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  <title><![CDATA[YK.]]></title>
  <link href="http://loonyuni.com/atom.xml" rel="self"/>
  <link href="http://loonyuni.com/"/>
  <updated>2015-09-08T23:38:34-07:00</updated>
  <id>http://loonyuni.com/</id>
  <author>
    <name><![CDATA[Youny Kuang]]></name>
    <email><![CDATA[loonyuni@gmail.com]]></email>
  </author>
  <generator uri="http://octopress.org/">Octopress</generator>

  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Jiu Fen (Spirited Away Inspiration)]]></title>
    <link href="http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/03/14/jiu-fen-spirited-away-inspiration/"/>
    <updated>2015-03-14T21:07:32-07:00</updated>
    <id>http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/03/14/jiu-fen-spirited-away-inspiration</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>One of my <strong>FAVORITE</strong> parts of Taiwan was Jiu Fen (九份), which used to be a mining town up in the mountains. The name means 9 portions and comes from the fact that there used to be 9 main families and so when shipments would come to their port people would always ask for 9 portions of items, and voila! their name was born.</p>

<p>Aside from this place having absolutely amazing scenery, it&rsquo;s actually the inspiration for Spirited away!</p>

<p>I went during the day time, and my little old iPhone camera would not have been able to do the town justice anyways.</p>

<p>So here is a stolen picture off google images [HQwallpaper.com] that displays the true magnificence - and may perhaps show you just how spirited away could have been inspired by this humble town.</p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/jiufen/jiufen_night.jpg"></p>

<p>You can read more about a lot of the similarities between spirited away and Jiu fen as well as some history at this kids <a href="http://www.tofugu.com/2013/10/01/i-went-to-the-real-life-spirited-away/">blog</a>.</p>

<h2>MORE MARKETS</h2>

<p>Jiu Fen has an &ldquo;old street&rdquo;, which is basically a market, and they serve more iconic sticky gooey goodies. My favorite was definitely this shaved ice mochi red bean concoction. I bought two that day, and bought another later in another market. I was in love.</p>

<p>Here are some picss:</p>

<p>My picture of this delectable treat was not cute, so I borrowed this one from <a href="https://areyutravelling.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/taiwan-day-16-taipei/">AreYuTravelling</a></p>

<p><img src="https://areyutravelling.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/img_1801.jpg?w=700&h=466" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/jiufen/m_1.jpg" width="600"></p>

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<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/jiufen/m_2.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/jiufen/pano.jpg"></p>

<h3>Side Story</h3>

<p>It&rsquo;s funny because we were here during all the Chinese New Year (CNY) celebrations, and many of Thomas&#8217; relatives suggested that we not go as it would be incredibly crowded and lines for busses would be insane.</p>

<p>Well, you know how everyone believes their luck peaks during CNY? Ours certainly did. We took the MRT from Thomas&#8217; Grandma&rsquo;s house to the bus station, and when we got there, there was a short line for the bus. But as soon as we got in line, the bus arrived, and while we were starting to get on the bus, the line nearly quintupled in size! Because we were near the front we got to sit down for the 2 hour ride to Jiu Fen, but a lot of people had to stand, and a lot more people had to continue waiting in line.</p>

<p><img class="left" src="http://loonyuni.com/images/jiufen/line.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p>This bus also made another stop at a city in between, and the line for the bus at that stop circled around a whole building!</p>

<p>Fast forward to leaving, at about 4pm we were ready to head back, and we mistakenly got on the wrong bus. The bus that we got on was heading further up the mountain to a parking lot. The road to that parking spot was incredibly narrow and the rate that we were moving was about 1 meter a minute. I shit you not. Any how, after having not moved for about 1 hour, I realize that we are on the wrong bus, and see the bus that we were supposed to take heading in the opposite direction of us, and as we had once again luckily gotten a seat on this bus at the back of the bus. We ask the bus driver if we may get off already traffic halted bus and board the other. He rolls down his window and asks the other bus driver if he has room, to which the other bus driver says yes. We then proceed to climb over seats and people, even climbing over a stroller (these busses were SUPER CROWDED), and manage to get on the correct bus. The traffic heading down the mountain was not as bad as going up, so as soon as we got on, we got moving. Also, everyone on the bus had been coming from the parking lot, therefore they were HEADING to the heart of Jiu Fen, so 80% of the bus got off at the stop that we were supposed to have gotten on. When they got off, we got seats, and we also witnessed possibly the longest line I have ever seen. It wounded all the way down the city of Jiu Fen. I tried to take a picture but it&rsquo;s definitey a &ldquo;YHTBT&rdquo; sort of thing. Basically it&rsquo;s the idea of taking the up elevator to catch a down elevator that isn&rsquo;t full. Thus, we had no lines, no real wait, and no standing for 4+ hours.</p>

<p>You may not think this to be that epic, as it is a story of public transportation, but you may not understand just how many Chinese tourists there were. SO SO SO MANY.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Taiwan Part 2]]></title>
    <link href="http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/02/27/taiwan-part-2/"/>
    <updated>2015-02-27T20:09:17-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/02/27/taiwan-part-2</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<h3>Kenting</h3>

<p>So we also made a pit stop in Kenting. According to Trip Advisor folklore, Kenting was supposed to be poppin. But Taiwan is just a little too north of the equator and it has more seasons than Thailand. Thus the Taiwan winter meant lots of big Chinese Tour Buses with lots of Chinese families, no party people, and cold beaches.</p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/danshui_mango/1.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p>We actually drove by a bus crash, which looked pretty frightening!</p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/danshui_mango/crash.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p>But it was still pretty and my first taste of one of those &ldquo;Taiwan Night Markets&rdquo;. Thus we ended up changing our plans and left a day early to Taipei!</p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/danshui_mango/kenting_2.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/danshui_mango/kenting_1.jpg" width="600"></p>

<h3>Tam Sui - 淡水</h3>

<p>It&rsquo;s like a day market that lines a port, they literally call it Fisherman&rsquo;s Wharf for the SF inclined. We got sugar cane juice, ice cream burritos, these weird tofu bricks, giant ice cream cones, these really gelationous jelly fish looking things that are basically boiled chinese bbq pork encased by rice flour. You know what, let me just show you pictures.</p>

<p>But before I do, here&rsquo;s the infamous turkish ice cream guy. I literally had a BALL just watching him. He is a true performer, and you can tell that he genuinely enjoys his job. Apologies for the vertical iPhone footage.</p>

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Av6SqZywpEA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


<p>Picture time:</p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/danshui_mango/ds_1.jpg" width="600"></p>

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<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/danshui_mango/ds_2.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/danshui_mango/ds_3.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/danshui_mango/ds_4.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/danshui_mango/ds_5.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/danshui_mango/ds_6.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/danshui_mango/ds_7.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p>Annnd this is one of many &ldquo;American&rdquo; fashion faux pas that we witnessed. The Taiwanese love their patterns lol.</p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/danshui_mango/ffp.jpg" width="600"></p>

<h3>Mango Shaved Ice - 芒果冰</h3>

<p>So apparently the Taiwanese are responsible for the invention Pearl Milk Tea (or as my friends and I like to call it: BubzTea). But on top of this amazingly delicious fattening drink, they are also the creators of the equally unhealthy mango shaved ice.</p>

<p>According to Thomas&#8217; uncle, there was a year where mango yield was just off the charts, so they had so much extra mango and couldn&rsquo;t sell it because market value was so low, that some farmer started selling mango shaved ice and it just took off.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, shaved ice hasn&rsquo;t particularly taken off in America. This is not your typical snow cone shaved ice, its more of a creamy fine grained texture. It might as wellnot be called ice. We went to 3 mango shaved ice places through out the trip, and each place was so different! Some of them have the mango infused with the shaved ice, some of them had a mixture of a brown sugar infused shaved ice that had thicker chunks? In any case, they were all delicious and the mangos were on point. It is interesting to see how different Taiwanese mango was from Thai mango&hellip; I gotta say I like the Taiwanese mango more hehe.</p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/danshui_mango/mango_1.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p>Jeremy Lin ate at the place where we got the mango shaved ice pictured below!</p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/danshui_mango/mango_2.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p>I can&rsquo;t seem to find the picture of the last mango shaved ice, but it was at the infamous Monster Ice, and was absolutely delicious. We also ordered a bubble milk tea flavored shaved ice, which was bomb diggity, and offered a nice contrast to the almost overly sweet mango.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Taroko Gorge - Taiwan]]></title>
    <link href="http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/02/27/taroko-gorge/"/>
    <updated>2015-02-27T20:04:01-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/02/27/taroko-gorge</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Taroko Gorge is <em>Gorge</em>ous!  The view throughout is relatively the same however (sort of like how the Grand Canyon looks pretty much the same)</p>

<p>But it was still very beautiful with many sights/trails to see.</p>

<p>We went straight from the airport to the Taipei train station down to Xin Cheng where our very expensive Airbnb was located.</p>

