Shortly after my 3 weeks holiday in Malaysia, here I am back in Kamloops, the Silent Hill of British Columbia. Like me, most of my Hong Kee and Japanese friends have return and I'm glad to see them again as I miss them a lot. Nothing much has happened throughout my return to Canada. School has started and it is the second week of Canada. Everyone seems to be busy with their class schedules since they have 5 classes unlike me where I only have 3. I haven't been seeing Cindy and Maaya that often compared to last year as they are always overwhelmed with their work. Most of the time when I invite them over for dinner, they have no choice but to turn down my invitation as they have to catch up with their school work. Come to think about it, I feel a bit guilty as I realize that I am not as hard working as them. Fortunately for me, my best friend Shelley manages to spare some of her time with me despite her busy school schedule. Since it has been a while I had dinner with Shelley, I thought of inviting her over for dinner with me and my roommate on a Friday night. It so happened that I brought back some chicken rice stock from Malaysia, so I suggested that we had Hainanese chicken rice for dinner. Excited to try a Malaysian dish, my roommate and Shelley of course agreed with my suggestion. Shelley told me to invite Maaya and Cindy as well for dinner which I was reluctant initially since the both of them are always busy with their work. Conversely, I did invited the both of them but initially, they said that they had to see if their workload permits them. Knowing that at the end of the day, they would eventually decline my invitation like always so I didn't really expected much from them. Last Wednesday, as I was walking back from my Economics class, I bump into Maaya's Japanese friends, Kentaroh and Yoshitaka; seeing that it has been a while since we talk to each other, I invited the both of them over for the upcoming dinner on Friday. Later on that day, Maaya informed me that she and Cindy will be able to make if for dinner. The following day, Cindy informed me that she will be bringing her Chinese friends Eric and Edison along. What thought to be a small dinner with my roommate and Shelley turned out surprisingly to be a big dinner . As old friends reunite with one another again, the dinner was more like a welcome back dinner instead of a casual one. The welcome back dinner 3 days ago was great as I managed to spend some quality time with my friends.
Last Friday after my Economics class, I went back to my apartment to take a short rest. Knowing that Yoshitaka, will be arriving at 2pm, I had approximately half an hour to rest before welcoming him to my place. I thought of having lunch initially as I was hungry but since I recently purchased Kane & Lynch: Deadmen for my Play Station 3 which I thought was a very good game, I immediately forfeited my lunch and gamed on. After half an hour of shooting cops and killing gangsters in the game, I realized that Yoshitaka was waiting for me in the lobby of my apartment (guests are not allowed to proceed any further into the student rooms in my apartment until the student occupant signs them in at the front desk). I immediately paused my game and dashed to the elevator only to discover that my roommate (who also knows Yoshitaka) brought him up. Pleased to have Yoshitaka around, I invited him into my place without wasting any more time. As he entered my room, he was amazed with the sight of my Play Station 3 displayed next to my TV. Yoshitaka has always been a fan of video games especially the Play Station and the fact that his eyes glittered the moment he saw the black video game console in my room, I knew it was his aspiration to test out the Play Station 3. Being generous and considerate, I welcomed him to use my Play Station 3. He started off playing Time Crisis 4, and I taught him a few rules and tips of playing the game; Yoshitaka that day was hooked onto my Play Station and I could tell that he really enjoyed it. An hour later, Kentaroh came over and he joined us. Like Yoshitaka, he tried Time Crisis 4 but the fact that he lost a lot of times during the game indicated that Time Crisis was not his type. Half an hour later, Cindy called me and told me to meet her at the apartment lobby in 5 minutes time for grocery shopping for the dinner that night; immediately, I informed my Japanese friends that we need to get ready for grocery shopping.
Later on that day at the lobby, Maaya joined us. She was glad to see her Japanese friends joining us for dinner. As Cindy made her way to the lobby, Maaya introduced her Japanese friends to her. After the brief introduction of smiles and "hi"s we marched to the nearest bus stop to take a bus ride to the grocery lot. After reaching the grocery lot, we grabbed a trolley and began our shopping. Yoshitaka and Kentaroh thought of adding another dish for dinner, so they went and grab the essential ingredients. Like the Japanese, Maaya and Cindy wanted to cook a dish respectively, therefore they hunted for food ingredients as well. As for me on the other hand, I just got a couple of soft drinks and chicken meat for the dinner. Unlike everyone else, I didn't buy a lot. After an hour and a half of shopping, we walked back to the apartment with our grocery shopping bags. The moment we reached the apartment, the girls went back to their room to sort the items they bought. MyJapanese friends and I on the other hand went back to my room and continued gaming instead of sorting our groceries.
