Hit the Lights

"Stars should not be seen alone. That's why there are so many. Two people should stand together and look at them. One person alone will surely miss the good ones." - Augusten Burroughs, Dry

These past few days have been the purest form of torture. This past Friday was the first day of midterms. And well, the rest should be somewhat self-explanatory. On Friday, I took my World Literature and AP Chemistry exams after sleeping for a mere hour. Then the next day on Saturday I went to take my SAT IIs for chemistry. (I know it's not May or June yet so I shouldn't be taking SAT IIs really, but I don't feel like waiting that long and putting myself under more stress when AP testing comes.) On Sunday, I studied for the entire day. The. Entire. Day. And then didn't go to sleep until 5:30AM on Monday. At 6:00AM that same day, I got up to get ready for school so I could take my AP European History and physics exams. And finally, today I took my AP Calculus AB exam.

The bright side is that after exams, we're allowed to go home. So I've been getting home before lunch. :) Today I got home at 9:30AM!

But enough negativity for one post! I've been really enjoying myself today so far. I got home after taking my test and just sat in front of the computer watching more of The Big Bang Theory and then had some fun on the piano. And then I picked up my Nikon again, dusted it off, and took some pictures for this post. I went outside with a book to be greeted by the lovely 60 degree weather we have right now! I love snow, but the weather these days feels like spring and spring > winter, hands down.

Sadly, all of the pictures with the book are so, so overexposed. I wasn't aware when I was outside taking the photos, but as soon as I uploaded them onto my computer.....they didn't look as nice as I thought they did.

Does that ever happen to anyone? I always take pictures and think that they'll turn out nicely, only to hate 99% of them when they're on my computer screen. There's something so deceiving about the little LCD screen on dSLRs and point-and-shoots.

Other things that made this past weekend a little more bearable:

• My neighbor rang my doorbell with her daughter who was trying to sell Girl Scout cookies. My dad came to the door and bought four boxes of Thin Mints. So now there are four boxes of pure heaven sitting in my pantry.
• As I was studying on Sunday, my parents came back from shopping. And they bought me an Angry Birds flashdrive. An. Angry. Birds. Flashdrive. You wouldn't believe how excited I am to use it.
• My painting (that I mentioned in a few posts ago) that I submitted for that contest was recently accepted. And I got an e-mail saying that I was invited to the private reception/the opening of the showcase on February 7. I don't think I can go, but just knowing that my painting will be hanging on the wall with all of these other artists' work makes me happy for some reason.

Midterm schedule.

Anyhow, I hope all of you have been well! Can you believe that tomorrow's officially February?

The Remedy

"I just want you to know that you're very special...and the only reason I'm telling you is that I don't know if anyone else ever has." -Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

It's been awhile since I last blogged, but I'm still alive, I promise. Today was the first day I got my hands back on my Nikon and took a few pictures. I wouldn't have stopped, but it started yelling at me to charge the battery. And so this post has the few that I managed to get in.

Anyhow, remember how I've been complaining about there being no snow this winter? Imagine my excitement when I woke up this morning and saw the streets covered in white. I ran back to my room and just stared at everything for the longest time. And then the hums of the snow blowers started up, and I knew that today was going to be a good day. :)

Other than that, I've been nonstop driving lately. I'm trying to get in as many hours as I can so I can soon take my license test! I can't wait to drive on my own. Maybe then I won't have to wake up at 6:00AM to catch the bus to school.

(My father's handwriting. He's been logging my hours!)

I also find it mind-boggling that people drive on the left side of the street in places like England and Australia.

Speaking of Australia, I am immensely jealous of all the people who are at the Australian Open. I can't even begin to imagine how amazing everything must be there in Melbourne. Summer time + the heat + tennis + Roger Federer ♥ = perfection. I was going to go to the U.S. Open this past summer/fall, but I had too many assignments to do (procrastination at its finest). But my parents promised me that they'll take me this year, so I'm just sitting here hoping that Roger Federer doesn't get injured (or even retire) before that time. He's amazing.

