This is how it's done

The South continues to amaze me. I went to the homecoming game this weekend and tailgated with people from the department. I cannot believe what I had witness. Although I have never really tailgated before football games, I am pretty sure this put everyone back in California to shame.

Yes, that is a BBQ grill. 

I know people grill food at tailgates, but a real BBQ smoke grill?! That is just unheard of! (at least for me)

This is rather disgusting. I am sure this is an individual case. Those bros made their own "stage". That's not the crazy part. But you see the u-haul truck next to them... it's their restroom. We could not figured out why different guys kept going in the truck and closed the back. Then we realized they were using it as a restroom. Later on, girls were using it too. How, you ask. I have no idea. Only thing I know is that I can never look at u-haul truck the same way. It makes me wince when I see one. 

I am not sure if it was because it was homecoming game or they just love their BBQ... I saw at least 5 BBQ grills!

Another thing is they bring real furnitures!!!! All the frats rented a u-haul truck and brought sofas to tailgate! It gave me an illusion of walking down an outdoor frat row...

A sea of red!

All the frat boys were in sperrys, khakis, dress shirts, and BOW TIE! All the girls dressed up too. I thought you were suppose to wear your school gears... I felt so old and out of place. 

We lost terribly and I probably will not be returning to any games anytime soon... (there are only 2 home games left anyway)

Fried food galore

Last weekend was the end of NC State Fair. I was mostly excited to see what fried food madness NC had to offer and didn't really care about rest of the fair. I was surprised to see the huge fairground. There were multiple tents that showcased different vendors (yay free samples!). I thought LA County Fair was a decent size, but State Fair took it to another level (or maybe I was just so overwhelmed). I didn't get to see much since I was volunteering at a local Oktoberfest 8K run in the afterrnon and didn't get to the fairground until almost 7pm. I still managed to sabotage my diet somehow...

My roommate got deep fried reese's peanut buttercups

She also got deep fried cookie dough. Everyone really liked it, but I wasn't really a fan...

I got some fried pickles! There's a little kick at the end, so that was good, but it would have been so much better if they were freshly fried.

Fried Cheese had one of the longest lines. Looking at the pictures make my arteries cry...

More Deep Fried Goodies

You know you are in the South...

I REALLY wanted to try this... but I was too self-conscious and didn't want to scare my new friends away after having deep fried pickles and cheese. 

Ribbon fries with cheese and hot sauce. I guess this is a thing here in NC. I saw this at BugFest too. 

Let's fried EVERYTHING!

They also had a lot of interesting funnel cake flavors like pumpkin and red velvet. It was an eye opening experience. I just wish all the fair food could be freshly fried when you order...

The fair had a wide varieties of events/offers. Throughout the day, there was pig racing, which I got to watch from the side and made me feel like I was in Here Comes Honey Boo Boo... They also had 2 CAMELS at the petting zoo! These were just the parts that I saw. Each night, there was also a good solid 10-minute firework. I was definitely blown away! 

So if any of you are considering ever visiting, October would probably be a good time! 

West Coast, Best Coast

A week ago I was back in L.A. It was not until I was landing that I realized how much I miss home. I could not stop smiling.

view from my lunch spot!
It's actually a little cafeteria located on the top floor of the COURT HOUSE. Yes, I went through security and all just to go to this place. Things I would do for food/picture!

The newly open Grand Park right across from the Civic Center & L.A. Times!

DTLA

Thanks to LA Times, I got to explore LA more.

Finally got to fulfill my sushi craving! Can't decide whether I should try more places here or save my money and splurge when I go back...

Disneyland! BEST WEEKEND EVER! Though a lot of things went wrong that day, it could never be a bad day at Disneyland.

World of Color! When the man realized he was in the picture and docked away... the writing faded.
Watching world of color actually made me sad as I realized that I am no longer a child...

I got to surprise Michelle for her birthday and got breakfast with her before I head back to Raleigh.

I never associate myself as a california/LA girl. I was never a city girl either, or so I thought. But there are just WAY too many trees here. I miss the lights and the sounds.

Dear Grandma

I woke up from a dream crying this morning. The warmth from that wrinkled yet soft hand still lingered as I lay there wishing I hadn't woken up. It felt so real.
I miss those hands. The pair that do magic to food that made me never want to eat out. The pair that took care of all my needs whether it's 1 P.M. or 1 A.M. The pair  that took me home after my dance shows. The pair that always cleaned up my mess. The pair that always hold me when crossing the street. The pair that hold on to me for support when ill.

Every time I think of my grandma, I don't just miss her I also feel guilty. She has done so much for every single one of us. She always put others before herself. I wish I could have been more selfless and spent more time with her when I had the chance. If she could endure long hours of flying just to visit us, then why couldn't I leave more time to be with her? I wasn't there when she needed me.

