The Year in (Quick) Review

It's January 5th! I go back to work in two days! Quick! Let's review the year.

January - Cammy came out from Fort Collins to throw me a tiki-themed bachelorette party at the Tonga Hut, which was AWESOME.

February 18 - Ari and I got married at the University Club of Pasadena. It was (slightly) more AWESOME than my bachelorette. We did a "mini-moon" to Palm Springs right after, which was delightful.

March through April - Finished up the spring semester at USC. Taught in the Master's Prep program for both fall and spring of 2018.

May - HONEYMOON! Israel with the whole fam (in-laws, sibs, cousins, aunts, uncles) and then a little side-trip to Amsterdam (our airline, KLM, let us have a free stopover there). Beautiful weather the whole time.

July through mid-August - Taught ESL at my old job, the Columbia ALP, for Summer C session. Went pretty well for the most part and it was wonderful being in the city during the summer. Hot and sweaty but fun. Plus, Ari came out for the last week of work and that was nice to see him!

September through December - kept things low key around here. Presented at CATESOL in Anaheim with my mom, which was fun. Stayed local for Christmas (but went to Youngstown, as usual, for Thanksgiving). Missed Leah and Urbain because Leah is currently in Australia (through the end of January).

New Year's Eve - Ari's dad came out for four days, arriving on NYE, in order to go to the Rose Bowl game, since Ohio State was playing. Ari, his dad, and my dad all went. (Tickets cost $450 each!!!!) On Jan. 2, Ari also did an informal recital of a Mendelssohn piece for his dad and my family with his LA Phil coworker, Lucy, accompanying on the cello.

So, I honestly can't complain about 2018. What a great year! 

Highlights from the end of the year (November 2016 - January 1, 2017)

Pictures!

First, camping in Cottonwood Spring, in Joshua Tree National Park. (November 5-6)

Dad, Ari, Aunt Liz, Me

Watching the sunset from the car while driving back from Jumbo Rocks

Important sharing of Hello Kitty filter on Instagram. My dream come true.

Heard David Sedaris speak for the first time, at the Pasadena Civic Center. (November 15)

Saw an NBA game for the first time on November 23rd. Go Cavs! (In Cleveland with Ari and his brother Ben.) 

With the Kessler family for Thanksgiving, in Mill Creek Park, Youngstown, Ohio.

Half-Marathon Weekend  (December 3-4)

Anja makes delicious crepes the day before our big half marathon, using her parents' awesome crepe-making tool.

Lunch and a tour of the Presidio with Alicia

Sunset over the Sutro Baths. 

The actual run! (This was right near the beginning). 

We all finished it in under 4 hours!! 

Nessa's wedding in Jersey City, December 10

Speeches

View of Manhattan from the Jersy City Hyatt

Christmas/Holiday stuff

Arty blurry photo of our tree (before it inexplicably started smelling bad...) 

Ari's parents visited and we joined them for a rainy but fun trip to Catalina Island on December 20.

Hanging and Bruce and Kathy Carter's house on Christmas Eve. 

Fiddler on the Roof singalong at the Laemmle on Christmas Eve

Mexican Train dominoes after brunch on Christmas 

Hike to Henniger Flats on December 28 with Erik, Cammy, Dad, and Aunt Liz (and her dog Axl) 

New Years with Ari's siblings visiting from Ohio

One warm day of sunshine! (But the water was FREEZING)

Everyone! At the park. We asked a stranger to take a picture of us and he asked us to hold onto his dog while he took it. 

Rainy San Clemente Pier on New Year's Eve

San Juan Capistrano Mission on New Year's Day

"Worth a Visit" -- Indeed, it was! 

December on the Best Coast

Hey! I'm home for the holidays! Here are some pics to document my time here so far. (I'm here till January 3rd, when we leave for CUBA!) I feel it important to note that I have mainly spent my days:
1. jogging
2. going to yoga with my mom for FREE because the gym is free if you are a family member of someone who has a Foothill Gym membership
3. working out at the gym for FREE because of reason listed previously
4. eating lots and lots of food and chocolates

Part I: Local stuff

First morning in Monrovia. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

You're not living in LA unless you eat chia seed pudding for breakfast (courtesy of Leah). I thought they were pretty gross. It's oatmeal for me from now on. 

Special trip to Eggslut in downtown LA, the trendy eatery that bases every menu item on local, organic eggs. It was really good! But I felt kind of sick afterwards...

...perhaps because I had a sundae about 5 minutes after eating the cheesy egg sandwich? 

Chai in the afternoon light.

Part II: Weekend trip to the Bay Area, visiting Janelle, Erika (not pictured, sadly), Jessica, and Anja

View from Janelle's window in San Francisco.

Driving to get Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast.

Janelle's wacky dog, Margot.

Bonding with John Mayer (the scruffy guy in my lap) and Margot. They both barked at me for about the first hour of my visit (no kidding), and then warmed up to me, as you can see. 

Met up with Jessica for Ethiopian lunch at Enssaro in Oakland. 

