Cherry Blossom Festival :)

Hi again, everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates!!! But, I have been busy (and lazy...*cough*) I leave early tomorrow morning for Maine, where I will remain until Friday. Hopefully I will have some updates for you then ;) Until I get back, enjoy!!! :)

So, yesterday we went into D.C. for the annual cherry blossom festival, which occurs the week the cherry blossoms (a gift from Japan) bloom :) I wasn't expecting to be able to go yesterday, as earlier that morning we had a huge, Brunei-like thunderstorm!!! But, even though it was a bit overcast, it was still a beautiful sight to see :)

The Cherry-Blossomed, Flooded Potomac River

Walking under the trees :)

Cherry Blossoms!!!

I thought this shot looked kinda Japanesey :-P

Kiss the Water

Preeetttyyy Flowers!! :)

The Crowded Jefferson Memorial

Jump!!!

Deja vu...O.O

The Washington Monument!!!

Family Photo :)

Jefferson Memorial!!!

Roosevelt Memorial!
This one was really great, because it was something you could walk around in, and touch, and read, and feel the air...I just liked this memorial :)

Fountain :)

Roosevelt and his lucky finger :-P

Roosevelt (and me) in a nutshell

I don't think he even realized I was taking this ;)

Things are really starting to look bad here in the USA...(as captioned by my dad)

Finally! The sun came out!! :)

At one point the petals started falling on them...it was beautiful (the music and the moment) :)

The Washington Monument again :)

I just thought this light was cool ;-P

These Crazy Weeks

Hey, guys! Sorry for not updating lately! Been quite busy...all of a sudden...

Anyways, so this week, it snowed. Snowed! Like, 4 inches!!! So we had Monday off. (and I do have photos, but I'm just too lazy to download them. But those ARE coming soon!!) :)

Then, we went in 2 hours late on Tuesday.

Wednesday, I had an unexpected audition, which I completley bombed, so failed to make it into the school play :( oh well, maybe I'll work tech for it instead :)

Also on Wednesday, I found out that I COULD go to the MUN conference this weekend, which I previously couldn't for reasons I won't bother explaining....

So, MUN was on Friday and Saturday, and it was without a doubt the best MUN conference I've been to so far!!!!! I mean, even though my partner and I weren't really prepared for debate, it was still really fun! We met lots of amazing people, and had a ridiculously fun sudden crisis debate at the end! In addition, we had a dance off, threw paper into various other committee rooms, and bought souvenir boxers!!! Yes, that's right, they were selling boxers instead of t-shirts ;-P And I must say they make incredibly comfortable shorts...=D The only thing(s) I regret about the conference is that I didn't prepare better, and that I didn't bring my camera. :( Because I could have photos to post....but still, I think we debated very well despite not being very prepared :) And our school still got a trophy in the end!!! =D

So yea, that was my week. How was yours? ;-P

Typically Turkey Day

After hourse of slaving over perfecting the meal and then hours roasting away in the oven, it's finally time to take the turkey out of its baking bag...*drumroll please*
...opening the bag....

....the turkey survived!!!!!! =D

Taking out the stuffing

Our beautiful table, set with only the finest china

That's one big-*** turkey!

Carefully carving the bird

Sitting down to eat

Mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing...

...pumpkin, and turkey! Yum!

(appologies for the weird coloration: I was too lazy to edit my photos...)

Now, whose idea was it to use napkin holders as eyes, again....?

hehe ;-P

Good Luck!

GOOD LUCK ON THE EXAMS, EVERYBODY!

Greetings, Mr.President

Guess What, Guess WHAT!?

Mr. George W. Bush (to be said with a southern twang) went to The War College, my dad's office (well, technically it's a school), today to give a talk to the students about changes in the numbers of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan!

I mean, the topic doesn't sound very exciting but still my dad got to see the President up close!

However, he forgot to bring his camera with him so he didn't get any pictures =.=

If you are interested, you can read all about it on www.cnn.com

Not Yosemite?

This week our family (my dad's side) had planned for a reunion at Yosemite National Park. Unfortunately, an uncontrolable forest fire broke out the day before, so we had to cancel our trip. So, my family from Los Angeles came up to San Rafael to stay with us. My grandma prepared a wonderful dinner of steak, potatoes and salad (which I forgot to take a picture of), and the following days we had our family reunion. But, Tonight!:

Aunt Emily and Chalo
Our Giant 7 pound American All-Chocolate Cake!
"Hey, don't eat it yet!"

Did I mention the reunion was mostly to celebrate my grandparents' (belated) 50th aniversary?

Happy Aniversary to You!

Make a Wish!

My Piece + Ice Cream =D

And even with 14 of us, we barely finished half of the cake!

Present Time!

Happy (Belated) 50th Aniversary, Grandma and Grandpa!!!!

Celebration of Achievement - Years 3 till 8

So after a day in the sun, I was dragged to yet ANOTHER celebration evening! Oh well, at least there were fewer speeches =D

Behold the Year 9s who shouldn't be performing! (and I thought the pic was better than this...)

Jonny Lim (and others) dancing to "Low"

My brother's class and I CAN'T BELIEVE HE ACTUALLY WENT UP!!!!!!!!!! =D

And guess who came to join me from the drum line? =D

And look who else I found! (well, actually, she forced me to come...)

Thus concludes the celebrations this year! Well done everyone!

Activities Day!

And so we proceeded to Wednesday, where we had our Year 9 Activities Day at the Empire!

The Camera War Begins!

Pose!

Cute pic ;-p

Anyways, we split up into 10 groups (well initially 20 but then boys and girls groups joined).

We had to compete in various activities. These included:

1. Puzzle Hunt- where we had to find the puzzle pieces to make the face of a teacher
2. Bouncer- where we had to successfully cross the obstacle filled bouncer without falling off
3. Volleyball- well that much was obvious! But, our team aced! and we got candy in assembly Thursday =D
4. Kayaking- which not only involved kayaking around a course, it also involved diving for colored bricks!
5. Raft building- where we were given materials and we had to use all to build a raft, carry all of us to a buoy and back again

It was a great group of activities and I thoroughly enjoyed myself!
This was followed by a buffet lunch at the Pantai Restaurant

Lovely Ladies

Group Photo!

This was followed by a quiz which we pretty much failed! ;-P Except the match the picture to the person!!!! =D
After this there were certificates and leavers presents and speeches to be made and everyone got all choked up and emotional so I won't mention or I will do the same...

Isn't that gorgeous? You can't really see it in the pic but that circle around the sun is a rainbow! Amazing, innit? ;-P