Sometimes I wonder whether I made the right choice when it came to choosing to go to school in Los Angeles. There's always that nagging question of "what could've been?" had I gone somewhere to the East Coast (Boston). What would've happened had I gotten into Juilliard my first attempt? Would I have chosen to leave the community of friends, colleagues, and mentors that had shaped me into the person that I am today? Would I be willing to leave my comfort zone and start over from scratch in a far off distant state? Sometimes I think, yes, I would be willing to do that. I want to leave Los Angeles behind. I want to start over again. I want to get out of California for a change of pace.
And then I look at the family that I've been blessed with in southern california that I think to myself- no way would I give that up. The experiences that I've had in Los Angeles over the past four years have proven invaluable. The triumphs, the failures, and everything in between, they were all part of God's plan of getting me where I needed to be.
And now I'm at the point where I'm about to make that transition once more, this time into graduate school. Maybe now you can understand that, inwardly, this is a difficult time for me. I want to leave, but at the same time I don't.
Monday, November 9, 2009
good times =)
Was going through some old xanga entries that I've long since privatized when I found these. These are clips that I took of the David Crowder Concert that happened at Flint Center so many years ago.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Joke's on me
It's been pointed out to me several times recently that the only times that I'm really funny is when people are laughing at my expense. Slightly disheartening, but I'm made of tougher stuff so it's all good. People who can't deal with that kind of stuff either A) take themselves to seriously, or B) need to be more secure with themselves. This blog post is one such tale.
It's early Wednesday afternoon, and I'm thinking to myself what a beautiful day. I open up my e-mail inbox to find a message from Dan Matsuoka saying that he'll be speaking at CCM-Irvine. I begin wondering if I have any appointments that I need to keep later in the afternoon. I probably didn't think that hard on it, because nothing popped up in my head. Cool, I thought, I think I'll go down to Irvine today then! Excited, I call up a friend whom I was closer to back in high school to see if she wanted to meet up beforehand and make plans with her.
I leave around three in the afternoon, which means that traffic hour has started again and it'll take me about an hour to get there. About a quarter of the way in, I realize that I have a music history paper due tomorrow, that I had totally forgotten about and therefore not started yet. Ugh, I think to myself, guess I'll just pull an all-nighter then. I typically don't even start really working until late into the night anyway. For those who don't follow my twitter, below is my initial reaction.
dsheu fail. im halfway to irvine when i suddenly remember that i have a paper due tomorrow...
to which I get this reply on my facebook.
It's early Wednesday afternoon, and I'm thinking to myself what a beautiful day. I open up my e-mail inbox to find a message from Dan Matsuoka saying that he'll be speaking at CCM-Irvine. I begin wondering if I have any appointments that I need to keep later in the afternoon. I probably didn't think that hard on it, because nothing popped up in my head. Cool, I thought, I think I'll go down to Irvine today then! Excited, I call up a friend whom I was closer to back in high school to see if she wanted to meet up beforehand and make plans with her.
I leave around three in the afternoon, which means that traffic hour has started again and it'll take me about an hour to get there. About a quarter of the way in, I realize that I have a music history paper due tomorrow, that I had totally forgotten about and therefore not started yet. Ugh, I think to myself, guess I'll just pull an all-nighter then. I typically don't even start really working until late into the night anyway. For those who don't follow my twitter, below is my initial reaction.
dsheu fail. im halfway to irvine when i suddenly remember that i have a paper due tomorrow...
to which I get this reply on my facebook.
Kirstie Lee
HAHAHA poor you ...
5 hours ago · Delete
I keep driving down the 405, and eventually pass through Long Beach at around 4 PM. At this point, I suddenly realize that I have a chamber coaching with Prof. Sutre at 6 PM. At this point this is when I start freaking out, because you can't just cancel these kinds of thing on the fly, unless you're indisposed to the point of being hospitalized. I was considering this option as an alternative to driving all the way back to LA.
dsheu omg just remembered i have a coaching with prof sutre at 6, double fail. back to la i guess, was already in like torrance too
dsheu "and thats why you always make a schedule" -bluth
Sadly, I turn around and call my friends who were waiting for me in Irvine that I would have to cancel our plans. I then spend the next two hours frantically trying to get back into Los Angeles. And now here I am, sitting in the main study lounge of Covel procrastinating some more before I begin my paper on Felix Mendelssohn's Jewish identity in 19th century Germany had an impact on his music. Which I know nothing about.
Sometimes I just love my life.
(this is not one of those moments -_-)
I keep driving down the 405, and eventually pass through Long Beach at around 4 PM. At this point, I suddenly realize that I have a chamber coaching with Prof. Sutre at 6 PM. At this point this is when I start freaking out, because you can't just cancel these kinds of thing on the fly, unless you're indisposed to the point of being hospitalized. I was considering this option as an alternative to driving all the way back to LA.
dsheu omg just remembered i have a coaching with prof sutre at 6, double fail. back to la i guess, was already in like torrance too
dsheu "and thats why you always make a schedule" -bluth
Kirstie Lee
danny sheu i think this is the funniest youve ever been
Sometimes I just love my life.
(this is not one of those moments -_-)
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Photography lessons
Someone please teach me how to take good pictures. Like how to adjust for lighting, angles, KEEP STILL HANDS.
I want to take pictures of my foodie adventures but the pictures wouldn't do the food justice.
Also, someone please teach me to remember to take pictures before I devour the food.
I want to take pictures of my foodie adventures but the pictures wouldn't do the food justice.
Also, someone please teach me to remember to take pictures before I devour the food.
Monday, October 5, 2009
What would you do in this situation? Does grace really abound? Is this guy's conviction and sanctification genuine?
Alas, such questions are to be pondered by more thoughtful folk. I only have one thing to say.
I hate Stanford, and I hate USC. Red makes me mad. What a terrible weekend to go up for a road trip. 24-16 Stanford, and then 30-3 USC (they played our northern california sister, Cal) But really, that dancing tree is so stupid looking. I will admit that Stanford fans are much, much classier than their SoCal counterparts. At the very least, I got to see a lot of old friends, which was a great consolation prize for me.
I hate that stupid tree.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
8-29-09
Hello world! I'm currently typing this blog entry into a .txt document on my train from
Bordeaux to Saint Jean De Luz.
