Summer 2023 Travel Recap

As summer break 2023 comes to a close for me, as I recently went back to UCSB for the upcoming 2023-24 school year, traveling to different places – including Lake Tahoe, Mono Lake, Bodie, New York, and Washington D.C. – has been one of the most memorable highlights from this summer.

Picture of my brother at the
South Lake Tahoe
hotel that we stayed at

During the evening of June 30, my family and I drove from our home in Palo Alto to our hotel in South Lake Tahoe. The hotel had a pirate ship vibe to it, and one of my parents took a picture of my brother in the hotel.

snow on Mammoth Lakes mountains

Tea House on the Emerald Bay Island

On July 1, the next day, we went to visit Emerald Bay in Lake Tahoe and kayaked to the island at Emerald Bay. It was the first time kayaking, and although some of the water went into the canoe that my mom and I were on, it was a pretty enjoyable experience. After kayaking, we did some hiking at the island in Emerald Bay. We hiked to the top of the island and took some pictures with the "Tea House," the small stone building on top of the island. We continued exploring the Emerald Bay area and then drove to our condo in Mammoth Lakes. On the way to Mammoth Lakes, we noticed that the mountains still had some snow on them, most likely from the past winter, where the rainfall and snowfall was above average in California. There was a TV at the Mammoth Lakes condo, and I watched Sing 2 and the first couple of Bridgerton episodes.

snow on the way back home

On July 2, my family and I explored the Mammoth Lakes area, including visiting Convict Lake and Twin Lakes. After that, my brother and I went swimming in the pool around where our Mammoth Lakes condo was. Around early evening, we went to Mono Lake and went on a guided tour of the lake. There were many interesting facts about Mono Lake and the area in general, including the fact that the height of the tufa in Mono Lake indicates that the lake level of Mono Lake was once that high.

On July 3, my family and I continued to explore the Mammoth Lakes area, visiting a lake called June Lake. Afterwards, we drove to a ghost town called Bodie. We saw many different buildings there, including a church, a schoolhouse, and various houses. We were even able to watch a video that described Bodie, including its early years and how it became a ghost town. A fun fact about Bodie is that gold was actually discovered there in 1859. After visiting Bodie, we drove back home to Palo Alto, and like on the way to Mammoth Lakes, we saw some snow on the mountains.

The last 3 pics of one of my Instagram posts consists of photos from my Lake Tahoe, Mono Lake, Bodie trip

On the evening of August 2, I took a plane from SFO to the east coast, specifically to Newark, New Jersey airport (EWR), to meet up with my family since my mom, dad, and brother were already at the east coast due to my brother going to Cooperstown, New York for baseball. The plane arrived at EWR during the morning of August 3. It was my first solo flight, and although I did not sleep that much on the plane, I tried my best to stay awake. When my dad picked me up from the airport and drove us to the New York hotel that he stayed at with my mom and brother, I also tried to sleep a bit on the car ride to the hotel. However, the hotel that my family stayed at had some water problems and so my dad ended up switching to another hotel, which was where my family and I stayed for the night.

During August 3, my family and I visited various places around New York City, including Empire State Building during the morning, Grand Central Terminal and United Nations Headquarters during the afternoon, and Vessel, The High Line, and Little Island during the evening. I also visited Top of the Rock by myself during the afternoon since my mom, dad, and brother already checked that place out. At Empire State Building and Top of the Rock, I was able to capture various photos of New York City's landscape. The Empire State Building is also considered to be the world's most famous building, and many celebrities like Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande and cartoon characters like Miss Piggy from the Muppets have visited the Empire State Building. The Vessel has a pretty cool design, and the building's material allows people to be able to see their reflection.

On August 4, my family and I continued to explore NYC, visiting the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, Wall Street, The Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art), and Central Park. The 9/11 Memorial & Museum explored the event of 9/11 in great detail, including showing how NYC looked before and after 9/11, audio recordings of some of the people – including flight attendants on hijacked planes – who were affected by 9/11, and detailed descriptions of the four attacks that occurred on 9/11. There were many different sculptures at The Met, including European sculptures and Egyptian sculptures, as well as pottery from Asia and various pieces of artwork. During the evening, we drove to New Jersey to the house where three of my cousins grew up in. At New Jersey, my family and I got to meet my uncle (my dad's brother) as well as one of my cousins and her husband. My brother and I also played the board game version of Codenames with my cousin and her husband.

