Embarking On Another Chapter of Life

Summer sinks like how the sun barely peeps over the mountains when it lowers itself to rest. My vacation is over and today is my last day at San Francisco. I've been here all my life and it's heart-thumping knowing I'll be in another city. As they say, we all have new places and new people to see. Moving away from home means getting to develop my individuality even more and evolve into a person containing my own special qualities and characteristics. I'll be learning to deal with so many different kinds of situations and people and become a more decisive person in life. I'll be doing so many things on my own and it'll be wonderful to prove to my parents that I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself and using what they've taught me over the years. I really cannot wait to make connections and fresh bonds with new friends. I cannot wait to see how my suite looks like! Although we do not have a kitchen to use in the suite, we have two bathrooms and a living room we all share, which more than satisfies me. I cannot wait to unpack and feel at home at a new place. I know that I already fell in love with Davis' campus, and I do hope I settle down and adapt quick!

I'm already missing so much of what I have back home. I'm not necessarily leaving behind anything, of course, but I am not going to be there for the people and things I care so much about. I have an awesome, close family and I know for a fact that not many people do. I learned over the years that my kind of family is really different from the average family. I'm going to miss my mom because she isn't just my mom, she's like a close friend to me. She told me how she wants me to treat her like a friend because friends tell each other everything. I'll miss teasing her and joking with her and telling her everything. Of course, I'll give her a call once in a while to know I'm fine. I will miss seeing her try on different outfits at home and heels before heading out, even if she's just visiting a relative. I will miss seeing her spray way too much perfume on herself and putting on make-up. I'll miss seeing her gorgeous curls and receiving hugs and kisses from her. I'm already missing my dad too. We both share the same birthday and he's very open with me about everything. He's honest and always straightforward. I'll miss having him there to tease me and jokingly criticize my flaws. He taught me how to be organized and how even though you have a sucky memory, little notes and stuff really help you stay on top of things. He would calmly lecture me on things I didn't understand and when we don't agree on anything, we would negotiate about it until we can come to a compromise. I love my parents very deeply. My sister may be a sensitive, serious girl, but she's so unique in her own ways. Although on the surface she's reserved and guarded, when it comes to her inner core of her heart, she's a darling. She cares deeply about everyone she loves and she never has to think twice when it comes to helping someone. She is a very empathetic person and comes to the rescue when she sees me or anyone struggling. I'll miss her so much. I love my family a lot.

I'm going to miss Pedro so much. I'm going to miss Pedro because he's THE IDEAL boyfriend I wanted. He's so nice and he respects me. He doesn't force me to do anything and he lets me be me. He lets me be my own individual and gives me the freedom while giving out his trust. He never tells me what to wear or what I can't wear. He never tells me what I can buy and what I can't buy. I used to be a very jealous person until he came into my life. With him, I feel flattered whenever I hear about how girls would think he's cute. Why? Because I totally trust him and I don't feel insecure in the relationship with him. I feel really confident and so self-assured about it. He isn't just my love, but he's totally like my BFF. We finish each other's sentences or think the same things. We have so many of the same beliefs and we barely ever fight. When we do, we never yell or curse. We only talk calmly about the situation and when there's a misunderstanding or a bad situation, we fix it right away. A slight problem with us never reaches past a day. I love how people are doubting our relationship because of the distance. To me, if you have a strong relationship there is no need to be scared or doubt it. You don't love the person only because of their presence, but also because of the mental and emotional connection. I believe that communication is very important in a relationship because a relationship will fail even if two people live in the same city and barely communicate. I love Pedro because he has strength in him and even though he is so strong, he is able to be so gentle. I love him because he's never afraid to be honest about how he feels and he's able to tell me so much. I love Pedro so much.

I'm really going to miss Shirley, Sandra and Carmen. I've known both Shirley & Sandra for all the years of high school. I absolutely enjoy all the phone calls we've shared and how we were able to conquer through the "high school drama" of high school to be good friends again. I wish them both luck in UCSC and they have comforted me so much over my bumps in the road. I'll miss Carmen because she'll be in SF. I was so sad that she decided to go to city instead, but it's okay because I know she'll do just fine at city. I respect her decision and will support her along the way. I'll miss phone calls with her too because she's a total chatterbox! Conversations with her are so engaging. I've known her since sophomore year, and we've grown closer over time. She's an absolutely empathetic person and really caring. All three of those girls have been there so much for me and they're such wonderful people. We're all different in our own ways, and it never stopped us from being friends. Being different is so unique and fun because you get to learn about people who aren't like you. I will miss all of them greatly and I can't believe we're all going in different paths, but I know that we will grow beautifully into mature individuals. I love them so much. I miss our hangouts together and our deep conversations. They're all very genuine and real.

