Hollaz to all the peeps up on the plane!
Churro, I have come to join you on this journal, because as much as I love reading from you, I do not feel that you should have to be alone in posting. Thus, here I am.
So Saturday I didn't really have much going on, so I agreed to go canoing with DJ and Diego at Russian River. Sure, the canoe flipped over once, or twice, or thrice times, and yeah there was no current and therefore most of the travel was manpower, and of course since this was my first time going (since the trek down Anna's little river by her house) I wasn't as skilled as others, but sure enough, four hours after departure, we reached the endpoint.
Work has been eating me alive. I still love it, but for some reason, recently it's really started to kick into gear. I mean, within the past week, I've had my lab flood (totally not my fault, honestly), had a mercury spill, almost got blown off the pier and into the ocean while collecting oysters, extracted fur seal urine samples, and stayed at work late enough to see the iron gates close. If that isn't exciting as hell, then honestly, I don't know what is.
Alright my homies, as usual, I hope that you are all doing well and continue to do so. Copernicus says hi and that "alls y'alls bitches needs to swing by to shoot me a holla". His words, not mine. For reals yo.
-MeL
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
class got cancelled
I know you guys are slacking on this...because I've been updating about twice as much as any of you guys. But that's okay, since I know some of you guys still read this. I am living at the farthest end so far, so I guess it's fine.
I don't know if I mentioned it to you guys but Jason Lin messages me on msn messanger and apparently he goes to RPI (some place in New York). We were saying that it's very ironic that Jason and Eli are living so close to each other now...haha.
Other than that, nothing much is happening in my life. I have class everyday. Either lecture or labs. Yesterday I had my first characterization lab and even though the only thing we looked at was optical microscope, we got to look at the crystallization of polyethyleneoxide. We are supposed to learn SALS (small angle light scattering) on wednesday, so that sounds a little bit more excitinig. As for the synthesis lab, I have no idea what's going on since I haven't had chemistry labs in a looooooong time. At least it's like chem3A where we have to use a sand bath. We have an oil bath and I think that's a little bit more manageable.
So far, everything is going smoothly except for the fact that work is piling up on me....like a lot of reading. I'm more of an audit learner, so I hate reading textbooks. meh.
I guess i'm going out to all you can eat buffalo chicken wings tonight...I think that sounds kind of shady, but since everyone else is going, I decided to go. I guess it could be fun. I have a relaxed day on Tuesday so maybe I will get some reading done tonight as well.
Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you guys. When do you think you can take off winter break? I'm going to take mine such that I can meet most of you at the same time. I know Kenta's been asking me this because he wants to do like a get-together and I have no idea how you guys' schedule are like. Could you let me know if you find out???
I don't know if I mentioned it to you guys but Jason Lin messages me on msn messanger and apparently he goes to RPI (some place in New York). We were saying that it's very ironic that Jason and Eli are living so close to each other now...haha.
Other than that, nothing much is happening in my life. I have class everyday. Either lecture or labs. Yesterday I had my first characterization lab and even though the only thing we looked at was optical microscope, we got to look at the crystallization of polyethyleneoxide. We are supposed to learn SALS (small angle light scattering) on wednesday, so that sounds a little bit more excitinig. As for the synthesis lab, I have no idea what's going on since I haven't had chemistry labs in a looooooong time. At least it's like chem3A where we have to use a sand bath. We have an oil bath and I think that's a little bit more manageable.
So far, everything is going smoothly except for the fact that work is piling up on me....like a lot of reading. I'm more of an audit learner, so I hate reading textbooks. meh.
I guess i'm going out to all you can eat buffalo chicken wings tonight...I think that sounds kind of shady, but since everyone else is going, I decided to go. I guess it could be fun. I have a relaxed day on Tuesday so maybe I will get some reading done tonight as well.
Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you guys. When do you think you can take off winter break? I'm going to take mine such that I can meet most of you at the same time. I know Kenta's been asking me this because he wants to do like a get-together and I have no idea how you guys' schedule are like. Could you let me know if you find out???
Saturday, September 15, 2007
It is so cold.
The weather here is killing me. One day it goes up to like 80 degrees and the next day is like 50 degrees with rain. I never know what to predict. I check the weather forecast but it is never always right.
