You’d think a one hour flight would be a relatively painless affair, but in our case, getting from London to Edinburgh turned out to be a bitch and a half. For starters, there was the long train ride to Gatwick airport at butt o’clock in the morning. Actually, it was earlier than any reasonable morning hour, so let’s make that the butt crack of dawn. Annoying, but fair enough, considering we wanted to have the entire day in Scotland. Then, in the middle of our inspecting our luggage and checking our tickets, EasyJet arbitrarily closed check-in earlier than the time listed on our ticket, which meant that only one of us was able to get on the flight. Several WTFs and moments of squabbling and extraneous transfer fees later, they put my friend on a later ticket, so I ended up with a few hours to spare in Edinburgh alone.

Unfortunately, that was not my only horrific experience with EasyJet during this trip (more to come later in Amsterdam), but honestly? At this point, it’s neither here nor there, so moving on! Anyway, I got to Edinburgh, took the bus to Princes Street (the main shopping street in the city), took another bus to the hostel, checked in, dropped off the suitcase, walked through the Meadows and back to Princes Street, and grabbed lunch because I was starving and sleep-deprived at this point.

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After a gentle reminder that I indeed haven’t blogged in a while, I figured I ought to provide an explanation for my unannounced hiatus. Said explanation also requires me to reveal Major Life News. Since my graduation, I’ve been travelling for the past month and a half (Hangzhou, Seoul, Hong Kong, Italy/Greece), with a few pitstops back home in Shanghai. I have enough photos to fill up all of my memory cards, but my travels aren’t exactly the Life News I intend to reveal, nor are they a legitimate excuse as to why I haven’t been blogging. In fact, you’d think more photos would equate to more blog posts. Which is indeed quite true, in Cindy!logic. But I digress.

Guess what, kids! I’m moving to San Francisco (!!!!!!). I know I mentioned a few months ago that I’d be moving to Austin, but a little over a week ago, the company transferred me to their main headquarters in Mountain View, CA, so it looks like I’m going to be an official California resident! So, basically, same company, different office. The whole move both excites and stresses me out, seeing as I’m leaving for Sanfran in less than 24 hours to pick out apartments and more importantly, get my shit together. Yeah. The past few days have been spent scouring Craigslist ads and broker sites, both with varied results.

In an ideal world, I’d have a place secured by my start date, which got pushed back to July 25th. But of course, that might be asking for a lot. We’ll see. Am I excited? Of freaking course, even if my excitement often gets eclipsed by OH SHIT WHAT DO I DO WITH MY SELF.

P.S. I’m a bit of a Bay Area noob, so if any of you Californians have suggestions, tips, recommendations (food, shopping, etc), whathaveyou — I’m all ears.

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Why hello, lovely people! I swear, this update is not my idea of a terrible April Fool’s joke, but I can’t say I’d blame you, what with my posting once in a blue moon. So in my two-ish month absence, I have trudged through my last semester in uni, but even amidst all those midterms, there are two things of note:

• I received and accepted a job offer from an amazing company. What does this mean? Well, this means A Lot of Things. Such as the fact that I’ll officially have some sort of modicum of a life plan once I graduate this May. Or the fact that I’ll be moving to Austin, Texas, this summer. Or the fact that my senioritis has kicked in high gear and my already declining interest in school has officially surpassed the point of no1curr into IDGAF territory.

Admittedly, it’s going to be a weird transition to go from New York to Austin, but I’m really excited about it. I mean, first of all, there’s the job and the company. I’ve heard only good things about Austin from friends, and the fact that the cost of living is nearly half that of NY? Score. Also, the fact that there is rain and snow here in April, for crying out loud — I can’t even. Anyway, I’ve started the apartment hunt already. I’m slowly planning my summer, and this is what it looks like so far:

May 18th: Graduation!
May 18th – July 11th: ??????
July 11th – 29th: Work training in Mountain View, California
onwards: AUSTIN.

This totally begs the question, though. What do I do from May to July? My family might be going on vacation for two weeks in late June, but that leaves about four weeks of a blank schedule. Am I going to chill out at home in Shanghai? Stay in NY and cling to the sidewalks until I actually have to move? Take a vacation on my own (something I’ve been wanting to do since forever)? Spend the rest of that time moving in Austin? Egads, the possibilities!

• I went on a 10-day trip to Spain (Madrid, Barcelona) and Portugal (Lisbon) in mid-March for spring break. Once I sift through 2038594 photos and upload them, expect lots of blatherings about pretty castles, art, football, and FOOD from yours truly. I mean, really, if the capslock and bolded letters didn’t jump out at you enough, I ate a bunch of good food. Patatas bravas, WHERE ART THOU IN AMERICA. But yes. I have photos. And writeups. Both of which I will gladly share, because letting them rot and die in my hard drive would be a rather sad way to go about things.

Anyway. This here is a drawing of the Infanta Margarita as portrayed by Diego Velázquez in my favorite painting EVER, Las Meninas, which I got to see in person when I was in Madrid. Seeing your favorite painting right in front of you is something akin to a religious experience. Chalk it up to the all the art I’ve seen in the past few weeks (Goya, Miró, and Gaudí, oh my!), but I’ve been feeling oddly inspired since Spain. Anyway, wallpaper’s up here in Smashing Magazine, if you want to download.

So there you have it. I’m still alive, but even better, I’m positively excited about my future life plans. It’s a good feeling.

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