<p>Our Airbnb hosts were amazing though. They built their Airbnb by hand themselves, and they took us everywhere. They picked us up from the train station, sent us to food, sent us to rent bikes/scooters, taught us to ride scooters, helped us buy fireworks, and made us a chicken in a tin box over a fire.</p>

<p>We were advised by our Airbnb hosts to rent a scooter and go through the gorge, we originally were going to walk. That would have taken us 3 hours which means we probably would have only been able to see a couple of the trails per day.</p>

<p>With a scooter we were basically able to knock out all of the trails from the Gorge entrance to Tian Xiang. There were a couple of trails that were closed down for construction. Taroko Gorge is known to have a lot of rock falls, you can even see a lot of the past ones that have occurred.</p>

<p>It&rsquo;s a pretty straight forward park, so I&rsquo;ll just include a map and some of the pictures from the park. I really enjoyed Swallow Grotto, Tian Xiang, Baiyang Waterfall, and Sha Ka Dang trail.</p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/taroko/taroko.gif" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/taroko/1.jpg" width="600"></p>

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<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/taroko/2.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/taroko/3.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/taroko/4.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/taroko/5.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/taroko/6.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/taroko/7.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/taroko/8.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/taroko/9.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/taroko/10.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/taroko/11.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/taroko/12.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/taroko/13.jpg" width="600"></p>

<p><img src="http://loonyuni.com/images/taroko/14.jpg" width="600"></p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Chiang Mai!]]></title>
    <link href="http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/02/14/chiang-mai/"/>
    <updated>2015-02-14T07:19:11-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/02/14/chiang-mai</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<h2>YAY CHIANG MAI!</h2>

<p>In Chiang Mai we met up with Eileen and Ivan &lt;3 !</p>

<p><img class="left" src="http://loonyuni.com/images/tuktuk_together.jpg" width="550"></p>

<p>The first night we went into Old Chiang Mai, and the flower festival happened to be going on! It apparently only occurs like 3 times in February, so we were quite lucky!</p>

<p><img class="right" src="http://loonyuni.com/images/flower_fest.JPG"></p>

<p>We then to visit the Sunday Market which is right behind Tapthae Gate. It was a lively market, with lots of food, similar to the many other night markets we had visited previously. <strong>BUT</strong>, everything was much cheaper. The selection may have been smaller, but if you are looking for any of those famous &ldquo;Thai Tourist&rdquo; pants/shorts or some pashminas, wait until you get to Chiang Mai before purchasing.</p>

<p>We also all got 1 hour Thai Massages for 180 Baht, which is an insane deal. And it felt <em>sooo</em> good. Eileen said these massages were far better than the ones she experienced in Cambodia.</p>

<h2>Skyline Adventures</h2>

<p>The next day we signed up for a Skyline Adventures package where you pay 1,800 baht per person, and they pick you up from the hotel and take you on adventures lol.</p>

<h3>Elephants</h3>

<p>First the bus took us to ride elephants. I know, I know, riding elephants is bad. And we saw them use the bow hook tool to hit the elephants as well as tug on their ear to direct them. Eileen and Ivan also went to an elephant conservatory in Cambodia, and Thomas and I also read online a lot of the horrors that come along with elephant/tiger exhibition. But it was part of the package deal and we decided to just do it :/.</p>

<p><img class="left" src="http://loonyuni.com/images/elephantear.jpg" width="550"></p>

<p>Anyways, we got to see one of the elephants poo in the river, and these majestic creatures have equally majestic excrements. They were the size of bowling  balls, and they just kept going! As we were traversing the river, our elephant decided to suck in some mixture of water and sand to spray upon itself to cool itself down. However, we were riding upon said elephant, so Thomas and I got sprayed with these small rocks and water. It was surprising, hilarious, and a little gross. Thomas had this big piece of elephant snot on his cheek lol.</p>

<p><img class="center" src="http://loonyuni.com/images/booger.jpg" width="550"></p>

<p>Side note, they were using a car battery to power a printer for pictures! How cool is that</p>

<p><img class="center" src="http://loonyuni.com/images/printer_car.JPG" width="550"></p>

<h3>Bamboo Rafting</h3>

<p>This was awesome! It&rsquo;s exactly what it sounds like, but the river they take you around is so peaceful and beautiful. We also had really playful tour guides who managed to get us all soaking wet, and a very funny mishap happened with Thomas where the guide jumped over a tree branch and convinced Thomas to do the same when you were in fact supposed to go under the branch. What ensued was a confused Thomas falling into the river as the bamboo raft glided away.</p>

<p>It was sort of like extreme scenic paddleboarding.</p>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l6c7m-oJyQM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


<p>-</p>

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<h3>Ziplining</h3>

<p>Ziplining in the states is about $120. If we were to say that each of these activities (there being a total of 3) were given the same cost, then that would mean ziplining in Thailand is about $20 per person. That&rsquo;s INSANE.</p>

<p>There were a total of 19 different platforms. Some of them were sort of &ldquo;ropes course&rdquo; like, while the majority were ziplining from platform to platform.</p>

<p>One of the final ziplines was SUPER long, not sure how many meters it was but the view was amazing! We also had the option of doing the zipline &ldquo;Superman Style&rdquo; for this one, where instead of being harnessed in the front at your waist, you were harnessed on your back between your shoulder blades, allowing you to &ldquo;fly&rdquo; like superman! So much fun!!</p>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tXuuH8ZORTI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


<p>We then went to get some more massages, this time I tried an oil massage. It was what you imagine when you think massage, and definitely relaxing. But I definitely prefer the traditional Thai Massage.</p>

<h3>Bar Scene!</h3>

<p>We went to the Bars (just look up <strong>Zoe in Yellow</strong>), and we got it poppin! The DJ&rsquo;s were hella good, and we danced our asses off! The drinks are more expensive, but they&rsquo;re still cheaper than SF drinks ;).</p>

<h3>Nong Buak Park</h3>

<p>In the south west corner of old Chiang Mai, there is this park. Which is very cute! We bought a huge bag of fish/bird feed? for 10 Baht. And we killed 2 hours there luring pigeons in and then scaring them. Thomas even managed to catch a bird with his feet!</p>

<p>It&rsquo;s a nice park, and there were many people having picnics and sunbathing near the pond.</p>

<h3>Thai Cooking Class</h3>

<p>Dude!! These are amazing. Small somewhat of a digression; even as an ethnically Chinese person, when I walk into a 99 Ranch, I have no idea how to use 90% of the things in that store. The 10% I do know is from what little I have picked up from watching my parents. But the same goes for trying to cook Thai food. Without knowledge of what ingredients to buy, and what they look like, or what they&rsquo;re called, you can&rsquo;t really cook authentically!</p>

<p>We learned everything needed to cook most Thai dishes, and even made our own curry paste! It was very fun, and you definitely learn a lot. They also give you a recipe book and a little certificate saying you completed the course lol. I cannot wait to cook Thai food at home! :)</p>

<p><img class="left" src="http://loonyuni.com/images/apron.JPG" width="550"></p>

<p><img class="right" src="http://loonyuni.com/images/fire.JPG" width="550"></p>

<p><img class="left" src="http://loonyuni.com/images/group_cook.jpg" width="550"></p>

<h3>Doi Suthep</h3>

<p>This is a temple at one of the highest points in Chiang Mai, and everyone told us that you have not visited Chiang Mai until you&rsquo;ve visited Doi Suthep. On top of climbing a mountain by taxi to get there, you have to climb 306 steps (which really wasn&rsquo;t that bad at all..) to get to &ldquo;360&rdquo; panoramic views of Chiang Mai.</p>

<p>There was so much construction going on at Doi Suthep, as well as foggy weather, that we were deprived of the promised views. The temple was indeed pretty however, but overall, it was too similar to the many many temples we had already visited before.</p>

<h3>Monk Chats</h3>

<p>A really cool thing that Chiang Mai has is Monk Chats. At almost every temple, there is a time in the day where many young monks will sit at tables and conversate with you about Bhuddism and Monk Life. They spend about 3 hours a week learning English, and this is part of their practice.</p>

<p>We went to Wat ChediLuang and talked to a couple of monks, and during the process we met three &ldquo;missionaries&rdquo;, they&rsquo;re not allowed to say they&rsquo;re missionaries in Thailand or something. But it was really cool learning about what they were doing! They had already spent 3 months in Guatemala, and 2 months in Thailand. They were heading to South Africa next, and were big fans of the cheap tattoos in Thailand haha.
We also talked to one monk who&rsquo;s english was more proficient, and he explained to us the journey of becoming a monk. From 7-20 years old they are novice, and after that they have the option of becoming &ldquo;Monk&rdquo; if they believe they are ready.</p>

