A Whole New World

Having only been here for a day, I'm already starting to notice the differences between the Valley here in California and the East Coast (specifically New Jersey). I think having a car makes you aware of these things right away.

One of the first things I noticed (I think I might have mentioned this before) is that, everything is very laid out and spread out. Everything's flat--one story houses, no hills. And the roads are very, very wide, with each side no less than 3 lanes (that's like a highway in Jersey). I'm sure there are narrower roads, but I have yet to come across one. Ok before I go any further, let me make the terminology clear. So in New Jersey, "highway" refers to roads like the Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, any Interstates and any major roads with (in my opinion) three or more lanes on each side. But in the Valley, they call this the "freeway" (which generally have 4 or more lanes on each side). And "highways" are generally smaller, usually with 3 lanes on each side.

So when you drive down a typical road, you'll feel very free and spacious because the roads are so wide. You'll have a sense of vastness. And you notice that you are, indeed, in the "valley" because in the distance, you can always see huge mountains surrounding you no matter which direction you turn. (See the picture above)

Because of the wideness of the roads, the traffic laws here are quite different. First of all, whenever there's an intersection with a traffic light, lanes are let go one at a time (the lights turn green in one side only, then the next, then the next...). In Jersey, this is true for major intersections. But here, this applies for all intersections. The most weird yet interesting thing I found is the fact that it's legal to make a u-turn at a traffic light. That is, instead of making a left turn, I see cars making a u-turn onto the other side. The first couple of times this happened while I was in a car (not driving), I just thought the drivers were a little crazy. But then it occurred to me that it just might be legal to. There are two reasons why this can happen: 1) The roads are so wide, there's definitely enough space to do it and 2)When the light turns green, it's only for one side, while all other sides stay put. If I attempted this in Jersey, I would surely 1) get pulled over, 2) cause a major traffic jam by crashing into cars going from the other side. Also, in Jersey, you turn off to the right and make a big circle when making u-turns. I guess in California this is the equivalent (since there are no turn-offs to the side).

A close-up of the sign that indicates that you're allowed to do this. When there is no sign, it's allowed, too. It's only not allowed when you see a sign that has a red circle with a line across it.

Cars in the middle of making such a turn. (Click to enlarge)

One more thing about the roads: they're very nicely paved, unlike the bumpy old ones in Jersey and Ithaca.

The other major difference is the cost of living. A lot of things are more expensive here, but not everything. One of the things that is definitely more expensive is gas prices (see below). Food on the other hand, varies. I was at Safeway, a chain grocery store, yesterday. And I found that, in general, vegetables and meat are about the same as they are on the East Coast. But things like cereal (a 20 oz box of Lucky Charms cost $6.74) and non-edible items are more expensive.

I haven't met many people here yet, but my housemates are all very nice. I get along with them very well. Yesterday I went with them to a Korean barbeque buffet where I stuffed myself with about 5 lbs of meat. It was so good though. Later I went with them to Valley Fair mall. It's very similiar to the ones on the East Coast. Here are some shops that I haven't been to on the East Coast though--Louis Vuitton, M.A.C. (yes an actual MAC store), Tiffany's, Lancome, Sony Style. There's also an Urban Outfitters near by that I haven't gotten the chance to go to just yet.
The Korean restaurant. Notice the huge fans (with sprinklers) above each table.
Meat grilling on the grill. SOOOOOOOOOO good!

Here are some other pictures from my day which I didn't mention in the post:
My car! It's a red Chevy Malibu. Very easy to control. Looks cute too. :D
From the back.
The diner I ate breakfast at. I walked there since I didn't have a car yet at that point.
It's called Panorama. This is their menu.
More diner shots.

Let's Fly Let's Fly Away

Wow and I thought I'd have a problem getting up at 8am everyday. Today, I got up at 6:30am PST. Funny what a little jet lag and lack of sleep can do to you. I slept for 12 hours, which is not bad, considering I've slept more in the past. My housemates must think I'm a freak...going to sleep at 6pm!!

Anyway, so the plane ride yesterday was not SO terrible. I don't know if it was the Dramamine or not but I wasn't plane sick at all. I think I slept most of the way because I was too tired. It wasn't a pleasant sleep at all though. First, you can't really get comfortable when you're sitting up, no matter what you try to do. Second, it doesn't help to be woken up by the screams of a baby behind you every so often. I swear, that baby annoyed the hell out of me! I'd be drifting to sleep and then I'd here this ear-splitting shriek coming from behind me. Sleeping...Scream...sleeping...scream. This happened no less than 20 times. I'm never having a baby.

They showed two movies--Freedom Writers and Because I Said So , which I would have watched if I weren't so tired. The food was pretty nice. We were served breakfast, which consisted of a cheese omelet in a pita, fruit cup, yogurt, cupcake (or muffin? I can never tell the difference), and a drink of your choice (I got orange juice). Later we were served a snack consisting of peanuts and a drink. (See pictures below.)

At one point, the guy next to me asked me what time it was. I checked my watch. "1:30", I replied. But just to be sure, I checked my cellphone...and it said 11:30, which made me really confused. Have we really been on the plane for only 2.5 hours? But then again, my watch could be wrong (the date on there is actually wrong). Hm...I decided to trust my cell phone and revised my answer. "Actually, it's 11:30", I said.

But still doubting my answer, I decided to ask the flight attendant who was passing by. "Depends on what time you want," he said. "Eastern," I replied. "1:30" he said.

OK. So my watch was correct. I guess my cell phone must have detected some signal as we flied through the different time zones and adjusted accordingly.

