Back to School... again.
Sitting on a Sun Country flight back to Stanford after winter break, I do realize that I havn't written in here for almost half a year now. Unacceptable, I know. I promise to be better from now on!
The rest of the summer was pretty uneventful: just hanging out with friends, neighbors (Rui's basement is the community playground), and my family, until going back to school for a packed, anti-social, but still very very lazy fall quarter. Maruti didn't end up coming due to an emergency, but Tingting, Jessica, Deepa, and I did finally go clubbing (no, I didn't forget about you, Dan). Escape is very nice, but I didn't like the music much, not to mention there was a creepy guy who groped everyone, and eventually started a fight which broke Deepa's toenail. Grrr... Still, it was fun. It's fun to stay at the U of MN with Tingting and visit people, and sometimes unexpected people show up, like Daray, or Robert (remember? he asked 11+ girls to prom... eventually, people were just saying no because they didn't like being 11th choice..).
I kept playing WoW until my subscription ran out, of course, which was about a week and a half into the quarter, so people would catch me playing WoW at my desk instead of doing work. It certainly was memorable when I had to get Nyx over to BRD from Feralas, and I got my ass over to Suites where everyone else was before my character got there. Nyx is level 55 now, and has gone into indefinite hibernation in Ironforge at level 55. Did I suffer from withdrawal? Haha, it wasn't as bad as everyone, including myself, was expecting, although I did reformat my computer to resist the temptation to play WoW, and I have no objections to a computer that functions normally. Honestly, I considered playing WoW again for the 3 weeks of winter break, but then decided that I kind of wanted a life.
I'm living in Adelfa this year with Alina (my roommate), Dominique, Michelle, Ann, and Priyanka. Lagunita Court is beautiful, and the food is actually pretty good, although it gets repetitive. Adelfa is quiet, which I enjoy: there is a back entrance and a narrow stairway right by our room. It's sad to think about the freshman living there, though. I don't know many of them, but West Lag is tame, and it's not the sort of freshman experience I would have liked to have (think J-ro instead ^^). When I arrived, I was too busy in the first weeks to meet anybody, and by then, its a little too late. I mean, I say hi to people, but I don't really know them, and it doesn't help to have rehearsal during every house meeting either. People told me, though, that its normal in a four-class dorm that the freshman don't really know any of the upperclassmen. My drawgroup spends the most time with a group of sophomore boys who used to live in Paloma, some of who are really cool, and we eat dinner with them. I havn't really been going to lots of large, group dinners though. I feel bad, missing dinners with everyone and group fun like Cranium and Taboo. I kind of go to a different flow than everyone else.. sleeping during dinner, eating in my room, having a date with Maruti when everyone else goes out for dinner, etc. I'm pretty independent, and I don't mean to ignore any of my friends in the process, but it's happened this quarter, and I want to change that next quarter.
And here we come to one of the age-old divides: friends vs. boyfriend. I rarely spend 8 hours away from Maruti (before I get the lecture about that being unhealthy, recall that we have almost all of the same classes, and study together). I spend almost as much time in Adelfa as at Suites, where Maruti lives. Their suite is pretty messy, but cool, especially after they rearranged their common room during Thanksgiving. When food at Lag gets annoying, or I don't feel like going back, I eat at their eating club. Sure, its one guest a week, but there are six people in their drawgroup, so the chef probably thinks I live there now. There's not much one can do with Maruti's room, but I've been reworking the loft to be a cozy reading space, and trying to redecorate. I never realized how hard it was to make a room look good without making it look feminine!
Our room at Adelfa is awesome, though I think I clutter it up more than Alina does. It's a large corner room: Alina has her bed in one corner, with her desk under a huge window and her dresser next to her desk, while I have my bed (with new curtains). in another corner lined up with another huge window, with my desk at the foot and a dresser as a nightstand. OK, that was too much information, but basically: we have three huge windows, and Alina has her desk under one like she wanted, I have my bed by another like I wanted, and a third between our desks!! Also, this year we have walk-in closets and a sink in our room. What more can a girl ask for? We have squishy pads on our mattresses. We have my windchime hanging from the light in the center of the ceiling. When we open our windows, sunlight just pours in, but when we draw the curtains, the room is completely dark. We have christmas lights and tinsel all along the top of our walls, two huge bells on our door (courtesy of Justin), and some silver/iridescent cardboard stars on our ceiling that we may or may not have stolen from the ground near Elliot where there was a dance being held. We drink tea and hot chocolate and apple cider compulsively. We listen to Harry Potter soundtracks when we're doing homework, and we listen to Death Cab for Cutie when we're not. In short, life in Adelfa 227 is very good. Except the window. Oh, you have not heard of the window yet.
I call it the Window of Death. Because, when we first moved in, I could have rolled over in bed and fallen straight out the window. See, the screen layer of the window is supposed to be hinged at the top, and hooked at the bottom. My window was missing hooks, so the window just flapped out if you push on it. Hmm, well, that's not really safe, right? So I file a fix-it, somebody comes in, and I go "Hey, look Wayne! My window is fixed!" I push on the window to demonstrate, and the TOP of the window starts falling outwards. Eep! I catch it and file another fixit. Once again, "Hey look! My window is fixed!" I unhook the bottom and try to demonstrate how it will swing out like the other 2 windows in my room. It doesn't swing. Instead, the screen falls completely off the frame. I catch it, maneuver it back in, and its back to a fix-it. This time a supervisor comes to my room to investigate the problem, and then a fix-it person comes. Guess what? This time the left side of the screen is not attached. Gaaaaahhh.... Finally, the fix-it people gave up, and offered me this excuse:
"Please do not open your window. These windows are not meant to be opened, even though all the other windows open. The function of the windows is not to be opened." Right.
Weeks 1 and 2 of fall-quarter were the pre-Vienna weeks, which meant that as soon as I moved in, it was practicing piano like crazy, and having lessons every 2 days or so. My teacher said, "Wow, you did a good job over the summer. I was worried." I wasn't sure whether that was a compliment or not, but between piano and shopping classes, I was completely busy. At the end of the first week, Jessica, Doris, Yung-Yee, and I had our concert at the Old First Church in San Francisco (supposedly we're supposed to get a recording of it). Yung-yee's mother drove us there, and we were very nervous about memory as well as the fact that none of us had performed for at least a year, but it turned out to be a lot of fun: not fun as in the exciting jumping around yay fun, but fun as in, the acoustics were great, the piano was soft-spoken but beautiful, and we had a good time just playing and listening to the music.
