That must be the only thing I remember from taking Economics. Haha.

Anyway, because we have had a royally lonely and quiet Chinese New Year so far, a few of us met up for a belated CNY lunch at a Chinese restaurant near campus yesterday. As next-best-alternative. Haha. We went to China Legends, where they have a Meal-For-1 deal that serves enough for 3 girls. Because the girls were terribly famished, we had a Meal-for-3. Initially we wanted a round-table concept where we have a few dishes in the centre, but it's (1) out of radar and (2) even if it is, it'll probably be out of budget too. :D:D

So here we are, at China Legends! (What a lame name too, right?)
We had a Meal-for-3, oh wait, I've already said that. Hahaha. Ok, so it comes with 3 appetizers, 3 entrees, 1 rice entree, and a pot of Chinese tea.
5 of us had crispy wonton, spring roll, hot and sour soup, thin szechuan egg noodles, lemon chicken, bbq sliced pork, and fried rice. I tell you, the fried rice is DAMN GOOD. It's the best rice I've had so far in Canada. Best! Check out the picture above! Tastes just like home. :):)

And here we are pathetically trying to 'lao yu sheng' with the thin egg noodles. Hahaha.

It was a rainy, rainy day. Hated it! But the food was good. Yummmmm. After that we went next door for some yogurt-ice-cream, called Shiver. It's pretty much a mix-n-match thingy, so you can choose the ice-cream flavour, the toppings (like cookie dough!!!, etc.) etc etc. Quite fun! But I was too full to eat anymore so I didn't share with them. Will get it next time though, maybe when he comes! :))

Happy New Year! 0 oogly boogly . #

It's the first day of Chinese New Year!

Thank you Don and Grace, for wishing me a happy new year, and for sending your love and hugs! :) Most appreciated in this lonely holiday... Haha. But I'm seeing you next week, so that's something to look forward to! :)

I woke up to an amazing crowd of people waiting for me on the other side of the world--my lovely, huge family (6 families + grandparents)!! They watched me wake up!! I talked to them even before washing up... Haha... *embarrassed*

My gosh, they look so celebratory and happy! All dressed up and I could feel all that festive mood emanating from the tiny webcam. :*( HAPPY NEW YEAR my dearests!

This post is henceforth dedicated to them! :)

*

(malaysia) 婆婆爷爷: 新年快乐! 祝你们万事如意，天天快乐! 还有，(in Hokkien) xin1 jia1 dua3 tan3 (身体健康)!

(yishun) 婆婆爷爷: 恭喜发财!! 祝你们新年快乐, 财源滚进, 万事如意!

叔叔婶婶, wilson, jeffrey: 新年快乐, 恭喜发财!! 祝你们心想事成, 财源滚进, 万事如意!

三姨! 新年快乐! 祝你永远活泼美丽, 可爱动人! 开开心心, 万事如意!

小姨! 新年快乐! 祝你永远魅力无比, 心境舒阔, 心想事成, 万事如意!

二姨! 新年快乐! 祝你身体健康, 马到功成, 财源滚滚滚滚进, 生意兴隆, 步步高升, 蒸蒸日上上上!

大舅母! 新年快乐! 祝你永远青春美丽, 笑口常开, 轻松快乐, 万事如意!

大舅! 新年快乐! 祝你生意兴隆, 头脑英明, 收复挺胸 (哈哈哈!), 心想事成,步步高升!

小舅! 恭喜发财! 祝你新年快乐, 事业顺利, 步步高升, 一步登天!

小舅母! 恭喜发发财! 新年快乐! 祝你永远美丽开心, 身材迷人, 笑口大常开!

二姨丈, 三姨丈! 新年快乐! 祝你们恭喜发发发发财! 财源滚进, 生意兴隆, 事事顺利!

*

To 比较大的小孩子:

小妹! 新年快乐!! 祝你工作愉快, 假期更愉快! (哈哈!)

李伟, 超超! 新年快乐! 祝你们学业超棒,友谊and cousin-谊万岁!

