yesterday i went to watch science comedian Brian Malow perform his stint “Rational Comedy For an Irrational Planet” at the Varsity. other than being pleasantly surprised at how many of his a-neutrino-walked-into-a-bar jokes i understood thanks to the astronomy class i took in winter, i liked it for the surprising wisdom it contained for a cleverly disguised stand-up comedy show. Did you know that humans are (pretty much) the only animals that know the inevitability of death? contestable, i guess (girl in the audience raised the example of elephants and bones and things but anyhow). He made a point about how that’s why we make jokes and things, things meaning drink and do drugs and stuff, stuff meaning weed. i think? well this is america. anyway, so yeah we do all these things to suppress the constant thought of impending death. i mean, if we were to constantly have the thought of death at the back of our heads how depressing that would be! how would we live if we kept thinking about death! and how would we die if we didn’t first live?! (that last part was me, doesn’t make sense i know.)

death is a funny thing. it scares people (when they’re not joking, or drinking or smoking weed) for the most part because its the ONLY thing people have no hope of knowing about. i mean, you can know WHY someone dies, i guess. but where they go, how they go (walk? fly? crawl? beam?), and if they go anywhere at all, who knows? and that, is what’s scary if you think about it. i mean, hell’s alright, it probably means there’s a heaven and there’s still hope to go to heaven. but what if there’s nothing? what if its heaven or nothing? what if its hell or nothing? what if (and this i like to think about all the time because it creeps me out to no end), all the people who die just float up into this special invisible hemisphere and just tread clouds looking down at whoever they so please to spy on, and can see whatever they’re doing (i mean, this is assuming when you die you inherit the ability to see through walls, its the most they can do really to give you that). ISN’T THAT CREEPY?! i think about that when im brushing my teeth, or when i’m poo-ing, maybe my grandma can see me poo-ing. maybe my grandpa (who i’ve never met) knows when i don’t wash my hands after going to the bathroom (JUST KIDDING, making a point only). but you know what i mean.

getting news about elisha was a very very creepy experience. i wasn’t a close friend of his, but it’s enough to just know someone, have interacted with him/her before, to have looked him/her in the eye and said hello, to have wondered what he/she was thinking, and shook his/her warm hand, and now know that he/she is no longer. i honestly hope he’s happier, if after death one can still feel, can still be, albeit in a different state. it’s a real mystery, this one, death. in all candidness, don’t you think that if someone could prove that there was indeed relief from the horridness of this world after death, and that one could still “keep in touch” with loved ones back here, or at least wait for them patiently to come over to your side, that there would be a mass exodus of even people who were mildly disatisfied with life? bye guys i’m heading over first i can’t stand the heat here, but i’ll be waiting for you so don’t dilly dally. that kinda thing.

very troubling.

i still have a troubled feeling in my gut about this, and i can only imagine how his family and close friends feel. also, i have alot to say about facebook and how it creeps me out that people leave goodbye messages for him on his facebook wall. i’m not insulting it at all, its just that, other than it being a way for people in this world to express their condolences and grief, it makes me wonder if he can actually read these words previously unspoken. if, in addition to levitational abilities and x-ray vision, you are entitled to Wi-Fi.

one more thing i am wondering: what it would be like to announce that you were going to take your life and that you wanted to have a funeral while you were alive because you honestly don’t know if you would be able to hear all the nice things people have to say about you after you’re gone. would that even work or would they strap you into a chair so you wouldn’t be able to take your life? the only thing that’s really yours, you can’t destroy. but take someone else’s and they can take yours. funny..

i have rambled. sorry.

hello! i’m now in berkeley in a little cafe called cafe malano on bancroft. before this we were at cafe durant for breakfast..EGGS (: sitting under rickety umbrellas out on a lovely 2nd floor porch overlooking the street below with a little rusty white speaker spewing spanish music and the sun streaking in all around us..

