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Thursday, September 14, 2006

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 01:54:18 GMT

www.gracenotesnyc.com

Training - WEEK TWO

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 23:17:08 GMT

Monday, August 21, 2006

The time in Florida has been going by so quickly. Everyday from 8AM - 5PM we are in class learning about ERP's (it's actually very interesting after you get over the initial frustration of not knowing what to do) and after dinner, we usually don't have anything going on, so we hang out around the Disney campus. Today, we headed back to Jellyrolls to hang out with some friends (Jen, our friend from Philadelphia, left the next morning, so we went out with her to spend some quality time with her and other friends). Here's a pic of us at Jellyrolls:

Jen, me and Vikkie - Jen and Vikkie actually went to Villanova together and we were all in the same group for our first week of training.

Peter, me, and David. The night was pretty fun since they played my absolute FAVORITE song (The Outfield - Your Love) and since the bar was basically ours, we just hung out for most of the night.

Me and David trying to act hard. Don't you like how I'm wearing sunglasses inside yet again?

David, Darren, Peter, and Luke in the back (Luke went to Villanova with Vikkie as well and is actually in the NYC office with us).

After Jellyrolls, David and I made a bet that I couldn't give him a piggy back ride from the bar to the hotel (the walk includes a slight hill and David Li gained like 20 pounds since college - jk jk!). If I won, I would get to push David into the fountain and if I couldn't piggy back him all the way back to the hotel, he would be able to push me into the water. I couldn't make it all the way, but since everyone was impressed with how far I walked with David on my back, so he let me throw him in...but I joined him:

If you turn up the volume, you can hear me screaming because it's so dirty in the fountain - it's like a layer of algae!!

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Audrey was in town for her yearly meeting, so she convinced us to meet up with her and her team. Even though she was in Florida for the entire week, she said that the other nights were filled with team building events, so if we wanted to hang out, it would have to be on Tuesday. I dragged David out (everyone else headed out to the Boardwalk because it was closer):

The shirt that I wore on Tuesday is the same one that I wore on Monday during the day...which David Li POINTED OUT TO ME! David and I agreed that we would head back early so we could go swimming, but by the time we got back, it was already 2AM and we didn't get to sleep until 3AM! It was really fun swimming at 2AM - we went UP the slide and tried to go back down, which was VERY unsuccessful.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Today we started our first real day of technical training, which was actually very interesting. I've never worked with an ERP before (school is so overrated) so everything we did today was new to me. We worked pretty late but then afterwards, Audrey called and said that she was going out AGAIN and that it was her LAST TIME going out, so I rounded up some friends and headed out to Pleasure Island to hang out with her:

It's so funny because I have pictures of the three of us from training last summer and we've all grown up so much (if that's even possible). Here's a picture of us from last summer:

So cute!

Vikkie, me, Audrey, and Villano, with a smile that makes me laugh whenever I see the picture.

Rob, David, Darren, Hsiang, and Audrey...Vikkie missed out on the picture, but I'm working on photoshopping her in :)

We headed back to our hotel after the bar and since our friend Ounali didn't come, we thought it would be really funny to wake him up (especially since he's a really deep sleeper). At first, David jumped on Ounali...nothing. Then Hsiang jumped on...still nothing. Rob started spooning him...nothing. Here's the final result:

Ounali was still passed out and didn't feel ANYTHING (even though we were all on top of him AND we were lauging hysterically), so I eventually told the boys to jump off and I jumped ON:

Eventually, Ounali turned around and in a normal voice, just said, hey, what's up? It was pretty funny, especially because Ounali is pretty emotionless when he speaks.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

We headed out with Audrey and her group after a long day of training (notice how Audrey said we were only going out ONE night but we ended up going out EVERY NIGHT?!) She had an event as SeaWorld beforehand, but then we all met up and went out:

I've started collecting pictures of just the three of us - we've been taking so many since we arrived in Florida (and I make everyone take our picture at least three times EVERY SINGLE TIME).

Vikkie and I were talking about how our new nicknames should be Ebony and Ivory, so David said that it should really be Ying and Yang, but then Vikkie, without missing a beat, says, no, it should be Yu (her last name) and Yang. Okay I thought it was absolutely HILARIOUS, but everyone else just gave us strange looks.

The night was really fun and it was great seeing so many people from the New York office - I'm definitely excited to head back to start working on a project!

Friday, August 25, 2006

Another week of training has come and gone! Since a lot of people went home for good today, our group of friends definitely decreased. A lot of people went home for the flyback weekend (I'm not going until Labor Day) but we rounded up a group of friends and headed to Citrico's, which is in the Grand Floridian. We somehow landed our own room, which was filled with different wines and champagne's. I ordered the goat cheese salad:

...which was absolutely delicious...and the veal shank:

which was so tender that it fell right off the bone. Actually, as I write this, my mouth is literally watering because I want to eat it again!

I made everyone go around the table to take pictures of their food, but the only picture I'm posting is this one:

which was Vikkie's seared tofu dish. I think the presentation was the best in this picture, but everyone's dish was amazing.

The obligatory picture of the three girls:

And the entire group:

Front row: Ounali, Darren, Audrey, me, and Vikkie. Back row: Andy, Tyrone, Jonathan, Hsiang, and David. Notice how Ounali NEVER smiles in ANY of the pictures I've posted? It's really unlike him because he's so jolly and always laughing, so I don't understand why he doesn't like smiling for pictures. I even offered to take a picture with him, but here are the results:

uhhh...AWKWARD!