My Instagram post featuring some of the photos from my New York trip

On August 5, my family and I went with my uncle, my cousin, and her husband to an Asian restaurant in New Jersey for lunch, and the food there was pretty good. After lunch, my family and I left New Jersey and drove to Washington D.C. On the way to D.C., we passed by Amish Country in Pennsylvania (Lancaster, Pennsylvania). We arrived at D.C. during the evening of August 5, and since our hotel was located near National Mall, we walked around the National Mall area shortly after we arrived and went to and saw some of the landmarks at National Mall, including the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and World War II Memorial, which featured 56 pillars representing U.S. states and territories that surrounded a fountain.

On August 6, my family and I visited some museums in D.C. and nearby Virginia, including D.C.'s National Museum of Natural History and Virginia's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The National Museum of Natural History had many different exhibits, including an exhibit on human origins and another exhibit on ocean life. There was a lot to explore at the National Museum of Natural History, as we did not have enough time to view all of the museum's exhibits. At Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, there were many different aviation and space artifacts, including Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird, a Concorde, and Apollo 11 Flotation Collar. My family and I then went to D.C.'s Chinatown for dinner, and the food at the restaurant we ate at was pretty good. Because it started to rain later in the evening, my family and I ended up staying at our D.C. hotel during the evening.

On August 7, my family and I visited D.C.'s International Spy Museum. The museum was pretty cool and interactive, as my family and I got to learn more about spying and different spies throughout history and work on a mission that uses spy skills. After visiting the International Spy Museum, my family and I went to the National Mall, and in addition to seeing landmarks that we saw two days ago – like the Washington Monument and World War II Memorial, we also saw the Vietnam War Memorial and the World War I Memorial. Later on, we went to the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) since we had a flight from DCA to SFO at 5:30pm. Although the flight got delayed, we were able to arrive safely at SFO.

D.C. Instagram Story

Overall, it was great getting to visit many different places this summer, and I look forward to visiting more places in the future. It was also nice getting to visit D.C. since I last visited D.C. 10 years ago in 2013.

New York, New Jersey, and D.C. travel recap

Below, here is a video recapping the different places that I went to this summer.

UCSB: Reflecting on Fall Quarter 2022

During Tuesday this week, I finished my finals for fall quarter at UCSB and got back home to the Bay Area Wednesday afternoon. This quarter was a lot different from last year in many different ways. Last year, I lived in the dorms on the UCSB campus. This year, I live much further away from campus in San Joaquin Villages, one of the campus-owned apartments. As a result, much of my classes last year were within walking distance from my dorm, while it would make more sense to take the bus or bike to campus from San Joaquin Villages since it would take quite a while to walk to campus from the apartment. Moreover, I had a meal plan last year living in the dorms, but since I decided not to buy an off-campus meal plan this year, I have been mainly cooking my own meals in my apartment. While cooking my own meals is a good skill to have, it is also time consuming because of cleaning up all the pots, pans, utensils, and other things that were used when cooking. I am considering getting an off-campus for next quarter (and maybe the quarter after), though, since I do want to have some more time to do other things, including doing work for classes. Speaking of classes, some of the classes that I took were either busier or harder than I thought they would be. For one of my classes, there were quite a bit of readings to do each week. For another class, I felt that the class was hard and wasn't managed very well. The homework was graded based on correction and not just completeness, so it was hard to get full points on homework assignments. In addition, I didn't do too well on the midterm mainly due to not being able to finish all the problems on time, but I wasn't able to get my midterm back until less than a week before my final for that class. I was supposed to get my midterm earlier during a section for that class, but somehow I couldn't find it during that section. I later found out that my TA did actually have my midterm and told me he wasn't sure why I missed it, which was weird since I was pretty positive that I wasn't able to find my midterm that time. After getting my midterm back, I told the TA that he should have helped me look over the midterm pile during that earlier section to find my midterm if something like this arises again. I am pretty worried about my grade for that class, since the grade is only comprised of homework, midterm, and final. Today, I saw my grade on the final for that class, and it was worse than I expected. For the 2 problems that I didn't finish due to time, I got little to no points despite showing some of my work. The grading for that class feels quite harsh, but hopefully I'll still be able to get a decent grade in the class.

