Helloooo Cleveland! The last 2 weeks have been really hectic and full of excitement and new experiences but classes started this Monday and I have finally settled in enough that I can write my first entry from here.

That and I only FINALLY got internet in my apartment last night!!! One of my new classmates told me she went the last year and a half without internet. I simply cannot fathom how she is still alive.

So the morning after I arrive in Cleveland, Baron comes to visit me, demanding that I show him around Cleveland as if I've lived here all my life. So what do I end up doing? Drag him around with me and my roommate to open bank accounts, go grocery shopping and other very boring errands. Poor boy. Pictures:

Classic Baron (notice hand placement):

At the University Circle Botanical Gardens:

I also forced Baron to sleep on the floor with practically no bedding. A wonderful host I am indeed ...but please do not let that deter you from coming to visit. I promise I will be more prepared next time! (Baron: send me the pictures from your camera!)

This past weekend was my school's White Coat Ceremony. It was held at Severance Hall (home of the Cleveland Orchestra) and my family flew out here to attend...and also to help me move furniture and rat out the scanty asian markets and restaurants out here. Supposedly the best market here is called Tink Holl  Gosh I miss 99.

Anyway, pictures:

Severance Hall (VERY beautiful...definitely something worth seeing with your own eyes):

My family: I could not ask for a more loving and supportive family. I love you guys!

I think men look so much better in white coats...they need to make a version for women that is more flattering.

School has been awesome. Attending a private school certainly has its perks. I feel SO well taken care of here...the curriculum is extremely well designed, the faculty are warm, accessible and genuinely caring, I was given a laptop for our state of the art eCurriculum, and they keep feeding us (score!).

It has also been really really nice getting to know and making friends with non-Asian people. Not that I don't love my Asian friends...but I think living in California (and especially the Bay Area) can become a sort of bubble because you are surrounded by so many people like you. Some of the people I've met here are my age but married and expecting kids soon! Ohio is definitely miles beyond my comfort zone and I really appreciate the opportunity to explore it.

Goodbye California... *sniff sniff*  

The summer is quickly winding down and my days left in the Bay Area are numbered so I thought I'd compile a photo collage of how I've spent my time during the month of July (none of which was occupied by working at CHORI!!! Muahahahaha!)

June 25th (yeah yeah, it's not July but it's MY blog after all): Anne + Kenny's Wedding! Don't you just love weddings? Ah, the love and romance in the air!  

Anne and Kenny are a perfect example of how my older cousins make me feel dumb. They're both "Hah-vuhd" alums and doctors to boot. Can we say power couple?

Here are my lovely sister Jane and her b/f Anson posing at the altar...I think I hear more wedding bells in the near future!!!

July 1st weekend:

1. Brian returns to the Bay Area (but unfortunately not for long) after a one year absence!

2. I turn 23!

We took Brian wine tasting in Napa. Here are some awesome pictures Brian (an extremely talented photographer) took:

A bottle of wine from V.Sattui (Napa's best winery!) and some grapes:

Picnic!:

And here are some pics from my birthday dinners. Thanks so much to everyone who helped make my 23rd birthday memorable and loads of fun!

Due to Baron's encouragement, I got a pretty good buzz from the sake that was on the house (which tasted suspiciously like nail polish remover btw):

 Glug glug glug....

Hence the silliness that followed:

Dinner at Legendary Palace the next night was a much more civilized affair:

July 13-15: Disneyland!

Me and Katherine (Kart) drove down to visit Corinna and the Happiest Place on Earth! Happy 50th Birthday Disneyland!

It took me the entire weekend to finally get the "It's a Small World After All" theme song out of my head...

Here, Corinna demonstrates how to skin a sour dough bowl:

July 15th: Sharon takes me to a Dental School Party (yes, such a thing does exist and no, they're not as nerdy as they sound!)

Sharon, Collin and I:

July 16th: Baron's Farewell BBQ

Best of luck to Baron (law school), David (NIH Internship), Stella (med school) and Cindy (grad school)!

Stella, Brian and Baron try to teach us some of their innate Philippino karaoke skills:

Ray sings "Sometimes" by Britney Spears in Mandarin (gotta represent Chinese karaoke too!!): 

     "Yo sze ho woh pow...."

July 22-24: Visiting Vicky & Chris in Santa Barbara!

They say people look like their dogs and vice versa. A perfect example would be Vicky and her baby Jasmine:

Clubbin' at Q's:

Min and the blowjobs he bought for us (wait, what did I just say?)

Chris & Vicky (awwww!):

At the park the next afternoon:

Chris carries off his woman the old-fashioned (caveman) way:

And that's it! I now have one week left to pack all my things and say my last goodbyes! I will definitely miss California...not so much for the great weather and the delicious food but for all the friends and memories.

WARNING: If you do not appreciate sentimental, lovey-dovey, mashy-mushy comments about significant others, stop reading NOW.

To end my overly long post - a shoutout to my hockey jock b/f  David , who is leaving Berkeley in one more day. I'll be missing you every moment we're apart hunser! <3 u!:

*swoon*

Last Friday, Katherine, Corinna and Patty took me out to Townhouse Bar & Grill in Emeryville for a celebration lunch.

It's a quaint little restaurant in the middle of nowhere that looks like a shack from the outside but is rustic and surprisingly posh on the inside. The food was amazing! Here is a postprandial (  )picture:

These girls are the best! They make work so much fun! AND to top it all off, they remember what popples are!

As we were leaving the work for the night, we saw a gorgeous complete rainbow! I rarely see full rainbows so I had to take a picture...unfortunately the rainbow was too big so i had to split it into two pictures...and I didn't even capture the top of the arc cause I was in a hurry since it was raining. Argh:

Not a very good stitch job but you get the idea.

This weekend I went down to L.A. with David to pick up his TV. As part of his effort to show me just how much better So Cal fob food is, he took me to Din Tai Fung, the famous Taiwanese dumpling restaurant, Oceanstar Hong Kong Seafood Restaurant for dimsum and Life Plaza for fruit and boba drinks. After gorging myself on all the goodies, I've come to the conclusion that the food is pretty comparable to Nor Cal but much cheaper. And of course my mom's dumplings are still better. Here you can see that Bruce is a huge fan of Life Plaza:

So I guess now that the huge burden of getting into med school has been lifted, I am free to do frivolous things that I've wanted to do for a long time but wouldn't allow myself to do out of guilt. For example, I went and got my ears pierced last Thursday and I've been toying with the idea of highlighting my hair. And, of course, more time for my poor neglected xanga!

First order of business: pictures from a recent trip to Tahoe! Boo on the East Coast Boys for not coming up to nor cal for snowboarding this winter break! Look at what you missed!

On the drive up:

View from the top of Heavenly:

David, the intrepid adventurer and the Nevada valley behind him under a blanket of snow:

So I wasn't having a great day when this was taken b/c David dragged me onto the double blacks on the Nevada side. Here I am, clenching the mountain with my butt cheeks:

And one more for good measure. This one makes me *sigh*...

Who's up for going up again?

Ok, uploading these pictures took waaaaay longer than I wanted it to. See? This is why I don't update! It takes forever!!!

 I'm going to bed.