Walked around beautiful Lake Merritt

Lots of egrets in the lake!

Awesome welcome sign at Anja's apartment. We've lived in all of those places at the same time. 

Beautiful sunset walk around Cesar Chavez Park.

The Golden Gate Bridge is in the distance there!

On the morning before I drove back to LA, we went for a nice walk around these redwood trees (not sure where this hike was, exactly).

 Part III: Home again 

This is my favorite photo from the last two days. Cosmo sitting under the Christmas tree like a he's a lil PRESENT. 

Resolutions

I think I've got to post my New Year's resolutions before it gets too late. According to an NPR story I heard a few years ago, women are more likely to keep their resolutions if they tell people about them (but apparently this rule doesn't apply to men). 

So here are my resolutions: 

1. Write down one good memory from every day. This resolution will hopefully be made easier by the fact that my sister gave me a cute little French notebook that's designed specifically for this purpose. 
2. Start tracking my spending more carefully and keep within a budget. I hope some kind of miracle app on my new iPhone will help with this goal. Anyone have good recommendations? 
3. Commit more seriously to volunteering. Ideally volunteer at an animal shelter. 
4. Try to be more patient. This is something I have gotten especially bad at since living in New York City. 
5. Make more of an effort to keep in touch with and spend time with friends and family. 

And before I close out this post, a quick mention of big things that happened in my life in 2013 (off the top of my head):

• I lived in Indonesia; and returned home from Indonesia after being away for over 10 months. I also traveled to Singapore, Vietnam, and Hong Kong this year. 
• I moved back to New York City to start a part-time teaching job at Pace University and rented an apartment with Ari. 
• My grandmother on my dad's side passed away on December 20th. Her death was not unexpected; she had been doing poorly for quite a few years and had recently taken a turn for the worse. My family remembers her as a compassionate and giving woman who loved to laugh. We all miss her. 

Belated holiday lights

We drove around Hastings Ranch with the family on Leah's last night in the States.

We're all sad to see her go!

I got an iPhone

As an early Christmas present. Now I can blog remotely!

Last night, I went to see A Christmas Carol at A Noise Within, with my sis (back from Paris for a week!) and my cousin, and of course the family. 

Back from Bali

Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook (all of you?) will have already seen my photos from the time I spent in Bali (December 21 - January 6). Two whole amazing weeks! The trip was basically as good as I'd hoped it would be. The following is a very unpoetic summary of how I spent those two weeks, written mostly so that I have some record of it. For the pictures, click here.

December 21 - December 25:

1. Flew in to Denpasar (the main airport in Bali). Met up with Holly, Tabitha, Jackie, and Jon (the other Fellows).
• Tabitha, Holly, and I were supposed to be picked up at the airport by the owners of the bungalow, so when no one showed up, we weren't really sure where to go. After more and more stressed-out searching, Tabitha finally found it! Although it was a little shabbier in person than the pictures, it was a very cute little spot, with our own (sort of murky green?) pool and tiny kitchen. 
2. During our time in Seminyak, we mostly just ate (at our favorite restaurant we discovered on the first day, Lanai--huevos rancheros!! Mexican food??!!!), swam in the pool, swam in the ocean (which was pretty polluted, sadly), and chilled on the lounge chairs reading books and trying to turn away vendors who kept coming by. Although I did end up buying a sarong and a manicure/pedicure. Yes, you can get a pretty decent pedicure on the beach! 
3. One foray that was more cultural: we visited Ulu Watu temple, which is a Balinese temple located right on a the edge of a steep cliff overlooking the ocean. It was a REALLY hot day, but the beautiful view made up for it. And the monkey that stole Tabitha's water bottle out of her hand and drank it like a human. 
4. Spent the last night in the Seminyak area at a different hotel, since the bungalow was booked for Christmas night. Pro: an actually clean pool to swim in. Con: we had to split up into different rooms.

December 26 - 28:

1. Moved to Oka Wati Hotel (a little tropical paradise in itself!) in Ubud, away from the coast, but more of the "cultural center" of Bali. SUCH A COOL SPOT. Suddenly, I felt like I was in a totally new place (whereas Seminyak had still felt kind of like Indonesia, despite the increased number of scantily-clad bules). 
2. Did practically nothing except walk around the streets, shop a little, get caught in the rain a little, and eat lots of delicious health food (wheatgrass juice, tofu, semi-healthy pizza).

December 28:

1. My friends left super-early this day, while I stuck around to meet my parents the next day. Signed up for a jewelry-making workshop at silver store, for $35. Didn't realize how much work goes into making a ring! But glad that I essentially got to make exactly what I'd wanted: three narrow rings, one plain, one with a stamped triangle pattern, and one with a small peridot gemstone on it. The teacher may have been a little frustrated with me (although he didn't show it) because 1. apparently putting a small gemstone on a ring is kind of difficult, so he had to help me a lot, and eventually did it himself, and 2. when I polishing one of my rings by holding it up to a really-fast spinning buffering machine, I accidentally let go of the ring, and it flew out of my hands, and the teacher had to take apart the whole room looking for it. Oops. 

