so i've come to the realization that tennis makes me really happy. i absolutely love the sport and playing it relieves stress and, i dont know, just makes me happy. recently the tennis director may have offered me a job to work at edgebrook, teaching (or assisting/assistant coaching) little kids tennis.
a couple weeks ago, after a private lesson i had with chris, ross, the tennis director, asked me how old i was. of course, i said 16. he then asked if i would be interested in teaching a little bit of tennis. being the tennis lover that i am, i said yes. i mean, why not? i love the sport and teaching it would be awesome. i didnt know if it was just going to be a volunteering opportunity or a real job.
ross asked me to come last thursday to help out chris and alex with levels 1 and 2. he still hadnt told me if it was going to be a paid job, but i was thinking that if he asked my age, it probably meant that i was going to get paid as you have to be 16 years old to have a paid job. helping out chris and alex was immense fun. chris was the one "in charge" so most of the time chris was teaching/talking to the kids me and alex were just goofing off. throwing balls at each other, hitting on an open court, playing with the topspinator (a ball on a stick that you hit to practice topspin), and occasionally pranking on chris too. being an assistant coach/helper person (i really dont know what it's called) was more fun than i ever thought it would be. it didnt involve a lot of effort, and if it was going to be a paid job, it would be the best job ever.
so i have yet to find out whether or not this opportunity is a paid job. ross said that we would talk on monday. i have a feeling that it is going to be, though. i really really hope it is. it would be a way for me to make money doing something that i love.
...to be continued...
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
random.
usually i would write about something meaningful. but i have no topics, so i'm going to do a list of 50 of the most random words i can think of:
marshmallow, turquoise, dishwasher, bear paw, superman, glue, click, loofah, bulb, cheese, wagon, teaspoon, printer, pillowcase, cirrus clouds, clothespins, mailbox, recycle, macaroni, meteoroid, cracker, machine, tongue, aglet, paperclip, soles, nuclear, butterfly, sandpaper, spongebob, post its, bottle cap, donut, snowglobe, hello kitty, goal, shark fin, emerald, soap, area 51, vacuum, shin guards, quill, warning, lei, thong, ATM, spray bottle, cake, mario.
that was a nice waste of my time :)
marshmallow, turquoise, dishwasher, bear paw, superman, glue, click, loofah, bulb, cheese, wagon, teaspoon, printer, pillowcase, cirrus clouds, clothespins, mailbox, recycle, macaroni, meteoroid, cracker, machine, tongue, aglet, paperclip, soles, nuclear, butterfly, sandpaper, spongebob, post its, bottle cap, donut, snowglobe, hello kitty, goal, shark fin, emerald, soap, area 51, vacuum, shin guards, quill, warning, lei, thong, ATM, spray bottle, cake, mario.
that was a nice waste of my time :)
Thursday, August 13, 2009
tennis.
so, this summer is finally coming to an end. not that i'm happy it is, but it has been quite a summer.
i dedicated this summer to intense tennis training. i played for two clubs, samena and edgebrook. originally i would have only played at edgebrook, but coach chris asked me if i would join his samena team. even though it meant waking up at 6:30 everyday to shower and make it to the 8:00 practice, it also meant 1.5 more hours of practice for six weeks plus matches every friday. the samena courts were also outdoors, which helped me improve my outdoor playing skills dramatically. during high school tennis season, i remember i wasn't trying to do my best because i was unfamiliar with outdoor courts. i trained mostly in indoor courts, and outdoor ones felt strange to me. however, after playing at samena, i can say that i am comfortable with playing outdoors, although i still prefer indoor courts.
after samena tennis every morning, i chilled for the day until 3:00. edgebrook tennis started at 4:00, and i started getting ready around 3 o'clock. i have to say, edgebrook tennis is far more intense than samena. it might be because there are more people involved in the edgebrook classes, or because samena is early in the morning. but for whatever reason, i worked much harder at edgebrook than i did at samena. i remember the beginning weeks were far more intense than the later ones. i was in the level 4/5 class, which is the highest class in the summer at edgebrook. there were many level 4 and level 5 players signed up, which provided me, a level 4 player, with a lot of competition and experience playing with higher level players. however, throughout the summer, the coaches moved many level 2 players to level 3 for matchplay purposes, and consequently many level 3 players to level 4/5. seeing this, most of the level 5 players quit playing at edgebrook because the level 3 players were no competition for them at all. eventually, the level 4/5 class became more like a level 3/4 class, taking out the competition and experience i would have had playing against level 5 players.
with the training at samena and edgebrook, i also continued to take private and small group lessons with chris. i have to say, these lessons were far more effective than the large classes in the morning and afternoon. even so, i think that the combination of private/small group lessons and large classes helped improve my tennis playing even more. private and small group lessons provided me with individual attention and strict focus on a particular skill or technique. large classes gave me experience using the skills and techniques i learned in real-life tennis situations. i think this method of learning and playing tennis is extremely effective for me.
