Happy birthday, America! This week, my home came to me as some people from PSALT visited for a jam-packed 4th of July weekend adventure. An even more jam-packed work week followed and I am exhausted. Still counting my blessings and giving praise to God in that tiredness for really being able to settle and feel more and more “at home” while I’m here. And in a couple weeks, I get to go home for a visit! I’m so so excited and can’t wait to be home and see everyone again.

Things I forgot to mention last time

R/C Model Boats!

I can’t believe I forgot to mention this but while we were at the Maritime Museum, there is a section along the Miles River that people can go to. A while club of old dudes were out on the piers just driving (sailing?) these little remote-controlled sailboats around the water. They had what seemed like an obstacle course or something laid out with some buoys but I couldn’t quite make it out.

There’s a whole club and everything. I’m not really sure how you go about maneuvering an R/C sailboat since I think you have to control the rudder and sails like a normal sailboat, but that seems even harder if you aren’t in the boat itself.

Jellyfish!!

That’s right, I saw jellies IN THE WILD. There were TONS in the water we walked along in Saint Michaels, along with schools of little fishes (minnows?) swimming everywhere.

Very cool! I absolutely love jellyfish, I think they are just so graceful and so mesmerizing to watch. There’s also something kinda poetic about how they just get swept along and just go wherever the current takes them. If we weren’t on a schedule to beat return traffic, I could’ve sat there and watched them all day, I think. I’ve only ever seen jellies in aquariums, so it was really neat to see them in person and in the wild (and from safety).

Extension??

Not even three weeks into my contract my recruiter asked me if I would consider extending. I was really taken aback by this because it just seemed… really early? To be asking, I mean. I really hadn’t considered it yet because it’s so early in the contract and I hadn’t really been accustomed to it yet. Anyway, I told her that I would take a couple of weeks to consider. I’m still thinking about it.

PSALT: People Seeing Annapolis Landmarks Together

This week for the long weekend/holiday (July 4th is Independence Day in the US), I had some friends from PSALT visit! PSALT is the name of our young adult fellowship back at home in North Carolina. It stands for many variations of words, but I think the official acronym is Praising Serving Adults Living the Truth (at least according to an old email I have). Those in attendance were Pastor Samuel (aka p.Sam), Felicia, Jeff, and Rachel. They drove up Sunday after church. I was working on Sunday, so they were already there when I got home. It was really nice to just catch up on and chat! We stayed up really late on Sunday but slept in on Monday before we headed out for 4th of July fun.

Stuart update

I know some people (myself included) have been very invested in the life of Stuart, so here is the latest:

I was talking to Felicia the night they arrived about Stuart and the idea of a spider living in my bathroom freaked her out a little. Looking back, this is completely normal and understandable behavior—I guess I had really normalized Stuart’s companionship in my mind so it had not occurred to me that this may be an issue for visitors. So I did the only normal thing one would do when faced with this situation… I went to introduce them.

But.

STUART WAS GONE! He was no longer at his usual post above the bathroom doorframe. We actually did some searching (though not as wholeheartedly as when I couldn’t find Tobi), but were unable to find him.

I guess I knew in my mind that this day might come, but I’ll admit I was pretty sad about it. I mean so much that I wrote this whole section about it. The Lord giveth and Lord taketh away; may the name of the Lord be praised.

Still holding out a hope that he’ll come back out when our guests are gone. After all, I didn’t ask him if it was okay to invite my friends over. How rude of me.

Korean for Lunch

Rachel had lunch with an old law school friend, so the rest of us decided to have Korean for lunch. Well, that was the plan, but then we had a fairly big (and late) breakfast, so we didn’t actually leave for Korean until Rachel already came back from lunch (“Wait, what, you guys haven’t eaten yet?”). Ja Kum Sung was delicious as always, I tried out their seafood jjamppong which is like a seafood noodle soup. It was super good (surprise)! I hadn’t had a good seafood noodle soup since the Raleigh noodle soup place closed down years and years ago. The bowl was bigger than my head!! The portions were so generous, even for lunch. I ate until I was really full and even then I still had so much leftover in my bowl.

