November

Since, I just blogged about October, I believe that it is time for me to post about November.

 I went to my friend, Natalie's, Halloween cupcake decorating party that happened to be in November.

 These cutie patooties decorating their cupcakes!

 The table of girls decorating/eating their cupcakes!

 Paola went all out while decorating.

 She made a minion, which is what she dressed up as, too!

 Playing Heads Up!

 My boyfriend, Brian, and I caught up with some of my friends from COSMOS at UC Davis!

 The Physics building that we studied at for weeks! It felt so great to be back!

 This guy... :P

 Our professors took us up on the roof to watch another gorgeous sunset.

 It was even more special to get to spend it with my one and only.

 Pizza in downtown Davis!

 I got to have gelato for the first time ever..... so gooood!

 Saying our goodbyes at the train station, and of course we had to take a major selfie!

 Lately, tea has become a big thing for me. I have it almost everyday, and I just love it.

 Thanksgiving at Nana and Opa's.

 Buddy!

  I got to decorate the table this year, and it was actually really fun!

Well, now that we're pretty much caught up on the past few months hopefully I will be able to keep up on the more fun parts of my life. Love you guys!
lovelovelove,
Melissa

COSMOS {Fieldtrip: Sacramento Rivercats Baseball Game}

One of our Saturday fieldtrips was to Sacramento to watch a baseball team called the Rivercats play. I am not much of a baseball person, but getting to hang out with friends was pretty fun.

 This was what the bus ride looked like on the way over there. People were telling jokes, playing games, and doing crafts. Of course I had to video tape a little bit of it.

 We all entered the stadium, took a cluster photo, and then walked to the barbeque area for our dinner.

 Here is COSMOS in the big tent with all the lines of food.

 My plate of food. I served way to much and couldn't even finish, but it was good!

 Janiqua with her plate waiting in line.

 A plane flying above the stadium.

 Unfortunately I didn't get photos of the in between times of the photo above and below. Us girls made friendship bracelets and talked boys the majority of the time. Erika and I at the beginning were bored, because we aren't really in to baseball. She almost was asleep when I freaked out because of the sight I saw on the field. There were walking heads!!!!!! We literally could not stop cracking up for 10 minutes. That moment really started a great relationship full of laughs and fun.

To end the fun night we got to watch a fireworks show that just happened to be right behind us. Unfortunately there were a bunch of trees so we only got the tops for the photos. It was overall a pretty fun night with a bunch of laughing about the walking heads, our interesting conversation, and that one random mob of asian people. Hahaha... oh good times.
lovelovelove,
Melissa

COSMOS {Bowling}

In UC Davis, there is a bowling alley that we went to quite often. It had an arcade and a pool room as well. It was really fun getting to go with other clusters, or sometimes just in small little groups. We would ride our bikes down there and then we got one free game a day. It was fun to do in the afternoon after dinner and classes. Here is the photos from one afternoon after we went to the movie theaters with one of my cluster mate's girlfriend.

 Cynthia<3

 Richard, Sean, and Sergiy

 Cynthia being Fabulous!!! (Her nickname for the game was Cynthetic even though she is definitely not fake.)

Sergiy and his girlfriend, and Janice third wheeling. Haha, she secretly loves it.

lovelovelove,
Melissa

Mini Update

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you guys know that I will be trying to post more of these COSMOS posts. I am having a blast reliving all of the memories. They are really fun to write about, but the only problem is that these posts tend to be more time-consuming than others. So, I just wanted to let you guys know that the posts will take a while. I'm hoping to be able to have them all posted by Christmas time. I know that is a long time away, but lets just say that school has not been very nice with me by giving me loads of homework already. Yea, maybe not as much as last year towards the end of the year, but I can only imagine what the ending of Junior year holds. So anyway, please hang with me as I try to post the COSMOS posts.

Also, I wanted to share with you guys how excited I am! I finally started my driving lessons! So far I am only doing online course stuff, but still I am very excited about finally doing something teenager-like. I felt like I needed to start working on this now since I've already been 16 for almost 3 months. I could have started this when I was 15 and a half, but then I had a lot of weight on my shoulders, and I honestly am glad I didn't start then because I don't think I could of handled it.

Anyway, enough about driving. I've been doing pretty good at school lately! It's been almost 2 weeks, and so far everything has been going not to bad. I've gotten homework, but not enough to stress me out. Thumbs up about that. Still, I'm trying to stay on track, and make sure I get A's again this year.

