Got back yesterday at about 1am, so was dead tired today. Missed most of my classes and ended up eating – you guessed it, sushi – again. So now am still dead tired and in desperate need to study for calc finals, so I’ll be posting trip & pictures a bit later on.

One thing I can unfailingly state up front, however, is that I <3 NY.

I’ve been eating like a(n unhealthy) pregnant woman lately. It’s been Asian food week, and I haven’t stopped since we went to Umi Sushi Boat the night before my grandparents went back to China.

Anywho, never ever going to Todai again. At $26/person, the food isn’t even that great and the variety is very limited. Also, all that buffet-style getting up and getting your own food thing makes for minimal conversation, since my family talks little as it is while eating in general. Anyway, not only was the food better, the service better, the servers actually Japanese, but the bill came up to be less too! And that’s counting the tip. And we just ordered a ton of random food and shared.

Sashimi is by far my favorite, though the dragon sushi rolls were pretty good as well. Oddly, the western-style salad appetizer thing served in the cute little red bowl intrigued me the most. Heh.

Out of the 3 not completely blurry pictures taken by my brother that night, I narrowed it down to these two.

The outing also spurred me to actually cook. And I never cook. I’m the type person whom if you don’t make it for me, I’d probably never actually sit down and eat a real meal type of people. However, on Monday, I was sitting in Econ class and all I could think of were frappacinnos and teriyaki. I looked up recipe for the teriyaki in photo and even took a detour to Lucky’s to get whip cream for the frapp.

I was so productive that not only did I make the aforementioned foods, I also finished my math homework while the meat was marinating!

I wasn't able to get the slushy, but it turned out to be very similar to the bottled kind.

Anyway, I used this slightly modified recipe for the frapp – especially since I was going for the other type. Apparently I cannot properly use our blender.

• 3/4 cup of pre-made instant coffee (use 2 tsp to make, then chill)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 2 cups ice
• whip cream as desired

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend on high. Top with more whip cream if needed.

Completely unhealthy, but deee-licious.

Unfortunately, my teriyaki wasn’t pretty enough for me to want to photograph. And I was hungry.

(Since then, I’ve found myself eating too much popcorn chicken from Quickly’s – a Taiwanese snow-bubble drink shop.) Yep, there are an insane number of Asian restaurants and shops in my area.

First, Happy Valentine’s Day. My preoccupation isn’t quite with that, however.

Yesterday was my 18th birthday. I’m quite proud to have been born on a 13th – in fact, I looked forward to the few years that my birthday lands on a Friday, so I was especially pleased this year that my birthday had the luck to be on the said superstitiously misfortune time of the week. Because it really isn’t!

You see, for the past 5 years or so, every time my birthday rolled around, I’d get sick, either with fever or a cold. It’s been horrible. But not this year. (Though there was a scare about a scratchy throat the night before.)

Nevertheless, I did have bucket loads of fun. After school, I helped Yibin & co. with his self-imposed senior-year project of recreating the Big Bang Lies MV. We took over the drama teacher’s room were super loud for the 2.5 hours we spent in the 700 wing hallway. There is an overwhelming amount of asian in these pictures, I suppose because as a Korean band, Big Bang is, well – Asian.

Alvin changes shirts & Jeff flashes subliminal messages to Yibs, who's in the background. I don't remember who Alvin is supposed to be (I'm not huge on the Korean entertainment industry), but I know Yibin was TOP. Jeff provided the laptop and was an "extra."

Yibin and Jeff having a careful talk on execution. Or on the merits of patato chips - we'll never know.

Ah, Glennon. His hair does this natural poof on top when it's in a ponytail. Which is to say almost never.

The girls were behind the scenes, though mostly we were just cracking up.

The boys had their talk and 'how this is going down' debriefing outside. :p

Me trying to figure out the camcorder (I'm a photo person, not a video one).

T

The Hallway. We spent a lot of time there - You can see me in the picturing, mostly in the classroom by now.

Glennon showing of his non-handstand; I had a better picture of it, but the positioning was midly inappropriate. And no, he's not trying trying to be a B-Boy. We're talking Asian G's here. Not.

This is all the boys, minus 2 who got replaced after they left early. It's why S. is in track bottoms. Ignore Jeff and his jeans. Oh, and Suraj was actually behind the scenes.

Everyone! Self times are bleh - I need to get a remote.

Instead of a big party this year, I opted for a quieter meal with my family, especially since my grandparents are only here until March. Also, I usually get the choice of a big present or a party, and naturally, what with the state of me having no money and wanting a new prime lens really badly, guess what I chose?

Me and the little brother at Todai. He doesn't like posing for me. We drove all the way out to San Jose for this.

Hmmm, sushi. Actually, I prefer sashimi and teriyaki. But hey, they had both so I'm not complaining. Also, these are more California rolls than sushi.

And while we’re on the topic of unlucky 13 – guess what else was waiting for me when I got home yesterday? The letter from NMSQT announcing that I’d advanced to finalist standing! Yay!

Ah yes - my outfit for the day. I <3 my tights very much. I would have taken the trenchcoat off, but it was a little chilly even in the classroom. It was pouring insanely outside.