Downtown Annapolis

After lunch, we went back to the apartment to pick up Rachel and then left for downtown Annapolis. Downtown Annapolis had a lot of really cool history and its main street was really really cute and ended over the harbor.

Our first stop as dictated by my constant needs was the Annapolis Ice Cream Company! They have won award after award for their ice cream, apparently. And it definitely is well earned! Believe it or not, I actually didn’t look this place up beforehand and we happened to find it on the map while looking for a place to park. They have a lot of delicious homemade flavors to choose from, so I ended up going with a classic favorite, dark chocolate ice cream, in a cup, with a hat.

“This is going on the blog”

Pastor Samuel was very brave and got 3 scoops of ice cream. He says he did not realize how big the scoops were before ordering, and just wanted to try all the flavors. He spent the next bit playing the mini-game of “don’t let your ice cream drip on the ground” but unfortunately the game was rather difficult and he suffered a lot of drips. Fortunately though, he did manage to keep most of the ice cream intact and finished it!! Absolutely amazing. Even I don’t think I could’ve finished all 3 scoops in one go.

Afterwards, we set off to exploring main street. There was a cute antique bookstore next to the ice cream shop, so we started there. It was really interesting! I remember Felicia whispering to me, “the owner looks really scholarly!” I don’t have a picture but he really did have this scholarly air about him. The bookstore had some really cool old books and historical pieces of reading/writing, which were really interesting! And also some neat prints and the like. p. Sam caught a nice artsy photo of me filing through some of their prints.

Seasons

We also went to this really amazing store called Seasons which is an olive oil & vinegar taproom. It has this incredible line up of olive oils and vinegars you can try and buy. The sales manager was really knowledgeable; he reminded me of the way master sommeliers can find perfect wine and food pairings in the way that he was able to pair different olive oil and vinegar flavors. They also had tons of different spices and salts as well. It was so cool! It made me really wish I knew a lot more about cooking and cuisine because I feel like there’s so many cool flavors that are just waiting to be used and consumed. Well, I mean that I can appreciate good food and flavors, but I wouldn’t know what to do or how to use the flavors I tasted while there. A lot of them seemed good for cooking, or as dressings or sauces! So many amazing and distinct flavors, too. Like one of the combinations he gave us was a pineapple vinegar and a jalapeño olive oil mixed. It was both refreshing and with a bit of heat! I didn’t even think certain combinations were possible.

Definitely would want to go back again.

Woodwork Artisans

We also explored this one wood shop that was I think the same line of stores where I got my compass in Saint Michaels. But this time I remembered to take photos! It was a really cool shop and the main thing they sold was these really neat maps of various places. It just had a really nice old timey look that I liked, but I don’t have that kind of themed space to put something like that.

After a few more shops later and the Annapolis 4th of July parade was about to begin! We actually didn’t stick around for it because we had a dinner reservation, but they started handing out little inflatable balls and stuff to kids and spectators on Main Street. And also some really large beach balls.

Super fancy dinner

We didn’t stick around for the parade because we had a dinner reservation at a super fancy restaurant called Lewne’s Steakhouse and we wanted to eat early so we could go after dinner to find a good place to watch the fireworks. And it was so good! We got their crab cakes and a delicious tuna steak just seared and seasoned but it was like a big chunk of tuna sashimi hehehe. So delicious. I almost got defeated by how much tuna it was, but I managed to finish it with some help. :) Also, the bread was SO BIG!!! But it was really airy so it was hard to cut. The thing was like the size of a grapefruit.

Fireworks

After dinner, we started making our way back towards the downtown Main Street to see if we could scout a good place to sit and watch the fireworks. When we got to one of the bridges we had crossed, there were a ton of people lined up with lawn chairs on the sidewalk facing the water. So we figured it was probably a good place to watch the fireworks from. We found a rather empty spot in the middle of the bridge, and it took me some time to figure out why nobody sat there— it was a drawbridge, and the ground was just a metal grid that opened to the water below. The view however, was absolutely fantastic, and so we decided it was alright. A lot of people who brought their dogs would have to carry them over this section because the holes in the ground were really really big and dogs would keep tripping as their paws fell into the holes! We figured it was safe, because there was a sign posted that the drawbridge was closed in the evening of 4th of July.

