Wait... Where did spring break go?

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all doing well!  It's been awhile since I've written last, but when you have a 25 page paper that you have to write reviewing music theory textbooks, writing some more is that LAST thing you want to be doing... 

So yeah, no updating for me, but now that the monster of a paper is finished, I can get back to blogging again! I think that is usually how I end up getting off track with keeping journals, but hey, this time, I'm here recording and documenting once more  =)

Last week was actually our spring break, and for the first time, I stayed and worked through the break. Usually, I go home or go on crazy adventures with my friends, (or last year, I went to California with my guy! you can check them out here.. I just looked through it and man... so many amazing memories!!), but yeah,,, that monster paper and competition preparation kept me in Houston this year.  So most of the break was spent in front of my computer typing, or in a practice room with my earplugs in, practicing.  If you guys are musicians, do you practice with ear plugs?  I usually don't do it, but when you're working on Sibelius Violin Concerto, and you just have to shred octaves for hours, you gotta protect those ears  ;)

Thankfully though, my break wasn't all work and no play!

One night, we had a cooking double date with our double date couple and Houdini!

We made 'blackened chicken', which is basically really heavily seasoned chicken, and if you ever plan on cooking chicken with cayenne pepper, we highly recommend turning on the fan.  We didn't do that  at first, and all of us (including Houdini) was hacking and sneezing until the air cleared.  Man,,, I guess it's kind of like a mild version of pepper spray?  but whatever the case, let me tell you what. it ain't pleasant.

We also baked some more... (Nutella roll-up cookies!)

cooked some more things,, and ate some more baked goods!  The cakes were from one my student's mom, and it was so sweet of her to bring me some!  And all of the pieces were so beautiful!  I am so blessed to have such wonderful students and parents =)

And one day, my guy surprised me with a cupcake! It was his way of congratulate me on getting admitted into my doctorate program, and I thought it was so sweet of him  =)  I applied to Boston University and University of Texas-Austin, and I got into both of the schools!  I was so excited, and that made my spring break much more exciting  haha.  I haven't decided where I want to go, but I will let you know when I finally decide! 

So that is about it for my spring break!  Not the crazy adventurous one like the one I had last year, and probably the most workaholic one ever, but still, a really great one.  I am so blessed to have all of the opportunities and to be surrounded by such wonderful people, especially this guy  ;)

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you are all having a wonderful day!!

--Janny

Spring Break II!! San Antonio and Castroville!

Hello everyone!

In order to celebrate our Spring Break II,

actually called Spring Recess,

(because Rice is awesome like that and gave us Thursday and Friday off for Easter)

we took a road trip to San Antonio and Castroville!

Before we left, I was uber ambitious, and made some Kimbap for the road;

Mommy used to make these (but the real version) for us all the time,

so I thought I would give it a try.

This isn't the real Kimbap though,

it just had rice and some roasted kale inside it instead of the whole... shebang...

We actually finished the whole thing on the trip out,

so we didn't have any for the way back,,,

well, now we know to make more for our next trip  ;) 

We began the trip by visiting Castroville Regional Park, 

which is less than half an hour away from San Antonio,

and enjoyed a little hike.

It was really gorgeous.

Who would've thought that Texas could be this beautiful?

I mean, when I think Texas I think deserts and barren lands,

but this little stream we found was really green and quite beautiful.

Then, we also found a little playground at the park,

so of course we had to frolic a little  ;)

On our way back, we spotted this,,, tree decoration (?)

can someone explain this to me...?

I'm just a bit confused...

Cora's 471 Grill.

apparently it has the best nachos in Texas.

So obviously had to go there, right?

I mean, it's the best in Texas.  

That's a pretty big claim, eh?

And the verdict?

Yes.

It was pretty darn great.

but super heavy.

A layer of chips, beans, cheese, meat, tomatoes, and some jalapenos. 

My mouth loved it, but my tummy not so much...

Before we left Castroville for San Antonio,

we stopped by the Haby's Bakery.

because everyone told us that we had to visit this place.

 we got cream cheese and strawberries filled doughnut and this pineapple filled pastry,

and the cream cheese/strawberries doughnut pictured above was pretty darn tasty!

the pineapple one is waiting in my fridge right now, waiting to be tested tonight after dinner  =)

Then, we hit the line of 5 San Antonio Missions.

