Thursday, November 30, 2006

::snowdazed in seattle::

last sunday, mich grace ab jinny ying christabel n i went on a daytrip to seattle. of all days, we had to pick a day when there was a snowstorm - to travel:( oh well. but we specifically chose sunday coz it was the last day of the post-thanksgiving sale in the seattle premium outlets - this meant that there would be further reductions, on top of their factory outlet prices!! but no thanks to the extremely bad travelling conditions, we were on the roads most of the time:( we left ubc at about 7:45am and only reached the seattle premium outlets at 3:30pm! how crazy. but i guess we should be thankful that we managed to move around safely:) it was quite a sight seeing so many cars getting stranded along the highway coz of the thick snow. we even saw 2 Z350s among them! looks like the fairlady isnt such a good car to drive under these conditions. haha. thank God for journey mercies:)

dear jinny and i - at the airport busstop, waiting for the connecting bus to the airport. the car rental place was just next to the airport! man i look like so bloated in my jacket:(

this was how bad the snowstorm was - everything was covered in thick snow (note: compare the picture of the same signboard in the post, on my portland/seattle trip the last time)

much thanks to our 2 drivers, grace and ab who drove us safely and back - despite the very bad weather conditions:) in fact, our vehicle (a 7-seater ford galaxy) got stuck in the thick snow TWICE! thank God that there were kind people who took the trouble to get out of their cars, to help us push our vehicle out of the snowpuddle - in the freezing cold. one thing i realized about the people in vancouver, is that they are (mostly) always more than willing to help and they have a lot of initiative! i still recall a few occasions when mich and i got lost while exploring downtown vancouver, some passerby would notice our "lost" looks and he/she would approach us to see how they could help us with the directions.. haha.

jinny and me - squashed in the backseat of the car!

finally reaching the seattle premium outlets!! yayy! but we didnt have enough time to shop:( 3 hours is certainly NOT enough to cover the many shops there. i was running from shop to shop but still - i didnt have the time to go to my fav gap outlet:( boohoohoo. i was quite disappointed that i didnt get to buy much for myself:( but im definitely coming back again!! :)

at crabpot - seattle's famous seafood restaurant! we were all famished coz this was our 1st proper meal of the day!

the very messy feast of alaskan crabs, assorted seafood, corn cribs and etc! all very good stuff though:)

but i had a tummyache - so i decided to have something less potent. haha. i had a seafood bruchette. it was really everything i wanted (yayy!) - grilled halibut, salmon, prawns, greenpepper, mushrooms, roast potatoes and assorted veg! the seafood was very fresh! nice:)

on the way back! jinny and i - the 2 crazy ones who had insatiable cravings for icecream when it was so freezing cold outside! haha. the girls shared a small tub of ben&jerry's strawberry cheesecake icecream- it was so so yummy:) it's quite reasonably-priced at usd$3.99 too!

::snow, desserts & sushi::

last saturday, we had a sorta farewell meal/mini-foodtrail for the sg exchangers (gil, joseph & huiping) who would be leaving ubc after this sem. how sad. i hate farewells:( sigh. but come to think of it, i would be seeing all of them when i get back in apr next year. haha. and karen too - when she comes back to sg during her term breaks:) yayy. anw i really enjoyed myself that evening!it was great food and company - as usual:) it started snowing that evening too!!

the view from outside my room that evening (26/11). there were just snowflakes initially. and then, the snowfall couldnt stop and it just got heavier and heavier and heavier.....

for the sake of comparison, this is the view from my room 4 days later (30/11)! oh man. too much of anything is never good. the same goes for snowing. it's so hard to move around when it snows so heavily:( the floor's so slippery and you can't really walk properly coz the pavements are covered with at least 10cm of snow? i almost slipped a few times!! it's really a matter of time before your shoes and feet will get soaked (eeks!). right now, the snow's melting and the roads/pavements are getting very muddy:( i hope the snow clears out soon!!

these days, this is the lovely sight that greets me when i leave my house each day:) but once i make my way outside, it's really no fun:(

oops sorry i digressed. back to last saturday! before we met, we had a snowfight near the busloop. it was so fun throwing snow at each other!! the snowball that gil made was v solid - and of course, it was reserved for jo! haha. jo was v sneaky - so we launched a collective attack on him! then i accidentally (REALLY!) caused him fall onto the snowbed facedown. haha. it was quite funny - though i felt quite bad after that!

