SP 13: The Other Side of LA - Pt 2

Moving onto the second part!

After an exhausting day the day before, Elda and I woke up groggily quite early in the morning. Okay, 7.30 am. Half an hour later than planned, but we were so darn tired. We still had plenty of places to go to. Apparently, we spent quite some time talking in front of the bathroom door for a couple of minutes. In the end, we took off from my apartment at around 10. Before heading to our first destination of the day, Warner Bros Entertainment, we dropped by at McD to get our breakfast. I had an egg muffin and so did Elda. I also needed to go to an auto service to get my car briefly checked, since the day before, the Maintenance Required light just flashed. Actually it wasn't as critical as I thought, but I was just afraid my car would break down in the middle of freeway. After a quick check, the staff told me nothing was critical.

Okay, let's head straight to the first destination of the day, Warner Bros Entertainment! When you think of a studio tour, you might think of Universal Studios, but this time, it's different. Warner Bros might not have a fancy theme park full of special effects. But the tour would be longer and more detailed as we would get to walk through some props and sets!

SP 13: The Other Side of LA - Pt 1

This part of spring break happened on the brink of Summer term, exactly three last days of the break and a week after Universal Studios visit with Eunyoung

I might have mentioned this but Elda and I originally planned on going on Chicago, but then something happened and I wasn't able to go to Chicago anymore. In solution to that, Elda decided to come to LA to pay me a visit.

Elda would be coming on May 10, 2013 at noon. I was ready to pick her up after my spring break work, but then the managing director of Graphic Design department requested that I attend the departmental orientation to share some tips for the new students. And that happened at noon. I only came in the beginning before leaving to LAX to pick Elda up at around 12.30 pm.

For your information, that was actually the first legit day of me driving on freeways on my own. I don't usually have enough balls to take freeways and as an alternative for that, I always take local routes, which sometimes can be a solution to the jam in freeway, but it commonly takes more time than freeways. Or sometimes, I drive in freeways with a companion.

SP 13: Back to the Studios - Pt 2

Previously: When Eunyoung agreed she'd like to go to Universal, this ride was the first thing that came to mind, especially the night before, Aymee told me how awesome the ride was (she went there on Christmas break). On the way to where the Transformers ride was, we bumped into the directory board where it says that the wait time for Transformerswould take up until an hour.

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Screw it. I could barely sleep last night because of the high anticipation of Transformers.

The directory board never lies, and when I said it, I mean it, because the line really took almost an hour. The line went through endless rooms, before we finally came to a narrow basement where the loading station was. YEEAYY!!

OMG, I'm not kidding, the ride was FUDGING AWESOME!! It wasn't as short as I expected so the long wait really pays off. It was totally unexpected. I thought it would be like a normal motion simulator ride where the cart just stayed there and the technical arms did the job. But no, it was a dark ride, like the one you commonly see in Disneyland, unless there were no traditional animatronics, but instead, we were taken to rooms full of giant screens and each screen has its own narrative. And of course, everything was in 3D...no, 4D! Considering there were some special effects happening, stuff like warm heat, water effects, wind blowing sort of thing. But I was completely left speechless. I've never seen such technology in any theme park rides before. The idea was not as complicated, but combining the idea of 4D motion simulator and dark ride is just GENIUS.

Crying my eyeballs out

Tell me, when was the last time a movie made you cry like a four year-old? I'm talking about a short animated film, not a featured one. This short - Father and Daughter - created by Dutch filmmaker Michael Dudok de Wit, won an Oscar for Best Animated Short back in 2000. It tells about a father who leaves his daughter while he's taking off on a boat. The daughter constantly goes to the same spot each and everytime she grows up to see if her father comes back.

SP 13: Back to the Studios - pt 1

So I mentioned that I did some trips during my 3 week spring break, right? I did go to San Francisco, then Davis as well as Cupertino. The last and the latest trip actually didn't take miles away to go to. Yep, Universal Studios is just ten miles away and approximately 20 minutes of drive, and I went there over the weekend with my friend, Eunyoung.

For those of you who follow my blog, you might ask, why Universal again? Well, I explained the reasons in my previous post, so I hope that answers your curiosity. The distance and the affordable price are definitely the two main reasons why I never get tired of going here.

The plan to Universal Studios was considered to be quite sudden. It appeared literally out of nowhere. It all started when I just got back from Davis and as I have mentioned in my previous post, I was literally alone for four consecutive days. My roommates are going back to their hometowns, my close friends had their own personal plans...so that basically leaves me alone in Pasadena. So as a way to escape from “centuries” of boredom and loneliness, I tried to contact whoever in my major that's available to hang out. Turns out one of my closest friends in my major, Eunyoung, is available during the break. I first initiated that we go to Disneyland (my childish instinct just had to kick in, sorry) or Universal Studios.

SO SPENT

Just wanted to share this to other Star Wars fans out there. Today's the biggest day of our most beloved franchise!!!
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Today was probably the most exhausting day of the week, but it's really worth it because I spent almost 4 days of isolation after I got back from Davis.

spring break frenzy

First of all, I'd like to wish you a very...

Just thought I'd like to take a break from writing "Orlando for Winter" :)

The graphic I made this time was quite lame. I tried my best to create an egg on Illustrator only to find out I failed to do so *doublelame*

Hope you guys had a great Easter! I wish I had some real eggs to decorate here, but apparently they have gone rotten so I had to dispose them (did that a while ago).

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So you might probably remember a post that I did previously about me staying here in the Bay Area for spring break for a week, while a lot of people I knew fled out of state for vacation. Well, it looks like my break wasn't as boring as I thought it would be. Although not as satisfying as winter break, I definitely had a good time during spring break and most importantly, I had never saved as much money like I did in other breaks, so that adds to the point.

