stretchmark #10 PEP 2010

May 14, 2010 We had school this day and I actually didn’t know about the PEP event until the day of when everyone was talking about it and Mr. Callahan mentioned it, I was like awh man I can’t make it because I have work. So I didn’t think much of it even though I really wanted to go. I went last year 2009 and I was actually in the PEP class the first semester and I loved it because you got to learn about the Filipino Heritage and other ethnic studies. But I left 2nd semester so I wasn’t able to cooperate in the show. They did very good last year so I was expecting they’d have the same this year. Well before the show i was at school and we had the yearbook party to set up for after school and that went successful. Then afterwards I was suppose to go to work but Jen and I were like we might as well go to PEP we’re already late and we’re not doing anything at work but watch movies. JM Jen and I took bus to James Denman and the show started around 6pm. There were a lot of Burton, Bal and even elementary school students from Longfellow that were in the show. All the performances turned out good. There were parts where they acted out scenes and the story was basically about this year being the first year that the SF District allowing to have ethnic studies as a class. It was pretty cool because I thought it’s a great way of showing different ethnic studies and learning about it can benefit a lot of people. My favorite performance was of course Burton’s and they did a good job, they sang, rapped and danced. And my other favorite was when the elementary students rapped and danced also. The PEP performance turned out well and hope that they continue to keep going with what they’re doing!

Stretchmark #9 Learning to play the Uke

So the beginning of this year, around the end of January I actually learned how to play the Ukelele. I always wanted to learn because I’d always here all these people around school playing the uke and it looked interesting to learn. My bestfriend, JM had a uke and knew how to play it very well. He would bring his ukelele to school sometimes and when I’d come over I would mess around with it pretending like I knew how to play it. One day I asked JM to finally teach me. The first time where I actually wanted to learn a song was when we were at his house and all our friends were over, Elizabeth and I were messing with it and I guess she knew part of the song “Break up Song” so she told me where to put my fingers but she actually didn’t know herself how to strum or how it went. JM took over and was telling us step by step what the notes were and teaching us the strum pattern. That was probably the hardest thing to get use to, the Strumming. I would get so frustrated everytime I couldn’t get the strumming right. Ever since that day, I told him to bring his uke to school all the time and everytime I was there was practicing. I’d learn a song one by one and I actually got the hang of it right away and it wasn’t really hard for me to learn. I would ask to borrow his uke all the time and take it home. I learned a lot of songs on YouTube and they have tutorials they teach you and it helped a lot. Of course JM was the one that got me starting to play the uke and until this day, I’m still learning a few songs. Now I just need to buy my own Ukelele. (=

Stretchmark #8 Roof Party

This day was Jennifer and Jonathan’s cousin, Bonnie’s birthday party. It was at her job on the roof. It was like a news job called the Gaurdian. It was on mississippi st. I wasn’t planning on going, or actually didn’t even know about it until the day of because we were just trying to stall because it was the day of Senior Skate Night also. Before we got there we were just chillin at JM’s house and we were watching movies and what not and ate lunch because it was an early release day, so we had a long day ahead of us. The Party didn’t start until 5 so I actually fell asleep and took a nap before we left. So once we left we walked to the bus stop and it took us about 2 buses to get there and it took less than an hour. We were the first ones there, it was me, Jen, JM and his brother kris. We actually got there before the Birthday girl! But her parents were there and took us to the roof. The view was so pretty and I never been so high up top. We got to see the whole view of San Francisco! It took awhile for everyone to get there but I was one of the few that was a family friend. We all ate and there was music playing. We had ribs and chicken, it was pretty good! We pretty much chilled and sat around just talking to each other and listening to the music! It was really cold so we all moved downstairs and brought the cake. It was like a meeting room and you can see all these newspapers on the wall and it was pretty cool. But we had to leave early to go to Senior Skate Night.

