thursday vertical

the go team

The trip to Yosemite was brought to you by this man and this electric pony:

renovations

I have some very noisy roommates this week. It's strange to see people outside your fourth-floor window.

fleet week II

Spectators enjoying Fleet Week.

thanks for waiting

All I can think about lately is how much I miss this man and how excited I am to see him soon. Here he is, making me pasta at my parents' house:



We all know how much I love a man who can make pasta. I just think mine is so much cuter. Yay!

vertical el

An El station at night. I love the El. It reminds me of the NYC subway...in Queens.

saturday vertical

west south west

I shot this just a few minutes after taking off from San Francisco and heading to Chicago. I like that in this photo you can see a golf course wedged between an industrial zone and the Oakland airport.



This photo is facing south and heading west over the San Francisco Bay.

family (shoe) tree

I spent a lot of time with family in San Francisco. This is one of my cousin's kids at an engagement party for another cousin.

one for the road

Here's a shot from Burgos in Spain, where I got chased away by the bartender seconds after taking this shot of a man on a mission.

monday vertical

I shot some photos at my friend's wedding reception last weekend, and my flash failed at several key moments, like this one.

madrid

After my friend left, I went on to Madrid for two nights. It was so hot that it was hard to leave the house before 8 p.m.

closing time

One of the churches in the Parte Vieja of San Sebastián. This guy is helping to close up at eight p.m.

stop

This is my roommate Hansel. She hates having her photo taken and usually doesn't stand still so most of my photos of her are usually blurry in low light. I think she stood still for this one because she was obeying the stop sign.



In this home-away, she is like my mom and sister and best friend rolled into one. And I have the most exciting news! I think I am going to spend a few months living with two of her brothers in Mexico City. How cool is that?

sunday temple post

This is a little temple on Ann Siang Hill, this darling neighborhood full of design shops. I like how all these ornate temples are just tucked here and there, next to a colorless building, on top of the road.

stairway to heaven

My grandmother used to go to a Buddhist temple by her house and we thought she would want some Buddhist rites performed at her services. So the day she died, we went to the temple and got two monks to come out to perform some sort of rites at her wake and cremation. It was very interesting. The monks chanted at her wake while we stood around the coffin. The chanting went on for so long that I almost fainted. Afterward, the person closest to her poured water out of a teapot into a cup placed in a bowl next to the coffin. So my uncle poured the water into the cup until it overflowed into the bowl. While this was happening, we formed a human chain by each placing a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of us, so it was like a symbolic transfer of energy. I would have liked to shoot photos of the ceremony...but I was in it.



I shot this photo at the crematorium. These are the two monks that led the chanting on Saturday. One is from Ceylon and the other is from Burma.

refresher

I got on a train yesterday and went somewhere. Where? You'll find out! But in the meanwhile, enjoy my second vertical shot in one week. In fact, have TWO since I skipped posting yesterday.



The Retiro train station in downtown Buenos Aires. Kind of looks like a lot of other train stations. Or, maybe, all train stations look alike when you're tired yet excited and just want to get on the train. You also get the mix of freight and passenger trains here, which I adore.



Where did I take the train to? You'll find out tomorrow...THURSDAY.