Already?

Today is... May 28th!?

Wow time flies SOOO fast...

Everyday, I marvel at all those events just flown by in what seems like a couple of days.

I know I've said this a million times, but I just feel this everyday,

especially when we have 2 weeks of school left.

Wow, 2 weeks, and I'm a sophomore; I do this three more times and I'll be graduating......

It's kind of weird.

Even two years ago, I felt that time went by really slowly.

I would always ask my mom, "Why is time so slow?" and

wonder when I would become

an adult.

Now it's totally different.

Time flies by so fast, that I always feel reluctant to write the correct year when a new year comes.

I mean, I haven't even gotten used to the old one, and now I'm forced to write a new year?

Like 2010 for example. I thought that writing 2009 on the top of my papers was awkward, but writing 2010 is even more awkward!

I wonder why this is so.

Could it be that once you reach a certain period in life, your internal clock

suddenly speeds up?

Will my internal clock ever slow down or will it keep speeding up?

I have no idea, but I wish I did.

Clock. Digital image. STMA Schools. STMA Schools. Web. 28 May 2010. .

Cheer Tryouts!

This past week was very very exhausting.....

Cheer tryouts all week!

The real tryout is actually tomorrow!

Kind of nervous......

Not again...

I mean we've had them just a couple months ago in September!

Well actually, cheer tryouts are not that bad...

It's kind of fun actually.

We get to interact with fellow cheerleaders, hone our skills, eat food after practices...

We had clinics Tuesday, Wednesday, and today (Friday), and we'll get tested on our skills tomorrow...

I hope I do well!

No, I know I'll do well!

Yes, I know I will!

Sorry. There's my usual "Be Positive!" thing again. LOL

So right now...

Diana, a fellow cheerleader is at my house right now! :D

We both agreed that preparing for tryouts by ourselves was... well.. a bit lonely.

So we thought that it would be better if we could practice together and support each other.

She also lives really close by.

But what actually ended up happening was...

-Winkie barking at Diana for literally 20 minutes

-5 run-throughs of the dance

-3 run-throughs of the cheer

-Show each other individual cheer

-Chat

-I-chat random people

-I-chat cheer people

-Eat oranges and kiwis

-And of course, updating our blogs! :D

So here we are, sitting at my kitchen counter, with Winkie at our feet, writing our blog posts.

Uh oh. Winkie is chewing on my mac-book charger..... I'll stop him as soon as I finish this blog post!

Well, after tryouts we have a BBQ party at Mr. Hopkin's place! Yayyy!

We'll have texas-grilled barbecue, potato salad, and lots of good food!

So right now, though Diana and I am relatively hungry, we're trying to cut back on

food so that we can pig out tomorrow at the BBQ. LOL

I better stop Winkie before he chews my charger in half!

Wish us luck for tomorrow! :D

Check out Diana's blog for more details!

If I could just look into the minds of people...

The past few weeks, I've been learning about the World Wars in my world history class.

World War I, Austria-Hungary, Germany, the Russian Revolution, the German Revolution, you name it, and I'll tell you all about it!

To be honest, before this unit, I really didn't know much about the World Wars.

I mean, sure I knew that there were two World Wars and that Germany was fighting against most other countries, but I didn't know that it was actually Austria-Hungary and Serbia, which caused the first war.

I always had the perception that it was a bigger country that started the war...

Through numerous projects such as podcasts and simulations, I was able to get a better grasp on what actually happened in the early 20th century.

When I was learning all this history, I came across a couple interesting figures: Stalin, Kaiser Wilhelm, Hitler.

They all took actions that I consider to be very rash, radical, and also cruel in a way.

Stalin deprived his people of all their rights, Kaiser Wilhelm plunged Germany into a

devastating war, Hitle

r led a mass killing of Jews.

Sure, I've learned abo

ut their basic motives. Stalin wanted power for himself, Kaiser Wilhelm thought that Germany could benefit from the war, and Hitler needed a scapegoat.

