24 hours in barcelona, españa!

What a whirlwind trip, just for the weekend to Barcelona! I must say, this is probably the shortest time I ever stayed in a city. But my first time in Spain!

For 24 hours, we sure did cover a lot of areas. From walking around old town and on the street of Las Ramblas, we also managed to walk to La Sagrada Familia and Parc Guëll (as opposed to taking public transportation).

And yes, we had sangrias. Lots and lots of glorious sangrias. I also got to practice my high school spanish. The tapas were good, drinks were good, I could definitely come back another time. I booked a hostel close to old town so we never needed to take public transportation. From the Airport, we took a bus (10,20€ Round trip) to city center. From there, we were able to walk to the hostel. I figured I could use the walk anyways so that I could eat more food.

The Picasso Museum: Free with student card. This museum sent us on a epic walk through old town as it was, for some odd reason, hard to find. It is a small museum, but I enjoyed it. Although I have to admit the exhibition on Picasso at the Guggenheim museum in NYC that I went to in December 2012 was much more captivating.

beautiful architecture!

The walk around the old town was beautiful and I saw so many street musicians. For someone that has been trained in music, this is a little piece of heaven. I do see it in Lyon, but I've never seen so many in a day in one city. Like this picture below. In front of a church was an ensemble playing traditional music. 

While walking around, we stumbled into a huge outdoor market. 

SO MUCH PEPPER

WHAT THE HECK ARE THESE?!

So  many colors, smells, and sights to see. I really enjoyed walking around this market. You can see the fruits and vegetables just bursting with flavor. A visual food orgasm indeed. I had to tear myself away from the candy/chocolate section. Definitely couldn't justify spending 30 euros on a few chocolate (you pay per gram!). But otherwise, the food is pretty cheap, much cheaper than France.

Park Guëll: Fascinating place, but to see Gaudi's architecture up close, you'd have to pay 8 euros. My friend and I were pretty satisfied with seeing it from afar. 

One of exits of the park

Love this style!

Candyland, anyone?

And finally, La Sagrada Familia: Gaudi's unfinished work. Again, we couldn't justify spending 12 euros to get inside so we enjoyed it from outside. Gaudi's work seems like something that came out of Candyland.

Sidenote: I think I found my alter ego:

Apparently, it's perched on the top of a building...

So yes, this week, it's off to Estonia (and possibly Finland)! As much as I love traveling, after this small trip, I will definitely stay put in France for awhile. After all, Lyon is my home and my love. It's all about balance, right?

Happy Easter weekend, everyone!

PS. Did I mention that French students get two weeks of Easter vacation??

2014 goals

It's the beginning of a new year. Time for more motivation to start kicking in and making this year more fabulous than 2013!

This year, this over-caffeinated francophile proposes to:

1. Improve my Russian to B2 level

2. Explore more of France and read more about French history

3. Read 52 French books and 52 English books

4. Walk to and back from work 3 times a week or everyday or bike everyday

5. Learn 3 new piano pieces

6. Run a 5k in 25 mins and work on my 10k running time

7. Step out of my comfort zone as much as possible

8. Have less grump, more gratitude and appreciation

9. Learn social dancing

10. More laughter and smiles

Countdown: 20 days until Lyon!

2013 goals

Goals for 2013

(courtesy of disney)

This year, this over caffeinated graduate student proposes to:

1. Work to running a 5K and more

2. Read more French books

3. Improve my Russian

4. Translate 5 French documents for practice

5. Dance under the rain

6. My landlady has a library upstairs. Woo hoo! : Read all the fiction English and French books.

7. Walk home from work three times a week (instead of taking public transportation)

8. Learn 2 new piano pieces

9. Laugh more

10. FIND A JOB

first week of SILP

It's Sunday. I weep at the passing of another rare and warm weekend.

First week of SILP is over! I just had 2 quizes, and will be having one just about every day. Oh the joys. It's actually starting to annoy me the fact that every time I mention I'm learning Russian, someone will say, "oh, did you know that the words for teacher and torturer are pretty similar?" Yes, I've been told that many times, I don't want to hear it again. 


