Complete photo album here.

My spring breaks while in college have been pretty fantastic so far - freshman year, I went back home to Beijing with Kency and spent the week sight-seeing and catching up with my friends that were still at ISB. Sophomore year, my family went to Rome, and I got to see a lot of the buildings that I had just learned about in my architecture & urban design class. This year, I met up with Harmony in Chicago, got to see Koh for a day, then took the train to Ann Arbor where I got to hang out with my sister and Esther. It was such a throwback to hang out with high school friends again - especially the day Koh came to Chicago, it was just like old times when the three of us used to have a great time just wandering around Beijing.

Saturday: Arrived in Chicago in the evening, had dinner at Johnny’s Grill. Tried to go up to the Hancock observatory but went to the wrong entrance and ended up at a snazzy high class restaurant that we were way too young/poor for.

Sunday: Koh flew in from Pittsburgh way early in the morning, so we picked her up from the bus station and headed to breakfast. After we ate, we planned out our super busy day (Sharon was only going to be in Chicago for a day, and we wanted to hit up all the important places). First up was the Sears (Willis) Tower, that was closed because of the bad weather - zero visibility. We went to Millennium Park to see the Bean, next. We conveniently found a Giordano’s just north of the park, so we ate there for lunch. The spinach&artichoke dip was fantastic, and the Chicago-style pizza was alright. The crust was really tasty, but it was really messy to eat. Our Chicagoan friend later told us that the thin-crust is better that the deep-dish at Giordano’s. After lunch, we went back to Millennium park to check out the Art Institute of Chicago museum. There was a Matisse exhibit that was very very complete. After AIC, we went to this huge fountain that was lamely off-season. We walked around for awhile before deciding to go to Chicago’s Chinatown for some boba. The red line superway went straight to Chinatown, and we passed by a few boba places (including a TenRen) before stepping into a random one… that seemed to be the hit place for cool Asian teenagers. I got a mango black tea that they brewed just for me. Then it was time for Koh to leave After getting back to downtown, Harmony and I rested for just a few minutes at our hotel before heading to dinner with James. We ate at some bar that I can’t remember the name of. After catching up and eating, we stopped by his (huge single) dorm that was across the street from the Chicago theater.

Monday: We slept in (relatively late) and headed to Navy Pier to check out the reconstruction of the Ferris Wheel. (It was invented for the Chicago World Fair in 1893.) We magically got to sit in cart 1, and the 7 minute ride was… alright, haha. The pier was really empty probably because of the weather and lack of tourists. We left the pier in a hurry to get to Lou Malnati’s and I accidentally left a glove on the bus. Harmony and I got a bruschetta while we waited for Carol and her friends and it was amazing. After lunch, Harmony and I went to Lincoln Park to check out the (disappointing) free zoo. On the way, we got distracted by a couture chocolate shop, where we each busted out big monies for deliciousness. After the zoo, we had nothing planned until the evening, so to kill a few hours, we went on a superway adventure. We took the southbound red line superway and got off at the most interestingly named stop, Jarvis. There was nothing in Jarvis so we got back on the northbound red line. We stopped at Loyola to eat at 5 Guys, then went back to Briar St, where we saw Blue Man Group! They were amazing.

Tuesday: We pretty much ran out of things to do in downtown Chicago after Sunday, so we headed to Oak Park to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio. It was amazing, as expected, hidden in the small ouburban city of Oak Park. After our tour, we decided that FLW was awesome enough to warrant a visit to another home of his on the U of Chicago campus. Before getting on the train, we ate at Red Hen Bread which was really tasty but a bit pricey (as expected with fresh ingredients, etc.). We dropped by a popcorn shop, Madly Pop’n, where I got Lucky Charms flavored popcorn (!!!) and Harmony got Cookies&Cream. (Apparently, flavored popcorn is a Chicago thing, as well.) After eating, we got back on the train to go to U of Chicago. We visited the on-campus Smart Museum (named after some dudes named Smart) which was not really anything interesting. We walked to the Robie House but were sad to find it closed on Tuesdays. We then headed back to downtown to catch the Willis Tower at sunset. It was pretty cool, but we got distracted and didn’t leave early enough to get to the MCA before it closed at 8. Oh, well. Next time

