Sunday, May 6th

2:45PM Baker BBQ Pits
1 hamburger with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, ketchup, and mustard. Small handful of Lay's bbq flavored chips. 1 cup of coke. Yay for getting free bbq the day after senior ball! You know I would have been too tired to do anything else.

Hamburger and chips

It was such a beautiful day out, and the Walk for Hunger was happening along the Charles River next to my dorm. Such nice weather for a bbq. We meant to take a picture against the background of the river, but it somehow didn't come out right. Ah well, still a lovely spring day.

Me and Greg outside

3:30PM Dorm Room
My boyfriend has been eyeing my Russell Stover chocolate egg for a long time now (I bought it last month right after Easter weekend when the candy was on sale), so we agreed to split it as a little snack. It's basically a small brownie covered with milk chocolate and shaped into a flat egg. It wasn't bad, but it was not quite as good as a piece of regular chocolate nor was it as good as a freshly baked brownie square.

Chocolate brownie egg

7:30PM Simmons Dining
1 piece of broiled salmon (5 oz), steamed broccoli, and a tiny bit of mashed potatoes. The salmon was actually quite good, since the broiling helped seal in a lot of the juices of the salmon. I generally find grilled salmon to be too dry and I'm not fond of charred bits. The lacking aspect was flavor. The salmon filet had not been marinated, and was not brushed with any sauces during the broiling, so while it was "clean" seafood, it was a bit bland. I got a little bit of honey Dijon mustard to go with it, but Simmons makes such a poor honey Dijon it's funny. It basically tasted like honey. Which obviously didn't go well with the fish. The broccoli was also kind of gross (why won't I ever learn with Simmons dining?), and the mashed potatoes were terribly dry and powdery, hence why I left most of it untouched.

Broiled salmon

I also got a smoothie that was made with strawberries, blackberries, mango, yogurt, and orange juice. Unfortunately, Simmons botched it again and it was really bad. In fact it started separating really fast while I was still waiting to carry the drink back out of the dining area, and the juice part tasted watered down and sour. Bad! I ditched that smoothie after drinking maybe 1/4 of it. What a waste of time and money.

12:45AM Pacific Java Cafe at Simmons
Devil's food mini-bundt cake covered with chocolate and Heath bar candy pieces. This is literally a small piece of heaven. Pacific Java microwaves it for you to melt the chocolate and heat up the cake, which makes it even more dreamy. It reminds me of molten chocolate cake, except the melted chocolate is on the outside. The Heath bar pieces also give it a really nice toffee flavor and candy crunch. Seriously delicious and indulgent…

Heath bar mini bundt cake

Saturday, May 5th – Senior Ball

11:30AM Campus – en route to Kendall Square
1 strawberry flavored Special K bar with a big gulp of water.

I went to bed at 7am this morning because I was up late writing a paper for a humanities class. I only got about 4 hours of sleep, and woke up at 11am. No time for breakfast/lunch! This is the last minute of the last minute prep work I needed to do for senior ball. I had to go to the Cambridgeside Galleria to buy jewelry and some miscellaneous senior ball supplies:

Surgical tape and blister stick

1:20PM Highlights Salon on Newbury St.
Appointment to get my hair done in an updo with my friend Karen. The stylists were really nice, and even brought me a cup of tea with honey while I was in the middle of getting my hair done. I brought in pictures of the hairstyles that I was interested in, but the stylist kind of went off and started doing her own thing. Oh well haha. It took an hour and a half to do the whole updo, but I liked how it turned out. It was a non-symmetrical updo, with a mixture of curls, pinned up sections, and even a mini-braid added for variety, and the stylist left my shorter hair in front as a soft side-swept piece to frame my face.

Senior ball hair – side view

Senior ball hair – back view

4:00PM Dorm Room
Painting my fingernails and toenails (two different shades of pink), then eating part of a salad topped with grilled sha cha (Chinese satay) seasoned chicken while waiting for the polish to dry. I didn't want to go to senior ball starving, but I also wanted to save room for the dinner which was in about 3 hours, so I ate about 3 oz. of the chicken and 1/3 of the salad greens dipped in a vinaigrette dressing made with sha cha seasoning, sesame oil, vinegar, and scallions. According to Wikipedia, sha cha sauce/paste is made with soybean oil, garlic, shallots, chilis, brill fish, and dried shrimp. Interesting, I couldn't tell from the flavor.

