Moving On Up!

After my nightmare day on Wednesday, I knew there was nowhere to go but up.  Proof positive: this was what I looked out on while on my way down the hill Thursday morning.  Friday was an even better day!  We had an IT orientation which took up an hour of my morning.  Shortly after that, Laura and I took a trip to Chinatown to see where I'll be teaching on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  We couldn't get in but a little Chinese lady stopped to ask us what we were doing.  She barely knew any English so I got to use Mandarin to get information!  I love that I am having so many opportunities to practice!  After we went to the church, we walked down King Street to a restaurant that was recommended to us by Alex, who is living in the International District for the time being. It's called Henry's Taiwan and it is super authentic.  Here is a picture of the 牛肉面 or beef noodles that I had for lunch.  It was just like the stuff I got while I was in Taiwan.  The noodles are fresh made by taking a giant log of noodle dough and then cutting strips off right into boiling water.  They are irregularly shaped and really thick and chewy.  It was wonderful!  Then, I got back to ACRS, had a little bit of time back at my cubicle, then got my first client contact.  Evan and I helped Xiangping do an intake for a new client.  It was so amazing to actually talk to someone who will be using the services we have to offer.  I know that's going to be the most rewarding part of the job.  After the intake interview, I had about half an hour back at my desk, burning CD's for my citizenship students and then it was off again.  Alex and I went to set up a table at the Vietnamese Resource Fair.  I hope I have more days like this.  I love being out and talking to people, rather than sitting in my cubicle.  I also got to spend some more time talking to Louis.  He did my job with Americorps twice and then came back as a regular employee.  It makes me feel good that he loved doing this so much that he was willing to stay with the same sucky pay for another go.  He also said he felt confident that I knew what I was talking about with citizenship and I could answer any general questions (i.e. non-case specific questions) that anyone could throw at me.  Beth came to pick me up at the Fair and then we went out to celebrate the end of Russ's weight loss contest.  I had a root beer float at a Hawaiian burger joint (although it was not called Big Kahuna Burger).  Yesterday was all kinds of interesting.  I went grocery shopping with Beth.  I was planning to make dinner last night but we ended up going to a "barbecue" at Russ's coworker/friend/WoW guildmate's house.  By house, I mean a manufactured home in a trailer park type community.  Yeah, apparently, Russ and Beth didn't know what we were getting into either but I got my fill of white trash chic.  That's really all I'm going to say about that.  Tonight, we will have fettuccine Bolognese with a sauce that has been simmering since yesterday so it should be awesome.  I'll add some fresh parsley right before service.  There will be some steamed asparagus for Beth and me and a salad for Russ.  It will be the first time they have my cooking.  I hope it goes well!