well its about time i posted in this thing, eh? latelys been cool. the weather is warming up again. today, i went to vlyt and practiced from 10-2 again.. went to church in the morning so i have the rest of the day to myself. between my last post and this one, a lot has happened.. went out with van and long on good friday, easter, i went on the ski trip with my 2nd family.. spring break, pope john paul II died, and well.. just a lot of things. but ill keep it short and just talk about the ski trip..

Me: "To Camp LaSalle!" [in reality; our cabin was to the left of this picture.. about 500 feet higher..

check out the snow level to the sign! we were at 8 feet of snow the next morning.. with snow-covered trees. well, Welcome to Camp LaSalle!

our group picture on the trail that we created. long andrew and i made the trails going in so it was easier for others to step in our footprints.. snow went up to at least our knees.. and my thighs started to burn from lifting my knees high out of the snow.. it was fun though

check out the snow level compared to that cabin! we were pretty high off the ground standing on nothing but snow.

that snowmobile that took 30 minutes to start the engine.. requiring 8 guys to take turns pulling that cable.. good memories with the snowmobile squad.

the guys and i on that snowmobile.. after long, the rest of us were attached on the wagon.

en route to the parking lot, a 2 mile drive down hill.. i was in the wagon and richard was riding the back. shortly after this picture, i got to drive for about a good mile or so before handing it over to john. [the second snowmobile is seen in the back]

after the food and gear was brought up, dinner was made and nghia nguyen does the dishes.. i love how he washes the dishes.. though, it isnt really him that washes it.. now is it nghia?? hahahah great days having the dinner shift with you, priscilla, long, and hien [last night there, it was hilarious what happened..]

the next morning, our first full day there.. we spent our entire morning, after breakfast, digging.. i sculpted a turtle  and the digging and entrenching took place after. we spend a good 5 hours outside, digging trenches, and ratting tunnels. in the end, we had a delicate system of 2 tunnels and 3 trenches.. look at how deep we were in the trench in the picture.. we werent even done yet! all in all, id say we dug out about 5 and a half feet of snow. we made that in good time.

our best past time; playing pool. rounds and rounds and pool.. it killed time, got our minds off things.. a lot of good times at this table.

this picture was taken with only 4 of us. the 16 others were back at checkpoint2 where they had lunch. andrew nghia and i walked too fast, and mr.nine brought us supplies and food on the snowmobile [as you can see in the back, where we parked the snowmobile.] the hike on this day took up 4.5 hours to climb only half way.. so much for Vista Point.. this picture was taken about a mile off from the halfway checker..

after running into the 9 snowmobiles that passed us on the way up.. they were stuck in fresh powder snow and their snowmobiles couldnt press on. Frere sent out 2 scouting parties; nghia, tung, hai, and me on the cross country skis going through about a mile of powder snow and downhills to the right.. and long and andrew, who climbed uphill to the left.

in the end, we chose to climb uphill to the left, the way i scouted was about a good mile inland, up 6 hills with several steep slopes.. the picture above, better known as Van Nghe Point, was noted as the 2nd highest peak besides Vista Point.. so we felt pretty accomplised. those rocks were bigger than you think.. wayyyy bigger.


and that was it, that night, i had dinner shift and we tore it up with BeerCan Chicken.. delicious stuff those 6 chickens were.. anyways, wednesday we came home.. arrived back to lasan at about 1015? and slowly.. members of the party departed and the trip came to an end. we left, and enjoyed the rest of our spring break [i didnt really go anywhere because no one went anywhere so it was rather pointless.. and my paretns were being all whacked about me not being home enough.. hahah oh well] uhm.. that was pretty much the ski trip! missed those who didnt come with us.. it would have been a blast for all of you guys.. anyways, thats about it.. just wanted to update this thing, its been forever. lol well, im going to go and kick back now. oh yeah!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY VANTAYLOR!!! you crazy kid, hope you liked the hat and the sunglasses.. its what you wanted [right??] hahaha we got you good at practice today.. hope youre dried off now, you got 6 good water balloons on you.. hahah that was awesome.

well, thats all for now. WYD coming up, woot woot! til then, ciaobello!