i’m so glad we postponed our berkeley trip to this weekend..it was rainy and dreary last weekend but this weekend the sun’s out! i’m going to go walk around on telegraph in a minute..jeremy has to stay here to study for a bit. he has a test on monday

yesterday we traipsed around on campus for a little bit, walked to jeremy’s mom’s office, and then we met up with his mom and nigel and aviva for dinner at this restaurant called fonda’s where we had yummy yummy food.. and then headed to noam’s for a little wine and cheese party (: what a sweet little house!!! i love it when you can tell the homeowner’s personality through just being in their home, all the books, the pictures on the refrigerator door, the kitchen stuff, the faded old pictures everywhere, the little knick-knacks. it felt really homely and full of character, but not stuffy and over-thought. and we got to sleep upstairs in the master bedroom! it was like a studio apartment, literally. had their own living area and kitchen area and everything. anyway, so yeah it was uh, awesome (:

today we’re going to go thrifffffting!!! and for lunch we’re meeting jeremy’s friend steve maybe at this little roadside shack we passed by yesterday that sold amazing brazilian grub! had a mango smoothie from there, and the cute little man gave us a sample of their tri-tip….really juicy! can’t wait.

LATES PEEPS!

today is tuesday. in gardening class (well it’s really called plant science 5, but it really is about gardening) we harvested the biggest, juiciest cucumbers ever, and learnt how to mix soil with other stuff to get good potting media for our plants. next week we’re going to prune our crops in the field (we weeded them a couple of weeks ago, that was mighty fun). still no fruits yet, except for the cucumbers in the greenhouse, i can’t wait for my strawberries and eggplants especially!! (: but there’s other stuff like basil, onion, carrots, parsley, tomato (?) and many more.

anyway.

in african, caribbean and brazillian dance and culture class today we learnt the calypso dance from this insanely happy black guy from trinidad and tobago. claudia says she wants to marry him. he’s pretty well on in his years but had more stamina than most of us. so, the calypso dance – the funnest thing EVER. i don’t usually find learning choreographed dances fun at all so i don’t usually dance unless it’s like a crazy outdoor free for all thing like in little prague on punjabi night (haha!) but this thing was in-sane. everyone, young and old, fat and thin, black,white, brown and yellow, went crazy because the people playing the drums were crazy and the so-called “Calypso Spirit” was infectious as hell. it made me want to go to trinidad and tobago so bad, on top of the other caribbean islands. i’d loooove to go during the carnivale when the whole country stops doing everything else and goes wild dancing down the streets (:

so i just wanted to say that, in case i forget! …still to come, YOSEMITE PHOTOS!!!!! (sorry i haven’t been updating, for those of you who check back now and then.) i’m officially hooked on going on trips with OA.. so far there’s been the cross-country ski-ing trip in the winter, white water rafting in april, and yosemite backpacking last weekend. i REALLY would like to go for either the point reyes or big sur backpacking trips! or this one called “ultralight backpacking” where the venue is not set and depends on where the group wants to go (: (: i’d love to try my hand at sea kayaking tooooo…mmm.

this weekend, berkeley lovin’ with the neighbour jeremy! and maybe checking out the storytelling festival in a forest somewhere..near berkeley? apparently world-famous storytellers flock down to tell stories in a forest. mm. the bay to breakers race is on this sunday too in san francisco so i might go! not to run but..maybe to walk. HAHA. and to check out san francisco’s very own Carnivale!!! one day, the Brazilian one too (:

ESSAYS GALORE!! WHY AM I BEING FLOODED WITH ESSAYS TO DO?!?!

okay, i’m going to cook some chicken and potatoes for dinner now! toodles!

