I’ve been back on the East Coast for three months now after five years in California. Granted, I was born and raised here until I was 18, but even after just that short period of time, my heart has been converted. This Thanksgiving I spent five days in southern California and found plenty that I should have been more thankful for during the last five years. The list below is not a complete list, but rather, that which I could sample during my short visit.

1. Driving on wide roads

2.Large shopping plazas 

3. Palm tree-lined boulevards

4. The ability to buy alcohol in grocery stores

5. The ability to sample Asian drinks in American grocery stores

6. Good Asian food

7. Animal style fries with no salt and extra onions at In-N-Out

8. The breathtaking coastline 

9. Walking on the beach barefoot at the end of November

10. Watching the sunset over the Pacific

If you were my friend in elementary school, and you came over to my house, your would find, in the middle of our living room, the most elaborate model train track. I can still remember now, connecting the wooden tracks together, piece by piece, and running the miniature trains along the continuous circuit, through all of its turns, forks, bridges, and loops. But most of all, I remember how my three younger brothers and I laughed when the trains fell off course and landed on their side.

I’m riding the Amtrak for the first time.

I was born in the US, in Crystal City, actually. But I moved pretty soon afterward with my grandparents to my father’s hometown in China. I had my first experience on an airplane at less than one year old. In fact, my first word was “fei”, the Chinese word for “fly”. I would always clap my hands and exclaim, “fei! fei!” anytime an airplane passed by.

Despite the fact I first verbalized the action of airplanes, I really prefer trains. After my trans-pacific flight with my grandparents, we took an overnight train ride from Beijing to Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, followed by a five hour bus before finally arriving in Jianli, the small town from which my dad was the first ever to travel to the US. It must have been then that I fell in love with trains. I returned to Jianli every few years or so, and my favorite part of the 48 hour journey is when I was rocked and lulled to sleep by the motion of the train.

I gradually forgot my romance with trains. The toy trains were packed away and I stopped visiting Jianli since the death of my great-grandma. But I must’ve subconsciously remembered, because in college when I couldn’t sleep or was stressed out by pending exams, I could listen to train sounds from a white noise iPhone app and feel instantly relaxed. Recently I bugged my youngest brother to visit Chinatown with me. He was reluctant, but while we were on the metro he suddenly remembered how my mom would take him to ride the metro back and forth, back and forth, just because he liked to sit on the train.

Now I remember. Although I have ridden the train in China and the bullet train of Japan, I have never taken the Amtrak. I usually take the Megabus because it’s much cheaper, but this time I came on business so someone else paid for my ticket. Unfortunately for my wallet, I don’t think I will be able to revert back to Megabus. The leg space, the comfort, the view, the rhythm. Yes, I will be a train-person for life.

—

Update: I am now in the cafe car and the food options suck. $5 for a frozen pizza? Man. This is not at all like the trains in the movies that serve gourmet food. Oh well, at least they serve food, that’s already a 1 up on Megabus.

View from the train on the way to DC. I guess its the Delaware River?

Yesterday I told a story about Oceano Beach. Today I will tell a story that happened on the way to Oceano Beach.

My boyfriend and I left early Friday morning to make the four hour drive south on the 101 so that we could spend an entire day on the beach. Only an hour into the drive we were derailed by the highway signs for the Gilroy Garlic Festival.

“The Gilroy Garlic Festival just so happened to have landed at the right place at the right time?” I thought to myself, “How could I justify not going?”

“Let’s turn off here and check it out,” I suggested to my boyfriend. He seemed hesitant, so I reassured him,”We can get right back on the road if we don’t want to go.” Of course, I had no intention to do so, but I just had to say something since the exit was coming up.

It was a bit pricier than I expected. Namely, $17 pricier. For a festival where once we went inside, we would have to pay additional for rides and food? But it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and the garlic smelled so good. My boyfriend wasn’t convinced, but that didn’t matter.

We could have actually saved some money. As we walked up to the ticket booth, the attendant asked, “One adult, one senior?” And she didn’t mean college senior. Apparently, my fashion sense is a little outdated.

“No, two adults please.” I let pride win out over thrift. That was a first.

It’s amazing that everyone in one town can be so fanatic about a thing like garlic. I mean, I’ve gotta give it to them, garlic is one of those things where great things come in small packages. You might think that the Festival would attract mostly out-of-towners and serve as a way to bring tourism traffic to this small economy. Yes, it is about that. But it’s much more about celebrating the vital force of the local economy and social foundation of the community. There were just as many locals as there were people like me.

