I wonder if anyone would notice if I posted to the blog during the school year. Maybe if some of you have it in your RSS feeds...
My last summer-break post =)
Moving in tomorrow!
My dad and I just changed the strings on both the guitars. It didn't go perfectly, but it was good enough. My finger has a mark on it. Ouch.
Trac's here. He went to sleep like... more than an hour ago. Hahaha he was exhausted today. We had In'n'Out. And had a good dinner with my parents.
And now I'm on the couch, pleasantly tired. Gotta get up early tomorrow.
Lalala =)
My dad and I just changed the strings on both the guitars. It didn't go perfectly, but it was good enough. My finger has a mark on it. Ouch.
Trac's here. He went to sleep like... more than an hour ago. Hahaha he was exhausted today. We had In'n'Out. And had a good dinner with my parents.
And now I'm on the couch, pleasantly tired. Gotta get up early tomorrow.
Lalala =)
I WAAAAAAAAAAANT YOUUUUUU TO WANT MEEEEEE
I NEEEEEEEEEEEED YOUUUUUU TO NEED MEEEEEE
I'D LOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOVE YOUUUUU TO LOVE MEEEEE
OOOOOH
I'M BEGGIN' YOU TO BEG ME
shine up mah old brown shoez
i'd put on a brand new SHIRT
i'd get home early from work
if you saaaaa-aaaaay
that you LOOOVE MEEEE
DIDN'T I DIDN'T I DIDN'T I SEE YOU CRYIN?!
OOOOOOH DIDN'T I DIDN'T I DIDN'T I SEE YOU CRYIN'?!
FEELIN' ALL ALONE WITHOUT A FRIEND YOU KNOW YA FEEL LIKE DYIN
OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
DIDN'T I DIDN'T I DIDN'T I SEE YOU CRYIN?!
HEY!
FEELIN ALL ALONE WITHOUT A FRIEND YOU KNOW YA FEEL LIKE DYIN
OH DIDN'T I DIDN'T I DIDN'T I SEE YOU CRYIN!?!??!!??!
FUCKING GUITAR SOLO
I NEEEEEEEEEEEED YOUUUUUU TO NEED MEEEEEE
I'D LOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOVE YOUUUUU TO LOVE MEEEEE
OOOOOH
I'M BEGGIN' YOU TO BEG ME
shine up mah old brown shoez
i'd put on a brand new SHIRT
i'd get home early from work
if you saaaaa-aaaaay
that you LOOOVE MEEEE
DIDN'T I DIDN'T I DIDN'T I SEE YOU CRYIN?!
OOOOOOH DIDN'T I DIDN'T I DIDN'T I SEE YOU CRYIN'?!
FEELIN' ALL ALONE WITHOUT A FRIEND YOU KNOW YA FEEL LIKE DYIN
OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
DIDN'T I DIDN'T I DIDN'T I SEE YOU CRYIN?!
HEY!
FEELIN ALL ALONE WITHOUT A FRIEND YOU KNOW YA FEEL LIKE DYIN
OH DIDN'T I DIDN'T I DIDN'T I SEE YOU CRYIN!?!??!!??!
FUCKING GUITAR SOLO
It's time I posted something...
I keep meaning to. But then my laziness takes over. But I'm just sitting here in the kitchen right now and figured 'hey, what else am I doing right now...' I just had hot chocolate a little bit ago.
Alright, settin' some music on, as this post will need to cover a lot of information (and leave an even larger fraction out, I'm sure - there's way too much that has happened since my last post).
I think I will focus on the particularly fun and busy week I had last week. Because I still remember a lot of the details, and it was basically stuff happening every day. And then maybe I'll reflect back on other random things that have happened. I just realized I kinda wrote an abstract right there. So here we go.
Last Monday I went on a rather fabulous bike ride with some friends. We met at the shopping center with Chipotle and stuff and then went to the levee (by way of my house - I had decided to switch bikes). I've decided to use a different bike next year - not the really old green one from the last post. I figure - riding a bike on campus involves lots of weaving in and out of people and making tight turns and going off curbs and stuff - which really isn't what a thin wheeled, short handle-barred road bike is for. That thing was hard to turn quickly. So I'm using my brother's old bike now. It's a little messed up but it works. We went out on the levee past the bridge to an area where people go kite-surfing and stopped there for a little while, and then headed back because one of us had to go to work. After stopping at her house we headed back out again and went to this pretty cool place that's right around here, but where I still haven't been in years. There are huuuuuge concrete letters on the ground that spell out Foster City on the ground (look for it if you guys are flying into SFO and sitting on the left side of the plane). There's also a big area of bike jumps for bmx bikers and we chose a really big jump that nobody was using to sit on and enjoy the area. And then we went the other direction to a hotel with a cool gazebo thing. All in all I think we were out for about 4 hours.
That's the 'Y'!
On top of the big big jump.
These are plants. You must go AROUND.
(Can kinda hear Mitch Hedburg saying that)
Alright, settin' some music on, as this post will need to cover a lot of information (and leave an even larger fraction out, I'm sure - there's way too much that has happened since my last post).
I think I will focus on the particularly fun and busy week I had last week. Because I still remember a lot of the details, and it was basically stuff happening every day. And then maybe I'll reflect back on other random things that have happened. I just realized I kinda wrote an abstract right there. So here we go.
Last Monday I went on a rather fabulous bike ride with some friends. We met at the shopping center with Chipotle and stuff and then went to the levee (by way of my house - I had decided to switch bikes). I've decided to use a different bike next year - not the really old green one from the last post. I figure - riding a bike on campus involves lots of weaving in and out of people and making tight turns and going off curbs and stuff - which really isn't what a thin wheeled, short handle-barred road bike is for. That thing was hard to turn quickly. So I'm using my brother's old bike now. It's a little messed up but it works. We went out on the levee past the bridge to an area where people go kite-surfing and stopped there for a little while, and then headed back because one of us had to go to work. After stopping at her house we headed back out again and went to this pretty cool place that's right around here, but where I still haven't been in years. There are huuuuuge concrete letters on the ground that spell out Foster City on the ground (look for it if you guys are flying into SFO and sitting on the left side of the plane). There's also a big area of bike jumps for bmx bikers and we chose a really big jump that nobody was using to sit on and enjoy the area. And then we went the other direction to a hotel with a cool gazebo thing. All in all I think we were out for about 4 hours.
That's the 'Y'!
On top of the big big jump.
Alright, on to Tuesday. As you can see this is going to be a pretty long post. We decided we wanted to visit some teachers at our high school. We also came up with the epic idea of going to Masu first, which is an all-you-can-eat sushi place. It's not one of the places with boats or conveyer belts where you pick plates and then pay by the plate-type - it's a flat fee, all you can eat. Which is great, because we ate a LOT. Oh man. We were so full. So then we went to visit teachers/coaches. And then a group of us went to see District 9. I managed to spill my icee before the movie even began. Likely going with a soda next time.
WEDNESDAY! I headed over to Berkeley on BART (which fortunately didn't go on strike after all). I met up with Adam first, and then we met up with Tyler for lunch. Tyler took me to the machine shop to show me what he's been doing for a lot of this summer. Then, while he had work to do and a meeting with a professor, and Adam had an audition, I wandered around campus for a little bit. Adam's audition finished up really quickly though so then he showed me around some parts of the campus that I would've had a hard time finding otherwise. Saw this sign.
WEDNESDAY! I headed over to Berkeley on BART (which fortunately didn't go on strike after all). I met up with Adam first, and then we met up with Tyler for lunch. Tyler took me to the machine shop to show me what he's been doing for a lot of this summer. Then, while he had work to do and a meeting with a professor, and Adam had an audition, I wandered around campus for a little bit. Adam's audition finished up really quickly though so then he showed me around some parts of the campus that I would've had a hard time finding otherwise. Saw this sign.
These are plants. You must go AROUND.
(Can kinda hear Mitch Hedburg saying that)
We met back up with Tyler and went to see the underground stacks. I'd wanted to see them since a long time ago but couldn't get in. Then this year we found out that Stanford and Berkeley's libraries have some affiliation thing so I was able to get down there. We also checked out the Asian-American studies building (or something) which was pretty cool - the architecture and stuff are pretty neat to look at. Afterward we headed to see Tyler's new apartment. Much Rock Band ensued. Later I gave Adam his birthday present (it was his birthday) - that amazing Ghandi card that I found last year and the 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' book. We went to eat at CHEESEBOARD (which was a part of the reason I had wanted to come). It's a pizza place - no meat, only one type of pizza per day, and somehow basically always amazing. Our pizza had squash, cheese, pesto sauce... and it was AMAZING. Sounds like I might go with my parents to meet Tyler for lunch in the next few weeks and eat there again. Yayyy. That night my bed consisted of two lounge chairs, and office chair, and two towels ('pillow' towel and 'blanket' towel). Before leaving the next day I had about the largest burger I've ever had.
FRIDAY. What did I do........... I remember I did something. Hold on.
OH YEAH. Okay. I went to Stanford that night with a friend that plays the flute. We played some music and then went to the downtown Coupa Cafe.
So, that was a good week.
I've also been watching T.V. with our family friends, practicing lots of music, and (still) sleeping a lot. And we had a cross country reunion a while back, which was funnn.
I found out about a path near here that I really want to try out - it looks like a REALLY nice place to run/bike/roller-blade. There's also a hiking trail that I wanna hike. I'm realizing there's a good bit I'd still like to do before going back to school. Also I think it sounds fun to just take a drive out toward half-moon bay, just for the fun of it.
I think this is long enough. =)
FRIDAY. What did I do........... I remember I did something. Hold on.
OH YEAH. Okay. I went to Stanford that night with a friend that plays the flute. We played some music and then went to the downtown Coupa Cafe.
Mmmmm.
