A Mix of Steak and Vodka on Friday Night

No matter how quiet or sleepy the town of Kamloops is, my day will always be fun with the presence of my Japanese and Hong Kong friends. Just last Friday, what thought to be dull evening turned out surprisingly and extremely fun when Shelley, one of my Hong Kong friends thought about preparing steak for dinner. Cindy, another friend of mine volunteered her place for our dining area that night which I thought was a nice change for once seeing that most dinners were held at my room all the while. Things got merrier when Maaya, my buddy from the land of the rising sun decided to join us; with her, was Kentaroh, another common friend Maaya and I both shared from Japan as well. To add the combo of the fun (for them), Cindy told us that we should all stay longer at her place after dinner for a couple of drinks. That made me slightly nervous as I was never a good drinker. Overall, the dinner and the alcohol party over at Cindy's place was spectacular which was what we all needed to welcome our long weekend (no school on the following Monday due to Canada's Remembrance Day).

It was 4:30pm on the Friday and I was working on my second part of my Sociology research paper, my work came to a pause when Shelley knocked on my door. Delighted to see her, I let her in before showing her the grade A steak I purchased for dinner tonight. After getting complimented for my standard of taste, Shelley unwrapped the plastic box containing steaks before seasoning them with garlic salt. Before she forget, she handed me her Nintendo DS seeing that her secondary reason for coming over to my room was to fulfill my lust for a game I was looking forward to play on her hand held game. Consequently, instead of helping her with the seasoning of the steaks, I occupied myself with her DS. 10 minutes later, Shelley told me that the steaks have been seasoned and she'll come back down again at 7:30pm. She told me to enjoy myself with her DS and don't forget to resume my research paper before leaving my room. I did listened to the part where she told me to enjoy her hand held gaming console but I guess I forgot about the "resuming my research paper" part as I continued playing until 7:30 pm.

At half past 7pm, Cindy gave me a rang and she told me to come over her room. Reluctantly, I turned off Shelley's DS and grab whole of the seasoned steak. Before, leaving for Cindy's room, I gave Shelley a call letting her know that I'll be over at Cindy's room with the steak in case she can't find me at my place. After taking an elevator ride to the 10th floor where Cindy stays, I begin my long walk to the other corner of the floor trying to look for her room. Her room's door was unlocked so I wasn't sure how to enter. I could have knock on the door letting her know that I am here; however, both my hands were occupied with the steaks. On the other hand, I thought about just entering but if she happens to be changing or putting on clothes, it would be a heck of trouble for the both of us (...well trouble only for her, but pleasure for me given the rare sight of her). Seeing that it was her place and it was an obligation to show some respect for the girl, I knocked on the door (...with my right foot, of course) hoping that she would know I am here. It wasn't long for her to welcomed me to her room. After placing the steaks on her dining table, Cindy told me that her neighbor, Adrian will be also joining us for dinner. Adrian was a Canadian born Chinese from Vancouver that I know from a paintball match I had last month in Kamloops. Usually, I will dread if there's an extra guest joining us for dinner, especially guys but I had no problem for Adrian as he was a nice guy.

As Adrian arrived, we traded greetings and got ourselves ready for the preparation of dinner. Shelley, the main chef for tonight wasn't here yet, so we didn't start the preparation. On the other hand, Cindy and Adrian began slicing those red peppers and onions they got from grocery shopping today. Seeing that I'm not proficient in kitchen work, Cindy told me to make myself at home instead. 5 minutes later, Shelley came marching with my roommate to Cindy's place with the frying pan and other cooking utensils which looked like alien technology to me given the fact that I hardly spend the time in kitchens to know the utensils. We then brought all of our cooking ingredients and kitchen utensils to the common kitchen on the 10th floor to begin cooking. Shelley brought something extra for the dinner: chicken wings with barbecued sauce, which I thought was a nice add on for dinner. As the frying pans with oil sizzled, the preparation for dinner began.

