Miami/Orlando Florida

Once again, I took my yearly trip down to Florida for the UOTS Children's Cancer Camp. As I stated before, I am so grateful for the wonderful opportunity to spend a week helping kids with cancer- everytime when I come back, I have a greater appreciation for the happenings in my life (whether good or bad). I have learned so much from both campers and counselors, and I have built very lasting relationships with many of them.This year we went to Walt Disney World and Islands of Adventure to check out the new Harry Potter rides. Disney World was a lot of fun, but we definitely spent a majority of our time standing in line...even though we had special passes. That was a little disappointing. Islands of Adventure was AMAZING (as always). And the Harry Potter section is great... there were 3 rides (2 coasters, 1 simulated 3D ish ride)- definitely worth checking out. It was SO crowded there that you had to wait in line for over an hour just to go in the STORES! :( so unfortunately we did not make it in.

Here are some photos from my amazing week:(unfortunately I can't post pics with campers due to privacy issues, and my camera was thrown into a pool [with me] so I only have pics from the beginning half of the week )

Magic Kingdom:

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
Marlins Game:

Jacksonville Fl

This past weekend, I took a super quick (1.5 days) trip down to Jacksonville Fl. It was really nice! Enjoyed the sun and went shopping...like crazy. I now have to curb my shopping as I spent way too much in Fl. The sad thing is, I was so busy shopping...I didn't really take any photos. Here is one photo of the Jacksonville bridge. It's actually quite beautiful at night when they light it up in blue lights (use your imagination. hehe)

Restaurant Week in Durham NC

It has been a couple of months since I've posted...sorry for the lack of posts, but unfortunately I have been busy busy busy working and very little time to travel. But the exciting thing is that Durham NC is an "up and coming" area...and this past week was Restaurant Week!!!! Unfortunately my budget only allowed me the luxury of visiting 1 restaurant...but nonetheless I have some photos to share.

My friend and I went to Four Square Restaurant in Durham...it is a southern foods inspired restaurant...very very delicious; I would definitely recommend it as a restaurant to visit if you have the budget. :)
Hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed eating! HEHE!

beef with corn and wild rice:

mahi mahi with noodles (and KIM CHEE):

a chocolate torte and mascarpone brownie? haha
it was ALL delicious nonetheless

post dinner:

Everything's bigger in Texas

My last trip for the month of March was Houston Texas. The city reminds me of a hybrid between suburbia and major metropolitan area. It's interesting- you get a bit of both when you're in Houston. I spent the majority of my time near Rice University and the major hospitals nearby. WOW, it is amazing how much money there is at Rice and the UT Hospitals. Can they share their wealth? HAHA I was really blown away by how they could afford these million dollar buildings...

I had a wonderful tour of the Rice Campus (beautiful by the way), visited Rice Village briefly, went "downtown", and even took a nice sunny trip to the zoo. (and of course ate LOTS of delicious food in between)

While the environment was super nice, and there was definitely a great variety of delicious foods to eat...unfortunately I could not see myself spending the next 5 years of my life there. I think at the end of the day I am still an East coast girl at heart, so I'm going to have to pass on the "midwest". HAHA

Here are some photos from Houston. Enjoy!

Trip to the zoo
(located literally in the middle of the city!!)

This animal is a hybrid of a zebra and ??

The giraffe was SOO close!!! AMAZING

Rice Bioengineering building:

near the campus:

Old Bioengineering building
(the slabs of rock are called 360, 45, and 90. HAHA)

Overview of Rice/Houston area from the engineering building
(WOW... would love to see this EVERYDAY . HAHA)

Houston at night:

The city of Brotherly Love

I recently took a trip up to Philadelphia, PA. What a fun city!!! I really enjoyed my trip- the city is REALLY nice - its very very NYC like but without all the dirt and ridiculous high stress. hahah On top of that, the weekend I went to visit...the weather was AMAZING!!! (70F+) LOVED IT! And UPENN is really beautiful! I loved the campus, and there is a strip of shops right across the street. OMG I'm in love! HAHA

Here are just a few pictures of my trip. Unfortunately I did not have a lot of time to sightsee the city, as I spent the majority of my weekend touring UPENN.

giant paper clip by the subway station:

a building in downtown:

UPENN Campus:

(This area was equivalent of the BC Walkway at Duke)

Apparently, Cameron Indoor Stadium is modeled after this building:

Penn Engineering Quad area:

These LOVE sculptures were everywhere:

everything about philly is ben franklin related:

March Travels

It's been quite some time since I've traveled anywhere... but this past weekend I took a quick trip up to New York City. I was there for only 2.5 days including airport time. I spent most of my time on the Upper West Side, but had some time in the down-town areas, like SOHO and Columbus Circle. Unfortunately I did not remember to take too many pictures, though some new friends did. (I'm waiting to get them from them!). Here are a few images of Columbus Circle.

Enjoy!

Carmines- family style italian restaurant. delicious!!!
Columbus Circle

Trump Tower:

Shops at Columbus Circle:

Leaving Broadway: