Appalachia - Almost Heaven, West Virginia

I miss my appalachia group!!!

I spent my entire spring break in West Virginia doing some hardcore work for the Habitat for Humanity project, and I'm proud to say that I've grown and matured during this trip... :)

It made me realize how fortunate I am. Really. I know it sounds cliche, but sometimes we've got to open up our eyes and learn more about the people and the world around us. Almost Heaven is a small town, with only the bare necessities for the people to survive on, but the people over there are happy and satisfied with life. Almost Heaven's great!! but I swear, I can never stay there for too long. Perhaps it's time for me to learn how to appreciate life, be thankful for what I have and stop complaining about life! :)

Oh well, besides learning and discovering about myself, I've had so much fun during this trip as well! The people in my group is just sooooooooooooo awesome! And we did crazy stuff throughout the trip.

That's GIANT V btw!! :) and celena looking up to me.


There were physical challenges everyday (That's what she said! Note: Insider's joke). Lol. One of the more interesting ones was Pumpkin Role Power Hour for me! Well, my groupmates did not believe that I could eat the whole role of Pumpkin cake with cream cheese, so I proved them wrong and downed all of them within 10 minutes. Show them the Asian power!!! HAHA.

Ultimate challenge of the trip was non-other than the Chicken Nugget Power Hour. Most of the people in the group were supporters, but some of us bought 60 chicken nuggets each. The challenge of the day was to eat a chicken nugget per minute and finish all 60 nuggets within an hour! I could never have done that, but I did eat 30 chicken nuggets (EWWW.... are u disgusted now??) lol. The winner of the day was Tom, who ate all 60 of them and won a gift certificate to wendy's.

Chicken Nuggets Power Hour Contestants!

Tom the winner! That was his last and 60th nugget btw. Notice his shirt. I wonder if the voices in his head were asking him to finish all 60 nuggets. Lol.

Well, to fill you in a little bit about our project, basically we helped build a house for a single mum and her kid. We didn't finish the whole house of course!!! But we did put up the tresses, put the boards up on the roof, lay the mat, and then lay the shingles on the roof. Did some windows as well!! Hey, I did climb onto the roof to hammer some nails in ok?? It was awesome actually. Kinda scary at first, but once I got the hang of it, I was enjoying my time sitting and hammering and chatting with friends on the roof actually. Heh, you never know, I might start climbing roofs when I get back to Malaysia!!!

That's me hard at work on the roof. So stop accusing me of playing a fool at the work site.

Sarah taking a quick nap at the work site.

This was the house on the first day....

And the house before we left West Virginia!! We built the roof! Yeay to appalachia! :)

We did some rock-climbing and hiking as well during this trip. Told you, appalachia trip was awesome!! Who would disagree with me??

Hiking group! :)

~The End~

Almost Heaven, West Virginia, blue-ridge mountains, shanendoah river....


Take me home.... to the place.... I belong... West Virginia.... mountain mama.... take me home... country roads....

~Appalachia 2008~





p/s: more pictures on facebook if you're interested! :)

Elections in Malaysia

I've never been a great follower of Malaysian politics, partly because I'm one of those youngsters who doesnt really care much about it. I admit I've always been an apathetic citizen of Malaysia, but somehow this year's election has caught my interest. I'm gonna be neutral about this whole issue and let you (if you're interested enough) to read about it from kennysia.com.

Here's the link : http://www.kennysia.com/

Check out the March posts :)

That's all from me folks. Enjoy.

Parents visiting from Malaysia :)

The last time I saw my parents was in August. It's been a long long time... My parents were actually in Manchester to watch Manchester United play soccer, and then they flew over to visit us, their precious babies!!

Dave tells me that he can't understand why I can be away from home for that long, and not miss my parents at all. Well, all I can say is: I think I'm used to it. Sad life, isn't it?? But I rather enjoy it actually! :) Relish my independent life over here and I would never trade it for anything else!! BUT BUT BUT...... I'm not saying that I don't love my parents anymore :) In fact, it was good to be away from school for a few days, and spend some quality time with my parents and sister...




Hmm... maybe I should photoshop my brother into this picture eh?? Then it'll make this picture perfect!!



At New York, Times Square. New York's my favorite city in America!!

We just like to do crazy stuff, like this: Holding hands and dancing in the middle of the street at Quincy Market, Boston. Haha. Who cares if anyone's staring at us...

Oh... and my favorite fruit - strawberries!! Well.. not exactly my fav, but one of my favs after other tropical fruits like mangoes :)

And finally, my parents got to meet my crazy friends in school! :) Awesome gang :)

Cooking night!

It's been a while since I last updated my blog... Please pardon me for that folks!! Can't fault me for being soooooo busy :)

Had a couple of fun weekends with "the gang" over here at SJU. Let me see... cooking night, baking, DC trip and skiing with friends as well. Ahh... too bad there are no pictures for skiing. Lol. Save myself from the massive embarassment of falling and bruising myself all over. Both side of my butt were covered with bruises. Can u imagine how torturous it was for me to sleep and sit!? But... as the saying goes, no pain, no gain. SOOOO TRUE!!! no pain, no FUN!!