For dessert, I couldn't order anyting on my own, so I just took bites of everyone's dessert. Ounali ordered the creme brulee:

He is straight SHOVELING that creme brulee in! It was a little too watery, but really good nonetheless.

After dinner, most of us were pretty tired, especially since we spent the ENTIRE WEEK going out. We headed back to my room and watched some Arrested Development AND Thank You for Smoking, which we all passed out before it ended. Anyone know what happens?

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Since Audrey is staying with me for the weekend, we decided to go shopping for the day at the outlets. They have some really good shops there: Salvatore Ferragamo, Tod's, Versace, Dior, Burberry, Coach, and a lot of other really up-scale shops. I ended up buying some clothes and a new red wallet from Coach. Afterwards, we headed to Picabu for dinner (the restaurant in our hotel) and then headed out to Motion, the ONLY bar we ever go to:

Audrey, me, and Vikkie (duh).

Me and Audrey, who bought an awesome pair of white shorts at BCBG during the day.

At the end of the night, we headed back to the hotel and on the bus, I ran into Rafayel, who let me smoke his cigar:

Obviously I'm not really smoking it because: 1. it's not lit, 2. we're on a bus, and 3. I would never smoke.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Today we took it easy since Audrey needed to catch a flight back to New York and everyone was tired from going out the night before. We headed to downtown Disney for our favorite meal (at Earl of Sandwich, which is absolutely DELICIOUS) and then took random pictures around the park:

We LOVE WINNIE THE POOH!

Afterwards, we headed to the Goofy Candy shop, where they make dreams come true:

They make fudge, chocolate dipped rice krispies (they look like bricks, it's disgusting), and lots of other things. They also make things for you, including candy apples, which you can dip in all sorts of toppings, including jimmies, nuts, and oreo cookies. I could feel my teeth rotting when I walked into the shop.

Finally, we went to Ghiradelli's for a sundae (without Ounali, who LOVES desserts):

I'm headed home this Friday for Labor Day and I'm hanging out with Jason Thai, Audrey, and Audrey's boyfriend, Nai. I can't wait!

Training - WEEK ONE

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 01:31:27 GMT

Florida has been so amazing!! I arrived on Monday afternoon (after getting to the airport at 4AM for my 7AM flight ) and training has been so fun ever since. We're staying at the Swan and Dolphin on Disney's campus:

My room (which I share with Anna, a girl from the Philadelphia office) has a view of the fireworks from Epcot. Every night at 9PM, Epcot has fireworks and we have a perfect view from our hotel room. We can also see this "lake" and the swan paddleboats around the area. I've been hanging out with a lot of people from the NY office as well as some people from LA (some people that I met during training last summer in NJ). Here's a picture of David trying to sneak into the swan paddleboat area:

On our first couple of days, we were walking around the area checking out the pools (there are four or five on the hotel campus and three hot tubs in our area). While we were walking around, we saw this really cute seal and I wanted someone to pose for a picture for my xanga, so Sean from the NY office volunteered. There was a nozzle on the seal's nose, but I thought it would be cute if he pretended like he was kissing the seal's nose, not knowing if the nose squirted out water or not. Sean got down for the picture and then David Li found the button to activate the nozzle and water squirted all over Sean! I couldn't get a good picture because I was laughing so hard, but here's the shot I got:

It was probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen - I wish I could've gotten a better picture of it!

In the Swan Hotel (I'm actually staying in the Dolphin, which is across the lake), there's a Japanese restaurant called Kimono's that we went to on Wednesday. The sushi wasn't that great, but they had karaoke so it was funny to see kids from vacation trying to sing Shakira and the Hanukkah song. Here's the sushi we ordered:

Thursday, August 17, 2006

After dinner, we have free time to do whatever (but we usually don't do anything because we have training everyday from 8AM - 5PM - sooo early!). Since it was Thursday, I decided to go out and just try to make it through a long friday. We headed out to the Boardwalk:

The Boardwalk has some fun places, including JellyRolls, which is this dueling piano bar. The area is really family friendly, but there are also a lot of adult-related activities. A picture of two of the pianists:

The bartenders also get really involved in the singing at the bar (it's pretty fun - they stand on the bars and sing, clap, and dance). Here's David doing the alligator song:

Here's a picture of me, David, Vikkie, and Vivek at Jellyrolls from Thursday night:

And another picture of me and David:

I think my zoolander look is better than David's...your thoughts?

There are also a lot of little candy shops in the area - we found this candy shop on the boardwalk that has sour straws you can buy - here's a picture of Darren excitedly trying out the sour banana:

Friday, August 18, 2006

All week we've been learning about building rapport, being respectful, etc. We also started doing a case study and today, we had to present all the work we did throughout the week. Our team, * (asterisk, in case you couldn't tell), did really well and my group won the competition! (actually, there was no competition but our team decided that we were the clear winners ). Here's a picture of our team:

Josh (Tyson's Corner office), Jonathan (NY-Metro), David (Chicago), me, Vikkie (NY-Metro), and Jen (Philadelphia). Everyday around 10AM and 2PM, we have breaks when the Dolphin puts out all these snacks for us - we've gotten caramel popcorn, various cheeses, fresh berries with whipped cream (my favorite), chocolate covered pretzels, and all the perrier I could EVER dream of. David and I tried running at 6AM because we knew that we were going to get so fat during training, but we only went one day and the rest we've just been eating like pigs.

