Pasta anyone?

The elevator at our apartment broke down this morning. Jo walked 10 flight of stairs down and had to run after the shuttle. Thank god they fixed it by the time I stepped out at 1030am. PHEW! I wasn't ready AT ALL to do a morning exercise with a bag loaded with my laptop, snacks, 2 thick textbooks, water bottle, jacket, pencil case, wallet, ipod, cellphone and keys. Man, that would be disastrous.

Today was the first day of my weekly service at the soup kitchen! There were 4 of us. The group leader was sick, so we had a sub.

We drove to the church, parked at the cemetary and entered through the backdoor. There was already a long line of homeless people at the main entrance by the time we reached there. Dorene introduced herself and then we were down to business. I stood in front of the garbage table and helped scrap the leftovers off the dishes and sorted the cups into dirty piles. You have to be really quick on this job, because it ain't as easy as you think. Many of those who were done eating just want to get out of the place asap, or join the line again for seconds.

It's such an interesting experience... People were packing away their lunches. Some wolved down their food whereas others ate slowly while they engage in conversations with people around them. This one guy who was clean-shaven even took the trouble to observe his table manners. That aside, I saw dudes walking in with Columbia jackets, Nike shoes and expensive headphones, and they joined the table for a plate of pasta with bread, like it was the norm. Man, I swear they are more well-off than me. And I'm supposed to be serving the less privileged? I chuckled a little as I observed the crowd with heightened curiosity.

This society is complex, and it's so confusing. Kind souls invest their time and money, supposedly to help solve chronic problems like poverty, and to achieve a subtle balance between the different groups in society, but this is telling me the contrary. Those (broke college students like you and me. hehe =p) who are truly in need of help are not getting them. In fact, it really baffles me that the "homeless" people were throwing away half the plate of pasta, buns untouched as well. ANDDDDDD, THEY COME BACK FOR SECONDS?!! wth. just for the desert? Seriously? Since when are they in the position to be so picky with their food?

Sigh.

I reek of pasta now. Blah.

Do you feel the love like I did?

Michigan made me a very contemplative girl for the weekend. I was in a very different setting, surrounded by a very different group of people - mostly Asians! My god, Michigan has 180 Singaporeans and 120 Malaysians. They don't call it mini-Singapore for no reason. I went there, with the sole purpose of visiting Nina and JianWei, turns out that I knew more than 2 people in Michigan. It made me feel oddly popular coz as more people stepped into Nina's house, I started to recognize people - seniors from RJC, ex-schoolmates from Nanyang and random friends that I've made along the way in Singapore. That was bizarre. Too weird. In a way, I'm kind of glad that I'm not in such a big famous school. I don't think I can handle seeing so many Singaporeans/Malaysians in America at the same time, especially if you do something wrong, that's the end manz. Seriously, gossip spreads like wildfire in Michigan.

While I was there, JianWei was kind enough to take some precious time off his busy regime and we spent some quality time together. Hehehe, Nina's roomate thought there was something going on between the two of us, and to counter that, I exaggerated it even more by announcing to all that I was gonna go on a date with a womanizer. But I think it didn't really have any effect on Jian anyway. His face is as thick as a wall la.

Seriously, this dude bu yao lian one, took my camera and zipai. Since he put up an unflattering picture of me on his blog, I'm returning his kind gesture here =p

And here's a slightly better picture of him while we were drinking bubble tea at Momo Tea.

We had Chinese Food. There was so much food, and we argued over the names of the vegetables.

Jian and I had really interesting conversations, from deep to extremely nonsensical stuff.

Jian: I need a wife to cook for me.

Me: Get a mail-order bride lor. They very obedient one.

Jian: Don't want.

Me: You sponsor my air ticket to come visit u every weekend la. I cook for u.

Jian: ...............

Jian, behind all these madcap humor, do you get the underlying message about our friendship? hehe.

