photo credit: Olof S on flickr
I think everyone should spend more time walking around the places they often drive by. You notice a lot more when you’re on your feet going at a slower pace, whether it’s stores you never knew existed or hidden pathways you never went down. Plus, when you see things from much closer, you’re more likely to notice things that you wouldn’t have ever caught otherwise. It’s an entirely new way of appreciating the very same place you always thought you knew so well, or exploring a foreign place.
My mom and I took a nice little walk when we were waiting for the car to get fixed up at the body shop last week. As we casually made our way down the quiet neighborhood, we noted all kinds of cool plants that she may want to plant in our own yard. I noted that there were a lot of the same brand two or three brands of cars around there and that each stand-alone house actually housed two families. We saw a squirrel hanging out in the shade of a tree and trees with spikes growing on the trunks, which inspired us to think of a solution to prevent animals from stealing the fruits that my mom so laboriously planted. We noticed the architecture of the houses and the vibrant colors of the neighborhood. I saw the mailman delivering mail with his bag and we quickly noted that he did so because there were no mailboxes in that area. We also saw how the first street we went down seemed to have a far nicer feel than the next street, which had more run-down houses and less shady trees to fill the space. All of that, and we got some nice exercise too.
The same thing goes fora lot of streets you may tend to rush by. You may not notice that the store on the corner sells small trinkets in the midst of magazines or furniture. You may never know that in the display case of another store, is the very elusive bit of jewelry you’ve been hunting for. Or that one shop has amazing brass handles that are an artwork to themselves, or another is hidden so far from the road you never would have found it otherwise. You can wander into little courtyards lined with small shops selling a variety of random items, or even find a cute restaurant tucked away in the corner. A medicine shop sits next to a book shop that holds monthly book readings. A map of the town waits for you at one intersection, wondering if you’ll ever discover that it will show you a history of the streets you frequent (having not been changed in a decade).
It’s amazing what you can find if you ditched the wheels and let your own two feet guide you.
I eat it all the time, I think about my life in terms of what to eat next, I socialize with people preferably with food at hand. It’s a great way of uniting people – after all, who doesn’t eat food? I even go around taking pictures of all the food I am served at various restaurants and gatherings. Sometimes it’s the presentation that makes it almost too good to dig into; sometimes it’s the delicious aroma that makes your mouth water and your heart fill with happiness. Seriously, good food can lift your spirits! The best thing is, it can be enjoyed over and over again – sometimes alone, sometimes shared, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.
One of my favorite places to go as of late (and unfortunate for my health, I’m sure) is all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ. Between the cute little appetizer dishes, the tasty salad dressing, the rice paper, the egg soup, and the scrumptious brisket and bugolgi, what more could you ask for? Sure you come out smelling of meat and smoke, but that’s not exactly a bad thing, is it? I’m also a huge fan of BCD’s (which I like to joke is missing an A), which is a Korean tofu house that’s open 24 hours. Who needs Denny’s or IHOP when you can get those Korean appetizers, a small yellow fried fish, a bowl of fresh rice, a stone pot of boiling tofu soup, and a toasty rice soup at 2 or 3 in the morning? Granted, for those poor vehicle-less souls living on campus, I guess they have little choice, since they can’t get out to K-town. But hey, as long as you’ve got motorized wheels, you’ve got no excuses!
The great thing about LA is that you never run out of good food to eat. I can’t wait to go back to Buddha’s Belly in Santa Monica for some Asian fusion and chocolate fondue, or over to Daphne’s for some amazingly tasty shrimp pita, or out to cha for tea to get the best boba in town and some yummy treats as well. There’s still plenty to explore, like this other place that has chocolate fondue (which I only knew of from pictures that Opti put up), or the various places lining the streets I often drive along. From Chinese to Greek, from Korean to Persian, from Japanese to Brazilian, there’s a lot more to try! It’ll be slow going though, until I find myself a job and have an income again! For now I’ll just take advantage of UCLA Young Alumni events (like the one tonight) to meet people and try new restaurants.
UCLA is rich in its culture and full of traditions. One such (relatively new) one is the ever-lively Undie Run. By the time I arrived on campus in the fall of 2004, it was a blossoming tradition that I had heard of, but didn’t really know much about. I spent my first year hearing the rumors, but not knowing anyone to go with or where to find the gathering, I never tried to join in the festivities. My second year I returned, eager to find my place and I did so by joining over a dozen organizations on campus. As I spent my time going from meeting to meeting, social to workshop, I didn’t quite find the bonds I was looking for. And so in the spring, I opted to pledge for Alpha Kappa Psi, a co-ed business fraternity on campus. My time was sucked up by that, but I still managed to meet some new friends who were the type to party it up. In them I found Undie Run enthusiasts, so I prepared myself for my very first participation in such an event.
For my first time, in the spring of 2006, I got some cute frilly underwear (black with pink hearts and completely useless as normal underwear with way too much poof) from Urban Outfitters on 3rd street and wore a plain black bra. We congregated at the bottom of what was known as “Rape Trail” (now Saxon Trail/Steps), right on the road where Landfair meets Gayley. The closeness of the crowd provided warmth in the cool night as we got ready for our journey. At some point, the front part of the group began to to scream and run and we all followed suit, flying down Gayley, passing through De Neve Court, continuing down Bruinwalk, then up Bruinwalk, and making our way to the destination at the fountain in front of Powell Library. (Yes, we like to run scantily-clad and scream and sing right outside the library where students are still studying for finals.) Along the way, some creepy guys were standing around just staring and a few more were waiting at the end of the run. There’s always a bit of a downside to everything, right? Some were taking pictures and video and others were just scanning the crowd.
I naturally do not have double eyelids, merely single ones, but as a child, if I rubbed my eyes a lot, sometimes I could get a temporary crease. When I went back to China after high school, I took some glamor shots at a studio, where they taped little clear crescents onto my eyelids to simulate the look. It was fascinating to me that they would do that and I’ve always wondered if it really does look better. It certainly gives my eyes a little more dimension and now eyeliner applied along the top layer of lashes wouldn’t get buried in the depths of my eye when I opened them. It makes for more “Western” eyes, which, perhaps, is the point? It feels weird though, to have this crease in my eye, with skin folding up around it and sometimes I wonder if it’s one of those things like a displaced joint that needs a little boost to get back into place. There’s certainly a kind of pressure there and opening my eyes larger makes that feeling even more pronounced.
Sometime while I was in Singapore (and I didn’t notice at all), I somehow developed a double eyelid. That’s right, just one. So now my eyes are uneven (much like everything else in my body) and I wonder if one eye looks bigger because of this incongruency. It’s kind of cool and it has been pretty permanent, but I wonder how long this will last. Will the other eye change too? Will this one go back? Or am I stuck with one single eyelid and one double eyelid? Since I have no idea how I got the first one to begin with, I have no idea how to make my other eyelid like that, or undo this one. I guess it’s fun though, to observe the differences side by side and feel the differences when I open my eyes.
