it's official...

as for today, i formally declare myself that I Nong Lee will be forever 18 years old (or 21, when that age is required for specific activities. e.g. clubbing, drinking, voting, gambling, and other illegal deeds).

even when I Nong's face is covered with wrinkles and freckles/spots, when she looses all her teeth, when she's all pruned, when she starts shrinking due to lack of calcium in her body, when she gets senile, I Nong will be, forever 18 (or 21). For Ever.

Happy late Chinese New Year!

Eventho this year's New Year break was a total of 9 days, it still felt a bit short.

But it doesn't matter, coz I'm going to Panama for expo for 2 weeks!! YAY!!!

I'm more excited about being able to travel (AKA take the plane and leave this tiny island) and not because I get to visit a new country... Oh well, can't wait for the inflight movie!! Hope I get tho take those planes with personal tv screens. =P

Panama, here I come!

party (??) x 3

fine, they weren't actual "parties" per se.
but remember how i mentioned bout the end of year dinner parties? well. i just had all 3 of them in 1 week. huh? how come 3? so, i had a company one (will explain that in after these few sentences), the department one (previous entry), and the one with my team.
hehehe, that's a lot of parties, huh?

k, i do remember saying that there wasn't gonna be any dinner party w/the entire company because it'd be a massive chaos trying to feed all of us. so instead, they changed the food to something healthier--hiking! YAY! and yup, as i've mentioned before, we were getting paid for it too~~~! hohohohoho~~~ and they've even changed the mall vouchers for REAL CASH!!! (muuahahahaha~~ kachin!) double yay for the cash!

but don't you think that we got the money served on a silver plate. the hike wasn't as easy as i expected. we took a bus on fri afternoon and arrived at this mountain just minutes away from the office. janet, angelica (colleagues from my same team) and i decided to finish the hike with the utmost efficiency, that is, walk and jog as fast as possible and finish this hike in a go, at our fastest pace without doing any stops. and so we did. the 3 of us walked up the hills, caught up with many other colleagues, chatted, walked up a long trail of steps. then, slowly, i lost angelica and janer. hahaha~~~ but found another hiking partner. it was quite fun and cute to hear her whine bout the hike while we both try to conquer the steps uphill.

the estimated time was 2-3 hr for the hike, yet we actually completed it in 1+ hr AND we didn't have to go back to the office! man, it felt sooooo good to be walking on the streets when the sun is still out! i got a huge dinner afterwards, was too hungry =P

now, my team also had our own little dinner on tue, just by ourselves. there are 8 girls in my team (including myself) and a guy (part-time employee). the initial plan was to go to a all-u-can-eat hotpot, but later we switched to this bar/restaurant that has music and performances at night. the place is called Brown Sugar (i highly recommend the place!!), and it was pretty cool. the food was good too, but the highlight of that night were... the ladies of my team. for some reason, they went all crazy and all out that night! yes, all out. my camara took a few "interesting" pictures that night, most of them we think should be censored. hm... yeah... cannot post the pictures coz what happened in brown sugar, stays in brown sugar.
all i can say is, there were a few cleavages, cherries, and tables involved. steamy.
hahaha~~ plz use your imagination. or you can try bribing me, who knows, maybe i'll show you 1 or 2 pictures. =P

bu... no more dinners... no more gifts or bonuses... bu =(
i want it to be end of the year again!

2007!

Happy New 2007 folks!
Yeah, due to my geographical location, hence the time difference, I'm officially living in January 1st, 2007!
Take that, (slower) western continents! =P

Here's what I did during the last hours of 2006 and how I welcomed our new year:
-Watched Star Wars marathon. They were playing according its cronological order, how the Jedi story begin with kid Annakin (is that how you spell his name?) and Yoda and all the gang. Which was good coz that's what I'm most interested in, seeing how the whole story began. Actually, I was switching channels between Star Wars and other food shows. Because seriously, Star Wars marathon? Yeah... it can get pretty long and draggy... Specially when it has freakin commercials in it!
-Did a quick snacks run. Got my drink and some chips. Unfortunately my chips didn't last that long... I think I finished it at the beginning of the 3rd saga of Star Wars.
-Logged online to wish some pple happy new year. Later I realized that not many were online, and those who were, were hours away from celebrating it. LOL.
-5 minutes before countdown, I finally decided to leave the pc. Sat in front of the tv with my brother and Meggie, and watched the live show of the countdown that was happening down at Taipei City Hall. The commentators were boring because they were making time for the countdown.
-Actual countdown was just ok. The camaras were focusing on the Taipei 101, where the fireworks took place. Ever since they built that tallest building in the world (so far), it is THE place to play fireworks. Well, it does make sense. It's tall, visible, huge (although for some reason it doesn't really look that big in person). However, it's not that grand anymore when you've already experience it once. "Been there, seen that", that's what I'd say. Because, let's face the fact, there's only that much you can do when you try to put fireworks on a stick-like building. Concept of a Magic Wand? Wait a minute... Wasn't that the concept that you guys' been using for like... ever?
-After countdown, my brother didn't hesitate to leave the tv and head straight to his room and continue his model toys (lol), which left Meggie and I in the living room keeping each other's company. Didn't want to play too much with her because then she'll start biting my arms, chewing my sleeves, and maybe leave more scars like she did last weekend. So we took it easy and chillaxed some more.

