All Shook Up (And NOT by an Earthquake)

Well, ladies, it had to happen eventually, given that I am in fact an Asian female driver now in California...Emily and I were in a car accident yesterday, rear-ended by another guy while trying to get on the freeway. I was the one driving, but (without going into detail) it was 100% the other guy's fault, he even admits it, and both of us are a little sore but otherwise okay. My car is another story, but that's what insurance is for, right? I suppose the one absolutely fabulous thing about this whole ordeal is that I came to the hilarious realization that I actually do have State Farm Insurance, which made me laugh out loud that I never remembered that before.

Don't worry, my next post will have more fun news than that. :-D

For those curious about the damage (and all my fallen stuffed animals really make the image that much more dramatic):


~Jenni~

After the Storm

So I've survived my first official hurricane here in Houston, Hurricane Ike. It really wasn't that bad--at least not where I live. There was no significant damage to my apartment building (a few tiles are still loose but that's about it) and though a tree did fall down, it got caught on a power line instead of taking any houses out. Thank goodness.

If anything, things are really annoying right now because power still has not been restored to most people's homes in this city. At home I have water and that's it. No lights and no ways to cook as my stove is electric. Fortunately they are feeding us free dinners until the electricity gets up and running. Still, it's annoying and I had to clean out the fridge, but it still stinks. I didn't realize how much I took just having power for granted. They're saying it could take until the end of this week for everything to be up and running.

Rice has power which is where I come every day to mooch for my computer and cell phone. During the storm I stayed with another first year grad student Heather as my apartments were mandatorily evacuated. The storm hit early Saturday morning and howled from about midnight until 6 am. I barely got any sleep, but by Saturday afternoon Ike had moved on. We took a walk to see the damage. It wasn't major, but man the canal near Heather's apartment was raging with water and there were trees and branches everywhere. I've also seen pictures of Galveston and it seems that they got hit so much harder than we did. I can't imagine.

Classes were cancelled on Monday (it's really hard and not all that romantic to read by candlelight I've discovered) and yesterday my only class was not held as a tree fell on my professor's house. Yikes. I suspect it'll be about a week before things are back to normal. Until then I'm trying to get as much work as I can done so that when power comes back on and supplies are in abundance at stores again I can run around and do errands.

It is annoying and inconvenient, but all things considered, things could have been a lot worse. I am glad to be safe and have access to everything I need. Thanks so much guys for your prayers and thoughts!

Take care!

Rock You Like a Hurricane

So I have not even been in Houston for a month and I'm currently set to face my first hurricane ever--Hurricane Ike. Although technically, having lived in Okinawa ten years ago, I have been through typhoons and even super typhoons. However, this is a bit different and quite exciting in an absurd way.

I'm bunkering down with my newfound friend Heather, another first year grad student in the English department, since they ordered a mandatory evacuation of the grad apartments. We've got water, filled our bathtub after showering this morning, have ice in the fridge, canned food, and candles galore. Also plenty of homework to keep us busy (Ike had to hit over the weekend, didn't it?). Nothing has happened so far but we seem pretty set and have at least two places to go if things get really bad.

Otherwise life in Houston has been pretty good; I've been learning the ropes of reading lots and lots of literary theory. Unfortunately it looks like I'm going to continue having problems with the roommate (she's been rather disrespectful, unfortunately), but until the storm passes, I can't do much about it.

So that's a quick update to let people know that so far I am safe. I'll try to update as soon as everything passes. They're saying it's going to be dire, but since Houston isn't on the coast and we're not in a low-lying part of the city, we should be fine. Wish us luck! I'm off to prepare for craziness.

Ciao!

Hooray, It's LA!

The easy thing to do would have been to quote that @*!&# Phantom Planet song that became the theme song for The O.C., but I thought I'd save everyone the headache...Plus, it's me! Of course I had to go for the obscure reference with a Swedish Christian metal band featuring the lead singer from the Smashing Pumpkins!

Anyway, it looks like it's my turn for the "I've-Moved-Here-And-Here's-How-I'm-Doing" Update. :-D I know I just sent you all an email and just wrote a blog on my other page, so I won't repeat all that, but there is stuff I didn't bother to include over there. *drama* I mentioned that I'm "sharing" my room with another girl...That's a rather sticky situation. Her name's Ashley, and she's only 18. Apparently, her parents are divorced, and while her mom is in San Diego, she's been living with her dad in Maine and was having issues with skipping class, etc. So apparently their solution was to send her to Southern California within minutes of Venice Beach. :-| Needless to say, she hasn't been going to class (she's supposedly going to Santa Monica College) and hasn't been paying Alissa rent. In fact, she hasn't been really living here--when I moved in, Alissa said she literally hadn't seen her in a week. And her parents hadn't heard anything from her either, all of which is rather disconcerting. It wasn't until my 3rd night there that I actually met Ashley--in the middle of the night when she arrived with her hippie boyfriend (she looks rather hippie-ish herself now, thanks to too much time spent in Venice Beach) in his pseudo-hippie van to pick up most of her stuff. Apparently, she had lost both her cell phone AND the key to the house, which is why she disappeared off the face of the Earth, but somehow managed to communicate with her sister (who lives with her mom, by the way) to have her come visit her in Marina Del Ray--hence why she needed her stuff.

