i promise that when i get back to hk i won't do these recaps so often. it's just that in a third world country on vacation, it's not that easy to have a good internet connection. so here we go!
24/3: we woke up super early and headed to the airport for hue. when we got to hue, we met our tour guide and immediately started touring. we saw the same things ive seen before but having and english speaking guide was key. we went to two emperors tombs, the imperial city, thien mu pagoda and to a traditional folk song show boat ride. it was a lot of touring temples and things that began to look the same. but the architecture and the use of yin and yang within it are pretty neat-o. or as jbo and i would say, super cool.
25/3: we left beautiful hue for da nang and our tour guide immediately brought us to hoi an. there we toured a silk factory (complete with worm farms and all) and i felt bad for the worms, even though they are just worms. but they could have been butterflies instead of being boiled for their cocoon. shit man. then we went to the old village of hoi and saw some old house (really that's all it was to me), the japanese covered bridge, a chinese assembly hall (which was neato frito) and then had coffee and pancakes on the water. i also met an old man that i fell in love with and so i gave him some money because he was awesome and because i took his picture. then it was dinner (i also fell in love with the waitr) and that's all.
26/3: marble mountain! it was only 200 steps but we had pitstops to admire buddha statues. then we went to the marble factory where they make tons of crazy elaborate statues and i bought a little buddha for my room. i think this one is siddhartha, the original. then we went to the museum of the cham people in vietnam and looked at their relics or artifacts or whatever. then it was time for yet another flight, this time from danang to hanoi. from hanoi we drove 3 hours to ha long bay and ate dinner. michael and i walked through the night market, had fruit at club 18, got foot massages and went to sleep.
27/3: our tour guide, nicknamed leo for his lion eyes, brought us to our private boat in ha long bay. we cruised and spelunked for four hours and had lunch on the boat. the scenery there is just so amazing, i could go back a few more times. i could do without the bat caves though, oh god. well we drove back to hanoi and went to the fiditour office to book another tour to sapa. kevin met us at the internet cafe we go to and brought us to have cha ca at cha ca la vong on cha ca st. HA. it was so yummy! then we booked it to the train station, hopped on le train and went to sleep. exciting night, i know.
28/3: sapa turned out to be amazing! we sat in the hotel for an hour or two before visiting cat ca village and trekking through the terraced rice paddies. alogn the paddies there were tons of baby pigs and goats and cows and buffalo and chickens and doggies. i love baby animals. or even animals in general. i sat next to a buffalo and he didnt even get mad. :) then we went to a mountain and got an awesome view of the city of sapa which is more like hills and houses and awesomeness. the climb wasn't too bad and the view was very rewarding. on the way up we met two ostriches, so cool. they are definitely dinosaurs. i love dinosaurs. then we had the rest of the night free so we walked around the market and called it a super early night.
29/3: city tour at 9:30 and it only lasted like 30 minutes. so after being bombarded by hmong ladies selling stuff, i pinky swore two of them that i would buy something later on. those tricky ladies. then jeremy asked the guide to take us to a valley or anything we could hike through. so jeremy, michael and i jumped down a bunch of terraces and it was sort of a difficult task because each one was almost my size and that's a far jump for that many jumps. michael decided to head back up to the village and i was determined on going further so jeremy and i climbed down and ran into a tourist on the path. the nice guy from australia had a guide with him and let us follow them to another village, but we only went half way because of time constraints. we trekked to a small waterfall type river thing and sat in it on top of rocks to cool our feet off. afterwards, jeremy and i hiked back by ourselves and boy was i tired and dehydrated! we got to the top, had a bite at a cafe michael was at and then headed to another village. we saw a house of one of the villagers and they had buffalo meat and hooves just chillin out. (eew).
the place was super dirty, there was an open fire and tons of mosquitos and smelliness. i can't imagine living like that. i suppose they don't know anything else and would think our way of living is absolutely nuts too. who needs all that luxury? (i like it) then we attempted to go in a cave but these little shits wanted to charge us for it and we didn't pay because its a public cave and so the shits turned the lights out on us. the only good thing aout the cave (besides it being a cave) was that it was freezing cold.
afterwards we headed back to lao cai and had dinner. we had to spend some time before the train departed so we spend an hour on the computer, which happens to make time pass by quite quickly. all aboard and we went to bed.
30/3: shit shit shit. it's now 8:30am, ive been up for three and a half hours and i am tired, groggy, bug bitten to the max, sunburned for the first time ever, smelly, sweaty, a cockroach just ran by my hand and i can't check into the guesthouse until 12 so i cannot shower for another 3.5 hours. fuck. there are these really lame tourists here who are fighting with mgmt over 6000d which is like....idk, less than 50 cents. and also i want to put my contacts in because sweaty glasses are gross. and my pants are ripped from trekking into that damn cave yesterday. so now i am crabby. but on the UPside, i just spent like an hour talking to nancy and although i now miss her more, i love her so much and it was a good talk! :) linda and eric attempted to gchat with me but theyre stupid joint account pissed me off and then they had to go back to work and it was 'game time' for eric. maybe ill call kevin. i dont like hanoi today! :( wahhhh.