<p>They also have extensive schooling where they attend the same schools as the other Thai students, but they have designated &ldquo;Monk&rdquo; tracks. I won&rsquo;t keep going, and let you learn for yourself when you talk to them! :)</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Phuket]]></title>
    <link href="http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/02/14/phuket/"/>
    <updated>2015-02-14T07:19:03-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/02/14/phuket</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>So&hellip; we got robbed. Not sure when, where, or how. Thomas&#8217; guess is the hostel where about 20 people shared a room, and it was basically a free for all during the Full Moon Party or when everyone was asleep. My guess is there was someone going through our belongings on the bus from Surat Thani to Phuket.</p>

<p>Baiscally, we both thought we were clever, and surreptitiously stashed about $300 in our socks, glasses case, retainer boxes.. etc. ALL GONE. And, we&rsquo;re carrying giant backpacking backpacks, so our stuff isn&rsquo;t on the surface, this stuff is lodged in the abyss of mushed items in our bag.</p>

<p><strong>Lesson Learned:</strong> Don&rsquo;t bring much cash with you, and just use the ATM, or just make sure you bring it with you at all times (and don&rsquo;t get pickpocketed)</p>

<p>Anyways.</p>

<p>Because of this recent loss of money, we tried to be very cheap in Phuket, and therefore didn&rsquo;t do much.</p>

<p>We stayed in D&rsquo;s Corner and Guestroom which we found on Airbnb, though she was an AMAZING host, I recommend staying IN Patong, as Phuket is very expensive having been overrun with old tourists with money.</p>

<h2>Patong</h2>

<p>Here was where we had intended to go jet skiing, but again, due to money issues, we decided not to.</p>

<p>The beach was really nice though! Warm calm waters, as the beach is more in a bay. The bad thing about this beach however is that it is extremely touristy. It&rsquo;s impossible to just chill on the beach, as every 3-5 minutes someone is coming up to you, trying to sell you parasailing, jet skiing, juice, beer, mats, necklaces, sunglasses&hellip; you get the point.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/NXtwoB6.jpg"></p>

<p>We then walked around Patong, and eventually found a really cheap fish spa thing. I&rsquo;m sure you have all heard or seen one of these before, they have these little fish, which I&rsquo;m sure they starve (we saw one fish eating another dead fellow fish at one spa) that will come and supposedly suck the dead skin off your feet. It was only 100 Baht for 30 minutes, so we decided to try it. It was <strong>SO TICKLISH</strong>. I don&rsquo;t think I had much dead skin hanging off my feet, so I couldn&rsquo;t tell much of a difference, but my skin did feel raw which I&rsquo;m sure 30 minutes of sucking will do to you.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/lnZ2Kpg.jpg"></p>

<!-- more -->


<h3>Boxing</h3>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/XBdW74q.jpg"></p>

<p>Aside from Lumpini Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, we heard the next best thing was the Patong Boxing. So we paid 1,300 Baht each to watch some boxing.</p>

<p>There were a total of 8 matches, the first 4 were between kids. Like 14 year old boys. It was weird to watch.</p>

<p>The 5th match was two girls! Pretty cool. We saw 2 K.O.&rsquo;s and there were a lot of people gambling (a part of me thinks it was rigged but whatever)</p>

<p>It was cool to see, you get to witness a lot of the culture involved. From the tradition of dancing to honor the sport before each match to the synchronized &ldquo;EYY&rdquo;&rsquo;s and &ldquo;OOOH&rdquo;&rsquo;s from the crowd with each successful hit. (And also the music and gambling) But at the end of the day it&rsquo;s really hit or miss on who the fighers are, I guess if you have more knowledge on the local fighters than you would know who to watch, but we just went because it was convenient, and the fights were so-so.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/GaThwlg.jpg"></p>

<p>I think watching boxing on television is fun, but I think seeing it in person, watching one person hurt another live was kind of hard to watch.</p>

<p>Thomas also got a bomb ass haircut for $5. Complete with a nice fade and they even handled his wacky cowlick!</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/has6W0u.jpg"></p>

<h3>Phuket Day 2</h3>

<p>The next day we basically just wasted until we got on our flight to Bangkok, where we would then take a train to Chiang Mai. Which was FAR more fun.</p>

<p>Although we did enjoy this Thai Iced Tea, and a lot of guava shakes.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/C6OxDGn.jpg"></p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Koh Phangan]]></title>
    <link href="http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/02/04/koh-phangan/"/>
    <updated>2015-02-04T08:41:56-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/02/04/koh-phangan</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>We took a bus from Surat Thani to Donsak and then a ferry from Donsak to Koh Phangan. (I also suggest you buy everything as a package deal from Hualamphong Station or other travel agencies). We tried planning ahead for too many things, and it may have bit us in the butt, as we ended up paying for each leg of the trip individually.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/nXv5z0W.jpg"></p>

<p>We stayed at Bed n&#8217; Bar right next to Haadrin Beach. I definitely recommend you look for a hostel right near the beach if you plan on attending Full Moon Party (FMP). And also suggest you try to book in advance as the rooms fill up quickly. Using Hostel World should be pretty sufficient.</p>

<p>We made quite a few new friends from the hostel, there&rsquo;s Ruben, Tomas, Maya, and Sigort. Ruben is from Portugal, Tomas from the Czech Republic, and Maya and Sigort from Denmark. We mainly hung out on the beaches and walked around the shops near Haadrin Beach until the second night, when FMP occurred.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/EOjP9b3.jpg"></p>

<p>It&rsquo;s insane. Everyone gets painted in neon paint, and is decked out in flower head wreaths and neon tanks.</p>

<p>Some designs you can get painted on you:</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/LgPCTgR.jpg" width="700"></p>

<p>The entire beach was covered with human beings. Everyone wasted drunk from sketchy vodka buckets. By 3 AM everyone seemed to be making out with someone. I have many videos, but you can do a quick google images search to see just how crazy this party is. The party kept going on all the way until 9 AM. There were people from all over the world (mainly europe), and of all ages. We saw an old man pull out coke and another old man yell &ldquo; YOU CHEEKY BASTARD! &rdquo;. There was mushroom mountain, and there were ropes of fire. An epic party to say the least.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/JTFxmS2.jpg"></p>

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<p>Oh! Another pro of living right near haadrin beach is that you don&rsquo;t have to pay an entrance fee to the party, nor pay for a taxi or ferry to get to the location.</p>

<p>And it is here, that my fake Birkenstocks were stolen. I also lost a pair of shorts and sunglasses. &hellip;sigh, shit happens.</p>

<p>We left Koh Phangnan at 9 AM, meaning we only really got 3 hours of sleep, and spent the entirety of 2/4/15 on busses and ferrys getting to Phuket. We are finally in Phuket, and dismayed to find that things are super expensive here (relative to Bangkok). :(</p>

<h5>Digressions:</h5>

<p>I&rsquo;ve also had a dandy time trying a bunch of unique Lay&rsquo;s chips flavors here. There&rsquo;s Scallops, Nori, Ribs, and some other flavor that I couldn&rsquo;t figure out.</p>

<p>There are more 7 Eleven&rsquo;s here than there are Starbucks in Manhattan. I had heard before that 7 Eleven in some Asian countries is quite posh, but this is something else. 7 Eleven here is the go to store for almost everything. I love it.</p>

<p>Lastly, if you don&rsquo;t want to pay to eat bugs there&rsquo;s a nice restaurant next to the fried chicken stand near Haadrin Beach that will place parts of dead flies in your Pad Thai for free -_-.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/equgmIC.jpg"></p>

<p>But if you want some damn good schnitzel, or fried chicken sandwiches, go to Mama Schnitzel. 5 stars.
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/GYoRZ9s.jpg"></p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Bangkok Day 3 &amp; 4]]></title>
    <link href="http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/02/04/bangkok-day-3-and-4/"/>
    <updated>2015-02-04T08:41:47-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/02/04/bangkok-day-3-and-4</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>An update on our &ldquo;illnesses&rdquo;, we proceeded henceforth to eat plenty of yogurt each day and tried our best to eat more fiber. We believe that the initial cause for intestinal unrest was due to this weird porridge we had decided to try the morning of day 2. We hanve since then been much more consistent in our daily BM&rsquo;s. lol. Bring probiotic pills friends.</p>

<h2>Day 3</h2>

<p>There really isn&rsquo;t that much to do in Bangkok, and with the pollution, it makes it somewhat uncomfortable to breathe. I heard that this is standard across most Asian cities though.</p>

<p>We started Day 3 off by going to JJ Market which is only open on weekends, and it was a blast! It&rsquo;s like MBK on steroids and outdoors. There are alleyways and endless opportunities to buy insanely cheap goods, and also counterfeit designer thingamajigs.</p>

<p>I bought myself a pair of fake white Birkenstocks, which later get stolen at a hostel. They were of terrible quality, and I hope that the loss of these short live $8 Birkenstocks was a blessing in disguise.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/0q46b8B.jpg"></p>