I'm sorry for the lack of updates on, it's not so much that I was busy, (on the contrary, I had a lot of free time in Flaine) but just too lazy to write an entry.
The past week was a bit more interesting than the first week. For starters, Miguel took the viola class on a hiking trip through the Alps. I think that was the turning point in terms of my social life in Flaine, because it was on that trip that I started talking to my fellow violists, of whom a good number spoke fluent English and were very helpful with my French. It should also be noted that at around this point in the hiking trip, my camera battery ran out and for some reason it cannot be recharged despite the adapter saying that it's compatible with the voltage. So unfortunately, I have no pictures of the past week.
After the hiking trip there were about five concerts over the course of the week, and after every one I would go to the local bar with my colleagues (and newfound friends) for a beer or a glass of wine. By the way, I'm 21 now, in case you haven't noticed. Happened sometime over the summer. I might've posted this earlier, but French people love to smoke. In the U.S., or at least in California, there's always this certain character archetype of people who smoke (i.e. thugs at a bar, hoochies at the club, etc) but in France, it's such a natural part of the culture to just step outside with someone and have a smoke. For those wondering so far, no, I didn't smoke, but I have been the recipient of a lot of second hand smoke for the past two weeks. I think if anybody was in France in general, they would get a lot of second hand smoke.
I was a participant of two of the aforementioned concerts, one of which was the viola class concert and the second being the chamber music. For the viola concert I played two movements of the Brahms Sonata in F Minor, Op. 120a. Considering I started learning it about seven days prior, I would have to say it wasn't half bad. For my chamber concert I played the a piano quartet by Joaquin Turina, a Spanish composer from the early 1900's. And boy, was that a nightmare. It wasn't so much the difficulty of the music, not at all, but in the personalities of my fellow quartet members. There were constant arguments between our violinist and cellist, while our pianist, who was super nice, and I, who doesn't understand French at all, would just timidly sit there in silence. The biggest argument was about an hour before the concert, and we almost didn't play until we were informed by our chamber coach that we were required to perform. The whole experience made me learn of the difficulties involved with chamber music, and the professionalism required to be able to play your absolute best despite whatever circumstances you're in. Case in point: My teacher, Richard, has tours internationally all the time during the school year. Despite that, he'll take the time out to fly back to Los Angeles (and they're usually 16 hour flights since he's usually in Korea or Europe), teach us for the entire day, and then fly back to give another concert, and the general audience will could have never known. It's things like that that draw the line between good, and great. In any case, it was a lesson well-learned for me.
The end of the Flaine festival was signified by a great deal of packing and very little sleep. This morning, I woke up at 6 am, hopped on the bus that would take us to the train station at 7, and boarded my train that would take me to Paris Gare Lyon at 9:48. Afterwards, I hopped onto the Parisian metro. I took the A line from Gare Lyon to Châtelet, switched to the 4 line down to Paris Montparnasse, and made it just in time for my 2:10 train to Bordeaux. The Parisian metro system is very similar to New York, and is actually really easy to navigate once you understand one of them. I feel like I know how to get around New York and Paris better than San Francisco, which is kind of sad. Something interesting that I noticed is that in the French train stations, their announcements of preceded by a little chime of notes. Usually in American airports and the like, the chime is a major triad, like C E G or something to that nature. But in French train stations, it's this very sinister C minor 6th chime (C G Ab, go play C E G and then C G Ab to see what I mean). Sure gets your attention though, even if you don't understand a word of the announcement.
There's an old traveler's adage that goes something like "pack whatever you think
you need, and then take half of it." This is VERY true. Hauling a heavy suitcase (it must've been like 50 pounds at least, I don't even know what I packed) up and down the stair ways of French train and metro stations, along with your viola and backpack which contains your computer, is very, very, tiresome.
Anyway, this whole time I'm absolutely starving, and I'm also out of Euros. Word of advice to future travellers, TRAVELER'S CHECKS ARE WORTHLESS. NOBODY ACCEPTS THEM, EXCEPT FOR THE CITY CENTER THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TIME TO GO TO. Get your euros, pesos, NT, yen, whatever from the bank in advance. I have about 1600 euros worth of traveler's checks that nobody will take. By the way, please don't tell anybody in Europe that, I don't want to get mugged.
During my hour and a half layover in Bordeaux, I decided to walk around the city just outside the station (I was in the Saint Jean neighborhood of Bordeaux, which is obviously why the station is called Bordeaux Saint Jean; this is not to be confused with the actual city of Saint Jean de Luz, the French like to recycle their names apparently, like Paris Gare Lyon). Saint Jean is a neighborhood that is apparently heavily populated with Arabics or Persians, given the number of ethnic restaurants there were. This whole day I've been craving an American hamburger like that of McDonalds, but I resisted and instead went to a little brasserie that served kebab sandwiches, and oh my God it was amazing. The meat was juicy and well-seasoned, and the sandwich was lined with the craziest dijon mustard I had ever tasted. It tasted more like wasabi than it did of mustard because of how concentrated the horseradish flavor was. The sandwich even brought me to tears (not because of how good it was, although it was good) but because of the kick the horseradish brought to my face.
And that brings this update to the present. Me, in a very comfortable first class chair on a train, typing this entry onto a text document. Trains are so much more pleasant than planes, there's no crazed security line where you take off your shoes belts guns, no chance of losing your luggage since you're with it the whole time, and the large, comfy seats in first class are much cheaper than the tiny seats with no legroom found in the economy class of an airline. Why don't more people take more trains?
I hope everything is well back in the States, and I really miss all two of you loyal readers (actually I have no idea how many people read this.)
8-30-09
Well, I've settled into my new flat in Saint Jean De Luz, and let me tell you, Saint Jean De Luz is absolutely beeautiful. My apartment is about 100 yards from the beach. I wish I had my camera here but alas, it doesn't work at the moment.
So after I arrived in my apartment, I met my new apartmentmates; There's Josh, an American baritone who studies in Germany, Marie, a French pianist from Paris, and Hermine, a cellist from burgundy. Yes, I'm living with two women, and for me the most awkward part is that I want to go number two but I can't because I'm too embarrassed. They're all super nice, and we spent all last night working on our respective languages, English for Marie and Hermine, and French for me and Josh.
