Europe

I'm going to try to write down highlights of each stop in my europe trip... so here goes!

Venice
Arrived in Venice hot, sweaty and annoyed. Our flight from Chicago was late (surprise surprise American airlines), and we had half an hour to clear customs and get on a train to our boarding gate in Madrid. We arrived with 10 minutes to spare, all thanks to running like a maniac, only to find out that they already booked us on the next flight because our luggage can't make it on this flight in time. The next hour was spent in line (extremely slow service, welcome to europe!) even though there was only 4 people in front of us. So when we finally stumbled to our b&b (4 season's vivaldi) in Venice, we were exhausted. The room was roomy, very italian with narrow stairs leading to the bathroom. Very local. The window overlooks foot traffic on a bustling street. Thinking back, it was a pretty awesome room, even though to get to our room, we had to climb a total of 84 steps. All I can say is, Venice is not built for handicapped people or people with strollers. Bridges everywhere, no cars. It was crazy, but in a good way. We walked around a lot, to St. Mark's square and to the far end to the beautiful park with a cool museum. We had pizza under the stars, and really great pasta. Had the best table white wine, a mezzo (0.5L) for 5 euros, can't get better than that. It's at Patatinas. Yum!

Posing next to our town car, ready to board!

 Hot and sweaty and pissed at Madrid.

 At Patatinas! With 5 euro white wine!

 One of the best gnocchi (with semolina wheat) and crab. Yum!! The gnocchi is soft with a very distinct herb taste. Mmm!

Spaghetti with seafood. The spaghetti was al dente with infused flavors of mussels and seafood. Thinking back, this was really good. 

 On the Rialto Bridge!

 Fancy gondolas!

 St. Mark's Cathedral.

 Picturesque area of local living quarters.

 The gorgeous park at the far end of the island.

 A display piece on exhibition linking the two towers together.

 SPRITZ! It's a light summery cocktail, you can choose bitter or sweet. The bitter tastes terrible.

 Antico Dolo. The food is really nice here.

 Very black squid ink linguine. The squid was super tender, but I'd rather the linguine in another sauce, seriously.

Hef approves of this place!

Okay that's all for my Venice trip, will start on Verona tomorrow!

Ikko!

OMG. The best Japanese place (other than Okan, but they are different) in Irvine hands down!!!

They are expensive, but some of their food items are to die for. Not going to gush too much, but I'll just put up the pictures...

I started with the tofu mousse with ginger noodles in a light caviar soy sauce. It was the best ever. The tofu mousse blends with this ridiculously light but flavorful sauce, and with the caviar exploding in your mouth, it's like heaven!

Live giant orange clam....the sashimi was soooo sweet. Mmmmmmmmm. I've never liked clam but this is in a class of its own.

Possibly the best looking uni that I've had. It was sooo creamy, and the chef glazed it with some sort of sauce that accentuates its taste. Mmmmm.

MY FAV! Chawan mushi with uni sauce and black truffles. Omg. The egg melts in your mouth, enveloped by a layer of uni and black truffles. What more does a girl want!

Home made black sesame ice cream with black sesame past in hot coffee. The bitterness of the coffee blends in with the sweetness of the ice cream to perfection. Mmmm. The far side is black soy ice cream, which is good too, but too subtle for my liking.

Pomodoro is awesome!

Deron and I decided to venture out and try a new Italian restaurant that we've never been, and it's awesome!!! It's called Pomodoro in Point Loma. It's delish and it's so affordable!

Had the burrata salad. Blew my mind. I think creativity wise, it's not the most whimsical dish I've had, but it's a solid dish! A glob of burrata melty cheese on top of sauteed spinach with fried garlic bits and cherry tomatoes in an olive oil sauce. It's really awesome.

Deron had the homemade gnocchi in a cream sauce. It's so good! The gnocchi is home-made and soft but firm, and the cream sauce is on the light side with hints of speck. The sauce is delicious and the gnocchi is too, sooooo good.

Had the BEST black ink linguine ever! The linguine is fresh pasta and cooked al dente and cooked in this seafoodish cream sauce (which is again not too heavy, and soooooo flavorful) with leeks and bay scallops. What really tops this dish was the huge perfectly cooked shrimp which was sweet and just sublimeeeee. AHHHHH. Soooo goood.

Okay, I'm done drooling over this place. :)

More upbeat!

Hi guys!

In a more upbeat mood since my last post, so I thought I'd share. :)

Just finished booking all the hotels, train tickets and plane tickets, rental cars for our Europe trip! Lier and Ariane are on board with us for the France segment, so I'm happy!