<p>Thomas bought 3 pairs of uniqlo type shorts for 300 baht, a 69 baht belt, and a bunch of socks. We also ate lots of food at the market, and saw some cool street food tricks. Unfortunately, I will not upload these videos right now.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/U2HP5iN.jpg"></p>

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<p>We then went to go watch a movie as we heard that the Thai movie experience is something else. Before each movie there is a tribute to their king, and everyone must stand up during this time in the theater. We went to the theater in Terminal 21, which is a cute airport themed mall, (yay more malls!) The seats were nice, but apparently there are way nicer set ups. We watched American Sniper, which I thought was a very good movie! The ending was a bit sad, but I thought it was quite educational, I read somewhere that this is the most accurate portrayal of army life (for the &lsquo;War on Terrorism&rsquo;) thus far.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/uvFHc4W.jpg"></p>

<p>We then decided to go to Thip Samai, which I have been told by a coupld of sources is the best Pad Thai in Bangkok. Sure enough, when we go there, there was a line that was comparable to that of Cheeseboard on a Friday night. We got two Super Pad Thai&rsquo;s which were basically pad thai wrapped up in an omelet. It was definitely the best pad thai I have had so far in bangkok. Surprisingly, I still enjoy the pad thai options I had in Berkeley more. oops.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/rxEKCak.jpg"></p>

<p>Because we took public transportation, we were much too tired to do anything else and went home to crash.</p>

<h2>Day 4</h2>

<p>We visited Asiatique, which is yet another market, but it&rsquo;s more of a pier, decked out with a ferris wheel and posh western restaurants and pubs lining the waterfront. We went during the day as we had a night train later that evening. Big mistake. It was a complete ghost town when we went, but based on google images, this place is quite scenic and a great photo op at night.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/GkACriQ.jpg"></p>

<p>We then went back to MBK to chill in air conditioning until around 4 and started walking to Hualamphong Train Station.</p>

<p>There happened to be a blood drive going on outside of MBK and we watched what seemed like a Drill routine but more fluid and probably the most perfect synchronization I have ever seen, followed by a couple of live music performances. They were very very talented singers!</p>

<p>Finally we arrived at the train station, and waited for yet another 2 hours. In that time we decided to start watching John Wick. I don&rsquo;t know why, but it seems that I have become very keen on watching violent movies. This movie was filled with mindless action, but it was amazing.</p>

<p>The train was cool, literally. If you ever book an overnight train, pay an extra 50 to 100 baht to get the lower bunk, or bring a big fleece blanket. The upper bunks were freezing cold. Other than that, it was a smooth ride down to Surat Thani.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/EmmnD0u.jpg"></p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Bangkok Day 2]]></title>
    <link href="http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/01/30/bangkok-day-2/"/>
    <updated>2015-01-30T17:04:21-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/01/30/bangkok-day-2</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<h2>Day Two</h2>

<p>This day is not nearly as exciting. Thomas and I on top of still being jet lagged both came down with uhh.. GI issues. It&rsquo;s amazing how much spontaneous fluids exiting your body can really ruin an outing. We both had some diarrhea issues, and I just got my period. Thomas on the other hand, felt like he was going to vomit. Just, not a good combination.</p>

<h4>TaoLin Chan Floating Market</h4>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/T9VCaSM.jpg">
We bussed all the way here, only to find that it was closed contrary to what all the websites said :(. We almost got scammed from a laady trying to get us to take a boat, but argued and then ran away from the angry thai lady. We met other fellow wanderers who made the same mistake, we ultimately decided to bus back and check out Central World and EatThai at the bottom floor of Central Embassy. Central World was again, super high end stuff, but nice to see. The Eatthai food court was really cool, it had little stations, each representing a region of Thailand. We tried two fried rice dishes from Northern Thailand, a Curry dish from Southern Thailand, and some coconut shaved ice as well as a watermelon slushie.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/R9GqrCT.jpg">
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/5wIPQiv.jpg">
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/zsZvSXb.jpg"></p>

<p>Because of our &ldquo;illness&rdquo;, we then went back to our hostel/hotel and accidentally napped for 3 hours. oops.</p>

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<h4>Chinatown - Yaorawat Road</h4>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ZCNXVLq.jpg"></p>

<p>We took the 4 bus here, and it was nice! Though there were lots of red and gold signs everywhere, there was not much chinese food, and if there were some it had heavy thai influence. Overall food was still good though and it was fun to see.</p>

<p>They also had so much Durien! Nom nom nom</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/SOGEmEy.jpg"></p>

<h4>Soi Cowboy and Patpong Night Market</h4>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/25cCNx8.jpg">
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/0E1lfin.jpg">
We really wanted to see the ping pong show. We first went to Soi Cowboy and there was only really &lsquo;strip clubs&rsquo; there. I wouldn&rsquo;t say they were really strip clubs because it was just a bunch of girls in bikinis awkwardly dancing near poles. (not on, mind you, just next to) It was also very awkward dancing, some of them could swivel their hips farely well, but a lot of them didn&rsquo;t seem like they wanted to be there, and some were trying to dance but it was just&hellip; very bad.</p>

<p>We then went to Patpong and entered a dingy club called SUPER PUSSY, all the ladies seemed post menopausal, but alas the ping pong show had arrived. A lady shot several ping pong balls at Thomas, and another opened two beer bottles and hit us with the cap. Very impressive. There were also ladies who wrote with their v-jays, and even SMOKED cigs! You know that magic trick where a magician pulls seemingly infinite colored scarves from their mouths, we basically saw that but through their vagines. It wass 300 baht per person, and after every &ldquo;show&rdquo;, they try and get you to pay 100 baht tip. We were not okay with that as the entry fee was so high, but it could easily add up quickly. Our club was also super empty, which made it seem more awkward and perverted than say if there was a crowd. I had read tips online on how to view the show, and they had similar pricings. I have had friends who have gone and seen a lot more, i.e., darts being shot out at balloons, fruits being shot into baskets, live animals crawl out such as small birds and rats!, and razor blades.  Overall I guess it was worth it, and it really is a once in a lifetime thing, as in, I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ll ever do that again.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Bangkok Day 1]]></title>
    <link href="http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/01/29/bangkok-day-1/"/>
    <updated>2015-01-29T16:31:27-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/01/29/bangkok-day-1</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<h3>Preamble</h3>

<p>I&rsquo;d like to say sorry that the only pictures we seem to have are selfies, a lot of the go pro pictures didn&rsquo;t turn out well, BUT we have hella videos, they just take ages to upload, so I&rsquo;ll do that after the trip. And I&rsquo;d also like to apologize for just how word vomitty these posts are. They&rsquo;re very much, we did this, then this, and then that, then some of this and then that. Too tired to write well!</p>

<h2>Day One</h2>

<h4>Grand Palace</h4>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/pyiOHNq.jpg"></p>

<p>The entry fee was 500 Baht!! It was pretty, but not worth 500. I&rsquo;d say go to Wat Arun and just pay 50 Baht for their fee or go to the the National Museum right next door for also less baht and more knowledge, as it is a museum and not just pretty buildings.
There was a long road littered with stands; herb stands, food stands, keychain stands, etc. This road connected you from the Grand Palace to the neighboring National Museum and one of the best Universities in Thailand, Chulangkorn University. At this point we were extremely jet lagged, and had spent quite some baht cabbing to the Grand Palace. We decided to check in to our AirBnb.</p>

<h4>Lee Travel Inn</h4>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/IspQVaO.jpg"></p>

<p>We totally made a mistake in planning (almost) everything. Prices seem a lot cheaper here than on AirBnb, but I guess planning allows us for peace of mind, and regardless everything is pretty cheap. We like this place! However we chose a room with no A/C, just a fan, which means we&rsquo;ve been sleeping with as little clothing as possible. Luckily there seem to be no mosquitos in this fine establishment, so we&rsquo;re good. It&rsquo;s very clean, and sort of hostel-y, everyone has their own independent rooms, and there are shared bathrooms and showers. We have our own shower/bathroom which is nice. The shower water is not heated, but that&rsquo;s no big deal, and flushing is done manually. Furthermore, <strong><em>*Bring Toilet Paper!!</em></strong> everywhere you go, this place doesn&rsquo;t have any, and so do a lot of public restrooms. Wifi is only available in the lobby, which is sort of nice, you get to meet other people this way.</p>

<!-- more -->


<h4>Lumphini Park</h4>

<p>At this point to save money and to wander, we decided to walk to Khao San Road. On the way we bumped into Lumphini Park which was crazy fun. It&rsquo;s this huge beautiful park, but the absolute best part were all the &ldquo;Workout Machines&rdquo;. I only took video, and uploading is very hard, but I&rsquo;ll do it ASAP.</p>