Ok, I know that this isn't the most fun/entertaining way to celebrate new year. If I hear this from some other pple, I'd definitely feel sorry for them and tell them that they shoulda go out and hang out or something. However, to me, it was ok =)
It's like spending any other day, except that this time they have fireworks.
And trust me, crammed with 500,000+ other pple in front of Taipei City Hall just to watch the fireworks? Nah... I think I'll pass. I've already done that last year. One time is cool. Twice? Only if there's enough incentives that pulls me there. Well, maybe fireworks do look better when you're actually enjoying it personally, but it's the aftermath traffic that bums me down. Honestly being sourrounded by 500,000 pple is no joke, and when you're trapped in those kind of situations with kids and dogs with you... I think it's very likely that it'll just bring the worst out of me. Hahahahaha~~~

Oh, but I have the best reason why I dislike doing countdowns in Taiwan. For some reason, I seem to end up NEXT to the mobile toilets whenever I go there. And uhm... that's not pleasant at all. And that's how I start a Stinky Year!

my first gokon

gokon (聯誼) refers to an informal date where equal amount of single males and females engage in certain group activity, in hopes to develop a further stronger "friendship". such activities normally include dinner at restaurants, drinks at bars, outdoor events like BBQ or sightseeing, or like in my case, karaoke.

so yes, i went to my first gokon last friday.
for those who know me, i'm sure u've heard bout my skepticism towards blind dates and meeting people for the sake of finding potential candidates for future relationships. it's not natural, nor right in my opinion. i mean, how desperate are you to get yourself involved in that?
not to mention all those scary stories that they show on tv about gokons: weird people (ie. nerds, geeks, perverted old men), selfish people, rude people, arrogant people, one-night-stand minded people, etc etc etc...
bbbrrrr.... me shivers...

yet, i went anyway.
claire: hey claudia, are you doing anything this friday? wanna go out?
me: huh? what's going on?
c: uhm... there's a gokon, and i needa find girls. it's with some TI guys
m: ... (frown) how many have u found so far?
c: 2. just... you and me...
m: ............................... let me know later if you really cannot find other grls...

my first and foremost gokon didn't turn out as bad as i had in mind. it was a total of 4 grls and 4 guys, and on our way to the karaoke, claire said it was ok for us to leave if we feel that the situation was getting uncomfortable. when we went to our k-room, 2 TI (Texas Instrument) guys were already there, singing and eating their dinner, the others were still in their office. and so we started talking, trying to get to know each other, and of course singing.
here's what i like and don't like about karaokes: the music can get so loud that you can't hear your conversations. so it's good if you don't want to talk, but it's not that good if you want to know each other better.
well, anyway, those guys were cool, and since it was a bit hard to chat, we mostly sang and ate food, and some random chitchats and jokes around. later the other guys and another girl joined, still all pretty nice and friendly. no sense of awkwardness at all, but a very happy friendly gathering.

hehehe, so yes, i don't think it was a gokon in the end. felt more like a friends' hangout than any informal date; gender representatives were not equally distributed, and some were not single. so yeah~ i'm glad i met new friends and we all had fun in the karaoke place~
hahahaha, now if all the gokon were like this, wouldn't that be sweet?!

gillian, alice, jasper and andy

and a pic w/all the pretty ladies (elsa, gillian, alice, claire)

i have to admit that it was fun, we didn't leave the place till 11pm. nevertheless, i still refuse to go to gokons if given the chance. =P

monkey says, monkeys do

ARRGGGHHHH!!!!! i haven't blogged for more than a month!!!
damn it damn it damn it.

ok, it's not that i dun have anything to tell, or that my life is boring, or anything of sorts. i was actually quite busy at work, running errands, being here, being there, scratching... fine. i was also slacking off a bit...

but now, blogging once again! yes!
and i should writing about the most recent things that happen. or maybe not. we'll see, my mood will decide.

anyway, for some reason, october seems to be a big month for events in tw or my company. conferences here and there, expositions, visits, and all that jazz. and that's what happened yesterday, when i was suddently informed to be the master of ceremonies for a opening ceremony for the EBRD office in tw. well, they didn't really told me about it the morning of the ceremony, but it was still quite rush indeed (coz the original M/C had sudden private issues to take care of), hence, they pushed the m/c ball around, and somehow it was rolled over to me.

i really don't care bout doing those kind of things. you know, standing in front of the audience with a bright spotlight on you, facing 150 people, and speaking in public. i was taking it quite ok until they told me, "hey inong, be serious bout it, this is very important for the boss upstairs. this case is no joke."
hm... my opinios bout hosting the thing changed a bit ~____~
and later in a meeting with the ministry of foreign affairs for the final arrangements for the ceremony, they somehow started mentioning about the importance of the whole rundown, how a freaking table seating can be a huge deal (coz they spent almost 1 hr arranging the seatings and deciding who should sit where), how the dialogues and the wordings should be, what to be mentioned and what not, etc, etc, etc. and they (the pple in the meeting, the organizers) came to a scary conclusion: it doesn't matter how well it's organized, as long asn the m/c does a perfect job on the day.
so BOOM, that's where i felt all the pressure.
crap.

since then, i couldn't help but start freaking out a bit, for the m/c script was long, there were many names to remember, many long draggy titles to pronouce, guests to be confirmed, activities with respective details to be arranged. gosh... many many hideous parts to be taken care of.

anyway, the serious part is boring. now, what made this opening ceremony so special are the "behind the scenes moments". because somehow, as i was chatting with abe online, he mentioned how M/Cs are like trainers, training monkeys to do what they need to do, when they need to do it. which basically has some truth in it. afterall, M/Cs are the only ones during the ceremony that have the full control of the mic, througout the entire event. and they pretty much boss pple around to come/go, say, sit and leave when they need to. or when the M/Cs want them to, for that matter.
i've never seen the audience as monkeys, but hey~ it's a good way to make an m/c feel relaxed, right? in that case, m/c scripts can be interpreted this way:

"ladies and gentlemen
female monkeys and male monkeys

may i have your attention please?"
stop scratching and picking each other's bugs

muuuahahahahhaha~~~ yeah, that makes m/c a job way far more interesting.

now, maybe out of coincidence or fate, something hilarious happened.

the actual opening ceremony went pretty well. i was able to wear my own confortable pretty clothes (rather than wearing the horrible maid-like uniform), my mood was good, had a great group of monkeys, eh sorry, audience.
i bossed my monkeys, damn it!, guests around (e.g. come up and talk, go down and sit, come up again to cut the ribbon, sip ur glass of champagne, sign ur name on the board, and pose pretty like some sort of exhibition so pple can take pictures). anyway, the event turned out almost perfect!
however, here's the best part of the ceremony. as a "token of appreciation for their presence", the organizers prepared a box of gifts for all attendees.

