i got back from irvine around 1am this morning. boy did i get some gooooood sleep last night! gosh, so much to talk about. where do i begin?

so we took off from millbrae around 4 in the morning. we were just cruising and everything was fine. b/c i had not eaten in the last 12 hours, we decided to stop by Harris Ranch. as usual, i had my Ranch Burger, which i am convinced is my favorite burger in the whole wide world. it was a bit odd though, eating such a meal at 6am. haha. but no worry. i was one satisfied customer.

we continued our journey and shortly approached "grapes of wrath" or better known as Grapevine. all LA drivers know this cursed area b/c it totally rapes our cars. dykas thought of changing it to "RAPE-vine." anyways, right before i was about to enter Los Angeles, i see a cop waiting on the side a good 50 feet away? i slowed down from a comfortable 90 mph to a safe 65-70 mph. i looked into my rear view mirror. he started following me. NO!!!!! the siren went off. NO!!!!! so i got my first speeding ticket for going 88 mph at a 65 zone. i have to appear in court a month later in this place called Valencia. for the rest of the day, i was what my friends called a "zombie." i was incredibly pissed at what had just happened and could not get it out of my mind. i felt like my whole trip had just fallen apart. WHY GOD WHY?! i was totally in a bad mood. i had not gotten ANY sleep for the past 24 hours, it was pretty hot, and i had just gotten my first ticket. no sir, that is not a good combination.

fortunately, the Marriot we were staying at was a sweet piece of cake! it was just like Char said it would be. they had some hecka comfortable beds, a tv, a sofa, and a kitchen with pots and pans. all of this for only 60 bucks! yeap, we were definitely pleased.

at irvine, we went to the advising session and picked out our classes. we were really hungry so we decided to go to k-town for dinner. man, we got soooooo lost...

justin: alrite phil. is it 10 east or 10 west?
me: (after looking at the map) um, i think it's 10 west. but i'm not sure.
justin: i think it's 10 east. yeah, this place definitely looks familiar!
(1 hour later)
me: ok, how about we try 10 west ok?
justin: i don't know man. i'm pretty sure it's 10 east.
(we get onto 10 west and see Western right away).
justin: sorry guys.

the whole time, we were driving around Compton and Inglewood. justin and dykas were getting really frustrated and started hating on Mexicans. we were lost. we were hungry. we were tired. it was hot. they were pissed. we finally found Hodori and ate our crappy meal. the service was really bad. the food was over priced. the food did not make us happy.

justin: can we get some more ban-chan?
unhappy waitress: just wait til the other food comes out ok?

we then went to Alexandria plaza to find Intercrew Cafe. that took us a while. it took me a long time to figure out that Intercrew was actually on another block, and not in THAT plaza. our waitress was pretty cute. however, they once again did not have any pat-bing-soo! we left and went to this other cafe. after eating a delicious desert, we headed back to the hotel.

after a good 9.5 hours of sleep, we were all refreshed. the hotel gave us a continental breakfast, which was much more than just muffins and water. we had lots of eggs, toast, soup, and cereal. quite pleased. after we all washed up, we were ready to go to Irvine once again. dykas had to take his Subject A Exam and i had to take care of financial aid. before that, dykas and i took our pictures and received our id cards right on the spot! dude, college id cards are so much cooler than the ones in high school! gosh, i love looking at that crap. as dykas was taking his test, justin and i took a housing tour to check out the dorms. OH-MY-GOSH! i was incredibly happy about the rooms. they are just so nice! the desks were alot bigger than i thought and all the rooms have windows! woohoo! justin was pissed cause he said that the dorms at Irvine were bigger than any IVY school dorms he's ever seen. he was overflowing with envy. eheheheheheh. praise God! i love my school! however, as were walking back to the parking lot, we saw a lady writing tickets and putting them on cars. as we approached my car, we were once again pretty angry. justin tried to talk to the lady but she said we were in a reserved spot or something. the ticket was only 20 bucks but still! it's just so stupid you know? 2 tickets in 2 days. ugh.

we went to k-town for our last meal there. we were trying to find this one place that chang recommended but we had trouble finding it. we stopped at this small area to ask for directions until we saw the words, "sullong tang $2.99!" justin was instantly attracted. it looked like a piece of crap from outside but we decided to give it a chance. shoot! this was definitely no mistake! gal-bee was only 6.50 and it was totally good stuff! justin's soup was REALLY good too. and to top it off, our waitress was just so nice to us! we couldn't have asked for a better restaurant. they were also pretty generous in terms of quantity. that lady received a 5 dollar tip from a 16 dollar meal. haha. totally earned it.

no matter how full we were, there was ALWAYS room for pat-bing-soo. haha. that crap is just so good! as we were eating outside, we saw this cop who pulled over like 4 cars on the same block! as i watching each unfortunate event, i was totally empathizing with the drivers. dude, it just sucks man! those cops are just out there to get you. we then went to ABC plaza as always to buy some korean cds. i also bought a car freshener and a new map cause the one we were using was getting old. we finally took off at 6pm.

dykas: dude, pray for me that i'll be able to get a dorm even though i'm on the waiting list.
justin: my mom said that we should pray before we take off.
me: alrite then pray.
justin: dykas pray.
dykas: no! you pray!
me: why are you guys so ashamed?
justin: alrite. i'll pray.
(prays for safety and thanks for a good trip).
everyone: amen.
dykas: DUDE! you didn't pray about my dorm! that's messed up!
me and justin: ahahahahhahahaa.

this time, i was driving no more than 75-80 mph. i definitely learned my lesson and began putting it into practice. it was so weird though b/c the whole time, i was thinking why God had given me a ticket. what were His reasons? well, i found out one of them as we were driving. on Grapevine, there was this cop that was waiting on the side of the road. i wasn't speeding or anything but that got me thinking. if i had NOT received my ticket yesterday, i can almost promise you that i would've been doing well over 100 mph. and we all know that that is considered reckless driving...supposedly over $1000 tickets or something. i had a really good feeling that God was preventing something even worse from happening. THEN, as were getting off of Grapevine, there was ANOTHER cop that as waiting on the side of the road. i thought to myself...if i had NOT gotten caught the first time on Grapevine, i definitely would have gotten caught the second time! and this too would have been at least at 100 mph too! i mean, i'll never know WHAT exactly would've happened. but of course, i would like to think those were parts of God's reasons for my ticket the other day. then of course there are other reasons that i may not know such as prevention from future accidents/tickets or to just merely discipline/humble me. all in all, it happened and i cannot do anything about it. however, i have faith that God works for the good of all of His people, right?

but boy did we have some great talks in that car! we talked about racing cars, why justin and dykas hated mexican people, the awe of watching star wars, the finest girls in the korean music industry, and about independent, stupid, lazy, and fake girls. haha. CURIOUS JYKAS! lol.

we stopped at McDonald's to take a break. then out of no where, we see Ken Mak! he was visiting UCLA with Lucerne and they were on their way home too! it was such a coincidence! what are the odds you know?!

ken: phil, lots of hot girls in irvine?
me: eh, it's alrite. what about UCLA?
ken: HELLA HOT GIRLS!
me: ahahahahahahaha.

so finally, we arrived and here i am after an amazing 8 hours of sleep. my goal: watch Goldmember and buy gifts for cousins today. boy oh boy, lots to do!

Thought of the Day: Well, at least mom's not so pissed.
Song of the Day: Um Jung Hwa-Looking For The Hidden Picture