The four of us went out to dinner last night on the boardwalk. It's a completely different culture here in Saint Jean De Luz and it's very different even from first glance. Because city is very close to the Spanish border, there's a lot of Basque and Spanish influence in the architecture and the food. For instance, last night the speciality of most of the restaurants was seafood paella, something I hadn't had since my Spain tour. Let me just tell you, that was some intense paella. They literally just fished up the fruit de Mer and the fish like hours before cooking it, it was nuts. Paired with sangrias, good company, and an awesome view of the night beach, I had this feeling of contentment that made me want to stay here forever.
The only downside? I have even less access to internet here; again I'm typing this into a text document. Josh and I were talking about this last night and we sort of realized how addicted to the internet we Americans are; Hermine joked it's probably how French are addicted to smoking. Entire cultures all have their own vices I suppose.
Hello world! I'm currently typing this blog entry into a .txt document on my train from
Bordeaux to Saint Jean De Luz.
I'm sorry for the lack of updates on, it's not so much that I was busy, (on the contrary, I had a lot of free time in Flaine) but just too lazy to write an entry.
The past week was a bit more interesting than the first week. For starters, Miguel took the viola class on a hiking trip through the Alps. I think that was the turning point in terms of my social life in Flaine, because it was on that trip that I started talking to my fellow violists, of whom a good number spoke fluent English and were very helpful with my French. It should also be noted that at around this point in the hiking trip, my camera battery ran out and for some reason it cannot be recharged despite the adapter saying that it's compatible with the voltage. So unfortunately, I have no pictures of the past week.
After the hiking trip there were about five concerts over the course of the week, and after every one I would go to the local bar with my colleagues (and newfound friends) for a beer or a glass of wine. By the way, I'm 21 now, in case you haven't noticed. Happened sometime over the summer. I might've posted this earlier, but French people love to smoke. In the U.S., or at least in California, there's always this certain character archetype of people who smoke (i.e. thugs at a bar, hoochies at the club, etc) but in France, it's such a natural part of the culture to just step outside with someone and have a smoke. For those wondering so far, no, I didn't smoke, but I have been the recipient of a lot of second hand smoke for the past two weeks. I think if anybody was in France in general, they would get a lot of second hand smoke.
I was a participant of two of the aforementioned concerts, one of which was the viola class concert and the second being the chamber music. For the viola concert I played two movements of the Brahms Sonata in F Minor, Op. 120a. Considering I started learning it about seven days prior, I would have to say it wasn't half bad. For my chamber concert I played the a piano quartet by Joaquin Turina, a Spanish composer from the early 1900's. And boy, was that a nightmare. It wasn't so much the difficulty of the music, not at all, but in the personalities of my fellow quartet members. There were constant arguments between our violinist and cellist, while our pianist, who was super nice, and I, who doesn't understand French at all, would just timidly sit there in silence. The biggest argument was about an hour before the concert, and we almost didn't play until we were informed by our chamber coach that we were required to perform. The whole experience made me learn of the difficulties involved with chamber music, and the professionalism required to be able to play your absolute best despite whatever circumstances you're in. Case in point: My teacher, Richard, has tours internationally all the time during the school year. Despite that, he'll take the time out to fly back to Los Angeles (and they're usually 16 hour flights since he's usually in Korea or Europe), teach us for the entire day, and then fly back to give another concert, and the general audience will could have never known. It's things like that that draw the line between good, and great. In any case, it was a lesson well-learned for me.
The end of the Flaine festival was signified by a great deal of packing and very little sleep. This morning, I woke up at 6 am, hopped on the bus that would take us to the train station at 7, and boarded my train that would take me to Paris Gare Lyon at 9:48. Afterwards, I hopped onto the Parisian metro. I took the A line from Gare Lyon to Châtelet, switched to the 4 line down to Paris Montparnasse, and made it just in time for my 2:10 train to Bordeaux. The Parisian metro system is very similar to New York, and is actually really easy to navigate once you understand one of them. I feel like I know how to get around New York and Paris better than San Francisco, which is kind of sad. Something interesting that I noticed is that in the French train stations, their announcements of preceded by a little chime of notes. Usually in American airports and the like, the chime is a major triad, like C E G or something to that nature. But in French train stations, it's this very sinister C minor 6th chime (C G Ab, go play C E G and then C G Ab to see what I mean). Sure gets your attention though, even if you don't understand a word of the announcement.
There's an old traveler's adage that goes something like "pack whatever you think
you need, and then take half of it." This is VERY true. Hauling a heavy suitcase (it must've been like 50 pounds at least, I don't even know what I packed) up and down the stair ways of French train and metro stations, along with your viola and backpack which contains your computer, is very, very, tiresome.
Anyway, this whole time I'm absolutely starving, and I'm also out of Euros. Word of advice to future travellers, TRAVELER'S CHECKS ARE WORTHLESS. NOBODY ACCEPTS THEM, EXCEPT FOR THE CITY CENTER THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TIME TO GO TO. Get your euros, pesos, NT, yen, whatever from the bank in advance. I have about 1600 euros worth of traveler's checks that nobody will take. By the way, please don't tell anybody in Europe that, I don't want to get mugged.
During my hour and a half layover in Bordeaux, I decided to walk around the city just outside the station (I was in the Saint Jean neighborhood of Bordeaux, which is obviously why the station is called Bordeaux Saint Jean; this is not to be confused with the actual city of Saint Jean de Luz, the French like to recycle their names apparently, like Paris Gare Lyon). Saint Jean is a neighborhood that is apparently heavily populated with Arabics or Persians, given the number of ethnic restaurants there were. This whole day I've been craving an American hamburger like that of McDonalds, but I resisted and instead went to a little brasserie that served kebab sandwiches, and oh my God it was amazing. The meat was juicy and well-seasoned, and the sandwich was lined with the craziest dijon mustard I had ever tasted. It tasted more like wasabi than it did of mustard because of how concentrated the horseradish flavor was. The sandwich even brought me to tears (not because of how good it was, although it was good) but because of the kick the horseradish brought to my face.
And that brings this update to the present. Me, in a very comfortable first class chair on a train, typing this entry onto a text document. Trains are so much more pleasant than planes, there's no crazed security line where you take off your shoes belts guns, no chance of losing your luggage since you're with it the whole time, and the large, comfy seats in first class are much cheaper than the tiny seats with no legroom found in the economy class of an airline. Why don't more people take more trains?
