Haven't been exploring the city much these past few weeks, so here are pictures of recipes I've tried lately.

Russian potato and mushroom soup. It has carrots, leeks, potatoes and mushrooms in it. Pretty sad that mushrooms are not that cheap here... The soup is thickened with milk and flour. I think probably one of the recipes I will keep repeating.

A recipe that I remembered my sister making for a college bake sale. Macaroni with tuna and corn. No need for sauce, just use mayonnaise, and serve it cold. Err...this is not my serving size. Striving for more appealing photos here.Does it look like a high class dish? (yeah, right) Should I stick in 2 mint leaves to make it look nicer, eventhough it will taste wierd? And a dash of sauce artistically smudged with a spoon?
Black pepper beef, stir-fried cabbage with carrots, and tomato soup.Not really my favourite although i think i should be eating this type of dishes more often.
Cinnamon and raisin scones. I made my own self raising flour. The recipe called for 1 cup of regular flour to 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Shouldn't have believed the salt part(maybe it's for developing the gluten or whatever they call it), but other than that the dough was good and fluffy enough.
Lasagna. Mistake of putting a layer of lasagna noodle last. It was a no-boil noodle, so you should cover it with sauce so the moisture can soften the noodle.
Leeks with cream sauce. Cream sauce is butter and flour.
Using up the rest of my mushrooms for a breakfast sandwich.
And I tried a tub of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Not a very good judge of ice cream, but I like fudge brownies and chocolate chip cookie dough. Yum.Most of the time I was digging around for the cookie dough.
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Went on an art supply price-comparison trip, and was brave enough to walk all the way to Flax, the furthest art store, which shares a fringe with the dodgy Tenderloin area. Well worth it though. If you like paper crafting, or just looking at pretty things, Flax has a humongous supply of papers, greeting cards and crafting supplies.I saw a no-staples stapler being sold, that apparently cuts off a piece of paper and sews the stack together in one punch. Also, saw a drinking straw model making kit(something like box toys) which was a total rip off, selling at a few dollars for a packet of 4 straws.Anyway, on the way back, I passed the Civic centre.

Here's the buddha statue at the Centre. The Asian Art Museum is one of the buildings surrounding the Centre.
And the city hall.
One of the really foggy mornings.This is the spot where I catch my busses.
This is my modeling classroom. Usually there are more of those modeling tables(the grey ones) but furniture in a lot of classrooms move about a lot. I've been going back a lot in the evenings, lately, it's good to draw from the skeleton since this classroom is hardly used. The buildings close around 10 pm and the bus service ends at midnight.
Some stupid posing done at 10pm after doing assignments. We have to draw groups of bones from skeletons.I wonder if the skeleton is supposed to be male or female. My biology teacher told us about the 'females having 1 rib less than males' theory which apparently is wrong. In fact, different people may have different number of ribs regardless of gender, and some ribs may be fused. I learnt this in anatomy class 8D. Different people may also have differing numbers of coccyx bones, which is your tailbone, which serves no purpose.
My desk. I'm pretty sure I won't tear the paint off the walls when it's time to shift out. Maybe that's the reason why the walls are painted in gloss paint. It's one of the very few things that make sense in the furnishing of the apartment. For instance, the toilet paper holder is right next to the shower, and the soap holder doesn't have drainage holes.
Besides that, I've been having a good time making use of the library facilities. Masters students can borrow up to 7 books for 2 weeks, which is total paradise if you compare it to what TOA has (what was it...1 book for 2 days?)It has lots of facilities like printing, scanning and paper cutting stations as well, mostly used for fashion students. Fashion students are swarming everywhere...but looking at what my roommate does for assignments, the library facilities is really important to them.

Looking through the shelves, there are a few books on my to-read list. One of them is a Sandman illustrated novel , not by Dave McKean, but by Yoshitaka Amano. Like how cool is that...if there's no Dave McKean, then Amano fits the shoes just perfect. The library has a collection of childrens' book and comics for the illustration students, and I found a book that really inspires me, James Gurney's Dinotopia.

As the way things are, the visuals are drop dead stunning, even if the story lacks a bit. The style is along the lines of the Silk Road theme, a mixture of all the best features from international traditions, plus good ideas on how everyday objects are created to suit both human and dinosaur lifestyles. This is good concept art.Really good colour sense too. It kind of inspired me in the making of the concept art for my final animation project, eventhough i think after all the endless cutting and editing to save time, none of my favourite designs were used.

