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i flew into this new city on friday, and i've been exploring a lot. i'm here for a summer job as what's basically a camp counselor but with the national park service and i'm so excited for it, honestly. we've only just started planning this week and next week is our first time with the campers, which will be so, so fun

anyway, i've had the most amazing food & drinks here ! i'm going to share some of my favorites:

• this really thick and fragrant hot & sour soup from a cute dim sum place with weirdly-patterned cloth drapes on all their seats and these huge, crazy chandeliers
• papaya milk tea from this little taiwanese bakery
• this goma cucumber dish with a creamy black sesame sauce
• black sesame mochi from that same dim sum place... the way it was plated in a little bowl of syrup reminded me a lot of rasgulla

i've been so pleasantly surprised by the world out here, idk ! east coast cities are so different from west coast ones. it's so much less.. gritty, i guess. it's weirdly safe and clean here, like a slightly less planned downtown disneyland. i was walking back from dinner with my family earlier and got struck with the realization that i think everything looks much more chill and homey here because strip malls aren't really a thing here, and they're so essential to the structure of the west coast (and LA especially). plus, there aren't really billboards here

it's really interesting, honestly. i love the west coast because it's my home, but there's a lot about the east coast that makes me go Damn ! Alright !

i decided to leave my cassettes & my player back home which i'm a little sad about, now. i just got a ton of cool cassettes and i'm really hoping to get more (there's this online shop that's selling uncurated boxes of 24 cassettes for $20 and it's got me... very interested). right now, i Think this is the full (small) list of cassettes that i have:

• luminol - midwife
• debo hacerlo - juan gabriel
• the best of sam cooke
• a mixtape i made with my uncle when he gave me his old cassette player
• some queer indie rock band cassette i cannot for the life of me remember because my uncle gave it to me and i haven't had a chance to listen to it

maybe i'll find some more in some thrift shops or whatever around here... i would be so hyped, to be honest ! i know i have music on my phone and all, but it's not the same as sitting down with a cassette and melting into the sound and hearing the scratchy static in the distant background and knowing the music is being forced to make itself right there in your hands (or in the cassette player, i guess)

that's actually the same reason i really love ceramics/pottery. hopefully i can actually learn that eventually !

on another note, i'm honestly really excited about having this platform. there's something wonderful about getting to create your own little space on the internet and let others find it and find other spaces, too. i should probably get ready to sleep now because i have work tomorrow and i would rather not be exhausted for it

anyway, goodnight, everyone ! or good morning, or good afternoon, or good evening. i hope you're doing alright

sending warmth & hearth

- xalli