Food (Panda Express), Food (Potluck #1), Food (Potluck #2), a Cultural Event, and Food (Pizza Hut)

Last week was the Reading Week here, which of course somehow amounts to food. (Who studies, am I right?)

On Tuesday, I ate Panda Express with my RA, which featured a nice spiciness, even if it is so obviously not *real* Chinese food. The biggest surprise was a free boba tea -- it took me a week to finish, but it was a nice chance to re-evaluate my stance! It turns out, I am fine with tapioca balls, even if they still seem a bit weird. Of all the places one could get a free boba, Panda Express was not what I expected! It was also a good chance to get to know my RA better -- we knew each other but had not spend time one on one in such a capacity.

 
Actually, there were also two potlucks this week. This inspired me to do some cooking -- I made a reddish "spanish" rice (below) on the suggestion of my mom. I tried creating a broth to cook the rice in, but it largely tasted like tomato! It was not a failure though. I learned a lot from cooking it. I also prepared some scrambled eggs (below) and some edamame. *BUT* this did heighten my stress and make me enjoy Reading Week less. I felt weighed down by the idea that my cooking was too simple -- I could do so much better.

Potluck #1 is illustrated in the next two images. This was our lab potluck, which was quite exciting with many varieties of food. Unfortunately, the pasta dish was loaded with pesto, which meant that I could not eat it. But the lasagna was quite nice. Our famous baker in the lab created a matcha cake, which smoothly blends matcha (green) with a white chocolate layer. Clearly a well done cake, but I would push its baker to work to better bring out the flavor of matcha! The distinctive flavor felt hidden away in the dish, as if we had to dig around with our taste buds. Above all else, this was a very fun social event.

One would hope that we accomplished important lab things after our potluck like writing and experiments. Instead we played the game Exploding Kittens, by the creator of The Oatmeal, for perhaps two whole hours. Though the game has some luck, it requires much skill to maintain control of the cards. I felt accomplished from winning just one game, even if I had been the first loser in a previous round. Forget poker, they should call it the Exploding Kittens Face. 

Wednesday had one more surprise in store; we were running The Worst Meeting of Toastmasters Ever. A first-timer took on the lead role and simultaneously as the table topics master. But with only 6 people, all of whom had done Toastmasters before, we had to get very creative with our format. We watched a video of a GOP candidate -- his speech was infamous enough to travel the internet, but we still tried to play nice. After that we did table topics -- which are again the short impromptu speeches -- for most of the time. The hardest part of the meeting was keeping up the facade of being a bad Toastmasters meeting. I jokingly insulted our leader a few times! But at the end, I made a pivot back to seriousness and gave evaluation on the meeting as a whole. Our gimmick actually generally worked with our format, albeit simplified, and it paves the way for future experimentation. I look forward to what we can accomplish now.

Potluck #2 was also fortunately near my place -- it was in my dorm on the 14th. The same fears about potlucks persisted in my mind. What if people did not eat my dish?

I brought the spanish rice once more and edamame (below), which was a good mixture of vegetarian dishes in my view. The meat dishes tended to be pork, which is no good for me. I actually simply ate some pasta and my vegetarian dishes, opting to not eat meat. It was a good experience trying to cut down on meat consumption. It is feasible, even for me who has grown up with many meat dishes.

This potluck was also followed by a fun event: karaoke. At the least, it seemed fun on the surface, until it got out of hand with a certain person going many more times than they should have. But before that point, I made a new friend, someone from China and we discussed many things about cuisine and other cultural differences. This came in handy when it was my turn for karaoke; if she had not spoken up, I may have been entirely passed over. (I think that one person was too overzealous to do karaoke, despite not being one of the best speakers). I chose "Smells Like Teen Spirit" because of the humor of the lyrics and it was absolutely fun to sing even if I felt incredibly foolish. My new friend did an Adele song, clocking in perhaps the only actually good performance. A slight accent aside, her vocal control was pretty impressive. Unfortunately, the karaoke event kind of petered out, and I ended up leaving. The worst part is the organizer may have tossed my food (since the cleaning staff had not touched it)! It was still edible. I wanted to still eat it. ;______; My spirit is perhaps most wounded by the loss of perfectly usable plastic containers.

Friday, I cooked chicken again (below), using up my leftover Panda Express Rice. This was a pretty simple dish, but I marveled at the simple yet elegant balance of spices. Imagine what I can do with more complex dishes! This kept up my cooking theme for the Reading Week.

One last point of excitement was the Edmonton Japanese Community Association event -- it celebrated its 25th anniversary on my sister's 25th birthday! I do not have much to say here, other than I enjoyed seeing Japanese culture on full display. I had been anticipating this event ever since I finished the EJCA on November 2nd. Going there was a great way to place myself back into Japanese culture. (A perfect complement to my doing the Japanese Conversational Club.)

Right after this event, I had coffee with new friends from the conversational club, I just mentioned. Admittedly, my worry over the time (The event started late) soured it a little bit in my mind. But in the end I still greatly enjoyed having both back to back.

On November 18th, I ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut (below) in an effort to remember my grandparents. Though certainly not the 'best' pizza, the crust and cheese flavor was enough to bring a sense of nostalgia and comfort over me. This  is maybe my first time ordering a pizza entirely of my own volition. And I do not plan to make this a regular habit! But it was a very fun way to mix up my eating and keep myself thinking about how to improve as a cook. 

Snow, Ice, and the Taunt of Sunshine

It snowed early on Saturday, another especially chilly day, and the snowfall was apparently legendary. Silly me -- I had already decided that I was travelling to the south part of the city to visit an (apparently) great branch of the public library system. The snow was too thick for my scooter to move through without losing all forward momentum even as the wheels spun. Though I had suspected this day would come, I was not aware it would be so soon. So I left my scooter behind for a journey.

