What else, every semester is different and you see more of different people each semester depending on your schedules. One thing I’m excited for this semester is, I think I will see Kari more because we have similar schedules! Hardly saw her last semester so yeaaaah!

Anything exciting this week, celebrated Tomo’s birthday last night.
I thought it was suppose to be a surprise, but apparently she already knew..merrp!

Slept over at Alisa’s and got to chill with her for a bit. Always fun stuff.
Woke up and went to school to do some errands..thank goodness didn’t have any classes..for some reason I felt super beat today.
Then right when I was about to head home, I ran into Cindy..who likewise had some errands to run..so I accompanied her to Cerritos mall to get her jazz done..etc..and wuh lah!

Time to do work..30 hour famine starts tonight? at 10? Merrrp

Friday morning, there sadly wasn’t enough snow to go tubing, and found out the smaller tube had a hole in it
But while everyone else went boarding, me and Carmen got to stay in and chill, watch GIJOE, and talk on some below surface level ish. Some real talk. So that was really cool. Def appreciated it and I always enjoy a good conversation or would choose that over playing in the snow or playing games etc. As awkward as it is sometimes or how I make it, I really like when I can have a good conversation with someone. MOST of the time, depending on the person, I hardly initiate it because I don’t want the other person to feel weird if I go all serious talk on them about stuff going on in my life or things that I want to talk about or things on my mind..mainly because I feel like they already have so much on their plate, and don’t want to burden them with more stuff. Anyway, so that was def one of the high lights of the trip. I like to talk to or hang out with Carmen because she’s one of the few people in my life right now that I consider a really good friend or “close” friend..not sure if we have besties when we’re past high school age or middle/elementary, but definitely consider her one of my better friends. Plus, it’s always hard to catch her at a good time because we’re always in groups of people, or people are always around, so glad the opportunity came up this weekend.
I definitely hang out with a variety of people, and love them each in different ways but there’s only a handful of people that I keep closer in my heart, so I cherish the times where I can really talk with those people or meet up with them.
Yay! Fav.

Well, after the boarders came back..I forgot..I think we just went to the jacuzzi, and sauna..and then had dinner..and played some games? Did we play games…I forgot..we tried to watch another movie? Midnight in Paris..(confusing movie.) But yeah a lot of staying up late and chilling.

Saturday, January 21:
We woke up to a beautiful view!!
There was so much snow! And it was still falling from the sky!

So the boarders took off: JT, Matt, Mel, Brennan

and then myself, Carmen, JJ, Cindy, and Jay walked outside the condo to a nearby untouched slope of fresh snow!
We took the one tube we had left and a little disc sled.


This was one of the coolest photos I think..there were so many good photo opps..I wish I brought the water proof (snow proof) camera. DUmb.dumb.
Anyway..

Jay trekking through the freshly fallen snow!

JJ on the snow tube with his chicken beanie
Hmm..yes..so I believe all of us got to tube once before the tube ran over a branch and popped.
So we just played around a little more before going back in because it was freezing and the wind/snow wind was killing us.

I tied my camera to a branch and hung it to take this picture. I think it turned out pretty nice..considering the conditions of wind blowing snow into the camera etc..my camera almost died after this outting..luckily..it survived!!

After we came in..we rested and when the boarders came back they played some Tetris on DS and other stuff..then we went to the jacuzzi/sauna again.

Then dinner..and games. Squabble is a fun game we learned..it’s like bananagrams..except way more fun!!
After a few rounds, we did girls vs guys. And we won. Yipyip!
Oh MAFIA. We played Friday and Saturday night..so intense that I think everyone had headaches after..all the games were so crazy but it was fun.

What else..ohh dinner times always consisted of question time? or something. Brennan did a good job at helping us all get to know each other more..just by asking simple questions for all of us to answer. It was really fun and I think it is safe to say that we all got a real hard kick out of some of the answers we were hearing..I was crying from laughter at some of the crazy things I heard. Like I mentioned earlier..sometimes I like talking/listening instead of playing games..so it was cool to hear peoples answers to the questions.
After the girls beat the guys in Squabble, 72-70, after Carmen’s clutch steal at the last moment of the game, we took a group picture.

(Matthew, Brennan, JT, JJ, Jay, Cindy, Carmen, Melanie)
Great people. Fun times for sure. Memories made. Fellowship for days.

Sunday, January 22:
We got up..and instead of leaving at the planned time of noon, we left around 3PM. Figures..haha.
We ended up leaving after finishing watching some Xmen movie that was on TV. Lucky for me, because I been wanting to watch that movie, but hadn’t had the chance..until today..(well it’s Monday now..but meh)..missed a few parts of the movie while we loaded cars..but yeah..got the main jist.
One last group shot outside in the freezing weather.

Alright..it’s about 1 AM now…so much for sleeping early..I think the trip didn’t help my jet lag at all..but that was my own choice so, time to deal with it! WooOoo.

Since it is technically Monday, it is the first day of Spring semester..weird feeing..since I’m “graduating” at the end of the semester..I really need to figure out where to sign up or whatever since I missed the grad fair..-.- and..I really need to get my act together on the teaching credential ish..and stop being lazy.