anw our 1st stop was this cosy dessert cafe - true confections! yayy. karen and i were especially excited! haha. coz we are CRAZY over desserts!! they kept saying we are long-lost sisters coz we get really really excited over desserts (and food generally. haha), have the same chinese surname and apparently, we look alike too:) in the end, we chose the 4 different desserts which we all shared - coz the rest of them were too engrossed in some intellectual conversation. karen and i obviously got our priorities right:) heh.

karen and i - with the sinfully delicious desserts! we did a great job at choosing the desserts coz all of them turned out fantastic:) but then again, how wrong can one get - with chocolate and cheese!?

all of us!

a better view of our desserts - mudcake+french vanilla icecream, pecan pie, tiramisu cheesecake and a tripleberry whitechocolate cheesecake! yummy:)

the wide variety of desserts at true confections! i hope to try every single one - by the time i come back!!

our next stop was bc sushi! we had to idle at a vcd shop in the vicinity for about 30mins coz the sushi buffet special only started at 930pm. but the waiting was worth it - especially for the price we paid:) the sushi selection was not bad and they tasted quite good - though i feel samurai sushi's better. it was a pity i couldnt eat a lot (as i normally would) coz i was having a bad tummyache:( this is like the worst thing that can happen to you when you are having a buffet - wanting to eat but unable to!

all of us again! with 1 round of food before us:)

i love sushi!! some of them have weird names though.. the one 2nd from right is called dynamite sushi..

more food!! oh yes, another similarity that karen and i share - is that we both love edamame:)

after bc sushi, we all stopped by safeway to do some grocery-shopping! much thanks to gil who helped me carry most of my groceries - coz i was still having my tummyache:( by the time we reached ubc, we just missed the last shuttlebus! argh. so we had to walk all the way back to our residence! it was sucha long walk:( my feet were frozen coz i had to trudge through the 10cm-high-snow-covered pavements. it was really snowing very heavily!! not surprisingly, we played with snow again! i still joined in the snowfights - despite having a very bad tummyache. haha. the power of distraction. anw here's a picture of huiping, karen and myself, sitting on the snowbed along a slope on the way back:)

about 1.5 weeks ago, vancouver issued a boil water advisory after a powerful storm (that left thousands of people w/o power in SW B.C.) caused massive floods and stirred up water supplies. this caused our tap water to change colour:( since then, i had to make do with cloudy tap water. we were told not to drink the water, wash vegetables with it, or even brush our teeth with it without boiling it first! actually the situation in ubc is considered quite good already. steve, who stays just outside ubc, told us that the water that comes out from the tap in his home, was dirty green in colour - and this was after boiling. how yucky.

it was especially worrying because last wednesday, it was announced that traces of e coli were found in the samples of water taken from the reserve in ubc. but thank God that it turned out to be a false alarm after all! in fact, the boil water advisory just got lifted:) yayy!!

i had a great and eventful weekend!! i had a wonderful mini-foodtrail with karen, huiping, gil and joseph on saturday, and an enjoyable seattle road/shopping trip with mich, ab, grace, jinny, ying & christabel on sunday:) oh and it started snowing on saturday as well! it was so exciting initially - coz it was only my 2nd time experiencing snow! we played snow and had snowfights!! haha. i even caused poor jo to fall face-down onto the snow! oops (sorry jo! heh)! but the novelty wore off after a while when the snowfall became a snowstorm:( .

in fact, the snowstorm was so bad that on sunday, it caused a blackout in the whole of ubc:( it was such a terrible experience!! no lights (much thanks to my dad who forced me bring a torch! haha - i wouldnt know what i'd do w/o the torch), no heater, no hot water to bathe, no internet, no telephone reception (coz network was very busy):( i felt really dirty coz i couldnt bathe:( it was major-ly depressing. the blackout lasted for 13 hours - and boy was i glad that power was back again:)

alright - i will update with more pics soon!! right now, i gotta prepare for a court hearing tmr:( quite apprehensive about it actually, coz i am clueless about the procedural formalities here. hopefully the judge doesnt give me a hard time. to make matters worse, tmr's temperature forecast is -7 to -8 degrees celsius. oh my.. it's gonna be damn freezing :(

more updates!!

