Warmth

Wowowow what a busy weekend, I don't even know where to start! Actually I do. Okay, so the craziness started friday after classes ended at 5. We suited up for a fancy Valentine's dinner then decorated a pineapple to look like Spongebob…don't ask me why that was a thing, but it was (and we won hehe). After suffering through our first badminton training session, I dragged myself out of the dorm again to go with my friends to a party that was being thrown by the gay community. Stayed for a bit, witnessed some intense lusty action on the dance floor, and left. Saturday morning we woke up bright and early for dreeesss shooppiinngg.  I actually ended up getting two dresses before rushing back for Asian Dance Team tryouts! Right after that was a Chinese New Years feast at ADPhi, followed by M-night which is basically just a fancy drinking event. I barely had any before my face flushed all over. I've always fantasized that maybe I had some crazy good alcohol tolerance, but nope. That dream is now gone. One of my friends decided that he was going to get drunk for the first time, and almost succeeded. So props to him. On Sunday we got $50 to spend on recruiting people to our lounge, but instead we spent it on candy and goodies for ourselves. Lol. Then I rushed to my first Dance Troupe rehearsal where I shook my ass, popped my chest, and body-rolled for an hour. Okay, we did a lot of other stuff too, but I just wanted to highlight the moments where I failed. Went straight to art club afterwards where I half-assed some watercolor shit. But on the bright side, I think I made friends with this Korean guy who is also in my architecture class! 

After I got back, I took a shower and got ready for the Theta Xi formal. Chan showed up with a bouquet of flowers and a "happy late Valentines day". Holy crap. We arrived at the house which was all decked out with rose petals and candles everywhere. Chan immediately started introducing me to everyone, which resulted in not remembering anyone.  The people there all seemed really nice though, and it was pretty easy to make small talk. This one guy told me about how he was at this banquet last week and the dance crew that performed was taking members of the audience for lap dances. He really wanted a lap dance but they picked some other guy who wasn't even raising his hand. Lmao, I think I'll always remember him as lap-dance-guy. Anyway, the night was pretty enjoyable. We ate dinner with Chan's roommate and his girlfriend who are hilarious and adorable in that wifey-husband way.  We played several rounds of pool and then talked in his room for a while. We sort of lost track of time, but I managed to catch the last shuttle back to Cambridge…only to not be allowed on since it was full. Chan and his roommates all offered to let me crash for the night, which I eventually gratefully accepted, although awkwardly enough, I had just gotten my period that day. I kind of had to tell Chan so we could go out and buy tampons (7/11 has no pads wtf) which I ended up not being able to figure out anyway. OKAY, sorry, I won't go into any more details, but everything worked out in the end and I didn't bleed on his bed. (Side-note: their room was fantastically warm.) Walking back to Cambridge in the morning was actually slightly terrifying and painful since the wind on the bridge was so incredibly strong. At the same time, it was gorgeous with the snow (and mud slush) lined streets, frozen river, and bright weather. So yeah, I was pretty conflicted as to how I was supposed to feel. Rushed back to the dorm to get ready for….six hours of studio! Woohooo! It was even on President's day so all classes were technically canceled. But no, we had to be there. It was actually kind of enjoyable until around the five hour mark. AKA the mark at which time slows down ten fold. Seriously, it took ten hours for that last hour to pass. I timed it.  Anyway, after a quick dinner I sprinted to my first Asian Dance Team practice! Randi and I both got into our two top choices (lol kpop dances) so we were pretty damn excited to get started. Practice was really fun, and the people were so warm and friendly!  When I finally got back to the dorm, I was exhausted, but happy. Man, what a crazy weekend. 

Also I think I burnt my laundry by drying it for too long. Is that possible?

They are so beautiful.

And so it begins…my first architecture project! 2/13/2013

Happy V-day! :) Me and Eunice played some crazy badminton with grad architecture students from 9 to 11 - they forgot to turn off the drink machine in the dinning hall…yessss. 2/14/2013

Fancy dinner with fancy forks! Actually they're just normal forks.  2/15/2013

Our winning pineapple. Won $100 and a gigantic sack of red gummy bears!