29 March 2008
23 March 2008
bats, rats, snakes & dogs
it's the fourth day of my spring break trip in vietnam and i'm loving it...so here are a few recaps and impressions of my love, vietnam.
thursday: we arrived in hanoi at about 7pm and after looking around at flight prices and hotel information, we hopped into a cab and told the driver to bring us to 'city gate hotel' in the old quarter. after being lost for some time, he made a phone call and pulled over to the side of the street about a minute later. (sketch) the hotel owner came to the car and opened the door, presenting a business card of the hotel we were looking for...yet both jeremy and i couldn't seem to find the actual hotel we were supposed to be staying at. the manager found out we didn't have reservations and directed us to the sister-hotel, sunflower. we picked a room for $15 a night and then we went to dinner at a jazz club and walked around hoan kiem lake. hoan kiem lake at night is not that great. do you know why it's not that great? because BATS SWARM overhead and RATS crawl on the ground. RATS.
friday: we slept in until 12pm and then headed to a cafe for caphe sua da and some breakfast. afterwards we bought a ton of dvds for dirt cheap (mistake buying at the beginning of the trip since our bags were already heavy...) and then we walked around hoan kiem once again. hoan kiem is surrounded by stunning trees that are hundreds of years old and some dip down into the water. anyway, we walked to the pagoda in the middle of the lake and took a few pictures before heading to an internet cafe where i had soda chanh. after that and after being played by the hotel owner, we got on a plane en route to saigon. tien, ha, huy and co were eagerly awaiting us (so cute) and took us to our driver (same one we had last january) and then found us a hotel. then it was night night time.
saturday: the day started at noon again. hey, we're on vacation right? so we went to eat at the yummy restaurant that my mom was telling me about and that my dad loves eating at and who did we see? julie, jb & sam from hkust! then we went to the reunification palace, this time with an english speaking guide, which made it much more interesting. after that we headed to the war remnants museum that seemed to demonize the americans with photos of results of agent orange and phosphorous bombs. there were also two jars of preserved, deformed fetuses that were affected by agent orange and it was difficult to look at. bleh.
then my family dropped us off at the hotel (tan my dinh) and kevin, jeremy, michael and i went to ben thanh market to look around and the boys bought some snacks and we sat down to eat bun xeo which was actually very good for being at a dirty vendor. then we went to kevin's friend's house (baller) and had a beer before heading out to eat dinner in the big city! after a yummy dinner of ca ri tom (shrimp curry) we went to the 23rd floor of the sheraton and had a drink that lasted two hours while we overlooked the city. i never knew saigon was so immense! we headed to the club called bounce where we had free bottles, fruit, and perrier (compliments of kevin's buddy) and then headed back home for some rest.
sunday: we woke up at 8ish and had breakfast at the hotel. tien, huy and huy's brother came to meet us and then we picked kevin up and headed straight to cu chi. after about an hour or so, we arrived in cu chi and they actually charge foreigners more as tourists are seen as supporting the attraction while locals are there for nationalism strengthening. we toured the village and saw some traps and things and then headed over to watch some slanted view of cu chi movie. it was so awful! i felt brainwashed. "the cute and gentle of the fields girl became a hero for killing american soldiers" "american soldiers bombed our people, our schools, our pots and pans, even our buddhas" "he became a war hero and received three awards. one award for killing american soldiers, one award for shooting american planes, and one for..." (i forgot what the last was for, but im sure it was something against the americans)
after the movie that we ditched before it was done, we went into the tunnels that were extremely small, even after some were 'widened for western tourists.' we entered the underground through tiny holes where we had to put our arms in the air to fit through and then traveled 100 meters in the dark, dusty, dirty, not to mention TINY, tunnels. these tunnels are miles and miles long (the whole thing is about 200km) and they're so genius (if you want to call it that). i couldn't believe that the vietcong/nlf could dig these, even though it took them about 17 years total. their booby traps were scary too. they have punji sticks at the bottom of the traps (which are sharpened bamboo sticks) sticking up with feces, poision, or other contaminants coating the tips of them so that infection would quickly spread to the americans who were pierced by them. frack.
after cu chi we went to tien's house and had the best lunch ever. we had clams, shrimp, bun beo, rau muong, bread & curry, watermelon and drinks. yum! michael liked the bread, jeremy liked the squid...success! afterwards we got dropped off, which brings us to this point right now. on the way to getting dropped off we saw at least 25 weddings being held because apparently saturday and sunday are the only available days for workers to get married so they all do it in the same area of saigon at the same time. (who gets married during the weekday anyway?)