Once again, time is just going by too fast. Between school and work, there are way too many other things to be done. However, I think I'm still enjoying myself despite the load I have. Friday was the meet and greet pizza party -- although this year, for some reason I wasn't as interested. Last year, having just came back from France, I was too curious to meet new people, speak different languages and whatnot. This year, I just don't have the time or energy. I'm already meeting lots of new people within work and other places that I miss time to myself. So when I come home, I like to stay in my room and work on my homework. Actually, I usually go out for a run first. I miss running by the trails and seeing the ocean when I run.

The last 2 weekends, I've been also on a bike ride with 2 undergrad interns at CNS. It's been a refreshing change and I enjoy the wind blowing in my face as we ride along the Pacific ocean.

At Lover's Point

View from Lover's Point

Riding to Asilomar beach

Part of the Asilomar state beach

See how clear the water is? (it was cold)

Because we love climbing rocks

At Asilomar Beach

Yesterday we rode for an hour and stopped by the arts and crafts fair near Portola hotel. It was a rare, hot day yesterday so it was pretty pleasant to be outside.

I was walking to school one day last week and suddenly thought about all the things that's happened so far. It finally hit me that I was fulfilling my goals. I got into grad school, I went to Beijing, I got a job at CNS (something I've been hoping for), and I'm studying Russian this summer. And I'm realizing that slowly but surely, I'm accomplishing my goals one by one. It's happening and I'm so glad it is. So yes, everything is going as planned.

Here's to the second week of SILP and many more to come!

beijing (part 3): (报告NOW）baogaoNOW

Thursday March 22^nd,

Another day of learning, and more to see. Today, we all took the subway and went to Tsinghua university, getting a mini tour of the campus and doing our presentations along with other graduate students from this university overseen by our professor and a professor of Tsinghua. Our teacher told us that this presentation would be a warm-up for Friday’s official presentation. Nonetheless, I think most of the students were nervous, including me. I could hear it in my voice when I was presentation. Argh. Again, I felt like we should have had more time to interact with the students. I mean it was nice that everyone presented on his or her topic of research and what not. It felt like more of a thesis presentation…..which was kind of strange for me, since I don't really have something very specific to focus on at the moment. Also, after each groups’ presentation, there was a discussion. I was actually kind of offended by what the professor from Tsinghua said to me as some of the other students were as well. I think that it would have been more beneficial if we had gotten to talk to the students one on one, more interaction, so that the discussion could have been more flowing, easier and relaxed.  By the time the presentations were over, most of the students were tired. Wes, a fellow classmate of mine turned to me and said in a british accent “ I can’t get off my ass.”

Totally engaged in the presentation

I offered to accompany my friend to the office for international students so she won’t have trouble getting back to the hotel. Tsinghua University is really, really big. Possibly bigger than UC Davis. One of the students who took us to the office said that the uni is really pretty in spring and summer.

our boyfriends, apparently

So I thought I’d have time to fix my presentation that night. After getting back from dinner and whatnot, I found myself to be extremely tired. Although I had fixed most of it already and made it more coherent, I could not keep my eyes opened. So around…9pm, I sleepily told my roommate to wake me up in 2 hours so I could work more on my presentation. She agreed. There was another student in the room, but I was knocked out before he even left. My roommate took a loooong bath J and saw me still sleeping, so decided not to wake me up and let me sleep. I woke up around 2am wondering why I was sleeping with my head at the opposite end of the bed. It took me 5 mins to realize that that was the way I slept at 9. I figured I should probably actually crawl into my bed, which is exactly what I did and promptly fell back asleep.      

Did I also mention that in weather.com....the weather for Beijing today is: Smoke. ahaha.

And now, for the day of doom: Presentation at the Carnegie endowment at Tsinghua. 

Friday March 23^rd, 2012

And now, the day of doom, or so I thought. Friday morning was spent at the Insitute of Contemporary International Relations research. Rumor has it that these people work for the government and will secretly collect info for them. I spent that morning, mostly in a daze because I was just so tired, as was everyone else. After struggling to get through the morning, we “mingled” with the researchers. Everyone keeps telling me they’re impressed with the fact that I’ve kept up with my Chinese despite immigrating to the states at an early age. I thought they should be more impressed with all my American classmates who spoke awesome Chinese.

doing his mini presentation

Steven, paying attention

Oh, did I mention that almost everyone got sick or is getting sick? I was having a really sore throat and a slight headache. For lunch, some of us, including me opted to have porridge and veggies, something light. Afterwards, we went to a café called Tens Years After Cafe. There is a coffee also with that name, and I was wondering, so…they take ground coffee that’s been kept for 10 years and then brew it and serve it to us? Ahaha, it’s actually just the name. Angelica and I shared a tiramisu, and our professor had a black forest cake.