We waited a couple hours. It didn’t get really dark until probably a bit after 9PM, so we were waiting a while. Eventually both sides of the bridge were filled with people. It was closed to traffic, both automobile and boats (at least those that needed the draw bridge opened), so it was pretty safe.

We passed the time boat watching, commenting on boats passing by underneath and around the harbor. Special mentions are the Uncle Sam Tsalta Superyacht which we found sells for a little over $17 million, the “umbrella party raft,” and the “elliptical paddleboat.” The elliptical paddleboat was really interesting. I took a video of it, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Instead of paddling the boat like a bicycle style paddle, this boat was propelled by basically what were two oars attached to an elliptical machine in the back. Kind of like your weird poor-man’s rickshaw, nautical edition.

Anyway, fireworks are fireworks, there’s not much to say but to show some pictures and maybe a video. Enjoy! The fireworks were spectacular over the Annapolis Harbor.

After that, getting out of traffic was a nightmare and we may or may not have broken a few traffic rules just to get out of there. Saved us probably at least an hour or two of sitting in line. Because it was America’s birthday, I played the Hamilton soundtrack for Felicia and I to jam out on the way home while Rachel asked some deep conversation questions with p.Sam.

Ramen all the time

So the time between the last two updates actually spanned two Ramen Thursdays, but I only included the first of the two with the intent to post about the second in the following update but then with PSALT visiting, they wanted to try the ramen place and then of course another Thursday has passed so I mean I guess I’ll just post like I had ramen every other day or something to catch up. Which I guess is not really entirely untrue…

I tried the clear broth ramen with orange peel last week, which I learned has a name: yuzu shio ramen. Shio is the type of salt-based broth; there are multiple shio ramen out there, but I think the main common factor is they aren’t meat-based. Yuzu describes a type of citrus fruit commonly used in Japanese cuisine, though I don’t know if the peel used in this ramen was true Japanese yuzu or if it was another citrus like lemon or orange.

As expected, it was delicious. I was really surprised at how much I liked having the citrus in the ramen. It added a nice fragrance and acidity to the dish. The chef brought me more when I told him. He didn’t seem completely satisfied with his recipe yet—he kept telling me he didn’t really like shio ramens and he was still experimenting with the recipe, which I get. It was good, but I agreed that it felt like maybe it wasn’t as coherent of a combination of flavors like his other ramens have been so far.

On Tuesday for lunch before I went to work, we went to RamenYa again.

Of course, we finished everything. And it was so good (or maybe not filling enough?) that we also ordered the Mazemun (brothless) ramen to split. Well, Felicia and Rachel had a little bit, and p.Sam ate most of it. A decision he later regretted when his stomach did not agree with all the fatty chashu pork that came with it. :(

I had the black garlic tonkotsu ramen again (+ egg), and I also snagged a picture of Felicia’s “half and half” spicy tonkotsu/black garlic ramen. Then of course, the Mazemen ramen.

I also went again on Thursday during my “usual” time. The chef was impressed at my dedication to eating his ramen. Maybe a little embarrassed on my behalf, but it’s so good, I could probably eat this every day. I tried the miso ramen on Thursday! Miso ramen in general personally isn’t my favorite, but I really did want to give the chef’s suggestion of trying everything on the menu. It was still really good! I finished the whole bowl again, as well as the soup. Chef was also happy to report that he had made some headway on getting closer to a broth he was happy with for the Yuzu Shio ramen, but he said he probably won’t offer it on the menu as an orderable item, just something for regular customers to try out when they want something different. I’ll have to check out the new and improved version sometime, but I still have some other items on the menu to get through! I think I’ll try to order one of the appetizers as well one of these days. They have some simple stuff like gyoza and shumai that I want to try. I believe they make everything from scratch, so they’re bound to be delicious.