To make this weekend even better (aside from the fact that I have tests every single day this upcoming week and midterms start on Friday), Monday is Chinese New Year which means a nice dinner on Sunday night. I feel like I'm the only one here who gets really excited for it, but I love traditions. Plus, I really enjoy watching the CCTV Chinese New Year Gala on TV. And this upcoming year being the year of the dragon, I can only imagine how enjoyable it'll be. And, I can watch it on Sunday since the time difference is so big, haha.

But before that, I should go do some homework. This week is going to be so stressful.
But have a fantastic weekend, everyone! And happy (almost) Chinese New Year -- 新年快乐!

P.S.- Do you like my new M&M pillow? Oh, the things you can get for $10. ♥

Turning Tables

"There are two versions of myself. The exuberant, alive me and the broken, reclusive me. I see flashes of the former, but always revert to my broken self, waving a bittersweet goodbye to feeling alive.” -Anonymous

I wish the flower were focused. Some guy accidentally knocked into me at this very moment, and I didn't have the time to take another.

But hello! I feel like I haven't blogged in so long even though that was only a week ago. I wasn't planning on blogging today since nothing has happened/I've taken no new photos, but I realized I won't have any time in these upcoming days. School's back and it basically sucks. This upcoming week I have a test every single day except for Thursday. I'm not even sure how this happens, but it apparently does. Quite often, too.

But enough complaining about the death of a workload that junior year brings me! On Friday, I went to another track meet! There weren't many spots in the meet for sprinters so I expected to have a chance to go home and relax, but my coach called me over and told me that I was running the 4x400. Since there was no 4x200 at the meet, my race was last. So I spent the entire time cheering other people on and avoiding my backpack and the work that was in it. I got placed as the 4th leg in the race, meaning I was to run last. We were heat 3 lane 1, meaning that we were technically the fastest team in our heat. And we were! The only problem was that because we were so far ahead the whole time, legs 2 and 3 didn't know how fast to go, and we fell a bit behind. When it got to my turn, I held first for nearly the whole way through. In the last straightaway, I saw the girl start to pass me, so I tried running harder.

Note to self: never try to run harder.

I ended up falling because I lost my balance. All I heard was "ohhhhh" from everyone watching. I didn't even really feel the scrapes on my arms and legs. Even though I wiped out, I ended up still finishing second, which was really surprising. Too bad right now I feel an immense pain every time I move the right side of the body. Though my favorite part had to be when our distance coach came over and told me that my falling down was awesome. I was and still am so confused. But now, I'm mainly just really afraid to see when I'll get put into another meet. I hope it's soon, but I highly doubt it.

Anyway, enough with the sports rambles. It's been really warm around here lately, and I wish it weren't. As much as I love and cherish the summer heat, I want snow. 60 degree weather is not appropriate for winter! This time last year, it was nonstop snowing. I still remember having a late arrival after late arrival because of the icy conditions. But yesterday, I didn't even go outside with a jacket on. I don't think I've ever been so sad because of the warmth.

(I would insert another picture here so I can change the topic, but I'm out of photos to use. Like I said, my life...not very interesting at the moment.) But nevertheless, I just followed a bunch of new blogs on Blogspot! No one here where I live really uses Blogspot so I always end up following a bunch of people from different countries. And whenever I read everyone else's posts it makes me want to go to where they live. Am I the only one who feels this way?

Anyhow, I should go start my AP European History homework. And then study for my organic and nuclear AP chem test that's tomorrow. Asdfghjkl;

Hopefully you're all having a great new year! Enjoy what's left of this weekend. :)

Happy New Year!

