Taiwan - Day 2 (Happy New Year's)

The National Theater at Memorial Hall Square

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Unfortunately my sleep didn't get much better this past evening.  I'm probably drinking way too much tea at night.  Steph met me for breakfast near the hotel, for $1 eggs and some pork thingie, which were quite delicious.  We then met up with her mom to walk around a local traditional market.  Supermarkets are not very common, so most people shop at traditional markets, where the food is fresher.  So fresh that there were lots of live chickens in the area.

Ready to slice the head off a duck at lunch

We had a lunch with the family had a well known Peking Duck restaurant in the area, a reservation that had to be made two months ago.  The duck was outstanding.  Other side dishes that we consumed family style included frog legs and fish heads.  We had a ton of leftovers, which ended up being a dinner for the evening too.  After lunch, Steph and I walked back to Memorial Hall Square which we had previously passed through at night.  The area featured the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial, a theater, and a concert hall.  There was a huge event going on with stages set up, celebrating the 101st year anniversary of Taiwan.  I really enjoyed this area because the architecture seemed so traditional and stood out from the more standard city landscape I had been exposed to thus far.  We also took a walk through the Botanical Gardens afterward right before it closed, and then got some tea in the museum attached to the Gardens to relax after a long day of walking.

Let the New Year's drinking begin

As mentioned, dinner was mostly leftovers in the family apartment, with a few additional food items added in.  We also had lots of whiskey and ice wine, which were poured into cordial glasses.  Toasts seem to be the traditional way to drink.  Before taking almost any sip, it seemed like you were supposed to raise your glass either for the whole table or specific people, wish them good health and then take a sip with them.  We went through a lot of drinks this way, and it was good times throughout.  It's become customary for me to just repeat things I hear in Mandarin that others say around the table, especially short phrases (I guess I'm like a little kid again), to fit in and also improve my word power.   But after one particular toast, I got a pretty loud reaction of laughter and looks around the table.  I was asked if I knew what I said, and of course I didn't.  But apparently I had said "thanks daddy" to her father.  Emma jokingly commented that this was the quickest for an outsider to be calling him dad, but also informed me that he approved of this comment.  So that's nice.

However, things got a bit more awkward for me in a less pleasant way a little later when her mom asked me how often I drink.  I tried to deflect the question with a joke, and a trip to the bathroom, but the question came up again later, so it seemed to be pretty serious to her.  I really didn't know how I was supposed to respond here.  As my faithful readers probably know, I do enjoy the occasional adult beverage.  From two days in Taiwan, I could tell that her dad and sisters' significant others all seemed to be enjoying lots of drinks as well.  However, since Steph rarely drinks and since probably my biggest goal for this trip is to leave having made a good impression on the family and do nothing to offend anyone, I lowballed the answer with "maybe twice a week?"  This got an angry scowl as she didn't seem to approve of this excessive drinking habit of mine.  The situation seemed extra awkward for me since this conversation was being had in front of the entire family and had to go through multiple interpreters.  The timing also wasn't great as I had both a glass of whiskey and a can of Taiwanese beer open in front of me.  To show that I'm not a complete alcoholic, I decided to stop drinking for the night at that point.  However, that may have  offended her dad, who kept trying to pour me additional drinks.  I was probably making a bigger deal of it this in my mind than it deserved, but it was a really weird situation for me because of the uncertainty from the language barriers, cultural barriers, and parental expectations.  Oh well, can't win them all.

Taipei 101 New Year's Eve Countdown

The atmosphere improved quickly as the family started building a gingerbread house, and then around 10ish, Stephanie and I headed out to New Year's Eve Countdown at Taipei City Center and left all the older people back at home to watch a movie.  Despite getting there only 90 minutes before midnight and there being a ginormous crowd, we found a spot really easily where we were able to sit until midnight, and then get a great view of the fireworks.  A screen was projected on Taipei 101 (at 101 floors, its the tallest building in Taiwan) for the countdown, and then at midnight a spectacular (although fairly short) fireworks show shot off in all directions from the building.  Really cool stuff.  We then had to fight the crowd to get back home.  Many of the large nearby streets were blocked off from car access for the night, so the crowd could get around.  We walked pretty far to avoid the first few overcrowded metro stops, and the whole trip back to the apartment only took about an hour.

I consider 2011 a really good year for me for a variety of reasons, but I'm feeling pretty optimistic that 2012 is going to be even better.  Happy New Year's everyone!