San Joaquin Villages, the apartment that I live in this year

When I moved into my apartment this quarter, my parents brought down my bike from home so that I could use it to bike to campus. However, a few days after I moved in, my bike got stolen since I could not find it in the bike cage area outside my apartment. Consequently, I ended up busing to school for a while, and I found that the bus can be kind of unreliable at times, sometimes showing up later than expected. One time, I was waiting for the light to turn green so that I could cross the street to get to the bus stop, and there were 1-2 buses that were already at the bus stop before I was able to cross the street. However, the buses left before I crossed the street, so I ended up having to wait for a later bus (bus 27), which ended up arriving later than expected. Consequently, I was late to a section for one of my classes. Moreover, I used bus 27 the same day to go back to my apartment after a Circle K (a community service club at UCSB that I'm a part of) General Meeting, and for some reason, it didn't stop at my apartment and despite trying to request a stop, the bus when straight to the marketplace area. I ended up walking back to my apartment and felt really annoyed by bus 27, and I made a TikTok video expressing my frustration on that bus. I bought a bike on Facebook marketplace the day after that bus incident, so I was able to use that bike to get to classes. However, after nearly 4 weeks using that bike, I noticed that I couldn't really pedal the bike due to the bike chain being loose. As a result, I once again had to take the bus to campus. During Thanksgiving break, my family came to visit, and my dad tried to fix my bike but wasn't very successful in doing so. He ended up buying me a new bike and added a basket to it. Now, I'm trying to see if I can sell my old bike, which still hasn't been sold yet.

Despite the challenges that I faced this quarter, there have been some good things that came out of the quarter, including getting to bond with my roommates. We played some games with each other, including a TikTok edition of "What Do You Meme?" and Cards Against Humanity. We also talk about things that have been going on in our lives, including the classes that we were taking during the quarter and other activities that we participate in. Around mid-October, we had a Halloween Party at our apartment. During the party, I dressed as boba, interacted with some other people, and did some karaoke (one of my roommates brought a karaoke microphone to the apartment). In November, me and most of my roommates went hiking at Montecito Hot Springs, which was a pretty fun experience since it was nice getting to hang out with my roommates and have a good workout.

Some other good things from this quarter include being able to meet new people in clubs like Circle K and TASA (Taiwanese American Student Association). In Circle K, we were able to recruit several new members this quarter and got some interns for Circle K board. Currently, I'm the fundraising chair for Circle K board and hosted a Snack Box Raffle Fundraiser from late October to early November. Although the fundraiser wasn't entirely successful since not a lot of money was made from it, I do hope to host some more fundraisers next quarter (such as a food-related fundraiser). Circle K also had various events throughout the quarter, including a service event called Letters for Literacy that occurred twice this quarter, an ice skating social during early November, and a friendsgiving/baking/game social during mid-November. In TASA, I had a fun time participating in the Big-Little Pickup Events, which included speed dating (both virtual and in person) and an arts and crafts night, and I picked up 2 more littles this year (I now have a total of 4 littles since I also picked up 2 last year). I was able to hang out with them throughout the quarter, including during TASA general meetings, my TASA fam's kickback event in October, and my TASA fam's famsgiving in November, but the first time that all of my littles were able to meet each other in person was during the week before finals, when I had dinner with them at an IV (Isla Vista) restaurant called Naan Stop.

I brought some of my stuffed animals and plushies from home to my apartment, and those stuffed animals and plushies were able to help me get through the quarter as well, since they have been good emotional support buddies for me.

During this quarter, I started taking some flute classes at UCSB: private flute lessons and flute choir. Although sometimes it can be hard to find a good time to practice my flute, those classes were pretty good since I got to work on my flute skills, including familiarizing myself with the fingerings of very high flute notes. I also joined the Daily Nexus Data Team, although the group that I am in hasn't been able to do too much yet, but hopefully we'll be able to get some work done next quarter.

Overall, this quarter was quite different from last year and previous quarters. There were some difficult and fun moments, but hopefully next quarter and next year will go more smoothly. I also made an Instagram post (shown below) a few days ago that summarizes my thoughts on this quarter.

Caption for the Instagram Post

NorCal and Oregon Family Road Trip

Last week (August 7 - August 13), I went on a road trip with my family (mom, dad, brother, and grandma to be specific), where we went to various places in Northern California and Oregon, including Napa, Fairfield, Redding, Crater Lake, Prospect, and Crescent City. Overall, I thought that the family trip was a good experience since I got to visit places that I've never been to before. Also, it was the first time that I ever visited Oregon. I thought that the trip could've been better if I didn't get a sore throat that was accompanied with a runny nose and lots of spit in my mouth. I made a TikTok video, an Instagram post (shown below), and a Youtube video highlighting the family trip.

August 7

Downtown Napa

Bale Grist Mill State Historic
Park (Napa County)

My family and I visited the Napa area. One memorable moment that day included talking to the people at the Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park – we talked about our personal lives, including where we're from and where I go for college. My family also bought pastry flour from Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park. Another memorable moment was seeing the Napa Valley sign and going to downtown Napa. I have seen pictures of Napa online before, so being able to see Napa's sights in real life was a fun experience.

