Half Moon Bay

Today I went to Half Moon Bay with Alex. We made it there successfully (as opposed to the last time I went with Jessie when we got ourselves really lost and almost down to San Jose). It was a beautiful drive down followed by a nice walk on the beach. We were walking on packed sand, which is always more pleasant than trying to get anywhere on fluffy drifts of it. Alex seeing that I had never been to a California beach decided to take me to one this weekend. According to him, this beach is not very "California," and to be honest, it reminded of Seattle quite a bit. Overcast and windy with piles of kelp strewn about. There were clam holes and clam shells around too. It gives me an urge to find a a shovel and dig for a bit. The only difference I would say is that the beach is a lot less pebbly (no barnacle covered rocks...woohoo!) and no tidepools to poke around in. Also, there was a dead decaying seal which I can't say I've ever seen on a Washington beach. In case you didn't already guess, it was pretty gross. This after Alex mentions in passing that his friends had once found a dead sal on an LA beach just half an hour or so before. Talk about synchronity. Oh, and a great number of surfing people despite the extremeley cold water temperatures. Either those wetsuits keep you far warmer than I imagine, they have invisible layers of incredibly insulating blubber, or they're just psychos. Oh, but to get to Half Moon Bay we drove through San Francisco, and I got to see parts I hadn't seen before...Japantown, the Russian district, Golden Gate Park, and the Golden Gate Bridge from the ocean side. It was pretty neat. All in all a wonderful day.
And in advnace, happy mid-Autumn festival!

first two weeks of school

The first two weeks of school have been fairly busy, but fortunately only about as busy as I expected. I really like our new cook-for-ourselves arrangement because it saves me so much time.
Classes have been going alright. It's kind of interesting to go to classes this semester and actually see familiar faces. Before this, I was taking intro classes from so many fields that most of the day was just a blur, but now that I'm taking more upper division classes, people I see are on the same track as I am. Oh, and the modern Indian art class I accidentally signed myself up for thinking it would be on Impressionist art isn't as bad as I expected. Or at least not yet.
Last weekend my brother Eric came down from Seattle for a visit, which was very enjoyable. The first afternoon we went to Fenton's and watched Jerjou consume the most gigantic banana split I have ever seen in under twenty minutes. It was a challenge. They gave him a tee-shirt afterwards. That banana split was truly gargantuan. I could feel my eyebrows climbing up my forehead with every large bite Jerjou took. It was a very impressive feat. Eric and I shared the junior version of the same thing and took a half hour to finish it. Needless to say, we went and walked for a bit before Jerjou was able to drive us back. The next day, we went to Connie's to watch Phantom of the Opera, and the day after that Uncle TC and family came down to visit. We went to this Thai place with extremeley good curry and then Auntie Tina went on a very long shopping trip to find a Berkeley sweater for Karen. Jonathan was extremeley, shall we say, energetic and probably found this quite boring. Oh, and before that we drove up to the Lawrence Hall of Science for the view. Jonathan is eight, I think, and he's already decided that he's going to Berkeley for college and is worrying about how to get in. Talk about percocious. Oh, and with dinner today, I had an Asian pear from our garden up in Washington, and it was really yummy. Delicious, in a word. And now I'm waiting for Ed to finish cooking so I can use the kitchen to try out a recipe I came up with yesterday. He's been cooking for so long. I went to lab, came back, cooked dinner, ate dinner, washed dishes, played a game of Spider, typed this, and he's still cooking. Sometimes I really wonder. But I've finished my CS homework, so I figured I'd treat myself to baking.=P
Yesterday I went to SF Chinatown with Connie in search of mooncakes for the upcoming Mid-autumn festival. We decided to go to the Golden Gate bakery, which is very popular because they're very good. There was a huge line, but we waited. I've yet to try the mooncake, though. However, I have tried their egg tarts, which are mouthwateringly scrumptious. *Sigh.* Especially with a cup of tea. They have a flaky crust which is baked just the right amount, and when they give it to you it's still fresh and warm from the oven. *Another sigh* Oh, egg tarts... If you haven't tried one, you are so missing out.

Cheers!
Vivian