trip to vancouver

the trip to vancouver was awesome. good food, meeting some of my parents' really cool school friends, catching up with some old friends, more good food and great memories to keep forever. here's the photo recap..


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our first meal in vancouver, just as we exit the airport. hehe.


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this is auntie linda with the family. auntie linda is THE EXPERT on all things food related. she studies the food section of the newspaper religiously EVERY day, she throws the rest of the paper away immediately. she also knows exactly where to get the best and the sweetest fruit!


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really good tea smoked duck at a great shanghainese place off of westminster.


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this is the most delightful and interesting fruit. a mangosteen. the flesh is deliciously light and sweet. each fruit is so small with only a little round bundle of sweet goodness. jonathan is eating mine. i'm sooooo sad.


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the family (minus ryan and michelle, we missed you!!!) eating at a place known for great "bolo bao"(sweet chinese bun with a sweet yellow crust on top) a tray of new bolo bao would come out and within seconds it was gone, customers would shout out for them.


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cool aunti sophia is with us, she also has the same hunger for good food like autie linda. they were food buddies when they were in their twenties. i don't know how she can stay so skinny! i must have gained about 5 pounds in canada


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me and dad, jon is too busy eating...


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us with most of my parent's school friends. auntie michelle and uncle johnny are standing next to my mom. they were our wonderful hosts and welcomed us to stay in their home.


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dom my lb friend and his gf corn were sooooo good to us. dom showed jon and i all the great things to do in vancouver. jon wants to live in vancouver now. haha


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me and jon at watermark in kitz bay. jon had a kobe burger and i had the blueberry brioche. dom took us there for good "sightseeing" for jonathan. notice the glass railing next to us which allows for a very good view of the beach. people in vancouver are all in really good shape! many tall tan hotties.


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dom took us bike riding around stanely park so that i could get my "active events" in.


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cool rock stacks along the beach, some people have a whole lotta time and patience.


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my parents with auntie josephine. she was riding in our car as our own personal gps system. my parents were soooo thankful for her generosity.


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jon, mom and dad at the salmon hatchery. soooo beautiful there.


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misty river next to the hatchery


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jon loves getting pics taken, there are a million of him doing silly things. makes the trip interesting..haha


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family at the suspension bridge. auntie josephine showed us a longer one, and it was free! the other touristy one cost 25 bux a person, what a ripoff!


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don't jump jon!


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our sound of music impression. dad doesn't know how to frolick in the grass properly, he just runs with one arm raised. hahahaha....



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mom, jon and me by the sunken garden.


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picture of a monkey in a tree


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such unusual plants in the sunken garden


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loveboat friends annie and dominic(dom)


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golfing at the university golf range


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greek festival with dom, annie and friends


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jon and i are able to do a magic trick. we can squeeze an orange so it's sides are protuding, and no juices are coming out!


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saw the famous chinese personality 沈澱霞. that's her in the background.


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mmmmm soupy dumplings


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bye uncle johnnie and auntie michelle! they were the coolest people. so fun to be around and so generous! thanks soooo much for letting us stay with you!


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look! they still have free food and wine on flights! we flew austrailian, no wonder. the flight was stopping over in sf before heading to sydney.

i'm such a bum

you'd think that with so much time on my hands, i'd be blogging more often. haha..but no! i think actually it's quite the opposite. when i have a lot of things on my plate, i relieve some of the pressure by blogging. when i have a lot of idle time, i'd rather be outside meeting up with people and doing anything else but being in front of a computer.

here's a recap of the past week or so.

went to the job fair, made some luke warm contacts but nothing substantial. most of the companies there were looking for scientist types or business dev professionals with 10 years plus.

last tuesday I had lunch with my cousin bernard. he's travelling all over the place with his gf before they both head off to HK for consulting jobs. he just finished his MBA at MIT and she just finished her MBA from Michigan. they make an awesome couple. my cousin is generally very talkative and outgoing. she's very much the same way. although they have only been dating a short time, i definitely see the compatibility between the two. it was nice seeing bernard again. since we are closer in age we've always treated eachother more as friends rather than relatives. especially since we both went through bschool at the same time.

wednesday went to a networking event, had some great contacts! potential with a biotech consulting firm and a semi-venture capital firm looking for someone for business development. nice! just talked the the semi-vc today, i'll be meeting up with them when i get back from vancouver. (i leave for vancouver tomorrow and won't be back until june 28th) i'll also probably be helping them plan future events.

thursday did job emails and went for a run from my house to Leland. Whew! must remember to drink more water prior to afternoon runs in dry weather.

friday i met up with diana for poolapalooza in mountain view. met a bunch of her coworkers whom i've heard about. definitely the coolest non-lawyer like lawyers i've ever met. diana and i drank cosmos and mojitos while chatting and munching on melon/prociutto and lamb sausages. yum! afterwards we played DDR (yes that's dance dance revolution) with everyone. i wonder who won the trophy? haha...good times. it was nice to get caught up with diana's life. even though i'm now much closer in location, it's still hard to have time for one on one chats with her. perhaps it would help if she fixed her phone! diana!

