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Design Researcher @ Yahoo, Thespian, Stanford & Cornell alumna
- Y! Teachers of Merit
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This almost makes me tear up
Tuesday July 25, 2006 - 04:57pm (PDT) Permanent Link | 1 Comment - Countdown to Scotland & England: 1 day! :)
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Four years ago, I was fortunate to study abroad at Oxford University (St. Catherine's College, to be exact) for half a year. It was definitely one of my best experiences ever; not only did I study with renowned tutors (one of my English tutors personally knew Salman Rushdie, and some of my friends studied literature with Wordsworth's grandson), but I was also fortunate enough to partake in British activities such as:
- Rowing on a crew team and attending a "crew date" (when a male crew team thinks your female team is cute and invites y'all over for wining and dining at one of the 40 colleges at Oxford)
- Watching tons of Oxford plays and auditioning for/getting called back for "Vagina Monologues"/getting cast for a Shakespearan farce which I unfortunately couldn't perform in due to flying home during the performance dates
- Dating a British bloke
and going punting!
This time, Bowei's presenting at the WWW Conference in Edinburgh tomorrow, so I will join him on Friday for 5 days in Scotland and then 2.5 days in England on the way back!
I am SO excited to go back to Britain; I went to Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Loch Lomond/Stirling 4 years ago, but am really eager to show Bowei around (it's his first time in Europe).
Also, of course, I had to convince him to stop by England on the way back! Plus, two of my HS friends are in England, one in London and one (Dan) doing his Ph.D. at Oxford. Dan's invited Bowei and me to dinner at Christ Church, the most famous and biggest college at Oxford. They filmed part of Harry Potter there when I was there, and I only got to attend brunch, so I'm really estatic about dining high-class! 
Here are some pictures I've been looking at in anticipation!
LONDON 2002
With Anne and Amy in front of Buckingham Palace
With Janine and Ryan in front of London Tower
Westminster Abbey with Lydia and Anne
Trying to survive the rain at Stonehenge
OXFORD 2002
Christ Church with some friends
Punting!
Rowing in the rain (I'm 3rd from back, and yes, I mostly rowed bow as I was the smallest person on the team)
Janine and me @ Cambridge
I'll bring back souvenirs and try not to think about work too much!
Have fun at home and enjoy the sunny weather!
(Hehe, not too surprising for this time of year; looks like 60% rain in Britain almost everyday while we're there)Wednesday May 24, 2006 - 12:18am (PDT) Permanent Link | 0 Comments - Rowing on a crew team and attending a "crew date" (when a male crew team thinks your female team is cute and invites y'all over for wining and dining at one of the 40 colleges at Oxford)
- Birthday, Biking, & Snowboarding pix
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Thanks, everyone, for such an amazing birthday month! Because of my different groups of friends, I ended up celebrating my birthday every weekend in March!
Yes, I am spoiled.
1) Due to the absence of my boyfriend (who was in Cambodia), the South Bay guys decided to make me feel like a princess and lift me off the ground! =P
2) With the Berkeley girls
I liked this pic of the Stanford girls more than the ones from my bday =P Here's us at a club in San Jose for Joanna's bday
When Bo got back, he took me to Le Theatre, a pricey and delectable French restaurant, and Culture Clash's "Zorro's In Hell" @ Berkeley Repertory Theater.
These are belated Valentine's pix, but for Valentine's Day/my birthday/Christmas, Bowei got me a Dahon foldable bike
along with "Life of Pi"! (We exchanged books =P I got him "Shalimar the Clown", Salman Rushdie's latest, along with giving him my Powerbook =P) Here we're riding it around my apt.
And here it is compact.
Lastly, here are pix from our recent snowboarding trip! Here's Ryan, Bo, me, Alison, and Biren.
And the gang @ a restaurant in Caesar's.
And by Lake Tahoe!
Wednesday April 12, 2006 - 10:18pm (PDT) Permanent Link | 1 Comment - Very belated Post-Holiday update
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My house (in upstate NY) during the winter
Family Christmas Card
I've been meaning to write this entry since, well, January, but am finally getting a chance to now. Going home during Christmas break was incredibly relaxing and well-deserved after a really stressful quarter that included getting sick twice at the end.
Returning to Oneida feels like going back to a different world. My town has a population of 10,000, and the biggest attraction is Walmart. When I go to town hotspots (including Walmart =P), random friendly people smile and wave at me like they know me. (Actually, perhaps they do; did I mention that my family is the only Asian one in town?) Traffic is slow, the pace feels slow, and life seems to slow down. Definitely a nice break from the congested highways and crowded stores in the Bay Area, but most of all, it gave me an opportunity to step back and "look at the big picture," as someone once told me.