We were originally going to hit all of them,

but,,,  after two, we called it quits, 

partly due to my stomach having problems with the uber rich food...

My diet is usually pretty light and mostly vegetarian, so it was a bit shocked I think  haha

The ones we visited were awesome though!

I had never seen anything like that before, so it was all fascinating,

and the weather was absolutely perfect for leisurely strolling,

and it was with my man. so I mean, ya, it was pretty great  ;)

The next stop was the River Walk!

I mean, it's one of the things you have to do in San Antonio, right?

It was such a relaxing stroll,

and we walked into a little Italian shop with this charming old Italian man who kept talking to us in Italian.

It was really quite charming  ;)

A trip is not complete without ice cream of some sort afterall,

so we got some raspberry/grapefruit gelato and a cannoli.

my first cannoli!  and it was so good--he assured us that it would be good since it was his mother's recipe  ;)

see?  I told you he was charming.

We wrapped up our break by watching Croods

--highly recommended for some good old pg-rated laughs and warm/fuzzy feeling in your heart--

and it was the perfect break we needed from all the hustle and stress of grad life.

Now we're back, and it's time to get our butts in gear for the last month of school!

 I can't believe Rice ends so early in the year! 

but this last month is going to be...  awesome...  yeah!  haha

I hope you are all enjoying this Easter weekend!

Happy Easter!

--Janny 

Last day of Spring Break!

Hello everyone!

School has started again, but I'm definitely still in Spring Break mode...

Here I am, dreaming about San Francisco and our spring break,

when I'm supposed to be preparing for my Orchestral Repertoire midterm...

It's at 4,, so I still have time to practice for it, right?

Oh Ein Heldenleben. 

why you so difficult?!

sigh...

Ah, but San Francisco was so awesome!

 and Berkeley too!

The last day actually began in Berkeley,

and on our way to San Fran, we stopped by the Berkeley Marina and the longest pier I've ever seen.

We took a leisurely walk on this pier,

and like half an hour later, we were at the end of the pier!

not even joking.

about half way through, I remember thinking, 

'I still can't see the end of this pier...  does it ever end?'

and it wasn't even the actual end of the pier!  

the original pier had kept going, but for some reason, today's pier stopped in the middle somewhere.

 (the other half of the pier and the Golden Gate Bridge.)

Though it was a longer walk than expected,

we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves strolling along the pier,

talking, laughing at antics of the seagulls, and wondering why there were ducks so far out into the ocean...

What was really cool was that when we first got there, it was incredibly foggy;

we couldn't even see 10 ft ahead of us.

but when we turned around to return to our car, it was crystal clear!

Before and after photo  haha

Then, we arrived at San Francisco, and had In n Out burger!

we had been talking about going to eat at In n Out since the first day we got to Cali,

and we still hadn't been able to eat these famed burgers!

My first experience with Animal Style.

yum!

I know these aren't horribly great for us, but sometimes you just crave a good burger, right?

and fries.

oh yeah.

why are they sooo delicious?

Though I have to say, eating out every single meal did take a toll on how my body felt,

and I ate a salad for every single meal for a couple of days when I got back home  haha

salad detox?  =p

But at the time, we thoroughly enjoyed our burger and fries  =)

And then we went tandem biking!

on the bridge!

and it was sunny, warm, and overall an incredibly beautiful day to do so!

David wasn't too thrilled about the tandem idea at first,

and when we first began, I did fear for our lives and our relationship.

haha just kidding about the relationship part, (maybe)

but I did fear for our lives.

We couldn't keep the bike going straight - it kept wobbling- and there were cars coming!

It was much harder than I thought it would be.

and oh my goodness, making sharp turns on the tandem was atrocious!

I'm pretty sure we provided much laughter to the passerbys as we tried to maneuver sharp turns.

