Thanksgiving

Ahem! before I even start to blog about my thanksgiving break, let me extend my heartfelt gratitude to Miguel and family for "taking" me back to their house! (Hee.. sounds like I'm a homeless kid). Mig has a cool family and a cool house!

All of us playing Movie Mania (like charades) with Migs parents. See what I mean by cool? How often do u get to play board games with your friends' parents?

Well, my first thanksgiving break was simply fun and relaxing! (minus away the homework part of course...) The 6 of us (Mig's dad, mum, sis, Jeremy, Mig and I) packed into the car on a Thursday morning, and off we went to New York City to watch the Macy's thanksgiving parade.

Yeap. It was my first parade in America, with huge cartoon balloons and a few celebrities of course! (like good charlotte, american idols, high school musical stars...) But my camera died halfway, so I managed to take a few pictures only.

And Thursday was Thanksgiving Day of course, which means turkey time! lol. Migs parents brought us to their relatives' place. It was at a farm, and they had horses and 5 dogs at home. GEEZ. all bulldogs. too bad i didnt take a picture of them. Good food was served. when i say GOOD FOOD, i really mean REAL FOOD. turkey, stuffing, apple pie, pumpkin pie, REAL new york cheese cake, potatoes etc. Amarak food (st joe's food vendor) is nothing compared to that one dinner!

Me and Jeremy. Horsey was eating her dinner!

And Friday was shopping time! OMG. i'm a shopaholic. YES. I've said it and I admit it. I bought so many clothes and a pair of boots in 2 days! I feel so guilty now. but it's alright. (at least this is what I tell myself all the time after I shop) I'll be earning my own money soon.Yea. Next semester :)

Migs and his new haircut and jolly me with my shopping bag.

Well, obviously Miguel didn't take us in for free. We helped him rake the leaves in his front yard on Sat.

Free labour!

There u go! We did really crazy stuff. Like this.Yours sincerely(that's me!) trying very hard to jump onto the stack of leaves GRACEFULLY. Migs was holding onto the stick so I could do a HIGH jump, which turned out to be a LOW jump. well, at least i didnt hurt my back...

And I was totally covered by the leaves. See my shoes? Yea. at least that proves that I did complete the feat!

Me standing in the box, on top of the leaves...And then Miguel went all crazy with his scooter with a shovel in his hands... "Charge forward, my fellow comrads!"

We went to Migs relatives place again for dinner (this time round, it was a family with 2 little kids). Surprisingly, I enjoyed myself tremendously when I played with the 2 boys. I realised that when we're all grown up, playing with children can be "refreshing". No mature conversations going on, and I could act like I'm one of them. I WISH I COULD STAY YOUNG FOREVER! Yea. but i know it's impossible.

No doubt, all things come to a good end! And it was time for us to go back on Sunday... Sigh. Back to school work and more adult-like stuff to do! Wish Thanksgiving break was longer...

THE END.

Weekends!

I just love the people I hang out with! So I can't stop blogging about them. HAHA. *plus the pictures as well!

And with Xiao Lu, Jeremy and Miguel bro!!! (That's Nate in the red sweatshirt btw) Where's JO? She's the photographer of course.... :)

Something random: this is how my school looks like in Autumn! Pretty red leaves...

Last but not least, ever wonder what I do on a typical Saturday/ Sunday night??? I'm always spending my precious time with my beloved books! HAHA. so folks, please do not always assume that I play all the time... :P
Me looking stressed over my work. GEEZ. I look terrible.

Friday night!

Bridget Gray: http://www.bridgetgray.com/ check her out! She's awesome :)

I spent my Friday night listening to poems by Bridget Gray. And YES. It's a 1000000000000000000000000000000000000 times better than anything else! Call me boring. or whatever u want to. I LOVE BRIDGET'S POEMS! She's also the best poet I've come across so far. Mind you, I'm not the kind of person who enjoys poems normally, but she is simply amazing! Her energy, fire, courage inspire me.... She's a dancer, artist, professional poet and most importantly, she's a voice for women who can't speak out for themselves. Her thought-provoking words definitely left me thinking about questions like race, love, life and heartbreak. SERIOUSLY, check her out if you have the time!

Me and Bridget Gray.

And Friday night was definitely our Games Night as well! We're hardcore gamers. haha. board-gamers. How could anyone bear to miss Apples and Apples even when it was already near to 12am after Bridget Gray's slam poetry :D

Having fun with Apples to Apples.

Pyramid of people...

Apples and Apples gang at 3am!

Diwali 2007

What's diversity?

This?

Let me see, (people in the front row from left to right!) we have Neil from America (whose parents are from Sri Lanka), Tanya from India, JoAnn from India & Singapore (Jo specifically wanted me to say she's from both countries!), Myself from Malaysia, Pam - American, Brazilian, and Chris - Phillipino, American

And we're all members of Hawks of India!

What are we doing in HI?

Seriously, I don't know. I just know that I got pulled into the organizing team for Diwali 2007, which btw, was awesome! Take a look at the wall I drew and doodled on and you would know why I love Diwali so much!

My BABY!

