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| Dilemma. BIG dilemma. I found out Murakami is coming to Berkeley on Oct. 11th. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Then I also realize that night is also my aunt's friend's daughter's wedding. I'm actually also working for my aunt's friend right now. At first I already persuaded both my mom (who's also pretty close with her and is coming here just to attend the wedding) and my aunt to not go because I want to go see Murakami instead. But since now I've started working for her, and her daughter also asked me personally to help out at her bridal shower, I feel obligated to go to the wedding.
BUT BUT BUT.
I got tickets to the Murakami thing anyway. If I really can't go I'm gonna make Charlie go and record everything for me haha. But that's just so not the same as going there myself.
WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And also. I've meant to give this rant a long time ago but kept not having time. What is up with all the negativism about Beijing Olympics. I'm really annoyed actually. I won't go into a long rant cuz' I'm really tired right now, but to sum up my thoughts I just have to say, what have those Chinese people (and I mean the 1.3 billion common people) done to deserve being despised as though all their government's doings are their fault. I know people will say their criticism is directed towards the government and not the people, but well being so vehemently against the Olympics is hurtful to the people and not so much the government in the end anyway. If you protest at any other time, it's a different story, and I will probably gladly support the cause if I find it reasonable.
Anyway.
My birthday this year has been accompanied by strange little incidents. Not so happy about that.
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| Actually I don't really know why I'm panicking. So basically I've been looking for useful internships, and yet when opportunities come along I get all nervous and scared. AHH! Typical.
So I refused the North Carolina thing. Although it's not like they actually officially made the offer. After I asked for more info the person who contacted me just passed it on to my potential supervisor who then called me at inconvenient times and I always missed the calls and always found when I had time to call it was too late. I know, excuses excuses. But anyway I eventually replied and said I've decided to take classes. Lame. Though true. (Well there were other personal reasons of course but none of which would sound any better)...
Then today the San Jose City Hall Environmental Services called and left a message (I missed the call YET AGAIN), asking if I'm interested in a marketing webmaster internship. I really don't know why out of all the resumes she might have she'll consider me as one of the candidates, because I really don't have much experience on there. Her message mentions that I seem to have "marketing experience," and I wonder if she's reading someone else's resume instead. And webmaster? An internship doing environmental research or planning or whatever would be cool, but what's a webmaster going to do?
Plus... although I put HTML and JavaScript on my resume, I'm only familiar with it in the most rudimentary way. The last time I had something to do with it was freshman year. I didn't really want to put that on my resume, or at least in the beginning I wrote "rudimentary knowledge of HTML/JavaScript." But then my friend who edited my resume for me said that people put things on there even when they might not be that good at it. So brag, basically. I don't know if it's just him, or is it really the way to do it... say that you know how to do something even though you only know a little bit. Anyway, so that's actually the main reason I'm nervous because I'm imagining the situation where she'll ask me about webdesign, and I can't make myself lie about it. Or I can't anyway.
And I'm already panicking because my schedule is all messed up for the summer. Even though it's not like this San Jose internship is an actual offer (far from it). But I'm already thinking about transportation and time. I already accepted the survey research job and I intend to take classes which will take up my Tuesday~Thursday mornings. I suppose I can arrange time to do internship on Tuesday~Thursday afternoons... but San Jose will be an arse-biter comes transportation. The little time I can squeeze out to do internship will all be eaten up by sitting on BART+buses, unless I intend to drive, which brings the question of parking and so forth.
Funny. I start imagining all these scenarios and get all hesitant about talking to the person about it more because of these potential complications. I need to stop doing that!!!
Oh my... what's happened to me.
I want to go on a cruise.
And I'm in love with Trader Joe's.
My recent obsession is organic/natural products like bath/body and cleaning supplies. A pharmacy store called Pharmaca just opened next to Trader Joe's in Berkeley (or technically Oakland), and the grand opening discounts are killing me (or my wallet). I bought these aromatherapeutic eco-friendly cleaning supplies because I'm a clean freak plus I need to have my apartment smelling nice or else I get pissed off all the time. Which is frequent nowadays because our kitchen always has a smell even though I take out the garbage as often as I can. So really this line of cleaning supplies is heaven-sent. Organic shampoos also make me feel nice, especially now I can wash my hair without worrying about getting cancer or something from that laurel sulfate thing or whatever that's called. I sound like I'm advertising. The way I talk/write also makes me sound like an under-educated idiot.
This is too long. I should be doing homework. Yes indeed, there are things that never change (quoteth Chenchen).
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| I've been obsessed with food lately. And very very fatty food at that. Like croissants. Like those sweet buns from Chinese bakeries (with sugary crumbs covering the surface) with thick slices of salted butter inside. Basically any cakes and pastries. Fries. The list goes on.
