San Diego

Yixin, Mian and I left early on Wednesday morning for San Diego. The city is about two hours South from my residence and only minutes away from the border of Mexico. For those who have never been there before, I would highly recommend San Diego as your next travel destination. There are many places to go and many activities to do in and around San Diego. I assure you that you could not finish everything you wanted to do within the time you had. I speak from personal experience.

Take our trip to San Diego, for instance. Day One was spent at the San Diego Zoo. It is impossible to go to San Diego and not see the zoo. The zoo is one of the city's most famous (and popular) attractions. A panda was recently born there, but we missed it when the zoo keepers let it out. We did manage to catch a glimpse of this panda eating dinner, however.
Day Two we spent in La Jolla at Torrey Pines State Beach and State Reserve. There are a number of trails in the reserve, and we walked every single one.

Some of the pines native to the area.
We like living on the edge.
This is what San Diego looked like before development.

Mian examines a Yucca plant. Did you know that Yucca plants are edible?

The last trail took us down to the beach, so after avoiding waves for a few minutes we gave up, took off our shoes and socks, and walked back along the beach to our starting point.

We walked directly beneath some of the trails we traveled earlier in the day.
A hang glider flying over the reserve.

We ate dinner in the Gas Lamp District. We avoided this particular restaurant, however. Chinese Food and Louisiana Fried Chicken?

We spent Day Three at La Jolla Cove before heading back up the coast.

This pigeon was particularly people-friendly.

Seals sunbathing during pupping season.
There was a pier of sorts from which to view the ocean and the seals.
We watched a girl fall into and climb out of the ocean at this cliff. Maybe we shouldn't live on the edge...
The water is cold, but some people brave it for the surf.
We encountered some Contemporary Art on the way back to our starting point.

On the way up north, we stopped by Mission San Luis Rey.

The mission church.
A small courtyard.
Through this archway you can make out the first pepper tree grown in California.
A statue on the grounds of the mission.
The Indian women who lived on the mission would wash clothes here.
Mian asked me why I was taking a picture of a wall. The answer is, the wall is made of adobe bricks.

Merry Christmas!

I wish you all a very merry Christmas full of good cheer and good food! Wherever you are, I hope your Christmas is white. As for my present location, the weatherman calls for Santa Ana conditions tomorrow, which means I will be celebrating in the high-60s! Maybe it won't feel like Christmas, but warm weather is always appreciated.

Merry Christmas!

Socal

I'm back in Socal with my CMU friends Mian and Yixin. Since flying in on Wednesday evening, we've been all over Orange County. On Thursday, Mian and Yixin went to Disneyland while I visited Pacifica and some high school friends. Friday I went to Pacifica again (administration kicked my friends and I out the first day).

After going to Pacifica, my high school friends Alex and Carolyn joined Mian, Yixin, and I to walk down Huntington Beach. The water was cold, but the weather was nice. It feels good to get some sun after living in Pittsburgh since August.


From left to right: Carolyn, Yixin, Mian, and Alex.




After the beach we went to South Coast Plaza. Needless to say, it was extremely busy. The decorations were as wonderful as always, though.

We spent Saturday mostly at home decorating the house and making Christmas cookie dough. During the afternoon we managed to go to El Dorado Park's nature trail and take a 2-mile trek through one of the greener parts of Orange County.

pgh->ord->phx->lgb

First semester is over! I am currently sitting in an airport terminal at Pittsburgh international airport waiting to board my flight. Mian and Yixin are here with me ready to come to California. We can't wait to fly.

Grades are slowly but surely coming in. So far, my grades have been turning out well. Very well. As in, I'm glad I studied hours a week for ECE, because it finally paid off. The remaining grades should be up by Thursday, but so far winter break doesn't look so gloomy.

Off to sunny Socal!

Learning about Yourself

Someone once told me that college is about discovering yourself. The curriculum, the friends, the professors, and everything and everyone else you encounter lets you learn more about who you are. Often who and what you encounter challenges what you believe you knew about yourself. Values and habits are subject to change in college, this person said.

I have a growing list of things that I have learned about myself since August. The items on that list are subject to change. I can't guarantee that the list will be the same at the end of my undergraduate career, the end of this year, or even the end of next week.

• Drinking coffee after 8:30pm results in caffeine-induced insomnia.
• It takes me hours to write a simple essay.
• Writing essays at 3am is faster than 3pm.
• My desk is guaranteed to be messier than my floor 97.3% of the time.
• If I have a phone I will use it.
• I think that circuits are more exciting than integrals.
• I am capable of believing that 35 degrees Fahrenheit is warm.
  

Blogging during Study Break

CMU has entered finals week! My friends and I can't decide whether we have a lot of time on our hands now because we don't have classes or homework, or if we have none at all because of studying. Some schools apparently have a "reading week" during which there are no classes, so students can study for their finals. CMU has one "reading day" in the middle of finals week, so it's fairly useless.

I haven't posted pictures from ballroom yet, so I'll do that in this post. Here are some pictures from Ohio, courtesy of Alice:

Andrey and I practicing our tango.

Alice and Joseph on the floor.

They are generally worshiped by the rest of us.

These are from Pittsburgh, an older competition:

My floor mate Jackie and I.
Some of the freshmen newcomer dancers.

Winter Wonderland

I hold the position of publicity chair in the Society of Women Engineers, so occasionally I have duties to perform in order to advertise for SWE events. Tonight we had a general body meeting, so last night I chalked the sidewalks to remind people to come:
Unfortunately Andrew Portal (the web spot for personal applications for CMU students) can't predict the weather, because when I woke up this morning, it looked like this outside my dorm:

As disappointed as I was about losing my handiwork and the unknown amount of people who might have also come to the SWE meeting if they had seen it, I was very excited about the snow and decided to bring my camera with me to class so you could see pictures of the first snow to actually coat the sidewalks. Enjoy!
Stepping outside the dorm into the street...
The Cut.

Someone painted the fence to wish us a Happy Chanukkah. White on white.

The snowman sculpture probably feels at home now.


Hammerschlag Hall looks great no matter what the weather. Speaking of Hammerschlag, my robot from Intro to ECE works! It spins, beeps, and lights up. More to come.
In the meantime, enjoy the winter season, whatever temperature you're in right now.