Then a bit past 11 a couple other friends came to my house to watch 'Fracture' (which I told some of you about last year, yeah? We need to watch it this year). It was fun.So, that was a good week.
I've also been watching T.V. with our family friends, practicing lots of music, and (still) sleeping a lot. And we had a cross country reunion a while back, which was funnn.
I found out about a path near here that I really want to try out - it looks like a REALLY nice place to run/bike/roller-blade. There's also a hiking trail that I wanna hike. I'm realizing there's a good bit I'd still like to do before going back to school. Also I think it sounds fun to just take a drive out toward half-moon bay, just for the fun of it.
I think this is long enough. =)
Send-Off Partayyyy!
I am once again going to the Minnesota send-off party in Edina, and I'm kind of excited so I thought I'd express that on our blog. I do believe I will be seeing our dear Trac there. :D
Any of youse guys going to your respective send-off parties, just for kicks?
Bhuuutan!
Hi friends!
I'm in Bhutan! It is beautiful and friendly and Buddhist and fresh and alpine.
I'm extremely happy.
I'm sorry I haven't been updating well.
I gotta run see more temples and stuff. I will post more later. Maybe even pictures!
Much love.
Private message: Hey Nicole! I got your message! I think you should definitely stick with it and I'd be happy to help. I'll write back a longer reply later..
I'm in Bhutan! It is beautiful and friendly and Buddhist and fresh and alpine.
I'm extremely happy.
I'm sorry I haven't been updating well.
I gotta run see more temples and stuff. I will post more later. Maybe even pictures!
Much love.
Private message: Hey Nicole! I got your message! I think you should definitely stick with it and I'd be happy to help. I'll write back a longer reply later..
ELECTRIC FENCE UPDATE
See my previous post for the first mention of an electric fence.
So, I was getting sick of having to snatch at 3 billion pieces of grass in between pulses of electricity, so I decided to trim all the grass with a weed clipper thing before turning on the fence tonight. There was some really stubborn crab grass, and I gave it a hard snip when...oops, cut the fence in two. I looked at it in disbelief for a split second, but then I just started hooting with laughter. I mean, anybody could have totally seen that coming. Did I? Nope!
I called my dad to ask him what to do about it. He figured it didn't matter since the fence itself isn't a closed circuit, so all I had to do was tie the loose ends to a couple of insulators, put those on some stakes and put the stakes into the ground to make the fence taut again.
But JEEZ. My luck, when it comes to electric fences, is nil.
I just saw this commercial that was like, "You don't need to panic when you talk to your kids about sex." and there's this guy, and he's trying to get to his daughter but he's miming invisible walls and shit, and she's like nine years old.
"You do need to talk to us, though.
You don't have to be explicit.
You don't need to tell us about the parts.
Just tell us how you feel.
Tell us not to have sex.
PAID FOR BY THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES"
I mean I can't even fucking believe that our government is STILL encouraging ignorance about sex-- "don't tell us about the parts, just tell us not to"?! I mean what the fuck is that?! It doesn't even WORK! So many CONCLUSIVE STUDIES have shown that just telling your kids not to have sex isn't going to WORK. Kids who want to have sex WILL HAVE SEX. Not educating them about it DOES NOT STOP THEM. It just keeps them from using channels to protect themselves from STDs and being mentally prepared for the actual emotional impact! I'm sorry I'm being graphic but it's really frustrating because people are really perverting the spirit of their faith-- I keep hearing stories about girls who have pledged to save their virginities, so they're having anal sex instead because it's not "real sex," which is just confusing because yeah it is and YOU NEED TO BE SAFE ABOUT IT.
I'm all for abstinence, really, I am! I really encourage girls and boys to wait for sex, I think it's great for people to wait until they're ready, whether that means marriage or finding yourself in a relationship you feel like you're ready to take the next step in, WHATEVER. It's your body. But you also have a right to know how it works, and how to protect yourself when you make that decision BECAUSE IT IS YOUR BODY AND YOU DESERVE TO BE SAFE AND HEALTHY. It's absolutely baffling why the US DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN FUCKING SERVICES would encourage the denial of that right. I am ABSOLUTELY fine with schools teaching abstinence alongside other birth control methods, I think that's really important because I will readily admit that at sixteen I was not ready to have sex and it's good to teach kids that [i]not being ready is OK, and normal.[/i] But there are kids who are ready, or who feel they're ready, or who will be ready and won't know everything they should know before getting into it with another human being, and there are kids who are just going to have sex anyway whether they're ready or not and that happens WITH OR WITHOUT ABSTINENCE ONLY EDUCATION.
It's not even just about sex, but what can happen after. STDs and pregnancy and sometimes emotional trauma because yeah, people push it too hard. But people push it too hard IN THE MEDIA, AND IN REAL LIFE, NOT IN SCHOOL. But these kids don't know about their rights to their health, they might not even realize there's a problem if they start showing symptoms of something they don't even know is a disease. Kids will have sex, no matter what they're taught. They will. It's not about nine year olds, they haven't even hit puberty (although there's an alarming trend where younger girls are having sex more frequently now-- guess where), but kids who HAVE hit puberty and are experiencing a fuckton of new feelings they have a right to know how to deal with.
No one needs to feel guilty for being human. I mean, jesus, it's the biological imperative, and they should have the right to understand their feelings and interpret them in a way that best suits them.
I'm sorry I just practically wrote an essay, have a related Onion article http://www.theonion.com/content/news/study_abstinence_only_lunch
"You do need to talk to us, though.
You don't have to be explicit.
You don't need to tell us about the parts.
Just tell us how you feel.
Tell us not to have sex.
PAID FOR BY THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES"
I mean I can't even fucking believe that our government is STILL encouraging ignorance about sex-- "don't tell us about the parts, just tell us not to"?! I mean what the fuck is that?! It doesn't even WORK! So many CONCLUSIVE STUDIES have shown that just telling your kids not to have sex isn't going to WORK. Kids who want to have sex WILL HAVE SEX. Not educating them about it DOES NOT STOP THEM. It just keeps them from using channels to protect themselves from STDs and being mentally prepared for the actual emotional impact! I'm sorry I'm being graphic but it's really frustrating because people are really perverting the spirit of their faith-- I keep hearing stories about girls who have pledged to save their virginities, so they're having anal sex instead because it's not "real sex," which is just confusing because yeah it is and YOU NEED TO BE SAFE ABOUT IT.
I'm all for abstinence, really, I am! I really encourage girls and boys to wait for sex, I think it's great for people to wait until they're ready, whether that means marriage or finding yourself in a relationship you feel like you're ready to take the next step in, WHATEVER. It's your body. But you also have a right to know how it works, and how to protect yourself when you make that decision BECAUSE IT IS YOUR BODY AND YOU DESERVE TO BE SAFE AND HEALTHY. It's absolutely baffling why the US DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN FUCKING SERVICES would encourage the denial of that right. I am ABSOLUTELY fine with schools teaching abstinence alongside other birth control methods, I think that's really important because I will readily admit that at sixteen I was not ready to have sex and it's good to teach kids that [i]not being ready is OK, and normal.[/i] But there are kids who are ready, or who feel they're ready, or who will be ready and won't know everything they should know before getting into it with another human being, and there are kids who are just going to have sex anyway whether they're ready or not and that happens WITH OR WITHOUT ABSTINENCE ONLY EDUCATION.
It's not even just about sex, but what can happen after. STDs and pregnancy and sometimes emotional trauma because yeah, people push it too hard. But people push it too hard IN THE MEDIA, AND IN REAL LIFE, NOT IN SCHOOL. But these kids don't know about their rights to their health, they might not even realize there's a problem if they start showing symptoms of something they don't even know is a disease. Kids will have sex, no matter what they're taught. They will. It's not about nine year olds, they haven't even hit puberty (although there's an alarming trend where younger girls are having sex more frequently now-- guess where), but kids who HAVE hit puberty and are experiencing a fuckton of new feelings they have a right to know how to deal with.
No one needs to feel guilty for being human. I mean, jesus, it's the biological imperative, and they should have the right to understand their feelings and interpret them in a way that best suits them.
I'm sorry I just practically wrote an essay, have a related Onion article http://www.theonion.com/content/news/study_abstinence_only_lunch
Bonjour, mes amis!
Hope you're all doing well. I am mostly doing well, although I am pretty shaken by my experience, not more than twenty minutes ago, of touching an electric fence.
EEEYAAAAAH!
was pretty much the sound I made. I'm pretty sure my heart stopped for the split second I received that shock.
Why did I touch this fence? Well, my parents grow sweetcorn in the garden every year, and this year we had one of our biggest, best, earliest crops ever. We were about ready to harvest it when some woodchucks or raccoons (we're not sure which) decided to EAT IT ALL. This has only happened to my parents one other time, about 25 years ago. My dad put up an electric fence that year but never had to again, until this year. He says he figures that the stories of this fence, passed down through generations of woodchucks, must have become too old or too entrenched in myth for the latest generation to take seriously.
Currently, my parents are in Seattle, which means it's my job to turn on the fence by plugging the extension cord that runs all the way from the garden, through our back entryway, and up some stairs into an outlet in our kitchen. I also have to go out to the garden, flashlight in hand (we only have the fence on at night) so that I can make sure no blades of grass or tomato leaves are touching the fence. (This must be done with the fence on so I can hear the fence sparking where grass is touching it. Most of the blades I can hear don't actually look like they're touching the wire.) The idea is that an electric fence is an open circuit, and when an unsuspecting woodchuck touches its cute little unsuspecting nose to the wire, it completes the circuit and receives one hell of a shock in the process. But if there are a bunch of plants touching the fence, they already have performed this function, so the woodchuck wouldn't get much of a shock and might not be terribly deterred.