In the middle of our preparation, we all began to wonder where was Maaya. A couple of hours ago, Maaya informed us that she will meet us in the kitchen 10 minutes ago. Knowing that I wasn't doing any cooking, my Hong Kong friends dispatched me to Maaya's room on the 9th floor for some "recon" mission. As I reached the door of her apartment room, I knocked hoping that she was still in her room. As she opened the door, she greeted me and told me she was about to head for the kitchen on the 10th floor. Maaya needed me to carry her kitchen utensils, so she asked me in to start grabbing her stuff. The second I entered, Kentaroh who was hiding behind the door tried to close the door to crush and prevent me from coming in. Kentaroh was always the cheeky one who loves bullying me; he's 3 years older than us nevertheless the age gap between us wasn't a problem at all for our friendship. After grabbing on her utensils, the 3 of us marched to the kitchen to resume our preparation for dinner. Shelley was cooking the beef steaks and heating her chicken wings in the oven while Cindy was preparing shredded beef with pepper. Maaya on the other hand began preparing some Chinese dish that featured beef. Our dishes that night was mostly...beef. In the process of her cooking, Shelley accidentally dropped a piece of steak into the kitchen's sink while she was trying to transfer the meat from the frying pan to the dining plate. Knowing that one piece of beef cost me a lot, I insisted that we washed the meat with hot water before serving it. The fact that we were washing a piece of meat was simply humorous. An hour later, dinner was prepared and we transfered the meals from the main kitchen back to Cindy's place.

Before we started digging in, the girls snapped a photo of their proud work...like always. The dinner we had that night was great. The girls cooked well however we failed to finish the beef steaks. As a result, I thought about packing the steaks up and use it for dinner again tomorrow. After dinner, Maaya set up her laptop near Cindy's kitchen and Kentaroh hooked up his Play Station controller to her laptop.We played some video games on Maaya's laptop together; we challenged each other through a variety of games like Street Fighter, Mario Kart and Donkey Kong. The games weren't interesting for the most of us so it was a matter of time before we did something else. Kentaroh and I decided to wash Cindy's plate while the girls on the other hand thought about serving the internet together and looking at some photos together. Kentaroh had to leave early as the day was late and the last bus was about to leave; unlike us, Kentaroh lives somewhere else. The night was late for Kentaroh, but the night was still young for us.

Later that night, all of us were looking at Maaya's photo album in her laptop. She showed us the photos of her recent trip to Guam as well as the photos we had from the Halloween, Latin Fiesta and my trip to Vancouver with her. Most of her photos were funny and interesting and I was very surprised that all of us actually enjoyed ourselves by only looking at Maaya's photo album. Maaya later on suggested that we play O2 Jam together, consequently we took turns playing the game on her laptop. Everyone was laughing and giggling their asses off when they saw me played O2 Jam. I had several "missed" and "bad" in the beginning but I managed to get the hang of the game later on that night. After the game, Cindy then threw a drinking party by opening the bottles of alcohol she recently purchased. Everyone started digging in on the heavy booze except for me as I feared the taste of it. I asked Cindy's permission to use her laptop as I wanted to crank up some clubbing songs from YouTube to boost the environment for my friends. After getting the green light from Cindy, I opened YouTube and played the songs. They weren't exactly clubbing music but they were some "chao ah beng" rap music videos. Despite the vulgarity and the awkward rapping, everyone gathered at Cindy's laptop to view the video that I just played. Surprisingly the girls love it, especially Maaya; Cindy then cranked her thousand dollars speakers with heavy base and all of us were dancing wildly that night.

Cindy invited me to have some vodka with her but I declined her nice offer. Instead, I just asked her for "wata" (that's how the Hong Kong people pronounce "water" in their Cantonese accent). She insisted that I have "waka" (that's how they pronounce "vodka" which sounded almost like "wata") and seeing that I have to respect her (cos she's older than me), I went for it and we drank together that night. Later on in the night, we played some drinking games. We played a variety of games but everyone enjoyed "Snap" the most. We played until 2 in the morning and it was one wild night for us. After realizing the time, Shelley and my roommate dreaded as they feared they have difficulty waking up tomorrow for work. We thank Cindy for her place that night before we all left. As I was about to leave, Cindy generously gave me a box of cake and she told me to have them for breakfast later on. Confused about her generosity, I then wonder why she gave it to me only instead of the rest as well. On the other hand, knowing that I've got free breakfast, I didn't think much so I just accepted her generous gift.

Overall, the dinner and the alcohol party over at Cindy's place was spectacular which was what we all needed to welcome our long weekend (no school on the following Monday due to Canada's Remembrance Day). Despite drinking a lot to the extent that I was almost drunk, I woke up early the next day. My roommate surprisingly managed to get up early for work despite his sloppiness. Shelly, on the other hand had to call in sick for work as she couldn't wake up.

My roommate (on the far left) and me looking at how Shelley cooks the steak.

All eyes on me. How nice...We were playing video games on Maaya's laptop

Shelley took a picture of me puring vodka into my drink. Either she finds me drinking "memorable" or she's trying to snap a controversial photo of me so that she could send it to my parents for future blackmail.

Yam Seng!