I hope everything is well back in the States, and I really miss all two of you loyal readers (actually I have no idea how many people read this.)
8-30-09
Well, I've settled into my new flat in Saint Jean De Luz, and let me tell you, Saint Jean De Luz is absolutely beeautiful. My apartment is about 100 yards from the beach. I wish I had my camera here but alas, it doesn't work at the moment.
So after I arrived in my apartment, I met my new apartmentmates; There's Josh, an American baritone who studies in Germany, Marie, a French pianist from Paris, and Hermine, a cellist from burgundy. Yes, I'm living with two women, and for me the most awkward part is that I want to go number two but I can't because I'm too embarrassed. They're all super nice, and we spent all last night working on our respective languages, English for Marie and Hermine, and French for me and Josh.
The four of us went out to dinner last night on the boardwalk. It's a completely different culture here in Saint Jean De Luz and it's very different even from first glance. Because city is very close to the Spanish border, there's a lot of Basque and Spanish influence in the architecture and the food. For instance, last night the speciality of most of the restaurants was seafood paella, something I hadn't had since my Spain tour. Let me just tell you, that was some intense paella. They literally just fished up the fruit de Mer and the fish like hours before cooking it, it was nuts. Paired with sangrias, good company, and an awesome view of the night beach, I had this feeling of contentment that made me want to stay here forever.
The only downside? I have even less access to internet here; again I'm typing this into a text document. Josh and I were talking about this last night and we sort of realized how addicted to the internet we Americans are; Hermine joked it's probably how French are addicted to smoking. Entire cultures all have their own vices I suppose.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
So things in Flaine have been looking up compared to my last real update; I'm having daily lessons on the Brahms F minor sonata (or rather: Sonate en Fa minor de Brahms pour alto) with Miguel Da Silva (violist of the Ysaye Quartet) and he's been absolutely great. I've also been seeing a kinesiologist for my shoulder injury and that's been helping a lot as well. I wouldn't say that I'm playing at 100% but I'm slowly working my way back. I've also been placed in a piano quartet playing the Turina piano quartet. I'm also literally the only english speaker in the quartet, but you know that old cliche how music is the universal language? It's actually kind of true, go figure. As time goes by and as I learn more and more French, I start making more and more friends. After the concert today (which was ended abruptly because somebody in the audience randomly had an epileptic seizure) I went to a bar with some of my new French friends! My broken French and their broken English got us through a good couple hours worth of conversation.
More observations!
1) Snails taste like clams. Yes, I had escargot, and it was pretty good.
2) They don't call french fries "french fries" for no reason. People here have it with every single meal it seems.
2b) They really like their bread, people will buy a fresh baguette daily and just munch on it over the course of an entire day.
2c) They don't seem to ever get obese.
3) Older european men seem to enjoy winking as a subtle form of greeting. Paul Coletti does it, Antonio Lysy does it, Guillaume Sutre does it, and Miguel Da Silva does it. Hurm.
4) The myth that French women don't shave their pits is only partly true. I will not go into detail.
That's all for now, A bientot!
More observations!
1) Snails taste like clams. Yes, I had escargot, and it was pretty good.
2) They don't call french fries "french fries" for no reason. People here have it with every single meal it seems.
2b) They really like their bread, people will buy a fresh baguette daily and just munch on it over the course of an entire day.
2c) They don't seem to ever get obese.
3) Older european men seem to enjoy winking as a subtle form of greeting. Paul Coletti does it, Antonio Lysy does it, Guillaume Sutre does it, and Miguel Da Silva does it. Hurm.
4) The myth that French women don't shave their pits is only partly true. I will not go into detail.
That's all for now, A bientot!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
10:05:11 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: how's france going?
10:05:22 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: are girls there actually hairy?
10:05:40 PM danny: LOL
10:05:41 PM danny: wow
10:05:46 PM danny: no but they smoke alot
10:05:47 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: REALLY!! it's a real question
10:05:50 PM danny: and don't speak much english
10:05:52 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: haha. oh.
10:05:58 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: do they give you snotty looks cus you're american?
10:06:00 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: or does your ^_^ save the day
10:06:03 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: OH APPARENTLY
10:06:08 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: you're not supposed to randomly smile!!
10:06:15 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: it's culturally very coy and flirtatious in france.
10:08:14 PM danny: rofl
10:08:15 PM danny: great.
10:08:23 PM danny: ive been smiling all over the place to try and be friendly...
10:08:25 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: -_-
10:08:27 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: SOTP SMILING.
10:08:27 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: hahaha
10:08:28 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: YOU SLUT
10:08:30 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: :O :O
10:05:22 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: are girls there actually hairy?
10:05:40 PM danny: LOL
10:05:41 PM danny: wow
10:05:46 PM danny: no but they smoke alot
10:05:47 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: REALLY!! it's a real question
10:05:50 PM danny: and don't speak much english
10:05:52 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: haha. oh.
10:05:58 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: do they give you snotty looks cus you're american?
10:06:00 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: or does your ^_^ save the day
10:06:03 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: OH APPARENTLY
10:06:08 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: you're not supposed to randomly smile!!
10:06:15 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: it's culturally very coy and flirtatious in france.
10:08:14 PM danny: rofl
10:08:15 PM danny: great.
10:08:23 PM danny: ive been smiling all over the place to try and be friendly...
10:08:25 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: -_-
10:08:27 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: SOTP SMILING.
10:08:27 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: hahaha
10:08:28 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: YOU SLUT
10:08:30 PM baBeEbeaNcuRd: :O :O
Monday, August 17, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
À Flaine!
Today was another full day of traveling and sweating. After spending the whole night awake doing nothing on the hotel's wireless internet, which isn't free :(, I left my hotel and the aforementioned awesome croissant au abricot and pain au chocolat. Afterward I hopped aboard the train to Bellegarde. I nearly missed my stop because I fell asleep and by some stroke of luck just happened to wake up right before the train left again. Later on I hopped on the bus where I realzied the painfully obvious: I have no friends! I'm going to have to learn to hold conversations in French very quickly if I'm going to get by.