Fooood

                                     

porridge

Also it was super windy that day, and our conference room was on the 12^th floor. Great views, just the wind was really loud. I think most of us were wondering: WHY ARE THERE SO MANY EXPERTS AND PROFESSORS HERE?! That was one of the reasons others and I were nervous for this presentation. But nervous or not, the presentation was going to happen. I did it and managed not to screw up or make myself a complete idiot in the process. Our group only had 2 people, Wes and me. Wes’ presentation was hilarious. During discussion time, I didn’t think many people would be interested in asking me many questions since my topic was very broad: The governmental relationship between Russia and China. I mean, the presentation is 5 minutes long, which isn’t a very long time to discussion something this big. But nonetheless, many people asked me questions, which I was able to answer to the best of my abilities. My professor said that I did a very well J hehe. Thank God the presentations were over. FINALLY. Many people were like, we should go out or something. The funny thing is that even though we were done, we were all too tired and brain dead to do anything but stay in our hotel and rest. My classmate and I opted to go to tea downstairs. Good choice, and very relaxing.

I feel official

I did get to interact with some of the experts in this topic later on and got to speak a bit of Russian with the Russian expert there J He said I have a great pronunciation and that if I really want to go to Russia and keep learning Russian, I should go to Carnegie-Moscow. That would be awesome, if it happens!

All in all, this week was a great learning experience. I learned a lot, seen a lot, heard a lot and had fun.

Here’s to the next adventure, wherever it may be, or whenever it may be.

things i'd like to do before graduation in dec 2013

When I'm not working or studying, I like to plan out fabulous trips that will probably never take place in the near future. I'm trying not to do that right now, instead thinking of things I'd like to get done/accomplish before I graduate in December of 2013. I guess it's some sort of bucket list. So by December 2013, I'll be 25 years old, and (hopefully) done with my Master's of Arts.

So by that time, here are the top 10 things I'd like to do:

1. Get fluent in Russian, then learn hebrew, czech, and slovenian (all in that order): Because I can't resist learning more Eastern European languages, and I want to learn hebrew (so I can go to Israel)

2.  Go skydiving: Because there's nothing better than enjoying Earth from a bird's eye view.

3. Intern for the United Nations

4. Getting a job from said organization from No.3

5. Go back to Europe, specifically France.

6. Finding a internship in Europe

7. Go to Russia and be the biggest poli-sci nerd ever over there. Also, I must go find Putin and flip him. I should find Medvedev while I'm at it, so that I can dance with him (because I've been hearing he's been taking dance lessons. Muahaha)

8. Take some dance lessons myself

9. Go back to kickboxing/hapkido class

10. Of course, graduate on time and get my Master's

I'm sure I'll think of more things, and I know there are more things that I want to do. But I'm going to try to keep the list simple and sweet.

I'm going to try biking to the aquarium today..... yes, the bike I haven't touched since August of last year. I'm sure it'll be splendid. Hopefully, my bike is still in good shape.

59 days until classes start. (whyamicounting)

playing at the aquarium

My first day at work, over. Today will be the second day of work, staring at fishes, dealing with customers like parents and kids.

So after filling out paperwork THAT LASTED 3 HOURS, I started work yesterday. And for some ungodly reason, I woke up at 7am. I don't know what sleeping in is anymore... Maybe this is good practice for classes next semester when I have 8am classes. And then for some reason afterwards, I was an hour ahead of myself..thinking that 8am was 9am. But anyways, my roommate walked with me about 3/4th of the way to the aquarium. It was a good day for walking yesterday, unlike today because it'll rain.  

The uniform for the aquarium is the shirt that they issue you, and khaki pants. I was like....that means I have to go buy them.... Ok.... All this shopping needs to get done before Black Friday (WHICH I will not be joining in the madness) or after Friday. It's a good thing I have tomorrow off so I can take care of my errands and study. I wasn't able to study much because after work I went with my roommate to her friend's birthday party.

So, what I learned yesterday at the aquarium.