But, it still doesn't satisfy my curiosity about exactly why these people did the things they did.

What have been going on in their minds?

What did they think when things went bad?

Why did Hitler hate the Jews so much?

If I could just look into their minds...

Unfortunately, these questions remain unanswered and will remain that way. could

That is, I think, what makes history so interesting but mysterious at the same time.

Michaels, Mike. Adolf Hitler. Digital image. Scrape TV. Scrape TV, 2 Feb. 2010. Web. 13 May 2010. .

Yum Yum Yale!

As I've already mentioned in my previous post about bagels, I love food and eating.

(Though I've gained A LOT of weight due to my love for food… LOL)

Therefore, I like to surf the web for hours to search forr food blogs.

I look for pictures of food, restaurant critiques, ways to prepare food…

This is the very culprit of my endless hours of procrastination…

I mean even just now, I've been searching for pictures of Smokey Saloon burgers.

Anyways, to the point.

As I was searching for food-related posts, I stumbled upon a BRILLIANT site: Yum Yum Yale.

http://www.yumyumyale.com/

As you can probably tell from the name of the website, this AWESOME site is run by a current student from Yale.

This student, tired of his average college food, thinks of new innovative but quirky ways to consume his food…

He often uses a panini fryer for his "inventions", which range from a yogurt + granola + blueberry mixture called Blueberry Bonanza to a simple baked banana.

His also throws in a couple jokes/comedic scenes through out the video, which makes it even more interesting!

These are my two favorite creations! :)

The Crunch Wrap Odyssey

Ice Cream Crunch

Haha, when I get to college, I will DEFINITELY try these recipes! :D

Let's celebrate!

If you've been following my posts, you would have read my earlier post on my depressing number of visitors.

Well, the number of visitors to my blog is still not very impressive, it has improved!

I've been checking my cluster map nearly every time I visit my own blog, you see.

AND........

I just realized that the red dot on Korea got upgraded!

It used to be a really small dot, whic

h meant that 10-99 people came to your

blog, but

now,

it's a much bigger dot, which means that 100-999 people has visited your blog!

SEE????

Haha, I know that 110 visits from Korea is not much to be proud of, especially because 50 of them are probably me. LOL Also, many of my classmates have far more visits than me. However, I really feel like I've accomplished something. I kind of feel proud! There are actually people out there in the world who read and take interest in what I do, feel, eat, think........

The next dot in the cluster map is much bigger and therefore better! But...... It requires 1000+ visitors, and honestly, I don't think that will be possible for my blog as the cluster map renews itself at times. (Well, if I visit my own blog about 30 times a day, it may be possible... LOL)

Yeah, so although that bigger red dot seems very desirable, I won't get my hopes up.

I'm pretty satisfied with what I have right now. That medium size dot I have is pretty nice as well. :)

Bagels & Cream Cheese

I really love eating.

I'm picky sometimes, but I really do enjoy eating the food I love.

Recently, I've become addicted to bagels. Bagels with cream cheese to be more specific.

You see, about two weeks ago, I spotted a blueberry bagel in the freezer.

It seemed pretty old, but I had a sudden urge to eat that bagel........

So I threw open the refrigerator door and looked for some cream cheese.

I didn't find any. SAD:(

BUT, I immediately went to my mom in the living room and literally demanded "I want cream cheese." LOL

My mom, being the kind and caring mother, got the cream cheese the very next day.

She got the garlic one from Philadelphia. My favorite!

This is quite nice; it tastes similar to the original, but has more of a flavor. A garlicky flavor, I guess? It's better than the original, trust me. You know how garlic bread tastes better than regular bread, because it has more flavor and regular bread is just so plain? Well, it's kind of like that!

Philadelphia also has strawberry and pineapple flavored cream cheese. I've yet to try those, though I'd imagine that they taste a little queer. Cream cheese with sweet? I'm not so sure. I'll just stick with the garlic:)

Anyways, back to bagels.