<h4>MBK</h4>

<p>Oh man, when at first Thomas said we needed to go look at malls, I thought, &ldquo;woop-dee-doo&rdquo;. Like when I tell people visiting Bellevue/Seattle to visit Bellevue Square, it&rsquo;s really just a mall. But THIS, oh no, THIS was no ordinary mall, it was a 7 story consumers mania. It was basically like indoor, air conditioned, clean stands. The stores were all very small, with very affordable prices. Each floor had a theme, the 5th was like electronics, 7th food, and everything else was basically clothes and purses as far as i was aware. I needed a small purse, so I bought one for 200 Baht! That&rsquo;s about $6, so of course, we bought another purse for Thomas&#8217; Mom. We bought some charging cords, and one fo those things so you can suction your phone onto your car while driving. We decided to try out their food court, and ate some saffron rice and curry chicken. It was only about 45 baht. Not bad! Another thing we noticed, portion sizes are on point here. Sure you&rsquo;re paying only $1.50 for your meal, but it&rsquo;s just the right amount of food!</p>

<p>We then meandered around and went to the visiting Siam Ccenter and Siam Paragon which was like the crystal shops at the Aria. Here you will find your Gucci, your pucci, and other italian designer things.</p>

<p>Another interesting thing, we have met far more Chinese than Americans. Some Australian and UK hailing tourists, but very few english speaking otherwise. So, being bilingual has been such a blessing, as it led us to follow two old asian men, running onto a moving bus, that would lead us to Khao San Road, for 16 baht. That&rsquo;s 8 baht each. And since then, we have been trying to bus as much as possible! So cheap!</p>

<h4>Khao San Road</h4>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/mwR4VI8.jpg"></p>

<p>&lsquo;FARANG EVERYWHERE&rsquo;. That&rsquo;s what we are, foreigners, or farang. It is a lively touristy road with more popup shops everywhere. Lots of beer and street food. The beer here is good, but its $2, which I think is quite high! But their beer is very good! Light, but at the saem time a decent alcohol percentage. We tried two different pad thai&rsquo;s, and I got to say, I am sad. (Street) Pad Thai in thailand is nothing like Pad Thai in the USA! There&rsquo;s like no tamarind paste, but there is definitely lots of tamarind here, I see other vendors selling that shit like candy.</p>

<p>We then met these two ladies buying some fried bugs to eat, while we were watching them try to haggle and then actually begin to eat their bugs, a chinese man came around, buying a whole BOX of these pupae like bugs, and he said they were his favorite. Because we were asking so many questions, he gave Thomas and I each one to try. (Thank you kind stanger?) They were uhh, definitely very protein rich. I was not a fan, and we quickly went to buy some fried chicken and coconut ice cream to wash out the flavor.</p>

<p>We also decided to get a Massage on the road. SO worth. only 120 baht each for a half hour in heaven. We&rsquo;re already looking very forward to our next full body Thai Massage.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Ol9zEJF.jpg"></p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Getting to Bangkok]]></title>
    <link href="http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/01/28/getting-to-bangkok/"/>
    <updated>2015-01-28T10:19:16-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/01/28/getting-to-bangkok</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<h2>On the Plane</h2>

<p>I finished gone girl. Even though I had read through the Wikipedia entries for both the novel and the film, I was entraced. (Like a mosquito flying with UV light in sight) It&rsquo;s been a while since I&rsquo;ve read a book - almost a year actually haha. It&rsquo;s such a great feeling when you&rsquo;re immersed in a good book and half of you wants to read slowly; absorbing the metaphors that test your imagination and witty prose that makes you feel sharp, whilst the other half wishes you could read 600 wpm because the plot is so thick with excitement. I struggled between the two and often found myself impatient, skipping and reading every other paragraph near the end only to feel guilty as well as confused and go back to re-read correctly. After finishing, all I could do was think about wanting to watch the movie.</p>

<p>I started &ldquo;Bossypants&rdquo; by Tina fey and listened to a bit of &ldquo;Yes, Please!&rdquo;&ldquo; from Amy Poehler but after Gone Girl their sarcastic memoirs seemed superficial. I know them to be not, these bombastic besties are buzzfeed/tumblr idols of mine but alas I did the opposite of what they probably would do. Gorge myself on airplane food. No, I was not hungry at all at any point on this journey, however my curiosity is stronger than the seam of my high waisted skinny jeans I decided to dawn on my 22 hour transportation fiasco, I don&rsquo;t know the definition of &#8220;traveling comfortably&rdquo;.</p>

<p>All the flights went smoothly, and I was finally reunited with Thomas in Japan. We meandered like fools, looking at every flavor of kit kat bar, and finding all the similarities between Daiso and the real deal. On our flight from Narita to Bangkok we watched Life is Beautiful, it takes some getting used to at first, but once you&rsquo;re in, you&rsquo;re in. A comical yet very poignant movie that follows a life of a vivacious Italian Jew during the times of World War II.</p>

<h2>In Thailand</h2>

<p>We made it! But we&rsquo;ve already been scammed. Our taxi from the airport, charged us per person&hellip; so our fee on the meter said 75 bhat (this is was also after he drove us to the wrong place and we henceforth decided to just walk instead). He charged us 150 bhat. Sure this translates to about 5 dollars, but I am a very broke person right now. We finally get to our hotel which we&rsquo;re only staying in for one night as we thought it&rsquo;d be easiest to deal with because of our late flight. The hotel had a 4 star rating on Kayak, but idk. We walked in and our room is like a haven for mosquitos. There is this fun little master trap thing that&rsquo;s supposed to zap em, but it&rsquo;s not doing the best job possible.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/3SAWyqI.jpg" width="700"></p>

<p>Tomorrow is going to be a touristy day, visiting the Grand Palace and National Museum. I hope it will be filled with lots of walking and pad thai. We have also only learned one phrase in Thai, and that is &ldquo;pom pae thaw li sung&rdquo; (only phonetically spelled) which means &ldquo;I am allergic to peanuts&rdquo;. This is because Thomas is allergic to almost every nut, Thailand should be fun. Oh -  and yes, we bought a <a href="http://theoatmeal.com/comics/selfie_stick">selfie stick</a> -  we&rsquo;re still trying to figure out how to use it.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/MLa8MYV.jpg" width="700"></p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Evolution 3 Day Juice Cleanse]]></title>
    <link href="http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/01/21/evolution-3-day-juice-cleanse/"/>
    <updated>2015-01-21T20:20:02-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/01/21/evolution-3-day-juice-cleanse</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<h3>Pregame</h3>

<p>I gained <strong>20</strong> pounds in college. I don’t think I need to explain the unhealthy eating habits that easily became me. Something that I also noticed within my freshmen and sophomore years is the more and more I studied, the less I went to uhh &ldquo;party&rdquo;, and the less I felt the pressure to “look good”. Not to sound vain, but it’s true, less skimpy clothes and more sweat pants gave me a lot more room to uhh… inflate. I think it’s fine that my priorities had shifted from health to education, but now that that’s over with. I’m shifting back!</p>

<p>I used to be so into health and fitness in high school, there were days when I would run 6 miles and then play 4 hours of tennis. Cross country and Hot Yoga were so extreme that what I put into my body directly affected my performance the next day. I think anyone who has exercised daily, or partook in a sport can relate to that direct correlation of the quality of input to output.</p>

<p>So these past few weeks that I’ve had off from school has been pretty darn great! I got an unlimited <a href="https://www.groupon.com/deals/bikram-yoga-bellevue-5">Hot Yoga Groupon</a>. My mom had 2 weeks of free gym passes, and she’s also a huge health nut. You know, all organic, free range, no added salt, oil, etc. So being around her and eating her food has definitely helped.</p>

<p>With this combination, I’ve already lost at most 7 pounds! I say at most because eating/drinking out with friends causes this to fluctuate. Also due to Hot Yoga, some of this weight loss may just be water weight. But, with every day that I go to the gym, or attend a Hot Yoga session, I find myself being able to run longer, push harder, and get stronger. And I have oh so missed those feelings.</p>

<h2>The Juice Cleanse</h2>

<p>So now, Jan 18 2015, I have decided to do a juice cleanse. It is more of a challenge, than for weight loss. After a bit of research, I chose to do the <a href="http://www.evolutionfresh.com/3DaysToGreen/">Evolution 3 day juice cleanse</a>. They’re having a 20% off deal right now, so it ends up being about $26 a day, which for a person that eats out a lot (like I used to), isn’t too bad! You can sort of choose whatever packs you want for each day, they have an <strong>easy pack</strong>, which is sweeter and I guess better for beginners, a <strong>balanced pack</strong> which is supposed to be a better nutrient supplement, and a <strong>green pack</strong> which is exactly what it sounds like, lots of greens.  You can also get organic packs, and customize your own packs. Each pack comes with 6 juices, and you’re supposed to drink those 6 juices per day of the cleanse. I decided to go with 2 green packs (because I always loved the green machine from Naked, and I thought it would have less sugar), and one balanced pack, just to mix it up, or <em>balance</em> it out.</p>

