Days 8-13: The Week of Jason I

The past few weeks, I’ve felt really guilty for not updating the blog, especially since I’ve been doing so many things every day and I want to remember them all. Time is moving by quickly and two weeks ago feels months away. Anyway, I guess it’s time for one of those weekly dumps!

Oh, and about the title…The one thing that the past two weeks have in common is Jason. I literally saw Jason every single day lol 

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Day 8: First CORE Meeting of the Spring

If you don’t remember, CORE is kind of the behind-the-scenes team for Culture Show. It’s made up of different branches (Coordinators, Publicity, Finance, Production, etc.) and all of us got together to talk about…well, everything. I thought it’d be scary/difficult talking to everyone about their visions (and my own), but everything went smoothly. Everyone seems nice, happy and excited, so hopefully we can keep the morale up.

Day 9: 1^st General Meeting

Today we had 1^st Gen, which is pretty much a load of information and then karaoke afterwards. I forgot to mention that on Saturday, I spent the morning with a few of the Cabinet members and filmed this ridiculous thing. 

Towards the beginning of the night, Jason, Diana, Phu, and I “disappeared” and Vivian (Madame President) played it for the general members. (They must think we’re SO cool now.) The meeting was kept fairly short—which is always good—and a ton of people came out even though it was in the middle of the week. Unfortunately, most of the members couldn’t stay for karaoke, but that might have been for the better because all of us were able to fit into one room. The best part was that two of my floormates, Anh and Gorden (the new guy on our floor) were there. I got kind of nervous because this place had the kind of karaoke that gets scored, but I did end up singing a few songs. I even got to do a duet with Gorden. We sang “Lucky,” which is something I ALWAYS wanted to sing with someone XD (Our score sucked but EVERYONE ELSE THOUGHT WE SOUNDED GOOD/CUTE AND THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS.)

Day 10: I Win the Lottery

I had been anticipating this day for a while. In the morning, I ran a few errands after ASAMST and tabled with Minh-Thy. The plan was to go to SF with Jennifer and André after tabling and meet up with a bunch of people at SHN Orpheum Theatre to try and get me, Jason, André, and Minh-Thy into Wicked through the Lottery Rush. Two hours before the show, people can put their names into a lottery and the facilitator draws at least a dozen names. Whoever gets drawn can get up to two tickets for $25 each in the Orchestra section (though most of the seats are on the sides so there’s limited view.) Originally, the rest of the group had planned to go to Wicked a few months ago, but the four of us decided to try our luck last-minute. 

AND IT WORKED. Jennifer was actually the first one to get called, and I was the second. (We got buttons that said “I Won The Wicked Lottery” :D) Actually, André and Sally also ended up winning the lottery, but they gave up their tickets so someone else could win. 

In the theatre, I sat with Minh-Thy on the far right side. The show was absolutely WONDERFUL. Honestly, it was hard not to sing along with the actors because I’d learned most of the songs by heart years ago. I’m glad I finally got to see it (and only for $25!)

We got back from SF around midnight, and since we were starving, I took Jason and Richard to Late Night. Those buffalo wings and zucchini sticks are so addicting.

Day 11: Preparation

It felt like I was constantly on the move today. I had classes, picked up some books, did laundry, and packed for Cal VSA’s retreat at Lake Shasta. I was in a car with Jennifer, Jason, Dung, and Hung. Jennifer and I sang along to Mamma Mia and Korean songs pretty much the whole way there. When we got to the house everyone was staying at, I helped prep food for the next morning. Some of us were pretty tired after the drive (including me) so we knocked out early. 

Days 12-13: Retreat and Bibimbap   

Where to start…The first thing we had to do right after breakfast was give up our phones. I didn’t know what to expect from Retreat, but I’m very glad I came. I got to meet many people I didn’t know, and with the people I did know, I got much closer. It was similar to the parties Vinna and I used to plan back home with all the games and bonding exercises, but with a lot more meaning behind each game. Most of the things we did were pretty safe, but I did manage to injure myself while racing on the asphalt. (NEVER race on asphalt.) I didn’t know at the time, but apparently I fell on top of one of the guys, Art, and he got scratched up as well. Luckily, we had plenty of doting VSA members to clean us up.

On Sunday, we (Jennifer, Jason, Minh-Thy, Richard, and I) drove back in the morning. Jason and I passed out for most of the ride, and afterwards we all got breakfast at Nations. I did some work, and then the boys invited me over to eat bibimbap. A few more people showed up and we hung around for a bit before going back home.

