Happy Happy Birthday Birthday

Reading: Wild Swans, Jung Chang
Hearing: This Is Love, 宇多田ヒカル

Wild Swans, which details the life stories of three generations of women, is just the sort of work I want to write. Chang shares tales of her grandmother's frustration with serving as concubine to a great Chinese general, her mother's role as an officer in the Communist army, and her own reluctant membership in the Red Guard. Her work revolves around the tense political climate in China. My own (incomplete) senior thesis, while also following matrilineal stories, focused on ethnic identity and food. Hrm.

Wednesday featured more Gesture Lessons, and one of my students demonstrated the gestures for "My wife is pregnant and angry." Classic.

At 4:10 pm, I made my way to Miki Station, where I caught the 4:40 bus to Akashi. Big City, baby.

Being from out of town, I make my way down to Akashi earlier than the Akashi Girls do in order to avoid traffic. I thus arrived at the station Starbucks (the best of meeting places) an hour before our appointed time. I bought myself a hot grande latte (ラテ) and a thick slice of strawberry chiffon cake, settling back into a cushy seat with my book and my iPod. (That's possibly all I may need to keep me happy for days on end.) That would be me lurking in the Starbucks mug, though perhaps without the demented look in my eyes.

At 6:30, Tam, Lena, Kelly, and I did a bit of quick shopping in the nearby patisserie mall for cakes for HEATHER'S (Belated) BIRTHDAY DINNER PARTY!

When Dylan and Heather arrived, we walked to Bombay for dinner. Lena and I shared the Rajah Dinner. I'm completely ignorant about Indian food except that I know I love naan bread nearly as much as I love Habatan (Two completely different romances, I know.), but I will try my best to describe our eatings! We all began with thin, crunchy flat bread and an appetizer of triangle-shaped pastry pockets stuffed with ground beef and cabbage, served with sweet and spicy red sauce. We enjoyed a nice cabbage salad with cucumber, tomato, and feta-like cheese. Our meat dish included lamb (which I declined) and tender, wonderfully crisp chicken. Our main course included three amazing lentil dips served with naan and white rice. For dessert, we had vanilla ice cream drenched with rich mango sauce and served with delicious hot chai.

We all shared the cakes that we had bought for Heather. Even Dylan, Mr. I-Don't-Really-Eat-Dessert (Sweet freaks like me make up for the deficit created by folks like him and Chris.), enjoyed himself! Lena and I shared a luscious Very Berry （ベリ　ベリー）cake and an omigosh-so-delicious chocolate torte. After the cakes, Taj, the super cool owner of the restaurant, served us a beautiful black tea.

Aww. Cuteness!

Happy Birthday Heather!