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If you're wondering where I've been the last few days, weeks, etc...
- Went to Qingdao and back with my new China friends. Photos on Facebook. Perhaps more will appear once I sort through what An-an sent me. Suffice to say, there was frolicking in the ocean, there was climbing of mountains, there was eating of delicious seafood, and there were many many squat toilets that didn't flush. Highlight of the trip: sitting on the beach at night, watching the waves, eating kabobs, and pouring Tsingtao beer out of a bag. I KID YOU NOT. BEER COMES IN BAGS.
- After getting back to Shanghai, I chilled for a few days, packed, and watched Transformers with An-an. OMG GIANT ROBOTS <333. (Cat said, "Hmm.. movie with giant robots that transform. Why am I not surprised at Sushu-squee-age?"). Anyways, at first I was a little worried because it didn't get great reviews over at Rotten Tomatoes. And then I watched it. And the robots were so awesome I forgave the cheesy one-liners and the general fluff that was the rest of the movie. Then again, the cheesy one-liners and the paper-thin story seems to be part of the whole Transformers enterprise. After all, it's based off of a toy line. What I really liked was the seamless integration of humans and robots. At first, I was expecting that humans would mostly be sidelined and that the transformers would be doing most of the fighting. But I think they did quite well, integrating human action, etc. <3. On the way home from the movie, I kept on expecting vehicles nearby to suddenly transform into Totally Awesome Robots. :DD
- After getting home to CA, I've been getting over jet-lag, visiting friends, and then packing, for... moving! Yes! I moved! Today! With the help of Jeremy and Cat, it was a most wonderful day. Cat got dropped off at 10am to help me put things in boxes and move furniture out of my room. After Jeremy finished his Stanford lab stuff, we went off and rented a u-haul from this Totally Sketchy guy in East Palo Alto. (He ran one of those shops that sold everything ... condoms, cell-phones, cigarettes, jackets... plus he has the U-Haul business.) So we loaded the U-Haul, and drove over to the apartment, where we unloaded. I think it took us 2 hours to unload? After driving the U-Haul back and paying Mucho Dinero, we went to Cafe Sophia on Middlefield, which was a quiet place, where we ate our fill of yummy Afghani food. But seriously, I couldn't have done it without them. I had a lot of furniture, and much of it needed 2 people to carry. Up 3 flights of stairs.
- After that, we hustled over to Cupertino where we caught a showing of Ratatouille. (Alas, we were 15 minutes late, so missed the first 5 min of the movie?). It was as awesome as I expected it to be. It was like, food-gasm plus animation-gasm, all carried on a story that swept you up without much to-do. I really liked that--the fact that I didn't notice the storyline because it worked. (Kinda like how you're not supposed to notice music during a movie because it's supposed to work seamlessly with). All the plot points came together nicely, or at least nicely enough that I was willing to suspend disbelief at certain points. ( one line of spoilers ) So, in conclusion, awesome awesome awesome day. :D Yay!
- Went to Qingdao and back with my new China friends. Photos on Facebook. Perhaps more will appear once I sort through what An-an sent me. Suffice to say, there was frolicking in the ocean, there was climbing of mountains, there was eating of delicious seafood, and there were many many squat toilets that didn't flush. Highlight of the trip: sitting on the beach at night, watching the waves, eating kabobs, and pouring Tsingtao beer out of a bag. I KID YOU NOT. BEER COMES IN BAGS.
- After getting back to Shanghai, I chilled for a few days, packed, and watched Transformers with An-an. OMG GIANT ROBOTS <333. (Cat said, "Hmm.. movie with giant robots that transform. Why am I not surprised at Sushu-squee-age?"). Anyways, at first I was a little worried because it didn't get great reviews over at Rotten Tomatoes. And then I watched it. And the robots were so awesome I forgave the cheesy one-liners and the general fluff that was the rest of the movie. Then again, the cheesy one-liners and the paper-thin story seems to be part of the whole Transformers enterprise. After all, it's based off of a toy line. What I really liked was the seamless integration of humans and robots. At first, I was expecting that humans would mostly be sidelined and that the transformers would be doing most of the fighting. But I think they did quite well, integrating human action, etc. <3. On the way home from the movie, I kept on expecting vehicles nearby to suddenly transform into Totally Awesome Robots. :DD
- After getting home to CA, I've been getting over jet-lag, visiting friends, and then packing, for... moving! Yes! I moved! Today! With the help of Jeremy and Cat, it was a most wonderful day. Cat got dropped off at 10am to help me put things in boxes and move furniture out of my room. After Jeremy finished his Stanford lab stuff, we went off and rented a u-haul from this Totally Sketchy guy in East Palo Alto. (He ran one of those shops that sold everything ... condoms, cell-phones, cigarettes, jackets... plus he has the U-Haul business.) So we loaded the U-Haul, and drove over to the apartment, where we unloaded. I think it took us 2 hours to unload? After driving the U-Haul back and paying Mucho Dinero, we went to Cafe Sophia on Middlefield, which was a quiet place, where we ate our fill of yummy Afghani food. But seriously, I couldn't have done it without them. I had a lot of furniture, and much of it needed 2 people to carry. Up 3 flights of stairs.
- After that, we hustled over to Cupertino where we caught a showing of Ratatouille. (Alas, we were 15 minutes late, so missed the first 5 min of the movie?). It was as awesome as I expected it to be. It was like, food-gasm plus animation-gasm, all carried on a story that swept you up without much to-do. I really liked that--the fact that I didn't notice the storyline because it worked. (Kinda like how you're not supposed to notice music during a movie because it's supposed to work seamlessly with). All the plot points came together nicely, or at least nicely enough that I was willing to suspend disbelief at certain points. ( one line of spoilers ) So, in conclusion, awesome awesome awesome day. :D Yay!
