July. Oh how time flies..oh how I wish I were in a dream..

Last time I posted I was still a high schooler, dealing with the stress of exams and the excitement of moving on.

Four months later, here I am. A fresh off the boat, newly graduated, hella excited, ordinary girl waiting for college to start.

The last time I posted I didn't really go into depth about college. I was too focused on my current high school academics that I figured there would be plenty of time for that later. And well I was right..plenty of time to write about it now.

A couple of months ago I received a rejection letter from University of Pennsylvania. I realized the hard way that dreams can be shattered and sometimes things are just hard to reach. It was unfortunate, but I'm not the type who dwells on things so I moved on quicker than I thought I would and looked forward to the other schools I had applied to..Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern University, University of Notre Dame, University of Michigan, Colgate University, Dartmouth College, UC Irvine, UC Berkeley and Macalester College.

Mind you, I was aware that most of the schools I listed are tough to get into mainly because of my shitty ass SAT scores(damn them!). I am however a optimist, so I thought I would at least get into a couple. My top choice among the list was Dartmouth even if up to this day I'm not sure I would have attended if I got in. My next choice and more realistic ( at least in my mind) was Boston College. I visited it during the summer and found it to be many things I liked..good sports, good academics, smart kids and cool Jesuits I could befriend. After that, the following picks varied from Notre Dame and Michigan to Colgate and Macalester. I never really thought I'd end up deciding between BU and Northeastern...or UC I and UC Berkeley (since I didn't want to go to the West--I only applied so that I would have "more options" as my mother consistently said).

So yeah..after having my dream shattered I thought that there would be a bright side with all my other choices. However, that certainly was not the case. I was rejected to all other schools except for BU, Northeastern, UCI and UMich. I was waitlisted into UMich, but didn't want to go. It was sad. really really sad and painful to find out how many schools rejected me all because of an SAT score. The only reason I know it was because of my SATs is because a counselor in my school called the schools up so that he could appeal for me. I'm thankful he tried to appeal, especially because he was not my counselor (my original counselor knew squat about east coast schools, if I would have known this earlier in the year I would have never gone to her).
Anyway, I chose BU among all the schools I had left. It seemed decent from what I heard about from a few friends that had visited the school. (Strange right, I go to Boston for the summer and I only visited BC). After all the tears and days of more and more research I came to love BU! The more I received news about the school the more excited I became. I realized a month later that BU as a whole definitely fits my personality more than BC. I love the diversity of ethnicities and economic backgrounds and the liberal feel in the school. I love it!

I visited BU a few days ago for orientation with 200-300 other kids and I have fallen in love with the school and the city. Orientation was more exciting and more fun than I would have guessed it to be months before. I am glad that I got rejected to the schools I applied to, it has taught me a lot. 1) I have a lot of things to work on and improve 2) I should never assume things and take things for granted 3) Boston University rocks!
I can't wait to meet up with all the cool people I met during orientation. I can't wait for my classes. I can't wait to explore Boston. I can't wait. I can't wait. I can't wait. Oh one more thing..I can't wait!

For now...I must wait. And patiently I will wait. I will use my time wisely and live in the moment. I will enjoy my precious time and leave the excitement of college for my dreams at night.

March Madness

So, March is finally here and everything in school seems to be gearing towards cruise control. After a few hectic weeks of doing our Internal Assessments, I can finally just chill back, relax and study at my own pace. The workload is finally subsiding and most teachers are just reviewing us for the I.B. exams. Finally. I think I'm going to enjoy this portion of my last semester of high school. I would much rather just study, then have all these big deadlines like we did last semester. I think I owe it to myself to chill for awhile, I've worked hard the last 4 years and I'd like to take a break.
However, I'm promising to myself and at least to my teachers that I will not slack off even if things will be a lot more relaxed two months before the IB exam. I realized that I was not made to be a slacker, although I have tried many times I have not reached the point of slacking life where I could care less about my work because the fact is..I JUST DO! A week or so ago, I woke up at 430am hyperventilating, freaking out that I hadn't finished my History IA, which was due that day! I typically get all my work done on time, but senioritis is no joke. It is so difficult to get all the work for IB done,when you're waiting for a decision letter from at least one college. I think if it wasn't for March -- or at least the morning wake-up call -- I would still be slacking off. Thank goodness this month has finally arrived and everything in school is falling to place.

