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I love Albuquerque skies.

It feels so nice to be home, eating amazing home cooked food, relaxing at home, and chilling with friends. The list of my "things to eat" is actually almost fulfilled, which is amazing because I never told anyone the stuff I wanted to eat, but each meal is always something on there.

Anyway, when I got back Saturday, my Dad and I went to my Mom's restaurant and I ate tomatoes and eggs, which is pretty much my favorite dish in the world. We then went back home and I got to open my camera! Only problem was that the 50mm lens did not come in yet (and it still hasn't), so I was stuck with a 12-24mm in ugly ABQ. Note to self: If I ever get rich I'm buying a Leica M8 + Noctilux 50mm f/0.95.

Sunday, I met up with Julie and Larr, we pretty much talked like I never left. We had Julie's mom's Vietnamese noodles, which was really good as always. We then went to watch the movie "Letters to Juliet". It is now one of my favorite chick flicks, I pretty much suggested it to everyone after I came back.

On Monday, my Mom, Mary, and I went to Gardunos. Apparently, they had to close down three restaurants already because businesss wan't going so well. It's so sad to hear because it's my favorite Mexican restaurant (although it's New Mexican as well...). I ordered a pina colada (virgin of course, sadly), beef chimichanga, and this one aguas frescas that tasted like 酸梅汤 . They had four different kinds of salsa, each made with a different type of chile. It was so good to finally have green chile again after suffering with the canned salsa at Rochester haha. I missed freshly cooked chips and sopapillas, even their refritos tasted different, so that lunch was definitely amazing. Then I worked out with Julie in the afternoon. I pretty much died on the treadmill (only ran 0.75miles) I'm guessing because of high altitude, but nonetheless, I must lose weight!

At night, we invited a friend over for dinner and made 茴香 and 韭菜 dumplings, since we grew it in the backyard. This was the first day I ate stuff off of my list haha. Since my parents sleep late, we called my grandparents around midnight because they really wanted to talk to me and my mom and I talked to them until 1:30am. Their health is slowly declining and they were afraid that they'll never see me again, it made me want to go to Beijing right at that moment.

Yesterday, Tuesday, was pretty relaxing. I read Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" throughout the day and worked out with Julie in the afternoon once again. The book was a bit creepy but very interesting because the facts are real, just not the connection. From noetics to the Mason society to underground secrets in DC, it really opened my eyes to what could be out there and to think outside the box. And especially the study of noetics (I actually felt smart cause I understood some of it from BCS). The book was probably my 3rd favorite, right after "Angels and Demons" and "The Da Vinci Code". Later that day, my Dad had to fix the swamp cooler, so we both climbed up to the roof of our house and I took a lot of random pictures of the neighborhood, mountains, and the sky.

I actually didn't take any pictures of anything I did thus far. I guess when you have too much fun, you forget to take pictures haha. My 50mm comes in today though, and this will mean lots and lots of pictures and the start of flickr. I'm excited :)