I Graduated from High School! #WHAT

Senior Art Exhibition/ My first book, Humans of Emma Willard School x The Bicentennial Edition, is now available online in both PDF and Hardcopy versions at http://www.blurb.com/b/5238144-hu

Baccalaureate

Senior Commencement Eve Concert/ Playing a girl for the first time at my school!

Graduation

Graduation weekend, or rather high school, went by in a blink of an eye. I still can't believe I've graduated after one week at home. It's crazy to think how I started this blog when I first entered the school, and how I've grown and changed these past three years. Life at this "nun dungeon" (what I used to call my school when I was totally miserable in Sophomore year) was sometimes tough, but it was also fun, totally worth it and one of the best experiences ever. I'm so thankful for everything that happened and all the people I encountered, and now I can truly say that I know who I am and I'm strong enough to face challenges that lies ahead (much feminism implanted as well). High school, you will be missed. College here I come!

Just Keep Swimming

Featured above a video I made that wraps up the last swimming season of my life (watch in HD). 

I started swimming when I was four. At the beginning, I was so scared of the water that I would nag my parents not to bring me to practices. When I finally overcame my fear and started to enjoy swimming, I was told by my doctor that my skin was allergic to the chlorine and that I should stop swimming. He told me that I was not a fish, so I didn't have to swim. 

With those obstacles, not to mention the abnormal constant cramps I have (I always think my body was never built for sports), I'm actually pretty proud of how far I've come. This season was the peak of my swimming career, with a bounded team, my 50 free time (26.59 yay!) and two school relay records broken.

Swimming has taught me persistence and given me the unique swimmer spirit.  It's a part of me that I know I'll never lose. As much as I still want to go through the sometimes painful trainings and the pumped up meets again, all good things must come to an end. And in the words of my super poetic friend, "it has been a journey, creating broad shoulders, large thighs, and bulky muscles, but it is time to go."

Mini Maker Faire

Yesterday's sunny fall weather was perfect for the Mini Maker Faire held at my school. We had about 50 booths that featured their innovations ranging from slow motion cameras,  Tesla Coil, to glowing duct tape wallets, jewelries, hand-made violins, and soaps (plus a bunny!). I enjoyed taking pictures and seeing how every single booth is unique in its own way. The people were inspiring in a way that they showed me how I can basically create art out of any material and form. One of my favorites was the 3D printer. It could make solid objects of virtually any structure and did so by using an additive process, where successive layers of material are laid down in different shapes. It's weird thinking how the 3D printer might start an industrial revolution and that in a couple of decades, Architecture students no longer have to build their own models. 

365 Days at Hogwarts

It's been a while since I last blogged; the last quarter of junior year was (indescribable). Junior year was tough, lots of fun, crazy, etc. I started the year with this grand plan in action that I would take a photo of the view outside my window every single day. Of course, I slacked some days and I regret that I did not take any photos of the spring Cherry Blossoms (amazing!). I decided at last to compile 10 photos that showed the extreme weathers at my school (that is often mistaken as Hogwarts). 

P.S.: The photos are in chronological order!

Shakespearean Birthday Weekend

February was a busy month filled with heavy coursework and late night rehearsals- so glad we're finally marching into spring (see the pun there?). I spent my birthday weekend this year not on the plane, but mostly on stage performing works of my dear friend Shakespeare. 

On Friday and Saturday nights, our cast of ten presented The Complete Works of William Shakespeare- Abridged at our school. The play is a parody of 37 Shakespearean plays and Shakespeare addicts find it either hysterically funny or offensive. The script contained many references to pop culture and we improvised some of them along our rehearsals. As a result, some of the modern twists we added could only be understood by people from our school. My two main characters (I had a total of five characters) were Titus in Titus Andronicus and Claudius in Hamlet. Titus Andronicus, originally a tragedy, was performed as a cooking show. I loved my role as Titus the most because I got to be a maniac on stage (but really, try going crazy because it releases stress)! For example, one line I said to the rapist was "let me go grind your bones to power small... and make a pasty of your shameful head!" (in an Indian accent). The fourth wall was nonexistent during my scene and I had the great honor of harassing and persuading the front role audience to try the lovely human head pie. My role as Claudius was yet another challenge because we had to perform the scene and our lines backwards, which looked like we all resurrected from death.

Titus in Titus Andronicus

Claudius in Hamlet

Claudius in Hamlet

Claudius in Hamlet

The thing about having a deep voice at a girls' school is that you are always casted as a guy... I guess my goal for my senior year plays is to have a female role. Luckily for the English-Speaking Union's regional Shakespeare Competition, I got to choose my own pieces while representing the school. I performed one monologue as Viola in Twelfth Night Act II Scene II and Sonnet 147. I ended up as the top 5 finalists. Although I would love to win and perform in the Lincoln Center in NYC, the experience of seeing other people perform Shakespearean texts was very enlightening. Here is a video of my first round performance:

In addition to the whole Shakespearean madness, my advisor baked me cupcakes for my birthday and my friend surprised me with a cake on Sunday night (by surprise I also mean I was pied)!

Stuck in Titus' World

What's better than a Shakespearean Birthday Weekend? :)

Hunter 360° & Winter Wonderland

For our art project this time, we worked on perspectives. I chose Hunter (the science building at our school) because of its very structural composition. At first, my indolent side of me took hold of my sketching process as I estimated the vanishing points and spontaneously drew the parallel lines (I swear they looked really accurate). My teacher warned me that if I don't take the vanishing points seriously enough, the perspective might turn out malformed. So then, I found my vanishing points by lining up sketch papers (apparently, I lined up 5 sketch papers down the corridor of where I was sketching for one of the vanishing points... People passed by me and gave me that "stare"). After my ridiculous location of the two vanishing points, I had to decide how to present my drawing. I thought about cross-hatching to create this sketch-book feeling, but after a fail attempt to cross-hatch (never really learned the skill before), I decided to outline the building, extend the parallel lines, and fill in the building plus floor with pastel. The result was satisfying, partly because of the gray-blue colored paper I chose that created a cold technological atmosphere, but also because of the cool colors I used that helped bring out the feeling of this science building. 

Hunter

Hunter 360°

In addition to finally having a long weekend break from all those heavy schoolwork and theater practices (and... occasional swim practices), we got a day off because of Snow Storm Nemo! Nemo's effect in my area could only be described as beauteous. I took advantage of this scenery and went out in the below-freezing weather to take some photos.

Sunset- taken from my iPhone 4:

By the way, happy Chinese New Year! Hope y'all have a great year of the snake!

Home Cooking x Christmas Eve Dinner

T'is my favorite holiday of the year! As a custom for Christmas Eve, my family invited our family friends home for dinner. While being in the state of jet lag, I still managed to take some pictures of the festive decorations and yummy food. 

Poor Ginger

Wagyu Steak

Turkey from Cova

Crunch Cake from Spoil Cafe

Merry Christmas!

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." -John 3:16