After my plane landed I waited around the baggage claim to get my stuff. After that, I called the shuttle service to come and pick me up (I had already pre-arranged for them to come). Here's where I wanted to kill someone. They told me to "go outside, turn left, and walk all the way down until you see 'Courtyard 1'. Do not cross any sidewalks." So I did as told, lugged my two luggages along as I stepped outside, turned left, and walked down, didn't cross any sidewalks and...didn't see 'Courtyard 1' either. So I called them again.

"Are you sure you walked all the way down?"
"Yes."
"What terminal are you at?"
"Right now I'm by Air Canada."
"Oh, you walked down the wrong way. You have to go past US Airways."
"Oh, OK."

So, I walked all the way back, to the other end. (By this time my back was killing me and so were my arms and I was sweating profusely. Not to mention annoyed.) Guess what I found when I got there? Courtyard 2!!!! Fuck! I decided to ask someone who worked there. "Courtyard 1 is all the way down the other way." Just to confirm, I called the stupid shuttle people again. (It was a different person this time who picked up.)

"I'm at US Airways and I only see Courtyard 2."
"Huh? You're at the wrong end. Did you turn left?"
"YES I TURNED LEFT AT FIRST BUT SOMEONE TOLD ME THAT I WAS AT THE WRONG END!!"
"Turn left and go all the way down until you see Courtyard 1. Do not cross any sidewalks."
"Got it."

So I dragged everything back with me the other way. And I realized at this point that I didn't go far enough last time. After about 10000 minutes of walking I finally see a "blue and red van, blue on top red on the bottom" waiting for me. The driver came out and helped me put everything in the van. And we're off. After about 40 minutes of driving, we arrived at 1949 W. Hedding St.

I rang the doorbell. No one answered. I told them I'd be here today so there should be someone home. I decided to call Astrid, the girl who's renting the place to me. "Oh, sorry! I'll be back in half an hour. The door's not locked, you can go in." So I went inside. The house has 5 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms, a big kitchen, and a living room--all on one floor. It look a bit run down...but I don't mind. All I want is a place to stay for 10 weeks, and this offers me exactly that. So I'm happy. My room is actually pretty nice. It's standard sized, with a large enough closet to fit all of my clothes, a full-sized bed, and a small-but-everything-fits desk. (See pictures below.) In addition, I get a private entrance to my room from outside and a large and bright window. Definitely not too shabby. :)

It's 8:45am right now. Ugh still 2 more hours to go before I can go to pick up my car... In the meantime, I think I'll walk to the Burger King (or maybe Taco Bell..since that's closer) down the street to get myself some breakfast.

Inside the Boeing 737..

Take off conditions.
Breakfast!
All gone!
Those peanuts are actually pretty good...
The view from my window..
The closet with all my clothes.. It doesn't look like there's much in there...but there is. I only hung up my dress shirts/pants since I didn't bring hangers and there were only enough for them.
My bed with my Cornell sweatshirt on it. It's a very comfortable bed. :)

California Here We Come...

Ok...so staying up til 2:40am and only getting 2 hours of sleep before a long day of traveling officially screwed me over. I am now practically the living dead... I'll post more about the plane ride and how I arrived at my current residence later. For now, entertain yourselves with this entry I wrote while I was at the airport in Newark, NJ:

Wow I can't believe it's only 7:40am and I'm not asleep. I'm thoroughly deprived of sleep since I only slept for 2 hours last night. Right now I'm sitting at terminal C98 waiting to board Continental Airlines flight 548 which will depart from Newark (EWR) at 8:50am. I just finished checking in/going through security and then walked about 2 miles to get here since this is the last terminal at the end of a hallway!! Now I have nothing to do for an hour.

I don't really mind though. I love airports, they're always bustling with people and different kinds of people too. You glance around and you see people everywhere (well not so much at 7:40 but …you get what I mean). And they're also full of interesting shops. I just went into a duty-free shop where they had all different kinds of alcohol and perfume. There was a bottle of cognac on display for $1299. Jesus!

One thing I saw that I don't understand is why there are women here dressed up like they're going out at night or something. I don't mean they look slutty or anything, they look nice. But those heels must be really comfortable. I mean, you're traveling, you're constantly moving, walking, going to places, why torture yourself by wearing pumps? Ok, so I've heard about those expensive designer ones that are supposedly comfortable…but even those can't grant you eternal comfort, you're still exerting a huge amount of pressure on your feet (physics….anyone?). Granted, you are going to be on a plane, sitting in a crammed corner for 6 hours. But if that's the case, surely there won't be a need to wear high heels since people wear heels to:

1. show off their legs

2. show off their body

3. show how tall they are

4. show how much they just loove their shoes (Think OMG Shoes-Kelly)

But, all of these things requires them to stand, which, quite frankly, I don't really see a lot of in a plane.

O god, for some reason I chose to sit in a seat where the sun is shining right in my face. It's not so bright right now because it's a little cloudy out, but still. The people at C98 are quite interesting. There are a couple of people around my age (I think)…they're all either sleeping or listening to their ipods, or both. There are quite a lot of middle-aged to elderly couples. There is a dressed up woman (yep she's wearing heels) next to me clutching a Louis Vouitton bag. She was doing her eyed1wliner just a minute before. Now she's checking her PDA. I hope she doesn't catch me glancing at her…THAT would be weird.

Gah! Unfortunately, my seat is also positioned so that I'm facing the window and away from almost everyone else. So I'd have to turn around and be extremely obvious when I'm checking people out. To my diagonal left behind me, there are three men in uniform. I'm assuming they're the captain and his assistants. One of them looks younger while the other two are definitely older. I hope one of the older ones will be flying the plane since I'm pretty sure they have more experience.

A bunch of people kept on going up to the place where you give them your boarding pass. Um, it's 8 o'clock, people. Be patient! There's still 50 minutes left!

