It's Time

"If somebody likes me, I want them to like the real me, not what they think I am. And I don't want them to carry it around inside. I want them to show me, so I can feel it, too. I want them to be able to do whatever they want around me." - Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Happy Memorial Day!

So school is ending. In a few more days (okay, weeks) I'll be done with the infamous junior year...forever. It's a good feeling knowing that soon I'll be surrounded by the summer sun, relaxation, friends, and carefree days. Although I will be going away for a month while for the first time, all of my friends stay home all summer, I'm excited for new experiences and new adventures.

It's kind of crazy how fast this year's gone by. But as I'm sitting here in the glorious 90 degree weather (so much love for this heat even if it's ridiculously humid), a part of me wants to hold onto this year just because I've become close to so many amazing people. The rest of me is telling me I'm crazy and I need this 2 1/2-month break.

Anyhow, this being a long weekend for Memorial Day, I hung out with a bunch of my friends last night. It was so much fun, haha. We all chilled at my friend's house, but that included the Wii, Trouble, Kemps, and my two personal favorites: Just Dance and karaoke. LOL. I had to leave in the middle of the fun though since it was nearly 11PM and that's the curfew for junior licensed drivers. :(

Other events of the past week have included:

• Getting my senior portraits taken (a very awkward experience, indeed)
• Finding a 50mm f/1.8 lens
• Getting Adobe Photoshop, In Design, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Premiere Pro, etc.
• Working nonstop on my euro project
• Finishing the last big grade in World Literature--author project...check!
• My brother coming home (and leaving, :( wah )
• Buying a new car
• Over-indulging myself at a sushi buffet

Tell me what you guys think of this 50mm f/1.8 lens. :) I'm personally so in love with the focus. The manual setting was pretty difficult to get used to, but it's slowly getting easier and easier!

Also, just realized I personally finish school in exactly 2 weeks. And around this time, too. (At 11:30AM!) This is so surreal.

But I hope you all have a lovely Memorial Day whether it's at the beach or in your backyard for a barbecue!

Cold Coffee

"The unhappiest people in the world are those who care the most about what other people think." - C. JoyBell C.

This new Blogger is really strange to my eyes. But again and again, I apologize for being so inactive. This past month has been utter torture. From AP tests to exams to the term paper, I have gotten so little sleep that it averages out to around three hours a night.

School isn't slowing down, but I feel guilty for not posting. It's been a month, I know. I feel so bad, too. :( But I mainly wasn't blogging because I didn't have the time to take any new pictures. I don't want to bore you guys with outtakes from previous "photo shoots"!

So lately, the weather's been unbelievable--70 to 80 degrees each day. It's such a great feeling inside knowing that there's a sunny, cloudless, warm day up ahead of you.

Other events of the past month have included:

• The seniors leaving for community study :(
• An overpacked, but still amazing How I Met Your Mother season finale
• State science fair competition!
• Two weeks of sleeping at 3AM every night
• The completion of my term paper
• Tons of papers written for clubs/etc.
• Surviving the toughest week of my life

I'm so glad that there are only 17 days of school left. (Fifteen for me, though!) I'm so excited for this summer just because it (hopefully) doesn't involve all of this stress and nonstop work. I know it'll be busy being the summer before senior year so I'll have to do my summer assignments AND college apps, but I'm positive it'll be better than the amount of work I have right now.

Also, trying to arrange something with him for maybe this weekend. Yesterday was utter bliss--just me and him, laughing and talking, laughing and talking. It reminded me of innocence, of a hot summer day. I love the way he cares. The way his eyes look when he's figuring something out. The way he laughs after he's made fun of me. Sigh, I'm so in over my head. Teenage infatuation never seems to last, and that's why I'm so scared.

But he said this was his favorite Coldplay song as I disagreed immediately. "The Scientist," "Yellow," "Clocks," "Fix You," and "Life in Technicolor" are my top five. Heh. But I have to admit, the lyrics to "Paradise" are beautiful. And to cut him some slack, the drums are amazing, too.

And how have all of you been!? Preparing for summer? Weighed down with exams?

I just can't believe it's almost June. This year is going by so quickly.

