White water rafting

My first white water rafting experience!! Overall it was AWESOME, albeit in the beginning of the activity, it was quite slow and boring.
We went to Lotus which is about 3 hrs from our place. If you think this is far, I met ppl who who drove from San Diego, which is about 8 hrs away just for this activity!

Saw these Llamas(I think) on the way to Lotus. Aren’t they adorable?  The lady saw us taking pics of them, and asked us to go over so that we can touch the llamas. So nice of her. The one on the left is about 2 yrs old and she is quite shy. She felt uncomfortable of our presence and kept moving behing her owner. I think that she is really pretty and managed to stoke her neck (that was what the owner asked us to do) Really made my day! The day started on a positive note…   Felt really happy.

This was my itenerary:

Meet time: Mid- to late morning, Coloma
Hour One: Sign-in, instruction
Hour Two: Class II warm-up rapids
Hour Three: Riverside lunch
Hour Four-Six: Class III rapids, “The Gorge”
Hour Seven: Take-out in Folsom Lake, bus ride

Hmm, it was just one hour at the warm-up rapids. Felt reaaaaaally long!  Should have gone to the class III/IV instead, but we didn’t know it was so calm.

I do not have any pics with us on the raft to post  because the $75  CD that we bought is blank! OH BOY!

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These few days, I have been watching too much drama for my liking!  Tmr, I must work! We plan to go for Independance Day parade/event today, but since I watched drama until 6 am (yes, I am addicted), I woke up at 2 pm and it was too late for the event.

Oh boy

It was really warm last weekend! I was really hoping that the the cool nights could be prolonged, but soon, it will be very hot. And I do not have AC at home. Don’t feel like cooking, doing laundry, or doing anything. Maybe I should spend my nights in the office when it gets too hot? This is certainly a great idea.

For Independance Day weekend, I am not going outstation. Hmm, I always use this term when I was in Malaysia to mean going anywhere out of PD, but I do not hear it here. Oh, I miss this term because it reminds me of home. Only Malaysians(or maybe, my family?) uses the term outstation I think. I do not think the usage is correct as according to dictionary.com: outstation- a post, station, or settlement in a remote or outlying area. Oh well.

We are going for white water rafting! It is my first time! Quite excited about it. And then I am (maybe?) going for skydiving the week after next. I want to do it at least once in my lifetime, but I do have apprehension regarding this. Getting old I think? If you ask me the same question 3 years ago, I would surely agree to do it.

I have this habit of saying “Shit” when something irritates me. This is very unlady like lor. From now onwards, I would use the term, “Oh, boy” instead. My colleagues gave me this idea.

This few days, I am quite addicted to Korean dramas. For some unexplainable reasons, watching those dramas(comedy romance) make me happy.

I do not mind working on evenings/nights but recently, I could not stream video on crunchyroll when I am on VPN! So, it is all work! OH, BOY! Any workaround for this issue? Feeling quite desperate, especially now when I am waiting for my page to come up.

Dia de Portugal

Last week, I was back in my event-searching mode again, and found out about Dia de Portugal(Portugal Day) event which took place yesterday at History Park, San Jose. It was quite interesting. For the event there were parade and booths. Since the event took place in History Park, we took the opportunity to visit the historic buildings in the park.

Portugese traditional costume maybe?

Pageant winners? If they are pageant winners, there are quite many pageants going on for girls/teens as I saw a lot of them in the parade. They were dressed in very nice gowns, with crowns and the person in the middle will have a “cloak” as below.

The two ladies at the sides had to carry the strings/cloths on the arms to ensure that the “cloak” remained stretched out.

The “cloak” is grand, right?

Portuguese water dogs!

I am wearing my $5 dress.

Could not resist taking picture inside this cute train.

This reminded me to a conversation I had not so long before.

So, I am 25, but I do not feel 25! I feel young, like I am still in high school. I am puzzled by this. Am I the only one who feel this way, or this feeling is actually normal? I asked a lady much older than me if she felt her age. She said no, and said that when you start to get old, physically you start to deteriorate, although mentally you may not. She also mentioned that you tend to feel you are at the times when you are happiest.