Yesterday I went white water rafting for the very first time on the South Fork of the American River with the Outdoor Adventures club! It was super awesome, to say the least. I was pretty scared at first, having never done this before, and having seen pictures/videos of people white water rafting. this trip involved class 2 and 3 rapids (they go up to class 5) so it was mild at first but got really exciting when we got to the class 3 rapids. we once collided into a huge rock because we couldnt paddle hard enough and the rapids were, well, too rapid, so we crashed into it head first… the raft nearly flipped! 2 people fell out of the boat into the rocky water (which was really dangerous considering we weren’t wearing helmets, the guides were though, for some strange reason). when they surfaced i finally recognised who they were (everything happened so quickly i was trying my hardest to stay on the raft! it was pretty terrifying watching nareen and shubho being swept away by the rapids so quickly! jackson was shouting PADDLE FORWARD PADDLE FORWARD! the whole time but we only managed to rescue shubho (even then, in the process we almost ran him over with the raft because the rapids swept us too quickly towards him). good thing the other raft was ahead of us then and picked nareen up. she was trying furiously to swim against the rapids but to no avail. her camera had fallen in and dale somehow managed to pick it up as they paddled past it. PHEW!

and so, here are those nearly-lost photos. some were taken by nareen’s disposable underwater camera and others were taken by shubho during lunchtime. (i didn’t bring my camera because it is..not waterproof.) we didn’t manage to take any photos of the rapids or of us when we were in the rapids because we were too busy paddling like mad and falling into the water, or trying not to fall into the water.

GO WHITE WATER RAFTING!!!! it’s crazy (:

during the briefing before getting onto our raft. i look like i wasn't paying attention to jackson, but i was!

the beautiful views from our raft (:

we all had to huddle in one corner of the raft as jackson pried us off the rock that we were stuck on..HAHA!

the other raft on the trip!

carrying the ULTRA heavy raft from the water up the slope.

nareen, shubho and i outside the OA van as they were packing up the equipment.

us stopping for lunch by the river..

the other people on the trip...they were all room mates!

2 of the guides... dale and ricardo (:

nareen and i (:

growing up i always thought the teacher’s girlfriend/boyfriend was a very illusive, mysterious figure. and now i’m it! GO FIGURE! (:

sometimes i exchange squiggly waves in the air across the world with xixi and miraculously we exchange secrets of our lives (like this giant camera she uses to take photos of famous people).

i just got back from yoga class. i signed up for a quarterly pass at the Arc (a crazy structure with all forms of exercise equipment anyone could dream of where gym rats can be seen scurrying about on moving conveyor belts day and night and day with plugged ears and bobby-pinned hair) that allows me to attend as many group exercise classes as i want. jeremy and weifen and avani and i went for the try before you buy thing but i ended up the only one liking it enough. but i like the alone time, and the starbucks at the arc is a lovely place to do my readings like today when i was hiding there from the rain. DAMN THE RAIN. i skipped astronomy class because i didn’t want to be stuck in the classroom doing “cloudy day worksheets” again. (these are backup worksheets that they “entertain” us with if the weather doesn’t permit us to go on the roof to stargaze.)

tomorrow i shall go sign up for white water rafting this weekend! hopefully there’s a spot left.

BAK KUT TEH FOEREVER! (salute)

SPRING IS HERE!!!!!!!

so over springbreak, my very first springbreak, i had one of the best times of my life in Hawaii (: i have alot of people to thank! mother aggie and jiejie for sponsoring my flight to hawaii, ashok flowers for being the best guide and travelling buddy one could have in hawaii, fiona who lent me shoes for hiking, jeremy who lent me his sleepingbag for sleeping and for being the best gardening class partner EVERRRRR thanks for helping me plant my things and getting into trouble with the professor for me while i missed class on monday!

here are some pictures that can hardly depict the week of sunshine and madness, but they’ll have to suffice. i will blog about the trip soon! as soon as i get this damn module mapping out of the way…

in the mean time, ALOHA!!!! (: (: (: (:

Ashok and I walking down waikiki beach!

We snorkeled with the giant sea turtles!

pretty beach with tons of seaweed where the turtles swam up to feast!