P.S.- Happy graduation to my brother. Congrats on finishing college!! ♥

Sweet Disposition

"You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved." --Ansel Adams

It's been awhile again. And I apologize. So much. When I went on my college visits during spring break a few weeks ago, I only brought my point-and-shoot. And for some reason I can't bring myself to upload the pictures onto my computer because of how the quality will turn out while sitting next to the photos taken by my dSLR. I guess while on the topic of photography, Picnik (an online photo editor) is officially closed. Forever. I used it for quick edits and placing my watermark everywhere, but now that it's gone, I had to try out something new. I went onto a new site to do edits, and I already don't like them. They made everything too bright and overexposed-looking. As for my watermark, I created one on my actual photo editing software on my computer and from now on will be using that. It's infinitely times easier, but I just fear that it'll turn out too inconsistent size-wise.

On a different note, this school year is finally winding down to the end. We've officially hit fourth quarter, and I am so glad that summer's on its way. In this past week, the weather was beautiful--hitting 90 degrees on Monday. It's finally shorts season, and I am overjoyed. I can't wait until this all becomes constant. I live for the heat.

The seniors in my school are going on their class trip to Disney World tomorrow! Every year, the seniors take a trip to Disney, and I'm so excited for next year. Just imagining being in Disney World with my closest friends makes me so happy. Roller coasters, nostalgia, childhood--all of that with no one but the people I love hanging out with. :)

Anyhow, in an attempt to make this post a little bit more interesting, I've decided that I want to list 25 facts about me. I feel like I didn't really get a chance to introduce myself properly on this blog, and I have nothing else to say about my life other than school is difficult as per usual. This is probably odd since I've had this blog for over a year now, but here goes nothing:

1. I collect key chains. I plan on getting one from all 50 states in the U.S. and at least one from each continent of the world.
2. I love painting even though I don't get to do much of it anymore.
3. Photography is something that I do on my own. My parents don't know I use the dSLR nearly every weekend.
4. I'm really into alt rock. And occasionally indie rock, too.
5. I can play the piano, violin, and clarinet.
6. I play tennis and run track.
7. I really wish I had a pen pal. Writing letters and getting mail are some of the best things in life.
8. I am a morning person. People think I'm crazy, but I can't stand sleeping in late.
9. I sleep very little. On school nights, I average 3 to 4.5 hours.
10. I don't enjoy watching movies. My friends have to drag me to the theatres. (Last year, I saw a total of two movies, haha.)
11. I love minimalist design. All of my blogs have very simple layouts.
12. Sushi, pho, and pasta are love.
13. Bubble tea, Starbucks frappuccinos, caramel steamers, chai lattes, mocha cafes, and strawberry kiwi lemonade are also amazing.
14. I plan on living in the city one day because this suburb lifestyle is too small for me.
15. I really like words like wanderlust, petrichor, and cataclysmic.
16. I'm Chinese and am (mostly) fluent.
17. I take French in school and am in love with it despite how everyone tells me it's a useless language.
18. I plan on visiting Australia, Brazil, France, and Italy as soon as possible.
19. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people use "amount" instead of "number."
20. Even though I'm American, I spell "theater" like "theatre." I find British English spellings to be more fun than the ones we have here.
21. I have a habit of buying things and never using them. Examples include Wreck This Journal, clothes, and review books.
22. I plan on buying a typewriter in the near future.
23. I think I'd love to live in Australia. The more I look into it, the more beautiful everything seems there.
24. Late-night thunderstorms will always soothe me.
25. I am softly spoken.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. ♥

Somewhere Only We Know

"I am not sad, he would repeat to himself over and over, I am not sad. As if he might one day convince himself. Or fool himself. Or convince others -- The only thing worse than being sad is for others to know that you are sad." - Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated

Some of my favorite books.

Hello, hello! It's been a few weeks since I last posted. And for once, a lot has happened.

First off, prom was on St. Patrick's Day (March 17th), and it was a mixture of awkward and fun. Prom only happens twice in your lifetime, so I'm glad I went, in a sense.