Wednesday: Early early morning we checked out of our hotel and got to the Amtrak station to take the train to Ann Arbor. After dropping off our luggage at my sister’s apartment, Harmony and I wandered around the quiet campus of UM. After my sister got out of class, we met up with her and then decided to get dinner at Ayaka. My sister went home while Harmony and I met up with Esther before dinner. We had boba - I got a mango slushie with boba and coconut jelly this time, nom. We just chilled awhile before meeting my sister at the restaurant. After nomming, we went to buy groceries and bake cookies at Esther’s apartment. Somehow, they came out really weird and crunchy instead of soft like they were supposed to be I had to eyeball all the measurements because nobody had measuring spoons, so maybe I didn’t put enough baking soda… After baking, we just sat around watching TV, haha.

Thursday: Harmony and I went to the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum in the morning. It was a fun science-y kids museum. Fun, but I’m not sure if I learned anything new… oh the woes of being an engineering student, haha. After the museum, we ate at Zingerman’s, an expensive Trader Joe’s style deli. I get a pulled pork sandwich, yum. After eating, we went to the UM Museum of Art, which was okay. The three of us walked around the UM campus a little more, and checked out the business school (”B-school”) and law quad, which was very east-coasty grey. We went to play at an arcade for a little bit, traded in our tickets for a whoopie cushion (hahaha) and then headed home.

Friday: Harmony left in the early morning for home. I stayed asleep and then woke up later to meet my sister on campus. I went to the Museum of Natural History on the UM campus, which was awesome enough for me to donate $5. I found my sister and then went to check of the poster displays of geo-stuff in her department. I don’t know anything about geology. I still don’t. After that, we went to eat at No Thai where this really cute guy took my order. It was really tasty, plus I got to build a house out of my carrots, which my sister ate half of. We headed back home and just chilled out for the rest of the day. I did laundry and my nails and we had a sistery long conversation

Saturday: Woke up and did nothing and then began my 10 hour transit home! At the Detroit airport, I got a sirloin steak with sweet potato fries from TGIF’s. So tasty. Flew back to Chicago for a 1.5 hour layover before catching a flight back to LA. Got home and then slept. Home sweet home

Travel notes: The 3-day CTA (Chicago Transportation Authority) pass was very very nice for $14. It lasts for 24×3 hours after first use, so we were able to use it on the morning of our 4th/last day to get to the airport. There’s also a 1-day fun pass, $5.75, that we got for Sharon. Each bus or metro ride costs $2 or $2.25, so it was definitely worth it. Also, don’t forget about the weather - it was much colder than expected in Chicago, especially the day after it snowed.

I just saw pictures from when I replanted my moss and comparing what it looks like now…I can truly honestly say that I am a fail gardener. My moss (Theodore) is very nearly dead, and only barely retains his color. It is possibly due to the fact that nowhere in our apartment is there any direct sunlight. So sad. My poor Theodore.

In recent news,

• I am now 20 years old, the big two decades! I feel slightly intimidated by my own age, and can feel “maturity” creeping up on me. We went out to eat pho and then came back for Anastasia and lemon meringue pie… The weekend before my birthday, my parents came down to visit me and take me and a coupe friends out to dinner. We went to this hip and cool “California French” restaurant in Venice called Joe’s Restaurant. Pretty good, especially since I haven’t eaten out in awhile.
• I ACED MY 150A MIDTERM. I did really well, 93/100…and the average was 75. I’m really proud of myself and am going to totally ace the final, too! Fluid Mechanics is so interesting I’m going to start emailing professors starting winter quarter to try and do same research in the field. Hopefully the profs will see my enthusiasm and accept me. Oh yeah I also aced my CAD midterm, but that was a joke, so whatever.
• I got my sandstone coasters in the mail, which means that I can get started on my project. For those of you who don’t know already, I designed an indoor garden thing during my industrial design class at RISD a couple summers ago. Making a prototype of this thing will be the first step in the creation of a real portfolio, which may or may not take me to grad school in the field. It’s all a big “We’ll see” at the moment though.
• Yesterday was the BruinLife yearbook staff retreat. We went kayaking at Marina del Ray, then had a beach bonfire at Dockweiler beach. It was pretty chilly when the sun went down but the bonfire was fantastic and I had a lot of fun with the new interns Pictures on facebook!
• Today Layla and I went to Westwood to go shopping for shoes. I’ve been looking for a pair of booties to replace the ones I got last year (around this time) from Urban Outfitters…but alas, I didn’t find anything fantastic enough. But I did find a cute and inexpensive pair of heeled oxfords. They’re pretty comfortable, so maybe I can walk around campus feeling cool and north-campusy. I also almost bought a pair of dark blue pumps… but I didn’t. Maybe next time.

