The Malempatis roll into town...

On May 19th, Sureka and Sri came a'visitin'!

But the bigger news first, SUREKA'S PREGNANT!!!!!! She's due in October.

Aw, can't you tell.... she's got the glow! And a cute little pooch.

They came and stayed with us for the weekend, and then spent a few extra days bonding with the Bollepalli clan. Pretty cool to have a family reunion in San Diego. We took them out eating a LOT and also to kayak in La Jolla which was an, uh, adventurous trip. The water was fairly choppy with some big waves. Dave managed to help Sri and Sureka get their kayak out into the ocean with no mishaps. On the other hand, we ran into a wee bit of trouble. The waves were fairly large and kept coming in as we were trying to paddle out. Needless to say, we got flipped 3 times and got WET. Once out into the ocean, it was fine. The highlight was finding a large family of seals hanging out along the cliffs of La Jolla. Sureka and Sri were thrilled to see them, so that was definitely a fruitful trip. I took some pictures with a waterproof camera, but need to develop the film. I'll post the pictures whenever I get them.... The way back in was interesting. I was very wary of going back in because we once went out before and got wiped out in our attempts to ride the waves in. Since the waves were huge today, Dave and I had no idea on how to solve this problem. Anyways, long story short, everyone got flipped, including the pregnant friend, but we all got a good laugh out of it.

Relaxing/Recuperating on the couch - Cute!

My long long long time friend and me...

It was really great having them visit. I realized that Sri is a really good guy and I'm glad that he's taking good care of my friend Sureka. I'm so happy for them. They are going to be a great Mommy and Daddy!


We've convinced them that whenever Sureka's done with her fellowship in Cincinnati that they HAVE to move out and join us here. There was whole-hearted agreement all around.... In fact, there are tons of new constructions going up around us. They can be our neighbors!



NEW TALLY of visitors:
College - 4
NYC - 1
High School - 2

Springtime New York

Well, since we were in New York for all of 50 hours... we decided to wander around and explore some of our favorite haunts...

This included going to Chinatown to eat some tasty Malaysian food at Penang. While there we noticed a new Egg Custard store that looked really tasty. Unfortunately, we didn't have ANY stomach space to spare, so I just took some pictures of the store since it looked so good.

mmmmmmm....
Random Chinatown building

One of our MOST favorite things to do when New York is sunny, pretty, and temperate (before the nastiness of summer humidity hits) is to stroll around Central Park:

Reflecting/Sailboat Pool (I don't know the real name)
Tulips overtake the Park in Spring!



And I realized I never took a pic of the ubiquitous hot dog stands, so here's one in front of the Met: Pretty tree
Pretty tree + NYFD
The towers on the UWS seen from the Great Lawn.

More tulips!
Cool purple tree
Bill Walton working out in the Park. This is the second time we've seen him here!
Random Turkish restaurant in Midtown. Quite yummy!

That's all for now...

Commencement 2007

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
DEANS
AND FACULTY
OF

MOUNT SINAI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
OF NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
REQUEST THE HONOR OF YOUR PRESENCE AT THE
THIRTY-EIGHTH COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES

FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2007
10:00 AM
AVERY FISHER HALL
LINCOLN CENTER, NEW YORK CITY

COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS

CHARLIE ROSE

Hanging out in front of Lincoln Center waiting for the festivities to begin!

Laurel Glaser, Tracey Nguyen, me, Ling Shao

Me, Frederique Ruf, Dana Lukin That's my name!
All the graduates: Master students in front, followed by MDs, and then PhDs (we took up about 1 row)
Some people on the stage: George!, Diomedes, Terry, Desnick, Charney (gag), Morrison
Speaker Charlie Rose

Walking up the stage

Psychedelic picture of George hooding me! (Old digital camera doesn't handle dark spaces well) We realized afterwards that family members with an MD or PhD can also hood you. Gosh darn it, I could've had Dave AND my dad on stage with George! Pooh...

Me and George walking on stage after taking our picture with Charney. Note: the guy didn't even shake my hand when he handed me my degree! Why am I not surprised.... (I'm referring to the person responsible for firing Diomedes from the Graduate School Deanship. Grrrrr)

Can you find me and Laurel?

Happily hooded and official!

My misspelled degree (my middle name is Chih-hsin)

Me and some sexy mommas... Ha ha (Heather, Maria, and me)Ha ha ha, Sarah Ann and Ooi's facial expressions after seeing my misspelled degree! Sarah's hilarious!
Milling around, looking for a missing Andy
The HOOD
Everyone!
Audrey, Andy, Ooi, Maria, Heather, Sarah Ann, George with me, Mom, Dad or Dave (minus Dan and Noa who I missed seeing :( pooh) Diaz Lab! (missing Albert)
Me and the Boss - so happy we pulled it off!
Bruce trained George who trained me!

My family (missing a bro though)

Funky Lincoln Center sculptures hanging from the ceiling. Man, I wouldn't want that falling on my head....

And that makes it all official... I am NO LONGER a New Yorker!