Day Trip to Joshua Tree National Park

One of the many reasons due to which I feel privileged to live in Los Angeles is its abundance of natural beauty. With the San Gabriel mountains to the east and the Hollywood range to the north-west, LA has no shortage of options for adventurers and hikers looking to get away from the concrete and congestion of the main city. … Read More

Hawaii Family Takeover

Last month, my extended family spent our weeklong annual retreat at a new spot this year – Hawaii! Staying on the North Shore of Oahu, we lived in a gorgeous home filled with unique antiques and cozy spaces for intimate conversation. Although many of us are from and live in Los Angeles, there were others that came from Hong Kong, … Read More

My Second Home – Hong Kong!

As a PhD student, I am lucky enough to have the flexibility to take time off that may not normally coincide with a break on the academic calendar. This year, I spent one week (out of my four vacation weeks) in Hong Kong to visit my grandfather and aunt. Although people in Hong Kong don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, we hosted a … Read More

Atlanta for BMES 2018

Every biomedical engineer knows fall is officially here when it is time to go to the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting! For 2018, we all headed to Atlanta, Georgia for BMES’ 50th Anniversary. My labmates and I all presented posters in a broad range of categories: micro/nano fluidic engineering and lab-on-chip systems, cellular and molecular bioengineering, tissue engineering, cardiovascular … Read More

Day Trip To Santa Barbara

After my first and busy semester as a Master’s student at USC, my family came to visit me and we decided to make a day trip to Santa Barbara for the first time. The city is located about 95 miles (90 minutes) north of Los Angeles along a curving coastline and is situated in a valley resulting in an interesting … Read More

What I did this spring break!

A year back I wrote a post about how I was going to spend my spring break.  It didn’t really involve any travelling and I spent most of my break studying for my midterm. But this spring break, thanks to my amazing friends, we did something fun and adventurous! We rented an RV, drove to Zion National Park in Utah … Read More

Family Reunion in Aspen!

Posted: March 21, 2018, 3:42pm I cannot believe it is already March!! Every year, my entire extended family on my mother’s side comes together for a week to reconnect and enjoy some good food and skiing. All 20 of us met up for some small group dinners and had several meetings for updates and goals for 2018. It sounds pretty … Read More

Advocating in Washington, D.C.

Posted: March 21, 2018, 2:37pm For the third time since joining USC’s Graduate Student Government (GSG), I had the opportunity to go to Washington, D.C. to advocate on behalf of our 23,000+ graduate students. On this specific trip, we met with the offices of the following Californian congressmen and congresswomen: Senator Kamala Harris Senator Dianne Feinstein Representative Tony Cardenas Representative … Read More

Kicking off 2018 with a Weekend in Austin

Posted: January 11, 2018, 5:09pm For the first weekend of the year, I flew to Austin to visit one of my best friends from undergrad! I had seen her before about a year and a half ago, but it was about time to see her and Texas again. She had moved recently to The Triangle north of UT, so we … Read More

The San Francisco Symphony

Posted: November 16, 2017, 12:16am This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to go to San Francisco yet again to visit friends and family. My brother and I got an amazing deal on Southwest, so it was a quick 48-hour trip from Saturday to Monday morning. We obviously had lots of amazing food while we were there – pastries, oysters, … Read More