tomorrow we leave at 5:40am to get on a plane to hue and start our tour of the central part of vietnam! we have a private guide for hue, hoi an, da nang and ha long for the next four days, it's going to be awesome.
until then han gap lai! (see you later)
thursday: we arrived in hanoi at about 7pm and after looking around at flight prices and hotel information, we hopped into a cab and told the driver to bring us to 'city gate hotel' in the old quarter. after being lost for some time, he made a phone call and pulled over to the side of the street about a minute later. (sketch) the hotel owner came to the car and opened the door, presenting a business card of the hotel we were looking for...yet both jeremy and i couldn't seem to find the actual hotel we were supposed to be staying at. the manager found out we didn't have reservations and directed us to the sister-hotel, sunflower. we picked a room for $15 a night and then we went to dinner at a jazz club and walked around hoan kiem lake. hoan kiem lake at night is not that great. do you know why it's not that great? because BATS SWARM overhead and RATS crawl on the ground. RATS.
friday: we slept in until 12pm and then headed to a cafe for caphe sua da and some breakfast. afterwards we bought a ton of dvds for dirt cheap (mistake buying at the beginning of the trip since our bags were already heavy...) and then we walked around hoan kiem once again. hoan kiem is surrounded by stunning trees that are hundreds of years old and some dip down into the water. anyway, we walked to the pagoda in the middle of the lake and took a few pictures before heading to an internet cafe where i had soda chanh. after that and after being played by the hotel owner, we got on a plane en route to saigon. tien, ha, huy and co were eagerly awaiting us (so cute) and took us to our driver (same one we had last january) and then found us a hotel. then it was night night time.
saturday: the day started at noon again. hey, we're on vacation right? so we went to eat at the yummy restaurant that my mom was telling me about and that my dad loves eating at and who did we see? julie, jb & sam from hkust! then we went to the reunification palace, this time with an english speaking guide, which made it much more interesting. after that we headed to the war remnants museum that seemed to demonize the americans with photos of results of agent orange and phosphorous bombs. there were also two jars of preserved, deformed fetuses that were affected by agent orange and it was difficult to look at. bleh.
then my family dropped us off at the hotel (tan my dinh) and kevin, jeremy, michael and i went to ben thanh market to look around and the boys bought some snacks and we sat down to eat bun xeo which was actually very good for being at a dirty vendor. then we went to kevin's friend's house (baller) and had a beer before heading out to eat dinner in the big city! after a yummy dinner of ca ri tom (shrimp curry) we went to the 23rd floor of the sheraton and had a drink that lasted two hours while we overlooked the city. i never knew saigon was so immense! we headed to the club called bounce where we had free bottles, fruit, and perrier (compliments of kevin's buddy) and then headed back home for some rest.
sunday: we woke up at 8ish and had breakfast at the hotel. tien, huy and huy's brother came to meet us and then we picked kevin up and headed straight to cu chi. after about an hour or so, we arrived in cu chi and they actually charge foreigners more as tourists are seen as supporting the attraction while locals are there for nationalism strengthening. we toured the village and saw some traps and things and then headed over to watch some slanted view of cu chi movie. it was so awful! i felt brainwashed. "the cute and gentle of the fields girl became a hero for killing american soldiers" "american soldiers bombed our people, our schools, our pots and pans, even our buddhas" "he became a war hero and received three awards. one award for killing american soldiers, one award for shooting american planes, and one for..." (i forgot what the last was for, but im sure it was something against the americans)
after the movie that we ditched before it was done, we went into the tunnels that were extremely small, even after some were 'widened for western tourists.' we entered the underground through tiny holes where we had to put our arms in the air to fit through and then traveled 100 meters in the dark, dusty, dirty, not to mention TINY, tunnels. these tunnels are miles and miles long (the whole thing is about 200km) and they're so genius (if you want to call it that). i couldn't believe that the vietcong/nlf could dig these, even though it took them about 17 years total. their booby traps were scary too. they have punji sticks at the bottom of the traps (which are sharpened bamboo sticks) sticking up with feces, poision, or other contaminants coating the tips of them so that infection would quickly spread to the americans who were pierced by them. frack.
after cu chi we went to tien's house and had the best lunch ever. we had clams, shrimp, bun beo, rau muong, bread & curry, watermelon and drinks. yum! michael liked the bread, jeremy liked the squid...success! afterwards we got dropped off, which brings us to this point right now. on the way to getting dropped off we saw at least 25 weddings being held because apparently saturday and sunday are the only available days for workers to get married so they all do it in the same area of saigon at the same time. (who gets married during the weekday anyway?)
tomorrow we leave at 5:40am to get on a plane to hue and start our tour of the central part of vietnam! we have a private guide for hue, hoi an, da nang and ha long for the next four days, it's going to be awesome.