Taiwan - Day 1 (Jiufen)

View from Jiufen

Friday, December 30, 2011

Whether it was jetlag or excitement I'm not sure, but I had trouble sleeping my first night in the Taipei Teachers' Hostel.  I got out of bed at 6:30 and went across the street to a 7-11 to pick up some water and a pastry to hold me over until breakfast time.  I was then able to get the free Wifi code from the guy at the front desk using no Mandarin at all.  Stephanie stopped by the hotel around 8 am to meet up for breakfast at a Chinese cafe attached to the lobby.  Rice soup, doughy bread thing, hard boiled egg?, and some broccoli/cauliflower plate.

Fish ball soup stop in the Jiufen market

After the meal we walked a few blocks down the road to the Chan residence where I met Stephanie's mom, her oldest sister, Emma, her brother-in-law Nick, and her 1.5 year old nephew, William.  Nick was born in Sweden, where Emma was studying abroad when they first met.  He only spoke spotty Mandarin and was fluent in English, so at least there was someone I could relate to.  The three of them had come in from their home in London for the week.  We hung out in their living room for a little bit.  Her dad had bought me a winter hat, and also lent me a sweater for the day because I was ill prepared for the inclement weather that we would face during the day.

The early plan for the day was for Steph, Emma, Nick, and I to head to Jiufen, an old mining village in the coastal mountains around 25 miles east of Taipei.  We took a combination of taxi cab, train, and then a bus ride to arrive at the village a couple hours later.  Unfortunately the weather was awful (cold, windy and pouring rain), so what should be spectacular views from the mountaintop of the coast and town below was covered by clouds and mist.  We walked around the market, which was mostly covered by canopies.  Our lunch were piecemeal as we made various quick stops at random eateries along the way, including a place specializing in fish ball soup, another restaurant specializing in red bean soup (a Chinese dessert) and other stops for sausage and random peanut butter stick thing.  I apologize that my explanations of food I eat are very unspecific and incoherent, but I can tell I'll rarely have any idea what I'm eating most of the time on this trip.

As far as food goes, so far the family has seemed impressed that I'm willing to try anything, although this rule was quickly put to an end as I met my new nemesis, "stinky tofu."  When we walked past the food stand for this fermented tofu, I thought that we had walked past a dumpster used to store dead bodies.  I was informed that this is the normal smell of what is considered a delicious Chinese treat (listed as the #41st most delicious food in the world according to CNN).  The stench was so overpowering that not only did I refuse to go inside to sample the treat with Steph and Emma, but I had to stop eating the candy I was working on and hold my breath at fear of gagging on the spot.  While the two Taiwanese girls enjoyed their cuisine, Nick and I went as far from the area as possible to wait them out.

Eventually it was getting too cold, so we hopped on a long bus ride back to Taipei.  We got off somewhere in the newer section of Taipei (the hotel and their apartment are in the older section).  This area had a much more New York City feel to it, with large commercial district and lots of people walking around the streets.  We walked around for a little bit, got some tea at Birdcage, and then hopped on the MRT (metro) back to the hotel.  The metro stations were impressive in how they looked like underground malls, in how clean they were, and in how orderly everyone is to get on the subway (there were designated lines where the trains would stop and people lined up, rather than everyone making a mass push to get on when a new train arrived).

Family dinner at Iki

I went back to the hotel for a quick nap, and then headed back to their apartment.  There I met her other sister, Amanda, who actually lives in the apartment, and her fiancee who came in from Hong Kong.  After some small talk, the whole group (minus Nick, who stayed home to watch the baby) headed to a nice Japanese restaurant, Iki, in Taipei (we couldn't get a reservation until 8:30, apparently because it is so popular).  It was one of those fixed priced menus, this one came with 7 courses (I think, I actually lost count).  There was soup, salad, sashimi, salmon rice bowl with roe, chicken on grapefruit w/ special sauce, grilled beef, sorbet, pear pudding with cream, and of course flavored tea.

To properly digest we walked back to the hotel area, cutting through a park, and through the town square (?) area, which featured some really cool architecture. I'll get some better pictures when we return in the daytime.


Blog note: I'm planning on updating the pictures on my blog after the trip after I collect photos from Stephanie and anyone else that was taking pictures during the week.  For now I'm just sticking with a few of my lower quality iPhone pics.