<p><img class="center" src="http://i.imgur.com/fejZkZj.jpg" width="350"></p>

<h3>Day One - Green Pack</h3>

<p><img class="center" src="http://i.imgur.com/vMKNrsE.jpg" width="350"></p>

<h5>10 AM</h5>

<hr />

<p> I started off with the Essential Greens w/ Lime. Pretty arbitrary choice. They had two non-green juices in this pack, and I thought that a green juice may have more substance. Be warned, this tastes nothing like Naked’s Green Machine. These are cold pressed juices, not smoothies, and there are no fruits in this drink. It’s literally got the viscosity of water. It’s only got 6g of sugar, and I can taste the kale quite well. Overall though, tolerable, and I feel healthy already :).</p>

<h5>12:30 PM</h5>

<hr />

<p><img class="center" src="http://i.imgur.com/uXCXk0p.jpg" width="350"></p>

<p>A friend from SF was visiting and we went out to lunch at Lot 3… I got a half salad, that may have had way too much blue cheese for a cleanse! I also had a couple of fries (And I really only mean a couple). Over this weekend I also met a bunch of Australian friends that work for <a href="https://www.shoesofprey.com/">Shoes of Prey</a>, and they told me to try an Australian snack, and because it’s the last chance I would be able to do so, I tried it. It was a tim tam cookie. lol. I also drank some green tea in between.</p>

<!-- more -->


<h5>4:00 PM</h5>

<hr />

<p>Most likely due to my earlier feast, I felt hungry and drank a Sweet Greens and Lemon. Which tastes exactly like Sweet Greens with Lime, but perhaps a bit sweeter. It has an apple in it as well, so that would explain it. Refreshing, but not fulfilling.</p>

<h5>5:25 PM</h5>

<hr />

<p>Got hungry again, Coconut Water and Greens. I am a big fan of this juice. Much sweeter, but actually with less sugar! (9g) om nom nom nom.</p>

<h5>6:30 PM</h5>

<hr />

<p>Hot Yoga Session, prior to this I drank a big glass of water and brought in the Spicy Lemonade juice in with me. My mom partook in the session too! :) It was her first time. She didn’t really get any of the postures right but she never took any breaks. Definitely proud of her. I also thought it was an amazing session, never had such an easy one before! Not sure if it’s because of the juices, but definitely very energized!</p>

<h5>8:30 PM</h5>

<hr />

<p>Drank an Essential Greens with Lime for “dinner”</p>

<h5>11:30 PM</h5>

<hr />

<p>Planning Asia trip with Thomas… very very hungry right now. omg.</p>

<h3>Day 2 - Balance Pack</h3>

<h5>9:30 AM</h5>

<hr />

<p>Gotta love not having to wake up early :) I started the day off with Organic V because I was kind of over green stuff. The Organic V has carrots, beets, spinach, celery, apple and ginger. The carrot and celery are very bold flavors, not too bad.</p>

<h5>2:30 PM</h5>

<hr />

<p>Got my wisdom teeth taken out. But it was so fast! And I don’t think I have any swelling. Job well done Dr. Anderson. I sort of planned this juice cleanse around this, as I have to mainly consume liquids anyways! But as hunger stroke, I had a pesto kale salad and a Sweet Greens and Lemon Juice. I had to very slowly chew on the left side of my mouth, I basically swallowed half of these leaves and tomatoes whole.</p>

<p><img class="center" src="http://i.imgur.com/DoGxXFB.jpg" width="350"></p>

<p>For those who don’t know pesto can easily be deliciously made by blending some olive oil, parmesan, and basil together!</p>

<h5>4:00 PM</h5>

<hr />

<p>Indulging in a Essential Greens with Lime Juice. meh.</p>

<h5>7:30 PM</h5>

<hr />

<p>Had a Ruby Roots juice, very sweet! 25g of sugar and very yummy</p>

<h5>8:45 PM</h5>

<hr />

<p>Spicy Lemonade! What a kick! Hiiyah!</p>

<h5>11:00 PM</h5>

<hr />

<p>I was a lot more tired today… it might be because I got wisdom teeth taken out or my body needed more fuel.. So, I tried a bit of my brothers protein shake and had  a couple slices of smoked salmon. Both of which are probably super bad. Also, to avoid erupting the clot building in my mouth, I am not allowed to do any real exercise… ahhh. So frustrating.</p>

<h3>Day 3 - Green Pack</h3>

<p>My friend who did the cleanse said that 3 days is the perfect amount. The first day you’re excited, the second day is harder and you just want it to be over with, but already Day 3 appears, and you’ve already made it <em>this</em> far, gotta keep going!</p>

<h5>9:30 AM</h5>

<hr />

<p>Started with the Coconut Water with Greens, because I wanted some sugar. Because I can’t actually exercise, I did some 8 minute abs and blogilates. That lady is so darn peppy!</p>

<h5>11:00 AM</h5>

<hr />

<p>I had the Essential Greens with Lime</p>

<h5>1:00 PM</h5>

<hr />

<p>I had a pretty bad lunch of a small avocado, smoked salmon, and sprinkles of gouda cheese. Gahh I’m so bad at this. Sorry I didn’t take a picture! But I feel a lot better than yesterday! I supplemented lunch with Sweet Greens with Lemon :)</p>

<h5>4:00 - 7:00 PM</h5>

<hr />

<p>I had 2 Essential Greens with Lime. I am feeling extremely lethargic. No energy at all. :/ Not sure if it’s the juicing, the wisdom teeth meds, or my lack of exercise, but I am just so tired. Blah. But also! Done! :)</p>

<h3>Conclusions</h3>

<p>It was cool to challenge myself, but overall I think just eating healthy and working out (duh), are enough. I’m sure my stomach has shrunk and maybe I’ll have better portion control from here on out… but I am going to Asia soon so probably not. lol. Anyways, this cleanse was a little hard to gage due to the whole wisdom tooth thing, but overall, I guess I feel healthier? But I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ll be repeating this anytime soon.</p>
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  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Like I Can]]></title>
    <link href="http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/01/16/like-i-can/"/>
    <updated>2015-01-16T13:51:43-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/01/16/like-i-can</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/YQanS-al8Ak" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


<p>My sister and I wanted to sing together! So we played around with some harmonies. She&rsquo;s far less tone deaf than I lol.</p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Winter Vacation 2014]]></title>
    <link href="http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/01/05/winter-vacation-2014/"/>
    <updated>2015-01-05T22:54:44-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://loonyuni.com/blog/2015/01/05/winter-vacation-2014</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/GV1SyXw0UlQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


<h1>Carribean Cruise + Florida</h1>

<h2>The Cruise</h2>

<p><em><em>My family doesn’t vacation too much these days, however this year, my savvy Momma had found a great deal on a Caribbean cruise, the 7 day cruise from Dec 21-28 itself was only $600!
We sailed on the Norwegian Epic, which came fully equipped with 3 water slides (one of them was the infamous toilet bowl), a fitness center better than the gym at Berkeley, a jogging track, over 9 dining options, an ice bar, several rock climbing walls, a buttload of shows, pools, casinos, and a whole bunch of other things that you would find in a Las Vegas resort. </em></em></p>

<p>Now this was my first cruise, and people tell you about the abundance of food, but no one really prepares you for the onslaught of food. If you had a functional grhelin (hunger) pathway before, you sure don’t have it anymore.  There was free room service. There was 24/7 dining. There were buffets (with very good food). There were gourmet desserts and restaurants, and there was absolutely <strong>no self control.</strong></p>

<!-- more -->


<p>The cruise went had 3 stops, 4 if you include Miami: Nassau, Bahamas; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; and Cozumel, Mexico.</p>

<p>This trip was as touristy as possible. There was no real immersion into any local culture or foods. At each stop, there were rows of &lsquo;Tax and Duty Free&rsquo; jewelry shops. There was even a Hooters at our last stop. (I watched <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1624431/">this documentary</a> and am now jaded :( )</p>

<p>We had the option of booking &lsquo;shore excursions&rsquo; for each destination, and I am SO glad that we decided to book excursions for each, otherwise all we would be doing was meandering through beach after beach or jewelry store after jewelry store.</p>

<p>The following excursions we took were:</p>

<h3>Atlantis, Nassau, Bahamas</h3>

<p>This was basically a giant resort located in the capitol of the Bahamas. They had a decent sized water park, and an amazing beach. The most memorable slide was the leap of faith, where you drop near vertically down a replica of a Mayan Temple.</p>

<h3>Best of Ocho Rios, Jamaica</h3>

<p>In this excursion, we went to a couple locations and with a guided bus tour. We first went to Dunn River Falls and hiked a waterfall. At first it’s quite exciting, but the thrill is over in 5 minutes. It’s slightly dangerous, but as is any hiking adventure. There were maybe 2 points within the hike where the force of the water was strong enough to worry, and there were always alternative routes or hand rails. I did enjoy it though because you were supposed to form a human chain by holding one another&rsquo;s hands to help each other up the waterfall. Go Teamwork!</p>

