It feels so weird to be away from your family during CNY, esp since this festival is all about family (well, to me at least). And it's even weirder not having to go around preparing for this occasion. Usually I'd be decorating the willow tree (my mum makes me do it), helping out with the New Year goodies, cleaning up my room etc. at this time of year. Oh and memorising all the New Year greetings so I can be prepared to 拜年 haha. And don't get me started on the food (Oh ba kwa, where art thou?) and angpows. Oh and the 捞鱼生!! Gee, I miss everything!! Ok, I don't really miss 拜年 cuz I don't like visiting relatives I'd only see once a year, and answering the same questions all the time ("Which school are you studying at?", "Which year?", "What's your major?"). Hahah but it's a part of CNY and like I said, I'd feel weird if one tradition goes missing, as redundant as it may be to me.
But anyway, the Singaporeans prepared our own steamboat dinner today!! Yeah, we're a bunch of foolish people who decided on a whim one day to cook our own food at the risk of burning down the dorm kitchen. And none of us had any experience preparing a steamboat (except for eating, that is). But we spent damn long to plan for this ok. Plus we invited a few other friends over, so there was quite alot of pressure to make sure we don't disappoint them and paiseh ourselves haha. I even went to HEB (the supermarket in town) for 2 consecutive days just to source/buy our food/supplies! Omg I feel like an auntie lor ahah. Thankfully all our work was worth it, and our steamboat was a success! Besides the problem of having too much leftovers, that is haha.
You don't know how important it was to us to make sure our steamboat dinner took off. Cuz at first we found a portable stove in my hall's kitchen, which gave us the idea of doing a steamboat. Then when we tested the stove last night, to our horror we found out it couldn't boil anything. We couldn't use the kitchen stove either. Like wth man, WHAT isn't faulty here?? So we started to consider the idea of going to one of the Chinese restaurants nearby to eat haha. But thankfully, this afternoon we found a kitchen in Fowler Hall which had a functional kitchen stove, and we bought another portable burner from Target. Sigh, the lengths we go to for food.
Waiting for the bus at HEB (Here Everything's Better -.-), with our groceries.
Our boss and man-in-charge, Mr Alex Goh. "Just shaddup and do what I say, stupid!" Yeah, we're a bunch of abused and mismanaged employees haha. But if it weren't for him this dinner wouldn't even happen.
Frenzy. We were bumping into each other in the tiny kitchen, cleaning/washing/cutting/moving.
Playing with food.
Busy busy...
... till we set the stove on fire.
But we finally managed to put everything together! We've got crabsticks, prawns (they call it shrimp here, but whatever), scallop, sausages, beef, chicken, pork, fish, veg (I still don't know what kind, we just anyhow buy hahah), and microwaved rice haha.
Our guests-of-honor. My roommate, Lacy, and Lauren.
Everyone :)
And finally we can eat!
Lacy deep in concentration as she tries to use her chopsticks ahaha.
Yes, she finally managed to pick something up! 
Oh oh oh!! This one's a real surprise! We found Yeo's in HEB! YEO'S LEH. Made in Singapore product ahaha. All the way in Texas! Oh man, I'm so excited haha. The wonders of globalization. We gave them to the angmohs and they said it was too sweet haha. But I taste home when I taste sugar cane :DIf I'd be your girl, will you be my guy
And I never thought I'd be the type to fall, to fall
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