Gosh, where can I start?

Bagels are awesome - especially when you have it fresh with a glass of milk with cream cheese bombarded on the top. These days, I have it for breakfast, lunch, AND sometimes for dinner. (Well, I had french toast for breakfast today because my mom had made it for me, but I have had it every other day, and I had it for lunch today!)

Some people, including my sister, don't like bagels, which I find very surprising. She says it's too hard and stiff.....

Well, I'm going to give you ten reasons why bagels are awesome and why everyone should love them.

10 reasons why bagels are so awesome

1. They come in so many types and flavors; you never get bored. Flavors include...

plain, onion, blueberry, cinnamon raisin, poppy, sesame, garlic, pumpernickel, salt, and many more! My personal favorites are onion, blueberry, and cinnamon raisin.

2. They have a whole in the middle, so you can put your eye next to them and see through them You also won't have to worry about losing them because you can keep them on your finger like a ring. LOL

3. They're small and lightweight, so you can have them anywhere.

4. They're not fried or smothered in sauce, so they're healthier than other types of bread or pastries.

5. Just one of them can fill you up quite nicely.

6. They taste SOOOO good with everything: cream cheese, peanut butter, regular butter, honey, strawberry jam.......

7. They're really shiny on the surface, which makes them look very appetizing. (and they are!)

8. They're kind of chewy, so you can have fun while you are eating them!

9. THEY TASTE GOOD, GOOD, GOOD, GOOD, GOOD!

10. They just are awesome. Okay? No objections right? Yep, no objections. Good.

Beautiful...... Just beautiful.... That's all I can say....

I'm going to go grab a bagel now! Which one should I eat? Onion or blueberry or plain?

Hmmmm... I think I'll go with blueberry! :D

Cream cheese. Digital image. Dongsuh Foods. Dogsuh Foods. Web. 13 May 2010. .

Bagel with Cream Cheese. Digital image. Dongsuh Foods. Dogsuh Foods. Web. 13 May 2010. .

When is school over?

Yea, exactly.

WHEN IS SCHOOL OVER?

Hmm...

But come to think of it, the year has sure gone pretty quickly.

Time does fly:D

But it scares me too.

Freshman year has gone by in what seems like 3 months.

Do this three more times, and I'll be off to college.......

Scary thought........

I feel like I haven't accomplished much my freshman year.

I hope I do more things next year.......

I've taken a stab at almost everything, but I know that I'll have to settle with something soon.

But with WHAT???

Hmm..........

Ahhhhh..... I'll just think over it during the summer.

Thinking Positively!:D

Yes, I know I've already written a long post on this before, but I just wanted to dedicate another post to the topic because I've experienced the effect of thinking positively these past few weeks:)

SMILE:D
Haha I just wanted to write that. It made me smile while I was writing it, and I hope you smiled when you read this.

Ahhh these past few weeks have been very chaotic!!!!!
Even during spring break, I've had to go to hagwons and the following weeks have been full of tests, projects, and quizzes.........

Of course, there was a time when I felt so overwhelmed, but I've managed to survive by repeating the phrase "Smile!" and "You can do it!"

There seems to be an unknown magic behind these words. No matter how depressed I am, when I repeat those phrases inside my head, I always feel lightened up!

So I had a World History Test yesterday. Yes, THE world history test that is feared by everyone. Unlike when I am studying for other tests, when I'm studying for world history, I feel this stone deep down in my heart and feel sleepier than usual.
So this time, I chose to study with a friend!
Then, with my friends we gave each other words of encouragement and also had little study breaks in the middle to refresh our minds.....

Also, on the day of the test, my friend and I told ourselves "We can't wait for the test! I think it's going to be SOOO easy!" and we hypnotized ourselves.

Guess what?
It actually worked!

The test went by pretty smoothly, and I felt grateful for my thoughts!

Yesterday, I had a long conversation with a man on this particular topic. He was 29 years old, more experienced in life than I am. Basically our conversation consisted of talks about our experiences with thinking positively and why we thought was good. He told me that the trait was a good one and told me to keep it for my whole life!

