Last day: friends and a light show

I woke up at 6am to eat breakfast before going to the biochemistry final.  It was still dark outside, and it reminded me of my high school days when we went to 5:45am swim practices before school started.  …  how did I survive? @_@

Well, 4 hours later at 10am, we were done with the test!! :D  Wilbur, Jerry, Debra, and I found another at the library and grieved over possible test questions missed (darn you glycosylation!!), and then we walked across campus from McDonnell to the Village to use the Metro or something, but then we decided to walk back to Whitaker back to the other side of campus to hop into Wilbur’s car.  The plan was to go to Bubble Tea, but we ended up going to City Coffeehouse and Creperie in Clayton for lunch!

We walked in for lunch a little after 11am, so it wasn't *super* crowded and busy as usual.  Plus, it was a weekday!  We stared at the menu for 10 minutes to decide what to eat.  Debra and I had been here twice before and got sweet crepes, so we decided to get a savory one this time!  Wilbur and Jerry also got savory crepes too.

Extensive and beautiful menu!

OoOooOoooh~~  :D  haha ^^

We each received a number after ordering, and I got 18!  Yayyy, close to 17, my favorite age ^__^  Debra was even "younger" than me at 16, and Wilbur was 21, while Jerry was an oldie-- 28!  :P

Wilbur and Debra!

Smileyyyy ^^v

Debra attempting to make Jerry smile at the camera!

Got all three lunch buddies :D

Wilbur's "The Brittany" crepe came first!

His was special, since he had the only yellow plate.  Notice how massive these are?!

Love sitting in the little greenhouse area-- beautiful lighting~

I ordered the "Shady Oaks"-- chicken, spinach, mushrooms, honey-dijon mustard..  Delish!

While Debra and I were waiting for our crepes, Wilbur and Jerry didn't start eating o_o  *amazed*

... but I bet he was tempted :3

I like this picture of Jerry!  It's a very natural and happy picture of him ^^

Here are my many attempts to make Jerry smile at the camera!~

Almost done with the crepe!

City Coffeehouse & Creperie

36 N Brentwood Blvd
St Louis, MO 63105

Lunch was super yummy, nom nom nom!  The boys dropped Debra and me off at the apartment, and we both lounged around doing nothing for approximately 5 hours.  Haha, seriously!  Later, Wilbur came over to give us Christmas presents.  They were wrapped very neatly!  Wooow, haven't had that pre-December 25th presents since high school ^_^  He said they were the same but different colors: purple and blue.  Then Debra asked him to check to make sure I didn't receive the purple one.  Haha!  Thank you Debra :)  *dislikes owning purple things*  I told them I would save opening it for Christmas day, since I don't get presents and stuff at home, but Debra wanted to open hers right there and then, so I ran to my room and told her not to tell me what it was.  I did laundry, and Debra went back to school to do some business.  We both suffered from food sluggishness! *ooze ooze*  Also, we were both burned out and didn't feel like doing anything.  *Bruno Mars' lazy song here!*

David texted people asking if they wanted to go join him for dinner at The Gumbo Shop, and Debra and I were both up for it!  Josh was almost done with his Exposition final paper, so he joined us too, but everyone else was busy or couldn't make it.  We arrived there at 7:40pm, and the restaurant closed at 8pm, so we were all in a rush.  

Run, run as fast as you can!

Actually, that's David running towards the shop right after he got out of his car :P  When we walked in, there was only one group of patrons finishing up their meal, but as we were poring over the menu, two more people came for take-out orders.  The employees were young, either our age or perhaps still in high school (the girl was wearing a high school sweater) and friendly.  I asked if they came from Louisiana, and they said they weren't, but the previous owners were from New Orleans.  After they retired back to New Orleans, the restaurant still uses the same recipes.

The shop was decorated with cute signs and lots of nautical stuff that supposedly transports patrons to a bit of New Orleans?  The napkin holders were in the shape of boats!  Cute!  Debra says they look like Japanese sushi boats.  Do you agree?  ._.

We ended up eating in the establishment, even after they turned off their "Open" neon light sign.  I didn't feel as bad when the owner sat down at a table and began eating dinner himself.  They were super friendly about everything, asking us how the food was and even pouring water for Josh!  :)

Before the food arrived, David was educating Debra and Josh about Tabasco sauce and how Tabasco is a brand and not the type of sauce.  Apparently Tabasco also makes soy sauce!

Haha, Debra looks confuzzled~

:D

The food was served in styrofoam plates with plastic utensils on a plastic tray, but the food was delicious!  (Notice how I say everything is delicious? ^_^"')  I've never had jambalaya before, so I ordered blackened roughy on a bed of jambalaya.  I don't eat fish very often at school, so I really enjoyed eating that.  I also like "blackened" stuff!  And instead of sausage, the Gumbo Shop used meat that's somewhat similar to the meat used in the Chinese sticky rice things (粽子, zong zi).  Really interesting!  Each plate came with sauce, tartar for fish and cocktail for shrimp, a lemon slice, and warm slices of French baguette bread.  Although the portions seemed small, since 2 of the 3 sections of the plate were filled with condiments, I was really full after finishing the meal.

David's fried shrimp

My blackened roughy!  (that's a type of fish)

Debra and Josh thought the food was too spicy for them, and David said it wasn't spicy at all.  I think I have a mild tolerance for spiciness, and the food was just spicy enough to enjoy without drinking too much water ^_^  *nom nom nom*

"Ooh!"

