Edwin's Blog

The next day of our LA trip. (2/29), this day was an exciting day because we were about to go to Universal Studios! We bought student tickets so it was cheaper than usual. Before we went here, we looked around at the popular Chinese supermarket called 99 Ranch. We bought our breakfast and head over to Universal by uber. 

Let’s be honest, I had been to Universal in Japan and Singapore and I wasn’t expecting much in this Universal. However, I was wrong. Every time I stepped into the park, I felt like I became a kid again. Also, each Universal has its explicit games so there is always more to look at. I finally tried the butterbeer from the Harry Potter scene, it has alcohol and non-alcohol versions, we chose the non-alcohol version that it fills with fizzy drink. We experienced the signature in-door roller coaster of Harry Potter and The studio tour, they were all phenomenal. After we stayed here for almost the whole day, We left by metro and tried to call uber in the town. We were hungry so we went to a famous udon restaurant and had a meal there. Believe it or not, the weather in Californa for Asian like me was not very hot, so having a udon with soup in a cold-weather was a paradise for me. 

The third and the last day of our LA trip (3/1), first we bought some Asian food and product in an Asian supermarket. Then we had our breakfast in a Chinese restaurant which mainly served rice noodle roll, which is a very famous and traditional dish mainly in Guangdong Province. After that, we went to The board, which is a Modern Art Museum, We spent a lot of times there and watched many artworks, we were very lucky to see one of the famous art in the museum called “the infinity room”, which had limited visitors each day. Since My friend and I both love Japanese culture, we head over to Little Tokyo. We shopping and have a meal there and that’s the end of our LA trip.

This week (2/28), we planned to travel to Los Angeles. We stayed there for three days so I will separate this journey into two different blogs. 

Before the journey started, one of my friends had to stayed in San Diego since her parents were worried about her, due to the cases of coronavirus in CA had been increasing. The result was that only two of us went there. 

We went to Los Angeles by bus, after we arrived, we were both hungry so we went to the Grand Central Market. It is a small market but full of delicious food. We decided to have our lunch at “Eggsult”, which is a popular restaurant and we found many tourists there.

After we had our lunch, we went to Hollywood blvd and spent some time there. We watched the foodprints of many celebrities, TCL Chinese Theatre, and of course the Hollywood sign.

One funny thing is that we bought the face masks successfully in CVS, that we had been found for a few weeks but all the face masks had been out of stock. 

Then, we went to Griffith Observatory to watch the beautiful night views in Los Angeles. There were a lot of tourists and most of them are Asians. We took many pictures here and I wanted to come back again. 

We were tired after all the activities so we decided to go back to our apartment. We rented a house in Airbnb and we called uber to went there. After we arrived, we shook because the neighborhood was a China town. All the signs were in Chinese, people were Chinese, to be honest, it feels weird and I felt a bit uncomfortable. We went to a Chinese noodles restaurant and it tasted just like I had had in China, I recommended it where it located at 301 W Valley Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776, USA. After we had our dinner, we went back to the house and took a rest there.

This weekend (2/23), I decided to rent a car and traveled around San Diego. We started that SDSU and went to the car rental company by trolley. We rented a cheap car for just $40 for one day. It was hard for me since my city applied right-hand traffic and in the United States are left-hand traffic. It took me a lot of time to adjust using a left-hand drive car. Also, It was my first drive in the US and first time driving through high-way since my city is tiny and we don’t have a high-way. It was a terrifying but exciting experience for me.

First, we drove to UCSD, which is another popular university in San Diego. It was a bigger university than SDSU and we noticed that more international students too. It felt weird to see so many Asian faces and people speaking Chinese. After we saw the Geisel Library and the “fallen star”, we left and went to have lunch.

We chose Din Tai Fung for our lunch since one of my Taiwanese friends had homesick. It is a famous restaurant around the world so we had to wait for forty-hour before our turn to eat. Luckily where it located was a shopping mall, therefore we hung around and let the times run out. For the meal, we ordered spicy shrimp dumplings, fried pork dumplings and fried rice. As an Asian, it was like comfort food for us even though we had cough the next day due to the spicy dumplings.

At last, we went to watch the sunset at Scripps Pier. It was amazingly beautiful and I never watched such a great view before. It was not famous for tourists so there were not many people, therefore, it was very comfortable. We spent a lot of time and took many pictures here.

It makes me feel sad while I am writing this blog in my home. I still cannot believe the virus spread out and I had to return home early. The Memories is beautiful and writing a blog gives me a chance to think back about the experiences.

       Before my blog start, there is something I wanted to say. Everyone knows the COVID-19 and it is spreading very fast, to protect and people around you, there are things to can do. Wash your hands and don’t touch your face before doing it, cover your mouth with paper towel or elbow while coughing. Also, remember social distancing and stay at home if you are sick.

      It has been a mess for the last two weeks, as we all know, the COVID-19 spread across the US and many people got infected, due to that, the school change the class to virtual and there are also many other changes. It is really messing me up but all I can do is to follow the update and respond quickly.

