Rhode Island- Day 1

Hi guys!

Yah it's been a long time since I last updated my blog......But I'm redeeming myself by putting loads of photos in this blog entry! You know hor, adding and arranging photos in this blogspot is super troublesome!


We had a long weekend from friday to wednesday this week, so my apartment people rented a car and headed down to Rhode Island where my jie jie (Rose) stays. Rhode Island's a really nice countryside state, and wakefield, where we stayed, is a nice little town among the woods away from the city.




It was really great to see Rose again, and her place was a nice and cozy. It really felt like home......which we really appreciated especially when we were really beginning to miss home!





This is the room that Valerie, Daphne and I stayed in.






This is Paul's (Rose's husband) small farm area that has a pen for the chickens and a barn for his 2 sheeps to roam around. Oh and he has a white hen that is called Sadam......don't ask me why!






After a sumptous American breakfast (sausage, cinnamon roll, scramble eggs, choise of orange juice or chocolate milk, or hot chocolate.....or all), Paul gave us a tour of Wakefield. We came across a large pond and saw some people fishing. Paul went to talk to them and they welcomed us to come check out how fishing was done here, on ice!



This machine is called the Angus, it's used to drill a hole in the ice so they can put this tilt, on the right to fish. They do use fishing rods also, but only at the place they lay their stuff and sit down. Oh and there is a limit to the number of holes each person can use at one time......i think it's about 5 or 6.


Oh yah! We made snow angels too!


You know what people say about how you get to know people's true colours if you stay long enough with them? Here is Valerie......my GOOD friend!


See How she push me down then use me as a support to stand up!

After the little experential learning at the pond, we went to a skiing area called Yawgoo! My first time skiing! We spent USD65 for a 50 min lesson and unlimited skiing till 5pm. It was really fun and I really like skiing! Its like a combination of ice-skating and viking ride when you ski down steeper slope. It's really exciting and I just couldn't stop but keep going up the hill and ski down again!





After a fun-filled day, we met Rose after she knocked off from work and we went for dinner at a CHINESE RESTAURANT! fried rice, cha shao, guotie, chinese-style prawns......dream come true in america! And on top of that, it was good chinese food! Oh and there was a bubble tea joint around the corner at Rose's house. They have flavours that we can't find in Singapore, like Lavender, Taro (yam), Thai (haven't tried and sounds weird). The taro and Lavender flavoured ones are NICE! Oh but it's really expensive - USD3.25 for a large one. But it's really quite sweet, so you can actually add in more water and one cup is enough for 2 to 3 persons.


We ended the day by going back to our home-sweet-home. We all slept really well that night and was excited for our independent drive down to Newport the next day.

To be continued....... (ps I'll post day 2 perhaps tonight my time....heh heh)

Feb 9-High day!

I feel much better today......the feel-sick phase was over and I'm left with a throatful of phlegm and 2 nostrilsful of mucus.

Hey today is my courageous day! Hm, Feb 8 shall be my high day every year!

High fact 1: I finally spoke up in class! It was a spontaneous moment when I suddenly felt like speaking and I didn't even realized I raised my hand to speak! You must be thinking I'm so loser right? Talk in class only what! You don't know how I feel man! I feel like everything I say would sound stupid, but I was just being paranoid......I realize I should just heck care and speak up when i have something to say!

Went to try out frisbee girls' training today with Valerie. Personally, frisbee is not one of my favorite games, but I wanted to go for a work out and see what training is like here. Today was E-N-D-U-R-A-N-C-E training for the first session! It sounded scary when I heard the captain say we were going to do a warm up jog, then run, then do stairs training, then run, then stairs, then run again and every week she'll add 3 laps to the training......a mouthful of scariness. But it turned out to be more bearable than I imagined. But I feel it's true that Americans have better physic than us. I know it's a fact, but I've never really compared the 2 myself.....finally get to really workout and perspire-High fact 2!

High fact 3: This might seem trivial, but i actually, walked across 2 basketball courts to a group of guys playing basketball to borrow one of their basketball to play, I went there myself! Honestly hor, I'm not a brave person, so this is kinda small brave act for me!

High fact 4: And after playing basketball, I saw my classmate that I sat with today and I wave at him! And he said hi and we had a short hi-how-was-your-day-kinda chat! I think he is the closest so far I have to a real friend who won't talk to me today and come to class next lesson like he didn't know me at all! Am I that unapproachable or detestable or...etc.

Highest but most trivial high fact for the day: My greatest desire today? Is to PLAY SOFTBALL!!!! The worse thing is that every morning I wake up and I see the green softball given to me by the softball girls, which I really really really appreciate and LOVE it, make me miss softball everyday. I have been missing it every day since dunno when! And the best thing today? The roommate of frisbee captain is a softballer!!! I know it means nothing, yet. But it could mean that I may be able to join them in training, or join the recreational tournaments, or borrow a glove to at least play with myself!!!



















Today is super high! Made progress, worked out, kinda made a friend, i hope at least, and have a headstart to being able to play softball here!!!

Just to update on my upcoming travel plans: for CNY, my apartment will be driving down to Rhode Island to meet my cheche then to Maryland where Washington DC is.

Hey guys I need advice for Springbreak! Cos I'll be going on a road trip from New York to Texas. We'll most likely take the Pensylvenia, West Virginia route. Anyone know any nice place to visit along this route or any other route from NY Albany to Texas? I can't wait to go there, rodeo environment with all the BBQ !!!!!!! Yup.......glorious food again!