Anyway, because this week is spring break (it's about time!), last week I was suffocated with tests, quizzes, and papers. I don't know how, but I made it through all of the stress. And now there's officially only one more quarter left of the school year! It's crazy, but this year has really gone by so quickly. September feels like it wasn't that long ago, and here we are now, in April. But as nostalgic as this might seem, I'm wholeheartedly glad this year is almost over. I'm so done with the stress and sleep deprivation of junior year.

The perks of being chemists' daughter.

I'm just really glad it's spring break right now. Even though I plan on spending the majority of this week curled up with my AP books and working on my author project for English class, there are definitely perks to this week. I visited two colleges on Saturday and plan on visiting two more on Friday. (A post on that will be made as soon as I overcome laziness.) And last night, I went to my friend's house with a few other friends to just hang out and relax.--I just feel pretty content with life right now, and it's a good feeling to have.

Also, I forgot to mention that I got my driver's license about a week ago! I feel so much closer to freedom already, and I love driving by myself so much. I've been driving to school, and not having to rush when the bell rings at the end of the day is so, so nice. And I love being able to get to places now without having to ask my parents to drive me. ...Everything about having my license is better than I originally imagined.

Anyhow, I should get going! I need to go study and do some work before the NCAA finals today (go Kentucky!). Plus, I have a few pieces of artwork I want to finish while I still have the time. And I need to catch up on my daily reads here on Blogspot! I've been gone for so long that I'm behind with being updated on everyone else's lives.

Hope you all have a wonderful April!

Formulae

"There's nothing wrong with reading a book you love over and over. When you do, the words get inside you, become a part of you, in a way that words in a book you've read only once can't." - Gail Carson Levine

I've been inactive solely for the reason that I haven't had the effort or inspiration to take pictures. Those in this post are all scraps. I'm sorry if they're bad, but I have this need to blog since it's been two weeks now.

In these past few weeks, I've mainly just taken a bunch of tests--from the national French exam to the SATs (oh, the dreaded SATs). However, after the SATs on Saturday, I spent my night with a few of my friends. We first went to IHOP to eat dinner (something I completely detested since breakfast food is already bad in my mind, but breakfast food for dinner is just unfathomable). Our waiter had such an attitude, haha. When he was asking us what we wanted to drink and we all said water, he replied, "Are you really going to do this? Really? All water? You're making my sales go down." We ended up giving him a decent tip, but in all honesty, he didn't deserve it.

After dinner, we walked over to Regal to watch "The Lorax." We figured since it was a 9:00PM showing, there would be no little kids. Wrong. The theatre was essentially us, little kids, their parents, and their grandparents. In all honesty, I found the movie to be extremely strange. The message and the cartoons were cute, but other than that, I was deeply creeped out by some of the scenes. Musical numbers included.

I've also found that poems are so satisfying. My writing is not of any worth or quality, but I still highly enjoy the process. But as my love for writing increases, my love towards English class is becoming nonexistent. My teacher has been giving us all pop quizzes that no one can do well on. And it bothers me because normally I enjoy the pop quizzes because they test my ability to memorize details. But her questions are just so vague that it makes it nearly impossible for my detail-oriented mind to pick out just what she wants.

On another note, it's early-mid March. And the weather is beautiful. It hits 70 degrees everyday now--something that doesn't happen until April/May. I hope it stays like this because it just reminds me of how summer is just that much closer.

A Thousand Years

"Lost love is still love. It takes a different form, that's all. You can't see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around a dance floor. But when those senses weaken another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes your partner. You nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it." -Mitch Albom

I feel so guilty when I log onto Blogspot and see everyone else's new posts. And so, with the extra time given to me by the early dismissal from school today, I decided to pull out the dSLR and take some photos so I could make a blog post.

The only real significant thing that's happened to me since the last post is February turned into March. March will be so bittersweet, and I'm bracing myself for what's to come. There'll be the French National Exam, SATs, science fair, junior prom, March Madness, St. Patrick's Day, Spring break, and (hopefully) a little pleasant surprise towards the end of March. Every weekend seems to be stocked full of activities, which I can't decide is a good or a bad thing.

