The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself

A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley

Spring 2003

Week 1: The Sun Was Going Down

1-13-2003

Back in Berkeley again... after a fun break of tons of movies and stuff. On Saturday I had worship practice (the Mandarin congregation made off with our keyboard for some reason, so I practiced with the electric), then we had our combined fun event with Fremont, which was... well, fun. We played lots of games and stuff. After that the Almaden people went to our house to practice this play that we have for Friends’ Day next week. Andrew came with us so that we could to our Back to the Future marathon afterwards. A bunch of people were there. Eugenia came to watch too. Most of the Almaden people stayed for it. By the second one, a lot of people left, but Andrew, Wayne, Kimmy, and Mark were still with us (and of course Tim, Les, and Dad). By the THIRD one, it was just my family and Andrew. Leon came but he worked on the snow puzzle with Leslie and Kimmy. We went to sleep past 2.

Yesterday we went to church, and I ended up leading with the electric anyway, and it went pretty well, I guess. After church we ate at Tung Kee, then I went home, but soon I had to go pick Leslie up from Tiffany’s house, and she gave me good directions but left out a street or two so I went in circles, but suddenly I randomly ran into the right street so I found it.

That night we watched some of that doofy “People’s Choice” awards.

Today I packed and went to Fry’s to return all that stuff that was supposed to have rebates but they never gave them to me. I was surprised that they gave me credit without any hassling, even though it was past 30 days.

I went to Wayne’s house and helped him set up his box on top of the car, and loaded our stuff. It was a lot of stuff. Then we went to pick up Leon, which was even MORE stuff, but Leon and his amazing space-saving skillz made everything fit! Incredible!

We unloaded all of Wayne’s stuff first, then came to our place and unloaded all of our stuff. Julia came over for a while and gave Leon and I these little sausage and condiment things that are really small, but real! It’s so funny and neat. We played some SSX and then went to eat some stuff at the Asian food ghetto.

We brought our food back and ate it as we watched this Jet Li movie that Leon bought that was dubbed and re-edited so badly it was hilarious. Plus the fights were awesome.

Funny conversation at home a few days ago:

DAD (talking about abortion): That’s bullshit!

TIM: Dad, that word is not allowed in our home.

DAD: That’s what it is.

TIM: Bad language.

DAD: What’s wrong with bullshit?

TIM: Profane language.

DAD: There’s nothing wrong with bull. There’s nothing wrong with shit.

TIM (goes into bathroom): ...mumble...

DAD (minutes later): I can’t think of any other word for it. Can you, Jon?

ME: Nope.

TIM: Hogwash.

DAD: That’s the same thing has hogshit, basically.

ME: Hahaha!

TIM: Cow pie.

DAD: Hmm. Cow pie. Yeah...

ME: But that’s not the same thing!

1-16-2003

So on Tuesday we left for Bear Valley. Jason was with Leon and I in Wayne’s car. We did riddles on the way up.

Driving went on for a while until it got dark; we arrived at Tina’s family’s house in Dorrington and settled in, ate some food, played some games. There was this thigh slapping game (it’s not like it sounds. Well, actually, it is) that left multiple purple spots on my leg from internal vessel rupturing, and they turned into big, painful bruises. We also played Cranium, which was insane. In addition, we played Texas Holdup for pushups; however, I won and therefore did not have to perform any. I slept on the sofa-bed thing with Jason and froze.

The next morning provided early waking discomfort. We got ready and headed off to Bear Valley. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and it was made even more beautiful when we found that the lift tickets were only 43 dollars (36 for under 24 year olds), and even moreso when we discovered that the tickets were two for one on Tuesdays and Thursdays! What a bargain! I just bought one off of some lady who had an extra one: I paid 20 bucks, which was cheaper than everyone else because 43 divided between two is 21.50.

The snow was great, and the weather was comfortable. Those of us who were more experienced (the ones who had boards) went up to the top and boarded around for a while, then headed back down to check the progress of those who were taking lessons. After lunch, we went up again and eventually hit the terrain park, which was AWESOME. It’s all about confidence, and you can hit those big ones with ease. Not the HUGE ones, of course; those are way too freaky. Nevertheless, I got some massive air on the regular jumps.

By the time we ended, the sun was going down. It was a great day. The conditions and weather, snow, everything was perfect. No injuries. The n00bs learned very well.

Back at the house, we ate, played more games, did some worship, etc. We played more Texas Holdup, but this time I got totally owned; I got the highest push up count by far of anybody. But after that, Karibu (the winner) challenged me to a game of chess and put all my push ups on the line. I concurred, and won. There were a couple instances where I thought I was a goner, but somehow I managed to beat him.

Some of us watched The Truman Show, which was great, as usual. Foolishly, I went to play this “Truth or Dare”-like game and ended up having to share my Mongolia story. At the end of the game I was tired and went to sleep.

This morning I wanted to sleep longer, but can never stay asleep past 10:30, even if I go to bed really late. We ate, had a snowball fight (I felt bad for pelting girls in the head... accidentally, of course. Really) and I did this really cool dodge when Julia threw some snowballs at me. For the rest of the time we cleaned up and packed the cars.

The drive back was pretty quiet. I slept for some of the way. When we arrived at Berkeley, we all went home, then got back together to eat at this place called Crepevine. It was pretty good. Then we went back to our apartment and watched The Usual Suspects. Then, for some reason, I was forced to repeat my story to the ones who missed it yesterday. Sigh. Much time was then spent just chillin’ and watching funny stuff on Leon’s computer.