Now to become part of Davis' 100th class!

Kauai, Hawaii

I went to Kauai, Hawaii for the very first time and I hadn't realized how quickly I've adapted to its lifestyle. Time was slow-paced and it made the vacation more enjoyable. I loved the exotic, colorful birds there were out there and I was fascinated by the plants as well. I have never encountered a Shy plant before until Pedro's Mom stepped on some and told me how she used to love to play with Shy plants when she was younger. When you step on them, they sort of shrivel up or well, close up their leaves. I found a picture on google you can see of the Shy plant. Couldn't really find a picture of it closing up, but you get the idea. What I loved at Kauai were its chickens there! They were stray chickens because whenever I saw them, they were just runnning around in the streets, near the super markets, etc. It's like how pigeons belonged in our city streets, but for Kauai, chickens belong in the streets there. They really do wake me up in the morning!

Dad dropped Pedro and I off at the SFO airport. We waited at our gate and hopped onto our airplane. Can you believe it takes like six hours to get to Kauai?! I've always thought that the islands of Hawaii were just off the coast of California! Oh, why the non-scaled maps do deceive! I know that a lot of people hate airplane food, or say it's crap, but I actually love having food on the airplane. I ordered a Mediterranean Chicken Salad and had apple juice that was served in a nice, cold can along with a plastic cup with ice. To pass the time, Pedro and I were playing my Super Mario game on my DS Lite and got competitive with it whenever we lost. And I got to nap on him, which was nice. When we arrived at the Lihue airport, the air felt moist since it was tropical. His parents were there and our bags came out kind of late. It also started to rain. I felt like I should've brought my umbrella, but seeing that nobody takes an umbrella out when it rained, it's obvious that there was no need for it. We stayed at the Cliffs Resortand it was pretty nice because it was like a little house with a living room, a balcony with a killer view of the blue ocean at a distance along with palm trees. There was a dining room with a TV and furnitures, and a little kitchen. There was a second floor with two queen beds for four people and a TV as well. I loved how the place had fans, so it would keep the air nice and cool. I freaked out when Pedro's stepdad told me how they saw about three cockroaches. They were tiny ones though, but they had wings! I think I saw one or two for myself before I left that resort. We've spent the time exploring around the area and found a hammock that hung on two palm trees near the edge of the cliff. We also found lawn chairs and other chairs by the cliffs as well that sat in front of the most gorgeous view. We went back for dinner and his mom is a good cook! Gino said last summer when he went with the family to Napa Valley (when I couldn't go because I still had school) he ended up going home ten pounds heavier. What I loved was being able to go to the pool and jacuzzi at night! When in a jacuzzi, I kept staring at the pretty clouds. To me, they were better clouds than the ones we have here! The clouds at Kauai resemble the clouds in the Disney Movie Hercules! I was able to see stars as well. The breezes at Kauai are nice too. I went to three beaches at Kauai, and the first one wasn't too enjoyable and neither was the third. The first one was Gino's idea and it was a beach that resulted in sore feet! The place wasn't exactly full of nice, soft sand -- they were little pebbles! The water was nice though. The second beach was the nicest and in my opinion, the most beautiful I've ever been to. The water had its nice shades of green and blue. The currents were strong and I wouldn't stay too far off the shore, but the waves were so strong they really did drag me out there and then push me hard back onto shore. But it was so fun! I had such a nice tan everywhere. I got to make a hand-made moat and a castle with my love. Poor love, he had such a bad sunburn on his shoulders! It glowed deep red and it would sting him. Third beach sucked because we were digging and found crabs! Ahh. They're scary because they're transparent and you don't really realize they're there...just staring at you until you blink a few times. You start to realize that there are more crabs than you can see and it's just...freaky. Also, I'm not too fond of anything with a lot of legs (crabs, lobsters, shrimps, octopus, centipedes, varieties of insects, spiders, etc) and I love seafood, just not when they're still living. The McDonald's there are different because they have a drink called Fanta Fruit Punch and Minute Maid Light Mango Tropical. Their breakfasts were: Portuguese Sausage, eggs and rice platter and Spam eggs and rice platter. I wish I tried it! I went to a luau and it was cool. I was actually never leied with any of the flowers, but at the luau I was leied with a necklace of seashells. We had a tour of the place on those train carts sort of things =) The luau dinner was great and there was a show afterwards. They showed the dances of the Polynesians, Chinese, Japanese, and others. They also had the fire show, which was my favorite. There was also a Coconut MarketPlace just for tourists to eat at and shop at. I bought two anklets for myself! I absolutely adore anklets now and I would love to wear some toe rings! I bought Pedro a nice bracelet too. We both tried shaved ice there and there were a lot of choices for flavors. There was a flavor called, "Birthday Cake" haha. Shaved ice was good. Whenever we ate there, the birds are so annoying. There was a bird that kept coming whenever I shove it away. Birds there are much braver and less shy there. They're also a little more annoying too when it comes to food. Hmmm...that's all for now. I'll continue again, I hope.

