softcups

so it has been a while since i last updated. just been swamped by papers and finals all week but i'm done with classes for the semester! on to finals...here is a picture of xuemin and what i'm going to update about today. read more to find out what it is!

anywho, the other day when i was walking to class, a lady wearing a pink shirt with a huge basket stopped me in front of campus and offered me a sample. "did you get your sample yet?" i looked up at her and saw the package she was handing me. free sample? why not. it was neatly packed like a tampon sample or something. so i excited it took it. then when i looked it closely, the pick on the sample looked like a female condom. my excitement soon turned into awkwardness mixed in with embarrassment. i quickly shoved it into my background and possibly toss it later during the day.

when i saw my friend after class, we somehow happened to get into the conversation about the free sample. i expressed my disgust to her. she then showed me the pink plastic wristband around her arm. i soon recognized what where it was from. i stared at her with disgust. she apparently kept the plastic band and cut off the rest of it. as much as i found disgusting, i also found it hilarious and somewhat creative. i generously offered my sample to her and continued to make another 3 more.

well anways, apparently it aint a condom, its an alternative to a pad and a tampon, which is kind of gross to think of at times.

ok this post was pretty awkward.

later,
j

life

"I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life. I’ve learned that making a “living” is not the same thing as making a “life.” I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back. I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I’ve learned that even when I ha...ve pains, I don’t have to be one. I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Maya Angelou

royal wedding

sorry, i haven't updated in while because school is winding down and its been kind of crazy.
but..this weekend...or on april 29th its the royal wedding! being a british citizen, i feel that i should be excited about this. which i am so i decided to what the lifetime movie of william and kate. its free on lifetime. here yes i know its tacky and many visible flaws but its still a pretty cute chick flick.

until next time,
j

so here are some of the random things that i did when i was younger... (though i do continue to do random things)

i had a craving for kellogg's rice krispies. i had three boxes of 16 in on week. i then told my friend to buy me more and she bought me a big box of 54 from costco. i ate less than 10 of it and then decided to called it quits.

during my sophomore year of high school, i had another food craving. i ate marchuan beef ramen everyday for dinner. after about 1.5 weeks, i grew tired of it. now, i cannot eat another bowl/ bag of maruchan ramen.

in high school, the tuck shop (which is commonly known as a snack bar...yes...we're fancy. i know) had wings o' fire which were really just spicy chicken stripes. my friends and i would always go there after classes before sports to eat them.

on my 18th birthday, i made one of my friends, shoshi, walk to the theatre to watch my first r-rated movie: stop-loss. though it was really r rated, channing tatum, ryan philippe and joseph gordon-levitt. when i decided to drag my friend to watch it, i didn't realize there was supposed to be a deeper meaning to the movie. i actually wanted to go watch it because of who are in it. and now i know...

when i was a young pea, i liked to collect trash. more like paper balls that my mom tossed on the floor to entertain me. i found a real kick for it, actually.

i was obsessed with stickers when i was younger. i had a ton of sticker boxes and i collected them. i also stuck a bunch on my face. my dad also helped me with my collection by bringing some home from work. i now appreciate how supportive my father was for my hobbies and passion for life. no, i'm totally kidding about my father part.

i used to be a cry baby and i cried at overnight camps at school and insisted that i call my parents at night even though the teacher literally told me to shut up and stop crying.

i find extreme amusement hanging at my bff, sneha's house. even though she mostly entertains me by watching movies or tv shows and eating indian maggi ramen and pasta with tomato sauce, i still find myself going there on a frequent basis.

i find extreme pleasure when vacationing on boats. i love sailing on a small private yacht/boat. i find speed boat rides extremely thrilling and fun. that is probably why i've always kind of invited myself to my friend, sarah's place for july 4 recently. one day when i grow older, i want to have a speedboat or gulet of my own. you can tell that i'm kind of spoilt. lol

i don't like to talk at all. you can say that i'm shy. fine...i guess i am but i really don't like to talk to people unless i'm completely comfortable and trust you. so mostly, i like to write.

i'm really like victoria floral patterns as well as other really nice organized and interesting patterns. as you can tell from the background of my blog....

i really like garlic veges with rice. yes, i don't look like someone who would eat veges but i really do. but the problem is, i don't know how to make it the way i like it so i don't cook it myself. thus, i don't eat at home a lot.

wow, i think that tuned into things about me...thats all i can think of so far.

toodles for now,

new layout

so i decided to spiff up my blog...its a working progress. i'm still trying to figure how to tweak a couple of other things.

more to come soon...

random thoughts of happiness

i'm quite happy because...

