Ok so because I have a test tmr, I have decided to blog. Makes sense? Never mind.

Ok this is my roommate, Lacy..
She's usually not like that. (she's gonna kill me if she finds this blog ahaha)

One day, the tape holding the cardboard pieces covering our aircon vent decided to fall off, and to prevent ourselves from getting hypothermia while we sleep, the roommate and I decided to implement a permanent solution:

Yes, we made a banner! I dunno where she got the maroon cloth, white paint, glitter (yes, glitter), and sequins (gosh), but they magically appeared and we decided to do up a nice banner to cover the *#(*& vent haha. Very waste time hor. Plus I had a test the next day haha. But who cares.

Heehee our PRETTYY banner! "Gig 'Em!" means "Get Them". It's a popular slogan around here. We even made the Texas A&M logo with (iron-on) sequins haha. And the words were done using glitter and white paint. (Omg I can't believe I'm actually gushing over glitter and sequins.)
Our banner up at it's rightful place ahaha. It looks puffy cuz of the wind from the vent. My room is literally a freezer. It's stupid. At least we don't have to freeze our butts off anymore haha.

So yesterday, she was high on Slimfast (it's a drink that's supposed to supplement your meal, so you get to lose weight, but it's terribly high in sugar content ahah). And this was what happened:

That's a stick of stain remover she's using as a mike. Hahaha oh man, she'd better not find this blog!!

Anyway, here are examples of the conversations we share:

Lacy (swinging her arms back and forth): "Can I ask you a question? Have you ever felt like doing a backflip even though you know you can't, and you're gonna land on your butt?"
Me: *silence* "Err.. sometimes?"
Lacy: "Shut up. You're just patronizing me."

Lacy: "Do you have ovens in Singapore?" (cuz she was telling me she baked something)
Me: "Noooo.... In Singapore, we wait for lightning to strike a tree. Then we use the fire to cook our food. It's very sad, cuz we only get to eat meat once a month. I'm so lucky to be able to come here."
Lacy: ".... Thanks, Ms Sarcastic."

Hahaha, oh man, I'm so glad my roommate is nicer than the others'! Though she does have some emotional issues sometimes, but oh well, it's better than nothing aha. At least she talks to me, and she doesn't kop my laptop without asking me. My suitemates are damn noisy though. Walao, they invite 10 pple to their room at 3am? And ALL 10 of them decide to use the toilet at the same time? Then they hold singing (screaming) competitions, and try to outyell each other. Argh.

Back to you
It always comes around
Back to you

family

SOMEONE PLEASE TAKE ME AWAY FROM THIS TOWN.

Take me to Dallas/San Antonio/Houston/ANYWHERE!! PLEASE.

Gahhh. Before I steal a car and drive far far away. I need something different. To see different people, different things.. And I've only been here for err, 5 weeks? I think that's enough actually haha. School's tough too. I foresee a terrible week. ExamS, project meetingS, paperS... The only silver lining is Spring Break haha. I think only international students look forward to that haha. Yeah, we're here to have fun, not study. Well not really, I don't wanna do too badly either.

Anyway I just received some of my family's CNY photos from my aunt! Oh man, I miss them so much :(


Reunion dinner.

My mum and her 3rd son, whom I miss alot alot haha.
That's my cousin, Eleanor, with my parents. She's afraid of Congee haha. And he refused to look at the camera.

The 2 boys I miss most of all haha.

And I posted my first video! Rocks huh. Hope it works haha. Anywya that's Eleanor sending me her New Year wishes haha. With my grandparents in the background.

It’s sad to me how quickly we define
What’s wrong with yours is right with mine
You think that we could learn to let things slide?
Just let things slide

counting down the days...

Rahh I hate mugging!

It's sad that tests and exams are a universal phenomena; you can't escape them no matter where you are :(

I can't wait for Spring break. Mostly I can't wait to get out of this town.

Why cant you be different from the rest?
Oh, won't you surprise me instead?

CNY in ah-melica

Because it's Chinese New Year tomorrow, or rather today, and because it's supposed to be a holiday, I'm giving myself a day off tomorrow. I'm a Chinese before I'm a student haha. So yup, 新年快乐，万事如意，年年有余 to you too!

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 :D

If I'd be your girl, will you be my guy

And I never thought I'd be the type to fall, to fall

of diarrhoea and football

Time for my weekly update!

School's boring as usual. But the weather is improving yay! Nowadays, outdoors is probably warmer than indoors. Which is weird, but nice :) Then again, it might be too early to comment on the nice weather cuz it might start freezing up in a few days. Texan weather changes every 15 mins haha.