Taiwan - Day 0 (Travel Day)

If you look closely at the 24th window from the left, you can see me unsuccessfully trying to fall asleep

Wednesday, December 28 - Thursday, December 29

The most intense travel day(s) of my life begun Wednesday morning when my alarm woke me up at 5 am.  It would take me another 30 hours from that moment before I reached my final lodging destination in Taipei, of which over 20 was spent on airplanes and another 7 in airports.

I think it's worth first mentioning the reason and timing of this trip.  Stephanie (a Taiwanese native, current UCLA Anderson 2nd year student, and my girlfriend of six months) had family from various parts of the world coming together to celebrate her Dad's 70th birthday party in Taipei.  Her parents don't speak much English, but her two sisters and their significant others are all fluent.  For this reason, Stephanie reasoned that if there was ever a time for me visit Taiwan, this would be the best time to do it.  I would have more people who I could interact with and a slightly younger crowd to do sightseeing and other activities with.  I knew it was very important to her that I visit her homeland and meet her family, so after sorting out my other logistics for winter break, I booked my tickets.  I love international travel and exploring other cultures anyway, and this situation provided a unique opportunity to make my first trip to Asia and explore the area and culture with an entire family of natives.  I knew it would definitely be a much different experience than grabbing a Frommer's Travel Guide, hitting the top 5 tourist attractions, 1 authentic meal, and then calling it a trip.  Plus, aside from my airfare, most of my expenses for the trip were being graciously covered, so who am I to say no to that?  I had prepped myself for the language barrier with a few hours of Rosetta Stone lessons, a few Learning Mandarin mp3s, and a Google Translate app.  Which means at this moment, I can say "hello," "goodbye," "may I please have a beer" and, probably most importantly, "the boy has a pencil." Anyways, back to my day of travel...

My first flight (Miami to Detroit) was relatively painless since the seat next to me was empty and I was able to lounge out a bit.  Nothing else worth reporting here.  The second flight (Detroit to Tokyo) was a little more intense, weighing in at almost 13 hours.  There was considerably less leg room and my overhead light didn't work which limited reading opportunities.  The girl next to me was nice enough to offer to switch seats with me so that I could use her light and read, but I recognized this as a dirty trick for her to get out of the middle seat.  No amount of intellectual curiosity from whatever new investment book was in my bag could get me to sit for half a day in a middle seat on a plane, so I politely declined.  At a later point when we both had to get up from our seats to let our window passenger companion to the bathroom, Middle Seat again offered to switch seats with me, this time moving her bag to my seat, saying she insisted.  I declined again, although slightly less politely this time.  Aisle seat or not, unfortunately I was unable to get any sleep on the flight.  The only movie I watched was Just Go With It which would have been a terrible waste of time if not for the fact that my goal was to waste as much time as possible.

Very important sign in the Tokyo Airport bathroom

I arrived in Tokyo sore and tired with a 3 hour layover.  I decided the only way to salvage this day was a trip to the Delta Sky Club.  As a Delta credit card holder, I was able to get a discounted one-day pass for $25, which was worth every penny.  After enjoying the free Wifi, sushi, other assorted snacks, and more than a few whiskey and cokes, it was easy to declare this the highlight of my day.  I started to update this blog entry while in the lounge but ended up going back and reading some of my old road trip blog entries.  I enjoyed reminiscing on my old adventures and it made me remember why I started the blog in the first place.  My Taiwan trip might not be quite as exciting as that, but it made me want to keep better records of my vacations in the future.  We'll see if I can stick to that on this trip.

Flight #3 (Tokyo to Taipei) was a relatively quick 5+ hour flight.  I think I got a tiny bit of uncomfortable sleep on this one, but my mind was too fried for me to remember anything interesting happening on this flight either.  Finally on Thursday night at 10:45 pm Taiwan time (9:45 am Thursday in biological clock time) I arrived in the Taipei airport.  Disembarkation and customs was quick and painless, and I was easily able to meet up with Stephanie and her dad.  I threw in a quick "ni hao" as a greeting to win him over right off the bat.  It was another hour drive to where they lived in Taipei.  As their home was already packed with other out of towners, they put me up in a hotel down the block from their apartment.  It was labeled as a hostel, but seemed fairly nice for that.  I made it to the hotel around midnight and after unpacking, off to bed for me.