I jumped off this gigantic rock into the ocean, twice!

that's me! (:

and this explains the bruises on my thighs aha!

on top of the rock, going for round 2!

climbing the big rock, it got addictive.

ashok and his hawaiian islands beach towel

the family with the best hair genes i've ever seen! (: (: (:

a gorrrgeous BLACK sand beach! (:

the sun rising over our camp site

our humble abode by the beach (:

the GIGANTIC tree we came across on one of our long hikes.

one of the many waterfalls we hiked by (:

getting lost in a bamboo forest!

the 300-foot waterfall at the end of our hike where we took a shower!! (spot me in the picture!)

after breaking camp

hiking up in haleakala, you're looking at me in a volcanic crater!!

it was negative 3 degrees celcius, 10,000 feet elevation. we had to suffer for the most amazing sunrise evverrrr...

dawn

someone started chanting a prayer in a foreign language just as the sun rose, it was the most goosebumpy, magical, indescribable feeling ever that i felt.

just walking around in a volcanic crater for 5 hours. DAMN TIRING.

hanging out with the people we met while camping, trying to play the instruments that jordan hand-crafted (:

these are some shots that manu took during our roadtrip to santa cruz!

lying in a bed of flowers along the coast of california...while we drove along highway one (:

i’m envious of the college kids here because they HAVE CARS. not that i’ve ever felt the slightest urge to drive in singapore. being here doesn’t necessarily compel me to learn how to drive when i go back to singapore, but it does make me kind of wish that singapore was more like america (ONLY) in the sense of the driving culture (not in the cities, but in places like california where there are sprawling fields and amazing crazy beautiful horizons of sunrise/sunset for people to drive by with their favorite music playing, that’s what playlists are for!) and how CHEAP the cars are here. you can get a good second hand car for 2000 dollars!!! and the gas is cheap too. and apparently volkswagon beetles are not more expensive than the average car, everyone seems to be driving one. well not everyone, but alot of college students. the cars that are considered luxury cars here seem to be mercedes and rolce royce. not even BMW!

rochelle just made me stirfried veges and rice. so much for planning to bake salmon! i’m stuffed! when am i going to make it then!? tomorrow we’re meeting stephanie for lunch at rajah’s for indian buffet, then i have rehearsals with daniella..then class.. then i’ll come back to do my chores (haha!) and then… dinner with the neighbours and birdstrike theatre improv performance!! maybe we’ll sit around eating milk and cookies and watching land before time at night too (:

THEN, saturday morning’s pig market and i want to go to crepeville for breakfast again!! it’s the goodest breakfast on a saturday morning i tell you. if ben and manu manage to drive up somehow for the pigfest we can bring them there! then i dont know what the real plan is, but there’s a chance ben might drive us to his place in milpitas and we’ll take a little roadtrip down the coastal highway thing which i imagine to be bee-yoo-tiful, to santa cruz over the weekend!!

SEE!? NO TIME FOR SALMON!! i hope it doesn’t spoil!

i miss you mother aggie!!! sometimes i wish i can just sit here and not move and someone will cook something hot and soupy for me. and however much i hate it when i come back home in singapore and my room’s always SUPER CLEAN and unlike how i left it, i sometimes wish that would happen to my room here. hahaha.

okay… back to doing my stupid animal science paper. UGHHH. i’m on my second page and wishing to get it Over and Done With!!!!! *strangles myself*

i want to watch heroooooes.

UP-DATES!!!!! star star flower flower.

okay so… my bathroom is starting to get mildew stains i think because I take SUPER hot showers with scalding hot water and the steam is… incredible. i have NO TIME to clean it but i will this weekend. i promise. i will get down on all fours (actually, up on my tippy toes because its on the ceiling) and scrubadubdub. i will wash all my sheets and clean the ENTIRE ROOM upside down.

yes. this weekend. actually… this friday. crazy week this has been, is still. rehearsals for final scene for drama class, paper due today, paper due friday (which i haven’t yet started on), astronomy test tomorrow!!! i have half the mind not to go for it thanks to the amazing thing they do here…drop the lowest score out of all the tests.. well most professors do it anyway. i did pretty well on the previous 2 astronomy tests..so i could technically afford to not sit for this one. but then again.. i’d have to study this stuff for the final anyway! and don’t get me started on the paper due friday… ugh.