• i wrote a rough draft for my american studies paper due next week
  
• i revised that draft and wrote a second version read for don to read it
• i had a delicious meal at gypsy's tonight; i go the chicken and broccoli dish and salad with itailan dressing
• i went to section though i contemplated for a long time of not doing
• one tree hill, 90210 and miobi are back on so i get to catch up on tv shows.
• i'm excited for whats to come over the summer :)
  

"awkward" reunion

at the boston common with steph, liying and sneha.

i'm finally back from my adventure to the east coast...a lot went down. some good some bad. this is how it all began...

i decided that i was going to make use of time and skip class on thursday to head to nyc. because of the time difference, i didn't get into nyc till 7pm when i left for the airport at 6am that morning. as usual, i stayed with sneha, who at the time of my arrival was about to head to an chinese talent show. made it just in time to return for the talent show.

surprising, her elementary chinese class sang a jay chou song which i couldn't even read the lyrics to. props to them. some of the acts at the talent show was slight awkward and confusing. at one point, the opera that one student was singing literally caused audiences to cover the ears. im not even kidding.

we then headed out to eat with her chinese class who were really nice kids. we went to chinatown to some place called hop kee. it is zagat rated but to be completely honest, the food isn't that great. its simply american chinese food with lots of soy sauce and oil it in. though i have to say, the steamed pork dumplings were not too bad.

when we got back to her room, i got to hang out and chill with her suitemates, evelina and celina. we talked for about 3 hours. what we talked about cannot be elaborated here. before we knew it, it was 3am.

woke up in the morning, had a little mishap because sneha's ID went missing. just bummed around her room for the entire morning before heading out to union square. went to the strand to get a tote that i owe my friend, Hang, for almost 6 months now. also got one for myself since i gave my one away. I also managed to buy myself a book. i literally judged the book by its cover. that is why i got the book. haha haven't started reading it yet though.

after sneha ended class, we went to get some boba at a some tea place called Kung Fu on 10th and 2nd. it was more expensive than what i pay for here at berkeley. i tried their jasmine milk tea. it was really sweet! though i didn't make use of their option to control the sweetness. i didn't realize i had the option to do that at boba stores until i walked into this one. after that, i grabbed a bento box at teryaki boy across the street. it was not bad at all. it was a chicken with california roll bento. it was pretty generic and average. later, i was told that teriyaki express around union square is the best. it just opened recently too.

went back to her room, tried to look for her id again. still no luck. packed for boston. we headed to the bus stop at chinatown. we took a bus called the lucky star bus. which is literally like the feng wah bus. we were told that someone has gotten lice from taking the bus before which freaked both of us out. but ive been fine since so i'm good :) we forgot to buy dinner so we bought outselves 2 dollar sandwiches from a little asian convenience store next door. to be honest, though it was simple, it was pretty good.

the bus ride to boston was just filled with chatterboxes. we sat at seats with a table. there were 3 indian men that got on and sat across from us. sneha soon figured out that the 3 indian men spoke the same dilect from as her and pretty much from the same area in India. throughout the ride, sneha and i were marathoning the OC. yes, its cheesy but i still love. meanwhile, the indian men across from us were talking about sneha thinking that we had no idea what they were talking about. fine, i didn't know, but sneha knew.

what made this even more awkward is that sneha decided to go up to the 3 indian men and tell them that she knew what they were talking about all along. the look on their faces was just full of awe and confusion. we walked away before they had even time to respond. how embarrassing for the 3 of them. i wish i could have filmed this moment...it was so awkward but also extremely hilarious at the same time.

