i went to downtown crossing in the early afternoon to meet up with jawei and suhan after their class to take them to the new england aquarium. i got there a little early so i ate a hot dog and hung out in boston common for a while. i saw jawei standing outside the classroom with a bunch of his international classmates. i chatted with a japanese girl who asked me how long i've lived in boston. "25 years," i said as her jaw dropped. i asked if she liked boston, and she couldn't find the right english words so i told her to say it in japanese. she said something like "asobijanai," which even with my very limited japanese i knew she said boston wasn't fun. later jawei told me she's a karaoke girl, going to k-bars every night back in japan.

since neither of them had lunch yet, we decided to go to wendy's. my eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach when i instinctively ordered the number 6 spicy chicken combo. i finished everything but i was stuffed. from there it was a short stroll to the aquarium. i had my discounted vouchers from the library so the tickets were just $6 each instead of the usual $16 for an adult non-member. as soon as we went inside an aquarium photographer asked if he could take our photos. oh, but of course! who wouldn't want a photo of the three of us, maybe to be used in a future publication of some sort! but i quickly realized it was one of those gimmicky things where later when we leave they'll have our photo in some sort of commemorative aqarium plate or something. so this is what the cash-strapped aquarium is doing in order to generate more revenue!

we started with the jellyfish exhibit first. i was proud to let the guys know i coded the jellyfish game, and was pleasantly surprised to see a family fully immersed in the interactive experience. jellyfish are just so beautiful, i wish i could raise some at home. if you think fish are relaxing, wait until you see jellyfish in action, they're the ultimate zen animal. i want a huge widescreen tank of floating jellyfish, and instead of watching television, i'd just what that. seeing them pulsating and slowly drifting around seemingly makes all my worldly problems disappear.

next we went inside the aquarium itself, and everyone sort of just went their separate ways. jawei and suhan were fascinated by the penguins, which i think are just smelly birds. i slowly made my way up the spiral, drinking in all the exhibits. coming in there were all these posters for a special sharks exhibit, but actually it's just an interpretive exhibit, no real live sharks (i don't think the NEA have anymore money to buy more sharks). they give you a little passport and you can go to the various stations to get special shark stamps. i just got the whale shark one (my favorite shark).

since it's a weekday, the aquarium wasn't very crowded. it didn't seem to impress either jawei or suhan though (i heard taiwan has better aquariums, being an island nation), both going through the whole aquarium in about an hour. i actually thought the 3 hours we had before closing time wasn't enough! but i went through the whole place in about an hour as well. having visited the NEA, i want to visit the monterey bay aquarium in california because i've heard good things. maybe i might cash in some frequent flyer mileage and get a ticket so i can check it out one weekend. later we walked along the pier towards south station, getting a chance to see the animated walking man exhibit. we went to chinatown so i could get some snacks at one of the supermarkets, before we grabbed the subway back to cambridge. my mother and aunt came over and we made dinner, linguine in spicy clam sauce.

and i won't say anything about the red sox's performance tonight. all i know is i could be released from baseball's spell as early as friday night.