Oh my. College. That's where I am. This is going to be a long one folks.
Since I've already given you a taste of the beginning, I'm going to tell you more about my classes, friends, and environment. This could take a couple days to complete even.
Let's talk about classes first. My classes are all the first semester, boring, painful, useless classes. Like... math. And AVS. And World Civ. To say the least, I hate most of my classes. I hope I pass so I won't have to take them again.
Isn't that awful? I honestly don't know if I can pass these classes. Sure they're hard, and sure there's a lot of homework. But I've been in harder classes. The thing is that we only get about two tests throughout the course which makes up most of our overall grade. These are courses that I know nothing about too. Andrea was just up here helping me with my math and yet, I still can't do it. We managed to finish the homework, but I won't be able to do it later.
I'm taking an Elementary Japanese class though. It's very hard, but I love it. I'm surprised that I can actually do it. It's mostly my stubbornness though. I don't want to fall behind so I'm studying all the time. I can do this!
Walter-sensei is so funny! She's my favorite.
Math is a real pain. It always has been, but I figured it wouldn't be so bad here since I was only taking Intro to Algebra.
It turns out that I don't remember anything about .. what were they ... numbers. My professor is foreign so none of the students really understand what she's saying, and she also declared that we can't use calculators.
I really expect to fail. I don't want to have to take this course again, but I don't see how I'll ever be able to get by.
I was planning on getting a tutor, but with my new job as Lab Tech. I don't really have much time for that considering I also have other homework to do. So Ari has been helping me out. Hopefully I'll be able to remember something what it comes time for a test.
The other day Prof. Rine yelled at everyone for not doing the reading. This also happened to have been the assignment I wrote to her about because I didn't understand what she wanted(and apparently no one else did) but she never wrote back to me. In the end she made the decree that from now on there was going to be a quiz every friday. Lovely. I guess she never considered that this was the first time we'd ever done any class assignment like this and that people may have been confused, especially since we're freshmen. Maybe I'm just being annoyed.
I'm involved in a Tae Kwon Do class that meets every Tuesday and Thursday. Everytime I know I have class I panic a little. Everyone seems to catch on so fast that, again, I'm just trying hard not to fall behind. I love the group training. I enjoy being among a large group of people who are all doing the same thing, and I work hard at getting every movement right. When it comes to partner training with blocking or aiming, I get tense and discouraged. But now I do have a sense of why. You see, for every partner section I've been paired up with a newbie, like myself. We just flail around, hoping we don't look like fools. That's not very fun. But last class I was actually paired up with the Master (and I almost had heart failure) because we had an odd number and there wasn't anyone else my size.
That was amazing! He very graciously took it at my speed and helped me to correct my stance and movements. He's my hero.
The Master is really one of the coolest people I've ever met. I love how he gets to excited about this everyday. After every new move he shows us he gets this childlike smirk on his face and you can see the energy he's molding.
The class is a lot of fun, and yet, it scares me.
Time to introduce you to my friends.
I have two, possibly three. Andrea is the only friend I have with a strong bond here. Her nickname is Ari, which I have yet to call her to her face, but whenever I talk about her I've been mostly saying Ari.
She's a little crazy. She's an anime-freak and very anti-girly/makeup/preppy andything. I have yet to see her wear blue jeans or anything that doesn't have skulls on it though. Oh, and stripes and polka-dots make her sick.
We have a lot in common, and yet, we're very different. But, we're good friends. I'm glad she's around.
Then there's Jim. His real name is James. He's... straaange. I like to have them both around because then they somewhat balance each other. But, I'm getting used to it. He can drink three cups of juice and milk in less than fifteen seconds. Actually, next time we should time him. I can't help but wonder if he's vegan. Him and Ari keep yelling at me for eating so much candy and junk food. Haha. I can't quite figure him out.
Adrienne is mostly their friend, so it looks like we'll be spending some time together too. She lives on the same floor with me (the very hot fifth floor) and we're in World Civ together. I hate how all of my friends are always so smart. Am I really that stupid? Or am I attracted to geniuses? Or are geniuses attracted to me?m Anyway, she seems to be cool. In a sort of geeky sense. But we're all geeks. She has a caaaaar...
I wonder if I should put my RA down as a friend? Not yet. But I like her, and she likes me. Yesterday was her birthday and I left her presents. She's gorgeous and very nice. :] Emelin. Isn't that a cool name?
The Epic Journey
Saturday was a day where an epic journey was just waiting to happen. Ari and I took on that challange and rode on to victory!
We really just wanted to take the day and explore the town a little and get some necessary things done.
Our list of places to go was as follows...