okay on to the good stuff. today was naaice.. i didn’t SNOOZE!! i.e. i got up at 6am sharp. okay i think i lazed in bed for like 5 minutes.. but then i jumped up and hopped into the shower, reciting my lines while shampooing my hair. (i do that alot nowadays in the shower.) made myself a yummy breakfast and took the early bus to school so i had time to grab coffee with daniella my scene partner (also coffee cups for props for our scene that we were supposed to show in class today) and go to the library to print out my journal assignment. forgot my wallet in my rush to catch the early bus… but wei fen brought it for me. in the end we didnt get to our scene because we ran out of time in class, so monday. coffee got cold anyway. wei fen and i went to ciocolat for breakfast..on the porch in the semi-sun, so cheeky always playing hide and seek. sitting diagonally opposite a just-woke-up couple with bed hair and sunday morning breakfast attitude (: although, it was a wednesday late morning, haha. i had a hot mocha (sweet and warm, very delicious) and cranberry & white chocolate scone. wei fen had some scrambled egg thingamajig with bacon and sauteed apples, or something. and then we headed to the griffin lounge where we bumped into none other than avani, naturally (:

so from then on…the day wasn’t so great anymore. although one good thing, no, great thing, was that i managed to escape the rain once more! it somehow always rains when im in class and when i get out the sun will be out again. *touch wood* i need to get a raincoat. cannot tahan fighting the wind in my lousy $3.99 umbrella from san francisco juggling my laptop bag full of everything but my laptop, PLUS my laptop, and my bag and coffee sometimes.

i made a huge lunch because i was so hungry at 3.30 when i got home. tempura!!! which i love. i have it with japanese mayo and hot cock sauce, as ben puts it. hahahaha. its basically a type of thai chilli sauce that has a picture of a male chicken on the bottle. so i made tempura and fried noodles with bakchoy and tofu and golden mushrooms! ended up so full i skipped dinner. well not really, i had a little snack in astronomy review, he always gives out cookies. very very delicious gourmet cookies that cost quite a bit, actually! and today so few people came that we each got 2!! (: and i bought a carton of milk too so i was happy, very.

while standing at the bus stop waiting for the W tonight it occured to me that (through chattering teeth and trembling lips) one of the things i’d probably miss is the foggy bus stop in winter, the one called cowell and valdora in the bus schedule where i spent a good part of my davis life waiting for the W. and i looked up and there was the sky and all the stars. no W in sight, it is late by 6 minutes.

i don’t feel like doing ANY WORK AT ALL. i feel like throwing away half my things and packing everything else up into my suitcase and hopping onto the train to wherever and ever.

but there is a pig festival at the farmer’s market this saturday, i shall stay for that, at least. well not really a pig festival, but we all must dress up in pig outfits and there will be pigs for us to pet and pork things to eat (morbid but true).

when oh when is my period arriving. arrive, arrive, why won’t you arrive.

met a beautiful girl called Solesne Blosse in astronomy class, and it occured to me just that her name is kind of like… Sun Flower in french.

hello my loves, i’m sorry i haven’t been updating my blog religiously like i ought to! i really want to but something always crops up..homework, going somewhere, people visiting or visiting people, studying for midterms (which are neverending, by the way), sleeping (i have insane morning classes), and just plain procrastination. OR..spilling coffee on my table. grrr.

there’s been SO MUCH that has happened since the last time i blogged, which is what, 3 weeks ago?!? i find it hard to believe that the winter quarter is ending in 3-4 weeks time, and then it’s SPRING BREAK AND HAWAII!!!!! (: (: (: i’m 2/3 way through half of my stay here in davis, which is… like lightning. i’m so glad that i’m staying for the spring quarter… i can’t imagine going back so soon! it’s almost like i just came here a week ago. and yet so much has happened. everyone’s been saying how nice it gets here in spring… and i get glimpses of it sometimes when I walk past a tree that’s beginning to bloom (: it’s getting really rainy here though! it’s been raining all weekend and the weather forecast says it’s going to rain for the next ten days straight! pooooo. hate it when it rains. but strangely it’s not as cold when it rains.. just wet. the black umbrella that I bought from san francisco for $3.99 is coming in really handy now… though just now at the bus stop the wind was so strong it made my umbrella do that thing where it flips inside out so my umbrella looked like a rain-collecting bowl on a stick. hahahaaha. cheap thing.