and inside the box, there it was, a whole bunch of
BANANAS
that was is, and that was all.
good 'ol bananas.

aren't banans a great thank-you gift? after all, after all that training and letting me boss them around, my monkeys deserve some treat, for some positive reinforcements, don't you think?

bananas... who'd have thought?! it was perfect. XD

hm... or maybe abe and i can forsee the future and whatever we say shall come true some day. =P (yeah... i wish...)

monkey says, monkeys do. and now, this monkey says: care for some bananas?!

so, after working for 7 months in this company, i finally got my proper/official employee "orientation". it was a week of packed schedule, mon-sat, 8am-6pm, filled with a wide range of different activities: from professional to personal education, mental motivation to physical training. apparently, the company started with this employee orientation not long ago, just a few years back, so the the training process is still quite new, in the testing phase, trying out what are the classes that best suit a bunch of rookies.
but i must admit that it was overall, quite satisfying. and oh dear, it kept all of us very busy and entertained.

mon: welcome speech, and all the usual formal package of blablas. there is a total of 40 someting new recruits this year, so each of us introduced ourselves, as anyone would do in any other occation or meeting. and as usual, i suck at names. especially chinese names. they all sound the same, not to mention that a lot of them look the same as well (in my opinion). hence, all my new co-workers ended up to be Joes and Janes for me.
kekeke. just kidding. in any case, monday's training was the normal/conventional one (AKA, BORING). watched a full day of power point slides from different departments in addition to their draggy speeches. we also had a make-up session. not very fun, didn't really teach us how to apply make-up but was mostly focusing on marketing the products that they were using.
however, found out an interesting thing: LG has a make-up line! hard to connect fridges with mascaras, rite?
anyway, by the time i got back to my sister's place, i was braindead. could not, and would not, think of anything at all. basically just let my body move myself to process the routine that i do at home.

tue: as part of TAITRA, whenever we go out, we will reprent our company and Taiwan, and that is why it's crucial to take care of our image. so tuesday was an "international culture and etiquette" class. the lady who taught the class was, whoa, so graceful. the way she expressed herself, the body language that she used, the way she took her seat... very VERY elegant.
and to put us to the etiquette test, we enjoyed a full-course meal for lunch. one of the most painful meals i've ever had. i mean, there's a have a full course of delicacy in front of you (apptizer, soup, bread, salad, entree & wine, fruit, dessert, coffee), but you have to restrain yourself. we weren't able to begin the meal unless we arrange the right set of utensils, then the lady was walking around during the meal, checkin on every single person's posture and the way that we were enjoying our food. we had to sit up straight, could not be hunched, tummy tucked in, could not make too much noise when cutting our food, food needs to be delivered into our mouth and not the other way round...
i mean, as delicious as the meal might have been, if you have someone staring at you while you eat, that's... quite a lot of pressure.
oh, but the white wine was sooo good!!! had a few glasses of the white wine. although white wine is not supposed to match with the steak, but watever, i like white better than red. a few people ended up with peachy cheeks, heh.
the afternoon was an EQ class. boring boring boring. this guy would constantly made us pat our neighbor's shoulders for motivational cheers. but he went a bit over, we don't need that much motivation because really, i couldn't stop yawning (hey, have to partially blame the white wine =P).
then there was the physical training part: 2km run. which was ok. we were supposed to run 5 rounds in the track field, but i ran 1 extra coz i miscounted. apffttt...
side note 1: it was a 15min walk to the track field. the 2km run took us only 7min. great.

wed: the class that i needed the most, "how to write a proper document in chinese".
haha. yeah, i still suck at it, and quite sure i'll suck at it for a while.
in the afternoon, physical training part 2: driving range! WOOHOO~~ i've improved a bit this time, at least the lovely-little-white ball can get all its way to the 50 mark (is it m? yard? watev), and maybe even "roll" all its way to 75 mark. i'm proud of myself! =)

thu: we went south to visit our branch office in shinchu, an IT designing company, and tw's biggest logistics corporation. it was fun, the designing company was too pretty that made us wanna switch jobs right away, and i'm more and more interested in logistics right now.
shinchu seems pretty, maybe because the entire region was well designed and planned before they started building any thing. streets were clean and wide, and the trees in the area reminded me a bit of redmond, of course, not THAT pretty yet. still, with all the trees and techs and geeks. hehe.

fri-sat: boot camp! can u believe it?! TAITRA offers employee bootcamp!!! hahahaha~ hilarious.
despite the happiness, we had to meet friday at freaking 730am, and they took us up to the mountains, where there's a center for different kinds of training. felt like i was going to a scouts camp or something.
AQ & MQ class in the morning. the instructor was fun, i think he did a great job on keeping us entertained and awake throughout the entire morning (because the instant coffee that they were serving was not of much help), and later, team cooperation/leadership class in the afternoon.
the boss of HR also came along to the boot camp, and joined us for dinner that day. with wine. more than a dozen bottles of wine. needless to say, it was hard to avoid some drinking during dinner. jose, the only guy at our table of 10 grls, was our table wine representative by default. however, it was not til shortly after that we realize he's... uhm... is not very good at drinking. haha. 2 small glasses of wine and he was totally red (just like me). conscious, but really red.
zoe and i felt so bad that he was doing all the drinking job that we joined in in the end. oh heck, the entire table joined the drinking session in the end. we all did a pretty good job (mixing wine and grape juice, lol), drank 2-3 bottles, and all alcohol high. hahaha~
caught quite a few "red lobsters" that night. maybe we can start a lobster club or something later.
the night didn't end there. the dinner finished round 7pm, and despite the subtle drunkness from a few people, we still managed to play more games, a la scouts style. all happy happy, high high. the only thing that was missing was the camp fire, seriously, else it would be a complete scouts camp.
later karaoke until 1030pm, and that's when they really rushed us to our dorms, because we were having a long day on sat. we were meeting at 650am the next day.
... why??? why on earth do they do that to us on a saturday?! it's bad enough that we were not sleeping in our comfortable beds on a weekend, and they want us to meet that early?!!
oh yeah, i forgot to mention that we had to be at the lobby, 650am, wearing a camouflage suit (they rented for us). T__T
no comments on that.
aaanyway, we all met up on time, with the fugly suits. the first thing they made us do was a morning hike. without giving us any breakfast, or water, or coffee! arghh...
fine, we completed the trail under the scorching heat (not sure how long it was yet the trail was quite steep) so we could get our breakfast, in an AC room. but the following event was more boot camp activities, OUTDOORS!!!
i wonder if they really welcome us to the company or not...
actually, i went to similar camp before in UW, for CISB manager training. just that back then, the weather was cool, i had a grande latte in hand, and drew's sarcasm with me. this time, stupid heat, a bottle of too-sweet sports drink, and some gay camouflage suit.
ok, i did enjoy myself in the activities. but the heat, oh god, the HEAT! we were drenched from our sweat, very smelly and wet. eewww... not very pleasant experience to go through, specially coz a lot of them require close physical contact