My BABY AGAIN! see that little signature at the lower right hand side?? LOL. that's my signature! (COPYRIGHT VIZ) =D

Me and the performers backstage... Neil, Tony and Chris, big bro :)

Pam and I... Isn't she beautiful in Sari?

Me and Amanda :)
And finally... me and Jo!

Oh yes, I'm a greedy pig. I took so many Raffle tickets! But uhmmm.. I DIDN'T WIN ANYTHING!!!! sigh.

Halloween!

It's my first Halloween in America! Technically, it's not really Halloween yet, but we had littles kids trick-or-treating in our dorms and they were all so cute! They kind of reminded me of myself when I was young too. Kids simply can't resist the lure of candies eh? They just went around shoving their bags in our faces for candies without even saying thanks to us! Lol. But kids are just kids, aren't they?

Me and Moira, my roomie! ... She's a cat =D

I know... I'm kind of underdressed....

Banana lady? That's my neighbour Patricia!

And then I was off to play Cranium and Charades with friends at the Hawk Rock. Godddddddd.... my arm hurts now. I've never gesticulated/ mimed/ waved/ motioned/ signalled/ acted so much in my whole life! Jeremy, Amanda, Miguel and a few others went a step further by rolling on the floor! But my actions worked anyways. Sometimes we've got to THINK OUT OF THE BOX, u see? and not do the actions literally.

Alright folks, stop looking for me. The photographer can't be in the picture, can she?

Now, I'm finally in the pictures!

I was so tempted to photoshop myself into the group picture... Anyways, me & Jo again =)

It was a fun day indeed! Best friday night I've had so far :)

Fallbreak - Philly & New York!

Fallbreak was fun, especially when Nina flew all the way to Philly to see me! Haha. Nah. actually she came to see U Penn and parts of Philly and me as well! Highlight of the week was our "backpacking" experience to New York together with JoAnn. Considering this trip as my first budget holiday, I'm so proud of myself for accomplishing so much in 3 days =)

Let me start with Saturday... Cleanup at Chinatown, Philly while waiting for Nina to arrive at Philly...

"CSI CRIME SCENE". look at the rubbish. GROSS.

Look. We even found a HUGE bone.

GASP. yellow tape! Maybe it was CSI crime scene after all. Lol.

Compare the"After" and "Before" picture. Vast difference eh? I'm so proud of ourselves.

Let's talk about Nina's arrival in Philly! Siang-ee, fellow RJ schoomate, brought us (myself, Nina and Jo) around U Penn and we met Yiyan (also from RJ) along the way. What a small small world. Everywhere we go, we see familiar faces!

The RJC gang - Yiyan, Siang-ee, myself and Nina.

LOVE sign in U penn =)

Glimpse of Wharton School of Business.... Posh eh?

Alrighty, enough of U penn! As I've said, highlight of our Fallbreak was New York! We took a bus from Chinatown, Philly to Chinatown New York on the 2nd day :) Took some interesting pictures in Chinatown, New York itself...

Chinatown roadside stalls...

Wet market in New York?!?! Hmm...

Vietnam words in Chinatown? How interesting...


Jo, Nina and I gasped at the price of Longan in Chinatown, New York. US$4 for 2 pounds. That means it costs S$6/7 OR RM13/14 for less than a KG. And guess what. It says here US$0.25 for one small longan. But we saw another stall selling for US$0.50 for one!!!! I'm not kidding. Come to New York and see for yourself.

On the Brooklyn Bridge which connects New York and Brooklyn.

Hmm... I wonder what that means.... No salt??

Welcome to Broadway! OK... maybe it's not that glamorous after all with the construction sign behind me... :p

Ground Zero... aka the New World Trade Center Site!

While the sign says....

I see this guy beside it... How ironic can it get?Me and Jo sharing chicken Kebabs bought from this stall (below)

DUNKIN DONUTS! yummy :D They're not found in Singapore, aren't they? YES. Aren't you jealous of us.


New York Stock Exchange. Uh huh... I'll be working here in future! (Hopefully :P)

Times Square

At Times Square with Mary Poppins in the background :D

More pictures on the third day! We explored more of mid-town New York and I was super excited to see the Trump Tower featured in "The Apprentice".

Rockefeller Center where the big Christmas tree is supposed to be every year in Dec...

And the NBC News center is there as well! It reads: "Three people were killed when...." in the background.

NBC logo filled with M&Ms chocolates.

When we were there,NBC News was hosting a TV show event outdoor. Too bad we didn't manage to get a spot behind the cameras, otherwise we would have waved frantically at the cameras so that friends from home can see us live on TV!

And a picture of me with NBC news reporter - Natalie Morales! She's so pretty, isn't she?

Next up, Disney World store! Lol. How childish can we get?

Picture with Aladdin in Disney World :D This made our day!

But our trip to F.A.O SCHWARZ was the best of all :)

"H" for "Ho"! Haha.

Both of us playing "DO RE MI FA SO" on the huge keyboard. This keyboard was actually featured in one of Tom Hanks' movies "Big", produced in 1999. Remember the toy shop he used to work at?

Proud "mother" of 2 babies...

Next up, UN headquarters in New YorkU.N.O

UN Secretary - General Ban Ki-Moon

Last but not least, our last stop in New York: The Empire State Building.