I'm ready for something new. I'm ready for spontaneous, glory days. I'm ready for new adventures, new explorations, new places, and new opportunities. I'm just so ready to start over. I want to leave behind unhappiness, skinny love, chilled hearts, broken souls, and mend-less nights. I want to leave behind the past and pack up for the future. It's just time for me to take a deep breath and move along to this new year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Last night I went to my friend's house for her New Year's party! At first it was...awkward. But in the end, I guess I can safely say that I had a pretty good time. Around 11:30PM, the atmosphere started loosening up a bit! We all sat around the TV and watched Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve. We managed to see Lady Gaga and her...rather interesting costume. (I seriously still don't know what it was.) And finally when the countdown to 2012 was down to a mere 10 seconds, we all started chanting the numbers while watching the ball in New York City slowly drop. And when the clock hit 12:00, tons of poppers were popped, noisemakers were used, and people were exclaiming, "Happy New Year!"

Then everyone's excitement started dying down a bit and we all went to our phones. And whenever I glanced at the TV, I couldn't help but wish I were there in New York City, too. None of my friends seem to agree with me, but I think spending New Year's in NYC would be beyond wonderful.

I definitely plan on one day spending the whole week from Christmas to New Year's there lodged in NYC. I was there for Christmas last year, and I couldn't have had a better time. I wish we had stayed longer, but everything was great--even the massive snowstorm that occurred! (Over 1 foot of snow came down on us last year and we didn't cancel our trip because we had tickets to see Lion King on Broadway.)

...If you live in another country, how do you celebrate New Year's? From the blogs on here that I follow, everyone's been saying how they went to go see the fireworks and all. We don't ever have that here. ;~; New Year's in America doesn't involve fireworks, really. We mainly all just sit around and wait for the ball to drop.

Anyway, I should go do my AP euro project. I've been "working" on it all week. (And yes, by working I mean watching The Big Bang Theory.) I just wish that winter break would somehow be extended. I'm not ready to go back to school on Tuesday. (Not to mention how much work I still have to do.)

Hope you all have an amazing 2012! May your new year be filled with nothing but happiness, laughter, and love. <3

**All of these pictures were taken in October 2010.

2012 (It Ain't the End)

Year after year passes by before my eyes. Somehow the three hundred sixty-five days go by so quickly, each stringing onto the next with the take of a new breath. It scares me how fast everything's going. I need everything to slow down. I'm just so afraid of running out of time.

As 2011 is ending, I can't help but think about this past year. It's been a wild ride, but I'm hoping that 2012 will somehow be better.

But isn't it funny how fast the years go by? One minute I was sitting there in my freshman year biology class, and the next minute, I'm sitting here in my junior year. I can't believe that the days and weeks have turned into months and years. Soon, I'll be out of high school and in college. I feel so nostalgic and excited at the same time. But for right now, I think it's just important that I cherish the moments that I have with these people here. Because who knows where life will take us next?

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. I spent the day with my family, and we ended up stopping by this nearby garden. There were tons of flowers, plants, and Christmas lights everywhere. I spent most of the time there trying to get some good bokeh shots. It worked until people started giving me funny looks. LOL.

Then on Tuesday, I went out to lunch with some people from the tennis team! We met up in this little town that's nearby, and I really want to explore there. It's only around 10 minutes away, but I've never had the opportunity to just walk down the streets. There's tons of little shops and restaurants and theatres! The place we met up at was having its famous $5 Tuesdays where everything is $5. I had a Caesar wrap...yum.

Then on Thursday, I met up at Nick's house with Eddy, Emily, Iris, John, and Michael. We played Monopoly Deal, MarioKart, and Pokemon Monopoly. (I know you're jealous...HAHA just kidding.) It was tons of fun even though our original plans were laser tagging.

And I guess by this point, you've noticed that I changed my layout. I've been meaning to switch it out for awhile now, but haven't had the motivation. I personally like the whole simplistic, minimalist look so I'm quite content with this new layout. Plus, hover over the black circle that says "loveamberx" on the sidebar! Wooo...yeah you don't want to know how long that took me to figure out.

Anyhow, I should go now; it's getting late. But happy New Year's Eve, everyone!
What're you all doing to celebrate the new year? My friend's hosting a party tonight, so I'll be there!
But hopefully all of you have a wonderful remainder of 2011. ♥ Goodnight!

