Sushi and Happiness

       Tonight my host mom and I are making Sushi.  Awhile back I went to a running sushi restaurant which begs the question, are “running sushi” restaurants common? It’s an intelligent concept- instead of your waiters and waitresses running around bring you your sushi, your sushi is running to you. How convenient.  When I googled running sushi they came up with running sushi Copenhagen/NYC etc…   so maybe not so well known. Oh FYI, no smoking in sushi bars even if it’s allowed.  Just last night I was forced (you know who you are) to put wasabi straight on my tongue. It wasn’t as hot as I expected. I think I’m slowly numbing my spicy sensors. 

I enjoy asking people I’ve just met to sing their national anthem. .  It kind of makes them do a double take, like “whaaa? Really?”  And it appears to causes them to panic a bit.   A couple evenings ago I met up with some friends at the beach. We shared a bottle of wine, chips, and great conversation. As we are all sitting around the clouds are getting darker and darker and we realized we were in for a big rain storm.  First came the lightening though. There was something alluring about sitting next to the ocean, watching the sky grow dark, and seeing the flashes of lightening. It would have been wrong to leave any earlier than we did. Reality hits you around the same time as a rain drop though. And then when it’s no longer just “a raindrop” you start wondering why exactly you felt you had to stay 20 extra minutes. It was a great night though – and no beach visit is complete without a swim. My friend Hannah and I went ahead with that. It soon began pouring and on the way back the bus driver took pity on us as we flagged him down at a stop light.

Last weekend I was in Gothenburg, Sweden with a friend from the Netherlands. We had the pleasure of couchsurfing with a guy from Germany who was a really nice guy. Whenever you see a new location for the first time you really have no idea where to begin sightseeing. The beauty of Couchsurfing is that you see things and parts of a city you would not see if you met up with someone living there.  

“If you want to be happy, be.” Leo Tolstoy

A great quote due to its simplicity and truth.

Xoxoxoxo

Em

From the beach night, left to right we have: Miss Hungary, Miss Philippines, myself, and Miss. Iceland. :DD

Budapest, Coffee, and Wine

I had my first real European adventure this last weekend. Around the end of December I decided it was time to start touring the European countries around me- I really didn't have a preference as to where I was going to go, I just had to be able to afford it. Fast forward two weeks- Budapest, Hungary. Absolutely beautiful city. There's an energy to it that I really like and I have a feeling that it has something to do with the many coffee shops everywhere. You see, the coffee culture hasn't hit Denmark yet. I'll give them 10 years. 


Honestly- I love being in Denmark but I don't quite understand how a coffee addict like myself ended up in a country with no Starbucks. The only Starbucks that exists in my area is in the Copenhagen airport.  How much do you want to bet that I had a ''real'' coffee before my flight? 


If you ever have a chance to see Budapest, I'd definitely recommend it. Here's a couple pics of me in Budapest that my photographer friend took. 

To get back home I had to take almost every form of transportation available besides a boat. 3 metro trains, 2 buses, one plane, and 2 trains. Sunday was a long day. :D


My home state is Washington and I just want to give a shout out to our wine there. Apparently it MUST be good because they served it at Obama's big State dinner where none other then Jackie Chan attended! And of course, the Chinese President Hu Jintao... And from the Washington Examiner:

"Obama repeatedly stressed that he is seeking "a level playing field" for U.S. companies doing business with China. The White House has been pressuring China on economic issues that include monetary policy and trade imbalance."

That's all very well to want a level playing field but in my opinion, when you owe someone a large sum of money you pretty much lose your chance at a level playing field. Just saying. It is a nice picture to dream about. However, I don't think the Chinese politicians like Americans too much. I seem to recall Sha Zukang saying just that at one point. I think he had too much to drink before he said that though- but I can't quite remember. 


But all of that really won't matter by December 2012 seeing as we will all be dead.. Or at least George Lucas thinks we'll be dead. At least we have until 2012- Dr. Kermit Gosnell made it so quite a few wouldn't ever even have the chance of dying on 2012.  From philidelphia.cbslocal.com we have:

“I am aware that abortion is a hot-button topic,” said District Attorney Seth Williams. “But as district attorney, my job is to carry out the law. A doctor who knowingly and systematically mistreats female patients, to the point that one of them dies in his so-called care, commits murder under the law. A doctor who cuts into the necks severing the spinal cords of living, breathing babies, who would survive with proper medical attention, is committing murder under the law.”

I really don't care what your opinion on abortion is... the whole thing is really awful and I hope he gets the full extent of whatever they can give him when it comes to the law.