The Wednesday two
weeks ago, I managed to catch an evening with Kathy from Princeton. We went to
Din Tai Feng at my suggestion, since it was the only place I could think of
that might appeal off the top of my head. Reminiscing about Princeton and
people was an enjoyable change of pace, and being outside of campus allowed a
certain frank, outsider’s look of things that I found refreshing (Either that
or I just like gossip, which I don’t deny). Afterwards, we walked along the
Bund as one typically does when in that area, and thoroughly creeped out some
couples while talking about Shanghainese fashion a tad too vocally. The night
was the perfect temperature, and the walk was pretty slow paced (and the
people-watching was pretty entertaining/excellent).
Saturday I again
went to Din Tai Feng, this time prearranged, to meet up with Anna and her mom,
a family friend. Lest one thinks I need to find more places to eat, we did
change location (from SuperBrandMall to YuYuan Gardens… alright, I need to find
more places to take people). We chatted over some more diverse food than what I
ordered previously, though which was tasty. Talking kind of made me miss the
San Francisco area, but I’m sure there are tons of opportunities to determine
where exactly I want to go after this.
An aside on Din Tai
Feng: I think if I were just to go by myself, I would just order the soup dumplings.
They’re so tasty and quite a good price too. Everything else is really just
secondary, although compared to everything else in China it is quite pricy. I
guess you’re paying for presentation and décor too? It’s pretty reliable
though, and it has some name recognition among people who come visiting. Ah
well.
Last weekend was
duan wu jie, or the Dragon Boat Festival. I ate a lot of zhong zi, as expected, but less out of celebration and more out of
the fact that I had about ten of them in freezer for about half a month. They
taste good, but the leaves really just make me want to take out the trash that
day.
I visited both my
side’s grandparents that Saturday; one was a large family gathering of up to
forty people at a restaurant (four tables, about ten people each), where I was
introduced to too many people to remember, and the other was just me and my two
grandparents, which I left with ten more zhong
zi and a week’s worth of leftovers. Indeed, I haven’t bought lunch at all
this week.
Since I have been
bringing lunch to work, I’ve eaten with a new group of people, mostly
consisting of HR women. The conversation is much different, and often touches
on pop culture/travelling; some of them have been to / are going to the U.S.
and today, we talked about random horror movies. It never fails that I get
poked fun at for the food I bring, as all the leftovers my grandparents packed
me were meat (so first day just pork, second day just fish, ect.) It’s all good
natured teasing though. My Chinese is okay enough to communicate and tease
back, although they do say I have a Taiwanese accent. Clearly I’ve been hanging
out with the wrong sort of crowd when growing up… I kid.
Work is work. For
the past few weeks my boss has been on vacation, so there’s not too much to do
in terms of lab. I have been asked by HR to prepare and teach a half-day
business writing class though, so that should be interesting (I have almost no
experience in business writing). Had to go out with my colleague to find a metalworking place nearby recently for a UV machine part; didn't realize old shanghai (re: poor and squalid) was within two to three minutes walk of where I work. It made me feel both sad and somewhat nostalgic, oddly.
The weather is my
primary gripe at the moment. I honestly did not know China had a rainy season.
The ground is constantly wet, and the air is disgustingly moist. Everything I
touch seems to be damp. The worst part is that mildew has been growing on the
ceiling of my kitchenette and bathroom, and is slowly spreading into the living
room. Since such impurity really grates on my nerves, as soon as I noticed I
tried to wipe it off with a mix of detergent and water. This only spread it in
nice towel-wiped textured patterns, as I noticed next week. I ended up buying
some 15$ Korean spray-on bleach (I couldn’t read the label) and practically
doused my ceiling with it. Unfortunately, I can only barely touch the ceiling
at full reach on a chair; not only was my rubbing force very weak, but the
bleach would have a nasty habit of dripping off the ceiling, unfortunately
sometimes into my face. At least I was wearing gloves.
To my chagrin, not
only were dots reforming on the ceiling when I looked up four days later, but
my bamboo coasters were starting to show off-green splotches. It’s really
grating on my nerves, I will have to buy another bottle of bleach soon.
Hopefully I won’t poison myself.
Korra ended
beautifully, but story wise I can’t help but feel disappointed of the handling
regarding everyone except the main villain. I guess it’s hard to end a serial
that’s so short and not meant to continue, as they initially thought it would
be.
Diablo 3 is
alright. I’m pretty sure I’m bad at these types of games, since I’m very
confused as to what to equip half the time and I’m bad at judging damage
spells. It doesn’t help that I’ve chosen what’s collectively agreed upon as the
least farm-efficient class. It’s okay, witch doctor has a lot of flavor. Tiny
fetish people? Definitely a plus.
I really should
have updated sooner. The more time passes, the less my posts become thought
oriented and the more they become event oriented. I’m under the impression
thought is more interesting, but I guess a mix is preferable. Then again,
focusing too much on thought might attribute too much importance to an event or
epiphany that is ultimately not very important. It’s like a fine line between
writing a book that is action-oriented or angst oriented.
Eh, no worries, I
think writing in itself takes precedence over worrying whether I sound too
pretentious or too boring.
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