So after a quarter of eating like this and sleeping very little, I guess it's no surprise that my body has given up on me and let me become very very sick.

To kick off finals season, we had a very fun practice in which we just scrimmaged for two hours. I bothered them into taking a group photo. They weren't very pleased. We're a handsome bunch though, aren't we?

Napalm tried to help me study for bio, but it didn't really help. Then I felt the ten week feels and had Anna capture it.

And then puppy-viewing study breaks.

And of course, we had our gift exchange and took these pictures to pretend we like each other. Sipping champagne and gifting... the day before a final.

Happy holidays, friends.

it's almost christmas and the last time i posted was in august

Oops.

I blame the general sense of emptiness Irvine creates. Other than the void that is slowly eating away at my soul and will to live, I think I've had a really busy and productive (questionable) fall quarter. I'm in my penultimate quarter as an undergrad, and the realization is dawning on me and now I think I'm just constantly in a state of self-delusion that keeps me from just breaking down and throwing myself off the nearest highway overpass.

So to begin this long recap, I went on a short trip to Malaysia early on in September. It's always a reminder how different my life would have been if I grew up there instead of the US. I'm not saying that it would have been a bad thing to grow up there (curry laksa errrryday), but I would get into so much more trouble for being me than I do here. After a detour to Langkawi, we saw my mom's mom and I briefly thought about writing about it, but I'll save it for another day.

This is a picture of the Marina Bay Sands hotel from the Gardens by the Bay. Singapore was our last stop. The last time my mom went to Singapore, she went with my grandparents and her siblings. She took my brother and I here and we took a million photos on our iPhones that will never do them justice. I honestly don't know what to do with the photos I've taken from here. Suggestions (other than post them on Facebook, bleh) ?

After a whirlwind of rushed traveling, I came home to pack up my life into the back of my car to drive the 300-odd miles down to my new apartment. No, seriously, I had a day in between arriving back in California and having to drive down to the southern half. It was kind of a relief, to be honest. I had been home for four months, and that's all the motivation I need to never move home again (Sorry, Ma). As per usual, we started the term by celebrating Lauren's birthday, which coincidentally solidified all of us being of legal US drinking age. We went to a rooftop bar in DTLA, and I'm still trying to piece together the remnants of that night three months later. Twas fun, and I'm genuinely afraid to divulge anything else.

I did something kind of adventurous this quarter and joined the roller hockey club. The fastest way to understand/appreciate a sport is to play it. My initial expectations for this were that they were just a bunch of people (girls and guys) who shot pucks around and had friendly scrimmages. Nope. So I don't know where I got the impression that it was a gender-balanced team, but to date, there are three girls on a team of almost twenty people. Whoops. There are no individual games, just tournaments in different cities, we have a coach, and have practices. Guh. I had also overestimated my fitness and some couple of weeks ago strained/tore my quad. Guuuuh. But, it hasn't been all bad things. In fact, I really enjoy being part of a team, and everyone is there to have fun. Plus, I enjoy making everyone cringe with my bruise snaps. It's fun. At the very least, I can always say I scored one goal. No one can ever say I trolled roller hockey. Never. Next thing I wanna do is learn how to stop without falling on my ass.

It was recently Thanksgiving, so I went home. This Thanksgiving was extra important because it was my mother's birthday. I'm not sure if it's legal to post it on the Internet, but she's hit the big 50. For years, she's been moaning about how she's never gone to the top of the hiking trail behind our house. So after some planning mishaps about a surprise brunch, we scrapped that, and I took her and a bunch of her friends hiking. I think she was going to strangle me halfway up for thinking this is what she wanted, but I mean, hey, what are endless mimosas in comparison to getting up before 8AM and hiking 3,000 feet up? The important part is that we made it up. All the way to the tippy top. So Happy Birthday, Mumsy. Look how pretty it can be up there when it actually rains vs. when we're smack dab in the middle of summer and breathing on something might start a fire.

 Overate as usual but didn't go out for the Black Friday madness. I did participate in some online shopping, but I feel endlessly guilty. One, for spending tons of money I don't really have yet and two, for feeding into a machine that contributes to myriads of things I don't believe in...but that 30% Zara discount. I hate myself. Anyway, Zach came up the next day and we went to the Sharks v. Ducks game that Saturday. Mom had the hookup for row 1 seats, but she's not that into hockey. Seeing the opportunity to employ my new appreciation for the sport, of course I pounced on those. Zach embarrassed us by being the only one in three sections to have a Ducks jersey on. We sat by the most obnoxious Sharks fans though. Just those three people who think it's remotely funny to use the words "jimmeny-cricket" in earnest. After the 20th time, it just gets real annoying real fast. They also ordered 8 rounds of Jack and Cokes, so it's not like their insults against the Ducks got any better as time went on. Shittalking is part of the experience, I just wish they were good at it. I think Zach may have ruined my chances of being a good Sharks fan. Having been introduced to the game by watching Ducks games, I know more about that team than I do about the Sharks. All I know really is that Couture is amazing and Pavelski is a babe and Scott is a GIANT. It was only a good game in the third period after they pulled beautiful ginger god Frederick Anderson out. Poor guy. But yeah. These seats. Every time someone got checked into the boards, it's like I was getting checked into the boards. We were close enough to make intimate eye contact with both teams. Pretty sure that's what Zach was doing anyway. Is that flirting? Is that how one flirts? What does it mean when they look your way, hold eye contact, and spit a little? Is it going down? Did Zach just snag a date with Cory Perry? Why is nothing in this scenario remotely surprising to me?

Yup. Pretty cool weekend. Enjoy these other photos from the Japanese Friendship Garden + Charlie derpface bonus.