Swamplandia! Reading with Karen Russell

That was a great reading last night :D I've never attended one of these, and was a little nervous... haha, I think I was the only student from Natural Sciences there..? But it was so worth it. Mrs. Russell is absolutely lovely and so charming, she's got this quirky sense of humor that can be reflected in her writing as well, and I would highly recommend her book!

^Yay, got a picture with her!!

^Free cookie~ LOL

Just the Usual

As you all know, I love taking pictures of food, no matter how bad or good it tastes. So here's my weekly food spam!!

^Grilled Chicken Sandwich with a side of fries from Cypress Bend Cafe.... This type of food makes me miss home :(

^Funny story about that, one of my friends got lost and we had to go rescue him. By the time we got there, we were all starving, so we went out to eat a half and half pizza at Big Bite Pizza and Grill.

^My favorite ramen, Traditional Chinese Herbal flavored~ I added a hard-boiled egg stewed from tea leaves in as well, yummy!!

Career Expo 2012

Today, I volunteered at the College of Natural Sciences' Career Expo! It was pretty exciting seeing all these big companies and their representatives :D I had already done my research beforehand, so once my shift was over, I changed into more professional clothes and went up and introduced myself properly to potential internship representatives.

^Typical mirror pictures.

So relieved after it was over~!

^The adorable pen I got from United Allergy Services.

Chinese Food

So K and I went over to our old coworkers' houses, and I tested their hearing threshold for my latest research project: how one's multilingualism may affect frequency sensitivity. K and I studied together, did homework, and then went out to eat at Little Sichuan Cuisine.

Fish Fillets with Sweet and Sour Sauce!

Eggplant with Spicy Garlic Sauce! My favorite homemade dish :)

House Special Dumplings!

^I'm going to grow out my bangs again... As much as I like the style, I don't think I look good with it :( But it was worth the try^^

Green

Well, yesterday I went to a GameChangers program where the Dr. Ellington talked about how biotechnology advancements are taking place more rapidly, and soon we might not even have to go to the doctor's for anything other than a corroboration of what we already know! I found the whole talk very interesting, but had no clue they were going to film it on the Longhorn Network!! So since I was sitting really close to Dr. Ellington... I'll probably in the background for most of those shots, haha.

^It's been Avocado Week at UT... I've been trying to avoid it, but alas, it caught up with me... Here was my Avocado Cucumber soup!

^And my Almond Avocado Brownie... yum.

Going back to Irving today~ I love it here at UT, but can't wait to go back home!!

HealthyHorns Fest

It's just another hot, busy day... At least I got a free tshirt, sunglasses, hand sanitizer, and apple!!

Date with the Boyfriend



Today K came over, and we spent the whole day together, just eating and going to the mall and museum and studying.

 

^First, we had breakfast at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. We both got a Hazelnut Latte, and on the left is a Goat Cheese and Tomatoes Croissant. The right is just your standard Blueberry Muffin!! Yum :)

^Me at the mall... LOL

 

For lunch, I made some rice porridge and we both just ate that accompanied with grilled eel and pork jerky, it was a pretty easy combo!

 

Then we got to studying Chemistry, and later went to the museum together. For dinner, we decided to go to Thai Kitchen.

^Khai Ngeow Gai Whan, a chicken dish with steamed rice, peanuts, ginger, cilantro, and just a hint of spiciness :D

^Phat Sen-Me, vermicelli noodles with chicken, egg, beansprouts, green onions, peanuts, tomato sauce, a lot of lemon juice, and some sweetness as well :D

Math Tutoring

Well, today was fun! I decided to spend my Saturday tutoring Math to second graders for Tzu Chi... it's a really nice place, I think, quite suitable for me. Very peaceful and friendly and Buddhist.

I also bought tomato-flavored and traditional herbal-flavored ramen there! Worth every cent. Tastes so good~~

Friday Scare

First off, it was raining yesterday and I got a free rain poncho here at the Student Activity Center in UT.