Regardless, life these days has been pretty much the same. In order to cope with the stress and sleep deprivation that junior year brings, I've been trying to find more music to listen to. I'm really into alternative/indie rock, but it's hard to find something that'll fit my music taste just right. However, if you're curious, I'm currently listening to "Drive" by Incubus. :)

My friends have been calling me "hipster" lately, but honestly, I find my music to be fairly well-known compared to some of the indie bands out there. I listen to Coldplay, Bon Iver, The Script, The Maine, Blink-182, Mumford & Sons, Angels & Airwaves, Phoenix, etc! What music do you listen to?

On another note, today in World Literature class, we had to come in with a "mini essay" discussing what we'd miss about home if we were to leave for twenty years. She told the people who thought their essay was good to raise their hands, and I did the little so-so gesture as everyone else raised their hands high. And she looked around, and then told me to go up to the front of the room to present it. It was fairly awkward and slightly annoying that she called on me of all people, but at least I got through it. Ugh, public speaking.

But I should really go do some SAT work now.
Hopefully all of you have an amazing March!

(And if any of you have an Instagram, add me! Mine's "ambuhr.")

Four Corners

"Growing up is losing some illusions, in order to acquire others." - Virginia Woolf

Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Moab, Utah, USA.

I've decided to dig out some old pictures back from August 2011 and sneak them into some of my upcoming and current posts. I realized I never did blog about my trip to the western half of America which is quite tragic seeing as it was absolutely beautiful there. I went to six national parks, each just as gorgeous as the last. And I also went to Las Vegas. (Pictures of Las Vegas were already posted.) This post only has a few of the pictures from the various national parks I visited, but I'm positive there will be more uploaded in the future. All of the text in blue will be about my trip while all of the text in gray will be an update on my life.

The Delicate Arch was one of my favorite spots that we visited. We gathered around the arch waiting for the sunset, only to realize that we wouldn't be able to see it after all, resulting in our mad dash to a spot where we could see it. I got a picture under the arch, and I'm so tiny that it's hilarious. And what I loved the most about all of the places we visited were definitely the colors. There were all of these reds, browns, and other warm hues that contrasted so nicely against the bright blue sky.

Anyhow, in an attempt to blog about my life, I guess some things have happened since I last wrote on here. As of this past Wednesday, I am officially going to junior prom. I'm not actually sure I want to go, to be completely honest here, but there's nothing I can really do about it anymore. A lot of drama, heartbreak, and excitement has gone on these past few weeks because of junior prom, and I'm glad to say that it's finally all over.

Grand Canyon National Park, Tusayan, Arizona, USA.

Grand Canyon, the most famous out of the national parks I visited, was the biggest letdown. It was the only day of our trip that got rained on, but it also wasn't as spectacular as everyone seemed to make it. I feel like people have praised it so much that this image of something absolutely breathtaking developed in my mind, only to feel disappointment when I actually got there. The other national parks, however, were all pleasantly surprising, and I fell in love particularly with Bryce Canyon National Park.

Okay, I guess I'm done with the prom talk for awhile now. Thursday after school, I ran to French club after a chemistry lab with my friend. And then we, along with two other friends, embarked on a scavenger hunt throughout the school. It was so crazy and so much fun at the same time, I just wish we had come in first. Hahaha. We did get king-sized Hershey bars for coming in second, however, so I guess it wasn't too bad in the end.

Bryce Canyon National Park, Bryce, Utah, USA.

We visited Bryce second on our trip. None of my family had expected to see so much amazing scenery or to have so many difficult yet enjoyable hiking trips that all of us adored Bryce by the end of our stay there. Every little trail brought a new perspective of the rocks to life, and I felt as if my camera couldn't even capture all of the beauty it offered.

And today happened to be science fair! I do science fair every year, and this year had to be the worst preparation-wise. I literally made my slides last night. I got to my room which was in the ecology field and went 3rd because I needed to get to talent search (basically an interview juniors in high school can take to hopefully get letters of recommendations to colleges). The two people who went before me both went over the time limit, while I didn't even make it to 8 minutes. After every person, the judges would spent 5-10 minutes questioning them and another 5 minutes tallying up scores. So by the time I finished, one hour had passed already. The good news is that they barely questioned my experiment, and overlooked my poor sample size. (Haha.) I then got to the waiting room to see a bunch of my friends standing there. And so I signed my name up for talent search. I ended up waiting over an hour to get called up to get my interview (and it was actually snowing so heavily in that hour). I finally got there and spent roughly 5 minutes doing my interview which wasn't horrible, but I'm not sure how well it went, and then I got to go home. I had some pho for the very first time, and I'm not exactly sure why I've waited so long to have it. It's amazing. After I got home from eating and shopping at around 3PM, I found out that I got a first at science fair today and will be going to states again. :)


(I'm really sorry for that huge block of text.) And now I think I'll go do some homework along with possibly baking cupcakes if I'm up for the challenge.


