And the curtain falls

700+ unread 9gag posts later and the conference has come to a resounding end.

WorldMUN, it's been real. When I will ever have such a valuable experience again I don't know.

I love the conference, I love the people, but when you love something you have to let it go.. right?

And enter senior spring proper!

No rest for the weary

I have 100+ unread 9gag posts on my RSS feed: true indicator of how little down time there's been lately.

Monday, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays are hellish for school and WorldMUN and Thursdays and Fridays are times when I need to get my creativity kicking for my documentary & VES class which... I have not done anything for yet. Weekends? Readings, response papers, and response questions.

Senior spring is not quite where it should be yet, but the pockets of time spent with friends and R have been lovely and oh so very appreciated (:

What's up

This semester has been pretty packed so far (with readings 2 anthro courses and an english literature course? What was I thinking?) but not unrewarding. A lot of little things and one big thing has made the last 2 weeks awesome.

Last weekend, chairing with N and S, my high school role models, at SCVMUN was awesome. High School kids have so much energy, I can't believe N can still keep up with them, I definitely couldn't. Definitely a great pre-WorldMUN experience and a good chance to spend some time at home.

Made this lamb hot pot (next picture is what was on the inside). Didn't quite turn out as awesomely delicious as I intended but still was all finished by the end of dinner.

Yes I know this is at some weird rotation. Too lazy to fix.

Last night I received a phone call from a friend "Kat... I need your help. We have 1,000 dollars of open tab at Russell House Tavern and can't possibly finish it all. Hurry!" That would be what I get asked to help out with. Almost needless to say I gave up almost all of today to last night.

Today I had a group gchat with my siblings:

Alexander: i've been missing ouy

out

me: what were you doing?

Fiona: ouy?

Alexander: stuff

Fiona: oy?

me: shady

Alexander: randon stuff

random

Fiona: randon?

me: why are you so shady alex

hahahaha

fiona's a stickler for spelling

Alexander: why you little...

Fiona: ha

heha

Alexander: RAGE

Fiona: he

Alexander: ...

Amusing (:

Dinner with a friend tomorrow and then Senior Bar afterwards. Looking forward to Saturday and then Sunday brunch at Saus. All good things, just taking it one week at a time.

Also, 30 days until WorldMUN - crazy!

And... Boston

Chillin' at an airport because they believed I wouldn't make it to the 830am flight. Well, I could have made it if you didn't change my ticket to 11am. Damn you Toronto-Pearson.

Anyway, 8:50am, which is really for me 5:50am, is a great time to reflect on my break thus far. Let's see what I accomplished...

- Take house dance classes and choreograph for Cultural Rhythms (Partially done, this is what the last week of break will be dedicated to. Hello lowell dance studio!)

- Cook at least twice a week, probably more (Eh, more like probably not. Ate out way too much to do this. But I did make:

Tomato-moz-basil and asparagus-prosciutto-pancetta pizza

Delish lamb with herb and breadcrumb rub

Chinese veggies courtesy of Rli's dad's recipe (now a family favorite)

Chinese soup also courtesy of Rli's dad's recipe - omnom, workin' on my Chinese cooking

Pepperoni and cheddar stuffed mushrooms (devoured in seconds)

- Relearn how to drive (Check, basically without a scratch or incident. Ok, so there was that one red light but that was it, really!)

- Kick it with friends (Did a TON of this, which was awesome)

- Play Skyrim (K.R. leveled up twice or so, nb nb)

Additional things done:
- Spend quality time with S in Napa and San Francisco
- Discover new bars in San Jose (TANQ Mondays and Singlebarrel I'm looking at you)
- Realize how awesomely fun my family is
- Spent 4 stressful/busy/cold but fruitful/eventful/fun days in Vancouver with the WorldMUN 2012 host team
- Watch a meteor shower (somewhat)
- Visit Davis & a honky tonk bar (not sure how I feel about the latter)
- Realize how lucky I am and how awesome certain people are (;
- Get introduced to a new hill and spend lots of time at the old one
- Make the worst football bets known to man

This break was fantastic. I have never had so much fun, nor have I missed home so much after a break. Both looking forward to and dreading next semester. What's ahead?

