woke up late, past noontime, but only because i was up late last night uploading some more photos (a bunch of taiwan pics, and a bunch of myanmar images as well, use the navigation on top to visit the older may 2005 entries to see the photos). i could hear my upstairs neighbor moving about, whom by now should be unemployed as well, just like me (he told me before i left back in february). while he was outside working in the garden, i was strictly anti-social and stayed indoors, watching some tv, eating some leftover pizza. i don't think i'm jet lagged but i feel sort of runned down, and it doesn't take me long to fall asleep. when i close my eyes, southeast asia flashes before my eyes, but i don't i'll wake up thinking i'm still in taipei. as much as i'd like to just take a while to re-adjust, there's a more important thing i have to do, which is to find a job before my bank account goes empty, which i think might be sooner than expected since the mysterious disappearance of my roommate.

i left the house to go meet up with julie. boston is experiencing a mini-heatwave of sorts, several days of 80's degrees weather. while this may be great for the natives, i came back hoping for something much cooler. there were hot days on my trip when i would've done anything to see some snow, that's what kept me going when the temperature soared well above 100 degrees. so it's disappointing to be back and find my hometown just as warm. at least it's cool inside the house. walking to the subway station i noticed two things: very few asians, and people dress less conservatively. i mean, i've seen people go swimming with their clothes on in southeast asia, and i come back, and i'm suddenly bombarded by halter tops and miniskirts, and because the weather's been so warm, it's probably even worse, although i'm not complaining, just something i noticed.

i met julie inside the station, riding the last train. we went to the south end to attend a free lecture about some local architects who're recycling big dig materials and building houses with them. it's a pretty cool idea, and there's all sorts of advantages with using the much stronger steel beams formerly used for the I-93 eleveated highway, but in hindsight there should've been a program right from the start of the big dig to preserve the materials being torn down, since much of it now has been thrown away, only so many buildings can be built with the remaining materials.

the lecture was held in a designer furniture store, and there was some pretty good food (if you consider different kinds of cheese and fancy meat good food). after the presentation, we walked down to chinatown, an ominous dark cloud looming overhead, but since the hancock weather beacon wasn't flashing any sort of distress signal, we figured it was safe, at least for now.

to the noodle alcove we went, i had the classic beef noodle soup, while julie went with her pan fried favorite. afterwards we left, only to realize that by now there was some serious rain action outside. fortunately i always carry an umbrella, and tonight i had my special automatic umbrella purchased in japan back in february. we made it to south station with a minimal amount of soakage and rode the subway back home. there was a moment of awkwardness when julie saw a woman wearing the exact same patterned top, but there was no ensuing cat fight. i caught the end of the rain-delayed red sox game when i got back, finally sox finally taking a victory from the cardinals.