Not quite home...

*Computer crashed therefore everything I wrote for this went bye-bye. Will attempt it again for the sake of posterity...yeah, right.*

Tis been a rather nice weekend so far, despite my misgivings at the beginning of it. My brother had returned home for Veteran's day weekend, but alas, I could not follow him. I had a test on Friday that required I be present (of course, unless I can somehow be two places at once I'd HAVE to be there to take it...) so no home time for me. Add that to the fact that this would be the first weekend since the beginning of this year that I didn't have someone to spend it with (my brother and I amused ourselves on weekends by going out to eat and shop together for things we need), I was in a rather doom and gloom mood.

Fortunately for me, things did not turn out quite that bad, perhaps better, even. Friday night was cold and it rained sporatically, but some old friends that were currently rooming together invited me over for dinner. Lured by the prospect of non-cafeteria food, I accepted. Their apartment was small and cozy, warmly furnished, and welcoming. It wasn't quite home, but I had the feeling it would be the closest I can get here. The company was the same; all of them friendly, though I didn't know all the other people they invited. The food was strange and familiar at the same time, something that was distinctly non-american, yet a mish-mesh of the different asian cultures we all belonged to. The chinese-styled hardboiled tea-flavored eggs was the most familiar, adding laughter and discussion to our conversation as much as it did taste to our dinner. Besides the how of making it, we also talked about the funny things we remembered in conjuction to the simple food. For some reason all of us had the eggs before. There was also a dish of cold chicken, along with raw cucumbers and a special sauce. It reminded me of the type of dish my aunts loved making, but my mother disliked, and despite the host's insistance that she still needs to improve, it was still very very good. Another dish of peppers of every color, along with pinapples and walnut, was completely new to me, but delicious and healthy nonetheless. The last was a stir-fry of tofu and three kinds of mushroom, much appreciated and enjoyed. The people in the cafeteria can't seem to make tofu and mushrooms, whether together or by themselves, properly. The rice was flavored with chicken broth during the cooking, much to my amazement, and I fully intend to try replicating it when I get the chance.

We talked about anything and everything. School, classes, life after college, jobs, other countries, computers, anime, japanese, and why God must have been an engineer. Afterwards we digested and drank tea, then took out the dessert that two of the invited had brought, tiny perfect cakes and tarts from a french bakery on the northwest side of campus, accessible to those lucky enough to have cars and money. We sampled each carefully, saddened by the need to cut up the perfect things in order to eat them, but found each as delicious as they looked. Our hosts had a lively discussion on the virtues and drawbacks of symmetry as we tried to divide equally despite not having an even number of people present. It was all in all, very fun.

I was the first to arrive, last to leave. After all the others were gone I was shown the Halloween pictures of my hosts, while they attacked me with questions regarding shopping for a TV, a topic with which I was unfamiliar with. I did the best I could, and then we made plans to go to Japantown the next day. I left them, full and content, and promptly returned home, even the rain obliging me by holding off until I reached the dormatory's perimeter. I called my brother. I wrote. I doodled. I didn't go to bed until 4am the next morning, then was up by 10am to prepare for the trip to Japantown. It was a fun Friday-Saturday.

Saturday at San Francisco got me lunch, crepes, and two items high on my to-get list, now that the weather has turned cold. I now have a delicious looking fleece scarf and a nice pair of gloves. The scarf is not edible by any means, by delicious I meant the color. It is horizontally striped with a pale pink, light coffee, and chocolate brown. It reminded me of the cakes we used to get from the asian market, square blocks of soft cakes layered together with frosting, strawberry, coffee and chocolate flavored, their colors exactly matching the scarf. It is my very first purchased scarf, those knit by my grandmother fall under a different category. I'm rather fond of it.

And now it's almost full dark, and while I'm not really hungry I know I should go eat before the time is up. The last day of the weekend is wrapping up...twill be the day of vacation tomorrow. I look forward to it.

Majo-the-long-winded-and-suddenly-philosophical