highway adventures

this week has been kinda crazy for the past two weeks for me in terms of work. i have been travelling to Connecticut almost every night. last week i went there 3 times; this week it's been 3 as well. yesterday, i stopped by New Britain to collect some surveys from youth at a church there, and then headed to New Haven for another church. the kids at that church didn't show up so i couldn't collect the few surverys i had remaining. i like driving, it's not a problem, but driving about 5 hours--round trip--to have kids not show up, it's no fun.

anyway, since i was in New Haven and that's where Yale University is, i decided to check it out. it's a very nice college town--at least around the school.  obviously as with any other urban college area there's a clear gentrification line and you know where the 'hood starts and where the yupified-students begin. it took me forever to find parking but it wasn't that bad because it gave me a chance to explore the city center along with the common and other peripheral areas. eventually i found a pretty sweet spot in front of the Book Trader Cafe.  A pretty neat-looking cafe that i meant to stop by but was too late by the time i got back to the car.    i ended up going around the block to this Korean restaurant that i had spotted while looking for parking.  it's called Seoul.   it's a cute nice family restaurant.  so i walk in and there comes in the dreaded question, "[haro].  how menny?"  to which i answer, " oh, just one thank you."  there's something about going to a restaurant or the movies alone taht i enjoy. i feel like once in a whie i need to just go and be with myself in a public place without having to chat, or wait, or interact with people directly.  however, it is always awkward to walk into a place and have people make you feel like you shouldn't be alone.  and leave it to me to choose the worst place possible for me to do that.  a restaurant full of korean families and/or couples.  there was a family with about 10 people at the table across from me celebrating a birthday, a young male/female couple having a very quiet dinner.  towards the end of the hall there was a "white" table with about 5 middle age white folk.  needless to say i stood out. but the bus boy made me feel a bit less out of place. he was hispanic.  i went there craving janjangmyeun noodles.  they didn't have any. 

jajangmyeun noodles: my new addiction

let me digress a little towards the jajangmyeon universe.   janjangmyeon is wheat noodles lathered in a black, soybean past with meat and veggies.  it is a heart attack waiting to happen but it is sooo good.  i am addicted to them, to the point that i try my darnest to go to Lawrence, where there is this great Korean hole-in-the-wall, with the excuse of visting my family but the secret plan to stop by Garden House on my way back.  i watched a korean soap opera a while back, Couple or Trouble, where the main character would pretty much only eat jajangmyeun.  after 16 episodes fo jajangmyeun goodiness, i had to find a place to have them. yelping, and yelping around i remembered that Garden House was Korean.  to my diet's detriment and further dependance on emotional food, i found jajangmyeun.  and! not only jajangmyeun but ganjanjangmyeun which is pretty much the same thing but with a slight sauce mixing difference.  anyway, ever since i have been trying them whenever i go to a korean restaurant, if they have the dish.  last weekend i stopped by H-Mart in Burlington and bought some jajangmyeun in a bag, a la Maruchan sopita for 99cents.  i haven't made them yet but i'm hoping it could be good enough to become a quick fix when needed. 

ok, so they didn't have jajangmyeun and i ended up ordeing some japchae with rice and a kimchi pancake (kimchi pajeon).  i swear the restaurant owner thought i knew what i was ordering.  she was cute.  while there the big table had a cake brought to them and i got to indirectly sing the happy birthday song in Korean. it was hilarious, the owner was trying to set the Karaoke track to it and there was this short intro done by mistake like three times before he got it right.  it's like he was teasing the audience or something.  here's the song:

afterwards he kept playing the electric guitar to a number of songs such a 'besame mucho' and 'yesterday' by the beatles. it was too funny. because he was the only one playing along with a keyboard recording, he sounded like a really tacky Korean-bachatero or sorts. i couldn't stop giggling. imagine, here i am the only woman seating by herself in the middle of the restaurant right on the racial dividing line between koreans and the non-koreans, and i can't stop giggling. i held my cell phone to pretend. then i texted my friend Richard because i knew that he would appreciate the irony or the moment.  i didn't even eat that much anyway so i had things packed up and left.

to my relief, there was no ticket on my windshield--i didn't pay the meter--and i was ready to cruise down I-84E to good ol' Boston.  i have to say though, that i was left wanting to stay in New Haven and the Yale area.  it's just what i would like.  who knows.  God works in msyterious ways.  maybe this was not just a coincidence after all. i have learned to not see things just as incidents that happen but all as being threads that a master weaver carefully gives you a gimplse of to then, maybe years later, show you that you weren't ready for the full piece yet.  :) 

it was a good Yale adventure.