Other observations:
1) French people are doomed to have cancer of some kind, most likely lung or skin cancer. One of the two.
2) A lot of them have B.O.
That's all for now, adieu!
Other observations:
1) French people are doomed to have cancer of some kind, most likely lung or skin cancer. One of the two.
2) A lot of them have B.O.
That's all for now, adieu!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
It's my second day here in France, and after exploring Lyon for a few hours I've come to the following conclusions:
1) 50% of French people are perpetually sunburned. The other 50% are of arabic or african descent.
2) Foie gras and I do not go well together.
Starting Thursday, I traveled for about 26 hours before I finally reached my destination, leaving my house at 5:30 for SFO, boarding my flight to Chicago O'Hare at 9:55, landing at 4:30 (2:30 pacific) boarding my flight to Paris at 6:23 PM, and landing at 9:40 local time (12:40 pacific; from here on out I'm on France time which is 9 hours ahead) and then waiting for my 12:58 train to Lyon. Two hours later, I'm in Lyon, checking into my hotel, utterly exhausted. After waking up at 1 in the morning, I notice that I smell a little bit rancid, probably from sweating in the sun while carrying around all my belongings.
Unfortunately, Lyon does not have a very interesting night life, because everything closes down at 11, I think. At this point I'm literally locked into my hotel, because the automatic doors are closed and turned off. Really need to get over this jetlag...
Once the sun came up I took it upon myself to go exploring through the town, but as my luck would have it, it's some kind of holiday today so a majority of the city was closed and pretty empty for the most part, but I still found a nice little alleyway that was very populated and full of restaurants. It was there that I had my first experience with foie gras, and let me tell you, that was pretty difficult. It's not like it tasted bad or anything, but it just felt so...rich that I started feeling a little queasy. Following that with a "Le Colonel" (a lemon sorbet with vodka) seemed to settle the stomach. After another couple hours of walking around, I caught a bus back to the hotel and fell back asleep, only to wake up at 2am again. Gotta get over that jetlag...
1) 50% of French people are perpetually sunburned. The other 50% are of arabic or african descent.
2) Foie gras and I do not go well together.
Starting Thursday, I traveled for about 26 hours before I finally reached my destination, leaving my house at 5:30 for SFO, boarding my flight to Chicago O'Hare at 9:55, landing at 4:30 (2:30 pacific) boarding my flight to Paris at 6:23 PM, and landing at 9:40 local time (12:40 pacific; from here on out I'm on France time which is 9 hours ahead) and then waiting for my 12:58 train to Lyon. Two hours later, I'm in Lyon, checking into my hotel, utterly exhausted. After waking up at 1 in the morning, I notice that I smell a little bit rancid, probably from sweating in the sun while carrying around all my belongings.
Unfortunately, Lyon does not have a very interesting night life, because everything closes down at 11, I think. At this point I'm literally locked into my hotel, because the automatic doors are closed and turned off. Really need to get over this jetlag...
Once the sun came up I took it upon myself to go exploring through the town, but as my luck would have it, it's some kind of holiday today so a majority of the city was closed and pretty empty for the most part, but I still found a nice little alleyway that was very populated and full of restaurants. It was there that I had my first experience with foie gras, and let me tell you, that was pretty difficult. It's not like it tasted bad or anything, but it just felt so...rich that I started feeling a little queasy. Following that with a "Le Colonel" (a lemon sorbet with vodka) seemed to settle the stomach. After another couple hours of walking around, I caught a bus back to the hotel and fell back asleep, only to wake up at 2am again. Gotta get over that jetlag...
Friday, August 14, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
falling short and still making it
Sometimes I amaze myself with just how fantastic I am at falling short. And then I am doubly, no, triply amazed (I fall short at being infinitely amazed) at God's grace.
A few weekends ago, I was invited to participate in quite possibly one of the most life -changing Christian conferences of my life. I've been to youth retreats where everybody is so on fire for God after the great worship and the awesome sermons, but I lacked the maturity and the discipline to maintain that passion once we returned home. But this was different. It was the Resolved conference which is hosted annually by Grace Community Church, and I was contacted to play viola in one of their worship sets. As compensation I would be allowed to attend the conference for free and be able to listen to awesome pastors such as John MacArthur, Rick Holland, Steve Lawson, C.J. Mahaney, and John Piper. So I say, why not, and sign up. What an amazing experience to be able to play with such gifted musicians and worshippers of God. I was able to chat with a few of them (one of whom is incidentally a classmate of my sister's at USC) about what it means to offer up classical music in particular as an act of worship, but that's another post.
I'm in that little string section on the left hand side of the stage!
At the conference, my heart was opened, challenged, and shocked by the nature of my own sin, and how in God's infinite sovereignty, uses that grace for his own glory. He ordained Satan's and Adam's fall, so that thousands of years later His own son would die to overcome those original sins on the cross to reveal his own glory. A beautiful illustration of that is when Joseph's brothers meant to sell slavery out of the evilness of their own hearts, God used that very sin to preserve life in Egypt(Genesis 45). How mind boggling is that? That a God who is so holy, uses his own sovereign power to ordain sin for his glory. I'm still so blown away by this, and so much more accutely aware of my sins that I can't help but rely more on God's grace and further glorify Him for his conquering of death and sin.
Whew, that was a mouthful of theology.
Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for the whole conference because I had to help out with my mom's vacation bible school at her church here in Saratoga (but I did download the rest of the sermons!) That was an interesting learning experience all on its own. My mom put me in charge of running games for the kids and it was a total nightmare for me. On the first day I tried to run the games that the booklet suggested, and every single one of them frowned upon the ideas and they just ended up playing freeze tag. I called up Pastor Jay (I bet he's frowning upon that title in this post) for some ideas on the next day and he suggested building a maze that they would have to go through blindfolded. The simple idea of just bumping into tables repeatedly seemed to amuse them, so that worked out in the end. However, Wednesday was just as frustrating as the first day, and by this point I was pretty reluctant to return to work with, as I called them, "those brats". But a message that I heard that night about loving others because God first loved us (1 John 4:7-12) really convicted me to rethink my attitude and persevere in working with those kids. And by the end of Friday, I was actually sad that my time with them was ending. Despite their unwillingness to listen and just want to play tag all day long, despite them nearly ripping off my shirt (don't ask), all of them were just such sweet kids that I wanted to play with some more. What a lesson in humility (I had forgotten that when you work with kids, you're going to be the target of all their jokes) and grace. What a painful reminder of my shortcomings, and the redemption that comes with trusting in God.
