Archive for category School

Date: October 20th, 2009
Cate: Complaints & Confessions, Family, Reminiscence, School
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Vomiting Pumpkins

Yeah, it’s good to be back.

Well not really I guess. Not on these terms. I got my parents on me all the time, bedtime restrictions, TV and Internet restrictions - you’d never know I was turning 20! I’m behind so many episodes on Mad Men, Gossip Girl, 30 Rock, Desperate Housewives - you name it, I watch it. I’ve said good bye to going out on week nights and reveling in those last minute school night outings that come just in time for exams and papers. I’m losing followers on Twitter now that I hardly use the computer and use an old flip phone to replace the one with a full keyboard that I broke. Facebook? What’s that?

Alright, just kidding about that last one. But now that I’m here, it’s like they always say: It’s good to be home. Now I have more time for leisure reading from my favorite library here: Cupertino Library. They have lots of new books (I saw a used copy of Outliers in mint, just-like-new condition for sale on the Friends of the Library shelf for only $2!) and a huge fish tank wall. Not to mention it’s spacious, airy, quiet and comfortable. Now I can spend more time with my siblings too. We’ve already watched two movies together, all three of us: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which we all loved, and Where the Wild Things Are, that one not so much. We’ve played Monopoly, run to 7-Eleven to get “coffee in a Domo cup” and planned to carve vomiting pumpkins for the upcoming holiday.

And how I’ve missed the NorCal people. When I go to school it seems like everyone is friendlier and more willing to talk to you. Yeah girl, I see you in yo boots even though it’s sunny and hot outside. Yeah, they all say “hella”, so what. Yeah, I like to have my 2348935 choices for pho or bun bo hue for lunch. I feel right at home in this sea of Bay Area plaid.

Oh hay Korean guy, I see that Infiniti key hanging from your jeans. Some things never change.

Yeah, it’s good to be back.

Date: May 4th, 2009
Cate: Complaints & Confessions, School
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In most ways, I`m not grown up. At all.

Download Your New Twin Sized Bed, Death Cab for Cutie

It’s time to move out. Time to find your own place, pay your own bills, cook your own meals, clean your own bathrooms, etc. These past two years have taught you live away from home; the next two years will teach to make a new home.

I have never done anything monotonous or tiresome like apartment-hunting. You ask all the same questions multiple times, walk through many pools, gyms & business centers, and everything starts to look the same.

Life pushes you to grow so fast, and not in a good way. In these times, kids buy expensive things, go away for school and live in their own places. But most of us are still financially dependent - as students, we can’t afford to pay rent, food & tuition by ourselves. We are lucky, living our “own” lives but essentially still living off our parents. And at our age, our parents were already holding jobs and paying their own bills. But I guess back then we didn’t have cell phones, the Internet or the Disney Channel. more))

Date: April 17th, 2009
Cate: Random, School
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We`re in Economics here, not pumping a keg.

This my econometrics professor’s philosophy on the pronounciation of the Greek letter : “Phee, not phye - we’re in Economics here, not pumping a keg.”

Professor is a straightforward man. He holds office hours by appointment only, follows the Chicago Cubs, is not afraid to divulge class feedback calling him “rude” and “downright obnoxious” and holds much concern for our learning. He knows that we want the grade, he wants us to learn. We’ll meet each other in the middle, he says.

College is a funny place. We were still reviewing conditional probabilities in an upper division class - didn’t we have those problems on the SATs? People are so glued to their computers that it’s hard to imagine life back then when we weren’t perpetually sitting in front of the monitor. What did we do back then? Actually go outside and see our friends instead of i-chatting and Facebook stalking, I guess. We drink to get drunk, shit goes down and we all talk about it the next day. College would be boring without laptops and booze, not to mention non-existent. Thank you Dell. Thank you Popov.

(Haha, since when did you drink for taste anyway? Hence coke backs and jungle juice.)

The theme of this quarter has been “Take Home Exams”. I’ve only had one so far and that was all the way back during fall quarter of freshmen year. Now I have two! I don’t hate them or like them. Between a take-home and an in-class, I wouldn’t be able to pick. I dislike all exams.

This is my first post without a picture. To me, it’s looks like it’s missing something but I wanted to focus the attention on the title.