The third week of the quarter, we FINALLY GOT TO GO TO VIENNA!! It was absolutely amazing and inspiring. The food was delicious, the city was beautiful, and art is just everywhere! Only in Vienna would you hear street violinists that are so good.
We lived in this small suburb called Modling, where Schoenberg's house was, and Beethoven lived once too (we thought it was strange that there was a random bust of Beethoven sitting on a street corner). We arrived on Monday night, found our inn, and then found a small italian restaurant to eat a midnight snack, and turned in: Jessica roomed with Doris, and I roomed with Yung-Yee. Four chinese girls, what a coincidence.. Tuesday morning, we wandered Modling, and then headed over the Schoenberg house for our afternoon master classes, which were torturously boring. We were falling asleep, we wanted to scream... I can't sit still, and when one note is being played every 2 seconds.. Ahh! Each of those three master classes were terrible, but it was worth it, because we got to hop on a train and go into Vienna afterwards! The first night, we ate at Cafe Imperial, and then went to a woodwind recital at to Schoenberg center, during which we slowly fell asleep (it was great music, but we were really tired). I felt terrible about falling asleep in concerts like that, but we seriously couldn't help it. Then we had SACHER TORTE! It wasn't all it was made out to be, but chocolate is delicious anyway.. especially Mozart chocolate. Mmmm.... =) I thought that was good evening, but it only got better from there.
Wednesday, we made an extra effort to get up early in the morning get practicing in: really difficult, because for each of us to get a simple hour, it takes 4 hours plus travelling time. None of us were really able to practice well that week. After master class, though, we once again went to Vienna. We even got a kebap at the train station, which was another of the highlights of Vienna. Wednesday night, we saw Ashkenazy conduct the Tokyo symphonic orchestra at the Musikverein. We were actually sitting in the back part of the stage, behind the percussion! One of the percussionists warned us, "Next song... a lot of drums.. very loud, very sorry." The violin concerto was beautiful, but I definitely fell asleep during the Shostakovich symphony in the second half.
Thursday morning, we wanted to head into Vienna during the day time, so we got up really early. It was delightful to walk around the city as the sun was still low in the sky. We could be in school... or we could be walking in the crisp, wintery morning air along a broad pedestrian street surrounded by intricately carved stone buildings and small local stores, featuring the towering Plague Column of angels and clouds. Vienna is such a beautiful city compared to any in the United States. Every single view was amazing, watching the light bounce off the buildings, or looking at the buildings, even the roads, and all the sculptures and fountains all over. We ate at Cafe Central, where there was this ultimate pastry covered with berries, kiwi, all sorts of fruit, and drizzled with honey and sugar. I fell in love with it, and wanted to bring it home, but the girls pointed out that I better eat it while it was still fresh. We also went and visited Beethoven's old apartment. After that pointless wandering, we ended up a bit late to master class (eep) and were pretty severely reprimanded, but it was OK, because we went back to Vienna afterwards also, and this time, we saw the opera Werthur. The opera house is amazing, and the opera was really well done too: I was really touched. When the curtain lifted, the set was breathtaking: a tree with separate leaves hanging off of hundreds of strings from the ceiling). We were lucky enough to have center floor tickets, which are usually incredibly expensive, but the Schoenberg Center subsidized most of it. It was really cool, also, because in front of every chair was a personal computer display with words in whatever language you chose - the MN opera house displays lyrics near the stage.
Friday was the day of our recital, so first thing in the morning, we took the train to Vienna, ate at Cafe Schwartz...something and each practiced for 45 minutes at the Schoenberg Center. We didn't get internet while we were there, so the first time I checked my email was Friday, at the Schoenberg Center. I was so happy to hear from Maruti, but imagine how upset I was that I was missing 80 thousand auditions that week!! OK, ok, I just missed Remix callbacks and Viennese Ball opening auditions. Anyway, that was a little depressing, but I got over it, and we went to wander Vienna for more food (I forgot where!), and returned around 4pm to take a nap in the oh-so-comfy couches in the green room. We planned to get up in an hour or so, change, and warm up, but we didn't wake up until somebody came in. "Um... you guys wanna get up? The recital starts in 45 minutes..." We were like, SHIT. Good thing we didn't go all the way back to Modling to rest like our teacher wanted, or we would've just missed it! A week of sleep deprival catches up to you... Anyway, the recital went well, but was not as fun as in San Francisco, I think. Afterwards, the director of the Schoenberg center took us out for more yummy food, and we headed back to Modling, ready for our big day Saturday!
And Saturday was the bestest bestest day in Vienna. We went everywhere, following our beloved Frommers: Cafe Mozart (breakfast), Cafe Demel (lunch), Cafe Europa (dinner?), Dolce (delicious ice cream dessert), the Hofburg palace, St. Stephens, various statues and fountains and memorials, a music instrument museum (we saw Brahm's and Schumann's pianos!), more churches, and lots of shopping (...chocolate...). When we finally said bye bye to Vienna, the sky was dark, but all the building lights were lit, and it was just as beautiful as the sun streaking through the streets in the morning. We miss Vienna. =(
While I was in Vienna, I missed call-back auditions for REMIX, which is a new salsa/hip-hop dance group on campus, and was incredibly bummed out. They were nice, though, and let me go to two practices as a make-up for the audition, and now we have practices every Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon. It's tiring on Wednesday nights, and I definitely don't learn/dance well then, but its so much fun on Saturdays. I really love the group, which ranges from freshmen to grad students. Everyone is fun (except one girl I dislike), and I love the structured way the group is run, as well as the emphasis on real dancing: choreography, precision, emotion, and most of all an enthusiasm for dancing. The group offers something to everyone, because no matter what level you are at, you can always improve. We learned one dance in a month to perform during fall quarter, we're starting new choreography this wednesday, and have two big performances at the end of winter quarter.
