International Gateway

I woke up at 6:45 AM on a Saturday morning to head off to San Francisco. Yes, a Saturday. What's more was that I woke up feeling full of energy and wasn't grumbling of how drowsy I am, so I got up without a problem. Great! Shower and it's time to dash off in the quiet weekend morning. I'm excited about the zip line over the plaza, and knowing that I'm way ahead of schedule of the attraction opening at 10 AM, I'm sure to get the wristbands to reserve my spot, right? Wrong.


I make my way there and I'm told that I'm out of luck, as some people had started forming the line at 3 AM, and they were only giving out 500 wristbands per day. According on some blog, getting there by 9:30 will guarantee you a spot, but with this as the last weekend, EVERYONE wants to go. So now what? I'm NOT going home, since I just got here. Well, it's San Francisco and thank goodness there are other things to do. Heck, I even finished my Physiology homework while overlooking Union Square.

And so by foot, with my heavy gear, determination, sweat and blood (just kidding), I am able to present you my urban journey. Even though I had to endure the hilly terrain of the city, walking about the height of 20 floors up.

TransAmerica Building

Yay!

California Street trolley cars

This man basically had the same view I had while I was doing my homework, heh.

At first I thought these were stray dogs. Turns out they belong to the couple.

Alcatraz Island

Coit Tower

Sansome Street

And there you have it. My legs hurt. Speaking of which...

This man was sprinting like a cartoon character across the road in front of oncoming cars (I'm serious!), amusing his group of five friends. That black luxury there zoomed by his side. I found it funny (though find it a highly stupid act), and his posture just makes me laugh.


Only in America.

Spring Break

"We should show life neither as it is or as it ought to be, but only as we see it in our dreams."

Count Leo Tolstoy

Productively sluggish best describes the last 8 days away from school.

What a strange break, it was. I had two choices: treat it like summer vacation or to treat it as a couple days off from school. Though reality was the latter, my choice was somewhat in between, or both I could even say. Mentally, the break seemed like it lasted on and on but the things I completed in a short amount of time would typically be found in a longer break. Here are some of those things:

• Cycling to Morgan Hill, California and back.
  56.4 miles
  
  Yes, I've done it again--biking far distances but with Derek. My middle name should be Jimmy "Crazy" Ly. Works well, too, because my last name makes it an adverb! This trip was special in that it was a city to city trip, from the San Jose (Milpitas, really, for my case), with nothing in between. Just rural the rural plains and ranches of California for miles, grasslands, trees, and whatnot.
  
  Picturesque outskirts of San Jose, highway 101 lies in the background.
  
  
  Our trail cutting through the untouched parts of nature, with Derek in for a shot.
  
  Picture of me in the middle of nowhere.
  
  Here and there, we passed by some few ranches that I never knew existed.
  
  
  And our destination! Morgan Hill, thumbtacked in purple on the map way above this post.
  
  The way back, racing the sun to San Jose city limits. Unfortunately, it beat us by almost half an hour.
  
  
• Downtown Job Hunting
  I went down and dropped off at two locations my resume, which I also completed within this break period. Notice the picture contrasts greatly with what I did the day before. The quote starting this post was found on a whiteboard as I was seeking applications in an office on my hunt.
  
  
• Outdoor Photography in the Rain
  First time. :)
  
  
• Completing Homework
  With Abby, Kimbo and Amy. The math gang, as I like to call it.
  
  
• Submitted a Statement of Intention to Register (SIR), Created a UCLA E-mail
  And rejected all others. UC Davis' was the most painful, because I loved the campus.
  
  I guess UC Irvine really wanted me in. ;) It had, one of the worst websites to navigate around, taking me 20 minutes just to find the SIR. I ended up googling it to find the form, and a friend even called me to ask where I had found it. Anyway, I now have a [USERNAME]@ucla.edu email address that I love.
  
  
  
• Finished a Pushed-Back Scholarship
  I've procrastinated a bit too much. Glad it's over with.

And that's it. Quite a bit for a week.

Photo courtesy of Justin Beck

And that was supposed to be me on the 10th of April, but plans were canceled because I had no ride nor energy to haul my butt on the subway that early. I'm hoping next week would change that.