Back to Taiwan

6/17 Last Day in the U.S.

6/16 Universal Studio & Hollywood

6/15 Downtown LA & Santa Monica

Disneyland 6/14

SF-Oakland-LA 6/13

Napa 6/12

Graduation Ceremony

 

    Congrats to all my fellow brothers and sisters and wish you guys success in every endeavor of yours.

Trip to Premium Outlet at Vacaville

Dining at Black Bear

Quarter Ends

End of Finals Breakfast

Instruction Ends

6/1 ESL class gathering at Yoloberry Frozen Yogurt

Whole Earth Festival(5/8)

    The day before Whole Earth Festival, I met up with Mercy, who was my PAL(Partner in Acquiring Language) this spring quarter. She told me there was going to be Whole Earth Festival, and mentioned it featured hippie culture, sustainability, frugality, green products, etc. That day also, I'd noticed there was some preparation going on at UC Davis Quad area.

Thunder Valley- Casino(5/7)

Today is Carlos' 21th birthday. He invited me to go with him to the casino near Reno, a city to the east of Sacramento. Turning 21 in the U.S., is a big thing. Not only is it the legal drinking age, but it marks the beginning of the official adulthood. Given this, his mom decided to take him to Tundervalley casino, where he could drink for the first time in his life and enjoy a bit of gambling and food. For me, it was going to be my first time to gamble in a casino, so I was sorta looking forward to this.

Meeting my PAL

    This morning, I woke up at 8.30, feeling a bit inert and sleepy. Taking a quick shower, I hopped on a bus to school, where I were to meet my PAL. I got there at around 9.30, which was when we were supposed to meet. Yet, she wasn't there, so I texted her and got her text back saying that she was returning a book and would see me soon. Therefore, I sat at a table at Co-Ho, waiting for her to turn up. Then, I saw a friend whom I used to have the same class with last quarter. He was having his burrito there. Seeing me sit there by myself, he came over to me and we had quite a bit chat before my PAL appeared.

My First Yoga Class

 

The long-anticipated (at least to me) yoga class has finally arrived today. Since yoga tied in well with our ESL syllabus- health and healing techniques, Dennis, my teacher, decided to take the class to the ARC(gym) to get a sense of what yoga was like. The tuition for a class was $20 or so, thus divide by 6 students and 1 teacher, it would be about 3 dollar per person, which was ok. But it would be a lot less if more students showed up that day. Anyway, we were taught some basic yoga moves and poses by a student and yoga instructor, possibly and understandably of Indian descent.

Cafe Mediterranean (4/27)

   

I'd thought Sam's Mediterranean offered the best Mediterranean cuisine in Davis before Taimour took me and Hide to this restaurant. I liked the roasted half chicken I ordered and savored the chuncks of chicken dipped into yogurt. If my memory serves me right, it costed me around 8 bucks, which was a bit expensive. Another less glamorous aspect is that it wasn't filling at all, so I left the restaurant with still a bit of food cravings.

To the West

It was Saturday afternoon when I went biking with Tim to the west of Davis. It was really nice weather, neither too hot nor chilly. Along the way, I enjoyed the breeze and  the country scenery.  There were mountains far away, trees and shrubs beside the roads, and some farms, horse corrals, vineyards on our way to nowhere. And once again, I got to experience the vastness of the U.S.

The Passion Experience

    This year, Easter Day falls on 24th April. The week before Easter is called "Passion Week" or "Holy Week."  Jesus was crucified on Friday that week and then resurrected 3 days after his death(which is Easter Sunday). I've been to a church in Davis for quite a while, and I was told to sign up for "The Passion Experience," an exhibit in the church. The exhibit shows what leads to the crucifixion of Jesus as from the perspective of various characters in the Bible, such as Judas, Chief Priests, Pilate, Peter, and the crowd). It took about an hour to finish the Passion Experience. Basically, I was guided by the narrated audio from MP3 player through 5 booths that feature events causing the death of Jesus. I lingered at each booth, picturing how Jesus went through all these sufferings and thinking about how I was like those biblical characters that either betrayed, disowned, tested, or crucified Jesus. The part that really got me crying is hearing Jesus being flogged and then picutring  Him nailed to the cross. This is the worst way a man can die. To me, "The Passion Experience" was really impactful since I got to know how Jesus has taken all our sins upon himself and how He has gone through all the physical pain and spritual as well.

An hour before Sexuality Midterm

    It isn't the high time for me to blog as my Human Sexuality midterm is only one hour away. What I should do instead at the moment is go over all the lecture slides and my notes. However, I am really not in the mood for studying. Part of the reason is that minutes ago I just came across some blogs of previous exchange students from NTU and reading their diaries got me thinking about my life in California. Thus, I decided to put my thought and feelings into words on my blog.
Having been in the U.S. for more than 7 months, I've been to quite a few places, yet there seem to be a lot more for me to visit and explore; I've made a bunch of friends, yet I feel like getting to know more people; I've tried quite a few restaurant, but there always seems to be another restaurant worth going to.
    Today is April 21. Possibly I will be leaving for Taiwan on June 20, which is about two months away now. How can I make the most of these remaining two months in the U.S.? I wanna go to Las Vegas, Yosemite National Park, Napa Valley, etc...wanna watch an NBA basketball game..wanna lying on the grass for an entire afternoon...