we got into harvard at around 130am. we hoped onto a "party bus" which really is the harvard shuttle with loud jams pumping and a strobe light flashing. i've to say, it was pretty cool. slept over at stephs for the night.

we got to sleep in a little the next morning. we went to harvard's earth day fair where they were giving out these nice big nalgene bottles. all we had to do was go around the booths and get answers to 12 of 18 questions on this sheet of paper. got to bring home a cool nalgene bottle with me :)at the boston marathon expo...steph put her arm around the skeleton. haha

we tend headed into boston so that steph could pick up her number for the boston marathon. yes, she owned the 26.2 miles by the way :) we got to walk by the famous charles river. we walked around collecting free and healthy samples. i didn't realize how big the boston marathon was until getting there and finding out that my friends who go to bc have the day off on monday because the marathon crosses through their campus. i wish the oakland marathon crosses the berkeley campus so we get the day off. yeah, i wish.

went to an asian american talent show called kollaboration. it is "empowerment through entertainment." it is actually the first time i've heard of it though they already had shows in san francisco for a while now. most of the acts were performed by students from colleges around the boston area like bc, harvard, bu and berklee (school of music)

then headed to bc to sleepover at my friend liying's place. we got in pretty late but we still got something to eat. the rest of that night was just not too interesting.

next morning, we had lunch with liying and steph in boston. we tried to go to 2 of the top rated brunch places. paramount and mike and pattys. we didn't realize that mike and pattys was so small that there was barely a table to sit and eat. it was a really cute place but we decided to head over to paramount where there was supposedly more setting so we could all catch up. we walked by the boston common on the way. its interesting to see how much i forgot about boston since the last time i went there (about 5 years ago). the wait at paramount when we got there was too long so we went into an italian cafe next door which served really good lemonade. i ordered a half soup and half sandwich combo.

after lunch, we got to try j.p lick at cambridge (where harvard is). i got to try the coffee oreo and it was BOMB. it reminded me of the ice cream i used to buy during break at choate from pralines. damn i miss those times...

hoped back onto the lucky star bus later that afternoon to go back to nyc. we got in around 8pm so we decided to try this chinese cafe place close by. i got myself a bowl of rice noodle soup and a cup of hong kong style milk tea.

that pretty sums it up...:)

good luck girl!

my "awkward" friend, steph choi, is running the boston marathon tomorrow! im sad that sne sne and i aren't there to cheer you on but you're going do great!! her number tomorrow(today) is 13834. Remember it and track her on AT&T!

PS. i shall update on my awesome weekend will come soon...stay tuned!

i can't wait!

2 days before we're reunited :) its been too long you two! i missed you beezies!

i'm soooo excited!

this weekend: northside explorations

so my adventures this weekend-

friday:
my 4 day weekend always starts out with work on friday. the sun was out but surprisingly cold. i made the mistake of wearing shorts to work. i worked the game in a short sleeve polo and a thin windbreaker for a couple of hours. for some reason, the game clock ran down really slowly. but overall, it was a good shift.

after my shift, i went to lunch at smart Alec's because my friend, Hang, got an A on her paper. you get a free batch of fries with you bring your A paper and show it to them. it was my second trip there over 2 days. the first day( the day before) i had the chicken breast sandwich and garlic fries combo. though i didn't eat it right away, the fries were real soggy after 15 minutes. the sandwich was pretty healthy. it wasn't greasy at all. the second day i went there after work, i got a beef burger. it was descent. somehow, i feel that the price of the burger was not worth it. at least the burger and garlic fries were somewhat healthier than stuff i get from mcdonalds.

went on to an asian night festival shortly after. they had many food booths run by student organizations on campus. the food served was pretty generic. i supported by buying a put of thai ice tea. definitely not as good as some of the boba places around berkeley but oh well.

went to cheeseboard for dinner. had a slice. the pizza that day was feta cheese, garlic ,peppers and lime (there were probably a couple of other things in there that i missed). cheeseboard only serves one kind of pizza a way and its a collective business. i really like the crust of their pizza. they also serve other kinds of homemade style food like pies and cookies which i heard are also good. my friends and i enjoyed a slice while live music played.

