Some Ideas for Spring Break!

Hey Everyone, it's Rei! 

It's already March, which means spring is on the way! Even in Parkland, we have been experiencing warm and cold, sunny and rainy days lately, and I can feel the change of seasons. I am kind of burning out from last week's midterm, but one thing that has been keeping me motivated is the spring break that is coming next weekend! Since the break is just around the corner, I would like to introduce some places for those of you who have not yet decided your plans or want to go somewhere! 

1. Vancouver, Canada

The first place I would recommend is Vancouver! I myself visited this city for the first time with my friend last spring break and loved it so much that it is our destination for this year's spring break as well. The best thing about Vancouver in my opinion is the urban landscape, similar to Seattle, lots of art galleries, and tons of amazing food places! Vancouver's neighborhoods are city-like and similar in some ways to Seattle, but seem more compact and easier to explore than Seattle. In addition, the numerous museums, such as the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Contemporary Art Gallery, offer much to learn and are must-see for art lovers! And there is plenty of good

Inari place @Grab N Go 

 food there. One of the traditional Canadian dishes you should try is called poutine, which is a combination of french fries and gravy, and it tastes different in each store! Vancouver is a land border with the U.S. and is a close, approximately 3-hour drive from PLU, but Canada is a completely different country from the U.S. Of course a passport is required for immigration inspection. One thing to keep in mind when traveling to other countries as an international student is the Visa process. Depending on the person traveling outside the U.S. on the I-20, a new travel signature may need to be requested. Forms must be completed by March 20th (tomorrow!) so that the I-20 can be returned before spring break. There are a number of Visa-related procedures involved in traveling to a different country, but I would 100% recommend that you do so, as it will definitely make your trip enjoyable and rewarding! 

2. Leavenworth, Washington

With its picturesque scenery and lovely German Bavarian-style buildings, Leavenworth is the gateway to Bavaria in the Cascades, a 2.5 hour drive from PLU. The city offers more than 100 unique stores and restaurants, cozy lodging, art and live music, and a host of award-winning events. Leavenworth is famous for its snowy winter views and Christmas lights, but you can also enjoy a different, warmer, atmosphere in the spring! I have not been there yet, but many of my friends have said it was a great place, and it's definitely on my bucket list to visit someday! 

3. Portland, Oregon

Spring break could be a good opportunity to get out to a different state! As you know, Oregon is only 2.5 hour drive from PLU and is neighboring states to Washington. Like Seattle, it remains a bustling metropolis, but it is noticeably less hectic and very easy to get around by car and bus. The best thing about Oregon is that it is a tax free state, making it great place to shop. Besides that, there are a variety of hiking spots and natural environment that are perfect for a few days of travel during spring break! 

4. Redwood National and State Parks (in CA) with Outdoor Recreation

Did you know that PLU's Outdoor Rec is planning a trip to California for Spring break? Outdoor Rec is PLU's wilderness adventure club. They lead trips each weekend to scenic places around the Pacific Northwest, rent gear out to the PLU community, and provide the resources necessary for any adventure! This year, they are traveling to Redwood National and State Parks (with lots of fun outdoor and CA activities along the way) for spring break (the trip will be from 3/25 to 3/30). The cost ($280) covers your transportation, food, park fees, accommodations, and any necessary outdoor recreation rentals (tent, sleeping bag, etc.). They are welcoming any Lute, of any outdoor experience level, to join them! Sign up can be done through the PLU Rec app or website. I recommend you do so as soon as possible as there is a limited number of spots available. If you have any questions or concerns, please send them their way via the outdoor@plu.edu email. 

These are just a few of the places I know of, and there are probably many more where you can go on break. You can stay in your dorm and relax, or you can finish all the things you have left to do at once. I hope you will be able to enjoy your 10 days of spring break as much as you like. And after the break, we will grind for the studying and living our daily life as usual again! 

-Rei 

Spring Break Recap

 Hi everyone, it's Silje! 

Spring break ended this week, and while it is good to be back in routines and see people on campus again, I would be lying if I said that having a week off school wasn't much needed... And in honor of being back to reality, I figured I should have a little spring break recap! 

I started off spring break at the Seattle airport, headed over to California for a long weekend! My boyfriend's family lives down there so we figured that this would be the best time to go see them for longer than just a couple of days. We landed in Sacramento pretty late in the evening so we just drove an hour over to Vallejo, and went straight to bed. The first morning, we did a little tour around Vallejo (it was my first time there!) where we grabbed some lunch on First St. in Benicia, Mare Island, I had In-n-Out burger for the first time, and we went to see some of his friends and family to catch up. 