Stretchmark #7 Senior Skate Night

This was the night that I use to always here about when I was an underclassmen and I always wondered what it was. And I remember that I couldn’t wait until I was a Senior to do things like this and I finally got to experience it! Jennifer, Jonathan and I were on our way there taking buses and got there around 8 and it didn’t start until 9 so we had to stall for a bit. But before we got there we walked into Metreon and walked around for a little bit until we knew that some people were there. As we were walking to Yerba Buena we took some pictures and it was pretty at night looking at all the sculptures and view. But we were one of the first to be there, then more people started coming when it hit 9pm. We all were at the park/playground before we got in and it was pretty cool. When we got in we changed into our skates and we went on the rink right away. It was so funny because a lot of people didn’t know how to skate. I’ve been skating a few times before so I was already use to it! But I tried to teach Jennifer and Jonathan and it was pretty cool that I knew how to actually do something that I can teach them. It was an experience though. I think they got the hang of it as time passed by and we were just all having a good time taking pictures. We all tried to do trains but the people that worked there would always try to stop us. And only 3 people can hold hands while we were trying to have 5 people at a time. I never knew how much fun it would be skating with everyone and we had a lot of laughters that night that I’ll never forget!

Stretchmark #6 Luau

May 15th 2010, There was a Luau at school where the Teapot performed. At first I wasn’t going to go because I wasn’t sure if I had to go to Vallejo or not, but I ended up going. Before I got there I had to get things done at home and I was home alone getting everything done so I can leave. i got ready around 2 and got dropped off to Jennnifer’s house right after. Once I got there I was so tired and sleepy but I was just hanging out and chillin before we had to leave. I was so bored I curled my hair and everything. But we left around 545 and got there on time at 6. We saw JM and Terry there so we were just waiting outside until we could buy our tickets. we waited a good 15 minutes until we can buy it because I guess they didn’t have the tickets yet. But when we got to go in they told us to go to the cafeteria for the dinner part. We were the first ones there and we were waiting until they were ready to serve the food. They didn’t start serving food until 7pm and i was getting really hungry but when it was ready, it was worth the wait. The food was delicious! Afterwards we went straight to the auditorium and the performance probably started around 8 something. There were all different types of dances that they did and they did a really good job. Choir also performed and they did good too. Each performance everyone went up there and through money at them and all the performances made a lot of money. In the end they said they made over $3,000 I was so shocked! But I’m happy for them and it was a good thing that they were doing. I had fun watching them

Stretchmark #5 Prom Midnight Masquerade

May 1st, 2010 our Senior Prom was finally here. We’ve all been waiting for this day. And man was it stressful! Trying to figure our what color to wear, where to get the dress, where to get the money for everything we needed. But in the end we made it happen. That morning I woke up and said, Today is our Prom! I was so excited and that morning I was still stressing off the corsage and boutineere because we didn’t know if we were ablet to get it or not. Good thing my friend had a corsage that matched me and it was on point with my dress! I loved it. I got dropped off to my friend Jennifer’s house and when I got there we had a lot of time until our friend Nica was going to come to do our hair and makeup. Victoria also came over to get her makeup done by Nica. Nica got there around 230 and she did Victoria’s make up first. I was the last one to get my hair and makeup done so I was kind of getting impatient but I didn’t mind. It was close to 6pm and I was just getting done with my hair But in the end everything turned out perfect with my hair and makeup I loved it! Jm, NJ and Mike was waiting in the living room waiting and before we left we put on our corsage and boutineere’s on and took pictures. We were finally at the Hyatt and when we got we took pictures in front of the stairs. We walked in and the setup was so nice and pretty. It was a first prom with dinner and everything. The chicken was good and also the cheesecake! I walked around and took pictures with everyone, and they all looked gorgeous! The dance and pictures all came together so good and it was successful. All of our friends went out afterwards and stayed at Crowne Plaza. It was an experience I’ll never forget :’) especially knowing that it was our last PROM! I had the best date ever and everyone that experienced this day with me, thanks for everything Love you all