李义! 祝你新年快乐, 学业突飞猛进 (进Express)!!

靖惠! 祝你新年快乐, 灿烂动人, 身材一及棒, 还有学业进步!

嘉仪! 祝你新年快乐! 在新的学校, 祝你前途璀灿光辉!

祉倩! 祝你新年快乐! 在新的学校, 祝你有一片明朗的天空! 有一句良言要给你: 关于朋友--"天下无不散之筵席"! (Ask 小姐姐 for detailed derived meaning!)

*

全部小孩! Now that I'm here, 小姐姐 is your No. 1 in command! You all must listen to her and make sure you all have a happy, noisy, and no-quarrels new year! Here's wishing you all 新年快乐, 热闹无比!

还有最重要的, 爸爸妈妈!! 新年快乐!! 爸爸! 恭喜发发发发财! 财源滚进! 天天开心! 恩恩爱爱! 妈咪! 心想事成! 天天开心! 舒畅愉快! 永远是我美丽的妈咪!

Ok, wah, so long! Hahaha. I hope I didn't get any of the kids' names wrong!! :S:S If yes please tell me ok! In the chatbox! Don't tell me also can, hahaha, then I won't paiseh. :D:D

Happy Chinese New Year! :):) 0 oogly boogly . #

I just made banana fritters!!

And I talked to my mama today! :) HAPPY. We actually had a mini-family webcamming yesterday... it was CNY eve's eve, so everyone had a half-day off, and everyone was at home. EVERYONE was at the webcam!! :)

I miss my momma, and papa, and sister, and brother. My sister has been so good to me--acquiesing to my troublesome requests of scanning notes etc... *HUG* Thank you, darling! And I miss the smell of my mother. There's just something about a mother's smell that every little kid is bonded to. Maybe it's the time when we're just borned and nestled in the bosom of our mothers. :)

Boohoo. I miss home. And it's not even the end of the first month yet!

My mama told me how to prepare the banana fritters just now as she was preparing the ang-baos* for tomorrow.

As I slowly chewed the banana fritters, images of my home, my momma, she preparing the fritters in our kitchen... they just flashed in my mind and I couldn't read A Tale of Two Cities anymore. It's the familiar smell and taste of those fritters that pull the nostalgia trigger. SOBS.

Mummy! Papa! I miss you! I wanna go home and be their little girl again. :(


Sigh. Never mind. Don and Grace sent me their love and hugs. And it's only a few more months. Plus my darling is planning to fly here! YAY. :):)

Ok, back to my books. I've got 2 papers due next week. :S And a quiz on dialectics. :S Argh.


[*ang-baos: Literally, red-packets. "Ang-bao" is in Hokkien dialect. Typically the elders put money in red-packets to give to the young ones for good luck and blessings.] 0 oogly boogly . #

It's a tradition to have a reunion dinner every Chinese New Year Eve.

I miss my family.

:*( 0 oogly boogly . #

I feel so blah about writing my response papers for Shakespeare and Postcolonial Literature. Haha. By writing, I mean LITERALLY writing. Been a looooooong time since I last submitted a hand-written piece of work. Haha.

Well, the forecast said 1˚C today, and 'light snow'. With the wind blowing at 30km/h, 'light snow' really means 'wildly-flung tiny drops of icicles hitting you from every direction'. I tried to hide behind buildings when I walk, but the wind will just hit me from everywhere else. Haha. It is *quite* an experience. Especially walking in this wind! WOW. I tell you, it is SO hard to walk. I felt like a frozen snail. The wind might hit me straight front, so it's hard to walk against and into the wind; or it'll hit me perpendicularly, so that I keep going off-tangent.

Luckily I wore my icy-purple long coat today! It's super jumbo, and with all that wind and snow, I don't feel so silly with all the fur-trimmings around the head. :D

Today we had the author of one of our texts come down to talk to us, take questions, and present a reading! SO COOL! The poetry really reads differently now. Suddenly it's not as sombrely violent as I imagined, but filled with a dangerous dynamism that feels forbidden and exciting.

