i really hope no one decides to check my luggage when i come back, because it will be full of harmless but absolutely suspicious-looking things. for instance, my mother is making up one-serving chinese soup ingredients into sealed packets for me, so that i can simply throw them into the pot and brew soup - each packet has red dates, some dried longan pieces, white mu'er ("wood ear") fungus, rock sugar and two kinds of almond slices. (hmm i'm wondering if i want to ask her to make up other kinds of soup ingredients for me - lotus seed! gingko nut! ang tau!) von says i'll never get them through customs and it does seem lecheh to bring them all the way, but i'm not sure where to get these things in charlottesville and whether they will be expensive and what's more, i'm living alone, i'm not going out to buy a giant pack of anything to make one serving of soup. it would be so much more convenient for my mater to proportion and pack the right mix of ingredients for me. i told von that if he comes down for springbreak i'll cook him traditional desserts and not to po leng shui. just about everyone will want to know why i've waited till my very last semester to bring cooking pots. i guess because i've been sick oftener and it is awfully cold now, and in a way i'm tired of living in school - the dining hall and the same old restaurants and people and things that i'm trying to remake my life a little as far as food is concerned.