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| no, i haven't posted up part 1 yet, but might as well post up some pictures from this past weekend. a great weekend i must say. something about waking up on a cool autumn day, walking out to clean, cold, brisk air... 
normally i hate times square, but wanted to check out the new tkts booth/stairs 
times square shuffle 
view from kevin's apartment
i think that's las vegas...
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| had the day off today ("fall day"). too cold for the beach, decided to go to disneyland. pretty fun - got to hit up all the major rides - space mountain, matterhorn, big thunder mountain, pirates, haunted mansion, indiana jones, etc. i hafta say tho, disney sure knows how to make money! $3.50 churros, $6 hot dogs, and $8 pizza slices (no, i didn't actually get any of these!)!! one highlight in particular though - with the halloween... christmas... season coming, the haunted mansion changed to a "nightmare before christmas" theme which was pretty cool. very different than the original but pretty fun. oh yeah. stupid me. i spent the morning clearing my mem card so i cud take pics. got there only to realize... i left the battery at home. GRRRR... good thing my new phone has a camera! 
next stop - universal studios!!! (or disneyland shanghai/sydney!) | | |
| despite reports of downpours in the east coast, i have yet to see a single drop of water fall from the sky. funny enough - there were reports of isolated thunderstorms/rain across the inland region, including burbank. it's kinda funny how big of a deal the news was making it - then again, when u get it for less than 8% of the year, i guess it would be a big deal. anyways, cali is still pretty meh. just making me realize how much i'm not meant for the west coast. not to say there haven't been some nice things - still loving that buy one get one free deal at life plaza. the chinese supermarkets in monterey are MASSIVE. and the "hong kong cafes" in monterey/sgv are pretty... interesting. actually i'm starting to save a lot more money - stocking up on groceries and making food for lunch at work everyday. plus a lot less eating out on weekdays. to answer people's questions. no, i haven't found a church yet. checked out southland for the last two weeks. pretty cool - i mean, it's ami. so there's a lot of connections there, although it's more like a trpc than a rwc/gcc. 50/50 married/single. 99% korean. more in the prophetic and older songs ("this is how we overcome" brought back memories of soph/junior year at trpc). so i've realized that church-wise... i do need some koreanness - something about korean churches - the way they view christianity, the way the church is run, etc. chinese churches, from what i've seen, tend to be much more... seeker-sensitive... idk, feels more like "iv" is the way i'd describe it - not that it's bad. it's def. very important and serves a huge need - but it's not something i'm as connected with anymore. which puts southland in the forefront... EXCEPT... at the same time... it's a bit too old, too korean for me. sigh... plus... truth be told, i'm 26. kinda looking for a more diverse (or chinese) group to meet... ... is that wrong as a requisite for church? -_-'" ... and if not... anyone know any young adult taiwanese churches in the la area? anyways, here's some random pics of this past weekend (just food and a pretty nifty outdoor mall (in century city). 
at a&j - beef noodle soup
ah chung
 this pretty much sums up what la is like... all of la...
san gabriel plaza
century city. it's like a mall... but outside!
i'm sold. can't believe i'm really going thru but after this debate, i wholehearted have decided to flip and support the other side. ugh... i just can't stand that first guy. this is def. going to be an exciting race! | | |
| week 2 in the west it’s only been two weeks? feels like much longer. but it's been good still. still rather unimpressed with la as a whole though (def. been overrated by californians) - not to say la isn't good. there's def. a lot of nice things here - but yeah, ny is def. way better. here's a few more thoughts i've gathered over the last few days: - going to hollywood to bowl (for a work event), it turned out that a few lanes down, the daughter of the lawyer for o.j.'s first trial was there with people. apparently just BEING the daughter of a lawyer was enough for her to get a crew taping her w/ lights and mics... even my coworkers were getting all interested and peering over. idk, i think it's pretty ridiculous that someone like is enough to gather fame in cali. ugh, the entertainment focus here is appaling. - so chinese take-out places do not exist. unless you count panda express. but dang, i miss the greasy places down the street with their non-chinese chinese menu that i still have yet to figure out (what the heck is moo goo gai pan and moo shu pork?!). but still... they'll have "americanized" chinese restaurants a few miles from one another. but even there... they don't have LO MEIN!!! haha, i think it's actually called chow mein here (although in ny chow mein is NOT a noodle dish). idk... i'm confused. i just want my chicken lo mein no vegetables. sigh... - the ONE place i DO like for food in la... EL POLLO LOCO. friggin' money. it's like kfc and taco bell combined.... but better! - you can learn a lot about a person's personality by the way they drive. how closely they follow the rules, how aggressive they are, etc. la drivers... friggin' dirty. no one follows traffic rules. everyone sneaks across the right turn only lanes to cut in. that's why traffic's so bad here! if u didn't have people cutting in and