Photo experiments and three new restaurants :)

*levitate, levitate*  *float, float, float*

*turns with a swish*  Salutations earthlings.

Haha, weird?  Does it look like I'm levitating?!  :D:D:D  Just some pictures done for fun.  Pretty much just jumping off of ledges and taking a picture while I'm falling :P

Running like a weirdo!~

I had to keep my hair in a bun, or else it would look like I was actually jumping @_@  And my neighbors probably thought I was going crazy when I kept hopping around the back of our apartment, haha!  ^^''  Most of my pictures ended being like this, where I wasn't even off the ground:

Failed attempt!  *awkwardly staring at the camera* XD

Another set of photos I did for photo class was, in my opinion, a looooot of fun :)  Splash photos!  The set up?  A cup of tea or coffee and a cookie to drop from the sky~

*drop*

I like how the liquid looks like it is trying to climb out of the cup!  Very pretty ^^

Whoosh!~

Splash!

While I was outside taking these pictures, Elaine came from behind and spooked me, haha :P  I was like, AHHHH for two seconds, and then continued to play on the front porch for a while.  Again, neighbors probably thought I was being weird.  These were my favorite subjects to shoot so far!

Fallllllling

Kersplunk :3  Satisfying.

I also tried playing with a flashlight.  Another student showed a photo of his flashlight experiments in class, so I wanted to try it out too!  My environment is much more isolated though.  Instead of being outside, I secluded the session in our basement.  I want to try it outdoors in the future too :3

Random spasms of light, haha~  Had no idea what I was doing ;)

I thought it was kind of spooky to see words floating in the air :o

Of course I had to write my name too, right? XD

Guess it works well for Halloween! :D

Apparently the past weekend was Halloween weekend, which is supposed to be very crazy, but I didn't do anything like that, haha :P  Was SUPER tempted to buy a pikachu suit for Halloween before school started, but didn't end up doing it.  Haha, where would I where it to?  ^^''

But I *did* end up eating at a restaurant every single day, so that was pretty fun, haha!  I also had my very own first goldfish pet that I ended up killing on the first night.  His name was "Peach," and he was floating on his side when I woke up this morning.  Kind of shocking... It really was like pointing out which fish got the death sentence when I was choosing it at Petsmart.  Such a bad owner / fish friend T^T

~*~

Brian is ready for some nom nomming!

Lemongrass beef with spicy cucumbers and chilled sesame noodles"

I thought the cucumbers were another type of noodle, but the piece I tried wasn't spicy at all :)  Yumm!  Also, Brian said the noodles aren't cold, more like lukewarm to warm.  Which definitely made my mind in deciding that I will try this dish in the future (don't like cold dinners D:)~

Blurred shot of my "Spicy salmon with herbs and nori on vermicelli noodles"

Wow!  So delish looking, right? ^_^

Can you tell these pictures are taken with my Sony Cybershot compact?  :P  Now that I've been taking with the DSLR, I kind of see how much more grainy the compact pictures end up, although the lighting is oftentimes better than my manual adjustments!  XD

Anyhow, I've been at WashU with Bobo's on the corner of campus for three years now.  And... why have I not gone sooner?!  Omgahh, the salmon noodles were soooo good.  *licks lips*  Hehe~  The salmon was super moist and flavorful (maybe partially because I am on a salmon withdrawal?), and I was happy to get a few veggies in my diet for lunch.  The fish came in several big morsels, and I devoured all of them.  The noodles had a tinge of spiciness, but it was delightful :3  Also, if you are a nori fan, the dish is presented with only three strips of nori, so don't choose this dish if that was your primary reason!

The portion is quite large too!  If I spread out my food around the huge plate, it looked like I didn't even make a dent in my lunch XD  Good thing Brian had work and had to leave, otherwise I would have mindlessly gulped down the whole dish (the flavor was so addicting)~  But for dinner, I heated up the leftovers and was surprised that it was still a huge pile of noodles (sans salmon, which was swimming in my tummy, of course ;D)!  Brian also didn't finish his dish, and it looked like it would have made a big portioned dinner too.