After a couple tries and a switch in who was in the front,

we finally figured out how to coordinate everything, and ended up having a blast  =)

Being ballroom dance partners and everything,

I thought we would've figured out how to coordinate movements faster,

but I guess it was a good partnership building exercise...?  =p

We biked all the way to the cute little town of Sausalito (on the other side of the bridge)

and walked around and had some ice cream before we got on the ferry back to San Fran.

on Sausalito's main street

by the ferry landing.  such a chill little puppy!

on the ferry

We were frozen by the time we landed back in San Francisco,

because it's much, much colder out in the ocean,

so we warmed up by having some clam chowder   =)

ahhh  such a perfect way to end our biking adventure!

Oh, and conveniently enough, the bike rental place was located right next to this place.

I never needed much encouragement when it comes to chocolate!

ah, San Francisco, you were so good to us.

We'll be back again soon!

Now, back to the reality of practicing,,,  and my midterm,,,  eek!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

--Janny

Spring Break Part 3 :: Berkeley

Hello everyone!

The penultimate day of our spring break was spent in Berkeley!

It began with a lovely brunch at La Note with my baby brother

Such a cute little place, and amazing food!

and of course, wonderful company  =)

It was so nice to catch up with lil bro again,

and it was fun seeing David and lil bro meet for the first time 

and bond over their experiences attending Berkeley.

Then, because lil bro was preparing for midterms and such undergraduate tasks,

we went for a walk around the Berkeley campus.

The first place we visited was the stadium because before I left, Mr. Lin told me that I HAD to go straddle the fault line that runs through their stadium.

so, here we are, straddling the fault line,

thanks, Google, for telling us where the fault line was located!  ;)

Then, we ran around the field and goofed around a bit.  =p

More of the Berkeley campus,

on a tour with my very own tour guide  ;)

When we got tired of walking around the giant campus,

we took a lunch break and went to the Cheeseboard.

yuuuuummm!! 

so good, AND they had live music!

AND THEN!!!!

we met up with ALINA!!!

AHHHHH

we hugged and screamed for good couple of seconds when we first saw each other,

and I still feel so warm and cozy inside whenever I think about our reunion!

We were roommates in high school when we both attended Interlochen Arts Academy,

and we just clicked from the first moment we met one another.

you know when you meet someone, and you just know that you are like soulmates?

yup. that was us.

So many nights spent staying up talking about history, literature, current events, religions, etc etc...

yes, we were quite the nerdy room, but we LOVED it so!

It was so awesome because she gave us a tour of the farm she's working in,

--because she is uber cool like that and is working in a food justice program--

and we got to harvest chicken eggs, try whole bunch of different plants she has helped to grow,

and for the first time in my life, we tried edible flowers!

and then we took a long walk, caught up on 6 years of our lives we spent apart from one another.

(this must change, dearest cheerio, 6 years is just too long!)

It was so incredibly wonderful to be reunited again, and I can't wait to see her again  =)

After the wonderful afternoon spent with dearest Alina,

we went out for dinner at Chez Panisse.

such a classy restaurant with amazing local, organic food!

the atmosphere was wonderful, our waiter was so classy,

trying oysters for the first time was awesome,

and though I'm not usually a pasta fan, 

their homemade pasta was so delicious!

After our wonderful dinner,

David took me on a hike that he kept promising would be wonderful.

I was a bit skeptical at first, because it was a moonless night, 

and most of the hike was really really dark, 

and then I got rather scared because I kept hearing noises that sounded like bears or coyotes or something of the wild animal kind.

However, once we got to the top, it really was quite breathtaking.

You could see the whole of the Bay area!

it was definitely worth the hike  =) 

That wrapped up that day for us, and we proceeded to go back home to our family friend's house to pass out for the night.

Sight seeing is rather tiring!  haha

I'll be back soon with the post about our last day of our spring break soon!

Happy beginning of the new week!

I can't believe school is starting again...  I'm not ready yet!  haha  

--Janny

Spring Break Part 2 :: Road trip!!

Hello everyone!

The 2nd part of our Spring Break was spent mostly on the road,

from LA to the Bay Area.

We decided to take a little detour though to visit the Danish town of Solvang on our way up,

because our friend Ran recommended it to us,

and we are so glad that we did!!

What a charming and peaceful little town!

and what an incredibly beautiful day to explore!

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves walking around the little downtown, 

visiting the unique shops,

and just generally enjoying the Danish architecture of the place.  =)

Then, we stopped by the Succulent Cafe and Trading Company for lunch!