Fortunately for me, the route I took was hardly a new one, and I did get to spend much time in a heated bus. Watching the snowy terrain pass me by. Seeing the city in another light under this weather. I discovered that sitting areas were unfortunately quite sparse, and generally covered with snow. I learned that the sidewalks can be hard to see without the passenger signs indicating them. It was incredibly easy to step into the road accidentally. At the least, my scooter would have suffered more from falling off the sidewalk. The lengthy delays to the bus would have happened either way. And going to the library meant going 30 minutes farther than I had gone previously -- under normal conditions.

The library was close to the bus stop, but I still had to walk through snow. My boot-lite shoes kept me in check, just as my mom had predicted. The library was not extraordinary but its simple interior and elegant exterior were quite nice. I much preferred it over the library in the other big city here. Just a well laid out building, with plenty of areas to study. And study is what I came to do -- I came to write.

But I felt so sleepy, and accomplishing work was incredibly difficult. I realized that perhaps getting here should be called the achievement and then made my way to get food quickly before going home. This gave me the excuse to check out the Town Center close to the library. But despite its huge sign, I had trouble finding it! The excessive white outside forced me to turn around many times....until I finally ended up there. (It felt longer than it was.) There I quickly scanned the food court, went along it once, and decided to go back to my first idea: an Indian stall. I got drowned-in-tomato-sauce butter chicken, which was completely fine (for what it is). But the amount of sauce made me sleepy again. I wondered why I even bothered as I made my way back to the bus. Fortunately, I did not have to wait for the bus too much on the way back, and was able to return home.

Though the morning had been inaccessible to my scooter, I noticed that the snow had been partially cleared.

Sunday still had the repercussions of Saturday, but I used my mobility scooter to get to the station nearest to me. It was a bumpy ride, making lots of sound, but no damage to me. Just inconvenient. Still I notice that right outside my building can be the most difficult to get through. I did not leave my building for most of the day. Once in the "city" proper, I found getting around easier, albeit with bumpiness again. I made this journey to have coffee (hot cocoa in my case) with someone I had recently met. So I was feeling a tad nervous about that, let alone all this snow business. And then I learned that the cafe we had picked was....not accessible. So I left my scooter outside. However, we talked for 2.5 hrs -- around the time in months we had both been in the city -- which clearly indicates we had a good time! It more than made up for any other issues I saw.

And now, today -- on Remembrance Day -- I tried out routes and discovered some are not accessible. My usual route, however, still seems accessible as long as I bear in mind the bumpiness.

But this weekend I have been working so much on optimizing my routes. How can I safely get across the city and the university? Without a doubt, the pedways will come in very handy. But I still feel completely in the process of figuring things outs.

A Spooookyyy and Delayed Update on Seasons

I attended no less than three Halloween parties this season -- the campus one near me (Saturday before Halloween), the departmental one (on the day of Halloween), and the Japanese Conversational Club party (but the day after Halloween). I dressed up as Chidi from the Good Place, at the least his general aesthetic, and that was enough to confuse everyone. Fortunately, the 'professorial' look I donned was recognized well, leaving me to just explain the backstory.

But these Halloween parties, obviously were an excuse to eat some fairly unhealthy food. Like pizza at the first party, and chips at the JCC Halloween Party. The departmental one featured an array of foods from different labs. The worst idea there was pasta with peanut butter (hearsay on my part) and the best two dishes were filipino noodles and a taco salad provided by our own lab. My role was much smaller, as I provided some edamame, and I was definitely overshadowed. But by the strongest dishes! There were too many sweets there as well....maybe I was just at the wrong event. Immediately after, I had to do animal training, which required much more walking than I could handle. However, after animal training, I had the opportunity to do a haunted house with my friend -- it was based on the Shining, which I still have not seen. Far from scary, the house was more inventive and intriguing in its atmosphere, having transformed the campus theater entirely.

The JCC event was much more of a social event (as the other two parties lasted....between a half hour and hour) but also had some unfortunate organization. There was games of Kahoot, which are much too fast for me, and a marshmallow swallowing competition. The scavenger hunt in particular was rather tough on my spirit, but our team won Japanese chips!

My other seasonal stories are this: on Nov 6th, the coldest day in Edmonton so far, I met my supervisor at 7 AM. (He was busy past 9 AM.) The wind certainly ate at my ankles, reminding me to cover them up better, as I made my way to the Hospital. That's right -- my building was closed, so I went through the hospital. Confusion reigned supreme for me during those first ten-15 minutes before I realized that I should go to the lab. There, we met and I did an important task under my supervisor's watchful eye. Doing on this own would have been much more difficult. Honestly, I was relieved to take care of it. Then my supervisor and I both left the lab at 9 AM -- which is when we normally START -- but we took the train in other different directions. Wisely/foolishly, I had arranged to pick up delivery from a train station near the southern edge of the city. I arrived there before 9:30 and had to wait an hour for the delivery food. This train station is frigid, barely covered by a 'building', taking all my energy to keep distracted. So instead of work, I watched anime on my phone using the WiFi there. That's right -- it's cold but at least there's the internet to warm me up.

The very next day lab work continued from 3 to 6 pm, so we found ourselves both taking the train. Again in different directions of course. I headed to the NDP meeting in the north part of the city, which was difficult to arrive at. The bus took a long time to locate. The address led to nothing in Google Maps, leading me to almost give up. But I found my way there. Very polite for a political meeting, and they even had donuts, which greatly helped my starving self. Again, the bus was a problem (maybe a common thread).

So there you have it: my earliest and latest days so far in the lab respectively were back to back.

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