The first time I saw illustrations from Dinotopia was in my childhood Highlight magazines. They use recycled paper to print on, which is slightly sepia and textured, so the Dinotopia illustrations came out really well, it looked like it really could be field sketches(they are supposed to be sketches made by a scientist stuck in Dinotopia)The actual book was on glossy paper though, which is a shame.

Just a short update. Not many pictures these past few days.

More 'freebies' from uni (this is called 'included in the price')

Sculpting tools for figure modeling class. The materials for the actual sculpture (wood, support piping, clay) were provided as well, which is pretty useful since I didn't understand what we were supposed to buy, just from the lecturer's list. Even worse since each tool comes in a gazillion sizes and slight variation of shape, not all of which are available at the art shops. Also, the clay was really heavy, something like 22kgs, in a box. I think that would be expensive, most sculpting clays are sold in those matchbox(or at most, butter block) sized cubes, with big price tags on them. Left the heavy stuff in the workshop though. Not going to take the bus lugging that with me. Good thing, though, is that the lecturer told us we can take more material from the workshop if we want to do some other projects of our own. If that's true, then the $300 lab fees is justified :)

Note: the tools given were new,and used to be clean.

Another AAU shirt. I got this one from recreation classes. So far I've gone for belly dancing and zumba (which I prefer) Zumba is kind of like a mix of various Latino dances, I think. Tried going for Indian dance on Saturday, but the instructor didn't turn up. Good thing that I live just next door, some students had to take the train down.

This is not a pink shirt, btw. It's red, and not shiny.
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Cooking update. I tried making curry carrot soup the other day(I had 3 carrots that were starting to look a bit dead, and I was craving Indian food) , but failed miserably. I'll keep in mind not to attempt any recipe with less than 5 ingredients next time. So I reused the carrot soup for another Indian dish; lentil curry rice. Which turned out quite ok (nothing like what the mamaks can cook though). The lentils really make the dish work, it turns the sauce thick. But all the same, it was a vegetarian recipe, so being the meat eater I am, I cheated and added some beef, and...jengjengjeng...oyster sauce. Seriously, that helped a lot. It's called fusion food, ok. The rice is just usual white rice, with turmeric in the water. The taste is very slight, but if it wasn't there, you would notice, I think. Also, the colour looks appetising. There were some papadams also, but that didn't work. The label says to use either a microwave oven or deepfrying, but I used just a normal oven, which was all I had. The papadams just became burnt, and not expanded. Ah well, I ate them anyway. Still tastes correct, even if the texture isn't. The curry has raisins in it, which I don't think is part of mamak cuisine, maybe it's North Indian.

Picture update starts with my hash browns. I don't think I will make it again, now trying to force myself to finish it.Imagine the hash browns from McD's, which is golden and crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. This is not it. I think the main reason may be because this one's baked, and McD's one might be fried...

On the other hand...I want to make carrot cake.

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Anyways, the other day, I went to Campus life and events' office, looking for an AAU shirt, which all new students get. And when I reached there, the staff also gave me one of these. The AAU portfolio and pencil bags. I think they will come in useful for putting my oversized papers for anatomy class.
And the AAU shirt. My camera has an issue with the colour red. It turns red into pink whenever there's too much of it.
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Yesterday, I went to Fisherman's Wharf with Mandy. Mostly to see the historical ships on display, but for me, it was also to sample the well known food of San Francisco. Everyone says that when you are here, you must eat 3 things: Ghirardelli's chocolate, Ben and Jerry's ice-cream, and clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl.

This one's the clam chowder. I liked the clam chowder, but the main part of the meal was the sourdough bread. Maybe it's an acquired taste, but it got a bit overwhelmingly sour towards the end. The outside is tough, which may have been necessary to contain the chowder, but not a plus when it comes to taste.
Some animal shaped sourdough bread being made at Boudin's bakery. The kitchen has a glass window so visitors can see how the bread is made. Another good thing is that this means they have to be very hygienic when making the bread. No picking your nose and then kneading the bread with the same unwashed hand, please.