So anyway, I was out there plucking little blades of grass that were touching the wire. But then I got to this tomato plant that had conveniently draped itself over the wire. The poor thing was all wilted, having been subjected to some fairly high amperage for who knows how long. I knew I'd have to be quick--I can only touch the plants, obviously, in the space between pulses, which doesn't give me much time. I'd been very successful with plants that were only touching the wire at one or two places, but this tomato plant was really draped over the wire. Stupidly, I thought if I was fast enough, I'd get the whole thing...but nope.
EEEYAAAAAH! That's some amperage! (Thank goodness it hasn't got much voltage...)
So that's probably the most exciting thing that's happened to me in the past several weeks, but there have been some less, shall we say, shocking things going on in my life as well. As I mentioned, my parents are in Seattle, visiting my sister and her husband (the very same couple I visited over spring break). They're gone for another five days or so, so I'm basically in charge of everything. I do the cooking, but at least I can make my siblings do some of the cleaning since they can't/won't (and most definitely don't) do their share of the cooking. It's all good, though--I probably wouldn't want to eat anything either of them had cooked, anyway.
The other night I hung out with my very close friend, Vanessa. She cooked dal, which was pretty good despite its having come from a box. (We figured any non-American prepared food had to be better than American prepared food.) The dal came with a free CD of Indian music--something with shehnai, which I'd never heard of, and the tabla, which I had. (The shehnai is a reed instrument.) Most of the music didn't make much sense to our Western ears until the tabla added a bit of rhythm. (Perhaps you guys already know that Indian music uses an entirely different scale system, not to mention rhythmic system?) After dinner, Vanessa and I watched Mamma Mia!, which we'd seen in theaters and loved for its cheesiness. Watching it in her living room made it seem even cheesier, and it was slightly more painful to watch (though we still enjoyed it). It's got that whole High School Musical type of thing going. Awful in oh-so-may ways, but somehow still enjoyable. Inexplicable, but true.
EEEYAAAAAH!
was pretty much the sound I made. I'm pretty sure my heart stopped for the split second I received that shock.
Why did I touch this fence? Well, my parents grow sweetcorn in the garden every year, and this year we had one of our biggest, best, earliest crops ever. We were about ready to harvest it when some woodchucks or raccoons (we're not sure which) decided to EAT IT ALL. This has only happened to my parents one other time, about 25 years ago. My dad put up an electric fence that year but never had to again, until this year. He says he figures that the stories of this fence, passed down through generations of woodchucks, must have become too old or too entrenched in myth for the latest generation to take seriously.
Currently, my parents are in Seattle, which means it's my job to turn on the fence by plugging the extension cord that runs all the way from the garden, through our back entryway, and up some stairs into an outlet in our kitchen. I also have to go out to the garden, flashlight in hand (we only have the fence on at night) so that I can make sure no blades of grass or tomato leaves are touching the fence. (This must be done with the fence on so I can hear the fence sparking where grass is touching it. Most of the blades I can hear don't actually look like they're touching the wire.) The idea is that an electric fence is an open circuit, and when an unsuspecting woodchuck touches its cute little unsuspecting nose to the wire, it completes the circuit and receives one hell of a shock in the process. But if there are a bunch of plants touching the fence, they already have performed this function, so the woodchuck wouldn't get much of a shock and might not be terribly deterred.
So anyway, I was out there plucking little blades of grass that were touching the wire. But then I got to this tomato plant that had conveniently draped itself over the wire. The poor thing was all wilted, having been subjected to some fairly high amperage for who knows how long. I knew I'd have to be quick--I can only touch the plants, obviously, in the space between pulses, which doesn't give me much time. I'd been very successful with plants that were only touching the wire at one or two places, but this tomato plant was really draped over the wire. Stupidly, I thought if I was fast enough, I'd get the whole thing...but nope.
EEEYAAAAAH! That's some amperage! (Thank goodness it hasn't got much voltage...)
So that's probably the most exciting thing that's happened to me in the past several weeks, but there have been some less, shall we say, shocking things going on in my life as well. As I mentioned, my parents are in Seattle, visiting my sister and her husband (the very same couple I visited over spring break). They're gone for another five days or so, so I'm basically in charge of everything. I do the cooking, but at least I can make my siblings do some of the cleaning since they can't/won't (and most definitely don't) do their share of the cooking. It's all good, though--I probably wouldn't want to eat anything either of them had cooked, anyway.
The other night I hung out with my very close friend, Vanessa. She cooked dal, which was pretty good despite its having come from a box. (We figured any non-American prepared food had to be better than American prepared food.) The dal came with a free CD of Indian music--something with shehnai, which I'd never heard of, and the tabla, which I had. (The shehnai is a reed instrument.) Most of the music didn't make much sense to our Western ears until the tabla added a bit of rhythm. (Perhaps you guys already know that Indian music uses an entirely different scale system, not to mention rhythmic system?) After dinner, Vanessa and I watched Mamma Mia!, which we'd seen in theaters and loved for its cheesiness. Watching it in her living room made it seem even cheesier, and it was slightly more painful to watch (though we still enjoyed it). It's got that whole High School Musical type of thing going. Awful in oh-so-may ways, but somehow still enjoyable. Inexplicable, but true.
Anyway, I have to take the dog out, and then I'm going to bed. Wow, it's only midnight--I'll be quite the early bird getting up tomorrow!
WHAT UP MOFUGGAS
Today is the first day I woke up alone (this is actually blatantly untrue because I did not sleep at all last night, A-WHAT'S THAT?). So now I have time to work on things I so desperately owe you all, like new recipes, new comics, or whatever. I do not want to see this blog die, IT IS LIKE MY BABY, and while I have neglected it, refused to contribute to its growth whatsoever, and left its care in the hands of friends from college (much like I would a real baby), I return now from the save haven that is a total lack of responsibility.
Where was I.
Oh right, run on sentences.
Anyhow, my beautiful computer full o' tunes broke down. This is not a good thing. Luckily the music was on a separate harddrive, so even though I will no doubt have to reformat (baww) I didn't lose my music. I also for some reason had the foresight to start moving other important things to the same harddrive in a different partition, so altogether everything is A-OK! Mostly because I have a new computer that is so much better than my old one I don't even know what to do with it
SO Sam and I are starting up our music blog pretty soon. This probably does not concern you because chances are you don't really care about that kind of thing, but I thought it deserved a mention because a lot of effort and thought is actually going to go into it! Or something!
(and continually I will channel my energy into bitching about music videos as opposed to shaving my legs while wearing skirts. HOOBOY)
I have been pretty busy though. I went to Mt. Rainier, I saw a few pretty great bands, I went fishing(!!!), I cooked a lot of gluten free BID-NISS, Gears of War 2 is SO CLOSE TO BEING BEATEN, and a bunch more stuff. Oh, Quach, I unlocked the minigun the first day of summer. Woosh.
Take care, kiddos!
EDIT: Oh dear! It appears I might be going for 20 units next quarter if I want to FOLLOW MY HEART or whatever.
Here is what I would like to take (please change my mind):
Object Lessons (Anthro 134)
Wednesdays 2:15 - 5:05
(I'm not going to pretend any of you are interested in learning about objectification and alienation.)
Biology and Evolution of Language (Anthro 171)
Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays 11:00 - 12:50
(I'm thinking about majoring in medical anthropology. WHO KNOWS. Still considering a CASA major, which is why I'm taking object lessons)
The Changing American Family (Soc 155)
Tuesdays, Thursdays 11:00 - 11:50
(I just realized I'm the lamest out of all of you)
Racial Justice and Multiculturalism (Chicanst 201B; ftr the title was a lot longer than this)
Tuesdays, Thursdays 3:15 - 5:05
(and this just settles that)
SO IF ANY OF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN BEING TOTALLY ALIENATED AND UNDERSTANDING OUR CONNECTIONS TO THE WORLD THROUGH SOCIAL FORCES AND ARTISTIC MOVEMENTS SIGN UP FOR MY SCHEDULE. Or if you're doing language development (coughNoracough) you should totally take bio/evo of language. It's a humbio and linguistics class too, I think.
Today is the first day I woke up alone (this is actually blatantly untrue because I did not sleep at all last night, A-WHAT'S THAT?). So now I have time to work on things I so desperately owe you all, like new recipes, new comics, or whatever. I do not want to see this blog die, IT IS LIKE MY BABY, and while I have neglected it, refused to contribute to its growth whatsoever, and left its care in the hands of friends from college (much like I would a real baby), I return now from the save haven that is a total lack of responsibility.
Where was I.
Oh right, run on sentences.
Anyhow, my beautiful computer full o' tunes broke down. This is not a good thing. Luckily the music was on a separate harddrive, so even though I will no doubt have to reformat (baww) I didn't lose my music. I also for some reason had the foresight to start moving other important things to the same harddrive in a different partition, so altogether everything is A-OK! Mostly because I have a new computer that is so much better than my old one I don't even know what to do with it
SO Sam and I are starting up our music blog pretty soon. This probably does not concern you because chances are you don't really care about that kind of thing, but I thought it deserved a mention because a lot of effort and thought is actually going to go into it! Or something!
(and continually I will channel my energy into bitching about music videos as opposed to shaving my legs while wearing skirts. HOOBOY)
I have been pretty busy though. I went to Mt. Rainier, I saw a few pretty great bands, I went fishing(!!!), I cooked a lot of gluten free BID-NISS, Gears of War 2 is SO CLOSE TO BEING BEATEN, and a bunch more stuff. Oh, Quach, I unlocked the minigun the first day of summer. Woosh.
Take care, kiddos!
EDIT: Oh dear! It appears I might be going for 20 units next quarter if I want to FOLLOW MY HEART or whatever.