In my dream, I could not do anything but cry. As always, she was the one taking care of me. Never the other way around. I wanted to tell her what we are doing now and how we will make her proud, but I could not say even one word.

The lies they told me

I am not sure how I imagined grad school to be. Certainly not this way. My professors and the grad students at UCLA weren't kidding about it being a "job". My schedule has been 8:30 - 4:30 during the week. Fridays seminars don't end until 5 and Tuesdays I usually stay till almost 6:30 for review sessions. Every time I get home I feel so defeated. My brain is fried and I am exhausted both physically and mentally. And all my homework are somehow still unfinished no matter how much time I've spent one them. I now understand why Dr. Park told us to call him a Dr. You have to earn your phd, they don't hand them out like high school diplomas!

After realizing grad school is no joke, I've been able to change my mindset and try my best to adjust to what my TA Gene would call "hell".

On top of the overwhelming amount of work, the differences between how ncstate was portrayed when I visited and how it actually is made me felt tricked. I felt that a lot of the information that I was given was not necessary true. Either because they were trying too hard I sell the school they sugar-coated a lot of the facts or I am just too sheltered.

I am still bummed that my main form of transportation will be driving. They praised the bus system when I visited, but in fact it sometimes would take me up to an hour to bus home. Not to mention about the numerous emails I have receive from the campus police regarding assaults and robberies. I thought Raleigh is suppose to be safe.
They also claimed to want their students to succeed and are not one of those department where they would purposely fail people at qualifying exams due to lack of funding. Maybe they are, maybe it just so happened that only one of the now second year students passed the exam. Maybe it just so happened that I also hear from an upper classmate that its unfortunate that majority of the people he came in to the program with are no longer here. If there are abundant amount of industrial internship opportunities available to students then why are most students on Ta-ship?
As a stats major, I should have known better than to fall for extreme cases.

The one thing they did not lie about though, is that parties do start at 7... Thankfully they don't always end at 11. Not that I have time for parties anyway...

1 Month Report

Originally I was planning on going to the Greek Festival hosted by one of the Greek Orthodox church this weekend for some long-overdue legit food. I have been so deprived of good food lately. I even dreamed about being at Reb's house and getting plates and plates of delicious homemade dishes from Mama Lin. Then I learned that SparkCon is this week, and without a second thought I asked my friend if he would be interested in going to sparkcon instead of Greek Festival. So, on saturday morning I drove to downtown and found street parking (!!! unheard of. haha)

Downtown Raleigh is really pretty during the day when you can actually see the buildings. I felt that I could actually like it. My friend didn't show up until 40 minutes later, so I ended up walking around by myself. This is most definitely one the things I miss about  home - not being alone. Good thing that it was really interesting and things got busy pretty quickly.

Before I die I want to... wall (started at New Orleans)

I took me so long to come up with something. What do you want to accomplish before you die?

I am guilty, I drove... But there is no way that I am about to spend half an hour one way 

(not including waiting time).

Shameless JLo asked a stranger to take photos for her

Wish I wore a romper instead of a dress though, then I could have hung (hanged) upside down!

I really should give North Carolina/Raleigh more credits. It's not a boring city at all. It has history, though not a very glorious one but interesting nonetheless. There are plenty of things to do around the city if only one knows where to look. All the museumes (except one that's privately own) are FREE to public; there are at least 3 events (that I know of)  this weekend; concerts, ballet, symphonies and whole lots of things happening all the time. 

I just need someone to share the city with me (and take pretentious photos of me!)...

Happy Sunday! (NOT... school is so hard D:

-J

p.s. when I was walking around in dtRaleigh, these two artsy girl asked if they can take photos of me/my outfit! I was flattered to say the least!

Just do it

Biggest reason I love LA so much is the people. LA people are just so REmarkABLE (haha). But really, I am really grateful to have befriended every single person. I enjoyed LA because I had them there with me.

With that said, I figured I need to go out and make more friends. I went on meetup and joined a few groups. Tonight marked my first step of moving forward and toughing it out. It wasn't quite a glamorous success, but it's something.

It was at a local sushi restaurant (sushi nine). Apparently it's pretty popular among nc state college students since its close by and it's buy one get one free every day for sushi (or they call it BOGO). Why can't they just cut the price in half if they have the deal everyday? When I first walked in, most people there were all older except the main guy who organized the event. He was probably in his late 20's and he was considered young in that group. One of the ladies has a 22 year old daughter. THAT'S HOW OLD I AM!!! Good thing a guy my age (Also from LA too!) and a recent vet school graduate came in soon after! They were really easy to talk to because they both talk a lot at the same time they listen too, but it's still a lot of work. I just dread having to start from nothing again. WHY MUST IT BE SO MUCH WORK?! sigh

Next event would be the department beach trip this upcoming weekend. The beach is 3 hour away. I've never been this far away from the ocean my entire life. Oh, what is this craziness call Raleigh?