During the evening, we drove to a Fairfield hotel, which was pretty spacious since it had 2 rooms for sleeping.

August 8

We started the day by going to Fairfield's Jelly Belly Factory. We were able to see how the Jelly Belly jelly beans were made, which was a cool experience since the factory involved both the use of machines and people. Moreover, the factory had plenty of artworks made out of jelly beans (including the Statue of Liberty and various U.S. presidents) and videos relating to Jelly Belly.

Lassen Volcanic National Park

Another picture of Lassen
Volcanic National Park

After going to Jelly Belly, we I drove northward to go to Lassen Volcanic National Park. The national park was pretty mountainous with plenty of trees, although there were some trees there that were likely affected by fires that occurred during the last few years, such as the 2021 Dixie Fire. We also saw some hot springs in the Bumpass Hell area of the national park. We also saw some lakes, including Lake Helen and Manzanita Lake. At Manzanita Lake, the walk around the lake took quite a long time, and at one point my dad was not with the rest of my family, so we walked back to find him. However, the sky was also getting darker, and I remember my mom getting annoyed at my younger brother for walking too quickly in the dark because he could get lost too. It also rained a little bit later on, but we were eventually able to reunite with my dad and drive to a Redding hotel to stay there for the evening.

Bumpass Hell

Manzanita Lake

Lake Helen

August 9

During the morning, we went to Redding's Sundial Bridge. The design of the bridge looked cool, and the bridge functions like a sundial. Although the weather was quite hot (it was probably around 80ºF, which is pretty warm for the morning), I had a good time visiting the Sundial Bridge.

Sundial Bridge

Standing in the
Sundial Bridge
shadow

After visiting Sundial Bridge, we went to see various waterfalls: Burney Falls, McCloud River's Upper and Middle Falls, and Hedge Creek Falls. For Hedge Creek Falls, you can even go under the waterfall, which was a cool experience for me. Moreover, the Hedge Creek Falls area had some blueberries that could be picked and eaten (although they were sour compared to normal blueberries).

Burney Falls

blueberries at
the Hedge
Creek Falls Area

After visiting those waterfalls, we drove to Oregon, and it was our first time ever going to Oregon. On our way to Oregon, we saw some views of Mt. Shasta, which is one of the highest peaks in the Cascade Range and in California. Since it was summer, the Mt. Shasta did not have much snow on it, but more snow can be seen during the winter. For our first night at Oregon, we stayed in a Klamath Falls hotel.

Wizard Island can be seen
in this Crater Lake photo

August 10

Phantom Ship at
Crater Lake

We went to Crater Lake National Park. At Crater Lake, we saw the vastness of the lake and the islands on the lake (Wizard Island and Phantom Ship). We drove around different areas of the lake to have a better look at those islands.

Striking a pose at
Vidae Falls

In addition to Crater Lake, Crater Lake National Park also had waterfalls, and we went to Vidae Falls. We took some photos with the waterfall, and my dad, brother, and I struck some poses in some of those photos.

Pearsony Falls

During the evening, we went to Prospect Historic Hotel in Prospect, a place in Oregon with a very small population (only 455 people as of the 2010 census). Near the hotel, we went to a waterfall called Pearsony Falls.

August 11

A panorama of Diamond Lake

My dad, brother, and I played horseshoes around the Prospect Hotel area. There were also some other things around the hotel area, including a bear statue and a farm (where we saw a horse). After that, we went to Mill Creek Falls and Barr Creek Falls, two other waterfalls in Prospect.

Barr Creek Falls

Mill Creek Falls

After going to those waterfalls, we went to Diamond Lake and ordered lunch there. While we were waiting for our lunch, we walked around the Diamond Lake area and noticed some blue dragonflies on the lake's water. There were also views of mountains and trees around the lake.

Watson Falls

We then went to see some more waterfalls: Toketee Falls, Watson Falls, Whitehorse Falls, and Clearwater Falls. Although we had to do some hiking to get good views of Toketee Falls and Watson Falls, we didn't have to do much walking to see Whitehorse Falls and Clearwater Falls. Out of all of the waterfalls, Watson Falls was the highest. Meanwhile, we noticed a rainbow on Whitehorse Falls.

Close-up view of
the rainbow at
Whitehorse Falls

During the evening, we stayed at a hotel in Medford. In that hotel, my dad, brother, and I went swimming in the hotel pool. The pool itself wasn't very big, but there was also a spa area. After swimming, although I did use a towel to dry myself up so that I wasn't too wet, I made the mistake of not bringing the towel with me when going back to the hotel room, which was a likely reason why I ended up with a sore throat, runny nose, and lots of spit in my mouth on the day we went back home.