I plan on doing so:D

Sam Tsui, a Youtube Sensation

One of my favorite ways to pass time is watching Youtube videos, especially those related to music.

Covers, music videos, videos of orchestras and brands - I watch them all.:)

One day as I was embarking on my usual search for phenomenal musicians, I came across an AMAZING singer named Sam Tsui. I'm serious. He has the voice of an angel. A male angel I mean.

This is the first video I've seen him in.

It seems like there are seven different singers and one beatboxer in this video, but it's actually seven Sam Tsuis put together and his friend/producer Kurt Hugo Schneider! It's just unbelievable how one person was able to create such amazing harmony. (And the barely discernible "I want to have your baby!" in the beginning totally cracked me up LOL)

This is another one of my favorite covers by him.

I had already loved the song Fireflies, but this cover made me love it even more! I was also struck by his CRAZY voice range! He may even be able to hit higher notes than me. LOL

Not only does he make awesome a cappella covers, he also makes just regular covers with his friend Kurt.

I simply LOVE his voice in this cover!

I hope he makes more amazing covers AND original songs in the future!:D

Yayyy:D

Something good happened this week!

The results for the National Mu Alpha Theta Log 1 competition (http://log1.wamath.net/index.php) came out!

I was on the after-school bus yesterday after cheerleading practice when my friend J, told me that she got an e-mail from Ms. Osborne that said the results for the competition was out. (Speaking of cheerleading, the pep rally went really well! All the stunts that I had to help out with went up:D) Hearing that, we immediately checked her e-mail with her i-phone and clicked on the results link Ms. Osborne provided us. We held our fingers crossed as we desperately wished that the page would load. FINALLY! The page loaded, and the results were right in front of us!

The first thing we saw were the school results. Our school had places second right after Thomas Jefferson High School (Funny, because I actually would have gone to that school if I hadn't come to KIS...)

We had a brief celebration on our school's second place accomplishment, but we immediately scrolled down to where the individual results were. We skipped the Mu division, Alpha division, and went down to the Theta division, which was the one we participated in.

Frankly, I hadn't expected to place. The tests were rather challenging, and I had given up in the middle of taking them because I had lost hope (I should NOT have done this, I should have tried my best!:D) But then as I scrolled down the list of names, I saw mine!

Yep, I placed 11th! I know that 11th place is not that big of an accomplishment, but I was still happy that I made it in the top 25 scorers:)

Even better, my friend J placed 15th, so we were both squealing on the bus. LOL

Though I was happy yesterday when I found out that I had placed, now I feel that I could have done better. The score difference between me and the person who placed 10th was very small, and I also remembered how I had literally given up in the middle of the test... If I had tried my best for the whole test, I might have scored higher and made it into the top 10... But, that's all happened in the past, and there's nothing I can do about it. There's always next year, and next year, I hope to place in the top 10!:D

11:43

It's 11:43, just 17 minutes before midnight.

I'm up writing my journal entry for English though I was told that it would be best if I did that by 7:00.

Typical Christine, procrastinating again.

I just felt like writing a blog entry right now.

I've been thinking these days.

From what I've heard from other people, apparently I appear very cold and distant to some people especially when I have my no-expression face on.

I never knew that, but I can sort of guess what I look like when I have my expressionless face on. My mom does the same thing, and she looks very cold though she is not trying to.

I guess I'll have to smile even more to get rid of that cold expression.

Also, there are times when I meet eyes with someone or look at someone and don't know how to react. Smile, look away, don't smile, nod, open my mouth and smile, close my mouth and smile? I feel very awkward in those situations, so I usually try to avoid people's eyes to not experience that moment of awkwardness. I know I shouldn't be doing that, so I asked my mom what I should do in those situations. She said that I should smile gently with my mouth closed. Easy to say, hard to do. But I'll try it out next time.

