Florida Summer 2009

The day after summer school ended I headed off to O-Town for my yearly summer vacation. This summer's Florida trip was a little shorter than normal, but my two weeks there was nothing less than pure fun in the sun!

The weekend I got there we went to St. Petersburg to spend the weekend with Dennis and Collen. On Saturday, we spent the day chillen at Lido Beach. It was a nice, hot and sunny day spent in the warm water, diggin' my toes in the white sands, and relaxing to some good jams. H.O.E. status fa sho!





I heard Angie Bautista was in town for a few days, so on Sunday night when we got back home to Orlando, I called her up and asked if she wanted to go hang out the next day. Her and her husband Carlo wanted to check out another theme park, so I accompanied them to Universal Studios and Island of Adventures. Theme parks are always fun no matter how many times I've been there!






During the week, Josh and I spent a couple days out in the pool swimming and sliding.



The following Saturday was Josh's last game of his summer basketball league. He's been in basketball leagues every year since he was 5, and this game was by far the most exciting one I've seen. Their team was down for the majority of the game and during the 4th quarter their point guard missed two crucial free throws to take the lead. Luckily, the boy shooting the free throws got his own rebound, and scored with less than a minute remaining. Josh's team ended up winning! They finished the season with the best record...only losing one game (a game which Josh missed because he was on vacation in Ohio). Good job lil bro!



After his game, we went and checked out the Orlando Science Museum. They had an offer that week that if you bring an old cell phone for recycle, you get free admission. It was a pretty cool place with some stuff to play with to learn about different things such as hurricanes, earthquakes, sound, different body functions, waves, etc. They also had a few animal exhibits and a fossil room.






On Monday, my Dad took the day off, and me, my Dad, and Josh went to Aquatica, which is Sea World's new waterpark. The weather was really nice that day and it barely rained. There is one slide which starts off dark, and then when you get underwater the slide tunnel becomes clear, and you are suppose to see Dolphins. But the slide is pretty fast and the clear opening is really short that you barely even see anything. Next thing you know, you've already landed in the water. But there is also a viewing window where you can just stand and look at the Dolphins too, which is pretty cool. Overall, it was a nice waterpark...not too crowded like some of the others.





Those were pretty much the highlights of my trip. It was fun as always!

Summer School...DONE!

"School is for fools...look at me!" - Big Daddy

Yay! I finished my first quarter of my year long credential program. 10 more months to go! Summer school was 7-weeks long, 5 classes, and 3 days a week. Going back to school felt kinda weird. I don't know if it's just because its summer time and everyone is out enjoying the sun, or maybe it's cause I haven't been in school for 2 years, but it was hard for me to get back into "school-mode." Complete laziness. The school work wasn't too hard, just time consuming. Luckily, Delena is in my cohort and we are both fans of procrastination. Therefore, we make a good team in partner/group work. All the others like to finish and get their work done wayyy in advanced which is definitely not our style. Guess they don't know that your best work is produced at crunch time.

We're suppose to get our first student teaching placements in mid-August. I hope I get placed at a school near my house and that my master teacher is cool and helpful. When school starts up again it's gonna be long days where I have to student teach in the morning and go to school in the afternoon. Argh...I'm already tired thinking about it. I can't wait til next summer after I graduate! Haha.

Happy Birthday Dad!

My Dad turns the big 5-0 today. And where does he decide to spend the day? None other than DISNEYWORLD! Haha. Enjoy the day and your partay on Friday. I'll see you next week! Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Whoohoo! Now we can get 10% off Ross on Tuesdays. Haha!

New York, New Yorrrrrk

Start sprrreadin' the newwws...we're back from Newww Yorrrk. So Bev and I took a red eye on Wednesday night and arrived at JFK at 5am. Since our hotel room wasn't available until 2pm, we dropped off our bags, grabbed some continental breakfast, and began roaming the streets of Times Square. It was quite an adventure walking around with slippers in the rain with no stores open yet to duck for cover. Considering it is the city that never sleeps, I was surprised to see that most stores don't open earlier than 10am.




