Beginning of the semester

Busy weekend. Friday night we stayed in since we had some freezing rain, but saturday morning I went to a big group brunch with some friends. About 20 people showed up at a friend's apartment, and we had a huge breakfast party of pancakes, buckets of scrambled eggs, leagues of bacon, armies of sausage, fresh bread, cinnamon rolls, Pierre brought Nutella and baguettes. Amazingly delicious actually. In typical French fashion he was also late. We picked up a few cartons of the "Culinara" fresh orange juice they sell at Schnucks grocery store. Culinara is actually the Schnucks store brand, but it is the most expensive juice in the store. The reason is that they fresh squeeze it in the store. They don't even pasteurize it. They just bottle it, slap a label on it and put it out. It's phenomenal. It's like drinking orange flavored sunshine. It makes Tropicana taste like Tang in comparison. One of the guests at the brunch took a sip and said that it life-changing orange juice. I wouldn't go that far, but it is pretty damn good.

Saturday night, we ended up going over to a friend's house for a hot pot new year. Lots of people, lots of food, lots of beer. Chinese, Japanese, Americans, Macao, Taiwanese, and mixtures of everything between. Good times. Not even enough chairs for everyone. We didn't even need to bring anything, there was so much food. Also the most Asian glow I've seen in one place for a long time.

Sunday, I woke up feeling like crap. Not because of the beer or what I ate, but crap like-seriously-coming down-with-something-crap. We worked in studio all day and then I came back early and Saori stayed and worked while I went to bed. 

Today is not much better. Drainage, really sore throat, throat congestion, bit achy, eyes a bit more sensitive than usual, nasal drip, general irritability. At least I'm not running a fever or have headaches. Treating it with as much rest as I can get, lots and lots of tea, vitamin C, fresh Kiwi (the national fruit of China!), hot showers, and spicy food. 

I gave a presentation on Midieval Florence today for studio, seemed to go over well, although I didn't use the book the professor wanted me to use. The stupid librarians couldn't find it, and I wasn't sharp enough to force them to find it. Oh well.

Oh, and I realized this weekend that the class I thought I had mondays was actually on tuesday. So I skipped the class for no reason and now I'm a week behind. At least its the beginning of the semester.

Tonight, Saori, Tyler, Weng, Dew, and I went out to grab dinner at Boba Noodles on Delmar. Actually, really decently priced, fairly authentic Chinese food. Fast food. Noodle bowls and rice bowls, like you might find at a cheap Shanghai streetside cafe. And all the teas as well- boba but also more exotic varieties. I got a hot ginger milk tea which has the great bite of ginger to it. Great on a winter day.

Anyway, hoping that I'll wake up feeling wonderful tomorrow.