3 Days of Travel

Hello Friends,

Last summer Annie and I were discussing travel and we decided to plan a trip to Thailand. She is a great travel buddy for me, and luckily enough with both our teacher schedules we have a large block of summer off. We researched flights, hotels and restaurants, and finally in July of last summer we booked flights. The trip was officially on! A few days later she texted me and told me that her parents wanted to join us on the trip. I love her parents, so that was an easy yes!

Annie researched hotels, restaurants and I looked into various activities. She had been to Thailand twice before, so she has some recommendations. She was planning to travel with her husband to Japan before our Thailand trip, so we ended up booking her parents on my flight, and I am so glad we did. It was nice to have a friendly face to sit next to, and to double check all the flight details with!

Singapore Airlines:

So flights were pretty tricky. Most of the ones we looked at took off in the morning from the US, and landed in Asia somewhere in the evening, with a layover until the next morning for the second leg. After a few hours of looking, we found a flight that left super late from SFO, and a short layover in HongKong, and finally landing in the evening in Bangkok. That was the winner for us. We flew with Singapore Airlines, which was a great experience. We checked into SFO around 9:30pm on Saturday for a 1:15am flight ( i didn’t know they even flew that late!).

The flight was long (14.5 hours!!) but great. The food was tasty and there were so many choices! They had a bunch of great in-flight movies and entertainment, but for the first 6 or so hours I slept. We had a quick layover in HongKong where we got Starbucks and freshened up. I felt like a new person with freshly brushed teeth and hair and a clean shirt. We had a much shorter flight (4hrs) to Singapore where we had our longer layover (4 hours). It was middle of the day when we arrived, so we decided to get some steps in at the airport and explore. I was blown away by how many shops, interactive displays and interesting decorations the Singapore Airport had.

Singapore Airport had 3 terminals: one that had a butterfly garden, one with a magnetic sand exhibit, and one that had these orchid/koi pond gardens. There was lush flowers everywhere! We ended up grabbing some food just before boarding.

We landed in Bangkok around 4ish. We picked up our luggage and met the driver from our hotel. It was rush hour traffic on a work day (Monday) so it took about an hour to get to Chatrium Hotel.

It was beautiful evening when we arrived, as we looked out over the balcony into the city lights. We were finally here!

Have you ever been to Asia or Thailand before?

Love,

-S

Downtown Doors

Hello Friends,

When you walk around downtown San Jose, you’ll notice that there is large posters of student artwork on many utility boxes and doors. The San Jose Downtown Foundation has a program called Downtown Doors where it invites high school students to submit their artwork to be printed and placed around various sections of downtown. This is the 13th year, and 189 students submitted work from various San Jose public, private and charter high schools. 20 students are selected, bringing the total from the last 13 years to 252.

We invited students from the school I work at to submit to the art committee, and one of my students was selected! They had a small celebration for all the student winners a few weeks ago. It was a very exciting day, and I was so proud of her work. She had created this piece of work during a graphic design course taught by my department chair. I know this student from my Yearbook class. Her artwork hangs right by a popular Starbucks that I frequent when I need more caffeine in my life. Apparently the artwork Downtown Doors features will hang up for 3-5 years, which is quite a legacy!

I snapped the photo above of all the winners, which was a very exciting day I’m sure. I was a proud mamma standing there with my student!

Have you ever submitted anything to an art competition? Have you ever won anything?

Love,

-S

Union Station and the Bradbury Building

Last week my father and I  spent the week in L.A  visiting a family friend. We stayed in South Pasadena and explored different sections of L.A over the week. We brunched, dined, drank iced coffee each day (sometimes twice!), visited museums, and saw the Hollywood sign.

On Tuesday we took the train to downtown Union Station, and walked to the Bradbury building. Completed in 1893, the Bradbury building was designed by Sumner P. Hunt and George H. Wyman. The interior has a lovely airy feeling, flooded with light due to the glass ceiling. Built in an era with an eye for details, every element of the building is polished and elegant.

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Union Station

the Bradbury Building


I’m now obsessed with the iced chai at Intelligentsia. It was creamy, sweet and perfect in the hot heat of L.A. What’s your favorite drink on a hot day?

Love,

-S