Winter Break - The Sunshine State (Dec 20-27)

Santa looks on at Tara and Rob during our Christmas Day kayaking trip

The Florida segment of my trip got off to a bad start the following Tuesday morning (December 20) when for only the second time in my life I missed my flight.  I arrived at the airport around 55 minutes before takeoff, which would have been plenty of time to go through security, but unfortunately I missed the cutoff to get my checked bag to the plane by 5 minutes.  (Sidenote: A little research later uncovered that JFK airport in NY is the only domestic airport where you have to arrive 60 minutes before the flight with checked luggage.  Some have a 45 minute restriction, all others are 30 minutes.  Therefore, I would have made my flight if I was in any other airport in the entire country).  The next flight to Miami that day was already full, but luckily I was able to find a spot on the next one after that.   I was also able to switch to a seat in an exit row with infinite amount of leg room next to a friendly Aussie who kept feeding me Gummy Worms. Another bonus was Tara was also able to get out of work early to pick me up at the airport.  So although it was a very frustrating start to the day (especially considering my 5:45 am wake up time to catch the first flight), it wasn't such a terrible experience and ultimately only amounted to a four hour delay. 

South Beach in December

Since Mom and Dad would not arrive until later in the week and Tara had to work during the day, my transportation options were a bit limited.  I decided to get up early enough (7ish) on Wednesday to accompany her to her office in Miami, and then take her car for the rest of the day.  At the recommendation of her roomie Randy, I headed to the Lincoln Road Mall down in South Beach.  Not surprisingly, the outdoor mall area was pretty dead when I first arrived in the morning since most stores were closed, so I headed to the beach for a few hours to enjoy the 80 degree December weather.  Around 1 pm, I had sufficiently burned myself at the beach so I went off to find lunch for my first Shake Shack experience.  Super tasty, but a little overpriced for a tiny burger is my opinion.  I wandered around the area a little bit longer since it was starting to get more lively, before heading out and running a few more errands and then finally returning to Tara's office to return the car.  Later in the evening I met up with Jay who lived only 5 minutes from Tara's condo to check out his new apartment and to go out for dinner and drinks with him and some of his friends.  

I opted against stealing Tara's car again on Thursday, so I got to sleep in and then met Jay for lunch at Laspada's Original Hoagies for what is now definitely one of my all-time favorite subs.  My Hero has nothing on this place.  I met up with Jay again at his apartment a little later that afternoon after he got out of work early.  When I got back, it was just in time to join Tara on a trip to the Ft Lauderdale airport to pick up Mom and Dad.  Two more guests meant the condo was starting to get a little tight with four Schaafs, Randy, and his girlfriend there for most of the evening.  The next day was spent mostly running errands or hanging out around the condo and the community pool. 

Rest stop during the kayak trip

On Saturday we headed to Aunt Diane and Uncle Wayne's house around 1.5 hours north in Stuart, Florida, to celebrate Christmas weekend with them and Marisa and Rob. As expected, it was a delightful two days and I'd list it as the highlight of the trip up to this point.  A Christmas Day kayaking trek around the surrounding neighborhoods was the most unique activity.  Of course, we still covered the more traditional holiday pastimes of massive amounts of delicious food, sports on TV, church services, driving around looking at Christmas lights, opening presents, and a game of Apples To Apples.  We also indulged ourselves in a Family Feud marathon that more than filled our quota for 2011.  I will forever remember the Sloan family after every high ten or chest bump I give anyone in the future.

Merry Christmas from the Schaaf kids

We left the Turner household Monday afternoon (Dec 26) to head back down to Tara's condo for a day and a half of poolside relaxation, errands, and the occasional French restaurant.  By the time Wednesday morning had rolled around, another week of my vacation was in the books, and I was off to the airport again.  The American portion of my Winter Break was nice and mostly relaxing.  It was especially great seeing Tara for the first time in a full year, and also the rest of the family that I hadn't seen since July.  But, alas, it was time for new adventures, in new cities, in new countries.

Next stop (after more than a full day of travel and a couple layovers).... Taiwan.