Food

What I fear most about going on GIP? Falling sick in a foreign land.

I'm lying on my bed now, just woke up from an I-don't-know-how-long nap. Been feeling unwell for the past 2 days, but was still hoping that my flu symptoms would not develop into full-blown flu....I still fell sick in the end!

I know how people always tease me about how i can relate everything to food. Actually I do! I love food, because I believe I see it differently. Like how different can you see food right?! For me, food is brings about emotions, and emotions is what make life exciting and meaningful. Food that I like bring happiness and excitement; spicyness bring frustration and helplessness (that's why I don't really like spicy food); dining with exquisite cuisine is like appreciating art (i don't know what is tht kind of feeling called); meals cooked at home every days especially having someone cook porridge whenever you are unwell is love.

Whenever I fall sick, wherever I am, I will remember the people who cooks porridge for me. When i think about it, those are the very people in my life who trully cares for me. Not that everyone else don't, but there are the people who not only cares but will not hesitate to put aside everything for me. Deciding who loves you most simply by whether they cook porridge for you when you're unwell might sound really ridiculous, but that's what I feel. If their love wasn't so strong, i wouldn't be thinking and missing them now.

As humans, we simply do not have the capacity to trully care for each and everyone we know. There are only a couple of or even only one person that we really love and are willing to seriously cook for. And I mean not simply just slipshot, ok-i-cooked-so-i-care kind of cooking. Love-cooking, I guess I should put a term to it to distinct it from normal cooking, is when the person prepares a dish or meal for someone and takes utmost care to every step involved in the process, with the conscientous intention to make the dish turn out the best it can be for the intended person, both for his or her enjoyment and well-being. And such "chefs" are not out to impress, all they have in mind is the person's well-being.

Love-cooking is one of the most, if not the best way to show that we care. It does not expect anything in return and does not appear purposeful.

My Godmother, was the person who showed taught me what love-cooking is. But I only really know about it after she passed away. She's was the best example of someone who cooks with love, and she's the very person that I always seem to think about when I need feel I really need someone beside me.

I'm feeling less lethargic now. And the funny thing is that I'm here preparing porridge with Valerie coincidentally after talking about cooking. I'm kinda missing home already, especially after falling sick......It's just a phase I guess, and it'll be over soon.

Boston!

Hey so happy you all got read my blog man! Pressured to blog more now......
Hm let me see what happen since my prev entry......Oh I went down to Boston! My first road trip in the US!

We went to Newbury, a shopping area that look like another Boston neighbourhood. But the goods belonged to the higher end category, so most of us didn't buy anything.

Oh we went to this restaurant, Durkin Park. They serve mainly western food, speciality- meat!

Yup......I ordered mix grill, BUT i shared it with Anne, Zixuan and Issey OK! I didn't devour all the meat myself! Oh the clam chowder was PERFECT! The best thing is that the portion was humungous (how do you spell that?) We ordered 3 dishes and shared among the 4 of us, yet we couldn't finish everything. Satisfied stomach and taste buds!

The highlight of the Boston trip was that......watched a NBA match between Celtics and Lakers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bern! I really went to watch it!
The experience was really an eye opener and the crowd was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Apart from the match, I also got to watch the players do their warm up! It's a normal thing......but you DON'T get to watch it on TV! All the booing, yelling, cursing that we watch in American movies, that's the way they are here times 100 000 times(when you're inside the arena)! You can almost smell their energy......the people are just so into the game as if they bet 1000 bucks on it. I was so spurred on by the cheering and jeering that for the 1st time in my life I tried to boo at a team......and guess what? the first sports team I booed at was the super LA lakers who, won the match in the end.....

Great game still, but it would be perfect if the Celtics have won...... After the game, I overheard comments everywhere that it was a well-fought match and it was better than the previous Celtics vs Lakers game. What's 200 bucks man?! The game was priceless! Yah, and since then I have been packing lunch to school. Oh yah, I cheered so hard I fell off my seat 2 times! There was once when it was so exciting, I kept nudging a stranger who was sitting beside me! I couldn't help it man...... the turnovers during the game and the dunks was just over the top! Like how i fell over the top too.

Besides that super great NBA experience, I also took the subway for the first time in my life. It was about the same as taking the MRT, just that the subways are less clean, and down at the platform it still froze like the outside of the station. Oh and if you come here next time, look out for a white sign board with a black capital "T" to locate a subway station.

But the sad thing was, I saw a homeless person sitting at the subway chair. He was wearing a soiled, long cotton robe, with many layers of clothes under it. An overused long working pants with tattered leather shoes. He was slouching into the chair reading a bible close to his face, and on the floor just beside his feet was a plastic bag packed with what seemed like clothes. I guess it was really all he had. I don't tear or cry easily, but at that moment I really felt like crying. Ignoring all economic facts i've learnt or bankruptcy stories I've heard, I just couldn't understand at that very moment why the world would just leave the homeless on the streets. Nothing is worse than having no shelter over your head and no warm home to go to on a cold winter's night......The most touching thing was that he still held on to his Christian faith and was still faithfully reading his bible. We worry by the hundreds of dollars we spend each month while they wonder how many more meals can the money in their pocket pay for. We are really lucky......

Well on the bright side, it was a great experience learning more about the US culture in Boston! It's a pity we only stayed one night in Boston so really didn't do much......but that game was all I needed from Boston.