For some reason, I thought it was a Danish restaurant,

but it was actually French...

We ordered the cheese board, and I remember thinking,

'wow, French and Danish cuisine is really similar!'

ok, so I should've known that it was French as soon as I saw the cheese board,

but in my defense, it is a Danish town afterall!

It was really delicious, and exactly what we were craving after a long morning on the road  =)

windmills, succulents everywhere, amazing cheese and fruits,
silverware with character, and this person  =)

Then, for dessert, we visited Olsen's Danish Village Bakery.

I was determined that we would experience something Danish this time,

-since we were so wrongly cheated out of it for lunch-

and I figured having 'Danish' in the name would guarantee that for us  haha.

We ordered a slice of the Kringle and the Danish waffle 

--because the Kringle is humongous! bottom right picture--

and really enjoyed the Kringle!

The Danish waffle was a tad bit too sweet for us,

but we loved trying both of them!  =)

Then, we walked around and explored different shops on the main street.

It was the strangest thing,

we knew that we were in California,

but pretty frequently, as we were exploring these little shops,

I kept forgetting that fact,,,  it felt so much like we were in a different country!

or perhaps like we were in a different era?

The architecture was so uniformly different (Danish),

the shops were so different,

the food was different,

people at the stores wore different clothes,

the whole town was so peaceful...

cuckoo clocks!  We used to have one at our house when I was a teeny tiny one.

We finished our trip to Solvang by walking through their park and the farmer's market.

The park is dedicated to Hans Christian Andersen,

whom we can thank for such fairytales as the Ugly Duckling, and the Thumbelina among others,

and the farmer's market that was happening right beside it was full of amazing looking fresh produce!

ahh, farmer's markets  =)  gotta love them!

11270 km to Copenhagen!

Then, as we were about to resume our road trip to the Bay Area,

we noticed an Ostrich farm on our left!!

so of course, we did a big U-y and turned around to check it out!

Neither of us had ever seen a live ostrich before,

so obviously, we were uber excited to meet the first ostrich of our lives!

We bought 2 bowls of feed, and went out to meet these birds.

I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn't what we experienced.

First of all, these birds are HUGE!

and rather vicious in their quest to get to the feed.

The first ostrich tried to take the bowl away from me,

and it was so strong that it almost succeeded!

Overall, it was a bit scary, but I'm glad we got to experience it anyway  =)

Then, we drove and drove and drove

(well, he drove,, I slept  haha)

and then got to the Monterey beach!

It was really freezing though, especially since we got to it just as the sun was setting...

but it was fun smelling the ocean and walking along the water line  =)

Then, we ended the day with a dinner with Paula and Ted in Saratoga!

what a cute couple  =)

David, Paula, and Ted go waay back to their Berkeley years,

and it's always fun meeting and seeing old friends.

Thanks for the lovely dinner guys!

We'll see you guys soon I'm sure  =)

Well, we're leaving California nice and early tomorrow morning,  

(6 am,,,)

so I should probably go pack and get some sleep..

Happy Friday!

--Janny

Spring Break Part 1 :: SoCal

Hello everyone!

I was thinking that I would blog every night, but alas, vacationing is hard work!  haha

Every night, we just pass out from walking around all day long!

But tonight, we called it an early night after a night hike (will post about this soon)

so I have some energy left to blog about the first part of our break in Southern California  =)

It began on Monday with a series of delayed flights from Houston to LA.

By now, flights being delayed doesn't even surprise me,

I mean, I'm pretty sure that 90% of the flights I've been on have either been delayed or cancelled.

But this time, I had a travel buddy, and a new camera on my iphone,

so the wait wasn't so boring  ;)

We finally got to the airport in OC,
and after a rather confused interaction with the rental car lady,

where she continued to explain the Kia Soul to us by saying,

"you know, the hamster car..."

though we kept explaining to her that we have not seen the car commercial,

we got the keys and walked out to the garage to find this box waiting for us.

eh...  not something we would have voluntarily chosen,

but actually, it has grown on me for the past couple of days  =)

At least it's easy to spot!

The first place we stopped by was Fashion Island in OC.

There were SO many different shops,

and honestly, it was a bit overwhelming,

so we didn't end up going into many of the shops.