We got out really early on Friday (thank goodness!) and headed out to Downtown Disney for dinner at Fultons. Fulton's a Wolfgang Puck restaurant and since we get money for the weekend, we went all out for our first company dinner. Since we all ordered seafood, we had to wear bibs:

He also ordered a poprocks martini that happened to be pink and had cherries in it. The poprocks martini was actually really good - you could feel the poprocks working while you were drinking it! Vikkie and I ordered a bottle of wine (which we finished before we got our main courses) and I ordered lobster and crab:

It was SOOOO good!! We had twelve people in our party (Vikkie and I were the only girls - the one bad thing about working in technology) - and our bill came out to be:

Since we spent so much on our meal on Friday, on Saturday, our meal looked like this:

(no joke, this is what I had for lunch - meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and stuffing). After dinner on Friday night, we headed out to Pleasure Island - here's a picture of the twelve of us in front of Fultons:

(most of the people are from the east coast, except Darren, who's from the LA office).

We started out at the BET club (it was just me and Vikkie dancing...seriously), but then we headed to Motion, where we usually went last summer. A picture of me, Darren, and Vikkie doing my one and only face:

Since Motion wasn't really busy at first, me, Darren, and David started messing around with the locals. Here's my favorite picture from the night:

My favorite picture of David from the night:

And my favorite picture of Darren from Motion:

After dancing and hanging out at Pleasure Island, we headed back to the hotel and I ran into Maulin, Vivek, and Anna, who convinced me to go into the pool at 3AM!! It was a lot of fun (even though the hot tub was like 500 degrees...no exaggeration).

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Today we were pretty lazy and headed out to the pool for most of the afternoon, after reliving some of our IDP days (heading to Walgreens to buy alcohol). Here's me and Vikkie in the cab ride that cost us $50 (okay, maybe not THAT much, but it was pretty expensive):

Interestingly enough, we headed to the exact same Walgreens (they must have a deal with the cab drivers because I think it must be the only store in the area that cab drivers go to):

Once we headed back to the hotel, Vikkie and I headed to the pool with Darren and David. Darren and David both really liked my sunglasses - here's a picture:

In my humble opinion, I think they look better on me.

Since we spent so much money at dinner on Friday, we ended up ordering Giordano's for dinner on Saturday before heading back to Pleasure Island. Vikkie and I are really into taking pictures of ourselves (I have around 50 pictures of just us):

...And we've nicknamed ourselves Ebony and Ivory. (It takes work to be that dark!)

Since there aren't that many places to go on the Disney campus, almost EVERYONE from training showed up at Motion. I even ran into Mary, who's working in Chicago (there aren't too many people from UIUC in Advisory - I think they recruit more for the Assurance practice):

I also met Peter, a guy from the LA office that's half-Hungarian and half-Nigerian. He works in IDM, the department that I interned in last summer:

After Motion closed, we headed back to the pool and stayed there until 3AM swimming and hanging out in the hot tub. We also got these welcome packages that included huge rafts (my future bed, no joke), and everyone blew them up and floated on them (I don't know how they did it considering everyone was really drunk).

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Today we headed to downtown Disney for lunch and to hang out. Since it was so hot, we didn't stay that long, but I did have time to take a picture of the lego lochness monster:

There are a ton of shops that have so many little creatures on the outside - here's the Mr. Potatohead that David and Darren fell in love with:

We hang out with this guy from the NY office named Ounali that's really jolly in person, but when he gets ready to take pictures, his face gets really serious (I don't really know why). In some of the pictures I took from the weekend, it looks like he was photoshopped in since everyone else is really happy and Ounali is just standing there. Here's a picture of Ounali doing his Mr. Potatohead impression:

After getting back from downtown Disney, me, Vikkie, Darren, and David went to the pool (again) and played football, volleyball, and basketball in the pool. These two kids we were playing basketball with were so mean! This one boy, Riley, wouldn't share the ball at all and when I asked why he didn't share, he said that if he had a shot, he was just going to take it. This kid is like 9-years-old and he's so selfish! After hanging out by the pool, we all headed to the boardwalk again and went to ESPN zone for burgers and the Yankees - Red Sox game. A picture of me and Vikkie outside ESPN's restaurant:

And a picture of me and Darren inside after scarfing down our burgers:

We watched Arrested Development and Weeds after dinner and then I got my dry cleaning (one perk of staying in a hotel for FOUR weeks).

Training has been a lot of fun since there have been so many people, but a lot of people are leaving on Wednesday and we'll start our technical training then. I'm going home for Labor Day, but I'll be here for the other weekends. What's even better is that this week, Audrey is coming for her own training! I'm really excited because it'll be like our internship from last summer but this time, we'll be here longer .

New York City: Week 2

Sun, 13 Aug 2006 23:37:57 GMT

I finished my first three days at work and I'm leaving for Florida tomorrow morning (at 3AM because of security ).

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Audrey and I headed to the Puck Building for a girl's night out of beauty through Shecky's. There were a ton of people at the event:

A lot of vendors sold jewelry, beauty products, and some people were just there to promote their products. I did this quick hand massage and parafin wax - first they exfoliated my hands and then they dipped my hands in this parafin wax to lock in the moisture:

I was trying to do the robot for the picture, but it didn't turn out so well .

There was also a "celebrity" chef at the event - Dave Lieberman - who signed books for fans (the lines were SO long...and we didn't even buy books, so we just took a picture from the side). He's pretty good looking in person and looks really cheery :

(The event was also sponsored by Amstel Light and Midori, so we got samples of both).