Getting even more fancy at ADP! What I learned that night: I get Asian-glow in a big way.  2/16/2013

What you see as soon as you walk into Theta Xi…daaamnn.  2/17/2013

Walking back to Cambridge! The Charles is so beautiful in the winter, but the wind on the bridge is terrifying. 2/18/2013

Check out this innovative thinking - Lychee coconut jelly, not bad huh? Makes our room smell so damn good. 

Woohoo back to work :') 2/19/2013

Big Boxes, Little Boxes

Here I am, sitting on my bed, contemplating on a scale of 1 to guilty how guilty I feel for not doing any work whatsoever. I'd have to go with guilty. But regardless, I'm going to blog anyway! (Would this be the right time to use #yolo??) First week of classes got cut short by the blizzard which was sort of a relief because I am far from getting into the swing of things. Have I always been this lazy? Last weekend me and Randi went to try out for Dance Troupe and both got in! I thought I was a goner for sure, but the gods were kind. Looking forward to my first rehearsal this weekend :) In other news, Chan asked me to his Theta Xi formal! It was pretty damn cute when he asked. Maybe I was right when I said I was a goner… 

Today I picked up my architecture kit from Blick's. Lugging it back to the dorm was a huge pain in the ass since the box was big enough for me to fit in, but it was worth it…oh my god I swear it's Christmas all over again. I actually had a blast opening it and taking out all the random tools…fancy pencils, pens, sketchbooks, drafting paper, knives, hot glue gun, non-stick scissors, wire, and even this weird thing called "self-healing mats" on which you can cut things but the cut disappears…how does that even work?? Hehe okay, time to do a little work at least…and I apologize for the somewhat boring pictures! This 365 business is a lot harder than I thought.

Got my desk in the architecture studio! I get to creep on people in the library… 2/6/2013

Walking back from E&M - Yes, I'm a sucker for pretty sunsets if you haven't noticed by now. 2/7/2013

Literally snowing sideways. Happy birthday to Kaykay who turned 5!!  2/8/2013

Sledding without a sled. 

Rainbow! Been playing a lot of pool lately, possibly to avoid doing work...

Spent the day lazily doing work and played in the snow! 2/9/2013

Pre-Dance-Troupe-auditions! Me and my roomie on a big-ass pile of snow.  2/10/2013

Post-Dance-Troupe-audition. Finally managed to fight through the trenches snowy field.

Bumming around on the hammock with Eunice, overlooking the street. I think we sat there for an hour doing nothing.

Actually did work. Minimal amounts, but still. Also, cup noodles eaten dry is absolutely fantastic.  2/11/2013

Mardi Gras themed dinner - how do people with glasses wear masks? 2/12/2013 

"If It's Yellow Let It Mellow, If It's Brown Plunge It Down"

Another year older, another year wiser? Or something like that. Hopefully this wisdom helps me get through the spring semester! Anyway, on Sunday was the Super Bowl my 19th, so to celebrate we went out for some intense hot pot in Boston! I have never eaten so much meat in my life. We ended up ordering a little too much, but WE DID IT, WE WON. I think china has trained me well; I'm an absolute pro at stuffing food down without feeling like I'm going to explode. But enough bragging. After we got back we attempted to watch Cloud Atlas; maybe got through almost half of it, but it was so hard to understand that we gave up and ate cake instead.

Incase you were wondering, the title of this blog comes from my friend who kept saying it whenever someone was aiming for a brown ball while playing pool. Apparently it was something his preschool teacher taught him to conserve water….I think you can put the pieces together….

Food food food food meat meat meat meat saaauuucceee. Love me some hot pot 2/3/2013

Post impregnation of food babies. Check out my b-day tiara….actually wore it on the subway and everything haha oh god.  

My friends bought me a red velvet cake :) Thanks guys ♥

Techfair! Only got 8 free shirts this time as opposed to 22 like last time…hehe. Also met with my crazy advisor who sold me on this one class that I was skeptical of…says he'll treat me to a fancy cafe visit if I hate it and want to bawl my eyes out.  Fair enough :)  2/4/2013

Train tracks behind the dorm…taking a short cut to the supermarket to buy shampoo and snacks!