Sha cha chicken on salad

7:30PM The Sheraton in Copley Square
I met my boyfriend at about 6pm and he gave me my corsage. It was so pretty! We went to the florist to order the corsage and the boutonniere together so that they'd match. I got light pink roses of different sizes for my corsage, decorated with purple accent flowers and a white satin ribbon. I didn't know which dress I was wearing when I chose the corsage, so I tried to get one that would match most colors lol.

Corsage

Dinner started off at the Sheraton with a basket of rolls and a plate of little balls of butter. The bread was okay, but I was slightly weirded out by the butter balls. I prefer other butter designs much more. The little balls just seemed odd.

Senior ball dinner – rolls

Next came a salad of  baby greens, baby yellow beets, sunflower seeds, dried cherries, and a slice of goat cheese, all drizzled with champagne vinaigrette dressing. The salad was actually pretty good, I really liked the combination of sunflower seeds with the sweetness of dried cherries. The goat cheese was soft and mild, which gave the salad some creaminess to balance the vinaigrette. Even the baby beets were good, they were subtle, and reminded me of squash.

Senior ball dinner – salad

For our entree we had a choice of pork chops, baked chicken, or vegetarian napoleon. I went with the pork chops, and while it was okay, I had expected much better. The pork chop itself came as a thick chop maybe an inch or more thick. In effect, the middle was dry and difficult to cut and chew. The pork chop was topped with a little bit of bbq sauce, and some tiny fried sweet potato strings that looked more like shaved sweet potato bits than anything else. The pork had mixed vegetables on the side, including asparagus, peppers, squash, and a small carrot. You can't see it in the picture but there's a dallop of mashed sweet potatoes under the pork chop, which was creamy but infused with ginger (I dislike ginger). The dinner was served with peach and ginger chutney and beurre blanc sauce. I poured a little bit of each on my plate to see if it would go with the pork, but all I really wanted was more of the bbq sauce on the pork.

Senior ball dinner – pork chop

After dinner we got a dessert that was unfortunately very disappointing. It was supposed to be tiramisu with strawberries and raspberries drizzled with chocolate. We got a tiramisu that I wouldn't even consider a real tiramisu. It had no espresso soaked layer on the bottom! It was just a layer of marscapone sandwiched between two layers of sponge cake, then dusted with cocoa on top. Therefore, it was terribly dry for a tiramisu (though perhaps okay if I consider it just a regular sponge cake with cream), and we didn't even get the strawberries with it. For a dessert-lover like me, this was such a tragedy.

Senior ball dinner – tiramisu

Dinner was served with ice water only, and if you wanted other drinks you had to buy it from a cash bar. The menu clearly stated that we were supposed to get complimentary iced tea with dinner, but that never appeared at any point during the ball. Bummer.

1:00AM Baker Dorm 4th Floor Lounge – Senior ball afterparty, a.k.a. watching a movie, munching, playing foozball
2 drinks of peach Schnapps mixed with Mountain Dew, 1.5 powdered sugar covered crunchy round things that looked like donut holes, and a small handful of pretzels.

All in all I had a fun night, and a lot of fun prepping for the ball this past week. It was like re-living the excitement of prom all over again, except this time I didn't have parents to fuss over what I wore, who I went with, what I did, etc. I also loved seeing all my friends and classmates dressed up really nice, you don't get a chance to see that during the rest of the time at college because our formals are never quite that formal. All the ladies had such beautiful dresses in all these pretty colors! And men in tuxes make me weak in the knees :) Here are a few pictures from the ball:

Me at senior ball

Greg at senior ball

A few friends

Me and my boyfriend

Friday, May 4th

1:00PM Goosebeary's Food Truck
Cambodian seafood lunchbox: scallops, shrimp, mussels, squid, fried scrod, crabmeat, and seasoned ground chicken simmered in a savory, slightly spicy sauce with coconut milk. I actually had no idea what this dish would turn out to be like, but I wanted to get something that was seafood based. The menu doesn't list the fried scrod, but I found a big filet of it in my box haha. I nibbled on a little bit of it just to see what it tasted like,  but set it aside. The rest of the dish was actually really fantastic. It was basically like seafood stewed in this Asian sauce that reminds me of a mix between pad thai sauce and thai chili sauce. The ground chicken was in the stew also, and complemented the seafood quite nicely. I also had a small side of fresh mixed veggies on the side that helped cool off the slight heat from the dish. The lunchbox comes with a good deal of white rice that I didn't eat, but the seafood alone filled me up. So yummy! Had 3 cups of water with lunch (24 oz).

