Finally, a microliter of time!
Yeah, ok, so this week was crap. (Happily, unremorsefully shattering my New Year's resolution not to curse. To little sisters back home with more virgin ears than I: don't follow this example.) I would go into detail about how totally crappy it was, but I've already ranted to roommate, tried twice to write a rant on here (deleted both from sheer boredom), typed a rant via AIM to Majo, then ranted to mom over the phone (that was Chinese speaking practice, whoot!). So needless to say I am all ranted out. Screw that stupid autoclave lady from Turkey with the blinkin' attitude and the inability to accept an honest apology despite the apology being given at least five times. Humph. (Note: Woman being from Turkey has nothing to do with anything. I am not prejudiced against Turks. She just happens to be one, and if you like you can replace that country with China, Spain, Canada, or even Atlantis. Whatever.)
If that sounded like a rant, believe me, the long extended version with all the other little details involving deplorable lack of communication between prof and TA, work, etc. is much, much worse.
To those of you reading this in hopes of update hints on Yami No Oozora (which is like, no one?), that pesky little multi-part which I WILL finish, I have sort of good news. It is as follows: I am finally thinking about the immortals again.
Ack, don't throw things at me! This is a big, crucial step in being able to write something engaging with them in it! They have to dominate my thoughts and walk across my mind, they have to be the ones who make me grin like a total doofus for no apparent reason as I rush to class in the paralysing cold (yes yes, too many prepositional phrases. I know I know.)...in short, I have to be obsessed with them.^^; I find that now I am capable of being obsessive over two groups of characters at the same time, which makes me happy and sorta confuses me too, because then the two worlds keep wanting to merge. The results are nothing short of stupid and embarrassing.^^;
But anyway, I am working on YnO, and I'm thinking as soon as I finish chapter 3 I'll post that above the version which is currently on the site. This way people can, like, I dunno, read the old one and tell me the new one is just so much better. Yeah. I'd like that. :D
....ya know something, I really want some Chex.
.........
(Hooray for non sequitur blog endings!)
Clementines
Dang those clementines I bought today (oh wait, it's yesterday now) are soooooo good! Especially after being refrigerated...hmmmmm....*sigh blissfully*
Of course, probably the only reason I think it's so good is because I hadn't had clementines in so long. I hate other orange-type things since they all have seeds in them, and when you're eating a piece of orange you just don't want to spend half your eating time spitting, you know? Besides which, all the so-called "oranges" in Taiwan didn't have seeds. And why are there so many names for them all, anyway? It's like, oranges, mandarins, clementines, tangerines, blah blah blah...
In Taiwan we had two types. One was a ji zi, and the other was lieu ding (I suck at romanized Chinese. So sue me). The former was small, easily peelable, had pieces which separated naturally, and had no seeds. The latter was larger and everyone ate it sliced. This thing might have had seeds, but if they did I never saw them because they were miraculously served sliced all the time so the hypothetical seeds were eliminated, and actually we didn't have these that often. Being anywhere from 0-6 (I came to the U.S. when I was six) years old could have skewed my perception somewhat, but I remember distinctly one of first differences I noticed when I came: American oranges are always sliced and your hands get unpleasantly sticky eating them. Chinese oranges are peeled and your hands don't get dirty, because the pieces separate easily without spewing juice all over your face.
And by the way, another difference noted by young self: Chinese grapes are huge, purple, have seeds, and need adult assistance to peel off the skin. American grapes are small, green, long, and best of all, can be eaten easily by a child because no skin-peeling was necessary.
But there the good things about American fruits ended. I think many people who hail from Taiwan have this one joke: there are only 2 types of fruit in America, the apple and the banana. And occasionally, if you're lucky, you get a grape. Dad likes to complain that the watermelons, the pineapples, the cantelopes, the pears (another differnce: Chinese pears are round, sweet, juicy, and crunchy. American pears are...not), and heck, every fruit you can think of and even some that you can't, are simply inferior in America. Overpriced, tastes so-so, or doesn't even exist. I mean, I never see any guava and the lichees cost a gazillion dollars a pound. Oh, don't know what guava is? You've proven my point.
But I must say American fruits are not as hopeless as the Chinese like to make them out to be. For one thing, I've mentioned the grape difference up there. It's very nice to just be able to pop them in your mouth instead of waiting for nice adult to peel them, or peeling them yourself. For another, there are no cherries in Taiwan. When I was little I thought the natural form of the cherry was bright red, had a mysterious hole in the center shaped suspiciously like a pit, no stem, and came packed in huge jars filled with red liquid.
I now know that stuff is called the maraschino cherry. Real cherries are lovely dark red things with stems and pits and dark juices when you bite into them, the taste is sweet tinged slightly with sour, and you can fill a HUGE bowl up with just cherries, chilly from the fridge, and eat and eat til you wanna puke. THOSE are cherries.
So no, American fruits are not so deplorably lacking. I've gotten rather fond of them, having lived here for 13 years or so by now.
But then again...there's still the fact that lichees cost a gazillion a pound....