There were a lot of interesting booths where you could get free samples and do tests; Audrey and I both entered a softlips contest so we could score some free lipgloss:

Do you think Audrey has what it takes to be the new spokesmodel for softlips?? She's entry number 526 - maybe it's online (actually, I just checked and I don't think it is). I actually don't like the lipgloss that much because it tastes really weird and I prefer something more glossy.

We also both did this age viewer where you looked into this mirror to see what's wrong with your face:

The guy working at the booth would look into the other side of the mirror and would tell you your flaws and how to correct them. Luckily, I don't have any sun spots (I attribute that to the SPF 50 that I wear on a daily basis). The guy told me that I need to exfoliate, but that was a pretty vague assessment considering everyone should exfoliate at least once in a while.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Today after work, Audrey and I went out with Dave Li and some coworkers for happy hour ($1 beers - you can't beat that in NYC) and then headed out to dinner with Jason and some other friends. On our way back, we walked by this dog GYM, it was the cutest thing EVER!! All these dogs were just in this room with a huge window, so of course I took the opportunity to take a picture of the cutest little dog staring out of the window:

I REALLY want to get a dog, especially because they're allowed in my building, but I definitely don't have the time yet.

We ended up eating in Bryant Park because it was the greatest day out (actually, it's been really nice out the past week, unlike the first week I was here). Afterwards, we headed back to Audrey's (where I'm staying) and got ready for bed, but then eventually we changed our minds and headed out to The Park, which is an indoor/outdoor bar (good for smokers since you can't smoke indoors anymore). Audrey and I met up with some of her friends from work and her past internship and we also met up with Sherry and her friend, Ian. We were just walking around in the upstairs bar and I saw this guy that looked REALLY familiar (and that NEVER happens to me in NYC since everyone lives in Chicago) and guess what - it was SAGAR RAVI, from Charleston HS:

We used to compete against each other in RADIO SPEAKING in high school (yes, I used to be on the speech team...AND in the marching band...AWESOME, I know). Anyway, Sagar and I lost touch when we went to college but now he's in NYC for law school (Columbia). What a small world!

Here's a picture of me and Audrey towards the end of the night:

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Audrey and I headed to Union Square and Soho today to go window shopping. The weather has been so beautiful - not too hot but not cold either. After shopping, we met up with some of Audrey's friends from school and ate at the Singapore cafe in Chinatown and then got ice cream at the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory (which I talked about all during dinner ). Dinner wasn't that great but it was really fun meeting Audrey's friends. After dinner, we headed to Aer in the meatpacking district with Jason, Kris, Alexis, and Jason's friend from work. They ended up buying three bottles since there were so many guys, but it ended up being really fun (and lots of dancing on tables for me and Audrey). Here's a picture of me and Audrey before the end of the night:

And a picture of me, Jason, and Alexis (she was upset that it was her last night - but don't worry, you'll be back before you know it):

One marriage proposal later, Audrey and I headed back to her place and passed out (after a long day of shopping and dancing, we were beat!).

I'm headed to Florida for the next month (but I'll be back for Labor Day) and then I'll be here for good! I'll be sure to update in Florida (and to write about my airport experience - wish me luck!)

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 01:32:11 GMT

Today was my first day of work AND I officially have an apartment! It's a cozy little place in Hell's Kitchen and here's a pic of the kitchen:

The location is great; I can walk to work, Times Square to catch any subway, and apartment was completely remodeled recently. I'm staying until February - now everyone can come visit!

Arrested Development Video

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 03:48:35 GMT

Here's an awesome link of a video my brother made for Arrested Development: check it out!

New York City: Week 1

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 15:28:55 GMT

I am officially in New York!! The past six days in the city have been so enjoyable (even though it's 100 degreees outside everyday). When I arrived on Tuesday, Dan, my brother's friend, was nice enough to pick me up from Newark to take me to Gil's place downtown. I stayed with Gil for a couple of days and now I'm staying with Kris in midtown while I search for apartments. The search has been a full-time job, but there are definitely a lot of nice places in the city.

Wednesday, August 2nd

On my second night in town, I met up with Ariel, who just finished his internship in the city. We headed to Flushing to look at apartments and then went to Union Square to get some dinner. It's always nice to see familiar faces when you're in a new city:

Since I don't start work until Wednesday, I've been free during the days to look for apartments and at night I usually go out with friends. Being back in the city is such a change from North Carolina and Champaign, even though most of the people I've been hanging out with are from school. I'll be so sad when they leave me for Chicago .

Thursday, August 3rd

Luckily, my cousin, Andrew, was in town for the week so I was able to hang out with him for most of his time here. We haven't seen each other in 11 YEARS! We met up for lunch at Rockefeller Center and walked around the area and Union Square because he needed to buy some shoes/clothes. He's stationed in Korea and can't find any clothes/shoes that fit him because he's like 6'10 and wears at size 50 shoe, so we walked around until he could find some t-shirts and shoes. We both bought a pair of Lacoste shoes (I had to buy mine because my flip flops CUT my feet up, no joke). Afterwards, we headed out with his friend, Casey, for some burgers at the Burger Joint, which is in a hotel in midtown (initially, I thought it was the Burger Joint that Jonathan, Audrey, and I went to last summer where their burgers are like 70 cents and are the size of White Castle burgers, but it's definitely not the same).

Funny story from dinner: Andrew just introduced me to Casey and was saying how we were cousins and how we hadn't seen each other in 11 years or so, and then Casey, without missing a beat, asked if I was Korean.