After VBS ends, I usually have the day to myself which I would spend with friends. I don't know about you, but I would say that three of my closest friends are non-believers. On two separate occasions, I put myself in positions to be a good witness (Matthew 5:13-16), to show how much I had grown in college as a leader within my ministries, only to once again fall short. I won't deny that I drank on two separate occasions. But worse of all is that when I was playing video games I let my temper get the best of me and just began spouting out obscenities. How stupid and immature is that. What kind of a Christian am I portraying if all I'm doing is showing a worse character than non-believers? The only comfort I have is having faith in knowing that He will somehow redeem that situation for His glory, like He redeemed the entire human race by crushing His own son on the cross. I am not perfect. Christians are not perfect. Far from it. But we worship a God who is perfect, and redeems us for our shortcomings.
What a summer of learning already. And as it continues on, I anticipate becoming more and more anti-social (probably because nobody's in San Jose) and just immersing myself in books, books, and more books. On the agenda in no particular order:
A few weekends ago, I was invited to participate in quite possibly one of the most life -changing Christian conferences of my life. I've been to youth retreats where everybody is so on fire for God after the great worship and the awesome sermons, but I lacked the maturity and the discipline to maintain that passion once we returned home. But this was different. It was the Resolved conference which is hosted annually by Grace Community Church, and I was contacted to play viola in one of their worship sets. As compensation I would be allowed to attend the conference for free and be able to listen to awesome pastors such as John MacArthur, Rick Holland, Steve Lawson, C.J. Mahaney, and John Piper. So I say, why not, and sign up. What an amazing experience to be able to play with such gifted musicians and worshippers of God. I was able to chat with a few of them (one of whom is incidentally a classmate of my sister's at USC) about what it means to offer up classical music in particular as an act of worship, but that's another post.
I'm in that little string section on the left hand side of the stage!
At the conference, my heart was opened, challenged, and shocked by the nature of my own sin, and how in God's infinite sovereignty, uses that grace for his own glory. He ordained Satan's and Adam's fall, so that thousands of years later His own son would die to overcome those original sins on the cross to reveal his own glory. A beautiful illustration of that is when Joseph's brothers meant to sell slavery out of the evilness of their own hearts, God used that very sin to preserve life in Egypt(Genesis 45). How mind boggling is that? That a God who is so holy, uses his own sovereign power to ordain sin for his glory. I'm still so blown away by this, and so much more accutely aware of my sins that I can't help but rely more on God's grace and further glorify Him for his conquering of death and sin.
Whew, that was a mouthful of theology.
Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for the whole conference because I had to help out with my mom's vacation bible school at her church here in Saratoga (but I did download the rest of the sermons!) That was an interesting learning experience all on its own. My mom put me in charge of running games for the kids and it was a total nightmare for me. On the first day I tried to run the games that the booklet suggested, and every single one of them frowned upon the ideas and they just ended up playing freeze tag. I called up Pastor Jay (I bet he's frowning upon that title in this post) for some ideas on the next day and he suggested building a maze that they would have to go through blindfolded. The simple idea of just bumping into tables repeatedly seemed to amuse them, so that worked out in the end. However, Wednesday was just as frustrating as the first day, and by this point I was pretty reluctant to return to work with, as I called them, "those brats". But a message that I heard that night about loving others because God first loved us (1 John 4:7-12) really convicted me to rethink my attitude and persevere in working with those kids. And by the end of Friday, I was actually sad that my time with them was ending. Despite their unwillingness to listen and just want to play tag all day long, despite them nearly ripping off my shirt (don't ask), all of them were just such sweet kids that I wanted to play with some more. What a lesson in humility (I had forgotten that when you work with kids, you're going to be the target of all their jokes) and grace. What a painful reminder of my shortcomings, and the redemption that comes with trusting in God.
After VBS ends, I usually have the day to myself which I would spend with friends. I don't know about you, but I would say that three of my closest friends are non-believers. On two separate occasions, I put myself in positions to be a good witness (Matthew 5:13-16), to show how much I had grown in college as a leader within my ministries, only to once again fall short. I won't deny that I drank on two separate occasions. But worse of all is that when I was playing video games I let my temper get the best of me and just began spouting out obscenities. How stupid and immature is that. What kind of a Christian am I portraying if all I'm doing is showing a worse character than non-believers? The only comfort I have is having faith in knowing that He will somehow redeem that situation for His glory, like He redeemed the entire human race by crushing His own son on the cross. I am not perfect. Christians are not perfect. Far from it. But we worship a God who is perfect, and redeems us for our shortcomings.
What a summer of learning already. And as it continues on, I anticipate becoming more and more anti-social (probably because nobody's in San Jose) and just immersing myself in books, books, and more books. On the agenda in no particular order:
- The entire bible (That's right. Finishing up Deuteronomy and Joshua tonight.)
- Spectacular Sins, Desiring God by John Piper
- Humility by C.J. Mahaney
- Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin
- To Know You More by Andy Park
- Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Abolition Of Man, The Great Divorce, The Problem of Pain, Miracles, A Grief Observed, by C.S. Lewis
- The Prodigal God by Tim Keller (can somebody let me borrow Reason for God? Forgot to order that on Amazon)
- Right Thinking In A World Gone Wrong, The Jesus You Can't Ignore by John MacArthur
- Spiritual Disciplines by Donald Whitney (for the third time)
- Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan
- The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul
Monday, June 15, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Braised Baby-Back Ribs
Don't ask about the salad, my roommate's girlfriend brought it. Sigh.
When I make baby-back ribs I don't barbeque them, since I don't own a smoker. Instead I braise them and they come out awesome.
To begin, take two racks of babyback ribs and lay them out on some heavy-duty aluminum foil, or two to three layers of normal aluminum foil (this is important.) Liberally apply dry rub both sides of the rack (more on the convex side), and give it a good pat down. Loosely wrap it and place in the fridge for at least twelve hours.