December 29 - January 3

1. Morning of parents' arrival: paid to be part of a guided hike up to the top of Mt. Batur, one of the more famous peaks of Bali (other than Mt. Agung, which turned out to be way too high for me to attempt). Got picked up at 3am, and met the other members of my group, which were all coincidentally single travelers about the same age as me! One French guy now living in Melbourne, one Canadian, and one Singaporean girl also living in Melbourne. We had a great, relatively-fast-paced hike up in the light of a full moon and amazingly clear skies. Watched the sun rise over Mt. Agung at about 6:15am. 
2. PARENTS ARRIVE! Woo hoo! They checked in to the Oka Wati, where they booked a family room, which meant that I have to sleep in a separate, tiny bed meant for a child. 27 years old and sleeping in the kid's bed with my parents. Ah well.
3. Highlights from their trip:
• Went to see a dance/music performance three nights. First night: Legong (Balinese) dance and music. Second night: Shadow puppet performance at the store where my mom took a Balinese instruments music class. The puppet show was hilarious because it was definitely adapted for the foreign tourists; a lot of it was in English, and it was only an hour long (traditional puppet shows go literally all night long). Third night: Saw a children's performance of Legong dance, with an all-female gamelan orchestra. 
• Took an all-day eco bike tour around Bali with my dad, where we got to eat breakfast at a lookout of Mt. Batur and Mt. Agung, then bike to a "kopi luwak" (civet coffee) farm and sample lots of varieties of coffee and teas and fruits. Then biked down to get a tour of a typical Balinese home (where the people were still living and working, weaving bamboo), then walked around a gorgeous rice paddy and helped harvest the rice a little, and then saw a banyan tree. Finally, we chose to take the last leg of the ride uphill (you can choose if you want downhill or uphill for the last leg) and nearly died biking uphill in direct sunlight about at 2pm in the afternoon. 
• Visited the ARMA (Agung Rai Museum of Art), an art gallery of traditional and modern Indonesian art. Took a batik-making class with my mom, who I talked into giving it a try. Her batik turned out gorgeous, and mine turned out OK. She did a Japanese-inspired pattern, and I did a picture of an Indonesian cat (with the stubby tail). 

January 3 - 6 

1. Took a taxi to Sanur, a coastal city on the southeast tip of Bali. Arrived there in a HUGE downpour, and had to run into our hotel room and hide out until the rain stopped, a few hours later. Went to a delicious legit Italian restaurant, called Massimo's, where we had two dishes of pasta, pizza, and tiramisu and gelato. YESSS. At dinner, we walked to a restaurant that sold, according to Lonely Planet, the best banana smoothie in all of Bali. It was pretty darn good. AND they had live jazz! that was good!
2. Went snorkeling in the partial sun, saw some beautiful fish just 5-minutes' boat ride from the shore. Sadly, because the weather was pretty cloudy, they didn't look quite as vibrant as one might hope, but we were still satisfied after an hour of snorkeling. 
3. Walked around town and had a few meals right on the beach, including a traditional Balinese meal of fried snapper. It was aiight. (I still preferred Italian--my parents indulged me and we went back to Massimo's on our last night.)
4. On our last day in Bali, we tried to go snorkeling again, because the sun seemed to be stronger, but after taking the boat out for about an hour and not finding anywhere good to get out (the waves were too choppy), we gave up and came back. And then caught the flight back to Surabaya! (I use an exclamation mark here, but in reality, we were all a little bummed to leave Bali.)

January 6 - 8

1. Back at the Surabaya Sheraton (lap of luxury!), we shopped for a batik for my dad (it's REALLY hard to find batik patterns that don't look ridiculous back in the States), then got pretty decent Japanese food at Sushi Tei, a chain upscale restaurant in the huge mall, Tunjungan Plaza. 
2. On our only full day together in Surabaya, my mom unfortunately had a flare-up of her eye infection that she'd had before leaving the States, so she wasn't up to people seeing her with red eyes, and chose to stay home. My dad and I went to my school to get a tour of the campus and meet my two counterparts, Bu Wahju and Pak Milal. They then took us to see the second-largest mosque in Indonesia, Masjid Al-Akbar, where we got to go up in the minaret and see a pretty decent view of the city. My counterparts even drove us all the way back to the hotel, where my mom was able to come down and meet them briefly.
3. On the last night, we all went to see a ludruk performance (the traditional East Javanese music performance that tells a story), where Steve, the Fulbright researcher, was playing in a live radio broadcast for RRI (Radio Republik Indonesia). 
4. At 4am, my parents left the hotel room to catch a flight at 6am, and safely flew home. And I went back to campus. Sniff. Back to reality. But first I got to eat the all-you-can eat meal at the hotel and use the free gym. 

Mom and Dad, I had a wonderful time with you! Come book soon, OK?