Then at around 10 o'clock, the sirens went off and we were told to evacuate the campus... which sucked, because all of my belongings were still in my dorm :( I had been walking on the way to my Biology class, which was luckily on the border of the campus anyway, so I just kept walking straight ahead to a nearby coffee store.

Later, it turned out a guy with a Middle Eastern accent had called UT that morning and claimed he was with Al-Qaida, and that he had encircled the campus with bombs that would go off in 90 minutes. What a clamor! Luckily, he proved to be both stupid and fake.

My friend was riding a car with another friend, caught sight of me, and forced me into her car... LOL. We went to the house of off-campus inhabitants, and overall it was a pretty miserable morning because:

1). I hate rain, especially walking in it.
2). My plans for tonight were ruined, like the FRI picnic :(

But I was quickly cheered up because my group of high school friends invited me out to a concert (free admission!) and it was AMAZING. UT has so many talented singers and performers, not to mention Joseph Vincent came out at the very end and I am still in awe at his lovely voice.

^Dragon and me, Main Tower, before the concert~~

^Joseph Vincent singing I'm Yours by Jason Mraz~

^At the concert, having gone through rain and sweat and terribleness. But a happy ending to a miserable day.

Bowling with Lab Rats

^FRI!!

^LOL I feel like the Forever Alone meme... T_T

^Just having a nice relaxing time! Tuesday and Wednesday has been overwhelmingly crazy.

College Days

How I enjoy making my own food! The independence here is really nice too, but you have to always keep yourself working and motivated... Nobody tells me what to do or what I should do, I just go out and look for agendas to fulfill my goals!! I ask around for help, join clubs and activities, do some volunteer work, do my laundry, cook for myself, study, attend classes...

I am so happy here^^

^Homemade sushi using a rice cooker! First, I cook white rice, then I add sushi vinegar and mix around. Using a sheet of seaweed paper, spread the rice around. Cut up avocado slices and line them up across. Take some 鱼松 (mine is Taiwanese brand) and sprinkle it across. I also added in just a little bit of Yasai Fumi Furikake seasoning, just because. Start rolling, and seal the roll with diluted vinegar. Voila! You have Chinese-style sushi rolls.

^If I'm in a hurry for lunch, I quickly mix up an Avocado Fruit Salad with avocado, apple, banana, and some walnuts - it's not bad, despite how weird it might sound!

^My friend's roommate's iguana, Goku~

^Just did my nails in the color Expresso, a Sally Hansen product. I rarely use bold colors, but I like this one~

Nice Little Ride

Wow, yesterday was pretty eventful... and hectic too, I guess^^ but I enjoyed it.

^Ended up on 6th Street, don't ask me how.

^Chinatown Restaurant's Shrimp and Leek Cakes!

^Chef's Special Beef. Sliced crunchy beef with orange peel and diced scallions, sauteed in five spicy flavors.

"Hotel On the Corner of Bitter And Sweet" by Jamie Ford (2009)

In the opening pages of Jamie Ford’s stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.

This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry’s world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While “scholarshipping” at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship–and innocent love–that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.

Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel’s dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family’s belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice–words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.

Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.

• While the main character, Henry, is a fairly likeable protagonist, he is very ordinary and on the verge of boring... Sheldon and Mrs. Beatty, side characters, jumped out as characters with more life. Even Henry's father was more intriguing; while he wasn't charming or even likeable, he was very real.
• The story itself was never exactly boring - I enjoyed reading every page.
• The "early days" seemed more interesting to me than the "later days," when Henry's interest in the past is revived and he goes looking for it, but I can understand why the author structured the book the way he did, and it was organized cohesively and well, so no objections there.
• Ending was satisfying enough, but I wish there had been more plot twists or unpredictability.

The story details the endurance of a very innocent first love, and how certain things can be carried on in someone's memory for a lifetime. Also has a lot to do with how love knows no boundaries (mostly in the case of national identity and ethnic aminosity).

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars