Sunshine and Bagels -- The Little Miss Thinks

Hello everybody!!! It's been so long since my last update, my greatest apologies! Since my last update, after my trip to Las Vegas, I was able to visit friends in the Los Angeles region before returning home to Berkeley. After one last adventure in Berkeley, I packed all my belongings and spent 3 days in San Jose before I had to pack up there too, in order to leave for Paris. As a recipient of the Gilman Scholarship, one of the aspects of my follow-up activity is to maintain a blog while studying abroad. In a somewhat attempt to separate my personal home life with my study abroad life (if that makes much sense), I will be maintaining a separate blog during the duration of my study abroad period. I will periodically make updates to this blog; however, if you are interested in following along during my (mis)adventures in Paris, please follow or bookmark my Paris blog: cleanandsunnyinparis.blogspot.com Haha, pretty clever if I must say so myself. With much love and well w...

It's ironic that I'm blogging right now, just a tad funny I suppose since I'm about to embark on another adventure without updating about my last adventures... In any case, I'm about to board a plane to Vegas. Thats right Baby, vivaaaaa las vegassss. My first but hopefully not my last trip here. As I'm getting used to traveling, I feel that I become less and less anxious... Packing doesn't take me as long and anxiety doesn't hurt me as much.... But then again im only talking about traveling domestically. No amount of domestic traveling can possible prepare me for traveling to Paris, Seoul, or Kathmandu. Speaking of anxiety, I took my French final today. A few weeks ago I decided to take the class pass no pass (meaning I had to have a 75% or greater for a pass, I believe) and although I doubted my decision, I sure didn't today. I've been studying for this exam several hours a day and yet I still could not come to grips with it and FEEL prepared. ...

My French professors weren't kidding when they said weeks 8 and 9 of the summer are the worse. Each day, we went through half if not an entire chapter. We will be finishing our last chapter on Monday! Crazy, it feels just like yesterday that I started learning French. I'm barely starting to absorb chapter 10... we are on chapter 24!!! >headshake< Here's to hoping that I fully absorb before I leave and that I don't lose much before I leave. Anyhow, I've been running on a rather full load of duties and rather a bordering-empty (read: low) level of sleep. Ah, the things one must sacrifice in order to be able to order a meal in Paris, haha. Can't leave too much of a thorough post, so I will be brief: -The coming week is the last week of French. Crazy how fast the summer went. -I'm moving out on the 10th! Same day as my French final. -I'm flying out on the 19th! So many things to do, not enough time to do it all. *** My first attempt at typin...

Climb a mountain so that you can see the world, not so the world can see you.  I learned about this graduation speech from my dear friend Laura, and I could not NOT re-post it. "You are not special" Graduation Speech. Pretty beautiful and inspiring.  

I'm not saying that everyone should live their lives searching for affirmation and positive feedback and energy from other people, because you really need to be able to affirm yourself and give your own self positive reinforcement... But I'd be lying too, if I said that affirmations don't do much. Because it does. One of my professors pulled me aside to say that he thought I did a really excellent job on our group presentation, that he thought I was really quiet and laid-back, but that I really shined while we presented. This is probably one of the greatest compliments I've ever gotten while at Berkeley. At any large university, you can really start to feel like just a number, just a student among thousands, and forget about what makes you special, what makes you, you. And in one small comment, my professor did that for me. He made me remember that I am not a grade. I am not my GPA. I am not an SAT score or potential GRE or LSAT score. I am not any digit or n...

trans: That's life My French is coming along, don't you think? It's been a while since I last updated, but I still don't have much to say. This week is finals week so I look towards it in anticipation and fear. Hwaiting! Also, I have my visa appointment with the French Consulate on Friday! Ahhh, scary. Uhh... Any suggestions? Like clothes... what does one wear? In any case, I can officially say this: It seems to me that the French are much better at writing/ making meaningful movies than Americans. Perhaps it is because my teachers are showing us only really good films... but in either case, they are much better than the American movies I've watched recently... The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain (2001) was quite a hit success in France and has a huge cult following. It was released in America under the title "Amelie." Definitely give it a watch. It's pretty hilarious and gave me great insight about French culture and humor. It made m...

There's often a tradeoff between quantity and quality in life, and lately, I've really felt this tradeoff. Balancing two 4-unit classes with my 10-unit French class, coupled with my GRE prep class, and let's just say, I don't have much rest or sleep. I'm running out of batteries and as a result of this balancing act, I'm a jack of all trades but master of none. There's no use thinking about the what-if's and if-only's, all I can do is keep on chugging, chugging, chugging, chugging. I was looking through my backpack the other day and found this fortune cookie fortune shoved in somewhere between tens of crushed receipts and papers: Before the beginning of great brilliance, there must be chaos. Here's to hoping that that is true. On the bright side, I'm starting to prioritize better though my procrastination skills are as horrible as ever. No time yet for a true update, just stay posted!