On the second day, we woke up bright and early at 5.30 AM to head over to the Mountains in Lake Tahoe! Lake Tahoe has multiple ski resorts (I had no idea you could go skiing in California), so we spent most of our day up in North Star skiing and snowboarding with his friends and family. It was bizarre going skiing in 60-degree weather - we even ended up getting sunburnt! On the way back, we drove around Lake Tahoe to get some pretty views in before the day was up.         

 On our third day, Sunday, we spent the first part of our day on a Good Guys car show! It was really cool - they had a market with random things you could buy, all from small nicknacks, posters, cool traffic signs like a Route 66 sign, and car parts. On the other side of the car show, there were old, authentic cars from as far back as the 60s. Some of them were original and really well kept, and others were completely redone with new paint and custom designs. After the car show, we went to his house for a good-old game night. 

On our last day, Monday, we spent the day going out to lunch and dinner with his friends and family before we had to pack up and leave (sadly). 

For the rest of spring break, nothing too exciting happened - we went out to a couple bars with a few friends, we went shooting at a shooting range, and took a quick trip to IKEA for some small necessities before school went back into session. 

That's all for now, folks! 

Until next time, 

Silje. 

    

Bryan's Spring Break Trip 2019

Hey guys!

How’s your Spring Break? Did you go out and have some fun?

For my spring break, I traveled with my friends to Poulsbo. I never knew where Poulsbo was and had no idea about how beautiful it is until I actually went there.

City of Poulsbo, About an hour drive from PLU

Poulsbo was founded by the Scandinavians that arrived sixty years ago. It used to be a small fishing and trading village; but with years of development and expansion, the town center now turns into a market place where local artists sell their art works.

Town center is clean and beautiful

Best Friends! Forever!

Most of the stores sell handicraft product made by local artist 

The flower in front of an restaurant just started to bloom

I really encourage you to travel there if you have time! It is a nice place to refresh yourselves and have some fun with your friends. It will also be good to have some water sports there once the weather gets warmer. 

Except for Poulsbo, me and my friends also traveled around Bremerton and Seattle. Here are some pictures below.

This is Point No Point Lighthouse. It was so cold and windy
at the seaside, but I saw people fishing and walking their dogs
(Photo credit to Eddie Yang)

We skateboarded around and had a picnic
at Lions Park at Bremerton

My Boys!

Beautiful night view in Seattle

There is another me! What happened?! (Photo credit to Yohei M.)

So that's my journey during the spring break! I hope you guys enjoyed the photos and maybe decide to visit the places once. How is your spring break? Share me your photos and experiences! 

Bryan Yuan

April 1st, 2019

NEW YORK IS WAITING FOR YOU

Hi everyone!

I would like to share my journey and a great experience in New York with you all. New York Manhattan is the most densely populated city in the United States and the highest-income New York location by per capita income around $111,000. It takes 45 hours to get to New York by a car and 5 hours if you are on a flight. It's a very cool city to visit, and I am going to give you 5 reasons why you must visit, although some do not like Manhattan for some reason.

1. It's Gigantic

From Upper to Lower Manhattan, there are many beautiful buildings with a distinctively different style by the town--Upper town is brown, Mid-town is very colorful, and Lower town is blue. A lot of skyscrapers stand along the streets; I couldn't even take a picture of the city because the buildings are too big and too tall. When you go, make sure to bring a very nice camera.

2. It's Trendy

When you enter in a store, you will notice that a lot of things in Manhattan are technologically advanced and stylish. Walking on the street, you can even feel that the trees are fashionable. New products and many different designs and patterns, that's what the stores in the hub of fashion have. Automation is extensively used in many different industrial sectors in Manhattan. If you go to Brooklyn, you can take a fabulous idea of remodeling an old building to make it trendy. Everything is so trendy that the trip is even educational.

3. It's Unique

What I first felt from the city was every building is huge and elaborately-made. What I felt second was that the old buildings and those of new are harmoniously mixed and create a beautiful landscape. The city contains the golden age in early 20 century and the modern age. By the way, Central Park was okay.

4. It's Delicious

The best part of Manhattan is the fantastic foods: steaks, burgers, sandwiches, halal food, and beers.
The local area's food is what I care the most, and Manhattan has very nice restaurants. The following list is the restaurants I enjoyed, and I hope you try!
 [Old Homestead Steakhouse, Keens Steakhouse, 5 Napkin Burger, Katz's Delicatessen, Halal     Guys, Pronto Pizza, Joe's Pizza, Founder's, Coney Island Brewery]
I highly recommend 5 Napkin Burger's lamb burger..so good

5. It's Learning

Manhattan, New York, is the trend leading city. What you will see and feel here would be something that you can find in different cities in the future. You can learn all the architecture, fashion, technology, and diversity in one city.

