Rhea and I went to the SPICE GIRLS reunion concert today! It was at the Palace in Auburn Hills, MI. It was the BEST concert I have ever been to. My seats were awesome. I was on the floor and row 26! I saw them so close. Posh is so pretty. All the outfits were SO pretty and super bling. Big creds to Robert Cavalli for designing the outfits. They sang great live. Now my voice is gone from all the screaming, but it was worth it!

Wow, yesterday night's dinner at my neighbors' place was amazing! I got to eat so many different types of homemade Indian cuisine. Filling my stomach up with good food was not the only thing my neighbors did, Anshu (sp?) also filled me with a lot of awakening knowledge. He is so intelligent and inspiring. His way of thinking is very pure. I remember going into his apartment and made a comment on how I loved the simplicity of his place. To that, he replied, "Simple living, higher thinking". He taught me various things about Krishna, Indian foods, life & love, marketing, consumerism, war, etc. His wife seemed so pure as well. They just were such simple, yet unique people. I really look forward to building a friendship and bond with them. I think they are the type of people that you just want to surround yourself with. If everyone lived like them, the world would be such a better place (I'm not exxagerating!). keke. (^v^)

Ok, let me talk about the food....
I wish I had an awesome memory and remembered all the names of the foods I had, but I don't. I will try to describe it well as I can. First, we had this super fresh wheat tortilla looking thing. Literally, right off the round pan thing she cooked it in. I believe it's called Chapati. We used this to wrap and dip in various sides. One was this white refreshing yBogurt with cucumber and I believe coriander. I'm pretty sure that was Raita. Anshu told me that it's really good for digestion. I don't like yogurt, but I definitely like (actually, LOVED) Raita. We also had this one side that consisted of potatoes and cabbage and I think made with many spices. I think that was called Kootu. We also had some Chutney and really good Indian rice. In a bowl, we had some potato curry sauce kind of thing. It was really good. Here comes the really good part....dessert. There was homemade vanilla ice cream that had a pinkish hue to it. It was soooo chewy and the aroma was amazing. Next was suji halwa. It was made with cream of wheat (semolina) and almond and raisins. AMAZING AROMA. There was also this block of chewy thing that had the texture of fudge. It was tan in color and was made of almond paste with a cashew on top. So delicious! I think that was called Badam Burfi. Oh, there's more. There was this one rice noodle kind of thing in a sweet milky soup. I believe it is called Payasam. Ok, that's it. I promise. haha. Overall, I loved everything, but the one thing that stood out the most to me was definitely the halwa. The aroma that traveled around the inside of mouth was just incredible, to say the least.

An interesting thing I learned from dinner was that in Indian culture, it is tradition that one person serves and do not eat while others dine. So, the wife served us and treated us like kings. I felt sort of bad at first, but every culture has their reason for doing things and I definitely see the advantage of this tradition. I definitely enjoyed the service. keke. (^v^)

Today, I met my neighbor for the first time. I don't know if I can really say that he is my neighbor since he lives in another building, but the same apartment. It is quite an interesting incident though. Let me explain...

So, this morning when I was waiting for the bus, cold and miserable, cause I knew that I was going to be late for LLT 346 again and I know how much my TA secretly hates me for it, a car was pulling out of my apartment complex parking lot. He stopped by the bus stop I was standing at and asked if I needed a lift to MSU! Ok, first thing that comes to mind is never get into stranger's cars, right? Well, he did come out of my apartment and he was Indian....so, I jumped in. We had a good conversation in the car and I learned that his wife is a great cook. I showed interest in Indian cuisine and he said that he thinks his wife would love to meet me. He asked for my number and later that night, I received a call from his wife! So we're planning on dinner at her place tomorrow at 6:00. I'm very excited. I love to meet new people and free Indian food? I'm there! I hope I can learn a thing or two from her and make a good friend. :)

Another good thing that happened today was that I received two Valentine's Day gifts. :) I didn't think that Valentines Day would be anything special, but it was actually a very good day. First, the student I am tutoring, Ji Wan, gave me some chocolate wrapped in a cute red tissue paper. Kellie gave me crispy Spongebob chocolate. :) keke. I gave most of the chocolate that my student gave me away, cause I don't want to end up eating it all. They're so good.

At conversation hour today, students from Hosei University in Tokyo, Japan came! It was very fun talking to them. I got to practice my Japanese and it was very difficult at times, but I enjoyed it a lot. :)

Dr.Murad products have always topped Sephora's bestsellers list, but does it really yield results?....
I'm here to tell you, Yes!!! This Clarifying Cleanser ($26) for acne works great for people with sensitive skin, but still wants a powerful cleanser. This cleanser is for oily skin or people with acne. Although it is used for acne, I think people with clogged pores in general could use this if they have oily skin. I've noticed a big difference in the amount of blackheads I have. It makes the part of my skin without acne baby butt soft and the parts with acne improve a whole lot! The menthol in the cleanser feels really good. It's not that burning feeling you get from cleansers like other acne washes. This cleanser did not over dry my skin and it actually feels soft afterwards. I recommend using their Skin Perfecting Lotion ($33) afterwards. As for their treatment and other acne products, I would skip it.
rating: 5/5

Tamagoyaki is that sweet rolled egg you find in sushi, such as the futomaki roll. It's fluffy and a little sweet. I was craving this today and I remembered my Japanese conversation partner taught me to use honey when making tamagoyaki. So, I tried it out today for dinner and it turned out so well, if I may say so myself. ;) keke. Try it out for a fast, easy, oishii (yummy) super. I put mine over some quick stir fried veggies.

Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 1tsp honey
- 1 tsp of warm water
- nonstick cooking spray or oil

Directions
1. In a bowl, mix the honey and warm water together until the honey is completely dissolved in the water.
2. Add the egg into the bowl and whisk together.
3. Heat a pan on medium heat and spray with non stick cooking spray.
4. When pan is heated, pour egg into pan and try to distribute the egg so you have a thin even layer.
5. Wait till the egg is almost completely cooked through (turn the heat lower if it's burning the bottom). The top should be just a little bit runny.
6. Check to see if the egg is not stuck to the bottom of the pan. Start rolling the egg from one side carefully with your cooking spatula.
7. Once rolled up into a spiral kind shape, put a lid on the pan* and turn to very low heat. This step is to make sure the egg is cooked through.

*** If your pan doesn't come with a lid, it's fine. Just cook it a little longer with low heat.

I was getting pretty worried, because I haven't gotten a confirmation letter or email from the Japanese Speech Contest peeps, but when I got home from IHOP, I received the email! I'm a finalist! Ahhhhh! I'm super nervous now. They're stressing on time. Yikes! I know mine is a little over 6 minutes and they said 3-5 minutes. Pancakes at IHOP were amazing, but for some reason my stomach hasn't been feeling good lately. :( 

Today, I got my Sakura Japanese test back and I forgot to do two problems! It totally brought my score from a 93.5 to an 89.5. :( I hate myself for stupid things like this!

I dyed my hair by myself for the first time yesterday. It's suppose to be a dark red brown, but it's more of a really deep brown on me. I like it though. It looks a lot cleaner and nicer than my light brown before. :)

It's IHOP National Pancake Day. Go to IHOP from 7:00am-10:00pm today for a free short stack of pancakes! Of course, we all know that pancakes aren't the healthiest thing in the world, but it is for a good cause. You can choose to donate to the Children's Miracle Network. I don't know bout you guys, but I'm going for sure. C'mon, free pancakes.... ;)

Ok, I admit that this is not really a "recipe", but something I put together when I had a major sweet tooth but did not want to indulge. But indulge I did! Pummelo is so yum! If you've never tried pummelo, it's like a sweet grapefruit. I would suggest you to try it alone first and then try it with my recipe. :) The sweetness of the vanilla soy milk really balances the tangy citrus taste of the pummelo. So good.

Ingredients
- Half of a pummelo
- about 1/4 cup organic vanilla soy milk
- mint leaves (optional) (for garnish, I didn't use it)

Directions
1. Cut out the meat of the pummelo only.
2. Place in a cute lil glass cup if you got one.
3. Put just enough soy milk to cover the pummelo.
4. Swoosh it around a little and let it soak up the vanilla flavor for like 30 seconds.
5. Take a tiny fork and indulge. :)

I was so frustrated with Weebly that I almost switched over to another blog host, but I submitted a request on what the problem was and it turns out that posting a double column thing will screw things up. So I took the double column off of my Setsubun post. :)

Today, Angela came to take pics of me at my apartment for her photography project. It was interesting. Not my style, but she's truly become a great photographer. :) I wonder what I would be like if I kept taking photography classes with her.

I lucked out today, cause all Lansing schools were canceled. I didn't have to spend 5 hours at field study, which led me to going to the gym early. Always love that. :) My weekend was fattening as hell. You know how going home to your mommy's cooking is. I was really good and refused to eat her rice cakes though. I think I hurt her feelings, but I don't care. I would've been depressed if I ate it anyways.

I went to Trader Joe's Market for the first time with my mom yesterday and it was awesome! I got some steel cut oats to try some of Dani Spies' ideas and I plan to play around with it myself. I'm interested in how they will compare to quick rolled oats.

My Korean student's mom hand sewed this for me!

For some reason, the "Loading...." sign is always on my screen. :( This is weird. I'm going to try to see if this will post..

Tod, after tutoring, I went home. On the way home, I went to Twelve Oaks mall in Novi to get my Murad Clarifying Cleanser at Sephora. (I will do a review on this product later).

When I went home, I ate like a fiend!!!!! I ate too much. It's that time of my diet when I got a lil' outta control. I will rebound tomorrow. Promise. Not going to eat way less or not enough. Just back to normal. That is a good way to go I think. It's unhealthy to starve myself. I am in no may making an excuse, but I'm just saying. But just to let you know how much I ate ..... I had half a pie's worth of water chestnut rice cake that my mom's friend made for Chinese New Year, half a bowl of fried rice with egg and Chinese celery, a sesame egg roll cookie, a pounded dried persimmon, a CRAZY amount of bok choy, one small steamed fish drizzled with oil, and chocolates at macy's...... Oh yea, I had a 20 oz. Chocolate Au Lait with skim milk at Moonstruck as well. Damn. That's what I get for starving myself by shopping and not eating a real meal. hahahha. oh when will I learn......