out, people wudn't have to constantly break and stop! - stupid stores close by 9 pm. (more on my trek for a friggin' ipod below) - they DON'T have dunkin donuts here!!!! supposed to hit up the beach this weekend. still have yet to go to universal, disney, and eventually vegas. for the buffets of course. i hate apple. ugh, i knew it was a bad decision to get an ipod (touch). but i did. don't get me wrong - it's beautiful. i had to pass up on the samsung instinct 'cuz it's interface was just garbage compared to the iphone ui. but with my songs loaded on itunes, i'm locked into apple, since it's just too much work to convert or use an additional program for my music. but yeah, since this summer i wanted to get a nano for running, since my ipod touch is a bit too bulky for my taste. of course, there was no point getting it then, since it would've been obsolete in a few months (since apple was expected for a new release in sept). apple delivered, announcing the new nanos early sept. but with all my music, i wanted the 16 gig (not the 8). so here's the question... why... WHY did apple start advertising and pushing their 16 gigs when it wasn't even available for the next week and a half?! and then their own people didn't even have the info to know when it would arrive. grrrrr... eventually after going thru the forums, it turned out that the 16 gigs started to come in... so i called the apple store at the grove. but after missing the turn, i decided to just go to the store at the beverly center (since it was down the same road and on the way home). ran up only to realize THIS store didn't carry it. grrrr... so eventually i made it to the grove yesterday, expecting finally to get my black 16 gig nano. "we don't have any of the 16 gig in black right now." o_O GRRRR.... >_<* after much debate i decided to get one anyways. screw apple, you're not gonna get me to waste my gas to come again to ur friggin' store. was going to get the silver, but i decided that i would at least make my purchase a bit more meaningful by getting the red nano (where part of the proceeds go to aid relief in africa). friggin' apple. i hate you and your monopoly in music and mp3 players. i hate your "i'm better than you" mac ads. i just want to punch the mac guy in the face. i hate you and your misleading advertising, promising and being late to deliver. and i hate you 'cuz i just realized i do hafta go back to pick up a cover for my ipod.
random pics. here's some pics from my commute and brief walk on hollywood last night. 
driving up to work
driving through hollywood (instead of the empire state, i see the hollywood sign everyday on my way to work!)
my building on the right
you know... i use to have prob... 3-4x the desk/storage space as i do now...
 sean diddy combs (cudn't find anyone better)
 the fountain revisited at the grove
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| hard to believe that less than a week ago, i was chilling in park avenue with mike and sam. feels like so long ago was i walking on the street of nyc. at the same time, my time at los angeles has been completely surreal. i wouldn't be surprised if i were to wake up suddenly and find myself back on park.
it really feels like i'm starting a completely new life. perhaps it's 'cuz la is just so fundamentally different from nyc in every way possible - from driving culture to it's consistent weather... it's the same weather EVERY DAY!! -_-'"
speaking of which, some more weird la things i'm still adjusting to:
- "for here or to go" - i'm still used to say "to stay" or "to go." funny thing is, when i say "to stay," they get so confused they have to ask again (i suppose they're responding more to the words "for" and "to")
- maggi - i've heard of such a substance, but apparently it's used and popular among asian communities here. one chinese joint i went to didn't even have regular soy sauce - just maggi.
- parking - i went to beverly center. first FIVE floors... PARKING... just PARKING...
- panda express, p.f. changs... - and la is supposedly known for chinese food...?
- weather - i still can't get over it. i miss variety in weather - rain, seasonal change, etc. why did i even pack an umbrella?
oh yeah, so i also got a car - a black vw jetta for all you asking. and let me tell u this, car hunting is NO fun. went thru so much drama, jumping from dealership to dealership. car salesman... so shady!!! but yeah... i'm glad i finally have a car. didn't have the blue graphite color i wanted but, black is cool too. i originally was gonna get a lancer or a mazda 3, with stylish and cool features here and there but between crappy leasing options and a salesman who started hanging on the car door (to show how strong and safe german cars are), it got me to rethink my priorities. so what i don't have an in-car gps or moonroof (sigh...), safety is no. 1
and my roommate has been incredible - just helping me out in every way possible - doing all this crazy research, sending me links, going w/ me to buy a car (and helping me handle the salesman), getting my friggin' wireless to work (perks of living w/ it guys) - dang i really got lucky. idk how many random roommnates would go out of their way EVERYDAY to help me out.
so yeah... transition? still weird. a week ago i was w/ all my friends, in a job i was 100% on top of, taking the subway, knowing where to go, what to do. now i'm going thru freeways, re-learning how to live life (and everything from insurance to cars to jack-in-the-box). it's gonna be an interesting month...
grove
(for john lee) - new orleans joint i found right after u texted me!
lobsterfest near long beach
the pike
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