My all-time favorite boba place is cha for tea, both because they make their boba just to my taste and because they make tea flavors that I prefer. They also happen to be a great place to hang out and grab a snack (the crispy chicken is bomb!) or sip on your drink while playing games with your friends (Connect Four, anyone?). Ever since my friend took me there many years ago, I’ve dropped by whenever I’m in the San Gabriel Valley area. Over the years, the tea flavors I loved best slowly got phased out sadly, but I can still find plenty of drinks to delight me. Plus, I can never go wrong with their boba. It’s not too soft, not too hard and a delicious kind of sweet that’s not overwhelming. They’re a pretty popular spot with a lovely atmosphere and great drinks.
A sense of impermanence
Ever since I moved here I haven’t quite felt settled. There’s not much space for me, I barely brought along any stuff, and I didn’t know anyone other than Panda. Now I’ve got a job and (soon) a condo, so I can finally feel like this place is my home. I don’t think of myself as a Virginian yet and I don’t know how long it will take, but if I stay long enough it’s bound to happen. Going back to LA for Thanksgiving was a chance for me to bring over more things and the upcoming move to the condo is a chance for me to claim some space of my own. I’m looking forward to making 2014 the year in which I get to embrace life out here.
For now, I still feel like an outsider. Everything is an adjustment – I’m not used to the weather, the change of pace in lifestyle, even the people… at times I wish I could just retreat back to my parents’ home in LA, lounge around, and not have to worry about being all grown up. So much seems so out of place in my life right now. It’s a feeling I can’t quite put my finger on – a little bit of melancholy, a little bit of confusion, a little bit of yearning. I’ve dived into songs to try to express feelings I can’t place, but I think I just need to write about it. I’ve pondered putting together a fictional story to try to capture my thoughts and funny enough, my best friend recently reached out to me about her own writing. Perhaps reading her stories will help me collect my ideas for mine.
It’ll be nice when I have the move to focus on, so I can shift my efforts to building my new life.