2011 in Review!

Happy new year! Can you believe it's already 2012? Of course, I have a a big term paper due in 5 days so perfect time to blog and recap my amazing 2011. I did finish my last exam (probably EVER), so I'm really relieved! It was only one exam, but the rest of my courses are all assessed by papers so no more academic tests for the rest of my life...unless I decide on more schooling or something. Yay!

Some stats for 2011:
-Visited 6 new American states (Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Utah, New Hampshire, Maine) - 30 states into my goal of visiting all 50 states
-Traveled or resided in 4 continents (North America, Europe, Asia, Africa)
-Traveled to or resided in 14 countries/autonomous regions (USA, Mexico, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Macau, UK, Spain, France, Egypt, Switzerland).

Needless to say, 2011 has been an amazing year.

My 2011, the highlights...

JANUARY ||
-First Vegas trip of the year to the nerd heaven of CES (Consumer Electronics Show)
-Weekend trip to San Diego
-Cousins visiting LA

FEBRUARY ||
-My cousin Christine's engagement party in the Bay Area
-Snow trip to Utah

MARCH ||
-2nd Vegas trip of the year for my friend Godman's birthday

APRIL ||
-Followed by the 3rd Vegas trip of the year a week after for Buddy's last drinking pre-triathlon training

MAY ||
-Finally going to the Kentucky Derby, and also getting to visit the surrounding states of Ohio and Indiana with Buddy
-Memorial day weekend in the Bay Area

JUNE ||
-Ly & Man's Wedding in Orange County (VNLC reunion!)
-An amazing beach trip to Cabo, Mexico in an amazing mansion with 18 friends for my friend James' 30th

JULY ||
-One month of traveling in Asia starting in Vietnam (friend AnThu's wedding), going through Southeast Asia, and ending in Hong Kong
-Finding out I was accepted to the MA programme in Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex

AUGUST ||
-Bay Area trip from LA for my friend Si's birthday
-4th (and last) Vegas trip of the year with YJ's Texan friends

SEPTEMBER ||
-Labor Day weekend in the New England area of Maine and New Hampshire - lobsters, lighthouses and beer with Jen & Myley
-Concluding my 4 years, 11 months at my first job out of college
-A great going away party in LA with a bunch of my closest friends (errr, what I can remember at least)
-Moving after 9 years in LA to the Bay Area for a brief 10 days
-A thrilling white water rafting trip to Sacramento
-Moving from the Bay Area to the town of Brighton in England, and into my flat in off-campus housing of Kings Road with gorgeous views of the beach and a group of great residents

OCTOBER ||
-Starting my Masters in Global Political Economy along with about 30 new friends at the University of Sussex

NOVEMBER ||
-Weekend trip to Manchester/Liverpool to visit my friend Thoai, see my first football game (aka soccer), and see where the Beatles grew up
-Weekend trip to Coventry to the University of Warwick for the Warwick International Development Summit

DECEMBER ||
-Traveling to the Andalucia region in Southern Spain (Malaga, Granada, Cordoba, Sevilla) and to my favoritie city in Europe, Paris for Winter break
-Traveling to Egypt to visit my childhood friend Kristin (my first time in Africa) and spending Christmas there over Winter Break
-New years eve & back in Brighton!

2011 in pictures (in no particular order)

Thanks to everyone that has been a part of my life. :)

Reminder: Voting in US Elections from Abroad

Attention: US citizens living overseas, don't forget to request an absentee ballot to vote from abroad. :)

You can request the ballots by going here and filling out a simple form: https://www.fvap.gov/

It's still weird to me that I'm actually living abroad and have to do things like this!

Holidays in Brighton

I can't believe Christmas is in 9 days! It hasn't really felt like it, but I think that's because I know I won't get to spend it with family as usual. :( At least Brighton has holiday decorations around town and that helps! It's quite pretty. I think it may have snowed today too! I'm not sure...maybe it was hail? This California girl isn't really an expert in these things. :P

So, a little over a week ago, I finished my classes for my first term of graduate school. Crazy how time flies! I'm not super relieved though because we don't have our final exam or final term paper until the beginning of next term in early/mid January. We do have a month off though, so I just came back from the Andalucia region of Spain and Paris for about a week. In Brighton for these two days, then off to Egypt! I come back New Years Eve and then, I will really focus on this school work!

These photos are from around Brighton and at two holidays parties - one for our Global Political Economy Masters group and one hosted by my friend, Veronica.

Happy holidays, everyone!!!

Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes...Beatlesmania in Liverpool!

