good times at 5305 beeler

what a weekend. friday we caught a movie together - Munich. definitely not what i expected...i thought it was a movie about the olympics! however it was an excellent movie. growing up i've read about all the strife going on between isrealis and palestinians. when going to school i met some people from isreal for the first time. people that have actually served in the isreali army. today, the issues between isrealis and palestinians are different. i won't go into those here. but when the movie was taking place - 1970's, the issue was about land. palestinians felt like they had no place to call home. although there were many other countries that would accept them, they wanted jerusalem to call their home. i never thought about it before, but what if there wasn't a china? a totally random thought. would i feel bothered that i didn't have a country of cultural origin? i was born in new york, not china. i definitely identify the US more as my home rather than china. perhaps i take it for granted that i could live in china whenever i choose. but if someone took that right away from me, i'd be rather angry. anyways...just pondering. you always want what you can't have right? and what you have, you take for granted.

saturday we have a potluck at our duplex. 30 grad students from public policy, MISM, and MBA all got together. it was great! i don't think tepper has ever organized anything so cross departmental. no school was discussed of course. only good food and good wine. i made my speciality - chinese style salmon. always a hit at parties. i wish i had the forethought to bring my camera downstairs! after dinner you'll never guess what we did. we went swing dancing at an undergrad frat party. it was the strangest experience ever. i felt like i stepped into a scene of napolean dynamite. plastic bowls full of cheesy popcorn and pretzels. no alcohol - only cherry coke,sprite and orange soda. many of the boys were....eccentric. white shirts tucked into their light blue non-baggy jeans. glasses, bad haircuts and very pasty white skin. some of the girls were not much better. a couple were good dancers. good but not great. others were trying very hard. but as long as they were having fun, it's all good. i definitely think if someone doesn't know how to dance, better to try and look like a fool than never try at all. you gotta learn sometime right? lights covered with cellophane (for the club effect). oh...the clincher. we were in the basement. hahaha..... don't get me wrong, i actually had a TON of fun teaching my roommates how to swing dance. it was really nice to do something other than hit a bar or watch a movie for a change. but after i was asked by a little boy "what's your major" i just had to stop dancing. cmon - i'm a decade older than these boys! that's just so wrong.

sunday was just as fun but in a totally different way. vacuumed the whole downstairs. swept the kitchen, doorway and front of the house. did laundry. went to a step class with rita, then cooked dinner with rita and jeff. erik and joe joined in for the food. after dinner, watched The Island. excellent movie. scarlett is so gorgeous it hurts. dang - i must go work out more! ok this post is turning into a stream of consciousness post. oh well. i really enjoy the fact that my roommates like to cook together. it feels like i have a family away from home. :)