luckily, that was the end of orientation. the entire crew came back safe and sound.
despite all my whinings, i've learned something from this trip. let it be new friendship, new goals, different mentatily, or different direction. whatever that something is, this is true: i feel that i'm really part of TAITRA now. there's no way back. hahaha
that's the role that i have to focus, that's the part that i should succeed. that's what i should be.

is it good, bad? i don't know.
but won't know until i do it.

side note 2: no pix. i was too upset battling w/heat. there are a few grls that i think are quite cute. unfortunately, no cute guys. >__<
side note 3: almost lost my favorite aviator sunglasses in the MRT station. thanx soo much to the lady who found it in the restrooms! you make me love taiwanese pple better now~ ^__^

Argentina VS Germany

Argentina's gonna play against 06's World Cup landloard Germany tonight!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!
So excited, can't wait ^___^
Don't remember when was the last time that Argentina played in the World Cup for this long... Was it '90 when they qualified all the way to the finals? If so, then... wow... that was 16 years ago! Yeah... it's time for Argentina's comback!

Robert, I know you won't read this, but... We'll kick your German's ass!!! Muuuahahahahaha

May the best team win! o^0^o

girls weekend out

my long-waited girls weekend out
and it was GREAT!
i think chian, jj and i have been missing this type of hang-outs, with no specific reason or plans, just a simple crave to be in good company, and let spontanuity (is there such a word?) lead us to whatever we feel like at the moment.

it started on friday when the girls went around the city for some sightseeing and i joined them later in the evening for shi-lin nightmarket. the place was packed as usual, making the walk really slow, but it didn't matter coz we stopped at almost every stand/store that was along the way. and so the shopping began~ i had to contain myself coz... hiah... budget budget.
good that our stomachs were a bit hungry so we focused our attentions to food stands instead of other irrelevant places that would tempt us to shop. we munched a bit and walked around some more, then the girls went to a piano bar and i had to head back home and rest coz i'm getting old... darn...

saturday was a really fun day. we started off meeting at the nickel market (dirt cheap retailer market), where after filling our bodies with some yummy food, we started shopping, AGAIN. hahahaha
this is my second time at the nickel market. the first time i was there, a lot of the stores were closed for some reason, so it wasn't that fun. but this time... damn... they were all open and that means danger... we walked around and looked around and shopped around. yeah... we were all happy with their merchandize and their prices. it's a good place to practice bargain skills for sure. chi got dresses and shoes, jj got a dress and pants, and i got a new top. muuahahaha~~~ wasn't till later that i realized i have several other brown tops, but heck, i like this one.
for dinner, we had picnic in CKS Memorial Hall with food/snacks that we got from tw shibuya (shi-men-ting).
chi, our very lady ohimesama, took her dates of the night to her special spot in the park and shared her secret place. it was on the top of the stairway of the hall, where we could have a full view of the park with both theaters on the side. 3 words: drop dead gorgeous (or is it actually 2?).
i can say that it was the best part of this whole weekend: being with friends, eating, chatting, drinking beer, contemplating the scenery, and be relaxed with friends. reminded me so much of our old times back in UW, of our random hangouts and get-togethers. i have a different perspective of taipei city now i guess... must thank ohime chi and commonwoman jj for that!
later, along with chi's sis, we went to blue note, not the original blue note like in NYC or Tokyo, but it was still pretty good. the singer had a very soothing voice, very easy to feel relaxed in that atmosphere. good good~ definitely think that i can start appreciating jazz even more now.
but the night is not over yet~! the highlight of the day~~~~~~~~~~~~
clubbing!!! YAY!
this is my very fist time clubbing in taiwan, and i feel so honored to share my first experience with 2 beautiful ladies and a whole club filled with hot guys. and they were so friendly too! damn... some of the guys over there were actually quite good looking! and oh man... their bodies... (drool....)
ok, this club is only 5min from my sis place, who wants to join the next time?! =D

today, hot day. our bodies tired coz of the clubbing and all the walking, but jj and i still managed to go to Ting-tai-fung for shiaolongpaos. ^___^
yummy yummy yum~
of course, we wouldn't leave the area unless we have some of the mango shaved-ice for dessert! oooooh... that was heeeeeeaven...
some more sourvenir shopping and it was time for jj to head to the airport >___<
sux... why is it that good times feels always shorter and faster?!!!! why??!!! sux...

but i guess it's true what jj said. we've said good-bye to each other too many times that it feels quite normal to us now. hahaha~
coz we know that there will be other good-byes in the future, and that's why we weren't very sad (which was good). yes, there will be a next and many many nexts were jj, chi-hime, and i (hopefully other pple as well) will meet up again and say good-bye to each other, and look forward to our next meeting/hangout.

this weekend was great girls! thank you so much! ^___^
i have no words to express how important you are to me.
ove you~ muuuuach!
next time, let's just make the whole weekend a drinking and eating trip =P

ok, meeting with wanwan tomorrow~ YAY! ^0^
girls weekend out hasn't ended yet! muuuahahahaha

who's coming next??!!!
yui? aya? mark? anyone?? ;)

song of the weekend: any version of "Fly me to the moon", jj & chi's version preferred

至今最大的饗宴

忘了是從哪聽來的 但有一句話深深印在我腦海 讓我對人生的看法完全改觀
' 會讓我恐懼的並不是死亡的事實 而是死時 得拋下一生所愛的一切
不敢面對割離 害怕有太多不捨...'