My fall quarter was also defined by insane midterms. Once I returned from Vienna, I had 3 or 4 midterms that first week, which was insane. I took 7 classes this quarter (5 real classes). I spent the week struggling to catch up in time for the midterms, ditching chem and bio to study chem and bio. After finally getting through that, I had two semi-normal weeks of the usual problem sets, before another week of midterms hit. I had midterms and big projects due every single day for a week, and then a lovely chemistry midterm the next week. Eventually you get sick of cramming for each midterm the night before until 3 or 4am. I don't know how I made it through, but I know it was with massive class ditchage, mostly of chemistry and biology (thank god for the chem syllabus book and bio slides). And the Technology and National Security class.. Former Secretary of Defense (William Perry!) ;) talks SOOOO slow and with such a deep voice, that to save time I started watching the classes by video, at double speed (it actually makes him sound normal). We had our first remix performance at the end of midterm week, and then it was home to Thanksgiving break, and back for a quick wrap-up and finals. Somewhere in the quarter, though, there was time to go to Screw your Sib with my sib family of the coolest people, Hin, Wayne, and Dani Zhao, and Moonsplash with my favorite draw group. Then, during those last weeks, it was raining really hard once, and my longboard slipped just outside Lag while I was making a tight turn. I slammed onto the rough road on my right side and slid a bit, it hurt incredibly for a second, and then my entire right side went numb and barely functional for the next several hours. Ow. Maruti helped me clean up, and I have pretty icky scars on my knee and elbow now. Hey, character, right?
Our CHEM131 final was really hellish, and I pretty much failed it, which was depressing, but these things happen, and once again (like all of my midterms) there were problems with the grading, so I still have to go get a regrade. Studying for biology was also terrible, because there's so much information, but Alina and I were both studying so hard for our finals that night that at 2am, both of us were too stressed to sleep, and our finals were early in the morning. Oi. Bio didn't turn out as well as the two midterms, but it was OK, except for one question that I just couldn't figure out the answer to. Of course, right after I step out of the test and call my father, he immediately tells me what the right answer is.
I particularly enjoyed taking music theory and understanding the music I hear and play, but I did not enjoy piano lessons after we came back from Vienna. I feel stifled by my teacher, partially by the simple fact that I'm taking piano as an academic course. It's become really stressful, and I'm always worried about doing what my teacher says. He tells me to do it one way, I do it that way, and then he yells at me for being inartistic and not creative. Yet every time I do something creative, he shoots it down, and gives me a different interpretation - sometimes one that I just can't successfully do. For example, he was telling me to make a certain Beethoven bagatelle sound frantic. Now, I can do "frantic" with some music. But I didn't believe that the certain bagatelle WAS frantic: the music was more like a waltz, fast but peaceful. I can't MAKE it sound frantic, simply because I didn't agree that it should be. More trouble there. All these clashes with my teacher, and he treats me like I'm an idiot. I don't know everything about music, but if he just told me "slow down here" or "be more dramatic and bring out the theme more here", that would be enough. Instead he goes off on a long story, to educate me. Sometimes I think he doesn't know that I do have ideas of my own, so he tries to impose some, which stifles my ideas, and then we're both frustrated.
I could get another teacher (I have less and less time to practice, and once I start research, I think I'll have to stop anyway), or I could stop taking lessons. I'm afraid that if I stop taking lessons, I'll start slacking off on piano, and lessons really are VERY useful (I had a lesson with Jean again in MN, and I always look forward to those, and getting a second opinion), but I don't love playing with Dr. Schultz. I'm not sure what to do. I enjoyed practicing at home by myself over break, and I think when I go back, I'll have another lesson at school, along with a serious talk, and see about the next quarter. As a ChemE major, eventually I have to let go of piano, at least as such a structured and driven activity, but it's always hard to leave behind something that defined you.
After finals, my dad suggested that I go out to dinner to relax, so go out to dinner with Maruti I did. There's this incredible new gelato place in Palo Alto, across the street from the new tea place, near the Apple store. The gelato is SO delicious (well, strawberry anyway), and upstairs, you can go outside and sit on a balcony by the lighted trees lining the street. It's a really special niche, and everyone should try that place sometimes. They also have the cutest pink/green/blue cups and spoons! Maruti and I were tempted to make eating dessert before dinner mandatory, but thought that maybe we'd actually be really hungry one day and want real food first. After we had gelato, we had gnocchi at Pasta?, which reminds me of the last time we were in Palo Alto. Usually when you order a Mango Freeze (which is incredible) from The Cheesecake Factory, they give it to you in a tall glass. In fact, when I was sitting at a table with 9 guys for Justin's Birthday, they gave it to me with 2 straws. Yet, when Maruti and I went alone with just the two of us, and ordered one mango freeze, and the waitress confirmed specifically, "are you two going to share it?" instead of giving us two straws, she split it into two glasses! We were so shocked! Well, that happened with the gnocchi too, although its more understandable with food than with a special drink. We ordered one plate because we weren't hungry, but instead they split the dish into two smaller plates. We ended up just dumping them onto one plate and poking them out of the middle of the table anyway... Finally, after such rich food, we went to the new tea place in Palo Alto, which has really yummy fragrant tea. Alina must be dragged there sometime. Maruti and I figured out where the Midnight Express actually stops, too, and took that back to Lag.
The celebration continued on to the next day, which Maruti and I spend in San Francisco. We took the Caltrain over and took a bus up north to up by Ghiradelli Square. It was great to be in San Francisco with nothing to care about, and a full day ahead of you to do anything you want. It's such a feeling of freedom to just walk where you feel like it... and eat Godiva pop-chocolates everywhere. You can't eat one of those without smiling! We ended up having really good pizza at a small place while the sun went down in the afternoon, ice cream and a chocolate covered strawberry at Ghiradelli Square. We also wandered around Fisherman's Wharf and watched the moon near the bridge as the sky turned pale purple. We took a bus and decided to stop of Pier 1, watched the full moon rise high as the bridge glowed with lights, and walked inside the building with small shops and music. Instead of taking the bus all the way down Market Street, we walked instead, looking at buildings and lights. There was even a group of drummers who were playing on Market Street! Everything was wonderful, perfect: we even got on and off the buses at the perfect times. The Narnia showing we ended up watching wasn't even listed on the schedule, but when we bought tickets, it turned out that they had the movie beginning in exactly 10 minutes! The Metreon had digital sound along with a crystal clear image. The movie was absolutely enjoyable, and I fell in love with the soundtrack (which my brother was nice enough to get me for Christmas). I really like watching movies with Maruti, too.. I honestly don't like movies that much otherwise, but a movie always seems better, funnier or more profound with Maruti. Coming out of the movie, we walked to back to the Caltrain station and arrived exactly 5 minutes before the 10PM train. Again, perfect timing. The best part of the trip, though, was that everything was absolutely spontaneous.