Stretchmark #4 Open Mic at Onyx

April 25th, I went to church that morning and we had choir practice afterwards. It ended pretty early so my sister as well as the Youth Group at Church were all trying to find something to do. We all went our seperate ways, My sister and I went t meet up our friends from church, Jonathan and Tonts at Nubi’s which is a Yogurt place. When we got there we sat around and started talking. We were all suppose to go to the beach that day but the weather kept changing so we were trying to find other things out to do. Jonathan had a friend that was performing at Onyx for open mic around 7ish. Onyx is a tapioca place, kind of like Tapioca Express. So we just decided to go there until we all got together later on that night. When we got there it was packed, well Onyx is a really small place. The majority of the people there were filipino. His friend didn’t perform until the end. Everyone who performed sang and played an instrument. There was a lot of talented people there though. And a lot of them were around my age 18+ The songs they played were the songs that are popular today so of course the audience sang along with them. Later on during the open mic I saw a familiar face that I knew from youtube. There were a couple of people there that are popular on YouTube. But there was one that was my favorite which was Pmac and JVocals. They have a song on YouTube called Nothing On Me and I love that song. When they performed It was my favorite, they did a medley on r&b songs and everyone loved them. I had to take a picture with Pmac though! So my sister asked him if she can take a picture of us. But it was my first time going to a Open Mic and it was a fun experience.

Strethmark #3 Pillow Fight

Pillow Fight is an event that happens every year and where you just bring your pillows go to Embarcadero in San Francisco and basically have a pillow fight with all these people of all ages! I never knew what it was until this day. It was on Valentines Day. That day I was with Jen and her family. We went to her cousin Derricks house. Jonathan picked me up from my house and got me roses as well! When we got there we just chilled and hung out with their family. They brought up the Pillow Fight and said that we should all go because we had nothing else to do. It was so random because I was wondering what it was and they showed me a video of the previous Pillow Fights on youtube. So I was like hey, we might as well looks fun! Not all of us had pillows because Derricks Mom didnt’ have much and wanted them all back. We got dropped off to bart and it was funny seeing everyone else with pillows. People would ask us whats the pillows for? There was about 10 people with us and thats what made it fun. On our way there it was like an adventure taking bart and there were so much people everywhere once we got there. There were even fights going on and police stopping the pillow fight. I was just watching the guys most of the time hit other people and the only time I did it was probably at the end when we were about to leave, I just had to hit someone. I got hit randomly a couple of times! But it was all fun at the time. We all took bart back home and it was cool seeing other people we knew there!

Stretchmark #2 Day of Silence

“Gay? fine by me” Ms. Traverso and Mr. Morgan was selling shirts a week before it was Day of Silence and you got to choose whatever color you wanted, I chose purple (= But it was on a friday and I remember walking to school and saw others with their shirts on and they were giving out papers that said Day of Silence and what it stood for. also giving out tape whoever wanted their mouths covered. There were pins that said “Thats So Gay” and was crossed out. I thought it was pretty cool. Once 1st period started thats when I started to be silent I did all my talking I could before school started. Mr. Callahan gave all the people that weren’t talking a white board and marker because if we had any questions we can right them down, I was drawing “Day of Silence” and doodling on it too (picture up there ^^). They also had a paper where whoever had all their teachers signature that they didn’t talk the whole day then they got to go to the party after school. As the day went on I probably caught myself say a word or two but I’d catch myself from talking. It was pretty hard trying to do sign language with other people because the majority of the classes I had they weren’t talking it was pretty funny. In Ms. Traverso’s class she showed us clips / commercials where it showed people making fun of others saying Thats So Gay and how its wrong. I thought it was pretty cool because the message was probably to let people know it isn’t wrong to be gay and gay people can be offended by what others think. I hope it reached out to other people who were against Day of Silence.

Blog #15

Last week Ms. Traverso explained to us a part of our final was going to be, which is to do a powerpoint relating to 1984 on a country and explain how their government works. She showed an example of a power point and it had a lot of information and pictures that I thought were interesting. Then she had us get into groups and pick a country to do. My group is Jena, Isaiah, Kenneth and I and we chose Cuba. We each got information on it and we’re going to put it together so we’ll get a little bit of info from each other. Another thing we did was when ms. traverso showed us a slideshow on what fear is. It showed a lot of different types of fear. We had to get creative and make a collage on what fear is to you. It was up to you how to get creative with it, i wanted to do more with mine but I didn’t have the time to. I cut out people who looked scared and also the word LOVE and put the words ”Falling out of” LOVE before it. I also put Change and Failure as another meaning of Fear to me. I’m really scared of failure thats why I try not to do it anymore