This looks interesting. Reminds me of a mix between Jean Pierre Jeunet and Studio Ghibli

Here are plenty of photos of Ingleside and what I have been doing around here these past few days. First of all, some photos of the house I'm living in now.
The common doorway. The landlord's parents stay on the first floor, so their entrance is separate from the rented rooms upstairs.
The bedroom. I now, looks like my belongings just exploded all over the place. It's the 'holiday' look, ok.
The bathroom.
The living room. Comfortable couches! (could do with a bit more lighting though)
The kitchen. It actually has a decent sized oven!I'm going to get pampered by this.
The neighbourhood. It's uphill, so assume the people staying here are either very fit or drive everywhere.
Another photo of the view from the living room. Hahah...I want to try the spring onion thing when I get back to my dorm.
And walking around Ingleside, here are a few photos. I'm kinda proud that I dared to explore the neighbourhood without a map (I research my route on Google maps the day before). This is Stern Grove, which is a small forest reserve/dog park. The lake is a natural lake though. It's nice that you can see some ducks and smell trees when you are walking there(although I found out today that there are some pretty awesomely big slugs that live here as well).
I've no pictures of them, but there are some circular stone pits where you can make a campfire, and some barbeque areas as well, which would be fun in less rainy weather.
I think this would be the park's management office, although it looks like an idyllic house in the countryside to me.
This pic is of Brooks Park, a tiny park 2 blocks away from where I stay, but it's probably one of the highest points around this area, so the view is pretty. You can see the ocean from here.
And then I walked to the beach since it was close to Stern Grove. It's really cold and I was stupid enough to take off my shoes and wade in the water, but the scene is really pretty, especially with the sun going down and mist in the mountains. There were some even crazier people surfing as well.
And then I sort of got lost a little on the way back (not fun when it's getting dark and the housing areas are almost deserted) But managed to get back onto the main road with some directions from passersby. My strategy is just to follow the main road with the train tracks and I'd eventually reach home.
When I'm not walking around outside, I'm usually either being a couch potato or cooking(or eating).
Jong Gol. The guy whose room I'm renting left some perishable food in the fridge, so those contributed to this dish.
Pizza. I should stop making these, I find I'd eat too much everytime I make pizza. It's the pastry, I'm addicted to pastry. I make breadsticks as a TV snack instead, today.

And also, I went to the nearby mall to do some Christmas shopping...er,no...Christmas camwhoring. Gosh it feels good to try on clothes that you wouldn't pay for.Either because they are too expensive/you look stupid in them, but you want to try them on anyway/you don't need them. Although my yum cha gang would be a nice addition to my little outing. Camwhoring is so much skankier with them :D

Phew...finally shifted to my winter accommodation. Moved my stuff in 2 trips.In 7 bags of varying sizes(I brought the food in my kitchen.Don't ask),through the city, into the train and uphill 1 block(getting slightly lost both times), in the rain and probably a bit sleep deprived and muscle taxed to boot. But it feels good to be staying away from the city in quite a cosy house, channel surfing a proper TV on a proper couch, and watching the rainy scenery outside the big windows. This house actually feels like a place that you could live in, compared to the uni's dorms which is so utilitarian, and then every term you have to pack your stuff and clean the place to sterile condition, for some students,having to turn in their keys just a few hours after their last class. The furniture is actually comfortable here. What we had in the dorm was a TV in the common room which was always messed with to make it look like it was not functioning, with a suede couch of questionable cleanliness.

I should learn how to plan my packing to travel lightly next time though. I went through my luggage just now and found several things which I wonder what I brought them for. Good thing that the people here are quite helpful to help pull my luggage down stairs and help me find directions. And next time I will make 3 trips instead of 2.Or take a cab.