After I got back home for winter break, I spent the first week sleeping a lot, and going shopping during the day. I certainly wasn't going to start doing any work like applying to internships or figuring out a schedule right after finals! So instead, I went shopping every day: Shoppes at Arbor Lakes, Ridgedale, etc... and brought my brother shopping. Christmas shopping is relaxing when you have nothing else to do, even though it gets frustrating when stores get crowded: I found things for my family, and also did the shopping errands for gifts for my parents to give other families/kids. Christmas was great, as usual - I was really excited for everyone to open the presents I got them (since I put a lot of effort into finding the perfect presents). Bushisms and Memoirs of a Geisha for my dad (and a car-table from my brother that I picked out), a vibrating neck-pillow and a beaded 5-votive holder for my mom (and a yoga ball from my brother that I picked out), and handwarmers, a fiber-optic night light, and a Stewie Griffin bobblehead for Michael.
The second week of winter break, we had three families of guests over, that my parents met when we lived briefly in Germany, including my godfather's family, my godmother's family (one kid, Erwin, who is 11), and a third family (two kids: Kaysen-17? and Diana-15?). Our house was packed, and we definitely didn't have enough extra beds. I was kicked out of my room and slept on the floor, which wasn't the most comfortable, but its ok. I had a lot of fun, and I really liked my godfather and my godmother's husband. It was great to watch them joke around with my parents, and I could definitely see why they're such close friends. Also, Erwin hilarious. Once, at the "kid" dinner table, he commented, "There's she-male, and then there's woMAN." Out of the middle of nowhere, coming from this 11 (almost 12) year old in a deadpan voice. We all cracked up, while he continued, "You people.. you people laugh too much...". He's also a smart kid, but because he's short, everyone babies him alot.
Case in point: Mall of America. When my brother was 11 (and he's only recently 13), we gave him a fair amount of freedom and trusted him to take care of himself: we wouldn't set him free in the mall, but he COULD go out of sight in the same store and we wouldn't worry. He's tall though: I always forget how young he actually is. I set some rules for him, and he listens to me like a parent (as in, whatever I say goes), but on the whole we interact with each other as equals. When Erwin was at the mall, though, one year younger than Michael, I was told to keep a constant eye on him, so I walked behind the group, and when my brother let Erwin go buy some pizza by himself, and the parents realized Erwin was missing, they absolutely freaked out until Erwin happily walked back to our table, carrying his tray, stuffed purple MoA monkey from the arcade wrapped around his neck. He's perfectly capable of taking care of himself. Oh well, I guess people always worry about the youngest. We also went snow-tubing with everyone when the guests came over. The safe, lighted lanes were a far cry from the unregulated hill we went to for senior snow tubing, but everyone enjoyed themselves. Hey, if you travel from San Diego/Texas/NY to come to MN, you gotta go play in the snow a bit. I even made a snowman on our deck, but my mom thought it was ugly...
New Year? What New Year? I was going to spend New Year's Eve at Jessie/Deepa's apartment, but noooo... I got sick enough in the mall that afternoon that I couldn't get out of the mall and back home without the help of mall security and a wheelchair. >.< Needless to say, my dad forbid me from going anywhere, and confined me to bed for the night, where I talked on the phone and played Zelda - my brother and I started playing Ocarina of Time again, and we beat it for the third full time over break (including all the upgrades... even Erwin helped, by fishing for us for 2 hours until he caught a 20 pound fish. What patience!).
Finally, the last week, I got out of the house a bit and did useful things. The only bad thing was that I didn't sleep well on the floor, and then due to certain things, worrying and feeling sad, I was unable to sleep until I was extremely tired, and so I didn't sleep well that last week too. I had a piano lesson on Monday, and I took my brother snowboarding at Afton on Tuesday (along with Dan, TJ, Tina, Lekan, Will, Michael, Andy, and TJ's friend Nina). I hung out on the bunny hill with my bro, trying not to kill myself, until I was greeted after a fall by Michelob's "Sucks, doesn't it?". They dragged us off to another section, but my brother (who said he could!) could barely make it down one hill. He was fine on the bunny slope because he just goes straight down the hill, but when it gets steeper, he needs control that he doesn't have. Me, on the other hand, I was falling on my ass on the bunny slope because I was trying to figure out how to carve. Michelob was nice enough to stay with me and my bro. Finally, I brought my bro back to the chalet, and he stayed there for the last two hours while we met up with the others again. How in the world did I ever make it down from anything? Two words: falling leaf.
According to UrbanDictionary:
The Falling Leaf
When someone is first learning how to snowboard and they are scared shittless to attempt carving, so they go all the way down the slope on their heal side by first heading downhill with their dominant foot, and then their other foot, immitating the motion of a falling leaf.
Sarah was tired of falling on her ass every time she tried to carve, so she just did the falling leaf all the way down the slope.
How appropriate. At least I'm not afraid of steep hills now: just heel edge all the way down. =P I think snowboarding is a lot harder than skiing, and takes a lot more energy (just getting up from the ground!), but is so much more fun. I'm really excited to go to Tahoe now!! Post-snowboarding was definitely painful for a couple days, but it was worth it. During the last weekend, I finally saw Tingting, who had also gone snowboarding during the week. We strolled around the mall, had lunch at Macaroni Grill (their mango iced tea is really good!), and drooled over some snowboards. It would be great to own our own, but they're so expensive. Bah. One day, I will own a longboard, a skateboard, a snowboard, and a surf board. *sighs dreamily*... when I learn how to actually do everything. Tingting and I also met up with her friend Ryan, and we saw Memoirs of a Geisha, which had good moments, but more than its fair share of really really awkward moments *cough* pediphile *cough*. That night, I went to Molly's house too, and we went ice skating in the rink behind her house. Yay winter!
I also got to spend a fair amount of time during the last week wasting money on new toys to play with. New toys as in: fleece, corduroy, microsuede, beads, wire, glass, pretty paper and pens... things Cheri Li find fun to make other things out of. My family always asks, "why are you doing that?". Usually the answer is, "I dunno, cause its fun and I wanna see if I can do it." "....waste of time...". My goal when I am old is to have enough money to buy supplies and enough time to sit at home and make pretty things all day.
The rest of the summer was pretty uneventful: just hanging out with friends, neighbors (Rui's basement is the community playground), and my family, until going back to school for a packed, anti-social, but still very very lazy fall quarter. Maruti didn't end up coming due to an emergency, but Tingting, Jessica, Deepa, and I did finally go clubbing (no, I didn't forget about you, Dan). Escape is very nice, but I didn't like the music much, not to mention there was a creepy guy who groped everyone, and eventually started a fight which broke Deepa's toenail. Grrr... Still, it was fun. It's fun to stay at the U of MN with Tingting and visit people, and sometimes unexpected people show up, like Daray, or Robert (remember? he asked 11+ girls to prom... eventually, people were just saying no because they didn't like being 11th choice..).
I kept playing WoW until my subscription ran out, of course, which was about a week and a half into the quarter, so people would catch me playing WoW at my desk instead of doing work. It certainly was memorable when I had to get Nyx over to BRD from Feralas, and I got my ass over to Suites where everyone else was before my character got there. Nyx is level 55 now, and has gone into indefinite hibernation in Ironforge at level 55. Did I suffer from withdrawal? Haha, it wasn't as bad as everyone, including myself, was expecting, although I did reformat my computer to resist the temptation to play WoW, and I have no objections to a computer that functions normally. Honestly, I considered playing WoW again for the 3 weeks of winter break, but then decided that I kind of wanted a life.
I'm living in Adelfa this year with Alina (my roommate), Dominique, Michelle, Ann, and Priyanka. Lagunita Court is beautiful, and the food is actually pretty good, although it gets repetitive. Adelfa is quiet, which I enjoy: there is a back entrance and a narrow stairway right by our room. It's sad to think about the freshman living there, though. I don't know many of them, but West Lag is tame, and it's not the sort of freshman experience I would have liked to have (think J-ro instead ^^). When I arrived, I was too busy in the first weeks to meet anybody, and by then, its a little too late. I mean, I say hi to people, but I don't really know them, and it doesn't help to have rehearsal during every house meeting either. People told me, though, that its normal in a four-class dorm that the freshman don't really know any of the upperclassmen. My drawgroup spends the most time with a group of sophomore boys who used to live in Paloma, some of who are really cool, and we eat dinner with them. I havn't really been going to lots of large, group dinners though. I feel bad, missing dinners with everyone and group fun like Cranium and Taboo. I kind of go to a different flow than everyone else.. sleeping during dinner, eating in my room, having a date with Maruti when everyone else goes out for dinner, etc. I'm pretty independent, and I don't mean to ignore any of my friends in the process, but it's happened this quarter, and I want to change that next quarter.
And here we come to one of the age-old divides: friends vs. boyfriend. I rarely spend 8 hours away from Maruti (before I get the lecture about that being unhealthy, recall that we have almost all of the same classes, and study together). I spend almost as much time in Adelfa as at Suites, where Maruti lives. Their suite is pretty messy, but cool, especially after they rearranged their common room during Thanksgiving. When food at Lag gets annoying, or I don't feel like going back, I eat at their eating club. Sure, its one guest a week, but there are six people in their drawgroup, so the chef probably thinks I live there now. There's not much one can do with Maruti's room, but I've been reworking the loft to be a cozy reading space, and trying to redecorate. I never realized how hard it was to make a room look good without making it look feminine!
Our room at Adelfa is awesome, though I think I clutter it up more than Alina does. It's a large corner room: Alina has her bed in one corner, with her desk under a huge window and her dresser next to her desk, while I have my bed (with new curtains). in another corner lined up with another huge window, with my desk at the foot and a dresser as a nightstand. OK, that was too much information, but basically: we have three huge windows, and Alina has her desk under one like she wanted, I have my bed by another like I wanted, and a third between our desks!! Also, this year we have walk-in closets and a sink in our room. What more can a girl ask for? We have squishy pads on our mattresses. We have my windchime hanging from the light in the center of the ceiling. When we open our windows, sunlight just pours in, but when we draw the curtains, the room is completely dark. We have christmas lights and tinsel all along the top of our walls, two huge bells on our door (courtesy of Justin), and some silver/iridescent cardboard stars on our ceiling that we may or may not have stolen from the ground near Elliot where there was a dance being held. We drink tea and hot chocolate and apple cider compulsively. We listen to Harry Potter soundtracks when we're doing homework, and we listen to Death Cab for Cutie when we're not. In short, life in Adelfa 227 is very good. Except the window. Oh, you have not heard of the window yet.
I call it the Window of Death. Because, when we first moved in, I could have rolled over in bed and fallen straight out the window. See, the screen layer of the window is supposed to be hinged at the top, and hooked at the bottom. My window was missing hooks, so the window just flapped out if you push on it. Hmm, well, that's not really safe, right? So I file a fix-it, somebody comes in, and I go "Hey, look Wayne! My window is fixed!" I push on the window to demonstrate, and the TOP of the window starts falling outwards. Eep! I catch it and file another fixit. Once again, "Hey look! My window is fixed!" I unhook the bottom and try to demonstrate how it will swing out like the other 2 windows in my room. It doesn't swing. Instead, the screen falls completely off the frame. I catch it, maneuver it back in, and its back to a fix-it. This time a supervisor comes to my room to investigate the problem, and then a fix-it person comes. Guess what? This time the left side of the screen is not attached. Gaaaaahhh.... Finally, the fix-it people gave up, and offered me this excuse:
"Please do not open your window. These windows are not meant to be opened, even though all the other windows open. The function of the windows is not to be opened." Right.
Weeks 1 and 2 of fall-quarter were the pre-Vienna weeks, which meant that as soon as I moved in, it was practicing piano like crazy, and having lessons every 2 days or so. My teacher said, "Wow, you did a good job over the summer. I was worried." I wasn't sure whether that was a compliment or not, but between piano and shopping classes, I was completely busy. At the end of the first week, Jessica, Doris, Yung-Yee, and I had our concert at the Old First Church in San Francisco (supposedly we're supposed to get a recording of it). Yung-yee's mother drove us there, and we were very nervous about memory as well as the fact that none of us had performed for at least a year, but it turned out to be a lot of fun: not fun as in the exciting jumping around yay fun, but fun as in, the acoustics were great, the piano was soft-spoken but beautiful, and we had a good time just playing and listening to the music.