Later on, Andrew, Casey, and I met up in Soho and went to this place called Bob's:

Here's a picture of Andrew and his friend, Casey (who I have nicknamed Ling Ling):

The bar was really tiny, but had pretty good music and I met a bunch of nice people there (some of Andrew's friends from Korea).

Friday, August 4th

Today I FASTED because we planned to go to an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant with some of Andrew's friends. We planned to go to Kinoko's on Thursday, but Casey wanted to take us to get burgers instead (probably a good idea anyway since we had a pretty big lunch). We met up with some of Andrew's friends and couple of my friends came as well (Alexis, Jason, and Kris). Here's the sushi we ordered:

Tuna rolls, philadelphia rolls (Jason's favorite), spicy tuna and spicy salmon rolls, and shrimp tempura rolls. (This was just the first of three that we ordered). The only problem with Kinoko's is that they really pile on the rice so you can't eat as much....but don't worry, I definitely ate my money's worth.

Spider rolls, salmon, egg, spicy tuna, and fatty tuna - everything on this plate was really good, while the first plate was only so-so since there was so much rice.

Casey worked during the day and refused to eat to save up his appetite for dinner, but it turned out that he was mostly talk since he ate like 5 pieces and then said he was stuffed. Actually, him and Andrew kept ordering more and more but it took forever for the waitress to get in the order because there was only one person working in the entire restaurant! By the time we got our last plate of sushi, we were really stuffing it down our throats.

Kris, Jason, and me after dinner. Alexis had to leave early so I didn't get a picture with her, but we stayed and ordered more sushi. Kris is in New York until the end of August and will be heading back to Chicago (he's actually living with Joe Xu in Presidential, how random) and Jason will be in the city with me for the next year.

After dinner, we headed straight out and ended up at a place called 320 Fifth Ave (or something like that). The place is really popular because it has an awesome roofdeck and the views are great.

Okay, so Andrew isn't 6'10, but he's really tall (I'm wearing like 4-inch heels in the pic and he still towers over me).

Since Kris has been training in New York, he has been lucky enough to have free time to check out the fashion scene. Here's a shot of a new outfit he recently purchased:

I also need to mention that he ordered a pink lemonade vodka, which he thoroughly enjoyed because the bartender actually squeezed the lemon into the drink.

After going out to the bar, we went to K-town for some late night food. It was me, Andrew, Kris, Jason, Casey, Helen (Casey and Andrew's friend) and Helen's boyfriend, Eric, and some other guy. We were all walking together and all of a sudden Eric and his friend disappeared, but we went into the restaurant anyway. We were eating and just hanging out when Eric just randomly shows up, sits down, and starts eating like he hasn't seen food in 4 years. I was lucky enough to catch a pic of Eric's show:

Don't forget to breathe, buddy!!

Saturday, August 5th

Today was Gil's last day in New York (he's back in Chicago and starting work next week). We decided to have a big dinner party since we won't be seeing each other in a while. Jonathan, my friend from last summer, just moved into the city and joined us for Korean BBQ as well. We headed to K-town with my cousin and his friends and pigged out on small dishes and BBQ (Andrew came to NY from Korea to eat Korean food ). Here's a pic of the people that went to dinner:

Casey, me, Jason, Jonathan, Leena (Gil's friend), Gil, Kris, Andrew, and Helen at the table after dinner.

Funny story from dinner: earlier in the day, Casey was telling me, Helen, and Andrew about some moved called the pterodactyl and I mentioned it as the punch line of a joke during dinner, but I couldn't remember the name of the move so I called it the tarantula by accident, so everyone was like, what?! I think everyone laughed because they were so confused, and now Casey calls me the tarantula .

Since we wanted the full Korean BBQ experience, a couple of us also ordered soju. Kris' drink had gold flakes in it! (Actually, there were two gold FLOWERS in his drink!):

Here's Kris contemplating whether or not to drink the gold flakes:

He ended up drinking the gold flakes and now he's so bougie that he drinks gold flakes for fun .

The restaurant also gives out some fruit after dinner and we were trying to throw grapes into each other's mouth's (Kris actually got one in my mouth but I threw mine to another table by accident). Here's Kris feeding Gil like a true gentleman:

After dinner, we headed to the meatpacking district and went to Lotus. Since it was three guys (Gil, Kris, and Jason) and only two girls (me and Leena), the guys had to buy a bottle to get in. Here's Gil showing his true love, Grey Goose, some affection:

Some table action:

Gil and Leena:

and me and Kris:

The night was so fun, especially since it was like a U of I reunion. Kris and I stayed in the basement by our table for a while and ended up witnessing two girls MAKING OUT! It was like a dream come true for Kris . All these guys were watching (well, staring is a more accurate term) and these girls were oblivious to it.

Funny story from the night: I was talking to John about how it's difficult for guys to get into bars if you don't know the doorman/aren't on the VIP list so most people either buy bottles or wait in line for hours. John was like, oh, what's a bottle, like 80 bucks? So I responded, umm, no, John, more like 420 after taxes and gratuity. John flipped out and was like, holy crap who can afford living in New York?!