Later that night was game 4 of the NBA finals and we headed out to ESPN Zone to watch the game. Surprisingly, there were still a bunch of Lakers fans in the East Coast too, and again I was cheering with maybe two other Magic fans.




After the game, we headed out to Pop Burger to meet up with Pierre's friend KJ, who was DJing there that night. Jeff's cousin and friends also got in touch with me and came out to meet us. It was cool how we've never met these folks before and how comfortable it felt just hanging out with them as if we've known them for years. Pop Burger had some "mad" delicious burgers and probably one of the best fried calamari I've ever tasted.




The next day, we headed out to Brooklyn and met up with KJ again. He took us to Grimaldi's Pizzaria which is known to be one of the best pizza places in NY. It was pretty tasty, but I prefer deep dish pizza over thin crust. Afterwards, we went to get ice cream for dessert right under the Brooklyn bridge and enjoyed the nice scenery of Manhattan and the two bridges. KJ also took us on a stroll down the streets of Brooklyn where Notorious used to live and where they shot his movie. It was nice to get out of the busy city and walk around a more chill place without crowds of people everywhere.





That night we headed off to SoHo for some bar hopping. The guys met up with us, and took us around to different hot spots. The best part of the night was trying the original Halal Cart on 53rd and 6th. Super long line at 4am but the chicken and lamb over rice plate was "mad" delicious! They need to have that here in the bay.





The next couple days were pretty much spent shopping in SoHo, Manhatten, and Chinatown. I'm a big fan of their mass variety of shoe selections at pretty cheap prices. Not to mention...no tax on shoes and clothes! I think I am going to become a hypebeast. Haha.



Here's a quick time lapse of us walking the streets of Chinatown.


Overall, it was great trip. I think I've gained 5 pounds from eating so much, but I ain't gonna lie...it was worth every bite of every food I ate. LOL. Big thanks to Jay, Migs, Noel & KJ for showing us around and taking us to all the hot spots of NYC. You guys rock and made our vacation "mad" fun! Thanks also to Bev for coming out and spending the trip with me. It was good to have some girl time. I <3 NY. Can't wait to go back (in August?!) Haha...I wish.

Bev's 29th Birthday

It was Bev's 29th birthday last Friday the 8th and since then it has been non-stop celebrations, hangouts and fun times. On Thursday night before her birthday we went to this cool new hot spot in San Jose called Temple Lounge. (Whuuuuuut? We always go there). At midnight we sang Happy Birthday to the birthday girl who was by then crawling on the bar, taking a shot of Henn, and dancing to "Damaged" by Danity Kane. And...after that...well i'll just say that she definitely made history happen. LOL.




The day after (her actual birthday) we spent the day trying to sober her up with some Bronco Billy's, "non-greasy" chicken tenders, and a scoop of chocolate malted crunch. We also went to Newark Lake to walk around and take pictures. At night we had dinner with the family at BJ's.





On Monday, Bev and I went to the Fremont library and rented out a Hip Hop y Reggaeton dance instructional video and studied that bad boy.



On Tuesday, we went to Great Mall to shop around for a while. After shopping, we went to DnBs for some NBA Playoffs and Happy Hour. The girls taught me some valuable lessons which I should practice upon going to NYC. Haha. Raf and Sura also met up with us for the Lakers/Rockets game. I had a bet with Sura that if Rockets win I get to put whatever facebook status I want on his profile for 2 days and vice versa if the Lakers win. Unfortunately, Rockets lost that game which is why I had that horrible status update about loving the Lakers and Kobe. Rockets will get 'em on game 7 though ftw!




On Wednesday was Bev's last day of her one week vacation. We met up with one of her high school friends and had lunch at Kinder's. Afterwards, Bev and I went to Ross in Campbell, Valleyfair, and Santana Row. I had my first taste of pinkberry and it was deliciouso!



And finally, last night we had one more birthday bash for Bev combined with her old roomate Justin. They went to Miyake's for dinner but I had to go to Criselda's party first, so I just met up with them at B4Twelve afterwards. Congrats to Bev for holding up last night considering it was her birthday while a certain two others didn't. I won't mention their names, but there was definitely two barfers in her car last night. Hahaha. Fun times! Happy Birthday Bev! Next off...NYC baby!