27 million

Trade, a movie based on the article The Girls Next Door by Peter Landesman, opens this weekend.

Tonight, I heard Jin Chung, the Director of Intern and Fellows Progams at IJM, talk about human trafficking.

Slavery?? Sex trafficking?? There is an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today, which is MORE than the 10-12 million Africans shipped to the Americas back in the 16-19th centuries. WHAT?!

We gotta do something about this.

International Justice Mission

moon cake?

Happy Zhong Qiu Jie! (Mid-Autumn Moon Festival)

Unless you're sitting in the library during your 1L year, I guarantee you are having more fun than I am.

I probably won't get to eat any mooncake until this weekend, although I'm supposed to eat fried chicken tonight to celebrate Chuseok (the Korean version of this holiday).

nyers nicer than midwesterners?

BH and I were sitting in Fairway Market Cafe, waiting for SL. Out of the blue, the two ladies next to us leaned over and asked "We have half a bottle of Pinot Noir that we can't finish. Do you want it?"

I've never been given free wine by a random stranger before. Maybe NY isn't so bad after all.

reminder: i left LA for this

wake up.
go to class.
find food.
go to class.
take a nap.
find more food.
go to library.
study.
get kicked out of library because it's closing.
go to dorm.
study.
sleep.
repeat.

sigh

what i've been up to

Studying. And more studying. Oh yeah, I almost forgot.....studying.

Last night marked the end of my first week of classes. I slept 12+ hours.

Last night, I ate dinner with nobu and then we went to k-town (or k-street) for norebang (karaoke). To kill some time, we went into a Korean supermarket where I decided it would be a good idea to buy some frozen food even though I don't have any way to heat it up. At any rate, since neither of us read Korean or are well versed in the intricacies of distinguishing good Korean dumplings from bad ones, we resorted to The Wisdom of Crowds method (i.e. asking random Korean people which dumplings were good, analyzing the results and then purchasing each package to taste test and see if they were right). Actually, we just asked a few people and then I bought two of the suggested packages. But I have full faith that their recommendations are better than anything I could have decided on my own. And no, I didn't sing. I was too tired and went home. Remember the 12+ hours of sleep?

Tonight, I ate dinner with MY and ST, who took me to a Taiwanese place in Chinatown. We got there at 8:37pm. They closed at 9pm. At about 9:10, they started turning off the lights and the other people in the restaurant paid their bill and left. At around 9:15pm, we were the only ones still eating, every other chair had already been stacked on the tables and the floor had been mopped. Yeah, they're not subtle about wanting to go home. Nevertheless, we trudged forward and didn't leave until we had finished. Actually, they were very nice to us and told us to come back tomorrow.

Afterwards, we tried a new tea shop that opened up and got some boba. Since it was a new store, we chatted with the owner and the employees for a while before we left. Then we walked to ST's car, which took another 5 minutes. Only after getting in the car, did MY realize something was wrong.

"Hey, wait a minute! They didn't give me any boba! You heard me order right? I said I wanted boba! They asked if I wanted boba and I said yes!"

After this tirade, MY insisted on getting the boba she rightly deserved, so we swung back to the shop. She asked for the boba, and the employees, eager to please a new customer, quickly obliged, even asking if she wanted more ice. MY walked out with a new cup filled with tea, ice and boba. Moral of the story: finish drinking your tea before you go back and tell a new store they made a mistake so they will refill your drink. Thanks for the life lesson, MY.

Orientation day 1

6AM: arrived at JFK
took a taxi to nobu's apartment.
6:45AM: arrived at nobu's apartment.
6:55AM: nobu turns on his cell phone and lets me in.

After taking a three hour nap on nobu's couch, ST picks me up and helps me move into my dorm. After spending all of 20 min moving (I only had 6 boxes), we decide to go shopping and eat some lunch. The schedule says I don't have to be back until 2pm, so I figure we have some time. Time: 12:30PM

After buying some necessities, we start eating at 1:20PM. No problem I think. I'll just miss some introductory speeches. By the time I get back to my dorm, it's 2:10PM. I look up where we're supposed to meet and ask directions. Which turn out to be wrong. After finding the right place, I look at my phone. 2:30PM. Not bad, I'm sure the speeches are long I think. As I enter the building, I see everyone streaming out of the auditorium wearing t-shirts with their assigned section on them. OH CRAP. It's already over. I find an official looking person and ask what I should do if I had just arrived. They hurry to look up my section and tell me my group has already left. So they just randomly throw me into another group. Grrreeat. First day and I'm already late.

It turns out it wasn't a big deal as all we did today was a city wide scavenger hunt. Since I took a red eye last night and moved in today, I was thoroughly exhausted. They threw us a party at night with free food and alcohol which some people took way too big an advantage of.

While waiting for the shuttle to take us back to the dorms, we see a guy. This guy is TDTS (too drunk to stand). The first time I see him, he is leaning on a girl. The girl is obviously supporting him as he is TDTS. Eventually, the girl gets tired (as one does when supporting someone larger than you) and hands him over to another guy. Somehow in the course of this happening, TDTS guy ends up on the ground. So he just lays on the ground. For like 10 minutes. Eventually they try to pick him up so he can lean against the wall. Apparently TDTS guy doesn't like that and begins to puke. Then he starts running down the sidewalk, but since he is TDTS, he is also TDTR. SMACK. His face hits the concrete. Somehow he is ok. The bus arrives and they somehow drag him on. THUNK. That is the sound of his head hitting the window and he slides into his seat. And then he pukes again. As soon as the bus arrives at our dorm, his 'friends' pull him off and he pukes AGAIN. And then stumbles and falls into his own vomit. Wonderful. NYU sure knows how to pick winners.

arrived

In NY! Moving in to NYU. That is all.

