Friday, December 31, 2004

Edinburgh, Scotland

hey everyone! I just got back from Edinburgh, Scotland as part of my UK trip. here's what has happened so far: monday afternoon I left LA (my plane was delayed an hour because the plane before us was late due to bad head winds, luckily this meant that our flight would be an hour shorter) and arrived in London around noon on Tuesday. I met James at the airport, and we headed back to the apartment to drop off my stuff and then went right to the train station (King's Cross) to jump on a four and a half hour train ride up to Edinburgh, Scotland. I was really really exhausted from traveling so much, and had a bit of a stomach thing, so I didn't do too much the following day. But yesterday, I was feeling better and had a look around the city. Edinburgh is famous for this huge castle. it was really cool actually. I took lots of pictures and all that, so you can all see the wonderfulness later on. there were also lots of kilts and bagpipes all over the place which was pretty amusing and annoying, respectively. now, I am back in London and setting out to do some more exploring with James and Stewart. I'll update again soon! Happy New Year's Eve!

Sunday, December 26, 2004

merry christmas!

well, another christmas has come and gone. and this one was one of the better ones I've had in recent memory. usually christmas is not such a fun day since I have to spend most of it traveling from one parent's house to the other and I usually end up having an argument with at least one of them over something stupid. however, this year there were no arguments and the drive wasn't so bad because it was a beautiful southern california morning and part of the drive was along the santa barbara coastline which was absolutely amazing. also, in addition to getting some nice clothes and shoes and cds, I also got the new bose sound dock for my ipod! how exciting is that? I can't wait to get back to arizona to try it out. it's going to be awesome. thanks santa!

christmas day also included watching two very important movies. the first was A Christmas Storywhich is one of the funniest christmas movies ever made. I watch it every year (thanks to tbs's 24 hour marathon) and it still cracks me up. "you'll shoot your eye out!" and all that. I ended the day watching one of my favorite movies of all time, It's a Wonderful Life. it always gets to me. it's such a great film. jimmy stewart is really amazing in it. "remember, no man is a failure who has friends".

so, to all my friends out there, I hope you have a merry christmas (or chrismahanakwanzaka as the case may be) and a wonderful new year.

Thursday, December 23, 2004

christmas shopping

I think that I have set a new record for myself. I have been to the mall every single day this week since I arrived back home. I think this proves once and for all two things: 1) I procrastinate at everything, even christmas shopping and 2) there is nothing else to do in the san fernando valley but go to the mall. but at least I think that now I've gotten everything I need to get. now I just need to wrap everything. and, of course, I left the wrapping paper that I bought in arizona, so I have to use my mom's. oh well.

I have finally caught up on my sleep. yay! it only took a week. I will destroy it again when I leave for London on monday, but whatever. it was nice while it lasted. my plan to avoid jet lag: to sleep only 2 or 3 hours on the plane, stay up all the next day and go to bed at the correct time. it worked last time, so hopefully I can do it again.

the fantastic news of the week: they have announced the date for the next harry potter book! I am sooo excited. can't wait for July.

the other nice thing about winter break is that I have been able to catch up with some people that I haven't talked to or seen in a while. sunday I had lunch and went shopping with marla. she told me a whole bunch of stories from her adventures as a middle school teacher in south central l.a. (courtesy of teach for america). sooo crazy. big props to marla and the other teachers there. I also talked with mike ficken online for a while the other night (glad to hear he survived law school) and I am going to hang out with laura tonight and carolyn on sunday (hopefully).

Saturday, December 18, 2004

LA woman

so I'm back in LA. I had a really interesting flight. I think that my pilot was new or something because it was one of the worst flown flights I have ever been on. and it wasn't turbulence (although we did have some of that in the middle of the flight). during take-off it was incredibly jerky and haphazard and during landing it was almost worse. he came in waayy too fast and we landed really hard and at the wrong angle. *sigh* what can you do? whatever, at least it was a short flight and we got in a little bit early (although my brother was not early to come pick me up, so I had to wait a while anyway). so, now I'm at home for a little over a week. today I slept in quite a bit, had some in-n-out burgers with my brother and just did a whole lot of nothing. it was nice.

to recap arizona since end of finals: wednesday I slept. then me, adam, katie, angel, oscar, and tedman went out to dinner at the macaroni grill. and all I can say are these two things: my dinner was amazingly good (they had this fabulous deal for a salad, the penne rustica, and half a piece of tiramisu for only $13. I mean, you can't pass that up) and that adam should not have long island iced teas when he hasn't eaten anything in a while. it was hilarious, a very memorable dinner for sure. that, and we had a new waitress and the guy training her was pretty funny too (it seemed like he was hitting on us, but who knows?). ah, so that was nice. after dinner, we had to take angel to the airport, and just outside my apartment complex, katie got into a tiny little accident unfortunately. the other car totally sped off, they were probably uninsured or something, so that put a bit of a damper on the evening. but we all got to the airport eventually and bid fareful to angel.
thursday morning katie and I managed to convince adam to drive us to ikea (since her car was sadly out of commission, making some kind of funny noise) so katie could get some christmas presents. after that, she left for the airport and I spent the rest of the day watching movies and taking a nap. friday I cleaned my apartment and packed for winter break.
and now I'm back here. tomorrow hopefully I'll get to hang out with marla for a bit and maybe do some shopping.

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

DONE!

i'm done! done! done! the semester is finally over. I thought this would never come. the last week has been absolutely horrendous, but somehow I survived. I am sooo looking forward to this break. I need it so badly. school is ridiculously stressful and it the semester was just getting crazier and crazier.

now I have a couple more days here in Arizona and then friday I fly out to los angeles for the week to do my christmas shopping and see my family. after christmas, I'm going to London for a week and a half (and hopefully Scotland for a couple days). then, I'll be back here to watch my mom run another marathon and then maybe San Diego for a few days before school starts again on january 18th. we'll see what happens. mostly, I'm just looking forward to sleeping in, reading some non-school books, and having some fun.

Thursday, December 02, 2004

this is getting ridiculous

my professors are insane! there's no other explanation for it! I slept only two hours monday night and four hours tuesday night. I have another assignment due tomorrow (luckily not in the morning) and have to study all weekend for a midterm next tuesday. oh yes, you read that correctly, we have a midterm on the last day of class, with the final less than a week after that. hmm, interesting. argh! and yesterday, one of our professors made us come to an extra lecture, which he said would only be one hour but ended up being almost an hour and a half, making me almost late to my other class which I had to do a presentation in. our other professor has been consistently running about 15-20 minutes late after every class. soo annoying. it's like, it's not our fault you can't finish everything you were supposed to in the allotted time.

anyway, today is much better than yesterday since I actually slept last night and managed to do all of my laundry. yay for that.

in other news, ken jennings, the jeopardy god, finally lost on tuesday. and I couldn't watch it because I was at school being studious. argh. I have been trying to find the entire video clip online but I can only find the audio for final jeopardy (I love how the audience gasps. that's awesome). but anyway, it will be nice to see someone else winning on the show, even if he was amazing. it's also nice that a woman beat him. hehe. yay! and he will never forget h&r block again.

t minus two weeks till the end of the semester and the beginning of me regaining sanity.