until then han gap lai! (see you later)
16 March 2008
to find your way, you must first get lost
and that is exactly what i did today in mong kok. i went there to buy a new phone battery because the karma gods made mine dysfunctional and after 35 USD, i now have an operable mobile.
i guess it's time for another week recap, if youre at all interested. even if youre not, im sure ill be interested to look back on this.
tuesday:
betty was in my strategy class for the day so we decided to go running right after class and it was my first time on the track! it was such an amazing view, we ran two quick miles, did some ab work and then headed in. i had a group meeting for ismt and then wrote up a proposal and had dinner with seb and betty at lg1.
wednesday:
i went to an english conversation workshop at the unibar and had free food and met some really cool people (both exchange and local) and we had so much fun playing texas hold 'em and chatting. betty and i studied hardcore for economics and then at midnight, called it a night.
thursday:
full day of class. or it should have been. my phone died and made it so i didnt wake up (no alarm!) and missed my first two classes. i headed up for lunch, went to logistics and strategy, then emailed zuji about my change of address (they send spring break tickets to minnesota...) and
then headed off to my stupid quiz in east asian miracle that i did SO HORRIBLE in and i thought it was the easiest econ test ive ever taken. i guess im better at computational bitchass economics problems instead of easy questions in a multiple choice 25 question quiz. okay so im bitter. anyway after that i headed back to my room, quickly curled my hair and then headed out to brazilian bbq in tst which was pretty good and had cheap wine. it also had cheap beer which later had the effect of making rahul crazy. after that we headed to sugar and beat the line because of jake's genius bullshit talk!! love th
at kid. jeff, joe and his sis came over to say hi to us but didnt end up joing us. wasnt feeling it so i left with juliette at about 3 and stayed up til 6 on skype with mikey.
friday: celebrate rahuls birthday. we went to a
woke up a little bit late and then had lunch with the advisors from the u of m and they gave me EASTER EGGS!!! REESES!! (hong kong does not make or import reeses) then i slept all day (awesome productivity, i know) and then headed out to taco loco in soho for lisas bday. shes only 20! after that, we went to an african bar and met up with jeff and his posse. then his sister wasn't feeling it and went home and we headed over to lkf and hit up fong. it was a little too much on the main floor so jeff, kristen, joe and i went upstairs to have a beverage or two. joe bought me a beer (how nice) and we chatted it up before heading back home. joe and i had pillow talk (separate beds, kids) and it was a good night.
saturday:
i am so lazy. woke up at noon. went to lunch at diamond hill with kevin (awesome pasta) and then we had a thai dessert and checked out a pet expo. after that i rushed to yoga but to no avail as i was 5 minutes late. i was frantically running all over causeway bay to get there on time but apparently not fast enough. so that was a bummer and it really killed my day. until terence asked if i had watched lost yet, which i hadnt so he downloaded it and it was a super sad episode that revealed a couple of things!
sunday:
woke up at about noon (really i am a bum), sat around for a while, headed to causeway bay for hatha yoga with maurice (awesome) and he picked on me a little and made me smile (really he told me to smile) while i was in cobra pose with my hands off the mat. then after that exhilarating feeling, i had dinner at city!super and bought some tea (amazing) from there. went to mongkok for the new battery and discovered a computer repair center so my computer will NO LONGER be a spaceship!!! i headed back to my room and had some bread and cheese...someone stole some of my cheese though. theres a note on the fridge in the common room "i hope you get fucking poisoned from my french cheese. i will fucking kill you for eating my fucking cheese" so i guess the thief got two of us! after that i had a chat with betty and we did our laundry together, then i headed over to jakes to have some catch up chit chat, then up to my room to talk online, back down to jeff/jakes to chill with joe (we counted jeffs change in his cup=over 800 HKD so go steal it) and then back to my room to skype with mike and read my intl management case. good night. oh and im obsessed with the beijing mascots for the olympics!
i guess it's time for another week recap, if youre at all interested. even if youre not, im sure ill be interested to look back on this.
tuesday:
betty was in my strategy class for the day so we decided to go running right after class and it was my first time on the track! it was such an amazing view, we ran two quick miles, did some ab work and then headed in. i had a group meeting for ismt and then wrote up a proposal and had dinner with seb and betty at lg1.
wednesday:
i went to an english conversation workshop at the unibar and had free food and met some really cool people (both exchange and local) and we had so much fun playing texas hold 'em and chatting. betty and i studied hardcore for economics and then at midnight, called it a night.