Lone Ranch Beach panorama

August 12

We explored Oregon's coast, although we had to cross the California border first and then cross the Oregon border during one point of the drive because the highway that we drove on involved crossing the California border before going back to Oregon. We visited Lone Ranch Beach, Arch Rock, Thunder Rock Cove, and Natural Bridges. When visiting the Oregon Coast, my brother decided to use filters to take photos. 

Thunder Rock Cove

During the evening, we stayed at a Crescent City hotel that was on Highway 101. We also ordered food for dinner from a Chinese restaurant and visited Battery Point Lighthouse while we were waiting for the food. 

August 13

I woke up with a sore throat that was accompanied by a runny nose and lots of spit in my mouth. We were heading back home though, so I made sure to take a covid test once I got back home.

The drive back home took about 7 to 7.5 hours. We drove by many different places along the way, including Trinidad, Garberville, Willits, Hopland (which has a wine shop called The Golden Pig), Cloverdale, Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Novato, San Rafael, Sausalito, and San Francisco. While the drive home did take a long time and that we could have gone home earlier if San Francisco did not have so much traffic, it was nice to drive by some Bay Area cities since I'm from the Bay Area. When I got back home, I did a covid self-test, which fortunately came back negative. However, my body temperature was quite high, although I'm feeling better now.

IV Apartments and University Apartments: The Pros and Cons

Next year, I'll be in my third year of college at UCSB. Although I'm looking forward for my third year at UCSB, I'm not completely sure where I'll be living. Initially, I was hoping to live in an apartment in IV (Isla Vista), but I wasn't successful in finding an IV apartment due to not getting into any of the ones that I applied for. I was told that the IV apartments that are still available are probably quite expensive, so I might end up living in UCSB's university apartments, which have applications that open on February 28. However, university apartments are further from the UCSB campus than IV apartments. Below, I wrote a list of some of the pros and cons for both IV apartments and university apartments.

IV Apartments Pros

• Closer to the main part of the UCSB campus: Walking from the IV apartments to the main part of campus doesn't take a very long time.

• 

  An apartment in IV (Isla Vista)

  Don't have to deal with unexpected fire alarms: I'm currently living in the dorms and experienced a fire alarm after 1 a.m. back in January this year, so I'm worried that there could be unexpected fire alarms in the university-owned apartments too. If I live in an IV apartment, I likely wouldn't have to deal with a fire alarm going off after 1 a.m.

IV Apartments Cons

• Need to buy furniture for the apartments: Unlike dorms or other university-owned housing, IV apartments usually come unfurnished, so there would be a need to buy furniture, such as tables and beds. Tables, beds, and other larger pieces of furniture can be hard to carry into the apartment and so it could be hard to put those pieces of furniture into the IV apartments.
• Noise from construction: I heard that some people that I know who live in IV apartments have to deal with construction around their apartments and were unaware about the construction, so their beds were moved and it can be hard for them to sleep. If I live in an IV apartment, it's possible that I might have to deal with loud construction noise, which could make it hard for me to sleep.

University Apartments Pros

• Rooms come fully furnished: There's no need to buy any additional furniture for university apartments, so I wouldn't have to worry about carrying any large pieces of furniture to the university apartments.
• Don't have to deal with bills, deposits, monthly rent, and co-signing: According to the UCSB Housing website, there's "no figuring out bills with various roommates, no deposit or first and last month rent, and no co-signing leases" for the university apartments. Instead, the billing for university apartments is done via BARC (Billing, Accounts Receivable, and Collections System).

University Apartments Cons

• 

  Sierra Madre Villages,
  a university apartment at UCSB

  Further from the main part of the UCSB campus: I might need to take the bus or bring my bike from home whenever going on the main part of campus, which is where classes are held. Currently, I've been walking to all of my classes since my bike is at home (there wasn't enough room to bring my bike over to UCSB). However, if I end up living in university apartments, because they're further from the main part of campus campus than IV apartments, it would take a longer time for me to walk to the main part of campus from the university apartments and so I might need to take the bus more often to go to campus or bring my bike over.
• May have to deal with unexpected fire alarms: Like I mentioned earlier, I experienced a fire alarm in my dorm that occurred after 1 a.m. back in January this year. Since university apartments, like the dorms, are also campus housing, I'm worried that I would experience unexpected fire alarms if I lived in a university apartment.

In conclusion, both IV and university apartments have their pros and cons, and even though I might end up living in a university apartment due to not being able to find an IV apartment yet and that many of the IV apartments that are still available are likely quite expensive, there are still some good things about living in university apartments.