Seeing as I don't have that much at the moment in terms of work, I thought I'd blog about my half day free tour in Taipei that was offered to us as part of the 15 hour stop off. After arriving there at close to 7am, I decided to go check out the free half day tour that was advertised when I booked my flight to the USA. It was pretty much a guess work kind of thing, as there wasn't that much clear instructions.

After clearing customs, I met up with the tour guide. There were 3 others with me, and unsurprisingly all waiting for that same 15 hour flight. We got onto our minibus (小巴) and started doing a tour there. We saw a really old street, I can't exactly remember the name now, but it was cool to see some old Chinese architecture around. We went to a few temples, with the guide explaining features of each one etc after that.

Ah man, life is slowly returning back to normal. It's taken me a few days to come to the realisation as to how different my life was back when I was in the USA. Compared to my lifestyle here, the USA one had me being a lot more responsible for what I did, and had to take care of myself. So what have I been up to in the past week:

• Arriving back from a 38 hour trip - it was horrible, and I was smelly by the end of it. I might do a day in Taipei entry later. :P
  
• Helping a friend of mine move house - He's going on exchange next semester in Singapore! Wish him a safe trip.
• Celebrated a quiet Xmas with Dad and Misa - her family has gone on a trip overseas, so invited her over so it wouldn't be such a lonely Christmas.
• Finished the first season of Gundam 00 - it was pretty good in my opinion! Though, it's the first Gundam series I actually finished. =)
  
• I have a new toy to play with - I've finally joined/given into the PS3 family. After checking the HK prices compared to here, there wasn't a significant difference, so I managed to grab one yesterday. Out of all the games I have so far, I must say that Initial D is the most engaging one, probably because of the wheel I have with it. I'll do quick reviews of the others sometime in the future!
• Reflecting more or less on my experience in the USA, and how to make myself a better person learning from those experiences.

Now that I'm back home, I have heaps of time to blog about stuff. It has taken me a few days to start working on it, but here it is. This is how I spent my last days of the USA:

• Having a Christmas dinner with Kelvin, Yao and Kristen at Kelvin's house - we had rib eye steak, with beans and salad, topped with apple cider/wine. It tasted really good, and it was great seeing their look of surprise when I gave them all a small present each. It was basically a variation of chocolates, a Xmas card, and a picture of me and them.
  
• We went to karaoke, Yao, Kelvin, and I. This involved mainly singing Chinese songs - it was great fun, and made me realise how much I love singing and going there. Too bad many of my friends here aren't into it.
• Had some Korean food - still need to get used to Kimchi haha.
  
• Went bowling: this was the first time in a while since I last ten pin bowled. I won the first game, but came 2nd in the second game. I'm rusty =(.
  
• On the last day, we just went and had some greek food - it was interesting kind of cuisine, pics will be up later!

I really miss you guys, I hope we'll meet up soon, and that I won't be forgotten! You guys have made my experience in the USA worth that while. ^_^

What can I say? It's nice to have a change for a while, taking it easy, relaxing, before going back home. We did quite a few things in the past few days, from seeing snow a few minutes from the campus, to going to the beach, and to going to the arcade as well as eating some sushi! I can't really ask for more, spending time with friends everyday. Better make the most of it. :) Here are some pics:

Oishii ne~

What can I say. I found out today that doing something for others is something really rewarding. Like my friends said - I'm pretty weird, most people could survive with tv and internet, but for me, I was just bored of it. I ended up getting some presents, and Xmas cards too, and helping with some housework. Hopefully, everyone here that I know will enjoy their Christmas! =D

What can I say? I didn't expect extending my stay in the ILC to be like this. I am literally bored out of my mind over here. Basically, it feels like I am wasting my time here not being able to spend my last few days in the USA with my friends. Oh well, I ended up getting some nice surprises for a Christmas dinner soon. Hopefully things look better tomorrow.

What can I say. The final week of UCSC has past. Having to spend most of this afternoon by myself helped me reflect on the times that I enjoyed here. Pics later! What did I do on the final week? Here's the list:

• After waiting for a week, I finally got my exam - it was easier than what I had expected, could be a good/bad thing haha.
• Celebrated Kana's Birthday
• Went to a farewell pizza party
• Attended a small gathering late at night.
• Cooked instant Yakisoba

• There are certain types of personalities I like hanging around with, no matter what their background - usually people who are warm, and with a touch of innocence.
• People that I don't like hanging around with: people who are just arrogant, by always thinking of themselves rather than others (self explanatory)
• Although being money conscious is good to survive, you can't enjoy life if you don't spend some.
• No matter how trivial a promise is, it is still a promise, and you should follow it out anyway.
• Miscommunication is always an issue - we just have to minimise it.
• Goodbyes are not forever losing someone, rather, it is more the beginning of something more.
• I'd like to avoid loneliness if possible, I'm just realising the aftermath effects of it, after seeing people just a day ago!