thursday:
full day of class. or it should have been. my phone died and made it so i didnt wake up (no alarm!) and missed my first two classes. i headed up for lunch, went to logistics and strategy, then emailed zuji about my change of address (they send spring break tickets to minnesota...) and
then headed off to my stupid quiz in east asian miracle that i did SO HORRIBLE in and i thought it was the easiest econ test ive ever taken. i guess im better at computational bitchass economics problems instead of easy questions in a multiple choice 25 question quiz. okay so im bitter. anyway after that i headed back to my room, quickly curled my hair and then headed out to brazilian bbq in tst which was pretty good and had cheap wine. it also had cheap beer which later had the effect of making rahul crazy. after that we headed to sugar and beat the line because of jake's genius bullshit talk!! love th
at kid. jeff, joe and his sis came over to say hi to us but didnt end up joing us. wasnt feeling it so i left with juliette at about 3 and stayed up til 6 on skype with mikey.friday: celebrate rahuls birthday. we went to a
woke up a little bit late and then had lunch with the advisors from the u of m and they gave me EASTER EGGS!!! REESES!! (hong kong does not make or import reeses) then i slept all day (awesome productivity, i know) and then headed out to taco loco in soho for lisas bday. shes only 20! after that, we went to an african bar and met up with jeff and his posse. then his sister wasn't feeling it and went home and we headed over to lkf and hit up fong. it was a little too much on the main floor so jeff, kristen, joe and i went upstairs to have a beverage or two. joe bought me a beer (how nice) and we chatted it up before heading back home. joe and i had pillow talk (separate beds, kids) and it was a good night.
saturday:
i am so lazy. woke up at noon. went to lunch at diamond hill with kevin (awesome pasta) and then we had a thai dessert and checked out a pet expo. after that i rushed to yoga but to no avail as i was 5 minutes late. i was frantically running all over causeway bay to get there on time but apparently not fast enough. so that was a bummer and it really killed my day. until terence asked if i had watched lost yet, which i hadnt so he downloaded it and it was a super sad episode that revealed a couple of things!
sunday:
woke up at about noon (really i am a bum), sat around for a while, headed to causeway bay for hatha yoga with maurice (awesome) and he picked on me a little and made me smile (really he told me to smile) while i was in cobra pose with my hands off the mat. then after that exhilarating feeling, i had dinner at city!super and bought some tea (amazing) from there. went to mongkok for the new battery and discovered a computer repair center so my computer will NO LONGER be a spaceship!!! i headed back to my room and had some bread and cheese...someone stole some of my cheese though. theres a note on the fridge in the common room "i hope you get fucking poisoned from my french cheese. i will fucking kill you for eating my fucking cheese" so i guess the thief got two of us! after that i had a chat with betty and we did our laundry together, then i headed over to jakes to have some catch up chit chat, then up to my room to talk online, back down to jeff/jakes to chill with joe (we counted jeffs change in his cup=over 800 HKD so go steal it) and then back to my room to skype with mike and read my intl management case. good night. oh and im obsessed with the beijing mascots for the olympics!
10 March 2008
just a few of my favorite things...
1. hong kong in general. the efficiency of the mtr. the availability of everything. the cool shops. the yummy restaurants. my school. terrance the travel man. the parks and birds.
2. indian food. today i ate at 'curry in a hurry' and despite it being fast food, it was delish. also i ate at jojo's last night and that was also indian food and also scrumptious.
3. new friends. today i hung out with jeremy all morning planning our vietnam trip and trying to return his torn converse (to no avail) and i can't wait to travel with him. then i had lunch with terence and that was also fun, we talked about all things LOST, hong kong, and life after college.
4. yoga. i just signed up for a 3-month membership at pure yoga in causeway bay and although it is costly, it is definitely going to be worth it. i use yoga as a way to destress and to clear my mind and meditate. that, along with the fitness of it, is enlightening my mind, body, and spirit. today i tried hot yoga (note: hot yoga is not bikram yoga because mr. bikram doesnt want people to call it that if they haven't been trained by him and use the same texts, temperatures and poses) and it was absolutely fabulous. sweat pouring, body aching, and mind focused for 60 minutes was a very good way to spend an hour of my time. i can't wait to go back in two days!
5. skype. i just talked to my sisters on skype and it's so nice to hear their voices. besides them i talk to my parents, brother in law, katrina, mike and jessica and it makes me a lot less homesick and a lot more appreciative of them when i can talk to them. i feel so happy each time.
6. music. lately i've been listening to a lot of regina spektor, matisyahu, the strokes, sara bareilles, coldplay, ingrid michaelson, and the juno soundtrack. thank goodness for itunes and for artists who make my ears sooo happy.
7. being a semi-hippie. i love eating vegetarian. i contemplate issues of peace and the lack thereof and it frustrates me. i now use mostly reusable bags unless im careless and forget it in my stupid res hall. i take mass transit all the time (basically because i have to but also it makes me feel good). and yeah, i like being a semi-hippie.
8. i think that's it for now.
but you know what i realized recently?
im no longer in the process of finding myself.
i'm creating myself.
2. indian food. today i ate at 'curry in a hurry' and despite it being fast food, it was delish. also i ate at jojo's last night and that was also indian food and also scrumptious.
