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

Goldfish crackers. The wonderful, smiling cheesy snacks. One time I saw a package of Goldfish and the part with the ingredients even said "Made with Smiles". As crackers go, I think Goldfish are really cute.

It seems like they don't always have smiles, though, despite their claim. If I can't get enough to eat from the rest of the salad bar, which is one of the lunch lines at my school, then I add in some Goldfish. I was studying them and I realized some of them seem to be faceless! What a shame. Those Goldfish must have a rough time in life, having nothing but a blank expression.

But then again, smiles aren't always heartfelt, are they? I remember having read in books how characters would smile, but the smile wouldn't "reach their eyes". It was only a smile of the mouth. Not a true smile. It kind of reminds me of smiling for photographs. If I don't really feel like smiling, but I still have to, my face looks awkward in the picture. It would look right if a person was caught while really laughing or smiling, though. I don't really like to take pictures on purpose because of it. I think it's better to take photos of life in the moment.

Sometimes it can be hard, going through each day. I still have to be strong. Most of the time I feel like I need to keep my troubles to myself and pretend everything is okay, when really inside of me it's all turmoil. And there are times when I feel like I have to let someone know, or I'm going to explode, and I try to let it show through my emotions, body language, and such visual signs, but I don't know if anyone is able to pick up on it. Most of the time it's okay. I can still make it through each day, one after another. And I can even enjoy myself. But I wonder how long it will be before my vase, filling up with all my worries and doubts, will start to spill the water in it.

Then again, this could be just another challenge of life. Perhaps it's something I'll grow out of. Just as some people who are allergic to peanuts lose the allergy when they age, I suppose there are some problems that will cease to be problems when you experience more things, different things, significant things. I wonder if how someone acts is influenced by nature or nurture. Are you born a certain way? Can you change it? Or are things just not meant to be changed? Is it a mix of both? It's still a mystery.

Since I just mentioned allergies, I thought of something strange. I just went to my mom's friend's house yesterday. The last time I visited them was a few years ago. Back then my mom's friend's daughter hadn't gone to college yet, and their cat was in the house. Now they have a different house, and the cat is in the garage. Apparently, my mother's friend's wife and her daughter became allergic to cats. Did they change cats? Or did they develop new allergies? I think that's really strange. I thought that once you got used to something, you would be less likely to be allergic to it, not more likely.

I'm going on to some other news now. On Friday, the musical electives at my school - choir, orchestra, and band - performed. The schedule was very wacky in order to make room for the three assemblies (since there are a lot of students, it's better to have three different performances, and one third of the non-performers attend each one). I attended the first assembly, where the choir, beginning strings (orchestra), beginning band, advanced orchestra, and advanced band performed.

The advanced orchestra performed the music to the film Spirited Away, which made me really happy because I really like that music. I think two years ago I heard it performed by the advanced orchestra at that time. And I'm a fan of the Studio Ghibli films. The other music played by the advanced orchestra was Palladio, which is apparently the music to a De Beers diamond commercial. Even when I heard it, I wasn't able to think of the commercial...Was the commercial really old? Like from 1993 or something? Or do I just not watch much television? D:

Labels: allergies, cat, change, crackers, de beers, diamond, emotions, expression, goldfish, mask, music, orchestra, palladio, photography, problem, school, smile, snacks, spirited way, strength

Top ↑