went over to safeway to check out whats good. i finally bought my first lotto ticket/scratcher. i won $3 (fine, the scratcher was $2 but i really just made $1)! i felt somewhat accomplished. bought marshmellows, chocolate and graham crackers. guess what we made...SMORES. it was alright considering we probably didn't make it the right way.

saturday:

my pull roasted chicken sandwich from gregoires.

got to sleep in a lot. headed over to northside for lunch at gregoires. a restaurant that serves fancy sandwiches and potato puffs. i ordered the pull roast chicken sandwich which was pretty good. i got half of what my friend ordered, the buttermilk chicken with spicy cole slaw sandwich. both were really good. had an order of potato puffs to share. the puffs were alright. it made me thirsty afterwards.

went back to safeway to get a drink. the vending machine ate 75 cents of mines. i was quiteu upset. went to masses, the pastry store across the street. my friends ordered a mango mousse. i had a bite. it was really rich. they also had macarons which i tempted to get one but i refrained.

i just had to...i encountered both in one afternoon.

we walked over to love at first bite. i got myself a red velvet cupcake. debated over red velvet or green tea. had to try the red velvet. it was alright. didn't have enough sour cream in the frosting. wasn't a bad price at all either.

headed over to visit my aunt for the rest of the weekend. watched almost the entire season of DC cupcakes. some of the ideas/ projects are pretty cool.

sunday:
slept in again but not as late as saturday. went to a chinese restaurant with my aunt and uncle. had my first bowl of legit noodle soup since i got back from home. it was beef with preserved vegetable noodle soup.

headed over to tanforan after lunch, went shopping. maybe bought too many. i bought shorts and jeans from forever 21. the shorts may be a little too short for my liking. perhaps i will save them for the summer or for the beach. bought some dark chocolate raisinets from target. and a couple of small fragrance mists from bath and body works. i should probably refrain from shopping the next couple of weeks.

had to document my first orange julius.

i also had my first orange julius at the mall. i actually had no idea what it was until i looked it while i was drinking it. it is actually a blended drink of orange juice, sugar, milk and vanilla. i don't really know how i feel about it because it really isn't a smoothie or a milkshake either but it is towards the "don't like" side.

gross, do NOT get it.

also bought myself a vitamin water zero. i was looking for the grape flavored regular vitamin water (formula 50). i've realized that flavor is extremely hard to find but it is my favorite flavor. so when i saw that vitamin water was on sale, i decided to try the grape-raspberry vitamin water zero. i figured it can't be that bad. i usually don't like diet drinks but i decided to give it a try. but, though it was rich in grape flavor, it was not good at all. where is all the grape flavored regular vitamin water?!


and now im here... ready for next week.

nyc and boston in 4 days!

until next time,
j

10 random things about me

the title of the post says it all..so here are 10 random things you should know about me:

1. i'm a sucker for red velvet cupcakes. i've been at this cupcake craze for some time now and i am still not over it. whenever i see a cupcake bakery, i will definitely go in and get one. when i go to magnolias in new york, i usually get many. i also really appreciate the large crumbs cupcake. its pretty bomb.

2. i really like vege juice (like v8) esp when its spicy. this one time when i was a flight, i think i had like 4 cups over the span of 1.5 hours.

3. until today, i do not know how to drive or even operate an automobile. i probably can't even drive a golf cart. and i crash all the time when i play mario cart. i think thats a sign of my driving skills as of right now.

4. if you haven't figured out by now, im a huge patriots fan. i usually blog about it during the season.

5. i really like music with a beat like dance/electronic music.

6. i find british got talent an extremely hilarious show. i can watch the videos on youtube over and over again and not get tired laughing about it. well obviously, the good acts as well. heres an example of an act i cannot stop laughing over (and its been 2 years since i first watched it): click

7. when i'm bored or have nothing to do, i like to watch random things on tv/internet. most recently, i've watched dc cupcakes (on tlc) and 4 continents ice skating (on universal sports) for hours (you probably don't know what it is. haha).

8. i love the stuff at anthropologie but i don't own anything in there because its too pricey for me at the moment.

