Seminarians Gone Wild

I'm officially on Spring Break!

Last quarter was my last full-time quarter. From here on out, I'll be taking two classes or less per quarter. Three classroom classes left and one internship. It's pretty sweet seeing that almost all of of my requirements have been completed.

So what has this seminarian done during perhaps his last Spring Break ever? Mopped floors, vacuumed, made corned beef, re-evaluated my newly drafted fantasy baseball team, and compiled a spreadsheet for Alinna so that she'll know how much each homemade baked good costs to make.

I'm going crazy! Think MTV will want to film my exploits during Spring Break? Maybe bringing in Jerry Springer would spice things up.

In the Cave

Alinna and I have been really blessed to be able stay in a two-bedroom apartment in Sunnyvale for the price we're paying.

So what do two married people do with a two bedroom apartment? One's a bedroom. The other, well, the other's purpose has morphed as indicated by its various names. At first, it was dubbed "The Other Room" which then quickly changed to "The Junk Room" as we started piling boxes and other things we didn't know what to do with into the space. Going to a seminary that runs on the quarter system doesn't really help things all that much. I feel like I'm constantly buying books. And what do you do with books you've read and are done with? Throw them into the junk room of course.

Well, with sudden influx of shelving, most of the junk in the junk room started to get filed away. So now, it's starting to resemble what many call an "Office." We call it "The Cave" for reasons including that its the place where we spend alone time and that its often pretty dark because for some inexplainable reason the curtains are almost always drawn.

These last two weeks as I've been finishing off my classes this quarter (in the middle of finals right now), I've been spending a lot of time in the cave. When Alinna comes home, she'd often find me squinty and elated to see another human being.

To help keep myself sane I've put this guy up on the window sill in the cave.His head just sways from side to side as the sunlight hits his solar panel. For some strange reason, when I look at him, I can't help but smile. Mad at my inability to find original source documents about the Cluny Reform Movement? I just glance over at him, he's smiling and swaying, and soon, I find myself kind of smiling and swaying with him. Weird. I think the men of the Inquisition would have found me a witch had I had him in my possession 500 years ago.

Oops, I just zoned out because I was looking at him.

Dichotomies?

So Alinna and I were talking last night about fobby-ness. For those not familiar, FOB is a largely Asian-American term meaning "fresh off the boat" or having characteristics that are largely associated with the country of their ancestry despite living in America. Basically, it means that the person hasn't really adjusted to life in America and carries on in life as if they were still living in China/Korea/Japan/Vietnam/[insert country of choice].

So, I, being the way that I am, set up a monochrome world of fobby-ness. It's black and white. You're either fobby or you're not. Going to Cal and Asian American Christian Fellowship, I met a lot of people I just didn't get. After a while, probably because of my frustration, I just painted the scene with the big brush and thought to myself that it's because they're fobby. They're operating out of a cultural paradigm that I cannot understand.

To my defense, this is in large, the world of Japanese-Americans. You're either fobby or you're not. It's a black and white world. There are the new immigrants, people who came over during the 80s and 90s because their company sent them here to establish the American branch of the company. Then there are nisei (2nd gen, largely grandparents now), sansei (3rd gen, middle aged), and yonsei (4th gen, kids and young adults) who been in America since the turn of the 20th century. They don't speak Japanese, might be part of a taiko drumming club for the cultural experience, have a family member who was in the 442nd, received money from the government for the internment camp experience, and don't make Japanese food except for maybe spam musubi (which isn't really Japanese, but Hawaiian).

Alinna, however, sees things in shades of gray. There's a middle ground where you retain some aspects of your culture but are not fobby. She speaks Cantonsese, affirms strong loyal ties to family, etc. but at the same time, she often craves Italian food not Chinese, speaks English without an Asian accent, etc.. I guess this is the common experience of Chinese-Americans, living in the middle ground, I don't know.

Intolerant

For breakfast this morning, I had a muffin and a small cup of milk. Bad, bad, bad idea.

Time to Barbeque

I realize that it's been almost two months since I've posted. I'm a pretty streaky blogger and I just hit a cold spell... literally. The month of February shall from henceforth be dubbed as "The Cold." I've caught six colds to date this winter. My guess is that at least three of them were during the month of February though it's hard to say because the colds started to bleed into one another during "The Cold." Just as I was recovering from one, another would hit me. It's too bad that Ben's wedding was during "The Cold."

To celebrate the emergence from "The Cold" and the awesome weather we've been getting here in the Bay Area, I decided to fire up the grill for some Tequila-lime Tri-tip sandwiches yesterday. The tri-tip was courtesy of Safeway's meat sale ($3/lb. offer good through today). As I was checking out, I remembered that we might not have enough charcoal, so, leaving the meat behind at the checkout counter, I dashed out to grab the charcoal bag. When I came back, the checkout guy and the bagging lady raised their eyebrows as if to say, "What do you think you're doing in the beginning of March?" I told them about the 70 degree weather out and that yes, I was going to barbeque me some tri-tip.

It may be premature to say that summer has come early. And I don't know what the groundhog did, but the grill came out.

Parting Ways

Late last night, I tried parting my hair again. It's been a while since it's been this long and part-able.

I started by trying to re-establish my old part, down the middle but slightly off to the side. Since it's been about five years since I had it last, the hair wasn't totally cooperating but it was good enough for Alinna to have a look-see. With arms open wide and a big smile, I looked for Alinna's approval. Instead, she frowned... big-time.

Take-two. To be even more obnoxious, I tried the swooping part from the right side of my head. I even got it to wave across my entire forehead. It was pretty awesome. Again, I turned around and looked for Alinna's approval, but instead her hands started attacking my head.

I think it's safe to say that I will forever be parting ways with the hair part.

Taking Out the Tree

It's now January 10th and I have finally taken out the Christmas tree. It was starting to look a little crispy and when I finally tried to push it through the doorway, it was more than just a little crispy. There is a massive trail of pine needles on the stairs leading up to our apartment. The stairs are now ninja-proof. No ninjas will be able to creep into our apartment unannounced.Totally unrelated, I was browsing around and found the blogs of some of the people in my fellowship. After reading them, I've come to realize that I make some completely innane posts. I used to write deep Jesus-y like stuff on this blog (or at least I thought so), but those days are now gone. Instead I write about Christmas trees and ninjas.

Back and Refreshed

I'm back from my now yearly trip to North Carolina (it's now yearly because it's been two years in a row). As Drew Hyun said once, I get to spend a week down in North Carolina with a bunch of people whose cars I'm not even worthy to wash. Get to learn from a bunch of holy people, enjoy their fellowship, and at the beginning of every school year, I get a scholarship check from them. I think it's a pretty sweet deal.

Pounding

As per the Satake annual tradition, we ended the year by making mochi the old-fashioned way. Fire, steam, rice, mallets, and a marble bowl that is deceptively heavy. There is a lot of physical exertion required. Lots of pounding and grinding. Alinna found her niche in the process by discovering her hidden talent of making attractive, perfectly round pieces... everyone was impressed.

In other news, last Sunday both my mom and my sister made comments about my weight paired with a gentle patting on my belly. I dunno. What do you think?

I think it's safe to say that Alinna's been taking care of me.

Home Free

Free at last!

So what does a brain-dead seminarian do after going through 11-weeks straight of non-stop studying? Sit, eat leftover Mexican, catch up on the San Francisco Giants' sorry winter transactions, and watch BBC World News on PBS. I've thought about reading for pleasure, but then it reminded me too much of reading for school.

I just made the switch over to Blogger beta. There are a few changes that I really like. Maybe I'll explore it a bit more later when I feel more motivated to do something.