June 4, 2010

I’m a Graduate!!!(almost)

Hey everyone,

The semester from hell is finally over and now I don't have an excuse for not blogging. After all my hard work and procrastinating, the semester ended well(meaning grades weren't horrendous) and I finally have a chance to relax. I start summer school next week…finance(which happens to be the hardest class I have to take) and one online international business class to get my minor in business administration. Exciting huh? Luckily they're only 6 weeks in length and August-September or possibly November(if I have enough money) will be my chance to realllly relax.

The month of May was pretty awesome/stressful. Natalia and I's joint b-day party went over well in the park(yes, we even had a piƱata), I finished all of my group projects and papers on time, finals were somewhat of a breeze, I finished my internship with flying colors at the W Hotel, the family came to visit for my graduation ceremony, I hung out in San Diego for a hot minute, and even got a contract job through the W working for Cook Medical when they were in town for the American Urological Association Convention.

It was great to finally have my close family all here in San Francisco. We had a ton of amazing dinners including one at XYZ (the restaurant I interned with at W) where the chef had us taste almost the entire menu with a nice bottle of sparkling wine. We also had great meals atFang(where we were served by the chef/owner, amazing!), Thirsty Bear(for happy hour), Blue Bottle Coffee(can you say caramelized sugar waffle?), and Howards(my friendly neighborhood $6 breakfast place). We walked up the embarcadero after stopping for breakfast at the ferry building and dropped in for some drinking chocolate at TCHO and checked out the vintage arcade at Fisherman's Wharf. We also had the chance to head up to Napa and Sonoma for some wine tasting. We had a great afternoon snack on the terrace at Domaine Carneros by Tattinger and explored some of the bigger wineries along the Napa strip. Sunday, the San Diego folks flew home and Janet and I had a relaxing time shopping and finally went to Alcatraz for the first time. We had a great time there as it turned out to be a gorgeous day on the rock!

Tuesday I headed back to San Diego for a quick getaway. My mom and I went to AAA to get some more info on our trip to France this fall. We picked up some great books and started picking dates for our upcoming travels(SO excited!). Thursday we went to the Wild Animal Park and took our time wandering around. Some of the favorites of the day were the meerkats, baby elephants, and an up-close look at the lion napping on the safari jeep! We've decided the next time we come we'll go on the segway tour and possibly the zip line adventure.

I had to cut my San Diego visit short because I was offered a contract position (only 4 days) to help coordinate meeting space for a group staying at the W. I basically sat at a desk taking appointments for people who needed meeting space and acted as the contact between the group and the hotel. Although not terribly exciting, I was paid very well, got to eat all of my meals there, and finally started and finished the 5th Harry Potter book! The group's meeting planner was really nice and all were fairly low maintenance.

Now I'm back to the daily grind of working at the Academy and school. I also hope to have another food blog up very soon so stay tuned world.