I've also had this wish that I had on my mind these couple of weeks - I wish I had a twin who was exactly like me. If she thought the way I did, if she understood how I feel, if she knew about what is going on in my life, then I would feel so much relieved knowing that there is someone out there I can completely relate to. I know that's not possible, and I also know that friends are the closest things that I have to twins. But I find it hard to reveal my complete self to friends. I don't know why, I just am a little afraid to show myself... None of my friends know what is really going on in my mind with the exception of one. Most people have the notion that I'm always happy enjoying life, because I smile a lot. Even yesterday, my hagwon teacher told me, "You must be very happy, you're always smiling!" and the upperclassmen at cheer practice also commented that my smile is frozen to my face. Yes, I do try to enjoy life, try to make everyday better by smiling because smiles bring more smiles, and am happy and grateful for the little things I encounter in life. Nonetheless, I feel like there's a little hole in my happiness, my smile, my heart. I feel like there's something missing, though I'm not sure of what it is. I feel like there's something I have to do, something I have to find. I can't really explain it, but thinking about that little hole makes me sad sometimes, and again, I'm not sure why. This is what I've told my friend who knows a little bit more about me than others, and now the readers of my blog will get to know me a little bit more. I ended up breaking down in front of her while telling her this, and I still don't know why I did. I wish I find that little missing piece of my happiness soon and smile without feeling that hole in the back of my heart.

I have to finish my journal now.

It's 12:09, which means that I've spent 26 minutes on this blog post.

At BEIMUN: Beijing Kaoya

A couple weeks ago, I was at Beijing for BEIMUN.

It was fun of course, but for me the best part was the food.

Of all the food I had, my favorite was definitely the Beijing Kaoya, also known as the Pecking Duck by Westerners.

Beijing Kaoya has been one of my favorite dishes since I first tasted in third grade in a restaurant in Virginia. Since then, I've begged my parents every weekend to go there for dinner. Good times... However, my joyful days of eating Beijing Kaoya came to an end when I moved back to Korea in fifth grade:( There are no decent Kaoya restaurants in Korea! So... I hadn't had it for three years... I had missed it... But then I got a chance to eat it again in Beijing! Actually, I had two chances! Once in Dadong Restaurant and once in this restaurant which I don't remember the name of.....................

I'll show you a couple pictures of my delicious meal at Dadong restaurant!

We started the meal with two dishes of fried rice. This one above was the duck liver fried rice. We were a little doubtful when we ordered the dish, seeing the word "duck-liver" in the description. However, it turned out to be delicious!

This was our other fried rice. It tasted okay, but I found the duck liver one more appetizing. This one had a peculiar spice in it that I didn't really like.

Now for the moment you've all been waiting for, I present to you the Beijing Kaoya!!!!!!

Wow, very beautiful! LOL

The duck skin is on top with the meat on the bottom. We ate the skin with sugar and the meat with a brown sauce and pancakes and sesame bread.

I wanted to show you another picture of the Kaoya so that you can fully appreciate the beauty of the glossy duck!

After we were done with our duck, we were served some duck soup. I didn't like the soup very much; it was a little too greasy for me.

This black sesame soup was served as dessert. I loved it! It tasted exactly like the black sesame spread that comes with Market O's water crackers.

We were also served some fruit and gum after, but unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of them:(

Haha, our masterpiece! My friends and I did this while we were waiting for our food. One of my friends protested against it saying that we were acting like a bunch of kindergardeners, but we did it anyway! I guess we did look a little odd, setting our ducks into a circle and taking pictures of it. LOL

Me satisfied with my meal and playing around:)

Well, that's how my first meal in Beijing went. If you have never had any Beijing Kaoya, I highly recommend that you try it! It's REALLY good!

Picking Classes

This week was quite different from those other weeks.

Instead of having club after second block, we attended different informational sessions on different courses, clubs, and electives.

I had absolutely NO IDEA about what courses I wanted to take next year.

