here are some pictures of my snow day!!! this was thursday afternoon. we buried our friend's car, made snow angels, and laughed at the covered bikes. :-D

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

(picture: first snow. not today! but during thanksgiving break)
Well, you can probably guess by now that....it's snowing! yes, indeed it snowed today, or...is snowing. It's really light powder, but still. So i woke up this morning, and i walked outside thinking it was going to be a little on the warm side because last night was warm. (warm meaning low 40's high 30's). but...as soon as i opened the door....O.O oh my goodness. it's freezing. mostly because of the windchill factor, but also because of the tiny little ice particles hitting your bare face, and going into your eyes. that's never fun. especially when you're wearing contacts. but i'm pretty surprised. it wasn't supposed to snow until thursday or friday! what a strange thing weather is. but it was interesting, because as i was walking back to my dorm, the snow was landing on my winter coat and i noticed...snowflakes really do have intricate designs. i wanted to take a picture, but in a crowded sidewalk...hm. not the best idea. so maybe later if i can catch some snowflakes. lol.

but i realize i haven't updated you on anything these past couple of months really. just been so busy with everything, and now finals are rolling around the corner! they're next week already!!! >.< so i'm studying for those. good thing i only have 3 left. Chemistry, Theology, and Philosophy. I already took my Chemistry Lab final, which wasn't bad actually. but i still have to write a philosophy paper, due tomorrow...sigh, the trials of college. but....with finals nearing...that means that...I'LL BE HOME SOON!!! :-D i can't wait to see everyone again, and be able to wear shorts outside! hahaha. just a couple more weeks!!

Christmas at Creighton

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so it's time for Christmas cheer at Creighton University!!! which means, a bunch of lights and decorations galore!!! :-D so i put up a couple videos just to show you what creighton looks like this time of year. the staff spent a lot of time setting up for the light ceremony, where they basically turned on all the lights and said a blessing. it was pretty cool. :-D
so....you might not understand what i'm saying in the second video...so here is the dialogue just in case :-P:
I'm speaking: "This is us walking to Pep Band. Um...Yah, they have the Christmas lights up. Hi James!"
James: "hi."
Me: "and me! um..yah. so it was really nice. all the lights are on the trees. that's nathan. and garret and courtney up there.....I'll have more pictures later."

(i had trouble understanding what i was saying..partially because i mumble a lot, and also because if you notice i'm getting a slight accent. or a sing-song voice. one or the other. i can't tell too well.) :-P

Finale

(pictures: 1st-pier 39 with all the sea lions; 2nd-sylvia at fisherman's wharf; 3rd-golden gate bridge park; 4th-the steepest road in SF. the road is closed off now.)

so my last day i spent in San Francisco with Sylvia, and then later with Loc, Tam, and Son. so in the morning, sylvia and i went to fisherman's wharf. we got our Singapore Milk Tea first for breakfast, and our spongecake buns, then we caught the bus to fisherman's wharf. it was raining a bit when we got there, so it wasn't all too pleasant. but it soon cleared up. while at fisherman's wharf we saw the sea lions at Pier 39, then we walked alongside all the shops and restaurants. we stopped by at a bakery, where they sold sourdough bread...mmm, my favorite. (i ate it when i got back home though, but it tasted great :-D). we went to some of the nearby shops, and after looking around we decided to go to sylvia's friend's house. We caught a cab (i think my first or second time riding in a cab by the way) and went to Syl's friend, Nathan's house. Nathan designs his own clothing line called, "New Skool" (you can check it out online at www.shopnewskool.com) and he gave me tons of free stuff. i got a jacket, and about 5 shirts. all very nice. i'll maybe take some pictures later. but, we had to meet sylvia's co workers nearby, so we stopped by really quickly, (after i bought a new bag at a nearby shop), and then went back to Nathan's. Soon after we went to go eat lunch at this Mediterranean place, where i ate a vegetarian wrap thing. It was actually pretty good, and i really liked it. who knew i liked Mediterranean food? haha. so we hung out at Nathan's for a while, until my friends came to pick me up. Albert was driving, and Loc, Tam, and Son were all there touring SF. i joined them, and we went the Golden Gate Bridge park again. then, we went back to fisherman's wharf where we pretty much did the same things that i did with syl. oh! but i almost forgot...albert showed us this man who sits by the wharf. he's just on the side of the road, a homeless man that no one notices. except i noticed him, because he was carrying a whole bunch of tree branches. i thought it was really odd. but we walked past him, and albert told us to watch.........the man would hide behind his branches, and as soon as a person walked by, "AHHHHH!!!" there he would pop out behind the branches and scare someone! hahahahaha...it was sooo hilarious. i should've taken video. but if he got enough laughs from the people, they would give him money. hahah...it's weird, but smart in a sense. instead of just begging for money, he would use his...er.......talent? haha. but it was pretty cool. :-P soo, before we left SF albert showed us the steepest road. i mean, it wasn't all too exciting, but just to see how steep the roads could get was alright. haha. so, after saying my goodbyes to sylvia and picking up all of my stuff from her house, we left San Francisco...


