shaky start

The fall quarter at UCLA started on Thursday. That same day, I received an e-mail from John Riley saying essentially that the math boot camp exam diagnosed me as a complete failure in real analysis and recommended that I get some more practice (by staying in the math class). So in addition to taking macro, micro, and econometrics, I have a math class that meets for one hour each week. Needless to say, I was depressed by this. Moreover, I was disappointed in myself. The diagnostic quiz was really easy because it was based entirely on stuff covered during the math boot camp. I just neglected to study optimization in choice over time and lo and behold, one question amounting to 1/3 of the exam was on that. The class really isn't bad though. It has a really relaxed atmosphere and I enjoy Professor Riley's teaching methods. It's also good practice in proofs and such for the more math-intensive economics classes.

So far I've only had proper lectures in micro and macro since the Thursday class of metrics was a syllabus day, and it's cancelled for the current week. In micro we're learning about rational preference and its properties, which is the topic of our first problem set due in a week. This is actually my first graduate school problem set and I'm very excited.

In macro we talked about the history of macroeconomics and how classical economics was destroyed by the Great Depression and how Keynes came up and how his fellowship of Keynesian economists dominated macro until the oil crisis of the 70's, etc. It really impressed on me how important macroeconomics is. Also, this is my first macroeconomics class since my freshman year of college so.. we'll see where my interests lie a year from now.

Yesterday Sam, Allen, Jennie and I went to Koreatown to eat at a restaurant that specialized in tofu soup. Amazing stuff. It's too bad none of us brought a camera because there was so much food impressively served to us. We got the works: unlimited kimchi, a fried fish (which i ate whole except for the head (and including the bones) because I thought that's what you do with fried food but I guess not), a good amount of rice, pickles, some other stuff I don't remember because I'm cooking-illiterate, and a raw egg to put in our boiling tofu soup. The leftover juice from the rice was also scooped out and served to us towards the end of the meal to neutralize the spicy taste of the chili sauce-ridden tofu soup. All for $9 plus tax and tip.

Afterwards, we hit up a nearby Korean supermarket where I bought kimchi, chili sauce, tofu, noodles, and pork loins because I'm trying to learn from Sam how to make kimchi soup. I made some today for lunch, and I'm pretty sure I failed.

So there. I updated my blog. Oh, and it's been a while since I set up my room.. and I still have no pictures. I first need to clean this place up.

first day of "class"

Math boot camp started today. My friends laugh when I describe it as such.. but that's what it really is. It's a crash course in real analysis and linear algebra. Crash course in the sense that we're spending minutes on topics that would normally take half a lecture period. We were shown a proof of the existence of converging subsequences of bounded sequences by the iterative shading out of quadrants on the blackboard. Yeah.

For those of you who don't know, my laptop went out of commission apparently because of a bad chip of RAM. I talked to Dell and its contractor while on the road to LA and everything managed to work out. My parents brought it over here when they came to visit this past weekend.

I have most of my room furnished. I still need to build the dresser, a small cabinet/drawer thing, and a loveseat. Pictures of the room will come later when everything's up and I clean up the mess I've made over the last week.

So yeah, my parents came to visit over the Labor Day weekend. On Friday they flew in at 1:30 a.m. after missing their first flight from DC. I didn't go to sleep until maybe 4 a.m. that night >___<. On Saturday I had to wait around for an Ikea delivery and then we saw one of my mom's research collaborators at UCLA Neuroscience. Then we went to see my dad's old high school classmate at her house in Whittier. She had a couple other guests and family members over and yeah.. they were all about the same age. Despite the age difference, it's still good to know that my parents and, by association, I have good friends in the LA area. I got this sick shot of the LA skyline from her house up in the hills:

On Sunday we went to Pasadena to see my dad's alma mater Caltech. For dinner we ate at a really good Chinese restaurant in Arcadia. It was interesting to see so many plazas with signs all in Chinese.

So yeah, that pretty much sums up the visit from the parentals. Here's a picture of me and my mom right before I took my parents to LAX on Monday:

And thank Patrick for the awesome pic at the top. [EDIT: I removed the video and picture of my father cause he's paranoid of the interwebz.]

finally in LA

We finally arrived in Los Angeles in one piece. We took 10 through downtown LA to 405 took it north to Wilshire Blvd and arrived at UCLA. We're staying in the UCLA Guest House which is pretty neat. And, it's a lot better than our stays at the Marriott hotels already.. free wi-fi access (I'm actually logged in with my own username and password, but Patrick's using the info provided by the school), free breakfast in the morning, and very friendly greeters.

The first strange yet awesome thing about this place which Patrick noticed was that the road signs on the highways have BARBED WIRE on them.. which presumably are intended to prevent gang members from tagging the signs with spray paint. Haha, here's a pic:

There is also an aburdly high amount of traffic in Los Angeles. Here's another pic:

After eating at a Baja Fresh in Westwood (lame, I know, but we were just trying to find some food), we went to Ikea to buy a mattress and box spring to move into my apartment tomorrow. The dusk/night-time drive to and back from the Ikea in the San Fernando Valley was pretty exciting. We spotted fires in the mountains towards the east, a strong indication that the wildfires dangerously close to LA are far from quelled. Anyway, driving on the curvy roads through the hills was almost as exhilirating as driving in the desert at night in Arizona.