So the current route for my trip:

Venice --> Verona --> Geneva --> Nice --> Paris --> Rome --> Florence --> Sienna --> Rome.

It's going to span over 3 weeks, never been on such a long trip, hopefully it wouldn't be that bad.

Gonna be an Italian princess in Florence! We got a nice room in an ancient castle for two nights... woot woot!

I have to say, I'm looking forward to this trip so much, definitely more than my defense and probably more than my wedding. I'm sure my fiance will agree. Ha!

Weddings are such a waste of money. It completely changed my concept of money! In the past, we'll be like oh 20 bucks, that's cheap. Now we're like oh 300 bucks for a celloist? That's cheap. I feel like I'm being ripped off. Sigh.

In the bubble now, before my paper gets back from review (which will prompt another frenzy of experiments and writing), and before my dissertation is sent out, and I have to meet with one of my committee members in mid-June.

Have to enjoy this moment before it's gone. Could be any day now.

Gonna take our engagement pictures this weekend! I bought a nice dress from A&F, and will have my makeup professionally done, so I'm excited! :)

I guess I should go to work... I guess. :P

Updates

It's been a while.

Been extremely busy the last few months. It's funny how on days like these, no amount of hours can ever be enough for you to deal with your life.

Things have happened in the last few months.

Deron proposed, so I'm officially engaged!

My friend's fiance died. Suspected suicide. :( It was grim, the funeral, with the grandma crying over the coffin.

Set my defense date.

Submitted my paper thrice. Still waiting on it.

Lost weight (Guess all the stress did some good).

Building talk next Friday. Guess who's presenting!

What happens to the days when you don't feel like doing work? I have this internal conflict where I am not inclined to do work but I have to, with this impending stress on my shoulders.

I worry.

I worry about Deron not finding a job in Singapore.

I worry about my defense.

I worry about my talk.

I worry about every aspect of my wedding.

I guess the last year of Ph.D is always stressful. No easy way about it unless you're Mike graduating so you can step right into med school (kidding if you're reading this, Mike.)

I have 5 months left here in San Diego. I might come back but it's so far in the future that I don't know. I want the 5 months to be happy so I can enjoy and cherish the remnants of the life I built for myself here. I can't. There's just too many things going on, too many things I need to tend to, too many things to worry about. Ay.

Romeo & Juliet's soundtracks cheer me up. It's nice to know that some things get frozen in time and don't change.

To be happy.

Today, I was in the mouse room when I ran into this guy who works at the mouse room. I know him because one time, I was going in while he was pushing the door to get out, and he pretty much slammed the door in my face. He kept apologizing for days after that, and obviously I hold no grudge. He's one of those happy-go-lucky simple guys who is nice to everyone and is always super cheery and happy.

Then I found out that he actually has multiple sclerosis when he had an episode one day in the mouse room and had to be sent to the hospital. It makes me sad. We study MS in the lab, but it's so detached from the actual reality of the disease that everyone conducts their experiments in a logical cool manner.

Today we were talking about how he has to shoulder the cost of the ambulance because the insurance might not cover it, and how he was forced to get on the ambulance because his manager said he doesn't want him "to be a liability to Scripps". It makes me sadder. How can colleagues be so cold towards him?

I started to put myself in his shoes. I can't imagine someone with MS being the person he is. So cheerful and so happy! He has to give himself shots every single day to prevent episodes from happening, and he was joking that he was sick of jabbing himself every day like a heroine addict. Not to mention that he is seriously compromised in the dating field. Not everyone would want to be with a person who is going to be severely handicapped in his old age. I have seen videos of clinical cases of MS, where a lady who is barely 40 lost all control of her limbs. How sad a life is that? The bad thing about MS is that after every episode, the condition gets worse, and there is no knowing when an episode will occur. And he is so cheerful still, and still working, cherishing every day he has. :(

Why does it take someone like that to make me realize how good I have it? I just wish that people in general are more content with their lives, me included. My new year resolution is to be content with what I have, and to cherish everything I have. Health, my lovely family, my education, my loving boyfriend and my great friends. Happiness... it's not as elusive as I thought.

2011

It'll be a year of changes, good ones I hope. :) I had a great countdown at this awesome club with a few of my good friends, at Filter. And the new year celebrations with girl friends at Wine bar, Zouk, butter factory and Overeasy. :) I was dead tired after NYE, but all my friends took naps before they came out so the whole time, they were trying to wake me up. -_- I had fun regardless, esp when Lifang got drunk and kept saying how cute I am. Lol.