<p>We visited a beautiful botanical garden than belonged to a hotel that had been constructed a century ago. We also travelled through the forest on a road they called the Gulley, where road merchants tried selling us many phallic wood carvings.</p>

<p>It was interesting to learn that the minimum wage (which many Jamaicans earn) is $45 US dollars a week. They&rsquo;re gas prices are also currently around $7 US dollars a gallon, and that&rsquo;s with the OPEC war.</p>

<h3>Chankanaab Snorkeling, Cozumel, Mexico</h3>

<p>Here, we went snorkeling, which was beautiful, and I wish I could have better captured some of the amazing fish that I saw with my GoPro, but alas it is hard to swim with a steady hand. We were also lucky enough to have 2 very funny tour guides who taught us about Mayan culture, as many parts of Mexico and the island of Cozumel were once inhabited by Mayans. And then of course we had tequila tastings. I never knew tequila could taste so good! (they had almond flavored tequila!) Then we got to see a very cute sea lion show. Definitely recommend this excursion!</p>

<h2>After the Cruise</h2>

<p>We didn&rsquo;t do too much after the cruise, we went to Universal Studios, and found that so exhausting and expensive, that we decided to abandon our original plan to go to pay $100 to go to Disney World the next day and spend 7 hours waiting in line for 15 minutes worth of rides, and instead go to the Kennedy Space Center.
HOLY MOLY  <strong>KENNEDY SPACE CENTER</strong>. That place, made me want to re-do all of college as an electrical or mechanical engineer. I wanted to be a space cadet. I wanted to be a part of SpaceX or Boeing. They did a phenomenal job of organizing the exhibits. The people who designed the flow of the exhibits are geniuses, I can’t wait to come back again. If/When I become a parent, I will definitely be bringing my kids here when they are of age to inspire them to love science. You can’t not leave wanting to be a scientist.</p>

<p>We also did several other things in Florida like go to the Miami Beach, Everglades National Park, and visit Vizcaya Museum and Gardens all of which were also very enjoyable! (except all the mosquito bites).</p>

<h4>Final Thoughts</h4>

<p>I usually would not be such a fan of this sort of tourism, where false mirrors are put up wherever you go to reflect an image that may make tourists feel at ease. Nonetheless, I gotta say, THIS WAS NICE. The tours were enjoyable, and also meant no real pre-planning needed to be done on our part. Furthermore, there were so many times on the ship where we just did nothing, and looked forward to doing nothing, and often found that the time was nothing &lsquo;o clock. Now, we did plenty of things on the ship, went to almost every show that we could (there were a lot of repeats), they even had the Blue Man Group! Other than the natural family drama that arises when my family congregates, this has got to be the most relaxed I have been since I graduated high school, and it was a great way to end 2014 and my undergraduate career. :)</p>
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  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Empowerment Project]]></title>
    <link href="http://loonyuni.com/blog/2014/12/11/empowerment-project/"/>
    <updated>2014-12-11T17:12:41-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://loonyuni.com/blog/2014/12/11/empowerment-project</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>So in FemSex we have had many different projects, all very meaningful, the last one that we had to do was empowerment. Some FemSexies did guided meditation, danced, EFT, and <em>more</em> ;). It was anything that empowers you, or deals with empowerment. So I wrote the little speech below, and performed a song. Because I can&rsquo;t sing through written words, I recorded a youtube video of the song I chose to sing for my recital, which, was <em>WAY</em> out of my league. So sorry that it&rsquo;s really pitchy, but NOT sorry for trying :).</p>

<p><strong>Empowerment Project:</strong></p>

<p>I used  be one sassy 5 year old. I don’t know where the validation of this cocky brattiness stemmed from, but I wish I still had some of that. I don’t know if it was elementary school bullying, or what occasion, or even when, but I know by middle school, I had become a very scared to shine, or stand out. I saw how a lot of kids, mainly girls who weren&rsquo;t afraid to show off their skills, got talked a lot about behind their backs. “She’s trying too hard”, “She just wants all the attention”… etc. So I think somewhere along there, I tried not to take the spotlight. That and a series of rejections, from elections, auditions, and heck even boys, made me doubt my self worth. I think we do sort of live in a society where modesty is appreciated, but I realize now that my view of modesty has been skewed.</p>

<blockquote><p>You see, being modest is not about suppressing your own sense of self worth. Rather, being modest is about uplifting the positive virtues of others with respect to your own. So being able to recognize other people’s talents and abilities as well.</p>

<p>Now let&rsquo;s consider confidence. I believe that confidence has less to do with how much self worth you have, and more to do with where you derive your self worth.<sup>1</sup></p></blockquote>

<!--more-->


<p>So, one big example for me, is singing. I love to sing. But I never really sing in front of people. I’ll sing in the shower, and maybe sing around the house, as I’m comfortable with my family, and turn my car ride to work into a mobile belting booth. But I’ve had a hard time singing in front of people.  There’s always been this fear that I’m not really good enough, and this sort of feeling extended beyond just singing. And even if I was good, I didn’t want people to think of me as those middle school girls had thought about others who tried. I just still have a hard time with accepting any sort of limelight. Furthermore, this anxiety builds up, and even if I were to try and sing in front of people, nerves really throw off your pitch, or memory of lyrics, and all sorts of hullabaloo.</p>

<p>College was even harder, because I was always living with other people, and even if I wasn&rsquo;t, the walls in my apartment are so thin, I can hear my upstairs neighbors phone vibrate. Thus it&rsquo;s been hard for me to find an opportunity to really sing. I had slowly been getting better at singing in front of others, but the majority of the time, I just couldn&rsquo;t. This semester though, I am taking a singing class (Music 44) and we’ve had to do a lot of &ldquo;public singing&rdquo;, and we have a recital coming up! So I’ve started singing more in front of people, and not just the under my breath sort of singing and humming, but like big ass diva shit. Which brings me to my next thing, my favorite singers are Beyonce and Whitney Houston, and when I sing the songs of these queens, my 5 year old inner diva comes out again and I feel empowered as fuck! So if it’s okay with you, I’d like to sing you a bit of a song, it’s lyrics may not be so empowering, but its Whitney, and it’s the shit. And I hope that all of you will never shy away from an opportunity to shine, and keep trying to do something you like because if you don’t try then you won’t be able to get better, and I didn’t even know I could “sing” (decently?) until I actually sang in front of others! I really regret not trying harder to be part of some choir or Acapella group on campus. So fuck bitches who want to put you down, who cares if they think you’re “trying too hard”. That’s right, dammit! I am trying hard, and I don’t think you can ever try too hard to get better at something that you like doing. Being modest is good, but being confident is just as important! And you can definitely be both.</p>

<p>I’m still working on being able to sing, and sing in front of others, but practice makes perfect! On that note, let’s all get boozed up and go karaoke sometime!</p>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/yzrK2X60_VY?start=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


<p><sup>1</sup> <a href="http://qr.ae/qHKDm">Lisa Lin</a></p>
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  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[Seattle Tourism]]></title>
    <link href="http://loonyuni.com/blog/2014/12/09/seattle-tourism/"/>
    <updated>2014-12-09T22:32:36-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://loonyuni.com/blog/2014/12/09/seattle-tourism</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>2 summers ago one of my BFF&rsquo;s Eileen came and visited me in Seattle! So I put together this excel sheet! I still feel like a tourist in The Sound (the equivalent of calling SF area The Bay), so these are just what I do with visiting friends, so if you ever find yourself lucky enough to be in the amazing PNW, these are my suggestions on things to do!</p>

<p>Also, go in the Summer if you can, it&rsquo;s 9 months of overcast and light precipitation, but 3 months of heaven in the Summer.</p>

<p><img src="http://i.imgur.com/KajmvuP.png" title="Seattle ToDo!" alt="alt text" /></p>

<p>And here&rsquo;s the Google Drive spreadsheet, let me know if you want to edit the file!</p>

<p><a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-AOEmCHt2pNJKFyN9RPTU8Wywqpim9fbegYXTaEOFU4/edit?usp=sharing">View Drive Spreadsheet</a></p>
]]></content>
  </entry>
  
  <entry>
    <title type="html"><![CDATA[10 Things to Do While at UC Berkeley]]></title>
    <link href="http://loonyuni.com/blog/2014/12/09/10-things-to-do-while-at-uc-berkeley/"/>
    <updated>2014-12-09T19:07:26-08:00</updated>
    <id>http://loonyuni.com/blog/2014/12/09/10-things-to-do-while-at-uc-berkeley</id>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Some of the following will be very simple things that you would hear about within 10 minutes of being in Berkeley. Others are not even specific to Berkeley, but I think are very meaningful, and others are small things that I have discovered while at Berkeley and are responsible for some of my favorite memories here.</p>

