Today, my parents and I went to the library. Instead of checking out books, I decided to go on a photography spree. There's a courtyard in the library which I've only visited a couple of times.

I noticed something on the ground - a snail. It was moving along slowly, leaving a wet trail behind it. I decided to take a photo of it. Slow-moving animals are a lot easier to photograph, if you ask me. Then I wandered off and started taking pictures of the flowers. I realized there was something funny on a flower...It was a tiny slug. I took some pictures of that one too.

Then I walked around some more and stumbled upon a few more snails. I was getting a bit disturbed by this point. There seem to be a lot of snails and slugs around. I saw some things that looked a lot like dead worms or slugs, which was even freakier. I was both fascinated by the snails and creeped out by them. Some of the snails were pretty big, almost as big as my thumb (imagine a small person's thumb with a snail shell on it). I took lots of pictures before I got tired of staying outside (the sun had come out and it was getting too warm).

I have a theory for why the snails are there. (True, it rained the day before, but that is too boring and logical.) The library needs money to buy books and keep their system up and running. They have decided to profit through exporting goods. Seeing as they already have plants in their courtyard, the people at the library thought it'd be a good idea to make use of this courtyard by raising something there. They decided to get the business of French restaurants by selling them snails to use for escargots. And thus the library worked on a plan to mass-produce snails. The money from the snails would be used to buy new books (hence the Measure A funds or whatever it was).

After going to the library, my family and I went to a local Chinese supermarket. It's always quite the popular place. My mom likes to buy things there because if you buy a certain amount of stuff, I think you can get a coupon for food. (I'm not talking about groceries. You can buy food and it will be cooked for you. The line for it was really long) It was a good day to go because there were quite a few samples. There was some carrot/apple juice (interesting, it wasn't that bad, actually), noodles, and even a bunch of snacks. Apparently the snacks part is pretty uncommon.

I saw all sorts of foods, some of which reminded me of my childhood. There were those Yan Yan snacks, which are like sticks which you dip in chocolate (or strawberry?). I also saw Pocky and a Pocky imitation (there are a lot of Pocky ripoffs, so I've seen...) and there was Hello Panda.

Hello Panda is little cookie type things which contain chocolate in their centers. My dad says they used to be much harder, but apparently kids were choking on it, so the Hello Panda snacks are now quite a bit softer.

I went around eating lots of things, and got to try Meltyblend, from the company Meiji. Even my mother thought Meltyblend was good. (But then, she seems to like chocolate. She really likes Kit Kat especially.)

I just love free samples. I don't get much chance to have them anymore. Whole Foods doesn't seem to have many cheese samples any longer, which saddens me. I hear Costco has samples, but I haven't been to Costco for a long time either. I remember we had to have our receipts signed or something before we left the building, and I always wanted the people to draw smiley faces...Those days seem so far off now. When I was younger, I had more free time, less worries...The world used to seem so fresh and fun. I'm still making good memories, but now I'm not seeing things through "rose-colored glasses", which is really a shame.

Labels: animals, costco, courtyard, escargots, flowers, food, free, hello panda, library, meltyblend, money, photography, plan, pocky, receipt, rose colored glasses, sample, snacks, snail, whole foods

I just finished a book called Sisters of the Sword: Chasing the Secret recently. (It's the sequel to a book, simply named Sisters of the Sword). It would take a long time to explain what was happening in the book, so I'll just give you info based on a need-to-know basis. Basically, a girl called Kimi, her sister Hana, and their friend Tatsuya are running away from their training school because Kimi's murderous uncle is there and chaos has ensued. Tatsuya spotted something that he thought was a ninja behind a rock. Here's a part from the book.

"He's not moving," Hana whispered. Her gaze was fixed no the flat rock, where the shadow warrior's head was just visible.
"Perhaps he realizes we've seen him?" Tatsuya suggested. "He knows there's no point trying to hide."
...(skipping a paragraph)
We inched closer, and I saw the shadow take shape. His clothes were bumpy, almost a green color. One more step and I laughed out loud. The shape behind the rock was non ninja. It was a bush, small and round, rooted into the rock!
"Kimi!" Tatsuya motioned for me to be quiet, but it only made me laugh harder.
Tatsuya shot me a furious look. "This is no time for laughing, Kimi," he whispered. "You don't understand how ruthless ninja are."
I grinned back at him. "Well, if that's true, it will be the first time I have met a ruthless thorn bush."

It's easy for a book to grow dear to me if it has some comedy in it. Another book that had an interesting part in it was the book Vive la Paris (unfortunately, it doesn't take place in Paris, but the main character is named Paris). Paris's piano teacher, an old lady, said that they could go to Paris, France, by just walking a few blocks. She took some glasses and scribbled over them with a marker, and had Paris put them on. (Hence the saying about "rose-colored glasses/spectacles", meaning someone sees things in an optimistic light or sees things as better than they really are)

Paris asked if she would need a toothbrush since they would be going to Paris. The old lady replied that they could just buy one later, it was better to travel unencumbered. Paris probably didn't know what that word was, because she thought to herself, "Why would you need a cucumber to travel anyways?"

At the moment, I can't really think of other books I would like to mention for their humor, so instead I'll point out the weather. It's still January, but it seems to be warming up (though it can be cold one moment and warm the next, depending on whether the sun comes out from behind the clouds). I've seen flowers blooming and I noticed some of the squirrels are looking pretty plump (then again, it never gets REALLY cold around here, and besides it would be easy to find things things to bury for when they're hungry in my backyard). I wonder if it's already springtime this year? It seems early to me, but maybe I'm not the best judge of these things.

In French class, we read about flea markets in our textbook, so the teacher talked a bit about markets and she asked us what experiences we had. Several students agreed that speaking English means you'll get ripped off...Their parents tell them not to speak, otherwise they'll be asked to pay a higher price than someone who seemed to be a local. Although I don't like the idea that people are being cheated out of their money because of their ignorance, I guess the shopkeepers have to make a living, and it's easier to fool a tourist. I mean, even if the tourist knew it was a bad deal, they might buy it anyway, because one of the general mindsets is, "I'm on vacation. Since I'm here, I shouldn't waste it. I shouldn't let money stop me from doing things since I won't get that opportunity again soon." (Unless you go to a place pretty often.)

Labels: books, bush, chasing the secret, cucumber, market, maya snow, money, ninja, paris, rip off, rose colored glasses, sisters of the sword, spring, tourists, travel, unencumbered, vive la paris, weather

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