop talking about the stuff! I just went on and on and on and on and on................................................................................................................and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on...................................................:D

Riddle!

What can pass before the sun without making a shadow?

(Answer: WIND)

Great job, Mia! :D Great job to Qian Yi too, because I think clouds don't make shadows either, do they?

Haircut

I got bangs! Well, all of my school friends already know but I don't think my gymnastics friends know. I know it's not very interesting (school friends) but I just thought that maybe my gymnastics friends might want to see what I look like now. : ) I actually got the haircut a while ago but I kept on forgetting to tell everyone. I can post the pictures when my dad gets back because I don't know how to download pictures onto this place.

A Good Lesson Learned

There's a really good lesson I learned at church on Saturday that I want to share with everyone.

The lesson is basically:
-be quick to listen
-be slow to talk
-be slow to anger

If you're quick to listen and slow to talk, that will most likely lead to you being slow to anger as well. Listen to others more and talk less. (That's why we have one mouth and two ears!)

The words we speak sometimes also reflect what we think about God. Many times, people say, "I love God" easily without thinking. They claim that they love God, but the words they speak do not reflect that. After people say that, they often times talk behind someone's back or say something bad, for example: "But I really hate that girl that sits next to me in class!" That's basically saying, "I love God but I hate His creation." You are not loving God by hating someone that He created. I find myself talking badly of others much too often (I especially like to talk to my mom about how mean my brother is), so one of my new year's resolutions was to not talk behind other people's backs. Always remember the popular saying that has been said to us so many times (especially in elementary school): "Treat others like how you would like to be treated." Or, something similar is a verse from the Bible: Leviticus 19:18 "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself..." It is said 8 times (in the Bible) to love your neighbor as yourself, and therefore is one of the commands that has been repeated most (in the Bible). (Leviticus 19:18 is just an example of one of them.)

Here's another two verses from the Bible that says more about talking badly of others, etc.:
James 1:19-20 "My dear brothers, take note in this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. For man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. "

Well, I hope this helped a lot of you out and gave you an idea of how people should act and speak! It really helped me out a lot, and I'm still trying to work on this. But in my opinion, my friends don't really need it because I don't think they ever talk badly of people. : ) At least not much.

NEW YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy new year!