It Will Rain

If someone were to give me a plane ticket right now, I'd be gone within an hour. I just need to escape from this little town for a little while. It's just so suffocating here.

This is just a really quick update that has no real meaning to it. I recently came across this store called Typo and fell in love with it. There's just one problem...

It's in Australia.

Apparently it's part of a clothing store called Cotton On. (Some of you might shop there, I'm guessing?) But I looked around on it online, and my goodness, everything in Typo is gorgeous. It's all stationary and decor, but man, how I wish the United States had a store like it. The closest we have to it is probably Urban Outfitters, but even that can't compare. I decided to take a look and actually click "add to cart," only for the result to lower my hopes.

Large tote bag: $14.95, canvas print 28x28: $9.95

Global letters: $4.95, wall graphic A4: $5.00

Vintage block prints: $9.95, snap photo album: $9.95

Flip clock: $19.95, premium photo album: $19.95

There was more that I had my eye on, including spinout diaries and such, but I won't post those. (I feel like the paper size would be different anyway.) I looked at my grand total which was rightly over $100. Then I realized the shipping was set on "Australia" and switched it over to "International." ........The shipping came to be $40. Forty dollars! I've never seen shipping that high before. ;~; Around here, if the shipping is $10, I find it to be too expensive.

Oh well. Until I find a way to either convince my parents to buy me $150 worth of stationary/unnecessary supplies from Australia or convince them to fly me over to Australia or convince someone in Australia to be the greatest person in the world and send them to me, I'll stick to Urban Outfitters and American Eagle to feed my vintage needs.

On a different note, I was supposed to get a penpal in school, only for my French teacher to tell us that the school in Quebec that we teamed up with isn't participating anymore. :( I think having a pen pal would be pretty cool--especially because I love getting things in the mail. I doubt anyone on here would want a pen pal too, but I'm curious if someone would!

Anyhow, I need to go do some work watch more of my newest obsession: The Big Bang Theory. ♥

Have a great day everyone! :)

Merry Christmas ♥

"There'll be much mistletoeing, and hearts will be glowing when loved ones are near. It's the most wonderful time of the year."

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I hope you all had a lovely day today filled with family, laughter, warmth, presents, and happiness! I personally had a lovely time overall.

First, I was woken up by my brother, which was strange because I always wake up before him, regardless of the date. But it turns out he just wanted to go back to sleep afterwards, so everything made sense. We opened up our presents. I got a bunch of clothes, a travel pillow, Sperrys, and my camcorder that I bought in the store exactly a month ago on Black Friday. My brother got a lot of clothes, too. I gave him Inheritance since I knew he used to read the Eragon series. And then I gave my dad a speaker for his iPod/iPhone, and my mom a box of Godiva chocolates. My cousin left two boxes of Godiva chocolates for my brother and me, too. :)

But then my cousin woke up awhile later, and he opened the presents we gave him: clothes, shoes, and a whole bag of Lindt chocolates. So much chocolate going around this year. ;~;

After playing several games of Jeopardy! on the Wii with my brother, we all left to go eat lunch. The only restaurants open were Chinese, LOL. And afterwards, we went to this garden place where we looked at many different flowers and plants, and walked around looking at the Christmas lights. It wasn't bad, but it got too cold after awhile so we left. I think I'll post pictures later this week! I got a few nice bokeh pictures out of it so I was happy.

Yeah, that's about it! I think I'll go downstairs and watch stuff on TV and waste the night until Christmas 2011 is finally over. :( I hate the time period after Christmas because I feel so lost. It's as if the whole world shuts off the light switch that connects to happiness and selfishness, and we all revert back to our old selves. I wish the holiday season could last all year long.

Merry Christmas, again!
Hopefully you all had an amazing day. :)

All I Want for Christmas Is You

Inside of me is anticipation and excitement that won't fade. Outside is cold, but my whole body feels warm and cozy. This happiness is warming my soul, mending it from all of the damage that it's been facing for the past four months. Everything just seems right these days. And I don't want this feeling to ever go away.