after the poolapalooza i met up with cindy and DC at his place in sunnyvale. chatted with cindy as she got ready. then off we headed to meet up with lawrence(hunny), my cousin, his gf, and elaine with her MBA friends at santana row. however after the mojitos i had with diana, i got tired at 12:30 and had to head out. i wasn't tipsy but drinking too early combined with sitting outside just makes for a very tired mel. prior to my heading out, cindy and i bumped into some old HS people. jennifer and julie liu! it's been since high school since we've seen them. julie looks so grown up now! jen looks pretty much the same.

saturday was an early fathers day for my dad. bernard and gf(youchi) met up with us at dynasty for dim sum. lawrence treated everyone out. thanks hunnY! then we headed back home so bernard to see our house and relive the old days when we were little kids and his family came to visit us for a month. my brother was going to dump him into our pool. my idea of course. hehe. after bernard left hunny, my mom and i went for a swim. after we all built up our appetites, mom, dad, hunny and i went to eat AWESOME pho at this place off hostetter. hunny said it was the largest bowl of pho he's ever seen in his life. haha.

sunday was the father's day celebrations with the chung family. in the morning we were just hanging out with him and his brothers. got popeye's chicken and watched big momma 2. then hunny and i hit the gym. *note to self, don't ever forget to bring a sports bra. my boobs aren't very big so i thought it wouldn't be a huge issue since was was wearing a loose fitting shirt anyways and was going to be on the eliptical machine or stationary bike (things which don't cause much bouncing). however, i've discovered that momentum can build and there tends to be bouncing afterall! anyways, although i did have a good workout, i was totally self conscious of people noticing i was sportsbraless.* after the gym we went back to help hunny's little bro with preparing fathers day dinner. it was an awesome dinner. prime rib, chinese salad, green beans, italian sausage pasta with homemade sauce, homemade bruschetta. coldstone coffee ice cream/heath bar/ chocolate cake for dessert. i wish my stomach was larger so i could eat more of the food!

today i had to meet up with an alum at a biotech for lunch. i got some good advice, more good connections and a possible contract position. afterwards i was supposed to stop by the semi-vc but the business dev person was unavailable this afternoon. i'll have to wait until i get back from vancouver before they can set up something. i'm definitely intrigued by them, i think i'd be able to make a large impact. however it's really small and very new. i'm not sure if i'm ready or if i should hold out for a large biotech offer. we'll see how things go next week when i go in for a more official interview. the good thing is i may be able to work from home until september if i go with them.

i feel like such a bum. waking up late and having a life of leisure had it's perks. but now i'm just ITCHING for something greater.

youchi(bernard's gf, bernard, dad, mom, me and lawrence

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jon flipping bernard - cousin! you gotta hit the gym! hahah

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networking feels so good

i went to my first networking event since i've been back in the bay area tonite. i was a little nervous at first. probably becuase it's been a couple months since i've networked and i was hitting a new event of which i only knew one person. normally i'm sure to bump into a few people of whom i've met before. once i got there and met a few people, i was back to my old netowrking self. i'm really not 100% sure why i like networking so much. there's just something exciting about meeting new people and finding out just what makes them tick. there are always characters to meet at these things, both good and bad. one person i've bumped into a couple of times and we have some mutual friends in common. he seems like he's extremely entrepreneurial and talks as if he's very successful, however something about him just rubs me the wrong way. i don't think i was very convinced with his business ideas - the explanation just seemed too convoluted. if there's one thing i learned doing the bplan competions, your idea should be a very easy story to tell, something that easily understood in 90 seconds. if it's too complicated to explain, it's probably not going to fly.

anyhow, i got some good job leads from the whole experience. i'm definitely interested in getting more involved with the group that puts together the mixers. it was definitely a good group of people! both VC's and entrepreneurs. :) my kinda crowd.

speaking of good crowds, i met up with the ucla peeps at jujubees after the mixer. it's always nice to see school friends. even though many of us don't live that far away from eachother, our lives are always taking us in different directions. i'm so glad warren always makes an effort to get everyone together whenever he comes to visit. however, now that i'm back in town, i will definitely try to get everyone together more often!

i love summer time in cali!

hey folks, sorry i've been away for so long.

so what have i been up to? let's see...running long runs on the trail by the creek close to my house, learning to surf for the first time in santa cruz, eating yummy korean spicey tofu, planning events to come (oyster fest, july pool party, etc). i just bought new running shoes (i decided on the asics nimbus viii in titanium and marigold after about a week of research. i also saved 30 bux by getting them online!) so that has motivated me to try to train for a half triathlon. i said that i would do it last year but i didn't get around to it. i will this year!! i also want to do muddy buddy next weekend but we'll have to see if time permits. i'll be busy with hunny at a company outting in santa cruz the day before. i've also been taking long walks with my mom, spending tons of time with my family, meeting up for friday lunches, and sleeping in late. i love love love the summer time. ESPECIALLY in cali! there are so many fun events to do! in addition to training for a half-tri, i want to learn how to golf. anyone else want to learn with me?

what have i not been busy doing? looking for a job. blah. okie! enough procrastination! there is a huge biotech job fair on thursday. :) what do people wear nowadays at job fairs? i've been on the east coast too long.