Picnic Day 4/16

    It's this time of the year again(sounds like I've been in Davis before LOL). There is this "Picnic Day" event in UC Davis, which is one of largest student event in the U.S. From what I heard, there is gonna be a lot going on, such as animal events, exhibits, parades, club demonstration, student-organization faire, multicultural children faire, and such. UCD is proud to present Picnic Day as this showcases its richness, diversity and achievement and also nearby communities' contribution as in different arenas, such as teaching and campus life. Yet, this Picnic Day is not all sunshine and roses as over the previous years, the daytime patrol or policemen in general had made several arrest on the account of public intoxication and drunken driving. Also, the campus became littered with beer cans and garbages. As a consequence, the Picnic Day came under fire and a cancellation threat had been issued last year. Thus, this year's Picnic Day is very crucial as it's trying to save the Picnic Day. For that reason also, the theme of the Picnic Day is "rewind." And students are encouraged to sign a pledge to act responsibly during the event.

First time to donate blood (right before ESL)

     

    There was a blood drive(and actually a marrow drive as well) going on in Freeborn Hall at UCD campus this past Thursday. I remember back in Taiwan, I had been thinking about donating blood, yet my thinness always got in the way of me doing just that. Yet, this time, at the the urging of Hide (and with the lure of a free T-shirt), I  stopped by the Freeborn Hall and made my blood donation for the first time in my life. I got there at around 1 o'clock, right after having a heavy lunch. And I thought it wouldn't take long and I would be able to make it to the ESL class at 3:10, but it ended up taking me up to two hours to go through the whole process.

Hanging Out (4/1)-Filipino food(Lumpia)

  It was nice of Carlos to invite Hide and me over to his place this Friday afternoon. This was the first time we got together after the spring quarter started. I really like the Lumpia he fried for us, and with some Filipino sauce, it tasted yummy and went well with the rice. It was similar to the Chinese fried spring rolls, and as such it didn't really surprise me when he told me it actually originated from Chinese pastries. And lumpia are really popular in the Philippines. Following the pleasant late lunch, we sat on the couch, played some ps3 games, and just talked.

Road Trip Day 7- Coos Bay

Last day of the trip, we had our brunch at Burger King and brought with us each a burger in case we got hungry again on our way to Davis.

Road Trip Day 6- Seattle: Pike Place Market

On Day 6, we were still in Seattle, and we explored the Pike Place Market, which had its own personality.

Road Trip Day 5- Seattle

On Day 5, We went on a trip to Microsoft Company, The Museum of Flight (Boeing Company), and then Space Needle in downtown Seattle, which made a great day for me.

This is where we stayed last night.

Road Trip Day 4- Oregon to Seattle

Day 4 wasn't as exciting as the other days as we spent most time driving and shopping.

Northbound... 

Road Trip Day 3- Christmas Valley

    On day 3, we rose early in the morning and walked around a bit before we got to a restaurant where we had breakfast.

    The scene outside of our motel....................

Road Trip Day 2 Mt. Shasta(Shasta Abbey Buddhist Monastery,)

    Waking up the next morning, we walked around the neighborhood. Snow was everywhere, and bulldozers were clearing piles of snow from the roads. It was my second time to walk in the snow, the first being my stay in Melbourne for one month.

Road Trip Day 1- Driving to Mt. Shasta

    It was sad that I got a final for Introduction to Winery on Saturday afternoon, or my spring break would've started earlier. After my final, I got picked up by my buddy, Karan, who'd rented a Nissan car, and then we picked up Henry at his place. Tim actually backed out of this trip for his sister's wedding was on Wed. that week and was called to attend the reception. This was frustrating at the beginning and almost disrupted our trip. Next time, I am going think more about any worst-case scenarios.
      A picture of me and Karan in front of our car:
 

Road Trip 3/19~3/25

    I still couldn't believe I made the most out of this spring break as I look back on those days on my road trip. I can remember well the many nights I talked with my buddy over the hot pool about my yearning to do something crazy that would stick with me for the rest of my life. Back then, many thoughts came to our mind, one being driving across the U.S. Yet, taking into account the practicalities, like budget and time, we agreed upon travelling only the West Coast, starting from California to Oregon, and then to Washington.  We then came up with several things essential to implement our plan and found people to be part of it. Tim and Henry were thus recruited and with them, we had a group of four. This, as it would turn out, helped us to split the cost of the whole trip and made it thus affordable for me!!

Board Game Night (3/8)

I had a great night with my fellow brothers at T house. I especially liked the board game called Saboteur.

Birthday Party & Indian Dancing Night

   
    My buddy Karan threw a B'DAY party today for himself. I, for one, was invited to the party, yet I also doubled as a helper, taking pictures of him and his friends.

Queen Sheba- Karan's B'DAY

Today is my Indian bro's birthday. I was thinking hard about how to celebrate it. Then, eating out came to my mind or actually, it was the first thing off the top of my head.

Ali Baba

Having lunch with Hide at Ali Baba...

Walking across the Golden Gate Bridge(2/20)

We were planning on biking across the Golden Gate bridge to begin with, yet we later chose to walk instead as it was hard for us to bike to the bridge from SF downtown.

When we got to SF from Davis, it was already a little over 1 o'clock. So, we came to this Greek restaurant, and I had a Greek sandwich, which had a strong taste of cheese.

Sam's Mediterranean

I really like Shawarm over rice at Sam's Mediteranean. Usually, it is served in gyros or sandwich-like wrap.

Sacramento City College

Today, I accompanied Taimour to Sacramento City College, where he was gonna register for his sister. The campus was really dwarfed by the UCD campus, but the tuition of this community college is a lot cheaper than than that of UCD.

Happy Birthday to Me- Fuji Sushi Buffet

Thank you, Hide and Carlos for celebrating my birthday.....A bit offtopic: I am gonna miss the all-you-can-eat sushi buffet in Davis.