Fireplace

December 24, 2010

This is post 1000! This means that our blog has concluded 500 days.

Tomorrow is Christmas. But you will be in the air moving against the Earth and across the date line. You will fly the great circle route: North, perhaps touching the Alaskan islands, then perhaps you will see some of the Eastern Russia, then past Korea and/or Japan, before finally landing in Taipei. You will leave LA after noon on Christmas and arrive in the evening of the next day.

Be safe and have lots of fun in Taiwan. Take lots of pictures! And I'm excited about building my new computer tomorrow. I will share that with you in pictures.

Thanks for the truffles, and enjoy the movies I gave you. Remember today. We played Chinese checkers, had my mom's pirozhki, listened to classical music, and started filling out our little book. Then we played some more and played piano a little, and took pictures like this one.

Happy Christmas from us!

Potterful

December 20, 2010 | Bellevue Square by Red Mango

We're happy because we just watched Harry Potter, I'm happy because all of us are together, Kevin's friend from China is doing a thumbs up with his left hand since his right hand is busy, and Andrew Chan is half- not paying attention.

This is a record that on December 20 we ate quickly at Pizza Pasta, then saw Harry Potter, then walked around a bit and went home, but more importantly, that the two of us went looking at lights, and that we watched the eclipse progress along the way. We stood outside my house a bit looking at the moon, then knocked on the window and said hi, and I smelled cake. We then stood a bit more, watched the moon through binoculars, and the sky cleared long enough for us to see the edge of the moon, and then to see a fully-eclipsed moon. And we had tea and cake.

And it was a memorable day.

Lobster

November 20, 2010 | Red Lobster in Lynnwood

Here, we're having a pre-Thanksgiving, pre-Steven's-birthday dinner. About 80 people were Facebook invited. Tony, Kevin, Steven, and I showed up. The food was delicious! I figured out how to eat crab... kind of.

Turns out, it's only an hour to get to Lynnwood from my house by bus. Impressive. And the bus ride was very comfortable.

Strawberry

for November 13, 2010 | Montlake Fwy. St. E-b.

(11/12) A group of 20-or-so of us (most CSA officers, since they stayed later to clean up) went to Mee Sum after the event. I'll let the picture speak for itself =)

Well... I'm holding to my opinion that I can't drink all of that. But it was delicious.

CSA

November 12, 2010 | South Campus Center

Yay group picture! Such a big group too! Find me.

I stayed until the end, waiting for Kevin who signed up to be an officer. This is everybody else who stayed. They wanted a group photo, and I suggested standing one table on top of another so I get enough height to do a delayed one. This took a while, but I got a good picture and there's a good 55 people in it, so I'm happy :)

So that's CSA. The correct Chinese spelling, I believe, is 中華同學會. I've seen it spelled 中國學生會, but I think the first one is better.

Us

for October 28, 2010 Pictures from Igor!

I forget why you sent me pictures. I think I demanded them or something. I didn't expect them to be so big though. :) The fifth one is above my desk (our blog picture expanded). I also received a picture of a sad-looking kitten. Haha. Good effort though.

Hollywood

September 19, 2010 | Griffith Park, Mulholland Hwy Viewpoint

In Griffith, we took pictures of us with a tripod. This is probably my favorite one. We also took another one by the observatory that I like.

The viewpoint is on Mulholland Hwy, just East (well... North) of the dog park on Canyon Lake Drive. We went to the dog park later to eat the lunch that we packed. There we got swarmed by man's best friends and had to take refuge in the playground. The dogs were funny.

Ponderosa

August 26, 2010 | North of Oregon SR-168, Winema N. F.

Find me in the picture. The tree is the ponderosa pine, smaller and prettier than the redwood / sequoia, although we kind of have to see those since we already drove as far South as Crater Lake. Today was the return trip.

Crater Lake was very beautiful, and the park was well-kept. I didn't do nearly as much camping as I would have expected from a camping trip, but enjoyed it nevertheless. Only 8.5 days left now until I see you.

Disintegrating

August 20, 2010 | Outside O'China Restaurant, Seattle Downtown

We went to dim sum today after finals (though only a few of us went, and only two TAs). After eating we took a group pic. I fail at the bunny ears. Then we toured the central library and Uwajimaya, and then a bakery in Chinatown.

I'm rather sad that class is over. I had hoped to accomplish a lot more in the past nine weeks of Chinese. For quite a few others that's not the case - some have work to finish before the year starts, others will spend a few weeks abroad. A lot of people are leaving right after class for China or Taiwan, some might have already left. As for me, not looking forward to the next two weeks... though my sister starts school, I guess that's exciting.

In the case of CHIN 134, the way I saw the last day was just this: disintegrating. For even the few of us who did go, most people did not see the end of class as anything significant. It's very different in summer camps or when people go abroad. Not sure why.