It is true that I am very happy when I was in high school. Had a lot of great memories. I would feel happy every time I think of my teenage years. Maybe what the lady said was true somewhat. Maybe it explains why I always feel like a teenager.

Dentist chair. It looked scary, alright. Wonder what was that pedal for? To create movements to grill the patient’s tooth?

I like this pic.

A man was showing how the archaic printer works. He was using it to print flyers for an upcoming event, so yes, the printer is still usable

Ng Shing Gung (Temple of the Five Gods). The five divinities are:

Guan Yin, Tien Ho, Choi Sun, Kwan Gung, Cheng Huan

A look at the past. More pictures of historic buildings.

Happy Happy =)

A year older wiser. Thanks to everyone who made my birthday feel special. Thanks for spending the time with me.

A week before my actual bdae, dear YL planned a surprised bdae gathering with me as most of ppl have their own plans during Memorial Day weekend. Felt really happy and touched lor. It was my first time in a jacuzzi too

2 days before my bdae (the reason is same as the above: most of ppl have their own plans during Memorial Day weekend), Kke planned a bdae gathering for me.

Most of them are my college good friends

A BIG HEARTFELT THANK YOU

Jalan-jalan Bay Area

Kke’s aunt and uncle were here from Saturday until Thursday, so we have to be tour guides. Mind you, these visitors are seasoned travelers, having been to about 15 countries!! Impressive! I have been to…hmm, let me count; Malaysia (yeah, must include ), Singapore, Thailand(Phuket), Australia(Gold Cost, Sydney), China(Beijing), US, Czech Republic(Prague), France(Paris), Spain(Barcelona), Rome(Italy), United Kingdom(London), Vatican City; 12 countries! Wow, I am expecting less than that.

During their visit here, I would say that our schedules were quite relaxing, usually departing for our destinations later than 12 pm. The weather were really great, sunny but cool.

They eat really healthily, eating lots of veggies and fruits. I did learn a recipe or two.

Hehe, prepared a balanced meal, under aunty’s supervision: salmon, asparagus, mash potatoes, salad

Aunt mentioned about us relying too much on GPS, and do not recognize the roads. YL mentioned this before also. This is so true! Should make more effort the recognize the roads.

Sunday

Stanford University

Went to Cantor Arts Center, which houses Rodin works.

The Thinker

Gates of Hell

Monday

Golden Gate Bridge

It was a nice weather that day as it was not cloudy. The bridge can be seen clearly in the pictures!

Hmm, I wonder why is the bridge called Golden Gate as it is actually reddish.

Can see Alcatraz from the vista point

Muir Woods

This is not really a hike, as platform was made for visitors to walk on.

Aunt and Uncle work in the flora-related field, so they appreciate nature, plants in particular. They specifically asked to see redwoods in CA. They were analyzing trees and making interesting comments about the plants. I learn to appreciate plants more and look at them at the different perspective. Hehe… Will try to pay more attention to them when I see them.

Huge tree, right?

One of the things I learned was that my “lucky bamboo” is not actually a bamboo. Also, if I cut my bamboo into half, both segments will grow! And poplar trees make is a good wind break.

Tuesday

Chinatown

Need to take pic with the pintu gerbang

Lombard

Jalan bengkang bengkok

Some part of SF is really steep, so you have to park at 90 degrees relative to the slope. You do not want vehicles to roll down do you?

Union Square

The picture of the love often changes

Golden Gate Park

This is is my first time to golden gate park. It is HUGE and beautiful. There are lot of things to see.

Rose garden! Which girl doesn’t like flowers, right? So need to take a pic!

Look at my socks! YL gave me those. And, that was my first time wearing those socks knee high, without covering them with boots. When I watch Korean/Jap dramas, I see actresses wearing those socks like that, which look cute. But I do not dare to wear like that , as it not my style (IMO, my style is more proper normal, okay fine, boring). But oh well, there is first to everything. Next, I am going to try to wear platform shoes with fishnet stockings and red lipstick.

