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Thursday, August 17, 2006
running non-stop since i've been home...
it has definitely been fun being home and catching up with people, giving them pasalubong, and just being able to hang out with friends… i’ve been pretty much filling my time with friends and family
- wednesday night dinner at kat & susan’s house last week,
- thursday night dinner with laurie in loma linda (so cool to have a puen cousin nearby),
- friday night concert at redlands bowl, followed up ice cream at my apartment and this wacky science experiment
- lunch with my brother and pauline in venice beach on saturday, after which we went to the tchaikovsky fireworks at the hollywood bowl
- and then i went deep sea fishing on sunday and didn’t get back till tuesday night - that’s right, 45 hours on a boat. catching tuna. but i’ll post about that later...
- coming back from the boat, i dropped off my fish into the freezer, and then headed to gym night for basketball and volleyball, and of course, i had in-n-out afterwards *grin*
- wednesday night dinner at my house, in which we had arroz con menestra, imitation crab ceviche, tuna ceviche (yup, from what i caught on the boat!), fried tuna, baked tuna, potato salad, pancit/noodles with big franks, watermelon, and rainbow jello, followed up by poker night =) and pusoy dos. yeah, i think i went overboard on dinner, but i’m glad everyone helped pitch in too!
the crazy thing is that up until i was on the boat, i was waking up at 7am every morning no matter what time i went to sleep, and i was feeling tired and jet lagged and couldn’t do a thing about it… then all i did on the boat was nap!!! so i think i’m on my way to recovery…
and if i have not yet seen you, i only have one more week of summer vacation - so call me up, let’s make the most of it!
and on to pictures:
(clockwise) me, kat, jay, christina, daryl (& wife, not pictured), laurie, susan, merv, & wendy were all at the redlands bowl, sitting in the back with all the rabble…
perry and i went to venice beach with my brother and pauline
we saw these street performers - all balancing on that one guys legs… craziness!
and the fireworks at the hollywood bowl
Sunday, August 06, 2006
"barcelona - it was the first time we met"
"barcelona - how can i forget.....”so… tomorrow morning begins my days, yes, days, of traveling home. i’m sad to leave this place, and i’m definitely not looking forward to the 3-day trip, but oh how nice it will be to be home! but omg, the trip home will be horrendous!!! i leave my house at 6am (9pm on sunday PST) and i go from barcelona to reus in bus, then in reus i catch a flight to liverpool, which was the only feasible flight i could take. i’ll get there around noon on monday, and then have to take the train to manchester at some point in the day so that i can be near the airport. i have to be at manchester airport on tuesday morning at 8am, and from there i’m supposed to fly home. except the lady at delta sold me a ticket that has me waiting at JFKfor a 7-hour layover! yeah… i didn’t notice till after i bought the ticket, since i was so wowed by the low price (i paid $1000 less than i expected to...). anyways, i arrive at LAX 11:57pm PST. from there, my parents pick me up, and i go to their house in LA. and then on wednesday i’m gonna hang out with my parents, give them their pasalubong (souvenir gifts), see my aunts, give them their pasalubong, then have dinner with susan and kat, and give them their pasalubong! then i can get my car and drive home… i will finally arrive there on wednesday night, probably -after- 9pm, soooo… yeah… that’s 3 full days on the road. ack!
“... and if God willing we will meet again someday"
anyways, i got sidetracked complaining about my long (but incredibly inexpensive - how chinese am i?!!?!) trip home.
what i actually set out to write about was not my trip home, but the fact that it means i have to leave barcelona. i wandered around town today, swam for (what hopefully will -not- be) the last time in the mediterranean sea, went up to a look out point, took tons of pictures, and had dinner on alberto’s balcony. maria had prepared a dinner for me and surprised me by bringing me to her brother’s house, where it was all prepared nicely. it was so nice of them - they’re such good people and they’ve been so nice to me. i wish i got more time to hang out with her… on the way home i realized how much i knew the city because i pulled her towards the end of the metro station, saying that if we waited there, we’d get on the back of the train, and that would leave us closer to the exit that we wanted to take. she marvelled at how much i knew the city and told me that i definitely know more parts of the city than some of the locals who live there. yeah, i think it’s been my city ever since i started calling it “home”
well, while i was up there on top of parc guell, overlooking the city as the sun was setting off in the distance, the refrain from queen’s ‘barcelona’ was going off in my head.