Presenting, George Elliot Clarke!

A little about him: He was "born in Windsor, Nova Scotia. In 1998, Clarke was awarded the prestigious Portia White Prize. He is presently lecturing at the University of Toronto."

He is a very, very humourous man. And he has an enormous, loud, and extremely infectious laughter. He opens his mouth wide open and laughs like it came rumbling out of him. It is SO infectious--even if we weren't paying complete attention or didn't hear exactly what he said, or if it's not even funny--once we hear that laughter, the whole room will laugh. It is so amazing. Hahaa.

And this is him doing a reading from his book:

Oh, I forgot to mention. This is for the Contemporary Canadian Literature class (which I joined 2 weeks late). It is a terrific class and I love it. This reading was done during class time too, with other people who wanted to sit in for the reading joining us. So it really shows that they are serious about letting us have 'first-hand experience from the writer'. I mean if they had scheduled it outside of class time, it probably would've been less sincere--since it'll mean they cannot bear to part with that little bit of their class time.

He signed my text too! Which is his book, so. Hahahaha.

Oh, and then I got to take a picture with him. Luckily I decided to grab my camera with me today! Hee.

After that, I took the treacherous walk back, as mentioned earlier. I shovelled the snow immediately! Felt a little sian* that I just cleared it yesterday and now it's all covered up again. Haha. Exercise for my flabby arms!

With all that after-shovel-rosy-flush, I decided to give myself a little treat... by taking narcissistic pictures of myself!

Tada!

Hahahahaha. Ok. That's all for today. Have to get back to Othello and Annie John.

[Oh, to see what the girls did in Toronto, check out their blogs. I didn't go to Toronto with them, but I will go there eventually! :) ]

Tata!


[*Singlish. Very hard to define. It's a very versatile word that's mostly used as an adjective or verb or adverb or whatever. Briefly, it's a concoction of boredom, lethargy, ennui, drudgery, vexation, and/or annoyance.] 0 oogly boogly . #

For the first time in my life, I shovelled snow today!! Hahaha. Well. I did it all alone. Shovelled the walkway in front of my block and my adjacent block. It was quite fun. I did it at night though. I'm supposed to do it for the whole of this week, so if it snows again I'll shovel in the day. Maybe then I can get some pictures of me and the shovel! Hahaha.

Met Swepna to study today but I only managed to read half my book. :(

Tried to get a haircut today too, in view of the upcoming Chinese New Year, and the upcoming webcam party. Haha. Plus my hair is getting a little unruly and lifeless looking. :( Well. I went to the one in campus at the Student Life Centre (SLC) and it costs $21!!! That is so pricey?? Plus the people there were all so stuck-up and snobbish and cool-aloof-ICY-Princessy. Yucks. I get this feeling it might be because they think I'm from China or something. Needless to say, I didn't get their princessy-priced-attitude-haircut.

I should walk around with a 'Sunny Singapore' tag on or something.

Haha. 0 oogly boogly . #

I am so proud of myself today! I went grocery shopping (and grocery shopping alone!) and lugged everything back myself!

[Note to self: New York Fries 'The Works' Regular size is toooo much for me. Remember to only eat Small size.]

Look what I lugged back!
Includes:
2 1.5L bottles of water
1 tube of honey
1 can of Campbell soup
1 club pack of energy bars (24 bars)--Chocolate and marshmallow flavour!
1 pack of creamy fruit yogurt (12 cups)
1 dishwashing detergent
7 cup noodles
1 bottle of mushroom herb pasta sauce
2 bunches of brocolli (3 stalks each)
1 small bottle of water
1 pack of grape tomatoes
1 pack of mozarella cheese
1 loaf of bread
1 bottle of pancake syrup
1 pack of 2 containers
1 plate
1 pair of scissors
1 roll of clear tape
1 pack of freezer bags

Ain't I amazing?!?!

Plus I missed my stop too, on the way back, so I had to walk the looooooong way back.