some people may read this and say, "wow, she's crazy." but understand that tennis is a sport that i love and want to get better at. being a lifetime sport, i think that my learning of tennis probably will never stop. i call this summer of tennis training a success.
i dedicated this summer to intense tennis training. i played for two clubs, samena and edgebrook. originally i would have only played at edgebrook, but coach chris asked me if i would join his samena team. even though it meant waking up at 6:30 everyday to shower and make it to the 8:00 practice, it also meant 1.5 more hours of practice for six weeks plus matches every friday. the samena courts were also outdoors, which helped me improve my outdoor playing skills dramatically. during high school tennis season, i remember i wasn't trying to do my best because i was unfamiliar with outdoor courts. i trained mostly in indoor courts, and outdoor ones felt strange to me. however, after playing at samena, i can say that i am comfortable with playing outdoors, although i still prefer indoor courts.
after samena tennis every morning, i chilled for the day until 3:00. edgebrook tennis started at 4:00, and i started getting ready around 3 o'clock. i have to say, edgebrook tennis is far more intense than samena. it might be because there are more people involved in the edgebrook classes, or because samena is early in the morning. but for whatever reason, i worked much harder at edgebrook than i did at samena. i remember the beginning weeks were far more intense than the later ones. i was in the level 4/5 class, which is the highest class in the summer at edgebrook. there were many level 4 and level 5 players signed up, which provided me, a level 4 player, with a lot of competition and experience playing with higher level players. however, throughout the summer, the coaches moved many level 2 players to level 3 for matchplay purposes, and consequently many level 3 players to level 4/5. seeing this, most of the level 5 players quit playing at edgebrook because the level 3 players were no competition for them at all. eventually, the level 4/5 class became more like a level 3/4 class, taking out the competition and experience i would have had playing against level 5 players.
with the training at samena and edgebrook, i also continued to take private and small group lessons with chris. i have to say, these lessons were far more effective than the large classes in the morning and afternoon. even so, i think that the combination of private/small group lessons and large classes helped improve my tennis playing even more. private and small group lessons provided me with individual attention and strict focus on a particular skill or technique. large classes gave me experience using the skills and techniques i learned in real-life tennis situations. i think this method of learning and playing tennis is extremely effective for me.
some people may read this and say, "wow, she's crazy." but understand that tennis is a sport that i love and want to get better at. being a lifetime sport, i think that my learning of tennis probably will never stop. i call this summer of tennis training a success.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
inseparable.
ever since moving here to america, i have made quite a few friends. i have the close ones who i can tell everything to, the "aquaintances", and the people who i know only by face. i've come to realize that i haven't been quite as close to them as i have my old friends from taipei, especially the two that moved to america the same year as me: catherine and ashley.
i feel like to these friends, i say or tell them absolutely anything and they won't be judgemental. i can find something completely random, text/tell them (ahem ashley, get a texting plan), and they'll just laugh with me. if i were to do the same thing to my current close friends, they'd look at me weird and be like, "wtf, alice."
i also know that these two friends are always there to listen to my problems and give me feedback from a third person's point of view, without judgement. any problems i have will have to happen at home, around bellevue and newport, where i live. any advice i get from people in that area will undoubtly have some prejudice or bias. these two friends will always be there for me no matter what, and know that i will do the same (or if you didn't know then now you do).
friends like these are hard to find. it sounds cliche and oversaid, but i can honestly say that i believe that we will be friends forever. distance doesn't matter for us, as we have proved through the two years we've lived apart from each other.
so i want to thank you guys. for not letting distance separate us, for keeping in touch, for being there to listen to my problems (which i happen to have a lot of...), for everything that you've done to make me the person i am today.
i love you guys <3
i feel like to these friends, i say or tell them absolutely anything and they won't be judgemental. i can find something completely random, text/tell them (ahem ashley, get a texting plan), and they'll just laugh with me. if i were to do the same thing to my current close friends, they'd look at me weird and be like, "wtf, alice."
i also know that these two friends are always there to listen to my problems and give me feedback from a third person's point of view, without judgement. any problems i have will have to happen at home, around bellevue and newport, where i live. any advice i get from people in that area will undoubtly have some prejudice or bias. these two friends will always be there for me no matter what, and know that i will do the same (or if you didn't know then now you do).
friends like these are hard to find. it sounds cliche and oversaid, but i can honestly say that i believe that we will be friends forever. distance doesn't matter for us, as we have proved through the two years we've lived apart from each other.
so i want to thank you guys. for not letting distance separate us, for keeping in touch, for being there to listen to my problems (which i happen to have a lot of...), for everything that you've done to make me the person i am today.
i love you guys <3
Friday, July 24, 2009
makes me wonder.
just read catshews very sentimental (big word, haha) blog post from may...
http://catshew.blogspot.com/2009/05/to-recall-and-envision.html
really makes me wonder.
so i'll try to write my own autobiography of some sort. but unlike catherine... i can't remember that far back. so i'll start with 3rd grade under the table.
