Dress Up

This past Friday was our winter formal 'Holidazzle'. One thing about formals here is they do them well; while it was not a cheap event, I'm glad I went. We had a fun dinner with the section before a dessert buffet and dance floor were at our disposal. The drama occurred ahead of time in figuring out what to wear. Since it was a black tie event, I went dress shopping but didn't really find anything. I got a dress for $32 at Macy's (great deal!) but then decided that it wasn't formal enough and to wear a dress I had previously worn to a Casino Night at the beginning of the year. The only problem was that somehow, miraculously, the dress was too big. That was actually why I had been looking into other dresses, but since I couldn't find anything both affordable and cute I decided to safety pin this dress to make it smaller. Impressively, it worked without looking too obvious so I was happy. The other component was finding shoes to wear with the dress since I didn't have anything appropriate. Normally, I wouldn't mind all this shopping but shopping here in Boston is troublesome since I don't have a car, and it takes at least 30 min to get to the shopping areas. In the end, I decided to wear these shoes with very high heels and suffer through the pain to save the trouble of finding shoes. Unfortunately, I'm paying for it in other ways - the toes in my left foot at still a little numb. The feeling in them has started to come back; I give it a few more days and I should be 100%. I've included a few pics with two of my good friends from my section as well as one with former Austinites Nate and Margaret.

Visitors Round 2

A few weekends ago, Jason and Alan visited over my 3-day weekend. This forced me to perfect the Boston itinerary a bit since I had to come up with a schedule that was beyond a day. As expected, a large part of the trip revolved around food, but I think everyone had a good time! They got in late Friday night, so on Saturday morning we went out for brunch/lunch at Zoe's - probably the Cambridge equivalent of Kerbey Lane. After quite a wait for a table, I got this omelet with cream cheese, smoked salmon, and asparagus - quite tasty. Alan ordered the gingerbread French toast in lieu of the sweet potato pancakes; too bad since the French toast was a little disappointing, and a classmate later told me the sweet potato pancakes were her favorite. Afterwards, we walked around Harvard Yard for a bit and took some photos including this once in front of the library steps. We then headed out to Downtown and walked around the city towards Fanueil Hall and Quincy Market. We also checked out the Bell in Hand, the pub where Paul Revere once hung out at, which unfortunately, at first I had confused with another bar. But we figured it out in time to take a photo with the correct pub. We then went over to the North End and had canolis and hot cocoa for a snack before walking along Beacon Hill and visiting the famed Cheers location. Exhausted from a long day of touring, we went back to take a break. For dinner we went to Bartley's for some tasty burgers and then met up some of my classmates hanging out at some BU bars.

Sunday, we met up Tiffany, one of the youth at ACC Alan and Jason knew back in the day, and then went to Cornerstone church. Along the way, we stopped at J.P. Licks, the Boston equivalent of Amy's. Although, I think their stand-alone flavors are better. Blasphemy, you conjecture? But seriously, so good. I had coffee oreo and cow tracks, which had a great balance of sweet cream ice cream with peanut butter cups and fudge. So good!!!

We then headed over to Fenway before heading back to the North End for dinner at Giacomo's.


We decided to stop by Mike's Pastry's once again for some more canolis and Boston Cream Pie. Now that I've had both Modern and Mike's Pastry, I think the canolis are better at Modern but the Boston Cream Pie at Mike's is amazing.

Early Monday morning, Alan left for NYC so Jason and I went to Chinatown for lunch. There's this place called Gourmet Dumpling House which makes these delicious xiao long bao, but they're not really that xiao as evidenced by the photo. I have had better, but these are pretty darn good since they have the soup inside of them. Mmm. :)

Sam Adam's Brewery

Last week, some people from my section went to the Sam Adams' Brewery. Since it seemed like a Boston kind of thing to do, I decided to go and get out of Cambridge which rarely happens. It ended up being a pretty interesting affair.