So, I had a brief episode of diarrhoea last week haha. Cuz being the genius I am, I drank expired milk. Gosh, I thought I was gonna die from it man. I think that's the difference between falling sick overseas, and falling sick at home. At home, I usually won't care much if I had diarrhoea. But here, I was panicking cuz I didn't wanna die from diarrhoea all alone away from home haha. I mean, what a way to die. Haha I think I overreacted. But I recoverd after taking some medicine. Anyway I went to see the doctor for my cold also, and my medicine cost $33?? But my insurance is able to cover, so I paid $29 -.- OMG. Next time I'm just gonna go to Wal-mart for medicine. I feel so cheated. Americans have a different definition of 'insurance' from the rest of the world. And I still haven't recovered.

Anyway, leisure-wise, we did a few pretty cool things haha. Ok well, not that cool, but this is College Station. We played Bingo! Ahaha. Yes, it's a geriatric activity, but it's FUN. Basically you buy a sheet of paper with lots of squares with numbers in them. Like Sudoku. Then the guy will announce a number and you use a chop to mark the numbers in your sheet, and you win when you get the winning formation. It's all based on luck, so of course none of us won haha. This is what I call 'cheap thrill' :D We saw many die-hard auntie and uncles there though. They'd 'shush' you if you made too much noise haha.

And on Sat, we went to the mall in town. It was kinda disappointing though they had many brands like Gap, Abercrombie and Macy's. I thought the mall was kinda small and abit run-down haha. But we had no choice cuz we don't drive, so it's the furthest place we could go to. Then we had some scavenger hunt cum sushi party organised by this international students' association. The scavenger hunt was pretty pointless I thought, basically just running (and I mean run, like sprint) around school taking pictures of landmarks. I was too busy trying to catch my breath, to take in my surroundings haha. But we did some networking afterwards, and managed to find a group of skydiving kakis! So here's hoping we'd be able to do some serious skydiving soon haha.

Sun was Superbowl Sunday! Basically it's just the American football finals, which is big here. And I mean BIG. Basically people hold parties in their homes where everyone gathers around the TV with loads of junk food, to watch. Wal-mart even has this section where they sell Superbowl necessities, like chips and stuff. Superbowl has the biggest viewership in the US too, so advertisers spend like millions of dollars just to broadcast their ad. The ads are a huge draw of Superbowl too. Anyway we went to Lauren's house to watch. Oh Lauren is a local we met who's super nice, and is willing to drive a bunch of Singaporean stragglers everywhere. She's joining us for Spring break too :) But more on that later. So in between stuffing ourselves with tortillas and apple pie, and getting lost with the game on TV (no one knew the rules and where the ball was, sometimes), we played Uno and Scrabble haah. Oh yeah, the underdogs, the New York Giants, won the game, breaking the winning streak of the New England Patriots, who were unbeaten throughout this whole season. Amazing.

Us! Oh Alex was away in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Sheesh, I'm jealous.
Uno with a few of Lauren's friends.

And we've booked our tickets for Spring break! NEW YORK HERE I COME. Muahaha. YEs we're going to New York! And Boston and Washington, and hopefully Philadelphia if we've got the time. I really hope we'd have the time to fully take in the sights and sounds when we're there. I don't like to rush around. And yeah, I also hope we won't spend too much money ahaha. Our tickets were pretty cheap, thanks to Lauren who booked them for us haha. It's time to start saving! Gotta think before spending!

This week's Chinese New Year! Oh my ba kwa and pineapple tarts, where art thou?? Haha it's alright, I can live without them for 6 months. I think we're probably gonna do a steamboat thing on Wed night, and there are a few CNY dinners here and there too :) Anyway Gong xi fa cai to everyone in Singapore!

Ok I gotta go check on my laundry before it shrinks beyond repair. And do my homework :(( Next week's gonna be terrible. I've got 2 tests!

Sometimes what we think we really want we don't.
Sometimes what we think we want we really don't.
Sometimes what we think we love we don't.

you're young until you're not

SO my problems with the bank account and school fees are still unsettled. It's a long story, and I don't feel like repeating it here. But I'm ok. I think. Haha oh well. Everything can be solved. No use getting worried and panicky. I say that now, but I'll probably freak out in a few days over these same issues haha.

Anyway, life has been pretty normal. Which is why I don't blog so often. Cuz I don't really have anything worth blogging about. Haha yes, my life is very boring. School is boring. And I have a flu :( Thanks to the crazy weather.