From the garlic themed decorations & costumes to the culinary inventions to the garlic toss to the “free garlic growing kit” (i.e. garlic) to to the Miss Garlic competition to the garlic braiding, I loved it all! You can never have too much garlic!

Here are just a few snap shots of the wonderful garlicky treasures of the Gilroy Garlic Festival.

Culinary Delights

Garlic ice cream is surprisingly good

Lunch of garlic mushrooms and garlic calamari

Garlic fries make my mouth water

Garlic Craftsmanship

Conclusion: Check out the Gilroy Garlic Festival if you’re in SF Bay Area in late July! It’s $17 your stomach will thank you for spending!

A post script to this story: my boyfriend’s car smelled like garlic for a week.

Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. One day, he saw a young man reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean. He came closer and called out “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The young man paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean.”

“I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?” asked the somewhat startled wise man.

To this, the young man replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.”

Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, “But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can’t possibly make a difference!”

At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, “It made a difference to that one!”

—–

The story is adapted from an essay by Loren Eisley, called “The Star Thrower”. I present the story, abridged from Voices4Children.

I first heard the starfish story through my friend who was volunteering through Americorps for City Year. In his work with inner city youth, each life touched makes a difference even if the numbers are limited.

I haven’t devoted an entire two years of my life to changing others’ lives. But recently, I did have my own little starfish experience. Only it wasn’t with starfish, but a related animal, the sand dollar. My boyfriend and I went to Oceano Beach near San Luis Obispo in late July. After a full day of all-terrain vehicle driving on the Oceano Dunes, I walked the beach and was so excited to see what I found beneath my feet. My first sand dollar! Unfortunately, that first one had already dried and cracked in half, an early death brought on by a receding tide, sun, and wayward children. As I looked around I noticed hundreds of similarly cracked sand dollars. But every one in a hundred, there would be a wholly intact one, whose tissues were still moist enough to sustain life. The tide was going down, and just like the boy in the story explained, they were going to dessicate and die. So I walked down the beach, with my boyfriend begrudgingly following behind, and threw back into the ocean every live sand dollar I found over a stretch of two miles. I’m ashamed to say, however, that I am not as altruistic as the boy in the story. When I found an intact but dead sand dollar, I kept it for myself.

Don’t mind the clashing outfit. That same weekend, a ticket agent asked if I wanted to purchase a senior ticket, and I don’t mean senior in college.

Mood 5 It’s 2AM and I can’t sleep because that red-eye flight screwed up my sleep schedule/ Tired 7 should not be this high of a rating at 2AM!/Spiritual Tired 4 Although I had a great weekend, I’m unfortunately super behind on studying for our first exams next week. I hope I fall asleep dreaming about embryology, otherwise I don’t know how I will learn it all.

I’ve always thought that wine tasting is for snobs and old people. Well I guess I’ve become more of both, because since this summer I’ve made not only my first, but two additional, wine tasting expeditions. The biggest barrier to trying wine tasting was the intimidation. I was scared to look like a fool if I didn’t follow some protocol or I showed my ignorance of wine. I remember reading a lot of guides to wine tasting, but most of those resources focused on how to taste the wine (look at the color, swirl, sniff, etc). Along the way, I’ve learned a lot about what I like in a wine and in a wine tasting experience, but I wish I had been better prepared for managing my experience. So, this guide is a beginner’s attempt to that for you so that you will hopefully feel less intimidated to try wine tasting!