For the dry rub:
8 Tbls of light brown sugar
3 Tbls of kosher salt
1 Tbls of chili powder
.5 tsp of thyme
.5 tsp of old bay seasoning
.5 tsp of cayenne pepper
.5 tsp of onion powder
.5 tsp of black pepper
.5 tsp of garlic powder
(the last six ingredients can be whatever you like, that's just what i use)
After an overnight sit in the fridge, take out the ribs. Pre-heat oven to 225º F. Open up the foil on one end only, pour in braising liquid, repeat for the other rack.
For the braising liquid
1 cup of dry white wine
2 Tbls of white wine vinegar
2 Tbls of Worchetershire Sauce. (I'm going to experiment with soy sauce soon, see how that turns out)
2 Tbls of honey
5 diced cloves of garlic.
Microwave this mixture in a sealable container (like some tupperware) for a minute just to help the honey dissolve and for the garlic juice to seep out a bit, shake around a bit if needed.
Make sure everything's nice and moist from the braising liquid, then roll up the foil again. Place on an oven tray, and put it in the 225º F oven for three hours. After three hours, turn off the oven and collect the braising liquid from both foiled racks into a sauce pan. I suggest just laying the rack on the pan and cutting slits in the middle of the foil and letting it drain that way. Place the ribs back in the oven to keep them warm. Set the sauce pan over high heat and let it reduce until it's a dark brown and thick syrup, should take about 10 minutes. BE CAREFUL TO TAKE IT OFF IMMEDIATELY ONCE IT REACHES THIS STAGE. Once the water's gone, the only thing left being heated are the sugars which can quickly caramelize and burn. With a basting brush, take the reduced glaze and brush it on every surface of the ribs. Place in the broiler for about 30 seconds, then eat.
Don't ask about the salad, my roommate's girlfriend brought it. Sigh.
When I make baby-back ribs I don't barbeque them, since I don't own a smoker. Instead I braise them and they come out awesome.
To begin, take two racks of babyback ribs and lay them out on some heavy-duty aluminum foil, or two to three layers of normal aluminum foil (this is important.) Liberally apply dry rub both sides of the rack (more on the convex side), and give it a good pat down. Loosely wrap it and place in the fridge for at least twelve hours.
For the dry rub:
8 Tbls of light brown sugar
3 Tbls of kosher salt
1 Tbls of chili powder
.5 tsp of thyme
.5 tsp of old bay seasoning
.5 tsp of cayenne pepper
.5 tsp of onion powder
.5 tsp of black pepper
.5 tsp of garlic powder
(the last six ingredients can be whatever you like, that's just what i use)
After an overnight sit in the fridge, take out the ribs. Pre-heat oven to 225º F. Open up the foil on one end only, pour in braising liquid, repeat for the other rack.
For the braising liquid
1 cup of dry white wine
2 Tbls of white wine vinegar
2 Tbls of Worchetershire Sauce. (I'm going to experiment with soy sauce soon, see how that turns out)
2 Tbls of honey
5 diced cloves of garlic.
Microwave this mixture in a sealable container (like some tupperware) for a minute just to help the honey dissolve and for the garlic juice to seep out a bit, shake around a bit if needed.
Make sure everything's nice and moist from the braising liquid, then roll up the foil again. Place on an oven tray, and put it in the 225º F oven for three hours. After three hours, turn off the oven and collect the braising liquid from both foiled racks into a sauce pan. I suggest just laying the rack on the pan and cutting slits in the middle of the foil and letting it drain that way. Place the ribs back in the oven to keep them warm. Set the sauce pan over high heat and let it reduce until it's a dark brown and thick syrup, should take about 10 minutes. BE CAREFUL TO TAKE IT OFF IMMEDIATELY ONCE IT REACHES THIS STAGE. Once the water's gone, the only thing left being heated are the sugars which can quickly caramelize and burn. With a basting brush, take the reduced glaze and brush it on every surface of the ribs. Place in the broiler for about 30 seconds, then eat.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
For the (very) few of you who are interested in my upcoming performance schedule and the stuff I'm playing, here it is:
Friday, May 29th - 4:45 PM - Juries (basically my final that I have to do once a year as a music major)
My arms hurt just thinking about it.
Friday, May 29th - 4:45 PM - Juries (basically my final that I have to do once a year as a music major)
- Johannes Brahms, Sonata for Viola and Piano in Eb, Op. 120b
- William Walton, Concert for Viola and Orchestra, 2nd movement
- Bernard Hermann, Echoes (with Josh Addison, Tim Yip, and Chloe Knudsen-Robbins)
- Samuel Barber, Dover Beach (with Josh Addison, Tim Yip, Chloe Knudsen-Robbins, and Mario Chae)
- Johannes Brahms, Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 (with Lauren Deutsch, Jihae Oh, Celine Gietzen, and Jonathan Sacdalan)
- Mark Carlson, Dream Fantasies (with Theodosia Roussos, Natalia Kaminska-Palarczyk, and Jennifer Lin)
- Joseph Haydn's The Creation
- Johannes Brahms, Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 (with Lauren Deutsch, Jihae Oh, Celine Gietzen, and Jonathan Sacdalan)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Clarinet Quintet in A, K. 581 (with Lauren Deutsch, Jihae Oh, Celine Gietzen, and Jonathan Sacdalan)
- Bernard Hermann, Echoes (with Josh Addison, Tim Yip, and Chloe Knudsen-Robbins)
- Samuel Barber, Dover Beach (with Josh Addison, Tim Yip, Chloe Knudsen-Robbins, and Mario Chae)
My arms hurt just thinking about it.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Thought this would be fun to do.
Rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search (http://www.flickr.com/).
b. Using ONLY the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Mosaic Maker. Change rows to 3 and columns to 3 (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php ).
d. Save the image and post it on this note.
1) Name: Danny
2) Favorite color: Blue
3) Favorite food: Meat (of all kinds)
4) Favorite drink: Coke
5) Dream vacation: Paris
6) Favorite hobby: Cooking
7) What you want to be when you grow up: Musician (I typed in violist for the search)
8) What do you love most in life: Jesus (I typed in the cross)
9) One word to describe you: Smile
Yeah, I cheated a little bit. Sorry.
Rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search (http://www.flickr.com/).
b. Using ONLY the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Mosaic Maker. Change rows to 3 and columns to 3 (http://bighugelabs.com/fli
d. Save the image and post it on this note.
