Boot Camp

This morning I let Jackie convince me that I should go to boot camp at the country club with her. I actually had a good time minus the running laps at the end of the circuits. We went out to get a scone and coffee/tea afterwards and I spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon at my grandparents house. I made my grandma go with me to her bank to sign up for her first ATM card. I told her and gramps that they were only about 30 years behind! I made the number up, but they are definitely behind on the ATM train! Now I'm just waiting for the car dealer to pick me up so I can get my car back from the service department and then its time for the NFL draft rounds 2 and 3!! So excited that Andrew Luck went 1st overall to the Colts and David DeCastro went 24th overall to the Steelers last night. Two great guys representing Stanford! Hope some more Stanford guys get picked tonight and tomorrow! (Wow that was a lot of exclamation points in that post.)

Hiva Oa, Marquesas

Congrats to my uncle Bob and his girlfriend Ann for finally reaching Hiva Oa in the Marquesas. They made the journey from La Cruz, Mexico in a 37 foot Tayana sailboat named Charisma in 25 days! That a long time without seeing land! It sounds like they have been having quite an amazing journey since they left the Berkeley Marina in October. To read more about Hiva Oa and the Marquesas Islands you can go here. I found the website just by google searching, but looked interesting. You can also read about Bob and Ann's journey on their blog Sail Charisma. They will stay in the Marquesas for a bit before heading to Tahiti and other areas of French Polynesia. I believe that they eventually plan to sail to New Zealand!

Charisma and her Capitan Bob. (stolen from Bob's Facebook)

Final Decision

Just a quick little blog to say that I officially accepted my spot in the class of 2016 at the University of Michigan Medical School! I'm so excited to finally have everything all set and to be withdrawn from everywhere else. It's a great feeling to know that I will matriculate in just a few short months, but in that time I will be having the time of my life traveling!

Also, my mom and I went to a screening of the documentary "Miss Representation" tonight at Stanford and it was really good. Check out the website at MissRepresentation.org to learn about the film and the initiative set forth by Jennifer Sibel Newsom.

The Cherry Blossom Festival

Saturday I met up with some old synchro teammates to watch Debbie Chen play in her Taiko performance with San Francisco Taiko Dojo. I tried to find a YouTube clip of her playing, but I was unsuccessful. I will post it if I find it, because I know it is out there. Anyways, her performances was awesome and we were all great cheerers for Debs. After the concert we walked around the Cherry Blossom Festival and then went to dim sum with Debbie's parents. Eating dim sum with a large group is one of my favorite things. The pork and shrimp filled goodness is heavenly.

The city was lots of fun, but after our dim sum lunch I took the Muni and BART back home. My mom picked me up and we decided to go shopping. I got some new Rainbows because mine are falling apart after probably 10 years of use. I totally forgot just how miserable breaking in those sandals is, and I cannot wait until they have formed to my feet and are the most comfortable sandals in the world again! I also found some jeans that actually fit me, which is a miracle, so I got a few new pairs including an awesome teal pair of skinnys! We had a wonderful dinner at Va de Vi to cap of the great day!

Sunday was a little more low key. Mom and I went to the farmers market to get my favorite granola bars and then we spent an hour at IKEA in Emeryville. We then picked up a few wasp traps at Home Depot for my dad since there are wasps nesting in at least two places in our backyard, but I'm not sure the traps are actually working since the wasps seem to not even notice them. I convinced my mom we needed to drive back to the other side of the tunnel by taking Old Tunnel Road to see the Saxophone House and the views, so we took the long winding way. The house wasn't nearly as cool as I dreamed up, but I can now rest that I have seen it. We had some lunch at Noah's Bagels in Lafayette before finally heading home. We relaxed at home for a few hours after that (waiting for my dad to be done watching golf and then do who knows what) before we decided to go see American Reunion. It was a really well done movie and I thought it was really funny! If you ever saw the American Pie movies you should absolutely go see the reunion!

So, that was my weekend. I leave in 10 days now so that is crazy! I am going to try to finish up my work and do all of my packing! Getting excited for my adventure!