I just realized for the upteenth time that my new year’s resolution to create one work of art a month died out really quickly. Oh, the woes of a college student. BUT baking delicious cookies is a great way to make any dire situation turn into a better one! So here’s the best recipe for chocolate chip cookies ever. I wish I could include a picture, but we ate (almost) the entire batch already. We made them yesterday.

YOU NEED
• 1 cup butter, softened (important to not oversoften)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons hot water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (the ones that are for melting have a better texture)

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.
4. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt.
5. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts. Drop by smallish spoonfuls onto non-stick or slightly greased pans.
6. Bake for about 13 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are slightly browned.
7. Enjoyyyy! Because they are deeeeelicious!

喜歡的味道
不一樣了。

Also, I found Lifehouse - Broken on my iPod and really like it Apparently it’s one of the songs from the soundtrack of The Time Traveler’s Wife, which I never got around to seeing but still want to.

I took a midterm today in my MAE102 Dynamics class and I totally failed it but that’s okay because now I have time to blog about last weekend!

Wesley, Stanley, and I went to Arcadia! Friday night, I finally got meet Carol’s boyfriend. We went to get boba and then Carol stayed over at Stanley’s house with me It was like a sleepover! We talked, and it was great, except I’m not going to elaborate because there are no pictures to go with this part. Saturday morning, we all woke up and got ready and ate lunch and then went to FORMULA D!!!! That’s right, I attended my first ever drifting competition. Round Seven of the Formula Drift Championship took place in Irwindale, CA on October 17th, 2009! We got there and roamed the stalls and got free swag and all that good stuff. I brought my camera, but didn’t take many pictures. (There weren’t many interesting this to take pictures of…)

This guy right here is funny! He bearded his braid! And when the sun caught his beard/bald head it looked cool so I snapped a photo. He is Ross Petty. (I looked it up on the FormulaD website.)

Anyway I guess I didn’t really have much to say about Formula D, except that I had fun, and I really liked watching them. I was going to explain about the rules and competition, but I’m kind of feeling lazy right now. But it’s really cool! Okay I’ll try to explain in like a sentence.

So basically the cars are graded on a couple things. The speed of their entrance, how closely they reach the clipping points, the angle of their car, and how well they chase when they’re not leading. The clipping points were like, the first wall, two cones, another wall, and another cone. So they basically have to make their car as sideways as they can to get closest to those points. So like, when a car drifts, it’s making the car go at a different angle as it’s wheels, pretty much. But there’s a constant angular motion in one direction, so they’re making like a turn. But if their turn isn’t at the right angle, they might crash into the wall or other car or not get close enough to the clipping point. The best drivers were the ones that didn’t need to correct their angle. And went really fast at the same time.

ZOOM!!!!

Today I made some amazing chicken (in my opinion) so I figured I might as well share my discoveries Unfortunately I don’t have pictures of the process, or a real picture of the end result (because I already started eating it) so…. use your imagination!

First, clean your chicken. I used a whole chicken breast that still had its bone attached, because that’s what I had. Awhile ago I used a similar method with chicken drumsticks (that was DELISH) so I’m sure that’d work, too. Depends what you want to do with it in the end, I guess.

