west coast, and west-er, vacation

had an awesome time in los angeles, hanging out with friends and family. somehow, i ended up eating one meal at home...the day that i took off to go back to atlanta. not that i didn't want a home-cooked meal, but every day was packed...

got to:
- get mani-pedis with some of the westside gals
- go to small group
- go to at and (now) st's wedding - beautiful location, beautiful day, beautiful people
- hang out at at and st's new condo, and lounge by their pool
- see our good friend pn off to hong kong
- check out sk's new digs, and learn how to play bang
- shoe shop with jc...went in looking for change for the parking meter, but couldn't resist the sales
- hang out with the whole family in garden grove (including my adorable nieces!)
- meet and hold the newest member of the song family. such a cutie!
- go to a taping of my cousin's show, do not disturb. she's one of the writers, how cool is that?
- hang out at my old bentley apartment, trying to reclaim my title as the 3rd roommate
- visit people at school
- play volleyball at my all-time favorite open gym
- go to kim's jeon gi...dude, i had no idea they had expanded.
- give pk a late night tour of los angeles
- go to mosaic twice

and of course, the food:
- seoul garden (w/cn, sk, hs, vc)
- urth cafe 2x (w/jc and w/nn)
- versailles (w/ek, en, yl)
- in-n-out (w/ak)
- champs elysees (w/cn, sk)
- so-gong-dong (w/ec, ek)
- jang soo jang (w/ak, sk, hk)
- farmer's market (w/cc)
- mr. noodle (w/aw)
- sushi king (w/cn, at, st)
- 17th street cafe (w/sh, cn, sk)
- random meals at people's places that were super-yummy

and then there's dessert/coffee:
- pinkberry 3x
- yogurtland
- beard papa 2x
- insomnia 2x
- amandine
- coffee bean and tea leaf (they don't have this in atlanta!)
- haw sun ji tea and coffee
- boule
- paris pastry

so yeah, i think that about covers the la portion of my vacation. i also spent a week in hawaii with my folks...that was fun...a bit tough at times (hey, the food sucked! what did you think i was talking about?), but good overall. it's soo beautiful in kauai!




so now i'm back in atlanta, and as hard as it was to leave los angeles (seriously, the whole time i was there, i was thinking, how do i get back here work-wise?), i'm actually not unhappy to be back at work. it's also been good seeing people, and i even managed to go to a concert this weekend...aimee mann! 'twas very, very good, and the submarines opened...they were excellent! though the crowd was interesting...yeah, can't really describe it. very diverse....from the couples who look like they should be at a country club sipping iced teas (my one friend commented that it looked like a viagra commercial), to the beer-bellied sports spectator-looking folk, to the younger crowd. yep, we got there early, so we had a good time people-watching before the show started.

anyways, i'm taking off for nairobi this week, and i'll be there for 3 weeks. after that, i'll have a few days in atlanta, and i'm heading down to el salvador again, for another 3 weeks. i'm trying to pace myself better this year...i couldn't really help it with these 2 projects, but maybe come november...we'll see.