In exchange of not traveling anywhere, I (sorta) "warned" my parents that most expenses for a week would be on food, clothing, and movies. I ended up rewarding myself after an exhausting quarter with bunch of food, a pair of new clothing, a good book to read, two movies, and a quality time of blogging :)

Yep, I bought The Hunger Games!!!
I felt so tempted to read the book after seeing the movie. The movie was unexpectedly good, although I heard a couple of my friends said it sucked. I was totally blown away by Katniss' character and her upbringing delivered by Jennifer Lawrence. The whole atmosphere and cinematography also successfully drew character into the situation the characters were involved in. Sooo...intense. I'm definitely looking forward to finishing the book.

May the odds be ever in your favor!

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I wish I could show my new clothing, but too bad I don't have that particular "fashion blogger" quality. Anyway, I spent some time at H&M and Forever 21 buying myself a new hot pink shirt with a string (more like a belt) attached around the waist, a floral dress (a super duper very rare occasion for me to buy a casual dress, but then I remember that I might need one for summer or spring), and a jeans jacket that matches with the dress.

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Moving on to the food!! Ah, here comes my favorite part of all spring break time. Aside from my extreme liking on food, my goal by the end of the break is to at least gain a pound of weight since I'm a little underweight. Oh how hard is it to gain weight? -_-

Tenma Ramen is one of the most awaited food I'd been dying to have ever since spring break starts. This authentic Okinawa ramen is rich of garlic flavor, making it so undeniably luscious.

After seeing 21 Jump Street with ISV folks, the remaining of us went to Harumi Sushi to munch on 65 sushi rolls. Yes, you got it right. Sixty-five rolls for five people. That's hella a lot.


Chicken Curry with Rice after 3 hours of playing badminton! Had this at Tandoori Chicken. I got to say that the rice was not as tasty as I thought it'd be, but the curry was absolutely mouthwatering.



Grilled chicken with fried potatoes and mushroom sauteed with Cajun Sauce!
I don't quite recall the full name of the food, but I believe it's one of the signature food at Applebees.



Pho with Beef and Soft Tendons at Downtown Mountainview.
I'm never quite a fan of this Vietnamese noodle soup, but whenever I'm hungry, I can never resist this dish!


Sauteed Chicken Marsala at Elephant Bar.
It's a you-pass-it-everyday kind of restaurant, but who knows the food can be so promising?


I had beef and tofu rice at Top Cafe right after playing at Golfland with some friends of mine, an activity that finally concludes my whole spring break event.

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So the rice plate wraps up my simple spring break! I know I expected much than just culinary tour and shopping: I wished to travel out of state (been saying this for hundredth time now), but on the bright side, at least I got to save some money for my future needs and especially university tuition :)

See you in a bit. Spring quarter starts tomorrow and I need to get enough sleep to slam early morning class :)

Sweeeet spring break!

[It should be entitled: 10 reasons for not traveling out of town for Spring Break]

OK guys, trip to Epcot post is done, I just need to upload the pictures and then it's up.

Hawaii, LA, NYC, Miami, San Diego....seeing the tweets of most of my friends going out of town for spring break make me somehow down due to the fact I'm going to stay where I am now for a week, and even more, I'm a traveling-kind-of-girl cos I hardly ever stay at where I am during break: I always go out of town and stay there for a couple of days before going back.

So, I'm going to make a list that would justify my reasons of staying in the Bay Area, and would hopefully cheer me up:

1. I spent a lot on winter break already. I need to give my wallet a little rest, and especially I didn't get to work part-time on winter quarter due to taking 6 friggin classes. So that sort of adds the point.
   
   
2. I should save more money for my future university tuition. University tuition rates these days are a bit unstable so I should be ready for an unexpected tuition rise.
   
   
3. All of my close friends stay here. So why would bother going out of town alone while your friends are having fun here?
   
   
4. I basically have visited "Top 4 Places I'm Dying to Visit in U.S": LA for last spring break, NY, and Miami (even Disneyworld! ZOMG) for winter break. Did I even mention that I've been to the awesome midwest? As in Colorado? And I played with snow there????
   
   
5. I can do things I've never got to do in school days: brushing up my graphic designing skills, blogging, movie marathon, playing pinata with friends, shopping, lol-ing till I cry, sleepover maybe......
   
   
6. I could actually choose to go to LA with some other friends if I really wanted to go out of town badly (my parents actually suggested me going there to visit my soon-to-be school), but the plan was canceled, so, they're kinda stuck here too.
   
   
7. Spring Cleaning! Hello, my apartment is like a Titanic+Costa Concordia aftermath
   
   
8. Was probably thinking to have a driving lesson here....but most likely not though
   
   
9. Ticket to Hawaii is wayyyy too expensive. My close friends originally planned to go there this spring break. The plan has been up even since September, the same moment we planned on going to Orlando, because ticket to Hawaii was around $500 at that time. Of course, the price skyrockets along the time, and even I heard if we booked it a few months prior to the traveling day, it'd cost close to plane ticket back to Indonesia!
   
   
10. Culinary tour around SF Bay Area, starting from Ramen!
    
    
11. There's plenty of interesting spots in Bay Area: San Francisco, Napa, Monterey, Sausalito, Gilroy, Palo Alto, etc, even tomorrow we're taking off to Santa Cruz!
    

The point of Spring Break is about having fun, right? I believe the definition of having fun doesn't always have to be traveling, but at least it's something you can do together with your friends wherever you are *cheering myself up*