Spring Break (Food version 😂😋)

Hello everyone!

 
I hope you all had a great spring break, and had some rest after working hard for the first half of this semester👏👏👏.

 


This is my second spring break that I spend in the U.S. (as in college 🙈). Good thing, I did get to rest during the break, but I feel like haven’t been able to finish all the things that I wanna do yet.. ㅠ.ㅠ

Anyway, I cooked most of the dishes that I crave during the break and had some fun in Seattle with one of my close friends here  .

I definitely should have taken some pictures of the food I cooked, but always so eager to eat after cooking.. 😂 So here come pictures from the blog recipe I followed and Google search 🙈😹 .

Grilled pork and noodle (Bún chả)

Chicken porridge (Cháo gà)

Pâté (Pate gan gà)

Bún mọc dọc mùng (I really don't know its English name 😂)

Japanese Fruit Roll Cake - from my favourite blogger 💓 (Bánh bông lan cuộn kem tươi hoa quả)

Our lunch yum yum 

Bonus some pictures that I remembered to take while in Seattle  .

A windy and rainy day in Seattle 

I definitely want this break to be longer because this is not enough for me 😂 .

But it’s okay, just two more months, 8 more weeks, and we will be done with the semester! You can do this everyone~~ Like usual, good luck  . 

Best,

Cloud~ ☁

Such a busy Spring thus far!

Hi again everyone!

I'm excited to be back blogging about recent happenings and life updates. First, I'd like to give a big "HURRRAAYYYY!" as I'm so close to graduating and commissioning as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army from PLU. I have exactly 2 months left, and this can't come any sooner.

Also, last week was a very eventful week. I was really busy with Army stuff as my girlfriend Jayden (who's also a soldier), came to visit and we had to visit Ft. Lewis everyday from Thursday through Friday.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we did a lot of Army aviation related activities. Wednesday was an aviation visit to the 66th Theater Aviation Command on Ft. Lewis. We learned a lot about aviation in the Washington Army National Guard, aircrafts they fly, and even the parts and avionics that make them work. We got to crawl around the inside of a Blackhawk and Chinook which was really fun. Below are some pictures from the visit!

Myself and CDT Potter in a Blackhawk

The Cadets!

Myself and CDT Lee (my girlfriend) with a Blackhawk

Wednesday was fun, but Thursday was even better! On Thursday, Jayden and myself returned to the 66th Theater Aviation Command and actually got to fly in a Blackhawk, all around the Puget Sound for 2 hours!

We flew across the Tacoma Narrows bridge, around Gig Harbor, up to Seattle and got really close to CenturyLink Field. It was definitely an awesome and beautiful experience.  The weather was fantastic last Thursday and we even got to watch Medical Evacuation operations conducted by the crew flying us around.

Myself and Jayden flying!

For Spring break starting today, I'm going to head off to Carbondale in Illinois and hang out with Jayden for about a week! I'm really excited and can't wait to kick this break off! I hope that everyone reading this has a wonderful week as well.

Take care and until next time!

Joel Goh

Spring Break and What's Left of Spring 2017

Hi again,

It's been a while, and I'm glad it's my turn to blog again! During Spring break, my buddy Alex and  I traveled to Phoenix, Arizona for the first time. The weather was fantastic in Arizona, and I met my old friend who went to the same college that I attended in WA, another friend who I met online (Army-related) and attended an NBA game.

Phoenix Suns played the LA Clippers!

Overall, it was a great first time experience to Arizona and I would definitely recommend it as a travel destination to others. I would surely head back in the future.

Moving on to school life, well, ROTC life, on April 19th, I was selected as the Battalion Cadet Command Sergeant Major (CSM) at school. As a result, I have much more responsibilities and my cadre and peers expect a lot more from me. I'm excited for the challenge and opportunity and am looking forward to the upcoming year. As the CSM, I'm primarily responsible for the discipline, accountability and presence of cadets at PLU. Here are some pictures from the Change of Responsibility Ceremony that was held on the 19th.

Receiving the School's Colors from the Outgoing Cadet Battalion Commander

As CSM, I am the responsible for the PLU Army ROTC Colors

 Finals are not too far away now, and this semester has just seem to have flown by. It has been an interesting journey, and I've learned a lot and felt like I've improved in many ways. Life at PLU is always great, and I encourage you to come visit, and even apply to PLU!

Until next time!

Joel Goh