3. new friends. today i hung out with jeremy all morning planning our vietnam trip and trying to return his torn converse (to no avail) and i can't wait to travel with him. then i had lunch with terence and that was also fun, we talked about all things LOST, hong kong, and life after college.
4. yoga. i just signed up for a 3-month membership at pure yoga in causeway bay and although it is costly, it is definitely going to be worth it. i use yoga as a way to destress and to clear my mind and meditate. that, along with the fitness of it, is enlightening my mind, body, and spirit. today i tried hot yoga (note: hot yoga is not bikram yoga because mr. bikram doesnt want people to call it that if they haven't been trained by him and use the same texts, temperatures and poses) and it was absolutely fabulous. sweat pouring, body aching, and mind focused for 60 minutes was a very good way to spend an hour of my time. i can't wait to go back in two days!
5. skype. i just talked to my sisters on skype and it's so nice to hear their voices. besides them i talk to my parents, brother in law, katrina, mike and jessica and it makes me a lot less homesick and a lot more appreciative of them when i can talk to them. i feel so happy each time.
6. music. lately i've been listening to a lot of regina spektor, matisyahu, the strokes, sara bareilles, coldplay, ingrid michaelson, and the juno soundtrack. thank goodness for itunes and for artists who make my ears sooo happy.
7. being a semi-hippie. i love eating vegetarian. i contemplate issues of peace and the lack thereof and it frustrates me. i now use mostly reusable bags unless im careless and forget it in my stupid res hall. i take mass transit all the time (basically because i have to but also it makes me feel good). and yeah, i like being a semi-hippie.
8. i think that's it for now.
but you know what i realized recently?
im no longer in the process of finding myself.
i'm creating myself.
07 March 2008
pomme de terre, jambon, faire du velo
oh how life turns around! the past few days have been so much fun and they were well needed. let's recap.
tuesday: a crap ton of classes, dinner w/rahul & seb where i met soul (or however you spell his name), party in jake and jeff's room with the sausages, then out to sai kung where we ran into mickey's crew for his birthday. i bought a vending machine toy that ended up being a replica of a vending machine that sebastian and i have yet to assemble. i also found a piece of chalk and changed the happy hour sign at a bar to say happy whore. i wrote all my guys names on a metal door gate thing. then i made up the jambon song. which goes something like "jambon, jambon, jambon, jambon..." and michael hated me for it, but that's because he's french and after four years of french, i can only sing about ham. then i sang it to guillame when i got back and he didn't know what the hell i was saying, despite his being french as well.
wednesday: la
b, quick bite with seb, class, watched jeff eat, did some homework but not enough, group meeting for east asian miracle,then went to have sushi with rahul, dave and jeff in hang hau. we decided to go to genki sushi instead of the usual meguro place and it was good but the lack of hotpot forced jeff to eat sushi for the first time! he had some trouble but we think it'll grow on him...acquired taste style. which is weird because why would you want to start to enjoy something that sucks to you in the first place? i was a little adventurous and stepped out of the whole salmon/california roll thing and instead ate inari and some kind of claw thing and had edamame, my fav. i had to read a case study for logistics that night which went pretty well. i hate to say it, but i love logistics. i love supply chain and value chain management and i love to figure out problems with deliveries, quality, and all of that. this basically means: i am a big super freak who shouldn't have admitted all of that and also that im going to be awesome when i work at my dad's company and make some improvements! and also i have a crush on my logistics teacher so that doesn't hurt either.
thursday: early morning test in ISMT101, which i did horribly on because i failed to study. failing to study
leads to failing to do well! weird. since i finished the test in record time, i went to the cafe and had breakfast with kevin and read some of my east asian miracle readings. then i headed to the east asian miracle class...then went to the library to do some more reading, back to the cafe and had lunch with haley and katharine, off to logistics where we discussed a case study, then off to strategic management and learned some more. then at night rahul, jeff, jake, david, michael, tristan, edouard, kevin and i went to eat at "thai delight" where we watched some thai karaoke and had delicious food. i had my go-to tom yum kung, which was awesome but too filling. then we went to tribeca which was fun (and free). the entire stage was filled with ust kids and i had the best margarita of my life. that about sums it up. we took a taxi to lkf for some ebeneezers and then accidentally left kevin in lkf because we didn't know he had left to go to 7-11 and then he got caught up in a convo and oh shit, it was bad. so then i got home but forgot my keys and couldn't wake kristen so i slept in the common room for an hour before jake came back and let me sleep in his room (but not in his bed, don't worry). jake and i had a chit chat, then i fell asleep...
today: and woke up to my mother calling me freaking out about the "new sars" which didn't turn out to be true once i looked it up online. but she was adamant about me seeing the doctor if my throat still hurt and to also maybe wear a mask. then seb told me he got the new sars and freaked me out, geez. anyway, seb and i went to work out which felt awesome (i forget how much i love running, seriously). annnnd now im going to do some homework, shower, watch lost, eat and who knows what.