1. Start small. My first wine tasting experience featured a full day of winery hopping in San Benito County (about two hours south of me). In retrospect, I wish that I had tried a smaller tasting experience closer to home for only a couple hours. That way, I can practice my swirling techniques (sometimes I try to swirly my wine and it just wobbles back and forth, that’s when you feel really dumb), develop my taste buds, and learn the vocabulary of the trade (I had no idea that cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay were types of grapes, or that reserve wine meant limited production, or that you should say “can I revisit this wine” instead of “can I have some more”). Although you pretty much have to drive to the country to get the full experience and taste local wines, many cosmopolitan areas have tasting rooms that feature wines from diverse geographic areas. It’s also less likely that you will run into “wine snobs” who make you feel stupid just by sitting next to you.
2. Start early. Most places open at 10 (some at 11) am. The first time I started at 1PM and even then it was too late. After a two hour tasting and tour, we had only enough time to fly through three more before closing time (usually ranges from 4 to 6pm). The third time we walked into our first tasting room seven minutes after they opened, and still only managed to finish by 5pm.
3. Don’t be afraid to admit that you’re new to this. After letting the staff know that I am there for a tasting, the next thing I like to say is, “I’m a little new to this.” They won’t look down on you in anyway, and they are usually happy to answer questions (to break the monotony of pouring for hundreds of people every day and to show off their knowledge).
4. Ask questions. At most places, if you don’t ask, the staff won’t say much to you (I have encountered some wineries that are exceptions). What most servers do is recite the description of the wine to you, pour, and move on to the next party. Although I like tasting the wine, I also like learning about the history and character of the vineyard and the production process. Some good questions I have stuck with are:
   • Where does your name come from?
   • When was the winery established? Has it changed ownership?
   • Who is the owner? The winemaker?
   • What kind of wine do you specialize in? What is it about the area that is particularly good for that wine?
   • Has it been a busy day/weekend/season?
   • Where is your estate/vines? Where does your production take place?
5. Take your time. Talk to people. Enjoy the sunshine. At first I felt a lot of pressure to finish as quickly as I could, especially if the server has made his or her rounds and is standing in front of you with a bottle while you still have a half full glass. I would then chug the rest as if it were a beer at a college party (see #6). You can talk to the owners/servers if it is a small place, or enjoy the company of your party if it is a larger place. Don’t be shy, you can also talk to your neighboring parties, who often have interesting (wine related or not) experiences and can give you advice. Take the time to enjoy the environment of the winery. Wineries are simply beautiful places in and of themselves. Many larger ones feature bocce ball, art, or outdoor gardens. Go outside with your glass. Don’t feel like you have to be stuck to the counter simply because the servers are there. Sometimes they will come outside and serve you. Otherwise, you can just return to the counter when you are ready for the next round. Don’t venture too far or you might get detained by the police for public drinking.
   

   Enjoying the gardens at Medlock Ames in Alexander Valley

6. Dump if you don’t like it. If you don’t like a wine, don’t feel like you have to drink it. At first, I thought that since I was paying for the tasting, I would be wasting my money if I didn’t drink all of the wine that I was entitled to. If you are planning to visit multiple places, you will imbibe more than enough alcohol to keep you satisfied. Also, if you saturate your taste buds with bad wine, you won’t be able to taste the subtleties in the wine that you do like.
7. Ask for a grounds tour. The first few times I had a grounds tour, I had bought a packaged deal through groupon or travelzoo. These can be good if you are unsure of where to go and want an orientation to the area and to wine tasting. I found that most places will just take you around if you ask for it and they are not too busy, without charging anything. Some of the larger places also have established tours at specified times. One of my favorites was the wine cave tour, where we walked around a wine cellar in an artificial cave.
   

   At Pietra Santa, I bought a grounds tour and got to see where they barrel their wines

8. The swirl. We’ve all at least seen people do the swirl. It helps to bring oxygen into the wine and release the aromas. The first time I did it, I felt pretty reluctant. I felt like an impostor, partaking in this highly specialized ritual of which I had neither knowledge nor skill. JUST DO IT! You won’t feel so stupid after the first time, and it really does work.
9. Keep your glass! My first time, I assumed that we would get new glasses between each wine. That is NOT the case! I put my glass down on the table, walked around for a bit, and by the time I returned, the server had given my glass to another person. When he came around to pour the next round, I simply had to tell him that I didn’t know where my glass went and that I must have misplaced it. He didn’t have another one, so he asked me to walk around looking for it (although I knew that was pointless since the glass was in the other customer’s hand!) I couldn’t tell him the truth, because the other customer had already taken a sip from my cup, and would probably have been pretty angry for being given a used cup.
10. Don’t get drunk. So far, I haven’t been able to manage this one. I usually drink so much that I immediately pass out afterward. I guess the trick is to keep drinking water, eating, and taking breaks.
11. Don’t feel pressured into buying. It might feel awkward to walk away without purchasing a bottle, especially if the tasting is complimentary, and especially if you are the only party there. However, realize that it is perfectly expected. Not everyone will love the wine, and you should only buy if you love it. After all, you’re committing yourself to finishing at least a whole bottle of it, right? Wineries stay in business, and your purchase won’t make or break it. It is polite, however, to thank them for the tasting before leaving (especially if it was free).

Pietra Santa in Hollister was among the most beautiful facilities I've visited

Who can say no to the natural beauty of wine country?