I know it's Saturday morning. I know it's 7am in the morning here. I have no idea why I woke up so early aside of the fact that I'm going to IKEA. Am I really that excited about going to IKEA? I think not. I don't know. It's about an hour and a half away from here, so it's quite a trip.
Since I'm already up, I decided to fill you guys in on nice little things called "grad-school" social phenomenon. There are 31 of us, so there naturally will be little "clicks" although most of us seem to be nice to each other face-to-face. What I find weird is that I've already heard about each other's crap fro various people behind each other's back. These people are getting PhD...so, I find that kind of weird.
So far, I've been pretty close with Christine, Kristof, Toni, Kins, Henning, Joe, Brent, and Kathleen. The first five of them are from the Germany. Christine is the only girl and she's dating Toni. She's really cool and I've come to hang out with her more than anybody else for now. Toni is really sweet, kind of quiet, but seems very smart. Kristof is this guy I thought he was gay because he dresses super nice and looks really good. Apparently he's not, and now I feel bad about thinking that, because he is really good looking. Kins is this super smart guy "theoretically" but sort of the genius guy and kind of weird. He sort of reminds me of Roman, except he doesn't talk as much. But then come to think of it, I guess Roman never really talked to me. Henning is this tall guy with long hair. Joe, Brent, and Kathleen live together in a town called northampton about 15-20 minutes away from Amherst. Joe is from New Jersey and Brent is from Colorado. They seem to be a partner in crime, and they are really funny together. Kathleen is from MIT and she's really down to earth and cool. She likes musicals and singing, so it's pretty fun to talk to her about that. I went to see a movie with all of them plus this girl named Katrina yesterday (minus Kins) and I had a lot of fun. Katrina is this girl with very pretty eyes. I haven't really hung out with her enough to know what she's like but she seems really sweet. Maybe she's a little bit shy. We saw "shoot 'em Up". The movie wasn't too great, especially because there are a LOT of carrots in it (Brent kept laughing at me and telling me that I'm going to be screwed up after this because there were so many carrots in the movie). If you are confused, go watch the movie. You will see why.
As for the rest of the crew, I could name them all but I'm scared that someone will find this blog like last time *cough cough* and somehow start a bitch fest, so I'm going to stop here. There's really no one that I don't like though. There are people that I'm trying to stay away because of various reasons, or people are staying away from me because of various reasons? lol I also befriended a chinese girl named Pei-Wen and Jun. Since they live in my apartment complex, I see them a lot. Pei-Wen actually showed me where the chinese grocery is, so I don't have to starve. yay. The problem is, even I have a hard time understanding their english. No wonder everyone has their own "clicks" because it's really hard to undrestand each other's english sometimes. Most of the time, I'm okay understanding the Germans and the chinese speaking english, but I have a hard time understanding people from Turkey or India. I'm getting used to it, but sometimes I have to second-guess myself and you know I'm not good at guessing what I heard. There were a couple of times that I wanted to burst out laughing because I had no idea what they said and my understanding of the sentence was so funny that I couldn't contain myself.
Today, I think I'm going to IKEA with Joe, come back, and have fun with Kathleen and Christine? Katrina is having a cranium night, but Christine wasn't so sure if she wanted to go because she's worried that her English isn't great. I told her it's not like mine is much better but she's convinced that she wouldn't be good at the game. The guys (Germans+Brent+Joe) are having a guy's night out, so we were going to do girl's night out. We'll see what we're going to do later in the night.
So yes, I am having fun here. But of course, I miss all of you guys dearly. I wish I were back in California, because that's definitely my safety corner for me. Maybe I will see you guys during christmas break? I'm not so sure. I guess Anna and Mel will probably in the bay area, but what about Liang and Linli? Are you guys coming back to the bay area or leaving to somewhere else?
I know it's Saturday morning. I know it's 7am in the morning here. I have no idea why I woke up so early aside of the fact that I'm going to IKEA. Am I really that excited about going to IKEA? I think not. I don't know. It's about an hour and a half away from here, so it's quite a trip.