Here is what I would like to take (please change my mind):
Object Lessons (Anthro 134)
Wednesdays 2:15 - 5:05
(I'm not going to pretend any of you are interested in learning about objectification and alienation.)
Biology and Evolution of Language (Anthro 171)
Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays 11:00 - 12:50
(I'm thinking about majoring in medical anthropology. WHO KNOWS. Still considering a CASA major, which is why I'm taking object lessons)
The Changing American Family (Soc 155)
Tuesdays, Thursdays 11:00 - 11:50
(I just realized I'm the lamest out of all of you)
Racial Justice and Multiculturalism (Chicanst 201B; ftr the title was a lot longer than this)
Tuesdays, Thursdays 3:15 - 5:05
(and this just settles that)
SO IF ANY OF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN BEING TOTALLY ALIENATED AND UNDERSTANDING OUR CONNECTIONS TO THE WORLD THROUGH SOCIAL FORCES AND ARTISTIC MOVEMENTS SIGN UP FOR MY SCHEDULE. Or if you're doing language development (coughNoracough) you should totally take bio/evo of language. It's a humbio and linguistics class too, I think.
Confusing RSS feed...
Hey guys, who among you would be able to tell me why the comments RSS shows comments that are apparently nonexistent? I click on them in the little bookmark in Firefox that was created when I signed up for the RSS feed, but they take me to a page that says "Sorry, the page you were looking for in the blog Oleander, Pomegranates, etc does not exist."
Also, one less pressing question on the same topic: Why do some of the entries in the RSS thing have the Blogger "B" while others have the RSS symbol?
Shit's confusing.
Also, one less pressing question on the same topic: Why do some of the entries in the RSS thing have the Blogger "B" while others have the RSS symbol?
Shit's confusing.
46 days
hey! i haven't blogged in forever, because not much has happened.. working full-time routine, the usual. i've been spending my weekends catching up on sleep, chilling, going to yogurtland, reading the occasional book, and.. cooking! last weekend my aunt got me a rice cooker, a better pan, and a lot of supplies/groceries.
my new rice cooker
my cousin also took me out to eat chinese food, which i've craved since i got down here because of my inability to get to anywhere but the mall, which of course wouldn't have the kind of authentic chinese restaurant i want. you know, the kind with the same menu with the same font, the same smell (both the menu and the restaurant), the same chairs, tables, christmas lights hung year-round.. mmm. so for lunch and dinner today i mashed the leftovers along with some egg + tomato that i cooked and came out with a lot of food.
...and unfortunate aftermath ><
i get to see trac next week!
my new rice cooker
my cousin also took me out to eat chinese food, which i've craved since i got down here because of my inability to get to anywhere but the mall, which of course wouldn't have the kind of authentic chinese restaurant i want. you know, the kind with the same menu with the same font, the same smell (both the menu and the restaurant), the same chairs, tables, christmas lights hung year-round.. mmm. so for lunch and dinner today i mashed the leftovers along with some egg + tomato that i cooked and came out with a lot of food.
 eggs |  vietnamese com tam! |
 egg + tomato |  mashup with leftovers |
...and unfortunate aftermath ><
i get to see trac next week!
Busy, BUT,
Try this: http://www.naute.com/puzzles/puzzle13.phtml it took me about 25 minutes to do it. I am not really good at this kind of thing thanks to my good old friend ADD, but I'm pretty sure you guys can pull it off. I really suggest doing it graphically.
aaand psyched for signing up for classes. What are you guys taking? Am I taking classes with any of you? Also does anybody know if pre-reqs are totally serious or if they're a strong suggestion.
THIRDLY I have two credit cards now. Uh oh!!!
Try this: http://www.naute.com/puzzles/puzzle13.phtml it took me about 25 minutes to do it. I am not really good at this kind of thing thanks to my good old friend ADD, but I'm pretty sure you guys can pull it off. I really suggest doing it graphically.
aaand psyched for signing up for classes. What are you guys taking? Am I taking classes with any of you? Also does anybody know if pre-reqs are totally serious or if they're a strong suggestion.
THIRDLY I have two credit cards now. Uh oh!!!
i know i need to write...
Miss you all, and i need to put that blogpost down soon. But, until then, here is one of the most badass commercials ive seen in the past year. Tell me what you think! :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqLPHrCQr2I
Long time, no see! (or write on this blog...)
Hey guys. It's been a while since I've posted, and I decided that instead of bumming around on the internet being completely useless I'd at least update you all as to what's been going on in my life lately.
I spend each weekday working for my dad, as I mentioned before. For the past couple weeks I've been sanding all the parts of a mahogany piano from which I previously stripped old finish. That was a pretty gross job--I had to glop big dollops of gloop (e.g. stripper) all over a disassembled piano (legs, music desk, lid, pedal lyre, body, etc.). I had to wear these giant gloves to keep my hands from being eaten alive by the gloop, whose clear, slightly bubbly amber appearance belied its corrosive nature.
That was pretty tiring work, but so is the work I've been doing lately, which is sanding all the parts I previously glopped gloop on. My dad and I are using about five different sandpaper grits on each piece of wood to clean up the last of the stain underneath the finish (we're going to re-stain and re-finish this baby). Some of the parts of the piano are solid mahogany, but many of them are merely covered with veneer, meaning that we have to be careful not to sand too much lest we sand through the veneer to the plain maple underneath. It's a pretty dusty job, and I've been wearing a dust mask much of the time, which probably looks hilarious but isn't so hilarious to experience. I mean, it's fine, but when I wear glasses (I prefer not to wear contacts in such a dirty environment) they get all fogged up because the dust mask works so well that even breath can't just go directly through it.
Here's a picture of me after a long day of sanding, to give you an idea of the sheer dust involved...
Every time I try to scratch my nose or something I get dust all over my face. My mom laughs at me whenever I enter the house.
On a slightly less dusty note, I think I'm pretty much finished with sanding after today, unless my dad has something up his sleeve (which kept happening with the stripping...I was so sick of that crap). Which means I'll probably be back to regulating an action. Actions are pretty effing complicated, as you can see:
I wish you could see it in action (heh), but you're all smart and could probably figure it out if you wanted to. Keep in mind that you're pressing down on the key at #58 and it all goes from there. (Alternatively, there's probably stuff all over YouTube on this very subject. But I digress.)
"Regulating" an "action" basically means I have to make sure that each individual part doesn't have too much friction going on in its various pins and hinges, and that everything is lined up and spaced evenly when put together, and that it's level, etc. Mostly so far I've dealt with hammer shanks and flanges, wippens, and jacks.
Besides work, I've been hanging out with my family and a few friends, running occasionally, playing some piano, and reading the physics textbook online in preparation for Physics 45 this upcoming quarter. Yes, I'm going to tough it out. I'm not going to let one quarter of Stanford physics scare me away. Dammit!
Seeing as it's nearly 6 pm, I should go running before dinner (and you can all just pretend I actually did, in case I don't). Looking forward to seeing you all in a little over seven weeks!
Wait, what? We still have to wait seven weeks? What is this?
I spend each weekday working for my dad, as I mentioned before. For the past couple weeks I've been sanding all the parts of a mahogany piano from which I previously stripped old finish. That was a pretty gross job--I had to glop big dollops of gloop (e.g. stripper) all over a disassembled piano (legs, music desk, lid, pedal lyre, body, etc.). I had to wear these giant gloves to keep my hands from being eaten alive by the gloop, whose clear, slightly bubbly amber appearance belied its corrosive nature.
That was pretty tiring work, but so is the work I've been doing lately, which is sanding all the parts I previously glopped gloop on. My dad and I are using about five different sandpaper grits on each piece of wood to clean up the last of the stain underneath the finish (we're going to re-stain and re-finish this baby). Some of the parts of the piano are solid mahogany, but many of them are merely covered with veneer, meaning that we have to be careful not to sand too much lest we sand through the veneer to the plain maple underneath. It's a pretty dusty job, and I've been wearing a dust mask much of the time, which probably looks hilarious but isn't so hilarious to experience. I mean, it's fine, but when I wear glasses (I prefer not to wear contacts in such a dirty environment) they get all fogged up because the dust mask works so well that even breath can't just go directly through it.
Here's a picture of me after a long day of sanding, to give you an idea of the sheer dust involved...
Every time I try to scratch my nose or something I get dust all over my face. My mom laughs at me whenever I enter the house.
On a slightly less dusty note, I think I'm pretty much finished with sanding after today, unless my dad has something up his sleeve (which kept happening with the stripping...I was so sick of that crap). Which means I'll probably be back to regulating an action. Actions are pretty effing complicated, as you can see:
I wish you could see it in action (heh), but you're all smart and could probably figure it out if you wanted to. Keep in mind that you're pressing down on the key at #58 and it all goes from there. (Alternatively, there's probably stuff all over YouTube on this very subject. But I digress.)
"Regulating" an "action" basically means I have to make sure that each individual part doesn't have too much friction going on in its various pins and hinges, and that everything is lined up and spaced evenly when put together, and that it's level, etc. Mostly so far I've dealt with hammer shanks and flanges, wippens, and jacks.
Besides work, I've been hanging out with my family and a few friends, running occasionally, playing some piano, and reading the physics textbook online in preparation for Physics 45 this upcoming quarter. Yes, I'm going to tough it out. I'm not going to let one quarter of Stanford physics scare me away. Dammit!
Seeing as it's nearly 6 pm, I should go running before dinner (and you can all just pretend I actually did, in case I don't). Looking forward to seeing you all in a little over seven weeks!
Wait, what? We still have to wait seven weeks? What is this?
Flying back!
Have any of you ever seen me silent for this long before? Two weeks! The ISS is done, my friends have gone home, and my flight departs in 40 minutes. Its all depressing until I realise im headed back for my last week and a bit at home and then am that much closer to seeing you all again.