After the chicken is clean and preferably (to me) with most of its fat picked off (but leave the skin! It has flavor!), marinate in pepper, garlic, salt, melted butter, and ginger. I dumbly refrigerated it after putting everything together, so my butter hardened before I remembered again. I’d say leaving it out is totally fine. Marinate for at least half an hour, the longer the better. And since it’s sitting in liquid, flip it over and sploosh it around a little. If you do put it in the fridge, take it out half an hour before you cook, so it’s closer to room temperature. I heard meat is better that way.

About an hour before eating time, preheat your (toaster) oven to 340 deg. Have ready a dish that can hold a bit of liquid, because the chicken will emit chicken juice and drip other delicousness as well. Place the chicken breast side up (or whatever) in your oven and note the time.

While it initiates it’s trip to Tastyland, get a small bowl and juice a lemon and lime. Juice them until there’s nothing left! Get rid of the seeds, because they are always useless. Add honey to the citrus mix. It’s hard to say how much, because I always eyeball it, but I’d say 1 part honey, 3 parts juice. Put this aside, because you won’t be saucing the chicken until at least half an hour later. If you like pepper, put some in. Mix well.

Flip the chicken after about 15 minutes. Total cook time is a little less than an hour (for a reasonable amount of chicken). Actually, before I started I looked up an estimate on how long it takes for a chicken to cook in an oven. The Internet tells me 30 min per pound at 325 deg F. So figure it out yourself, plus or minus a few ounces and degrees. After you flip the first time, sauce the bottom. It is totally okay for it to drip off the chicken, but make sure you let the liquid touch all the chicken’s surface.

Flip to it’s top-up side and sauce the top very liberally. (Next flipping time in approximately 20 minutes (to make it upside down) and then return to normalcy 15 min before you decide it’s done.)

And while it passes by Okaytasting Blvd, chop the basil. Scissors make it very easy. In middle school I learned this trick… if you put your leaves in a tall-ish cup, you can chop it up with scissors really quickly and easily without being afraid of cutting your fingers off! Fantastic! Too bad I didn’t put this method into practice today; I forgot about it until just now. The basil can just hang out for now because you’ll use it later with the chicken juice.

My flipping instructions are way disjointed, sorry! Flip upside down and sauce it. 15 minutes later-ish, flip right side up and sauce like a maniac.

Here is when I started making my pasta. It took about 20 minutes to wait for the (salted) water to boil and pasta to get to the right Roman texture (which I have from experience!!!), so I multi-tasked and flipped and mixed pasta at the same time. I know, I’m just that amazing.

When the chicken is done, pour its liquid emissions into a pan and add any leftover citrus-honey juice and mix in the basil. Add in powdered sugar and cinnamon!!!!!! Reduce until it reaches your desired consistency. For pasta, I’d say watery. As a main dish, I’d say thicken it. While your sauce simmers, slice your chicken! In any way you’d prefer. Or not at all. It’s up you you.

Pasta! Chicken! Sauce! You have thus reached your final destination. Congratulations, you are the first ever follower of any recipe-ish thing of mine. Take a picture and show me! Like this!

I’m very ad-lib prone in the kitchen, so I don’t have actual measurements, but I’ve been baking a lot recently so I actually know what a teaspoon looks like now. On the other hand, anybody who knows me knows that I am the worst person to ever make an trusted estimate. So I don’t know. Take with a grain of salt. Or a tablespoon, whichever.

For marinating.
1/2 ounce butter
1 tsp pepper or lemon pepper
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
3/4 tsp garlic powder
dash of salt

For citrus sauce.
1 small lemon
1 lime (so they’re about the same size)
1 tbsp honey
dash of pepper, if you want

For final sauce.
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh basil (about 15 leaves)
1 tbsp powdered sugar (variable - if you like sour, less.)
1/2 tsp powdered cinnamon
leftover citrus sauce

If anybody does end up trying this, let me know any changes/suggestions

PS. In case you can’t tell, it’s quite citrusy. If that’s not your thing, put double the suggested amount of honey.

This is fantastic.

