Bittersweet

There are exactly 12 more days of high school left and less than three months until I go off to college. This is definitely exciting! No more having to wake up six in the morning. No more having six periods every Monday and Friday. No more having to hike from South campus to upper. No more P.E. No more required English classes. No more having to ask mommy for permission in order to go to the movies. No more only hanging out with friends once every two weeks. No more lectures from daddy. Going to college = AMAZING! But of course, as my title indicates, going to college isn’t all just happy and sweet, it’s actually quite bitter as well. I’m sure going to miss the comfy library couches. I’m sure going to miss complaining about APs. I’m sure going to miss the BLT sandwiches from Café Luna. I’m sure going to miss skipping Olympics to take sticky-pix with Lauren. I’m sure going to miss hearing sophomores whine about civ. I’m sure going to miss having my mommy check in on me when I stay up to finish a paper. I’m sure going to miss fighting with my sister for the bathroom. I’m sure going to miss grocery shopping with my mommy every Saturday. I’m sure going to miss a lot. *Sigh* I’ve never held two such contradictory feelings towards one thing before. What am I supposed to make out of all this…besides a blog post?

My Escape

I love Taiwanese dramas! Why? Because everything in a Taiwanese drama is so far from reality. First of all, Taiwanese dramas (or at least the ones I’ve seen) make it seem like the only concern in life is love and social issues. Everything else such as schoolwork and earning an income never seems to be a matter of distress to the characters in the dramas. That’s why I like to immerse myself in these dramas because they allow me to forget about the real problems. Also, the plots of Taiwanese dramas tend to be hilariously unrealistic. In “It Started With a Kiss,” for instance, the girl is about to graduate from high school and separate from her dream lover, but it so happens that her house collapses in an earthquake at this time. And coincidentally, her dad knows the mom of her dream lover, so she ends up living at her dream lover’s house. Yeah…I don’t believe that so many coincidences can actually exist in real life. Nonetheless, it’s quite entertaining to see such things play out on the screen. So if you’ve never seen a Taiwanese drama before, go and see one! You’ll enjoy it!

Yummy Yummy in Your Tummy

I am absolutely incapable of cooking, and I understand that I am not alone. So if you are also one of those people who cannot cook, here is a simple way to a delicious meal: hot pot. For anyone who may not be familiar with what hot pot is, it is a unique type of Chinese meal in which a pot of water is kept boiling in the center of the table while people add ingredients to the pot throughout the meal. At times, spices are added to the water in order to add flavor to the food and if not, all sorts of dipping sauce are usually available. Anyway, here are the things you need (note: the below ingredients are only my personal suggestions; feel free to use other ingredients):

1. A portable butane gas stove
2. Vegetables: bok choi, tofu, cabbage, and varieties of mushroom
3. Meats: fish balls, meatballs, thinly sliced pork and beef, shrimps, and scallops
4. Sauces: soy sauce and hoisin sauce
Reminder: all ingredients must be washed beforehand.

And if you get bored while eating, you can share with your friends the “hot pot legend,” which may or may not be just a story my dad made up. So, once upon a time, there was a Chinese emperor who wanted to deepen his understanding of the how the peasants lived. Thus, he decided to travel to a village with a couple of his servants. On his way there, however, there was a horrible snowstorm, which robbed the emperor of his horse and the majority of his food. For the emperor, this was the first time he had ever traveled so far on foot and not to mention, in a storm without much food, so when they finally arrived at their destination, the emperor was barely able to even stand. Immediately, the servants went to look for food from the villagers, but being the poor peasants they were, the villagers did not have any fancy food. All they had were leftovers and scraps, but under such circumstances, the emperor was willing to eat anything. So, the villagers gathered together all their leftovers and scraps and threw them all into one big pot of boiling water. To everyone’s surprise, the emperor thought the food was the most delicious thing he’s ever had, and he named it the “number one pot” (this is why hot pot is also sometimes called the number one pot). Little did they know, the emperor really only found the food delicious due to his extreme hunger at that time.