First day of classes! Went alright I suppose, except for the fact that I've forgotten the whole Japanese language. Awkward. Also played some badminton with Eunice and Jason tonight to get away from the onset of responsibilities ^^; 2/5/2013

I'm Gonna Pop Some Tags

Hmm…what time is it? 5:00 am? Nope. Well, that too I suppose, but it's reeeaally…time to bloooog. Excuse the lame intro, and lets get this going before I face-plant-pass-out on my laptop and fall behind on my 365 proj (which is much harder to keep up with than I thought!)

Watched two movies with my dad: The Switch with Jennifer Aniston, which was pretty hilarious. It's basically about how this guy accidentally hijacks his best friend's pregnancy…but dude, how do you accidentally do that?? We also watched Take Me Home which seems to be a somewhat obscure movie (woohoo Netflix) but was also very good, and quite funny. I think they might've gotten a little confused near the end of the movie because there was no easy way to cleanly resolve the conflict. She couldn't just leave her current husband for the new guy since he wasn't a bad guy, and still loved her.  So in the end, they decided to finish it up with a ambiguous scene where she walks towards the guy. I've also been browsing Netflix for some TV series…and am now completely hooked on Touch and Nikita. I've got 30 more episodes left in Nikita but classes start in two days….

Friday I went to visit Ed at NYU! Pretty eventful day. Had my first taste of Chik-Fil-A, and liked it. A lot. Saw Cole Sprouse at the park sporting a plaid jacket while puffing on a little pipe. Add in the ponytail and he looks like some sophisticated old-English guy. En route to the Museum of Sex we saw this man walking around with a makeshift portable desk. Got handed a little slip of paper with the words "Check us out on youtube #tableguy" Lmao how random is that? Ed also bought an absolutely hideous pimp-daddy-tiger-print shirt for $3, which he wore to a party that night. Oh god hahaha. Scrapped the museum idea when we saw that entrance tickets were expensive, and went… thrift shopping! I ended up buying an (ugly) retro purple 90's jacket for a buck while Ed got this weird yoga book. It had pictures of painted-naked people doing crazy yoga positions. Ideas for recreation I guess. Wrapped up a wonderful day with some dinner at a Chinese place with my dad before hopping on a train home. Thanks for a great day Ed!

Today, (technically yesterday) after some delicious Qdoba with my dad, I journeyed back to Boston! (and almost got on the bus bound for DC…) Definitely packed too much, and struggled to get my luggage to the dorm. I had to keep stopping to rest. Is that sad? By the time I got back, I was sweating even though it was freezing outside! Bumped into Weiwei and Kevin who were on their way to the Hack-a-thon. It was really nice to see everyone again! It felt pretty weird to not see these people for almost two months after living with them everyday for a semester.  Feels good to be back! :)

Sadly, this was the only picture I took that day…woke up at 5 pm and managed to miss both the appointment with the fire safety department (which my dad trusted me with) and 8 am gym registration (with a friend I'd promised to take pistol with). Felt kind of shitty about that, but cooked a bangin' dinner. 1/30/2013

Massively productive day: Woke up early, ran errands, ate some kick-ass broccoli pizza (with extra cheese of course), and came home to cook a nice last dinner before I head back to school, complete with hot peppers and fish, eggplant with pork, egg-drop soup with fish/veggies/and this weird chinese thing, and good ol' stir fried veggies.  1/31/2013

NYC with Ed! Took more pictures but can't fit them all haha…Also there was a plumbing problem at NYU so they had to shut off the water. Ed's roommate took a dump in their toilet but couldn't flush it. Oh lord. 2/1/2013

When we left this store, the owner was like "What. You're not getting anything?" What do you think dude? $40 tees?

Oh really?

Rice, chicken, queso, cheese, tomatoes, onions, and guacamole….OH YES.
Hehe hi dad. 2/2/2013

Very close contact…hello Mr. BMW.

