Rice for One.

Well, it's been a month since I last updated, much apologies. I've actually had plenty of blog ideas that I wanted to write about, but I've just lacked the incentive and motivation to write. I think I can attribute this to the fact that I only have math courses this quarter. :<

Anyways, I decided to blog this down as I washed the dishes from the rice that I made last night.

If you don't know already, I'm Chinese. Born in America, so ABC or whatever. But I'm first generation ABC so my family still eats a great deal of rice. In fact... we only eat rice for dinner except for rare occasions where mom is tired and just cookies rice noodles. But in any case, I've always cooked rice for 6 people or more. Therefore, when I got to college, I, of course, contributed to Asian stereotypes and had a rice cooker in the dorm (even though technically we weren't allowed to) and made rice. As a side note, I heard that the Asian-American dorm floor always smells of rice. No surprising.

I diverge. When I make rice now, I realize that it's not worth the effort of making it. First of all, I'm used to making big portions and when those portions, there are unwritten rules/guidelines as to the water/rice ratio. So far, I've heard of three methods:

1. If you stick your pinky on top of the rice, the water level should hit the first knuckle.
2. Put your whole hand in flat over the rice and the water should just skim the top of your hand.
3. Put in an extra cup of liquid for every cup of rice.
(If you have other methods, feel free to comment them and I'll add to the list)

The 3rd one doesn't really count for Asians since Asians don't use measuring tools. They always eyeball it and it's enough when it "feels enough". So the third method is for our non-Asian friends who can't feel secure without precision.

But those rules only seem to apply to bigger batches of food. Perhaps it's because Chinese people like to make big batches and save it up since they would waste electricity if they just make a bunch of smaller batches. Or perhaps it's because Asian families outside of communist China seem to be so there's always a hungry mouth to feed. Remember, there's always that freeloading neighbor who just "happens" to visit around dinner time.

So when I tried to apply these rules my little portion of rice for one... it was really soggy. Imagine my shame... failing at cooking rice? That's like failing to recite my multiplication tables. But yes, I was sad that it came out somewhat soggy, but I ate it anyways because I didn't want my boyfriend to have pockmarks. (Funny story actually. One of my Chinese friends once told me that his parents got him to eat every little grain of rice because they told him that the remaining grains would be the number of pockmarks his wife will have in the future. As a naive child, he believed them and made sure he ate everything.)

It wasn't too bad actually since I ate it with Korean seaweed and some Japanese sashimi soysauce without the sashimi. Hit every East Asian country since my rice was from China. Crystal actually commented on how I should have eaten it with spam. Here's how it went:

me: I just had three packets of Korean seaweed...
me: I feel so ashamed...
me: And filled with MSG.
Crystal: hahaha
Crystal: isn't it just salt?
me: And like oil. Hahaha
me: I had it with rice though.
Crystal: ooh
Crystal: shoulda had some spam too
me: Didn't have spam. :<
me: I'm too poor to afford meat, hahaha.
Crystal: hahah
Crystal: true spam is a bit pricey for what it is
me: Hahah, mechanically pulled parts.

Yeah, I actually really couldn't afford the spam. Spam is expensive, man. Last I checked it was like 3 bucks a can. I always thought they were like 50 cents...

Anyways, you know what really made the one-portion rice not worth it? The fact that I had to clean it up. In true college fashion, I didn't wash the dishes the day I finished eating the food. In fact, if my roommate didn't keep telling me to wash the bowl and rice cooker, I would have just left it there until I needed the bowl again. Yeah, I know, gross... but what can you except from a college student? If it was a stack of dishes, I would be more compelled to wash them, but one bowl? Seems like a waste of time.

But you know what? It takes forever to clean up that bowl to rice and the rice pot. Since I made it somewhat sticky, it was a pain in the buttocks to scrape all the little pieces of rice from the surface. I actually had to use a sponge and detergeant and stood there for 10 minutes washing a bowl, a rice pot, and a spoon. Way too much effort for the two bowls of rice that I ate.

They should make self cleaning rice pots. That would be neat and then I don't have to worry about cleaning them anymore. Haha.

But despite everything, I can't give up my rice. And I can't trust the dining commons to cook up decent rice so I have to do it myself.

Dorm Bathrooms.

I love living in the dorms. My floor is probably the BEST floor to live on. There are all these really cool people and we're just one tight knit group. Unfortunately, it would be so much better if the bathrooms didn't suck. One of the reasons why I didn't want to live in a typical dorm floor was because I didn't want to share the bathroom with 25 girls as opposed to a suite that has a bathroom for 6-8 people.

And on the first week, I had my horrors confirmed. The floor is one big party floor, so it's kind of inevitable that something like this would happen, but there was vomit in the sink. Yes. Vomit. You can only assume that someone tried to drink more than they can handle and they thought the sink was a perfectly fine place to hurl their load. Disgusting. When I tried to brush my teeth that day, I kept getting gap reflexes and almost choked on my toothbrush.

Girls, it is so hard to throw up in the toilet, trashcan, or even the shower? At least I don't have to see it. Throw up in the toilet/shower, I can use another one, but at the sink, I always see it. Ugh, gross.

Whoever made that myth about girls being clean and their bathrooms being the best is a fucking liar... or haven't experienced a real girl's bathroom.