1. Every guest needs to be greeted and asked if they need help.

2. Play with the toys, because that will bring attraction for the kids.

3. Sell

4. PROMOS:
- Fused-glass jellyfishes are 39.99 dollars and until Nov 21st, you can get a lightbase for free that's normally 16.99! Did I also mention that the jellyfishes glow in the dark?

- Huge plush whales are on sale for 14.99!

- There's a 40% off table, so a lot of stuff are cheap!

- There are penguins that are also on sale for 9.99!

5. There aren't that many Asians working there, just a few. Someone thought I was another employee's sister. This hasn't happened to me since being in the East Coast where there were few Asians, so everyone thought we were all related in some way regardless of our ethnicity.

I'm starting to sound like an advertisement. Also, there are books and music in the store. So, guess what I do best? Selling books and music, of course. Any of you coming to Monterey and goes to the Aquarium are free to bug me there, that is, if you can find me. It seems all the workers are taller than me.

Also, last Friday, there was a fall forum, in which the topic was "Are you really free..?" There were 3 sessions and all of them had interpreters doing consecutive interpretation there. That was pretty cool. I stayed for all 3. My roommate was in the 3rd panel discussion interpreting from Russian to English, and I think she rocked it.

Come January time, I'm going to have my "get-ready-for-it" face on...starting school and work. Should be interesting, and hopefully, I know what I'm getting myself into.

Cheers to starting work, and the interesting things it'll bring.

yet another jetlag

Another trip over and gone. As much as I love to travel, I'm glad to be at home in Monterey where I can get back to my studying, language classes, spending time with my roommate, and plotting my next move (to take over the world, of course). But before I can settle back in comfortably into my usual daily life, I have to get over yet again, this lovely thing called jetlag. And tomorrow is daylight saving time, just another hour to add to my jetlag. Hurray.

Speaking of studying and school, I finally got my certificat d'etudes politiques! It came in the mail while I was in China, and I was very happy coming home and seeing a nice big envelop.

A couple things I noticed or realized during my trip to China.

1. I could never live for a long period of time in China as much as I love it.

2. If I ever had to live in China, I'd live on my own, and not with relatives

3. The pollution has gotten worse.

4. There are more cars than last year.

5. Relatives that I haven't seen/spoken to for a long time, please don't contact me. There's a reason you don't know that I'm back. There's also a reason why I haven't talked to you either. Especially for those of you who want money from me. Do I look like a money tree?

6. Shenyang isn't actually that big. I use to remember it being bigger. To be fair, I was a kid way back when.

7.  Apparently, to many Chinese people, even though I have impeccable Chinese, I look like a mongolian, Russian, or Korean ethnic minority. The other ridiculous and random comment is that I look like someone from the Middle East or Pakistan.

8. I'd probably never fit in a proper Chinese society, after being raised in America, and being very independent.

9. Relatives, who tell me I don't look like the standard skinny Chinese girls--- I will probably sock you in the face the next time you tell me that.

10. Yes, because I'm a girl, I need to find a guy asap, and get my life together, according to many Chinese people. And the conversation usually goes like this:

Person: So how old are you?
Me: ..23.
P: You look so young! Do you have a boyfriend?
M: ..no
P: Why not? Don't be so picky!
M:.... ?
P: Women need someone (meaning a guy) to depend on.
M:...yeeeeah...no.

Also, I don't care that you're rich and well-off. I don't want to hear you bragging about how much something costs, or giving me something and telling me, oh, that was so-and-so dollars.

Overall, I liked my trip to China.

Here I am, slowly recovering from jetlag. I start work in 2 weeks, and school in 2 months! I can't wait.

a week left in the middle country

Ok, the past week, I’ve pretty much eaten enough to last me quite awhile. WAY TOO MUCH GOOD FOOD. I must remember, everything in moderation, as my roommate tells me. So I’ve manage to cut down on the amount I’m eating, but still enjoying the food. Let me continue to chant, “everything in moderation, etc.” Oh my gosh.

Today, I went to the Wuai Market with my cousin’s cousin. Actually, I was able to recognize him pretty easily. He sat in McDonalds waiting for me. We talked for a bit, and made our way to the Wuai market to buy some stuff. Ok, this should have been in MODERATION. Except you can’t get a good prices there if you don’t buy a lot. So I manage to get stuff for my professors ok, but some other stuff, oh my gosh, it was ridiculous. Q_Q oh well.   