I AM XENA!!! Complete with killer-boots!! *evil laugh*

Anyway. I cooked some delicious Spicy Thai rice noodles and brocolli for dinner!
Doesn't look so good right? IT'S THE LIGHTING!!!

Notice I didn't remove the long stalk of the brocolli like we usually do back home? (note to mama!) Yah this is how they eat brocolli here--long stems and all. And actually, if you buy only the brocolli crown, it costs more! So silly, right? Can just buy the whole brocolli and chop off the stalk if you don't want it.

Anyway I steamed it the way Grace did it that time. Yes! I spied with my little eye on her cooking! She's good! And it's so convenient too. Yummy. Makes me feel a little healthier. Hahaa. 0 oogly boogly . #

A small packet of Vitasoy Milk costs $1.60 CAD (before tax).

It costs S$0.60 the most.

I had quite a rude shock. 0 oogly boogly . #

The final question really boils down to:

Am I here for a holiday, or am I here for my studies-exchange-stint?

I think it is very important to remember what you are here for.


Anyway, the girls from my exchange group (Saranya, Cindy, Joo, Kailin, Daphne, and Swepna) have all headed to Toronto for this weekend. It's "once in a lifetime, man!".

I don't understand. Once upon a time before I would have jumped at the opportunity, thrown all caution and books to the wind, and scrambled into the bandwagon with them.

"Fun, man!"
"I'm already here Anyway."
"Why not??"

Why not, indeed.

My priorities have changed, I think.

Yeah, well. The words do ring in my head.

"Anti-social."
"Prudish."
"BORING."
"Mugger."
"Social hermit." ... et cera.

I must remember what I'm here for. It was not easy coming here.

I must be strong and courageous, and prevail. 0 oogly boogly . #

I'm just scrolling through my blog and I realize I have little updates about the fun stuff we've been doing. So to start off, this is going to be about our virgin snowball fight!

One cold and snowy day... We decided to head to Swepna's place. She lives off campus at Thornbush Crescent and here we are waiting for the very infrequent bus:
In the midst of posing pretty for a shot, here comes a snowball! PIAK! Saranya gets hit by Swiss! Hahah! Kailin gets a little of it too!
Finally, we reached Swepna's bus stop. We got extremely excited about the giant mart Zehrs and decided to go in for grocery shopping. Half an hour only! Impossible!!

Here! Check out the row of CANDIES!!! Yes, candies of all shapes and types. Licorice, chocolates, jellybeans, round ones, long ones, fat ones, flat ones.....
Well, I took a little long, right, since I had more stuff to buy to stock up for my non-meal-plan room. So they got bored and took a narcissistic picture of themselves!
Ok, done! So it's group picture time!! It was snowing too. Light snow. See the orange building behind? That's Zehrs! Stretches and stops at the red building.
Finally, we reached Swepna's place. She stays with two other exchange students from NUS and their landlord is fastidious about, *ahem*, NOISE. *Oops*. Haha. Look at the diligent chefs at work!
Truth is, only Swep and Kailin and Gayathri were doing the cooking. Haha! Ok lah, Cindy put the beans in the microwave. Lol. Well! Better than THESE people here! Having fun with fries!
We have had our fill! Oh first, forgot to mention, the KFC here serves WASABI coleslaw!!! And they have NO chilli sauce. They use the mash-potato gravy as sauce. So weird right? Haha. Anyway Swiss was telling us about a funny WASABI commercial. Something about this dude going around saying WAZZUP!!! and walking into a Japanese restaurant and when asked if he'd like some wasabi, he said WAZZZABI!!!

Ok not funny. Hahahaha. Funnier in real life lah! Anyway........! WE HAD OUR FILL! It's now time for SNOWBALL Fight! 6 Girls Versus I'm-Mighty-And- I-Make-The-Meanest-Snowballs Swiss! He asked for it, man!
See the van? That's our 'forge'. We were at the back and Swiss was in front. He looped a snowball at us over the van! Well some of us just ran right in front and smashed him. Muahahaha.
Yah, yah. Fighting still got time for pictures right? Hahaha. Check out my unsubstantial shoes!

