No Longer @ Home

hey! haven't blogged in awhile because i've been doing a lot of things the past few days.. here goes.

1. thursday i went down to LA where my dad's side of the family lives, in alhambra about 4 miles south of caltech. so i was where tenyia was a week ago.

2. my aunts and uncles were all like OMG ALEX WENT TO COLLEGE AND CAME BACK HE LOOKS SO DIFFERENT. and they were going on about how i suddenly got so much taller - and i haven't grown an inch since last year..

3. while staying there for the night, my aunt and grandma were watching those historical chinese dramas and martial arts movies, and the crazy hairdos the women had reminded me of the wushu movie.. and the wigs.. i think they're forever stuck in my head. (at least they're not stuck TO my head) O__O

4. watched kiki's delivery service, another miyazaki movie. it was really good :) more conventional movie than totoro. characters, visuals, and music were really good. plot was a tiny bit cliched, but still very well done. i really liked the themes of the movie, miyazaki did a good job showing searching for an identity and all that :)

5. went to eat chaozhou noodles in LA, like i always do every time i go down there. yum. pork kidney is awesome (another weird food i eat!)

6. moved to irvine friday afternoon. MY APARTMENT IS AWESOMEEEEEEEEEEEE. and i have pictures! a few here:

outside of the apartment


inside

sizewise, it's like maybe 3 lag rooms for the kitchen and living room, and each of the two bedrooms is another lag room. and two bathrooms. i'm in a "wooooow i don't believe this" state right now. i still can't wrap my brain around all of this.

7. after getting in there for like 10 minutes i had to pack quickly to get to kelly's house (a panda) for panda vacation!

8. went to see year one with two pandas while the others were on the way down to socal. jack black and michael cera play the same characters in every movie.. it was entertaining but not that funny.


9. went to eat vietnamese food. Bò lúc lắc (beef cubes) and canh chua (sour soup) were really good :)


10. dessert at guppy house. i wish i had pictures of the desserts but i'll just steal some from some other website.

shaved ice and strawberries and popcorn chicken and brick toast! they give you HUGE portions of the shaved ice and strawberries. we shared 1 for every 4 people and couldn't finish it.


this is brick toast. i'd never heard of it before but it is amazing.

stuffed myself with so much food. i've been feeling bloated for the past few days from all the eating.

11. back to kelly's house, where we didn't sleep until 3 and talked and did random things :) the floor was hard (hardwood floor) and a sleeping bag wasn't much help. but it wasn't that bad.

12. woke up at 10ish, went to eat crepes at this restaurant called la creperie cafe. the crepes were again AMAZING. kelly really knows where the good food is :) i'd never had a crepe before ever, not even at the axe and palm. so i'm glad my first experience with crepes was really good.


13. went to the beach (corona del mar). more fun... buried trac 8D




14. went to korean barbeque. i discovered that i actually like kimchi and that korean barbeque is amazing. i feel like i'm starting to repeat myself so i'm keeping it shorter.

15. went to dessert crepes, but i didn't get anything because i was stuffed from korean bbq.

16. back to kelly's house, where we played contact and took pictures and did other random things until trac's cousin picked me and trac up and took me back to my apartment.

17. woke up today and went to eat with my family, who came to pick me up. Bánh xèo! (deep friend vietnamese crepes) we actually drove within a quarter mile of kelly's house on the way to the restaurant, since it was in the same area hahaha.

banh xeo

18. went to a vietnamese market, where i saw thousand-year-old eggs, soy sauce, and all the other staples of asian food :) got some eggs and some bread so i could cook something if i wanted to.

19. went back to my apartment, where i am now. just unpacking everything and looking at how amazing everything here is. when i play music it echoes through the whole apartment and sounds awesome :)

20. getting dinner in a few minutes with my roommate and another intern.

phew, long post.. i start work tomorrow! talk to you all later :)