mmm, so doesn't that food look good? well, this picture is at Tam's friend's house. this was our going away dinner, hot plate and hot pot.on the hot plate we cooked shrimp, beef, eggs, and i showed them how to eat spam the right way, with shoyu and sugar. haha. in the hot pot we had chicken broth which we cooked shrimp and ramen noodles in. it was pretty good...we ate so much, and i felt absolutely stuffed after. :-) but good food, good company....it was an awesome trip :-)

Japan Town in San Francisco

thursday night i went back into SF. i got a ride from Sylvia's friend Alana who lives in San Jose, and before we went to pick up syl from work, we stopped by in Noe Valley where sylvia used to live. there's this cute little bakery there, with awesome tasting cupcakes. haha, alana is addicted to them. but i had a carrot cake one(that i brought back home) and a "Hoho" cupcake. but after we picked up Sylvia, and went to walk around downtown and shop a bit. we went to a couple department stores, like Nordstrom where i bought my Uggs! (by the way, Uggs are a brand of winter boots and such. i'll take a picture and post it later). then we went to a Forever 21 store, that was 4 stories high! it was huge...i bought a couple things from there. and also in Urban Outfitters. after we met up with Sylvia's other friend Monica, and we went to eat dinner in Japan Town. We went to this place called Takara. i had the shrimp tempura dinner, and we all shared a mountain vegetable soup. soooooo delicious! (as you can see up there). oh, and we also had sushi, like the Spicy Ahi Tuna rolls. the japanese food was actually pretty authentic. so i was glad about that :-). after we just went to Sylvia's house, and hung out there.

Under the Boardwalk...actually On the Boardwalk.

alright...so i know i've been a bit behind on the updating. so, i'll try to do all of it today. i still need to finish my trip blogs, and i have even more stuff to talk about after that..so let me start.

(pictures: upper pictures-Santa Cruz beach boardwalk at night; 3rd picture-Loc, me, and Son; bottom-Santa Cruz boardwalk)

so on October 17th, we pretty much took it easy. during the day we stayed at Tam's house, and just hung out. we slept in late, and did some studying...or...well...Loc and Tam did i think. :-P when Son got home, we did a lot more. we first stopped off at Jamba Juice (which they don't have in the midwest!!!!!!!!!!! >.<) so it was welcomed with open arms! hahaha. after that, we drove for an hour to Santa Cruz beach boardwalk! it was pretty late, so nothing was open when we got there...but it was still really nice seeing sand, and hearing the rolling of the waves :-). so we stopped by at the only place that was open...an arcade. we played a couple games, and we left soon after. so before heading back to San Jose, we went to Jack in the Box (which they also don't have in the midwest!!!!!!!!!!!). oh my goodness....it tasted so good. hahaha. but on the way back, we got a call from our friend Albert who also goes to Creighton. he's the one who lives in San Francisco, and he called because he wanted to hang out. so he drove to San Jose, where we met at Son's friend's house. from there we went to grab drinks like milk teas from Quicklys. yummm....