The Hyde St. Pier historical ships on display. There were several different types of ships on display, but only 2 were open at the time, this merchant ship with sails (the Balclutha), and another one which looked like a steamboat(the Eureka). The entry was $5, but the good thing is that it's valid for 7 days, so you can visit the ships at leisure.
Golden Gate Bridge in the fog
One of the rooms in the Balclutha.
The galley.
Stairs to the deck.
They had this programme for kids as well. The kids pretend to be ship crew members, while actors in costumes order them around. It would be fun if they rented costumes to go with that, especially for Halloween or something.
The Eureka housed a collection of antique cars. Pretty cute...they should revive this style of cars.
And then later, on to Ghirardelli Square, which has their chocolate shops and cafes, as well as other eateries. What most people do is just go into the shops, get their free sample of chocolate, and leave without buying anything. Their chocolate is really good though. Shared this waffle cone ice cream with melted chocolate, with Mandy. I don't think 1 person can finish it.
Only thing left to try is the Ben and Jerry's ice cream, but that can be bought from anywhere.

Last picture: The F line electric busses run by MUNI along Fisherman's Wharf. The busses were imported from all over Europe and America. Quite cute, retro vehicles.
Oh yeah, an this, the Bushman. We laughed at people getting scared by the not-so-realistic bush, but then we fell for that later on ourselves, because you don't pay so much attention to things outside your peripheral vision, until it goes "Boo"at you. This guy's got a Wikipedia page

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Classes started today. My first class was Anatomy, a 6 hour class (ok, 5, if you minus lunch break, but still...) The bus ride there itself was a bit of an event. The uni provides free bus shuttle services between uni buildings and dorms, since they are scattered all over the city, but they are very crowded. So, sometimes you'd have to stand in the bus. The bus railings are really high up, you might as well have to grab hold of the ceiling to steady yourself (although strangely, I don't think Americans are much taller than us) So imagine the bus is moving, right. It breaks and starts very jerkily. And San Francisco is a very hilly place. And you have to carry a bigass portfolio bag, containing the drawing board nicknamed The Castrator. Nice ride. Too bad my classes are so far away, so walking is not an option.

The class size I guess, was about 15 people or so, from different majors and different semesters. Lots of animation students there though. Generally I think AAU has a lot of Fashion and Animation students. And a lot of Chinese and Korean students too. The funny thing is that, since we are Masters students, everyone comes from different backgrounds. Some have never studied art, they took maybe science or business for their undergraduate course and switched to art just this semester. Then there are those who have been working for years, and are just here to polish their skills before returning to work again. Personally I'm glad that there are some people to be a bit of a noob with me. I think I will have a kiasu breakdown if everyone is a 50 year old Korean who has worked in the Animation industry for the past few decades...

So far, pretty pleased with the class. I've taken anatomy in TOA before, but this one is more detailed. TOA's was like blocking in shapes, and this one is those types that are so detailed, you know the names of the bones. But mostly you'd have to study from your own book, the class is just to explain it clearer. And yes, naked models for live drawing. Which some of you probably think is going to be exciting. Only thing is that they are not going to be hiring swimwear models to pose, but everyday people with various things sagging in an unsightly (but more realistic) manner. Oh well...now I don't feel so bad about my body anymore.

Also, tried out belly dancing classes today. The uni provides free recreational classes and facilities to the staff and students, which is especially good for me, since the building with most of the activities is just next door. No traveling in the night time in the bus with sweaty clothes. They have dance classes(modern, Broadway, belly dancing, Zumba), fitness classes(cycling, weights, yoga, rowing) and self defense classes (Judo and Aikido) as well as a gym and pool. Apparently, this weekend there will also be Bollywood dancing, so that sounds interesting. And you wouldn't have to commit to one, so I can try them all out.

The belly dancing was 1 1/2 hours, but it felt quite short. Not that easy to learn though. I think I probably have 2 left feet. Especially when the class is so crowded and you can't see what the instructor is doing, you end up trying to copy the person in front of you instead. Only thing I would be uneasy about though, are the cheerleader type students. There you are in your most convenient clothes and slightly tousled hair, and there they are in perfect makeup and nice clothes with an upturned nose. See...this is why so many of my friends are geeks :) People with a little spare tyre ,some blemishes and imperfect skills with makeup are the best ones to be friendly with.