Needless to say, Alissa just gave her notice the other day, and we're in the process of looking for another new roomie. We actually already have a few prospects because, as Emily can attest to, the place is GORGEOUS in a fabulous neighborhood for what's considered pretty cheap by LA standards. And, seriously, I almost want to send Sonia a thank-you card for bailing on me, because this place is perfect, and I never would've found it if she was still around! Although, as I told State Farm, with all the good things about this house, once I find some flaw it'll be so heartbreakingly devastating, I don't think I'll be able to handle it. :-P

And of course I have to leave you guys a few more pictures...

This was when we saw the redwoods up in San Francisco.

Me and my mom with Mickey in Disneyland!!! :-D



And, because I really am about 7 1/2 years old, this is a video of the male panda (Gao Gao) at the San Diego Zoo...Eating bamboo...SO CUTE!

Edit: Ha, found my first major flaw with the place--Apparently, Alissa and her friends are 4-20 friendly. Ask me for the story another time. If she ever asks, I'll tell her flat out I'm not comfortable with it and would prefer that they don't do it here, but for now I'll just choose not to be home when Mary Jane is...

~Jenni~

Houston, The Eagle Has Landed

Sorry guys, I couldn't resist the title, especially after Liz's brilliant one below.

At any rate, I've made it safe and sound to Houston and Rice University. The drive from Phoenix to Houston was long and flat which nearly drove me insane. However it was only a day and a half as opposed to three days for the trip from AZ to South Bend. The graduate apartments are extremely nice--I have my own bedroom, bathroom, and walk-in closet. They also provided me with a three shelf bookcase, a huge desk, a full-sized bed, wardrobe, and nightstand. It's so nice and though I still live under the shadows of rules and RA's, it's much better than the dorms. Also, it's just a short (free) shuttle ride and/or walk to campus.

This week has been one of orientations. You guys know the drill; they talked at us and fed us free food. They forced a little bit of mingling with people I'm sure I'll never see again and showed us the graduate bar--appropriately named Valhalla. It's a nice little campus surrounded by pretty river oaks. It has been raining here which has been a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it's cooler when it rains, but when it rains it pours. When the sun is out it's so humid I feel like I'm swimming when I walk around campus. So far I've been mostly in the English building of course, but I plan to explore other departments at random.

The library is nice, although of course not as grand as the Hesburgh. Still, it'll be a great area to study in. Classes start Monday and I've already met with my advisory committee to try to figure what the heck they're going to do with me. I haven't explored the city much other than food shopping for myself (for the first time in my life) but they tell me there are plenty of restaurants, bookstores, and free museums around.

Of course I still miss home and Notre Dame a lot more than I thought I would. I miss you guys of course, as I do all my friends. Still, I remain excited about what I'm doing here and I think it'll be good. I hope you guys are all doing well as you wrap up the summer and move into the first fall without the golden dome.

Lots of love and take care.

meet me in St. Louis, Louis

They sure do love the fleur de lis here. They loved it in London too, but for a different reason, I think. Traditionally, the british kings claimed that France belonged to them too, so they would decorate things with fleur de lis as if that gave them some authority in France. Always thought that was funny. This place reminds me a bit of London, but I miss you guys as my roommies. These girls are 3rd years, and their a bit odd. Like, I know they're tired all the time (they're gone by 5 every morning. That would put even you to shame, Bridget), but when they get home they pretty much just go in their rooms and shut their doors, but it's weird because they don't even say hi when they come in. One of them I've only met once, even though I've been here a week. Just odd. And I haven't got much to do during the nights b/c I don't know anyone yet and I haven't got any homework b/c it's still orientation week.

My room is cute, if outrageously decorated. The walls are blue, and I bought a dresser from habitat for humanity for $20 and glued the drawers back together and painted it so it would be so offensively ugly, so now it's bright blue with white swirlies. Also I hung up the picture I painted last year of the girl on the wall in the orange dessert, if any of you remember that one. But there is something to be lacking for the sanitation of the building. I swept the staircase off today, and it was nasty. I had big clumps of dust and cobwebs on the broom by the time I got the bottom, and when I brushed off the window in the stairwell, huge clouds of gray dust rose from it. Spiders were scampering away from me every time I went down a step, and I was too creeped out to kill them. Also, when I washed a frying pan today it occurred to me to wonder whether they had ever actually washed it before, despite the tattered state of the sponge (which was in 2 pieces). Emily came to visit me last night (yay), and on the way in we definitely heard the people on the floor above us having very loud sex. Which was also odd, because I'm pretty sure I heard him shouting and cussing earlier in the day. Anyway, we're standing there in the stairwell listening to moaning and of course we can't get the door open cuz it's a thousand years old and my key's a piece of crap. So. Awkward. Also awkward b/c I happen to know that guy's really cute.

