The House Poet

Well, hello 2010! A lot of fun things have happened so far, so I have a good feeling about this year! :) I have been back at school for a little over a week now and it's been intense but manageable. I am now an art major, which means that I'm learning how to deal with classes that are different than any kind I've taken before. I never even took art classes in high school! I am in class almost all day from Monday through Thursday and then Friday is my day to work on art projects in the art studios here. This morning I spent two hours at the ceramics studio trying to learn how to use the pottery wheel. And let me just say that it is NOT easy! It's like a workout! I am exhausted! I am not going to lie: this week has been hard for me. I guess I have to get used to my new schedule and become more familiar with my classes. I sometimes have a hard time dealing with change, so I have to keep that in mind. I have been enjoying my time with my friends and with Andrew though!! He ...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Here is what I ate in between the celebrating! Christmas Eve dinner was just about comfort food--breakfast for dinner! :) I had a cheese omelette with sausage, challah bread and butter, and peas! It was yummy and rich! Christmas came and we had a nice morning opening gifts. Then, we had to get ready to go to French mass in San Francisco, which was very cool! I loved hearing it in French and I understood it, which was special. The church was lovely as well. It was called Notre Dame de Victoires, which means Our Lady of Victory. There was a funny tiny old French man talking to everyone in his gravelly French voice. :D It was quite the experience! The last time I had gone to church was with Andrew over the summer, and being in a church again made me miss him so miuch. I was nostalgic for the summer days he spent at my place with me~ Our tradition is going to Gourmet Carousel, a cheap Chinese place in SF, for Christmas lunch. The food is good, qu...

Yep, it's December now! :) It's been quite a while since I last posted, but I was busy with finals, essays, and just life in general. I am at home for winter break but I miss Andrew and Stockton tremendously. Andrew will hopefully be coming over next weekend to see me and I am so excited! I will bake lots of goodies for him~! The above picture was taken a few days after he returned from the trip to the Philippines. I was ecstatic to see him again! It's been so wonderful having him back! The night after he arrived from the Philippines three weeks ago, he took me out to dinner. We couldn't stop talking and there was so much to say! We went to Dave Wong's Restaurant, a lovely Chinese place in Stockton. It is a gorgeous restaurant, oozing comfy yet upscale ambiance. The lighting is dim and golden, which makes for a romantic setting. They also have curtained booths for privacy; Andrew had put our names down for us to get one. After a while, one of the nice men working t...

I had such an fun and awesome week, perhaps one of the best weeks I have ever had. It was filled with fun, love, and so much more. I am so sad that it is over! Thank you for everything honey! :) On Friday, Andrew took me and his youngest brother out for lunch at the famous Chuck's Diner, where huge portions reign supreme! Above is the full order of the Garden Omelette that Andrew and I shared, with the kitchen fries and pancake as our sides. The omelette was bursting with fragrant sauteed mushrooms, and the warm avocado slices added such a wonderful creamy richeness to the omelette! I want to make an avocado omelette someday! :) The pancake was super thick! It's very tasty, almost like a large pastry! Someday I might ordered a pancake breakfast there since they are so good! I have been aching for some onion rings lately, so Andrew was game so we ordered the full order of the house-made rings! They were good, and were battered with cornmeal, so it was thick and crunchy. They nee...

Ahhh, this is one of those days where nothing at the University Center tastes good and I wish they was a super close Vietnamese place I could go to! Oh well, I have food in my room I can always make, but I still wish I had a kitchen....grrr.... Anyway, this past weekend was my love's Birthday and our 8 month anniversary!!!!!! :D We had a lot of fun celebrating and eating, lol! ;) On Friday I treated him to dinner at a lovely place called Dave Wong's Restaurant; it is a Chinese place renowned here in Stockton for it's ambiance. We enjoyed the dim lighting and pretty interior. The food wasn't very expensive, but the portions were a bit on the smaller side. It was enough to get both of us full, but it would be too little for a larger group. I forgot my camera in my room since it was such an impulsive idea, but I promise to take pictures next time we go! We ordered pot stickers (which weren't very good), egg foo yung (YUM!), and Shiitake Mushroom beef. With rice of cour...

Ahhh~~~ I had such a wonderful time with Andrew and my family the past few days. It was sort of like a "farewell to summer" party since Andrew starts school tomorrow and I go back on Wednesday. I am so happy that we were able to spend that time together! :) Thursday was an impromptu day; I luckily was offered a ride to Stockton so on Wednesday I asked Andrew if he was free and he was! So, I spent the day with him, relaxing and having fun at his house. For lunch, I tried something so delicious I couldn't believe I hadn't ever tried it before: black bean and garlic sauce. His mother put the sauce with strips of steak and mushrooms (forgot what kind, but they were good) and I ate that with rice. I enjoyed it so much I had three helpings!!!!!! :D I hope I can have some again sometime!! We also went to Tiger's Yogurt for some Oreo cookie flavored fro-yo before we went to the train station. It was such a hot day in Stockton and the fro-yo was creamy and refreshing! :) ...

I spent the day in Stockton yesterday with my love and his family! It was so fun and relaxing, but extremely hot! His already large house is full of people right now, so it was non-stop talking and fun! His visiting sisters taught us how to dance the salsa and merengue! (I intend to practice these dances with Andrew, much to his dismay :D) I felt so comfortable and happy there! Andrew's mother kindly made us all lunch. Clockwise from the top: pork ribs in a dark sauce with green onions, a very mild curry, rice, garlic bok choy, and fried tofu. All very interesting and good! I found myself really enjoying the bok choy, which made me think of my tortoise since I feed her bok choy sometimes! :) In the early afternoon, we went to their old house, which is the house Andrew and his family grew up in. They moved into their current house a few years ago, and their cousins now live in the old house. I love it; the backyard is so large and beautiful. There is a basketball court, a swimming p...

It is sooooo hot right now! Ugh! It's about 100 degrees.........and Berkeley was also really hot. Not fun. But, we went out for Chinese food in Berkeley before stopping at stopping at our respective libraries, which was nice. We would've stayed longer in Berkeley if it hadn't been so hot today! All of us just wanted to go home and soak in the air conditioning. Great China is a rather small, clean, and charming restaraunt. However, the tables for 4 are way too small. I had to sit at the front of the table since my dad's elbow kept bumping into me. The waitresses didn't mind and still had room enough to walk through. Otherwise, it was really nice! Everyone received the soup of the day with their meal, and today it was Egg Flower soup, with egg, carrots, and some other veggie bits. It was pretty good, and I haven't tried this sort of soup before so it was interesting. We also ordered the pot stickers, which are made fresh and take about 10-20 minutes. Ours came ra...

On Friday, I took the train back down to Stockton to spend the holiday weekend with my boyfriend. It was the first time we had seen each other since school ended and I was soooooo happy to see him! It felt so wonderful to be with him again! There were family parties all weekend! My boyfriend (who I will refer to as A) and his family are Chinese, but his parents are from the Philipines. Thus, a lot of Philipino food is prepared. It's fun for me because I have never been exposed to that sort of food before. I always try everything, and food I don't like I give to A to finish for me. :D I didn't take a picture of the food because I was too shy; I am not altogther always comfortable around some of his family because I am the only non-Asian/Philipino person at the parties. But, I can describe it and I'll probably end up spelling everything wrong. :) First of all, shrimp seens to be very much loved. It was in a vegetable dish with bitter melon, tiny green beans, a squash/pump...