We arrived a little before 2:00 pm hoping to get in the 2:00 tour. However, they were full until 3:30. With the prospect of 1.5 hours to kill, I was hoping we would to go to the nearby cafe and hang out, especially since it was raining and cold. But someone decided it would be fun to walk about 25 minutes to the closest bar so that we could get a drink. For most of the group, this turned into 2 rounds in under 30 minutes, where some people had more than 2 to help others finish their drinks. We trekked back to the brewery to make it for the 3:30 tour. It seems that the earlier alcohol consumption may have released some inhibitions, and one particular classmate kept on asking questions during the tour which made it pretty interesting.

I was somewhat embarrassed by it but laughed nonetheless. At least I got a souvenir mug out of it! Here are some of my classmates at the tasting.

I also got to see Wicked last Wednesday - a great way to celebrate the end of mid-terms. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. I'm into musicals, and it's been a while since I've seen something that I thought was REALLY REALLY good. The storyline is clever and the music is good too. One cool thing was that my classmate that organized the trip to see the show used to work with the traveling production company for Rent. So after the show we got to meet the company managers and the actor that played the Wizard. I love the HBS hook-up!

More to come... Jason and Alan visit Boston!

This week in photos...

Well a little longer than a week given my delinquency with mid-terms and all. But here are some photos from the Su's visit. I got a photo with Travis but don't have photos with Thomas or Derek. They were all cuties though and I was excited I got to see them!




























GO SOX! So World Series fever definitely took over the town - I watched games 1, 3, and 4 with classmates (I know, I know - I'm obviously not a real fan but I just moved here). Last night we watched the game on campus and then moved to John Harvard's for the last 2 innings so we could join in the excitement. Afterwards, the school band was outside and everyone was hanging out together.





























This past weekend I also went on a retreat with my section. Most of my class went so it was pretty fun. Here's a photo from our hike - we basically hiked up a ski slope to the top - it was a bit tiring actually (especially since it was in the rain too).

A break in the storm...

Thanks for your encouragement! I've made it through 2 exams and turning in my resume so the big stuff is done. One more tomorrow, but it's a group exam, and I found out it doesn't count towards my grade so I don't have to worry about another exam until 2 weeks. :)

This weekend was a time of stress though. I wasn't as productive as I would have liked to be on Saturday which was compounded by the fact that I broke my printer and locked myself out of my dorm in the afternoon. It was a bit frustrating since I was really trying to crack down in the afternoon on my studies. I broke the printer trying to print the practice exams and then in a rush to the library, I left my key in the room. The printer ended up being a larger inconvenience since I have to print out my work for class each day and needed it to edit and turn in my resume. All of the printers the school had seemed to be down when I needed them making it difficult to be efficient.

It's weird because I felt like I had a lot of test anxiety unnecessarily. I used to stress about tests but not this much. Maybe it's because I'm back to being a student again and forgot how to manage test stress. The upside was that Marina and family came to Boston for their fall break and I got to hang out with them for a bit. It was relaxing to see them and really enjoyable to catch up although internally I could tell I was stressing out. I was trying to have perspective on how rarely I see Marina so that I could enjoy it more, but still fell victim to the stress. Marina - sorry I didn't make better use of my time so that I could hang out with you more!

So all in all - what's the point of my post? I need to chill out and recognize how important things really are. But sometimes, it can be so hard to do...

Stress

Mid-terms are next week, and our resumes are due as well. I can tell I'm starting to get stressed as

1. I feel really hungry, which means: I eat a lot more + I'm not working out because I'm busy = I'm probably going to gain weight :(
2. My hair is turning gray. My hair does this weird thing where if I'm stressed, the ends turn gray and it grows up to my scalp. Just now, I found 3 gray hairs like so which prompted this post.
3. I'm eating a lot of cookies (this should really be a subpoint to #1)

I think the lesson is I just need to not stress out.