I’m flying back to San Francisco for Labor Day Weekend, but I never seem to come prepared to entertain myself on long flights. Luckily, one of my favorite plane pastimes is to browse the Skymall and fantasize about the excessive gadgets I will buy once I’m rich. Here are some of my favorites:

Casio Green Slim Projector: This portable device uses a “revolutionary” laser and LED to deliver high-brightness, eco-friendly projections. At a conference or business meeting trying to pitch my new greatest idea, I can wirelessly connect my own and up to three more computers. BUT, if I happen to meet Bill Gates in a coffee shop, I could whip out my projector from my purse and instantly deliver my presentation from my THUMBDRIVE (no computer needed!). It doesn’t matter if I have a good idea, Bill will be won over by my awesome gadget. The projector will pay for itself! ($1599.99)

Digital Notepad with Memory: This clipboard pen combo captures all of your handwritten notes in digital form. You’re probably thinking, that’s just the same thing as a tablet. BUT there is nothing electronic that can parallel the gratifying feeling of ordinary ink on paper. I guess there is a sensor on the pen that goes through the paper and works with the clipboard somehow (magnetically?) to track your pen movements. This would be an amazing tool for med school, and isn’t too much out of the price range for someone my age. Hey – anyone wanna buy me an early Christmas present? ($149.99)

Nano-UV Disinfection Wand: I hate cleaning, but I am sensitive to dust and insect bites. The Nano-UV Disinfection Wand seems like it could definitely solve this dilemma for me. You simply pass the wand over the area you want to clean (pillows, carpet, food) and it instantly kills microorganisms. If I had this then maybe my bed wouldn’t have gotten infested with bedbugs last year > < For those OCD people who won’t use public toilets, you can also fold it to fit easily in your purse. The catalogue doesn’t mention how it works, but I assume it uses UV rays to kill the critters. So, theoretically, you could also use it on your enemies and induce skin cancer… ($159.99)

Towel Spa: The one and only chore that I actually enjoy is drying clothes. In fact, when my boyfriend and I were just housemates, I made a deal with him. I would wash both of our clothes if he would do the dishes. Washing dishes is my most dreaded chore, because growing up my mom would yell at me for washing them too loudly. But taking a big batch of clothes out of the dryer right as it is finished is the most amazing feeling because it feels like the warm clothes are hugging you. I like to dump them on my bed and just lie on top, taking in the warmth and smell of downy. (Clearly, I lacked affection as a child). Well that was a really long tangent to explain why I find this gadget so awesome. What it does is heat your towels, robes, mittens, hats, pillows, whatever. The catalogue advertises that you will feel like you are going to a spa, but I prefer to think of it as drying my clothes every time I take a shower. ($79.99)

Head and Eye Massager: If you’ve never had a head massage, get one! Better yet, get one of these! ($199.99)

Headache Relieving Wrap: Sometimes I wake up with a headache due to lack of sleep, and I cannot be productive for the whole day. When I get migraines, it’s as if I can feel the rotation of the Earth and the vibrations rattle my brain inside my skull. This wrap uses pressure to compress blood vessels and relieve headaches. Makes sense, considering that I learned that headaches result from the pressure of a brain swelling against the skull. If you constrict blood vessels and impede blood flow to the brain, you prevent water from entering and enlarging your brain cells. You could just use your hands to push on your skull, but that’s not as cool ($49.95)

Video Screen Microscope: In med school, we never look at real tissues on real slides with real microscopes. We look at “digital” slides, basically, saved images of tissues. The rationale is to save time and money, not only because these tissues don’t have to be preserved, but because multiple people can look at the screen at the same time. No more one microscope per person. Meanwhile, digital slides improve quality and standardize the experience for all students (making sure we can all see the same thing and that what we’re seeing is a good enough sample). Yet no matter how accurate it is, it’s just not the same as looking at the real thing. How can we appreciate the intricacies of a pathologic cell if we’re just looking at a screen that’s reading back 1′s and 0′s? This video microscope can reconcile these concerns. It is a fully functional microscope that projects the slides digitally onto a screen. Multiple students can look at the same slide, and that slide contains real cells. If only med school deans stopped reading scientific articles and browsed Skymall instead… ($299.95)

Cast Iron Giraffe Paper Holder: I love art with a purpose. A giraffe statue whose neck doubles as a toilet paper holder? Why not? ($29.95)

Darn! That only entertained me for two hours, four more to go!

Mood 5 Can’t fall asleep on this flight…/Tiredness 4 Awake since 8AM and went to ALL my classes today/Spiritual Tiredness 5 Running behind on exam studying but looking forward to spending the weekend with my boyfriend!

Update 9/8: As I’m inserting the pics from froogle, I’m realizing that the market prices are half the skymall cost. They really benefit off of bored travelers…