Sushi

Oh boy. Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy. I ate sushi. It was hard at first (a.k.a. gagging as I try to assure my companions that the gagging was not because I didn't like it; it was just different), but it happened. And I liked it! I had prayed that I would like it. But I had sat at the table with a nervous stomachache waiting for the food to come. Eventually, it did come and here are the three dishes we got: This was the first dish that came to us. They are rolls, of course. Bottom left: spicy tuna. Top left: Alaskan salmon. Top middle: salmon. Bottom right: eel.
Yes, I ate the eel. It was very exciting. Mr. Pan thought that the eel was cooked (all the other fish was raw). I felt like I had to eat the eel, because it would be really fun to be able to say, "I've eaten eel." Well, guys -- I've eaten eel. And it was good. We ate these up and then got: I had the salmon (second from the left). Oh, it was so interesting. It was quite nice for it to turn out that I liked it -- it's very smooth. Mr. Pan hadn't been so sure. He thought that we would try one piece and then be done. I'm glad it didn't go that way.

The third plate (which I didn't have any of) is just the slabs of fish without rice or anything under them. (By the way, I really like the plates that the food is on. the place was cool)It was not only my first time with sushi. In this picture, Amy, Rachel, and I are all taking what is for each of us our first bite ever of sushi:I think this picture is so hilarious. Honestly, I got through some of it by quoting Bible verses because I had to get my mind off the "raw fish...raw fish" idea. Rachel rushed me into the next roll, and before we took the bite, I said "perfect love casts out all fear" and you know what, that bite went quite a bit better than the previous one. I think a huge part of the key is to not think about it.

Oh, also : I tried tofu for the first time as well. It was just a little piece, but what they told me was true: it doesn't have much taste at all. I think the texture is kind of cool.

It was Bethany's 21st birthday as well:

Happy Birthday,

Bethany!

So, after we left the restaurant, we tried to decide where to go. We ended up at the zoo. Chicago has the only free zoo in the country; it's pretty cool. You can be walking around and all of a sudden -- you're at the zoo! It's still not quite warm enough for all the animals to be outside, though, so we didn't see very many. We got there right around closing time, which is part of the reason we didn't see very many animals.

The camel thought he was pretty handsome.


Fighting Flamingos...Hmmmm.....

The nice seal came to say hi, and, well... tha's awll I have to suay abowt thayt.

It was easier to put my hand in between the buttons of my jacket than in my pocket, so we took a Civil War general picture. Have you ever seen those pictures where they look very regal and sit with one hand inside their jacket. Anyway...

This was a cool tree. And Amy and Rachel are pretty cool too.

Alright...now we get to the pictures of people... Not that we haven't been people in the pictures before this, but...well...these are pretty cool.

I adore these next pictures. Showing them to my mom, all I could say was "We're so cute [insert high pitch squeak-type noise on cue of "cute"]!!!!" I love these girls!

BELOW: Group picture (minus Bethany, who had already waltzed across the street). I must say that by this time I was worried of sounding annoying and repetitious: "Let's take a picture." Well, it may be a bit repetitive and not the most fun for all the photographees (though very fun for the amateur photographer); but in the end, everyone is glad when we have nice pictures. Point made.

This little bit of photographic work is the doing of one Mr. Pan:

My mom loves this picture. She wants to frame it or something. Mr. Pan commented that it's like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and there should be a pan shot that goes all swoosh around me. Yay for jumping pictures - they're so fun!

And, this was not even the end of our day. After this we went to our dear Nikki's house and had Halla toast (like French toast, only made with Israeli braided bread) for dinner.

It was such an exciting day. I kept wanting to re-live it. In the morning, I had gone to Mr. Pan's church and it was so good. I had been excited before I went, and I really want to go back. After I had left and was already someplace else, I realized, "Hey - there was life there. I miss it. I want to go back." I had been excited to hear the message because they have been doing this series called "Rediscovering Jesus" basically based on the fact that if we really knew who Jesus was, we would be radically different. It was very exciting.

That was my Sunday. I love being with my friends; it's my favorite thing. And sometimes it's more fun being reminded of that.