Zhōngwénbān

August 18, 2010 | Brewery on the Ave

My Chinese class went here today after class as an end-of-class activity. We finish this Friday, and tomorrow is the last day of class. Half of us don't drink (yet... fortunately), and I just went to socialize (in Chinese, of course). Good thing I was there since we had a group photo. Here it is, by a guy from the brewery.

I'm going to catch my bus now. I'm in Red Square, enjoying the weather and people-watching. Bye!

Desserts

August 15, 2010 Toasted Coconut ice cream in a cone

After canoeing and eating lunch, we went to Yunnie's so that I could get bubble tea and to Full Tilt so that you could get ice cream. That place smelled AMAZING. Mmmm...I can't wait to get my own ice cream there on day. Today was so hot. Like 95F or something. I was dying.

Luck

August 13, 2010 Igor hiding in the vegetation

To complete the sister post, I've done a similar picture! You look close-up pictures, and I like incorporating everything in the background. Haha.

Today was nice. From the wondering in the woodland park and the lake and having a nice dinner in a dark restaurant, to watching Romeo & Juliet (Mercutio, of course, stole the show) and later stargazing even though sunlight was still visible, I had the best Friday the 13th ever. And I got See's Candies Truffles from you. Yay! That was a delicious surprise.

Subject

August 9, 2010 Igor struggling over camera

Here you are playing with your camera because you like taking pictures of us so much. It amuses me to watch as you attempt to focus and time the pictures. So dedicated to this performance. Hehe.

6-13

June 13, 2010 Washington Park Arboretum

I know we already have a a picture of us together on your post, but I can't do some other picture because they aren't as special as us.

Birthday, yay! I loved the walking and everything. And my new shirt. Hehe. I guess I should have worn mine, so that we could have matched for at least one picture. :/ Oh well, we'll plan for later in the week maybe? Or August?

Post 613. More excitement. Yay!

Twenty

June 13, 2010 | Iida Japanese Garden, Seattle

Happy Twentieth Birthday, Jessica!

Today has demonstrated how two can wander all day in a park. And several hours in a small section of the park. We entered the Japanese Garden at 15:25. We exited after 17:05, thus spending about two hours in this little park, walking along narrow paths amidst rocks and short plants, feeding large koi, and admiring the pond wherein they lived. What about the arboretum? If we include the boardwalk, we entered at 13:28 and stayed until about 8pm - your phone records can establish the exact time. Over 6 hours in the park.

At home I had a vatruška (Russian cottage cheese cake). How was your dinner? How was your cake? I hope it wasn't a fruit cake - you don't like those.

Did you enjoy today? I did :)

Cake

May 23, 2010

My parents came back yesterday, and today we had my mom's signature cake. Also, we had your madeleines - thanks! And some fruits.

The three candles are a binary thing: ☼○○☼☼ = 19. I'm in the process of blowing them out. Didn't time very well.

Also I got a cool present. I'll show you tomorrow, I think. Or, actually, the day after tomorrow. I have a picture planned for tomorrow.

Singing

May 22, 2010 At enKore

This is the biggest karaoke room I have ever been in! It is ridiculous!! This room was basically the penthouse of karaoke rooms. It has a nice view overlooking the street. The prices are ridiculous though, for the rooms and food. If they didn't charge so much for the room, people would actually order food, which itself is a little marked up.

[Dear Joyce] Today was Igor's birthday. I brought Igor a present. We then went to din-din with 6 others in a city called Bellevue. Later, in the scary rain, we drove to this karaoke place for some singing. Igor gets Asian points for singing in Chinese which is something not even I, a Taiwanese girl, can do.

Birthday

May 22, 2010 | Bamboo Garden, Bellevue
Photo by Kenneth Low

今天是我的生日!

And now I'm going to pretend that it's still Saturday, since this is Saturday's post. We celebrated my birthday today. It was amazing. Bamboo Garden food is amazing.

Left to right: Rebecca, Michelle, Joyce, Kevin, Andrew, Igor, Jessica. Behind you: Kenneth.

Yay, we're both 19 now! Yeah, for three weeks :)

Skype

April 18, 2010 Skyping together

You may have noticed me taking this picture...Anyway, we were skyping, and I was doing lab work. By lab work, I mean labeling. My big sampling event was pushed up a week, creating chaos for myself. The moving wasn't my idea. I probably won't be able to talk much for the next three nights. I only have 1.5 hours of free time between each interval, which means I will be power napping, eating, or labeling. I feel like a grad student.

Upward

March 19, 2010 | 33.442 N, 118.479 W

Today we went on a mini-hike (about 2 miles) after breakfast, and a bigger one (about 6 miles) after lunch. This is near the beginning of the big hike, when we were happy after just climbing the hill behind WMSC.

After this hill, we climbed another ridge and went along it, making our way through cactus plants and bushes, along bison tracks and past a scary spasmic lizard tail. Unfortunately we didn't see any bison on our hike.

More pictures: Catalina - March 19