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Bye-bye 2010 and hello 2011!

Guess who spent their new years at the happiest place on earth? That's right, I did. The last time I went to Disneyland was my senior year in high school and I thought that after that, I was too old to enjoy the magic of Disney. I was so terribly wrong. The feelings of adventure and excitement were the same as when I was thirteen as I drove through the Temple of Doom with Indiana Jones. Giddy-ness and laughter radiated from my face as I went to meet Flynn Rider aka Eugene Fitzherbert from Tangled. My chest puffed in victory as I beat my cousin in midway games. Tears filled my eyes as I basked in the wonderful glow of the World of Color water show. Disney, you never cease to amaze me.

I can't believe that I had lost faith in Disney when I just had lost faith in my imagination.

I am going to quote my cousin right now because his words are my thoughts exactly:

Disney embraces all the values that should be promoted in life. Disney pushes us to follow our hearts and always try to achieve our dreams. For those who hate on Disney, you must lead a sad life indeed because there never has been more of a happy place than Disneyland. - Steven

What a great way to greet the new year.

018 an august adventure

This adventure involves Australians, a broken bone, and cardboard.

It's amazing how time flies by and in this case, it was 30 years for my dad to reunite with his best friends from high school after they escaped the Vietnam War. Within that time, my dad and his buddies were able to share stories and laughs over dinner at our house for the past few days. One of his friends, who managed to escape to Australia, Bac Hua has two daughter my age. So I had the wonderful opportunity to show these Aussie girls around NorCal and let them try wonderful things such as In'N'Out Burger, YogurtLand, and California Sourdough.

On their last evening in the area, we went to the Cheesecake Factory with my uni friends, Josh and Sam. I tried Sangria and Long Island Iced Tea for the first time! On top of a glass of white wine that I had earlier at the house, it was a very delightful evening with new and old friends.

Afterwards, Josh motioned for an adventure with not much detail. Putting faith in our friend, we decided to go along with it. It was 12:30AM and we ended up at an empty park with these massive stone slides embedded in a steep hill. If you have ever seen Avatar: The Last Air Bender, think of those mail chutes in King Bumi's earth kingdom - that's what those slides looked like. Since the slides were not made out of plastic, like normal playground slides, we had to use sheets of cardboard to slide down these slides to prevent burns. It was hectic fun. I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my body as I would see my friends fly down. Eventually, it was time to wrap things up. Before heading back home, Sam decided to slide down one more time in super speed. We watch him slide down and literally fly off the end of the slide, his cardboard disappearing into some random direction. Sam didn't move so Josh and I ran down to check on our friend to see Sam swearing and holding onto his shoulder. He tells us that he landed on his shoulder and thinks his collar bone broke. OH SHOOT.

It's 1:30AM by now and the 5 of us head off to the nearest emergency room to treat Sam. I'm pretty sure the Aussies weren't expecting to be waiting in the ER on their last day in America. Sam is admitted and we wait, and wait and wait. Apparently, the doctors forgot about Sam for about an hour. Josh ended up driving the Aussies back to their motel so they can get ready for their drive down to LAX. Josh and I wait for Sam and when he came out, he told us that all they did was put his arm in a sling and gave him some ibuprofen...haha. There was a lot of back and forth driving since Sam was unable to drive his car, on account of his broken collar bone. Eventually, everything got taken care of and by the time I got back home, it was 4 AM.

Talk about one crazy night! Shut the gates!