Ok I think I'm going to listen to my ipod now...

The Quest

I'm in such a blissful mood right now because I've just found the name and artist of a song that I really, really like!! It's been playing on the radio stations a lot lately. I've heard it twice today and once some other day, but never got the chance to catch the name of it. I reminded myself to remember some of the lyrics when I listened to it today, but I only managed to remember that the words "suicidal, suicidal" were in it.

Not very helpful.

My first idea was to go to the Z100 site (since that's where I heard it on). I looked up their "What's on Now" section hoping to find a list of the songs that have been played today. Ah! There it is, at 10:02pm--"Spinbad-05". Fuck. That's right, when I listened to it, it was a mixture of songs into one thing...by DJ Spinbad. Ok, if they've been playing it a lot, it should be on their playlist. So, I went on esnips.com and practically listened to every song on the playlist and...didn't find it. :(

My second idea was to check 94.5 WP ST because the first time I heard it today, I think it was on this channel. They actually have something called "What Song Was That" where they list all the songs they've played for the day and the times too. I went through, listened to a clip of almost every song...and...failed again.

Grr! I didn't want to give up until I found it. So I tried a couple of things in Google. "Suicidal suicidal" brought up a bunch of things on suicide. "Suicidal suicidal lyrics" brought up songs by Scarface and Queen. I checked the lyrics, nope, not these. Trying my best to remember the lyrics, I typed in "You made me suicidal, suicidal". Nope, results were still about suicide.

On my last try, I decided to type the quote in, that is, " 'suicidal, suicidal' ". The first result was a song called "Suicidal Dreams by Silverchair". Hm maybe this is it! I checked the lyrics...andddddddd it's another no. I was about to give up when I glanced further down the results list..."Yahoo! Answers-A song called suicidal?" Hm...let's see what this one says. Apparently, someone had the same question I had. And, Yahoo! Answers amazingly suggested 2 songs that are possible matches!! First song, "Suicide-Kci & Jojo". Checked the lyrics...nope. Second song, "Beautiful Girls - Sean Kingston". I started reading the lyrics....and...BINGO!!!! I have just found the song I've been looking for for the past 2 hours! :D

If you want to hear it, go here. It's a very happy, summery, cute song.

Vertigo

I think I'm so tired out this week. Ever since I came home from school last Saturday, I don't think I had a chance to really sit down and relax. This whole week I've been running around, going to doctor's appointments, hanging out with friends, getting stuff that I need, and packing (which I hate). I've been going to sleep at 2am or later and getting up at 12ish every single day. It's Friday already, and I swear it feels as if I just left school yesterday!

I don't know if it's the fact that I'm too tired or some other reason that I'm experiencing vertigo. I am a very motion-sickness prone person, but I didn't used to feel dizzy so often. Right now, if I were to just lie on my carpet and look up at the ceiling, the whole room would start spinning. And the same thing would happen if I were to lie on my side. Last night, in order to be in a comfortable position and also not have the room spin, I had to make my head face the ceiling and the rest of my body turned. In fact, I was even a little worried that this would happen when I drove yesterday, but I think I'm fine as long as I'm upright. This worries me. Tomorrow, I'll be on a plane, flying for 6 HOURS! I better get myself some Dramamine...

I think vertigo might be genetic or something. My mom has it (though she doesn't usually get motion-sickness on planes...).

Anyway, here's a re-cap of what I did this week: I don't think I've ever been this busy.

• Monday: doctor's appointments, shopping with Laura
  
• Tuesday: immigration office, hung out with some friends, sunblock from Wal-Mart (see this post)
  
• Wednesday: pack, restaurant with friends, Lost finale with friends
• Thursday: Belmar beach with friends, returned stuff to the mall
  
• Friday: pack, going to Wal-Mart to get a couple of things
  

That said, I don't think the excitement of going to California has hit me yet. It's probably because I really don't know what to expect. I.e. Will everything run smoothly tomorrow going from SFO to the place I'll be living? What kinds of people will I meet? Will I have fun (or will it not be so fun)? How will driving be? Actually, I think I might just be too tired to take in the excitement. I bet I'll get excited tonight and won't be able to fall asleep which is always the case whenever I have a big plan the next day.

Good job H, way to not be sick on the plane tomorrow.

Alright folks, it's back to packing for me!! I'll leave you all with some of my favorite picture that was taken at the beach yesterday:

The Skinny on Sunscreen

We live a world so full of choices that one would wonder how he/she would survive without them. I on the other hand, beg to differ. I agree, having choices some of the time would be nice, but other times, I'd rather be shoved one way and told "this is your only choice."

While browsing Wal-Mart today for something as simple as sunblock, I must have wasted no less than half an hour trying to decide which one(s) to get. In fact, I literally stood in front of the stand where they have it, and just pondered on and on in what felt like hours.

Obviously, one of the first things that I looked for was the SPF (which, by the way, cannot be a more stupid acronym--Sun Protection Factor--way to sound scientific, people) and whether it protects against both UVA and UVB. Ok, so all of them protected against both UVA and UVB (at least, I didn't see any that protected against only one of the two). And as for SPF, I wanted something in the range of 30-50. (Believe it or not, they have one with SPF of 75. I wonder if it would actually make a difference.)

You'd think that once those two things are decided that it would be pretty easy to choose. Nope. The form that it came in varied in countless ways as well. They range from the good old white lotion type, to the squirt bottle kind, to (the fairly new) continuous spray kind, to (the very new) clear gel kind. Apparently, there's a big push for the continuous spray kind this year because practically every manufacturer of sunblock are selling them in that form. I've bought this kind last year. Here's the lowdown on them. Truth be told, they are much easier to put on (no rubbing needed), they give even coverage, they're cool as hell and they dry fast. The downside? They are more expensive (since they're new) and can get used up pretty quickly since the sunblock is pressurized (so it's not filled up to the container's capacity). So since I wanted a sunblock that'll actually last me the whole summer, this was out of the question.