Stuart update #2

As hoped, Stuart resurfaced! He seems to have found a new spot in the corner of the shower. I’m just glad he’s okay. I found him Tuesday night after work the night before they left, so it was kinda nice of him to see them off, at least. Felicia was glad to have finally met him and was okay with his diminutive size.

Crepes, with love, from Jesus

On Wednesday morning we (minus Jeff, who was still working) went to eat at a crepe place that they had found nearby in the area that I would refer to as downtown Glen Burnie. The restaurant is owned by a nice older Russian lady, and when she came out to give us our crepes she said, “here are your crepes, made with love, from Jason!” and then the guy who was helping her carry the plates who actually made the crepes corrected her, “… James.” Oops! Ahahahaha. And then we later found out that Felicia heard “with love, from Jesus” and thought it was amazing how she knew we were a church group. XD

Work

Work has been pretty crazy, to be honest. Even some of the little things, like the absolutely USELESS perforation on every single box of Cepheid cartridges. I’m not even exaggerating, opening one of these perfectly along the perforations is like one of those things you get really proud of and take photos to share with all your lab friends because they know the pain of opening these boxes.

There are a couple of independent events that have caused those figurative “perfect storms” of a staffing issues that came to a head this week and I think truly, praise God because the timing could not get any tighter than it did. One of my coworkers had a medical emergency and was out for a week, but she was also scheduled to work the weekend and holiday of 4th of July. Then one of our travelers left at the end of her contract, Heidi went back to day shift, and suddenly I was working more or less alone already. Luckily Sunday was pretty tame, but as the week went on things got pretty crazy. I worked a lot of overtime and wasn’t able to take a dinner break due to the workload a couple of times which has really thrown off my sleep schedule. It really is making me reconsider if I can work long term like this, because it really isn’t healthy for me to have such an irregular eating (and by extension, sleep) schedule.

Another Stuart update

Okay, so there’s now two spiders in my bathroom and I’m not really sure how I feel about it. I’m fairly certain that Stuart is the one in the corner of the shower, but ANOTHER similar looking spider has taken up Stuart’s old residence above my doorframe. It’s been there for two days now, and I can tell that it isn’t Stuart because it is slightly larger, and proportionally has a larger abdomen. I haven’t decided if I wanted to make a truce with it, because the last thing I want is more spiders moving in. So this particular spider doesn’t have a name yet. … Yet.

Later in the week work update

There isn’t much more to update but that oddly enough there’s this follow up to the previous section.

I have peaked. I OPENED A BOX PERFECTLY. It actually took an entire 30 seconds of careful opening to get it, but I wanted to redeem myself after the previous box opening pictured above. Perhaps this is a sign of times to come.

Church update

I had a meeting with Pastor Kame this week after church service; it was nice to have a one-on-one with him to learn more about his vision for the church as well as introduce myself. He was very encouraging and asked all sorts of questions about myself, my spiritual life, my church family, and where I stood on some various topics. He was encouraged by my story and I was encouraged by sharing it! I got to recount my baptism story which was a really emotionally and spiritually charged event in my life, and I still can’t seem to get through that story without being moved to tears from the memory of it (in a good way!).

Afterwards, I got invited out to lunch organized by Pam for “the singles” in the congregation to an American-Chinese restaurant called “Fortune Cooky” hehehe. The food was not bad, pretty much exactly how you would expect it to be. We talked about some possible activities we could get together to do, which was really nice. I’m glad to be able to still share a meal and enjoy the company of a church family even when away from my home church.

I am exhausted from all the activities and I am not ready for the work week to start anew. It never really feels like I have enough time to just chill out sometimes! I considered going swimming but by the time I rested and digested after lunch the pool was already almost closed so it wasn’t enough time to get everything figured out and have enough time to swim and change out and shower before they closed. “Maybe next week,” I tell myself every week.

Until next time!
Jasmin