<h4>1. Go to the Marina!</h4>

<ul>
<li>Checkout Takara Sake and go <strong>Sake Tasting!</strong></li>
<li>Eat brunch at Betty&rsquo;s Oceanview Cafe or Cafe M</li>
<li>Get your groceries from grocery outlet <em>SUPER CHEAP</em></li>
</ul>


<h4>2.  Pseudo Illegal things:</h4>

<p>Be careful if you attempt some of these&hellip; I&rsquo;ve gotten lucky with a slap on the wrist, but being a short asian girl might have helped.</p>

<ul>
<li>Sneak into Memorial Stadium and pretend you&rsquo;re NFL superstar</li>
<li>Sneak into Greek Theater and pretend you&rsquo;re Beyonce/Whitney Houston</li>
<li>Climb onto the window sills of Doe Library (super dope on 420)</li>
<li>It&rsquo;s probably gone, but there used to be a couch on top of one of the clark kerr buildings, it was good for star gazing!</li>
<li>I still need to be employable so I won&rsquo;t say any more.</li>
</ul>


<h4>3. Dolla Dolla Sundays Ya&rsquo;ll</h4>

<p>So you can go watch horse racing for a DOLLA. On Sunday&rsquo;s entry fee is only one dollar, and guess what else is only a dollar&hellip; BEER AND HOT DOGS. No joke, for real, it&rsquo;s all only ONE dollar. And I don&rsquo;t condone gambling, but betting here and there is fun! The minimum bet is $2, which for a non working student can add up, but who knows you may win, and it&rsquo;s a fun way to hang out with friends and bet on the horse with the coolest name like Thunder Gulch or Passion Star Arising.</p>

<!--more-->


<h4>4. Go Outside!</h4>

<p>There aren&rsquo;t really that many great trails to run around Berkeley, but these few do the job.</p>

<ul>
<li>Indian Rock</li>
<li>Big C</li>
<li>Fire Trails</li>
<li>Tilden Park</li>
<li>Grizzly Peak</li>
</ul>


<h4>5. Do Research!</h4>

<p> Doesn&rsquo;t matter what field you&rsquo;re in, I think it really shows you what&rsquo;s really happening at Berkeley. Sure it&rsquo;s this great academic institution, but above all else it&rsquo;s a research institution, with some bad ass people. Furthermore Berkeley is a very theoretical school, and research allows you to apply things you learned in class, and research is the stuff happening at the very forefront of the fields, you&rsquo;ll get to help push boundaries! Not only do you learn about your field (or others - who says you have to do research in your own field!?), you get over any fears of talking to professors and grad students, and make long lasting friendships - and hey recommendation letters never hurt nobody! And it may seem intimidating at first to get a research position, but trust me there is no shortage of opportunities.</p>

<h4>6. Stay Well Rounded</h4>

<ul>
<li>It can be very easy to pigeonhole yourself to stay with one group of friends, and I know that by sophomore year, you probably think you already know what you like and want out of your friends, but be open. You never know how someone can change your life (hopefully for the better) if you let them.</li>
<li>And don&rsquo;t forget to take fun classes, requirements are important, and maybe you love Chemistry SO much that you really want to just take all the relevant Chemistry classes possible, even graduate level courses, and that&rsquo;s great, but try to take your breadth requirements seriously, even if you P/NP them, take the opportunity to learn! And take those classes to meet people outside of your major and learn from them! and omg look at that, below are some dope classes I think ya&rsquo;ll should take, and some I wish I took!</li>
</ul>


<h4>7. Stay Classy!</h4>

<ul>
<li>PH 116

<ul>
<li>an easy and pretty insightful class, we had an undercover cop come in and talk about prostitution, we are quite sheltered on campus, but just next door in Oakland there are so many issues that we all should be educated on.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Wealth and Poverty

<ul>
<li>I shouldn&rsquo;t have to say much about this class, the profesor dated Hilary Clinton and then introduced Hil to Bill, so we have him to thank for you know, alll o&#8217; dat. And of course he&rsquo;s one of the biggest proponents of income equality.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>FEMSEX</strong>:

<ul>
<li>It&rsquo;s a decal but holy shit it has changed my life. I cannot encourage you enough to take the course. I think I&rsquo;ll have to write a whole other essay just to explain the importance of this class.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Bike Decal:

<ul>
<li>Biking is awesome, it&rsquo;s good for the enviroment, your glutes, and gets you from point a to point b. Not to mention, bikers are just some awesome people. This class teaches you how to fix your bike, pretty much essential if you own a bike.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>CS 61A:

<ul>
<li>I didn&rsquo;t take this class, I took E7 :( but even if you have to take this class P/NP, do it.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>CS 70:

<ul>
<li>So up until this class, I was a full on Biology fanatic. 61A will teach you how to program, but this class will teach you how to <em>think</em> (like a Computer Scientist). You <strong>literally</strong> go to class everyday and solve riddles. And that&rsquo;s when I realized that I wanted to do more CS!</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><p>MCB 62:</p>

<ul>
<li>Drugs and the Brain! I never got to take this class, but the title should speak for itself.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><p>Also I do suggest you take a graduate class if you can! Be it a seminar, or whatever, you get to see what the NEXT level is like. And also most of the time, they curve to an A for a bunch of funding reasons.</p></li>
</ul>


<h4>8. MORE FOOD</h4>

<ul>
<li>Burma Superstar

<ul>
<li>You don&rsquo;t come here for normal food. You come here for salads. You NEED to get the <strong>Tea Leaf Salad</strong> and the <strong>Rainbow Salad</strong>. Thank me later.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Daras or Cha&#8217;am

<ul>
<li>So I&rsquo;m in LOVE with Pad Thai, there was a time when I ate it at least once a week. These places are pretty amazing, Cha&#8217;am recently changed their recipe or something but overall, these two bad boys are right next to each other and both super delicious.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Lucky House Thai

<ul>
<li>Come here on Sundays! You get free Thai Iced Tea, and their pad thai is WHITE! Every bit as delicious, but it&rsquo;s interesting.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Brazil Cafe

<ul>
<li>That Cilantro Sauce!! NOMS. Expensive for Berkeley, but so yummies.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Gregoire&rsquo;s

<ul>
<li>Try their Potato ball things once, some love &lsquo;em some hate &#8216;em but, I love any sort of fried potatoes, so my mouth is drooling just writing about them. Anyways for SURE get their <strong>Fried Buttermilk Chicken Sandwich</strong> I have had my fair share of these &ldquo;chicken sandwiches&rdquo; like at Bakesale Betty&rsquo;s, but this one, is <strong>THE BEST</strong> (Thank you Michelle for introducing me to this magical sandwich)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>TOSS

<ul>
<li>I don&rsquo;t know, I just really like their food! It&rsquo;s mongolion grill esque?</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Taras

<ul>
<li>WAY better than ici&rsquo;s. ici&rsquo;s is overrated, but Tara&rsquo;s is so creamy and it&rsquo;s got all the same (if not more) of those avant garde flavors, plus they give you bigger scoops for a cheaper price. I&rsquo;m not a big fan of cones, but Tara&rsquo;s hand made sesame cones are the perfect combination of decadent and crunchy.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Indian Flavors Express / House of Curries

<ul>
<li>I don&rsquo;t know much about Indian Food, but I also just really like these places!</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>


<h4>9. Study Abroad</h4>

<p>I didn&rsquo;t get to do this, but it&rsquo;s one of my biggest regrets, do this early! Or in the summer, so you can actually take credits like those pesky pre-res that matter (often easier abroad&hellip; if you&rsquo;re into that). Or save up a bunch of breadth classes and take them all at once while you&rsquo;re abroad!</p>

<h4>10. Do Something You Don&rsquo;t Even Think You&rsquo;d Like</h4>

<p>I wish I had joined a dance group, or acapella, or heck Korean Drumming. I found that I tried too hard to be all academic. But think about it! After you graduate, you don&rsquo;t get these sorts of opportunities. I&rsquo;ve been checking out meetup, a website where like minded people can organize and meet, sort of like clubs but it isn&rsquo;t the same! Don&rsquo;t just try and join professional clubs or honor societies, as great as they are, do what my asian parents would call &ldquo;useless&rdquo; activities and start new hobbies!</p>

<p>But also do things that will allow you to contribute back to the community, while learning real skills, like volunteer clubs, no matter what major you are you can apply your skills to help someone. I only know STEM ones such as Blueprint, BEAM, Engineers Without Borders, Suitcase Clinic&hellip; etc. Don&rsquo;t get regrets like me :(</p>

<h4>11. Rock it out!</h4>

<p>You&rsquo;re here to learn. To grow. To change. You&rsquo;re here to find your bridesmaids, your groomsmen. If you are passionate about something, do it! Or hell, do everything until you find out what your passionate about.
That&rsquo;s what I sort of did, and I&rsquo;m still not done figuring all of that out. But I don&rsquo;t <em>completely</em> regret all the time I spent trying all the other things.</p>
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