Merry Christmas Eve!

"'Twas the night before Christmas. When all through the house,

not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there."

I can't believe it's already Christmas Eve. It honestly feels like the years are passing me by.
But I love the feeling I get inside of me on Christmas Eve. I feel a mixture of emotions: happiness, excitement, anxiousness, joy, anticipation, and love. Everything about right now makes me want to smile and laugh since everyone else seems to be in that same state-of-mind.

The atmosphere of the holidays is as breath-taking as the decorum that's displayed.

Anyhow! This past week was as difficult as I expected. Test after test made me exhausted, and by Friday, all I thought about was how winter break was only one day away.

But Friday was lots and lots of fun! Because it was the last day of school before winter break, everyone, including the teachers, was tired of all the work and spent all day eating, partying, and relaxing. We have this thing in my school called "candy grams" which is kind of like what happens in that part of Mean Girls where Glen Coco gets 4 candy canes. Basically for 25 cents, you can buy your friend a candy cane with a little note attached, and on the Friday before winter break, all of them are sent in homeroom. I got seven. So a big thank you to Andrea, Christina, Emily, Eric, Sarah, Shela, Siena, and Stef. <3 You are all amazing. :)

The rest of the day was spent chilling in classes or doing fun things like white elephant gift exchanges! I ate so much throughout the whole day that I was stuffed at lunch and at track practice after school. Mmm, so many brownies, cookies, candy cane flavored Hershey kisses, munchkins, and soda. Haha. :')

In French class, a few of us played "바보" which is this Korean game that Eddy and InYoung taught me and Linda. It's really intense and involves a lot of thinking. It doesn't seem hard at first, but it's pretty difficult when you actually start playing!

At lunch time, my friend Julie came up to me and gave me this. It was so sweet and adorable! She made one for every person she thought was nice, so she was carrying around a huge bag of these. Aw.

After that, my lunch table had our polyana! We put a $10-$15 range. I got my person a fleece blanket and these adorable erasers in the shape of different desserts. You wouldn't believe how much I wanted to keep it myself. My person gave me a little coffee mug which was pretty cute. I think I'll use it for hot chocolate and such since I'm not too big of a coffee drinker!

I personally didn't buy any candy grams for other people. I had bought my own candy canes which I thought were cuter so I handed those out instead! They were a bunch of different flavors and came with gummies attached. The gummies were snowmen, penguins, snowflakes, and mittens! I saved one but gave the rest to my friends.

I'm actually not too big of a candy cane eater so I didn't have a single one all day. I just find them to have too much sugar. Does anyone else feel this way?

Anyhow, my friend Emily also made me a little Christmas card which was adorable! I felt bad since I didn't have time to make her one, too, but it was really sweet of her to spend the time to make it for me. Plus I plan on soon using the autocollants she threw in with the card. :)

After school, I went out to the mall to do some celebratory it's-finally-winter-break shopping. :) I went to American Eagle, Forever 21, and H&M! I wish there were an Urban Outfitters in our mall because I'm sure I'd constantly go there. But the newly opened two-story Forever 21 is beyond gorgeous. Omg, it's like heaven. And our two-story H&M is amazing as always. :')

Alright. I think I'm going to go make brownies or something to get more into the Christmas spirit seeing as it's only one and a half hours away. :')

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season! ♥

Let It Snow

There's something about winter that makes you smile. It might be how beautiful snow looks as it falls to the ground, or it might be the relief of waking up and finding out there's a snow day, or it might be the excitement of the weeks leading up to Christmas. There's just so much happiness and joy that's spread around, and the atmosphere of the world seems to have brightened like the holiday lights that outline houses.

I'd like to apologize in advance for this post. I didn't have my camera with me this weekend so most of these pictures were taken on my phone and are really blurry and bad quality.

