joy eats

THE BEST OF ITALY ZB - 12 days incl. air, or 11 days Rome/Rome

Vacation Overview
Start in Rome for this unforgettable 12-day vacation. Visit the excavations of Pompeii with a Local Guide, drive to the charming resort of Sorrento, and sail to the Isle of Capri where your two-night stay includes guided sightseeing with a visit to Villa San Michele in Anacapri. Next enjoy an orientation of Naples before continuing through the Apennine Mountains to St. Francis’ Assisi. Along the Adriatic coast via the Abbey of Pomposa to Venice for two nights, visit St. Mark’s Basilica and lavish Doges’ Palace with a Local Guide, and watch Venetian glassblowers at work. Continue to Pisa, to take pictures of the Leaning Tower, and to Tuscany. Your walking tour through Florence includes visits to the cathedral and the Academy of Fine Arts to admire Michelangelo’s David. Via Siena back to Rome where highlight visits are included in your sightseeing tour: St. Peter’s Square and Basilica, the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.

last time i was there was 10 years ago and mi amore italia! i've always wanted to visit tuscany and the coast of italy, so perhaps this summer...we don't have to go with this itinerary just something to wet the appetite. =p
anyone intersted?

interesting....



my test report

About Me

As a DESIGNER, you are receptive to ideas and experiences, and enjoy the beautiful things in life, yet you are also grounded and realistic about yourself and the world.

You have a quiet appreciation for beauty in all its forms – in nature, in people, and in human creations from architecture to movies.

Instead of only focusing on functionality, you try to incorporate your good sense of style and taste into your choices.

At times you feel unsure of yourself, especially when confronted by other people.

You aren't the kind of person who insists on having things your way all the time – you are willing to go along with other people's opinions, even if you disagree.

Others may not know this about you, but you are very interested in new ideas, thoughts, expressions, and experiences. You enjoy learning and trying new things.

Although you are practical, you are anything but boring – you have depths to you that others cannot see.

The idea of doing the same thing every day for the rest of your life scares you – you need more excitement and challenge than that!

You have a remarkable eye for detail and precision, noticing things that others miss.

You are balanced in your approach to problem-solving, not letting your emotions hold you up.

You are a fashion maven, up on trends, but distinct in your own style. You don't follow trends, you set them.

Generally, you believe that you control your life, and that external forces only play a limited role in determining what happens to you.

If you want to be different:
Have faith in your ideas, and voice them more often. Your unique perspective needs to be shared!

Allow yourself to become fully immersed in your dreams now and then. You can develop your aesthetic vision even further by allowing your imagination to flourish.

Be as open to your own wishes as you are to those of others.


How I Relate To Others
You are Animated

You are outgoing, comfortable with others, and up for anything, which makes you ANIMATED.

Some people find crowds and parties exhausting, but not you! You are able to be yourself in many situations.

Sometimes it is hard for you to understand why others feel the way they do, but that doesn't stop you from trusting them or having faith that they are good people.

You know the world is complicated and that there is often more than one side to a story, so you are careful not to make judgments about others too hastily.

You would rather experience the world than sit back and observe it—you are not one to sit on the sidelines.

You are an independent thinker and don't get too worried about how others might perceive you—you are not self-conscious about being the active, engaged person that you are.

Although you have a keen understanding of different people's life circumstances, you occasionally have trouble seeing why people get so upset and emotional about things—they should just lighten up and have fun!