I would like to use this opportunity of Emily's visit to shame everyone else into coming. Ok, so she didn't strictly come to st. louis to see me, but don't let that be a deterrent. I hold each of you personally responsible if I don't see you skulking round here in the next four years. Yes, I'm talking to YOU.

Ok, now that that's over. Love you all oodles, hope you're doing well in your respective new cities.
Liz

California Dreaming...

So I just got back last night from my week long trip to California. Leg 1 of Operation California consisted of 4 days (Thursday through Sunday) in LA to apartment hunt. I stayed with Emily (*woot*) in her grandmother's house--which is currently unoccupied--and she and her amazing family helped cart me around LA looking for a place to live. My roommate-to-be, Sonia (some of you might know her?) wasn't going to arrive in LA until Friday afternoon, which was fine--I looked at a few places myself, and we had a few places lined up to look at together. The goal, of course, was to sign a lease that weekend before I began Leg 2 of Operation California. And I was having a great time with Emily and her family, and Sonia and I had some really decent prospects for apartments, and I was finally letting go of my paranoia a bit.

But of course...

At 8:30 on Saturday morning I got a phone call from Sonia. Bear in mind that she literally had been in the state for about 15 hours, having driven 3 days from Texas. The basic gist of the phone call was that she didn't want to move to LA anymore, and she was going back to Texas that afternoon.

You can imagine the not good things that ran through my mind.

After a few hours of freaking out, crying, talking with my family, Emily and her family, and various other people (saints, all of them), and combing Craigslist with a whole new purpose, I found a place. That's right--I now have a place to live! In one afternoon, all my fortunes turned around! *Amen* Emily can attest, it's a fabulous little house in a really nice neighborhood about 15-20 minutes away from UCLA and 4 miles from the beach. I'll be living with 2 other people in the house--I just found out one of them will be a dude, so that should be interesting--and the girl who owns the place has her own separate room off the back. I'm so relieved! Plus, it allowed me to enjoy the rest of my trip. :D

Before I forget, let me share the hilarious story of how I managed to lock me and Emily out of the house. (I take 100% responsibility for that!) We had dinner with Emily's family and got back to her grandmother's house around 11:30, only to find that about half the lights weren't working. So we find the circuit breaker outside and, with the aid of the most heavy-duty flashlight I've ever seen, we reset it. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the doorknob on the back door had a lock that allowed you to twist the knob from the inside, but locks it from the outside. You can guess what happened--yeah, I closed the door. We rang a few doorbells of neighbors, but, as it was about midnight, no one answered. As a result, we walked about a mile to the nearest gas station to call Emily's family for a spare key. I thought we were going to lose it when the gas station attendant said they didn't have any payphones, but Emily explained the situation and he let us use their phone. Emily's mom pulled up shortly thereafter, laughing her head off, and made sure we were inside before leaving us for the evening. I bow to my own awesomeness.

Btw, the lights were in fact burned out, thus meaning our foray outdoors was completely unnecessary.

On Saturday, Steve and his brother drove down 5 hours from Modesto, and he met up with me and Emily at this music and art festival in Santa Monica. We didn't hear much music, but we saw a lot of weird modern artsy stuff and made our own crappy art on projectors, hehe. Then Emily handed me off to Steve, and we stayed with some family friends of his before heading back North on Sunday morning to being Leg 2 of Operation California. I won't go through every excruciating detail of what I did with Steve and his family, but suffice to say I had a great time. We stayed in Mariposa for a night and went to Yosemite, chilled in Modesto for a few days and saw The Dark Knight (REALLY GOOD, but really scary!), then headed over to Benicia on Wednesday to go to a wine tasting before I flew back home from San Francisco on Thursday. And here I am!

Edit: By the way, this is quote from my time with Steve's family just never stops being funny AND pretty much sums up exactly how huge the home-school bubble that Steve and his brothers are from. :P

(ME): Joe, do you even know any minorities?
(JOE): [pause] No.

In other random news, I just got a beautiful new laptop (GO ME), saw The X-Files: I Want to Believe last night/technically this morning at the midnight premiere (I seriously can't express the full extent of my disappointment, as I'm so emotionally invested in the series that to do so would probably send me spiraling into a deep depression), and I now have Skype (now that I have more people to talk to overseas, it seemed only logical)! Shock of all shocks, my username is aznsong50--send me contact info, por favor! Hope all is well elsewhere in the country...Love!

~Jenni