The Middle East

So one thing that has been plaguing my time here has been trying to get on a trek (ie a trip) for the winter break. With about 3 weeks off, there are a lot of opportunities to travel with classmates - some are more educational and some are more like a vacation with people who are from the area to help show you around. I've signed up on many polls expressing my interest and have repeatedly failed to get one of the lucky lottery spots. Since the treks have been filling up, my last hope was an immersion. Immersions are slightly different since they include a larger educational component - you read cases ahead of time about the area; professors take you on the trip; and you visit businesses in the area. The Middle East Immersion was the one that interested me the most, but I didn't think I was going to be lucky enough to get a spot. To my surprise, I got a nice little email a few days ago saying that I secured a spot in the lottery. Yay!!! Now, I get to go to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Luxor, and Cairo. I'm super excited. The only downside is I'll be spending less time in Austin over the break, but I think this is a once in a lifetime type of trip that I can't pass up. I have so little knowledge about this area, so I'm really looking forward to learning more!

Time Away

This weekend I went on a retreat with Intervaristy Christian Fellowship for the Boston Area Graduate Schools. HBS had the largest group showing with 34 people attending; it was a great opportunity to meet some other classmates and get to know people better. It was also extremely relaxing because I didn't do any schoolwork the whole time! It was the perfect time for a retreat since we had another 3-day weekend because of Columbus Day. Since they make us work for our long weekends, this past week really kicked my butt with extra projects and meetings. I was exhausted by the time Friday came around and so thankful for a break.

Highlights of the retreat included a gorgeous, warm Saturday afternoon. It was in the high 80's - crazy right? - and we had a speed kickball tourney between the different grad schools. The whole tourney was hysterical because the stereotypical business school student competitive nature came out. Not that we were mean or poor sports, but we definitely wanted to win. I don't know if the other schools took it as seriously but we definitely huddled up and identified the weak links as well as the star players on the other team so that we knew where to kick. I have to admit, I didn't do much to help our team since I didn't play much, but I was at least 1-0 at bat (or bowl?). Normally I feel a little bad about being competitive when everyone else is just there to have fun, but I was definitely amused at how everyone else was just as into it. Alas, we proved that competitive spirit does make a difference since we won the tourney - apparently, HBS has been the reigning champs at this retreat for the last 5 years.

Overall, the retreat was extremely relaxing and a good break away from the madness of school. They built in a lot of 'quiet time' time for us so it me gave a chance to sit and reflect on the last month or so. It's so easy to get wrapped up in crazy school mode that you forget what you want to get out of the school experience versus just trying to keep up with everyone else.

Visitors!!!

This weekend was a great for many reasons:

-Long weekend - I got Friday off, but I did have to pay for it. They loaded us with some extra classes proving that nothing comes for free, but nonetheless I was grateful for the day off. This was extremely helpful since I needed extra rest to fight cold redux #2; I slept a lot of Friday and managed to get some work in as well.

-Friends to come visit! Not only did Peggy and Leo decide to come visit this weekend, but Berto happened to be in town for a conference so we had a mini-reunion. Yay!

In my world, showing people Boston really means eating good food. I'm slowly developing a tour for visitors (really meaning stops for where we eat when you come into town). Here's what the visit looked like:

Dim Sum at Hei La Moon - I found this place online and it was pretty good. It was definitely legit since everyone that worked there spoke Cantonese, but my Mandarin was able to get us by...

Watching the Horns at Tommy Doyles. This was the disappointing part of the trip - enough said. At least the onion strings were tasty.

Giacomo's for dinner and Modern Pastry for dessert. Sharon and I did this when she helped me move in, and since everyone seems to really like Giacomo's I think this is a must for the tour (thank to Sheu for taking me there in the first place). Giacomo's has this red sauce that's lobster based and it's SO yummy. And then Modern pastry has delicious cannolis that they fill when you order. Yum yum yum!






























Breakfast/lunch at Hong Kong Eatery. This was on recommendation from Vanessa Hsu, and it was yummy. I really liked the pork with the crispy skin on it.
















Then we hit a bakery afterward. Check out these interesting cakes that they had...

My favorite is the sea urchin one. Doesn't it make you want to visit me? :)

Settling In

After a slow recovery from my cold, I finally feel like I'm starting to settle into life here. It's been an interesting transition with trying to get acclimated to school life again, but I'm adjusting better to the schedule. Yesterday was a momentous occasion since I found the time to go out for a quick run and be social last night - which is a new concept for me! And, I've started to become more familiar with my section mates, so the sense of belonging is developing. Hopefully, this upward swing continues. I'm trying to be better about initiating with people, but after living in Austin for so long, it feels awkward to ask random people if they want to eat dinner.