Barcelona - Such a beautiful horizon
Barcelona - Like a jewel in the sun
Por ti seré gaviota de tu bella mar
Barcelona - Suenan las campanas
Barcelona - Abre tus puertas al mundo
If God is willing
-If God is willing
If God is willing
Friends until the end
Viva - Barcelona
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
my big europe update
i just sent out a big mail to family and friends to update them on everything i’ve done while i’ve been here in spain, and it took me forever trying to make sure i didn’t miss anyone… and then after i sent it i realized there were 5 more people i had to send it to… and now, well, i guess i just figure, i’m sorry if i forgot you, but you have the chance to read it here. or - you could email me and make sure i have your address, that way i can get in touch with you sometime!
anyways, i saved a copy of my email in html format, so you can see it here.
or you can click on the picture of me and maria at the beach to read about all i’ve been up to this summer!
Thursday, July 13, 2006
running with the bulls
so i ran with the bulls…
on wednesday, july 12, the police wouldn’t let me and rose into the street to run with the bulls, but we found some nice guys (javi, alex, and tilo) who let us sit with them on the barricade. i started taking video about a minute after the fireworks went off - and you can see the people jumping up and down, looking for the bulls, and then they start to run! as soon as the first group of bulls pass by, rose jumped through the barricade and started running, and the guard turned around as soon as the second group of bulls passed, and then i jumped in too! so then the video goes shaky… after i stopped filming i walked into the bullring and then the people started running around me, they said more bulls were on their way! 3 or 4 more bulls ran thru but i was already safely on the side =)
here i am, walking my way into the bull ring, taking pictures of the people running past me…
once we got to the bull ring the i jumped over the edge immediately! you can see what happens to the other people who stay inside the ring....
you can see tilo’s wounded arm, and you can’t really see javi’s wound under his left eye, but those are results of being in the bull ring! i actually think javi’s wounds are from jumping the fence when the bull came nearby, which is also how the american got paralyzed on the first day of the bull run, not cuz he was gored, but because he jumped over the wall to get away from the bull and he landed on his neck! anyways, i’m glad everyone was safe today and yesterday… these are only surface wounds....
i definitely have more pictures but it’s way past time for bed… i have to get up in a couple of hours to catch the 3 hour train to france! bastille day, here i come!
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Friday, July 07, 2006
a day of museum-ing
so yesterday was quite the day for me… i decided to hit up some museums and so i looked for some info online and found out about the chocolate musuem, and then i also found out that the museum nacional de catalunya was having their special summer night - when they opened the entire musuem from 7pm to midnight for free! free sounded good to me, so i planned on going to those two… i ended up seeing the picasso museum since it was rightnext to the chocolate one, and i ended up walking thru the parc de ciutadella (much like central park) on the way to the ‘arc de triomf’ which was where i needed to catch the metro. i saw some old men playing games in the park and i talked with them and learned how - they were playing patancas, which is really like bocci ball, just smaller balls and 8 balls per team.
anyways, i have a whole heckuvalotta pictures, but i’ll add them to this post later. i think that’s my new MO… put up the post first, attach pictures when they’re ready… that way it won’t take me five million years to post things =)
in the chocolate museum - a model of gaudi’s the sagrada familia
the waterfall in the parc de la ciutadella
the greenhouse in the parc
playing petancas in the park
cyclers headed towards the arc de triomf
the fountains outside the museum nacional. the fountains were dancing to music! it was so cool! you can see a small clip of the video i took… i’m still fairly far away so you can barely hear the song “barcelona” play over the speakers, and i can’t really capture the grandeur of it, but you get the idea…
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
some sights in barcelona
these are just 3 pics from our first night in barcelona…
be prepared… just sayin, i warned you ahead of time!
a good flamenco show…
a surprise…
and a bigger surprise!!
notice that he has sandals on…
don’t say i didn’t warn you!!!
