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....