XOXO
Gabby

S2 Day 7: Andre's Birthday

Today was André’s 21^st birthday, so after class (and a nap, of course) a big group of us piled onto the bus to Oakland to eat some Obi Chicken. IT WAS SO GOOD. Then we went to JPR’s to hang out and...stuff. Even though it was a Monday night, it was wonderful seeing everyone together and having fun. I was reminded that I’m in very good hands here, in Berkeley :)

XOXO

Gabby    

S2 Days 5-6: In Which Saturday Sucks and Sunday Doesn't

S2 Day 5: The Saturday I Sat Around

Since I went out yesterday, I decided to stay in and study. Not all that interesting.

S2 Day 6: Sunday is Funday

More studying and around 1PM, I met up with Jason and Jennifer to talk about Culture Show. We stayed at Jason’s apartment for a while, and then I went back to eat and take a nap. Around dinner time, Jason asked if I wanted to hang out with him and his visiting friend, Thanh (an awesome guy from Stanford who had stayed over at the apartment with us during winter break) went back to Stanford. 

Since the guys made me wait, Jason brought me this highlighter-yellow airport tag that said “Late Check-In” and told me it was good for any favor or dinner (lol). The three of us went to the Lotus House and ate some duck (mmm). It was pretty clear that Thanh wasn’t going to make it to the BART station, so he decided to stay for another night. We all went back to the apartment and watched Thanh’s favorite Korean movie called “Sunny” (I don’t think you’ve seen this one, mom.) It was so great seeing Thanh again—I haven’t laughed so much in ages!

XOXO

Gabby

S2 Day 4: House Party

I had Friday classes for the first time this year, and I felt exhausted afterwards. I went to ESPM in the morning then did some work in Bancroft Library for a few hours before going to my English discussion. Turns out it was the wrong discussion (I swear we were moved around, because I KNOW I signed up for the first discussion). I wasn’t the only one, though, because four other people rushed out realizing they were I the wrong classroom. (There were three discussions, all in the same building, all at the same time.) Unfortunately, I didn’t have a smart phone and my laptop wouldn’t turn on, so I sat through the section trying to reassure myself that there must have been a mistake.

After English, I went straight to History and got there on-time (yay). 

I picked up a chicken bowl from Ramona’s before going back to the dorm. It obviously wasn’t as good as OUR chicken bowls, but I was starving. When I got back, I napped and studied until about 10:30, when Jennifer H., André, and Richard came to go to our friend Phu’s 20^th birthday party. I’d never really been to a house party before, but the only difference between that and the club was that there was more drinking going on than dancing. In other words, it was still loud, hot, and cramped. 

By 1AM, my other friend Jennifer K. and I seemed to be two of the few sober people in the room, so we decided it was about time to head home.  I didn’t really mind staying so long, though—it was still fun to be with everyone and watch drinking games. (To be honest, beer pong looks kind of fun, but I think I can wait XD)

XOXO

Gabby

S2 Day 3: Thursday Breather

I only had ASAMST today (Thursdays will probably be my favorite day this semester) so since I was so far away from the dorms, I decided to pick up textbooks at Eastwind Books. Turns out they were out of one of the books I needed (go figure) so I’ll have to go there again in a week. I took a wrong turn (unsurprisingly) and it took me about 45 minutes to get back to Unit 1. It would have been a breeze if my backpack wasn’t stuffed with 4 books, a binder, water bottle, and laptop. At least I got my exercise for the day (since I was too lazy to work-out in the morning with Jane.)

After a two-hour nap, I went to help table for Calapalooza. Since I didn’t have class, I stayed there the whole time. I was kind of worried that we wouldn’t have new members this semester, but we were short one signature to fill one page by the end of the day, so yay for that! (Though a quarter of the signatures belonged to us…but that’s beside the point >_>) Jennifer said that Minh-Thy and I were the perfect tabling duo, “bursting with cuteness.” I don’t know about that, but at least I didn’t even have to flier :D I also got to know some of the new Cabinet members a little better.

Later, Jennifer and helped me work on the template for the newsletter and I studied a bit before bed. 

P.S. I know that I'm a poopie responder in chat lately, but even if I’m on Facebook, I'm usually studying. (Some of my textbooks are e-books...I hate ebooks) I promise I’ll call this weekend!

XOXO
Gabby