I feel very oddly mature these days. Everyone (including myself) has been busily spicing up their resumes, dressing up all nice and wandering around campus after classes before attending info sessions and tech fairs a couple times a week. I guess it’s just that time of year again. I’m just like the others, I guess, trying to get an internship somewhere in the ginormous engineering field.

Today I went to an information session for Samsung. It was interesting to hear their human resources guy’s spiel…until the end, when he mentioned that they were only interested in hiring Master’s students in engineering. Oh, well. Stanley, Wesley, Jenn and I waited until the end regardless (unlike most people) to take part in a raffle and get free pizza. AND GUESS WHAT. Jenn got picked for the raffle and won a digital picture frame. Haha it was so dramatic, “Jennifer Wang!” “Which one…?” and then she got it

AND THEN. And then the guy had one last prize, for the first person who could name the five ideology things of Samsung. And since we got there early, I had lots of time to peruse the info book thing they gave us, and so I knew them and I was fast and guess what I won!!? I won a phone!!!! WOW!! It’s a Samsung Jack, for AT&T (which I so conveniently use) and it’s pretty cute. I haven’t decided whether I’ll use it or sell it though….we’ll see

Classes so far have been alright. My dynamics professor is a bit on the boring side, but the material isn’t too difficult yet (ie he spent two hours today talking about F=ma). Fluids is fantastic yet extremely confusing most of the time. Heat Transfer is interesting but about to get really really hard I think. And CAD is awesome yet boring at the same time, somehow.

And tonight!!!! Gonna go clubbing for the first time in CA Yay for loud music and rhythms!

I bought two new nail polishes from Target yesterday, Sally Hansen Xtreme wear in “Green With Envy” and “Blue Me Away!” I put them on with one layer of L’Oreal base coat and one layer of L’Oreal top coat, and I have to say that so far, the results are fantastic! I just spent like half an hour washing dishes from tonights dinner, and NO CHIPS AT ALL. This makes me ridiculously happy. Also these colors are very different from my usual spectrum of dark greys and browns, so plus points for me!

My awesome nail polish collection. I started getting into doing my nails freshman year of college, as a means to motivate myself to not bite my nails. It worked wonders, but now I’m kind of obsessed. The moment the polish gets chipped, I compulsively remove it all. And I file my nails all the time. Mmm at least the result is nice nails almost all of the time

I haven’t really been doing much lately. A few days ago I moseyed my way over to Best Buy to buy a graphics card for my desktop…the integrated graphics chip on my motherboard crashed or something, so it couldn’t detect my monitor, and hence, no display. Installed a new graphics and ta-da! Works again. Yesterday I installed Windows 7 on my desktop computer. It’s free for engineering students at UCLA via some deal with Microsoft. (Download link here.) It’s pretty and so far I really like it. I installed all the necessities with no problemo (Adobe CS3, Sims 3, Chrome, OpenOffice, VLC, GoogleTalk). And I’m trying out Pidgin for the first time since sophomore year of high school.

Tomorrow, Stanley and I are going to head over to some place for some car show, and then we’re going to drop by the Annenberg Space for Photography to see the Pictures of the Year exhibition. Next week, school’s gonna start for serious, so I’m not going to have any time for anything fun anymore. Better get it all in while I can!

The Cove
Yesterday, I woke up around 11am (this habit needs to stop soon) and soon afterwards, Layla asked me if I wanted to head to Beverly Hills to watch The Cove. After she gave me a short description, I decided I was interested enough to watch the movie at 3:00pm.

We met up with Stanley and headed to Westwood at around 1:30 to catch the Metro 305 bus from UCLA to Beverly and San Vicente, then crossed the street to take the Metro 14 down the street to Fairfax Cinemas, a small theater where the film was playing.

Honestly, I was never a fan of the Seaworld dolphin show, because seeing the animals do tricks always disgusted me a little. But after watching this documentary about how thousands of dolphins are caught and sold and slaughtered, I’m even more horrified.

The dumbest part is how the Japanese government works so hard to hide the misactions that they support. The government knew that dolphin meat was extremely poisonous (watch this video!), but initiated a required dolphin-meat dish to mandatory school lunch. And why is dolphin meat in the market? Because what else do you do with the 20-odd thousand dolphins that are not chosen and shipped away to be trained and showcased?

