Site Walkthru

booboo

I discovered wednesday that my basketball career may have come to a premature close. The department organizes a team (along with a soccer team, on which I also play), and our first game was two weeks ago. I played, and during the course of the game, I somehow jammed my pinky finger. It didn't hurt much, but it swelled up and turned a bit of purple. No big deal, I thought, and ignored it. The swelling went down, but it continued to be sore and oddly shaped. The game also featured two sprained ankles, so I figured that I got off easy.

Anywho, I finally got it checked out, and the sportsdoc on campsu thinks it may be ligament damage. yee haw. So, I have it splinted and wrapped in gauze, which makes it sucky to type and handwrite notes, both of which I do in abundance. I next have to find a hand surgeon who takes my insurance so that they can give me a second opinion. In the meantime, I'm putting up with a lot of nose-picking jokes and realizing how much I take my pinky for granted. Poor little pinky.

My new favorite holiday

Dating a Chinese girl has certain advantages. Not least among them is spending Chinese New Year with her family. For the uninitiated, this involves eating a lot of really good food, as the silent participant in an escalating culinary arms race to see which family member can make a greater abundance of delicious, difficult-to-prepare, hard-to-find, expensive food to serve to their family. The holiday seems to value gift giving as a way to ensure luck for the coming year. Aside from copious amounts of food, the other explicit manifestation of this credo are the envelopes.

Red, symbolizing luck, is worn in abundance, and the envelopes are typically red in color. Inside the envelopes are money. Cash money. Given by married couples to unmarried children (and young adults). In return, the giftee says something like Happy New Year, thank you, or wishing you wealth in the future (Gung Hey Fat Choy). So, basically, one smiles, says a few thank yous, and rakes in the dough. All the while, stuffing your face with all manner of yummy Chinese food.

Aside from the material wealth accumulated (and spent already - easy come easy go, especially with Canadian funny money) and lbs gained, the trip was a spectacular success. And by spectacular success, I mean it wasn't a horrible failure. I didn't make anybody cry, and I don't think that I offended any relatives. We didn't actually have time to sing karaoke or ice skate, so I didn't have to make a total ass out of myself either. All in all, I came through pretty unscathed. I was able to meet her immediate family, as well as most of the cousins on her dad's side. They were extremely nice to me, and really made the effort to make me feel included, which was something that I was a bit worried about (it can be hard to incorporate outsiders into family events). They had a good sense of humor as well, which was fun to see. They mock interogated me when they first met me. Then they asked me if I liked Chinese food, while simultaneously giving me hard stares as if to say 'our impression of you will be entirely determined by your answer'. At one point, her uncle Andy commented, in front of her entire family including parents 'No, he doesn't like Chinese food, he just likes Chinese desserts!' with a wink,wink, nudge nudge. Rebecca was super embarrassed, but I actually bust out laughing with the rest of them. So that was the tone for the weekend. No stress, just a lot of new faces and fun.

We stayed at her Aunt Wendy's house, who kindly gave it up for us for the weekend. It is a sweet townhouse, impeccably decorated, about a block from a subway station in a nice part of town. A lot of cool mirrors and antique furniture, and.. here's the kicker... a heated toilet seat with all kinds of cool features (squirting, deodorizing, drying) built in. I had some very pleasant moments in that bathroom. Being that this was my first visit to the great white north, I was also eager to form an impression of Canucks. My expectations were not too far off - everybody was actually nice. Things were cleaner up there, there was less crime, and everything was written in French in addition to English. The subway system in Toronto, while limited in scale, is pretty awesome. It runs often and is super easy to use. Toronto is also surprisingly diverse. There were all kinds of colors mixed into the crowd, south and east asian, middle eastern, african, (not too much latin), you name it. It was interesting to see. Also, surprisingly, Toronto is a very sprawled city, sort of a cleaner, less gritty Los Angeles nestled in the north. People drive to get around most places, and most of Rebecca's family lived in different northern suburbs. We still managed to do a bit of city walking though, and explored some of the great market districts, including cool shops only found in the 51st state. Beaker enjoyed the trip too.

