Saturday, February 10, 2007
backlag of pics to put up:a rough idea of what my room at International House looks like--
it's tiny,
there clearly aint ample space for clothes or storage, and
a double deck is inconvenient because climbing down every morning when i'm half asleep at 8am still scares me (and it's been 5 weeks!).
However, despite my room facing the main street of Piedmont Ave where i can see the front steps of Ihouse from my window, where the sun's rays shine glaringly into lethargic afternoons in the room when i'm trying (very hard!) to read and not fall asleep, I do get a pretty good view of what's happening just outside Ihouse, such as - when the cops drop by at Ihouse occassionally, or when people go partying and come back tipsy(or drunk or just plain wasted) on thursday friday and saturday nights, or when the Fraternity house opposite has parties and sorority girls run around in their undies and guys yell "take off your clothes!!!". haha, it's pretty happening.
tuesday, hannah, zhikuang and i had lunch at this japanese restaurant on shattuck. the salmon/avocado/cream cheese sushi roll would have been better if there was a more even spread of cream cheese; but the softshellcrab/unagi roll was Enorrrmously good, and the rather long spicytuna/tempura ebi/avocado roll was just awesome. nuff'said. price wise, i'm not so sure if it's considered "ok" for 1 roll to be USD9 (~SGD14) but we sure felt that lunch that day was worth it!
oh and did i mention that there is this little cafe which is only a 5-min walk from ihouse that is opened by some folks from hongkong and they sell BUBBLE TEA!!! WITH PEARLS!! they call it tapioca though. and it's buy 2 for the price of 1...And they have hot bubble tea too, which tastes heavenly on cold chilly days and nights!! :) :) :)
on a sidenote, i can't remember if the 2 large blended juice smoothies i had in LA last year with the guys were from Jamba Juice (i think it was!!), but the mango-a-go-go smoothie i couldn't resist buying on wednesday after class was soooo goood!!
last weekend, while the rest of them went on a roadtrip to the Pacific 101 highway to see the coast and the beach, Hannah, weiling, ivan and i had glorious mexican food for lunch at this place called Fruitvale which is merely 5 Bart stations away from Berkeley. sorry to say, i cannot remember the exact names of the 5 dishes that Ivan ordered for us because the names were kinda complicated and in espanol!
i do, however, still remember that there were salsa chips and red/green hot sauce for appetizers (these are so good, compared to peanuts in chinese restaurants), there was a crispy taco and 4 soft tacos, and there were flautas to top the list! yum! i have to go back to fruitvale for mexican fare. according to ivan (who is mexican), food there is rather authentic. i believe him because the town of fruitvale felt totally different from the all-typical american town of berkeley (i think it feels like that at least), fruitvale had a entirely unique latino feel in the air, which was really interesting :) and groceries (otherwise known as junk food i.e. mashmellows/cookies/gum/chocs) were so much cheaper as compared to the supermarkets here in berkeley! yay!
oops, forgot to talk about the flowers, from who for who. haha... from a latino guy who helped us take a picture to hannah!