That's the walkway down to the oceanfront at La Jolla in San Diego at high tide. I was so excited to see the ocean, as I haven't seen it in ages; furthermore, I've never seen the Pacific Ocean before. It's beautiful.The people who went with me to San Diego were Rachelle (an American girl from New Orleans), Elie (short for Eleanor, another American girl, this time from a suburb of Washington DC), Jai (an Indian guy from India who's been living in Virginia near Washington DC for the past two years), Jason (my platonic soulmate, who you already know about), and Ivanna (my roommate, who you also already know about).
Here, this'll let you put faces to names:
From left to right, that's: Jai, Ivanna, Elie, Rachelle, and Jason.We left campus early Friday afternoon, taking the USC-Union Station shuttle at 13h, and then catching the Union Station-San Diego Amtrak at 14h.
We arrived at San Diego around 16h30, and went to Jason's house; that afternoon and evening, we just stayed at his place, ordered pizza, watched stand up comedy, and relaxed.
On Saturday morning, we went out to this diner place for breakfast.
IT WAS INCREDIBLE!
I ordered something called the "Upside-Down Pineapple Pancake", and what was described on the menu as a "Huge, beautiful muffin fresh out of the oven". The muffin wasn't huge, nor was it especially beautiful, and it surely wasn't fresh out of the oven; but the pancake was simply breathtaking. That had to have been one of the best pancakes I have ever consumed, ever.
This diner restaurant thing was called "Beach Grass" or The Beach Grass or anyway, something along the lines of Beach Grass. I'd greatly recommend it to anyone planning to visit San Diego at any point.
During the main part of the day on Saturday, we went to La Jolla, which is the beach-like area in the photos at the beginning of this post. A lot of walking was done, heh, around beaches, parks, fields, that part of the town, and it was great. Oh yes, and; there's one part of La Jolla which acts as a tourist attraction, and basically people come to see...
The seals! I saw wild seals, finally, for the first time in my life! They were really very adorable, though for the most part all they did was lie there and sleep.
For dinner we went to a sushi place called "Tsuruya Sushi". Simply put, their sushi was some of the best I think I've ever had. THEIR SHRIMP TEMPURA! It was to die for.
I also, on top of the sushi (which everyone shared), had a "Dinner Combo". For this, I ordered Korean bulgogi, with a California roll. They gave me rice, salad, fried dumplings, and miso soup with that. I was extremely satisified afterwards, and then we ordered dessert! The desserts weren't amazing, but still very nice, and I must admit, rather cute.
^_^Oh and ach, Jason paid for my dinner, even though I told him not to, he said (and these are his exact words), "NO! Michelle, you will not pay for your dinner at your birthday meal."
After dinner we explored downtown for about an hour, then went back to Jason's house.
We hung out for a while, watched more stand up comedy, played some Wii, blasted some Michael Jackson and sang and danced to it, then went to bed.
And on Sunday, we woke up and went back to USC.
By the way, quick side note;
Jason has one of the most beautiful houses ever. It's like it's straight out of one of those home modelling magazines. The interior is huge and extremely tastefully decorated, and the outside... Well.
I love his house.So, that was my amazing weekend in San Diego. It doesn't sound like much here, but believe you me, it was fun. Oodles and oodles of fun. [:
Moving on to yesterday; my actual birthday!
I basically had a normal day of classes. Other than academics, though, the following things occurred:
- I donated blood (which I talked about in the post right before this one)
- I had lunch at Denny's for free
- I had a ridiculously good dinner at a Korean restaurant
The lunch at Denny's was great!
One thing I really enjoyed was a strawberry milkshake, which looked pretty and tasted good as well.
mmmmmh.And then I had some sort of Grilled Rib Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich, which, after the blood donation, was great to eat. I could feel the blood regenerating in my bones, woohoo.
The most memorable meal of the day would have to have been dinner, though.
Jason, Ivanna, myself, Alexa, Cameron (an American guy from Massachusetts, sort of near Boston), and Akshay (I think I've mentioned him before? Well, if not, he's an Indian guy from India) went to what is advertised as "the best Korean restaurant in Los Angeles". It's called Soowon Galbi. It is indeed nice.
At this point in time though, I have to stop and once again, praise my wonderful roommate. I had no idea we were going to this restaurant until the morning of that very day, when she told me, "Hey, I know you love Korean food and really wanted to go to a Korean restaurant, so I found a place that we're going to tonight for dinner. It's supposed to be really good, I think you would like it." Ivanna had looked this place up beforehand and made a reservation to eat there, rented a car out, and everything. She's really thoughtful, I'm honestly blessed to have her as a roommate. We're planning on living together again next year too, since we get along so great. [:
Oh and before I continue; despite my vehement protests, Jason paid for my dinner. Again. His justification was, he has the money, so why not spend it on his platonic soulmate's birthday dinner?