LA Congress was AWESOME! THANKS EVERYONE for making that weekend worth every hour of practice. No regrets .



More details/pictures/links to come. I'll update later.

http://www.xanga.com/groups/group.aspx?id=103328
they're links to other VLYTers and they have pictures at their sites. my pictures will be posted tomorrow.

WARNING: It's gonna be a loonnnggg one. Be prepared, and have a glass of water just in case you get thirsty...

Thursday : Woke up and went to school like any other thursday. It was early day anyways so classes were flying by. Took my math final a day earlier than everyone else, and I took it during 7th period, my open period. It wont be opened for long since Tippetts is moving me up to 1st period full orchestra!! Well afterschool I was SUPPOSED to get picked up at like 145.. I got picked up at 230 instead. Went home and moped around the house, then i was forced to pack up.. i did.. all i had to remember was "white socks and shirt.. white socks and shirt" and then i was pretty much done packing.. Joe drove me out to LaSan and we got there at 3.59! woot! no fees.. haha i brought my stuff to the bus and loaded it.. then we took roll and then boarded the bus. we waited for jenny and then it was pretty much the beginning of the awesome trip! sat next to micheal, snacks were passed around and we watched the incredibles. uhm, the movie ended.. and then the next thing we know we were at a pitstop.. and we had 15 minutes to do whatever before the bus left.. and we got mickyDs and ate on the bus.. the seating was rearranged.. everyone was everywhere.. i was with long, priscilla, michelle, andrew2 and 3.. we ate and then after the meal we had "lights out".. everyone went to bed.. and so it was a good what, 10 minutes.. An comes up to me and tells me to go to the front of the bus.. i was all comfy and all, but i left and went to the front. ended up, the front lines of drumming were called so andrew1, jennifer3, an and me practiced DrumA with solos/DrumF counterparts.. we ran through F a couple of times.. we got the beats down.. right then and there we were just winging it.. ran through the entire opening ceremony routine and then hit the 'beds' again.. michelle left me a spot so i tried to sleep.. i did for a bit and woke up once we hit the big streets.. arrived at howard johnson and everyone brought up supplies.. we met up with the choreographers and then we went to go to our rooms. uhh, we settled in.. then my room was left with only richard and john sleeping.. because nghia, jason, tung and me had to go down and practice for fridays opening. so we went out to the parking lot and we were out there a good hour or two.. the drummers and me sat down and went from "b.r.b" to "idle" to "goodnight".. wew went upstairs and zonked out.. first it was me, but i realized i had no key to the room.. so i went down and on my way down, the rest of them were in the elevator.. so they went to bed.. i went to get a key from jason.. unlocked the door.. and went back down to give jason the key which he didnt need since tung had the other key.. so i went to bed at like 145AM when i could have at like 130.. lol.