Since I'm already up, I decided to fill you guys in on nice little things called "grad-school" social phenomenon. There are 31 of us, so there naturally will be little "clicks" although most of us seem to be nice to each other face-to-face. What I find weird is that I've already heard about each other's crap fro various people behind each other's back. These people are getting PhD...so, I find that kind of weird.
So far, I've been pretty close with Christine, Kristof, Toni, Kins, Henning, Joe, Brent, and Kathleen. The first five of them are from the Germany. Christine is the only girl and she's dating Toni. She's really cool and I've come to hang out with her more than anybody else for now. Toni is really sweet, kind of quiet, but seems very smart. Kristof is this guy I thought he was gay because he dresses super nice and looks really good. Apparently he's not, and now I feel bad about thinking that, because he is really good looking. Kins is this super smart guy "theoretically" but sort of the genius guy and kind of weird. He sort of reminds me of Roman, except he doesn't talk as much. But then come to think of it, I guess Roman never really talked to me. Henning is this tall guy with long hair. Joe, Brent, and Kathleen live together in a town called northampton about 15-20 minutes away from Amherst. Joe is from New Jersey and Brent is from Colorado. They seem to be a partner in crime, and they are really funny together. Kathleen is from MIT and she's really down to earth and cool. She likes musicals and singing, so it's pretty fun to talk to her about that. I went to see a movie with all of them plus this girl named Katrina yesterday (minus Kins) and I had a lot of fun. Katrina is this girl with very pretty eyes. I haven't really hung out with her enough to know what she's like but she seems really sweet. Maybe she's a little bit shy. We saw "shoot 'em Up". The movie wasn't too great, especially because there are a LOT of carrots in it (Brent kept laughing at me and telling me that I'm going to be screwed up after this because there were so many carrots in the movie). If you are confused, go watch the movie. You will see why.
As for the rest of the crew, I could name them all but I'm scared that someone will find this blog like last time *cough cough* and somehow start a bitch fest, so I'm going to stop here. There's really no one that I don't like though. There are people that I'm trying to stay away because of various reasons, or people are staying away from me because of various reasons? lol I also befriended a chinese girl named Pei-Wen and Jun. Since they live in my apartment complex, I see them a lot. Pei-Wen actually showed me where the chinese grocery is, so I don't have to starve. yay. The problem is, even I have a hard time understanding their english. No wonder everyone has their own "clicks" because it's really hard to undrestand each other's english sometimes. Most of the time, I'm okay understanding the Germans and the chinese speaking english, but I have a hard time understanding people from Turkey or India. I'm getting used to it, but sometimes I have to second-guess myself and you know I'm not good at guessing what I heard. There were a couple of times that I wanted to burst out laughing because I had no idea what they said and my understanding of the sentence was so funny that I couldn't contain myself.
Today, I think I'm going to IKEA with Joe, come back, and have fun with Kathleen and Christine? Katrina is having a cranium night, but Christine wasn't so sure if she wanted to go because she's worried that her English isn't great. I told her it's not like mine is much better but she's convinced that she wouldn't be good at the game. The guys (Germans+Brent+Joe) are having a guy's night out, so we were going to do girl's night out. We'll see what we're going to do later in the night.
So yes, I am having fun here. But of course, I miss all of you guys dearly. I wish I were back in California, because that's definitely my safety corner for me. Maybe I will see you guys during christmas break? I'm not so sure. I guess Anna and Mel will probably in the bay area, but what about Liang and Linli? Are you guys coming back to the bay area or leaving to somewhere else?
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Life is Simple
Life is pretty routine right now for me. I get up, do some job hunting (which I don't like doing because half of the jobs I'm qualified, I'd hate doing and half of the jobs I would love doing I'm unqualified for), write an app if I like what I find, eat/make breakfast, read the news, turn on the tele to see stock numbers and trends, go online to check e-mail, watch some stock trends, sit down and do lsat practices, read a few hours, play the piano, work out at the gym (where I've seen this one korean dude working out for 6 hours straight- just on his calves too!), work on my story and story boards, and now, I've finally gotten my act together with bp and I spend a while re-writing and reading up on new developments. I guess I'll have my magazine laid out by next week. That's pretty much all I'm doing. Quite boring, but at the same time so utterly needed.