The third week of the quarter, we FINALLY GOT TO GO TO VIENNA!! It was absolutely amazing and inspiring. The food was delicious, the city was beautiful, and art is just everywhere! Only in Vienna would you hear street violinists that are so good.
We lived in this small suburb called Modling, where Schoenberg's house was, and Beethoven lived once too (we thought it was strange that there was a random bust of Beethoven sitting on a street corner). We arrived on Monday night, found our inn, and then found a small italian restaurant to eat a midnight snack, and turned in: Jessica roomed with Doris, and I roomed with Yung-Yee. Four chinese girls, what a coincidence.. Tuesday morning, we wandered Modling, and then headed over the Schoenberg house for our afternoon master classes, which were torturously boring. We were falling asleep, we wanted to scream... I can't sit still, and when one note is being played every 2 seconds.. Ahh! Each of those three master classes were terrible, but it was worth it, because we got to hop on a train and go into Vienna afterwards! The first night, we ate at Cafe Imperial, and then went to a woodwind recital at to Schoenberg center, during which we slowly fell asleep (it was great music, but we were really tired). I felt terrible about falling asleep in concerts like that, but we seriously couldn't help it. Then we had SACHER TORTE! It wasn't all it was made out to be, but chocolate is delicious anyway.. especially Mozart chocolate. Mmmm.... =) I thought that was good evening, but it only got better from there.
Wednesday, we made an extra effort to get up early in the morning get practicing in: really difficult, because for each of us to get a simple hour, it takes 4 hours plus travelling time. None of us were really able to practice well that week. After master class, though, we once again went to Vienna. We even got a kebap at the train station, which was another of the highlights of Vienna. Wednesday night, we saw Ashkenazy conduct the Tokyo symphonic orchestra at the Musikverein. We were actually sitting in the back part of the stage, behind the percussion! One of the percussionists warned us, "Next song... a lot of drums.. very loud, very sorry." The violin concerto was beautiful, but I definitely fell asleep during the Shostakovich symphony in the second half.
Thursday morning, we wanted to head into Vienna during the day time, so we got up really early. It was delightful to walk around the city as the sun was still low in the sky. We could be in school... or we could be walking in the crisp, wintery morning air along a broad pedestrian street surrounded by intricately carved stone buildings and small local stores, featuring the towering Plague Column of angels and clouds. Vienna is such a beautiful city compared to any in the United States. Every single view was amazing, watching the light bounce off the buildings, or looking at the buildings, even the roads, and all the sculptures and fountains all over. We ate at Cafe Central, where there was this ultimate pastry covered with berries, kiwi, all sorts of fruit, and drizzled with honey and sugar. I fell in love with it, and wanted to bring it home, but the girls pointed out that I better eat it while it was still fresh. We also went and visited Beethoven's old apartment. After that pointless wandering, we ended up a bit late to master class (eep) and were pretty severely reprimanded, but it was OK, because we went back to Vienna afterwards also, and this time, we saw the opera Werthur. The opera house is amazing, and the opera was really well done too: I was really touched. When the curtain lifted, the set was breathtaking: a tree with separate leaves hanging off of hundreds of strings from the ceiling). We were lucky enough to have center floor tickets, which are usually incredibly expensive, but the Schoenberg Center subsidized most of it. It was really cool, also, because in front of every chair was a personal computer display with words in whatever language you chose - the MN opera house displays lyrics near the stage.
Friday was the day of our recital, so first thing in the morning, we took the train to Vienna, ate at Cafe Schwartz...something and each practiced for 45 minutes at the Schoenberg Center. We didn't get internet while we were there, so the first time I checked my email was Friday, at the Schoenberg Center. I was so happy to hear from Maruti, but imagine how upset I was that I was missing 80 thousand auditions that week!! OK, ok, I just missed Remix callbacks and Viennese Ball opening auditions. Anyway, that was a little depressing, but I got over it, and we went to wander Vienna for more food (I forgot where!), and returned around 4pm to take a nap in the oh-so-comfy couches in the green room. We planned to get up in an hour or so, change, and warm up, but we didn't wake up until somebody came in. "Um... you guys wanna get up? The recital starts in 45 minutes..." We were like, SHIT. Good thing we didn't go all the way back to Modling to rest like our teacher wanted, or we would've just missed it! A week of sleep deprival catches up to you... Anyway, the recital went well, but was not as fun as in San Francisco, I think. Afterwards, the director of the Schoenberg center took us out for more yummy food, and we headed back to Modling, ready for our big day Saturday!
And Saturday was the bestest bestest day in Vienna. We went everywhere, following our beloved Frommers: Cafe Mozart (breakfast), Cafe Demel (lunch), Cafe Europa (dinner?), Dolce (delicious ice cream dessert), the Hofburg palace, St. Stephens, various statues and fountains and memorials, a music instrument museum (we saw Brahm's and Schumann's pianos!), more churches, and lots of shopping (...chocolate...). When we finally said bye bye to Vienna, the sky was dark, but all the building lights were lit, and it was just as beautiful as the sun streaking through the streets in the morning. We miss Vienna. =(
While I was in Vienna, I missed call-back auditions for REMIX, which is a new salsa/hip-hop dance group on campus, and was incredibly bummed out. They were nice, though, and let me go to two practices as a make-up for the audition, and now we have practices every Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon. It's tiring on Wednesday nights, and I definitely don't learn/dance well then, but its so much fun on Saturdays. I really love the group, which ranges from freshmen to grad students. Everyone is fun (except one girl I dislike), and I love the structured way the group is run, as well as the emphasis on real dancing: choreography, precision, emotion, and most of all an enthusiasm for dancing. The group offers something to everyone, because no matter what level you are at, you can always improve. We learned one dance in a month to perform during fall quarter, we're starting new choreography this wednesday, and have two big performances at the end of winter quarter.