Price Chopper
Walmart
Shoppingtown Mall
Roji Tea Lounge
Han's Oriental Grocery
Carousel Center
We knew that was a lot to do in one day, and we knew we'd be tired, but we never imagined it would be that bad.
Since we weren't sure about bus schedules either, we were mostly guessing all day. We were never quite sure where we were or where we were going.
The day started around 11:30 when Ari and I went to brunch. We ran into some friends of her's and ate with them. They seemed pretty normal... I suppose. The only one who really said much was the gay guy. That was a little awkward?
Then we headed out. That was around 12:00
Our first stop was Han's which we thought at the time was a long way from the campus. If you take the right road, it really isn't that bad of a walk.
Han's is AMAZING! It has been years since I was last in an asian grocer, so I was really excited. I got lots of caaaaandy. Ari and I discussed the fact that we're going to flunk out of college because of our boyfriend Han's.
This is White Rabbit Creamy Candy. It is very creamy and chewy. There is a wrapper around the candy, besides the outside wrapper, but this is edible. It doesn't have any taste and it like a very thin parchment. It's apparently made of sticky rice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rabbit_Creamy_Candy
A Red Bean Cake. There's really beans on the inside. This was quite an interesting one. At first I didn't like it because I don't really like beans anyway. But I think if I'd eaten the whole thing I might have grown to like it. I find the cake texture fascinating. The thing is that it's supposed to be refridgerated, but I don't have one. That's why most of it had to get tossed.
Ahh, Melon Candy. This was one of the first asian hard candies I'd ever had. I remember being at Asher's first apartment and Emily gave me one of these. Delicious. Precious. Yummy! This should definately be in one of the top five!
This seems to be some kind of Korean candy. It's a teeny biscut stick with a mushroom chocolate top. They even have faces! It's been so hot lately though that the faces melted off. The chocolate on these are the best I've ever had!
This is Strawberry Ramune. It's a fizzy drink that's in a fancy glass bottle with a cute fruity guy on the label. There's even indents on the top for your pointer finger and thumb to grip the bottle. The thing that's really amazing is the marble stopper. That's the glass ball that's sitting at the top of the bottle. The marble is the seal and to open it you have to press down on this cap-like plastic thing to pop the marble out of place. I now have a Melon flavored one and also a peach. Yes, I'm saving them. I like the sound it makes when you drink from it because the marble moves around. Clink!
Botan Rice Candy. I actually haven't tried this yet, but this is another candy with an edible rice wrapper. I wonder why candies have these wrappers? There's no taste and it melts right away. It is intriguing though. This package comes with a sticker!
Yan Yan is another sweet that I haven't had in years and was introduced to it by Erika. It's just like pocky, but the stick is bigger and you dip it in the frosting yourself. I personally like this one a lot. Strawberry is my favorite!
Konpeito! The sugar candy. I actually learned about this watching Stellvia of the Universe. For a while now I had been importing packages from WizzyWigs and the candies were much smaller. I like these because you can just pop one in your mouth and be sugarfied for a long time.
Petit Choco is apparently just a box with little pouches of various chocolate in them. I've only tried one so far and they were basically M&M's. The ones in the pink pouch I've actually had before, and they are outstanding. This one was pricey, but I had to try it at least once.
That's the end of the Han's trip, but that was just the beginning of the rest of the day. Fortunatly, Price Chopper was in view when we exited Han's. We also discovered that there is a bus stop place right outside of Han's. That made us happy because that means it will be easily accessible in the winter time when we can't walk there.
So, we made it to Price Chopper and got some water for our trip since it was probably 100 degrees out that day. Ari also stopped at the pharmacy to put in a perscription slip which we had to come back to pick up later.
Since it already occured to us that we didn't know where Washington street was, we thought it would be best to ask. So we did. We asked about three people who said they either had no idea what street that was or they weren't from around this area. Eventually some lady said it was the opposite direction we were going, left, up a monsterous hill, left, left, and left.
We exited the store and continued on our way, ignoring those crazy directions and hoping we would stumble upon the lounge soon. We were pooped. But we weren't going to give up so easily!
This next section of the trip was quite long. It was so hot and sticky out that the few times the sun snuck behind the clouds we felt mildly rejuvinated. Once in a while the sidewalk would mysteriously disappear, and more than once we were honked at or called at by some passerby in a vehicle.
Going down Erie was also discovered that there are quite a few Japanese/Chinese resturants. I think we spotted a sushi bar even. There was another asian food market place, but I can't remember where it was or what the name was either. I'll have to ask Ari again and see if we can make it down there sometime.