Friday : woke up at 4AM, showered, ate breakfast, went down to the lobby at like 430.. didnt bring a sweater becuase it looked dry outside.. it was pouring, hard. we walked that half mile or mile to the convention center in rain.. i was drenched.. we got there and hid behind the truck for shelter.. then we loaded the drums to the center; got kicked out because the union didnt want to be responsible for us.. and then we went to the front doors waiting. everyone was around the glass staying warm and the rest of us like that night before; practiced.. and practiced.. the doors finally opened when Frere came in and talked to the guy.. he was really friendly after all.. anyways; they transported all of it to the arena through an assembly line.. Frere had john and me help bring some things to storage room 110; we had like 2 trips there by ourselves then frere ordered tommy and micheal to come along.. we finished the pile of boxes.. some were heavvyyy.. anyways, i had a mad stomach ache.. and then i was trying to find a bathroom but like 8 out of 10 bathrooms were all ladies.. hahaha. heard the drummers do C so i ran back to the arena.. it was over.. so i got into my scene2 costumes.. ran through the show and then i stayed in my drum costume and practiced opening ceremony live with Mr. John and the african drummer guy.. it was fun. we were winging it and we were scared.. lol. then out of nowehre, the arena seemed to be flooded with people.. i guess the union opened the gates to the public.. so much for practicing; we didnt even get a runthrough.. we were scared. haha the rest of us were sitting in a spot to the side of the stage.. so all of a sudden they gave us a go and we started the opening ceremony.. first to do anything.. then it was over, we relaxed and started having fun messing around with the band and stuff.. the prayer was oepened and we snuck offstage.. went to the back and stayed by our drums in the hallway around the arena. we napped.. and said hey to people that walked by. john comes out and was like "everyones asleep and this lady is giving a fat speech about not sleeping in church, i swear shes talking to us!" hahah it was funny. well everyone came out; i changed back into my regular outfit and then hung out.. we layed around the area for about 2 hours.. relaxing.. getting our heads cleared for the 12oclock show.. some of us bought some food.. and it hit me it was a friday; NO MEAT! hahaha.. so we had fries and bagels.. then we suited up for the show.. transported the drums back into the arena through the 'behind the scene' doors.. and our adrenaline started rising. we opened with drumC and then the show went underway. AWESOME show.. crazy cool with nothing bad that happened. it was crazy, the house was PACKED too!! really incredible. after the show; someone brought bread with fish inside and stuff.. pretty good i guess, i was just starving because my only meal of the day so far was from 4AM and that was a bowl of cereal.. haha. well we cleaned up and brought everything to room 110 and stored it there. i ended up having to act for frere's workshop, i was jesus and long was my simon-peter. we went to like the 4th floor up at the convention center.. then the girls and some of us went to the back alley of the workshop. we had a blast back there.. lol john and them were playing with cards i think, then long and me were kicking back and i listened to some songs on priscilla's iPod with michelle.. crazy cool. so we were called to be ready to act.. and long and i winged it, hilarious! we did pretty good actually.. anyways the girls danced and it was cramped but it was okay.. then uhmm.. we left, went downstairs.. we went to the marriott to do our next and last performance.. everyone was already suited, so then we ran like crazy.. we changed, and ran back from rm 110 to the marriot.. 5 crazy asians; 4 in blue suits and 1 in red.. chasing each other in LA.. hmmm.. hahahha we arrived on time; a bit tired.. long and i had a collision in mid air while jumping into the marriot parking lot.. haha we slept through that mass.. so tired.. again, the priest guy was talking about sleeping.. hahaha we were pretty drained. we changed after and went back to the hotel; at the bus stop we voted for food.. and ended up eating with our rooms.. my room, 201.. got dennys and we ate it all..we went to the pool after and swam that night.. we owned that place. hahahah it was pretty fun, the hot tub was really hot and then i went up because i got tired.. so many people cramped up though, lets see.. at least 7 different people with like the same problems; crampage in the calf muscle..lol. we went back up, showered and cleaned..then it was too early of a night, we went out to the hallway and started drawing.. thu drew me.. it kinda resembled me.. nghia drew thu, i drew this one picture for michelle, we were all doodling basically.. and it lasted for awhile.. becuase i went back to bed and it was like pretty early.. like 130am? i grabbed the spot on the floor because i wasnt that tired and i didnt feel like sleeping on the bed.

haha rehearsing our lines in the backalley of frere's workshop.. haha hilarious times long