And here are some photos of work from the final week of classes!
Work in progress of a male bust. Since this photo, I'd put a toga on him and twisted his head a bit. But also I accidentally decapitated the guy bringing it back from the sculpture studio.Hopefully it will still be reparable when I get back to my dorm in Spring. The uni's going to be renovating the building over the holidays, so we had to bring everything out of it. I still shiver thinking about how I brought all those stuff back to my dorm this morning. I put this piece in my luggage bag because it was too heavy to carry by hand (I think maybe 30 kgs) and besides that I also carried another small sculpture, a board and a bag of clay, all in 1 journey. Almost broke both my back and my bags.
This one is finished and I handed it to my lecturer, along with the feet, to be baked over the holidays. Not totally happy since the face is a bit asymmetrical, but I didn't have the heart to tear it down either.
Final project for my anatomy class entitled 'Fire'(imagine a westernised Indian God Shiva, the destruction to bring about change as a positive thing theme).Still needs to be sandpapered and it's cracks repaired, but otherwise done. Maybe I'll be working on the face more though.
Also, I finally gave in and bought some more socks. I think I could save more money in the long run by washing my clothes when I can get a bigger load. Before this I've been running out of socks and having to wash my clothes just because of that.
And I found my pumpkin pie! It's one of those that you take out of the fridge and bake it yourself though, and it came out of the box in a mess(thanks to the store for storing it vertically, the unbaked filling slid off sideways. But at least now, my curiosity is satisfied,although I'd like a pie with more crust and less filling.
Cooking update: Chili stew. It's like ABC soup on steroids when it comes to the amount of ingredients, but it tastes like comfort food and is very healthy at the same time.

Thought of You from Ryan Woodward on Vimeo.

Watch this animation!!

Really good. Very beautiful and sweet. Check out this guy's artwork as well, he's got a really good control of his medium, just a few strokes to convey structure and movement.

Went for another field trip today, this time for anatomy class. Pretty sad that this plan was kind of a backup plan so only 3 people from my class turned up. Anyways, we went to the Body Worlds exhibition in San Jose(Google for pictures, I didn't post any here in case it offends anyone, but it's not that gruesome). It's an exhibition of human body parts and flayed bodies preserved in a technique called plastination .It's a relatively new technique, being invented in the 1970s. Basically it involves substituting body fluids with plastics to prevent decomposition, and since the plastic hardens, the bodies can be posed and structures can be sliced without collapsing on themselves. Been wanting to go for something like that since I read about the La Specola(an exhibition of realistic wax sculptures of flayed bodies, in Italy) in my anatomy book, even if I wouldn't dare to go for a dissection.

There are a few exhibits traveling around, but the one we caught was the Vitals exhibit, which focussed on healthy and diseased bodies. Not all entirely relevant to anatomy class, but interesting nonetheless. And it strengthens your resolution not to smoke or drink. Apparently they've got an exhibition on animals as well. That would be fun.

It was really nice since the bodies are really well preserved and some of them are posed quite artistically.It makes you appreciate yourself better to see how ingeniously built and delicate anyone's body is on the inside. A bit smaller that I expected though, and the sucky thing was that we weren't allowed to take photos or even sketches in the exhibition. I think it's got something to do with being paranoid about copyright infringement, apparently there are some exhibitions ripping off the idea of Body Worlds. But you can find a lot of photos (press approved, probably) on the web though, which is pretty weird. I'd understand the no photography thing, but even no sketches? And it's supposed to be an educational exhibition. There were some other students that were taking written notes though. One happy accident was that the Tech Museum told us the wrong information that we could purchase tickets at half price if we brought our student IDs, and then they couldn't go back on their promise, so we got in for $8 instead of $14 for students or $16 at full price.

I think these people who donate their bodies to be made into exhibits are pretty cool. That along with those that will their bodies for dissection and organ donations. It's like getting more bang for your buck. I've heard some people say it makes you want to treat your body better when you are alive, the same way you'd treat something you borrowed from someone better than you treat you own possessions. I know Sook signed up for organ donation. Anyone else of you did something like that? I'm curious.