Cambodian seafood

7:30PM Baker Dining
Mediterranean chicken entree: 4 oz. of chicken breast braised Mediterranean style with olives, capers, tomatoes, and basil. Came with a side of steamed corn, broccoli, and seasoned brown rice. I was pretty tempted to get other dishes for dinner, but it was the night before my senior ball, I had to hang in there and keep eating healthy. I was pleasantly surprised by the chicken entree though. I picked off all the olives and capers on top because I dislike the taste of them, but they did in fact impart an aroma on the chicken that was braised with them. And since the chicken was braised, it was quite moist and really delicious when paired with the brown rice and vegetables. The seasoned brown rice was much more tasty that usual, reminding me of rice pilaf almost. Even my boyfriend thought it was good, and he hates brown rice with a passion. I wonder what they seasoned it with to make it so palatable. Shared a Nalgene bottle of water (16 oz).

Mediterranean chicken

Thursday, May 3rd

11:00AM Molecular Biology Lecture
1 Bosc pear, 1 medium banana, 1 Promax mini-bar. 1/2 bottle of water (8.5 oz).

3:00PM MIT Northwest Shuttle
1 Promax mini-bar. 1/2 bottle of water (8.5 oz). What's with the non-lunch today? Well I have a mixer to go to tonight at Harvard Medical School, and there's going to be dinner provided, so that means I gotta eat carefully throughout the day.

6:15PM Harvard Medical School – Toteson Building
Assorted Thai food from Brown Sugar: pad thai with shrimp and chicken, thai fried rice with chicken, assorted vegetables in coconut curry, cashew chicken with vegetables, and thai basil chicken with vegetables. I got a plate with a bit of each dish, and they were all really good. None of the dishes were very spicy, and the pad thai and the fried rice were both not greasy, which was nice. Flavors were savory-sweetish all around, which I liked, and the vegetables were not overcooked or boring. The only complaint is that the chicken was a bit monotonous. The same strips of dry white meat chicken were found in every single dish. But since it's a free meal, I still can't really complain haha. I had 2 cups of Pepsi One with dinner (14 oz). No pictures, sorry! Wasn't an appropriate place to take any, and plus it was just random food piled onto a plate, not too pretty.

12:00AM-3:45AM Dorm Room
22 oz. of water.

Wednesday, May 2nd

10:00AM Lab Meeting
1 medium red delicious apple, 1 medium banana, 1 Promax mini-bar. Aha! I got smart today and brought my own food to the lab meeting to eat instead of relying on their usual fare of bagels, cream cheese, and juice. Admittedly I was green with envy watching everyone else munching happily away at their bagels and cream cheese (I could practically taste it in my mouth), but the fact that I was sitting on the opposite side of the room as the food prevented me from having any second thoughts. Oh, well that plus my willpower, of course :P Had 2 cups of water (16 oz.) while at lab.

12:00PM Goosebeary's Food Truck
Baked swordfish with lemon and pepper (10 oz.), with a small side of mixed vegetables. No rice eaten. I usually try to stay away from food truck fish, since they usually overcook it, but today I was desperate for something healthy and not laden with salt and sauce, so I saw this swordfish special and got it. Turns out their baked swordfish is actually quite good. A little bit too peppery at times, but mostly okay, and even moist in some places. Baker dining was serving baby back ribs tonight, so I decided to eat a nice lunch to prevent myself from being too hungry at dinnertime. Have to forgo the ribs tonight :(

5:00PM Fletcher-Maynard Academy – Girls Club for Science
Today was the last day this semester that I volunteered at the Girls Club for Science in Cambridge. We had a little science fair and lots of kids came by to look at our booth, at which we had wave bottles, tornado bottles, and a preserved starfish specimen. They were all pretty fascinated by it. Afterwards the volunteers had a little celebration party with Carvel ice cream cake, and we all had a piece (I know, I know). At least the piece was pretty small… (and boy was it good! I haven't had ice cream cake in ages!)

6:30PM Baker Dining
Contents of 1 regular wrap, eaten in a lettuce wrap. The wrap had roasted turkey, roasted chicken (total about 6 oz of poultry), lettuce, tomatoes, roasted zucchini, squash, eggplant, onions, mushrooms, and red & green bell peppers. I had mustard mixed with a little bit of ketchup as a condiment for my wraps. Here are the guts of my wrap all spilled out and not looking too pretty:

Wrap spillage

Now, to rearrange them into lettuce wraps…

Lettuce wrap – version 2

Yummy! :) Drank 1 Nalgene bottle of water (32 oz.) during and after dinner.

7:30AM Dorm Room
12 oz. of water from the water fountain (bubbler lol). Staying up late to write a paper sure is tiring.