4年前 在阿根廷的死黨們紛紛從阿國搬離 各自尋找屬於自己的人生的目標 有的回台就讀 有的打拼一片天下
我也是在那時決定留美讀大學 帶著小小不安 來到毫無友人的地方 計畫屬於我一人的未來
很巧合的 我選擇來到西雅圖
很緊張的 慢慢認識熟悉這裡的人事物
很慶幸的 發現這是我一生中做過最好的決定

難忘的事 我看能寫一大張吧!
從新生訓練起 就有好多好多有趣的朋友跟和他們一起分享的回憶
不想寫出來 只因要花上幾天的時間 而未免能寫完
不想寫出來 只因想獨自收藏

不敢寫出來 只因會讓我傷感

說不會想念是不可能的 叫我怎能捨的下呢?
從未想過我能瀟灑的離開 但在這所發生的種種 一切的一切 讓我更難跟大家說聲再見

再說 下一次見面會是何時又是個未知數

這裡所認識的 都能算是被家人"拋棄在大學裡" 的異國寶寶
沒家人在旁作伴 在不熟悉的環境裡奮鬥 認了要扛起責任
就這樣 半自力更生的熬過 磨練 朔造了大家獨立的堅強個性
可能是這樣 可能是我們都住在異鄉 緣分把我們大家拉近 從見面點頭到無話不說的知心好友
一有好事大家一起分享 慶祝
遇到難題 會互相幫忙想辦法
隨時隨地 都會惦掛著死黨 幫他們加油 大家一起共勉勵

但 是時候跟大家分離了
再繼續計畫打算我的下一步
已經面臨到社會殘酷的地步 要完全自力更生 自己賺錢養自己時了
但願下次見面時 我們每人都有所成就
誰知道... 說不定也建立自己的家庭了
希望那時 我們在相聚
再一起回憶
在西雅圖所經歷的一切

bb on the way!

this is my dear friend lancy. we met long ago, when i had my first part time job at the hotel restaurant. back then, she was studying hotel/restaurant management in tw and i was a so-then-called "cheap-foreign-child labor from argentina"

lancy is a very optimistic gal filled with energy, a bit tomboy too. sometimes we would hang out together to get a drink with some other friends and talk about nonesense for hours. oh, and she loves shopping (well, not as much as this other friend of ours, but still, she likes it a lot) years living in arg didn't pull us apart. we would mail (yes, traditional hand-written letters years back) and keep each other updated with interesting things happening in our lives. with the passing of years, we switched from letters to emails to phone calls (oh well, i got lazy, and my handwriting is not that nice), not very often, but we still miss and care bout each other a lot and

one day she told me that she was engaged

3 years ago she said that she got married, the first one who got married among our group of friends

and this year, she said that she's pregnant and was coming to US to have the bb

and that pic above was taken when i went down to LA to visit her this last month. she's lancy, my friend, 8 freaking months pregnant!!! congratulations to lancy and eric!!!

uh... but yeah... i don't think that's how a normal pregnant woman should look like. my face seems rounder than hers oh god... she's literally a stick with a ballon sticking out from her stomach! she's still energetic and cheerful, just that now she can jump less coz of the bb

visiting her was fun. my friends and i did a little road trip to yosemite park last month, and while they were enjoying the beautiful beach of sf, i did a little detour from them, rented a car, and drove down to la. however, driving from sf to la was a bitch... looooong 6 hrs of pure NOTHING. the sun was hot, the drive was boring, and anytime i speed up i would see a police car stopped on the side giving out tickets to other cars, and that would make me slow down again. then in la was another chaos on the freeway, as usual ~_____~lll soooo glad that i don't live there anymore

still all that was worth it. we didn't do much during my visit. just talk and talk and talk some more

oh yeah, we bought a bed for bb and assembled it. it took us a damn while to put it all together coz... uh... i didn't really followed the instructions >__<

PS. on the way to la, i passed six flags magic mountain!! TWICE!!! damn... i wanted to go there soooooo bad... the park was right next to the freeway, the rides were so close yet soooooo far far away... >______<

isn't she a very Q pregnant mom? ^^ we went to downtown disney for dinner that night. it was very good. and of course, we had to go to a disney store (since we're already there mah, right? ^^) we took a few pictures in the store, and even though i was not able to get the antenna ball that i wanted, i came back with a flashy mickey mouse one! hohoho~~~

a very controversial pic. love it or hate it! waaahahahaha

iron chef II -- guys ver.

after almost 1 whole month of break, we got our second battle of iron chef today. i must say that we've been having a lot of great food lately, thanx to mark and his early birthday celebration, and now today, 9 dishes total from the contestants. ^____^
yay~~~ who can reject yummy food???

today's secret ingredient was tomato. i like tomatoes, now more than ever because the spa lady told me today that tomatoes are good for skin, they help control pimples or something. but heck, i would eat them anytime just coz they are good! and i guess it's way better than eating 3 dozen of eggs. hahahaha~~
nah... i loved our last secret ingredient, but it's just that... there were too many eggs

and it's really fun for me today because i didn't have to cook! today's battle was between the guys of our apartment: the house of mark and leonard VS. the house of al and bren
it's a battle to show that guys can cook too!!
i've never doubted that these guys cannot cook or anything, i think they cook more than i do. and better too!

so anyway, i was one of the 4 grl judges w/xj, wan, and yui. it was so much fun to follow them around the supermarket and in the kitchen, seeing them squeezing their mind to come up w/original recipes, getting the ingredients in time and of course, cooking under time constraints. kekekeke~~~ iron chef really makes any kitchen a disaster zone after you're done...