My fall quarter was also defined by insane midterms. Once I returned from Vienna, I had 3 or 4 midterms that first week, which was insane. I took 7 classes this quarter (5 real classes). I spent the week struggling to catch up in time for the midterms, ditching chem and bio to study chem and bio. After finally getting through that, I had two semi-normal weeks of the usual problem sets, before another week of midterms hit. I had midterms and big projects due every single day for a week, and then a lovely chemistry midterm the next week. Eventually you get sick of cramming for each midterm the night before until 3 or 4am. I don't know how I made it through, but I know it was with massive class ditchage, mostly of chemistry and biology (thank god for the chem syllabus book and bio slides). And the Technology and National Security class.. Former Secretary of Defense (William Perry!) ;) talks SOOOO slow and with such a deep voice, that to save time I started watching the classes by video, at double speed (it actually makes him sound normal). We had our first remix performance at the end of midterm week, and then it was home to Thanksgiving break, and back for a quick wrap-up and finals. Somewhere in the quarter, though, there was time to go to Screw your Sib with my sib family of the coolest people, Hin, Wayne, and Dani Zhao, and Moonsplash with my favorite draw group. Then, during those last weeks, it was raining really hard once, and my longboard slipped just outside Lag while I was making a tight turn. I slammed onto the rough road on my right side and slid a bit, it hurt incredibly for a second, and then my entire right side went numb and barely functional for the next several hours. Ow. Maruti helped me clean up, and I have pretty icky scars on my knee and elbow now. Hey, character, right?
Our CHEM131 final was really hellish, and I pretty much failed it, which was depressing, but these things happen, and once again (like all of my midterms) there were problems with the grading, so I still have to go get a regrade. Studying for biology was also terrible, because there's so much information, but Alina and I were both studying so hard for our finals that night that at 2am, both of us were too stressed to sleep, and our finals were early in the morning. Oi. Bio didn't turn out as well as the two midterms, but it was OK, except for one question that I just couldn't figure out the answer to. Of course, right after I step out of the test and call my father, he immediately tells me what the right answer is.
I particularly enjoyed taking music theory and understanding the music I hear and play, but I did not enjoy piano lessons after we came back from Vienna. I feel stifled by my teacher, partially by the simple fact that I'm taking piano as an academic course. It's become really stressful, and I'm always worried about doing what my teacher says. He tells me to do it one way, I do it that way, and then he yells at me for being inartistic and not creative. Yet every time I do something creative, he shoots it down, and gives me a different interpretation - sometimes one that I just can't successfully do. For example, he was telling me to make a certain Beethoven bagatelle sound frantic. Now, I can do "frantic" with some music. But I didn't believe that the certain bagatelle WAS frantic: the music was more like a waltz, fast but peaceful. I can't MAKE it sound frantic, simply because I didn't agree that it should be. More trouble there. All these clashes with my teacher, and he treats me like I'm an idiot. I don't know everything about music, but if he just told me "slow down here" or "be more dramatic and bring out the theme more here", that would be enough. Instead he goes off on a long story, to educate me. Sometimes I think he doesn't know that I do have ideas of my own, so he tries to impose some, which stifles my ideas, and then we're both frustrated.
I could get another teacher (I have less and less time to practice, and once I start research, I think I'll have to stop anyway), or I could stop taking lessons. I'm afraid that if I stop taking lessons, I'll start slacking off on piano, and lessons really are VERY useful (I had a lesson with Jean again in MN, and I always look forward to those, and getting a second opinion), but I don't love playing with Dr. Schultz. I'm not sure what to do. I enjoyed practicing at home by myself over break, and I think when I go back, I'll have another lesson at school, along with a serious talk, and see about the next quarter. As a ChemE major, eventually I have to let go of piano, at least as such a structured and driven activity, but it's always hard to leave behind something that defined you.
After finals, my dad suggested that I go out to dinner to relax, so go out to dinner with Maruti I did. There's this incredible new gelato place in Palo Alto, across the street from the new tea place, near the Apple store. The gelato is SO delicious (well, strawberry anyway), and upstairs, you can go outside and sit on a balcony by the lighted trees lining the street. It's a really special niche, and everyone should try that place sometimes. They also have the cutest pink/green/blue cups and spoons! Maruti and I were tempted to make eating dessert before dinner mandatory, but thought that maybe we'd actually be really hungry one day and want real food first. After we had gelato, we had gnocchi at Pasta?, which reminds me of the last time we were in Palo Alto. Usually when you order a Mango Freeze (which is incredible) from The Cheesecake Factory, they give it to you in a tall glass. In fact, when I was sitting at a table with 9 guys for Justin's Birthday, they gave it to me with 2 straws. Yet, when Maruti and I went alone with just the two of us, and ordered one mango freeze, and the waitress confirmed specifically, "are you two going to share it?" instead of giving us two straws, she split it into two glasses! We were so shocked! Well, that happened with the gnocchi too, although its more understandable with food than with a special drink. We ordered one plate because we weren't hungry, but instead they split the dish into two smaller plates. We ended up just dumping them onto one plate and poking them out of the middle of the table anyway... Finally, after such rich food, we went to the new tea place in Palo Alto, which has really yummy fragrant tea. Alina must be dragged there sometime. Maruti and I figured out where the Midnight Express actually stops, too, and took that back to Lag.
The celebration continued on to the next day, which Maruti and I spend in San Francisco. We took the Caltrain over and took a bus up north to up by Ghiradelli Square. It was great to be in San Francisco with nothing to care about, and a full day ahead of you to do anything you want. It's such a feeling of freedom to just walk where you feel like it... and eat Godiva pop-chocolates everywhere. You can't eat one of those without smiling! We ended up having really good pizza at a small place while the sun went down in the afternoon, ice cream and a chocolate covered strawberry at Ghiradelli Square. We also wandered around Fisherman's Wharf and watched the moon near the bridge as the sky turned pale purple. We took a bus and decided to stop of Pier 1, watched the full moon rise high as the bridge glowed with lights, and walked inside the building with small shops and music. Instead of taking the bus all the way down Market Street, we walked instead, looking at buildings and lights. There was even a group of drummers who were playing on Market Street! Everything was wonderful, perfect: we even got on and off the buses at the perfect times. The Narnia showing we ended up watching wasn't even listed on the schedule, but when we bought tickets, it turned out that they had the movie beginning in exactly 10 minutes! The Metreon had digital sound along with a crystal clear image. The movie was absolutely enjoyable, and I fell in love with the soundtrack (which my brother was nice enough to get me for Christmas). I really like watching movies with Maruti, too.. I honestly don't like movies that much otherwise, but a movie always seems better, funnier or more profound with Maruti. Coming out of the movie, we walked to back to the Caltrain station and arrived exactly 5 minutes before the 10PM train. Again, perfect timing. The best part of the trip, though, was that everything was absolutely spontaneous.
