didn't i, didn't i, didn't i see you cryin'

i can't comprehend how some people are just so awesome.

talia, dorri, dorri's friend (shirin), and i hung out friday night. we went to this delicious place in harvard square called veggie planet. the resturant is rather small, and definitely hippy. it was amazingly flavorful for the price and amount of food. i had a "thanksgiving pizza", which was cranberries, mushroom gravy, and some other random things topped on pizza crust. oh, and the waitress had an avacado tatoo on her ankle. i need to go to harvard sq more often. it seems that everytime i go, i discover some new place that sounds delicious.

after dinner, we went to a baha'i fireside. One of the GRTs at harvard hosts a fireside session every friday night (i think), to introduce and discuss the baha'i faith. basically, there is a speaker who gives a general overview of what baha'i is about, and then a discussion follows where people ask questions and we all talk nicely. the environment was friendly, welcoming, and even comforting. it's like a bunch of strangers coming together just for a nice conversation. i enjoyed the fact that baha'i seems to be rooted in civil discussion, rather than argumentative debates. the session also got me thinking about things i never thought about before...what religion is, and whether humans can globally unite and understand each other.

it was so awesome to hang out with all of them. the fireside also had amazing food. there were gingerbread and chocolate cookies. then there was cake and tea. the cake was one of those with a hole in the middle. it was soft, spongy, and filled with cranberries. last but not least was flatbread and THE hummus...the best hummus i have ever tasted in my entire life. it was a bit smoother than the hummus in the house, had more spices/flavoring and contained the magic ingredient of cayenne pepper. it was so good, after a long night of discussion about global unity, the three of us concluded that hummus was the answer to uniting mankind.

back at wilg: this week, the 3rd floor held a bop language study break. for those of you who need some therapeutic relief, try speaking in the bop language. to speak in this language, you spell out a word by saying the vowels and adding op to the end of consonants. for example: bowl-- bop-o-wop-lop; water-- wop-a-top-e-rop. isn't it great? we were laughing hysterically.

this evening, wilg had a girl's night in. we watched 10 things i hate about you while eating lots of cookies and junk food. during the middle of the movie, we realized that we got jipped by blockbuster because the dvd was scratched up and kept skipping/stopping, and that was blockbuster's only copy of the movie. it stopped working at the best part too--when heath ledger sings in the soccer stadium. in the end, we went to hollywood express and got a ghetto vhs version of the movie.

we all decided that 'cameron' should've been an mit student. he's incredibly cute and has just the right amount of awkwardness and nerdiness. i have also decided for myself that this is probably the only movie where i really like and respect heath ledger. and of course, we sang along to the songs, especially our favorites, letters to cleo: cruel to be kind and i want you to want me...

and now, back to the busy busy weekend, if i don't want to overly suffer this week and the week after.

I am a real environmentalist. Real environmentalists support nuclear energy. Are you?

done with the partying, down with the work

long weekend is pretty much over. the formal and smite party are over, which means the rest of tonight and tomorrow are down to business. gotta work on that thesis, 033 design project, 813 final project, and figure out what's going on in 058. oh, it's going to be fun.

the weekend was awesome. on thursday night, rashida, sheena, maria, kate, and i went to ihop for a late night snack (~11 pm). we got lost on the way (again). but those belgian waffles and chocolate chip pancakes were definitely worth the trouble.

the formal was great. we got pretty wine glasses. i didn't go swing dancing because i didn't have a date and didn't want to dance with random sketchy guys. instead, laura, karen, and i went to see josh perform at a local arts festival. it was more of a live band thing than a performance, but either way it was cool. of course, we went to tosci's later in the evening and had josh make a milkshake for us. coconut almond chip + cocoa pudding. really hit the spot. since we have all decided josh is so awesome...we're planning on taking him out to dinner soon. josh also joined us for the fondue part of the formal evening at wilg. we had a good time, especially in making english a tonal language like chinese. yes, it's possible. pictures are on facebook: http://mit.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017478&l=59309&id=700409

the fourth floor posse (yuki, irene, jingwen, me, and occasionally inna) planned on going out for lunch, but didn't end up going. i love our posse, we are definitely the only part of the house that starts the party every night. we procrastinate by moving from room to room and drinking tea...oh yes, and who can forget? FLOSSING! because most of us sleep rather late, we often socialize at wee hours in the morning...unless some strange noises down the hall ensue, and then we all close our doors and hide.

the smite party was fun. we ate lots of pasta and dessert (brownies, ice cream, and shortcakes), followed by a long game of apples to apples. and of course, we got awards!

a rare thought

you would almost never hear me say this...but i am so full; my tummy hurts. i had 3 big bowls of chili (with added cayenne pepper of course) and jalapeno ice cream from tosci's! who knew?!

huck a hunk last weekend was bundles of fun. for the longest time, i couldn't get the name right. i first thought it was "huck a pumpk", short for huck a pumpkin. and then people laughed at me, then got me all confused :) what is it? hunk a pumpk? hunk a hunk? hunk a huck? it's all good, i finally got it. huck a hunk.

i was extremely excited because i didn't get hit in the face at all. i still had some problems catching disks, but i mostly blame it on the weather. it was pretty cold in the morning...so my hands were cold and the disk was rather hard. i managed to catch at least a few disks in the game and one in the endzone again. woohoo! there is definitely room for improvement on those backhand throws though. gotta get more spin on it and throw it consistently TO the person.

the one thing i think erika forgot to mention at huck a hunk was her attitude when she's standing up for herself. you should've seen her. she was really fiesty. normally people would become scared, very scared, but we just laughed and thought it was awesome. in the wellesley game, first, there was argument over who caught the disk. erika firmly believed that karen had both of her hands on the disk before another girl put her hand on the disk while coming down from the jump. erika saw it with her own eyes, so she yanked the disk out of the wellesley girl's hand and put it in karen's hands. and when people wanted to talk about it, she was rebellious and stubborn. everything out of her mouth had that "don't give me that bullshit" connotation.

and then, it was her against "ralph". oh man, ralph was mad...real mad and annoyed, especially when she yelled that erika kicked her in the head. erika didn't contest it, but it wasn't erika's fault. then, they had another argument towards the end of the game. erika just responded with "you tripped on yourself." it could've gone on, if we weren't in the middle of a game. i could tell that girl was ready to have a fist fight or something like that. oh, the drama.

i'm rather proud of myself this week. i completed a thesis proposal and a lab report. i was very productive the last few days, and nothing better than topping it off with a three day weekend! smite has an end of season party on saturday. woot!

more procrastination, no regrets

i finally discovered the reason for my unproductiveness this semester. i've been obsessively checking email and reading about ultimate. somehow i always end up putting schoolwork behind these two tasks. you can now see where my priorities lie. and frankly, i don't feel bad about it.

i tend to get a burning headache whenever i think about schoolwork now. like today, in chinese class, i couldn't answer the teacher's question because my head contained a concrete slab, not a brain that can think. my hypothesis was, maybe it's because i haven't been drinking enough water (silly reason, i know). but alas, once i start thinking about anything other than schoolwork, my giant headache goes away.

and it's wonderful! i like reading ultimate blogs; it educates me in all the things you can do as an ultimate player--like the moves and the strategies. i'll read about some ultimate technique, and then really want to try it out. i usually fail in carrying it out in practice or at the games, but it doesn't hurt to try.

one of these days, i'll become both productive in academics, AND a more useful ultimate player.