dishes tonight were really good~~ very colorful or x'mas-sy as some would say. cheers for both teams, you guys did a great job!!! my personal favorite was the salsa (great job al!), it kinda reminds me of an argentinean sauce for bbqs, salsa criolla, w/chunky veggies and a sour yet sweet taste. very refreshing! we should definitely start making our own salsa instead of getting those from the store =P
after devouring those 9 (was it 9 or more??) dishes, we judges concluded that team mark and leonard (the bioeng team =P) is the winner. horray to them!!
but seriously, all dishes were really good and original. they felt pretty homy too. i would not have come out with such dishes if i was participating today... hehehe, maybe just a plain tomato salad. juahahahaha~~~~

so there you go, another great finale for this weekend, grand start for the week, good food for our tummies.
and i realized a few days ago that summer's already been gone yet i still haven't finished posting all that happened to me in summer... damn it
i need more incentive to write my blog more often!

ps. sorry wan... i'll definitely call you the next time for facial! >____< i'm soooo sorry...

allez cuisine!

it's amazing how much tv a few bored pple can watch
it's amazing what kind of activities a few bored pple can come up with for a long weekend
this last labor day weekend, a few of us, too bored of having no much to do on weekends, came out with an idea of having our own version of "Iron Chef"
i thought at first it would be a competition between 2 of our finest chefs, leo and aL, with their respective assistant xj and yui, while the rest of us will be the judges, but for some reason, i got disqualified as judge and became aL's partner
anyway, our "secret ingredient" was announced by our host, brendan (who successfully did the peper bitting scene), and it was (drums roll~~~~) --- EGGS!!
yes, eggs, a lot of eggs... we're soooo gonna suffer from high cholesterol...

so, after 1hr of ninja planning and ninja grocery shopping, aL and i started our own battle with the food in my kitchen. my kitchen is not big from the start, i mean, it's ok if you want to cook in there, in a peaceful/zen state. but-- if you're under time constraint and stress, it can be quite chaotic. kitchen condition seemed quite moderate with acceptable mess until i started cooking the fried rice...
hm... i need a bigger pan... it became smaller and smaller after each ingredient that i put in to stir fry (and the rice was not added yet!). i had to make it into 2 separate batches to be able to mix them all around. and everytime i try to scramble the stir around, chunks and chunks of food would jump out from the pan... ~_____~
... leaving a total disaster in the kitchen... (i'm sorry yui!)

too bad i was not able to see the chaos in the other kitchen, but i heard that tensions were pretty similar. and after a full hour of intense heat in the kitchen... (*drums roll again~~~)

in the end, we had a LOT of eggy dishes, which equals to a LOT of calories and cholesterol, and all that translates into --> we all need to exercise!! hahahaha
i guess we all are quite ok chefs. of course we won't be able to provide exquisite entrees, but we can at least come out with dishes that are edible (ok ok... i speak for myself only... but at least they are edible!)
it was a lot of fun, i must admit. even tho cleaning is a bitch. i wonder who are the next challengers and what will the secret ingredient be...

now i have a little confession to make: during the process of cooking, i didn't try the taste and/or flavor of my dishes. the idea of tasting the food didn't even occur to me until the last moment, when all the dishes were cooked and there was just the soup left. kekeke... so basically, all the salt and seasoning was based on my poor sight. during my fried rice battle, i forgot to put salt in the first batch... i didn't realize bout it until my second batch...
hohoho~~~~ amazing!

my craziest summer - move on ver.

after a few weeks of lazyness and a few complaints from friends, it's time for me to update my blog again. not updating actually, because what i'm going to write now is not something that happened to me "recently", but i'm telling things that have already happend before. looong time ago.
so yes, need to write it down somewhere before my head forgets about it. some of my memories are starting to blur... not a good sign...

now, the topic of the day's gonna go back to 3 months ago. hehehehe~ damn that's been a long time ago!
exactly, that was june, my last june as a college student. i still remember that back then, i didn't have much to do. i was taking 1 class only in the whole quarter, yet somehow was a bit stressed by the reading and the final paper that i had to hand in. research for that paper was ok, but compiling all the information was a real bitch (i must admit that i was scratching quite a lot lah... but... but....)
i also moved into a new apartment with yui. we drove around whole seattle during spring break to find a good place to move in together but in the end, we decided to stay in yui's old place. i felt a bit awkward suggesting the idea to her, i didn't know how she would take it. luckily this is a really nice place, the rooms are spacious and the price is decent. after all, the location is waaaay better than the ghetto one that we saw on aurora, surrounded by not 1, but 2 cementeries and an old dirty home depot.

the moving process was quite crazy though... because we had quite a few things to move around, and i had many giant furniture that need to move in with me. now i'm very very glad that i have a sweet boyfriend, a nice friendly male ex-roommate, and a few great male friends to help us poor, weak, helpless cute girls move. hehehehe, don't puke yet.
thanx guys! you are the best!
funny was how a few thought that my queen size bed would take the most time to move, but it turned out to be my couches that got stuck in the stairway. it took us a long time to plan, come out with a good effective strategy to move the couches up. in the end, screw all the plans, the guys just pushed them up. there was no other way... my poor couches... they ended up with a few scratches... but heck, now they're in my place and i'm enjoying them

i've kinda hated moving, changes, and all that bla bla. but this time i enjoyed it quite a bit. maybe because i didn't have to pack my belongings all at once, maybe because i have a car to drive back and forth and was able to take my time, and maybe because it was funny to see my friends re-act the couch moving episode of "friends", hearing them yell "PIVOT~~ arggggg pivot!!!!!". that was quite a crazy scene. i wonder if i video-ed it down or not...

in any case, yui's a really fun roommate. she's interesting and has a unique sense of humor. she can be quiet but when she opens her mouth, random and absurd things would come out (hm... i'm not far from the description either, i know). yes, i think we make a good match.
i like her love towards colors, specially her addiction to green stuff. it's hard to not see that this girl has quite a few green items

but yeah... it was sad to leave my old place. even though my room was small but i was with great company. now they're all scattered around the place. too bad.
on the other side, i wouldn't wanna go back to the old house now because the rooms were too small... i finally can have a desk in my room! now i have a walking space! this is amazing! and yui and i would equally contribute to keep the apartment clean! how amazing is that?!