9. sometimes i shimmy for no reason at all. my friends think im weird. but thats ok. :)

10. i really like brussel sprouts. just steamed with a little salt and i can probably chow down the whole bowl.

okies, peace

thoughts

recently, i have been having thoughts about where my life will take me. my life has changed quite a bit since i came to berkeley. the path i always thought i would take has come to an end for me. over the path couple of months, i've been trying to figure out what exactly it is i want to do with my life, figure out new goals for myself. its been a couple of months now and i still question what i do with my life. where would my life take me?

since coming to berkeley, i have grown quite a bit. having gone to a boarding school before i came her, living independently and being on my own hasn't been a problem for me. but, the journey thus far has not been a breeze. over the past year and half, i've learned a lot about myself and how to live my life. i have learned that what i thought was my future was not really what i should be doing. growing up, i have always thought that science was the path to success for me and the goal i have been working for since i went to school. my schedules were packed with science and math classes for the longest time and i was always focused just on that academically. though i may have been struggling with it and was not good with it, it was convinced it was for me. what i realized is that, i really just loathed it. i have just been masking it for all this time by convincing myself that is what i like. before long, i soon realized something...

yet, it is hard to imagine how much of a turn my life has taken for me especially since the past 5 months. since the disappointing yet relieving end to the fall semester, i learned that there is more look forward and perhaps a differently path would be brighter for me.

right now, i may not be 100% sure of what to expect in my life or even have my goals written up. but exploring has really helped me and im beginning to learn that there may be something that i'm actually interested in and feel motivated to learn more about. there are so many opportunities to look forward to. though i may still not know what to do with my life, i know that everything will be ok.

i feel like i've something to look forward to and be happy about.

also, thank you to those who guided me through this. i will forever appreciate your support. thank you for bringing my confidence back when i was not feeling it myself. thank you for just listening to the depressing things that i've to say about my life. you know who you are. ;)

regardless, the journey continues...

toodles for now

we will be back

my bff, sneha, and i at the patriots vs packers game in dec, 2010.

one of the most memorable moments of my life. until today, i feel so happy just looking at this picture and thinking about it. even though it was freezing outside (yes, i live in california now and i'm a whimp), it was well worth the hours to watch my team play and crush the defending sb champs, packers. i think i have finally gotten passed the phase of not talking, reading or writing about football after a pretty dramatic and saddening (to me, at least) end to the patriots season. don't worry, pats, 2011 is the year!

the mirror ball

so its been a while since i have blogged about something than my life...so i've decided to talk about a tv show-Dancing with the stars. I've been keeping up with the show since i was a sophomore in high school. i still remember how i first got into too. i was going back to the dorms and one of my dormmate was watching it online and somehow i went into her room to talk to her and i got sucked into watching it.

but, there is what i think so far.

obviously, the reason i watch dwts is no longer on the show, i still keep up with it. if you were wondering the reason, i watched it because of julianne hough who is no longer on the show. i used to be obsessed with her on the show (not in a real creepy way). it really like some of the songs that the contestants dance to each week. though the dwts live band isn't that great, the songs they dance to is pretty catchy to me.

this season, i've really been like hines ward so far. for a man like him, he can really move and he always looks to happy doing it. so far, he has been pretty above average. it was really nice that he celebrated his mother for story week this week. he has a pretty interesting background for a football player. he was raised by his mother who only spoke korean in the country. and his mom was there to watch him dance the samba this week. it was a really cute moment. but, he should probably stop waving the terrible towel (for personal reasons). haha


i've been known to be a sucker for all blonde dancers on this show ( i swear, i'm not a creep) so it makes sense that i like chelsea kane who so happens to be partnered with mark ballas, my second favorite pro on the show. they did a really interesting interpretation of the jive last week which the judges thought was inappropriate but it was really cool. they did pretty well this week with their cha-cha-cha. it came with a catchy song, so thats probably why and she danced it well too.


kendra wilkinson-i've watched the kendra show and the girls next door before and i find this girl hilarious. i really like the show because its so funny. she started off slow but she really picked up this week with her rumba.

kirstie allen-she did pretty well the first week and maintained it with a slightly lower score in the second week but unfortunately she took a tumble this week. props to her for picking up though. she can really move for a woman of her size.