Thursday, June 29, 2006
i'm in london now
and having eaten and drunk… drinked? i dunno… at any rate we had dinner and drinks on the thames river and that was cool… overlooking the tower bridge and the tower of london and a cool naval museum housed on a boat. i have pictures but i’ll have to post ‘em later.
anyways, as i was saying, having eaten and drunked =), i am now ready for bed at 1:19 am.
toodles!
==============================
update: why’d i wake up at 6am? i dunno, but here i am, awake, so i thought i’d post pics. (btw, all of these are links to larger images)
the “old wellington inn and restaurant” building is the oldest one on record in manchester, dating back to 1552. it was cute… small on the inside, but a nice large outdoor dining area. we stopped by for a few minutes on our walking tour of manchester, right before we took off for london
the tower of london is this old historical place which houses the crown jewels and was where ann boleyn was killed or something or other… it’s on our list of things to see, after which i’ll be able to talk a little bit more intelligently about it, but it was also our meeting point to find the keys to the ‘flat’ where we’re staying, just down the road… yup, we’re staying on tower road!
tower bridge… apparently this is the bridge that the US thought they were buying when they bought london bridge (y’know, the one at lake havasu!) hahahah… what suckers we are…
eating on the thames with tower bridge and the guerkin building behind us. i’m with marlene and HJ (pauline’s flatmate, aka our tour guide)
obligatory night time pic of the bridge
marlene sitting on the wall of the thames…
me on the wall of the thames
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
here in england
first leg of my journey: manchester, UK
the flight… so tiring! this is how we both looked after both flights:
and then we walked all over manchester. and i mean, we walked ALL OVER manchester. just the main parts of town, but still. we went back and forth and saw the museum and the library and the urbis and a whole buncha other stuff, we hit up everything that was in the tourist guide book.
this is a cool building we saw looking for the urbis
and chris and i got to stick up a photo on the wall inside the museum. leaving our mark, y’know?
anyways, i dropped chris off at the station around 4 so that he can go on to visit elsa in germany, and now i’m all alone. i went to a play entitled “she stoops to conquer” in this cool building
but y’know, i think i was just so tired from all the traveling i kept on drifting off to sleep… my head was nodding =) hahahahaha… seriously, since monday noon, i’ve only had about 3 2-hour naps at the most! i slept 2 hours on monday night/tuesday morning, and about 2 hours on the first plane, and two hours on the second plane, and now it’s almost 4pm PST on wednesday… so that would be almost 46 hours? yeah… i’ve been awake that long… yikes!
anyways, the only other thing to report is that their damn accent that makes them sound so cool makes it incredibly hard for us to understand each other. i don’t know if i’ve talked to anyone without having to say, “sorry? could you repeat that?”
at one point we bought an ice cream bar and then asked the girl, “so what’s cool to do around here?” and she stared at us blankly, nudged her co-worker, and whispered, “you gotta help ‘em! i don’t understand what they’re saying!”
oh wow… they can’t understand me either!
maybe after i sleep a little it’ll all get better =)
Monday, June 12, 2006
darlene graduates
yesterday there was a whole buncha graduation stuff to do… i skipped the graduations in the moring, but i attended the baccalaureate service for rhs, rev, and grove high school in the afternoon. it was sorta nice, but since our school has 30 seniors compared to the hundreds or thousands of students at the other two schools, i only knew a small portion of the students involved.
afterwards, i went to darlene’s graduation party. all the cousins took a picture, here they are: allan, darlene, jessica, gigi, and perry.