the crazy cool iPod that had priscilla's singing.. hahaha good days

Saturday: woke up at 545AM hearing thunder booms and seeing lightning zaps.. felt SUPER sticky; like i was in vietnam again or something.. it was either really humid or i had a nightmare and i was just sticky.. it smelt like mint too so i licked my upperlip; which confirmed my nose that it was minty.. disregarded it and went to sleep.. woke up at 8am that morning.. i guess i wasnt the only one feeling sticky.. Jason was sticky too, and richard felt sticky.. john was out of the room but his sleeping bag was sticky.. it hit me; how did i end up on the bed?! hahah tung ended up pulling me up because he thought i was the lightest of all the guys.. i guess so.. so when all of us actually got up out of bed and cleaned up the room a bit, we saw like yellow stains on the pillow.. at first i thought it was drool stains which would have been gross.. but it was on like eveeryones pillows and sheets! and so we were like investigating what happened; turns out tung woke up at night.. put jasons Jason Toothpaste onto our cheeks and we rubbed it around all over.. thats why it tasted minty! hahah wicked little prank.. hahaha so we all decided to watch saturday cartoons, then at like 845 we got everyone together and went to DowntownDisney.. the little kiddos went to this mall like 2 hours away.. but im nto sure what happened with them. we went to this lego place, and ate at RAINFOREST CAFE! it was crazy, ohhh VOOLLLCAANNOOEE!! hahaha and it was my 'birthday'.. lolol we had a blast there.. then we went out and kicked back and walked around in downtown disney.. we were supposed to be back at the convention center at like 430 for mass.. and we walked and saw the rest of the group on the bus.. they were trying to get to the center before us! so we walked pretty fast.. and then the bus stopped, so we all started runnign and we ran all the way to the convention center.. pretty cool.. hahaa. we grabbed seats at the center which was once again packed and the priest was the guy from NewOrleans, i heard him last year at the JazzMass.. hes pretty cool; keeps you awake. i actually listened to the sermon! hahaha. we gave him like 4 standing obations which was realllyy neat. uhm, when we were shaking hands i turned around and michelle showed up out of nowhere.. frere was really into the mass too.. anyways, mass ended and we went home.. it was WAYYY too ealry for us to go to bed.. and tung wanted to pull the prank on the little kids.. anyways, michelle and van came into our room and were like "if you guys are bored, 207 has games" and so like nghia and me went there first to scout out the room.. 207 was one of the rooms we were supposed to hit that night.. lol.. we ended up playing soem crazy games like high9, ate some icecream and then we went out to go eat dinner. everyone was waiting for us [my room, 201] because we captured long and rolled him up.. and he was screaming for my name to help him and then after was like "ill kill you later donny!!" haha so i hid and pretended i wasnt there.. lol the had him wrapped in all 6 layers of blankies from both beds and then threw him under the mattress.. hahah he got out, so tung told me to bring andrew2 up to the 4th floor and come back down.. and so i did; they caught andrew and locked him in teh bathroom.. hahah i coulda sworn he was taking a 2 in our bathtub.. but he wasnt.. lol uhm we ended up letting him go.. and then we went down to the pool area and the rest of them were cranky because they were waiting for us.. sorry. we went to dennys and kimmai and i did this catwalk thing.. hahaha pretty funny.. we ordered our food, went back to the lobby.. ate it.. and went to bed.. it was like 130am again and so we just fell asleep and forgot about the prank.

Sunday : we woke up, showered and got ready and we all departed our rooms at roughly 945ish. i stayed back with some other veterans and we cleaned up the rooms and made sure nothing was left behind.. tung and me took two towels..kekeke and we found nghias clothes that he 'lost' haha. we went to the parking lot and saw our bus and everything.. pretty neat. boarded the bus and started to take off.. the ride home was pretty crazy! we played cards and stuff all over the place and then ate bananas and snacked everything out..we went to Bakersfield and bought subway and stuff, i bought advil because i was feeling out of it.. ate my stuff, priscilla and them called me to the back of the bus where i went.. sat there for a bit.. and then came back up and sat next to michelle.. the rest of them were playing hearts and then we were watching because we got bored.. we passed this HUGE FIELD OF COWS!! AT LEAST LIKE A GAZILLION OF THEM! then we just kicked back and stuff for the rest of the ride home.. we didnt really want to go home yet.. it was too fast of a trip. we got to lasan at 4 and so then we walked to SJV; long andrew and i ran there.. and we came back to lasan because iono why.. hahah long hai and i ran back nonstop.. uhm; then we went to eat dinner.. it was a fulfilling meal.. frere asked that 10 people help him store the drums and stuff.. so i went and like 15 people came to help.. we went back to SJV for this youth mass i guess.. and then i sat next to tommy and michelle, and michelle made fun of my singing.. lol. church ended and the priest thought we were the confirmation class when we were actually the vietnamese lasallian youth troupe.. haha we went back to lasan, people got picked up, and we decided to make a gamenight there.. we played taboo and guesstures; pretty funny.. cleaned up and left. joe and i went to in n out, and then we went home. i slept at 1..