On another note, the last three days, there's been this duck that just hangs out in the courtyard outside my dorm. He just grazes the area the whole day.

And here are a few pics from the Duck Tour. So the one downside of the tour, is that it's moving, so it's hard to take pics haha!

Survival of the Fittest

I've quickly learned that succeeding here is going to involve a game of survival. There's knowing how to put in the right amount of work into cases so that you can survive the classes; there's knowing just how much sleep you need to balance all the activities going on; there's even survival of the fittest in terms of your health. Yes, within 1 week of being here, I've gotten sick. I've always been prone to getting sick, but this was tough; especially since it's my first week of full classes, being sick has not helped at all. 3 case days are super long, and when you're sick and stiff, it's even worse. Praise God that I've made it through. I've started to feel a little better and even played a little bit of racquetball today. I'm taking it easy tonight with dinner and a housewarming party so that I can get plenty of rest. Sadly, I can't rest too much since I need to do homework in the morning. The life of a student.

On the upside, hopefully I'll have some good pics to come. Tomorrow I'm going on a Duck Tour (free!) with the Women's Student Association. I'm all about maximizing the free events. I've totally adjusted to student money saving mode (even though my working life didn't really differ that much either).

Photo Time

All right, as promised, here are some photos.
This the view of the Charles River nearby my dorm. I basically just walk out and then hit a bridge with a view of all this.




There's also a boat dock, so I hope to go kayaking while here.















Here's a shot of my dorm from the outside. Looks very collegiate eh?















Also thanks so much to Vi and Stan for sending me flowers! So sweet and thoughtful. In addition to getting flowers, I had fun opening the box up too. They used ProFlowers - they have some neat packaging to protect the flowers in shipping. The flowers are rolled up in the bouquet - hard to describe.
Then you get a little list of directions and then the flowers perk up within 8-12 hours.

Thank you Engs!!!!

Class is now in session

More pictures to come I promise. I need to take some photos of the campus so you can see how pretty it and the Charles are. Today I went for a quick run around the Charles - it was nice, the weather is tons better than the heat in Texas, and I had a nice view the whole time.

Today I had my first case - so at HBS, all your classes revolve around a case. You read it ahead of time, discuss it with your learning team, and then discuss it in class; that's basically how you learn. You take on the role of the protagonist in the case, and try to determine what's the situation and how you would handle it. I like the idea of the case method but was a little uneasy because I wasn't sure how comfortable I would be fighting to share my opinion among 90, but I contributed and it wasn't terrible. :) I felt relatively comfortable so hopefully I'm well psyched for classes now. Now it's just the battle of homework. They say you should be prepping around 2 hours per case, and Friday is my first 3 case day. Yes, math geniuses, that means I have 6 hours of homework on Thursday!

My other observation about the case method is its similarities to inductive Bible study. They called the case method an inductive learning method which triggered me to think of the similarities - you read, pull what observations/interpretations you can find, and then through a group setting you discuss and try to learn from each other. Who knew small group was preparing me for HBS all this time. :P

The First Few Days Part II

Day 2: Move-in!!!!

This was a little more of a stressful day with an early start to go get my keys and move some initial luggage up to the room. Then, my aunt and uncle arrived. Thankfully, they were able to help me move all my boxes from a classmate's apartment across the river into my dorm. After some wrong turns, wacky space-saving methods to maximize the trunk space of a Camry,
and carrying the boxes up a flight of stairs, we took a break to head for lunch. Sharon was so kind to start the unpacking process while we were moving boxes; I was able to take advantage of her organizational skills to help maximize my dorm room.
After getting settled in the room a bit, we took a long journey out to meet my aunt and uncle to go to Target and Walmart. I was able to get the items I needed (that I remembered at the time) including a mini-fridge and TV. There was still a little go, but after cleaning up more this Saturday afternoon, I was able to get the room organized to satisfied level.

