Update!

I haven't posted anything in a while. Since my last post I finally graduated and started a temporary job. Now I'm on full time job hunt mode. But this means that I should have more time to write here! Lately we haven't been going to too many places, so we'll see what posts end up being about.  

Here is a small update with pictures from my instagram

1. Muir Woods    2. Muir Overlook and the Pacific    3. The Golden Gate Bridge

4. Monterey Aquarium    5. Found crazy photo app    6. At Monterey

7. Alexei by the window    8. Triple cherry branch    9. Got my degree


Hopefully I will be back with a real post soon!

Trip to Mount Tamalpais

School has been crazy this semester. In a month I will get my degree, and be done with school for a while, if not forever. 

You know how at the beginning of every semester you tell yourself that you will not procrastinate, and you will stop doing homework at the very last minute? Well, after 21 years of telling that to myself, on my very last semester I have managed to do it! it was about time. 

About a month ago, Alexei had a weekend day off, and we decided to go for a hike to Mount Tamalpais. We were excited to see how bay area hikes compare to New Mexico hikes.

The first thing we noticed? 

We never once felt like we were immersed in nature like we did in New Mexico. At the beginning of the hike you always had the gorgeous view of The Bay, which kind of made you feel like you were so near a huge city. Even once the bay was out of sight, we were never alone. There were a lot of people hiking, so you never went more than 5 minutes without encountering people. In our New Mexico hikes we would go for hours without seeing anybody or anything remotely "urban", which gave our hikes a more wild feeling. I am positive that there are places in the area that are more remote and isolated, but it felt good to hike in a little bit more of a 'crowded' environment for a change. 

Halfway through the hike we found the West Point Inn. This goes to show how "urban" this hike. The inn was built in 1904 when there was a railroad that went through the area, but since then the railroads have been removed, and the inn is now stuck in the middle of nowhere. We stopped here to enjoy some falafel and hummus that Alexei had woken up extra early to prepare. There were lots of families, cyclists, and hikers enjoying the view from this spot.

After the short break, we continued on to the top of the West Peak. About half a mile away from the top there was a parking lot. Needless to say, the area was very crowded. But we were still really proud of having hiked the whole thing.

We found a lonely spot on the top, and sat down to eat, again. This time we had sandwiches, made with the same Alexei-made falafel and hummus, and homemade bread from the day before.

At the end of the hike we drove down to Stinson Beach, where we enjoyed the sunset before going home. I really wish we had more time to explore The Bay some more, but it seems like we will be moving again soon :(
Hopefully we will have time to squeeze in a couple more trips!

Story Time and Picture Update

School started a week ago, and it hasn't gotten real busy yet, but I know it will. Alexei has work mostly on the weekends, so I don't see him as much anymore. That will probably be good for my productivity.

Today I drove him to work and he accidentally dropped our home key somewhere in the car. He was late, so we didn't bother looking for it. When I got home, I looked under my seat and it wasn't there. Then I looked under his seat, and nothing. I looked everywhere. It had vanished. Finally, as I was getting ready to take a nap right there and hoping to never wake up, I noticed that there was a hole by the clicky part of the seatbelt where the key could have fallen. It was dark, and sticky, and dusty, and all sorts of terrible, but deep in there I saw the key. My hand would never reach it, so I decided to move the seat to see if it would fall under the seat. BAD idea. The key decided to hide, and it took me 20 minutes and downloading a 'flashlight' app on my phone to be able to spot it. Then it took me another 20 minutes to take it out. That counts as my workout for the day.

I figured that I would post some of the pictures I've been taking with my phone in the last month or so. Since the semester will be rough, I won't have too much time to write here. But I am going to try to keep my Instagram alive, and if I manage to take daily pictures, I will make updates of them here on the blog.

1. Lemon Poppy Seed cake that I made and we devoured in a day.
2. Getting my first blue passport and I couldn't hold a straight face for the picture.
3. This is how I feel about winter break ending and school starting again.
4. Posing by a pretty building at the Japanese Tea Garden! 

1. My favorite thing to eat recently.
2. Somebody has been playing with makeup all break.
3. I couldn't resist and got myself penny loafers! Although I hoped that they would be the same color as his.
4. We made green curry! no more eating out weekly to get our fix! 

1. Since his birthday (in September) Alexei has been obsessed with making bread. Lately it's a daily thing.
2. We found the coolest bridge at the Japanese Tea Garden on our last trip to the city.
3. Ocean Beach in San Francisco. Its fun living near the ocean.
4. Found a little plastic toy that I can use with my camera! but having mosquito vision isn't worth 10 bucks.

San Francisco: Japanese Tea Garden

School is about to start. Hopefully this will be the end of the "School" phase in my life. It has lasted way too long. 

We have realized that we may not be in The Bay Area for too long. We may have to move agaaaain this summer. So we have been trying to explore while I'm still on break. We heard that the Japanese Tea Garden at the amazing Golden Gate Park is free on some weekday mornings! So we woke up bright and early and headed downtown. Parking in the park is super easy and free, so instead of taking countless trains and buses like we used to do, we decided to drive, and it was so easy! We will never ever ever take public transportation to the park again. 