i’m at common grounds cafe again, this time with rochelle! we’re studying.. but once weifen comes back from school we’ll go to nugget and get the much raved-about sandwich for lunch. i have so much to do this week!! drama is alot of work, but tons and tons of fun. i’ve just been allocated my final scene and scene partner. have to start memorizing lines and doing scene analysis and rehearsal schedule etc etc… (: speaking of classes, here’re the classes i’ll be taking in the spring quarter:

African American Dance and Culture (for Theatre)
Human Sexuality
This Planting class with jeremy, it’s a hands-on class so we get to spend time in the sun (SPRING!!) in our overalls, which we plan to get at a thrift store soon, getting our hands all dirty planting whatever!
a Religion class that’s based on all the religious texts like the bible and the koran etc etc.
and last but not least… the Astronomy lab! which is basically star-gazing at night from 9.30-11.30pm every tuesday (:

THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS… is that i get fridays off!!!!!!
this spells FUN times ahead my friends. 3-day weekends forever and ever amen. i need to start thinking of where to go and what to do (:

this blog is proving so much more difficult to upkeep than my new york blog!! i think it’s because i had more free time and less amazing people around me (other than xixi) and more touristy things to blog about the last time i was in america. i’m glad this time is different, but i’m going to try to blog more often!

today I went to the tanglewood office to collect a parcel that elfie sent me… it’s a BIG WHITE FLUFFY BATHROBE!!! <3 <3 <3 i’ve been wanting one for so long but they’re really expensive here. YAHOO!!!! now i’ll look like a crazy saloon person wearing that and my white bedroom slippers and maybe a white towel on my hair to top it all off. heehee.

okay, more later! (soon!) but for now… PICTURES!!!! *HUGS FOR EVERYONE*

San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge with friends from around the world on Dylan's City Tour!

Muir Woods! this shot reminds me of the forest in Bridge to Terabithia (:

sherry, avani and i, we were trooping around berkeley last weekend <3

the pretty berkeley marina

postcard from xixi and letter from elfie! (check out the durian stamp.)

me on my laupok bike... in front of the mailboxes.

fresh STRAWBERRIES at the farmer's market!

a cute band playing in the middle of the farmer's market at central park

boy with froggie booties! *SQUISH*

pretty quilts and fabrics billowing in the wind..

doing my astronomy homework at the arboretum...

hmm

listening to latika's theme while snoozing on the grass on a (rare) sunny winter afternoon by the creek... pure heaven.

i kiss ducks

i eat ducks too

milk and sunshine = bliss

sprawled on the quad one day, skyping with elfie and shanta (:

i’m sitting in Common Grounds (the cafe across the street from our apartment) in one of their heavenly couches soaking myself in the streak of sunlight that’s pouring strategically in through the glass door onto my armchair, studying for my animal science midterm tomorrow (more like people watching and enjoying the music). i just had one of the best cookies.. pumpkin spice cookie, and its vegan so it doesn’t have eggs or milk in it which is unbelievable really. my trusty bike is parked outside, and the shawl xixi gave me is spread across my lap for extra warmth and coziness (: ooh nice music. the couches are so beautiful… there are plush plum ones and rich hunter green ones, dusty pink velet ones that rock back and forth, vintage faded floral ones that have huge armrests and curved backs, nice fluffed candy-striped pillows strewn all over… olive green carpeting and old wooden coffee tables with brass legs. i think my future home would have to have beautiful couches and armchairs like that, extremely comfortable and pretty (not necessarily flowery though) bedding and a well-equipped kitchen. oh and bathrooms that make you never want to come out of them. those are THE essentials!!! other than the people, of course (:

