for whatever reason the harvard natural history museum was free tonight (i think it was related to some science-related festival happening in cambridge all this week). alisa contacted me yesterday about paying a visit since she's never been there before (unlike me, who go a lot more often because i live just a few blocks away). we were supposed to meet in harvard square at 5pm but her allston bus was delayed and didn't get there until almost 6pm. i haven't seen alisa since back in october. i brought her a spare umbrella when she stepped off the bus as it'd started to rain a little bit. the weather was unusually cool for some strange reason and alisa complained bitterly about the cold, as she was also a bit underdressed.

the HNHM was crowded like a sunday morning, the other time where it's free to the general public. we started with the glass flowers, went to the halls of animal, before taking a quick tour of the rocks. i bumped into my old roommate zhu lei along with his girlfriend. alisa was busy taking photos with her camera as i pointed out interesting facts about various animals (i'm not as knowledgeable with my rocks though).

there was a time when i could speak chinese and nobody would understand. nowadays, besides more chinese immigrants, there's also a growing number of non-asians who learn chinese as a second language. so i noticed when i was speaking with alisa, every now and then i'd turn around and realize there was a chinese person nearby who could understand what we were saying. gone are the days when i say whatever i want out loud in chinese and not have to worry about anybody knowing what i said. i guess i'll have to learn a new secret language to use with friends and family.

afterwards we walked to the porter exchange in porter square for dinner. i let alisa borrow my hoodie to wear, although the weather was warmer now (there was even a slightly fog). we went to ittyo (which i last visited back in december). obsessed with box lunches, i had the aforementioned but this time with mackerel instead. kind of mistake, since i don't usually do well with fish (unless it's very well-done or it comes in my sushi). tasty, nonetheless.

after seeing alisa off at the train station, i came home to watch the second half of the celtics hawks game. after an hour of swearing (on my part), the celtics ended up losing again, ensuring a final and decisive game 7 sunday back in boston. if the celtics are having such trouble with this last-placed team, what's going to happen to them if they advance? regardless, these celtics playoff games have totally sucked me back into the NBA universe. i'm this close from buying a PP (paul pierce) jersey.