7/11 Postcards Received by Postcrossers; awaiting on 4 more to be registered. Only 9 more to go!

My third postcard came into the mail today! I was sleeping, and suddenly my mom came in and slipped a card into my hand. I've been waiting to receive something like this, so that's why when I finally woke up, I was so excited to see all the flowers on it which only meant one thing - it's from Holland! The place I've dreamed of visiting to witness for myself the magnificent fields of tulips. :) The sender is a woman named Anke who left a very nice message on the card. - March 15, 2012

My fourth postcard came in today. Another favourite! I was surprised that I got a card two days in a row; not because I didn't think it could happen as Peiyi always gets those, but I've just never experienced it myself. Anyways, this one's from Japan and it's exactly the type I've checked off on my "favourites" wall. And on top of that, it was sent by a man, named Daisuke. I used to think to myself, "what's the big deal of visiting Japan?" when everyone put that at the top of their list of where they want to visit. But now I envy the beauty of the country; the cherry blossom festival, the peaceful sceneries, and rock gardens. And hopefully someday, I'll be able to see them in person. - March 16, 2012.

I received my first postcard today from Finland! The sender is a woman named Sari. I used to think that I would be disappointed if I didn't receive a postcard exactly like the ones I had in mind, but I guess I was wrong. Just the feeling of getting mail from someone somewhere around the world is enough to make me smile. - March 7, 2012.

Received my second postcard from Annelies. This one's from a small town in Belgium called Tienen. Covered in green clovers, the card was sent one day before the Carnival in her country. It's not exactly the postcard that I hoped to receive after the first one, but I'll take it. After all, there are many more to come. - March, 2012

Planning on reading all the novels written by the bestselling New York author, Jodi Picoult. She's my greatest inspiration as a writer, and I admire the way she can take all these complex issues and develop such intricate pieces around each one of them.

TITLE // Date of completion
1. Change of Heart (Date Unknown)
2. House Rules (Date Unknown)
3. The Tenth Circle (Date Unknown)
4. Nineteen Minutes (Date Unknown)
5. Vanishing Acts (In Progress)

The band room seemed the worst place to hold an audition – it was stuffy, hot, and the sound didn’t travel well. We sang without instrumental, or mics. I think it started off pretty well but when Felix’s voice cracked, I was really starting to have doubts. I filled in on some of his parts that were too high for him to hit, and finished the audition off. The judges told us that we both had nice voices, but that it was hard to sing without instrumental for this kind of song. In the end, the lists were posted and guess whose names weren’t on it? Except to my surprise, we didn’t make it because the judges chose to include new performers this year rather than the same people from last year. None of us had made it in. A disappointment since I was looking forward to singing a duet for once in my life, and being in the talent show all 4 years in a row with my friends. One good thing came out of it though - I became closer to Felix and now we talk more.

Finally came our audition on tutorial day. Long story short, we chickened out and ended up signing up to audition a week later, AFTER we chose a new song. We figured we really weren't ready, and our voices didn't suit the song well. So with our extra week, we decided on the song "Hate That I Love You" - by Rhianna and Ne-Yo. We managed to fit in two rehearsals in the time being – one of which ended up with Felix flipping chairs (literally), and an awkward goodbye after that. The other rehearsal turned out pretty well, and Jane even managed to record some clips on my signal without Felix knowing about them, haha. We spent the next day listening to these recording in the library, and I could honestly say that I’d never laughed so hard in my life, even if it is mean to laugh at another’s expense. I met up with Felix afterschool and after running it 3 times or so, we were up for audition.

Our first scheduled rehearsal was on a choir day, and I invited Peiyi and Jane along so it wouldn't be so awkward. That turned into a disaster as I just laughed through the whole practice whenever it was my turn to sing. And in the end, we practiced in the stairwell where there's a good echo. Jane recorded us secretly with her phone, so we got to listen to that days after. But because this rehearsal didn't work out, we planned out another one. This time, I wasn't the one stopping us from singing. For most of the practice, we basically just sat around, and listened to music while Felix moped about how he couldn't hit the high notes. Peiyi also brought her violin along to practice, so the hallway felt like a performance hall (especially when all the teachers started poking their heads out to see where all the music was coming from). This practice lasted until 6pm for us to finally see that we weren't getting anywhere and split.

So close to completing this task, with Felix Robbins. When I asked him if he was auditioning for "Riverdale's Got Talent" (our school talent show), he suggested that we sing a duet. My first thought was that it was the PERFECT opportunity to complete this task and better yet, I didn't have to ask. To be honest, he's the only guy I know who can actually sing. Well, who can sing AND whom I could sing a duet with. Except there were so many things I had to consider that prevented me from agreeing to it right away - like how I would tell my parents about it, as they get over-concerned about the slightest thing I have to do with a guy, and what would happen if we didn't make it in. It took me a few days, but I finally got the nerve to tell my mom about it (geez, it felt like I was telling her that I started dating or something =___= ), but she took it pretty well. In the end, I agreed to the duet and we settled on the song "It Girl".

Great experience! Would definitely like to make a tradition out of it. :)

After skating at City Hall for 2 hours with Sarah Meng, on a day that was oh, only about -200 degrees Celsius, we decided to head inside Eaton’s for some coffee and hot chocolate. Our first stop was the Basement Eatery, where we stopped by to grab our lunch (A&W Burgers w/ Fries – yum!). Next we went on a search for Timmy’s so that I could finally try their Candy Cane White Hot Chocolate. We had to look at the mall directory a million times before we finally found it tucked away inside the Yonge lobby. Upon buying my chocolate, we took another path back into the shopping centre, through a hall of elevators. That was when we seized our chance to snatch one all to ourselves and push all the buttons inside. It was a long ride, where we stopped at every single floor. At the top floor, we re-pushed all the buttons and started descending – bad choice. Because a couple stops down, a woman got on, and when she turned to push her floor number, in realizing that it was already done along with all the other floor numbers, she gave us a huge glare and shook her head in disgust. As if by coincidence, more and more people filled up our elevator on the way down, until there was so many of them that we were forced into one little corner. Basically, our plan didn’t end very pleasantly, and though not everyone knew that we were the ones who did it, I could still feel the glares of each of them at the end of the ride. Now that I think about it, I wonder why noone got on while we were ascending.