Monday: richard came and picked me up at like 230ish, picked up long and amie, and we went to richards house. there; we found out a lot of people couldnt go with us to Gilroy.. so it was like what, only Amie, Long, Trang, Andrew, Kim-mai, Richard and me... the outlets were cool only because it was with van nghe.. ahhaha we went to go eat dinner and andrew and kimmai were racing through the highways.. hahaha it was madness, flashing each other and like driving at the same speeds on the highway.. funny. ate at this one place and it was yummy.. then they drove me home.


hahah at the Gilroy outlet. im in Amie's jacket, and Long is wearing her purse

Tuesday: they wanted to go to the gmall.. so then richard picked long up and then came to my house.. i went out there and we met up with priscilla and michelle, walked around for a bit and then went to go watch movies.. it took us forever to decide which movie to watch, btw; has anyone heard of "Ong Bak" before? we saw it and were all "whats that movie.. ive never even heard of it.." it turns out to be some action kungfu movie.. lol.. we chose to watch Hide and Seek.. WICKEDLY SCAREY! well it was just ..crazy.. lol. michelle had to go home right after the movie ended.. she got in trouble and is grounded for like the whole week now.. uhm, long me and richard hid from her dad.. and then turns out jennifer told her dad that we were with her and priscilla at the mall..hahah good game huh? anyways, we went to in n out and ordered four 4x4 burgers.. OMG I FELT FULL LOL and they drove me home.. went to sleep.

Wednesday : did nothing at ALL. i was sooo bored out of my mind.. played CS with the knights and then we got bored.. haha andrew2 and i are thinking of making a VLYT website; KEEP ALL YOUR PICTURES OF ALL PERFORMANCES SO WE CAN POST IT IN THE SITE LATER! haha thats about it for wednesday..

Thursday: richard went to pick long, priscilla and me up.. joe ended up coming with us to VALLEYFAIR! we spent the whole day there.. shopping and stuff.. we met up with amie and went into hollister, forever21, AE, stuff like that.. haha lacoste is expennsiiveee haha. then we met up with nghia and alicia.. they are cool.. ate bread, bought amie's brother a new deck.. he snapped his old one.. uhm.. then jennifer called and said to meet at the food court.. so michelle and jennifer and david joined the group.. we parted; amie michelle and priscilla went to hollister againa nd long and i followed with them.. went to macys after to walk amie out.. some scary guy was like stalking her.. hahah. we went back up to the food court afterwards and bought jamba juice.. michelle had to go home so priscilla walked her out agian..lol.. jennifer got us food and then we ate it.. we went home. richard dropped joe and i off, we were supposed to go rent movies or something and then priscilla had to go home early.. so were saving that for another day. im here now, i dont know.. lol anyways this whole weeks been completely loads of fun!! i got busted though, haha its okay.. its only for a bit..anyyyways.. ill add pictures later i promise!

So here is the show

"Travel to exotic and festive Vietnam for lunch! Enjoy your lunch with this back-by-popular-demand show, with uplifting sounds of Vietnamese drums and newly added dances. Come, see how teen and young Vietnamese use the art of dancing, colorful costumes and 40 drums to catechize and celebrate our faith in a very festive and yet deeply spiritual way. You will have the oppotunity to drum and dance too! Its entertainment you won't easily forget."
- LA Congress Advertisement for the Vietnamese Lasallian Youth Troupe

[Pictures thanks to Michelle, Amie, Andrew, Tommy, Jennifer and others]

Drum C

Palm Dance // Jesus is in the Houuseee


Jesus washing Simon-Peter's feet [Loi Thieng]


Last Supper


Mongols killed Jesus! The Cruxifiction of Jesus, great acting here


The mourning dance, many people cried from the last two scences


haha good times with resurrection


our finale, we stayed in costume since no time to change.. hahaha

that was our show.. it brings me back to that fantastic friday performance. after strengthening my faith, ive decided to.. becoming a.. priest?


hahahahah good times for sure