Tofu and Chicken

so the 4th day of vacation was pretty much food filled. We got up pretty early (maybe around 10:30 :-P) and headed toward Tam's high school, Saint Lawrence. Her school is REALLY small...there's pretty much only one hallway, and that's split up into freshmen to senior classrooms. we saw her old teachers, and apparently my "future husband." so, Tam's friend told her before she left, to find him a japanese girl. when we got there, she introduced me to him, and yelled as he was leaving, "SHE'S JAPANESE!" it was so embarrassing....because he looked back with a bright face and yelled, "KONICHIWA!!" >.<>.< we ended up with double the amount of chicken we wanted. :-P but anyhow....so we went to U. Chicken after church, and bought TONS of chicken. they had their specials on Tuesday, so it was just our luck. U. Chicken is known for their different kinds of sauces. they have sauces ranging from mild, all the way to nuclear atomic or something. then they also have their 911 challenge. eat 10 chicken wings with the 911 sauce and...something, like you get a prize or your picture up on the wall. (they call it the911 challenge because the sauce is so hot, that people are sometimes sent to the emergency room due to burns. :-P) but, i got the mild sauce, which was really good :-). so, i should tell you that we were trying to decide how much chicken to buy....Tam and Son got 60 chicken wings. 60!!! that's crazy....Loc and I only got 15 each. i'm not sure how much Nam bought. but we got our chicken (which we didn't finish by the way...we ate leftovers for the next 2 days) and headed over to the movies. at the movies we saw "The Heartbreak Kid" and "Superbad." they were both pretty funny. after the movies we drove around a bit, and then (i think i mixed this up with the last blog) we went to see the San Jose city lights. :-)

And the 3rd day was pool day

(Picture: San Jose city lights)
Alright, so the next two days of my trip (3rd and 4th days) i have mixed up. so pardon, but i'm not sure how accurate this will be. :-P

so let's see, i think it was monday we didn't do anything. we woke up late, around 11:30 then ate breakfast (vietnamese food. some pork and quail eggs, and rice) then felt tired...so we went back to sleep. haha, i woke up a while after that, maybe around 3:30, but tam slept in till 5. >.< so it was a pretty uneventful day, but at night we went to play some pool. there was this place in san jose i think called "Edgies?" if anyone knows, it's kind of like Hawaiian Brian's back at home. so we went to go play pool with Loc, Tam, Son, Nam, and Potter. well, first we went to San Jose State University, but they closed early, so we had to move to Edgies. we played a billion games it seemed like, but it was fun :-D! i didn't do so bad either, Tam was on my team, and we pretty much kicked the guys' butts. hahaha. nah, but it was all in good fun. :-)

Hello San Francisco!

I spent the second day of break in San Francisco. Sylvia and I got up fairly early to eat our breakfast of dim sum :-). it was an awesome breakfast, because i have been deprived of asian food. After breakfast we walked around Chinatown a bit, and looked at all the shops. We picked up a snack of Hong Kong style milk tea (strong, but very good) and a spongecake-like bun. We went to this park in the middle of chinatown and "little italy" where we ate, and looked at paintings being sold there. across the street was a graffiti art wall that Sylvia's friend actually did. we hung out for a while, and then caught the bus to different areas like Richmond. we were walking around, and we saw all of these cable cars parked until it was time for them to start running. i went to go take a picture on the cable car, and it was funny because all of these other tourists saw me, and followed my example. :-P
so tam, loc, and son were supposed to come into san francisco to hang out, and then i was going to meet up with them later to head back to san jose...but there was a slight problem. when they were driving into the city, their car broke down. :-P something fell off, or got disconnected, so they had to call a tow truck...even worse luck...the tow truck took an hour to get to them. fixing the car was easy for them, because tam's brother works on cars, but....he didn't have his toolbox. sooooo, he had to call potter to bring it, which took another hour, because potter was in san jose. :-P...so by the time they finished fixing the car, it was already near 6:00, and we had to head back to san jose for church. we only went to the golden gate bridge, but it was already pretty dark so we didn't see too much..plus, it was FREEZING COLD! so we left after 8 minutes or so. lol.

back in san jose, we went to tam's church and did church things? hah..i was mostly confused because you know i'm not a church person or goer. AND, they sung in vietnamese. :-P but it was pretty interesting anyway. after church was even more fun. we went to In and Out (where i got their burger and animal style fries. i must say it was pretty interesting...), and went bowling. alright...so i should mention that the day before we left Omaha, my group of friends and i went bowling. the bowling alleys in omaha are actually pretty bad. everyone smokes in there, and the atmosphere is a little creepy. so it was a refresher to go to the california bowling alleys where everything seemed a lot safer if you might say. :-P hah, but i haven't gone bowling in probably the last 5 years or more, so i pretty much suck. Potter was trying to help me, but...oh well. :-P i remember before the best i had bowled was a 26. yes, just a plain 26. but my best was 62 this time, so i got much better! haha. still gotta work on it though.