Alright, time to sleep, allergist appointment tomorrow..finally..shouldn’t have put it off..but seems like I’ve been really good at doing that recently..putting things off..-.-

Wait..one more thing..one of my Hermon kids emailed me and I want to remember something she said because it was very..cool..and ironic.
“Okay so I saw him at my schools homecoming basketball game and didnt get to say hi and weve been sorta “off” if you know what I mean. And I got jealous I guess cuase he was talking to this girl he liked last year. But then I went to church today and God was telling me boys aren’t important. And thats about all I got from it, hahah badd, but yeah I then came to realization that I don’t need things to really work out with him, because I knew it wasn’t what I needed in my life right now, and all of a sudden I wasn’t jealous! I was sort of amazed, but yeah though I might tell you.”

Definitely enjoy these random emails from these kiddos.

OK. I was seriously going to go..until a picture popped up in my newsfeed.
K.Akiyama and B.Chang!?!? Freaaaaak.
Unreal. I’m still in shock..like a weird shock…didn’t think it would happen so fast. But yeah..hope it works out!

Jan 8, Sunday:
Uncle Mark’s wedding. Welcome to the family, Auntie Zoe. It was an interesting wedding that’s for sure. We went to church and the wedding followed like shortly after service ended..all my cousins had a part in the wedding so it was cool to see them all involved and stuff:
Nana, 3rd grade now, was the flower girl: Sean, 4th grade, was the ring bearer wearing a really nice suit with Nike shoes..(thought that was strange), and Ryan, 9th, was one of the candle lighters.
After the ceremony, we went to lunch with Uncle Peter’s family and then we went to a photo shoot place to take a bunch of family portraits with my mom’s side of the family. It was fun, haven’t been in an offical photo shoot in many years. But this one being in Taiwan, they made us do so many fobby poses..meh..anyway, not sure when we’ll see those pictures.
Then the dinner reception was at night. Way too much food, wallet size pictures were on tables for us to take..that was tight idea. Uh…some gift included delicious coffee roll cake, and then at one point these bags start to be lowered from the ceiling..and like one person from each table has to untie it.and then inside are like 10 LED flashlights with markings that say Mark and Zoe’s wedding..etc..pretty cool gift. The whole night met a bunch of relatives I didn’t know I had..my mom’s family is pretty big I guess..oh yeah and this black dress that was something my mom used to wear..is like super legit. i think i’ve worn it to like the past 32332 things where i had to dress somewhat nice. plain and simple.

Hola, Uncle Mark. One funny dude.

Cousin, Ryan. He seriously looks like a Taiwanese model whenever I see him standing or sitting..and all his fashiony clothes.

Uncle Mark & Auntie Zoe

The only other cousins I have! (Nana, Sean, Ryan)

gramps and grams.
The week following the wedding we hopped on a tour bus with my mom’s aunts and other people..total of 18 on our bus and we hotel hopped and went to hot springs, ate too much food at bomb buffets, got pampered like crazy..these hotels we went to were all probably the nicest hotels I will ever be able to experience.
Just some random photos from the different places we stayed at. Each hotel was only one night.



Hot springs probably have had to be one of the highlights. This one particular hotel..all these things..where you see water you can go into..and the water is relatively warm in the big open areas..then in the smaller areas the water is pretty hot because it flows from actual hot springs ..and one little area had a vanilla scent thing in the water..so when you get out..you smell very good! And this other tub has some herb stuff..it’s suppose to be healthy for you to soak in it..then the fish part..you stick your legs/feet in..and these fish like clean you..it’s super weird but cool..it tickles at first then you get used to it.



Water jets shoot out of the holes on these under water seat things!



Great Aunt and Great Uncle chilling in their own private tubs.





Some other stufff getting lazier..just throwing random photos in



alksdjflakdsj too many pictures…trying to post at least some more on fb. btu that is all for now.
oh wait. ran into ariel at the night market. SUPER CRAZY. one. because it’s the night market in Taiwan, super crazy crowded and big..hard to find people?? two. we happened to be there on the same day/time. first time i’ve been to the night market.

Of course..helped my cousin Sean make this part of his Harry Potter lego set. love legos. about to go buy some Star Wars ones soon…the BIG BOX!
so fun. anyway..oh yeah..only had milk tea once there before we left..and it tasted the same..uhh uhuhsdufhaskdfjslkdfj yeahh.
One of mom’s cousins added me on Facebook..and tagged me in super old photos..don’t even remember him taking them..creepy!

One of the great aunts, mom, and s.

Hm dad’s hand looks weird..
let’s see..what else to jot down..oh it was fun for the most part..good to spend time with family..especially since agon and ama are like old and stuff..it’s hard to see agon when he can’t walk too well and it’s really sad. and he got sick and seeing him weak is very sad. i don’t like seeing sad old sick people. TT_TT
but yeah don’t wanna go farther into that, too raw for now.
love my Taiwan family. Though being there is a totally different world. It was almost like being served whenever/wherever. Get whatever you want. Too weird. Some people have too much moneyyyyyy..strange feeling. jetlag yea. watched a couple movies on the plane. nice.