When I land, and then survive the coma i will descend into from not having slept for two days straight(hey i wont see some of these people ever again, so... party while i can eh?), I will post. I really should break it up into bits and leave most of it for personal animated narration! A lot of things happened and when i reflect on the last two weeks its like i was stuck in the middle of a cosmic haze - a term we created at the ISS, besides the 'cosmic cow', 'funking it out', that's so mad/devo(depending on if its really reallly cool or really really devastating) and a load more which i will be generously doling out when im back! Australia nerd slang is the funkiest thing ever!
So after two weeks of solid nerd camp, im headed back to what seems like a probably saner life with sleep being an actual daily activity.
For now, bye. I'm boarding and the emotions are getting a little hard to handle due to several factors. Blog to you all soon!
love,
N
Last bit of asia...
For the last week or two, I have been constantly traveling around...I think I'm getting used to it at this point. I've gone from Hangzhou to Shenzhen (southern China) to Hong Kong to Taipei to Ailishan (also in Taiwan) and finally back to Hong Kong before I head back to San Francisco tomorrow afternoon. Phew.
For the sake of brevity and actually having stories for later, I'll just outline some highlights:
Hangzhou: The last week was interesting with clinical work in a hospital and getting to see acupuncture, cupping, and tuina (massage). I even got a very unexpected first hand experience of acupuncture...it was quite a weird experience. I also got my pulse analyzed, though the analysis was not very optimistic. On my way to the airport in the morning, I took a taxi and started talking with the driver who didn't believe I was from the US at first and took a long stare at me (while driving rather quickly and cutting in front of cars) while saying, "You don't look American." Chinese drivers are scary. But he was really nice and as I left, he was screaming out "I hope you can come back to Hangzhou!" and "Remember my phone number!"
Shenzhen: Lots of food and family.
Hong Kong: So in total I've been in Hong Kong for about 3 days, so I've been running around meeting relatives, shopping, and eating lots of good food. Yum. :)
Taiwan: I got to see a family friend (and the daughter took me around excitedly), an old friend/my former dance teacher, and my lovely roommate. Lots of sightseeing, night market-ing, EATING, and shopping later, I went to the airport to my terminal, only to find that my gate was hello kitty themed. I'm not even kidding...Taiwanese people REALLY like hello kitty.
I feel like there's still a lot more to say about each place but I honestly can't remember right now. Anygay, this way I'll have some stories to tell you guys later. :) Back to sunny California tomorrow!
:)
Hi everyone!
So it’s been forever and a half since I last posted. Lots has happened and I don’t quite remember the details of all of it, so I’ll just go through highlights.
The past few weeks have been pretty wushu-packed for me. Weekdays are pretty much dedicated to training, and then on weekends I get a break to go and actually have a social life. Feels like high school all over again lol. A few weekends ago my friends and I went blueberry picking, which was quite fun. At one point while picking berries I realized I was standing in an anthill and there were ants swarming over my shoes. That part was not so fun. Anyways, we ended up with A LOT of blueberries, and furious baking ensued. We made blueberry muffins and a blueberry tart, both with twice as many blueberries as the recipes called for. They was quite delicious. And very blue.
The weekend of July 4th I went into DC for the Folklife festival and fireworks. Walking around DC is generally fun, but especially on the 4th of july when there are lots of interesting people around. On the way to Folklife we got accosted by some very enthusiastic Mormons, tried to wade through a parade, and made a pit-stop at the Smithsonian. I’ve decided that I really have to go back to explore the Smithsonian more some other day. But that will wait. Eventually we got to Folklife, which is this annual cultural arts festival with lots of cool exhibits from cool places. Wandered around there for the better part of the afternoon, whiling away the hours until it got dark enough for fireworks. The fireworks were very pretty, and the group sitting behind us kept up an interesting commentary throughout the show. Getting home afterwards on metro was an absolute mess. I had never seen so many people on metro at the same time before, but that’s to be expected on july 4th.
Then this past week my friends dragged me out to the midnight premiere of harry potter 6. we decided to go all out and make tshirts. Actually compared to everyone else there we were pretty un-dressed up—some people had some very impressive costumes.
So I stayed out til around 4 that night, and practice the next day was not fun. This last week or so I’m back to my old training schedule where I’m at wushu literally all day, 9 am to 9 pm. When I’m not training I help teach the little kids, which is pretty entertaining sometimes. Frustrating at other times, but they’re cute. Especially Caroline, who is 4 and follows me around everywhere.
And now I’m sitting in Narita Airport in Tokyo, waiting for a connecting flight to Taipei. I have no internet here, so I’ll post this when I get to Taiwan.
Interesting coincidence: I ran into Nekka here! She’s with the US women’s basketball team, on her way to worlds in Thailand.
The gate next to mine is a flight going to SFO. I kinda really want to sneak over there and fly back to Stanford...
Edit: Arrived in Taipei and I’m super tired. and I’m leeching wireless off of I don’t know where but it works. It is nice to be in Taipei again. As much as I hate cities, in some ways I really love this place. I'm here for a few days, then going to southern taiwan for world games, then coming back here to visit family and stuff for another few weeks. but in the more immediate future, i’m meeting up with my lovely roommate tomorrow!! :D
Hey dudes, I'm really busy lately (I am entertaining! the verb, not the adjective), but I need to redirect your attention to something.
You can rate it at this link here.
(Please do. I want this on a print so bad it's ridiculous, mostly since I really frown at this kind of thing usually and will no doubt pass judgment on anyone else who does the same despite my better knowledge.)
You can rate it at this link here.
(Please do. I want this on a print so bad it's ridiculous, mostly since I really frown at this kind of thing usually and will no doubt pass judgment on anyone else who does the same despite my better knowledge.)
An amusing morning (from an email I sent 16 hours ago)
I'm still sitting here at Peet's, and it's a bit diffucult to concentrate. Even though I woke up at 6 am, I'm still feeling energetic right now (7am), and it feels like a waste to be spending my time doing HIPAA training and analyzing data. I'd rather be translating for patients or ambling down some woodsy road/the dish. Ambling, huh. I haven't ambled in forever. I would amble to work, but it's so far that it'd probably take an hour-otherwise, I'd probably do it quite often. My desires notwithstanding, I'm still stuck without a way to efficiently integrate pleasure strolling and my morning commute or to translate Spanish for patients... though I will be interpreting at Arbor Free Clinic Sunday morning. w00t.
The coffee shop owner has been listening to the same song for 20 minutes now. Seriously. The song only lasts 3 minutes or so, but the owner's husband found a devious way wear out its appeal. It's a famous Spanish opera love song that everyone remakes in different languagues, and the owner's husband made her a recording in which the French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, etc. versions are concatenated (and somehow all sung by the same guy backed up by the same orchestra). I initially thought the song was all beautiful and romantic, but the 7th repetition of some Spanish guy's expression of his undying love borders on wretched excess much in the same way as "99 bottles of beer on the wall," and it's starting to piss me off. Kind of makes me want to club a baby seal while telling a Hellen Keller joke to a dead baby in Darfur. Alternatively I could club a baby seal while telling a dead baby joke to Hellen Keller in Darfur, and the result would be the same.
Haha wow, that's kind of morbid. I should probably go. Here's something to cheer you up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gTGmbA40ZQ
Better than that blasted Josh Groban version
The coffee shop owner has been listening to the same song for 20 minutes now. Seriously. The song only lasts 3 minutes or so, but the owner's husband found a devious way wear out its appeal. It's a famous Spanish opera love song that everyone remakes in different languagues, and the owner's husband made her a recording in which the French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, etc. versions are concatenated (and somehow all sung by the same guy backed up by the same orchestra). I initially thought the song was all beautiful and romantic, but the 7th repetition of some Spanish guy's expression of his undying love borders on wretched excess much in the same way as "99 bottles of beer on the wall," and it's starting to piss me off. Kind of makes me want to club a baby seal while telling a Hellen Keller joke to a dead baby in Darfur. Alternatively I could club a baby seal while telling a dead baby joke to Hellen Keller in Darfur, and the result would be the same.
Haha wow, that's kind of morbid. I should probably go. Here's something to cheer you up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Better than that blasted Josh Groban version
medieval times!
hey all! haven't blogged in awhile, since nothing really excited has happened. but something awesome happened today so i decided to talk about it.
so i saw public enemies last friday. it was pretty good - johnny depp did a great job as the incredibly badass john dillinger. there's this part where he breaks out of prison and steals the prison warden's ford v8 (the newest, fastest car!!) and drives off away from the jail, which is surrounded by a bunch of us army soldiers who are clueless to his escape. but then he hits a red light and he just slows and stops for it, while the guy he broke out with is just staring at him with a "....." face while he's just waiting at the intersection where a few soldiers are talking to each other. hahahaha. but the overall movie was only ok. a lot of violence.
today i went to medieval times with the other interns at the company. apparently it's pretty popular, but i'd never heard of it. it's like a dinner/tournament-play-show with a medieval theme. we ate from plates without utensils and drank from flagons of pepsi (definitely medieval). the show was really good. couldn't say much about the plot but the acting, costumes, and fighting were extremely well done. horseback choreography is very hard, but the horses were extremely well trained. the people also fought with swords, poleaxes, maces, flails. i put a lot of pictures up on facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/photos/?ref=sb#/album.php?aid=2032835&id=1198727477 also uploaded some videos.
hope you're all having great summers!
