NVM: Start All Over?

This is my first post in the last few years. I don't even remember why my-middle-school-kid-self started this blog. The older posts are so nonsense and written in poor English :/ Don't even think about reading them! See? The title of this blog says all. Shows how dumb I was. NVM means never mind? SO? WHAT'S THE DEAL?

So, I'm beginning to write here again, as I thought it would be a good practice to improve my English. But since I can be a pretty lazy snail quite often, please understand that my updates will be very slow.

Also, I would like to thank one of my new friends for inspiring me to start a blog. His blog is pretty awesome and literally a lot of fun to read. I don't know if it's OK with him for me to put his name or URL here so I'll now refrain myself from bragging about him.

21-9-13 (Sat)

My family and I were planning to go to the Air Show in Winston Salem on this day, but due to the heavy storm (that was "supposed" to be) approaching NC, we decided not to go to the show. I had a plan for the next day to go out with my friends (for the first time since I came here! first time with American friends!! first time riding on a car driven by my friends!!!) but I cancelled my appointment with them so that I can go to the show on the next day. I'm very sorry, Courtney and Hayley. We can make it up other time. Please don't give up on me (;_;)

So in the morning we stayed at home instead, and I came up with this awesome ideaーmaking a traditional Japanese dessert with my host mom! :D

The dessert we made is called "わらび餅 (warabi-mochi)". I would call it a Japanese jelly...It was pretty hard to explain what it is, since there's nothing like this in America. It's a jelly-like confection made of bracken starch and sugar (according to wikipedia :p). Warabi-mochi is one of the most traditional Japanese sweets. There's a historical document that says it was a favorite dessert of the emperor of Japan who reigned in the 9th century. Pretty cool, huh? ;)

Stirring the starch and water. Looks just like milk.

Heating the liquidーI see some jelly! :D

Once the liquid gets all jelly, you scoop it with a spoon or something that you can make it into a round shape and put it into a cold water.

Leave it for like 5 mins...

Done!

As you can see, I put some powder on it, which is called kina-ko. It's kind of like starch made from soybeans. It doesn't taste very sweet but what's great about the powder is that it has a lot of things good for your health. A lot of Japanese people seem to like using it to make sweets...as we have kina-ko chocolate, parfait, doughnuts, candies and more... But too much is not good for your health no matter how healthy it is, you know.

My host mother seemed to like it OK, which I was so relieved about. I knew that the process of making it and the taste must have seemed pretty weird to her, so I'm really glad she didn't hate it. Looks like my host mom has some Japanese in her blood! :) We had a lot of fun making it together, so I do recommend other exchange students to do that to communicate more with their host family or friends. Worth trying!

In the evening we went to eat at Cracker Barrel, a very old-country style American restaurant.

The entrance

Very cool decorations. What I thought was cool was that my host parents told me that a lot of stuff they use for decoration in the restaurant are real, like they're the stuff that were actually used or made in the old days. I really appreciate that my family understand my tasteーcountry fashion :) There was a time I dressed like a cowgirl to school when I was in elementary school. I still have those indigo skirt, prairie blouse, a tanned suede vest with fringes and a real cowboy hat that I bought in Canada.

My dish: Pecan Crusted Cat Fish

(Tasted very unfamiliar. I didn't think it was bad but I don't know if I'd try it again :p)

Another cool thing about Cracker Barrel is that they have a gift shop next to the restaurant. I am not sure about the very reason why they have a gift shop but I guess it's because Cracker Barrel is themed like a general store from the old America. They sell a bunch of stuff in the store, like, candies, chips, candles, halloween costumes, cosmetics, home decors, clothes, music, etc. It was pretty cool. A good way to make more money I think?

Chocolate I got at the gift shop. TOO SWEET FOR ME.

Then we left Cracker Barrel for the bowling place where my host mom's friend invited us to have a bowling night with!! FIRST BOWLING NIGHT IN THE US!!

Looks pretty much the same as the lanes in Japan.

Got my Cobras on!

Oh, and for those of you who wondered how we finished the game, I will refrain myself from talking about my score. All I can say is that I suck at bowling. Period.