to do list

 I really need to utilise my camera more.

And by that, I really mean that I need to go out and explore more.

Note to self Amelia, you are not at Duke anymore.  You are within walking distance of everything now.  It's no longer acceptable to be lazy.  It's no longer acceptable to spend your days and nights tucked in bed with excessive amounts of food (as an added motivation: it's no longer an easy task to obtain excessive amounts of food).

 I am super grateful that I have extended family just a train ride away.  My grandpa's sister's son is the relationship, but for ease, we'll just call him Uncle... because directly translated, that's what you call just about every older male in Chinese.

Aside from my instinctive withdrawal toward home-like atmospheres, I have access to things I would otherwise be lacking for 5 months... an oven, a range of kitchen utensils, and space.

So this past weekend I made a tiramisu with my little cousins.  Well it's more of a cross between a tiramisu and banana pudding.  A bananasu.  A tiranana.  A banisu.  I played with the marriage of those two words for the entire train ride, and couldn't settle on one I liked.

The Victoria Market by my house has absolutely everything.  [Hmm, I should take pictures of it...]  Found my lady fingers (or sponge fingers, as they are called) and mascarpone cheese, and got the added luxury of fresh from the hen's nest eggs (the fam has two chickens that just chill out around the yard, eating bugs, quite handy).  Had the little ones layer the fingers and cream with an added layer of half bananas (pronounced ba-nahhh-nas... not ba-naeh-nas...sorry I doubt the difference was made clear in writing) and chopped half hazelnut chocolates in between.  Yumyumyum.

Also, might I add that I whipped the egg whites with a fork.

To do list:

explore more.

then explore again.