It’s been a very long period of time since I have written a post on my blog. The transition from SF back in August 2016 to New York in September 2016 (I took a month vacation and went back to Hawaii) was quite busy. Not to mention my 15-month accelerated Nursing program was jam packed with lectures, clinical, simulations, and coursework. Now that I am a NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing graduate (December 2017) and have successfully passed my NCLEX (February 2018), I’m patiently waiting for a nursing job. With so much time to kill, I need to have hobbies, both old and new. So my day (if I’m not stuffing my face with food usually consists of the following: church, gym to lift weights/cardio, yoga, applying for at least 10 nursing jobs/day, and constantly refreshing my email to see if any hospital has any interest in me. On some days, I add a couple of hours to hang out with my besties (Marie or Emily) and to explore NYC (museums, restaurants, coffeeshops, parks, etc.). I used to complain about all the free time I had, (especially when I was the first person in my group of friends that had passed the NCLEX – everyone was busy studying and I had no one to hangout with) but I’ve come to realize that this period of having lots of free time was also a time of self-growth.
Author: Andrea
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Boston – Round 2
ON OUR WAY TO BOSTON! Thanks Megabus 🙂
Happy Chinese New Year!
My Favorite Spots to Eat in Hawaii
Where to start…
I’m not going to deny it, but I’m extremely spoiled by the amazing food that the Bay Area has to offer. However, after coming back from my holiday vacation in Hawaii, I’m already missing a few of my favorite local food spots, many of which I’m unable to find in the Bay Area. Going through my food pics made me little homesick haha 😛
BEST MUSIBIS EVER!!! I’ve tried to replicate these babies, but it’s not even close to the real deal. The spam, cucumber, and egg go very well together.
Favorite Ramen Place In Hawaii: Gomatei is the place I go to when I want my ramen fix in the islands. I have yet to try AguRamen (apparently one of the contenders for amazing ramen in Hawaii), but Gomatei is pretty delicious. I usually go for the Tan Tan Ramen. This ramen has a few pieces of thick-cut char-siu and some veggies. The soup has a nice kick to it.
Hawaiian Style Eggs Benedict: If I had to choose between breakfast, lunch, or dinner, I would choose BRUNCH in a heart beat! My favorite brunch meal is anything with eggs benedict. I love the satisfaction I get when I cut open a perfectly poached egg and the egg’s yolk slowly oozes onto the english muffin. SO SATISFYING! Brunch places in the Bay Area are the best (I don’t mean to brag, but they really are). However, the Bay Area don’t really serve Kalua Pork, which happens to be one of my favorite Hawaiian dishes. There is this place called My Cafe in Kapolei that serves Kalua Pork benedicts, which were phenomenal. Definitely will be back again.
POKE BOWLS: Hawaii has their own unique take to poke bowls. The picture on the left is a spicy ahi poke bowl from Ono Seafood, and the picture on the right is spicy ahi & hawaiian style poke bowl from Poke on Da Run. My favorite poke bowl will always be from Ono Seafood. However, if I have a sudden craving for a poke bowl, Poke On Da Run will be my go-to place. Its literally a 5 minute drive, compared to a 25 minute drive to Ono Seafood.
Craving Breakfast in the Middle of the Night? Don’t fear, breakfast at Liliha Bakery in Kalihi is worth the trip. Their warm and buttery rolls with guava jelly will melt in your mouth and their corn beef hash is always on point. Don’t forget to order some coco puffs!
“Snowflake Ice” – A mix between shave ice and ice cream: A delicious dessert, commonly known as Taiwanese shave ice. A big thanks to my boyfriend, who took me here when we first started dating ~3 years ago. My favorite flavor is black sesame. It has an acquired taste, but there are also other flavors to satisfy your palate.
Acai Bowls! Hawaii’s warm and sunny weather makes these babies even more enjoyable. I know I could just go to a nearby Jamba Juice and order a bowl, but Blue Hawaii and HiBlend Cafe make acai bowls a million times better. The next time I’m in Hawaii, I will definitely try other places, as I have heard there are other pretty good ones.
