biscotti's break teeth but so tastey!

I'm rubbing my feet on my tin kleankanteen filled with hot water so I can be warm! No judging, please. It's hella cold at my home in SF, but I love it. Berkeley has been spoiling me with insulation! But I definitely am not looking forward to the rainy days when I'll have to trek to and from the jagged streets of Berkeley!

This Thanksgiving weekend was spectacular! GOOD FOOOOOOOOD made by my cousins. Sainie and me laughing at my aunties and uncles who thought my mom's not-so-tastey pumpkin cake/dessert was tastey. Random drop-by's, driving to a closed mall on Thanksgiving day lol.. Saw some high school friends I haven't seen in hella long. Learned how to play BANG, which is fun after learning how to play.. now if I only I know how to strategize so I can kill everyone! The shopping on Friday was good too because of the sales =] Always gooooood. Played tackle football with regular clothes which was horrible because I couldn't run haha. But Eric's bday bbq was really fun =]. And on top of that, NO HOMEWORK doing whatsoever. Even now as I am writing this, I was supposed to have dome some extra credit thing, but I will start now, maybe.

Today, my cousin Bea came over with her baby girl Gabby who's only 7 weeks old! She's sooooo cute. Bea also brought her parents who flew in from New York to spend time with their granddaughter. They always bring us an Italian almond/raspberry torte and fruitcake, which are both always deliciousssss, and Bea made some biscotti! That was something my sisters and I used to bake with her when she lived with us back in the day. My grandparents never eat it because it's too hard for them to eat haha. More for Sainie and me!

Current Thought:
It's crazy. You wake up the day after Thanksgiving and everyone's already focusing on the next holiday..

A memory from childhood:
While my older sister Wanny sucked on her thumb most of her childhood, biting my big toe til it bled was mine.. both terrible habits!

age 103 is insanely young

On the same day that families are brought together to share food and festivities, my parents find out that my great-grandma passed away last night. Even though she is in China and I've never met her before, seeing my grandma who lives with me crying made me realize how much my great-grandma was still a part of me. What's even more whoa was seeing my grandma as a daughter to someone. Makes me realize I need to spend more time with my grandparents. My dad immigrated here for over 20 years and still hasn't gone back to my family's village, meaning he hasn't seen his grandma for that long..

They always talk about how my great-gma is super healthy and strong, who walks around without a cane, and likes to do things for herself even when she was 100. I hella look up to her, I just wish I got to meet her before she passed away.
____
On a better note.

I realize this month has been FRIGGIN FILLED WITH ADVENTURES LIKE CRAZY!
1. ShadowNite
2. Dragonboat College Race =D
3. Planning Grad School Info Night for Academic Retention (costco-ing and getting gifts for the grad students)
4. Students of Color Conference / UCLA!!!! OMG SO EFFING FUNNNNNNNN. Got to seee some old friends, learned lots of interesting info about city planning, and bonded with some cool mother truckers =] It was so good to get away from Berkeley and SF for a few days. Too many things to talk about.. but let's just say What Happens in LA Stays in LA!! =D
5. REACH! core/intern dinner at my apartment... fitting 23 ppl was so crazy =D But food was really gooood
6. Thankstaking break =] I hope to see people!!! Today was actually a very good dinner. My favorite thing to look forward to is my cousin Joanne's mashed sweet potato!! SOO gooood =].

I think the lack of sleep and physical things/brain power is getting to me... I'm getting sickkkkk. BUTTT Hopefully seeing people and catching with some will uplift my energy!

reach! shadowNite!

These past three days made me remember why I loveeee working with youth. i miss the mentee's already!!! I'm kinda sad I didn't get to go to do the campus tour or go with them to the workshops, but the scavenger hunt was the shiiiiiit, and housing Stephanie and Jilianne was so fun cuz we talked to them about hella random stuff, especially bout boyzee's :D. Stephanie's so crazy n cool. And Jilianne's really really sweet n cute. She looked good with my LAMB sweatshirt haha.

Highlights from these past 3 days:
Not getting to hang out with the mentee's as much on Thursday night cuz of midterm studyinggggg =[.
Finishing my Ling 130 Midterm on Friday!!

---
Wow I forget when I started writing that.. but it did not get finished! oh well.. I'm sure it was like Nov. 8th when I wrote this..

ode to the cubyrop

When Tee introduced me to a candy called Cubyrop [pronounced "cube-eeee-rop", like hop] in 9th grade or so, I thought that name was extremely cool. I loved it so much that I told her I would name my future child that. I can even nickname my child Cuby! Boy, girl, or something else- it wouldn’t matter because Cubyrop is such an uncommon name for anything. All them consonants making your mouth move every which way when saying it. So fun to say!

The hard candy is shaped as a little solid cube, and it comes in small packages of two cubes each. Colors galore. Red, orange, yellow, white/clearish, green. She buys them at Sunset Super, Pacific Super, Ranch 99- basically anywhere that sells pan-Asian groceries and food products. As someone whose parents refused to buy or feed us sweets, and never allowed my sisters and me to roam around the candy aisle in grocery stores, I've never been exposed to such a candy with such a strange name. I don’t think I’ve even tried a Cubyrop, but that name.. sooooo coooool.

When Tee introduced me to Cubyrop candy and when I told her I'm naming my future child that, she laughed at me like I was insane. Cubyrop would get ridiculed and have a terrible horrific DISASTEROUS childhood. Better to have a regular name and save the poor child from embarrassment.

Of course, society's chokehold on anything different = unacceptable still strangles our thoughts. Everyone always says they like change and individuality, but sometimes they don’t follow through. We try so hard to step out of the mainstream by trend setting, finding new music not heard on the radio, eating eclectic foods, etc, etc. However, it appears that there is only so much we can do differently ‘til we’re reminded of fast food chains, media everything, and top 40’s music. And don’t forget name calling.

Tee wins. I probably won’t ever name my future child Cubyrop. Maybe something less extremely cool. Perhaps there’s a reason why a Chinese candy would make them sound different to English speakers with the funky name. To draw interest into a product from a country that is competing for consumers and are hungry for money. It apparently works, since Tee continually buys it. Though I’m not encouraged to name a person Cubyrop, I can certainly name something as unreal as a blog Cubyrop!

SOOOOOO, this new blog of mine is dedicated to Cubyrop in hopes to express strange ideas and new experiences.