My leisure world

After a long day of busy work, it’s always nice to finally get to sit down and rest (both physically and mentally) on the ride back home. As my mom slowly drives through the city, my eyes wander to the corners of the streets, searching for something to get my imagination going, which does not take much. In fact, it’s usually the least interesting things that give rise to my imaginary stories. For instance, just a couple days ago, I came across a teenage girl, who talked on her phone as she stood at the bus stop, and my train of thought went something like this:

-She is on the phone with her dad, asking for directions to Stonestown.
-Her dad had originally offered to drive her, but in order to prove that she is a big girl, she insisted on taking the bus on her own.
-Now, her dad is yelling at her. “See, wouldn’t it have been so much better if I had driven you?! Why don’t kids nowadays just listen to their parents?”
-The girl reluctantly puts up with the yelling and finally hangs up.
-Suddenly, a car pulls up, and in there is a semi-friend of hers who offers her a ride.
-At first, she refuses, but upon thinking about her father’s scolding, she accepts.
-That semi-friend of hers, however, was a little bit tipsy…

It was something like that. After all, it’s truly not too important what I actually think of. What matters is simply being able to leave behind the stress of daily life and escape in my own imagination, even if it’s just for a short while.

Funny and Smart: Pollyann Ice Cream

It's a funny place. I do not mean that the people who work there are funny. I mean the actual place itself is funny, for it is filled with quite a few silly-funny signs. See for yourself:


In addition to being funny, it’s also a smart place. I mean it has to be smart or else how is it that it’s able to keep its lines long even in the midst of freezing December. Don’t get me wrong. I am most definitely not disregarding the fact that some people enjoy and prefer ice cream in cold weather, but the majority of us do not. (Right? Forgive me if I am wrong. I shall further investigate this claim.) So I guess that is why it is always hot (not warm, but hot) in there: to keep people’s ice cream appetite up. Oh how tricky! Another reason why I say it is smart is because it has the ultimate solution to the problem of indecisiveness. To help out customers who, like me, cannot make up their minds, Pollyann has a beautiful wheel of ice cream fortune,.With one spin, one can determine the flavor of ice cream to get and thus, the painstaking task of deciding can finally be taken out of us indecisive people’s hands and be left in the hands of fate instead.

I no longer love you, Sushi Zen

I have decided that I am never going to this place again! But I suppose I shall start with why I had gone to this place for so long up until this point. It has mainly been because of its food. The sushi here is like no other. Fresh. Satisfying. Simply delicious. Even these descriptions, however, barely capture the essence of the sushi. No exaggeration.


This is why I have always, with no exception, ordered more than I can eat. Simply, the thought of their sushi makes me want to eat, eat, eat and eat, but when it comes to the actual eating, my stomach unfortunately has a limit.



What makes the entire eating experience even better is the sushi’s perfect mate: the tea. This tea, which I have always assumed to be green tea though I may be wrong, is light enough to not cover the taste of the sushi but strong enough to not be bland. In of itself, the tea is also quite delicious, and it carries this uniquely soft, smooth texture that exists in no other tea.



Alright, now that I have betrayed my bitterness towards this place with so many compliments, I shall explain what has happened to turn my love into semi-hatred. Today, I decided to pay a visit to this sushi place in order to refresh my memory for the storytelling-beyond-the-page assignment. Like usual, I went in. I ordered. I ate. The waiters, also like usual, were not too friendly with me. But that never really mattered because their food is so good that they’re allowed to have bad service right? When it came to the check, I paid, they gave me the change, and I left the tip. Unfortunately, I did not have enough money and was two dollars short of the 15% tipping rule. This was the first time I’ve not given the full tip. Yet, when the waiter saw, he started talking to me harshly, if not yelled at me. So I explained and apologized. He, however, was not satisfied, and he went on to clean the table while cursing me right in front of my face. And I always thought that tip is supposed to be determined by the quality of customer service...

Quickly

Whenever I enter Quickly, I always feel obligated to try something new, so I would always take a look at their pretty, orangey menus on the wall. Yet, after a few seconds of checking out what they offer, I always settle back on my usual drink - milk tea tapioca, which indeed is pretty delicious. However, I secretly think that continually picking that drink has more to do with my my fear in taking risks than with the actual drink itself. Nonetheless, once I take a sip of that yummy milk tea, everything about trying something new becomes nothing, and I go on drinking with no guilt.

Besides drinking, the other most pleasurable part of the Quickly-experience is watching the constant replays of Taiwanese music videos, which usually involve some extremely cute dance steps danced by some adorable, flawless girl. The last time I went, they showed ai ni by Cyndi Wang the entire time I was there. When I'm alone, these music videos tend to come off as charming and even mesmerizing. Yet, when I’m with a group of friends who mock the exaggerated cutesiness, these videos suddenly become silly and ridiculous. Either way though – whether I admire or make fun of them – these videos are still a great source of entertainment and enjoyment. I guess that’s why they play them.