::last ivcf large group meetings i.e. big tuesdays::

time really flies. it seemed only like yesterday that i just arrived in ubc. cant believe that last tuesday was our last ivcf large group meeting, before we break to prepare for our exams. when i was back home in sg, i never realized/knew how important vcf or rather, having a solid group of christian friends was. maybe it was coz back home, i always had my family and friends to go back to - no matter what:) i still can do that here, but it just isnt the same when they are like miles and oceans away from me physically. that probably explains why, ivcf took on a completely new role in my life when i came to vancouver. ivcf is really like a 2nd family, a home away from home, where i have found many good friends. i doubt i would be able to get through the whole sem so smoothly, without their support and love:) thank God for that:)

in full force- the ubc ivcf worship team:)

our very humble stage - dav on the drums, me on the guitar, matt on the keyboards, deborah and charis (the lead singers and our worship leaders) and adrian (percussionist and backup vocals). incidentally, we are all in the same biblestudy group! it's no surprise that in the middle of our biblestudy, you can suddenly hear someone singing/humming a a hymn out of nowhere and we would then all join in? haha. as steve (our biblestudy leader/staff worker) puts it, this can only happen when the whole worship team is in the same biblestudy group. haha. it's so sad that deborah wouldnt be ard in ubc next sem though:( she will be going to another college to study nursing. hopefully we would still be able to meet up occassionally next spring!

::ice-skating at kitsilano::

yesterday, i went with the ivcf pp to kitsilano rink to ice-skate! i havent ice-skated in ages - and it clearly showed. haha. but i had lots of fun:) heh.

karen and i - in our skates! it was so.. difficult to put on those skates!! and it was so cold that my fingers felt frozen as i tried to adjust and tighten the laces. people were commenting that karen n i looked like twins coz of our matching attire - white jackets and jeans!! haha. and not to mention the fact that we both fell down one after another, while skating together! haha. i think we fell down with such a loud thud that people came rushing to us to ask if we were alright!? (yes it was a terrible fall - we fell on our butts - and im still aching all over now. boohoo). it was major-ly embarrassing but the funniest part was that both of us couldnt stop laughing at ourselves after that! haha. at least we went through it together babe:) heh. for me, it was like history repeating itself. coz the last time i fell, it was also coz i was trying to help someone get up after her fall! but i guess falling is all part of the experience - i wasnt so scared of falling after that:) i wish i had more confidence to skate faster though! it was karen's 1st time skating and i think she's a fast learner:)

just as i was getting the hang of it, we all had to stop iceskating at 10pm coz a ice-hockey team wanted to use the rink for their practice! bah. karen and i then went on a photo-whoring frenzy. haha.

with ellen, larissa (who's such a great cook) and karen!

meet dave - a former PROFESSIONAL ice-hockey player. too bad he quit a couple of years ago:( check out his own nike skates! expensive stuff! he really looked v pro when he ice-skated! im so envious!!

with my biblestudy group members - sarah, charis, adrian, dave and bora! i was really happy tt bora came to join us for supper:) she didnt join us for iceskating though! she has a phobia of iceskating coz the first (and probably, the last) time she ice-skated, she broke her knee. poor thing:( i never knew how dangerous ice-skating can be! thank God that there werent any mishaps that night!

in front of the iceskating rink - karen, bora, myself, matt, gil and mitchell (who's from sg too - but he has been in canada since he was like 10? i don't think he will be going back to sg coz he doesnt wanna go n s. heh)

the rink - which i think is smaller than the one in jurong east! these ice-hockey players were the ones who drove us away!!

at cancun's (i think) - a cafe that opens 24/7! it has a fantastic cosy ambience! enjoyed the warm drink and company!