"But Jason, you already paid for my birthday dinner!"
"No but you see Michelle, this is your real birthday. I'm going to pay for your dinner. You are my platonic soulmate. I want to. Okay?"
I had nothing to reply to that with. Poor Ivanna, she really wanted to pay for my dinner, so her and Jason were arguing over who would pay for me, haha! Jason won, I don't know what he said, but she at one point just goes, "alright, fine", puts on the grumpy face, and lets him pay.
haha!
I love the two of them, they're good people.
[:At the restaurant, I ordered "수원 왕 갈비 (Soowon King Galbi)", 불고기 (bulgogi), 잡채 (japchae), and 돌솥 비빔밥(dolsot bibimbap). They didn't have dumplings, but it was okay; what I ordered ended up being more than enough for the six people who were there.
Oh yes and they gave us so many 반찬(banchan); it's been so long since I had a real Korean meal like that. What's shown in the photo below was only half of the banchan they gave us, the other half was on the other side of the table.
와~~~!
GALBI AND BULGOGI! FINALLY!I was extremely joyous while cooking and eating these foods.
SO GOOD AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
:D
(By the way, this is Cameron. I taught him how to use chopsticks over dinner last night. :D ... Hmmm, I look very fat in this photo. Ah well. Tee hee ^^;)The Korean dinner was so great. I was extremely happy.
And to top it all off, after that we went and had delicious frozen yogurt at the amazing frozen yogurt place next to campus, called "21 Choices". Last night, coincidentally, was Customer Appreciation Day, so they were serving yogurts for free. I got free frozen yogurt for dessert on my birthday!
Ahhhhhh happy. ^^
So that was the end of yesterday, my birthday, and the amazing Korean restaurant I ate at for dinnner, thanks to my lovely roommate and my wonderful platonic soulmate.
Today, nothing much to say. I ran for an hour to try and negate the extreme calorie intake from yesterday, and I'm going to run a lot this week, I think. Nothing better to do, everyone is gone from campus and I'm going to get bored from constantly studying and writing final term papers and such.
However, I did go to the DMV to get my California Identification Card made. My appointment was at 14h15, but I went early, just in case; and found out that when I have an appointment, I shouldn't arrive until 5 minutes before the appointment time. As it is, today I went to the DMV at 13h and ended up receiving a form and then being told to come back after an hour and ten minutes had passed. The form took me five minutes to fill out, and for the next hour and five minutes I listened to music and stood against a window that the sun was shining into really strongly; so in fact, I had a very nice hour at the DMV. My back was warm and I had good music, so no problem. It was sort of like being at a personal sauna, actually. I liked it.
At 14h10 I went up to the information desk, the lady gave me a number, and I started waiting. I thought I was going to be waiting to be called for an hour or so, but actually it was only twenty minutes. I gave the man at the desk my passport and my form, he fiddled around for a bit while I ate the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I had brought with me, and then he gave me a 'receipt' and told me to go to the camera, get my photo taken, and then I was done!
So, off I go to the camera, where I waited for about ten minutes, and then the kind lady working at the camera place took my photo. When she saw the address I had written on my receipt, she said, "my goodness, you're a trojan!" and ran off for a bit. She came back and handed it to me, and across the top in big red letters, she had written, "FIGHT ON!" I laughed and thanked her, since she really was a very sweet woman, and then I was out of the DMV, at 14h45. If I had gone there at 14h10 like I was supposed to have done, then I would've been out in 35 minutes. Hence, I think from now on, whenever I want to do something with the DMV, I'm going to make an appointment online first. It makes everything much quicker and easier.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention! I am now a registered organ donor with Donate Life California, so if and when I die, my organs can be used to save someone else's life. It's really quite cool, in fact, that there's a program like that, and I'm more than happy to be signed up as a part of it.
Furthermore, I am now registered to vote! [:
I am trying to take full advantage of my status as an adult and contribute the 0.000000001% (or whatever it is) of influence I have on what happens in this nation.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY I AM AN ADULT.
Haha, how un-adult-like of me. Whatever, it doesn't matter. Everyone knows that if you love being a kid, you never really grow up inside. ^^
So, I'm supposed to receive my ID in about three weeks, which puts it around December 15th. That's perfect; I hope it arrives here before I head off to New York, because I'm not sure if the USC dorms accept mail and hold it for you over the Winter Break, since no one's going to be here. At least, that's what I think.
Hmmm.
Well, wow, at this point I think it's time for me to stop, before I develop arthritis from so much typing. That is all for now, my one avid reader, and I shall post more later, when more happens in my life!
toodles, xx.