and for those of you who know mike sarsoza, here he is with his 2 1/2 year old daughter kayla, whose chubby cheeks are so adorable it makes me wanna squeeze her…
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
south hall peoples
so i went to kar’s graduation party and ran into lotsa peoples i knew way back from my days at la sierra:
here’s a picture with kat, sean and clayton. the two brothers asked me if i was married yet, (thinking that they had perhaps missed the announcement) and i said, no, i’m not. then they asked me if kat was married yet. she was sitting behind me talking to someone else back there, but i thought that this conversation was too good for her to miss, so i rudely interrupted (sorry, ed koh!) and told her that these two guys were inquiring as to her marriage status. she laughed oh-so-heartily in their face and as we were sitting there, guffawing with our mouths wide open, asking ming to take a picture of us, i heard sean say, “wow, you guys haven’t changed at all!” funny, i think it’s when i’m around kathy that i hear that the most often!
and here is a picture of celeste wong (nercy and nelson’s child). she usually doesn’t smile for me but i was able to capture this chuckle when tucking her into the car… lookat her laughing! it’s so cool…
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
orange blossom festival, part 1
(looking at my recent blogging history, i’ll probably never post a part 2, but i wanna make sure i post at least these beginning pics somewhat close to the actual event… here goes!)
this weekend riverside hosted it’s annual orange blossom festival…
rita, kat, and i headed over there with perry, kevin, jason, marc, and allan
(notice how marc has to be on his tippy-toes? =P hahahah!)
we had alotta fun wandering around and then perry bought 3 tickets, one for each girl, to ride the bull. YEAH RIGHT!! rita and i were in skirts… those guys were just dreamin! so perry ended up using one of the tix - and then he fell off in like, 3 seconds! he got back on and then rode it for 20 seconds, and so then kat had to try, and she lasted for a minute!
and then we just kept on walking around and ate some food:
fun times, fun times…
Thursday, May 18, 2006
drawing donald duck
there was this animation workshop at california adventure that was pretty cool, and it was one of those things where we probably wouldn’t have experienced it if we stayed on the rides all day, but because the lines were so short, we were able to do everything.
i really enjoyed and i ended up going there twice, the first time, we drew donald, and then we went back and learned how to draw mickey. you should try it sometime!
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
california adventure
yesterday, i took the seniors to disney’s california adventure as part of their senior class trip… there wasn’t a lot to do, so i made them do it all! my excuse for everything i wanted to do that they thought was cheesy was, “hey, we have all day here! there’s no rush to go to the next ride!” followed by “let’s look at this exhibit!”, “let’s watch that play!” and my favorite, “let’s take a picture with goofy!”
they always tease me about being asian and taking pictures all day gave them ample fodder for and endless supply of jokes aimed at me.
they also were teasing me that i wanted to walk past the funny mirrors, and they wouldn’t let me at first, but we finally got to walk past them, and then they really enjoyed it, cuz everyone looked like urkel!
since it was a tuesday, we were able to go on all the rides, and logan, carynn, phil, and amy dragged shelby onto tower of terror. shelby was so frightened of the ride she almost broke down, and she actually was crying and shaking! they bought this picture simply because they thought it was hilarious how terrified shelby looked (you can’t really tell but she’s really red in this pic, and she’s about to burst into tears!!) and especially that carynn was pointing and laughing at her pain… ah… what are friends for, eh? =)
of all the costumed peoples, i thought that the green army men from toy story were the coolest looking ones
here, chris and elsa, BUNDLES of energy!, were excited to head off to the corn dog castle. i have to admit, that was the best corn dog i’ve had!
all in all, it was actually quite an enjoyable day!
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
the bachelorettes strike again!
kat, shelia, and i took this pic at church this last sabbath, and then i was like, dude, guys, let’s take a normal one! so then we took this pic:
but then thinking about it… i think the first one WAS normal for us =)
Monday, May 15, 2006
happy mother's day
our family had a wedding to go to for mother’s day… so that meant i got to see my mom and all my cousins’ moms too =)
me & my mommy
carlo and his mommy and his mommy’s mommy
omar, ryan, and dayday with their mommy
i’ll post more about the wedding later, when it’s not so late…
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