Onwards I went. I noticed that some of the companies that usually sell skincare products (such as Neutrogena and Aveeno) are making their own sunblocks. These usually come in smaller sizes, slightly more expensive and have the feels-clean-and-weightless-won't-clog-pores-while-nourishing-your-skin appeal. So here's where this thought occurred to me: I could buy a smaller one just for my face and a bigger one for the rest of my body.

Keeping that in mind, I tried to look for one for my face first. This is when I noticed that Neutrogena makes them in the form of clear gels. They call it their Fresh Cooling Sunblock Gel. Hm...never seen that before. I decided to give their tester a squeeze and rubbed some over the back of my hand. Wow it drys pretty fast and kind of feels like sunblock (definitely not sticky or greasy)...except, why does it smell like alcohol? I decided to look at the ingredients. Bingo! They do add alcohol in there. I didn't know there's alcohol in sunblock. Do all sunblocks have alcohol in them? I decided to check. Nope. Only some.

Knowing that I have a somewhat oily face, I definitely did not want sunblock with alcohol in it (since it'll dry my face up, which in turn will make my face produce more oil). I glanced left and noticed the Ultra-Sheer Dry-Touch Sunblock in SPF 45, which is "fast-absorbing, leaves skin soft and smooth, waterproof, sweatproof, resists rub-off, and non-comedogenic (won't clog pores)". Perfect, just what I wanted! As soon as I thought this, I noticed that there is also an Ultra-Sheer Dry-Touch Sunblock in SPF 55. The only (other than the apparent SPF) difference between the two is that the SPF 55 one is not comedogenic (will clog pores) but is made with Helioplex technology. Oo I wonder what that is. "Helioplex cover the complete UVA/UVB spectrum by harnessing the full power of...", I read. Eh, at this point, I really would just like to buy the goddamn sunblock and get the hell out of there (it was close to 11pm and I was tired). The thing that mattered to me the most was the fact that I wanted a sunscreen that won't clog my pores (the last thing I need is to break out when I go swimming), I grabbed the SPF 45 one and quickly moved on to finding one for my body.

You'd think that would be easy since I'm just looking for a general-purpose one. I mean, after all, the only requirement that I have was for the sunblock to be big (a large-sized one) and have an SPF of 45 (to match the one for my face). Nope. I was stuck there for another 10 minutes as I searched through the shelves for a large-sized sunblock with SPF 45. Come on, where is the 45? There's 15, 30, 50, 55. WHERE IS 45!?!?

Ughhhhhhhhhh! Ok I'll settle for 30 or 50. But which one? Is SPF 30 strong enough? Would SPF 50 be too strong? I definitely do not want my face to be darker than my body. I'll go for the 30. No wait. The 50. But I don't want my face to be darker than my body!!! The 30? The 50? The 30? The 50? Ahhh!!!!

Eventually, I decided on the 30 since, from previous experience, it seemed to work fine and having your face slightly lighter than the rest of you is ok whereas, it's not ok the other way around.

So, such is the case when you have such an abundant amount of choices thrust upon you. I definitely would have liked to just go in there, grab the sunblock, and then leave.

Like Running Water

Today, I spent more than 5 hours at the mall with a friend because that's what living in a mall-deprived town (Pyramid doesn't count) such as Ithaca does to you. Initially, I had a goal in mind: I'm just going to the mall to get the things that I need, not necessarily want, but need.

Here is the list:

• dress shirts
• dress pants
• dress shoes
• professional hair straightener (yes I know I have one already, but that one damages my hair like there's no tomorrow so I've really wanted to get a good one for a long time)

Somehow, at the end of the day, those are not the exact things I came home with... In fact, the only thing I got from that list is the hair straightener, everything else isn't on that list. But before you start to rebuke me for my spending habits, I think I can attribute the fact that I rarely get the things that I need to get and get the things I want instead to the following reasons:

1. As I've said earlier, this is what happens when I don't go shopping at a mall with the stores that I like to go to for a long time
2. I would have liked to buy the dress shirts/pants/shoes except the place where I would have gotten them a) don't have the shirts in the colors I want and b) don't have a sale right now so everything is super expensive (shirts ~$39.50, pants ~$69.50-$88.00).
3. Whenever I'm with a friend, I tend to not focus that much on what I have to do and focus, instead, on having a good time. So instead of buying things I have to get, I end up buying things that I want to buy (and sometimes the thing I'll want to buy will be something I have to buy, so that's always good).
4. The things that I ended up buying are usually things I've wanted for a while. So in a way, I had to get them (because they're kind of on my list-of-things-to-get in the back of my mind)

Furthermore, I already know that I'll be going back to the mall tomorrow to return some of the things I got today. So in the end, I'm not spending that much. In fact, I've never gone into debt before, or emptied my bank account with too many debit card swipes. The closest I've come to being in debt was once when I thought I didn't have enough money in my bank account to pay for my credit card bill in full, so I was going to pay for part of it first and then pay the rest of it later (with interest added). But I ended up managing to pay for it in full, something that I was very relieved about at that time.