I'm happy that Yuri got a chance to fill me in on her birthday! The pictures are... flattering? At least they're filled with smiles. I've yet to get my Arnold memorabilia, so I suppose I'll either have to send an order in or fly down and get it. Maybe. Applied for one job in SF. Don't really know if I'll get it because it's really not my field. ;) some people might argue that it is...
Your friend sounds intrigueing Yuri. More like, maybe he's the wrong crowd. But I'm sorry that the other races are exclusive. That's really no fun at all. In fact it's less than fun! Down with Exclusivity!
Rock concerts sound great Mel. So they had this article today in the news which was all the indie-rock recording in Portland studios. So yeah... had no idea what singers from DeathCab for Cutie looked like until today.
I'm happy that Yuri got a chance to fill me in on her birthday! The pictures are... flattering? At least they're filled with smiles. I've yet to get my Arnold memorabilia, so I suppose I'll either have to send an order in or fly down and get it. Maybe. Applied for one job in SF. Don't really know if I'll get it because it's really not my field. ;) some people might argue that it is...
Your friend sounds intrigueing Yuri. More like, maybe he's the wrong crowd. But I'm sorry that the other races are exclusive. That's really no fun at all. In fact it's less than fun! Down with Exclusivity!
Rock concerts sound great Mel. So they had this article today in the news which was all the indie-rock recording in Portland studios. So yeah... had no idea what singers from DeathCab for Cutie looked like until today.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Back to school!
School started this week....and I am definitely not enjoying it. Although this week has been pretty easy-going (provided that we don't have labs yet), it is still tiring to meet all of these people and pretend to be social.
Since I don't have internet at my place, I have been religiously going to school 2 hours before my class starts and going online in the air-conditioned nice cubicle room in the graduate library. It is quite nice, considering the face that the floor that I go to almost has nobody ever around and it's fairly quite. You could probably watch porn,even, if you wanted to...not that I would though.
As for the classes, I really have to review or rather learn Organic Chemistry...since I didn't pay attention too much the first time around...you know, the IUPAC rule and all the stupid nomenclature. What's worse is that there's a whole new set of them for polymers on top of the single molecules. So...it's going to be tough. That will be my challenge over the weekend.
Other than that, there are parties for the new kids like almost every night. I went to the closest bar last night with a couple of my friends and had some fun, although I didn't drink. I'm still having bad flashback memory from my birthday when I threw up., so i'm trying to keep my alcohol intake very low.
As for the people, some of them are quite fun to hang out with. I got to know the girl from Germany pretty well, so we talk a lot now. There are a couple of people that I'd rather not hang out with too much because they party and drink too much for their own sake. Actually, the first guy I hung out with when I came here, Sam, seems to me the bully of the group (he's also the one that openly told me that he takes Adrelle). He's already talking shit about people and seems pretty arrogant. I don't really like to be around him anymore, so i'm keeping my distant. I guess I belong the "white" kids group, since I don't understand chinese nor korean and they tend to keep the circles very tight knit anyway. I guess i'm the odd one out, but so far, it's working alright.
There's 30 of us, and I think about 10 or 12 are girls, so it's a pretty good mix. There are really no cute guys though. I feel that most of them are already in a relationship anyway. I guess I have to fly back to California to find any remotely cute guys...
Since I don't have internet at my place, I have been religiously going to school 2 hours before my class starts and going online in the air-conditioned nice cubicle room in the graduate library. It is quite nice, considering the face that the floor that I go to almost has nobody ever around and it's fairly quite. You could probably watch porn,even, if you wanted to...not that I would though.
As for the classes, I really have to review or rather learn Organic Chemistry...since I didn't pay attention too much the first time around...you know, the IUPAC rule and all the stupid nomenclature. What's worse is that there's a whole new set of them for polymers on top of the single molecules. So...it's going to be tough. That will be my challenge over the weekend.
Other than that, there are parties for the new kids like almost every night. I went to the closest bar last night with a couple of my friends and had some fun, although I didn't drink. I'm still having bad flashback memory from my birthday when I threw up., so i'm trying to keep my alcohol intake very low.