And then we were pouring snow all over Joo. Hahaha.
We then decided that snow looks really good in pictures! Hence we started scooping up and pouring snow over everyone! Hahahaha. Kailin and Saranya laughs in disbelief. Hahaha.
I know, right? We look like we're discussing some snowball fight strategy, but we are REALLY discussing how to put more snow on ourselves. Hahahaha.
See my most beautiful and perfectly round snowball? Hahaha.

And then, OMGosh, we saw the cutest doggie! The owner's walking her dog! See us harrassing the poor doggy:
And here's a close up of the cute doggy! Special note to Lisa: I know you like this! SO CUTE right? Hahaha. But it's not your favourite-favourite, I know. ;)
Well we got tired of chasing each other around in the snow and getting smashed. So we got down to some Serious Business.

Making a snowman!!!
Uh. Everyone was quite amused/shocked when I did this. Cuz they were going back into the house already, and then I think I made a funny sound and then they turned around. Hahaha.

And this is my award-winning shot. Hahahahahahah. Well it's taken with Kailin's camera cuz I forgot mine. :( I found the red berries on a withered tree an incredibly poetic image against the white snowscape.
Cold and tired. We're back in the house for some thawing. Hahaha.
And finally, this is all of us: :)
[[Ahem. The time says "8:23pm" but that's the time I started posting. It is now 10:45pm!!! TWO hours! Uploading took soooooooo long. Hahaha.]] 0 oogly boogly . #

It snowed today! Snow gathers really fast on the ground and trees... And the wind was SO strong. I could SEE the wind moving (ok, actually its the snow particles that got picked up by the wind and so it looks like the wind).

Yah, really strong. I almost got blown off. Actually I did get displaced by the wind. Woo. Haha.

And the wind is SO cold. And it's so strong, when it blows the snow in your face, it really feels like needles and pins. My thighs were SO cold I really felt like a naked, frozen chicken. Haha.

Ok. Just took some scenery shots today. I tried to take a picture of a squirrel but they run so fast! They're so plump and they run so fast!
Oh, and the snow and ice freezes over cars too, so you'll see a lot of these drivers scraping off the ice and snow before they can drive the car. Freezing cold, man, to do all that in the snow and wind! Brrrrr. 0 oogly boogly . #

It was, however, a fantastic opportunity for photography! Yes, I'm crazy, right? I got back to my room, grabbed my camera, and went out to brave the weather just to take photos.

But I think it was worth it. Check it out:

My Canon Powershot is strong and sturdy as it braved the rain with me to capture these delicious shots. Canon cameras rock! 0 oogly boogly . #

Today is a dreary day! I woke up at 8am, later than I intended, and prepared my response paper for Troilus and Cressida, and prepare for my Contemporary Critical Theory quiz. Checked the weather today and it said "-2˚C",which wasn't too bad, actually. Checked the ground and it was clear; the sky was clear; the sun was out. Woohoo, right? Uh, NO.

I happily bundled up with a spaghetti top underneath, a long-sleeve top, my outer jacket, adidas trackpants, and my lovely boots. The heel boots. Gloves. And I set off to run for class.

I ALMOST SLIPPED at the entrance of my block!! Why? Not because I'm highly unskilled in high-heeled-wedged-boots wearing, mind, but because the ground was deceptively clear. Deceptive, why? Because it LOOKS clear, but it's actually all glossed over with ICE. So you can't see anything, right? It just looks like concrete!

I would've changed my shoes, but I was running late, and I had a quiz with the FIERCE Professor, so I just left, thinking I'll be back in a jiffy ANYWAY.

Uh, wrong again.

After my first class, I left for my next venue, only to find it pouring. That was just like, waaaaaay depressing. I didn't have my beanie with me, no umbrella, wearing rather un-warm adidas trackpants... I was like, awww MAN, no!