Pumpkin Hands

Man, tonight I made a pumpkin dish for dinner and my hands still smell. Do you think it has anything to do with color? Because oranges are orange (duh) and you can never get their stench off no matter how much soap you use.  Okay, I'm just kidding, I hope you all know, I'm really not that stupid…

I guess I should backtrack a little. Made the trip back here by myself! 15 hours of airplane and 5 movies later, I was not a pretty sight. Especially since I bawled my face off during He's Just Not That Into You, Now is Good, Celeste and Jesse Forever, and Indecent Proposal, although I'm pretty sure two of them were supposed to be comedies… I also watched the Social Network which was just as good as I've heard. I did feel kind of bad for Mark Zuckerberg though since the movie made him look like a total ass. After sneaking through custom's with packaged meat in my suitcase (shhh…don't tell ;) ) I finallllly got to go eat some real food and go home! 

Also, I left Beijing at 5pm on Saturday; weather outside was 28°F. Thirteen hours later my plane landed at 5pm on Saturday; weather outside was also 28°F. Isn't that trippy? 

Being late for the movies lol…Dad running to get tickets for Skyfall. It was so nice to see bright blue skies again after a month of grey smog and hazy pollution!  1/27/2013

You see that eggplant dish? You see it??? Eryi taught me her secrets….. 

All the crap I got in China! It's a miracle that I was able to fit everything in my suitcase along with all the packaged meat my mom wanted me to bring home… Also I woke up at 6 pm today. Helllooo time difference. 1/28/2013

Porcelain cat bracelet from Eryi. Might be my favorite thing I got in China :)

Woke up at 6 am today wide awake…. Tossed in two loads of laundry, made pasta, poured  myself some green tea, and kicked back on the couch to vegetate to 4 hours of good ol' abc family. 1/29/2013

West to East to West

I can hardly believe it, but tomorrow is my last day in Yichang! This visit has really flown by. I'm excited to go home, but sad to leave this place. It's kind of funny, actually.  When I was a kid, going back to China really just meant suffering through a few plane rides, getting fat off good food, and spending way to much time on the computer. I mean, the plane rides do still suck, and I'm still packing on weight (freshman 15 is old news), but China has changed for me as I've gotten older. It really couldn't be any more obvious how much of an outsider I am here, but even so, I'm increasingly drawn to it. Sometimes I wonder how my life would be if my parents had decided to stay here. I wonder how different I would be. Isn't it crazy how one decision can change everything? Haha well enough of my pointless musings, I'll let the pictures do the talking:

We each got our own personal hot pot! How sick is that? Also I taught kaykay chopsticks :) 1/14/2013

Raw deliciousness for the hot pots

Stray cat jumped into the 120 kw power supply for my aunt's apartment complex (got fried to a crisp) and caused the power to go out…. so she gutted her fish by candlelight. 

Feeding pigeons at the local kids park 1/15/2013

My aunt getting attacked

Hanging meat on the power lines…good idea.

Casually stalked little kids at the park by the river.  1/16/2013

There's a long narrow street right outside my aunt's where farmers and butchers come from all over. It's really a sight to see 1/17/2013

Paddle-boating around the park! Oh my god my thighs were screaming after that. 1/18/2013

Juice made from sugar cane; looks like sewage water but tastes fantastic

At the weekend festival! There was also a creepy old man who kept taking pictures of me and kaykay… 1/19/2013

Visited my dad's side again and sat next to this thing the whole time. Man their house is cold. 1/20/2013 

Found a store called "Candy Cat" that all things cat-themed. Wallets, bags, clothes, accessories, everything. 1/21/2013

Silly Kaykay 1/22/2013

Eating our favorite radish dumplings! Basically a big heap of spicy-radish-magic in a deep fried shell. So. Good. 1/23/2013 

Last day in Yichang! I'm going to miss them :( 1/24/2013

I'm definitely going to miss this :') 

Bustling night-markets in Yichang and Wuhan! I bought so much cheap crap ♥

At the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan! It's a famous place that has inspired many poets as they climbed up its steps, while looking out at the river and skyline. Saw a woman climbing up in 5 inch platform heels. I wonder if it inspired her to get new shoes. 1/25/2013

Hello Mr. Odd-eyed cat :)

Byebye China, I'll miss you! 1/26/2013