After this chance to regain perspective, I read this fitting passage in Teacher Man by Frank McCourt:
"There's a chilling essay by Thoreau called, 'Walking,' where he says when you go out the door for a walk you should be so free, so unencumbered, you need never return to the starting place. You just keep walking because you're free. I had the kids read this essay and they said, 'Oh no, they could never do that. Just walk away? You kiddin'?'
Which is strange because when I talked to them about Kerouac and Ginsberg hitting the road, they thought it was wonderful. All that freedom. Marijuana and women and wine for three thousand miles. When I talk to those kids, I'm talking to myself. What we have in common is urgency. Christ, I'm middle-aged and making discoveries the average intelligent American knew at twenty. The mask is mostly off, and I can breathe."
p.s. It took me forever to add a second picture in this entry. I followed other people's tips, and ended up using this code <img src="picture.jpg" height="293" width="400" alt="Image" /> which worked for one picture but kept erasing any others I tried to add
Tuesday February 28, 2006 - 11:49pm (PST) Permanent Link | 1 Comment - My Thanksgiving avatar, Harry Potter, and Rent
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Ernie's blog entry about my avatar ("squinty but not that squinty") started an interesting discussion, so I'm displaying the controversial avatar again for those who missed it.
Meanwhile, I've changed my avatar for Christmas Note the snow (which I don't really miss but will see in a month in NY), flying reindeer, Yahoo! sweatshirt, and wink on my face (it's either that, the squinty "special" face, or frown; no big smile available ).
Quick Thanksgiving recap:- amazing food at Bowei's aunt's including tiramisu for his cousin's birthday (I'll try to include pictures later once I snag them from Bo's camera)
- Thanksgiving II with Berkeley friends
- watching "Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire" with Bowei
- watching "Rent" with Elaine, Lyn, and Grant
On "Harry Potter 4":The 4th book was my favorite, and I really enjoyed the movie as well. I was amazed that they were able to fit in most everything, excluding Hermione's uprising for the house elves. It made us laugh in the beginning and almost cry at the end - well, okay, maybe just me, and don't make fun of me - a character dies.
It's definitely a lot darker than the previous ones, so be careful about bringing young kids.
On "Rent":Although the movie did seem overdramatic at times (like any movie with singing characters), I still enjoyed it. The added benefits of depicting the plot cinematically, like using the imagery of New York and incorporating flashbacks, really made the experience seem more real. I hadn't watched the musical since early high school, so I didn't notice all of the musical cuts. It was sad that they left out some of the humorous answering machine messages ("that was a very loud beep!"), but for the most part, I liked the cinematic take on "Rent."
Some of my favorite songs (with samples from Amazon - open in IE):
- "Life Support" ("No Day But Today") - This was the song that reminded me again of how powerful Rent's message is. I'll include the dialogue and some of the lyrics below.
- "Will I" - sung by same AIDS life support group as a round
- "I Should Tell You" - Roger and Mimi's first love duet. Although Daphne Rubin-Vega is the original Mimi, I liked Rosario Dawson's voice; it was sweet, clear, and lingering.
- "I'll Cover You Reprise" - Tom Collins' tribute to Angel at his funeral. I'm including the 1996 soundtrack version here because the 2005 sample is the very beginning of the song, but Jesse Martin blew me away with his gorgeous voice. A lot of people in the audience were in tears (including myself). Angel and Tom's relationship always seemed the most genuine and touching to me even though the focus of the musical is on Roger and Mimi; Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia) rocks my world.
Dialogue from "Life Support"
GORDON:
Excuse me Paul -- I'm having a problem with this
This credo -- My T-cells are low --
I regret that news, okay?
PAUL: Alright. But Gordon - How do you feel today?
GORDON: What do you mean?
PAUL: How do you feel today?
GORDON: Okay.
PAUL: Is that all?
GORDON: Best I've felt all year
PAUL: Then why choose fear?
GORDON:
I'm a New Yorker!
Fear's my life!
Look - I find some of what you teach suspect
Because I'm used to relying on intellect
But I try to open up to what I don't know
GORDON AND ROGER:
Because reason says I should have died
Three years ago
ALL
There's only us
There's only this
Forget regret or life is yours to miss
No other road
No other way
No day but today
"The opposite of war isn't peace, it's creation." - "La Vie Boheme"Monday November 28, 2005 - 10:10pm (PST) Permanent Link | 0 Comments - "Life Support" ("No Day But Today") - This was the song that reminded me again of how powerful Rent's message is. I'll include the dialogue and some of the lyrics below.