but now i love my life again. :) that's all.
tuesday: a crap ton of classes, dinner w/rahul & seb where i met soul (or however you spell his name), party in jake and jeff's room with the sausages, then out to sai kung where we ran into mickey's crew for his birthday. i bought a vending machine toy that ended up being a replica of a vending machine that sebastian and i have yet to assemble. i also found a piece of chalk and changed the happy hour sign at a bar to say happy whore. i wrote all my guys names on a metal door gate thing. then i made up the jambon song. which goes something like "jambon, jambon, jambon, jambon..." and michael hated me for it, but that's because he's french and after four years of french, i can only sing about ham. then i sang it to guillame when i got back and he didn't know what the hell i was saying, despite his being french as well.
wednesday: la
b, quick bite with seb, class, watched jeff eat, did some homework but not enough, group meeting for east asian miracle,then went to have sushi with rahul, dave and jeff in hang hau. we decided to go to genki sushi instead of the usual meguro place and it was good but the lack of hotpot forced jeff to eat sushi for the first time! he had some trouble but we think it'll grow on him...acquired taste style. which is weird because why would you want to start to enjoy something that sucks to you in the first place? i was a little adventurous and stepped out of the whole salmon/california roll thing and instead ate inari and some kind of claw thing and had edamame, my fav. i had to read a case study for logistics that night which went pretty well. i hate to say it, but i love logistics. i love supply chain and value chain management and i love to figure out problems with deliveries, quality, and all of that. this basically means: i am a big super freak who shouldn't have admitted all of that and also that im going to be awesome when i work at my dad's company and make some improvements! and also i have a crush on my logistics teacher so that doesn't hurt either.thursday: early morning test in ISMT101, which i did horribly on because i failed to study. failing to study
leads to failing to do well! weird. since i finished the test in record time, i went to the cafe and had breakfast with kevin and read some of my east asian miracle readings. then i headed to the east asian miracle class...then went to the library to do some more reading, back to the cafe and had lunch with haley and katharine, off to logistics where we discussed a case study, then off to strategic management and learned some more. then at night rahul, jeff, jake, david, michael, tristan, edouard, kevin and i went to eat at "thai delight" where we watched some thai karaoke and had delicious food. i had my go-to tom yum kung, which was awesome but too filling. then we went to tribeca which was fun (and free). the entire stage was filled with ust kids and i had the best margarita of my life. that about sums it up. we took a taxi to lkf for some ebeneezers and then accidentally left kevin in lkf because we didn't know he had left to go to 7-11 and then he got caught up in a convo and oh shit, it was bad. so then i got home but forgot my keys and couldn't wake kristen so i slept in the common room for an hour before jake came back and let me sleep in his room (but not in his bed, don't worry). jake and i had a chit chat, then i fell asleep...today: and woke up to my mother calling me freaking out about the "new sars" which didn't turn out to be true once i looked it up online. but she was adamant about me seeing the doctor if my throat still hurt and to also maybe wear a mask. then seb told me he got the new sars and freaked me out, geez. anyway, seb and i went to work out which felt awesome (i forget how much i love running, seriously). annnnd now im going to do some homework, shower, watch lost, eat and who knows what.
but now i love my life again. :) that's all.
03 March 2008
gon' be the birds when they don't want to sing.
so i've had a rough past couple of days due to my inability to not like guys wherever i go. it's just something that happens to me, i find someone who i like and likes me and then we get closer to each other and if it doesn't end well, then you can probably guess the alternative: absolute shit.
i liked someone who liked me but turns out he has a gf who he also likes and is going to stay with. so i guess i can deal with that, i knew he had a gf going into it, i didn't think it was very serious but why should i want someone who doesn't adore me? i deserve at least that and i shouldn't and won't settle for less. he said im his best friend and he pleaded with me to stay friends and after denying him that friendship for about a day, i felt fabulously awful and decided to move on with my life. if all i am going to get is friendship, that is better than enemyship. and friendship, according to jake, is the best kind of ship out there.
i laid in bed for the entire day feeling sorry for myself and being sad, the usual way i deal with things. then rahul told me to get off my ass and go to dinner with him and that was the moment that changed everything. i don't need to sit and sulk by myself when i have such great friends that i would be missing good times with. and dinner WAS a good time with david leibman being all goofy and rahul being all crazy, the usual. and then i went and chatted with jake and jeff about some travel plans and headed back to my room to hang out with kristen and alex.
