the third floor is having a blackadder and snacks party on monday. and tomorrow night our floor is having an oscars and dessert (from finale!) party. tonight however the english first years are having a michael jackson party, to which i have declined my invitation, pleading ignorance of michael jackson songs and agoraphobia. i can hear people in the corridors now, discussing how to dress up eighties-style. which as far as i can remember involved gigantic permed hair and gaudy plastic hoop earrings and nothing i really want to remember. so i went to a quiet dinner at pho pasteur with my niece (to a westerner she would be my second cousin once removed or something like that but since we're chinese she's my niece) who is a phd in applied physics here at harvard working on gold, sulphur and dna conducting electricity. then to toscanini's because von got me interested in lacuma ice-cream but it was not to my taste. i taxed all three people at the counter with the origin, but all they could say was "peruvian fruit," which shows that von's inquisitiveness the previous night hasn't caught. one of the counter guys did get me invovled in a discussion about "stinky fruit." my suspcions were quickly confirmed - he was indeed talking about a durian. ah yes, those, we grow them where i come from, i tell him sagely. and then it was home to a quiet dorm where its occupants have all left for the michael jackson party, so that i can get on with my alcuin and play my music loudly.