They claim that dolphins are the reason why the number of fish in the sea are dwindling. “Pest control,” they say. Which is total bull, because humans are obviously the only ones messing up the global food chain and nature’s balance. Overfishing, not dolphins, are the reason why there are less fish, and yet the fisherman in the small town of Taiji are being told that there are too many dolphins, and they’ve taken it upon themselves to make a tradition out of the terrible practice of murdering the relatively small cetacean.

The International Whaling Commission, which was set up by the UN in the 1980s, halted the practice of commercial whaling. But for some reason, the IWC protects only the larger cetaceans, mostly various species of whales. Dolphins and porpoises, though they are in the same order, aren’t as protected as the larger cetacea. So the small cove in Taiji, where dolphins are herded, caught, then sold or killed, gets away with it.

Ric O’Barry was the trainer of the dolphin, Flipper, which pretty much started the commercial dolphin craze. Ironically, since the end of the Flipper era, he’s been working against the industry, trying to increase awareness of the extent of mistreatment of dolphins.

Unfortunately, I don’t have much confidence in human compassion, and I don’t think that old habits can change quickly. But maybe by helping to spread the word, actions will be taken, and things will change just a few years earlier than expected.

In August, I found a tutorial on making a moss terrarium in a jar. I don’t remember where I saw it, but I decided to give it a try, despite my black thumb. I figured moss was hardy and could handle my sporadic watering tendencies…

I don’t know why it’s in the cap instead of the jar… I was just following instructions (possibly incorrectly, but it worked). The moss survived while I was in San Jose, but dried out without daily watering. But since it survived, I brought it down to LA with me

Yesterday, before I had a chance to unpack and settle in, Layla asked me if I wanted to go to Venice. I’d never been there, so I said SURE and we headed out. Man, the weather is so much better out here closer to the ocean!! I was stuck in Cerritos with my family for the past few days and I really was not enjoying the heat. Anyway. We took the Metro 720 to Venice and nommed some Marked5, yet another food truck roaming the streets of LA. I got the Torraku Beef, because I was being indecisive and it was first on the menu. I was also super thirsty so I got a can of JCC green tea. The tea was overpriced at $2 but I was really thirsty haha. Oh, well. The sammich with Marked5’s signature rice buns was delicious! The rice was a bit sticky, but if it weren’t, it might have fallen apart. Perfection would be not-too-sticky rice maybe wrapped completely in seaweed? It’d definitely make eating it a bit easier.

Anyway! After eating, Layla and I wandered in and out of a handful of stores, spending the most time at the A+R store. And here is where my moss story continues!

I purchased one of these hand-blown glasses in blue, of course. So perfect for my baby moss! (I might name him Ned, but I’m not sure. I’m kind of also liking the name Theodore…)

The color is so pretty! I might have killed the single strand of grass during the transplanting process, but I think it might be okay. The moss will prevail, I’m sure of it!

SO CUTE RIGHT? So cute and so perfect Moss is wonderful.

Many thanks to the store manager for helping me pick this one out and being patient with my (impossible) decision making process!

I chose a band I knew it’d be hard to do this for, to make things more interesting

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to 15 people you like and include me. You can’t use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It’s a lot harder than you think! Re-post as “my life according to (band name)”

Pick your Artist:
matchbook romance

Are you a male or female:
tiger lily

Describe yourself:
say it like you mean it

How do you feel:
she’ll never understand

Describe where you currently live:
hollywood and vine

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
i wish you were here

Your favorite form of transportation:
you can run, but you can’t hide

Your best friend is:
if all else fails

You and your best friends are:
lovers and liars

What’s the weather like?
what a sight

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
fiction

What is life to you:
your stories, my alibis

Your current relationship:
stay tonight

Your fear:
promise

What is the best advice you have to give:
playing for keeps

Thought for the Day:
farewell to friends

How I would like to die:
the greatest fall of all time

My soul’s present condition:
shadows like statues

My motto:
surrender