I thought we were just going to go shopping and eat lunch, but we ended up staying til 7pm. He dropped me home and I waited for my uncle to pick me up. Tomorrow he’s taking me to Tian Xia Di Yi Guan. I’ve been there in 2002, but I have no recollection of it anymore. Hence, I’ve brought my camera, and my determination. It’s 2.5. hours of train ride each way. Should be fun. I’m super excited.

My cousin’s cousin took me to this huge mall where on the top floor, there’s a glass floor and you can see all the way to the bottom. He tried to scare me with that, but ended up scaring himself instead.

I told him that if you can dream in the language you're learning, it means your brain is soaking it up, being fluent. He said he had a dream where he was being forced to learn English vocab words and he ended up killing his English teacher. I was like...I don't think that counts. 

A few more days to Beijing, and then back to the states!

unexpected surprises and more cake

I left you all with the end of my 23rd birthday on Wednesday. Except, I guess it wasn't the end of my birthday celebration.....

Thursday and Friday were spent going to language classes, and being totally stoked about starting Spring semester at MIIS. And Friday, I also cherish that one hour where I get to speak French regardless of how easy the class is. It's been a long, tiring, but good week. So by yesterday, I was pretty exhausted and just want to go home and lay down somewhere.

So Friday. I was walking back home with a person I met in French class. I saw my roommate on the way and we walked together, until that is, a few friends showed up out of nowhere, from Davis/Sac no less. Apparently, they came to kidnap me for another celebration of my birthday. It was a pretty epic surprise, not to mention an overload of ice cream cake, as I already had ice cream cake on Wednesday.

My roommate and me

(picture, courtesy of Andrea Mina)

Me and Andrea

Anyways, yesterday was definitely not the best day for pictures, as I was exhausted. But, it's good enough being in the state I was in yesterday. Wish I could look photogenic all the time, but sometimes it just doesn't happen like that.

Anyways, we went out to eat at an Italian restaurant at Lighthouse. There was a power outage over there, for whatever reason I know not of. But luckily, the restaurant we were eating in did have light and we were able to enjoy a good meal, conversation and laughter. After my friends left, I spent some time with my roommate, just talking and enjoying a cup of tea.

I am back in the bay area after waking up at 6am today, so I could get ready and have a mini Russian lesson this morning for cases:

Roommate: "Alright, hw, find all the adjectives in the poems you've been working on and find the intitial form. Then use that adjective and make a chart so that the adjective is correct in every case."

Me: "That's....going to take a long time and lots of paper. @_____@" Except my innerself was seriously like "!!!!! YEAH, LET'S DO THIS!"

Thanks to my roommate, I've got 2 wonderful looking charts of all the cases and their endings! I'm actually pretty excited to be memorizing them. Total nerd status...

I'm sure I'll be having so much fun when I'm at the airport waiting for my plane and sitting in the plane. Hehe.

I can't wait to leave for China on Monday morning. Although I never thought I would miss anyone from Monterey when I left. As I drove along the highway back to the bay area, I thought, I'm going to miss my roommate. @___@

2 more days! I haven't even packed yet -_- I will definitely get to that.

another year older, and hopefully wiser

Just another year older, and slowly.....getting older. Hopefully, wiser too, because I don't want to keep being immature while getting older in years. Life in these years has definitely been interesting. The last 3 birthdays I celebrated were all in different places. 2 years ago, I celebrated my 21st birthday in Davis. Last year, I celebrated my 22nd birthday in Lyon, France. And this year, I had the luck of celebrating my birthday in Monterey with my amazing roommate, Yulia. I feel so blessed and happy to have her as my tutor, friend and roommate. Hopefully, next birthday, I'll still be in Monterey, but God knows where I'll be? I'll just have to go wherever the wind goes. 

And speaking of getting older, I received an email from the Monterey Institute of International Studies saying that I'm admitted, just yesterday. I suppose it was an early birthday present for me! :) I'm super happy and excited. And I've already started looking at classes, the curriculum, and everything else. I have a feeling I'm going to love it here. 

So I suppose now I can relax a bit, but I realized that I can't relax at all because I need to prepare for grad school! I need to keep on studying like no other the languages, and doing everything I can to prepare myself for this school. I can't wait until Jan, when Spring Semester starts. I might just scream on the first day of school. Muahaha. 