Kris and I headed back to his hotel around 3:30 and ended up taking a rickshaw/bicycle type thing back home!!!! Kris fulfilled all of his NY dreams in ONE night:

I kept making Kris put his hands up like we were riding on a rollercoaster so Sergei, our driver, kept swerving on the streets to make the ride more fun. Here's a shot I took - look how happy Kris is:

Sunday, August 6th

Today Andrew, Casey, and I headed to Chinatown for some dim sum. Andrew knew this really good place called Lobster House and we walked all around Chinatown in the heat to find the place, but when we got there, we found out that it was CLOSED!! We ended up going to the popular place instead - I don't remember the name, but it's the restaurant with the really looooong escalator. Lunch was so good (especially the beef tripe and FOUR orders of shrimp dumplings). In the early evening, we headed to the Harvard club to play squash:

Casey initially went to West Point with Andrew but then transferred to Harvard his junior year, so he took us to the club as his guests. He plays squash every week and taught us how to play (actually, Andrew and him had some bet going on). Squash is so fun!! It's really easy to learn and really fun to play - it's similar to tennis and racquetball, but since the ball doesn't bounce as much, you have to hit the hell out of it. Here's an action shot of Andrew schooling Casey (his first time playing, too!):

Actually, Casey won all of the matches and now Andrew has to set Casey up with 5 escorts when he visits (just kidding...I think).

Andrew kept trying to do this trick where you hit the ball, spin around, and then hit it again. At first, Casey was making fun of him, but then Casey started trying to do it, too. Here's some video of Andrew trying to do it, unsuccessfully:

We headed to the driving range afterwards at Chelsea Piers and hit a bunch of balls for an hour. Casey's just learning how to play, but Andrew gave him a few helpful pointers:

Well, there was definite pointing going on...

After hitting balls for an hour, we went to the bowling alley afterwards to play cosmic bowling!! We initially only wanted to play two games, but Casey lost to Andrew by TWO points in both games, so he wanted a rematch to redeem himself. Andrew got off to a slow start but then got THREE STRIKES in a ROW and then TWO SPARES! Here's the final score:

(I'm T, as in Tarantula, H is for Helen, WW is for Wei Wei, and K is for Ling Ling). I ended up getting one strike and one spare! That was actually my first strike of the night . Bowling was really fun and we had such an active night at the pier!

Andrew left today and today I'm headed to see Audrey to drop off some of my stuff at her place. I'll be staying with her from Thursday - Sunday and then I'm headed to Florida for a month of training! This week was so fun all thanks to Andrew and his friends - next time, hopefully David can join us!!

Our California Trip

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 06:58:51 GMT

Day 1

I recently got back from our family trip to LA (actually, an hour outside of LA in Chino Hills, Pomona, and other surrounding areas). On our first day, we left North Carolina around 7am and ended up arriving in California right around 4pm (their time, obviously). We actually took a flight from LA to Ontario, CA, that lasted all of 14 minutes!! My uncle picked us up and took us to dinner - SUSHI!! Here's a picture of my plate:

yummy yummy yummy! I didn't have any of the octopus, but the tuna was so great!! Here's a picture of me, my aunt, and my mom:

(we also ordered a salmon/chicken dinner box that you can see from the picture).

After dinner, we headed to my aunt's house to spend some time with her dog, Hunter. The first time I met him, he was really rambunctious and kind of scared me (he was only 2 or so at the time) but now he's really calm and walked around a lot:

His tongue is part black!! He's REALLY big - not fat, but his legs are SO long...he should be a model!!

Day 2

Today I stayed in the hotel while my mom went to her conference (the reason why I'm in California in the first place) and then went out for dinner with my aunt and uncle. Today we tried this Korean place (close to the Japanese restaurant we ate at the night before). I ordered bibimbap, my favorite:

It was pretty good, but I actually prefer Ar-ri-rang's in Champaign, or the place in K-town I go to but have no idea what the name is...

My mom ordered this tofu soup and they dropped a raw egg in it! I thought it looked pretty cool:

I'm not sure what the dish is called, but it's somewhat spicy, has tofu and a raw egg inside, and I think it might have some mussels, but I'm not positive. After dinner, we headed to my aunt's place to see Hunter again and this time he was a little more calm, so I was able to take this picture after I threw the tennis ball with him for a while:

Did I mention that he understands Chinese AND English? How talented.

Day 3

Today I went to my aunt's office to help out around the radio station. She does the programming and broadcasting for a Christian station that is broadcasted in Asia. I think the station is FEBC, but I'm not positive. I was even able to record TWO programs to be sent to Asia! Isn't that cool? Here's a picture of me with the two guys that I worked with for my two segments:

We talked about my past internship experience, my life in America, my traveling adventures, and some stuff like graduating, my future in NY, etc. The show will be broadcast on August 28th, but it's all in Chinese...so it'll be difficult to listen to if you don't understand (unless you just wanted to hear my wonderful voice). You can listen to it online...I'll post it when I find the link.

Here's another pic of me working:

After work, I went to get new reading glasses (yes, I needed another pair). They're really nice Fendi frames and they have little diamond studs on the sides (I'm not sure if you can really tell from this picture):

I wasn't going for plastic frames initially, but these frames sit on my bridge pretty well and I liked the way they shaped my face. After picking up my glasses, we went to dinner at this place that's similar to the night market in Taiwan. It's funny - being in LA is like being in Taiwan all over again...people don't even have to know how to speak English if they're in the right areas (and in this area, you had to speak Chiense to survive). Here's the outside of the restaurant/food court area:

Day 4

Today I went to my aunt's office again to help her with some clerical work and hung out in her office while I was waiting for David to get in. We went to California Kitchen (or something like that) for pho:

It was sooooooooo good! I've never had pho before, but I will definitely be getting more of it from now on. There's cilantro, green onions, and yellow onions in the soup and I ordered rare beef to go on top of the pho. We also ordered some cold appetizers, but I forgot to take the pictures .