We stopped at Aldi's next for a breather. The sun was really kicking us hard out there and we still needed directions. Ari randomly asked s lady who was intently picking out fruit and only got a frightened stare. When she asked again the woman's husband came over and said, "No" very precisely. We think they might not have known English. We asked a cashier and got some other crazy directions, but at least these directions were the same way we were headed this time. Our next goal was to get to Townsend.
Another long walk and at least a half an hour later we took another break at an art store. I think it was called, "The Art Store." It was quite a nice place too. If I was more serious about art I would love to get some things in there. Sadly though, I'm just a hobbyist.
I saw a little boy in there who has the same Houghton t-shirt as I have. I won the shirt along with a few other people on an online quiz e-mail thing with the college. It's a small world?
I hope that my boyfriend is an artist.
The store was intriguing, and I think Ari does some painting, drawing, and possibly sculpting, so we spent some time breathing and snooping around. I would have liked to see the easles, but they were up a floor and I was just too tired to climb any stairs. Again, we checked for directions.
The lady was nice and pitied with us for having walked so far. She gave us straight forward directions and even offered us water. We were off again.
At some point in the trip we took a wrong turn. It must have been before the art store stop because after that we seemed to be going the right way. It was after the bench I think.
The bench. The one with the scotch in a paper bag. This one.
At this point we realized, like being hit by a tumbling rock, how far we had gone.
"That's the News Channel 10 place! That's the Carousel Center!"
Walking continued. Then finally.... we saw it.
Townsend! This meant we were actually going in the right direction!
So, after another long stretch we finally saw Washington St. (I should have taken a picture :() and we followed that road for a while until we reached Washington St. 100.
Which really wasn't 100 at all.
In the window on the left you can see that there's a banner for Roji Tea Lounge with a leaf shape made with what seems to be a long brush stroke.
By the time we got there it was 2:30, and then we realized that the lounge doesn't open until 3:00. But as we passed the window we saw a large group of people sitting at a table, so we went in.
The place was adorable. It's a lot smaller than what I thought it would be, but I like it better like that. It makes the room cozy. As you walk in there is a large table in the middle for large parties, a couch beyond that, two small tables that seat two each, and a Japanese table setting with a tatami mat where you even have to take your shoes off(there's a cute little sign with a picture of sandals crossed out).
We approached the woman behind the cash register(Tomomi, the owner) and asked if they were open but she said that the people in the room at the moment were from a private party and that they wouldn't open until 3.
So we waited. Right outside the window even. We just sat outside and rested for a while. By that time the sun had drown (as Ari would say it) and there was even a nice breeze. For the next half and hour we admired the architecture.
When it came closer to 3:00 we started counting the minutes, every once in a while asking if it was time to go in yet.
"2 more minutes."
Then when 3 came we realized we probably had to wait until they switched the sign from CLOSED to OPEN. Eventually though we got impatient and went in. The door doesn't directly go into the lounge so there is a room before you go in, which we hung out in for a bit for fear of making fools of ourselves again. There were some various business cards displayed on a table that we browsed through and there was also a large stand-up menu which we took a peek at.
We decided on trying Mochi for a snack and splitting the cost. Mochi... when I saw that I thought of the strawberry rice cakes I have, but they aren't the same thing, I assure you.
After Ari convinced me it was my turn to ask questions, we went in and inquired as to whether they had opened yet. They had and we were to choose any seat. Ah! The Japanese setting was perfect! We were quite excited.
The menus we were given were adorable. They were handcrafted and had images on each page. Tomomi was so sweet too. She couldn't walk on the tatami because she had shoes on, so she very gracefully sat on the side of the platform and kindly handed us our things.
Ari ordered Jasmine Bubble Tea and I ordered my favorite Taro Bubble Tea, and also the Mochi treats. Ari and I agreed that the trip was worth it.
When Tomomi brought us the mochi she asked us if we'd ever had it before. I was prepared to say yes, but then I saw the little green and white balls and was in a short state of shock.
We both tried the little mochi balls on the count of three, and were both quite surprised. The texture was... obsolete? They were smooth, like an egg, and when you bit down on it the ball was very cleanly cut, but then molded right back together. For some reason the taste instantly made me think of Smacks, the cereal. But I think that was the powdery stuff on the top more than the ball. I didn't like it at the time, but now I would like to try it again.
There was a girl who came in a bit later who actually asked us what we thought about the bubble tea because she was considering trying some herself. We left before she got it, so I wonder if she liked it.
As we were on our way out we asked about the Roji Tea t-shirt that was on display. Ari and I agreed that we would just simply have to get one. Unfortunatly, they only had mediums at the time, but they said they should be getting smalls in the winter.
That wraps up part one of the epic journey. Stick around for the second part of the day.
-Lisa
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