LOL

I love these girls!
We made a lot of funny faces on Saturday.
These photos are hilarious, and I had trouble suppressing laughter at work when Ai sent me the pics.

Messed it up

I messed up the last template...

The blogger.com offers a fewer # of templates than a few years ago. I like green tea, so I settled on this one for now.

Current Affairs

• Who is Japan's new Prime Minister?
  
  
• The City of Philadelphia will soon enact smoking ban!!!
  I am so happy!!!

• I will move to Berkeley next summer.

LOVE THURSDAYS

FINALLY!  The night of Grey's Anatomy Season 2 Premier!

 

I have been spending a lot of time on *unsuccessfully* programming the next class assignment.  That explains my absence here...

Fall

It got chilly today, and my lab was freezing cold all day because the central air-conditioning wasn't adjusted.

Oh yeah, if you understand Japanese, check out Japanese drama "Orange Days" (an English title) on youtube.com. It's kinda funny that an American girl who was in Japan until recently told me about this drama. It's about a hearing-impaired girl and her college friends. It's pretty good, but
the first climax doesn't come until the 7th or 8th episode. I'm glad I didn't have to wait for 2 months for it.
All episodes come with English subtitles, but translations are pretty bad for the first few episodes.

If you know any good Japanese drama after 2000 or Korean drama (with English/Japanese subtitles), let me know!


Plus, I just learned that I aced the first big assignment in C++. Yeay. :)

Lunch items

I've been searching for lunch food under $3 around the hospital.
So far, what I've been eating are a cheeseburger, TLB, meatball sub and Jamaican patties as well as chicken fried rice that exceeds my budget by 25 cents.

Yesterday I found the cheapest option at Golden Krust, a Jamaican fastfood store!
They sell a small cup of rice & peas for $1.50, which I had never noticed.
A small cup was just enough for me.

Since I grew up eating rice almost every meal for 18 years in Japan, my stomach is customized to digest rice and, in my theory, burger buns and sub bread get consumed too fast due to lack of stickiness.
It's amazing how well rice can hold me through the afternoon.

I am so happy. :)


Another lunch-related topic comes from cafeteria at the hospital I work at.
You would expect a hospital cafeteria to serve somewhat healthy food, but it doesn't.
It rather appears to contribute to alarming obesity rate in this country.
Like any food establishments, they have a pop fountain. The news is that they will soon discontinue 12oz cup and add 32oz cup (20oz will be kept).
It's utterly terrifying.
Who is going to drink 32oz (= nearly 1 litter of pop) during work hours!? I guess those chubby nurses will...

unbelievable, huh?

Craziness

I am still overwhelmed by the C++ class. Although not comprehensively, I had to dash through 8 chapters of a thick textbook for the past two weeks.
Despite the fact that the instructor explained benefits of pointers, I still don't see it as a powerful & convenient tool. I hope I understand and can utilize it in my code before the project due on Sunday.

I haven't even had time to email my mother this week.

Tapas

I had dinner at a tapas restaurant in my apartment complex with my funky Japanese girlfriends.

I knew each portion would be small, and it really was small. We were still hungry even after spending $60 on beer and food. So, we all came over to my apartment and ate some more...

Each dish was prepared asthetically and very delicious, though.
Since all the food names were in Spanish, I don't recall what we ate.

Pro and Con of carry-on item restriction

The strict carry-on item regulation is better in a way that people bring in fewer bags in the plane and it facilitates boarding and de-boarding. On the downside, it increases luggage loss, especially when a connection time is less than one hour.

I was pleased that USAirways retrieved and delivered my bag faster (within 24 hrs) than American did (2 days).

By the way, Northern Cali was chilly!