double you vee

I couldn’t help sharing this awesome wrapping paper. :O Florence is awesome. Yes, the orange squares are post-it notes. The white part talks about how love is the greatest happiness. heh heh heh.

Shortly before I left, I met up with a friend in Emeryville and we took a longgggass walk on the waterfront. (We’d never been there before, and we [or I. I talk a lot.] had a lot to say. :O ) This is probably the last sunset on a beach that I’ll be seeing for at least a year, because I am now landlocked, my friends! :'( Good thing it was pretty!

I was originally supposed to get to WV on Thursday, but our connecting flight ditched us in Houston, so we ended up staying the night in Texas. My mom apparently has friends all over the planet though, so he sent his daughter to pick us up while he stayed at home and cooked up an awesome dinner. (My dad was especially joyous about this because he got to play ping pong. :o ) Anyway, we ended up getting to my actual apartment on Friday, and we even managed to do it without the airline losing our luggage again. ;)

(This sign was in the LWB airport. It is tiny and I really wish I could fly into that airport instead of Charleston or Roanoke, but >$1000 and 17 hours is completely not worth it. :[ )

I’m kinda in love with my apartment, so much so that I don’t want to move out, even though I seriously just moved in. >_> It costs less than the room I had back in 6F (wish they were here with me… ;_; ). I have two bedrooms, a gigantic kitchen, a living room, a bathroom, along with my own deck and balcony. (It also came furnished. :) The bed was already fitted with sheets, and the guy who used to live there left me with 15 textbooks and a shelf full of notes. I also have a billion extra blankets, so I shouldn’t have to worry about being cold in the winter (hopefully). :o My landlord even bought me a desk for the second bedroom, which I’m planning to use as my study. (I’m thinking of getting a pole for the living room since there’s the most space there…) I have 2 fellow students & my landlord’s grandson as my neighbors. :]

Here’s my living room! :]

My backyard (shared with 3 others, but still. holy crud.).

My balcony! :] I didn’t put in pictures of my rooms/bathroom/kitchen because I can’t take very good pictures of em’. :/ Weird angling.

Speaking of neighbors, I met one of them in person today. (I say this because he emailed me about a month ago because he found out I was gonna be one of his neighbors and wanted to welcome me in advance to WV, so we were emailing back and forth.) He got me a housewarming present from his hometown! ;_; [I feel really bad because I basically don’t have any idea what to get him. :[[ ] We joked about Morse-coding through my floor/his ceiling if we need anything. :O

We managed to finish cleaning and unpacking by the first night (although “morning” would be a better way to put it… we got there at 9 p.m. and finished at 4 a.m.). On Saturday, we drove to Virginia to pick up my car, which I’ve decided is a girl and have thus named her Cordelia (thanks, Joanne! :D ), since she’s an Accord. Since there was fortunately a Costco in the same town, we stocked up on a whole bunch of food. It’s my hope that I won’t need to buy food other than fresh fruit/veggies for the next year.

I had to drive Cordelia at <50 mph from Virginia back to WV because my dad didn’t have a GPS and the rental car he was driving couldn’t go past 45 mph uphill. :'( Twas an ultimate test of patience, but Speedracer taught me a lot on that. Convincing my mom to stop telling me to start braking from 50 feet away was a different story though. ;_;

Meet Cordelia! <3 <3 <3

I took my parents on a mini tour through the campus today. (It wasn’t much of one though since we didn’t go into any of the buildings and I was speaking through memories from back in October, but still, it’s the thought that counts.) I think they’re a whole lot more at ease because everyone’s been so friendly and welcoming. :D We ate at one of the two Chinese restaurants in town today and the owners came out to talk to us. One of em’ told me that if I ever wanted a Chinese dish of some kind, I could just let her know and she’d cook it up for me. (It’s usually a buffet. :O ) She also said that if I get lonely living by myself out here on my eternal camping trip (it’s what it feels like :P ), I should feel free to move into one of her places.

And the same goes for the students! Needless to say, I believe that one of the traits they screened for in their students = how nice they were. o_o I’m slightly scared of what’s going to happen to me when I step back into the real world, but let’s take this one step at a time, shall we? Bring on that culture shock!

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Kahlua Carrot Cake

So I’d just like to point out that I have the most awesome friends ever. :O A couple days ago, Joanne asked if I was free for tea (hehe, I rhymed) so we went out to Verde so she could eat breakfast/I could leech wireless. This is also when she starts grilling me–“Is there anyplace you haven’t eaten at yet that you want to go to before you move again? Is there anyone you want to see that you haven’t seen yet?”

It was somewhat suspicious questioning. :O This was compounded by the fact that yesterday, she picked me up and apologized for having to run errands. (It was completely fine with me, since I don’t actually care what I do when I’m with close friends. :O It’s just nice to be able to hang out and spend time with them.) She seemed slightly shifty about it, especially when she received a phone call that I would have thought nothing of, except that I get the feeling that she’s trying to be sneaky, especially with her last line–“I’ll see you when I see you.”

To be fair, this could also be because we’ve been friends for over half our lives. :O She’s the first friend I made when I moved across town at the age of 9, so that may have accounted for some of it. It was super cute though. <3 I walked into White Shallot to find a conglomeration of all my supah speshal awsum (sorry, we like to talk like fobs when we’re around each other; it’s kinda bad) friends who were in town (along with Nadia :D who is also in on the fob accent, much to her dismay).

