Gung hay fat choy: May you become prosperous

Last week my family and I celebrated Chinese New Year. The entire family gathers, eats copious amounts of clementines, hands out red envelops to us singletons, and bows to our elders wishing them a year of prosperity. Tradition requires you to wear red on
Chinese New Year for good luck, however, each year my family gets a little bit more lax with traditions. Since I am the only one who wore red, I guess Im going to be the only with luck this year!

Here is my goigngoign(grandfather), my porpor(grandmother), and yeye(aunt)

Now Chinese food has a lot of vegetables, but it also has a lot of meat, especially during special events. This is recipe for a vegetarian's nightmare. I have been a vegetarian for two years, but at every family gathering its as if I mentioned it for the first time.

The same conversation with my porpor(grandmother):
porpor: "no pork?"
me: "no pork"
porpor: "no chicken?"
me: "no chicken"
porpor: "have shrimp"..she walks away
me: with bowl of shrimp in my hand "umm..mom? anyone? shirmp!"

Because of my lack of edible options, I ate four clementines and two servings of string beans. delicious.... yeah.

Here are some pictures. One of my mother eating some Chinese meat dish, and one of my aunt and my porpor.


In fact this same conversation has happened between me and my great italian aunt

Reenactment from this Christmas
Great aunt: "you must eat sausage?"
me: i look at my mom for help " no..sausage is meat"
Great aunt: "since when do you not eat meat"
me: "since two years ago"
Great aunt: "so no meat ever?"
me: "not for now"
Great aunt: "that doesnt make sense"
me: i shrug

So I guess its my own fault that I decided to become a vegetarian in two culinary meat dynasties.

" I was there!" Inauguration 2009

Last week I went to the inauguration in D.C. and it was nothing short of complete chaos. On the way there Christina, Diana, Tierney, Jason and I drove threw 3 blizzards from Boston just to get there.

After recovering from extreme exhaustion and highway hypnosis we finally arrived! The day before we walked around and it was already jam packed with people and POLICE.



We got commemorative pins, saw some sites, and even saw Obama peeking out behind a lamp post.






At night we find the notoriously liberal MSNBC news stand and kind of stand there for a while, with no real intention but just to acknowledge the fact that the inauguration would take place right here tomorrow and WE WERE THERE



On inauguration day we woke up at 2 a.m. listened to Tierney's infamous "Techno...no Techyes" mix c.d. complete with the "boom boom boom" song. We get to the metro station around 3 to find a 4 block long line to get on the train.. (this is 3 in the morning!)
We finally arrive at mall 5 in the morning, exhausted and stunned... we were now prepared to watch the sunrise..repeat SUNRISE..over the Capital.


Since were were going to wait another 6 hours we decided to plop ourselves down to keep ourselves warm... this was the view. tierney kept my legs warm. i kept jason's toes warm. christina and diana kept my left side warm . the minnesota couple next to me kept my right side warm. and my TWO hats kept my head warm. it was very cozy.


Finally around 11:30, the inauguration started late..grrr.. the jumbo trons sounded the commencement of the inauguration! The crowds booed bush, cheered obama, and sighed in impatience whenever anyone else besides bush or obama's name was mentioned.





sidenote: way for chief justice roberts to ruin a perfect moment!
The inauguration was the most amazing experience. I will never again be surrounded by 2 million people who were filled with so much hope. Despite the cold and long hours waiting, the experience will be hard to match. And as my pin stated "I WAS THERE".

On the way back we crossed over the George Washington Bridge, right where that plane crashed into the Hudson.. crazy stuff

Steve Carell bought a store in Marshfield!

STEVE CARELL is a part time resident of Marshfield, the South Shore town that I used to live in and now live next too. EXCITING. I had no idea he lived in the "shore". He can now join the ranks of other South Shore celebs including the infamous Steve Tyler, Joe Perry, Jeff Corwin, and Jennifer Coolidge. I once served ice cream to Steve Tyler ( he got a really disgusting flavor, a kiddie sized cone of FROZEN PUDDING, which has pieces of dried fruit in it...an old people flavor GROSS). But maybe if I go to the Marshfield Hills General Store more often I could get a glimpse of Michael Scott and add another notched to my celebrity spotting belt.

GO STEVE woooo.

cough cough..its winter

hello all,
i have a cold from well the reason where this illness got its name from - the cold. so in all my post-graduate glory i am posting once again. here are some more photos taken from my inner townie

Coastal

Orchid

Luck Charms

Boston is so Irish....rainbow leading to the pot of gold... also known as Fenway Park

the city, camden, hampsted

istanbul not constantinople

The 'X' Factor

OK so McCain clearly chose Palin in a desperate attempt to attract anyone... and basically all that was left were the clinically irrational. Biden was chosen because he made up for what Obama lacked, such as experience in foreign policy. Now I guess you can say the same for McCain but claiming that your weakness is lacking an extra 'x' chromosome doesn't seem to have the same charm to it.

There was a quote saying that Palin was now a "heartbeat" away from being president, and with McCain being 72 it is no laughing matter. McCain was once a seemingly respectable politician, in comparison to other republicans who are often times loyal Bush supporters, oil junkies, and psycho conservatives. But now that he has chosen Palin, we all better start warming up the old familiar yet haunting"YEEHAW" cause we will be in for a bumpy ride.

Schools Out for Summer...but not for Fall

Well its back to school and we've had weather that has reached biblical standards....first there is the disgustingly humid heat, then the torrential down pour that had sparked the inner Noah in all of us (oh i can reflect me sitting in the apartment all wet rat like with a towel around my shoulders...stunning) and now..what is THAT signs of fall?

Overall, school has wrecked havoc on my sanity, once again, why am i so indecisive...

Now that Im squeezing out every last drop of development education i can receive, i have now come to realize that all i want to do in life is draw, ride my horse, travel, and save the world ( in no particular order)