Anthony and I went to a Korean restaurant. We had slices of beef
cooked at the table. It was a great dinner. We had a lot of fun
chatting about Japan and other places. I'm really glad that my parents
took us on trips and that I had all these opportunities to travel.
Those stories make it much easier for me to connect with people. =)

I can explain my research to other academics easily. All I have to do
is talk about collaborative bibliographies and they immediately
understand why social computing is just _so_ cool. Talking about my
research made me understand it a bit more, too.

At coffee time, I ended up talking about Toastmasters with Brian, the
pilot taking up biblical archaeology. Yeow Tong, Brian and I chatted
about teaching, presentations, and other things about academic life.

I've figured something out. If I'm going to eat out, I might as well
eat out somewhere nice, having something I can't easily prepare
myself. It doesn't have to be extravagant, but a little bit of
atmosphere and style would be good. Dinner today was much more of an
experience than grabbing pizza somewhere. =)

That said, I'm still looking forward to learning how to prepare
fancier meals…