I mean I had a vague idea of what courses I should take, but there were some courses that sounded fun but I wasn't sure if I should take it or not.

Most of the courses - AP Biology, AP World History, Digital Journalism, Yearbook, Economics - seemed interesting to me.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the AP Biology session on Monday because I was at BEIMUN...

I really wanted to go to that session, because it was one of the courses I was interested in...

So I ended up going to the AP World History session on Tuesday and the Digital Journalism session on Thursday. (I also went to Key Club and Art II, but they weren't as important. I mean there is NO WAY I'll ever take art. My art skills are quite... well... dismal.. LOL)

Anyways, from the session, I got the idea that AP World History would be more difficult for me, so I decided that next year, I would go with the easier one: AP Biology. If I had more space, if I had more time, if I was allowed, then I probably would have taken both APs.

I had originally intended to take PE and Asian Studies next year in my sophomore year, but I fell in love with Digital Journalism after attending the informational session. I had also thought that PTV was pretty cool, and I think that Digital Journalism will also be pretty neat. (And I may also get the chance to go to MUN conferences as press! That would be a very different experience from attending them as a delegate...) Therefore, I decided to push back Asian Studies until my senior year and try out Digital Journalism. I hope it's fun:)

Picking classes all week... It got me thinking... Is my freshman year already almost over? Am I becoming a sophomore? It was a weird thought. It seemed like yesterday that I entered high school as a nervous rising freshman. Now, I'm almost done with the year and am becoming a slightly more experienced sophomore. I guess that what the upperclassmen say about time flying in high school is true. My freshman year just flew by like that. I'm hoping that the rest of my years will last longer, especially next year, as I look forward to taking AP Biology and Digital Journalism next year!:)

Spring Break

Yay, it's almost spring break!!!!!!!

But during spring break...........................

I think I'm probably going to stay at home and do homework and stuff........

Pretty depressing........

Well, if anything interesting happens, I'll tell you!

BEIMUN

Yay, I'm back!

Actually, I was back on Monday...

Anyways, I had lots of fun and a bit of something else....

I'll tell you more about it later,

I'll also upload some pictures!

(Especially that picture of the Beijing Duck we ate :D)

Please visit my blog!

So today, I decided to add a cluster map to my blog; I wanted to see how many had people had visited my blog. I went to clustrmap.com, filled out the necessary information, logged into to get the url for my cluster map, and added the gadget to my sidebar. After I was done, I took a look at it and saw that there were no red dots anywhere.

I first thought that it was because the number of visitors were too small to show up on the map. I mean, it wasn't like no one had ever visited my blog right?

So I clicked on the map to see how many visitors I recently had and got this...

Pretty depressing right? 0 visits...

But I also think that something is wrong with the map, because I know SOME people came to my blog. My friends-Natalie, Rachel, Jane-came to my blog and commented on some posts. Their visits didn't show up on the map, so....... I'm crossing my fingers that that's what happened and that I didn't REALLY get 0 visits.

So I'm writing this post in hopes that more people will come to my blog and comment... Today, I spent nearly thirty minutes after correcting my Algebra II test going to other people's blogs and writing comments that say "Wow, this is really nice! Can you please come to my at http://christinek13.blogspot.com/?" I'm hoping that those people will reply. (Yeah, you can tell that I am pretty desperate...)

Anyways, I hope that more people visit my blog and if you are someone who is currently visiting my blog viewing this post, please comment on any one of my posts!:)

Winkieeeee:)

Now you may have wondered about why my blog is named "Winkie World."

Well, Winkie is the name of my white pomeranian!

Now you may ask why I named my blog after my blog.

Hmmm... Truthfully, I

don't really know...

But I do remember that back when I created my blog, I was obsessed with my dog and that may be why...

Anyways, in about 8 days, my dog will be 5 months old!

He has been through A LOT during the three months he's been with our family.

First, he broke his left hind leg just two weeks after he came to our house, because my mom accidentally stepped on him... As a result, he ended up being in a cast for about a month:( But he's fine now, so don't worry! (Almost TOO fine actually, he's too hyper!)