- alex
so i saw public enemies last friday. it was pretty good - johnny depp did a great job as the incredibly badass john dillinger. there's this part where he breaks out of prison and steals the prison warden's ford v8 (the newest, fastest car!!) and drives off away from the jail, which is surrounded by a bunch of us army soldiers who are clueless to his escape. but then he hits a red light and he just slows and stops for it, while the guy he broke out with is just staring at him with a "....." face while he's just waiting at the intersection where a few soldiers are talking to each other. hahahaha. but the overall movie was only ok. a lot of violence.
today i went to medieval times with the other interns at the company. apparently it's pretty popular, but i'd never heard of it. it's like a dinner/tournament-play-show with a medieval theme. we ate from plates without utensils and drank from flagons of pepsi (definitely medieval). the show was really good. couldn't say much about the plot but the acting, costumes, and fighting were extremely well done. horseback choreography is very hard, but the horses were extremely well trained. the people also fought with swords, poleaxes, maces, flails. i put a lot of pictures up on facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/photos/?ref=sb#/album.php?aid=2032835&id=1198727477 also uploaded some videos.
hope you're all having great summers!
- alex
My Brand New (40+ years old) Bike
So. As many of you know, my bike last year was rather small.
A while back, we had some family visiting. They have two kids - one's nine and the other is twelve. When they left, my dad was curious what was going on in our lives when Tyler and I were that age. He pulled out a dvd from around that time and found out that I was NINE when I got that bike. That would explain its size.
Anyway, we've had some bikes hanging in our garage for a long time. One of them is Tyler's - I was thinking of using it next year but after riding it a bit I'm not sure it's ideal either.
So today we tried another one. It was my uncle's. I asked my dad about when he thinks they got it - he estimated about 1967. Making it at least 40 years old. Wow.
Anyway, I tried it out today. Shifting can be a fun sort of guessing game. The brakes sort of work. It's one of those speed bikes so the handles really don't extend very far - it's a bit difficult to turn.
All these factors combine to form a rather entertaining and hilarious experience.
I realize I haven't said too much here in a while. I'll update some more soon =)
-Alex
A while back, we had some family visiting. They have two kids - one's nine and the other is twelve. When they left, my dad was curious what was going on in our lives when Tyler and I were that age. He pulled out a dvd from around that time and found out that I was NINE when I got that bike. That would explain its size.
Anyway, we've had some bikes hanging in our garage for a long time. One of them is Tyler's - I was thinking of using it next year but after riding it a bit I'm not sure it's ideal either.
So today we tried another one. It was my uncle's. I asked my dad about when he thinks they got it - he estimated about 1967. Making it at least 40 years old. Wow.
Anyway, I tried it out today. Shifting can be a fun sort of guessing game. The brakes sort of work. It's one of those speed bikes so the handles really don't extend very far - it's a bit difficult to turn.
All these factors combine to form a rather entertaining and hilarious experience.
I realize I haven't said too much here in a while. I'll update some more soon =)
-Alex
One Month
we are now 33% done with summer! i make it sound like a terrible chore on purpose - because i miss you all!
For those of you who have seen Jaane Tu...Ya Jaane Na
I now know every single word to "Kabhi Kabhi Aditi." I can sing in Hindi! Woot.
High in Sydney!
So everyone,
I had one of the best flight journeys of my life half of which i spent blissfully passed out and the other listening to the corniest 90s music. Ah and also.. You know those annoying kids that point out the window and squeal and swoon at everything they see? Im the worst kind! I was absolutely enthralled by down under from up above. The friggin country changes terrain every ten flight minutes and its breathtakingly beautiful. I just slammed my face at the window and kept it pressed against the pane for so long im pretty sure the glass had moulded a little to impression my face. (SQ 233, seat 51K for those who want to check ;P). The miracles of supercooled liquids and a hyper excited ....(damn it! i dont even know what to refer to myself as. I think i need to creat a new species.)
I reached sydney at 4:30pm local time. I might as well let you guys know that i am now a full 18 hours ahead of you guys! muhahahaha
Its amazing to be back to the university of sydney. Ive been given a room that is atleast thrice the size of a westlag room - all for myself.. I didnt know the staff at the science school get treated that nice! So now im off to spook people out by walking around the place(there is not a single other person here yet for the ISS.. im the first! some other random people for some other random conference do exist.), with a ridiculous grin plastered on my face. Then going to play(read blast) music and jump around my little fort while i try to unpack thing into my *hold your breath* personal closet(XL) with a beautifully framed full length mirror! My last time here was PURE FUN, and i cant wait for this event to start. The minute i figure out how to hack their wireless(or muster up the decency to ask for the password), im putting up pics.
Loads of other stories in just one day of flying including being pecked on the cheek by a frenchman with a mohawk, bursting into song(LOUDLY) - Elvis's Jailhouse Rock, in the plane and irritating the air hostess by asking her to get me pen after pen to write my name once - her fault that one. the first six pens wouldnt write! i'm saving them all for you guys! Seriously people.. I really dont need in flight entertainment to keep me engaged. I am the entertainment.
For now - the spooking and my room await! wheeeee
muah,
N
I had one of the best flight journeys of my life half of which i spent blissfully passed out and the other listening to the corniest 90s music. Ah and also.. You know those annoying kids that point out the window and squeal and swoon at everything they see? Im the worst kind! I was absolutely enthralled by down under from up above. The friggin country changes terrain every ten flight minutes and its breathtakingly beautiful. I just slammed my face at the window and kept it pressed against the pane for so long im pretty sure the glass had moulded a little to impression my face. (SQ 233, seat 51K for those who want to check ;P). The miracles of supercooled liquids and a hyper excited ....(damn it! i dont even know what to refer to myself as. I think i need to creat a new species.)
I reached sydney at 4:30pm local time. I might as well let you guys know that i am now a full 18 hours ahead of you guys! muhahahaha
Its amazing to be back to the university of sydney. Ive been given a room that is atleast thrice the size of a westlag room - all for myself.. I didnt know the staff at the science school get treated that nice! So now im off to spook people out by walking around the place(there is not a single other person here yet for the ISS.. im the first! some other random people for some other random conference do exist.), with a ridiculous grin plastered on my face. Then going to play(read blast) music and jump around my little fort while i try to unpack thing into my *hold your breath* personal closet(XL) with a beautifully framed full length mirror! My last time here was PURE FUN, and i cant wait for this event to start. The minute i figure out how to hack their wireless(or muster up the decency to ask for the password), im putting up pics.
Loads of other stories in just one day of flying including being pecked on the cheek by a frenchman with a mohawk, bursting into song(LOUDLY) - Elvis's Jailhouse Rock, in the plane and irritating the air hostess by asking her to get me pen after pen to write my name once - her fault that one. the first six pens wouldnt write! i'm saving them all for you guys! Seriously people.. I really dont need in flight entertainment to keep me engaged. I am the entertainment.
For now - the spooking and my room await! wheeeee
muah,
N
Four hours and a bit
And I will be on my way to bangalore to get on a flight to Sydney. It seems weird to say goodbye though - to all of you, because this trip is only getting me physically closer(it's all about relativity ;P) to each of you - tiffany included!
So I won't!
love,
N
So I won't!
love,
N
I am watching Ella Enchanted for some reason
I was like "this is not even trying to be subtle" the first time I read it when I was in like, fourth grade, so I don't know why I bother thinking it's going to be even remotely watchable. (I also just realized the "edit html" tab means you can actually write this shit in html and you don't have to use the "ADD IMAGE!" tag, which I should have known anyway since I've done it before a million times. durf.)
ANYWAY
Before I get to the fun stuff I've set up for you folks:
My neighborhood was on fire for a while. I heard the first explosion and thought it was Alex falling in my bathroom. He thought it was me dropping something in the kitchen. Whoops!
SO!!! I made the most delicious lime tea cookies the other day. It's some martha stewart shit I picked up a while ago and figured you folks could benefit from the recipe, seeing as it's the best goddamn thing in the world. A VISUAL TUTORIAL FOR ALL Y'ALL. Only they are really bad pictures because my camera is broken, and I also did not actually follow the instructions. So you are getting college student instructions, meaning they are better targeted to this audience.
MAKE SOME GODDAMN COOKIES
HOW TO MAKE THE BEST GODDAMN COOKIES
SHIT YOU'LL NEED
That should cover it.
Here, I will show you what I used.
Flour gets its own solo shot and the first slot because I feel bad for it.
WOO
I used unsalted butter because my mom bought some by mistake and has no use for it. This is another reason you would use unsalted butter instead of normal butter. WE ARE CULINARY SCAVENGERS, MY FRIENDS
My best friend. He's saved me every time I go to make a buttermilk cake.
A CHEESE GRATER!
....WHICH I CANNOT REACH
(but, like most Stanford students, resourcefulness has not escaped me)
Yesss.
SO.
Your butter needs to be room temperature when you do this, otherwise you're going to have a serious problem when you go to mix it. Preferably over room temperature. If you've left your butter out, stellar, if you haven't, it's the summer and putting it in the sun is a great idea.
It's ready to go when it's all melty and gross. Until then, keep your stick and a half in the light. (Heh.)
In the meantime, get a 1/3 cup of sugar ready to mix with the butter. This sounds like it won't be enough for all the butter. I promise, it is, but if it's really a problem (which it sometimes can be) feel free to add a bit more sugar. It really won't kill you.
STUFF TO PREPARE WHILE YOU'RE WAITING FOR YOUR BUTTER TO MELT OR SOMETHING:
Mix the salt (if you're using it), the cornstarch, and the flour together with a whisk in another bowl. Careful not to spill anything, you'll look like a really stereotypical baker and probably piss off whoever else has to use your kitchen.
Zest your limes! The really-small setting can suck because sometimes it doesn't work. It's okay to use the small-medium side, most of the zest will be really small anyway and it works just fine.
TO GET THE MOST JUICE OUT OF YOUR LIMES:
Roll the lime between the palm of your hand and your counter a lot. You can feel it getting softer, yes?? This is because you are pretty much pre-juicing it and I seriously need to stop this line of thought because it's pretty obvious I'm sexually frustrated
Juice your limes! (god damn it)
Get yo vanilla.
