Just got back from Hawaii. It's not easy coming back from 80 degree weather to 50 degree weather. When did it get so cold in California? Normally I wouldn't mind, since I love cold weather, but i like being prepared for it. I had to go directly from the airport to work and i was not dressed appropriately. But anyway, on to my summary of Hawaii...

I'm probably going to forget some stuff but I'll try my best.

Day 1
Landed at around 1pm, visited the happy now married couple at their apartment and then walked around Waikiki and had dinner at Senor Frog's.

Day 2
Hiked up to Diamond Head Crater. Lounged on the beach and then went to the Rehearsal Dinner. After rehearsal, went to have drinks at random bars.

Day 3
Snorkeled at Hanauma Bay and almost drowned. Went to Paradise Cove luau at night and ate too much and was forced to dance hula on stage.

Day 4
Wedding Day. Had tons of food at Zippy's, Waiola's, some dessert place. Went to my first Catholic wedding. It was definitely very interesting participating in a ceremony where i'm not at all affiliated with the religion. I was asked to do a short reading explaining a cord cermony in traditional hispanic weddings. after the wedding, we partied it up at the reception.

Day 5
Went to the Dole Plantation and completed the world's largest maze in less than an hour. Then went to north shore and had some excellent shrimp from Giovanni's. Dinner at a burger place and then drinks.

Day 6
Hiked up some weird trail and then went to Jackass Ginger and swam in a lake then visited Pali Lookout. Final meal in hawaii and then caught a redeye flight back to LA. Goodbye Hawaii :(

Thanks to Kristin for bringing us to all the cool places, especially the food!

happy december y'all! it's finally starting to get a bit chilly. although i think it was still about 80 degrees today. it's supposed to get colder this weekend. woot.

spent last week in vegas. it was nice getting to spend a week away from the office and still get paid. too bad it's only once in a blue moon.

work has been super busy this week. can't wait for hawaii next week. woohoo!

Boston: Day 4, 5, 6, 7, ....290582050

Day 4: Sunday began with a trip to Bodega, a shoe store in Boston. It's not just any shoe store. Apparently there's this whole underground shoe culture that I was completely unaware. Bodega has contracts with major shoe companies where they get specially designed shoes that are rare and can only be found in certain parts of the country. So it's pretty much shoes with funk colors and fabrics. The coolest part of the shoe store is that the front of it is like a mini mart. There's a Snapple Machine in the store that opens up (either automatically or the guy in the mini mart opens it) and leads to the shoe store in the back. It's like secret hideout for shoes...so awesome. After we all bought some shoes, we headed over to the Barking Crab where we again ate too much.

That evening I went to a social with past and present students from my masters program. Ate some free appetizers and chatted with some ppl. Then met up with Susie to eat at Chicago Uno Grill.

Day 5: Monday morning, I actually made it to a conference session at 9am. After the session, went with Susie to see Haaaarvard and MIT. I gotta say, I wasn't all that impressed with Harvard's campus. It's really small and all the buildings look the same. Perhaps it looks better when the grass and trees are alive or when covered in snow. We didn't make it to the business school which apparently is the nice part. MIT's campus is ugly although I didn't really expect it to be nice. The campus looks really depressing. I suppose ppl really just go there for the academics and not much else...

The rest of the Boston trip was pretty uneventful. I went to a few more conference sessions but didn't really go out much to see the city. We had pretty much walked the whole city in a few days and there wasn't much to see. By Tuesday, I was ready to go home....but not back to work. But all in all, Boston is a very nice, chill city. I like how it's not super busy like NYC. The food was amazing, but a little pricey, as evidenced by my empty wallet. Next year, the conference will be in Seattle. I need to find a new job that will pay for me to go...or perhaps just find a job in Seattle!