Something to Chew On

I hate it when I get garlic stuck in my teeth. Unfortunately, this happens a lot since I like garlic and garlic happens to be something that's usually chopped up into small bits, scattered throughout whatever it is that I'm having. And whenever it gets stuck in my teeth, it's usually so small that I can't really get it out with my fingers or my tongue and so it stays there until I get a chance to brush my teeth or rinse my mouth. Ok here's the worst part, having it stuck in some crevice in your mouth is essentially like you're having a mint......except it's garlic. So instead of having the nice minty smell you get when you suck on a mint, you get a garlicky smell in your mouth. Basically, you'll smell (and taste) like garlic. And let me tell you, this taste doesn't go away for the longest time!! Brushing your teeth with toothpaste and rinsing with mouth wash helps, at first. But then the taste always returns (after about 5 minutes or sooner). I find that if I have something with garlic in it for dinner, the taste won't completely go away until the next morning.

Going...Going...Gone!

It's 1:14am. My mom's coming in 11 hours to pick me up to go home.

I barely packed because I hate packing. It's so tedious and tiring. But unfortunately, sometimes it's unavoidable. Oh well, I think I'm just going to get up tomorrow morning to finish packing.

Another semester is over. Another summer is beginning. *sigh*

Anyway, in the spirit of being totally random...here are some pictures of Gemma Ward:

Something Unexpected

Living in dorms has its ups and downs. One of the downsides is that it's inevitable that you'll have to share the bathrooms with others who live around you. The dorm I currently reside in has co-ed bathrooms, that is, both guys and girls can use the same bathroom. Basically, when you open the bathroom door (cannot be locked), there'll be a mirror in front of you, below which are two sinks, and to your left is the shower stall (can be locked) and to your right is the bathroom stall (can be locked). This way (by not allowing the main bathroom door to be locked), more than one person can be in there doing different things (i.e. someone can be taking a shower, someone else can be washing their hands, brushing their teeth, etc), which greatly increases the efficiency of the bathroom.

Most of the time, I'm fine with this set up. I don't mind it when I'm taking a shower, and some guy is outside brushing his teeth because the shower stall can be locked. What I do mind, is having someone else by the sink when I go brush my teeth and wash my face in the morning. Ok, first of all, I look like crap when I first get out of bed. Therefore, I'm in no mood whatsoever to see someone and feel compelled to strike up a conversation with them. Here's the typical morning-in-the-bathroom convo:
A: Hey H how's it going?
me: Hey A, not much..
--silence as we each do our stuff--

Needless to say, it's pretty awkward. This awkwardness, however, is helped by the fact that I'm barely awake when I go brush my teeth and therefore don't really give a crap who I see/talk to. And because I'm barely awake, it's very likely that I won't remember the conversation that clearly in case something embarrasing/awkward did happen.

That said, I encountered someone in the bathroom this morning who made this ordeal much less awkward. So, here's what happened. I woke up, lied in bed for 10 minutes, finally mustered all of my energy and sat up, only to fall right back down again, lied in bed for another 3 minutes, and forced myself to get off of the bed. Then, I think I stood in my room for about 1 minute, trying to wake up. Next, I squeezed some toothpaste onto my toothbrush, took my toothbrush, mouthwash, and face wash and stumbled out of my room. Now the bathroom is right across from my room so I, as usual, forget to listen to see if there's anyone else in there, pushed the door open and saw that there was a guy there by the sink. Great, the last thing I need is for a guy to see me when I'm in no condition or mood to talk, and frankly, be seen.

I've seen this guy around here and there the whole semester, but never thought to actually introduce myself to him.
"Hi, " he said.
"Hey", I replied, trying to be nice, even though I felt a little awkward since I've never talked to him before.
"Done with all your finals?" I heard him say.
"Yea. You?" I said.
"Yea I'm pretty much done. What finals do you still have left?"
"Huh? Oh...I thought you said 'Done with all your finals?'"
"Oh (chuckles), no I said 'Do you still have more finals?'" (It's funny how things play out in my ears sometimes)
...

Anyway, so we chatted for awhile. The whole time I felt completely comfortable because he seemed so nice. (God I hope he didn't make small talk with me because he felt awkward and uncomfortable.) I found out that he's a senior who's going to medical school in the fall. It's a shame that I only met him today, the second to last day of the school year. I'm sure if we met some time earlier, we could have become good friends.

That's the thing about me. I could always make more friends if I just tried, but I'm always just so lazy and don't feel the need to. Making friends is something that takes time, energy, and commitment, some of which I lack depending on what time of the semester it is. Another thing is, I always wait for other people to introduce themselves to me, which doesn't always work out in my favor.

It's unfortunate because I'm a person who loves company and having a good time and yet, I don't think I get enough of that these days. I'll definitely make more of an effort to meet people and make new friends this summer.

The Pessimist

Sometimes I think I set myself up for failure. And failure can equate to 1) getting hurt, and/or 2) becoming disappointed (which could be counted as getting hurt I suppose). In so many situations, I always imagine the worst scenario possible so that I know nothing worse than what I've imagined can happen, and if I'm ok with what I've imagined, then I should be ok if it actually does happen. But the act of imagining itself can actually be quite hurtful. Why? Because I spend so much time thinking about whatever the issue. I use up all of my energy concentrating on all the possible outcomes, especially the negative ones. That's why sometimes I perceive things people tell me in a totally different way than they (the people) actually mean.

For example, a person says something to me and I take it in a way that the person did not intend. Then I might say something back to them that they completely don't expect. And in turn they say something back to me which I'll deem even more hurtful. And it just gets worse from there...

For some reason, I have an innate sense to not to trust guys I like, always viewing them in the most negative light possible. I feel like, whenever I like someone, I become vulnerable. As a result, I hardly believe anything they say (or I try to believe them but convince myself otherwise). And I always leave it up to them to prove themselves to me.