- Fellowship Apps
- Cultural Rhythms (c'mon choreo..)
- WorldMUN 2012!!
- Friends
- Drinks
- 32 Restaurants, many bars, go go go
- Senior Week
- Graduation

Say what!? Last semester here we go.

Letting go

Today I found out that my favorite spot in San Jose (tied with "the hill") was no longer accessible. This past month, someone had vandalized the spot and there were also safety concerns involved.

The rooftop of San Jose City Hall has so many memories for me, I was almost in shock the moment I turned the handle and could not open the door. Ever since the summer before my Senior year of high school the rooftop had been a place of solace, fun, imagination, anything and everything. The place where I could play a greater being with the power to bend roads, catch planes, and jump from rooftop to rooftop around downtown with ease and grace. A place where the wind always blew.

"Sometimes, those things you thought were always there just aren't anymore and you have to let go of them" [that's paraphrased].

It's hard to let go. I guess I am sentimental about places and memories after all [kind of like you said]. But I'm glad that today even though I had to let go of a memory, I was able to make a new great one.

Cheers to that 2012.

Elementary School Lane

Something I always enjoy doing at home is looking through my old stuff - usually high school. Today, however, I felt extra inspired (maybe because I worked extra hard during the day) to go a bit further back. A few snap shots, obviously, are in order:

2nd Grade

I really liked animals. Especially horses.

3rd Grade

If I had 3 wishes, when I was 8, I would wish for a dog with puppies, a computer, and a holy bible for kids. Clearly not much has changed.

4th Grade

Introducing.. the Cola Pop! But that's not all; invention, just as Innosight states, is a process. What's a great invention like the Cola Pop without an invention log to go along with it? Before the cola pop I had also proposed: something to make opening water bottles even easier to open, a spinning lollipop, a dartboard of a picture of someone you hated, a soccer ball that told people they sucked when kicked (my teacher wasn't so fond of this one).

Oh, and yes, the mint chocolate chip ice cream was pretty weird inside a coca cola popsicle. What were you thinking 10 year old Kat. Should have pilot tested along the way.

An old bag of jewelry. For some reason it holds much sentimental value.

5th grade

Why, yes, I used to watch baseball (Rli, this one's for you) and football.

Even wrote commentary on the games (AJT, this one's for you, thought you'd get a kick out of seeing how I USED to know something about football).

Also, pretty sure I'm allergic to dust. All of that digging around has got me feeling somewhat sick. But before I head off... A and I made sushi yesterday. Check it out.

Totoro, sushi, and green tea. Can't be beat.

Japanese what?

Today dinner was to be at a Japanese izakaya (aka Japanese bar/tapas). After convincing my begrudging father that, yes, dinner was necessary, we drove over and found parking right away. See, parking at Mission Hills in San Diego isn't impossible!

Once our table was set up we were brought into a smaller side-room which sat one large party, us (party of 5), a party of 3, and a party of 2. And it. was. loud. The large party was celebrating someone's birthday and within 2 minutes my brother asked ".. are they drunk?" (I think the answer was no... didn't see any indication of alcohol except a giant unopened bottle of belvedere which looked like a gift... and no one was glowing... too rare for a table of 10 asians) and my dad turned to me and ask "are you ever like this??"

Was I ever that loud and obnoxious in a large group while totally disrespecting other patrons of the restaurant? Not that I could remember... but the perpetrators usually don't notice.

When the large party left, toward the end of our meal, the other tables (the party of 3 and 2) and my dad all burst into applause. Literally. The waitress, who was cleaning up after them (nope, no signs of alcohol) looked confused.

"Good thing to know we weren't the only ones who were bothered by them"

"So rude eh, so loud"

"Finally, they're gone"

Now I'm wondering if I was ever in a group of people so loud and obnoxious that the entire room applauded when my group left. Other than the times in high school when we all thought it was hilarious to spike each other's food and drinks with salt and taste nasty concoctions of left-over-everything, I can't think of any. I hope.