Beaker reads the safety sheet onboard
Beaker's travel companions
The control module for the toilet. oh sweet glory!
The dining room at the townhouse where we stayed

Rebecca and brother Gabriel. Notice the matching hats!
Mr. Yogi read me like a book.
One of many 'couples' staircase shot at her cousin's house for New Years dinner.
Beaker got into the bread before I did!
Rebecca enjoying some delicious Toronto 'street meat'!

Canadian Challenge

Let me lay the groundwork. Today, in 4 hours, I leave for my inaugural visit to the great white north. I've never been, but I'm expecting it to be semi-interesting, well-mannered, and unobjectionable in every way - in a word, Canadian. Toronto is the destination of this particular trip, which, despite being a very large city, conjures up exactly nothing in my head. A multi-million person city inhabited by bland people? I think not. Well, I aim to find out. What are these 'Canucks' all about? What is there to do in Toronto, besides shiver and work on plans to invade the bountiful, warm lands o'plenty to the south? Oh, and drink beer and watch hockey. Well, I will report back when I return.
But that's not all. The real reason behind this fact-finding trip is to celebrate Chinese New Year's with Rebecca and her family. They all speak Cantonese, a language I don't begin to understand, so I have been perfecting my analysis of body language in the hope of gauging some sort of feedback from them on my initial impression. But, they are all Canadian, so I'm sure they will be very polite, and only mock my American uber-capitalist, gun-toting self when I am safely back across the border. With my guns.
Apparently, her father is also somewhat of a karaoke champion, and word on the street is that I will be expected to partake. And by partake I mean sing karaoke!!! Also on tap for the weekend: ice skating. Now, I assign karaoke to something that people do when they are very drunk, and ice skating to something that people do for lack of other opportunities in cold places. Obviously, given few (okay maybe more than a few) opportunities, I haven't had much chance or motivation to perfect either endeavor. When meeting people's family for the first time, making a total jackass out of yourself is not usually a good move to make. In this case, it seems, it might be unavoidable. To take my singing out of the shower and into a room full of strangers, sans liquid courage?!?! yes, I'm a bit nervous. I'm also not too psyched on going to a public place and being the only dude who doesn't know how to skate. I always make fun of that guy holding onto the rail and falling. Luckily, nobody will dare make fun of me, because I'll be in Canada!
Stereotypes aside, I'll need all the help I can get this weekend. Pray for me.

pressure cookin'

Nothing's quite as terrifying as making an elaborate meal, using a recipe for the first time, to serve to people that you actually like dinner. Such was the state of affairs on Saturday night. I had planned to try my hand at Cuban food, which I love to eat but had never cooked. I casually invited some friends over, without really thinking about what I was doing. 2 hours from gametime, I had yet to start the 4hour recipes and the apartment was a mess! 120 hectic, stressful, busy minutes later, thanks to the help of my lovely assistant Rebecca, the rice, chicken, and beans were piping hot, and the tostones were hot out of the oil. I had even showered and semi-cleaned up the apartment! Which, btw, is still 'unfinished'.

I managed to buy some paint last week with the greatest of expectations for finishing the job by the weekend, but it didn't happen. Not even close. I painted a bit on Friday night, but I got distracted, tired, hungry, and I stopped. Below you can a few more 'before' photos of my domicile, hopefully to be supplemented by some 'after' photos soon. I've promised enough people a housewarming party that it is starting to get embarrassing, and I need to get my butt in gear. Stay tuned.

The north east corner of the apartment with computer and wood panel that was recently painted.
southern side of the kitchen. Orange square is a test sample of what the kitchen will look like when I am done painting. bedroom begins to the right.
Foyer and bike/shoe parking. Painting isn't mine, but I've grown to like it.
Newly purchased shoe storage and entryway. A couch will soon occupy this space.

As is evident, things are a bit rough around the edges, but I'm slowly chipping away at it. I look forward to getting visitors!!