The last bit of the first semester went by the fastest by far. I thought my last year in undergrad zoomed by, but in comparison, this one semester felt like the same time span as that last year. So much happened that I get the dates confused all the time. I will begin with Vegas. Yes, during the semester. What was I thinking? I remember how frustrated I was at myself for wanting to go yet still being caught up in the mindset of focusing on academics. I sacrificed one and a half lectures for the trip, and it was my first time ditching class for some outing. My parents were completely against it of course, and it probably surprised them too when I told them I decided to go. They were like, "It's during the semester! What are you going to do?" It made me think, why wasn't I more like a typical teenager in high school? Anyway, I went the first weekend of November (5-7), and it was unexpectedly tiring. Stayed up until 4am the Friday we got to Vegas. And I was pooped out for the entire trip afterward.
My Big (far right) noticed and nicely took me back to the hotel early on Saturday night when we went clubbing at Tao. haha My brain pretty much was slush after Friday night at XS. To me, the best part of the trip was really eating a gigantic, delicious, avocado-and-spinach-filled omelet at Serendipity.
I admit it wasn't what I expected, but I can't say it wasn't fun. I also can't say I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to clubbing anytime. I think there are better ways to spend the time with people and meet other people. But clubbing made me realize how uncomfortable I feel letting loose my body. haha, that's the only way I could describe the dancing. Letting loose.
After that weekend, I had to get back into school gear and cram for another midterm coming up. I went to the LA Art Walk, which was packed to me, but apparently was much smaller than it usually is in other months. During the weekend, I went to two health fairs (the last two of the semester), making my total to all five health fairs! I really hope that after college, I will still be able to attend health fairs. They are truly enjoyable and rewarding. I got to speak some Mandarin at these last two, especially the last one when I was doing osteoporosis. It was hard because I didn't know medical terms, but it somehow felt good to converse in a language other than English. I don't know why I've always felt a sort of dislike toward the English language, even though it's my native language. nyeah. Wish I could have taken pictures at the health fair. It gets so busy and I feel like it's unprofessional to bust out a camera and start taking pictures during the health fair.
Then, during the week that followed, I went to the JYJ concert in the Galen Center!
I got lucky that I was able to go to a concert I actually knew a bit about the singers' background! I actually didn't start following their music until after I finished the J-dorama "Sunao ni naranakute (Can't say I love you)," which had Jejung in it. But even then, I only listened to their Japanese songs rather than their Korean songs. When I found out they were having a concert nearby in LA, I felt super excited, though I would have felt more fan-girly if NEWS or ARASHI came. haha. They were promoting their new album, which was all English, and the ticket was $10 because their VISAs wouldn't get approved by the US. Anyway, it was a super short concert (~1 hour long), but it was still exciting to be at one.
I spent so much money during this one semester compared to all three years in undergrad. My reasoning is when I get a job, I won't be able to go out as much, so I should grab whatever opportunity interests me at the moment. After finals, I went shopping and had dinner with Lint. My friend, Erica, dropped me off at Paseo mall in Pasadena, and Lint picked me up and took me to Nordstrom Rack. I took a picture while waiting for Lint to pick me up, and whatever setting I was using on my camera (I forget now) made the building look strangely like it was painted in. The colors are so solid and lacking much shadow that it looks like a draft of the building. So strange, but cool.
For dinner, we ate at the Shabu Shabu place in Little Tokyo with Jess. Before that, we had some boba milk tea at a place called Four Leaf.
Such a cute and quaint place. I stayed out until midnight, even though I had a snowboarding trip the next day. :)
Today, I just came back from the snowboarding trip with some of my frat members. Initially, I wasn't planning on boarding or skiing. I just wanted to hang out with everyone and talk. But then the one other person I was planning to hang with while everyone else boarded ended up not going. When we got to the cabin, I was still sure I wouldn't go boarding. There was internet in the cabin and my friend had let me borrow season 1 of Friends, so plenty of things to occupy myself with. It wasn't until I saw the price that I started to be uncertain. The adult price started at age 22, so I was still a Young Adult, which meant a $10 less lift ticket. I had only 5 months to be a young adult, I should take advantage of it. Plus, as one of my classmates said, if I boarded, I could finally tell people "I snowboarded!" haha I have weird reasoning. I've always been very money-oriented with my decisions. It sucks, but that's how I've turned out. I'm glad I went on this trip though. I felt so comfortable with the people I went with, so it reassured me that I chose the right frat.
Anyway, after my roomie came back from her work, she told me my car wasn't outside in the parking lot, and I was in disbelief. No way?! And she told me to look outside since it hasn't been there for a while already. The first thing that crossed my mind was "did someone steal it?! But I have the keys here.." and then she remembered I didn't get home until late at night on Tuesday. Shucks, that was the day I was drive around by everyone that I had forgotten I had originally driven myself to Erica's place before shopping, dinner, and coming back to my apartment. I had left my car at Erica's for three nights. That freaked me out because Alhambra doesn't allow overnight parking unless with a permit. Also, there is street-cleaning on Tues or Wed, depending on which side of the street. I was terrified by the worst case scenario: towed. Luckily (I guess), my car was still parked on the street, and it had two parking citations. I didn't get one for Thursday night. I can't believe I totally forgot about my car. I can't believe I just left it for three nights without even thinking that it could be gone. I can't believe I didn't check on it when I leave the apartment. I can't believe it never crossed my mind that my car was missing from the garage. So stupidly forgetful it frightens me.
But so far, luckily, nothing horrible has happened. No regrets.