cookies cookies delicious cookies!! haha. the guys kept teasing me about my obsession with cookies and they were trying to tempt me to get one! but i managed to resist the temptions!!yayy:) i must endure till tomorrow - when i will be going true confections for their sinfully delicious cakes!! woohoo. anw i only had a cup of hot apple cider, which tasted really good - especially when it was so darn cold outside! it was my 1st time drinking it. it tastes like hot concentrated apple juice.. nice:)

yayy! im back:) the week of hell is finally over!! for the past 5 days, i was kept very busy - being involved in a simulation run of a companies' creditors arrangement act (ccaa) proceeding, which is basically a process which allows an insolvent company to restructure itself through negotiations of compromises and arrangements with its creditors, under court supervision. in the end, my insolvency law class succeeded in working out a viable plan:) yayy! everything was done online, and we had 2 real-life judges supervising our negotiations. it was quite stressful coz we had to be on standby for like almost 24 hours? coz when a party makes a motion, the relevant parties have to reply within 4 hours (or 8 hours - if motion comes in after 10pm) in order to "appear" in the same motion, before the judge makes a decision on the motion.

i was so unlucky to get picked to be 1 of the 3 "counsels" who had to present a motion in front of the judge, who would ask us questions:( boohoo. it was like mooting in yr 1. this time however, there werent much to prepare (thank God!) and even if there were, i wouldnt be too bothered about it. c'mon we are on exchange afterall. haha. but thank God that things went along quite smoothly:) i was quite nervous and abit tongue-tied at the start - but i did redeem myself at the last part!

on hindsight, it was such a great experience! the negotiations part was something like what we did for legal case studies back in nus - but it was so much more real and interesting! maybe it was coz i was assuming the role as the representative counsel for the products liability claimants (i.e. tort claimants) and i like tort law! at some points however, i felt as though i was a counsel in a tort claim rather than one in an insolvency proceeding. haha.

ok some updates..

:: david's bday and brownies::

sulynn and i baked a browniecake for david's bday:) this photo doesnt show it, but we used raisins to decorate the cake and even wrote 'dav' on it! glad the bday boy enjoyed it! too bad i wasnt around for his bday celebration though:( btw this is a LOWFAT browniecake! just the perfect excuse for eating more:) haha.

:: lawrence's belated bday celebration/tom yam at jinny's::

last saturday, jinny invited us over to her place for tom yam! she got the recipe from her fellow thai friend, and cooked it for all of us (together with kana) - from a scratch without any pre-mix or powder! the soup base of the tom yam was really good - could taste the spices and herbs, all in the right proportion! it was comparable to those from thailand:) albeit i would have preferred it to be more spicy but some of them couldnt take overly spicy food.

kana and jinny - the ones who made the tomyam possible:)

lawrence and the girls:) it was lawrence's bday the weekend before! i also missed his bday celebrations coz i was away at fall retreat:( glad we could have a belated bday celebration for him! the bday cake was a tiramisu cake from true confections (the equivalent of bakerzinn/nydc in sg)! ahh it was just heavenly...yum!

greg, kana, lawrence and me! met greg (who's kana's boyfriend) at the gathering! he went for exchange in a uni in shanghai (which greg claims that it is very famous but i have never heard of it before - and i cant remember its name now. oops!) for 3 months, and his spoken mandarin is quite impressive! kinda puts me to shame. haha. he's really funny and i enjoyed talking to him!

sinfully delicious tiramisu and sauvignon blanc - both i heart alot:)

::sunday lunch at cafe katzenjammer::

after church last sunday, the sporeans (who attend university chapel) + janice (a torontonian) decided to have a sorta farewell lunch - before the exams start (coz we initially thought i cldnt join them next sunday for the farewell dinner). anw i have a few farewell meals scheduled over the next couple of weeks. it is kinda depressing actually. the thought that i wouldnt be able to see these familiar faces around next sem just makes me sad:( im gonna miss all of them!

anyways on a more cheerful note, going back to sunday lunch! when i saw the german flag displayed outside the cosy cafe katzenjammer, i was immediately attracted to it! ah yes..i still have a softspot for german stuff and people - coz of schumi of course:) heh. yup glad the rest acceded to my request - and boy was it a good choice!

all of us (karen, jas, brian (gil's sg church friend who's now studying in ubc), gil, janice, hiroko, me, saori and jo) - really enjoyed the company and the superb food! look at the spread before us!!

hiroko and i shared a wiener schnitzel (a german specialty which is a thin sliced of minced pork, coated with breadcrumbs) and hungarian goulash stew (i have no idea why there's a hungarian dish in this german cafe?! haha)! they were really good! for those who havent tried german food, the schnitzel is a must-try!

the girls - all satisfied after a good lunch, outside the cafe! oh my.. i look ghastly pale!

