YELLOWSTONE!!!!! and grand teton

Last week, my family went on a week-long trip to Yellowstone. Now, I know that a week seems long, but in reality, it seemed faster than two hours. Yellowstone National Park is in the northeastern corner of Wyoming, and encompasses small parts of Montana and Idaho as well. It's one of the largest US national parks, and as well as including a LOT of driving inside the park, the drive to the park was also an experience.

The drive from Cupertino to Yellowstone is about 1100 miles. We had to divide it into 550 mile legs, and we stayed the night in the middle in a town in Nevada called Elko. We drove for ten hours per day....through Nevada. Nevada is...deserted. Literally. There's nothing there, besides scrubby desert. Oh yeah. not counting the casinos and prisons. Nevada's a fun state. Then comes Idaho. Idaho is more fertile than Nevada, but it's COVERED in potato farms. There are special mobile potato sprinklers, and they looked to me like swings. They are basically rods from which hoses hanging from them. Anyway, these states, to me, aren't the most interesting. But then we arrived in Yellowstone.

The first thing we saw in Yellowstone was trees. Trees and trees and trees and trees. It was so.....natural, pristine, and untouched. Occasionally we saw small geysers and steam coming from the side of the road.  But we had arrived at around six, so it became dark soon. We soon had to go to bed, in our cabin in the town of Canyon. The next day, we set out exploring. So Yellowstone basically has this huge 8-shaped road called the Grand Loop. It includes the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Hayden Valley, the Old Faithful Area, the Norris Geyser Area, and Yellowstone Lake, and many more small areas. On the first day, we visited Norris and Old Faithful. Norris was basically just a lot of steaming geysers. There was just one eruption, and not much at that.  But then, we went to Old Faithful. It's famous for erupting every 90 minutes. We arrived JUST in time ( it was pretty amazing) and the eruption commenced. It was...awe-inspiring. The scalding water shot up a hundred feet in the air, with steam everywhere. I won't ever forget it. ( I'll talk all about geysers and how they work in another post) That night, we went to bed with just a taste of Yellowstone in our mouths, and we were hungry for more.

The next day, we hit the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. This canyon looks just as big and deep as the Grand Canyon. That's what i find amazing about Yellowstone. The environment is so diverse. It has geysers, wildlife, a GIGANTIC lake, and huge canyon, and waterfalls. It combines the best of the national parks into one huge beauty. Anyway, back to the canyon. The Yellowstone river cuts through a HUGE canyon, culminating in Lower Falls. The canyon was amazing. Soon after, we got into the car and drove through the Hayden Valley, famous for its wildlife. At first, we saw nothing. But then, a herd of bison appeared out of nowhere. And by a herd, I mean a herd, like the kind you see at the waterholes in Africa. It was amazing. But as we drove by, we headed north, to the town of Mammoth Hot Springs.

The next day, we visited the Mammoth terraces. Formed by redeposited limestone, the formations look like small stairways. Colonized by bacteria, the formations boast amazing colors and serene cascades of scalding water, straight from the hot springs. The good part of this part was the ranger guiding the tour. With a little more knowledge about the area, the visit was much more enjoyable and didn't seem tiring in the least. Afterwards, we hung out in the Map Room of the Mammoth Lodge and waited until 6, for the animals to come out. Then we headed to the Lamar Valley, a not-so-known wildlife viewing spot. It turns out that it completely destroyed Hayden in terms of awesomeness. We saw a grizzly bear sharing a dead elk with a pack of wolves. It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment. It was just.....wow.

We spent a few more days in Yellowstone, but then we headed to Grand Teton National Park. The whole park is centered around the massive Jackson Lake, with the Teton range jutting out against the sky. We woke up early in the morning and got the most amazing photos of the sunrise on the mountains. We saw an elk farm on the way out, and it was great too.

In conclusion, Yellowstone is by far the most amazing natural place I have ever been to, and the beauty and serenity will never to cease to be etched into my mind.