Colors

If we can't even accept each other for our colored and cultural differences, we might as well all be beige then.

Sometimes I really can't wait for the whole world to be beige and mixed. I'm tired of hearing what people have to say about a certain group of people. I'm tired of hearing stereotypes. I understand in reality that we all bring our customs here, yet we're looked down on, judged and criticized for our color(s) or ethnic group(s). At the same time, we judge, criticize, and look down on other people who are different from us! Why is it that we have a mental rank in the way we think of other races or ethnic groups? Is one ethnic group really better than the other? Because in the end we're all the same -- we're human right beneath our colored skin. We also judge each other's backgrounds based on our colors. No, not all Mexicans hopped over the border to get here. No, not all Chinese people came here because of the Gold Rush.

Looking back to how I was, I am ashamed of how I used to think of others based on their colors. I hate how ignorant I was and how I stereotyped people and was so judgemental. It sure pierces my heart that there's still so much racism out there in this world. It sometimes hurts to hear really racist remarks. I'm done with judging people based on their colors, race, and ethnic groups. Raised as a bicultural individual, I should know better than even think that one ethnic group is better than the other. I discovered how unique all of us are because we come from totally fascinating and different backgrounds. I absolutely love diversity. I don't think I'll be able to stand just being with my own cultured people. Diversity is too beautiful to ignore.

K.Thang

Time To Suck It Up & Not Take Things Too Hard

Okay, so I was really nervous about my driving test today at the SF DMV. It started out okay, I didn't do too bad at all. I know what I was doing, even though I was a bit shaky with my turns at first, it smoothed out better and I checked my mirrors & looked back a lot. I looked at the mirror a few times every block and look when I brake. So the test was much easier than I thought, but of course, I was still a bit uptight. I was almost done & could've nearly passed until she made me go on the one way street and I was on the very right lane. I then turned right onto a very busy one way street. She said left turn & for some reason, I was out of it & got confused (blonde moment). I was like thinking, "Left turn?" Of course, what she meant by that was lane change three times all the way to the left (4 lanes on one way), then make a left turn on the upcoming intersection. I got confused because she didn't say lane change three times all the way to the left, but I should've known that if I was to left turn, I need to know that I have to lane change all the way. And seeing that I got confused & didn't do anything, she intervened, which is a fail on the test because I wasn't supposed to get ANY marks at all on the Critical Error section of the test, because it'll be an automatic fail. If I actually had lane changed three times then made a left turn on the corner, I wouldn't have failed. I took it really hard, and my parents were disappointed in me because of how hard I took it, not because I failed. They thought I was taking it too seriously & thinking too much about it & think I should just do my best. They felt as if I pressured myself too much, which made myself nervous. I mainly got so mad because the test was easy, but I screwed myself over by getting confused on the directions.

Lesson learned. Don't take things so seriously. It doesn't help. Just try again until you get there.

eFAN

I know that everybody makes mistakes. I know that everybody makes stupid mistakes. I know that nobody is perfect. But at times like these, I wish my name was nobody so I can be perfect. I need to register for UC Davis soon, but I messed up on my FAFSA on one little thing & I need to somehow get my eFAN to update itself. It suck suck suck suck suuuuuuuccckkkks because the financial aid are pretty much already distributed to people who needed it in the first place, so I'm probably not going to get as much after getting my eFAN changed. Right now, I'm not getting any financial aid at all because of the big booboo I've made. Hope whoever gets admitted to Davis rejects it so I can get whatever their financial aid was.

At least after tears of frustration in front of the boyfriend, I got some nice, good Panda Express and some comfort. But now I can't think of anything but wanting to go to Davis badly & making sure my eFAN is changed. I just can't wait until my dad & I get it clarified and get things done tomorrow at school.