August 2011
40 posts
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Day 30: Final word- Your “thank you's,"...
Man, I’ve been having this conversation with my friends for months. It usually starts with…
“Wow…”
And I guess “wow” really encompasses how everything feels. There isn’t really a concrete emotion to describe it. It’s not wholly sadness or happiness, it’s way more complicated.
It has been very difficult during these past few weeks to...
Anonymous asked: Advice on Cordero Sophomore English Honors? I remember reading your tumlr that you had her when you were a Sophomore. Thank you.
Anonymous asked: When is the documentary coming out?
Anonymous asked: Ray, any advice on reviewing for Mists of Avalon test? I have no idea what am I supposed to memorize perfectly.
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TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL SENIOR YEAR
Last year, I posted “TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL JUNIOR YEAR” (and it was reblogged and liked quite a few times in the past week by excited juniors), so I thought it would be fun to write a “sequel” post for seniors!
Start your applications as early as possible. Sorry, I know you probably hear this too much, but it’s only because it’s really good advice! College...
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Day 29: What you'll miss
I’m gonna miss a lot of things…
my friends
my family
my home
the sunny weather
spontaneous boba runs
driving
Old Town Pasadena
the rigid structure of high school
my teachers
a private restroom
wearing flip-flops
Starbucks runs
Din Tai Fung
good Asian food in general
AP Stats study sessions
bowling night
Monopoly night
Scrabble night
shaved ice/snow
walking to each...
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“The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately...”
– Elisabeth Foley
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Day 28: Your parents
I’m blessed to have parents who learned early on that the best parents are the ones who encourage their children to explore rather than force them down a path. They respected my interests and passions, and not only let me pursue them but pushed me to be the best I could be.
An ideal parent provides unconditional love and support, and my parents exude those traits and much more. Looking...
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a full circle
Clark is leaving for college tomorrow morning at 4:30 AM. We just spent two hours reminiscing on our last 18 years in Arcadia. We drove to the Rose Bowl (our second home) and walked along the pool recalling memories about the sport that brought us together. We walked around the upper Arroyo, a place we explored frequently in our early teenage years. We went to Highland Oaks, the school where we...
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“We are momentum creators. What momentum we create is up to us, but it...”
– David Marcum & Steven Smith (egonomics)
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"a hui hou"
USC moves in this morning, UC Berkeley moves in this Saturday, WashU St. Louis moves in next Wednesday, UPenn the following Monday, and suddenly it’ll be my turn…
This summer whizzed by faster than I can even recall. I still remember talking to Winnie in the first week of summer about how endlessly fun this summer would be, but we said our goodbyes more than two weeks ago. In fact,...
Dear Class of 2011,
absolute-best-posts:minisandwiches:
As you begin your college experience, I thought I’d leave you with the things that, in retrospect, I think are important as you navigate the next four years. I hope that some of them are helpful. Here goes…
Your friends will change a lot over the next four years. Let them.
Call someone you love back home a few times a week, even if just for a few minutes.
...
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I wasn't allowed to enter the Communist History...
First Facebook… now flip-flops?? Is China a freaking middle school?!?!
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Tutoring babies everywhere!
One thing I noticed about China is that parents here pay a huge amount of attention to kids. Maybe it’s partly a social consequence in response to the One-Child Policy, but I realized that parents here put tremendous pressure on the child to succeed by providing him/her with as many resources as they can afford.
I was at this mall in Shenyang and on the first floor there was an entire wing...
Starbucks in China can't make my iced green tea...
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I don't understand how 咖啡色 came to be 咖啡色
So in China, the word for brown is 咖啡色 (pronunciation: kah-fay suh).
咖啡 (kah-fay) means coffee, and is obviously derived phonetically from the English word “coffee” (or the Ottoman Turkish kahve or Italian caffé according to Wikipedia, but that’s not the point).
Here’s where it gets interesting…
Also according to Wikipedia, the earliest historical recollection of...
CollegeBoard offers internships to college...
…and it’s located in Princeton, NJ…
How much should I charge for every ten points I add to your SAT score?
“Humility requires not that we think less of ourselves, but that we think of...”
– David Marcum & Steven Smith (egonomics)
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Attention Seniors: ADMISSIONS DIRECTOR REVEALS...
Silke Sen is the former Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Washington University in St. Louis. She worked in admissions at WUSTL for ten years, and currently serves as the Associate Director of Undergraduate Advising at WUSTL’s Olin Business School.
Ms. Sen has visited Arcadia High several times as the official admissions liaison to California (meaning she read all the...
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Chinese meteorologists cultivate a black market
It has been a crazy last 24 hours…
My dad needed to be in Shanghai by Sunday morning for his meeting, so we had booked the earliest flight out of Shenyang to Shanghai on Sunday morning.
But Saturday evening, we found out that the biggest typhoon China had seen in years (Typhoon Meihua) was headed towards Shanghai. As a result, the airport was closed.
Errr….
In a last minute, last...
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Day 27: A word of advice to your younger...
I wrote this for high school Juniors about a year ago…
For all underclassmen:
Be yourself. You’re never going to be successful if you waste your time trying to be somebody else. You’re best at being you.
That said, don’t let other people’ perceptions of you influence who you are. You are who you are. If people don’t like that, so be it. It’s...
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Day 26: A memorable, spontaneous hangout
Okay I really need to finish this Senior Year Tumblr Challenge before college….
Flashlights, caves, penguins, Starbucks, photobooth… enough said :P
Now that I think about it, the most memorable and spontaneous hangouts happened when… they weren’t really supposed to…. LOL
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It's hard to believe that it's almost over...
I’m really behind on these summer updates…
I went to my first midnight movie premiere! Harry Potter 7 Part 2 lived up to the hype, and it was the first HP movie I’ve seen that I walked out of the theater feeling completely satisfied. I commented on this in a previous post, but I really think that this Harry Potter adventure holds special meaning to us as the “Harry...
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“Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of...”
– Albert Einstein
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Appreciate the rudeness? (or lack thereof)
My first impression of China in one word: rude.
Me, as my stereotypically arrogant (and ignorant) self, rose from my economy airplane seat only to be shoved to the side by hoards of Chinese people. It reminded me of my trip three years ago to Beijing, when 14-year-old Ray Chao was constantly pushed out of line or out of subway seats.
But then it gets really confusing.
Over the past few days,...