I don't think anyone can understand just how good those "bo-lo bao" (or I guess according to wikipedia it's "pineapple bun") is with cold slices of butter. On a side note, although it's called "pineapple bun" it has nothing to do with pineapples. I think it's just because the sugary crumbs on top of the bun make it look like the surface of pineapple. So just the pineapple bun by itself is pretty normal, though still good.
But this thing called "ice fire bo-lo" is like the best thing in my world right now. It's basically just pineapple buns sliced in half (like bagel) and heated in the oven so the crumbs outside are crisp and the bun inside is hot but still fluffy. The key is to add a huge thick slice of solid cold salted butter inside the bun right before you eat it. OMG. The cold butter will start to soften because of the hot bun, but then still solid enough that when you bite into it it's... just... heaven... (for lack of better description). I'm usually not into greasy food, and also consider myself pretty health-conscious most of the times. This is just so good that it has to be the exception from the list of junk foods that I shouldn't eat. It's totally guilt food. But yet so yummmmmmmmmy~~~ ahhh!!!
Ok. Have to leave now. I don't know what's the point of this but talking about food always makes me happy. ALWAYS.
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| I haven't used xanga for so long I don't even know how to post a new entry anymore, haha. Now it's like this "Add new weblog" thing and it took me forever to figure out what to click. The new homepage thing is also hard to get used to. Also sort of bothersome.
No posts because life is the same. No exciting news to share. No depressing thoughts to make me want to philosophize about life. La la la, everything is a copy of a copy of a copy.
Well, not so much. But it's easier to put it that way.
Days filled with grocery shopping and cooking, and occasionally going to classes. Berkeley has so many good places to eat at that it really kills me because cravings = action = empty pockets = guilt.
As for summer. Due to the non-curable disease of procrastination, haven't really looked for internships as hard as I should. Uh... therefore I haven't found one. Sort of just wandered into career fairs and left some resumes... and now I'm really starting to panic about getting something to do during the summer. An environmental engineering company called me up about an internship opportunity last week though, totally caught me off guard. (I was half asleep when I picked up the phone...) But. It's in North Carolina. I think I dropped off my resume to them at a career fair in December or earlier, and I said I was interested in "other locations" meaning "locations in the Bay Area other than SF," as in their Oakland and Walnut Creek offices. But yeah, now I know "other locations" usually mean locations anywhere in the US...
I actually sort of bluntly refused the offer by saying that I didn't plan to go to the East Coast. Ha, smart huh. But the person was pretty persistent and sent me an e-mail this week. After the call last week, I did think hard about it and realize that perhaps this is my only chance for an internship this summer. I mean, of course I know this is a good opportunity and everything... and know even better that I shouldn't let other trivial concerns pull me back. Argh... but I really don't want to sublet my apartment (especially because both of my roommates are also subletting, which means no one else will be taking care of the apartment over the summer). And I mean I would love to go to the East Coast, but more like to Boston or something. So I don't know. I e-mailed back to get more information, but now they want to do a phone interview before giving me more info... and after missing the call yesterday I haven't called back. Oi.
There's another career fair next week, and looking up the employers that are coming, a lot of them are looking for summer interns, and some of them actually looking specifically for Env. Econ. and Political Econ. major, which is usually not that case, haha. I also had an interview with a survey research part-time job, and I actually sort of prefer this because it's right across from my apartment (literally). See what I mean, I seem more concerned with trivial characteristics of the job than the big picture. In my defense though, the survey research job isn't so useless either. The project they're doing over the summer is water quality, so that's somewhat relevant. Although of course, there are better opportunities out there... ahhh not like I don't know it.
I'm also slightly annoyed because my course plan for next semester is totally ruined by canceled classes and what not. I really really wanted to take these two classes, one is on environment and globalization, another is on sustainable city planning. I've been really excited about next semester just because of these two classes. BUT THEY'RE FUCKING CANCELED!!! I mean, there are a lot of other environment-related classes I want to take so it's not that bad... but it's frustrating because I'm graduating next year and this means I won't be able to take those two classes while I'm here.
So since I have to re-arrange my course plan for my senior year, I was working with it and felt like doing a minor in Energy and Resources, which is an awesome department. It's like a combination of social sciences and technical/scientific aspects of environmental issues (interdisciplinary studies I guess). There's no undergrad major for this because it's actually for graduate degree only, but undergrads can minor in this. I think I only need 3 classes to get the minor... so I guess it seems fitting? And speaking of which, I've been thinking about grad school (take note I've been "thinking" about it, but haven't been "doing" anything at all). But then I only want to stay in Berkeley. I really want to do the Energy and Resources grad program, but I heard it's pretty competitive. I also heard Berkeley undergrads have a harder chance of getting into Berkeley grad programs. Very blah... Plus since I haven't been planning or doing anything at all, I don't know how I will go about getting recommendation letters and so on. Everything is a blah of a blah of a blah.
Other than that, the weather is good, strawberry season is here, and there's Earth Week next week with lots of stuff going on, so life is still quite pleasant.