Wednesday

Wednesday was a beach day!

Poplar Beach, Half Moon Bay

Look at those pretty flowers! It was pretty windy day. Too bad most of the pink flowers have already wilted. Else, the view would be much more amazing! If you want something more adventurous, you can also go for horse back riding here.

Pebble Beach

This beach is highly recommended by WJ. It is special as the beach has pebbles in place of sand.

Natural Bridges State Beach

This place is called Natural Bridges because the rock looked like a bridge long ago, before the top part fell off.

Mercury News .. .grrr!!!

So I got a call from Mercury News saying I owe them money.

I have received many calls from them asking me if I am interested to continue subscription and I said no.

I did not even read those newspapers! The reason I subscribe to it is because I was approached by a teen, and Mercury News have some program where they offer scholarships to students who can get a certain number of subscriptions.

I subscribed to the newspaper twice this way. I was careful and paid in cash and did not give away my credit card information. What if those teens lied to me, right? Giving away credit card info to random people are scary. But it turned out, those two teens were genuine and I did receive those newspapers. Good luck to them and hopefully they did being offered scholarships.

The first time, I had to pay $10 and although I receive some calls from Mercury News, I did not continue the subscription. And that was it.

The second time, they hiked up the subscription price to $20, which was fine by me since the guy had an opportunity to get a scholarship. I also received numerous calls from Mercury News asking me to continue subscription but I said no. However, suddenly I owe Mercury News $25!

Let me reiterate, the reason I mentioned “scam” (maybe scam is too strong of a word) “grrr”  *mad*is because prior to this phone call, I had received numerous calls from Mercury News asking me to continue subscription and I said NO.

Sorry guys, if I am approached again for this Mercury-news-scholarship-subscription-thing, I am certainly not going to subscribe. Too much of a hassle. And, now Mercury News has my credit card information. Now thinking back, I should have paid using check.

Strawberry Picking

I went for my first and only fruit picking today! As you can already see from the title of this post, my colleagues, (YW, WX, JK) and I went for strawberry picking. We (or rather WX) drove for about an hour to East Bay just for the strawberries.

I filled up my basket quite quickly compared to the others. Maybe that explained why my hand-picked strawberries are not very sweet. WX kept eating the strawberries while picking them. I wanted to do that, but I saw ants, spiders, cobwebs and numerous other insects near those strawberry plants. All I could think of was there are millions of disgusting-harmful microbes on the strawberry surface! However, after a while, I force myself to eat one too. Maybe this will boost my immune system. I am still feeling fine now.

We had fun searching for funny-looking strawberries. I only kept one of them as I am certainly not going to eat those funny-looking ones.

My poor shoes, stained by squashed strawberries. Just washed them and let them out to dry. Hopefully my shoes are still as good as new.

Enjoying my not-so-sweet strawberries now.

Note: I really need to improve my mandarin. 95% of the time, I do not understand what were my colleagues talking about. Luckily, the patient YW explained to me in English if there was any part of the conversation which she thought was interesting or when I asked her to explain.

Best news of the day

My bro got his visa…and this means that my family will make a trip to US for about 3 weeks! So excited!  Need to start planning!

However, I only got to know about this when I ask my bro about it…and he knew about the visa on Tuesday! How can!

For Memorial Day, we are planning a trip to Santa Barbara. I got this idea from YL, as she is planning a trip there too! I heart her! 

*hmm, all my sentence end with exclamation marks.

I am feeling sleepy

I have a colleague, a nice and funny fella, who I think has a reputation of being very hardworking. I always have the impression that s/he works day and night and even on weekends. While I was talking to him/her today, s/he suddenly mentioned something like, “Why are we wasting the best time in our life doing this?” Then we joked for a bit, but his/her comment really struck me. I guess this is because, I have been spending a lot of my time on work too. That is why, during the weekends, I have to go out and spend some time with other people! Else, I will feel depressed and suffocated.

Any ideas for what do to for Memorial Day weekend?

Grown Ped Egg

Look at how large my turtle have grown into!

The pink stuffs are the shells