Chinatown and Little India

A bunch of us studying abroad here took a train to Chinatown and Little India yesterday!

In Chinatown, we walked around a large shopping center and did the fish foot reflexology thing... where you stick your feet into a fish tank and the fish eat away the dead skin cells! It was so weird, you can actually feel the fish biting!



I chickened out after 7 minutes (we paid $8 for 15 minutes), so Dean used the rest of my minutes for his feet and hands...



Christine loved it.



Then we went to Little India and got some really sweet henna tattoos. Here is what I got on my left hand.



Holly and Annie got them on their hands too, and Christine got one on her foot.



I really liked Christine's foot one, I might go back sometime when I am not wearing my chacos (so the straps won't rub the henna before its dry).

Goodbye San Francisco, Hello Singapore!

Here is where my journey to Asia for the summer begins... I'm leaving home in a bit to head off to the airport for my flight across the Pacific ocean to Singapore! I am flying with just one other student from my study abroad trip, Jonathan Saethang. He has been visiting his brother here in SF, otherwise he would be flying out of Atlanta with the group. I'm pretty excited about this flight, except that its a red eye and a huge plane that will probably be packed with asian people. At least I've heard that they serve ramen noodles with chopsticks on the plane, which will be fun. I love ramen, even though its so cheaply made and the sodium overload is really bad for you. My favorite flavor of ramen is "oriental", though I have no idea what oriental is supposed to taste like haha.

We are flying through Taipei, Taiwan where we have a 10 hour layover. My mother's family lives about 2 hours away from Taipei and my uncle is going to pick us up at the airport and take us to see the city a bit, then have lunch with my family. I hope thats not too awkward for Jonathan but I haven't seen these uncles and grandparents in over 5 years, so I definitely want to take this opportunity to meet up with them even if its only for a few hours.

We are then flying from Taiwan to Singapore, where I'll have to go through customs and explain why I accidentally typed my passport number incorrectly on their student immigration form, oops.

So my next post will be when I arrive and figure out internet in my dorm room in Singapore, hopefully I can get some pictures up too!

More Waiting

Apparently a Peace Corps Toolkit update online does not always mean that they've finished processing your paperwork... My Medical Clearance status was updated to "Hold" this morning. All nominees have a medical hold while they are under review. No further action is required, unless the Office of Medical Services contacts you to request additional information. So its just more waiting, but at least some news is better than no news? Peace Corps' official policy is that their Invitations have to be issued at least 6 weeks prior to departure, and that's coming up soon if my departure date is still September.

I'm leaving the country on Sunday night to fly to Singapore for the first part of my summer study abroad, and of course the Peace Corps would wait until I'm leaving to start reviewing my paperwork. I hope that they don't need anything else because its really hard for me to say if I can get paperwork filled out while I'm abroad.

I'm suspending my cell phone for 90 days while I'm out of the country this summer, if you need to get in touch with me then hit me up on skype or shoot me an email!

Last Day of Classes

Today is my last day of classes here at Georgia Tech! I'm really excited to be studying abroad for my last semester. And our graduation party is tonight :)

We had the Women's Recruitment Board annual appreciation dinner banquet on the prestigious 7th floor of the library last night. It was awesome, that place was so classy and it reminded me of the Alumni house with the mahogany walls and plush carpets, plus it had a great view of downtown Atlanta. I'll post some pictures up later, whenever I can get them loaded onto the dinosaur.

I got one of my three cavities fixed this morning. I absolutely HATE going to the dentist, it always makes me really nervous and freak out a little bit when they have to shoot the Novocaine. So now I've got to go back next Thursday to get the other two cavities fixed and there goes another $331 down the drain with the dental expenses.

I'm still waiting on medical clearance from the Peace Corps, I guess its only been like 2 months since I submitted my paperwork and the process can take up to 9 months so I just need to be patient. And I technically wouldn't be leaving for another like 4 months anyways (my departure date is September) so I guess my files won't be prioritized until like July. Its going to be weird if I am abroad when I get an official Invitation, hopefully my parents don't throw out the mail from the Peace Corps -- they usually throw out all of my mail, like when they threw out my ballot in 2008 and when they almost threw out my jury duty summons.

Almost there!

My senior design group finished up our final presentation to the Georgia Tech faculty yesterday... what a relief. I pulled almost 3 all nighters in a row to try to run our optimization model successfully with different scenarios, and we had lots of problems getting our network to compile and run correctly.

Now 4 of my group members are headed off to Rome, Italy to present our final presentation to our client, the World Food Programme (WFP) and all we have left is writing our final report by Monday. Our final report will probably be 100+ pages after including all of the appendices. And by we, I mean me because I am doing all the top down editing and writing it so it sounds more cohesive and connected with one voice and writing style. Our last paper, the interim report, got graded down severely for repetitive content and lack of style. But that is just what happens when 8 different people try to write 1 long technical report together.

My stupid dinosaur laptop is being really frustrating, the lcd light bulb behind the screen keeps burning out like every 30 seconds so the screen just shuts off and goes black. So I have to open and close my laptop like every 30 seconds just to get the screen to stay lit up, and its really nonproductive and makes me want to throw the computer out of my window. The good news is that my dad has agreed to get me a new computer (finally!) since I've had this one since my senior year of high school. The bad news is that there are only 2 more weeks left of school so its not worth it to get a new computer before the end of the year. The goal is to get a new computer before I leave for Singapore and my summer studying abroad :)

Spring Break X

Chris and I just got back from an awesome spring break in California! We spent a lot of time going to lots of touristy places like the Golden Gate Bridge in the San Francisco area and driving down to southern california.



Here is a photo of Chris and I getting ready to sail around Alcatraz and the bay. Theres some sea lions on the docks behind us!



We also went to Chinatown, where Chris got some cool souvenirs like a toy ninja sword for his brother and a traditional Chinese hat for his dad. And of course we also went to the Chinese Consulate (twice) so that I could get my visa for the summer.




Then we went to the California Academy of Sciences and saw a very large scale example of a living roof. Too bad my bio living wall project is still in the prototype stage, or they maybe could have used our design to recycle graywater!



We also drove all the way down the coast and stopped at the Santa Monica pier. The boardwalk at Santa Monica is apparently the one from some show on Nickelodeon.



We stopped in Hollywood, where we walked around all the stars and by the famous Chinese theater.





And then we went to the San Diego Zoo and Mission Beach, where I got to see my friend Lizette, we met when she came to the Afox swim camp when we were like 13 and been friends ever since :)

More tests and medical expenses...

I had 3 vials of blood drawn yesterday at our Health Center for the blood tests that are required of the Peace Corps application. Apparently the blood and urine tests have to be done within 6 months of the physical, so my bloodwork from August wasn't enough. Those 3 vials of blood and the related tests cost $117 out of my pocket. Yikes. And then I have go to back next week to get the immunizations for my Bejing/Singapore study abroad and for the PC. Its like $600+ of shots, including Japanese Encephilitis, Typhoid, Tenanus (apparently my last one of those was in '99) and odd things like malaria pills. I also need a Polio booster after age 18? That is so weird, Dr. G had never heard of that so he had to check and see if the Health Center even gave polio booster shots. So yeah, I can't wait to go back to the Health Center next week to get the results of my bloodwork and spend more money on shots :(