To understand why I say everything is falling to place this month, take a look at what's happening this month

Week of March 3- March 9 : I get all my I.A.'s done, Oral Commentary done and Economic Presentation done
March 7: Maria's Birthday Party- first time I'm going out since Winter Break
March 8: Food Fest!!
March 9: No School!

March 15: Georgia's Mom's Wedding!
March 17-March 22: Spring Break!! - Chilling in Romblon
March 25: Jacqui's Birthday!
March 28: School Dance: TRAFFIC
March 28 or 29: Possibly Jacqui's Birthday Party!

March 31st, April 1: College decisions!!!!

April 3, 4 & 5: ISAC Soccer in Brent!!
April 8: Senior Lock Down!!
April 9: Holiday!!
April 12: Georgia's Birthday Party!!

April 15: College decisions!

April 16 -20: APAC Soccer in Korea!

May 1: I.B. exams!

I <3 the internet

On a typical weekend, my life consists of a basketball game on Friday night, two basketball games on Saturday and a night out with some friends, then a very relaxing Sunday.

To top it all off I have all that school work I mentioned in the previous post...any rational and logical hardworking person would at least do some amount of work on Friday night and Saturday night...Yet that doesn't seem to be the case with me. Anytime I have school work that involves writing an essay or researching, I always. always wander around the internet finding the most random sites ever.

For example, last night after I got home from our basketball game, I hung out with my brother and his friends for his goodbye dinner. After dinner I went up to my room initially to start all my work, but was stuck scramming around a sticky web. I was quite annoyed with myself but nonetheless extremely entertained by some of the sites I found.

Take a look:

http://mashup.starwars.com/ - here you can upload videos and mix and mash them with scenes from the different star wars movies. very sweet.

http://www.expertvillage.com/ - similar to the way youtube is set up except all the videos are 'how to' videos. this was very helpful in teaching me how to jump start my car.

http://www.pollingreport.com/ - a site full of different polls taken around the U.S., involves a lot of primary sources and statistics that show the opinions of voters in the U.S.. Pretty cool site if you're interested in U.S. politics.

http://www.nowpublic.com/ - a different site to acquire about news, unlike the typical BBC and CNN the news is relayed by the public (people that were there to witness the event)

http://podshow.com/ - if you like podcasts, good site to check out

http://www.lala.com/ - good site to take a glimpse of albums that you're interested in

http://www.last.fm/ - heard about a band? and have no idea what kind of music they play, go to this site type in the name of the band and you can listen to different songs the bands have played(catch: not just clips of the songs, you get to listen to the whole song!)

http://www.baeblemusic.com/ - indie music, updates on live concerts, emerging bands and music videos. I think this will be helpful when I feel like watching gigs in college.

Anyways, check out the sites, I believe they are well worth looking up. Also, if you have any sites to recommed me, let me know, it would be much appreciated.

LIVE

School

I should have a more profound topic to talk about my first time blogging, however the one thing that constantly comes to mind as I think is the amount of work I have this January and next February. Therefore I think I need to make a checklist of all the work I need to get done...

History:

Jan 21. : IA Outline
Research Plan
IA Rough Draft
IA Final Draft

Economics:

Jan. 25: 2nd commentary
Feb.12: 3rd commentary
Feb.26: 4th commentary

Math:

Jan. 25: Final Math IA

English:

Jan. 27 or 28: Three Layered Curriculums

Hamlet C levels
Hamlet B levels
Hamlet A level

Seamus Heaney

Stranger C levels
Stranger B levels
Stranger A levels

................................
NHS outline for Mini Food Fest
Student Council:
- student feedback on last year's valentines dance
- ideas for this years valentines dance
Basketball:
- Raise 5000 pesos for Smokey Mountain charity