First Day of Vacation!

(picture: chicken katsu plate lunch from "Hawaiian BBQ Drive-in")
alright, so i'm having a little bit of trouble uploading all of my images onto this blog (there's quite a bit) so i'll split them up by days. if i can remember what i did. :-P

first of all, maybe i should introduce the people that i traveled with. On my first flight i flew with Tam (who's house i stayed at), Loc, and Albert. Albert is from San Francisco (he departed after landing in SJ). So when we arrived at the airport, Tam's brother, Son, and her friends, Potter (his real name is Viet, but he looks like Harry Potter so everyone just calls him Potter) and his sister Vi came to pick us up. we visited Tam's sister's house, and her niece and spent a bit of time there. then we went to go eat some Hawaiian BBQ! i have been craving chicken katsu since i left the islands, so i was really happy to get some in California. it actually tasted pretty good too! :-D
so after lunch i was supposed to meet sylvia for a bbq at her friends house, but it was pretty late and i couldn't make it there...however, after she finished with her bbq, sylvia, jackie and her husband came to pick me up from tam's house :-). i spent the night at her house in San Francisco and the next day there too..but i'll get into that later.
that night sylvia took me to eat Thai food at this restaurant "King of Thai." i had their beef noodles, that tasted like chow fun, but even better. it was awesome! :-D so we went back to sylvia's house, but we caught the cable car. the cable car stops maybe about a block from Syl's house, so it's really convenient. she doesn't have a car, but since she lives in chinatown, everything is so easy to get around to, either by bus, cable car, train, or foot. it seems like a nice way to live.

midterms are over

and so midterms are over. today i had my last two midterms...philosophy and world literature. the philosophy test wasn't too bad, 50 questions all multiple choice. i studied pretty hard for that one. but the english test...horrible. everyone had a hard time..because it covered so much material, in such a short amount of time. but we'll see how that goes.

today, i'm pretty much relaxing. right now i'm sitting outside on a bench under a tree. it's really relaxing here, and i think that's what i need, just some time alone to gather all my thoughts that have scattered while midterms were going on. i just need some time alone because i realized this week i've become very irritable, and have a tendency to snap at people. depression has been another small factor into this week, but now after i've gotten a couple hours of sun, fresh air, and quiet...i'm feeling much better. as i was sitting on my bench, my friend Nathan came over, so we were just talking and hanging out. he told me that tonight is a "scream-fest." this has been going on all week...at 10:10 p.m. everynight this midterm week, people gather in front of Kiewit Hall, and you scream at the top of your lungs, letting out all your stress and worries. i missed it last night, but i'm definitely going to tonight's one. this might be the last one until finals week. so i'm definitely in on this one..need to let out some stress. can't wait till 10:10 tonight! :-)

so just a couple more days until i'm in San Jose! hopefully things will be better there.


(picture: the bench i'm sitting at)

It's Aloha Friday! or...Corn Friday?

so today was pretty uneventful. it's friday afternoon, and i'm just sitting around my room. i just finished with my Chemistry Lab class about 20 minutes ago. lab is usually fun, or dull...i'm not sure, depends on what we're doing. today it was a good medium. so the weekend is here! :-D i'm so happy, because i can relax just a bit before midterm week comes. i still need to study, but i have a little bit more time. i should really catch up on my sleep, even though i've been getting on the average 7 hours every night. i still feel tired. health wise...hmm....it's been about a week since i haven't been feeling all too great either. it's probably the stress from all my papers. so we'll see how it goes next week, and the week after that. i can't wait for fall break though! i'll be leaving for california in 2 weeks, and i'm pretty excited! they're supposed to have great asian food. i can't wait. :-D! but i'm leaving on October 13th, and coming back on October 20th. hopefully when i come back, i'll get to go to a concert....Bob Dylan! my friends and i were talking about it, so we'll see. they've been holding a lot of concerts here in Omaha actually. i haven't been to one yet...but hopefully i'll go to a few. and for those of you who know this band....Jimmy Eat World is coming to the campus, and playing in our Fitness Center for "Fallapalooza!" i'm not exactly sure what Fallapalooza is just yet, but i'm definitely gonna go see Jimmy Eat World!!!! so exciting being here. yet...not. hehe, i really miss hawaii, but i'm not homesick. :-)