Because of this, I tend to make myself miserable sometimes. But on the other hand, I always feel that if for some reason, I gave these guys the benefit of the doubt, they might not live up to it (i.e. I'll catch them lying or something). And to me, that's the worst thing that can happen--believe someone and then find out that they've lied to you. Besides feeling extremely sad and disappointed, I'd feel so stupid and naive for believing them in the first place. These days, where the world is so liberal and everyone's pretty much free to do whatever they want without being scorned, I feel that I can't be so simple-minded and trusting of people.

Still, I do feel that sometimes I treat them a little too harshly. Would I really be hurt if I believed them? The answer, I think, depends on the guy. If the guy is the lying type, then he'll lie. If he's not, then he won't. Sounds simple, but in reality, this trait is very hard to discern. I think in general, if I let up a little and just be a little more trusting, I'll be more happy.

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Onto a different topic.
I think I'm very spoiled in the sense that I always get what I want. Well, not everything, but for enough things so that if I don't get something that I want, I'll get very, very upset. People who love me put up with that and I think I'm just so used to it that I tend to forget that those who don't love me don't have to put up with me. And as a result, I won't get my way. Indeed it's a very disheartening thing to realize. But that's life. Those who care about you will cater to your every need and those who don't, won't.

There has been a few times recently where someone didn't cave in to doing what I want them to do and I became extremely, albeit very unnecessarily, upset. It's almost as if I think they should do what I want them to do when there's no reason for them to. As a result, I became increasingly frustrated because I just didn't understand why they wouldn't just do the thing I want them to do for me. And then the day ends on a bad note because of my incessant complaints.

There is a lesson to be learned here, and that is I can't always take for granted that everyone will do whatever I tell them to do--some will, some won't. And if someone didn't do what I wanted them to do, there is no reason to get upset at them. They're not obligated to oblige.

Car Rental Confuzzlement

I've just had one of the most frustrating phone conversations ever! I don't think I've ever had do deal with someone who's so disinclined to help me. God he sounded so disgruntled and annoyed at me that it almost made me give up what I was asking him to do in the first place! Why work at a place where you have to help people everyday when you don't want to help them??

First a little background information leading up to my conversation with him.
I'll be working in CA this summer. And unlike San Francisco or some other metropolis, you pretty much can't get around without a car. So I've been trying my hardest these days to work out the car situation. And it's not as simple as you think. What complicates the matter is that my compnay will be granting me 4 days of car rental. That is, I can get it reimbursed. (There is 4 days/nights of hotel stay to go along with that for my initial adjustment there.) And for the rest of the time, if I want to rent a car, I'd have to use the lump sum that they give me.

So I'm thinking, car rental is expensive, especially when you're under 25. Why not just use up the 4 days and then rent a car on my own terms for the rest of the time (instead of renting it on my own terms the whole time)? (I'm not going to use up the hotel because 1) I'll have a place to stay when I get there and 2) I hate moving so frequently.)

So that's exactly what I've decided to do: Arrive at the airport, have a taxi drive me to where I'll be staying (which should be within 5 miles from where I'm working), sleep there a night, and then go to the rental place the next day to pick up the car (I'm thinking of asking the people I'll be living with to drive me, or I can call a taxi), drive it for 4 days, then give it back to the rental place, then rent a car on my own and drive it for the rest of the summer. I would have the taxi drive me straight to the car rental place so that I can pick up my car right away, but they'll be closed by the time I get there that day.

The only thing is, right now on my itinerary, they have me pick up the car at the airport. I've only been to California once, I've never driven in California, I've only been at the San Francisco Airport once, I don't know how the roads work, plus highways at airports are known to screw people over, and even if I look up directions on how to get to the place I'll be staying, I'll probably just end up lost somewhere along the way, with no one to turn to.

So I called back the relocation company asking them if they can have me pick up the car at a location that's close to where I'll be working. (No this isn't the bad part). "Sure thing" they said.

Ten minutes later, I get an email saying that my itinerary has changed and that now, instead of having to pick it up at the airport, I'll be picking it up in Santa Rosa, 98.6 miles (2 hours) north of Santa Clara!!! Even from San Francisco, it takes 1 hour to get there!!!! (pictorially: santa clara -> san francisco -> santa rosa) Why did they make it this way???? I have no clue.

Nothing is more annoying than thinking that someone understood you, but they really didn't. (Well, for all I know, they could have understood me, but still made a mistake for some reason.) So I decide to call them back (not the relocation people, but the people from the company who talks to the relocation people and finalizes things).

Apparently the person who normally handles these things is not there, and sick of waiting, I decided to "Press 1" and try someone else.

Here's how the conversation went:
Him: Hi, how may I help you today?

Me: Hi this is H calling. I'll be interning this summer and would like to change the details of my car rental.

Him: Ok. What do you want to change?

Me: Well currently, I'd have to pick it up from Santa Rosa and I was wondering if I can pick it up at some place near the company.

Him: Well we can have you pick it up at San Francisco airport, would you like that?

Me: Um, actually that's how it was in the first place but I was thinking of taking a taxi to where I'd be staying and then picking the car up from there.

Him: Well you know the taxi is probably going to cost from $50-$60.

Me: Yes I know.

Him: Well...ok. We can have you pick it up at the San Jose Airport.

Me: Is there a location that's closer to where the company is?

Him: Huh? I'm still trying to understand what it is that you want here.

Me: I want to take a taxi from the airport to Santa Clara, where I'll be staying and pick up the car somewhere close to there.

Him: You know the taxi is going to cost around $60.

Me: YES! I know! (Then I added the following sentence so he can stop bothering me about the whole taxi situation:) The relocation company is going to reimburse me for that.

Him: Ok. Well we can have you arrive at San Jose instead of San Francisco.

