new likes.

since the beginning of my temp. relocation to asia, i've really picked up on a few new favorites [*this blog will, unfortunately, not be one of those blogs that will be shortly mentioned below where complete strangers will stumble upon it & consider it a gem; instead, it will probably [cast this effect on most other readers and] be an unsteady flow of thoughts that i hope to recall by skimming these lines a year from now.  *end disclosure]:

- black coffee: sipped via straw, preferrably hot [often resulting in scorching the top of my mouth], when iced, i still prefer a little sugar.  i was a caramel macchiato/frappachino addict for years until last fall, when the twin girls i tutored and i had a lesson at starbucks & i ordered a macchiato while they grabbed regular, black coffee.  One of them looked at me blankly, and really without judgment but more out of mere, innocent disbelief, and asked, "wait, when you say you love starbucks, you don't actually drink their coffee?"  that, and my dad always told me i'd be an adult the day i started appreciating black coffee.  not sure about the adult part, but black coffee sure can be tasty. 

- taste of beer: okay, my intake of alcohol since being 21 still varies between barely to none, but the taste of beer has really grown on me.  #1 pick: corona extra, #2: heineken; actually, edit: #1 pick: water, #2: corona; #3: heineken.

- wes anderson movies: i tend to fall asleep in most movies [esp those that begin after 10pm...or really any time of the day now that i think about it], but after watching darjeeling limited & the royal tenenbaums in singapore, i've decided to expand my love for the films into support for the director as a whole.

- reading blogs: gone are the days when i check xanga subscriptions, but i have found a new addiction to good blogs. http://lexxy-pie.livejournal.com/ hiya (1/2) is my favorite entry.  i feel slightly voyeuristic at times from reading so many blogs...esp since they are all from people i have never met.  oy :-[

- vegetarian food: asia does mock meat well!  & tofu, my most dreaded enemy since childhood (t'was up there with bittermelon & eggplant), is probably one of my favorites of all time now.  i will surely miss all the ways singaporeans eat tofu when i'm back home, one of my favorites being yong tau foo 

- folksy music: i've previously only been able to categorize my taste in music as "easy listening," unfortunately, this gets lumped together, or at least mentally in my mind, as 'adult contemporary,' which raises a great deal of undesirable associations/schemas in my head.  with a little help and enlightenment from my singaporean/cornellian soulmate stephanie, however, i've realized that in the end, i just like folksy music. upon recommendation: here's a brett dennon song i listen to quite a bit.   

- papaya: i've hated papaya [and most tropical fruits] with a previously comparable tenacity as my hatred for beer, tofu, and black coffee, but like all of those listed, i've grown to love it in singapore.  maybe because the papapyas here are 1. prepared, 2. cheap, 3. sweet like brown sugar, and 4. readily available, as are most fruits.  i don't even know how to sustain this love for papaya when i'm home.  i don't even know how to pick a good papapya, what's an appropriate price for it at the market, or how to preserve it.  must get my papaya learn on upon return.

- the color red: i don't know why i never appreciated this color more.  for some reason, it used to seem so plain, so...primary, and so basic, but really, red is the about as exciting as a color can get.  really.  what doesn't look good in red?  minus teeth, i'd have to say nothing. 

alrighty.  trip wrap-up entry is a-coming.  i miss singapore/being abroad/the familiar faces already.