so if i haven't already mentioned...tomorrow is the Hawaii Club's coat run! this is where the hawaii club takes all of the freshmen to Burlington Coat Factory, and we buy all of our warm clothes for the winter. we're also going to Oakview Mall, and Walmart to buy groceries and such. so i'm pretty happy about that. as much food as i have in my room now, i still need some groceries. but i'll let you guys know how the coat run goes...see ya!

(picture: the lake we went to the other week for the bible study.)

New Asia

so, i have some things to update you all on. let's start with yesterday. yesterday was pretty uneventful until night. we went to a new dining place, Davis Diner. i'm pretty much sick and tired of cafeteria food, and i heard Davis Diner (which is another eating place in the upperclassman residence hall) was pretty good. they have burgers and milkshakes there. we went there to eat, and it was actually pretty good. i had a "Diner Burger" and a strawberry milkshake. not too bad :-D. after dinner i visited an asian food market. it was called "New Asia" or something like that. i went with my friend Loc, and we bought some food there. as soon as i walked in *wham!* that chinese market smell. haha..it was weird. almost like being in chinatown. but they had all of these japanese candies, and the senbei they have at home :-). i was getting all excited because i found some asian products that i could read. lol. but i bought some candies, and roasted canned unagi which is actually very good on rice. so i'm excited about that :-D!

today....let's see. today was my short day, but it seemed like the longest day of the week. i had philosophy and english. 2 of the most boring classes. but the thing was, i wasn't feeling too well today. i was in philosophy and i felt really sick. soo...as bad as it sounds, i forced myself to sleep in that class. it was between sleeping or throwing up. i chose sleep. but today i finally handed in the last of my papers, including that killer 8 paged one for world literature....so i'm free of that! :-D although next week is midterms, as i mentioned before, but we'll worry about that a bit later. i hope tomorrow i don't feel sick. well...other than that, today i pretty much slept a lot. i tried to sleep off the sickness, which did help a bit, but i'm still a little queezy. let's hope tomorrow is a better day. so i shall leave you at that for now...and i'll update later!


by the way...if anyone knows a different name for the fruit "tamarind," could you let me know? it's been bothering me all day. i know there's another name for it, either in japanese, chinese, or local language. :-P thanks!

Midterm season

and so midterm season begins...

today i had my first midterm for theology. not too bad, because my professor gave us all of the questions in advance, so we knew exactly what to study. still difficult though, because there were 3 long essays, and 2 short answer questions. all in 50 minutes. not enough time at all. but, i did finish...just at the last portion i crammed a little bit. but i think it went well enough. so after my theology class i went back to my room to rest a bit, then went to chem. although in chem, i wasn't feeling so well....so after that i slept for a couple hours until my meeting with my english professor. after that..i pretty much slept the rest of the time, just trying to sleep this queezyness off. but i guess that's all i needed, because i feel much better now.

so, i should get some rest soon, because tomorrow is when i start my massive 8 page paper for english. fun. later

Homecoming weekend

hey everybody, haven't written in a couple of days. I've been really busy with pep band, homework and the like, so haven't had too much time to write. but i have a brief moment to update you all.

so yesterday was homecoming. There was a "Getting Blue" barbecue, and a volleyball game. Then from 9-midnight was the homecoming dance. i was at pep band last night playing for the volleyball game (CU won by the way) and it was pretty fun. I was there with James and Nathan, and we ended up taking(stealing) one of the stray Creighton volleyballs. :-P no one noticed or cared i think. so we have a souvenir of the winning game. hah. the dance on the other hand...was off campus, and semi-formal dress. >.< not especially great since i had a dress, BUT no shoes. i ended up borrowing jessica's shoes which were a little big, but nice in any case. once we got to the dance...i swear, dances in nebraska are so odd. the music selection not the greatest, and to be honest...wasn't that fun. maybe next time. but today is the continuation of homecoming. I'm playing again for pep band, and we'll be playing at another bbq, and at the soccer game. so i'll let you know if it was fun or not. hehe. but for now, i should be getting back to my homework. lots of essays due this coming week, so i'd better hop to it. i'll update later...till then, i bid you all adieu.