Well I’m off the shower now, and moisturize. Oh that’s another theme of this quarter: Eat less, moisturize more. Not that the two are correlated. It’s better than writing your goals as “lose 10 pounds” and “get perfect skin”. Start with the little tasks. A therapist told me that.

BTW, I can’t get over how cute “Chi Cubs” looks. Then you see thick men in cleats spitting sunflower seeds everywhere. Why does everything look better on paper?

Date: March 31st, 2009
Cate: Complaints & Confessions, Friends, School
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So I upped my Retin-A…

There’s always reflections to be had when a break ends and academic life resumes. This Spring Break I got my teeth cleaned, got through two doctor appointments, took my first trip to Berkeley for a good friend’s birthday party, reveled in the chance to consume decent food and finally threaded my mother’s new Singer.

I also got peed on by my own dog, rejected by my eyebrow ring, was on self-imposed house arrest, burned my forearm with an iron (who irons anymore) and didn’t get to stop by Falafel Drive-In or go to the city to watch Tokyo Sonata, try macarons and grab Belgian fries. While I was doing the dishes, my mother discovered my nape piercing - see, flat hair is never good for anything! more))

Date: February 25th, 2009
Cate: Anger, Complaints & Confessions, Friends, School
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Spinning Out of Control

This is my current desktop image: my dog B, when he was a puppy. My friend S recently commented on how he liked my desktop because it is clean and uncluttered. I have a minimal aesthetic and told S how really, I just hid all my desktop icons. Reflecting more on the matter, I realized my life is just like my desktop - a ridiculous illusion. From the outside it seems like everything’s in order, but under my tight seal of concealment, I think my life is unraveling quicklier than ever. more))

Date: January 9th, 2009
Cate: Complaints & Confessions, Family, Friends, School
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Lobster Salad and Champagne

Poet and masochist Lord Byron proclaimed that lobster salad and champagne were the only things a woman should ever be seen eating. Madame de Pompadour, mistress to the king of France, said of champagne: It is “is the only wine that leaves a woman more beautiful after drinking it”. We know it as the glamorous bubbly drink of celebrations, romance and New Year’s kisses.

I learned this stuff over Winter Break, reading the book by Tilar J. Mazzeo, The Widow Clicquot. Although I didn’t finish it, it was pretty interesting stuff - how a woman reinvented the champange empire. Reading over vacation? Yeah, my break was pretty lame. Besides little gets and meet-ups with assorted friends, it was totally eventless. Utterly boring. I spent Christmas Eve freezing my little fingers off wandering Christmas in the Park with the family and Christmas Day playing Rock Band 2! NYE was equally unexciting: drove the long commute to Union City and sipped mojito wine coolers with my cousins and their two friends. Knocked back bad Hennessy that tasted like fire water and sat lonely on the couch next to my cousin and her boyfriend for the countdown. Can someone tell the Economy to cheer up?

Back at school,  I was glad to be back in my cozy little room. After putting on my satin pillowcase with my new comforter and matching black sheets, I realized how much I was dreading classes and that I was ready to go home already. Good thing K and C are coming down to hang out with me and J! With me living on campus and J living off, I didn’t get to see much of them, but it was still fun. Finally got to hang with K more, talked to J about how “it doesn’t even take a type sometimes”, had lots but-still-not-enough jolly laughs with C and all four of us sipped margeritas on the rocks during Sin City which I always find heart-wrenching. They showed me all the pictures they took on the drive down and hanging out together, and I found myself wishing I had another margerita to wash away the sad feelings welling up in my stomach.

For the New Year, friends and I talked about the tradition of resolutions. Some confessed to haven’t had made any for the past few years, some declared personal goals, some conjured joke resolutions for each other and I just wished I could diligently attend all my classes - which will prove to be a difficult task since economics classes decided to all take place after dark this quarter. I know there will be bad habits I won’t kick but also good ones to be adopted.

So here’s to the New Year: to being a good student and a good friend; to meeting new people and making new friends; to finding something that makes me earnestly happy.

Date: December 12th, 2008
Cate: Complaints & Confessions, Friends, School
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This One’s For You, K

Coming back to college as a second-year, I thought there would be a period of “reacquaintance and refamiliarization” that comes with the start of school. After all, a full three months’ of time separated the end of Spring Quarter and Fall Welcome Week. Absence makes the heart grow fonder they say, but it also gives people the chance to grow apart. Moving into my new apartment and single room, I thought heavy-heartedly: This is the moment of truth.

