Dumplings!

Unfortunately, still no word back yet from my professor on that third rec letter (stress is seriously rising). However, Tracy and I did walk into a fantastic surprise on Saturday when we went to go make dinner-- all of our Chinese flatmates and three of their friends had randomly decided to make hundreds of homemade dumplings.

Tommy was put to work punching the dough (I think to save the girls from having to knead it?). He is basically a total beast, even though he is still resisting wearing his new clothes (note the sweater!).

Tracy rolled out little circles of dough, and Carina and Rebecca did everything in their power to teach me how to fold the different types of filling into the dough circles. Haha, theirs were definitely a lot prettier, but in the end mine technically got the job done too.

After we had boiled most of the dumplings though, they then suddenly busted out this crazy card game and BAM--things got serious. Even Rebecca (who I secretly suspect is made of rainbow kittens and sugar cookies) was like, "EVERYBODY at home knows how to play this," and buckled down. Apparently every card represents a character from Chinese history (they do have a lot of history, so I'd believe it) and, as best as they could translate it for us, the game was something like "The Final Kings."

Things I will forever refuse to find acceptable:

I know it's cool that you can make potatoes taste like just about anything, and I know that fish is delicious. But seriously, "Prawn Cocktail" crisps? No. Just... no.

Things that I now find hilarious:

Since photography club is sponsoring a trip to Rome for dirt-cheap, I sucked it up and joined. Unfortunately though, the first event I stumbled into was a lecture featuring no less than FIVE talks by each board member. After two riveting powerpoints on why you shouldn't forget your charger for travel photography, we got to Board Member 3. The title of her presentation... "Cat Photography." Oh gaaaawwwd...  Although I do give props to one guy who truly had gorgeous photos, in the end what got me through was purely the mantra of "Cheap trip to Rome, cheap trip to Rome."

Also, Photo Club somehow got my name wrong-- all their emails thus far have been addressed to "Jessicarl."