• If it wasn't for UCSC, I wouldn't have participated Modern Dance. It has been really fun participating there, and I have met some cool people, like Sam and Janey! I can confirm how unco I am now.
  
• Working at the soup kitchen was a new experience for me also. Just knowing that being there, can make a difference to someone, and it has slightly changed my view to those people that live on the streets. Doing that subject has allowed me to meet people like Bee, Anita, and Sujin well. It was also my first time doing painting too.
  
• Having people come over and appreciating the breakfast that I make is something that I want to take further. I realise how much I love cooking now, and I'm determined to learn more from mum!
• Actually understanding the American way of life - not so much in Santa Cruz, but when I was in LA, the fast paced way of life was a real eye opener for me.
• The friendships made - nothing can describe this as I never thought I would be close to people since it was only a 3 month period we spent together. I'm just glad that the world is so connected nowadays, that it's easy to meet up with people. It's always cool to find people from different countries that have common interests too. Who would've known? Tatsuya, and his otakuness being one of them =P
  

Wow, week 12 already. I skipped last week, as the only interesting thing was LA =P. Time sure flies over here. It was basically the last week I could spend with people. So what happened over the past week? Here's a quick summary:

• Took heaps of pics
• Last round of classes
• Christmas College night
• Attended the farewell party - exchanged notes with people that I knew.
  
• Went to DDR with David - he's pretty good!
• Chilled out with Kelvin with Gundam vs Gundam on PSP.
• Made an Aussie brekky for a few friends.

I think I'll upload the pics after Thursday, when most of my assessment has been done.

My last two days in LA were a lot more quiet and relaxed. It involved going to have some decent Chinese food that I haven't had for ages, as well as visiting the Getty Museum, and just car tours here and there.

We went to the Getty Museum, having no idea what it was. It ended up being an art and architectural exhibition that was interesting. Unfortunately, I'm not really a person that can appreciate art that well, but I have taken a few pics here and there, for all you readers who appreciate art.

Afterwards, we just had a car tour around Santa Monica, especially the beach. Unfortunately, the two ladies at the back were a bit exhausted, so all we did was drive past different areas.

For dinner, we ended up getting Bo Zai Fan, which is claypot rice. It was not the best Chinese food, but a lot better than what I have had here in the Bay Area. We also had some of the Chinese Chinese food with rice that I miss so much. Afterwards we had bubble tea - they call it Boba here which I was confused at before. It wasn't anything special to me, but a good change from soft drinks.

For our last day in LA, we just ended up getting Yum Cha Brunch, they like to call it Dim sum over here. It was good to have Yum Cha after so long, almost 3 months now! Kinda bored of the Dining Hall food they served here already. My favourite Dim Sum would have to be Siu Mai - a pork and shrimp dumpling that is a staple to the Yum Cha Diet.

We ended up departing for Santa Cruz at about 2pm, and managed to get back at about 1am. I really appreciate the work the Kelvin put in to driving us there and getting back safely. He almost fell asleep on the wheel though mind you.

This LA trip made me realize how sacred time is, because before you know it, it is all over. I thought it would have been a nice slow paced, 4 day holiday, but it went past just like a flash. It was good to actually get to know my three friends, but reality shows that all good things must come to an end. I hope that we will at least keep in contact, and go on another trip again some place else around the world. But I might just be a little bit optimistic, but who knows, it could come true.

Hey there guys! How's everyone going? Like last time, I'm gonna put pics up later, as some of my friends have better pics.

Well, after having a crazy tiring day last night, we ended up taking it easy for this day, and cruised around two Asian towns for a while. We ended up leaving the hotel at about 1ish, and decided to grab some ramen in Little Tokyo.

We went to Daikokuya, apparently the restaurant with the best ramen in LA. We had to wait for about an hour to get a seat - I'm not sure if it was really worth it because I was too hungry! It was good I must admit, and I tried a variation of it called Tsukemen. I can't give an honest opinion, because I was too hungry, it was almost 3pm before we could get any good food.