1:19 AM

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

i just got back from the ivcf fall retreat in missions (which is abt 1.5hr drive away from vancouver), with other university students from simon fraser university and emily carr (an arts college). it was such a refreshing and enjoyable experience:) oh i thought i could get away from yummy and sinful food while i was away at camp - and was looking forward to seeing how my plan to diet would finally materialize. but boy was i wrong. oh wells. i will update on the camp and other stuff later! right now, im just flooded with tons of work:(

12:15 AM

Thursday, November 09, 2006

cori's bday/samurai sushi

last saturday, hiroko, saori, cori and i went to samurai sushi (this really good and reasonable jap restaurant about 30mins away from ubc)! i always wanted to bring hiroko and saori there coz they have been trying to find a good sushi place in vancouver. however, we have been postponing our dinner date coz of the midterms and what not. im glad the plan finally materialized this time:) and it was the just the perfect time to celebrate cori's bday as well!!

the bday girl and me!! cori is such a sweet and sensible girl! she has the gift of making the people around her feel good and i really enjoy her company:) oh yes.. cori's spoken english is excellent too! that's probably coz of her interesting international background. she's a korean but she resides in saipan (which is the largest island and capital of the US commonwealth of the mariana islands, a chain of 15 tropical islands in the western pacific ocean).

all hungry and ready to dig in!! haha. the spread before us:) really enjoyed the fresh sashimi and delicious sushi! we spent quite a long time at samurai - indulging in good food and girly talk from 7-9pm!! anw i observed that this popular sushi place is opened and operated by thai people! how interesting..

the 4 of us huddling (and photowhoring) at the busstop - in the freezing cold! the cold temperature (sub-10 degrees celsius) is still bearable. but the wind is an absoulte killer.

i realized that the japanese and koreans like to show hand actions (i.e. the v-sign, the cheese sign or whatever?) when they take photos. saori told me that it's just so automatic for them japs to do that! so i gamely joined them:) haha.

3:12 PM

Sunday, November 05, 2006

ivcf progressive dinner
this was a new concept to me! it was a very interesting way of dining, where we would move around to a different house for each course in the meal. in our case, since we had a 4-course meal, we went to 4 different houses for appetizers, salad, main course and desserts!

appetizers at jen's - all of us! we had perrogis (or perrokis or something that sounds like that), which were dumpling-like pasta with potato+cheese fillings, mixed with mayo and garnish - it was absolutely delicious:) we also had this italian appetizer, which was essentially slices of frenchloaf with tomato, cheese and dressing. as u can see, im really lousy at remembering names:( but ask me about the food, and i will gladly describe them to the minutest detail:) heh

salad at dave's - with the 3 musketeers karen, shu and jess. these lovely girls are from singapore too! but they are full-time permanent students in their 1st years! nice to have met them here:) anw we had caesar mushroom + avocado salad and brocolli salad! yummy:)

oh but the bad thing about progressive dinners is that sometimes, you get so hungry at the start that you tend to overeat for the appetizer and salad courses; also, these courses might whet your appetite so much that that you would be so lazy to move around and would rather have the rest of the courses just appear in front of u at one place!! both of which happened to me:(

with adrian and matt, who is such a talented pianist! he entertained us with jazz music on the grand piano at dave's place!:) it really sounded very pro!

main course of lasagne and bread at steve's - me, the 3musketeers and sarah and rene (a couple from brazil - happily married this year! don't they look young? they are only 23!!) madness! sarah is my biblestudy leader:) it is so sweet how both rene and sarah are studying theology at regent college (supposedly the no 1 school of theology in the world!!) together and they are so involved in ministry work!

desserts at alfrida's - the girls all ready to dig in!! haha. we always have space for desserts - no matter how full we are!! heh. there were fruitpies with french vanilla icecream, chocolate fondue, chocolate bars, fruits, yoghurt! i love:)