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| Green Festival restores my faith in humanity. As do farmer's markets, unbeatable pastry shops and cafes in Berkeley. In other words, life is just too good.
Went to volunteer at GreenFest today. Pretty much the same as other years (except I didn't go last year... oh shame), but they now have the main stage somewhere else. It gets crowded like you won't believe. The only unfortunate thing about this expansion is that now I don't get to hear the speeches as I do my shift. And the crowdedness has not improved. Which I suppose is a great thing.
Also coincidentally ran into some Cal High people, as in "they're still in Cal High" Cal High people. Interesting. And what are the chances that out of hundreds of volunteers I was in the same location as 2 of them! It makes me happy seeing that Cal High people are into these things.
What makes me even more happy though is my rekindled love affair with Berkeley. Although perhaps I can't say rekindled because this is different from what I knew about Berkeley. Not that there's been anything different about it, but just that I've never discovered them! Ah the shame!!!!!!!! How sad is it that I came here more than 2 years ago full of ideas about how I would go about exploring this city to take full advantage of its liberal hippie-ness, and only to start doing so now.
I used to lament about how there's no good coffee houses in Berkeley. And I mean I'm sure there's good coffee, but I'm more into atmosphere and settings (ya I know I'm such a fake). It just so happens that cafes near campus are just filthy and resemble more of fast-food chains than anything else. I've been spoiled by coffee houses in Taiwan, where every place is like a work of art in interior design with its own different themes and background. I've been spoiled by the comfy and quiet setting where a real barista (and really most of these owners travel to Europe to get coffee-trained or something), usually the owner, makes your coffee for you nice and slowly.
Anyway. Well actually I still haven't found any such thing since I came to the US. Again, I'm not speaking about the quality of coffee; it's just my personal fondness of specific "cafe atmosphere," which is defined differently for everyone I guess. Ah anyway but about Berkeley. So since this semester I've been almost going to the farmer's market regularly (especially recently which is every week). It's cool because the Thursday one is on the north side, a block north of Cheeseboard and Andronico's, and across from Safeway. (Ah damn I admit I do succumb to the cheapness of Safeway at times...). And shit I love the oat scones from Cheeseboard. So the routine is to buy some scones and bread at Cheeseboard, and bask in the loveliness of farmer's market. This last week though, I decided to visit one of the well-reviewed pastry place next to farmer's market (Masse's). It's the closest I've come to something that reminds me of Taiwan. It's really small though, and actually somewhat overpriced for its cakes. I had a tiramisu and a strawberry French macaron, with a cup of coffee. Coffee in cute polka-dot mug, and everything on a silver tray which you carry to your own table. It's nice. Well as for the food itself, the cake was good but definitely nowhere near Katrina's.
Anyway, so I got all crazy about looking up reviews about food places in Berkeley. And I mean I've always known that the north side and south on College (Elmwood area and down, where the south Safeway is) are filled with gourmet food, it's just that I've never acted upon my goal to explore these places. Well, money is of course the #1 factor, and far-ness runs a close second. At any rate, so I was looking at all these online reviews, and since I figure I don't have the budget to try all these seemingly awesome restaurants, I'll just tackle the pastry shops and cafes, which happen to be my obsession anyway. So after spending a night yesterday looking at Yelp reviews, I decided to go this morning before I had to catch BART to go to Green Festival.
Went to this place called Cole Coffee, which is right across from Safeway. Every time I pass by this place it's always packed with people, and I've made note to go there and never did (oh sad). So yes, it's awesome indeed. Not just awesome, but unbelievably sexy because they grind the beans after you order (and you get to choose from a dozen kind of beans), and do single-drip coffee, cup by cup! Now THAT is freshness you can boast of. Fair trade organic coffee beans, hmm, how better can it get. And then there's also the popular La Farine bakery up the street (also across from Safeway). Funnily enough, I've actually been to this place, drawn by the magnetic forces of breads and pastries, but it was late in the day and they were out of mostly everything except cakes... and cookies, which didn't look too appealing to me. I don't know, it's sort of dark in there, which makes everything look kind of shabby. But apparently it's not! After reading mouth-watering reviews, this place didn't disappoint and lived up to its rave reviews. Cole Coffee also sells pastries from here too.
Dammit now I just want to go there all the time now...... perhaps I'll migrate south for my grocery shopping. Across from Cole Coffee is a small fruits & vegetables market that is apparently fresh and cheap. AND Katrina's is just 2 blocks down. So is Zachary's pizza actually. Oh and actually I just realized that there's a Trader Joe's (perhaps new?) next to Rockridge BART, which is just a few more blocks away. Or I can resume my long-ass trip to Berkeley Bowl, because apparently there's another raved-about pastry shop across from there. Or I'll just rotate every week. All these places outshine Whole Foods, and I used to worship this place. Oh the endless discoveries and possibilities... it's fulfilling though, really.
Doing so little can be both beneficial to others (the farmers, the earth, whatever) and self-satisfying. Yay-ness.
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