Yoshitaka wanted to try out my copy of Call Of Duty 4. After setting up the game, I demonstrated the controls and regulations of the game by playing a random mission in the game for them. The Japanese especially Yoshitaka were totally amazed, with the photo realistic graphics of the game. The both of them traded comments in Japanese about the game alternately after every 5 seconds while I was demonstrating the game for them. Although I could not understand a word of what they were saying I was certain that those were very good comments about the game. As I completed a mission of the game, I restarted the mission again before passing the controller to my Japanese friends.
A few minutes later, Shelley knocked on my door. After letting her in, we started cooking the rice and slicing the chicken meat for our chicken rice dinner. My roommate came in not long after that and informed us that Cindy and Maaya have started cooking at the common kitchen on the 2nd floor; I was glad that most of us started preparing dinner as my stomach was growling in hunger. It was not long before my Japanese friends decided to let my Play Station rest and start preparing dinner. Everyone of us were at the common kitchen preparing dinner. I, on the other hand was at the kitchen as well but I did not help out with the preparation as I lacked the knowledge of cooking. However, I volunteered myself to wash the cooking utensils and the plates seeing that I felt guilty of not helping out in the kitchen. An hour later, Cindy's friends, Eric and Edison joined us; unlike the most of us who were preparing dinner, the duo's from Taiwan and China bought a couple of dishes for us from the Chinese restaurant nearby. Eric who missed teasing and bullying me didn't waste anytime on me while Edison on the other hand couldn't wait any further to have himself entertained by Eric's mischievous. An hour later, dinner was prepared and we were all impatient to dig in. We brought the food to the common lounge on the same floor and started feasting on the meal we prepared.
Dinner that night was great. All of us traded conversations and jokes with one another and it seems that it has been a while since all of us gathered together for dinner. We weren't only entertained by each other's presence at the dinner table but also a television which was located at the lounge where we had dinner. It so happened that the old Japanese game show Takeshi's Castle (dubbed in English which made it sound horrible) was played on TV that night. Watching the humorous act of the show's contestants added the fun and joy for dinner that night. In the middle of our dinner, one of us cracked some dirty joke which prompted us the idea to switch the TV's channel to the X-rated channel (yeah, there is porn on Canadian public TV every Friday night). Since the girls didn't object our crude behavior (which wasn't any surprise if you really get to know them), they didn't mind, instead they encouraged us to switch to the X-rated channel. Eric who was always fond of teasing me then suggested me to walk to the TV and changed channel. Initially I was reluctant to do it but as Eric prompted everyone to cheer for me to switch channel, I eventually did. All of us (even the girls) were then screaming and laughing in excitement as we watched the sexual displays on TV; on the other hand, I felt slightly awkward. After realizing that there was a security camera in the common lounge which could see what we were watching, I immediately warned everyone before changing the channel as I feared that the staff at the front desk working in front of the security TV screen might perceived us wrongly. After hitting the next channel, there was wrestling on TV so I thought it would be a better alternative. As the night was getting very late, we felt tired and it was obvious that we had to call it a day. After wishing each other good bye and thanking one another for attending the dinner, we cleaned up the common lounge and washed the dishes before retiring to our room.
The welcome back dinner 3 days ago was great as I managed to spend some quality time with my friends. Not only did I spend quality time with my usual friends but I also managed to further my friendship with my Japanese friends whom I haven't seen for quite some time. Hopefully there would be more dinner gathering in the future as events like this only bring us closer together. May the welcome back dinner of early 2008 mark a long lasting friendship among all of us.
(From top left to right, followed by bottom left to right): Kentaroh, Eric, my roommate, Yoshitaka, Edison, Maaya and Cindy.
(Left to right) Yoshitaka and Kentaroh. Two hilarious dudes from the land of the rising sun.
My best friend, Shelley
Switching to the X-rated channel due to popular demand. Don't ask me what's on the TV screen and don't bother looking closely at it as you're only straining your eyes and wasting your time.
Emmm...banana...yum yum. Everyone was laughing at me when I had a banana for some reason.
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