11:39 PM

Saturday, November 04, 2006

::updates: good food & good company::

at earl's with the sporeans
to mark the end of their midterms, the sporeans organized a dinner at a nice classy restaurant, earl's. oh yes..because law in ubc is a master's program, we law exchange students were spared the torture of midterms:) yayy.

debbie (whom i knew since my hc days - how coincidental that we met in vancouver after so long!) and me - with her greek-styled pita and my thai pizza (i was having a craving for thai food!! i want daddy's tomyam soup!!)! anw my pizza is huge right? but lo and behold- i managed to finish it all by myself (except the crust, which was mostly eaten by gilbert who was trying to convince us that the crust was oily? ahh.. maybe that was an excuse to eat it?! ;) heh.)!

our end of the long table - debbie, me, gilbert, david and joseph! we had lotsa fun playing games after dinner:) david the jeopardy-man (inside joke) is really good with solving mystery cases! im totally impressed:) gilbert was telling us his corny jokes as usual. faints (as sandra would say!)

potluck at international house

last sunday, gilbert and i went for a potluck organized by the international friendship group branch of ivcf. it was actually a reunion potluck for those who went for the thanksgiving camp 2 weeks ago. although gilbert and i didnt go for it, janet kindly invited us there:) i made green bean soup (as usual coz it's the most convenient. ok i will cook something different next time;) and gilbert contributed by helping me carry the pot from our residence to international house (no im not complaining gil!! haha)!

anyway this potluck is by far the most international one i have ever attended, in terms of the selection of food and the people of course! there were really a mega lot of exotic food from all over the country!! like philippines-styled grilled chicken, brazilian rice, jap sushi/riceballs, 5 different kinds of fried rice (omg), greek salad, thai green curry, indian veg curry, iranian salad, swiss potato salad, cauliflower gratin and the list just goes on..really amazing! it was certainly like a real international buffet!!

a glimpse of my 1st plate of food! woah.

the girls at my table - with saori (from japan), pris (from switzerland), delphine (from france) and sarah (from canada)! it was fun talking to them!!

lunch with bora at my place

last wednesday, bora (an exchange student from korea and a fellow ivcf-er) came over to my place for lunch! it was a long overdue lunch date - which somehow kept getting postponed! but i was glad it finally materialized this time:) i cooked rice vermicelli soup with chicken and veg! bora loved it! yayy. im so happy we can click so well and i really enjoy having such heart-to-heart conversations with her:) it's truly comforting to find someone who really understands what you are going through:)

us having lunch!

bora brought some sweet potato pie that she made - for dessert! apparently it's quite popular among korean students! although it doesnt look spectacular, it was really yummy:) and it's very healthy too! yayy! i've found the perfect substitute for sinful doughnuts and cookies!!

the jap curry experiment

last wednesday, i tried cooking jap curry stew for the 1st time! i brought it over to gilbert and david's place, and they cooked rice! the guys loved it so i guess it was quite successful:)

gilbert made me pose with my curry!! too bad we didnt take a group shot:( anyway thanks for the mini tribute on your blog gilbert:) haha. i should say a few words too! for those who didnt know, gilbert and david are my neighbours living just 2 doors down from my apartment! really thank God for them coz they have been extremely supportive all these while - especially during when i felt really homesick and lonely here. i had immense support from my family, the other half and friends back home - but over here, they were really the ones who kept me sane! haha. i was really having a hard time coz my housemates werent around most of the time (they are grad students), and it is really a sucky feeling to come back to and be in an empty house alone all the time!!!

yup anyways i really appreciate how u guys, inter alia,
...would always ask me over for meals and include me in whatever stuff you guys were doing/in your travel plans
...would periodically check to see how im getting along
...would call me over to watch nice shows on tv esp when my former housemate took away the tv in my apartment when she left
...would offer to cook me for me when i oversleep (coz i cant defrost the meat on time for my dinner) or when i have assignment due the next day and im rushing like crazy!
...would always ask me along for grocery-shopping, and end up carrying most of my stuff which are too heavy for me to handle!
...would always provide me with my ultimate comfort food - cookies!! (but no thanks to nicknaming me cookiemonster. boo!!)
...would always be there to help me whenever i run into problems e.g. when my wireless access was down, when the lock of my apartment or that of the laundrette got stuck and i got locked out!!
...and etc and etc.

thank you both:)

11:57 PM