       Also, I have decided to return to my hometown, Macau, very soon. However, there are still places I have gone to but not yet shown to you all. But after the remaining places run out, I might start to describe my hometown Macau to you which is a beautiful place but not very popular among Americans and Europeans. Without further ado, let me show you my weekend journey!

       This time, we went back to Balboa Park. There are a lot of museums and beautiful architecture, and we spent the whole days there. We walked along and took some great pictures there. After we feel tired, we sit on the chair and talking together, the whole park feels very relaxing so my friends and I very enjoy the time there. One place I love the most is the Spanish village art center. It is a place that very colorful and there have shops and art classes for people to attend. The road is made from rocks then paint into different colors, which reminds me of my hometown since there are also many roads are made from rocks and with different patterns. To be honest, we didn’t do much there, but trust me, even just hanging around there makes me feel happy. If anyone watch this blog went there or planning to go here, please explore more and tell me what you feel and what interesting things you have seen.

This week we went to SeaWorld! It is a popular theme park in San Diego, so I decided to go there. Talking about theme park, It is always better to have more people to play together, so I went here with exchange students from Hong Kong and Taiwan together, Fortunately, there is a friend of them had been an employee of the SeaWorld, so he can give us a little discount for our tickets. This made the journey even happier.

Since I am not interested in roller coaster and other exciting rides, SeaWorld is the perfect park for me instead of park like six-flags. Most of the amusement rides here are at a moderate level, for example like teacups. Also, there are shows of different animals with their trainers and I think they are fun to watch. On that day, we saw three different shows, each of them is with different animals, seal, dolphin, and the one that I love the most, the killer whale.

The most remarkable show for me is the killer whale show. I have never seen a killer whale in my city or any places that I have been to, so I am very excited about the show.

After we went into the theater, we went to the empty sits at the front, we soon found out it was a bad idea. While the whale playing tricks, water kept on splashing out of the pool and the number of us got wet. Luckily, that wasn’t me. Overall, an “exciting” show and we were very satisfied with the show. After the show, we all got excited and we decided to play a river rapids ride called Shipwreck Rapids. The result is very clear as we all got wet after the ride and we left the park with all our clothes wet.

Overall, this was a very good experience since I think most of the time it is not about the place we go, but about the people we go with. I feel happy with them and I am lucky to meet them. If anyone is also interested in SeaWorld, especially the one in San Diego, feel free to ask me for more details and goodbye!

It’s already a month after I came to the US, except for those heavier workloads than my home university, I am glad that I am here! The weather is nice, a very blue sky with beautiful sea and sunset. I mean San Diego is by far the best place I have been to, no joke. That why, I want to share some pictures and experience I have in those fabulous places in San Diego or other places that I go in the future.

Last weekend I went to La Jolla Cove by bus. It is a beautiful and popular place for tourists. There are many seals and you can take pictures with them, just make sure don’t disturb them. Luckily the weather was perfect, the sky is very blue and clear that the sea and the sky feel blending together. The view was amazing, and I very recommend go there. Also, I went to the Sunny Jim Sea Cave, just about 5 minutes walking. You must pay for 5 bucks at the entrance to watch the cave. At first, I was thinking it would be a big cave, but I was wrong. However, 5 dollars is not very expensive, if you want to take some pictures, then it’s your perfect choice.

Next, the San Diego Zoo where It’s in the Balboa park area. Unfortunately, I couldn’t walk through the whole zoo because it’s just too big. I think it’s is a wonderful zoo and it has a variety of animals, some of them are rare for me like rhinoceros, hippopotamus and polar bear. Also, one of the things I think the zoo did a very good job is that the environment and surroundings providing to different animals. I can feel that the zoo put a lot of work and expenses to create a wonderful and comfortable place for each animal. I think It is worth the price, however, I think the ticket is not cheap even with the student discount.

Hi, I’m Edwin, and this is my first blog ever. In the next couple of months, I will be posting my experience in US, especially where my exchange school SDSU is, San Diego, and share it with you guys.

Coming to America really give me many first-time experiences. The longest flight I ever took for like 13 hours, the smallest flight I took when I went from LAX to SAN, and the most expensive taxi I ever got into, should have got a Uber. There are many amazing things I want to note down, so that why I’m here to make a blog and trying to note down every single moment of my journey.

The first thing that I want to share is my exchange school, SDSU, San Diego State University.

After I came to the school and settled down, I try to walk through the whole campus. One thing I discover is that everything in America is big. The medium size coke? More like a large one in my city. This school also gave me a sense of it. It’s really big compared to my home university and my hometown, Macau. It really took me for like almost an hour to really walk through the campus, no joke.

Now let’s go straight to the weekend. I went downtown with some friends who are also exchange students. We went to the USS Midway Museum that day. $18 for a student ticket is definitely worth the price. It really impresses me of how big the ship is and it’s like a maze inside. Of course, we also went to the Unconditional Surrender Statue. After it, we surprisingly saw the Martin Luther King Jr. Parade and we decided to sit there and enjoyed the atmosphere of the parade.

Next day, I joined a party held by some other exchange students. We had BBQ together and I met many students from other countries like Korea, Japan and Taiwan. It was a great night.

So I guess this is it! I will upload very soon and if anyone has things want to know, feel free to let me know, I would love to respond to all of you.