restraining angst. happy things. amusing things.

apparently there is a hindu belief that one must not eat anything during an eclipse. there's a lunar eclipse today. so between 630pm and 830pm we're not allowed to eat anything. so i prepared for two hours of hunger by eating a slice of fullerton chocolate cake (yum) and french fries (not usually a big fan of fries but these were the frozen kind that you fry at home and taste very good) and a slice of apple (my mother made me.) oh and the cake had a blueberry and a slice of strawberry in it. so i ate the blueberry and gave the strawberry slice to my brother. i hate strawberry. it's so alien-looking and sweet.

my mother's friend is appalled that i hate fruit, and told me that my non-consumption of fruit might be a major cause of my skin problems. therefore the blueberry and slice of apple. which is hardly anything, really. sigh. must force self to like fruit. another item for post-As agenda. maybe find some kind of fruit buffet and find a fruit that i like. i'm quite ok with watermelon, if it didn't have so many icky seeds. i hate seeds of any sort. apple is the only fruit i like to be really sweet. bananas are tolerable. but the thing is i'd never voluntarily eat fruit. it's always my mother going "you must eat fruit" and shoving a banana or a few slices of apple at me.

i love fullerton chocolate cake. it's one of the best cakes i've ever had. perfect mix of sponge and mousse. and i love people who bring me cake. my mom's cousin brought us the cake when he came for dinner last night. he is a very interesting guy. he lives in dubai and always tells us amusing stories about the people in dubai. like how the arabs drive cars as if they're riding camels. with one leg up on the dashboard. and they get really special privileges. it sounds v amusing. argh i can't say a lot of the stuff he said cos i'm afraid it might be considered racist or inflammatory or something and all the racist blogger stuff is kinda ridiculous and scary so i'll just keep the amusing stories to myself.

the social structure in dubai is interesting because the arabs are the only citizens, and they're only 10% of the population -- most of the rest is indian. and theres'about 10% each of europeans and africans. actually native arabs is only 5% but they naturalised a lot of yemeni tribes and jordanians etc in order to make the population of citizens larger. it's quite fascinating that it's a country basically like a landlocked version of singapore, with a 90% (or 95%, really) immigrant population, ie the natives are the minority. and according to my uncle it's developing in a similar fashion to singapore. except that there's a very very clear social/professional hierarchy according to race but for some reason nobody contests it. maybe partly because everybody who isn't a citizen doesn't even get permanent resident status so if they do anything that the government doesn't like they just have their visas revoked and get deported. i could draw a lot of parallels but again given the public nature of this portal i will keep my opinions to myself.

i am rather annoyed by the self-censorship that we are increasingly having to engage in on blogs/LJs etc.

depending on university application status in december we might visit dubai and maybe go from there to jordan or kenya or something. my mom's been wanting to go to egypt for a long time but it's apparently not v safe now. :( if all these things don't work out i'll be india again. i want to go to LA on the 10th of december. there's one of those supersuper denim sales. dream shopping spree. not just denim but lots of Grail and tees and stuff. gotta go shopping in LA.

oh talking about travel -- my uncle had an interesting story to tell about his trip to peru with his wife sometime earlier this year. they took a flight to cusco which is in the mountains really high up in the andes, and it's so high that the altitude sickness can be pretty bad. so when they got there they were given "cocoa tea" to ease the altitude sickness, and they felt really Zen after they drank it, so they asked what was in it. it was actually cocaine tea! so they were basically high, both literally (cos they're on a mountain, y'know) and uh.. physiologically? emotionally? whatever. So Cool. i want to go to cusco and drink cocoa tea. i mean, a legit reason to get high is always good, right? maybe kate moss would like a trip to cusco. but apparently she's checked herself into one of those fancy celebrity rehab places in arizona. so she's going to be Good now.

and they also went to cancun before that, at the same time that all the college kids were there for spring break. my parents were also in cancun around spring break last year. so my family has officially ruled out my heading to cancun during any of my spring breaks, because they have seen the craziness that goes on there. =( i think i will be forced to go to my other uncle's place in scarsdale and babysit or something. i like my cousins and the new one's bound to be just as adorable, but argh. relatives in close proximity means aparna will never be free. unless, of course, my uncle can get me well-paying internships at jpmorgan. that'll be worth it. and lunchtime in manhattan can therefore translate to shopping time. bleecker street! marc jacobs! marni! saks!

i shall go off now and continue building magnificent, elaborate castles in the air. happy now.
should also go dream up formal outfit for tomorrow's interview.