After lunch, my uncle picked me up so we could go to the airport to pick up my brother. We had to wait an extra HOUR because the Ontario Airport LOST my brother's luggage! How is that possible; he flew from San Francisco...it's like a 45 minute flight . Anyway, while we waited, we watched this commercial/film being shot:

I think it was either 1) a car commercial, 2) a korean movie, or 3) a korean commercial. There were a lot of Koreans around the car/camera, but those are just my guesses. I wonder if I'll see that commercial/movie anytime soon?

Day 5

My family headed out to LA to go shopping and to see the beach in the early afternoon today. We headed out a little late (we had dim sum in the morning and ended up staying at lunch for a while). While we were driving around, we saw the COOLEST car EVER:

It's a chicken coupe! (haha okay maybe not...)

Initially, we were headed to LA because my mom wanted to go to the farmer's market, but they closed by the time we arrived, so we went to Rodeo Drive instead. We headed to St. John's and I ended up finding this pimp leather jacket (it's a motorcycle jacket that's off white - PERFECT for fall). Here's a pic of my brother getting some nice treatment at St. Johns:

The champagne was really dry, but it was fun trying on stuff while sipping on some

I bought some new sunglasses from Bulgari in LA as well:

I think this building looks really cool, plus, it's in a really great location! Here's what my new sunglasses look like:

They're actually the ones one the model, but mine are tortoise shell, not black. When I showed my mom, she said they were very "bling bling bling" (no joke). After shopping and hitting up the Jamba Juice, we headed to the beach to watch the sunset and to walk around:

Here's an interesting picture of a guy that walked ALL the way from CHICAGO to LA!!:

I'm not sure why he did it (maybe he's homeless?) but he reminded me of Forrest Gump.

For dinner, we headed back to the Pomona area (my mom and aunt liked the place we had dinner the previous night in the Chinatown area so they wanted to go back again). We had a lot of dishes, but my favorite was the duck:

They made their own bread for the duck (it's usually tortilla-type bread that you wrap the duck in) so I thought it was pretty special. After dinner, we had an ice cone-like dessert. It's very popular in Asia but I've never really seen it in America, until LA. Instead of the American-style snow cones where you just get a syrup, the Chinese/Asian style snow concoction can be made from these sweets:

Puddings, boba, various fruits, red beans (sweetened, of course), taro, and other various beans with condensed milk as well. You can also get the shaved ice to be made out of milk (with strawberries/mangoes/kiwi and more condensed milk - it's SOOO good). Anyway, here's what it looks like:

It doesn't look that impressive from this picture, but all of the ingredients are on the bottom and you have to mix it together. Trust me, it's definitely worth trying at least once!

Day 6

Since today was our last FULL day in LA, we wanted to take advantage of the day by going to see some friends and to the Reagan Presidential Library. We started by meeting up with our godparents at dim sum (their daughter, Angela, also came). We haven't seen them in at least 10 years!! When I called my godmother to figure out what time we were supposed to meet, she said that the last time she remembered talking to me, I was just a chubby little kid . Here's a picture of my fam with my godparents:

My godfather just flew in from Taiwan the night before - we know him because my dad used to work in the same department at him, but my godfather retired for a while and now he's out of retirement and he's a professor at another university. My godmother used to work in textiles (I used to get all these workout clothes when I was younger...was that a subtle hint?) but now I think she's retired. Angela, their daughter, went to Pepperdine for college and just quit her job to travel in Europe (by herself!) for three months. I think she leaves at the end of July!

After dim sum, me, my brother, my mom, my aunt, and my cousin, Michael, headed to the Reagan Presidential Library:

The museum was really quiet and very interesting. When you first walk in, you see this cool jellybelly portrait of Ronald Reagan:

I read somewhere that JellyBelly sent a ton of blueberry and coconut jellybelly's to D.C. during Reagan's terms as president!

The museum has really interesting exhibits, including the air force one that Reagan used to fly in:

Around the airplane were the cars that Reagan used to ride in as well. They kept playing these video clips of when Reagan was shot, - right before he went under for his operation, he asked if everyone in the operating room was Republican! Someone responded, "Today, everyone is Republican." Other exhibits I really liked were his love letters to Nancy, his wife. They were really sweet and you could tell that they really loved each other.

The design of the Oval Office while Reagan lived in the White House was also replicated and I took a picture of it with flash (by accident, I SWEAR!):

I got yelled at afterwards for using my flash, but I switched from outdoor to indoor by accident, not knowing that it automatically turned on the flash. oops!

Here's a picture of me waiting for everyone to finish the tour:

After visiting Reagan's Presidential Library, we headed out to dinner with my aunt (my cousin had to meet up with some friends for dinner since he was in town only for the weekend - he lives in San Francisco). We had lobster:

You can even eat their heads! (well, I think you're actually eating their brains, but I'm not sure, I didn't do it).

Flying back from CA to NC was definitely a trip. Initially, I wanted to stop off in Chicago for a night so I could visit John and Angie, but the change fee would've been more than my original ticket (stupid United). I lucked out though - since United had mechanical problems in LA, we missed our connection to Greensboro and we had to stay overnight in Chicago! John drove out to O'hare to meet up with us (we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express right next to O'hare - btw - I saw a cockroach there - EWW!). John and I hung out for a while, but he had to drive home and my mom and I had an early flight in the morning (it's so weird/sad to imagine that the next time I'll see him will most likely be Christmas). Ever since I've been back, I've been looking for apartments in NY, figuring out what stuff to bring to NY, and basically preparing myself to start work in a couple weeks. I can't believe my summer is going to be over soon, but I can't wait to start things in New York!!

