Friday night was the work Christmas party. I didn't want to go because any kind of work do just feels like extending my work day long past the point i still want to be working... but at the same time i wanted to humanize myself in front of my colleagues ( Read more... )

My face looks like someone came at me with a baseball bat ( Read more... )

My mind is in a strange state lately. I am in a limbo. Work continues to be high stress and challenging in certain ways and entirely unremarkable in others. Unremarkable in the aspects of it that are stressful and challenging, i guess. Work is boring ( Read more... )

The most recent episode of Top Chef was one of those family challenges, where the chefs deconstruct some classic recipe that's a regular fixture at their family gatherings. It reminded me of the cookbook my step mom put together a year or two back. My dad showed it to me when i was at his place last year, and it was really cool - part cookbook, ( Read more... )

The Toronto Island is a spot i discovered soon after first moving to the city back in 2009. It's essentially just a collapsed sand bar with an airstrip, an amusement park and a couple of car-free residential communities. There are no shops or restaurants; residents need to take the ferry into the city for everything. My main experiences there have ( Read more... )

Today i want to talk a bit about 热闹 (rè nao), which is a word i encountered in class a few weeks ago. There are several Chinese words i have encountered that describe feelings that do not really have an equivalent term in English, but this is one that helped to illuminate a particularly conspicuous aspect of Chinese culture for me. My books ( Read more... )

May 9 - Day 1 - All Aboard

Lunch: vegetable broth, pork schnitzel, gravy, boiled potato, green beans
Dinner: steamed white fish, white sauce, rice

In port.

( Read more... )

This is my favorite place in the Venice metro area. Pellestrina island. After doing my laundry this morning i took the bus and ferries all the way down to Chioggia, which is a cute little suburb/town with canals and bridges and a street market. I had some coffees and Aperol and was given a tapa! Or whatever Italians call it. It was an open sandwich ( Read more... )

It's been quite a good week. I haven't really found the time to write, despite only seeing dad in the evenings after he is done with work. I love spending time with my dad, but it is exhausting. A part of me was hoping that spending time here would be real downtime, a space where i could decompress from the constant need to be "on" while i was ( Read more... )

Thank Christ, i made it. Well, i didn't really make it yet. It's Friday afternoon before i move and i haven't planned out mail redirection (i don't even know if you can do it in Germany), i still have a mattress and a rug and two desk lamps that are unaccounted for, and i am not entirely sure if the weather is warm enough that i can wash and dry ( Read more... )