the busy saturday started out with a michigan alumni volunteer event at the san francisco food bank. this was my third time volunteering at the food bank (second with aaum), which made me feel like a bit of a veteran, but my first time packaging cereal. i forgot exactly how much cereal they said we packed… but it was a lot.
the umich table
bagging cereal: scoop, bag, weigh, seal!
biggest box of cereal i’ve ever seen
after all the hard work (and some beer afterwards @ connecticut yankee), it was time for eurie and fb dan’s birthday party at cha cha cha! good food, lots and lots of sangria, mmm~
group picture
lots of food, using the mussel and shrimp sauce with bread/rice was the best idea ever
some awesome nrb followed dinner, where the full korean cast let our frustration out with one kpop after another.
legendary
we followed up nrb with some partying at swig for darren’s birthday. all in all, very long and exhausting day… but is there any other way to live life?!
although it was a very busy week at work due to tax deadlines, my awesome partners gave me the green light to take the week off and spend some time with my ailing grandmother (mom’s side). thankfully, singapore air had (and still has) ridiculously cheap airfare and i was able to snag a great deal despite purchasing the ticket a day before.
the plane ride to korea was the most comfortable trip i have taken to korea. my sister (who flew in from austin the night before) and i had the entire middle row to ourselves providing for some much needed additional leg and arm space during the 13 hour flight. singapore also has an amazing entertainment system with recent american and korean movies. the meals were also fairly decent, and the king sized ice cream bars and chocolate bars were definitely a plus. the flight was also more enjoyable because i had the company of my sister… even though we were watching our separate screens and sleeping most of the time, it made a big difference knowing that if i wanted, i could poke and bother her when bored.
these screens were the biggest i’ve seen on planes… can’t go wrong when there are mor recent american and korean movies than you can possibly watch.
i was afraid my grandmother wouldn’t recognize me because of her health, and because i had not seen her in some time (maybe 5 or 6 years). however, she had stabilized by the time i arrived and to my relief, instantly recognized me. when my mom told her that her grandson from america had come to visit her, she looked up and said that i was always a very good kid… and then asked my mom when i was going to get married. it was such an unexpected question that it made everybody in the room laugh. it actually reminded me of the time i told her i had a meeting to attend and she responded with, “oh you’re going to meet girls!” thinking i meant the korean meaning of “meeting” which means blind date.
i also got to spend some time with my other family members and like the first quarter of this year, it seems like a big blur. i basically had 4 days in korea making this a very short trip- probably my shortest trip to korea. the jet lag was also terrible… but obviously it was still an awesome time and am very thankful for such understanding bosses.
if i could only eat like this everyday…
me, halmuni (my dad’s side), my sister, my mom
my paparazzi shot
this is exactly what i do at home too
jung-min find a bug… dong-gun squashes it… hides behind my sister… what a jerk, hahaha
like last year, we had a joint birthday party for the han’s today. first round was golf in the afternoon with chris, won and doug at lincoln park gc. it was the first time playing for me in a while, so i wasn’t expecting much but played surprisingly well until falling apart at the end. i managed to run into a gopher though…
i didn’t realize until i was on my flight to NY that i haven’t been outside of cali in nearly 8 months! i guess all the traveling between SF and LA gave me a false sense of traveling quite a bit. i first realized this on my flight to NY, where it felt a lot longer than i had remembered, and def a lot longer than the 1 hour flights i’ve become accustomed to on LA-SF flights. thankfully, it was a virgin america flight with TV and movies to keep you entertained.
(cable, power outlets, internet ($10/flight), you’ll never be bored)
i’ve been to NY enough times now that i can somewhat get around without looking too much like a tourist, but this time i had an urge to look around and visit some landmarks i haven’t seen in a while. i hit up shake shack for the first time and convinced james and pb that it would be a great idea to hike over to 30 rock. success!
(shake shack was delicious as advertised… but in-n-out wins because shake shack meals are $15, as where in-n-out meals are $6)
(tourist mode; it was a bit embarrasing to take a picture here, but soon after i did it, others followed, muhaha)
(guess who decided to show up? nobody wanted to be near him…)
(katz’s, made famous by ‘when harry met sally’)
(long lines…)
(lot’s of meat… like, a lot)
(when harry met sally)
(sugar sweet sunshine)
(this place has some awesome banana pie pudding… we were also one of the few guys in line)
the rest of the trip was pretty routine, eating good food and going out with friends and having a good time.
(aaron is satisfied)
(first time at jfk… much nicer and cleaner than lga)
(too bad there was a gridlock outside… sat on this plane for 1.5 hours before take-off which is supposedly normal)
although it was a very busy week at work due to tax deadlines, my awesome partners gave me the green light to take the week off and spend some time with my ailing grandmother (mom’s side). thankfully, singapore air had (and still has) ridiculously cheap airfare and i was able to snag a great deal despite purchasing the ticket a day before. 
like last year, we had a joint birthday party for the han’s today. first round was golf in the afternoon with chris, won and doug at lincoln park gc. it was the first time playing for me in a while, so i wasn’t expecting much but played surprisingly well until falling apart at the end. i managed to run into a gopher though… 
i didn’t realize until i was on my flight to NY that i haven’t been outside of cali in nearly 8 months! i guess all the traveling between SF and LA gave me a false sense of traveling quite a bit. i first realized this on my flight to NY, where it felt a lot longer than i had remembered, and def a lot longer than the 1 hour flights i’ve become accustomed to on LA-SF flights. thankfully, it was a virgin america flight with TV and movies to keep you entertained. 