peta-she is partnered with one of my other favorite male pro, dimitry. that man is fine. but peta did surprisingly well with her waltz this week after getting pretty low scores the past two weeks. hopefully her hip won't bother her for her to continue to do well.

romeo-he is also partnered with one of my favorite pros, chelsea. he did really well with his quickstep last week and stayed strong with his rumba this week. the think i like about romeo is that he really tries to put his emotions into the dance which is reflected really well.

mike-poor guy, i wish he had more groove so he wouldn't be voted off so early. he also didn't have much of a name as other contestants this season which probably also affected the votes. i feel bad for lacey (his partner) because this is probably the second time she has been elminated first. i really like lacey. she's got that cool but also a little emo side to her.

i don't really know how to comment on the other contestants. these are the ones that stood out to me. also, sorry, i didn't post pictures up of some of the contestants i talked about, i got lazy.

so who would win the mirror ball trophy this season?

also, i have not been voting, my bad.

the sun is finally out!

my friends, xuemin and hang, showing some love to each other in the sun. photobooth probably didn't do the weather justice.but its the best i got that day. :)

so, i've really soaked up the sun recently. after almost 2 weeks of rain, the weather is finally working with me! on friday, i spent most of my afternoon working at a softball game. when i got to work, it didn't really hit me that i would be sitting under the blazing sun for so long that i needed sunscreen. it was pretty dumb of me considering i did bring my sunglasses and not put on sunblock.

on saturday, my friend, xuemin, and i decided to sit outside to enjoy the nice weather after coming back from lunch at chinatown. again, i forgot my sunblock. we didn't sit out for too long though.

sat outside on sunday again but only for about an hour or so before heard to dinner where we sat outside. that night, when i was in the library, it realized how heated my face felt. i asked my friend who was sitting next to me whether i was red or not and then started laughing.

today, things was much better because i was finally smart enough to bring some sun screen. i bought myself a peppered turkey sandwich from cheese n'stuff. i feel in love after one of my friend, laura, took me there. those sandwiches are so simple yet so delicious. and the price is worth it. ate my sandwich on memorial glade with laura and xuemin. coincidentally, we were all eating sandwiches. we laid it out for the rest of the afternoon.

i was eating while they took a bunch of photobooth pictures and this was the only one i got with the me in it. sorry, just had to :)

Happy Spring! (or summer?)

slurpees and stellas

i've developed some intense love for:yes, i've probably had like 3 cups within 2 days. the fizzyness of it just really gets to me. its like a fizzy slushy! it really gets me. and plus every time i go into 7-11 its an excuse to buy a scratcher! im worried that it might turn into an addiction for me so no...i haven't bought one yet. watching hang buy one just gets me so excited. every time i feel lucky, i just want to walk into a convenient store and buy myself a lotto ticket. i can forsee that it is going to be the death of me one day.

when to a supposedly 90s party this weekend, but ended up dressing up like an 80s girl. to be honest, the party was pretty awkward if you went in sober. being underage, i couldn't go upstairs and join my friends at the bar. so we decided to leave and "pre-game" (we should have thought about it before getting there). i had my first stella. we tried to chug it but it was hard. we tried to drink it faster with a straw. it was pretty hilarious but that didn't help me. so i concluded that beers are chill drinks where you can linger and drink. i should probably have figured that out earlier.

i also headed to chinatown for some cheap dimsum on saturday. why do i always get a headache after i eat the pork with rice dish. maybe the oil is getting to me. and i love the egg tarts and pinapple bun. that part of the reasons for living at berkeley, its close enough to oakland chinatown for you can get some pretty decent chinese food for an inexpensive price. but of course, nothing beats food at home.

i also bought myself LIFE the board game from a bazaar for Japanese relief funds. it was pretty good find. i bought it 5 bucks and it was in pretty good condition. i can't wait to crank that board game out and play!

a random thought:
i really hate those first5 california ads when you use wisevid to watch tv shows online. its one thing to even have that pretty pointless ad but another to force you to watch it since you can't close it. until today, i still don't quite get the point of the ad. though i think it has a purpose.