like Biggie says ,"i'm going going, back back, to Cali, Cali"

y'all remember that song, right? ;) hehe

so i'm back in California for the first time since we moved out to HK six months ago... and it's great to be back!

i'm constantly reminded of how perfect the weather is in the Bay Area. this past week here has been pleasant and sunny nearly every day. Hong Kong had begun steaming up with temps in the 80's and high humidity for the past several weeks, so why not escape from the hot weather for a while?

in fact, the night before i flew back to CA, the first typhoon of the year had hit Hong Kong (even though typhoon season doesn't officially begin until June)! that night, the winds were howling wildly and loudly outside, strong enough to spray our 27th floor apartment windows with water from the nearby harbour! originally, Typhoon Chanchu had been projected to hit HK head on and was warned to be a pretty powerful hit. luckily, a few days before, it veered its course to east of HK, and the impact was much weaker than originally feared. the next day (day of my flight), a Signal No. 3 was issued. (the next signal up would've been Signal No. 8, meaning that people would've had to stay home from work and school, and the city would've basically had to shut down.) of course, it was just my luck to schedule my flight on the one day that a typhoon strikes HK, right? what are the chances of that? check out the picture (left) showing the online weather forecast for that day when i looked it up just before leaving for the airport. see the forecast for rainshower? OH WAIT, and then a typhoon! it's not a forecast that you see very often, at least not in the U.S.! despite a typhoon, my plane flew out of HK on time! ironically, my layover flight in Chicago was delayed by 1.5 hours due to a bit of rain. go figure!

the past few days has been great because i got to meet up with some of my old friends. i had dinner with Ying and Julia on Friday, and then crashed at Ying's place after staying up chatting with her and watching one of my favorite fashion-makeover shows, "What Not To Wear". (i love it, it's fun to watch!) :)
my close friends Jenn and Joel's daughter's 1-year birthday party was on Saturday, which i was glad i could make it to. it was really nice to see so many friends from college and some from elementary school there, most of whom i haven't seen in a while. apparently it's baby season because there were SO many babies at the party! :) as usual, the birthday girl, Naomi, was super cute! (see picture on the right of her asleep in her dad's arms.) then i took Ying to dinner for her birthday at Bistro Liasons in Berkeley, where the salmon was quite good, and our shared molten chocolate cake dessert was delicious. =9 i also got to meet up with two of my high school buddies, Julie and Liz, in SF for a relaxing day of photo-taking near the Embarcadero and dinner at MarketBar in the Ferry Building. it was one of those perfect, warm spring days in San Francisco where the skies are clear, bright blue and it makes you want to just sit by the water and enjoy the view of the expansive Bay Bridge, the calm water, and people passing by... and that's exactly what we did. then yesterday, i met up with Dave L. for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in SF. Dave was my very first friend that i met at Cal during our freshman orientation over 10 years ago, and it was really great to catch up with him.

tonight i'm meeting up with Ying (one of my closest friends, who was also my roommate of 6 years during and after college) for a chill night of burritos, tv, chatting, and a sleepover! just like the good ole' days of living together! yay!

sigh... being back here and hanging out with my old friends again definitely makes me realize how much i've missed them all while i've been living so far away from home for the past 2 and a half years...