And speaking of age, I was introduced to my roommate's friend on skype today. He asked me how old I am. This is what he said:

"How old is she? 17?" <---- to which I burst out laughing. 

"ur so young" <----- to which I responded by: what ahaha

"ur still a baby" <---- to which I responded with: what, no I'm not!

Ahahaha. I'm not objecting to the fact that people tell me I look young, but 17? That's... pretty far off. Hehe, at least it's better than being told you look 13, which someone did tell me last year. @___@

It has been a pretty epic week so far. First, thanks to Yulia who helped me with Russian, and I still give her credit for helping me get into this school (because of the Russian)  And second, this week has been filled with unexpected surprises and other wonderful things. 

4 more days until China!

can you say that again?

Remember how excited I was yesterday to be going to a Russian politics class? Well, I was excited, that is, until I stepped into the class. I mean the class was interesting overall....being that I only understood maybe..... 1/8 of the class. Apparently I didn't know the class was going to be conducted at a 400 level Russian. @___@ I had such a headache after class. My brain was about to explode once again into colorful pieces of paper. Luckily for me, the professor told me that there's a 300 level class next week, so I will be going to that as well. I mean, I think we've probably reached a little over 200 level during the summer session. So even a 300 level might be just a tad bit difficult for me. So yeah. I felt confused yesterday. Some stuff I understood, and others I understood based on my prior knowledge of Russian politics, thanks to Prof Andrews, of course :) I think the entire time, I was thinking,  "don't look at my confused face." The professor even gave me 2 packets of paper to read on Russian politics and culture. I was like....yeah, I'll get to it. 0.o I'll be sure to get to it when I actually am more capable of reading said material. Give me that text in French and I'll read it anyday.

I know what I'll be doing up until school starts again. STUDYING THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE. I'm envious of all those people in that class who can speak Russian. Currently, I'm memorizing a Russian poem, because I know it'll make my roommate super happy, and for my own benefit. Ahaha.

I just revamped my room. So now, at least it looks more home-y, and my back isn't facing the door. I always hated that, having the desk face the window and your back is to the door. So, now that's all changed. I still don't know how I managed to move my bed, a heavy chest of drawers and a heavy desk around. And I don't really know what to do with that second full size bed in my room. Guess whoever is coming to visit and wants to stay overnight can use that bed. For now, it'll be a sofa for those that don't want to sit on the carpet. I finally vacuumed my room, and took the liberty to vaccum the living room/kitchen as well.

So ends another week, this week being more interesting than most. Language classes start next week! Next week should be even more interesting. I can't wait.

Until the next coffee break

fun activities

Yesterday, our Russian coordinator Yulia planned a cooking night for us students. We made Russian pancakes and it was delicious! Today, we're also having conversation hour tonight....oh yes and a midterm tomorrow.





As if things could not be busier. Just when you think things can't get any busier, it does. To that, my reply is: О боже (Oh God)

Otherwise, things are going swimmingly. Being that this is a long weekend (4th of July), I am going back to the bay area.

I have exactly 6 or so weeks to figure out what I want to do for this coming September. Of course, I'd love to return to France. By all means, nothing is stopping me from returning...other than having money and a job there. So that means, I need to have some sort of Internship or job there for me to return. Or else...I don't even think I can get a visa to go back. The French consulate probably doesn't want someone going to France to be a hobo. haha.

I miss autumn in Lyon
I miss the leaves falling, and weather getting cooler
I miss the snow fall in Lyon

I miss walking along the river and crossing the bridge to Old Lyon
I miss my neighbors.
I miss going for a bike ride in Parc de la tete d'or.
I miss going to book markets and fresh food markets.

And....the list goes on and on. But life moves on no matter what. While I can miss life in Lyon, I can't look back and think about the past. I must move forward, and work to try to get back to France..or anywhere in Europe for that matter. It would be nice to live in Prague for a few years...and pick up some Czech =]=] Or...maybe Slovenia. Yes, that would be just as interesting as Prague...

Oh the endless possibilities. I believe whatever I set my heart to, I can achieve. Let's do it, and make it back to Europe. There's no such term as impossible.

Until the next lunch/coffee break