1) Name: Danny
2) Favorite color: Blue
3) Favorite food: Meat (of all kinds)
4) Favorite drink: Coke
5) Dream vacation: Paris
6) Favorite hobby: Cooking
7) What you want to be when you grow up: Musician (I typed in violist for the search)
8) What do you love most in life: Jesus (I typed in the cross)
9) One word to describe you: Smile
Yeah, I cheated a little bit. Sorry.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Productivity
Here's to hoping I have a productive summer, assuming I get into certain programs
June 29 to July 24: Take two quarters worth of French at De Anza
July 24 to August 13: Summit Music Festival in Manhattansville, New York
August 16 to August 29: Musique Á Flaine, France (in the French Alps!!!)
Hoping that God provides me with something do this summer :O
You got plans?
June 29 to July 24: Take two quarters worth of French at De Anza
July 24 to August 13: Summit Music Festival in Manhattansville, New York
August 16 to August 29: Musique Á Flaine, France (in the French Alps!!!)
Hoping that God provides me with something do this summer :O
You got plans?
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
1 Corinthians 13:1-4 ESV
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries to all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."
What's the point of ministry if all we do is judge and condemn, instead of forgiving and loving? How can we reach out to nonbelievers when we can't even love the brothers and sisters within our own ministry? This generation's mindset of superiority and legalism is going to be our undoing and something radical needs to break that. God, teach us all how to love. Teach us how to love You so that we can love each other.
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries to all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."
What's the point of ministry if all we do is judge and condemn, instead of forgiving and loving? How can we reach out to nonbelievers when we can't even love the brothers and sisters within our own ministry? This generation's mindset of superiority and legalism is going to be our undoing and something radical needs to break that. God, teach us all how to love. Teach us how to love You so that we can love each other.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
The Benjamin Button Experience
It's 5:49 AM and I'm supposed to write a paper on the Communist Manifesto, which I haven't finished reading yet. What have I been doing? Looking through old facebook pictures. I believe it was Irene who said that I'm a total closet nostalgiaholic. Ah, a trip through memory lane, and most of these are just the first three years of college.
Class of '10 at retreat. Go juniors!
Adub and Byung at Sprinkles! Yay. This took 3 weeks to plan.
When I cooked for the lovely ladies (plus Max) of the 408.
DKang likes his salads.
Junior class at our 0 week beach night
Random 6 flags outing
One of my most favorite pictures of all time, when I randomly went up to Seattle for 10 hours to hang out with my family.
Final meeting as Team Orson. By the way, this is now sophomore year.
Another awesome picture of the boys in RV551B
Sophomore class at senior banquet
The night that started it all...
Second year spring quarter beach night
Random antics in Julia's room.
Best. Night. Ever.
One of many Family Restaurant excursions. Happy faces all around.
Sophomore sister's night
Vine Rock Band practice. I mean, bible study.
The failed Mammoth trip
Studs
Buddies
Rubio Mondays
Apparently San Jose has an ice-skating rink.
New York field trip :)
Summer lovin, having a blasttt
NorCal is where the heart is.
Supermarket Parking Lot Tour
We're actually a band. Day of my last final.
And we're officially first years again.
The final performance of Rien :(
Paul Coletti's last viola studio at UCLA, '06
Woops.
Freshman Brother's Night
Dormal fail.
Freshman Sister's Night. By now you can tell how a lot of us have changed...
My disgruntled theory theory class after our retarded final.
Connie's wedding, another one of my all time favorite pictures
Fun in Hedrick 2South.
5 people on one bed for some reason
The '06 SV Praise team, good times.
Uh, crap.
4th of July celebration
The CYS String Quartet with Maestro Eylar. We look disgusting.
CYS Class of '06 :)
Somehow I managed to graduate. By this point I'm a senior in high school.
Second period Choir, where I slept like 80% of the time.
Apparently I was a bad date for prom.
Happy birthday Ashley
Tour de Spain with Jon Nakamatsu, Summer of '05.
Whatever happened to this guy. Junior year of high school.
Skipping 4 years to when I was 12 years old and vacationing in Seattle haha.
And now I'm 7.
Sorry for the lame captions. Adieu!
Class of '10 at retreat. Go juniors!
Adub and Byung at Sprinkles! Yay. This took 3 weeks to plan.
When I cooked for the lovely ladies (plus Max) of the 408.
DKang likes his salads.
Junior class at our 0 week beach night
Random 6 flags outing
One of my most favorite pictures of all time, when I randomly went up to Seattle for 10 hours to hang out with my family.
Final meeting as Team Orson. By the way, this is now sophomore year.
Another awesome picture of the boys in RV551B
Sophomore class at senior banquet
The night that started it all...
Second year spring quarter beach night
Random antics in Julia's room.
Best. Night. Ever.
One of many Family Restaurant excursions. Happy faces all around.
Sophomore sister's night
Vine Rock Band practice. I mean, bible study.
The failed Mammoth trip
Studs
Buddies
Rubio Mondays
Apparently San Jose has an ice-skating rink.
New York field trip :)
Summer lovin, having a blasttt
NorCal is where the heart is.
Supermarket Parking Lot Tour
We're actually a band. Day of my last final.
And we're officially first years again.
The final performance of Rien :(
Paul Coletti's last viola studio at UCLA, '06
Woops.
Freshman Brother's Night
Dormal fail.
Freshman Sister's Night. By now you can tell how a lot of us have changed...
My disgruntled theory theory class after our retarded final.
Connie's wedding, another one of my all time favorite pictures
Fun in Hedrick 2South.
5 people on one bed for some reason
The '06 SV Praise team, good times.
Uh, crap.
4th of July celebration
The CYS String Quartet with Maestro Eylar. We look disgusting.
CYS Class of '06 :)
Somehow I managed to graduate. By this point I'm a senior in high school.
Second period Choir, where I slept like 80% of the time.
Apparently I was a bad date for prom.
Happy birthday Ashley
Tour de Spain with Jon Nakamatsu, Summer of '05.
Whatever happened to this guy. Junior year of high school.
Skipping 4 years to when I was 12 years old and vacationing in Seattle haha.
And now I'm 7.
Sorry for the lame captions. Adieu!
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