Look below for a few pictures from the trip;

summer doldrums

Well, summer this year, hasn't been all that fun for me. All I've gotten to do is go to morning practice, do work in the morning, and just sit or go to track in the afternoon. All throughout the schoolyear I had been looking forward to a break and summer, but now that it's finally here....it's not so great. I guess the pasture is always greener on the other side of the fence.  I really wish i could go play outside, but i'm always tired from all the physical activity I have to do, and I want to sleep ,. but then I can't sleep because all the physical activity gives me adrenaline rushes. I don't want to stop doing the swimming and track workouts, because they are fun. Summer......oh wow.
Later,

Rohan

yosemite trip

Hey everyone. Just wanted to talk a bit about our recent Yosemite trip. It was amazing, Yosemite is one of those places that can never get old, a place that you never see too many times. I relived fond memories form our school trip, such as life in Boystown and our venture in to the Spider Caves. As a family, we hiked up to the footbridge of Vernal Falls. The waterfalls were amazing. The huge snowpack this year made the water literally gush. On our way there, we enjoyed a light lunch of sandwiches on the side of the road, but everyone wolfed down their food so we could get back en route the park.In total, Yosemite was an amazing experience, regardless of the fact that I have been there ten times already.
Later,

Rohan

yosemite!!!

YAYAYAYAY! Tomorrow our family is going to Yosemite. The reason we're going at this time of year is that the snow this year was way more than normal. There was so much snow, in fact, that the waterfalls are gushing like crazy and the Merced River is swelling. Normally in summer, the falls and the river dry up considerably. I remember one summer when we took our relatives to go see Yosemite and Bridalveil Falls was just a trickle of water. This trip is going to be AWESOME....except for one thing. We're going to be back on Saturday, and the problem is that my dad signed me up for a swim meet the next day. All I'm saying here is I better receive some payment ( a nice sweatshirt would do).

Back to the subject, I hope we do a nice hike. There's nothing compared to a nice hike in the wild with no one else in the bright, brisk morning. Ahh...I can feel it already.

Au revoir,

Rohan

summer track meets

Summer track meets are both fun and not fun at the same time. I get really, really nervous before these meets, and then after the race, I feel great, even if I don't do too well.

The main problem I have is that these meets completely infect my summer fun schedule. Every Thursday I pace around the house, with ten insane hummingbirds flitting about in my stomach. I wait on tenterhooks for my carpool to arrive, and at the meet, I warm up as much as I can. ( to my dad, i seemingly never warm up enough )

I run the mile and 800. My coach says I shouldnt run both of them at the same meet, but my parents force me to :(. However, I am reasonably good at both of them, my records being 2 ;17 and 5 :03 in the 800 and mile respectively. I have another meet coming up tomorrow....I can feel those pesky hummingbirds hatching already.

Au revoir,

Rohan

deathly hallows p2

We watched the Harry Potter midnight show. It all ended. Jealous? I would be too, but then, I was the one who watched. To put it into words...it was FABULONGOOSHOMARVELISHLYWONDERPIPICAL. Yes. It was.

The midnight show attracted a LOT of people, mainly crazed HP diehards like us.Everybody was dressed up in costumes, from owls to snitches to Draco to Dumbledore to dragons. It was amazing. We stood in line for seven hours, but it literally seemed like 10 minutes. We hung out with my friend's family so we could have someone to talk to and play with, and we walked around, looking at people's costumes. ( we took some awkward pictures with other weirdly dressed people)

Finally , the movie started. We had to wait in the theater for two hours while we watched the same set of ads about forty times. It was fun......

But the movie blew everyone away. It was SO much better than the random mishmosh from the Order of the Phoenix and the action sequences were really well done. It was only missing one or two things, as opposed to the full chapters missing from the previous movies. I wished that they hadnt underplayed when Harry killed Voldemort...he just dissolved. If he had crashed dramatically to the floor, the crowd would have cheered, just like we did when Neville killed Nagini. I also had wanted to see when Harry talked about remorse and explained to Voldemort about why Dumbledore died, and all about Snape, and so on. And then Harry randomly snapped the Elder Wand. :(

In total though, this was by far the best movie out of all 8. The midnight show experience was amazing, and I don't think a midnight show will ever be interesting again after this one.