Oh, yea! So, as of two thursdays ago we have been doing chair auditions for orchestra. I swear, that is so freaking... ahhhhh!!! for me this year. In the past, I didn't worry so much, because I just wasn't as in to playing the violin as I was even just half a year ago. I finally got to audition this last thursday after an extremely long wait! I was so nervous! My main goal was to be able to show him I'm worth it, and that I can prove him I have really improved substantially. I've recognized that I've improved, and my family and friends have too, but really the only one I wanted to get an opinion on how I've improved is Mr. Jimenez, my conductor. His opinion matters so much to me, and I am always trying to prove, and show him how hard I'm working. After the audition, he gave me such great feedback! He said he was extremely impressed at my improvement over the last half of this year. It really brought me. I have some serious goals I want to reach still, but I have conquered so many lately, and I cant help but thank God every night for giving me the ability to achieve them.

I hope to post again tonight or tomorrow! If I don't, I hope to post again very soon!

lovelovelove,
Melissa

COSMOS {Late Night Roof Observing}

As a part of my class, I was assigned a night to ride my bike with a couple friends to the physics building after dinner. We met our teacher, Chris, and our cluster friend, Paul, to go up on the roof. It gets pretty chilly up there so we dressed like we were going to San Francisco. {By the way, Janiqua and I chose to do this two times, because we had so much fun the first time. I will be just saying this story as one instead of making two separate posts.} We had to get chairs from the fifth floor, and carry them up to the roof. We, then, helped Paul bring his telescope to the roof where we built it, and then waited until it was completely dark.

While Janiqua and I were waiting for it to be dark, we took tons of pics as the sun was setting.

 Isn't she adorable?! I love her so much!

Here is a picture of the telescope we were using. It was pretty gnarly. Honestly, I was afraid to tough it since it's so expensive.

Here is one of the many photos I took after the sunset. The sky had an orange horizon, and if you look closely you can see Venus.

After the sun went down, we got to start our observing. I got to check out to different stars, Janiqua got to as well, and some of the other people got to look at galaxies, Pluto, and other cool things! After I was done observing for my part, I went down stairs where it was warmer, and called my mom to see how she was doing. Janiqua came with me, because she wanted to prepare the water for our ramen {she's going to be such a great mommy.} It was fun getting to talk with her and Cynthia, and even more fun to drive the guys crazy while we spoke in our secret "girl language."

STORY: So, this one dude was totally hitting on me, but I only saw him as a friend. He was getting way to close and personal, so I actually had to get upset with him so he'd stop. Really awkward... someone even got a really cute picture of us two. Well, it would have been cute if we were actually dating. But yea, that's not going to happen. I made a promise to myself before I left that I wouldn't date any of the guys at COSMOS, because generally long distance relationships don't work, and neither do summer romances.

STORY: After observing, we have to either ride our bikes or walk back home. The first time I got to ride my bike, and it was actually pretty fun going super speedy back to the dorms. The second time, I had a broken bike, so I had to walk back with Anoop and Sergiy. It was funny how they were freaking out about somebody jumping from behind a tree and murdering us. The walk was really long, but it was really fun to just hang out with them at 12:30 in the morning.

lovelovelove,
Melissa

Last Day of Summer. It's time for a Melissa Update!

It's sadly the last day of summer. Time has past by so fast! Summer was just beginning! It feels like school just ended! I wanted to take you on a trip of my highlights of the summer! Here are some of the best memories of Summer 2013:

 

 Going to the movies with my best buds, Brian, and Diane, and and old school friend, Derek.

 My birthday! I was obviously very happy to be 16!

 

 COSMOS was my highlight of the entire year.

 Liam and I got to ride an elephant! It was amazing!

 Carnival rides for hours upon hours!

 Liam and I got to spend the night at my nana and opas. We wanted to sleep outside to see the incredible meteor shower!

 My girls were so excited to see me after over a month. It was really cute!

 Beach time!

 Road trips!!!

 Old fashioned Coca Cola!

 Reading all day!

 I got super excited when I saw my pin in the everything section on Pinterest. I of course had to take a photo!

 I got a new laptop for my birthday! I am super happy to have my own! I'll finally be able to post more, and of course do homework!

 I have a serious obsession with Pitch Perfect!

 Liam's 12th birthday party two nights ago! It was crazy with all the boys sugar high, but it was nice to have a friend like Paola to make the night more fun!

 I've been having fun trying on different makeup. I like the more natural look, so that way people will barely notice.

And of course me! Like always!

I hope everyone had an awesome and memorable summer like I did! This was definitely one of  the best summers I ever had! Well, now I have to go to sleep, because I have to wake up early! I'm excited to see everyone at school, but I still have the back to school nerves, too. There will be new classes to take, new people to meet, tests to take, chair auditions, new styles, and a...ugg...bunch of homework. Still, hopefully this year will be the best year of high school yet! Fingers crossed! Good luck to you all!

lovelovelove,

Melissa