Funny Stuff

New Development

 After all the posting about food, I am now on a strict diet.  *tears* 

It's not completely my choice.  It's mostly part of a health expirament to figure out my 'allergies' and adjust my inner inbalances (chinese medicine junk).  And maybe a positive externality could be weight loss?  Probably not, if history repeats itself .  This new cruel diet will be pretty easy if I'm eating at home since my mom cooks only healthy foods in tiny portions.  But if I were to go out to eat....AHH~ I might give in. 

Just my luck, i'm attending a wedding banquet and a family friend dinner outing this coming weekend.  Let's see how things go...

I wish I could go on a trip for 'spring break'!

A nice quiet birthday moment

My life here is so uneventful, so boring  I kind of half-like it.  Yesterday my mom turned 46 and we took her out to Jade Garden.  That place is so yummy!  Shanghainese cuisine at it's best!  It's pretty cheap too (in American standards), again 11 bucks a piece.  So much better than Cantonese House where you leave with a greasy half-filled belly after paying 12+ dollars.

Appetizers~

LEFT: pan fried anchovies

RIGHT: Vegetarian grilled abalone served chilled with light soy sauce and wasabi

The abalone was so skillfully made from beans.  Healthy and delicious!

Roasted Duck with seashell-shaped white buns (without the grease!)

Braised Asian Eggplants, with bamboo shoots, edamame beans, and shitake mushroom

This is by far the best eggplant dish I've ever had in my life..so tender and delicious!  Thanks Lyris and Amy for converting me to loving eggplant.  I think you guys would have died eating this

Vegatarian Crab Meat and Guts.  This is a very popular dish in Shanghai, sometimes cooked with soft tofu and with egg in a soup.  This healthier dish imitates it really well using mashed potatoes, strands of carrots and shitake mushrooms, etc.  Interesting...

Long Life Noodles!  This particular one is Scallion noodles with dried shrimp~

Scallion pancake!

YUMMY Mango pudding topped with lightly creamy condensed milk sauce and dark chocolate~

My family~~

My dad is so sweet~  His cute present to my mom <3

Today is my grandma's birthday~ More eating, that's all we Chinese people do.  But I refuse to get fat!  If i do, you can all come and rub my belly like a Buddha.

FOooOd...

My family and I went to "Madame Rose" for french cuisine.  The dinners come in a set meal for a ridiculously good price.  I really wasn't expecting much because 1: this is China and things can be really ghetto, 2: it wasn't pricey, 3: although it was nice, didn't look like a truly high scale restaurant. 

However, I ended up really liking it!  Whoever comes to visit Shanghai, I'll take you there!

The restaurant renovation was really extravagant and nice.  Everything looked straight out of a museum/palace in France from the chandeliers to the furniture and sculptures (even the restrooms!)  The service is great too.

It was a multiple course meal that included escargot, garlic bread, soup, salad, main course, dessert, coffee/tea selections.  We'll play a little game at the end, where you can guess how much this meal was.  Try to guess when you're scrolling down!

First up were these crispy breadsticks with seasoning seeds embedded within and a small glass of a non-alcoholic 'sweet wine' for taste.

These snails may seem disgusting if you've never tried, but they were great! ...seasoned and baked in a bed of garlic and cheese mashed potatoes.

For soup, I chose the creamy mushroom and sausage soup topped with grounded pepper.  It had a more complicated name, but I forgot ^-^~The cream was really light, unlike the heavy chowders in America.  This was one of my favorite, along with the basket of warm toasty garlic bread in the background!

My cute Caesar Salad~

Some people got this shrimp and asparagus salad, which was tasty as well!

For the main course, I had three satisfying beef sparerib strips with black pepper sauce, sweet potato, potato wrapped in cheeseskin, broccoli.  At this point, everyone in my family were already complaining of eating too much.  I was able to enjoy this with no problem, thanks to my enormous stomach space stretched out by American portions. ;)

Dessert and Tea: Haagen Daaz Strawberry ice cream with chocolate sauce, topped over fresh apple, pineapple, and peach cubes. 

The Peach Milk Tea WAS AMAZING...I usually hate peach, but this one was brewed with peach tree leaves and smelled delightful.

The pumpkin caramel pudding someone else got. *jiggle jiggle* bouncy :)

The interior...We were in a private room, though.

Guess how much it all cost??