Much to my surprise and delight, sophomore year began right where freshmen year left off. We come back and continued college as if summer vacation didn’t happen. Inside jokes persisted and personalities remained the same. Appearances evolved, but it was so comforting and relieving to know that under the new clothes were the same people also eager to remain friends.

After the reacquaintances and catching up, everything about school followed the same trend of having stayed the same. The same sheets were spread on the same uncomfortable fireproof mattress (and one new duvet); the laptop with its charger snaking down behind the same hideous wooden desk (now it sits on a laptop stand flanked by new external speakers); the same unsavory food at the dining hall (exacerbated by the elimination of plastic utensils and take-out containers); the same boring classes and vast campus (revamped with a Burger King and a King Triton statue). It seemed that my nervous expectations about change were a bit melodramatic.

more))

Date: September 14th, 2008
Cate: Complaints & Confessions, School
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Life’s Interruptions

As summer vacation draws to a close, I can’t help but try to imagine what sophomore year of college will be like. Having gone through one year away from home, I now know what I really need to survive away at school.

I hope having my own room this year will help. I don’t have to accommodate roommates’ weird sleeping habits or worry about being considerate. Now I have room to decorate and personalize - to really make school seem more personal, not like some sleep-away camp.

I don’t have to worry about unwanted interruptions and distractions because I can fully control who goes in and out of my room. But I can’t help but think that I will be my own biggest distraction/interruption. Knowing me, I always opt out of schoolwork for fun. I’ll do anything to avoid doing work: laundry, accompanying friends to do something, eating, cleaning even!

One thing will be for sure: it is going to be difficult adjusting. This was one loong summer. Getting back on track and a regular academic schedule will be tough. The other day my interruption was so trivial: suffering from a headache, I tried to take a nap because closing my eyes was the only way to stop the pounding, but then I suddenly got the hiccups and I couldn’t fall asleep! You don’t know how infuriated I was. First of all, I never get headaches. Second of all, I don’t nap. Third of all, I hate getting hiccups and out of all the rare times I get hiccups in a year, this had to be one of them. I was fuming the rest of the day, head still pounding away.

Some interruptions were good. When I was supposed to be packing today, I instead decided to make something to drink. First I had a soy banana and strawberry smoothie for breakfast. And then I realized I could make strawberry lemonade with the Simply Lemonade and fresh strawberries in the fridge. Best and easiest refreshment ever.

What did you do this summer?

Date: March 17th, 2008
Cate: Random, Reminiscence, School

Remember This? (and, It’s That Time of Year Again)

I remember back in my high school days - okay, just the slow time during senior year between after college decisions had been received and before summer vacation would begin - when I would take a lot of time just to think. It is still a fond past time (BTW, I am confused, past time or pastime - they both seem to be correct). Zoning out in yearbook in fronto the Mac screen, ignoring to write the practice timed essay for AP Literature, sitting amongst a group of people silently drifting off by myself - sometimes I’d just rather be in my place thinking about things I want to think about.

Remember this? A real-life incident of the aforementioned Example #2:

more))

Date: February 13th, 2008
Cate: Random, School
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Composers, Podcasts and Polaroids

Today I went into Professor Qin’s office hours to make-up my oral test. She introduced me to the website ChinesePod to improve my pronounciation, since my tones are beyond bad.

ChinesePod is pretty helpful actually. They have many lessons ranging from Newbie to Advanced, meant to be downloaded to an iPod or whatever so you can learn Chinese on your own time.

Today I listened to Intermediate - Study Abroad and it was the funniest thing ever. They used the expression 不會的 and the hosts, Ken and Jenny started using it out of the dialogue context to explain the meaning (something like ‘I will never’).

Ken: So, Jenny are you going to get waaasted tonight?

Jenny: 不會的！

Naturally, I burst out laughing quite hard, after only a like half a second of being taken aback. Listen for yourself.

In other news, I took one of those personality tests today - you know those ones that tell you are in terms of four letters? Anyway, I am ISFP standing for Introverted (22%) Sensing (62%) Feeling (38%) Perceiving (22%). The description:

more))

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