i just got back today from my east coast trip...spent two weeks visiting boston, nyc, and dc...can't believe that i'm already back here. while i was there it seemed like a good amount of time, but now that i'm back, i feel like it passed by in a blink.

just wanted to give a run-down of what i did...

saturday, august 30th: basically spent the whole day traveling...left lax in the early afternoon, had a short layover in vegas (america west, baby), and arrived in boston midnight, east coast time. losing those three hours really makes traveling east feel like a waste of a day. annie and her roommate, jane, picked me up...it was so awesome to be there and to see annie again face to face. saw a little bit of boston on the ride to somerville, courtesy of jane...she's such a sweetie! pretty tired, so we just crashed when we got to annie's place.

sunday, august 31st: met the rest of the roommates. olee cooked a brunch, and i got a chance to meet angela and sirena (along with olee and jane) over the meal. they're great girls...really sweet and innocent. afterwards, annie took me to harvard square and boston commons. it was nice just to walk around...there's this one man-made pond that's called frog pond or something like that (no real frogs, just large statues of frogs), where the water's only about 6 inches deep...so all these little toddlers were running around followed by their parents. apparently, in the winter, they turn it into an ice-skating rink. annie and i decided to take a little dip, so there should be a picture of that somewhere...for the most part, we just walked around that day, talked and caught up. we also went down commonwealth avenue, part of the nicer shopping district, with more expensive stores and boutiques. in the evening we went to high rock church and the pastor (greg, i believe) challenged the congregation to start this new school year focused on the Word, building that strong foundation. they had a picnic dinner afterwards, but we left after eating...it got cold! jane took annie and i on a little impromptu road tour of boston that night...in our pjs.

monday, september 1st: we went shopping in boston...can i say how much i love h&m?? it's got pretty good quality clothes, at very cheap prices. i guess the closest equivalent on the west coast would be rampage or forever 21 in terms of price range, but the clothes are just better - not as trendy and better quality, from what i can tell. we also went to a bakery, i forget the name, but apparently it's pretty famous, in north end. it's in boston's version of little italy, and while we were there, we caught the st. anthony festival...basically a mini parade with bands and women holding up a statue of saint anthony (i'm guessing), kinda like women around a may pole. the interesting thing is that the statue is covered with dollar bills...yeah, i didn't do my research, so i have no idea what the significance of that is. afterwards, annie planned and cooked a dinner for the berkeley gals in boston - esther kim, cathy bong, and sonia lee. annie's roommates joined us, and it was really nice to hang out with all the girls. annie cooked up a major feast, and afterwards cathy started showing us some of her moves (belly dancing and salsa)...all i knows is that my body don't move that way...i think it's incapable of contorting like that. in the middle of the lesson, someone who will remain anonymous let out a leettle gas...it was just so unexpected and cute...that was pretty funny.

tuesday, september 2nd: annie had school, so i slept in a little and then walked around davis circle (t station closest to where annie lives, and also the closest t stop to tufts), eventually making my way to campus to meet her. what i saw of the campus was really pretty...not very large, but nice buildings and greenery. annie and i walked back to davis circle where we had lunch at the rosebud diner...then we went back home and vegged. annie had an evening class, and i went with her, sat outside and read while she had class. annie didn't think it would go long, which is partially why i just decided to go with her, but it went the full 1.5-2 hours (forgot how long...just know from sitting outside the lecture room that the professor has a pretty monotonous voice). got a chance to meet some of her classmates, who seem really nice...good people. afterwards, we walked to a blockbuster near annie's place and rented monsoon wedding...it was a good movie (for some reason, i've been watching a lot of indian movies lately...bend it like beckham, east is east, and now monsoon wedding...all about the conflict between their traditional way of life vs. modern...in some ways, their culture is very similar to ours, and i've found that i relate to some of the characters).

wednesday, september 3rd: annie had class all day, so i was on my own for most of the day. i met up with sonia and spent most of the day with her. it's been a while since i talked to sonia, so it was really good to catch up...i feel like sonia's changed a lot...not in a bad way...just not what i would have expected, different... (makes me wonder how we've all changed since our berkeley days...) went to harvard square with sonia and then tried to shop around for salsa dancing clothes (not having packed any) b/c we (annie and angela and i) were going salsa dancing that night. there's this club that gives an hour of lessons, and then it becomes a club. i couldn't find anything, so i ended up borrowing shoes - aerosoles, mind you - that started hurting my feet by the time we got to the club (walking to and from the t stops) - and were killing me by the end of the lessons. turned out they were a good excuse to not dance...i know, i know, i should have, but i'm just a really bad dancer - even with the lessons, i'm just resigned to it - and my feet were really, really, truly killing me. we actually ran into charles, aka chuck, from kcpc olden days. (he was a senior when we were freshmen). that was random. the walk back was painful..

thursday, september 4th: my last day in boston. ran a few errands in the morning, did my laundry, then annie and sirena and i went to chinatown to catch the bus. sirena thankfully also had to go to nyc (she was going home to jersey for the weekend), so we took the bus together. $10...a good deal! we had lunch at penang, and then we took off, leaving annie in the rain all alone...sniff, sniff.

thus concludes the boston leg of my trip. it was really good hanging out with people...i got to hang out with annie's roommates a good bit, especially sirena. i usually hung out with ended up talking with her in between activities...you know, after waking up, before going out, after coming back...she's such a sweetie!