this weekend’s been funny. saturday was one of the most strenuous days ever since i’ve been here, we went cross-country skiing with the outdoor adventures club at uc davis. we cycled to school at about 6.30am to meet the rest, and got back at about 5.30pm…super duper tired. i simply lost count of the number of times i fell. though the first fall of the day was MINE, I know that much. HAHA. too bad i was taking the photos so there’re no photos of me with my legs and arms flailing in the air..somehow i found it hilarious everytime i fell down (really hard) and couldn’t get back up again. well eventually i did…but it was tough with my feet clipped into the long skis. so the couple of photos i got with me in it i’m on my feet, but i DID get quite a few shots of weifen and stephanie all tangled up in the snow…hahaha. the trip was called Introduction to Cross Country Skiing but it sure was a tough introduction! but i had tons of fun though, mostly falling down, but when i started getting the hang of it (relatively), it started getting less tiring and more fun (: the others on the trip that had tried snow-shoeing or alpine skiing said those were easier than cross-country skiing.. maybe i’ll try them out next time. i’m thinking of signing up for the weekend backpacking trip with stephanie in march… camping out in the wild under the stars, campfire cooking, trekking, not bathing… sounds fun already hahahahaha.

on the way to the snow yesterday stephanie and i were talking and i realised that it’s probably a good thing that I didn’t get any of my other choices that were in the big cities like boston or LA because i probably wouldn’t have made as much effort diggin’ and sourcing for interesting things to do as I’m doing now since there’ll probably be more “touristy” things to do in those places. and stephanie reminded me that if I had got hawaii i’d have to fly out to go any place else…whereas being here i could just get a ride or take a train to practically anywhere in america..and i’m still going to hawaii anyway!

oohhh my body is aching so badly now its interrupting my train of thought.

oh yes. thank goodness i didn’t get my period before/during the ski trip. hahaha. the 3 of us were talking in the back of the van in not-so-hushed tones about the horrors of getting our periods on any outdoor camping/ activity trips especially if we had guy guides which would make it extra awkward. taking those pills that postponed your period would just make you the manic woman on the trip HEEHEE.

and on a food note, weifen and i tried making pattaya last night! but we didnt have a pan big enough to fry omelettes big enough to wrap our fried rice.. so it ended up looking like this!

le grande finalé!!! c'est mon FRIED RICE (semi pattaya because omelette not big enough to wrap the rice)

okay here’s a list of foods that i officially miss from singapore:
1) the east coast road jumbo prawn mee
2) chicken rice and chicken rice chilli
3) hokkien mee
4) tomyum soup
5) satay!!
6) stingray!!!
7) bakkuteh!!!!
super spicy laksa
9) dry beef noodlessssss
10) FISHCAKE
11) parkway parade STEAMBOAT!!!!!!
12) chicken curry!!!!
13) cut chilli with light sauce…oh my god.
14) fishball noodles with alot of chilli and oil and everything!!!

okay i’m going to get back to studying now before my drool ruins my notes. enjoy les photos!! (:

sunrise

sunriser

sunrisest

view from the van as we drove 2 hours from sun to snow

stephanie our new friend from the trip (: who happens to be friends with our housemate and the girls who rented us their rooms!

she's taking us to a thai restaurant this tuesday!

stepping on snow, no skis yet though!

me in rochelle's ski jacket and chris' (one of our guides) sunglasses... poor snowless singaporean.

christian! one of the guys on the trip who's a natural at this cross-country skiing business.

our picnic in the snow (:

castle peak meadows! where we practised before going on to the slopier parts.

The Big Snowball Fight

bombs awayyy!!!

i like this picture of stephanie!

falling down falling down falling down...

crashing into each other...

maybe we needed helmets on top of all this gear.

see those ski tracks we're making in the snow? (:

too bad we forgot to take a group shot.. but it was fun.. i want to go for another snow trip before the snow disappears...