NOW! Your butter really should be ready by now. If it's not, I DO NOT suggesting melting it in the microwave. This will make mixing it harder because of how the powdered sugar will stick to the sides and not blend in right. This is still going to be a problem but you'll be able to figure it out.
SO!
Mix your butter and 1/3 cup of powdered sugar together on a high speed until it's all combined. It should be a pale, soft and fluffy mixture. Mix in your vanilla, lime juice, and lime zest.
It'll look something like this.
Make sure to dig the lime out of your mixer and put it back in.. the sauce. It should smell pretty good right now.
Add the flour mixture on A SLOW SETTING and mix it until everything turns into a dough. Make sure it's all combined.
The dough should look like this. It will feel really oily and kind of gross. I do not suggest texting after handling, because you will have to clean your phone, and I promise that's not fun.
Roll your dough into logs, put them on a baking tray and shove it in the fridge for at least an hour.
I obviously don't have a lot of room to work with, but I try. The recipe suggests you roll them into like, an 1 1/4" diameter roll, but this is kind of useless since you're going to need to re-knead it anyway unless you having baking parchment.
IF YOUR KITCHEN IS WELL-STOCKED AND HAS BAKING PARCHMENT, ROLL THE LOGS LIKE MENTIONED AND PUT THEM IN PARCHMENT BEFORE PUTTING THEM IN THE FRIDGE. I AM NOT LUCKY LIKE YOU.
While you wait for the hour to pass, watch something on TV, or something. Here, have some youtube videos.
This is hilarious and unexpected. Suggested if you like the song "Such Great Heights." Also avoid it if you like the song "Such Great Heights." Once you get the idea, skip to 3:45 to hear the most hilarious take on the lyric "come down now..."
This is my favorite short film. It is made by the dudes who run the forums I chill out at a lot. If you think purposely bad things are funny, watch it.
For those who think not-purposely-bad things are funny.
I just think everyone would appreciate this, except Oliver, who appreciates nothing on youtube
OH WOW IT'S BEEN AN HOUR HOW CURIOUS
NOW!
You will take out the logs and you're going to notice that they feel really, really hard and you will probably feel like you fucked up and stand in the kitchen looking dejected until you realize you can just, um, knead the dough. I guess it doesn't apply if you're parchmenting this bitch, but since when does convenience build character, am I right???
When you reknead the dough, make small cookies about 1/4" thick. The batter is absolutely delicious (unless you're going gluten-free) so if you feel the urge to eat a tiny bit, go ahead (Zoe, I'm looking at you.) Place them on the baking tray an inch apart. A little more, a little less won't kill you.
While you're doing this, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. This whole making cookies thing takes a long damn time, so it should be ready by the time you've got your cookies together.
Baking time!
Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes. They'll start to turn golden at the bottom and smell really, really good.
Then they're done baking!
BEING VERY GENTLE, put the cookies on some cooling trays for about 3 minutes. Don't burn yourself!
Here comes the fun part.
Put the rest of the powdered sugar I had you take and put it in a bag. Then, putting in a few cookies (like 7?), toss that shit until the cookies are coated in powdered sugar. Take those out, put 'em on a plate, and repeat till you got them all lookin' delicious. You gotta do this while they're still warm, so try and make this part fast-paced and exciting.
Awww HELL yeah.
FINAL STEP: eat that shit
SO this is already a long post, but the past week has been really fun. Alex decided one night on a whim that we should go to Vancouver for the night, so we did! We spent the night getting drunk off our asses in a few bars (and got into a club with a fifty dolla' cover charge for free on basis of being cute). I was also dressed in a skirt that did not even go to my mid-thigh (which was funny because I was wearing bright blue PANT-EEZ), and this really tight stripey shirt which looked absurdly cute. We pretty much just put the outfit together at Goodwill and bought it just so we could go to Vancouver.
It was awesome.
Then I woke up late the next day and it turned out that my other best friend Emilie had work off! We were going to catch lunch at a park near my friend Rikki's house, but it turned out A RECORD-ATTEMPTING ZOMBIE WALK was occurring in my favorite neighborhood in Seattle, so we tore up clothes (you can find pictures on facebook pretty easily) and headed on down. This drunk lady gave me and Emilie whiskey while rattling on about culinary school.
It did end up setting a Guinness world record for largest zombie flashmob. Neat!
Um, since then I've been helping Mom with parties since my cousins are visiting. Sam comes over to stay for a couple weeks tomorrow, so I am cleaning my room, which sucks. I am also oversleeping worse than ever.
ANYWAY I GUESS THAT'S IT. There are more stories within stories, but I think I just won a record for longest post so I will just stop now.
Edit: Noted that pictures break tables. Don't care.
ANYWAY
Before I get to the fun stuff I've set up for you folks:
My neighborhood was on fire for a while. I heard the first explosion and thought it was Alex falling in my bathroom. He thought it was me dropping something in the kitchen. Whoops!
SO!!! I made the most delicious lime tea cookies the other day. It's some martha stewart shit I picked up a while ago and figured you folks could benefit from the recipe, seeing as it's the best goddamn thing in the world. A VISUAL TUTORIAL FOR ALL Y'ALL. Only they are really bad pictures because my camera is broken, and I also did not actually follow the instructions. So you are getting college student instructions, meaning they are better targeted to this audience.
MAKE SOME GODDAMN COOKIES
SHIT YOU'LL NEED
- 1 1/2 sticks of butter (RECIPE SUGGESTS UNSALTED BUTTER. IT ALSO SUGGESTS SALT LATER. I'll write notes for either, but if you just use salted butter it's totally fine. IF, GOD FORBID, YOU NEED TO MAKE THIS FOR A VEGAN: replace with margarine. This is the only part of the recipe that uses animal products. It is not a problem.)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (this is a very small amount of salt, so seriously, the difference between this and just using regular butter is pretty much nonexistent. Whatever you're more comfortable with.)
- 2 tablespoons of squeezed lime juice (you can get this from a lime if you're OK at this, but if you're not I will give you tips. also you can just use two limes. it is really not a big deal.
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cups of flour (IF YOU ARE MAKING THIS GLUTEN FREE BECAUSE YOUR AUNT/CUTE EX-BOYFRIEND HAVE CELIAC DISEASE: this is the only part of the recipe you need to replace with a different ingredient. Use soy flour if you can. This will, naturally, make the batter disgusting to taste but rice flour doesn't hold as well, etc. OH, ALSO NOTE THAT THEY WILL NOT HOLD VERY WELL WITH SOY FLOUR EITHER. IN FACT THEY WILL EXPLODE INTO POWDER AT FIRST BITE. BE WARNED.)
- The zest of a lime!!! A couple limes will be fine for this, but if you want to use one, that's cool too. Keep the pieces small or else the cookies are gonna be a pretty chewy experience.
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- A cup of powdered sugar. Yum.
- A couple baking trays.
- A few cooling trays. You know. The wiry ones.
- Fridge space.
- A grater. (YES, WELL, I REALIZE I SHOULD BE USING A ZESTER. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT? SOME PEOPLE DON'T HAVE ZESTERS. JUST LIKE OTHER PEOPLE DON'T HAVE FRIENDS BECAUSE THEY ARE INSUFFERABLE KNOW-IT-ALL JERKS WHO FIND THEIR ONLY SOLACE IN THE KNOWLEDGE THAT THEY KNOW THE CORRECT KITCHEN IMPLEMENTS.)
- An electric mixer. Otherwise you are going to hate your life.
- A BAG TO TOSS YOUR COOKIES IN (I have wanted to say this the entire post)
- OH RIGHT, AN OVEN
- Shit for measuring
That should cover it.
Here, I will show you what I used.
Flour gets its own solo shot and the first slot because I feel bad for it.
WOO
I used unsalted butter because my mom bought some by mistake and has no use for it. This is another reason you would use unsalted butter instead of normal butter. WE ARE CULINARY SCAVENGERS, MY FRIENDS
My best friend. He's saved me every time I go to make a buttermilk cake.
A CHEESE GRATER!
....WHICH I CANNOT REACH
(but, like most Stanford students, resourcefulness has not escaped me)
Yesss.
SO.
Your butter needs to be room temperature when you do this, otherwise you're going to have a serious problem when you go to mix it. Preferably over room temperature. If you've left your butter out, stellar, if you haven't, it's the summer and putting it in the sun is a great idea.
It's ready to go when it's all melty and gross. Until then, keep your stick and a half in the light. (Heh.)
In the meantime, get a 1/3 cup of sugar ready to mix with the butter. This sounds like it won't be enough for all the butter. I promise, it is, but if it's really a problem (which it sometimes can be) feel free to add a bit more sugar. It really won't kill you.
STUFF TO PREPARE WHILE YOU'RE WAITING FOR YOUR BUTTER TO MELT OR SOMETHING:
Mix the salt (if you're using it), the cornstarch, and the flour together with a whisk in another bowl. Careful not to spill anything, you'll look like a really stereotypical baker and probably piss off whoever else has to use your kitchen.
Zest your limes! The really-small setting can suck because sometimes it doesn't work. It's okay to use the small-medium side, most of the zest will be really small anyway and it works just fine.
TO GET THE MOST JUICE OUT OF YOUR LIMES:
Roll the lime between the palm of your hand and your counter a lot. You can feel it getting softer, yes?? This is because you are pretty much pre-juicing it and I seriously need to stop this line of thought because it's pretty obvious I'm sexually frustrated
Juice your limes! (god damn it)
Get yo vanilla.
NOW! Your butter really should be ready by now. If it's not, I DO NOT suggesting melting it in the microwave. This will make mixing it harder because of how the powdered sugar will stick to the sides and not blend in right. This is still going to be a problem but you'll be able to figure it out.
SO!
