For many years, my friends out here in the Seattle area have been telling me how awesome Portland is and that I HAVE to go to Portland. Oddly enough, after being here in Washington for ~1.67 years, no one has tried to take me with them on their trips to Portland. *shrug* What is a girl to do ( Read more... )

Back in 1998, my family and I took a bus tour of Europe, which included stops at Brussels and Paris, amongst several other cities. That trip did not leave me with the feeling that I saw what these places had to offer. We were only in each city long enough to see the biggest attractions, like the Manneken Pis, Eiffel Tower, and Notre Dame. There is ( Read more... )

I must say that convocation was and wasn't what I had expected. I would be lying if I said I didn't dream of that moment or pictured it in my head numerous times. Six years of grad school and that was the moment I looked forward to. When it finally happened, I felt somewhat like during my undergrad convocation. "That's it?" In a matter of seconds ( Read more... )

A few weeks ago, I went to Kyoto for a business trip. A week of meetings where I really only needed to be there for approximately the morning of each day. It's supposed to be a full day every day, so I guess I was lucky that it turned out I got a lot of time for sight seeing. I went to Kyoto in my previous trip to Japan so I really didn't have that ( Read more... )

This September and October, I had been working hard on writing a couple of papers for the CSUN conference. I must say, I'm really horrible at "advertising". I just can't do it ( Read more... )

Here's the post many of you have been waiting for. My view of the Olympics. Not sure if it's a fair or objective view of it but you all asked for it. This will be a long one ( Read more... )

Yes, it's a little bit of a disgusting topic but if you want the real China experience, it really is a big part of it. I'll try to keep it short ( Read more... )

While in China, I had the opportunity to see different methods of transportation. I mean, I didn't go on some of the really weird ones (like the ones where an elderly person is peddling a bike with a box attached at the back where the passenger is supposed to squeeze into... I also wonder how hot it is in there....) but I had fun looking at them ( Read more... )

Well, it's been fun but it's time to go home... Let's recap the last few days though ( Read more... )

So, today was a bit.... um... boring. I'm sorry, but (most of) the presentations that were supposed to be interesting (i.e. the ones in my field or related to my thesis) were really boring. Some people droned on and on and on (like many profs we know) and in one presentation, the presenter actually read off the slides. And every time the person ( Read more... )