Seriously, the bathrooms are disgusting. The showers have hair ALL THE TIME. Girls, you know what I'm talking about. We shed hair like a dog sheds fur. And it's gross. But of course, we don't put it up because the floor is disgusting. By the way, for the first week, I made the horrible mistake of not wearing shower shoes... OH MY FUCKING GOD. My toenails started to PEEL off. It was so gross. I was immediately scared into putting on flip-flops in the shower. Wtf is in the shower that would make my nails PEEL off? *shudders*

Guys have it easy. For the most part, guys have short hair so no one notices when you guys shed your hair. But for a girl's long hair not to be noticed to to not see a giant tarantula crawling on your arm.

Another big problem about the bathroom is that it STINKS. It's not even "OMG, POO" stink, it's some kind of permanent stink. It's like something is wrong with the pipes and the smells is permeating through the tiles. It's disgusting. Why isn't housing doing anything about this? I'm paying $3000+ on a bathroom that permanently smells like shit? At least hang some air fresheners or something! I'm sure that $3000 can afford you a few!

In any case, it takes a lot of willpower to even want to use the stupid bathroom. I only go there to shower and to brush my teeth. Everything else, I would have to be needing to go REALLY badly or I just use another bathroom. By the way, the bathrooms in Kemper (engineering building) is really clean. Probably cause there are hardly any women there.

If it weren't for the people and the proximity to campus, I would totally nix dorms.

Doing Laundry - A love/hate relationship.

I just did my laundry. I usually put off doing laundry as long as I have clean underwear because paying for laundry is major suckage. Being a cheap college student that I am, I usually hold off doing laundry until I get home and make my mom do it (well, she ends up doing it before I even say it. Love you, Mom ♥), but I'm stuck here so I have to do my laundry or something is gonna grow on my clothes... that said, I'm writing this as I wait for it to finish.

I love... using my roommates detergent and dryer sheets.
I'm a major cheapskate. So whatever things that I don't have to buy, I'm happy. I don't think she minds anyways. It's way better than having a pile of dirty laundry in the corner stinking up the room. Of course, my laundry doesn't do that. But it does pile high. Boy, did I get a work out carrying it down the long ass hallway.

But I hate... paying for my laundry.
You probably noticed already. I hate paying for the laundry, especially when I can do it at home. Why buy it here? Drive down to SF, have my mom do the laundry at home, AND get a sandwich. I mean, hello? Perfect. I mean, it's not that expensive. It's only $1.75, but what pisses me off is the add value machine. It only accepts $5 or higher. Which means, I'll always have an odd number of money until I do 20 freaking loads of laundry. But you know what that means? I have shelled out 35 bucks to do LAUNDRY. That I get for FREE at home. If the stupid machine accepted dollars, I would have only needed to shell out 7 bucks and got 4 loads, which is PERFECTLY fine for someone who hardly does laundry anyways. I hate being the type of person who can't even left a quarter on the card go... but it'll probably end up happening, because there is no fucking way I'm gonna do 20 loads.

I love... waiting for laundry.
This only applies in the dorms because I can go back to my room and do whatever while the laundry is going on. Beat a few people on tetris, clean up the room, dance foolishly around my room. I love it.

But I hate... waiting for people to GET THEIR FUCKING LAUNDRY.
I HATE it when people leave their laundry just sitting there. I usually check the time and make sure that I'm going back to get the laundry within 5 minutes of it being done. But going to the laundry room every 10 minutes to check if the laundry has been picked up so I can throw my stinky shit into the washer and the washer is still occupied? OH HELL NO. That pisses me off. What makes people think that they can just leave it in there? Next time, I'm gonna throw their stuff into the dryer and squirt ketchup in it.

I love... sorting out my colors.
So, the only times I ever do my laundry is when I have a SHITLOAD OF LAUNDRY. So, I usually have enough clothes to do two loads. Which means I can choose what colors to put into the machine. Of course, blacks and colors go together and whites and pastel colors go together. I think I have some OCD because I sit there and wonder if the loads will be equal and take clothes out one pile and put it on another, even if it's not totally matching in category. "It's sorta dark..." But whatever, I'm weird, this is fun.

But I hate... dropping my fucking clothes.
I tend to be impatient when transferring my clothes from the washer to the dryer. So I grab a big ass pile of wet clothes and try to shove it into the dryer asap. But it usually ends up too big for me to handle and I drop something, like a sock or a shirt. PISSES ME OFF. I just got it clean and it fell on the fucking floor. Of course, it's my fault, but whatever. Still pisses me off. I end up just throwing it into the dryer. Haha, lazy.

I love... putting on warm clothes.
You know what I'm talking about. The clothes right out of the drying, smelling so clean and fresh and WARM. Every time I do laundry, I always put on an article of clothing. If I'm out in public, I put on a sweater or a shirt over my shirt. If I'm in private... OMG, I take off everything and put on nice warm clothes. Seriously, strip down and put on every article of clothing. It's like heaven.

I hate... burning.
Okay, so I realized that putting on every article of clothing is really bad. Especially if it starts to BURN. I just did it not that long ago, and omfg, the metal parts of my jeans (the little rivets and stuff) started sizzling against my thigh. It's not a fun feeling. I start sweating and making my clothes dirty again. I can't imagine what it would be like for a guy. I suggest you don't put on hot underwear on if you don't want your girlfriend to laugh at you. A burned peen is hilarious.

Alright, my laundry probably has been done for like 10 minutes. Oh well, it only pisses me off when OTHER people do it. I don't care if I do it. Do as I say, not as I do. Peace.

Edit: Blogger's HTML is an epic fail. I spent more time changing the HTML to make it look right than writing the actual post. I have a slight perfectionist personality. :[