So it got better--slightly. If you call slushie ice paths better. It is better than glossed over ice paths, cuz you don't slip that easily. And it wasn't my boots, ok. There were people in sneakers and sturdy boots who were slipping as well. Anyway, it's really SLUSH. It has the slushie sound, the slushie crunch, the slushie look, the slushie everything. Plus everything was brown? It was really like frappuccino pavements, man.

Dreary! It was like that the whole day! It got more and more depressing because I couldn't go back after class; I had to go get a book from the bookstore for tomorrow's class. Then I had to go from the Engineering building to Modern Languages to see a Prof to sign my 'course override form', and I got the wrong building so I had to go to Hagey's Hall, and Hagey's Hall's a huge maze, and then I got to go to the Registrar's to submit the form, and FINALLY I can trudge slowly back to my room. With near-frozen thighs. Like frozen chicken thighs, you know. Haha.

I almost slipped so many freaking times, man. Hahahaah. But I am proud to say I made it back in one, unbruised piece! Kudos to me! I am henceforth the Queen of Boots! Hahahha.

Final verdict though: Wind + Rain + Slushie + Ice = I wanna go homeeeee!! :D

[I just read the truth of the matter on Kailin's blog: the temperature today (plus wind chill) was actually -18˚C! + Rain + Slushie + Ice? That is just crazy. 0 oogly boogly . #

I just talked to my grandma on the webcam. My grandma is a kindly old lady with a lovely disposition and has the countenance of someone who has smiled through the trials of life. When our faces appeared on the tiny machine, her entire face brightened like a light was radiating from within her. I think technology is amazing, sometimes. It shrinks miles the same time it enhances them. But often, just seeing the other person instantly quells fantastical thoughts that they are at the ends of the earth and are completely uncontactable.

In short, visual sights really make us realize that we are not as far apart as we think us to be. :)

Even though my grandparents and I don't really see each other very regularly back home, my grandma still muses that she misses me. She and everyone.

"我们都很想你。"

I think it's really the fact and knowledge that I am not there in the same country, or not there where I usually am. That is really the reason why they miss us, and why we get homesick, I suppose. Because if I'm right there at home, even if we don't see each other for half a year, the feeling that 'I miss you' will not be as intense as it is now. It is, really, the knowledge that, we are a million miles apart, that sets us off the teetering edge. 0 oogly boogly . #

I cannot believe it. The amount of static here is CRAZY.

I just got static shock from my laptop! Tried to touch the touchpad and my finger was only like 1cm away, and the static shocked me!

Just today, alone, I got static from my doorknob like 5 times.

It's crazy! Crazy!

Can someone tell me how to reduce this static-thingy in my room? It's really quite a shock since it goes under your nails at the fingertip. Haha. 0 oogly boogly . #

The stupid dryer in the Laundromat just ate up my quarter!!

...

I shall therefore cheer myself up with a Kit-Kat Chunky! Haha!
*excuses, excuses, excuses...* 0 oogly boogly . #

Do not ever handwash your clothes after bleaching them. Your hands will feel raw and slimy! Haha.

Today I made Crème de Champignons soup! Sounds so pompous right? Haha. Actually it's just french for Cream of Mushroom. I thought Campbell's so pompous even on their cans.

See my dinner? Haha. One small can of Campbells' Crème de Champignons actually makes two bowls. So that's two bowls of soup, plus buttered toast, plus an apple pie I blatantly took from Kailin's and Daph's severy. Haha. I know lah, looks like breakfast menu instead right? Well, I was trying to finish the bread, since it's 'best before 14 Jan'.

And look what else I blatantly helped myself to:
This is the common pantry and lounging area:
Anyway, things in Canada are usually in both English and French, like how most things are in English and Chinese in Singapore, except sometimes we have stuff in four languages.

Yup. Didn't do much today. Tried to read Troilus and Cressida, but it's s.o.o.o.o.o boring. How many thousand times do people wanna write about the stupid Trojan war???

To cheer everyone up, namely myself, (haha), here're some good-memory-lane photos that bring a smile to my face. :)
0 oogly boogly . #