B3

We went to the Jurong Bird Park today. Let it be known that the park stinks. Having a whole park dedicated to birds does not make the odors that waft into your nose very pleasant. In fact, they are the opposite of pleasant. They are anti-pleasant.

The only cool part of the park is the Lory Loft where you can feed lories. I have pictures, but I currently have no where to post them. Just picture small parrots that look like the Viewsonic birds. But hundreds of them. All flying around in a huge enclosed building and willing to climb onto your arm/hand/head/body if you feed them this nectar thing. Pretty cool.

A very not cool part of the park is the restaurant near the main entrance. Specifically the bathroom. It is not cool if you walk into the bathroom, and there is a little boy in front of you, who, upon entering the bathroom, pulls down his pants as he walks to the urinal. Since you are behind him, you get front row seats to his bare butt. Not cool. Very not cool, Bare Butt Boy.

the most humid place on earth

The most humid place on Earth is not Singapore. But you could've fooled me.

It's unbearable to go outside. It's almost as bad as Taiwan in the summer. Bringing a drink with you wherever you go is a life saving procedure.

They make you pay to use the bathroom?? I had to pay S$0.10 today to use the bathroom at a food court.

Tonight was spent wandering around for over an hour trying to find a church service. The directions on the website were very unclear and we had to resort to asking about 3 different people before we finally found the right location. We didn't even bother going in since we were so late.

Sorry for the disjointed post. It's very tiring when you need to completely rehydrate your body every 5 minutes.

All I gotta say is, South Africa better not be this humid.

in the last days...

This is was my first job which I actually had to desk to clean up.

I'm officially unemployed! Besides being a full time comp-sci-geek-turned-future-lawyer-maybe, I mean. And that's hard work, believe you me.

Goodbye lunch-crew: BH, HW, MS, DS, IK

cross country

I feel wholly unprepared to move.

Goodbye LA. Hello NY.

GTA: Los Angeles

Oh crap. My car lost its powers!!

Monday, May 14, 8:15pm: park my car on the street in front of my apartment.

Tuesday, May 15, 11:00am: come outside and either my car turned into an old silver Toyota Camry, or it got stolen.

Yup, someone stole my car. Booooo.

posted pics from Sandy and Tony's Wedding.

posted pictures from the Rose Hills visit after Esther's wedding.

Rose Hills

Yes, Just, I finally put up pictures from Esther's wedding.

Esther and Andy's Wedding

how to get someone to guess Tow Mater

(GC, age 5, at his sister's birthday party)

GC: "Uncle Jeff, guess what's on my underwear!"
me: "Uh...."
GC: "I'll give you a clue. It's brown."
me: "It's brown??"
GC: "Yup. Ok I'll give you another clue. It's old."
me: "It's old and brown? This doesn't sound good..."

ingenuity......or desperation

Tip of the day:

If you work at a tech company and you have a bottle of Orangina you can't open, use an ethernet cable. Wrap it around the cap and use it for better grip. Works wonders.

 

They sent me my nametag I have to wear to all my classes.

I love you too, Dad

A few weeks ago, my Dad was in town to attend a funeral in SD. I decided to drive down after work on Thursday to meet him for dinner. Braving the worst traffic known to man, I made what should have been a 2 hr trip in 4 months. After arriving, I asked what he wanted to eat and he replied he didn't have any preferences. I had asked a few of my friends familiar with SD what good restaurants were around there and we decided to go to an all-you-can-eat sushi place (Tadashi in La Jolla). Since it was getting late, we called the restaurant to make sure we would have time to eat before they closed. They were going to close in a little over an hour, so we left the hotel and headed over.

Upon arriving, we were seated at a table and informed the waitress we wanted the buffet. She asked us to move to the sushi bar and politely mentioned that if there were any leftover pieces, we would be charged for it. We sat down and my Dad started filling out the sushi sheet. I looked over as he wrote a bunch of 4s and 2s.

me: "4 orders of all this? Are you sure?"
dad: "Yeah, 2 for you, and 2 for me."
me: "okaaaay...."

Shortly thereafter, we were presented with a large plate full of sushi. Since it was late, we were both pretty hungry and finished it off quickly. I asked if he was still hungry and wanted to order more.

dad: "I'm not hungry, but if you want to order some more, I can eat it."

Being the bottomless pit people think I am, I suggested just ordering a little bit more. However, when we informed the cook that we would like to order more, he replied, "You still have more coming. You have a lot more coming."

Oh, ok. We sat patiently and were served yet another large plate full of sushi. Plus 2 small plates. Full of sushi. As they placed the plates in front of us, I realized, "We are not going to be able to finish this." But I said nothing. I knew my Dad realized this as well. But being the proud Chinese father that he is, he would never admit defeat.

We dug in and soon were completely full. And there was still a ton of sushi left. In my effort to take a break, I tried making some conversation. My Dad's reply:

me: "How're Mom and Mei doing?"
dad: "I'll tell you later. We have to finish our dinner first. We don't have enough time."

So we spent the rest of the meal in silence, slowly but steadily stuffing the last remaining pieces of sushi into our mouths. Soon, my dad announced that he was done. Which meant I had to eat the rest of the meal. Bite. Chew. Swallow. Suppress urge to throw up. Repeat.

I don't think I've ever eaten so much sushi in my life.

(Nah, who am I kidding, I probably have. Lots of times.)

I managed to finish all but 3 pieces. As we hurridly left the restaurant, hoping they wouldn't charge us extra, I couldn't help but laugh at what had just happened. I felt like this was something I would do with my friends while in college, not with my Dad when I was 25.

Good times, Dad, good times.

Paradise Day 6

As far as I'm concerned, this day never happened. I'm still in Hawaii. I'm still in paradise. I'm relaxed. Don't bother me.