As for the people, some of them are quite fun to hang out with. I got to know the girl from Germany pretty well, so we talk a lot now. There are a couple of people that I'd rather not hang out with too much because they party and drink too much for their own sake. Actually, the first guy I hung out with when I came here, Sam, seems to me the bully of the group (he's also the one that openly told me that he takes Adrelle). He's already talking shit about people and seems pretty arrogant. I don't really like to be around him anymore, so i'm keeping my distant. I guess I belong the "white" kids group, since I don't understand chinese nor korean and they tend to keep the circles very tight knit anyway. I guess i'm the odd one out, but so far, it's working alright.
There's 30 of us, and I think about 10 or 12 are girls, so it's a pretty good mix. There are really no cute guys though. I feel that most of them are already in a relationship anyway. I guess I have to fly back to California to find any remotely cute guys...
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Labor Day without the Labour
Alright party people, let's hear it... What did YOU do for Labor Day?
Thursday
Okay, so I started the Labor Day holiday a little early... like Thursday night. What?
were in town and I wanted to get my dance on man! Anyway, I went to 
to watch them play one heck of a set, filled with good ol' keyboards and record spinning, followed by dancing the rest of the night away (or until I got too tired... which was around 12)
Friday
Friday night started with some dinner with Dian, Rosana, Rita, and Canh at Flavors of India? You know, I really don't remember what it was called. All I know is that it's on Lakeshore, the food was good, but not worth the price, and the waiter took FOR-EV-ER. Dinner was followed by a little movie called
, accompanied by DJ and Diego. The movie was followed by a stop at The Alley, where DJ got TOTALLY WASTED and then he.... I'm joking, I'm joking (Yuri, don't kill me!)
Saturday
I decided that I hadn't gotten my full fix of music from Thursday, and thus, attended the
festival in downtown to catch 
(aka that band that's Mel's ringtone). Anyway, they put on an awesome show, regardless of the fact that it was >90 degrees and they were wearing all black. That my friends, are called rock stars.
Monday
Okay, so I skipped Sunday because I basically just did nothing that day. So let's get to the fun stuff! Monday = trip to the San Francisco Zoo! Yes, they were open on Labor Day, and yes, I was super stoked. Penguins! Here I come!
(photo courtesy of "Patrick" from his blog)
We made it just in time to see them feeding too! We also saw: giraffes, zebras, rhinos, hippos, bears, lions, tigers, gorillas, birds, otters, guinea pigs, rabbits, antelope, etc, etc.
So that was my fantastic voyage this weekend.... what was yours?
-MeL
Thursday
Okay, so I started the Labor Day holiday a little early... like Thursday night. What?
were in town and I wanted to get my dance on man! Anyway, I went to 
to watch them play one heck of a set, filled with good ol' keyboards and record spinning, followed by dancing the rest of the night away (or until I got too tired... which was around 12)Friday
Friday night started with some dinner with Dian, Rosana, Rita, and Canh at Flavors of India? You know, I really don't remember what it was called. All I know is that it's on Lakeshore, the food was good, but not worth the price, and the waiter took FOR-EV-ER. Dinner was followed by a little movie called
, accompanied by DJ and Diego. The movie was followed by a stop at The Alley, where DJ got TOTALLY WASTED and then he.... I'm joking, I'm joking (Yuri, don't kill me!)Saturday
I decided that I hadn't gotten my full fix of music from Thursday, and thus, attended the
festival in downtown to catch 
(aka that band that's Mel's ringtone). Anyway, they put on an awesome show, regardless of the fact that it was >90 degrees and they were wearing all black. That my friends, are called rock stars.Monday
Okay, so I skipped Sunday because I basically just did nothing that day. So let's get to the fun stuff! Monday = trip to the San Francisco Zoo! Yes, they were open on Labor Day, and yes, I was super stoked. Penguins! Here I come!
(photo courtesy of "Patrick" from his blog)We made it just in time to see them feeding too! We also saw: giraffes, zebras, rhinos, hippos, bears, lions, tigers, gorillas, birds, otters, guinea pigs, rabbits, antelope, etc, etc.
So that was my fantastic voyage this weekend.... what was yours?
-MeL
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