Afterwards, we decided to sightsee Little Tokyo for a bit. To me, it reminded me of some really old Japanese town that was built in the early 1900s. The shops were pretty primitive, but on the whole still a site worth checking out if you love Japan like me!

Before doing some last minute Black Friday shopping, we went to Chinatown too. It reminded me of old Chinese markets, but it was in no way close to being as lively as the San Francisco counterpart. Chinatown is still Chinatown, so it was basically more or less the same. I feel really bad to showing people around our Chinatown back at home, there isn't much to see and do there in my opinion.

We ended up going to Beverly Hills to go do some last minute shopping. Beverly Hills is a nice place basically in Hollywood, with a lot of big brands etc etc. You can tell by the pics, which I'll upload later. The whole street lights up, and it is a really good place to go visit on a tourist destination. I wouldn't mind coming back again to come visit.

For dinner we decided to go the fast food route, and had Yoshinoya. Unfortunately there was a sign to say no cameras inside the premise, so I can't show u what it's like. It was alright in my opinion, but i prefer the HK/Japan version. They actually give you a porcelein bowl.

When we got back to the hotel, we manged to spend about 3 hrs playing uno and card games. A great way to chill out I guess for the evening. Hopefully today will be just as exciting!

This day seemed like a really really long one. It started off with having some brunch at Subway, before heading to the Universal Studios. I'll post pics later.

Subway in my opinion seemed heaps smaller than the Australian counterpart. I grabbed a meatball sub cos I was so hungry, it tasted alright, but it filled my empty stomach. =)

Before going there, we had no idea whether or not to go to Disneyland. We decided to go to Universal studios instead because it is Hollywood, the place where good movies would be at. Personally I thought it was good, because there was only small queues for each ride. But compared to the Japanese one, I thought it wasn't as spectacular, both in terms of shows/parades and souvenirs.

Afterwards, we met up with Kelvin's friend, and had hot pot dinner together. Unfortunately it wasn't too much like hotpot, rather, it was more like Sukiyaki soup with rice. It tasted good though, I might go and make an entry about it on Oishiilog. Check the pic below!

After that we went to what I would call shopping hell. Black Friday as they call it, is the day after thanksgiving where big outlet places/malls/shops have big discounts, and they start from 8pm on thanksgiving. Some started at 5am this morning too. There were heaps of huge lines in front of different stores everywhere, and it basically seemed like chaos. I couldn't pick up anything, it was just not a pleasant experience.

We ended up arriving back at our hotel at 5:15am. It was the first time I had ever slept that late, I guess it wasn't too bad because I had 2 1hr naps. Either way, it's still a once in a lifetime experience, something I wouldn't do again for a while.

I think for the next few days in LA, I'll do my best to blog every morning. Images to come later, currently having trouble uploading some of them. =P

OMG, I finally arrived in LA. There were 3 others that went with me, Kelvin, Yao, and Kristen. After leaving at around 4ish from Santa Cruz, it took us roughly 8 hours to get here. I guess it didn't help that we were basically following the peak hour traffic to arrive.

Horrible traffic!

Hello guys! How is everyone doing? I hope all is well. Week 10 now, it's almost the end of the quarter with Thanksgiving day around the corner too. I basically did not get up to much this week, due to assignments slowly catching up and getting the better of me. Next week should be more interesting perhaps! Here is a quick summary of the week:

• Assignments - they're just so annoying!
• Went to the Italian Culture night, had homemade pizza and tiramisu, check the pics below!
• Had sushi again at totoro! Had some pretty decent sushi too, check the pics.
  
• Spent all of the weekend help painting a soup kitchen's kitchen. Before and after pics below as well.

Homemade pizza, Italian style! It was pretty good I must say...
a lot better than Dining Hall haha.

Homemade Tiramisu!

Me and Marin at a random dining hall night.

Dragon Sushi at Sushi Totoro!

Sujin, Alice and me at soup kitchen

Before

After

Anita and her crew that helped with painting.