Kahuku Butter & Garlic Shrimp from Romy’s: My annual around the island trip with family will ALWAYS and FOREVER have a lunch stop at Romy’s. If you love garlic and you love shrimp, then you have to try their butter and garlic shrimp plate. It’s not the healthiest thing in the world, but it will make you wanting more. TRUST ME!
I’ve included a few dishes from my Mom’s cooking because her cooking is the best I could ever ask for. For me, Filipino food does not taste good unless its made with love in your mom or dad’s kitchen. Filipino parents typically show their love for their child through their cooking and because my mom loves me SO much, her cooking comes out extra special. I’ve tried a fair share of Filipino restaurants, and they are usually oily or have a good amount of fat attached to the meat. My mom makes Filipino dishes on the healthier side, so its a huge plus for me. My mom’s cooking is what I miss the most from Hawaii.
XOXO,
Andrea
Holidays in Hawaii
For 3 whole weeks, I spent my holidays in paradise… Hawaii, home sweet home! I had moved to the Bay Area a year ago, and haven’t been home since. I wish I could put into words my parent’s excitement!
My time in Hawaii was well spent with family and a few close friends. It hasn’t been a full week since I’ve arrived back in the Bay Area, but I’m already feeling a little homesick. Here are some highlights from my adventures in Hawaii:
Christmas: Every Christmas day, my family and I go to church early morning (6:30 AM) and then head to McDonald’s for breakfast right after. Mcdonald’s is literally my dad’s favorite place to eat 😛 We usually take our annual family picture after breakfast and open presents as well.
Beach: It’s been a year since I’ve seen the beach and such beautiful sunny weather. Most people think that because I’m originally from Hawaii, I love going to the beach and its something that I miss a lot since I’ve moved to the Bay Area. To be honest, I’m not too crazy on the beach stuff and wouldn’t mind not living near one. But, I did enjoy my one and only visit to the beach during my 3-week stay in Hawaii 🙂
Annual Sleepover With One of the Best: I wasn’t allowed to sleep over anyone’s house (not even my cousin’s) until I graduated high school… parent’s rule. Well, my very first sleepover was the summer before my freshmen year in college at my bestie’s house – Kris Hazen. As of today, I believe we have had four sleepovers total. The first time I slept over, I wasn’t able to stay up pass 9:00 PM. The second time, I stayed up until 10:00 PM and the third time I stayed up until 10:30 PM. I have no idea why I’m not able to stay up “late.” I’ve pulled off a fair share of all-nighters in high school and college. Yet, I’m unable to keep myself awake pass midnight. Well, with this last sleepover, I did hit a new record… 11:30 PM! Our sleepover consisted of getting our eyebrows/mustaches done, Poke Bowls from Poke on Da Run, painting nails, and making honey toast with vanilla ice cream.
Annual New Year’s Eve Party at my Aunt’s House: Every year since I was about 5 years old, my family and I would go to my calabash family’s house on New Year’s Eve. They always make their food from scratch (except for their fried rice) and its always a joy to see the closest thing to blood-related family.
Hanging out with Friends: It was so much fun to see some of my closest friends and to reconnect with a few old ones 🙂 I’m extremely grateful to have spent time with these lovely fellas – Courtney, Kris Hazen, Rovelyn, Tony, Makana, Shayne, Daniel, & Landry. I can’t wait to see them again.
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Around the Island Trip with Family: The first week into the new year usually consists of our around the island trip with family. The highlight of the trip is ALWAYS our lunch stop at Romy’s. Their butter and garlic shrimp plate is TO DIE FOR!
Koko Head: I absolutely LOVE this hike. It’s a real leg workout with its steep railroad steps. There’s about a thousand or so steps and it took me about ~26-27 minutes to complete (6 minutes slower than last year’s time). I went at around 3:00 PM (which was a terrible time to hike as its extremely hot IMHO). The best time to go is an hour before sunrise and sunset. This was my first hike of 2016, and my favorite view on the island of Oahu.