I love you guys and will miss you dearly while I’m gone. ;_; But at least there are still breaks to look forward to! :D!

This was originally a muffin recipe, but Jun adapted it into a cake. :]

Kahlua Carrot Cake

(Complete with a Farrah face! :D! [I use “:O” a lot.]

Ingredients:
(Cake)
-1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
-1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
-1 tsp. cinnamon
-1/2 tsp. salt
-1/2 cup vegetable oil
-1/4 cup Kahlua
-3/4 cup sugar
-2 eggs
-1 1/2 cup grated carrots
-1/2 cup chopped walnuts
-maple icing

(Maple Icing)
-1/2 cup milk
-3 Tbsp. flour
-1/2 cup granulated sugar
-1/2 cup butter
-1/3 cup powdered sugar
-1 tsp. real maple syrup

Instructions:
1) (Cake) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2) Sift flour, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon and salt together, set aside. Spray four giant muffin tins (one-cup capacity) with non-stick spray.  In large mixer bowl, beat sugar with oil, Kahlua and eggs until light.  Blend in dry ingredients.  Stir in carrots and nuts.
3) Pour evenly between the four muffin cups and bake on middle rack for 35 – 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  After removing from oven, cool in pan for 10 minutes on wire rack.  Turn out and cool completely.
4) (Icing) In small saucepan, cook milk and flour until very thick.  Let cool.  In mixing bowl, cream together granulated sugar and butter.
5) Add milk and flour mixture, beat until whipped cream consistency.  Add confectioners sugar and maple syrup, mix until creamy.

Blueberry Cheesecake

I guess it’s kinda been a long while since I’ve posted a recipe. My apologies! I have less than a week left to hang out with people I like, so I’ve basically been running around doing that. >_>

Back when I was living in NJ, one of my housemate’s friends made this for her on her birthday. She [we] liked it so much that she went over to learn how to make it, and here we are now. <3

Blueberry Cheesecake

Ingredients:
(Crust)
-2 cups graham crackers
-1/4 cup walnuts
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1/2 stick butter
(Filling)
-3 eggs
-2 packages cream cheese
-3 cups sour cream
-1 cup sugar
-1/4 tsp salt
-2 tsp vanilla
-1/2 tsp almond extract
(Topping)
-blueberries (can be any fruit)
-sugar
-instant tapioca pudding
-1/2 tsp of cinnamon
-1 tbsp vanilla

Instructions:
1) (Crust) Crush graham crackers, chop walnuts and add cinnamon then butter at room temperature. Mix well with hands (should be a bit sticky, if dry add more butter).
2) Press into the sides and bottom of a spring form pan.
3) (Filling) Mix well in mixer and add to spring form pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. The cake should expand, crack and turn brown on top when ready. Cool completely and then refrigerate.
4) (Topping) Combine berries and sugar in a sauce pan over medium heat stirring frequently for 5 minutes. Add a little extra tapioca if the fruit is very juicy; for example if you are using raspberries. Remove fruit from juice and place in a separate pot. Add tapioca to the juice and stir frequently for 10 minutes allowing the mixture to come to a boil if not stirring. Stir until the mixture thickens adding additional juice from berries.
5) Add a little corn starch to thicken if needed. Combine fruit with juice mixture, mix well and put in the refrigerator to cool. Add berry topping to cheesecake.

If you don’t add the blueberries, it becomes a plain ol’ cheesecake. :O

sugar cookies

Back in the days of 6F, I was famous for never being around because I was always in class. Or volunteering. Or working. (There was always something.) The only day I ever had a possible chance to sleep in was Sunday, so you better believe I’d make use of it. :O Nadia had canoe on the weekends and would have to wake up at the buttcrack of dawn for practice. Since apartment never had drama since we had no boundaries, so sometimes, we’d give each other crap just to keep things interesting.

N: My favoriteeeee thing to do on weekends.
R: Ooo, ooo! Canoe! Am I right?
F: Rey, Rey, that’s enough.
R: Sugar cookieeeeee.
F: :[
R: Warm, fly and delicious.
F: They’re not flaky, are they?
R: Chewy.
(later)
R: Curse you, Farrah, now I want sugar cookies. This is your fault.
F: Lies! You didn’t have to keep describing them to tempt me.
N: Mmmm…warm, melty and delicious.
F+R: Good night, Nadia. >:[
N: Sugar cookiessssss.
R: Mmm, I’m so glad I don’t have to get up at 7 a.m. tomorrow.
F: Yeah, I can wake up wheneverrrr I want. It’s gonna be great.
N: >:O! (goes upstairs to sleep)

making things official

I had a super-productive day on Monday, due in part to the following two reasons:
1) I woke up at 5 a.m. and couldn’t fall back asleep
2) I decided to play D3 but kept dying because they kept freezing me, so I got discouraged and stopped playing.

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise though because I got a whole crap ton of stuff done. :D!

Highlights include getting a car (<3!), sending out a billion forms/letters, getting car insurance, changing the electricity bill stuff in WV to my name and packing for LA.

Orientation’s in less than a month! :O

Time to make a Costco list too.