Me: Uh...I thought the flight itinerary can't be changed once it's confirmed.

Him (frustrated): I'm still having trouble understanding what you want.

Me: Ok you know what? Just reserve the car for me in the San Francisco Airport.

Him: Well we do have a place that's just by the company. Would you want that?

Me: Oh ok sure.

Him: Ok I'll put you down for that. Is Sunday at 1pm good?

Me: Yes that's fine.

Him: And you'll return it on the 31st at the same time to the airport?

Me: No, I'll return it to the place that's close to the company.

Him (puzzled): ...Ok.

Me: Will I get an email confirmation about this?

Him: Yes you will.

Me: Thanks for your help. Bye.

Him: Have a nice day. Bye.

Obviously I can't remember the conversation verbatim, but this is pretty accurate. In fact, it was more frustrating and more stressful when it actually happened.

Flash Photography is STRICTLY Allowed

If you know me, then you must know that I love to take pictures. But if you don't know me, you'd probably think I'm weird. Why? Actually I don't really know why because you shouldn't think I'm weird just because I love taking pictures!!

Here are reasons why people take pictures:

1. So that they can look back at themselves 30 years later and go "wow I was hot then"
2. So that they can try to be artistic
3. So that they can capture something random, something out of the blue, something funny...
4. So that if they're ever with a celebrity or someone hot, they can show it off to their friends and prove that indeed, they were there.

That said, why do I still feel like an idiot every time I'm together with my friends trying to snap a few candids? Because they always act in a way to make me think that either they don't want any pictures taken or they're politely putting up with me for doing so, which in turn makes me feel uncomfortable.

Another reason I think, is that my camera takes forever to focus and actually take the picture! When you point your camera at people, they feel targeted and therefore become uncomfortable and act unnaturally. So the best thing for you to do is 1) have them not notice you with your camera (not so easy to do) or 2)take the picture as soon as possible so they don't have time to think or react to the fact that a camera is pointing at them.

Ugh whenever I go to some place cool or new, I always want to take pictures to show to other people later. But I always feel like a god damned tourist every time I whip out my camera. It's not because I haven't seen anything in my life and find everything fascinating...I JUST LIKE TAKING PICTURES, that's all!

So next time if you're with me and I'm snapping away with my camera, please please PLEASE don't mind me and just know that different people have different interests and one of mine is to take pictures.

Some interesting (in my opinion) pictures I've taken in the past:
Belt Parkway en route to JFK Airport
Washington Monument
Stanford Quad
My plane landing.

Before take-off (notice how backed up all the planes were...the weather was terrible that day)

Streets of NYC on New Year's Eve

九寨沟 (Valley of Nine Villages) of China, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The locals of 九寨沟

A building in NYC (it has an imax theater in it)

Piermont, NY

Watermelon jello in a spoon.

A lampshade at a lighting store.

Chandeliers at the same lighting store.

Lilies.

Things I'll Never Understand

1. Why I subscribed to Time magazine for 6 months, but only read one issue out of all the ones that I got.
   
2. Why I always get salad, and then end up not eating it, or eating it last.
3. Why I'm always mad at the weather.
4. Why I'm literally addicted to listening to music.
5. Why I always get so impatient.
6. Why a random guy in the dining hall today asked me if I've seen Carl Becker.
   
7. Why magic tricks will always fascinate me.
8. Why some people want something that I have only when I don't want to give it to them and when I offer it to them, they don't want it anymore.

Um Help I'm Overwhelmed

I've just spent close to two hours reading what I consider the most boring book ever--Ghost Town by Robert Coover. It's supposed to be a "blunt, profanity-laced existentialist" western, according to the back cover. But frankly, I really can't understand what it's talking about. In fact, I think for the past half an hour I spent outside on the Engineering Quad, I've probably read the same paragraph 10 times.

On top of that, I'm extremely stressed because I have:

• a final exam tomorrow night and I basically haven't started studying
• the CS 501 project to finish on Friday
  
• another take-home final exam (which will definitely be excrutiatingly hard) to do over the weekend
• to contact Big Red Boxes so they can come get my stuff next week when I leave
• to find housing for my summer internship in little over a week
• to buy plane tickets for the last weekend of May
• to deal with car rental people in California so that hopefully I'll have a car for the summer

To make matters worse, here's how I deal with stress. I pretty much deal with it the worst way possible--I put it off. That is, I put off what I have to do until later, which in turn creates more stress. It's an endless cycle which will ultimately result in my doooooooooom.

Oh, did I mention that I spent 6 hours on the phone last night with a friend and didn't go to sleep until after 4am? (My cell phone literally reads: 400m 5s )

Simply put, I am not amused...not amused at all...

Elevator Mishap

Today, I was in Day Hall to drop something off on the fifth floor (don't ask me what). Since you go in on the second floor, the fifth floor is still 3 floors up, I decided to take the elevator. After waiting there about 10 minutes and watching it go to every floor except the one I'm on, it finally stopped and opened on the second floor. I stepped inside. Apparently there was another person (a rather plump old lady) in there who pressed "B" before me (which I didn't know why since I pressed "^" button outside of the elevator, so it should be going up, not down). Anyway, so I went up to the buttons and pressed "5", then I stepped back. Then the elevator started moving, 2...................................1..............and then all of a sudden, it sounded as if someone turned it off (like an engine shutting down). Uh oh, I panicked. I hate to admit it, but having one of your parents claustrophobic can sure do a lot of damage on you as well. What if I'm stuck in there? What if we run out of air? Nooooooooooooooooooo!

Thankfully, though, the elevator started to move again after about a minute and got to the basement. As the lady stepped out, I hesitated for a moment, and then stepped out after her.