Au revoir!

Rohan

summer mornings

I thought summer was supposed to be a time for fun. A time to relax. Not so. Not at least when my parents are involved. With my parents, I have to get up every day at 6:30 and head out for MORNING swim practice. GAHHH!!!! That's pretty much all I can say.

As well as having to wake up in the morning, I have to cut my swim practice short and run to Kennedy Middle School for Enrichment Classes. However, the classes are really fun. They picked the best teachers from all of the schools in the Bay Area to come. The teacher for math, Mrs. Normoyle, is especially good. (she lets us use iPods in class :D.....no, she's a really good teacher). She's the head of the math department over at Pinewood High School.

In total though, I'm not too fond of having to get up in the morning in summer, wonderful teachers or not. And to make things worse, I have swim practice in the morning ALL SUMMER LONG. yay.....

Laters

Rohan

Graduation!

Hey Everybody!!

Tuesday was our middle school graduation. It was the final day of school, and everyone was looking forward to high school, but at the same time grieving the fact the middle school was over. It was going to be a really special moment.

Apparently the teachers wanted it to be extra special too, because we had to go through three days of grueling grad practice:(. However, everyone was really looking forward to grad, because everyone wanted to see how the gym would be decorated for the dance afterward.......and because of the food XD.

Another thing is that I was chosen as a student speaker for the grad ceremony and my tummy was acting like it was in a quick dry cycle. I was really nervous. However, I practiced my speech a bit and hoped for the best.

Finally the day came. We headed into our grad lineup and we marched forward into the bleachers where we conducted the ceremony perfectly. My speech was really good (or at least my friends say so) and the other speakers were awesome too.

Then, it was time for the dance. We rushed to the gym but we were forced to make an orderly line. We headed into the gym (FINALLY!!!) and we realized that the theme was.....San Francisco. It was REAAALLLLY awesome. There was a huge Golden Gate Bridge, a Palace of Fine Arts, and a lot of other really cool things. The food was organized by 'district".......Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf, Japantown, North Beach, AT&T Park, and best of all.....Ghirardelli Square. :D

In total, the dance was much better than anyone expected. At the end, everyone was crying and getting emotional as we wouldnt see some of our friends again next year in high school. Graduation was one of the best experiences in my life, and I can only hope that high school will be as fun as middle school.

track league finals

Hey guys.

Today was the League Finals for track. This meet is the meet where ALL the schools compete against each other in order to see who qualifies for Sectionals. To make it to Sectionals, you have to place in the top 6 at League Finals.

So anyway, my race was the 1600m. I had to leave school early even though my event started 5. I waited, warmed up, waited, warmed up, and kept going until suddenly it started raining. I thought, hmm, maybe they'll cancel it, but NOOO they had to just keep on running. I ran the mile, and I qualified for sectionals with a time of 5:16.

I have done better, but the weather today was just abysmal. Hopefully I do better tomorrow in the 800 and the 4x4 relay!

Later,

Rohan

track meeeeeeeeet

Hey kids! Today my school, Lawson, took on the Miller Mustangs. (OMG im talking like they do on announcements) Anyway, I ran the mile and 4x4 relay. I won both of them but they were pretty dirty races.

In the mile, I felt the race was very similar to my race at Blach in that I was the underdog but still very within striking distance of the leader. The Miller runner in the lead and I were sprinting for two laps, and then it occurred in the last lap. Somehow, when we were lapping some of the back runners, a pileup occurred and I had to skirt around the mess. What seems to have happened is that when the Miller runner and I were passing, a Lawson runner tried to block the Miller runner (way to take one for the team!! :) ) and the pileup ensued. After that, I was barely in second and every time I tried to pass the Miller runner, he would move in front and block me. However, at the end of the race I sprinted like all get out and won by about 5 cm.