Winter Break 2011 - New York, New York (Dec 13-19)

Pre-Christmas dinner at the Schaafs

With the stress of meeting with corporate executives behind me, it was time for a full winter break of rest and relaxation (and a whole lot of airplane rides).  My winter break is basically cut into three segments: New York, Florida, and Taiwan, each portion lasting around a week.  The New York trip was intended to coincide with the UCLA DOJ trip mentioned in the previous post, and a chance to celebrate the holidays with family from the Northeast, and see some assorted friends in the area.  With Tara unable to travel for the holidays, the official Schaaf Christmas celebration became scheduled in the Sunshine State this year with the rest of the Floridian family.  And finally, vacation is always better with a little international travel, so the final leg of break brings me to Taiwan to experience Asia for the first time, and also *gulp* to meet the girlfriend's family for the first time.

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

Our winter break story picks up after the second company visit in NYC on Thursday the 14th. I opted to skip the 3rd visit and instead met up with Mom and Dad elsewhere in the city for a cultural evening that included the Museum of Modern Art, Rockefeller Center, and Chipotle. I still don't enjoy modern art (nor the fact that the three of us were separately yelled at by museum security during our visit), but Christmas and burritos are still cool with me so it was a lovely evening.

Friday afternoon was the first "do nothing day" that I've had in months, and it was as glorious as I had hoped it would be. At night I caught up with the boys for some Dave and Busters and Cheesecake Factory action. As always it was just the right dose of good times and dope rhymes.

Saturday was Christmas festivities with the Muzykas and Quicks, and Dan even drove up from DC to join in on the fun. Sunday was featured by having some of the guys over to watch the Giants get trashed by the Redskins.  Monday was another mostly chill day, and Tuesday morning I was off to the airport again after a quick week in the Empire State.

Other highlights of the trip included five relaxing hot tub sessions, two winter jogs around Merrick Mountain with Hal, my mandatory stop for authentic New York pizza at La Piazza, plenty of tasty home cooked food, and experiencing the parents' new 3D TV.

New York City DOJ Trip

One of the offices we visited in Lower Manhattan

One of the biggest criticisms of Anderson and a factor in why it isn't ranked higher as a full-time MBA program is that such a large percentage of students end up accepting jobs on the west coast.  There is a combination of factors at play here.  Part of the reason is that students enjoy Southern California, and the west coast in general, and want to stay out there.  However, less students looking for jobs in other parts of the country, diminishes the number of companies from other parts of the country from recruiting on campus.  This limits the number of students from the east coast (who know they want to return there post-graduation from applying or enrolling), which could lower the overall level of student body.  A lower quality student body could further hurt the school reputation and impact companies from recruiting on campus.  Less companies recruiting on campus, means more students will end up accepting local jobs.  It's a sick cycle carousel.  This isn't a significant factor in many industries, but the one it does affect the most is in finance, where companies are most heavily concentrated in New York (and to a lower extent, Chicago, Boston, or Charlotte).

One of the goals of the career center to reverse these trends (and being spearheaded by the Anderson Investment Association) is to create stronger connections between Anderson and the investment community on the east coast.  So for the first time this year, Anderson had an Investment Management "Days on the Jobs" (DOJ) trip to New York.  DOJs have existed at Anderson in a variety of industries in a variety of cities, and involve a group of students visiting a number of firms in a day (or over a course of multiple days) to meet management and learn more about specific companies and industries.  It is supposed to be a more personal setting than when recruiters come to campus and go through a standard Power Point slide deck in one of our classrooms.  These aren't recruiting trips because the companies aren't necessarily hiring, but it is supposed to create relationships and increase students' education of the industry. 

Our trip was organized as a two day, six firm visit on the first Wednesday and Thursday of winter break (December 14th and 15th) and around 25 students signed up. I flew into JFK Airport late Tuesday night, and early Wednesday morning I hopped on the LIRR donning my best suit (not saying much) with business cards in hand.  On the first day we visited with Credit Suisse, Oaktree Capital, and Ares Capital.  The meetings were informative, but Credit Suisse was the only one who said they would be hiring over the next year.

The second day we met with SunAmerica in Jersey City and a small startup hedge fund, Loch Cliff.  I found these a lot more interesting than the previous day's visits.  SunAmerica had four people meet with us including the Chief Investment Officer, the head of trading, and two portfolio managers.  The hedge fund was the type of place I would most be interested in working at, and I enjoyed their talk the most because they were especially open and honest about their investment strategies.  Alas, neither of these companies are currently hiring.  There was a third visit with a fixed income shop scheduled, but I wasn't as interested so I didn't go there, and instead met up with my parents for a Christmasy fun evening in the city.