Second, he took his first walk

last week! It didn't last long though, because Winkie kept going somewhere else... But with lots of practice, Winkie will be able to do it!

Third, he ate a lot good food. I'm not

just talking about regular dog food and biscuits. He has had a lot of good human food too. Our family promised each other that we wouldn't give him any human food because he would end up not eating his dog food, but he stares at us with those cute puppy eyes under the kitchen table when we're eating something!

Speaking of food, Winkie is VERY protective of his food. Whenever we go near him when he has doggy biscuit

in his mouth, he runs away to one of his hiding places in fear of getting

the biscuit stolen. I hope he comes to trust us more...

Winkie also greets me when I come home from somewhere, wagging his tail and putting his ears back. (I knew that dogs wagged their tails when they were happy to see their owners, but I never knew that dogs put their ears back. I wonder why he does that. He looks like an earless puppy when he does that! LOL)

For now, I'll show you a couple photos of Winkie.

Winkie likes sitting on my sister's gigantic teddy bear for some unknown reason..

Haha Sometimes, Winkie just lies down on the floor like that.

I'm going to go and try to walk Winkie again.:)

So what's your dog like? Comment below!

Smile:)

Being a human being, I often come across situations when I become depressed or feel hopeless.

Whether it be related to family, friends, school...

During those moments, I did nothing but let myself feel down and hopeless.

Actually, now that I think about it, I even blamed myself for those situations.

During the summer before my first high school year, I had lots of doubts.

"Will I do well in high school? What if I mess up?"

I never felt relieved but rather stressed though it was summer break.

Then one day (I think it was about two weeks before school started), I discovered an audiobook in my dad's iPod. The book was called The Secret. For some unknown reason, I began to listen to the audiobook everywhere I went. When I went to the grocery store, when I went shopping... So I ended up finishing the book in about two days. (a record time for me LOL, and it was an audiobook so that's probably why too)

Basically, the book tells you that your thoughts shape who you are, so you should keep your thoughts positive and focus on the things you want. You shouldn't dwell on negative things about yourself because it will only bring about MORE negative things, but rather focus on the things you want because then it will come to you!:)

So I decided to try it out. I smiled everywhere I went, (well maybe except the times when I am sleepy LOL), I tried to stay positive no matter what happened, and most importantly, I believed in myself. For example, when I had a World History exam the next day, rather than writing "I AM SCREWED or WHAT AM I GOING TO DO" on my msn, I wrote positive messages such as "It's going to be fine:)" or in extreme cases, "I am going to write a FABULOUS essay tomorrow" LOL. Even now, though I am a bit worried about BEIMUN, I just wrote on my msn message, "i can do it, i can do it, i can do it :)"

Though some people have actually told me that my method of controlling myself is a little... well... weird, I know for a fact that it actually works! Whenever, I see my msn message, I feel much better and tend to perform better. Moreover, there is probably that stuff going on with the power of the universe that was mentioned in The Secret.

Now I've noticed these days that everyone is very stressed. In fact, a majority of students' msn messages or facebook statuses say "i wanna get out of this place", "ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ (the emoticon for crying), "i am screwed," or something along those lines. And I can just imagine the looks on their faces.

But I want to tell them, "SMILE!" I know for a fact that they'll feel much better that way, and worrying will do nothing to alleviate the situation. So why worry and stress when you can smile your way out of it?

I can't wait! or maybe not...

This week was a rough week for me.

Cheerleading season is over, but some reason, I feel busier than ever.

I've had multiple tests this week and on top of that I had to write several research reports for BEIMUN.

Well, so BEIMUN is in a couple weeks. Three weeks I think. And honestly, I'm a little stressed about it. I'm not sure if I will do well there, and the amount of preparation I've had to do was overwhelming! I also have the pressure of being the delegate of the United States of America. That means I have to work extra hard preparing and also have to be very active in the conference.