Hopefully all of you have an amazing remainder of the weekend!


Love, Amber

Skinny Love

"I want to tear myself from this place, from this reality, rise up like a cloud and float away, melt this into humid summer night and dissolve somewhere far, over the hills. But I am here, my legs blocks of concrete, my lungs empty of air, my throat burning. There will be no floating away." - Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

Isn't it funny how I said I'd blog more frequently...

So Valentine's Day just passed! Hopefully everyone had a lovely day! (Judging by everyone's post, everyone had a much more enjoyable time than I did.) My day was nothing special, really. I passed out my Valentine's Day gifts to all of my friends, and that was that.

Other than that, junior prom is being a huge, huge pain. I've never felt so confused and unsure in my entire life.

Last night, I went over to my friend's house to help another friend ask someone to prom. It was actually adorable as "Lights" by Ellie Goulding blasted in the background. We then spent the rest of the night talking, despite our many attempts to try to do something fun. The whole thing left me in a state of uneasiness. The only thing I think about when I hear the word "prom" now is "drama." (Or "prom-a" as my friend likes to so hilariously call it.)

But enough about that. I recently signed up for my driver's license test and am so nervous already. I can't even begin to imagine the possibilities when I have that official document of freedom in my wallet...Heh. Hahaha, just kidding. I'll probably only use it really to get to/from school and to give people rides. ...That's really all my life is about these days--school and after school activities. Is that sad?

In other news, I got this Tumblr ask the other day asking me about the U.S. school system. And another one about study tips/back-to-school essentials, so I plan on pairing the two and making a post soon!

But yes, if you have a Tumblr, Twitter, Formspring, or Flickr, we should talk. :)
(Click on each of the words for my accounts!)

But I should go get some homework done now. Happy (early) Presidents' Day! Enjoy your long weekend. :)

Chasing Cars

"I believe in colors. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day, and I believe in miracles." - Audrey Hepburn

It's seriously been a little while since I last blogged. I've been meaning to come on more frequently, but the amount of work I get in school takes away every last bit of free time that I have. But since winter track officially ended last night, I had time today to come home and take a few pictures. Many of my personal favorites from the random snapshots I took are not in this post, giving me a good reason to blog maybe during the week or on more of a weekly basis.

I'd like to say that a lot has gone on since last time, but honestly, nothing really has. I'm still slowly being killed by the work load junior year brings. I've honestly never been so stressed out in my entire life before. It's gotten to the point where four hours of sleep on a school night feels beyond refreshing when I wake up in the morning. And where the spearmint flavor of 5 gum has gotten to be my best friend in keeping me awake during school.

Other than that, since I am a junior in high school, we have junior prom coming up extremely soon. Ticket sales actually start on Monday meaning the next two weeks should be fairly...interesting. Everyone's going to be asking everyone while I just sit there and watch from the corner /foreveralone. Nah, jokes. But still, all of the girls are stressing out about it, whilst all the boys seem so calm. I would say how envious I am of the boys to be able to ask whatever girl they want to, but it turns out we also have a Sadie Hawkins dance (girl-ask-guy) this Thursday for the entire school. And I realized that maybe guys don't have it so easy after all...

On a different note, I think I'm about to sign up for my license test. Is it bad that I'm already nervous?

Also just bought this book (along with a few other things that will not be posted because of a laziness inside of me). But I've heard so many good things about it that I'm excited to read it! I had first picked up the copy with the motion picture as the cover, then decided I don't like movies to begin with and searched for the normal-cover copy.

But I should go now. I think I need to sign up for the SATs, too. Excellent.
However, I hope all of you have an amazing weekend! And Happy (early) Valentine's Day!! ♥

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?