"I thought you're going to the fifth floor," she asked.
"Oh..." I laughed albeit a little nervously, "I am."
Then I quickly walked down the hall before she had a chance to ask me another question.

Disappointing Girl Translation for Nerds

A Note to my Beloved Readers

Ha! I'm writing this as if I have a faithful following or something. But the truth is, probably not more than a handful of people read my blog. And...that's fine...as long as they leave comments!

It makes me extremely happy to read comments by people who read my blog. As of now, there are only 3 people who leave comments on my blog. This is because they know that I know that they read my blog, so it wouldn't seem like they're stalking me or something. But frankly, I really don't think that if someone were to read my blog that they're stalking me. I don't care. I mean, this is a blog, it's to be read. And if someone reads it and have comments to say, why not say them? It's fine if I don't know that they read my blog. I don't have to know exactly who reads my blog.* I just have to know that people read it. I've added a counter to my blog and it says 109 right now. Ok, granted, I do look at my own blog a lot to check if anyone posted comments, but I definitely did not look at it 109 times in the past week! PEOPLE MUST BE LOOKING AT MY BLOG! And that's fine, just acknowledge to me that you did. :)

*If you don't want me to see who you are (though I assure you it won't hurt you if I do), you can always choose to leave comments anonymously, or make up a name.

The End Is Not Near, it's Here (well almost)

Today, when passing through the Cornell Store, I stopped to flip through the Class of 2007 yearbook. Hm...let's see...who do I know is graduating this year? ah! there's him, her, him, him....her...him...him...him...her..... Wow. A lot of people I know are graduating this year!

Then, it hit me...
In just one more year, I will be graduating. I'll be a senior. I'll be taking wines. And I'll be having my last Slope Day. After that, my four years at Cornell will be over. Will I have experienced all there is to experience?

Recently, I've been asked, on two different occasions, what is the craziest thing I've done. Both times I thought to myself...what is the craziest thing I've done? I searched my mind for answers. Nothing. I couldn't think of anything. What's something crazy that I did? Depends on what the definition of "crazy" is, I answered myself, different people have different standards. Some people consider cutting their hair crazy while others go skinny dipping on a regular basis.

So...I've racked my brain for about...an hour..and here's what I came up with. And in my opinion, these things are pretty "crazy" in 1.) that I normally don't do crazy things at all, and 2.) the context during which they happened:

• In my senior year of high school, I skipped school for a day and took the train to NYC and went up the Empire State Building with a friend. And, until this day, I think only a few people know about it. Now you know how in high school, if you don't show up, they call your parents? Well...luckily, I knew the person who was in charge of that because I had to come in late a lot of the time due to my orthodontist appointments (she was the person I had to hand the note to). So that morning, I call her and told her that I was sick and couldn't come in and that I'd give her a note the next day. At first she seemed a little skeptical (which almost killed me...that was the closest I've been to getting caught), but then somehow, she seemed to just let it go. This was probably one of the most impulsive things I've done as I didn't think of it until the night before. And I'd say that this would probably count as the most "crazy" thing I've done.
• I dyed my hair blonde by myself using two bleaching kits in senior year of high school.
• In my freshmen year at Cornell, I got so drunk at a frat that one of the frat brothers offered me cheerios to make me feel better.
• I cut my hair very very short last summer. (And...get ready for this...what makes it crazy is that I had very long hair to begin with..)
• I went up an intermediate slope at Greek Peak for the first time! (And pretty much fell the whole way down)
  

And here are some things that I had the chance to do (and be a little "crazy") but chickened out in the end:

• I've always been too scared to go on the Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventures (the one in New Jersey). :( I always get so anxious right before I go on...because the closer you get, the scarier, and faster it gets.
• Out of the two times that I stayed at the beach...I was too afraid to go into the haunted house they have there on the pier. :( It just looks so scary!!!

Here's my goal before I graduate: Be able to list at least 5 things that top the "craziness" on the first list and have fun in the meantime!

Facebook "Gifts" are Overrated

Due to the significant amount of time I've devoted to preparing the final presentation for the CS 501 project with the rest of my group, I'm extremely tired. So I shall post a topic on which I don't have too much to say.

As many users of facebook noticed over the past few months, facebook implemented many snazzy features, one of which is "gifts" that you can give to people. They're basically 64 by 64 pixel (yes I checked) images that show up on the chosen person's profile page. Initially, every user has one free gift that they can give to whomever they wish. From then on, all "gifts" cost $1 if you choose to buy them individually or $0.50 in bulks of 10. The "gifts" can be anything from a smilely face balloon to spiderman, to handcuffs, to cute otters, to...well you get the point. Oh yea, all "gifts" are limited in supply, meaning, they can run out.

Here's my view on them: It WOULD BE an awesome feature and it WOULD BE fun to choose from many different designs to give to your friends...IF IT'S FREE! I mean, come on, has gift giving gone so virtual, that people are actually willing to PAY to give something that is not physical? (If they start to make me pay for hallmark e-cards...I'll be enraged) What if Facebook for some reason decide to disable this feature? What will happen to all the money you've spent on these "gifts". Sure they only cost $1, but for $1, you can get better things than jpegs (oh wait, they're actually pngs...my bad). Plus, $1's can add up very quickly...

Better things you can get for $1:

• A can of Dr. Pepper
• Used books from Amazon
• Hot dogs
• 4 Ice Cream Cones (From McDonald's last time I checked)
• Wendy's Frosty
• Wendy's 5-piece chicken nuggets
• Everything from Wendy's & McDonald's Dollar Menu
• Pencil, pen and other stationery
• A house (if you buy a paperclip first)

That said, it is still extremely tempting to buy "handcuffs" and give them to one of my friends....