After I got back home for winter break, I spent the first week sleeping a lot, and going shopping during the day. I certainly wasn't going to start doing any work like applying to internships or figuring out a schedule right after finals! So instead, I went shopping every day: Shoppes at Arbor Lakes, Ridgedale, etc... and brought my brother shopping. Christmas shopping is relaxing when you have nothing else to do, even though it gets frustrating when stores get crowded: I found things for my family, and also did the shopping errands for gifts for my parents to give other families/kids. Christmas was great, as usual - I was really excited for everyone to open the presents I got them (since I put a lot of effort into finding the perfect presents). Bushisms and Memoirs of a Geisha for my dad (and a car-table from my brother that I picked out), a vibrating neck-pillow and a beaded 5-votive holder for my mom (and a yoga ball from my brother that I picked out), and handwarmers, a fiber-optic night light, and a Stewie Griffin bobblehead for Michael.
The second week of winter break, we had three families of guests over, that my parents met when we lived briefly in Germany, including my godfather's family, my godmother's family (one kid, Erwin, who is 11), and a third family (two kids: Kaysen-17? and Diana-15?). Our house was packed, and we definitely didn't have enough extra beds. I was kicked out of my room and slept on the floor, which wasn't the most comfortable, but its ok. I had a lot of fun, and I really liked my godfather and my godmother's husband. It was great to watch them joke around with my parents, and I could definitely see why they're such close friends. Also, Erwin hilarious. Once, at the "kid" dinner table, he commented, "There's she-male, and then there's woMAN." Out of the middle of nowhere, coming from this 11 (almost 12) year old in a deadpan voice. We all cracked up, while he continued, "You people.. you people laugh too much...". He's also a smart kid, but because he's short, everyone babies him alot.
Case in point: Mall of America. When my brother was 11 (and he's only recently 13), we gave him a fair amount of freedom and trusted him to take care of himself: we wouldn't set him free in the mall, but he COULD go out of sight in the same store and we wouldn't worry. He's tall though: I always forget how young he actually is. I set some rules for him, and he listens to me like a parent (as in, whatever I say goes), but on the whole we interact with each other as equals. When Erwin was at the mall, though, one year younger than Michael, I was told to keep a constant eye on him, so I walked behind the group, and when my brother let Erwin go buy some pizza by himself, and the parents realized Erwin was missing, they absolutely freaked out until Erwin happily walked back to our table, carrying his tray, stuffed purple MoA monkey from the arcade wrapped around his neck. He's perfectly capable of taking care of himself. Oh well, I guess people always worry about the youngest. We also went snow-tubing with everyone when the guests came over. The safe, lighted lanes were a far cry from the unregulated hill we went to for senior snow tubing, but everyone enjoyed themselves. Hey, if you travel from San Diego/Texas/NY to come to MN, you gotta go play in the snow a bit. I even made a snowman on our deck, but my mom thought it was ugly...
New Year? What New Year? I was going to spend New Year's Eve at Jessie/Deepa's apartment, but noooo... I got sick enough in the mall that afternoon that I couldn't get out of the mall and back home without the help of mall security and a wheelchair. >.< Needless to say, my dad forbid me from going anywhere, and confined me to bed for the night, where I talked on the phone and played Zelda - my brother and I started playing Ocarina of Time again, and we beat it for the third full time over break (including all the upgrades... even Erwin helped, by fishing for us for 2 hours until he caught a 20 pound fish. What patience!).
Finally, the last week, I got out of the house a bit and did useful things. The only bad thing was that I didn't sleep well on the floor, and then due to certain things, worrying and feeling sad, I was unable to sleep until I was extremely tired, and so I didn't sleep well that last week too. I had a piano lesson on Monday, and I took my brother snowboarding at Afton on Tuesday (along with Dan, TJ, Tina, Lekan, Will, Michael, Andy, and TJ's friend Nina). I hung out on the bunny hill with my bro, trying not to kill myself, until I was greeted after a fall by Michelob's "Sucks, doesn't it?". They dragged us off to another section, but my brother (who said he could!) could barely make it down one hill. He was fine on the bunny slope because he just goes straight down the hill, but when it gets steeper, he needs control that he doesn't have. Me, on the other hand, I was falling on my ass on the bunny slope because I was trying to figure out how to carve. Michelob was nice enough to stay with me and my bro. Finally, I brought my bro back to the chalet, and he stayed there for the last two hours while we met up with the others again. How in the world did I ever make it down from anything? Two words: falling leaf.
According to UrbanDictionary:
The Falling Leaf
When someone is first learning how to snowboard and they are scared shittless to attempt carving, so they go all the way down the slope on their heal side by first heading downhill with their dominant foot, and then their other foot, immitating the motion of a falling leaf.
Sarah was tired of falling on her ass every time she tried to carve, so she just did the falling leaf all the way down the slope.
How appropriate. At least I'm not afraid of steep hills now: just heel edge all the way down. =P I think snowboarding is a lot harder than skiing, and takes a lot more energy (just getting up from the ground!), but is so much more fun. I'm really excited to go to Tahoe now!! Post-snowboarding was definitely painful for a couple days, but it was worth it. During the last weekend, I finally saw Tingting, who had also gone snowboarding during the week. We strolled around the mall, had lunch at Macaroni Grill (their mango iced tea is really good!), and drooled over some snowboards. It would be great to own our own, but they're so expensive. Bah. One day, I will own a longboard, a skateboard, a snowboard, and a surf board. *sighs dreamily*... when I learn how to actually do everything. Tingting and I also met up with her friend Ryan, and we saw Memoirs of a Geisha, which had good moments, but more than its fair share of really really awkward moments *cough* pediphile *cough*. That night, I went to Molly's house too, and we went ice skating in the rink behind her house. Yay winter!
I also got to spend a fair amount of time during the last week wasting money on new toys to play with. New toys as in: fleece, corduroy, microsuede, beads, wire, glass, pretty paper and pens... things Cheri Li find fun to make other things out of. My family always asks, "why are you doing that?". Usually the answer is, "I dunno, cause its fun and I wanna see if I can do it." "....waste of time...". My goal when I am old is to have enough money to buy supplies and enough time to sit at home and make pretty things all day.