Haha, it's been a while since I shared anything cool that I have stumbled upon on Youtube. I have two videos from Japan I think? And hope you guys like them! First off we have a performance of a wonderful world:



Secondly: we have a video of a remake of the Doraemon song, using the final scenes of death note. It has a bit of blood, so not for the squeamish of you out there =P

Week 9, 5 weeks to go! OMG. Time flies! It only just felt like I last blogged yesterday. I've had an alright week, assignments getting the better of me nowadays. I'm still trying to enjoy every moment of here though. I think I'll start to take some more photos from here on, since I basically only have 3 weeks before exams start, and I won't be able to see some of the many cool people I have met in the past 2 months for a long time. Sad, isn't it? But such is life. I really do hope to travel sometime to catch up with these friends that I have made, and wished that the time in the US was longer, though I do miss staying in my own room, with a bit more space. =P Of course, the people too. Okay then, here's a wrap-up of what happened in the past week:

• Going to the Computer History Museum - despite it sounding geeky, it was pretty interesting to see that something so small in computers nowadays, had to have a room to replicate it.
• Going to a Chinese Hot Pot party - involved going to a restaurant place they hired out, and eating some "Da Bin No" which I haven't had for a while. It was good, but there was just too many people to actually enjoy it in my opinion. Good to meet some new people though. =)
• Eating out at Sushi Totoro - despite being based on the character Totoro, I thought it was alright, and more or less similar to I Love Sushi. They had a lot of fusion sushi, as well as soft shell crabs! For those of you that don't know soft shell crabs are crabs that have just changed shell, so the insides of the shell is soft, and when fried. It was good, but I still prefer Oishii at home.
  
• Visiting San Jose! It was the first time I went to a shopping mall, the one in Capitola didn't count. I went to Valley Fair - there were more than 250 stores, but discounts were nowhere near what Gilroy had to offer. =) I also went to get some asian groceries - how I miss mi goreng! I splurged and shared some uni with Kelvin - uni being one of the more expensive of Japanese sashimi. We finished the day off with having some ramen too. I had a Kotteri Miso Ramen. I reckon it was pretty good, but the wait for it was a little bit long. =( Otherwise it was an enjoyable day in San Jose!

The first ever computer.

Fusion sushi at Totoro.

Maya, Me and Patty @ Totoro

Kotteri Miso Ramen

The Japanese supermarket!

The Asian supermarket!

Xmas stuff at Valley Fair!

Hot Pot food!

Uni!

Wow, it's past halfway already, and I have roughly six weeks to go.... I'm starting to wonder what would happen, when I realise that I'm almost on a plane already. Now that I think of it, I kinda wished that I could have stayed for the year, but due to the fact that I'm almost at the end of my degree, it is difficult to extend my stay and actually study, rather than it being a holiday. Enough of the depressing stuff, here's what happened this week!

• Australian dollar dropping at an all time low for a while! 63 cents atm! T_T It is sooo depressing lol....
  
• Went to 3 birthday celebrations: Benedetta on Tuesday, Hiromi on Thursday, Kasane on Saturday. This might basically just be the birthday week! =D
  
• Ernie and his friends dropped by down here in Santa Cruz - managed to get a Cal shirt too.
• Boring assignments that I had to finish...-_-"

Happy Birthday Hiromi!

Ernie and Friends!

Me and Bene, Happy 22nd B'day!

Me and Kasane! Happy B'day!

Me and Ernie!

Well, it's another week gone by, another week til I go back home! =D The rain decided to mark my first mid term as well. So what else has happened this week?

Your weekly round-up:

• Celebrated Halloween: did it American style, which involved a parade downtown, with everyone dressed up in spooky costumes.
• Celebrated Alice's 21st Birthday! It was cool, with a dodgy version of karaoke.
  
• And in doing so, did my first attempt at cosplay with what I had. Guess who, when you check the pics!
  
• Did my first exam: exams at UQ are a lot scarier, over here its basically like a relaxed environment where it's just like class, except you're doing it
• It rained for the second time in the year - in doing so, it was pretty cold, and I think I caught a cold from it >_<

Happy Birthday Alice!

Snacks at the party!

Halloween!

Hey Guys! How's things? It's finally become colder now, starting to feel a lot more like winter, and not the bipolar temperature that has been happening lately. I think I've seen most of the wildlife here, but I never manage to snap any of them on camera. I've yet to see the famous banana slug though, but my friends have. >_<>

• Finally enjoying the winter side of things =D
• Eating homemade Japanese Stew - I thought it was pretty delicious, and something different for a change!
  
• Went to a Japanese mixer - involved eating some nice food, and meeting some new people because of it
• Ate at a Thai restaurant
• Australian culture night!
  
• Bought some manga for friends of mine
  
• Pissed off at the assignment submit system - had to submit an assignment late because they say I didn't submit it...*sigh* I wish it was on paper.
• Still in holiday mode, when my first exam is coming on the next Thursday! T_T
  

The two manga I bought for friends of mine.

Aussie culture night!

Thai food!

Japanese Mixer!

At Kana's house with the delicious stew! (see below)

Japanese White Stew!