things are looking up. i've realized that in the past i've dealt with issues about relationships (or lack thereof) in a very poor way. i sit and feel sad and don't eat and hate the world until it finally dissipates. but i'm taking action to make it go away...my life is way too short to feel sad. i was lecturing someone about this the other day, so why not heed my own advice? really, life is so beautiful and i don't want to waste it. i am healthy, i have a beyond wonderful family who i adore and love and miss so much, i have the best friends in the world who care about me an ungodly amount, i have cute little doggies to brighten my day, an awesome school at home, an awesome school in hong kong, and on top of that, i'm pretty freakin' cool too. :) just kidding. sort of.
so in an effort to be happy and healthy in mind, body and spirit, i've decided to forgive the poor guy. he made mistakes, he knows it and feels bad for it. i made mistakes and i'm ready to move on already.
i just want to be happy. that's all.
i liked someone who liked me but turns out he has a gf who he also likes and is going to stay with. so i guess i can deal with that, i knew he had a gf going into it, i didn't think it was very serious but why should i want someone who doesn't adore me? i deserve at least that and i shouldn't and won't settle for less. he said im his best friend and he pleaded with me to stay friends and after denying him that friendship for about a day, i felt fabulously awful and decided to move on with my life. if all i am going to get is friendship, that is better than enemyship. and friendship, according to jake, is the best kind of ship out there.
i laid in bed for the entire day feeling sorry for myself and being sad, the usual way i deal with things. then rahul told me to get off my ass and go to dinner with him and that was the moment that changed everything. i don't need to sit and sulk by myself when i have such great friends that i would be missing good times with. and dinner WAS a good time with david leibman being all goofy and rahul being all crazy, the usual. and then i went and chatted with jake and jeff about some travel plans and headed back to my room to hang out with kristen and alex.
things are looking up. i've realized that in the past i've dealt with issues about relationships (or lack thereof) in a very poor way. i sit and feel sad and don't eat and hate the world until it finally dissipates. but i'm taking action to make it go away...my life is way too short to feel sad. i was lecturing someone about this the other day, so why not heed my own advice? really, life is so beautiful and i don't want to waste it. i am healthy, i have a beyond wonderful family who i adore and love and miss so much, i have the best friends in the world who care about me an ungodly amount, i have cute little doggies to brighten my day, an awesome school at home, an awesome school in hong kong, and on top of that, i'm pretty freakin' cool too. :) just kidding. sort of.
so in an effort to be happy and healthy in mind, body and spirit, i've decided to forgive the poor guy. he made mistakes, he knows it and feels bad for it. i made mistakes and i'm ready to move on already.
i just want to be happy. that's all.
02 March 2008
01 March 2008
so frustrated.
since most of my posts have been happy and informative and all of that wonderfully fabulous happy stuff, now it's time to let out my frustrations with life.
i am homesick. as much fun as im having, the people im meeting and the adventures im embarking on, i miss home. i want to cuddle up in my bed in my bedroom in blaine and walk upstairs and hang out with my parents and call my friends and talk without being charged up the ass for it. i want to hug my family and mikey and jessica and katrina and everyone. but i cant. i want to go to a house party or bar in dinkytown and hang out with my roommates from before. today im not living in the present, but very much longing for the past or what could be.
and on top of that, it's been a while since ive worried about what people think of me and now im wondering what certain people here do. certain people who i have developed an interest in but cannot do anything about. and its frustrating the hell out of me although it should definitely not be.
and my throat hurts. its been three weeks and my frackin cough won't go away.
but yesterday i hiked up a mountain with kristen as my guide and jeff, dave, and seb as my fellow hikees. it was exhausting and difficult but i made it! and then we had a picnic at the top of the mt and then trekked down through the forest which was a bit difficult but definitely fun. the night was low key after that: dinner @ unibar, homework and LOST with seb, late night convos with kristen and jeff, and then sleep.
now im going to shenzhen with dave and hopefully today will be a good day. ill make it one.
but im s
till frustrated.
i am homesick. as much fun as im having, the people im meeting and the adventures im embarking on, i miss home. i want to cuddle up in my bed in my bedroom in blaine and walk upstairs and hang out with my parents and call my friends and talk without being charged up the ass for it. i want to hug my family and mikey and jessica and katrina and everyone. but i cant. i want to go to a house party or bar in dinkytown and hang out with my roommates from before. today im not living in the present, but very much longing for the past or what could be.
and on top of that, it's been a while since ive worried about what people think of me and now im wondering what certain people here do. certain people who i have developed an interest in but cannot do anything about. and its frustrating the hell out of me although it should definitely not be.
and my throat hurts. its been three weeks and my frackin cough won't go away.
but yesterday i hiked up a mountain with kristen as my guide and jeff, dave, and seb as my fellow hikees. it was exhausting and difficult but i made it! and then we had a picnic at the top of the mt and then trekked down through the forest which was a bit difficult but definitely fun. the night was low key after that: dinner @ unibar, homework and LOST with seb, late night convos with kristen and jeff, and then sleep.
now im going to shenzhen with dave and hopefully today will be a good day. ill make it one.
but im s
till frustrated.
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