In the relay, we were outmatched from the beginning. However, we sprinted our hardest and were not very far behind. Even though we lost in the race, the Miller team got DQ'd for cutting in too early. So, we WON ! :)

Thanks guys!

ttyl!!

Piano Recital

Yesterday, I had a piano recital. I know this sounds like a SUPER boring event, like something moms brag about, but it was actually pretty cool. No, I wasn't playing Clementi's Sonatina Op. 36, I play the bigger -league stuff. Yes, I was playing Mozart's Fantasia No.1 in d minor.

So the deal with this concert was that it was a competition, where the parents voted on how well the students performed. There a few categories, like best Sonatina, best Sonata, Best Fantasia/Rondo, Best Mozart, and Best Beethoven. All the pieces were classical, and there were awards given to the winners of each category. So this time, I actually had to do my very, very best to satisfy my competitive nature.

Of course, something had to go wrong. As soon as I sat down on the bench, my mind went crazy.

I messed up the opening notes! However, I figured my self out and played the rest of the piece as well as I could. I guess it paid off, because I won the Best Fantasia/Rondo category!

Laters,

Rohan

CM test is behind me!

YAY! I'm free! At last, I've gotten through the CM test. The CM test(certificate of merit) is an annually administered piano test where students have to take a theory and playing assessment in order for them to move to the next level. I'm level 8 now, having passed the level 7 test. There are ten levels in total, so I'm almost at the top! The CM test was getting to be a huge PITA(pain in the ....)around February. You see, I broke my hand in November, so I lost a whole month and half of progress. I was really behind and had to do a lot of extra practicing to make up for my missed work. Luckily, I got my act together(or so I thought) around mid-February, until I realized that I still hadn't memorized my Mozart Fantasia and my Chopin Nocturne was a little rusty. Desperately, I was forced to do piano like crazy. In fact, my life pretty much revolved around piano during those weeks before the test. Not only did I have to work on my playing, I also had to worry about the imposing theory test. Yup, I really did have my work cut out.

Well, finally the day came. The day before the test, I was volunteering all day at the CMEA festival in SJSU, so the entire weekend was pretty much devoted to music. So,the day of the test, I got up at 6:30 to 'warm up' my fingers. I played a few scales, wolfed down a quick breakfast, and we headed out. We arrived at Santa Clara University, and I was whisked through registration. I found myself sitting in front of the testing room, shaking with nervousness. Finally, I was admitted in, and the judge was a slightly elderly lady. She was nice, and had me sit down and start with my scales. As soon as I started playing though, this weird buzzing started, coming from the roof. As soon as I finished my scales, the judge explained--the light fixture was kind of loose, so the sound waves were shaking the metal and making a buzzing sound. I was nervous that this would affect my playing later on, but luckily I made through all of my songs without any flaws.

I proceeded down to take the theory and ear training test, which I knew I was prepared for. I whizzed through the questions but checked my answers for an hour. With ear training, I must have replayed the track at least seven times. However, I still think I did pretty well.

Ok people, now you've experienced my version of March Madness...the CM test!

lllatters,

Rohan

MLK day

HEy everyone! Today was MLK day, which I am sure you know what it stands for. Today was a particularly unfun day. I did nothing fun all day, just work,work,work. The only break I had was lunch,where I went out with my dad. I wish that I could have a bit more of a social life, but my parents keep forcing me to studay and work and practice piano all day. Speaking of which, I want to read a book called the battle hymn of the tiger mom which talks about mom, ASian moms, in particular, who push their kids way too hard. Not that I don't like it, I just wish there was a tad more of social life in it.

Laters!

Swim meet

Today I had another swim meet. I recently switched clubs, from DACA to Sunn. This was actually much harder than I expected because I had to leave all my friends in DACA and go to Sunn where I was friendless. However, I seem to be doing better there, since I was able to drop time in all of my races today. I plan to do a lot more work on my technique and get the A times I need. I just turned thirteen and I need A times to eventually get back to the JO stage. Hopefully I'll kick some serious ass in the next meet!