Anyway, Jian wrote in his blog that my face was "devoid of frowns" that weekend, thanks to him bringing me around. YARLA YARLA, Mr Ang. You divorced Macro-Econs and picked me instead right? Yeah, but my poor legs didn't feel grateful at all. Jian walks really fast. I have no idea how his not-so-long-legs can take such big strides...I was half running while he was strolling o_0

Anyway, Jian and I met at the Malaysian conference at Yale University back in April, I think. It's amazing how people come together. To Jian, friendships are not treasures to keep, they are more like paths treaded. I CONCUR! but excuse me Jian, do u mean u don't intend to keep me as a friend? HAAAAAAAAAA?! what nonsense. But there's some grain of truth to his statement there. As we grow up and meet more people in life, I don't think it's ever possible to stay in touch with every single one of them, especially for people like me. We move around all the time. When we get close enough to someone, it's time to move on. I learned this the hard way, through painful breakups and goodbyes as I bade my farewells to friends and families. I have learned to take one day at a time, to sieve through my collection of friends and decide: who should I stay in touch with?

Over the years, I have accumulated friends, especially on facebook. To date, I have 891 friends, but dare I proclaim that I'm close to every single one of them? No. Not in a million years. Jian commented on his blog: I think we accidentally reduced friends to numbers. So true. Over the past few years, I've been frantically trying to amass friends on my facebook, friendster and hi-five accounts, so much so that I forget the real meaning behind having friends. But now, I can't be bothered anymore. I want real friends, not friends that are merely figures on my virtual account. I need real people in my life and I think Nina is a perfect embodiment of this virtue. She makes friends and stays in touch with them :) In a nutshell, Nina is awesome!

Now, that is one thing I can learn from Nina.

Nina got me really good tickets to watch American football. My first, real game in ages because this is the only time when I actually sat and stood throughout the entire match. Not only did I understood it, I cheered alongside with the Michigan students as well!

Michigan-ians strolling towards the stadium. Boy, what a sight!

Erm, they were actually booing at the other team. You suck... you suck... you suck.... I joined in as well. Heh. don't judge me.

They tossed the girl upwards whenever Michigan made a touchdown/scored. Nina wanted to volunteer me so they could toss me. I glared at her. Hell no, Nina!

Michigan Stadium. So many faces in the massive sea of red, yellow and blue. There were about 110,000 spectators at the stadium. Amazing atmosphere.

I feel like a traitor wearing the Michigan shirt. hehe.

Anyway, Nina had an eye infection and she can't wear her contact lenses anymore. That makes her really self-conscious, but she's beautiful to me anyway :) She hid her glasses behind her back btw.

Now, this is John Chia. I have to introduce him to all my readers because he is an amazing person. He didn't know me at all, but he drove Nina to the airport to pick me up and sent me off as well on the last day. He gave us rides, had lunches with us, played fireworks with us, and drove us to the Whirly Ball court, just so we could have a 30-min game on the court. He is an incredible friend! Enuf said. Of course, he can't beat Nina la, since she gathered her kampung and clan of friends to come hang out with me =p

Lots of Sushi for supper.

Nina is such a greedy pig... She ransacked John's kitchen for ice-cream, even after a sumptuos meal of sushi.

We went for a walk through the abetorium at Michigan. Beautiful place :)

We saw this cute little boy playing in a corner and Nina begged me to take a picture of him.

God I feel like a paparazzi la.

Me and Mel, Nina's roomate :) She is so darn cute with HUGE eyes. She talks a little like Nina. I call that the roomate-effect.

Monday Blues

Ot-ing in the trading room now.

Monday is my most disgusting day of the week. I leave my apartment at 830am, and I don't get back until 11pm.

I miss those carefree days... Oh those good old times!

Freshmen year - I fooled around with my food all the time. SSSSSSSSSSS. Venomous Vi-Zanne! Now, I gobble down my food. I haven't been eating properly for the entire week =/

Freshmen year - Trip to downtown. I look so young la. What happened to me?! Now I don't even have time to sit and watch a good old decent movie...

