Socal Trip

Omg this weekend was unbelievably awesome. I had an all-expenses paid trip down to socal, where I stayed in the Wiltern, ate free food, ate free but EXPENSIVE food, talked to a ton of people, and just generally had fun. So... get prepared for a very xanga-like entry

Friday: I ended up talking to my floormates for way too long on Thursday, so I totally forgot to do my laundry. I had to dig out a pair of underwear that I don't like, because I had nothing left. So Friday, I had planned to at least go to one of my three classes, but I ended up ditching them all, and just doing my laundry. Caroline came over and gave me A SHIRT THAT SHE BOUGHT! AWWW so cute. :) It is grey and says Cal with Haas School of Business underneath. She is awesome. (I KNOW YOU'RE READING THIS. Actually, I don't.)

So we had shuttles pick us up and take us to the airport. I wish I had eaten before I left, because then I wouldn't have had to spend my $64 on airport food. But I did get a delicious sandwich from the CPK there, and I was really tempted to get Fenton's ice cream but we had to get on the plane. I think the joy of going on airplanes is dying down because now I just sleep on them. Or maybe I'm getting older and more tired.

Very little plans for Friday - we just checked in and ate at Kyoto, the hotel restaurant. I only bought $30 of sushi and afterwards we went to a restaurant across the street, Engine Co 28. The hostess was a bitch - we came in pretty close to closing and we just wanted desserts, but I think because we were young, she didn't really want to seat us. Our server was nice though. I got a tres leches cake and it was pretty good. After that I was insanely full...

So I went back to the hotel and Naomi and I turned on the tv but we both instantly fell into food coma and just fell asleep with the TV on. I woke up close to midnight, got up to shower, and just went to bed. She was completely knocked out HAHA. But around 3am I woke up and I felt really awake. It also started getting really warm under the blankets and I ended up sleeping horizontally. Naomi said she saw my feet sticking out of the bed at night and was really confused HAHA. I never really fell back asleep, around 4 I just listened to my iPod and at 5 I couldn't take it anymore and I got up to gym. SO YES, 24-hr gyms you are awesome. They had pretty good equipment too. I ran 2 miles and then went on the elliptical for about 20 minutes and went back to the room. I guess now this qualifies as Saturday

Saturday:
It was about 6:30 when I got back to the room. I just lied on the bed sheets in my gym clothes and napped. At 7, I woke up, took a shower, then went back to bed in regular clothes. 8:00, I went down to start interviews which were AWESOME. I really like talking to strangers when you know that they are listening to what you're saying. HAHA I like talking to parents more because they have more interesting questions and students don't have very good eye contact. Parents are also so much more appreciative of the info you give. Questions I was asked EVERY TIME: what about class sizes? how safe is Berkeley? what is there to do? should I bring a car? what is housing like?

Interviews ended at FIVE. I actually missed my lunch because I was just so into talking to people. Drank cups of water and my throat hurt a lot. I went to the hotel restaurant and they said they were closed but the lady was really nice and said I could still eat at the cold buffet which was AWESOME. I was the only one in the restaurant and I got everything I wanted. There was a bowl of mixed fruit and I just stole all the watermelon because no one is going to eat more anyway. It was perfect because I got to eat salad and fruit for my lunch which is wonderfully healthy and just made me really happy.

After interviews, there was a wine and cheese session between us and the faculty who came to interview. No wine for me though, and I didn't eat too much cheese because we were going to ROY'S.

OMFG. ROY'S is SO. delicious. It's definitely one of those restaurants they picture in brochures about LA. One of those places the girls of The Hills would go to and MTV would film in. We were told to wait in the bar and we were asked to order drinks (I PASS FOR 21!) but we didn't. I would totally want to bring friends there if 1) people enjoyed spending $60 for a meal and 2) we were older. The hostesses at nice restaurants are seriously bitches. Like the other one, she was kind of rude, I assume because we were young. She made us wait and when we went back, she led us to a back room where most of the tables were empty. UH, THANKS. But once again, our server was really nice so it's redeemed, slightly.

