summer has been nice and relaxing, though i do have this uncomfortable, impending sense of doom that i am going to brazil unprepared and am going to return to chaos once i get back to phoenix/tucson…

i read in my sister’s cosmopolitan (uk edition) that if you write down three things that make you happy every day for a week, it will make you happier for the three following weeks.  though the mathematics behind this happiness formula is dubious, i’m sure the results are pleasant and therefore, here i go!

1.  eating pho twice in one day!

one steaming, delicious (albeit a tad greasy) bowl at pho-licious, a pretty solid pho vietnamese restaurant in glendale (75th avenue & cactus road).  even my extremely picky dad approved!  i ordered the pho tai ($6.99), my dad ordered the pho with all the other fixings and my sister ordered a pretty tasty chicken hot & sour soup.  i had been there once before and had ordered the sup mung cua, which was also very tasty.  it was delicious!  the other bowl i just made right now from the stuff my mom had set up for me, so i just had to boil the broth, throw in some beef slices and pour it over warmed noodles!  delicious!

2.  shopping!

my sister and i ran over to arrowhead mall and checked out the ridiculously overwhelming and huge forever21 store where, after much browsing, i settled on a rose-patterned top and a purple v-neck dress.  then we jetted on over to target where i bought a pair of inexpensive sunglasses for brazil so i don’t bring & inevitably break or lose my burberry or dior ones.  it’s actually the same pair (tan-and-brown-striped, over-sized, square-shaped) that i had for spring break drunkenness, but i had sat on and broken them shortly after the cruise.    but yay, they’re back!

3.  anticipation of reading my book and watching “jogo de cena” now!

this summer, i am going to brazil.  my trip is broken up into two parts:

1.  fortaleza, the state capital of ceará, located in northeastern brazil (arrival – june 19, 2009):
i am going to be taking classes in 400-level advanced portuguese classes (eek) at universidade federal do ceará!
i am staying at a hotel for a couple of days for orientation before being picked up by our host families!
i will be there for four weeks!
there will be side trips on the weekends to nearby points of interest!
and that is literally all i know about that.

2.  são paulo & rio de janeiro (arrival – august 19, 2009)
ryan is meeting me at the são paulo airport!  we’re staying for four nights before taking a bus to rio, where we will spend seven nights!  then we’re heading back to são paulo for a night or two before leaving for home!  i am so frickin’ excited!  i was nervous for a while because i really wanted to travel after the program ended and to actually see more of brazil, but i didn’t have a travel buddy and was hesitant about booking the tickets – people’s comments of “oh, i’m sure you’ll meet someone there” did little to calm my nerves.  but then i asked ryan (after 1.5 weeks of trying to figure out a way that wouldn’t sound at all like, “hey, have a spare $1,000?”) and he said yes!  i put off buying my plane tickets to brazil for weeks, so he actually ended up buying his tickets first!  more trip details to come!

i’m back home!  which means many things, including a return to last chance!  and my slightly-guilt-ridden-but-honestly-who-cares-because-it’s-90%-off purchases..

bcbgmaxazria pleated ruffle dress: retail $218, paid $29.97
steve madden boogle taupe sandals: retail $59.95, paid $29.97

star ling montelena sandals: retail $89.95, paid: $18.99

citizens of humanity eva jean: retail $163, paid: $29.97

fun!  i also bought two other pairs of shoes…ahhh…but fun!!  :/

all the characters that i remember from last summer were there, including the members of the two bored-housewife cliques.  newly introduced to me this past shopping trip was stalking asian girl.  stalking asian girl is the same size as me, and must’ve thought that since i am also asian we are of some sort of sisterkind.  she verbally tackled me while i was in the dressing room (vulnerable setting!), telling me about how she had overslept and how she was late and how sad she was that she had missed all the good stuff.  she then procceded to “covertly” follow me around the store seeing if i’d put anything i’d gotten back, not-so-gently prodding me every once in a while, “hey, are you going to buy that?” or “can i try on the ones you don’t fit?”  sooo awkward!

there was also a man in a white t-shirt, shorts and sandals who walked around browsing things with a cigar in his mouth.

crazy!

yesterday in my o-chem lecture, my professor went off on a tangent about this floating, toxic accumulation of garbage in the middle of the pacific ocean that’s twice the size of texas.  then he talked about plastic and how it’s not biodegradable but rather photo-degradable, which means it breaks down and down but still exists as little tiny pieces of plastic that inevitably leech into the ocean water, making its way into fish and our water systems and inevitably everything we eat.  yumm!

garbage island: a documentary