Lulumalu Falls: This was the first hike I ever did in Hawaii where I saw a waterfall! The hike itself was quite short, it only took me 20-25 minutes to reach the waterfalls. It was quite muddy hiking up to the waterfall, but definitely worth it. I would definitely do this hike again.
Daddy’s 66th Birthday: I can’t believe my dad is 66 years old… WOW! Time flies by when you are having fun… We didn’t have any new candles on hand, except for an old #1 candle that my brother found. We also didn’t have cake, but that’s because no one wanted cake. So, my dad enjoyed his chocolate pancakes with taro syrup and be ice cream for breakfast 🙂 Later that day, we also went to the movies and ate yummys & panda express for lunch.
Food was definitely another highlight of my adventures in Hawaii. However, I felt it deserved its own blog post. So, in a couple of days, you can read about it here.
XOXO,
Andrea
Growing Up & Growing Old
A few days ago, I experienced one of the most emotional/terrifying event of my life… seeing one of your parents sick. I’m extremely grateful that it wasn’t anything too serious, but it definitely gave me a different perspective on life.
I won’t go into too much detail of what happened, but long story short.
I had spent the entire day at the ER for my mom’s strained calf muscle (according to my mom, it was extremely painful and as you can see very swollen). After 8 hours spent at the ER, we were able to head home. A few minutes after we had arrived home, my mom collapsed and was unconscious. I was in complete shock. She was fine one moment and then all of a sudden, everything changed in a blink of an eye. I remember my heart racing and my hands trembling. Never in my life did I experience something like this, nor did I want to this early in my life.
I ended up calling 911 and the ambulance came and brought her to the hospital. Fortunately, it wasn’t anything too serious, just a bad reaction to some medication given. While we were at the ER the second time around, my mom and I stayed the night. There’s not much you can do at the ER, except comfort your loved ones or watch reruns of the same show on TV. While my mom slept most of the time that she was there, I spent a lot of time reflecting on life and this idea of growing up and growing old.
When I think of growing up and old, the first things that come to mind are ones that will bring happiness. I think of marrying the love of life, having children, working in a career that makes me happy, having grandkids, and retiring in Hawaii. Although there are a lot of things that I look forward to as I grow up, there’s also my new fear of seeing my parents get sick. It’s a really scary thought.
I am thankful that for the most part my parents are pretty healthy right now, but I guess I have to accept the fact that it’s life, and hope and pray that they stay healthy enough to see me get married and see their grandkids. I just didn’t want to have to see something like that anytime soon. I feel a little jaded from the whole experience, but I definitely learned a lot.
And so, with that said, a great friend of mine once told me that it’s important that we spend as much time as we can with our parents. I definitely agree! I’m not saying to live with your parents forever, but to make time for them – give them a call at least twice a week, pay them a visit during the holidays, etc. Sure, parents can sometimes be annoying, but that’s often their way of showing that they love you ❤
I think I’ll give my mom and dad a call…
XOXO,
Andrea
My 2016 New Year’s Resolutions
Prior to welcoming the new year, I didn’t really give much thought to my New Year’s Resolutions. In the past years, I haven’t been successful in completing my new year’s resolution, and wasn’t too thrilled to set myself up for failure again, given my terrible track record. It took me almost a whole week into the new year, to decide what promises I wanted to make with myself for self-improvement. I decided on 4 New Year’s Resolutions… I know what you are thinking, “why 4?” and “what makes you think you can be successful with 4, let alone 1?” I want 2016 to be the year that I improve my wellness, and in doing so, I want/need to improve my well-being with the following areas: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
- PHYSICAL: Transforming My BODY! To kick this one off, I’m participating in the $250,000 Transformation Challenge Presented by Dymatize Nutrition. It’s 12 weeks of eating clean and working out. I’m super excited to not only compete in the challenge itself, but actually complete it 🙂 I usually start really well the first couple of weeks, and then I end up making excuses. It’s going to be tough, but I know I can do it! My goal is to get my body fat percentage down to 15-17%. If I’m successful, I’ll be super close to my ultimate dream of getting abs!
