early morning in southern CA

ah, what a great weekend it's been - full of family and food. It's like Thanksgiving all over again. My aunt is such a great cook - she made my favorite dish on my first night here, chicken galbi... YUM. It's better than eating at restaurants, and I think I missed real Korean food (not like my attempts at it). I use her same recipe for kimchee chigae, but it never tastes the same. I think when I told her that, she was secretly happy. ^^

Old Town was so beautiful last night - all these decorations. There was a lot of red, not b/c of the Christmas decorations, but thanks to the USC win in the USC/UCLA game... school pride was so frenzied, so many people there. Sarah should have won her USC sweatshirt. ;) We had to wait 80 minutes for a table at Cheesecake Factory, which was fine b/c we walked around during that time, but it was pretty crazy still. We browsed around our old stores and stopped by the new Lush store that opened there. It's huge! Bigger than any London, Korean (except for the one in Apgujong), NY, or SF stores that I've been in. It was lovely. On the menu at Cheesecake: tiramisu cheesecake and a red raspberry martini. yum.

Beverly Center today! After Sarah drops me off at a Starbucks near USC while she goes and rehearses for four hours. eek. That'll hopefully give me enough time to go through five musculoskeletal lectures today. That's my goal. Finals are coming up, but I don't feel the pressure yet.