My goodness where has the time gone! Only 2 more weeks left in the term until I am done with my first graduate school term! A couple weeks ago in early November I took the train up to Northern England to Manchester to visit my friend from California, Thoai. I looked at the map and saw that Liverpool was fairly close so we decided to take a day trip there.

The day started off pretty well...until we managed to get on the wrong train. To Blackpool. Since I already had my train back to Brighton booked, I had to make some adjustments to make sure that we would still be able to get to Liverpool and spend some time there. What is the fun if everything goes right?! 

Liverpool. The Beatles. What a Beatles adventure it was! I love the Beatles and got to see where one of the largest groups of all time grew up and began their conquering of the world! Started off with a visit to the Beatles story - a museum dedicated to everything Beatles. So much to see there! Then, we had a booking for the Magical Mystery bus tour - taking us around to the places where John, Ringo, Paul and George grew up and were inspired by all around Liverpool. The Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane, the Cavern Club (where they performed over 200 times), the house that Paul McCartney grew up in, the church they were in choir in, among much more... Overall, really enjoyed Liverpool!

British Summer Time Ends...and It's my Birthday!

I found something to do on my first birthday abroad! Since British Summer Time (daylight savings) ended on Sunday, the town of Brighton was having an all night arts/music event. We met up at my flat where we had some drinks and I got 2(!) cakes with these cute candles. It was nice. :) Then, we headed into town. There was plenty going on for the mix of White Night and Halloween (yes, they do celebrate it here). Lots of interesting costumes (they go more for gory here than the skimpy outfits I'm used to seeing) and interesting exhibits around town. We stayed most of the time at this "Alternative Village Fete" where we danced and watched this really colorful French band play...and there was this zombie walking around...and cha cha cha lessons...and random snacks being thrown into the crowd at us. Oh Brighton, what an eclectic mix of people!

Oh, and I guess I should say - HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Stay safe and have fun. Oh, and I love seeing everyone's Facebook posts with their halloween costumes!

Surprise!

Look what I got from my friends near and far! This year was my first year spending my birthday away from California and my friends, but it was like they were there with me. :) :) On Thursday, I got a notice that I had packages (2!!) waiting for me in the Porter's office. I thought to myself, that's weird, I hadn't ordered anything online recently. Anyway, so I patiently waited until 9pm (the time the porter is in) and hurried downstairs to pick them up. One package was from LA and one was from Santa Barbara. The one from LA was a photo book full of messages and photos from a bunch of my friends and one was a box of chips and snacks and a photo frame and necklace from Myley. Sooo exciting. I love surprise packages. That made my day!!! It's nice to know that I'm far away but I have amazing friends that still think of me. I was scared they'd forget me by now since it's been one month since my departure from Cali... :P

Places I want to visit while in the UK...

• St. Andrews University, Scotland (where Prince William met Kate!)
• Edinburg and Glasgow, Scotland
• Stonehenge and Bath, England
• Stratford-upon-Avon, England
• Manchester, England (going next weekend!)
• Liverpool and the Beatles museum, England (going next weekend!)
• Cardiff, Wales
• Loch Ness, Scotland?

Yay for my young persons discount railcard for 1/3 off most fares. 

Photo: View outside my window towards the West Pier.

Have a lovely day!

Cheers!

Eating abroad

Ok, so last weekend I was walking around Brighton and found an Asian Supermarket called "Yum Yum". I was very excited. The pictures are of how I'm trying to feed myself without eating out every meal (quite the change from life in LA). You never know how much you miss things until you don't have it, so yes, I was very excited to find the Mi Goreng noodles that I made with eggs and some leftover black bean sauce chicken. The photo on the top right is of my kitchen that I share with my 5 other flatmates. Oh, and of course, there are fish and chips which are in view of the window from my room (basically they're everywhere though!).

The Town of Brighton

Brighton is a cute town, and we live right in the heart of it. On the walks I've had around town, I've taken a couple of pictures of the buildings and the varying architecture. I have to start just walking around and exploring more! Too bad the weather is getting colder! Other than that, started my first classes this week. They were good and I'm actually really excited to be learning again. :) There's just a TON of reading. 

University of Sussex

I've been on campus 2 days now. Since I live off campus in the town of Brighton, it takes about 30-40 minutes to go to campus by bus. I've really enjoyed the campus. Locals all say that this is uncharacteristically warm weather. Whatever it is, it feels so nice to be surrounded by so much greenery...and sun! My intro meetings have been about 20-30 students and we actually have time for everyone to go around and introduce themselves. It's definitely refreshing to be in such a small, intimate learning environment. I'm actually excited to start learning and to officially start classes on Tuesday!