In addition to having faith in the world, you have faith in the people around you—you trust others to do the right thing and to be honest.

pull an all nighter chatting with maria.... c-a-n-'t f-u-n-c-t-i-o-n right now.

never doing this again

my director took me out for lunch last week because she told me that "we needed to talk". that phrase made me nervous the whole week leading up to thurs. but it turned out to be really good news. she not only offered me a full time position starting in sept. because i told her that finishing my thesis is my first priority right now, but she's also willing to train me to become a director.

i've been praying about this offer for sometime and at this point i think i'm gonna take this job. for a few of you that had heard me share about teaching knows that it wasn't an easy journey because my first job burned me badly. by the time i quit my first job, i literally hated every part about teaching. But there was a teachable moment for me recently... it's kind of long just to warn you.

back then when i took that job, it was my first real full time job without doing anything else on the side. there was so much issues to deal with at work that it became my whole life. the strange tension at work didn't allow us to express our frustration, so work was all that i could think about and talk about outside of work. i didn't like who i was turning into but i didn't know what i could do to change that. exclude the natural stress that came from the fact that it was first time where i had my own classroom, a teaching team and curriculum to plan, there were lots of other issues that was going on at the same time... i was framed by co-workers for something i didn't do. parents yelled at me during our first parent conference because they had a bad day at work. people were stealing money from the school. there were rumors and hurtful comments from co-workers that I wasn’t a competent teacher. There was a ghost situation that happened whenever this particular child was in school...blah blah blah… and the list goes on. in all honesty, I couldn’t focus on teaching with all these other stuff happening every single day. toward the end of my second year there, I had to quit; I didn’t want to be in that environment anymore, and i started to think that i wasn’t made to be a teacher.

So for the last two year, I’ve been praying about career path and direction. I was so set that I’ll not step into a classroom ever. i told God that I would rather stare at a computer for 8 hrs a day than to teach again. Then when it was time for me to write my thesis, it required me to be in the field, so I found this part-time job at a Christian preschool where i’m currently working at. even then I thought it would be a temporary thing, but that wasn’t what God had in mind. During one of my afternoons with the children we were practicing the bible verse of the week. I’ve heard them recite different verses every week but for some reason, that afternoon, I was really moved by it. I tear because i was so happy for them. It amazed me just how bless they are to know God, their creator, at such a young age. It was then that I felt God speaking to me “You can make an eternal impact on these young minds. don’t run from it, and don’t let others tell you that you’re not good enough.” That momemt gave me a new strength, a new purpose to what I do. it's hard to explain; it was short but precise. the insecurities that i held onto from my past teaching experience don't seem that big of a deal anymore. i mean they were still bad, but i'm not scare going forward. i'm certain that difficult situations will arise in the future, but at least I know that if I’m doing what God has calls me to do, he’ll give me the power to do it well. actually the funny thing is that i don't really know why i choose to get a masters in child development, but it falls into part of His plans.

afterall, i guess i'll be in nor-cal for a few more years...

finally finished my scrapbook for Japan... all 48 pages of them, the book is so thick that it's bulging out, oh well.
it really gives me a sense of accomplishment to get it done; i feel rather productive when i do a few pages every time. although i really should be getting that feeling from writing my thesis, but a scrapbook is faster and more aesthetically pleasing.














one thing i like about scrapbooking is the different kinds of paper that makes all sorts of possibilities.




































i write quite a bit in my scrapbook to capture the feelings i had at the time and the things i learned. so when i was putting this together, it was like re-living the three months all over again. and it's a funny feeling to think that was the time when i was praying about the job in nor cal... and 4 years later, i did.

today maria, andrea and i went to berkeley for our little food trip!

since we had limited time there, i called in advance to place an order on all the stuff we wanted just in case they ran out. it was actually rather embarrassing... the pictures will explain it.

first stop was cheeseboard, and between the four of us (including karen's order) we had four grocery bags full of bread and cheese.




























second stop was gregoire; this small, cute french take-out place off of cedar ave.



















the three dishes we got were all pretty good espcially,




the smoke salmon with avocado on puff pastry









and deviled eggs three ways stuff with crostinis














the packaging was too cute that i had to take pictures of them.











after lunch we went to a bakery called love at first bite and picked up our pre-ordered cupcakes... all 23 of them =D
showing here from the top left:
vanilla cupcake with raspberry buttercream
choco cupcake with choco frosting
strawberry cupcake with strawberry buttercream
lemon pistachio







here are more pictures from our berkeley food trip. and that was more than satisfying for our tummy.