- MENTAL: My promise to myself this year (and I hope for the rest of my life) is to connect with my loved ones more. Reflecting back on 2015, I found myself not making enough time to communicate with my family. I would call or text them once every couple of weeks, or even ignore their calls once in a while. I’ve made myself somewhat of a stranger, and I want to change that. If I can find time to binge watch on Netflix, then I can totally have time to talk to my family and friends ❤
- EMOTIONAL: I’ve decided to make this blog part of my new year’s resolution. On a weekly basis, I’m going to devote some time to reflect on things (adventures, relationships, friendships, health, food) that can help me maintain a positive outlook on life. I’m making a promise to myself to publish at least one post a week.
- SPIRITUAL: Just a little background about myself – my parents (my mom, especially, is a very religious woman) raised my siblings and I as Catholics. I haven’t deviated to other religions, but to be honest, my faith journey has been a winding path. I was very active in church (altar server and choir member) before I went off to college, and then my faith dwindled a bit in college. After I graduated from college, I moved to the mainland, and have been attending mass weekly. Reminiscing on the past, I do miss being active in church. My faith in God grew the most when I shared my talents in church. As a new year’s resolution, I’m going to join the church choir 🙂 I have to do a little research, but I hope its an open group, and I don’t have to audition (keeping my fingers crossed.)
Cheers to a new year everyone!!!
XOXO,
Andrea
2015: A Year of Many Firsts
I’m still in shock that it’s already a new year! Its only been 2 days into 2016, but a little part of me feels stuck in 2015. Not sure if anyone feels the same. I’m not too sure if it’s because I didn’t get to accomplish all that I wanted to do in 2015 OR if I enjoyed 2015 too much to let it go. Nevertheless, I have new goals planned for 2016 and I’m excited to see where life takes me 🙂
To sum up 2015 in a few words, it was a year of many FIRSTS. To say a farewell to 2015 and a big hello to 2016, I’ve compiled some of my FIRSTS from 2015 below. By the way, this is actually my FIRST post EVER for my blog and it was lots of fun to reminisce on 2015.
Moving From HI to SF! This was probably the biggest life-changing event that has happened to me in the 22 years that I’ve been alive. After graduating from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with my Bachelor’s in Biology (Fall 2014), I wanted change; to explore the mainland, to feel independent, and to discover myself.
First Jobs Post-Graduation: Cafe Grillades & Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes: Job hunting was difficult, especially finding a job in the Bay Area. Initially I wanted to find a job at a hospital, but it wasn’t going to be possible with my lack of experience (so many over-qualified applicants applying for entry level positions). I set my ego aside and settled for a waitress position at Cafe Grillades and a teaching position at Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes to make ends meet. I eventually quit my waitressing job to focus more on my work at Lindamood-Bell and to have more time for other activities. I started volunteering at Clinic By the Bay, which is an awesome Clinic BY THE WAY 😛
First time watching a live horse race at Golden Gate Fields: I never thought I would actually go to one of these horse racing events. My boyfriend and I pretty much had bad luck that day. Every horse that we placed a bet on didn’t win 😦 But, that’s okay, because the experience itself was lots of fun. We went on Dollar Day – general admission, hotdogs, beers, sodas, and general program were all a DOLLAR. Pretty good deal eh?
Watching Manny Pacquiao VS Mayweather: I don’t normally watch boxing matches, but this was going to be the biggest match of the century, so why not? Besides, I have to support Manny, a Filipino boxer and my dad’s favorite.
First SF Giants Game: I don’t follow sports that much, but my boyfriend does. So, by living in the Bay Area and being in a relationship with someone who is from the Bay Area, if there’s a baseball team to root for, it’s going to be the SF GIANTS. My favorite part of going to a baseball game is drinking beer with the most GARLICKY french fries ever!