The door inside the restroom said "Door sticks, push hard."  So when I tried to get out, I pushed hard and it didn't budge.  So then I tried again and still no luck!  I thought I didn't turn the lock yet, so while I was fiddling with that, one of the employees opened the door for me from the outside, smiling.  Haha ^___^"  Durr..  I felt silly.  The store owner looked up from his dinner and made a joke about locking in pretty girls in there.  Haha, so funny!  He knows how to flatter his customers to make them come back :P

Anyways, I just wanted to highlight how super nice the store owner and employees were, especially since we rudely stayed long after closing hours.  And I thought the food was delicious!  I'd gladly come back for another meal (although it is lacking in vegetables, nyuuu!~) some other time, especially with good company! ^^

The Gumbo Shop

9501 Manchester Rd
St. Louis, MO 63119

On the way back, we passed a park that was dressed up in Christmas lights!  Debra was super excited, and we were all curious.  You were supposed to drive your car through the park instead of just walking, so we looked for the end of a looooong car line that stretch on for a bajillion miles!  Eventually, David pulled out his Fast & Furious car driving skills and did a slightly illegal U-turn to cut in line (but it was near the end of the line).  When he did it, it was super slow, and Debra, Josh, and I were all freaking out and going "Ahhh, ahhh, ahh!"  Haha :3 so funny!

Ooh, a park in lights!

While we were waiting in line, Josh told us a story about a chestnut... which eventually got eaten by a squirrel.  :'( bad ending!  David put on Christmas music, and just talked about random stuff.  David showed his caller ID picture for my number, and it was a picture he took at lunch after we went swimming that week.  So unflattering!  It's like I'm scratching my leg/butt or something.  -_-''  But when we saw it, we were all laughing, so I just had to share :)

Whyyyyyy?

The light show lasts from November 23rd to January 1st, so I wonder how many people visited/will visit.  I kind of thought the fact that people go in their cars is very environmentally unfriendly, but it's so cold in St. Louis, so who would visit and walk around in temperatures below freezing? :o

At last, we're here!

There were also horse carriages!  People were settled in the back and snuggled up with blankets.  Very cute and picturesque ^^  They waved "hi" to us!  And I wave back, taking their pictures when they passed. 

Light tunnel up ahead!

Everyone was driving super slowly to enjoy the scenery~

Like these light-up Christmas trees!  Blurry >_<''

Inside!  It's like seeing little meteorites slowly float pass you ^^

They also played Christmas music in the park

Which sometimes didn't match the mood!  :P

Animated Santa Clause blowing onto a field of light-up trees

I spy reindeer!

Which one's your favorite?

He didn't have a red nose though :O

A lot of these were animated.  This one's of a fish jumping in a wavy pond!

Quack, quack~

There was so much to see that I began to wonder how long it took to string these up...

And how much it costs to keep the lights on!  But there are a lot of visitors!

They look like ghost horsies @_@

Then David just had to comment that the lights on the trees looked like protein structures -______-'' haha

Ouch!  A bear sitting on a spiky creature and another playing with a yo-yo (so random >w<)

:)

^_^

It's Henney the hippo!

All the horses were massive, beautiful creatures!  *amazed*  I want to play with one!

Before heading back home, we stopped by Orange Leaf, the frozen yogurt place near Schnuck's.  I had a Living Social coupon worth $10, my first Groupon / Living Social thingie-ma-bob!  David's and my yogurts cost about $3ish each, but since Josh and Debra's yogurts weighed more than it covered, it was $5.50-ish more than the Groupon.  Haha, they sure like their ice cream / froyo ^^

I like their hazelnut flavor a lot ^_^  Too bad it's seasonal!  Another holiday flavor, English Toffee, was pretty good too, but I got the peanut butter, tart, and hazelnut flavors <3  When I told David I didn't like toppings, the Orange Leaf employee laughed and said, "She doesn't like toppings!"  ... haha, what is that supposed to mean?  I'm a frozen yogurt purist! :P  Well, the truth is that I'm too lazy to chew extra things when I'm eating ice cream or frozen yogurt.  

And another question to ask yourself:  Do you chew your ice cream?  Or just suck on it until it melts?  Bet you can't answer that without thinking first ;)

And the night ended with David dropping us off at the apartment.  I had a lot of eggs left, so I looked up random recipes online and ended up making brownies and blondies.  Since I didn't realize we had brown sugar (Debra told me the morning after!), I sort of made up the recipes for the blondies, so I'm sure it didn't end up the way it was supposed to be!  Instead of a brownie-like texture, it ended up being something of a dense cake.  But at least I used up the most of my eggs, made treats for everyone, and a non-chocolate treat for Josh.  :D

I took a shower at 2am, and went to sleep wearing the panda hat Debra gave me.  She told me it wouldn't mess up my hair if it was still wet!  Haha~  When I woke up the next morning, the back of my head was perfectly nice, but the front was like *bloop??*  Haha, Debra also had a new hairstyle!

I ate breakfast, packed up my things, and talked a bit with all three girls :)  That was nice!~  David came to take me to the airport at 10am, and I hugged Elaine, Anna, and Debra before taking my leave.  Elaine and Anna said the way Debra and I hugged (attacked one another) was like we were little kids.  David said it looked like a mating ritual.  HAHA  XD

David and I had a nice conversation on the way to the airport about random stuff, and we were there in no time.  He said it only takes 10 to 15 minutes to get there, but I thought it took half an hour when I used to take the taxi to school.  :o  Maybe it was just because I had David to talk to so it seemed shorter?

Anyways, I'm glad this semester was over!  :D  I definitely needed a hiatus back at home to unwind physically and emotionally.  Most of the kids at WashU are still studying hard, so good luck to them-- break is so close!  I really missed my parents too!~  When the plane landed in Houston, the pilot said the temperature was 67F!!!  (although it was unusually warm that day!)  Walking out into the sunshine was awesome.  More about my first weekend back next time!

I feel like the number of exclamation marks in my posts has increased.  But you'll just have to deal with that, because I am just so happy!!  ^__^