Monday, November 26, 2007

it's sunday and the end of my one-week thanksgiving break, and also homework day because i've allowed my work to pile up as usual. but i had an amazing one week break.

last friday night was the first time i made a banner for a friend's birthday. dominique and i improvised with the materials we found in Serra's art cabinet and made a banner proclaiming "we love stephanie" for stephanie (dominique's roommate and a fellow s'porean). we biked over to Roble at 1230am and hung it up in stephanie's room, ate choc cake and dragged steph into the shower, as is the tradition here. that was really fun.

sat evening and sun aftnn and evening were spent on pirates.

mon - wed i shopped for baking equipment and ingredients at safeway and made cornflake crunchies and brownies for the remaining people in my dorm. it felt really good to bake again after 2 plus months of not doing so. also watched 11 episodes of gong and Schindler's List.

thursday aftnn jae (my really nice resident computing consultant or RCC) taught me how to skateboard. after a quick 30min lesson i can now travel on a skateboard on a smooth stretch of either a very slightly uphill or very slightly downhill road. (: erika and her family picked me up at 430 to go for thanksgiving dinner at their friend's house in san jose. it was a truly amazing dinner. we had escargots, turkey, fried shrimp and scallop, popiah, red wine and erika's dad's pumpkin pie. the host was a really good cook. erika's mum is taiwanese, and so are her friends, so dinner conversation was in chinese. they thought that my chinese was fluent, which was a nice surprise because i'd never be considered fluent back home in singapore. dinner stretched to 4h because they had so much to say to each other. it felt comfortable to be in the company of chinese people who welcomed me so readily and made me feel at home. they invited me to come with Erika for thanksgiving again next year - an offer that i definitely want to take up.

erika and i woke ourselves up at the ungodly hour of 7am on friday to go shopping at the san francisco shopping centre. it's called 'black friday', and that's when all the shops have big discounts, most of which take place before 11am or before noon. i was overjoyed to find mango, zara and h&m there. i hit jackpot with a trench coat, boots, 3 dresses and 3 tops. spent $252.66 total. which is why i will be getting a job next quarter.

i loved staying at erika's. i talked to her mum quite a bit, and it was interesting to listen to stories of her high school, college and grad school experience. also - erika's two cats are the darlingest pets ever. the black sleek one, little bear, was afraid of me initially but i think he got used to my smell eventually. little bear's not around the house more often than not - erika's mum says he loves hunting outside. raja is a really really really fat ginger cat who is very affectionate. the first time we met he rubbed himself against my leg and looked up at me to see if i would pet him. he has the sleekest, smoothest and shiniest fur i've ever seen on a cat. he's also the most affectionate cat i've ever met - and i'm not usually a big fan of cats.

saturday, we returned to campus via the caltrain. went grocery shopping at target in the evening with calla and got some ridiculously expensive saline solution. $3.50 for two 355ml bottles, which is more than double the price in s'pore.

and today is, of course, homework day. all good things come to an end.