First time Pumpkin Picking and Carving: I want to say that pumpkin picking and carving is more like a mainland thing. Never in my life did I pick a pumpkin from a pumpkin patch or carve one. What you might not know is that it took me 2.5 hours total to carve such a simple design. I was super indecisive when it came to choosing a design for my pumpkin because I wanted it to be perfect. But then, it was taking way too long to decide on a design (2 hours) and by then my boyfriend had already finished carving his. So, I settled for a kitty cat, which only took 30 minutes. I can’t believe it took me more time to decide what to carve than the actual carving itself.
First Time Dressing up as a Couple: In the 3+ years that we’ve been dating, we have never dressed up for Halloween as a couple. To be honest, we didn’t plan this costume pairing until the day of. My boyfriend didn’t plan on dressing up and I was just going to wear my onesie that I had purchased in the summer time for work. But then, my boyfriend changed his mind and we paid a visit to Spirit (a Halloween store). He went with the sumo baby costume and I was his stuffed dinosaur.
First 5K!!!: I think this has to be one of the best things I decided to accomplish in 2015. I never thought I could do it, but I did. I initially signed up alone for the 5k mermaid series, but thought it would be more fun running it with my partner in crime from Lindamood-Bell (Caroline). I placed 5th in my age group out of 31 and finished the race in 32 minutes and 21 seconds. Not bad for my 1st race. I will definitely do another race in 2016.
Turning 22! “I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling 22…” At first I was freaking out about turning 22, but then the day came, and I felt the same. When I was 18, I had this 10 year plan. I was going to be in medical school by the age of 22, but that didn’t go according to plan. I’m still a little lost with myself at age 22, but I’ve been telling myself that I’m still young and everything is going to be okay… [I’ll probably blog more about this at a later time… stay tuned…]
For my birthday celebration, my boyfriend’s mom and aunty took me to an awesome Japanese Restaurant in the Marina called Chotto. Their ramen is probably the best that I’ve ever had. Definitely a restaurant to check out!
First Time Snowboarding! BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT!!! My favorite presents are the ones that are experiences. My boyfriend surprised me by planning a whole weekend of fun at Kirkwood Ski Resort. It’s quite rare for me to see snow, seeing that I was born and raised on a tropical Island. Snowboarding was a lot harder than I thought, and definitely a workout. I lost count with the number of falls that I experienced. Will probably go again… but try skiing instead.
First Christmas Tree: I bought my first Christmas Tree! It was super cheap at Walmart (~$20). Growing up, my family’s Christmas tree was always colorfully decorated. Instead, my boyfriend and I settled for a gold and blue themed tree. I was initially against that idea, but it turned out great. Who knew my boyfriend had good taste in decorations 😛
First Puppy: Meet Mocha! On top of the two kids that my boyfriend and I already have (2 cats – Sammy and Peaches), my boyfriend and I welcomed our third kid (Mocha) to the family on December 10. She is a darling, and the cutest yorkie-poo ever. When we got her, it was definitely an impulse buy. We were window shopping at Serramonte Shopping Center, when we came across a couple holding Mocha. All I wanted to do was to pet her, but it turns out they were trying to sell her. The moment my boyfriend and I saw her, we had to get her. Mocha is 4 months old and has the friendliest personality ever! She will no doubt make your hearts melt the moment you see her. The biggest thing that I’ve learn, besides the fact that it’s a lot of work to raise a pup, is that I’m no where near ready to have an actual baby of my own (so, if you are thinking about having babies, have a test run with a pup :P). Mocha is cute and all, but potty training her has been a lot of work and so far, it’s getting a little expensive with vaccinations, food, and supplies. Despite the amount of work, I don’t have any regrets adopting Mocha, and I can’t wait to raise this cutie pie ❤
XOXO,
Andrea
Be Silly. Be Kind. Be Weird. 