I'll definitely come back to Bobo's, possibly as a once-a-week-after-working-out lunch?  It'll be my splurge on lunch.  The prices are kind of hefty here compared to a simple lunch at school; my plate of noodles was $13 without tax, but if it can be split into two meals, it's reasonable ^^  Also, the atmosphere is modern and minimalistic, my favorite type!  So that also helps make it a great dining experience.  :)

The staff is suuuuper nice too, and my water was never empty @_@  *surprised*  They asked if we needed a box to take our food back before we could call on them too!

Now I want to eat most of the menu items before I graduate :P  Bobo's, look out!-- they'll probably be seeing me there once a week now, hahaha~

Bobo's Noodle House

278 North Skinker Boulevard

St. Louis, MO 63130

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Hey, what's Debbie looking at?...

We're at Three Kings!

No wonder she's so happpppy!~

Haha, Tex came back to STL to visit, so TSO and AAA met up to eat with him ^^

Grainy pictures = using my compact camera!  Didn't feel like lugging the DSLR with me that day :P

Of course everyone met up according to TSO time =______=.  Meaning, Debra and I got there at 12:50pm, 10 minutes before the 1pm meet-up time.  Jason came around then too, but the rest of the gang didn't show until maybe 1:30pm or so!~  Ahh!  *calms down*  It's kay~  I was very happy about seeing Tex and Hien, hearing about their Pointasaurus attempt, and ordering some food!

Hien and Tex tried to take on the Pointasaurus pizza, a 10-lb. pizza challenge for two people in one hour.  They took pictures, and they were *sooo* close!  But I guess it must be pretty disgusting to look at even a few tiny slices when you have around 5 lbs of pizza stuffed in your belly... then you literally have a food baby @_@''

Here's Michael scheming evil plots~

Girl side + Hien = success!  Boy side fails XD

Cathy, Ian, and Michael

Omgah, we were so excited for food *heart*

Debra's grilled chicken sandwich looked amazing!

Okay, nicely posed photo :P  Yay everyone!  ^_^

Jason got the All-American burger~

Me?  Well, the "Three Kings" burger with sweet potato fries :3

Sweet balsamic onion relish, double-cut smoked bacon, pepper jack cheese on grilled sourdough

Doesn't that look so good?!  OM NOM NOM NOM.

I don't think it was sourdough bread, but whatever, haha~  Needless to say, half a pound of meat in one sitting = Wendy in food coma for approximately six hours.  Tex surprised us by taking THE WHOLE ENTIRE TABLE's CHECK  @_@''  Debra and I fussed for a bit to no avail, but then I guess we'll just pick up the check whenever we take TSO fambam out to eat wherever we are in the future ^^

Woah, this place's food is terrific!  Debra said her chicken was awesome and juicy, and both of us scarfed down the sweet potato fries.  Michael and I ordered the same Three Kings burger, his cooked medium, and mine cooked medium-rare.  I think I'll get well-done next time, because I forgot burgers are made of ground beef, which is more likely to be contaminated with bacteria due to greater surface area @_@''  That, and my loosely-held together patty was falling apart and mushy (very tasty though!), bad foresight on my part!  Next time!~

Three Kings Pub

6307 Delmar Blvd

St. Louis, MO 63130

Let's follow Elaine!  This would've been a good photo, had I actually focused on Elaine =_=  haha~

Same with this one... but we're at Water Street!

Elaine had a Groupon, so she invited us to go check out the place.  It's a quaint little restaurant, super small and cozy.  They utilize many walls of mirrors to make the place seem bigger, and they have an open kitchen and open bar.  I think they could, at most, squeeze in 40 or so diners; we sat six around a small round table. Anyways, I liked the atmosphere!  Everyone was older though, and again, they were more.. posh, haha~  ^^

Debra and Michael.. Notice his hair cut?!!  Excellent.  XD

Elizabeth and Anna deciding over the delicious-sounding entrees

As with Debra~

Elainey pooh and Michael

Joking around, har har :D

Obligatory candle-on-the-table picture! >:O

I was super cold, and once I hear the soup special (acorn squash? @_@), I immediately decided that it was going to find itself in my stomach. XD  It came in a large plate, and Debra and Elaine said it smelled good, but I couldn't smell it D:  The bacon really added a nice, savory flavor, and overall it was sweet.  I liked it better than Daniel's butternut squash soup from Eleven Eleven Mississippi.  HA!  Take that!  ... must have been the bacon though, haha~  Ooh, and the grilled bread was nice, but I like soup more than that type of bread :)