Freshmen year - My bday celebration with the gang at Chinatown. We had so much time to stop and commemorate important days like this. Now, I don't even realize it's my bday until facebook tells me about it.

Freshmen year - Tony used to piggy-back me. Now I have a belly that I carry around with me. No longer nimble. But weird. That bungee jumping guy told me to eat more somemore.

HA! I'm just procrastinating la. I lan lan, malas don't want to do homework, when I'm supposed to be working on my DSS quiz. Blah.

Blogpost about Michigan coming up next!

New Baby

My camera came in the mail today! Yeay :) but it didn't come with a memory card. I had ordered one the other day, and it's not here yet. So essentially, I'm still camera-less since I can't use it.

Tada! It was between this and the SD780 with USD60 difference. I decided to go with this instead, because given my history with electronics, they always die after 2 years anyway, so why spend more on a slightly better camera right? hehe. Besides, my mummy always told me, can take good pictures can already la! Wanted to get a pink one, but decided to stay simple.

Yesh, I'm so psyched now! I can't wait to try out my new baby :)

p/s: I feel a little Americanized now since I buy most of my stuff online nowadays. Blah. Not good at all =/

Wednesday Rants

Today I took a nap (as usual) and I was mildly confused when I woke up. I think I dreamt about seeing SAS friends from the ship in SJU. What is this supposed to mean?

Anyway, I went for my first Yoga class yesterday. I wanna say it's very much like Dancing, but more like the warm-up exercises we used to do before every class. Interesting! I like the Warrior pose the most. Baby pose is so funny! It made me feel like I was a child again =p

Meeting up with Mary for lunch in 1 hr and then a drink with Amanda after that before NSCS meeting with the eboard members. Then homework. Then Class. Boy, I don't get a break at all.

Busy busy busy!

It's been a crazy weekend! I feel as if I've done so much. In fact, as I'm typing this right now, I'm half talking to Stef and half listening to music, while trying to concentrate on my blog contents. Research has actually shown that multitasking is NOT good for your brain, coz it gets really confused and it wouldn't know what to do first, which is so true. Not gonna lie, I feel pretty confused right now. What the hell am I doing, torturing my poor soul like that? I'm gonna switch off my music now.

Ok, so on Thurs, right after dinner at Ristorante Panorama with the girls, I got a call from Marg. It's her 21st bday and she's going out to the pubs to celebrate, FIRST TIME EVER, as a LEGAL adult with an official ID. I can't say no, can I? I dislike going out that late, but I went anyway, because my other friend, Lisa, was half begging me to go with her.

We went to Mad River and guess who I met!?! CHRIS! He graduated already and is living in Virginia right now, but he came all the way back to see Marg and the bunch of us! :)

And Marg got super drunk. Don't understand why people wanna torture their body that way.

And I had to readjust her clothes for her while we were at the diner's at 2am :/

The most awesome part of the weekend was Midnight Bowling with the boys. There were only 3 girls - Jo, Teresa and I and the rest of them were guys. 10 of them. No kidding. and they are the D&D video gamers kind of guys. But oh wells, they are my friends, and i love them all the same!

JoAnn made Seanie tie her shoes... and he did.

Then I insisted I wanted mine to be tied as well, and he happily obliged. How sweet :)

Blah. Getting really pumped up for bowling. It was already past midnight, but there was music blasting in the background.

Roomies picture!

The lights were turned off, and I think I was having some trouble looking for my ball. Someone took mine! =p

Tada, now I'm ready!

Karl and I.

They told me to look sad, but apparently everyone was smiling -_-

Now happy again! Asian pose :) Leo kinda reminds me of my brother. Don't know why also.

I tried to look angry, but it didn't work.

Karl threw his sweatshirt onto my head and snapped a picture of me while I peeked out.
Oh did I also mention that I was wearing the shirt that says "GIRL POWER", featuring She-Ra, sister of He-Man. I told everyone that I was gonna thrash them and return triumphant as the winner of the night!