(Note: I knit the scarf that I am wearing in these pics! :D )

The garden is small and quiet, but beautiful. The day was the coldest its been this winter, but we had the sun and some warm tea to keep us toasty. We also had some tiny sandwiches that would stick to the roof of your mouth and some edamame beans from the Tea House.  

There was this funny bridge that you actually have to climb on to. I would go to that place just to climb up and down the bridge! Thanks Japanese Tea Garden for thinking about childish adults! 

HA! Alexei's shirt has flowers on it!!! Look! 

 And here I am, as usual, disturbing the peace. 

We also walked around the Golden Gate Park a bit. We were walking to a crosswalk at a stop sign when he heard a tiny, small, faint "boom" and then saw a guy get out of a car and start YELLING at the window from the car behind him. I thought about how terrible of a person that guy was for becoming such a beast about such a tiny bump, and then I just kept on walking and trying to mind my business. Then the person from the other car got out, and I noticed that it was a very old man (at least 80) who was shaking and confused as he got yelled at. The younger guy was demanding insurance and registration and all sorts of things even though the cars hadn't even gotten a scratch, and the old man kept on nervously dropping everything to the ground. I couldn't stand that. Who did that guy think he was treating a person at least 2 times his age like that?! We walked over and asked the old man if he was alright, as the younger guy yelled at us to mind or own business. We helped the old man get his papers out for the terrible one to snap pictures of, and then we stayed until the mean guy left and the old man had calmed down a bit. We were a bit shaken up from the experience, but the man ended up being fine, and we just walked around and explored some more.

Then we left the park and drove around the city a bit, and visited Alamo Square, where we saw the famous painted ladies and where Alexei got a headache from me humming the Full House opening song over and over again. We did a little business at the playground and headed home tired and happy. 

The End! 

A Late Introduction - 10 Random Things about me

Today I realized that I have been blogging for 10 months, but I never introduced myself. Hello! My name is Laura, I'm a 24 year old graduate student just a semester away from being done with school.

Here are 10 random facts for a short introduction:

1. I was born and raised in Venezuela as the 5th out of 6 sisters. Dad is Italian, Mom is South Korean. We moved to the US in 2007. Since then I have lived in Illinois (Undergrad), New Mexico (Worky Work Work), and California (Grad School).

2.  I was lucky enough to meet the best boyfriend in the world a couple of months before leaving Illinois. Alexei  puts up with my silliness, knows how to fix everything under the sun, and makes me want to be better every day (He also makes me amazing breakfast every day, including fresh baked bread!).

3. Since I can remember I've been a nail bitter. BUT, during the whole year I spent in New Mexico I stopped bitting them instantaneously and completely. That also happened to be my first time not attending school since I was 3. Do you see it!?

4.  I crave having babies. All. The. Time. I always have, but as I get older it gets stronger and stronger. I'll try not to mention this too often on this blog, since I can just go on and on about it. This may have something to do with having 8 nephews and nieces and counting. I'm always thinking that its my turn already.

5. Sad movies, commercials, documentaries, books, magazine articles, ....Actually, anything sad makes me cry like a baby. I also cry sometimes if I have to confront professors about anything. In these cases I will just cry as a reflex, without being sad about anything. After years of practice I've gotten to the point where I can hold it until I'm out of the room, and then I let it out as I go around my next business. Also, singing children make me cry instantaneously (Just you wait until I have my own children and they have school shows. I will be the sobbing mom)

6. Being #5 out of 6 kids I had to get creative to try to be special. One thing I used to do is refuse to have the same favorite foods as my sisters (kids don't make sense). With 4 older sisters you run out of the good options. My favorites were things like brussel sprouts, raw radishes, raw garbanzo beans, raw mushrooms. Additionally, their ultimate favorites would make it to my LEAST favorite list. Tomatoes and strawberries? yuk.

7. Oh man, I'm running out of things... Lets see... Funny story: Venezuela has the tiniest amount of koreans. The only korean I knew was my mom. When I was little I visited the US a couple of times. Whenever we went to a public place I would go around holding EVERY korean woman's hand thinking it was my mom. They all looked like her!

8. There is a video of the first time I heard a fire alarm. We don't have them in Venezuela, and we had just moved to Illinois. My niece and I were bored and pretending to interview each other on camera while my little sister cooked. Then the alarm went off, and I must have thought it was a nuclear bomb alert or something, because I jumped in the air with every beep. Then I realized what it was, and while shaking, I took a chair, got on it and started blowing stupidly at the alarm. I continued to blow even after it had stopped beeping as everyone laughed hysterically. Needless to say, they still make fun of me about that, and they have the video to keep the memory fresh. I will not show the video here, because it was a mere 5 years ago, and I'm still traumatized.  

9. I've eaten 5 grilled cheese sandwiches in 24 hours. I get obsessed when I learn to do something new. (Remember when I learned how to knit and made 5 hats, 2 scarfs and a headband in less than a month?)

10. I grew up being convinced that I was a "mixed child gone wrong". My family said my lookalikes where E.T., Droopy, Olive Oyl, Dopey from the 7 dwarfs, and the crocodile from the Lubriderm commercial. Thanks family.

Wow! this was hard. But now you know a bunch of random things about me! Tell me about you...