a taste of culture.

Very fun night.

Last night I gathered with my coworkers for a party. To set up the ambiance, I will try to describe the members:

Jane and Fumi--couple who heads the lab and the hosts of the party. Fumi is Japanese and Jane is American. Fumi, I have trouble making out every word he says, but he has a beautiful smile. Jane is hilarious; I can't even describe it...like mad scientist hilarious.

Yayoi and Kenichi--couple; post-doctoral scientists; both Japanese. Yayoi is adorable and I want to go shopping with her because.. she's adorable. Ken is also hilarious. We had this one creepy guy who no one seemed to know hanging around the lab for some reason and Ken approached him and apparently got scared or something and ended the conversation with "I call police." So now when he gets into some type of bind, we all say, well just go call the police Ken!

Suma and (her husband I don't remember his name..)--Suma is a post-doc at our lab also and last night I finally met her husband. They are both Indian (like from India..not Native American). I think I made a special bond with Suma last night because we were the only two vegetarians plus we both had not ever had sushi. Suma is about 4'10"...just in case that helps you picture her better.

Le and Linda--couple, but not married; both are Vietnamese. Le is a junior scientist at our lab, and Linda used to be an undergrad worker like me. I don't have much to say about them except that Linda is not the typical "scientist" girl because she wears dresses and skirts and has her hair perfectly curled and has layers of make-up on. So I guess she adds a very different character to our party, but nonetheless I personally really like her, she is such a sweetie.

Yuloo--he is very new member; Chinese; very young post-doc; closest in age to me--22!

William--also a new member; post-doc; British; hilarious. This last part I am just finding out. He is quite soft spoken, but he does add little comments that are priceless. And I love his accent.

Gerit--German; Post-doc; this is the girl I work under--she is the best. She has short, uncontrollably curly hair (not unlike my own) and she is in love with me for some reason and so I love her also. Oh and she laughs at Everything and extremely loudly and it makes me love her all the more.

Charlie--never really found out who this guy is..why he was there..he must have worked there before me or something.. but anyways..he's a cutie.. very old.. American.

Thomas--American; attractive; a junior scientist [that makes him just 25 or so...not too far off ;)].

So here we all are.. eating handmade sushi by actual Japanese people... and I had seriously the best time. Maybe it's because they are all nerdy scientist people and I am heading in that general direction, but really.. the best time. Our conversations ranged from why Gerit's experiment resulted in the exact opposite (and upside down) of what she expected to why Jane's first grade teacher thought she was retarded because she "couldn't" read (even though she could read and just did not like this particular teacher).. and so on and so on.. The sushi was.. bearable.. though I don't think I'm a huge fan. One discovery--Wasabi! I thought I knew spicy.. but no. And to my surprise, I did not like it. This is coming from a girl who dumps a pot of Tabasco and eats that with Tabasco. This spicy makes your eyes and ears water, but only for a second, then nothing.. it was.. disturbing to me for some reason.

So anyways.. I love them all and I feel like in a small way I get to know the world a little better by hanging out with them.