hehehe, i like my new place~ it's nice and cozy, we have comfi couch, tv w/dvd, digital cable and subscription to netflix. i can bum in the house the whole day, and that's what i've been doing so far ever since i moved in. now you should know why i don't update my blog so often. i seldom turn on my computer now, i basically veg in the living room watching tv, even though i know, and i double-checked know, that there are ZERO good shows going on. my hands just can't get enough of the remotes, my fingers can't stop pressing the buttons, and... i can't keep my eyes of you my lovely tv~~~!

i think my ideal house cannot be much better than this~ hohoho

my craziest summer - MAD version

hm... i haven't touched this blog for more than 2 mths... ouch
good that i saved my password and account name on the computer, if not... i mite have lost it all, and mite have to start over again
see? i knew that i won't ble able to keep up w/it for long! wth... damn these online diaries...
they should develop a chip that can be inserted into pple's head, and anytime u think of somethin, it can be automatically typed and uploaded to ur blog or site or any database u want. u know, make life easier, tasks simpler, pple lazier. kekekeke

but anyway, again, a lot of things happened. i need to do somethin w/all this. some are quite interestin/important that i dun wanna brush thru....
!!! i can set the date to a previous time! hahahaha~~~ haven't cheated for a looooong time =P

so yeah... i'm gonna start from my most recent event
and that is...
someone broke into my car!!!!! it's like... seriously, wtf? WHY the HELL would u wanna break into a freakin 2000 corolla that's pretty beat up??!!! my car is hella broken already, and now u're doin this to me? wtf were u thinkin man?! the only valuable thing was my radio/mp3 player... and now... it's gone... no more music in my car
oh, btw, they took the face of the radio, not the complete machine. even more ~___~""
dun you need the whole machine to be able to listen???? so now, i'm stuck w/a radio that doesn't play coz i dun have any buttoms to push, there's a cd inside that i cannot take it out. great... i'm kinda happy that i wasn't listenin to a very very favourite cd.
and oh yeah... i wonder if i should be "happy" that at least the person was decent enough to break the smallest back seat window...
... que te pario pedazo de mierda! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
and i.dist... you're freakin ghetto... appppppfffffttttttttttttt

it was supposed to be a pretty happy afternoon. was meetin for lunch w/my favourite group-mates, jesse, michelle, and specially tomomi. but yeah... too bad the location was in the ghetto... =( (i apologize for my biased-ness , but it just happened, i cannot help it)

now i realized, i kinda took the situation pretty cool. at least was not totally freaked out. at least was rational enough to remember fillin the report to the police and my INSURANCE. hm... that's an important one. yet i'm pretty sure that i'll be gay-ed again, due to my 1k deductible. freakin blood suckers... damn it

and last of all... i got bitten by a mosquito! >______< i hope the blood that you've sucked has caused you stomach ache and indisgestion
and you! stupid person who broke my car and stole my mp3, hope someone ELSE steals that face from you ~_____~
maldito seas...

the sport

'lazy' would be the first word that pops out if u ask my family and friends to describe me, my sis & bro would even add 'as a pig' at the end of it. yup, i'm lazy, i know it, i admit it, and i say it out loud proudly.
the other day i was chattin w/one of my close friends from argentina. we've known each other since high school, she's a really Q grl, chatty and clumsy as hell, but really cool. we've been through quite a few things together in high school, had lots of fun, and we know each other pretty well.
so during our online conversation, i told her that i was leaving for the weekend to go up to whistler to ski...
"PUUUUUUUUAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA", that was her reply, "claudita doin somethin! i can't believe it!! you're playin a sport!". uhm... i guess my lazyness is quite distinctive, huh? so obvious that if i move for more than 1hr, pple would be amazed.
and of coz, i had no comments on the other side of the computer... she said that for all these yrs that she's known me, she hardly saw me do anything, and that it would be a first to see me actually do some kind of sports.
i cannot blame her for the comment... i really didn't move at all during high school. we had volleyball for our PE class for 5 freakin yrs, and i still cannot serve balls that welll. funny thing is that i had super high scores for that class ^.^y how did i do it? well... hehehe, i faked, and i faked a lot, pretending to be super attentive durin practice games and stuff, move just a few steps when the teacher is lookin at my area, and sweet talk, be a nice grl durin class.
hohoho~~~ high school mah... u dun really want to do anythin, specially if ur PE class is righ after lunch and u're suffering from food coma or u're just homesick and want to skip the class.

but it's nice that i've finally found a sport that i enjoy, and it's ski. oh yeah baby~~~ ski~~~ ski wa dai suki!! shu shu shu~~~
i like cold weather, a lot of pple know that. specially our dear friend mark who had to put up w/me this last summer. i was whinin like mad, 24-7, and if temperature rises a bit more, my face would turn all shitty and i get cranky, and poor mark had to deal w/it, hehe. sorry mark & thanx mark! luv ya!
so yup, cold weather can definitely cool me down. it's just nice to have cool/cold days, the air is fresher, u can wear layers of clothes, mix 'n match, and when u're in a warmer place, it feels cozy. anyway, just perfect. and i luv snow, oh my god, i get so happy when it snows or when i see the streets covered by snow. that fresh puffy white cover makes everythin look way much nicer.
i remember i liked snow since little, but after my sis' friend told me that every snowflake was different from each other, i fell in luv w/snow all over again. think about it, each snowflake is unique, and when it snows, sooooooooo many snowflakes fall down from the sky, soooooooooo many special drops from heaven. too bad i dun get to observe each individual flake as they come down, my sight is gettin bad and my reflexes are not that good either... hehe (dude, i sound like an old lady!) since i cannot catch each shape of the flakes, so i found a next best thing to do when it snows: i eat the flakes that fall down!
hahahaha~~~ that sounds damn stupid but i do it. i look up the sky and wait for the big flakes to come down, and then i'll be waitin underneath it and "AaaM!", i eat it.