I left my resume with Credit Suisse, and have since contacted someone with SunAmerica, but I don't necessarily expect these visits to lead to my next job.  Still, it was an enjoyable trip.  The weather was good for a lot of walking around the city. I got to spend some time with some of the 2nd years that I don't normally hang out with, and it was nice meeting all the first years (they made up the majority of the group).  I'll probably be working with a lot of the 1st years on various AIA events and a bunch of them will be the new class of SIF, so its good to get to know them now.

Despite enjoying the trip, I was also relieved to be done with the visits, because in my mind that marked the unofficial start to my winter break vacation.

Life as a 2nd Year - Fall Quarter Recap

Tailgating for UCLA-Arizona State game in November

One interesting part of a program as short as the MBA Program is how different things change from the 1st Year to the 2nd Year.  As a 1st Year, everything seems new, you're just trying to keep up with everything being thrown at you, and soak in as much as possible.  As a 2nd Year, suddenly you're the "expert" on all things MBA and career-related, and are supposed to be a mentor for the new kiddies.  As early as this October I had freshly admitted 1st Year students sending me emails asking me if I could sit down with them for coffee and share my Anderson experiences and dish out career advice.  Of course, I find this funny because it was only a few short months earlier where I was still scrambling around wondering if I would ever find an internship.

There's a bigger range in how involved people are in their 2nd Year too, usually based on how soon they've locked down a full-time offer.  A lot of 2nd Years either start the quarter already with an offer from their summer employers in their pocket, or lock one down quickly during the busy fall recruiting period for the larger industries.  Once you get a full-time job, its easy to shift into relaxation mode for the rest of the program since grades don't really matter, professional clubs become less important, and time doesn't have to be spent on recruiting.  Unfortunately, I already knew my internship was not going to turn into an offer (the fund is too small), and there wouldn't be much on-campus recruiting in the fall. I had one interview a couple months ago, but that's the only company to come to campus that I was interested in this quarter. It's still early in the recruiting process for asset management so I'm not sweating it... yet.   Even without the recruiting efforts, my quarter was probably busier than most 2nd Years because I was still working part-time at Dalton Investments, to go along with my time-intensive roles with the Student Investment Fund, the new Anderson Investment Association, the AMR consulting project and a full-class load.
 

Photo booth at the Anderson Halloween Party

One of the more fun Anderson events of the quarter was the Halloween party.  It was fun, although it turned into a bit of a disaster for the school.  Some genius decided it would be a good idea to host a five-hour open bar event for 400 MBA students at the Petersen Automotive Museum.  We all knew something would go wrong eventually, and that proved correct as some 1st Year wanted to pose for a picture with a roped-off half million dollar motorcycle on display and knocked it over.  The Anderson School of Management is no longer welcome at the Petersen Automotive Museum.

The Kennedy crew in Milwaukee for Adam's wedding

The two highlights of the quarter (unrelated to anything MBA) were the two wedding weekends: Evan and Liz's in DC/Baltimore in October and Adam and Melissa's in Milwaukee in November.  I had a blast both weekends catching up with my college and high school friends, respectively, and getting to celebrate these momentous occasions with two of my best friends.  As part of the wedding party in each, I like to think that I really left my mark on both occasions.  As the first person to walk down the aisle at Evan's wedding, I lined up on the wrong side, and a month later I was one of the people who dropped Adam off his chair during Hava Nagila, causing him to split his lip open and bleed all over the dance floor.  Good times. 

Back in MBA-land, the end to the quarter was especially stressful.  Within a week, I was responsible for a 20 page real estate paper, an 8-essay question take-home behavioral finance final, a mid-point presentation for my AMR consulting project (30 minute group presentation followed by 30 mins Q&A), a full corporate valuation report (our group's report ended up being about 35 pages including exhibits), a 3-hour real estate final, and then finally the last day of my internship. 

Finishing all that work up was such a huge relief because of how busy the quarter had been and how much I was looking forward to winter break.  It's already been off to a good start with a Section A end of quarter party, a more routine exercise schedule, and trips to a West Hollywood comedy club, a UCLA Bruins basketball game, and a Sugarcult concert.  I'm even more excited  for the travel portion of my break starting up on Tuesday when I will be flying to New York for a week, spending a week in Florida, and then finishing the break up with a little over a week in Taiwan. 

Here's some more pictures of the Foo Fighters concert, Halloween party, a UCLA football tailgate and game, and the DC and Milwaukee weekends.   Fall 2012 pictures