Move-in to me 385 sq ft apartment is tomorrow.

tucson after dallas

Writing from Tucson, Arizona at a Marriott where hotel wi-fi service costs $9.99 a day, but I can still connect to the University of Arizona's open wifi network. For free. Anyway, the drive here was alright. We went through El Paso, passing dangerously close to the Mexican border. We could see the Rio Grande and an enormous Mexican flag flying across it. The highlight of the day occured shortly thereafter. When we got into New Mexico, we were actually caught in a U.S. Border Patrol's dragnet. The patrolwoman asked me and Patrick individually if we were U.S. citizens. Haha, it was pretty intense for me at least. Here's a picture of the Border Patrol checkpoint:

After eating dinner at KFC because McDonald's was overpriced, we hit the road again, going west on Interstate 10 after the sun set and the moon shone brightly. Let me tell you.. driving in the desert at night feels so unreal.. in a good way. I10 has two lanes in each direction and in Arizona on a Sunday night, there aren't many cars on the road. It felt great to essentially have the road to myself and the slight fear of the unknown and of possible perils made it even more exhilirating. Here's a picture from during the drive, which I'd like to think is blurry because I was driving that fast.

So, since the last post on this blog we spent Saturday and Saturday night in Dallas with Mischa. We went to Dealey Plaza, the place where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated allegedly by a lone gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald. We went to the Sixth Floor museum about the assassination where I stood from the window from which Oswald allegedly fired his shots at the President. It was overwhelming to see Dealey Plaza, Elm St, and the Grassy Knoll from the 6th floor window. My knowledge of the tragedy comes only from Wikipedia and the Oliver Stone movie "JFK" but I was still in awe of the fact that I was actually standing at the historic scene.

Anyway here's a picture of two tourists standing on Elm Street on an "x" which, I'm guessing, marks the spot where Kennedy received the fatal headshot. The picture was taken from the fence on the Grassy Knoll, from which the most popular conspiracy theory claims at a (at least) second gunman stood and delivered the fatal shot. They and other tourists who also thought it would be cool to stand there were almost hit by cars (cause Elm St is actually a road.. on which cars drive..) and proved to be one of the most entertaining moments of our stay in Dallas.

Later that evening we got some steak fajitas at a TexMex place, which were delicious. Anyway, we need to move the car by 8 a.m. tomorrow to have free parking, so I'm going to sleep soon. Bonne nuit!

Dallas

I am now sitting in the living room of my dear friend Mischa Jampolsky in Richardson, a suburb of the great city of Dallas in the great state of Texas. We just had dinner at a BBQ place which was basically Hooters but with 100x hotter waitresses. I think I like Texas already. When they say everything is bigger in Texas.. it's absolutely true. Except for the lanes on the highway, which were felt kinda narrow. And they use physical bumps as lane dividers instead of painted lines:

The drive here from Nashville was really tiring and boring. Interstate 40 and 30 just straight shots from Nashville to Memphis to Little Rock to Texarkana to Dallas. Here is a picture of road signs pointing the way to the state capital of Arkansas:

I will probably upload all the pictures on Facebook sometime after Patrick and I accumulate more interesting images. Most of them are blurred images of grass and trees.. so yeah. I'm also exhausted from driving and honestly I want to save the more interesting images for when I'm not tired and can write coherently and Facebook. Yeah.

Nashville

We safely arrived in Nashville and just had some White Castle. What a great way to end the day. The drive itself was alright. US Interstate 81 really deserves its fame for its scenic route. Patrick took a bunch of pictures while I was driving on it.. will post them sometime.

leaving tomorrow

Tomorrow (well... at 9 a.m. today), I leave for Los Angeles. My route has changed from the last post to this blog. Instead of driving to Ann Arbor to pick up my cousin Patrick, he has flown down to Maryland so that we can begin the journey in Bethesda. We're going to stop in Nashville, Dallas (for two nights), Tucson, and finally LA.

Saying goodbye to friends has been difficult, but bearable. Instead of descending into despair or sadness, I am overwhelmed with a feeling of a great void. People who I have befriended and grown to trust and love for many years of my life will suddenly no longer be relevant in my daily life. I won't be able to call the same old friends to grab a bubble tea, to play tennis, to play poker, to hit the bars, to play ps3, or to play counter-strike. I supposed I could still play video games with friends, but the ping would be too damn high.

For the first time in my life, I will be completely alone. I'll know one person (sorta) in Los Angeles and one more in the SoCal area. Parents won't be 15 miles away like they used to when I was at the University of Maryland. This is definitely a great opportunity for me to finally mature (albeit steadily since I'll still be in an academic setting), but I fear that I may become lonely. I'll surely meet people through my classes and campus activities, but the familiarity of setting and deep connections with many people that I've enjoyed in the 22 years of my life will be lost. I will still have the memories and hopefully they'll comfort me as I embark on my journey across the country and as I settle in to a brave new world (for me). Oh, and MSN and AIM will comfort me as well.

Farewell Maryland. I owe you and your flagship university an immense debt. Thank you friends for your support, patience, understanding and the memories throughout the years. And thank you ma and pa for being not-so-Asian and supportive of my decision to move 2700 miles away. I'm not sure when, but I hope to return in even happier times.