There's amazingly even enough room for a full air mattress. Originally I thought I bought a twin one, but when I opened it up, voila, it was a full. Good thing my room is just big enough to fit it! The bathroom was a little more disappointing. The moment I walked in, I exclaimed, "It's like a cruise ship bathroom." It's so tiny and has very little counter and storage space; so my solution has been to get suction cup bins that I stick on the mirror to hold all my stuff. It's really classy looking. :P

The First Few Days

I'm blessed to have a friend like Sharon who offered to help me move in. Especially since I was feeling apprehensive about the move; with her around the first few days, it felt a lot more like a vacation than moving to a new city.

Day 1: Our first full day, we had a late start but managed to see plenty of sights. We took the T to the Downtown Crossing stop. After walking to the Chinatown area to have a filling meal, we walked back to the Downtown Crossing area. We did a little shopping, and I scored my first deal in Boston at Filene's Basement. It's kind of like Ross but with nicer brands and on a larger scale; even better, they were moving the store's location so there was a store-wide sale. I managed to find some Lucky Brand Jeans capris that were originally $80. After the discount, it came out to $9.99 since they don't have any sales tax on clothes. Isn't that a steal of a deal?

After shopping, we walked over to Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall where we looked at shops and had an extremely overpriced smoothie snack. We then head over the the Hatch Shell Auditorium where we enjoyed a funky free concert. The auditorium is great since it's outdoors in a park along the Charles. I am loving the weather here - it's a great break from the heat.

Afterward, we headed back to Cambridge for a delicious meal at Cafe of India. It was a filling meal and a great end to a full, touristy day. The only downside is we didn't bring a camera so I don't have any photos. :(

Things I'll Miss About Texas

1. Family and Friends - an obvious one, but had to be mentioned; it's been great to be nearby family and I've been blessed with awesome friends!

2. Tex-Mex - I love Chuy's, Hula Hut, Trudy's, Taco Cabana, A la Carrera breakfast tacos, Mesa Rosa... and the list goes one. How sad that On the Border will have to be my fix in the NE

3. BBQ - I've started my parting with BBQ with a Salt Lick Trip, my first visit to Lockhart for Smitty's BBQ, and Rudy's. I'm kind of BBQed out right now, but I know I'll miss it in a month

4. Outdoor activities - while I do complain about getting really dark, I will miss getting to play sand volleyball and ultimate, going to the lake, going hiking, and any of the other various outdoor activities we have here in Austin

5. Ya'll - I'm sure I'm going to get made fun of for saying ya'll once I'm out there

6. Blue Bell Ice Cream - I just realized that I will have to soon part with Moo-lenium Crunch and Cookies! Cookies! Cookies! People from the East have no idea what they're missing with Blue Bell

7. Sonic - I love lemon berry slushes! And tots! (I sound like Napolean). But seriously, a slushie and an order of tots is my favorite post vball snack

Mmm that's what comes to mind right now. How sad that of the 7 things, 4 of them involved food. :)

Tick Tock

All right, it's starting to come down to the wire. 2 more weeks and then I'm a Bostonian. Ahhhh, I can't believe it's here already. I have now started my spending binge to get ready for school.

Pretty Pictures from Hawaii

The family vacation to Hawaii was great. We were able to enjoy plenty of scenic views and a good dose of adventures. Highglights included the National Volcano Park, a luau in Maui, the Maui downhill bike ride along the Haleakala crater, snorkeling in Kona, and kayaking and hiking in Kaua'i. It was a great quick taste of the islands, but it was also tiring.

See more photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/fayapeng/Hawaii72107

Free Time

I'll soon have a lot of it! I've got a solid summer break lined up with a short trip to San Diego, where I hope to learn to surf, as well as a trip to Hawaii with the family. I can't wait for the picturesque scenery and the opportunity to be active!

This also gives me some time to read, study, and sleep. Ah, the life of a student.

The End is Near

I have 13 days of work left. Lucky 13!

Now I just have to survive the move out of my apartment.