But anyhow, Christmas is in exactly one week! You wouldn't believe how excited I am. I think I like the days leading up to Christmas more than Christmas itself, just because I love the atmosphere that the holiday season brings. Too bad that after the New Year's hits, I find myself wishing that winter would hurry up and end. There's just nothing to look forward to after New Year's.

So on Friday, my dad surprised me and took me to this house nearby. They had so, so many Christmas lights, it was breathtaking. Everything was just so beautiful that I whipped out my phone and felt like a little kid at the zoo or something. The house even had a river in their front yard and had a bridge to cross.

I think I might go back sometime soon with my actual camera and do the house/lights some justice. Plus, I really love Christmas lights, and the house is only 10 or so minutes away. :)

Anyhow, let's see. Yesterday I went last-minute gift shopping. And right after, I drove to Giuseppe's to meet up with Andrea, Eddy, Emily, Iris, John, Michael, and Nick. We ended up ordering two large pizzas since we didn't know what to get, and it was just tons of fun catching up and laughing.

Right after we finished eating, we crossed the street and went to Thunderbird to go bowling! It was packed there since there was some bowling league or something like that. So we had to wait 45 minutes to get two lanes next to each other. We were pretty split on whether or not to wait. But in the end, we did, and I'm glad, too! To kill some time, we played on the two arcade games that were there. It wasn't until 75 cents into the game I was playing with Emily that I realized my gun wasn't even working................awkward.

So then after annoying the guy who worked there a countless number of times, we finally got our two lanes. :) We split up into 4 vs. 4 so we had the boys bowl in one lane and the girls bowl in the other. Eddy put in all of the names for the guys which ended up being Po, Wangstr, JK, and Eddhjjjjjii. John put in all of the girls' names which were Takimotors, Trackstar, Asian, and Siri. LOL don't ask. I don't even know.

We bowled the first game, and the guys beat the girls. So to make it interesting, we put a wager on the next game: the two individuals with the lowest scores would have to do whatever the other six came up with. We haven't come up with something yet, but Michael and Nick lost that. It was really, really close though.

So then in the game after that, we did a team wager: boys vs. girls. It had to be the most intense game I've ever played. The girls won in the end though! It was 394-374, and the only reason we won was because they kept throwing away their strikes by getting gutter balls right after. HAHA.

And we still had 30 minutes after that, so we did another team wager. The girls won by a lot since the guys gave up and competed against each other by seeing who could bowl the fastest. So now we're coming up with the punishments for the losers! I'm not mean enough to think of something good though, but thank goodness the guys didn't win any. Their punishments would have been..................no comment.

Yes. I was "trackstar" LOL. But I ended up breaking 100 three times, which I was completely surprised about.

After laughing and talking for the whole two hours we played bowling, it was around 10:15 so we all went home. It was tons of fun though, and I'm glad that we didn't leave and go do something else.

So when I got home, I had to go finish this application thing for some art competition. I doubt I'll win, but I submitted two of my paintings. I had them named as "Snowy Day" and "Autumn," but I realized how lame that was so I changed it to "Winter Solstice" and "Autumnal Equinox." Still lame, but at least they connect in a sense! Here they are:

Alright. I should go back to reading Romeo and Juliet. It's such a lovely play, but I can't understand half of it. Shakespeare, why must you be so brilliant but so complicated?

This upcoming week should be bittersweet. I have tests nearly every single day this week, but at the same time, it's the last week before we get off for winter break so everyone has the holiday cheer.

MONDAY 12/19: World Lit quiz, winter concert, AP chem test.
TUESDAY 12/20: Word Lit quiz, AP calc quiz.
WEDNESDAY 12/21: My brother comes home from college! Happy Hanukkah!
THURSDAY 12/22: Physics test, track meet, SAT scores.
FRIDAY 12/23: AP euro test, candygrams!, cousin comes, lunch table polyana!

Anyhow, have a beautiful week everyone! I'll be posting more this week, so until then. :)