so this weekend i went to the San Francisco Japantown Obon Festival. it wasn't exactly as i expected, but it was still fun. it was very colorful and lively. i wore my yukata i ordered online (there was a wide selection on ebay, and the shipping was cheap and fast). i went with tim, jj, jan (a new intern from germany), and some of tim's friends. in addition to the obon dance, there were games (including goldfish scooping! which i didn't do because what would i do with the fish after this internship is up?), and little girls dressed up in yukata. there were also women and teenage girls dressed in yukata, but the little girls look oh so sweet in them! we wandered around the shops in japantown, and i found a few more bento boxes for very cheap! just a dollar each. other discoveries from wandering japantown stores: seriously the best mochi i've ever had, filled with white bean and a piece of fresh strawberry, and a japanese bottled drink called "Lemon Squash White"--- it tasted like liquid lemon sherbet. Yum.


the thing that i really wanted, which i heard some temples do around here do, was for the festival to continue until nightfall, and see glowing lanterns. and eat takoyaki from a food stand. mmm, well. maybe some day.


while we were in japantown we also got our picture taken at a photobooth. the interface was really cumbersome to use but worth it--- it had fancy features and it even printed out glitter! hehe, such a fobby thing to do. also, i saw several hair salons there. is it crazy of me to seriously be contemplating scheduling a hair appointment in san francisco? i love my hairdresser at home, but the last time i brought in a picture of a japanese pop star, it didn't come out quite like i wanted.


Tim's friends were so nice; one took us to her apartment in Northern San Francisco; it was decorated so simply and cutely. We all shared a nice large meal at a restaurant called "Home", known for their comfort food.


this week-- a presentation in front of my MIT professor who is flying out here to visit the company. this weekend--- mom and little brother are coming to see me. better make some slides and clean my room!

I hated being teased as a kid. I remember that my dad used to looove to tease me. Offering me a snack, and then pulling it away as I reached for it. Lifting me over a creek when we had a picnic and saying that he was going to drop me in. That always brought me to tears. I am not exactly sure what changed, but now I really don't mind being teased. Maybe I took myself too seriously as a kid. No, I know I did.


Here's a secret, but in fact, now I might even enjoy being teased. I see it as a sign that someone is comfortable with me. A form of endearment even. Seeing people from the Korean Catholic church throwing each other into the water at the beach, I actually wished that one of these days, they would do it to me, knowing it would mean that I'm officially part of them. I like when Phil or my friends poke fun at me. It seems so nice and familiar.


I just made a delicious, delicious dinner tonight. It isn't often that I make food that I'm very happy about. I found a recipe for Pad Thai and modified it because I didn't have all the right ingredients. I soaked dry rice noodles in warm water for an hour. I stir fried ground turkey sausage in some oil. I added the now softened noodles, garlic powder, 1/4 cup of fish sauce, cubes of tofu, and a spoon full of sambal oelek. It didn't taste at all like Pad Thai, but it was still the best dinner I've had in a while. Mmmmm.


Last weekend, I went to San Francisco's Japan town with my friend Tim and JJ, a co-worker. We all wrote wishes on a tanabata tree, lost ourselves in Kinokuniya bookstore, and had okonomiyaki for lunch. JJ got a pink bottle of Sake (a creamy and sweet variety) from a grocery store for me to have on my 21st birthday. It'll be a nice thing to share with my mum and dad that evening.


Tim showed us around Berkeley, the tower, the areas around it, the paleoantology buliding. It was so hilly. In so many ways, it was what I expected a college campus to look like (hehe, MIT is sooo not that).


I couldn't find a yukata in Japantown that I liked =/. I ordered a cute navy blue one with a yellow and white ribbon. Hopefully it will come by Friday--- in time for San Francisco's Obon Festival ^_^

tomorrow (July 7th) is a holiday in Japan called the Tanabata or the Star Holiday. according to legend, two stars on opposite sides of the galaxy fall in love but can only see each other this day, every year. i think that's soooo sad and sweet! to celebrate it, people write wishes on a strip of paper (about the size of a bookmark) and tie them to a branch with string through a hole on top. and by the end of the day the trees get covered with everyone's paper wishes. japanese holidays are so cute! i want to tie a wish to a tree tomorrow. what will i wish for? Hi-mi-tsu! ^_^


so i'm in sunnyvale now. i have been getting around by bus and train. i live 5 minutes away from work (by walking) but a 20+ minute ride by public transportation to groceries or a mall. i have yet to find a yarn store or a fabric store. so my hopes of spending my off-work hours in domestic crafting and cooking bliss are slowly fading away.


i'm just settling into my job; i don't know yet if i will like it or not. things are still uncomfortable now--- i don't yet have someone i know i can ask questions of and my manager feels kind of unapproachable. And lots of little things keep going wrong.


on the plus side, i found a church i really like. it's a korean catholic church (i've actually never heard of an ethnically-specific catholic church before) and on my first visit there i thought i would feel totally out of place. but people were so friendly, recognizing that i was new, and even displaying shock when they found out i wasn't korean, and invited me to join a beach retreat for the week after. it was a faster welcome than i've ever found in a church. as an aside, the congregation is so fashionable. i saw moms and 6th graders alike dressed in incredibly cute clothes, like out of a dream.


phil just went home from his visit yesterday; somehow it already feels like a week since he's been gone. we crammed a lot into his visit: san francisco china town and wharf, great america's amusement park, stanford, and lots and lots of good restaurants. evenings we spent watching Friends and eating good gelatto.


there are some obon festivals coming up in the surrounding cities. i'm really excited about getting a yukata and attending them!