Chill week so far

This week has been pretty uneventful thus far. I've been working and preparing for my trip and move and that's about it. I've made at least two trip to REI this week which is super dangerous, but I got some good stuff. Today I got my haircut for the first time in 4 months and then had lunch with my grandma. I love my hair stylist Bryanne and don't know what I'm going to do when i move because i refuse to change people. I guess I'm going to get some intense split ends. Luckily I'll be home in July for one last cut before Christmas time! Fun times. Anyways after lunch grandma and I got boxed into our parking spot by three illegally parked cars, which was quite an ordeal, but we finally got out and I was able to introduce grams to my favorite place Nothing Bundt Cakes! It's soo yummy and they always have samples! Need to get some more work done tomorrow and then start packing my winter stuff for real so it can be shipped. Everything is getting so close I can't believe it!

Boat show

Today was another great weekend day. The sun was shinning bright and warm with not a cloud in the sky. I began the day with a wonderful trip to the WC farmers market and had my favorite flatbread from Chicks & Love for lunch. After the market my mom and I drove to Jack London Square in Oakland for the boat show! It was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I got an awesome new raincoat and an indoor grill pan for the stove. We also looked at a lot of boat stuff and saw a ton of amazing sail boats in the marina. Overall it was pretty cool to see.

After the boat show my mom and I went to my grandparents to pick something up and my mom ended up taking a trip down memory lane. My grandma sure has kept some random things! It's cool to look at the stuff though. I even got to try on my great grandmothers dress from the 1920's. It was fully beaded and super heavy and the quintessential 20's dress.

When we finally got home my parents and I all ate dinner around the fire put table in the yard and then watched The Descendants together. Definitely nothing to complain about today or this weekend!

Fun Filled Saturday

Yesterday was pretty fun, and I was actually out of the house for the entire day! My mom and I went to look around at The North Face outlet in Berkeley to see if she could find a new jacket since she left hers on the airplane last weekend, but she was uninspired. I thought there were a lot of jackets that looked good, but she is insanely picky! After the outlet we looked at a consignment furniture store we had seen from the freeway, but that place was beyond expensive for stuff you can definitely find much cheaper so we left a little disappointed. We then ventured to Fourth St in Berkeley and walked around a bit looking at all the fun shops down there. My mom showed me the Builder's Bookstore too which is Molly's favorite bookstore. It definitely had some pretty cool architecture books in it!

After shopping, we grabbed some lunch at the Smokehouse and brought it back to my grandparents house to eat with them. It was only a quick lunch because we had to go pick up my dad at the country club in order to get to the city for the Stanford Football Spring Game! For the first time ever I was able to make it to the spring football game and I was pretty excited. I was beyond confused by the strange scoring system since it was offense vs defense and the defense got point for doing certain things and I was lost. Anyways it was fun, but I really hope the new QBs get it together before the season starts in September because Andrew Luck left some enormous shoes to fill!

After the game we drove down to Palo Alto and had some Mexican food at Celia's before heading to the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View for the Zac Brown Band concert. The concert was great and the music was phenomenal. I think I would have had more fun if the concert had been at HP Pavilion though. Theoretically the Shoreline is an awesome venue. It's big and outside (the weather last night was very clear and not too much wind thankfully) and there are lots of place to get (really expensive) food and drinks. We had decent seats and I was getting really excited, until the concert actually started. Music aside the experience was not all that great. Because it's an outdoor venue people act much differently than  at other concerts. People were getting up constantly so there were often people squeezing out of our row. Everyone stood the whole time, and because the rows aren't high enough and I am short I couldn't see the band for just about the whole concert. I was also kind of cold, but I could deal with that. The worst part of the whole thing was that the girl in front of me kept smoking. It was so disgusting and I could barely breathe. Thankfully the guy standing next to me eventually told her to cut it out and she stopped. Speaking of that girl, her and her friends were beyond annoying, and when EVERYONE finally sat down and I had the chance to see, they did not. So basically I was sitting directly behind the only people who wouldn't sit down the whole time and I was shorter than them so I could never really see. Yay. Besides my issues with the venue I had a really good time listening to the music. I could have done without the length of some of the instrumental solos, but they were incredibly talented musicians! I would love to see them again at a different location where I can actually see and breathe.

At the Zac Brown Band concert.

Quilt done! (mostly)

I finally finished with the main part of my quilt, yay! Now all that is left is to put on a quick border and send it off to be quilted and finished. I'm going to my T-shirt quilt I made last summer off at the same time so by the time I get home from Europe I will have them both finished! Good stuff.

Chris- I don't have any picture of the condo because I didn't have my camera the day we saw it. I think my mom is going in July maybe so she can take some pics then I hope. Otherwise, the pics may not come until the end of July/early August.