i remember that i just moved from hsinchu, taiwan after one year of bilingual school there. when i first found out that i was going to move to a brand new school where i didn't know anyone, i immediately rejected the idea. i was fully prepared for a not-so-great first day of 3rd grade.
walking into the air conditioned building and into the elementary school wing of the school was something i didnt really remember, but i vividly remember walking into ms. tenebrini's classroom: no one was in the classroom except for ms. tenebrini because it was reccess time.
i don't recall much of the rest of the third grade except for being reading buddies with catherine hsu and meeting ji-eun park.
on to the rest of elementary school, i kind of grew apart from cathy. we weren't in the same class and didn't really hang out or "play" together that much. i was with ji-eun in 4th and 5th grade (i think), and went on to make some new friends (who i can't recall that well). 4th grade was a good year for me. i met michelle kao, a good friend and close neighbor who i stay in contact with to this day. my teacher, ms. biss, wasnt very warming (if you get what i mean) at first, but i later went on to like her a bit. [later on in middle school i learned that she died of cancer, which made me really think about life and death. it wast the first time i remember that someone i was close to/knew pretty well died]. 5th grade i don't remember much of. i think i became closer with jacqueline chang. i think 5th grade was also the year i really started liking guys :P. OHH 5th grade was also the year i met ashley li. i EXTREMELY VIVIDLY remember ashley holding catherine's hand and dragging her around the corner and down the stairs behind the middle school science classrooms to the track. i have no idea why. anyways, i was extremely excited for middle school.
middle school was a complicated period of time for me. i was split up into blue house (out of the two houses of blue and gold) along with catherine, ashley, and a few other friends that eventually made up our "circle". this circle consisted of many of our close friends, but the tightest circle around me included cathy, bertilia trieu, vivian chen, and olivia lin. i don't remember how or why cathy and i reconnected in middle school (we had no classes together except for fist (flexible independent study time, basically free period), but i'm very grateful and happy that we did.
i think i'll stop here. after middle school i moved to seattle, washington. catherine moved to norcal, and ashley to socal. bertilia moved to ontario, canada at the end of 7th grade, and we left vivian and olivia to fend for themselves (:P but i think they're doing well). here i began a new story (super cliche) but kept in contact with catherine and ashley. i'll blog about that sometime else :)
"yesterday i was feeling adventurous so i baked it over an open fire" -ashley
http://catshew.blogspot.com/2009/05/to-recall-and-envision.html
really makes me wonder.
so i'll try to write my own autobiography of some sort. but unlike catherine... i can't remember that far back. so i'll start with 3rd grade under the table.
i remember that i just moved from hsinchu, taiwan after one year of bilingual school there. when i first found out that i was going to move to a brand new school where i didn't know anyone, i immediately rejected the idea. i was fully prepared for a not-so-great first day of 3rd grade.
walking into the air conditioned building and into the elementary school wing of the school was something i didnt really remember, but i vividly remember walking into ms. tenebrini's classroom: no one was in the classroom except for ms. tenebrini because it was reccess time.
i don't recall much of the rest of the third grade except for being reading buddies with catherine hsu and meeting ji-eun park.
on to the rest of elementary school, i kind of grew apart from cathy. we weren't in the same class and didn't really hang out or "play" together that much. i was with ji-eun in 4th and 5th grade (i think), and went on to make some new friends (who i can't recall that well). 4th grade was a good year for me. i met michelle kao, a good friend and close neighbor who i stay in contact with to this day. my teacher, ms. biss, wasnt very warming (if you get what i mean) at first, but i later went on to like her a bit. [later on in middle school i learned that she died of cancer, which made me really think about life and death. it wast the first time i remember that someone i was close to/knew pretty well died]. 5th grade i don't remember much of. i think i became closer with jacqueline chang. i think 5th grade was also the year i really started liking guys :P. OHH 5th grade was also the year i met ashley li. i EXTREMELY VIVIDLY remember ashley holding catherine's hand and dragging her around the corner and down the stairs behind the middle school science classrooms to the track. i have no idea why. anyways, i was extremely excited for middle school.
middle school was a complicated period of time for me. i was split up into blue house (out of the two houses of blue and gold) along with catherine, ashley, and a few other friends that eventually made up our "circle". this circle consisted of many of our close friends, but the tightest circle around me included cathy, bertilia trieu, vivian chen, and olivia lin. i don't remember how or why cathy and i reconnected in middle school (we had no classes together except for fist (flexible independent study time, basically free period), but i'm very grateful and happy that we did.
i think i'll stop here. after middle school i moved to seattle, washington. catherine moved to norcal, and ashley to socal. bertilia moved to ontario, canada at the end of 7th grade, and we left vivian and olivia to fend for themselves (:P but i think they're doing well). here i began a new story (super cliche) but kept in contact with catherine and ashley. i'll blog about that sometime else :)
"yesterday i was feeling adventurous so i baked it over an open fire" -ashley
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