Didn't work in the end. I was impersonating Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory (SC). Got a zero on first bowl. Bleh =p

Anyway, it seemed like I didn't get enough of the boys on friday night! Went over to their apartment just now(Sunday) for dinner. I made dumplings, Karl -mac and cheese, Dan-Chicken and Broccoli, Migs-Drink, Jo-Brownies and Nate-Noodles. Nate's noodles were really good, but he told me NOT to call him if I were to have weird bowel movements tonight because the noodles were 25 cents per pack when he bought them. A little suspicious but I ate it anyway, and I'm still fine as I'm typing this now =p

Finally, pic of the boys and Jo while they were cleaning up. Btw, this pic is a little deceptive coz I helped with most of the cleaning as well ok!

Weee!

Just bought my camera from newegg.com. I hope it comes by next Thurs in the mail so I can actually use it when I go visit Nina in Michigan from Fri-Sun! :) Can't wait.

Midnight bowling tonight! yeay :)

Restaurant Week.... Yum yum!

I would never miss Restaurant Week for anything else, not when you only need to pay US30 to fine-dine in a fancy restaurant that would usually cost double that amount, and not when SJU is sponsoring US20 per person and all I have to pay is US10. Gosh, that's why I like SJU. lots of freebies and sponsored free stuff! :) Besides, I have had pizza EVERY single day this week now. I need a change pronto!

So JoAnn, the head of the pack, decided that we all should pick Ristorante Panorama, an Italian Restaurant. We had a wide selection of choices to pick from, so much so that we had a hard time picking out our food.

Blurry picture - We were all busy checking out the menu. I looked and contemplated, and finally decided on Escargots and Jumbo Shrimps with Scallops- The most expensive thing on the menu. Haha, I'm such a cheapo, but you have no idea, I am such a seafood fan. I think my friend Joe, a marine biologist, secretly hates me for that reason =p bleh.

Me and Escargots... hehe, they're snails! They taste like the seafood - hum, just a little bit better and less salty :)
Me and my Jumbo Shrimps and Scallops. My shrimp almost flew off my plate when I was cutting it. Kudos to my good save! BUT Anna's shrimp literally flew off hers and landed in Brandon's lap. We just got to know this kid that evening because he came alone and we kindly "adopted" him into our almost Asian family gang :) Geez Anna, stop embarrasing us!

Our almost Asian family gang - JoAnn from Singapore, Anna from Hawaii, Lisa (technically) from Vietnam, Qian from Singapore, and Stephanie from Korea.

Now this is the complete gang, minus Steve who was camera shy.
Singapore Malaysia picture! Cute :)
Roomie's picture!

So we were talking and laughing and having a really GREAT time at the table. Brandon introduced himself to us, and he is an Actuarial Science major, LIKE me!!!!!! GASP. I high fived with him, talked a little and Anna, who was sitting beside him talked to him most of the time. When I casually mentioned that we were going for the Midnight Bowling the next day, and invited him to join us, he ASKED me for my number so he could contact us. OMG OMG OMG, i'm gonna brag about this, because I'm such a dork, but HE ASKED ME FOR MY NUMBER. (*double gasp!!!!!!!!) and I blurted this aloud in front of him and everyone else, just so everyone could get a good laugh out of it, and everyone did. So for the rest of the night, Brandon and I were joking about that, and I secretly told JoAnn I saw him first. She's not allowed to steal him from me. HAHA. naaaaaaaah, now it's not a secret anymore la.

Brandon said he's gonna observe the three-day-rule before texting me and adding me on facebook. Damn, I checked my facebook and cellphone like a gazillion times yesterday. I can't believe that stupid boy is actually pulling that joke on me -_- That three-day-rule is overrated people. Let me see how long he can last, since he has to contact us for bowling tonight eh? hehehe. *evil grins

Brandon and I :) He soooooooo young, and just for the records, I'm not a pidophile. It's just a silly joke.

Brandon and the girls :)