*drumroll*

88 yuan plus 10% service charge.  A little over $11.  Less than an Applebee's meal in Rochester, NY.  I would have gladly paid over $50 for it.

Lesson: Food in Shanghai can be good and cheap.

Conclusion: Come and visit me!

What a long entry!...

I arrived back in Shanghai yesterday afternoon at around 3 PM.  Now I'm in my apartment, my room typing this.  The view from my room is amazing.  The perfect distance from the scene allows me to see the nightlife of XuJiaHui without the noise.  Instead, I hear my mom watching a new drama called Bao Mu (Maid).  It seems like the typical emotionally distressing drama that will disturb me.  I must not get drawn into it!  ahh...I'm really glad to be right here, at home.

It's strange.  When I think of being here, it still doesn't feel real.  A few days ago, I was still in Rochester, doing the routine things I do, seeing the same college friends I take for granted seeing.  Before I left, my friends and I had a get-together during the weekend, bowling, dinosaur bbq dinner, endess goodbyes.  There were people I said goodbye to multiple times cuz I kept seeing them over and over, thinking it was the last time!  It was really hard.  I thought the moment I would have to leave would never come.  It felt like time fast forwarded during the last days I was in Rochester.  There were alot more people I wanted to see, hang out with, alot more things I could have done.  For example, Steph and I never finished Naruto  (lol).  Thank you to everyone who made an effort to see me one last time, making my last days really fun and memorable, leaving me messages, presents, and hugs.  I was really touched by everything...saying goodbye to a whole bunch of people in the church van (my eternal rival harhar), visiting glc girls in their rooms, hugging the huggable Steph for the last time (I hug my mom but she never hugs back like steph), the sweets machine I got from Justin, Elaine, and Kellie (It's addicting!  but plays very freaky clown circus music), Jocelyn's gift (sweet in every way!), those who brought the huge Yi cake and food at the party, Caleb who was willing to wake up at 5 AM and walk to glc to say goodbye (which is so ridiculous that I could not allow), last moments with Maggie, Carolyn, Ed, and Jess at the Eastman girls' apartment (where we were counting down the minutes..depressing!), spending time with all of RCCCF doing what we do best (eating and acting stupid).  Not the mention, the last hours with Tae.  I knew I needed some rest for the long trip ahead, but I also felt I needed to be awake for those 3 hours to consciously savour those last moments.  Thinking about it all makes me happy and sad at the same time.  There are so many more things I could say and so much more I feel that I cannot express.  There are those people who have been by my side my entire journey through college, those who I just got to know this year, and those who have already left before me.  I remember and think about each and everyone of you.  

Although things will never be exactly the same as my wonderful college years, I often wonder, "will the moments in my life that are yet to come, be as beautiful as what I've experienced so far?  If so, I look forward to it .  I'm really thankful for everything. 

The flight to shanghai was pretty decent.  I give it a 8.5/10.  Usually, flights vary from 17 hours to 23 hours, including layovers.  The long ones usually mean delays or stopping over in more than one airport in-between.  This one was 18 hours, no delay, no physical sickness.  The only problem was that I could not fall asleep at all.  I only slept 3 hours the night before leaving Rochester airport.  I wanted to sleep on the long flight so that it would seem shorter, but I ended up being bored the entire time.  When I FINALLY fell asleep for no more than 30 minutes, I woke up because one of my leg pants felt wet.  I thought it was my imagination, but soon realized it was real.  The elderly lady in front of me spilled her tea all over her seat, which got on my pants and the backpack I left under her seat!  I am glad the wetness did not reach my laptop, but it was pretty annoying.  I was grumpy for a little while from lack of sleep and the fact I couldn't sleep afterwards.  Must have been PMS too, because I felt bad for being annoyed at the little old chinese lady.  I later thought she and her little old chinese husband were pretty cute for traveling together in their old age and I smiled at them. 

Soon after arriving home, my parents and I left to attend my grandfather's 93rd birthday dinner at a noodle shop restaurant.  The food was amazing!!  My grandpa is really cute.  I also got to meet up with my friend Bunta from Japan who acted as our guide in Japan.  He promised to find me some Naruto merchandise .  Afterwards, jet lag got to me and I slept from 10 PM to 7:30 AM.  Life is good, at least before work starts.

I would end this entry with a "would you rather" question but I don't have one.  I think being with crazy RCCC people was my source of inspiration for that.