But!!  we did go into this chocolate shop

(shipped directly from Zurich)

and bought a whole lot of chocolate,

and also played a couple of games together at a brain shop.

We were too busy being nerdy to take pictures of the brain shop,

but I'm sure you can imagine what the shop was like...

lots of brainy games and puzzles!

and of course, food...

there was also this giant coy pond with giant inhabitants

(the biggest I've ever seen!)

and the most grand looking Macy's I've ever seen  haha

what perfect opportunity for a little photo shoot before we go off to LA  =p

When we got to LA, we had dinner with David's Dad's family,

and it was so nice to meet and spend some time with them!

We had Beijing food (my first time,, so good!) 

but I totally forgot to take photos...  =/

it was such a wonderful evening among great food and wonderful company!

The next day, we began our day by visiting the Getty Museum.

Wow.

This museum.

It began even before we got to the actual museum itself.

They had this cute little sculpture garden in the waiting area for the tram,

and we had fun frolicking there,
though missing our chance to catch the tram before an army of young children swarmed up the steps to take the tram wasn't so great...   oh school field trips...

Because we didn't feel like fighting the hundreds of purple T-shirted children for space on the tram,

we decided to take a walk up the hill to the museum.

It was a really nice walk with really great view,

but we must warn you;

it's quite a hike...

and we saw the tram pass us at least twice.  sigh..   haha

And then, voila!

the view that greeted us at the top of our hike!

and David posing like a statue  =p 

They had so many incredible exhibitions,

and also many different activities like the 'sketch room'

where you can try and see if you have what it takes to be displayed in the museum.

We tried,,,

and well, maybe with a little help... perhaps?

hmm

yeah, no. we'll just stick to science and music.  haha

The exhibitions were great, but man, the whole entire place is... wow...

 SO gorgeous!! 

and quite full of really good photographers passing by!  haha

And it gets even more beautiful once you get near the garden

on the winding road to the garden

the garden..

looking up at the museum from the garden.

sigh...

what a beauty...

 After spending all morning at the museum,

we reluctantly moved onto downtown LA.

The first place we visited was Beverly Hills,

and...

not impressed. at all.

Perhaps if I was interested in which celebrity lived where?

otherwise, it was just a row upon row of large houses, and many palm trees.

Then, it got more exciting as we visited the Farmer's Market,

--because I just have this huge love of Farmer's Markets--

I don't know, everything is so fresh and unique, and it's just so fun to walk around taking everything in!

I love the farmer's market in Seattle as seen here and here,

but I liked this one too!!

And though we were really full from lunch at the museum,

we still had some cake and some doughnuts

(because it was voted to be the best in LA!!  and I mean, it's doughnuts.  haha)

And, as we were leaving the market, we noticed this hilarious sign.

haha!!

we thought it was pretty funny  ;)

Then, because we felt the need to burn off some of the calories consumed at the market,

we went to the Hollywood Blvd, and walked, and walked, and walked some more!

The goal was to find Jascha Heifetz's name,

and of course, it was one of the last names we located,

but find it we did!

Heifetz!  and also Fred Astaire!

 I also located a whole bunch of names that David didn't recognize.

So many instances of;

J:  *Squeal!!*  blurt out somebody name!!

D:  Who is that,,,?

J:  a violinist!!!

 But the roles were reversed when we ran into these names.

Star Trek names?

After leaving the Hollywood Blvd,

we visited the Griffith Observatory,

and though it was closed,

we had fun walking around the outside of the observatory.

Next time, we'll have to look up the business hours...  haha

Oh, and we asked this guy to take our picture in front of the Hollywood sign,

and he ended up being a fantastic photographer!

Not bad for an iphone camera, eh?

Thank you, sir!

We wrapped up the day with some good old Korean food at Kobawoo house.

yay for some Bossam!!

Abers has been singing about this restaurant for ages, so we had to go try it out!

and it definitely did not disappoint!    ;)

We'll be back, Kobawoo, when we're in LA again!

Ok, so that wraps up our first day (and a half) in Cali!

whew!   haha

I hope you all have been having a wonderful week!

Will be back with more posts about our trip up to San Francisco and Berkeley soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

--Janny