Ok.... pictures for cooking night!!!

Yes. Chef at work eh??? Nah... actually I was just in charge of cutting.

We got bored waiting for the food to be cooked, so we camera-whored ourselves again! God knows what Jo was thinking about. She looks angry with Migs...

And finally... Asians' time again!!

San Francisco

Uprooted tree as a result of the storm.

Did I choose the wrong time to visit San Francisco? I should not think so, since I got to see the stormy, rainy, and sunny side of San Francisco all in one trip! :)

The flight to San Francisco was really exciting. I couldn't see a single thing that was outside the window. When it was time to land, it certainly felt like it was gonna be the end of my life. HAHA. of course I'm exaggerating, but let me tell you why.

Pilot:"Cabin crew, get ready to land".

10 mins later, we were still in the air, and the ride was bumpy. It was all but foggy outside. There wasn't a slightest hint that we were near land. The worst part of all, I felt nauseous and I had to go to the bathroom desperately. lol. Now you know why I felt like dying.

Another 15 mins later, we landed at SFO finally!

Air hostess:" WE MADE IT!" How apt a remark was that? lol.
Everyone burst out into laughter and heaved a sigh of relief.

The storm chose to "attack" SF on the day I arrived. Wind speed was about 70 miles an hour. I swear that I almost got blown away at one point in time when I was walking along the streets. Oh yes, I was crazy. I insisted on seeing parts of downtown despite the heavy heavy rain and high windspeed, but I would have missed out on the spectacular sight of the uprooted tree if I had stayed indoors.

Another interesting thing about SF. There are way too many hills. Almost everything is on hills. It's actually rather intimidating to be standing at the foot of the hill and take a peek upwards. Every driver would try as much as possible to avoid routes like this (below). Can u imagine being stuck in a traffic on this road?

Look at how the cars are parked. Amazing isn't it? Well... gungho me tried walking up the hills a few times. I was panting by the time I reached the top. But it's worth the hike especially since I lost a few calories after that (Heh, hopefully!)


SF is also well known for its cable car. Cables are below the cars, hence the name "Cable Car". DUH. haha. I enjoyed my rides on it since I got to sit down most of the time. Actually standing on the deck boards with half your body hanging outside the car can be exciting as well!


Where I'm standing, that's where the driver stands to control the car...


San Francisco's Chinatown! Not bad huh, given that most of these buildings are actually imitations, since most of them were destroyed in the earthquake in the past.


Let me introduce to you Lombard Street... The Crookedest Street! It's really amazing how cars can wind through the street everyday.

To give you an idea how steep the road is.... Here you go! A close-up view of the street.


Gorgeous views in San Francisco.
Beautiful isn't it?

The Palace of Fine Arts at Presidio

Sausalito bayside.

I wonder what this sign is supposed to mean?

And finally the golden gate bridge! Thank goodness the picture turned out well or I would have killed myself. To get a nice view of the bridge, I walked for about 30 mins along Crissy Field and 30 mins out just to take a picture of it close-up.

Well, San Francisco is my last destination in California before I head back to Philadelphia. I wish my winter break were longer so I could visit more places and accomplish more! Heh, I know I shouldn't be complaining, but I just can't help it. Bleh. =p


The End.

San Diego Zoo

Zoo. wow. To be honest, I don't even remember when was the last time I visited the zoo. Hence, I can't really compare which zoo is better. But I know for a fact that the San Diego Zoo has indeed lived up to its reputation :)

Some interesting animals...

Some sort of pig...

Cuddling together.

Panda Bear at 22 days old.... So small.... So Cute!

Deer's backside.

Camel's backside this time... I didn't pay to see your backsides only my dear animals!! :P Show me your faces!

Tiger's vocabulary...

Mousey's house made of bread :D (So that little mousey won't go hungry)

And finally.... guest appearance! The smiling fellow beside me is my dear bro, Quinn. Heh.

Snow in Philly

Snow has finally fallen!!! Call me suaku, but this is really my first time seeing snow FALL. I've seen snow on the ground, but not flurries of snow falling from the sky. It's actually a pretty sight, but I guess I will get sick of it soon... IT'S SUPER COLD NOW! and I can't believe some people can just walk around outside in shorts. What are they made of seriously?

Pictures of my school covered in snow.

Welcome winter!

Let's rewind back to my last weekend. I had dinner with Diwali folks at an Indian restaurant. Curry never tasted so GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDD before!! :) I really miss Asian food a lot. A LOT!!! Anyone out there in America, and who can cook any Malaysian homecooked food (like my mummy's cooking), TELL ME! Can I be your friend? Heh.

We got a bit crazy after dinner.

Poor Tony.... He had to give me a piggy-back, coz I was too full to walk after dinner :P

In the car.... Backseat people.

And that's me.... Demanding for the camera!

Playing with fingers...

The three beauties :D

And now with the guys... "thorns" among the "roses"

Karl in JoAnn's pink coat with her scarf and hat. Doesn't he look like a girl? Lol.

And that's me, dejected, after a game of pool. Oh yes, I lost.