Right now, I'm not sure if I will be able to do what I've been expected to do.

But, I'll trust myself for now and try my best. I'll believe that I'll do well at the conference. I hope I really do.

BEIMUN. Digital image. Beimun.net. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. .

What can I do??

WARNING: I am very sorry, but this post is rather long, unlike what I had promised. In fact, it is my longest one yet. It's a recollection of one of my experiences in elementary school.

I just finished reading an article in Times about the debunking of Dr. Wakefield’s study about the correlation between vaccines and autism. Apparently, in 1998, in the British medical journal the Lancet, Wakefield suggested that exposure to the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine were somehow linked to autism in children. However, the very magazine in which the study was published in recently renounced the study, stating that some parts of it are incorrect.

Anyways, I’ll stop talking about boring facts that was on a magazine. What made this article stand out to me was that it reminded me of my past classmates with autism. It doesn’t really relate to the vaccine part, but it reminded me of them for some reason.

Back when I attended a Korean elementary school, I encountered an autistic classmate. However, my classmates, rather than caring for the autistic classmate, teased him and even swore to him “Hey, stupid! Come here and do this for me or you’ll pay! Why are you so slow and weird looking?” they’d shout. Sometimes, when the teacher wasn’t looking they’d even pull on the student’s hair and hit him.The student would almost never realize that the classmates were teasing him, and when he did realize that and gave little cries of protest, the classmates ignored him and continued bullying him. But what was even worse was that even though teachers had a vague idea of what was going in the classroom, they made almost no effort to fix it. They merely scolded the children and took no real action to help the autistic child.

I was always the quiet girl and didn’t do anything to help the poor classmate even though I knew that what my classmates were doing was wro

ng. I was just sitting nearby, keeping my mouth shut. Then I went to America. I met an autistic classmate there in my third grade class. In fact, he was more autistic than the child I had met in Korea. He was in a wheelchair and had difficulty speaking. But I saw MAJOR differences in how he was treated. First, there were numerous programs that helped him adapt in school. He even had his own personal teacher/counselor who helped him throughout his school day. And the students treated him much differently than how the Korean students treated an autistic classmate. They always put him in front of the line and gladly helped him. No teasing or swearing here.

Then when I came to Korea and returned to my old Korean elementary school, I saw him again-the autistic classmate. He was in a different class though. But in my own Korean school 6th grade class, there was another autistic student. I thought that with other students now being six graders and more mature, the students would not bully him and rather help him as American students would do. I was wrong. Not only did they tease and curse at him, there were also rumors that some boys had taken the autistic classmate to th

e “back alley.” Of course, there were some other students who attempted to help the autistic classmate, but they were in fe

w in number and not very powerful.

I was extremely shocked at what I saw in my six grade class. These sixth grade Korean students were not capable of doing something that

even third graders in America could do.

After I came to my current school KIS, I forgot about this issue for a while until a couple months ago. While I was web surfing, I came across an organization called the Sparkle Effect (http://www.thesparkleeffect.org/) It’s basically a program started by high schoolers which helps autistic children fit in with their peers through cheerleading.

When I read about this program, I got a sudden urge to start my own program to help autistic children in Korea. I remembered what I had seen i

n my Korean elementary school and saw that help is necessary, especially because Korea is a country that tends to ignore minorities. I’ve already talked to a friend to see if she was interested in starting a small program with me. Right now, we are just tossing some ideas around about what can do. So far we’ve come up with mentor programs, choral/drama programs, in-school programs....... Ahhhh! I’m not sure about what we should do!!! But I definitely know that I want this program started as soon as possible. Our goal is to launch the program by the start of our sophomore year. I know that it’s going to be hard to start a s

uccessful program... But it’s worth a try right?

WOW THIS POST IS LOOOONG!

A video about the Sparkle Effect

Autism Awareness. Digital image. The Stem Cell Blog. David Granovsky, 8 June 2009. Web. 20 Feb. 2010. .