I got: omg.
1) Miso Salmon and Tofu Salad: the salmon was the best salmon I've ever had. The tofu was PERFECT. Insanely soft inside but incredibly well seasoned outside with a nice harder shell. Omg ...
2) Hawaiian Ono and Crab Dynamite with a Chive Butter sauce: I have to say I usually don't like seafood and I really don't like "butter sauce" but even though I was getting full ... OMG SO GOOD. I ate it all and I enjoyed every bite. It's good to try once, but there are so many better things that I would choose something else next time. IF THERE IS a next time
3) Hot chocolate souffle: I don't know why but I always order some chocolate dessert when I don't actually like chocolate. But this ... was insane. Chocolate POURS out when you pierce it with the spoon. Vanilla bean ice cream, and this raspberry sauce that was the PERFECT amount of sugar and I just wanted to lick the plate clean.
4) Appetizer of ... and this is where my computer crashed. I tried to draw up a pdf of the dinner menu but my firefox died. It had the words Hawaiian and Ahi. It was ... the best fish I've ever had. Ok, it was kind of on par with Ichima rolls but it's a different thing. SOOO good. I am definitely ordering it again (next time). Everyone I ate with said mine was good and I LOVE when people like the food I order! Also, people complimented my heels which YAY! No one ever compliments me on things like that.

So that was Roy's. I found out they have locations in SF and LA JOLLA! Awesome. When I'm rich ... I will treat my friends. And myself. HEHEHE. I think by the time I'm "rich," I can order from the bar too. So I can PUKE OUT ALL MY FOOD.

This is getting boring to write because I went to shower and everything. Oh well...

Sunday:
More interviews, woke up at 7:30 for interviews at 8. :( No gym today at all. Interviews were a lot more fun today, I think but I wish I had talked to more people. I actually ate lunch at the right time, and talked to a professor and he was AAAWWWWWsome. He's mathematics, and he went to Oxford for undergrad and the school is sooo different from anything in America. He said he did really poorly because he was more interested in "living life." But he had met three American Rhode Scholars and one of them invited him to come to America and go to graduate school and "start over." He advised him to go to a second-tier school, so he went to Standford. HAHAHA It's pretty cool when people talk about the little things that made a big impact on their life.

Left for the airport at 3:30 and got to our gate an hour before departure. It sucks because we couldn't spend $64 after we arrive in Berkeley, which they used to do. I was all planning to buy $64 worth of Sushi House too! But after Roy's, Sushi House has dropped a level. HAHA I just bought airport food - baked ziti with meatballs, a $6 bottle of naked juice, pistachio ice cream (I remembered after I was half done that I have a no-ice cream rule, oh well) and like 5 candy bars for my floormates. HEHEHE "souveneirs." I wish I could have bought something more personalized, but it was mainly bought for Caroline in mind. HAHA

Slept in plane. Shuttle back to Berkeley was ... very interesting ... Kind of thought we wouldn't get back to Berkeley. But we did! AND AWWW I HEART MY FLOORMATES. Caroline said she MISSED MEEEE. HEHEHEHE

I didn't do very much work. Tomorrow ... I shall. AND GYM. OMG ONE WEEK TO GET BIKINI SEASON READY. I don't even OWN a bikini. TEARS. Also my skin sucks because it totally breaks out and dries out when I go on planes or drive home. BOO BOO

I hope I get to do more of these fly to places, eat for free things when I'm an auditor! I spoke to a parent who is GOOD FRIENDS WITH ALICE WALKER. I was like "ARE YOU KIDDING I wrote my Haas essay about her!" Wow. She was like "oh do you know her?" and I was thinking "ARE YOU KIDDING. Am I friends with JK ROWLING?" And then I spoke to another woman who worked at Ernst and Young and after her daughter left for her interview she was like "do you have any questions for me" and I said "I ... don't know ... I didn't really think I'd be asking parents anything." She said most people don't stay at Big4 firms for long because there are better things to do. She also said the people who leave are usually either really good or fairly bad, so the people who stay and become partners or whatever are usually middle-level capable. I think I qualify as middle level. HAHA So hmm ... now I don't know what my long-term goals are. I guess you really wouldn't know. I mean ... I still have to actually GET A JOB at a Big4 before I plan out what to do after. Anyway ... a lot of parents are so cool. Even the crazy Asian ones that remind me of my mom.

SPRING BREAK AHHHHH