Acorn squash bisque with two slices of toasted baguette

When asked, Michael ordered his steak "between medium and medium-rare."  The waitress totally OK-ed it, and I didn't even know that way possible!  After cutting the steak and taking a bite, Michael confirmed that it was indeed between medium and medium-rare XD  So cool how the chef knows how to do that, and so cool that Michael can actually tell the difference :P  I only know when my steak is not too chewy, haha~  Oh, and Michael said that the steak, asparagus, and cheesy potatoes (looks like mac n' cheese) were super yummy and very filling ^^

Steak, asparagus, and cheesy potatoes

Grilled Polenta!!! 

This was what Anna, Elizabeth, and I ordered!  It consists of four or five generous pieces of grilled polenta hidden under a pile of sauteed (ish) spinach, mushrooms, and red onions.  Then all of it is sprinkled with shaved Parmesan.  If you don't know what polenta is, Elizabeth said it's very similar to grits.  I didn't have grits until I went to the Bahamas last semester, so basically polenta is cornmeal boiled down to a paste.  Once in paste form, it is grilled, fried, or baked.  I've had it at the DUC in a creamy, oatmeal-like consistency too!  It's delicious ^^  And it was my first time to have it grilled!  :D  I really enjoy the coarser texture.  Very similar to eating cornbread-- it's like eating cake, but grittier~  "Gritty" just makes it sound bad though :P

Anyhow, this dish was delish!  The veggies on top definitely made a good impression on me (haha), and the cheese slowly melted gracefully on top of it all.  And of course, how can polenta be bad??  Om nom nom!  I don't think I can eat this anywhere else~  Totally worth going to Waterstreet!

Elizabeth enjoying every bite with me, hehe ^_^b

Debra and Elaine ordered the same trout dish!

We thought the little black things left in their plates were lentils, but Elizabeth identified them as capers!  Haha, no wonder both of them thought they were so salty :P  They both said the trout was very appetizing.

So we left as a happy group to the parking lot and realized something was off.  Elaine's car was missing!  O_O  It was not parked where we had left it, and Elizabeth and I were worrying if it got stolen.  Debra and Elaine asked the manager of the nearby Church's Chicken, and we found out that there were itty bitty signs (okay, they were *small* signs!) that we didn't even see when we were looking for them.  The signs said the parking lot was a private lot, and after a phone call, Elaine informed us that they towed her car and held it hostage for $440. 

Four hundred and forty dollars?!  Ahhh!  I didn't know parking fines could be that much @_@''  But I felt really bad for Elaine, because it must be even worse than losing a wallet.  Who knew how they were treating her car and such?  We called for help and waited back at Waterstreet until Daniel came and rescued us.  

Everyone kind of sad now~

Looking glum

I'm slightly surprised Elaine didn't punch me when I took this picture, haha ^^''

Sad faces :(

Yep, so we ended up splitting the fine, resulting in a very expensive dinner outing indeed!

But I'm happy anyways :)  Elaine's car was totally okay when she got it back the next morning.  It was really nice to get together and go out to eat (something I want to do more, but everyone is always so busy ._.), Waterstreet was a great restaurant to eat at, we learned that Saint Louis parking lots are tricky, and I realized that having people to count on is wonderful when you are in need of help.  I hope we can hang out again in the future, and I'll be on the look out for tricky parking signs ;)!~

Water Street

7268 Manchester Road

St. Louis, MO 63143

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Ohh, and if you haven't noticed, it's getting cold out!~  Autumn is here, and the leaves have been changing colors.  Here are some pictures for those without pretty campuses ;)  or if you just live down South / warmer places!

This is what Autumn looks like!

Students parking their bikes in crunchy leaves~!

Gingko trees by the library

Whenever the wind blows, the leaves fly everywhere!  *gets hit in the eye*  Owww..

A wittle leaf ^^

I found him on the stairs going down to the Skinker Metro stop.  While I was sitting on the steps in strange positions taking a picture of it, a guy walks down the stairs and gives me a weird look =_=''

Okay, until next time!  -- Your photographer in training.  XOXO

HAHA  Omgawd, I have never written "xoxo" for anything, it looks so retardedly silly and cute :3