Mix your butter and 1/3 cup of powdered sugar together on a high speed until it's all combined. It should be a pale, soft and fluffy mixture. Mix in your vanilla, lime juice, and lime zest.
It'll look something like this.
Make sure to dig the lime out of your mixer and put it back in.. the sauce. It should smell pretty good right now.
Add the flour mixture on A SLOW SETTING and mix it until everything turns into a dough. Make sure it's all combined.
The dough should look like this. It will feel really oily and kind of gross. I do not suggest texting after handling, because you will have to clean your phone, and I promise that's not fun.
Roll your dough into logs, put them on a baking tray and shove it in the fridge for at least an hour.
I obviously don't have a lot of room to work with, but I try. The recipe suggests you roll them into like, an 1 1/4" diameter roll, but this is kind of useless since you're going to need to re-knead it anyway unless you having baking parchment.
IF YOUR KITCHEN IS WELL-STOCKED AND HAS BAKING PARCHMENT, ROLL THE LOGS LIKE MENTIONED AND PUT THEM IN PARCHMENT BEFORE PUTTING THEM IN THE FRIDGE. I AM NOT LUCKY LIKE YOU.
While you wait for the hour to pass, watch something on TV, or something. Here, have some youtube videos.
This is hilarious and unexpected. Suggested if you like the song "Such Great Heights." Also avoid it if you like the song "Such Great Heights." Once you get the idea, skip to 3:45 to hear the most hilarious take on the lyric "come down now..."
This is my favorite short film. It is made by the dudes who run the forums I chill out at a lot. If you think purposely bad things are funny, watch it.
For those who think not-purposely-bad things are funny.
I just think everyone would appreciate this, except Oliver, who appreciates nothing on youtube
OH WOW IT'S BEEN AN HOUR HOW CURIOUS
NOW!
You will take out the logs and you're going to notice that they feel really, really hard and you will probably feel like you fucked up and stand in the kitchen looking dejected until you realize you can just, um, knead the dough. I guess it doesn't apply if you're parchmenting this bitch, but since when does convenience build character, am I right???
When you reknead the dough, make small cookies about 1/4" thick. The batter is absolutely delicious (unless you're going gluten-free) so if you feel the urge to eat a tiny bit, go ahead (Zoe, I'm looking at you.) Place them on the baking tray an inch apart. A little more, a little less won't kill you.
While you're doing this, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. This whole making cookies thing takes a long damn time, so it should be ready by the time you've got your cookies together.
Baking time!
Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes. They'll start to turn golden at the bottom and smell really, really good.
Then they're done baking!
BEING VERY GENTLE, put the cookies on some cooling trays for about 3 minutes. Don't burn yourself!
Here comes the fun part.
Put the rest of the powdered sugar I had you take and put it in a bag. Then, putting in a few cookies (like 7?), toss that shit until the cookies are coated in powdered sugar. Take those out, put 'em on a plate, and repeat till you got them all lookin' delicious. You gotta do this while they're still warm, so try and make this part fast-paced and exciting.
Awww HELL yeah.
FINAL STEP: eat that shit
SO this is already a long post, but the past week has been really fun. Alex decided one night on a whim that we should go to Vancouver for the night, so we did! We spent the night getting drunk off our asses in a few bars (and got into a club with a fifty dolla' cover charge for free on basis of being cute). I was also dressed in a skirt that did not even go to my mid-thigh (which was funny because I was wearing bright blue PANT-EEZ), and this really tight stripey shirt which looked absurdly cute. We pretty much just put the outfit together at Goodwill and bought it just so we could go to Vancouver.
It was awesome.
Then I woke up late the next day and it turned out that my other best friend Emilie had work off! We were going to catch lunch at a park near my friend Rikki's house, but it turned out A RECORD-ATTEMPTING ZOMBIE WALK was occurring in my favorite neighborhood in Seattle, so we tore up clothes (you can find pictures on facebook pretty easily) and headed on down. This drunk lady gave me and Emilie whiskey while rattling on about culinary school.
It did end up setting a Guinness world record for largest zombie flashmob. Neat!
Um, since then I've been helping Mom with parties since my cousins are visiting. Sam comes over to stay for a couple weeks tomorrow, so I am cleaning my room, which sucks. I am also oversleeping worse than ever.
ANYWAY I GUESS THAT'S IT. There are more stories within stories, but I think I just won a record for longest post so I will just stop now.
Edit: Noted that pictures break tables. Don't care.
Settling down...ish.
Things haven't been as exciting after settling down on campus, but hopefully still interesting. We just finished 2 weeks of classes and next week we're going to a hospital for clinical work. I think we'll be shadowing doctors or at least be looking at different treatments. I even have a white lab coat and we might get those face masks..which would lead to some very interesting pictures. I'll see tomorrow what we do exactly. :)
Along with classes about diagnosis, acupuncture, massages, and "beauty care," we've also gone on field trips to different places like a herb museum and the national tea museum. The herb museum has some of the strangest things like animal statues...including one deer that has fangs. (vampire bambi?!) It also led out to this street market with lots of food, stores, and a golden Buddha. The national tea museum, on the other hand, was kind of in the middle of nowhere.
Last weekend I ended up meeting up with my family because they were in southern China and then they flew up to visit and sightsee a little bit. It was good seeing them again after the past few months and I've missed my brother and how we always end up doing the weirdest things/having the weirdest talks. We all went to Wuzhen, a village with a canal flowing through it and the town essentially on these small roads on either side, a night market, and around the West Lake. I found hilarious Chinglish signs like the one below:
Around campus, there's this little street market thing called "rubbish street" I've been frequenting to get dinner. I've also wandered around and there are tons of little stores and vendors...that contain many interesting shirts. One example: "muo si ni" which they translated it to "always want touching you" when it's really like "touching you to death."
As of now, I've visited both parts of "heaven on earth," which are supposed to be Hangzhou and Suzhou. A group of us left for Suzhou on Friday afternoon and it was a long, confusing, and very "local" (it was packed, not very clean, full of all sorts of people) train ride there and when we arrived, we stayed at this cute hostel in a very quaint street. It was next to a canal and full of little shops and people just walking around, talking, and old women synchronized dancing to classical Chinese music. The five of us shared a room with a small (shorter than me!!!) Chinese girl who is also from the same area we came from. She was really nice and we all had dinner together before walking around and just talking. The following day, we hit up the major tourist sights like Tiger Hill and the Humble Administrator's Garden. They were absolutely gorgeous (and full of funny signs) and we found lots of cool little spots to rest or practice our taichi/taiji (which we've been learning along with lectures). There are lots of hilarious signs around there too, like "take care of the environment and the environment will take care of your mood," "your health rests with your civilized behavior," and "crowd way. be careful!"
Oh, and Andrew, in response to your comment (I haven't been able to comment yet..), I didn't see too much dancing, but I can definitely see what you mean. With the exception of the random gogo dancers, that is.
Along with classes about diagnosis, acupuncture, massages, and "beauty care," we've also gone on field trips to different places like a herb museum and the national tea museum. The herb museum has some of the strangest things like animal statues...including one deer that has fangs. (vampire bambi?!) It also led out to this street market with lots of food, stores, and a golden Buddha. The national tea museum, on the other hand, was kind of in the middle of nowhere.
Last weekend I ended up meeting up with my family because they were in southern China and then they flew up to visit and sightsee a little bit. It was good seeing them again after the past few months and I've missed my brother and how we always end up doing the weirdest things/having the weirdest talks. We all went to Wuzhen, a village with a canal flowing through it and the town essentially on these small roads on either side, a night market, and around the West Lake. I found hilarious Chinglish signs like the one below:
Around campus, there's this little street market thing called "rubbish street" I've been frequenting to get dinner. I've also wandered around and there are tons of little stores and vendors...that contain many interesting shirts. One example: "muo si ni" which they translated it to "always want touching you" when it's really like "touching you to death."
As of now, I've visited both parts of "heaven on earth," which are supposed to be Hangzhou and Suzhou. A group of us left for Suzhou on Friday afternoon and it was a long, confusing, and very "local" (it was packed, not very clean, full of all sorts of people) train ride there and when we arrived, we stayed at this cute hostel in a very quaint street. It was next to a canal and full of little shops and people just walking around, talking, and old women synchronized dancing to classical Chinese music. The five of us shared a room with a small (shorter than me!!!) Chinese girl who is also from the same area we came from. She was really nice and we all had dinner together before walking around and just talking. The following day, we hit up the major tourist sights like Tiger Hill and the Humble Administrator's Garden. They were absolutely gorgeous (and full of funny signs) and we found lots of cool little spots to rest or practice our taichi/taiji (which we've been learning along with lectures). There are lots of hilarious signs around there too, like "take care of the environment and the environment will take care of your mood," "your health rests with your civilized behavior," and "crowd way. be careful!"
Oh, and Andrew, in response to your comment (I haven't been able to comment yet..), I didn't see too much dancing, but I can definitely see what you mean. With the exception of the random gogo dancers, that is.
i made pasta!
so i made pasta today because i didn't want to keep eating out all weekend. i only had noodles and sauce, and no meat or veggies or whatever (not even salt) so i couldn't really flavor it, but it still tasted pretty good :)
half a pound of noodles
asking mariel for help :D
finished product
the mess i made and needed to clean up
:D
bonus: a picture of my bike with small wheels. i have since switched the bike for the same one as my roommate's which blizzard lends out for the summer.
my bike (it's a foldable bike i got from my uncle because my usual was too big to fit in the car)
the other bike
half a pound of noodles
asking mariel for help :D
finished product
the mess i made and needed to clean up
:D
bonus: a picture of my bike with small wheels. i have since switched the bike for the same one as my roommate's which blizzard lends out for the summer.
my bike (it's a foldable bike i got from my uncle because my usual was too big to fit in the car)
the other bike
