Nineteen: Matcha Ice Cream w/ Grilled Cake Baked • 19歲：綠茶冰淇淋配獨特的蛋糕

Hello, my name is Halden Levin, and you are listening to Little Dragon’s Journey. 你好！我叫李靜辰，你正在聽小龍的旅程。

Transition Music（音樂）

Yesterday, I turned nineteen. For my birthday, I celebrated with my family with the “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” sign that has been in our possession for many a birthday, a few cards and presents, homemade desserts, and a round of Say Anything; quite a simple yet satisfying day.

As I usually do on Sunday mornings, I folded and put away my laundry, prepared for the day, and sat zazen with the Chapel Hill Zen Center. After morning zazen, Josho-roshi offered a question and answer session; I can’t say I didn’t have any questions, but I decided to just sit and listen. Questions asked ranged from relatively simple questions about personal practice to more complex questions about how to explain to others about their belief or lack of belief in God. As far as I know, within Buddhism believing in God or a god is not central to practice; there is a greater emphasis on returning to our original state of Buddhahood, and Buddha isn’t really considered a deity. That isn’t to say you can’t believe in God or a god or worship Buddha as a god, but as I mentioned, doing so is not central to practicing Buddhism.

Any who, after a mild morning, I worked on Chinese homework for an hour or so and then joined my family for lunch.

I’m not sure what sorts of birthday traditions other families have, but in my family, the person who is having a birthday gets to choose the dishes we have for a nice sit-down meal, as well as what type of birthday cake or other dessert they’d like. For my birthday meal, I generally like to keep things simple, so I requested baked salmon, steamed vegetables, and baked potato wedges (mostly for my other family members); I absolutely love soup, so I mentioned the possibility of pea soup, but since I’m really the only one who loves pea soup, I decided to stick with a more traditional meal.

For dessert, for some reason, I wasn’t feeling cake, so I asked my mom for coconut milk-based matcha ice cream and coconut milk-based chocolate ice cream for those who aren’t a fan of matcha’s bitter flavor. Bitter talk? However, I feel like my mom felt like it wouldn’t be a birthday without a cake, so she decided to make my favorite cake, which is a date-sweetened vanilla cake with chocolate, also date-sweetened, icing.

Last year, my parents made this exact same cake, but at that time, we were in the process of renovating the house we had relatively recently moved in to and currently live in. We did have a small kitchen available for use, but the only heating sources available were a microwave, a stove, and an outdoor grill (no oven). As a result, my parents decided to get creative and grill my birthday cake. You’re probably wondering how it turned out. Well, it tasted good, but it was way under-baked or under-grilled. Luckily, the date-sweetened cake I like is vegan, so no need to worry about raw eggs or other ingredients that could give you salmonella or food poisoning.

Happily full, I opened the cards and gifts. The gift that excited me the most was a yellow rain jacket. I’ve never owned my own rain jacket (I’ve always borrowed my mom’s), so when asked what I wanted for Christmas and my birthday, a rain jacket was one of the first things to pop into my mind. I love the concept of rain jackets, like I love the concept of umbrellas. I’m not sure exactly what attracts me to rain protection gear, but I think it’s exactly just that… the element of protection and security. Maybe I’m getting old, as demonstrated by my infatuation with a rain jacket; practicality comes with age? I suppose not necessarily. I’ve always been a bit weird, and my Chinese teacher agrees.

In the evening, I continued to finish up Chinese review and then joined a NSLI-Y meeting with the IDEA Committee, which is a group of iEARN NSLI-Y Alumni working on promoting diversity and inclusion in … I’m grateful for their support and tips shared. Unfortunately, since my phone was on “Do Not Disturb” mode, I missed a phone call from my grandma, but I still enjoyed hearing her voice through voicemail. There’s something so special about hearing someone’s voice, especially the voice of someone you care about. I feel like voice is almost equal to physical contact. Physical contact certainly has its place.

We finished the day with a round of Say Anything. Say Anything is a bit like Apples-to-Apples. In case you’ve never played Apples-to-Apples, to play, you choose a card with a descriptive word, such as “gorgeous,” and each player has to choose the card they think best fits that adjective, at least according to you since you’re the judge for that round. The person who wins the round (as in their card is chosen) goes next, and whoever wins the most rounds wins the game.

To play Say Anything, when it’s your turn, you choose a question, such as “If I could go anywhere, where would I go?”, and each player has to write down what they think you would choose. Once everyone has written down an answer, you choose which who wins, but before you announce the winner, each player gets two votes to choose which answer they think will win. The winner receives one point, and each vote for the winning answer also earns a point or two for the players who voted for the winner’s answer. The person next to you goes next.

Personally, I think Say Anything is a more fun game than Apples-to-Apples, but you really have to know the people playing well if you want to do well. For example, when I was the judge one round, the question I chose was something along the lines of “If I could have anything right now, what would it be?” My younger brother answered “Taiwan”, which I understood but also thought was a little weird in the sense that I want to go to Taiwan, but I don’t want Taiwan as an object or possession. I guess the question can be interpreted in different ways. My mom answered, “a trip to the store, matcha ice cream, and a date cake”, which was completely accurate. My dad answered, “my visa, a negative COVID test, and a trip to Taiwan”, which was also completely accurate. My sister went for a more abstract answer, saying I wanted “good luck”, and she even wrote the Chinese character Fu 福 for good measure.

Since my family knows me very well, all of their answers were solid answers and made picking a round winner hard. I ultimately ended up choosing my sister’s answer, as, in my mind, a need for “good luck” is all fairly all-encompassing. Point is the game is more enjoyable when the players know each other well and can provide answers that truly match your thinking.

Another year, another year older. I can’t say I feel much different. I guess I’m more of an adult now, but also the same old Halden too.

Transition Music（音樂）

Please visit haldenlevin.wixsite.com/littledragonjourney to access the transcript of this episode, and know you are always welcome to contact me through my website, email, or social media. Thank you for joining Little Dragon’s Journey. 謝謝你們參加小龍的旅程。拜拜！