Monday, July 10, 2006

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 04:29:25 GMT

This week has been pretty uneventful, but today, we had a dumpling party! We had my mom's student's here - Dai Hua and Cindi (and Cindi's family: Albert, her husband, James, her older son, and Shane, her younger son, who is also our great tennis teacher). Anyway, we started around 5 and wrapped dumplings for about an hour and a half. Here are some of the dumplings we made:

The filling included pork, shrimp, shiitake mushrooms, spinach, chives, and some other vegetables. Dai Hua, Cindi, and Shane helped make most of them - Shane and Cindi were both naturals at making the dumplings!

Here's a fruit platter that I managed to make before the party:

As most of you know, I have an obsession with watermelon (and if you don't, you can read my previous post). But, the watermelon in North Carolina is definitely not as good as the watermelon in Champaign. Maybe it's because I don't have John and Angie sitting with me.

Here's the cake that Cindi made for us:

mmmmm cake...and look at the sharp knife next to it...eeeeeee scary!

We had a lot of dishes, but I was too busy eating and I totally forgot to take pictures of them (eeep) but we had a lot of separate dishes.

After dinner, we all played Balderdash and it was pretty hilarious - it's basically a game of BS (just google it). You can also learn interesting trivia from the game; for instance, emacity = addiction to shopping (although I looked it up online and there was no definition). Everyone was really creative with their answers, even though David and I could never read my mom's answers without laughing (...even when they weren't funny). The night was really fun and it was great to hang out with people my age (I don't get much of that here since I don't know anyone).

David is here until tomorrow morning - here's a picture of us after the party:

I haven't been updating as often as I did while I was abroad, so I didn't mention that I recently purchased a striped Lacoste polo that is orange, blue, and white (I figured I could wear it to an Illini game or something). Anyway, today I noticed that my brother has a similar Brooks Brothers shirt, except instead of white, his third colored stripe is yellow. A third member of the family has a similar polo...you MAY know his arch-nemesis, Farnsworth, but I'm not sure if I ever introduced Buckley. Okay, not an actual person, but I do buy clothing for him as if he needs to 1. wear anything, and 2. change outfits. Here's a picture of the three of us in our matching polos:

Don't you LOVE Buckley's matching tortoise shell glasses?

My mom and I are headed to LA on Tuesday and I'll be meeting up with my godmother - I haven't actually seen her since I was 13 or so. I'll try to update while I'm there, otherwise next Tuesday night! Have a great week to all of those that are starting their first week of work and congrats to joey joey joey for passing his series 7 exam!!

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Wed, 05 Jul 2006 02:45:47 GMT

Today I realized that I've been depriving my xanga readers of food pictures, so they're baaaaaaack! We had quite a busy day - we started with a luncheon at our place, a BBQ at the Pinetop Tennis Center (with my mom's student, Cindi, and her family - her son, Shane, is also our tennis instructor), and then we went to another BBQ at my mom's friend's house.

One of the best things about having a luncheon at our house is that it forces us to clean it....at least the first floor. Here's the table that I set up for the luncheon:

Everytime we have a party, my mom and I stay up all night cleaning the house and making sure everything is spotless (no joke...my mom stays up sometimes cooking and cleaning and making sure everything is in it's place and doesn't get any sleep until AFTER the party). OOOH the things she does for her students

Since we didn't have too many people over (only 5 total), we didn't make too many dishes. Here's the rundown:

1. Cold beet soup

This soup was cold and had beets, mint, cucumbers (they were cubed and put in after I took the shot), and some yogurt. Apparently, it's a type of Indian soup and my mom tried it when she was in India, so we made it today for lunch. I know it looks kind of...pepto-bismolish, but it was actually pretty...refreshing! I guess you had to be there.

2. Naan with vegetables

Since our guests were vegetarians, my mom became creative and made some interesting dishes for lunch today. This dish is like a fusion of Indian and Chinese cuisine - it included naan bread (it's cut into pieces) with vegetables and chinese spices.

3. Shrimp with squash

I made this dish (except for the sauce that the shrimp was dipped in) and I thought it turned out really well. Yummy yummy I love shrimp! uhhh...awkward.

4. Fried rice

Dai Hua made this dish and brought it for us. I really liked the rice in Dai Hua's version of fried rice. My mom and I are still eating it now!!

My mom also made chick peas with curry, but for some reason, I forgot to take a picture of it. I'm sure you'll be able to manage.

Here's a picture of my mom and I being patriotic:

After our luncheon, we went to the Pinetop Tennis Center to hang out with my mom's student, Cindi. She used to own the Pinetop Tennis Center (with her husband), but she sold it and then bought another tennis center (indoors - where my mom and I took lessons), but she recently sold that property as well, and now she's building another center that's indoors and supposedly going to be finished in October. We also met up with Cindi's son, Shane, who teaches us tennis, and Shane's brother, James, who came in for the holiday. I didn't take out my camera at Pinetop, so I don't have any pictures sorry.

Dai Hua, my mom, and I headed to another party after hanging out at Pinetop for a while and watching Cindi's sons play tennis (too bad we weren't dressed to play!). This party was in the country - we had to drive like 30 minutes to get there! It was worth it though, the food is always really good - and the desserts are the best! After dinner, we headed out and played a game of croquet:

Don't I look like a natural croquet player?

Here's Darryl strategizing with some other players:

It was a really close game between yellow and blue (I was yellow) and in the end...

Victory was MINE!

Hope everyone enjoyed their fourth!