Condo Update

So it turns out that we didn't get the condo we put the offer in for even though we had the higher bid. Apparently the other people had a clause that they would pay the offered amount even if it under appraised, so the seller went with their offer. Very frustrating, but maybe it just wasn't meant to be. Anyways, we are going to go with a place that is a little bit more expensive, but bigger and nicely updated. It's also slightly closer to school. Everything should work out in the end!

Ann Arbor

I am finally back home after spending four days in Ann Arbor, Michigan and I have a computer again! My parents and I left on Wednesday night on the redeye to Washington, DC and then flew the quick hour and a half to Detroit on Thursday morning. I basically got two and a half hours of sleep on the redeye so I was pretty tired all day, but miraculously I made it through with no naps!

When we got into Ann Arbor we went to Zingerman's for lunch and got some amazing sandwiches! This places lives up to all of its hype and I can definitely see myself going back somewhat regularly when I move there. We met up with our real estate agent shortly after lunch to start looking at some condos in the area for me to potentially live in starting in late July! We saw everything from a super nice needs no remodeling condo, to a very much stuck in the 60's needs entirely new bathroom and kitchen and doors and floors condo. We really concentrated in the area right around the medical center so I could walk to school potentially, but saw some stuff a little further out as well. 

We continued the search on Friday, and I think that by the time we had seen everything the realtor had lined up we had a pretty good idea on where we stood. We all came to the consensus that there were 3-4 condos we liked and decided to put an offer on one on Saturday afternoon. Apparently someone else put an offer on the same place, so I don't know who was higher or chosen yet, but my fingers are crossed (and trying not to get my hopes too high). We should know soon.

Besides the condo hunt, we also explored Ann Arbor since I had never seen the place in the daylight (and I figured I might like to know something about the place where I am going to be spending the next four years!). We found BOTH Whole Foods (clearly the most important of our findings), saw the Big House (the football stadium for you non-college sports fanatics whom I will never understand), found a bunch of restaurants and the other grocery stores like Kroger and Meijer, found the Pi Phi house (just for fun), found the Architecture school for my sister who may apply in the fall, went to the closest IKEA, and for my dad we found at least three golf courses. I think I have my bearings in general so I won't be totally disoriented when I move there. I go back in a month for second look weekend, so I'm excited to learn more about the medical center specifically since on my interview day I was pretty lost. I also met up with my friend Shana who happened to be in town at the same time, so it was fun to see her and to meet some non-med students who live in AA. I think its always good to have friends outside of what you do everyday.

Basically we had a long weekend full of fun and loads of stress as well (my mom and I are NOT good at these kinds of business transactions, so that goodness for my dad). I'm excited to move to a new place in just a few months, but overwhelmed and nervous at the same time. I'll update when I find out about the condo. We have a few backup plans in mind at least!

Oh, and on the way home we stopped at my grandparents house for a makeshift Easter dinner and we gave her the awesome lawn gnome we bought her in Michigan! That was fun times :)

The Michigan Football Lawn Gnome

One of the two Whole Foods in AA. This is the slightly smaller one.

Change in quilting plans

So, my old quilt was going to take FOREVER and I was going to need to make something like 1,000 squares. I decided to scrap that idea and started over on a much more manageable project yesterday. Hopefully this one goes a little better. It has been going great so far, but I think I need to get a little more fabric to have enough for a queen size quilt. I posted a picture I made on photoshop of what it should look like, though there will be more squares, the squares aren't all identical due to patterns, and the colors on the pictures are a little off. Anyways, I hope it works out well!

The past few days

Not too much has been going in the past few days. I worked and babysat and has my final day of volunteering at ABSMC. The department I volunteered at gave me a really nice last day/thank you lunch, so I really appreciated that. Everyone in CLS was great to work with!

Today I saw 21 Jump Street with mom and dad and I thought it was pretty good and really funny! After that we went to random stores like REI, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Any Mountain before heading the the grocery store to get stuff to make homemade pizzas for dinner! The pizzas turned out great and we watched the NCAA basketball as we ate. The OSU-Kansas game was nuts! After the game I watched the kids choice awards for fun and now it's off to sleep!

Happy April tomorrow and good luck and bon voyage to Ann and Bob as they leave on the puddle jump tomorrow! (The puddle jump is sailing across the pacific, in their case from the Puerto Vallarta area in Mexico to the Marquesas Islands, then on to Tahiti and beyond.)