"Stop peeing in the pool!"
"Who's peeing in the pool?"
"Oh my gosh...EVERYONE is! it's ridiculous!!"

Isn't college just grand?

today was pretty much the normal day. I had 3 classes: Theology, Chemistry, and RSP. in chem, i got my test back...and i did MUCH better this time around :-D! for lunch i went to the Skutt center with Jessica, and we ate Ultimate Club Sandwiches from Blimpie. :-) after classes, i came back to my dorm room, and i'm just hanging out a bit. doing a little homework, then going to watch joe and kara play volleyball! so far, they are undefeated! 4-0! should be exciting :-)

so yesterday, i thought i'd just post that i felt very productive. :-) i read the Kite Runner.....over 300 pages, in just the afternoon. but i finished the book! i highly recommend this book! it's GREAT. it's a very thought provoking book with realistic characters, and set in Afghanistan. sooo....READ IT!
pictures: (upper left) there are no cars in Omaha! you can sit in an intersection and be totally safe. how odd. (bottom center) this is me at the Qwest Center Omaha! i walked here from school...about a mile away. after this, we went to the Hilton hotel next door to keep warm. (pictures were taken this saturday September 22nd)

Getting Lost

alright, so i'll write a quick blog today because i have to go back to studying. today was eventful/uneventful i suppose. i got up early for a weekend, and went right into my day. i grabbed some lunch at Godfather's Pizza at the Skutt Student Center, then went to the library to study. I studied with Jessica, until i got a call from Tam. They were at a lake today, for Loc's bible study group. So I went with Albert, Joe, and Jessica to the lake. the only thing though....we missed our offramp. not the best thing to do here in nebraska, because you'll have a hard time finding another offramp..and end up driving for over an hour. so by the time we got to the lake, we had to leave. it was a very nice lake though...but we wasted too much time driving. i didn't mind the drive too much though, because i had my book for class, and i got a lot of reading done. :-) on the way there, we saw TONS of cornfields...but then again, it is nebraska. now, i'm doing a little bit more studying, and planning to sleep early tonight. because i have a chemistry test tomorrow, and i don't want what happened on the last test to happen again tomorrow...so i'll be blogging later..see ya!

Gonna Party, Like it's my Birthday

today was my birthday! well....my birthday ended about 32 minutes ago..but i still have that mindset, so whatever. :-P well...today was pretty uneventful. i went to all my classes, and took great notes in class! :-D then i went to eat lunch. so apparently they don't charge you for meals on your birthday. they would swipe my meal card, and the price doesn't show up...then they all wished me a happy birthday! haha...not bad. :-P but tonight i was really bored...because i studied early on in the day. well.....now i'm just chilling...and should be going to sleep soon because i have an early 8:30 class tomorrow morning. >.< not fun. alright...i'll write back later!

New Blog!

So, I decided to start a new blog! This is pretty much just to let everyone know how the college life is going, and what I've been up to. I'll try and post some pictures up here too, just to show you what the campus looks like, and what kind of stuff i do here. Keep in mind though, that it is Omaha, so to begin with...not much to do. :-P anyhow...let's start with today.

So today was pretty much a typical wednesday. I had 3 classes today; Theology 100, Chem 203, and RSP 101. I started my day on the early side, 8:30 am...wasn't too much fun getting up that early. >.< i went to all my classes (and slept in between every one of them) until my RSP class let out. (btw, RSP stands for Ratio Studiorum Program. it's this Intro to Collegiate Life course). after that, i pretty much stayed in my dorm until dinner. For dinner i went over to the Skutt Student Center with Jessica and Joe, and after, went to the Fitness center to watch Evelyn play some tennis! when we were done at the gym, it was off to play some pool! today was a pretty bad day for me to play pool. i'm really sore from working out the other day, so i couldn't walk too well..much less play pool very well either. maybe tomorrow will be better if i have time...so now, i'm just in my dorm...killing a little bit of time until i hang out with some of my friends again tonight. hah, doesn't the college life seem so exciting? ......not. :-P

anyhow...i'll try to write a little bit whenever i can. i'll keep you updated!

(picture: cornfields in Omaha, NE!)