Oh yeah, Austin was FUN. Except for Sixth Street and the drinking. THat was gross. Sixth Street was crazy, and full of drunks falling all over the place. We couldn't get into any of the places there! Which sucked. Not because I wanted to go in anywhere, but because it was freezing, and I didn't want to walk 15 mins in the freezing cold just to stand around in the middle of a street full of crazy people, in the freezing cold. And the night after, we were smart enough to stay in the hotel room, only to deal with a drunk Aori who came back ranting and dancing. But that was quite hilarious so it was ok haha.

We visited the State Capitol also, which is like the main governmental building in Texas (Austin is the capital of Texas after all). And we went to the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, which was pretty boring I must say haha. It's mostly all Texan propaganda, which a full-blooded Singaporean like me will never understand haha.

Oh so now, we're in the process of planning for Spring Break. It's so exciting! Except when you calculate the potential costs involved. At first we were thinking of flying to Philadelphia, then driving up to New York and Boston, before returning home. But after looking at our projected costs comprising of tickets, car rental and accommodation, we decided to drive up to New York haha. It's cheaper, and we can get to visit more places. Like we can stop over at Memphis, Atlanta and Washington DC, in addition to just the New York area. The only thing is we'd be spending 24 hours in a car, and we'd have to rush from place to place in order to maximise our 1 week. But who cares, it's cheap! Yes we're a bunch of cheap Singaporeans who'd trade comfort for low costs anytime hahah.

So I'm really looking forward to it :) I just wish February could "poof!" and disappear so I can zoom straight into March haha. Yeah, and because all my midterms are in February :((((

Anyway, I'm off to read my textbooks! Oh, speaking of which, I've received them already! THanks Qinyao (and JJ and Kaishi, and whoever's involved)!! And Mummy! (Though I doubt she'd see this.) I promise I'll treat you guys to lunch or something when I'm back haha. Btw, about the LHC elections, I don't know what's going on so I can't vote or anything, so you all should just treat me as a neutral party and leave me out of your campaigning and stuff haha. But all the best to both parties anyhow!

Weather update: Freaky as usual. 3 deg one day, and 16 deg the next. Welcome to Texas haha.

This is how it works
You're young until you're not
You love until you don't
You try until you can't

freezing

Oh man, it's freezing here!! The temperature dropped overnight and now it's about 0 deg outside? Plus it's raining. I even had to wear my big coat just to run out to throw my rubbish ahha. So scary. Thank goodness I didn't have lessons today (Fri's my free day yay), so I stayed in my room most of the time. It's nice to lie on your bed all wrapped up in blankets, just doing nothing except stare at the TV haha. Yes, I'm just lazy. (Oh btw, the roommate and I covered up the aircon vent in our room with cardboard haha. It's just too cold at night.)

Ok so apart from the weird weather, everything's been fine so far. School is boring, and I don't like 8am classes. Oh and I'm running out of $$ haha. Citibank sucks!! Apparently they were supposed to clear my bank drafts by last Wed, so I paid for my school fees on Fri. But now I just received notice that my payment was rejected and I even have to pay for the returned fee penalty!? WHAT'S WRONG. Argh, I'll have to call the bank tmr.

Speaking of tmr, we're going to Austin again! Like this super big group of us (5 Singaporeans, 3 Spanish, 1 Jap and 1 Texan). Cuz the guys wanna visit Sixth Street, which is this street of pubs/bars -.- We're renting a 7 seater, and hopefully we can squeeze ourselves in for the 2 hour ride. But apparently, there's nothing much to do at Austin except for Sixth Street, which is sad. We should go to San Antonio or Houston sometime!

Oh and my textbooks. I've calculated the cost - I'll spend US$400 if I buy textbooks here, and S$300+ if my mum sends them over from Singapore haha. I just hope nothing will happen to delay the postage. Oh and thanks QY, for helping me check out the books in Singapore!! You're a lifesaver hah. The courses here are quite heavy also, maybe cuz they're level 3 (eeks) haha. There're about 3-5 tests per course?? And each course is twice a week. THe good thing is there are no tutorials haha. But ya, there are projects of course. Sigh.

Ok I'm going to sleep now. Hopefully the weather will improve the next few days, and there won't be an icestorm or something. I heard that if there's too much ice, classes will be cancelled. But I don't want that to happen cuz I want my semester to end early haha. So I can go for my holiday sooner!

Until next time :)

Funny how long
A moment can seem
When you're trying to hold on