...:::: Daily Braindump ::::..: March 2006

Back from Taiwan

I'm finally back from Taiwan. I ate so much on this trip. On the very last day, I must have caught a cold because I had a fever and threw up few times right before boarding my flight, which btw was a journey to say the least.... that literally took 21 hours door-to-door from Taipei to LA to Pittsburgh to Ithaca. For some reason, I'm also feeling dizzy and my left ear hurts from blowing my nose too many times. I'm totally falling apart. On top of that, I'm severely jet lagged so I find myself wide awake in the wee hours of the morning, and very sleepy in the middle of the day during class...heehee.

Despite catching a cold, my spring break in Taipei was fantastic. I got to meet up with Yuko, Achan, Jenny, and Michella. I also met my godson, Hal, for the first time! Hal is SO CUTE! He's a really good baby, didn't even cry the whole night! Yuko is also a great mom, and very attentive to Hal. Seeing Hal and and pregnant Jenny made me want a baby too!! It was also really nice catching up with friends who I haven't seen over a year. Nostalgia quickly set in when we started talking about how we use to hang out in Tokyo...our weekend trips to Onsen our crazy clubbing nites and parties. Ahh... fond memories of Japan. Hopefully, I'll see more of them this year when I move back to Asia! Afterall, HK is less than an hour away from Taiwan, and only 3~4 hours from Tokyo!

Dinner with Yuko, Achan, Jenny, Michael, and HAL!

Meet my godson, Hal. Yes, I'm the Godfather. I've always wanted to be called "The Godfather"...heehee

My dad and I at Ding Tai Fung eating shao-long-bao.

Where my grandmother's old house use to be. Now, it's turned into a public swimming pool.

My dad and I at Danshui

I saw this sign at a train station :D

free internet at LAX!!

i'm in LAX right now...waiting for my singapore airline flight to Taiwan. Ugh....there are so many people here... Thank gawd for the free wireless internet here! So ever since I got back to LA 4 days ago, I've been pretty busy. I'll update you guys more later when i arrive in Taiwan...okay, i gotta go board my flight now. i'll talk to ya'll later!

spring break

i talked to my orthodontist today and she said that i can possibly get my braces off this wednesday when i go see her! no guarantees though. but she did say she would try her best. so hopefully i can get this sucker off cuz its been over 3 long years!! seeing my orthodontist in LA is like having a long distance relationship....she's always asking me where i'm living... i dont blame her though because ever since i started seeing her, i've lived in la, tokyo, and now in ny.

in other news, i just finished packing for my spring break. i'll be back in LA tomorrow night and leaving for taipei this weekend. can't wait!

okay folks, see you all soon!

i just finished my test for my int'l finance class! i'm totally relieved that all of my hard tests are over. now, all i have to do is study for my business chinese test which is coming up next monday. after that, i'm off to lalaland.

so it's been raining here since yesterday and it's quite disconcerting to look out into the sky and all you see is grey. ick. that reminds me, i gotta finish my taxes soon. i can be such a procrastinator sometimes when it comes to stuff like this.

anyhoo, i'm off to my last class for the week. see you later!

one down one more to go

So I've been spending countless hours in the library (snore) the past few days studying for my real estate midterm. *RAAR*... I was all pumped up for the test this morning. But the test turned out to be WAAY too long in the given time and most of us had to rush through to finish the test. *sigh*.... So that wasn't cool. Man, I felt like I was running a marathon. Hopefully the test is curved low enough so that I did okay -- to be honest, I shouldn't even care about grades since I'm graduating in few months...but somehow I can't help but care....*HMMM*

But I have another midterm this Thursday for my International Finance class. This class has been quite interesting so far but its just hard to study for the test because every lecture is like sitting through story telling and I'm not sure how to study for it.

Aside from studying, I've also been interviewing prospective mba candidates for our incoming class next year as part of my duty for being on the admissions committee. It's been quite interesting getting a chance to be on the other side of the table asking the exact same questions that I was asked just 2 years ago. I'm really excited for these candidates because they're about to embark on their 2-year life changing "adventure". But at the same time, these interviews are making me sad because it only reminds me of how quickly my own adventure is coming to an end.

What did you think of the Oscars this year? I only caught the first 30 minutes but I thought Jon Stewart was witty and hilarious! I'm still laughing at some of his jokes.

Jon: "Unfortunately, Bjork cannot make it to the Oscars tonight..... She was trying on her Oscar dress and Dick Cheney shot her". *cackles*

Okay folks, by this time next week, I'll be back home in LA enjoying the sun. woo hoo!

good nite!

When is spring?

I can't believe it's still snowing here even though it's March! I think we had about a foot deep of snow today. When is spring? Well it snowed so hard today that it made it unbearable but also kind of fun to walk to school today with the combination of wind and snow blowing against me. I could barely see 2 feet ahead of me! But after I got back home, I decided to grab my camera and head back out into the snow to take some pictures.

So let's see, what have I been up to lately? Nada.. Just been trying to stay on top of school work and getting myself up to speed with equity derivatives for my new job. You know, the more I learn about equity derivatives, the more interesting it gets (yah yah, i know ya'll are appalled by that comment)...but its true! hahaha

In other news, my youngest brother, Frank got his driver's license a week ago. I'm pretty happy for him because I know how excited I was when I first got my license. It's hard to believe he's 16 y/o already. Man, time flies! I still see him as this cute little 5 year old boy who use to love our weekly trips to McDonald's on the weekend to play in their McPlayground. He had this really cute haircut kind of like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone. Awww, soo cute...and now, he's as tall as me, weighs more and built more, and he can eat like a MAN!

I've also been doing some research online on HK housing market. I can't quite decide if it's better to rent or just buy a place since I'll probably be there for at least few years. But I guess on a second thought, since I'm not familiar with the HK real estate market, maybe I should just rent first and decide later. This way, I'm not tied down to HK forever and I can just pack up and move back to LA whenever I feel like it :) So far, I've only come across very few rental apartments in HK that looks decent for the price. But most of the apartments there look kinda old, dingy, and fobby (ahhh!). I haven't really come across super modern apartments like the ones in Tokyo. It's strange because people in HK loves to copy anything Japanese, so why not copy their modern apartments??

I remember when I was apartment hunting in Tokyo, I specifically made a request that I only wanted to move into a brand new (and modern) apartment. It seems like there are so many more modern new apartments to choose from in Tokyo than HK. How come none of them comes with a hi-tech toilet like the one I had in Tokyo where the seat warms up? I mean, I definitely don't expect something like that in the US, but come on, it's HK we're talking about! Okay, I know ya'll are rolling your eyes right now and think that I'm spoiled, but I'm just asking :) But I'm determined to find myself a decent and modern apartment in HK..I definitely don't want to settle for a fobby place ^^

Okay people, today is Thursday which means the 4-day weekend has officially started for me again. Hope ya'll have a great weekend!