wow, i'm too far from my topic again, as usual. ok, so the first time that i skied was 3 yrs ago, the first yr that i was in seattle, i joined FIUTS for their thanxgivin whistler trip. jj and i really wanted to go skiin, she's a good skier, and i just wanted to try it out. the office told us that there were limited space, only 8 spots for grls, so jj and i woke up early in the sign-up mornin, and we lined out outside fiuts door since 8am (the office opens @ 10...). i skipped my math class that day, but i didn't care, ski is more important. so when we got to whistler, there was no much snow actually, mostly artificial snow that was produced overnight. my first run was at blackcomb mt. my first day was not fun at all, i have to say it even though i luv skiing. i basically walked my way down the mountain coz the hills were too steep for me, i almost cried, and i felt so bad coz i was holdin jj back. yet despite the bruises and muscle pains, i enjoyed my first ski experience overall.
and after jj went back to jp, i bought her skies for a dirt cheap price. keke. thanx jj! muuuach!
after the thanxgivin trip, there was a 2nd trip up to whistler, last yr's MLK weekend when i joined the SSA, and then a 3rd trip also up to whistler, which was this last MLK weekend, also w/SSA.
man... good trips yo! i have to dedicate special thanx to mark, he's da man who made it all possible! eventho he's hella bz w/his own stuff, eventho he was damn sian w/all the trip plannin, this SSA president managed to take 30 pple up to whistler and babysit us throughout the weekend. thanx a lot mark! thank u daddy~~~~ o^.^o

both trips were really nice, and i feel that i've improved a lot since the first time i've been to whistler. bren was teachin me how to do the fries style so i can stop pizza-ing my way down the hill. mmm... yet my right knee is still funny, it does not really point fwd, but it's slightly bent (uh... hard to explain) bah... i dun care, i just want to have fun up in the mountains. funny thing is that i felt down more this last time than the previous one, and i've also came back w/a huge bruise on my thigh... sigh...

still, the bruises won't take away my passion (well, a little less than passion) towards skiin. ^^
it's so fun, everyone should give it a try! too bad this sport can get kinda pricy...
that's another problem... i still haven't told my papis that i went to whistler >__<"
ouchi... dun wanna see the bills...

blessed

i've always felt that i'm a super blessed grl. lucky to a certain extent (mmm... but i'm not quite sure bout the word lucky since i do have a quite powerful shitty luck as well...).
here are the reasons why i consider myself (shitty) lucky: i have a wonderful family whose members don't suffer from all the daily soap opera's drama, i'm so thankful that i have great friends in us, tw and arg who are always there for me. and i feel very lucky coz even though my family is not rich, they can still provide me with enough financial support to pay for this high maintenance brat, in such an expensive university in the beautiful city of seattle.
...what else? oh oh! i'm also thankful for this last winter cali trip that my parents paid for, the trip turned out to be quite expensive, hahaha, almost 1k from what i heard? well, i dun really want to do the math, and i dun think that i'll tell my papis the total cost of it either... yes... let's just keep it shut... shh~~~

and i guess that i'm damn lucky coz i somehow can get away w/things that i want. (yes, with my stubbornness and my whinin, but hey, the end justifies the means, rite?) i can give quite a lot of examples of this: i managed to have my parents take me to a dance when i was only in 4th grade (oh yeah... there were a LOT of tears and stomps at that time), i got accepted to the only high school that i applied, i got accepted into the only university that i applied, and i got accepted into the only major that i had in mind.
well, now that i've listed all these things, i guess havin a shitty luck is not that bad after all.

ok, back to the point. i'm writin this due to a special request. yes, a good friend's request. but so far, i still dun feel like jumpin into the core topic of this bla-bla session, just to annoy him. hehehe~~~ i luv u, u know i do~~~ ^^y

this last x'mas, i got the biggest present ever. i think it's literally the biggest x'mas gift that i've gotten so far.
now i got a new thing to be added to my to-be-thankful list, and is my new relationship w/someone that i thought i'd never be with. i wonder if it was my stubbornness that helped me this time... maybe i dunno...
i haven't liked a guy like this for a long looong while. i barely remember the last time that i liked someone. hot crushes i had tons, but none of them were serious. i like to see Q guys, eye candy, my eyes like to see pretty things~ hehehe (it's my right!)
the feeling that i have towards him was quite new in a way, since i've almost forgotten how does it feel when u like someone; feeling all the butterflies in ur stomach, and smilin like a dumbass with the mere thought of the person.
mmm... i guess now it's confession time, rite? how did it all started?
well, i can say that i've liked him for a while, a looooong while as well. met him through a good friend, then somehow we all started to hang out, and then somehow i found him quite Q. i think it began as a crush too, he's not bad lookin. hehe (ok, i'm startin to sound superficial). but when the hot crush feelin sunk deeper and deeper, i knew i was in trouble. and before i realized, i liked him, and a lot.
i would have said somethin earlier but gosh, there were so many bad signs that were alarmin me for a "just shut the F up!". and he didn't seem to be interested either, so yeah, do nothin was the best idea. actually, i think the best idea for that time was to forget about him and move on. and oh man, i had so many friends who agreed w/that idea.
but for some reason, i just could not stop likin him, despite the differences, despite all the bad signs. drew kept on tellin me that he does not like me coz of my giant karma for rejectin so many guys before. i agree w/that too... ~___~lll
yet as i said before, i'm stubborn and i will insist until there's no chance at all.

so i continued likin him, even though i knew he would not like me back. we all still hang out as friends, i liked his company as a friend, he's a really nice buddy. i was satisfied w/being one of his buddies.
then how did we end up together after this? i still got no idea... our old asnwer, it just happened. and i'm happy that 'it just happened'. i guess luv does come at the least expected times, huh?
maybe it was the trip, we were all very happy; maybe it was alan's magic bottle (it told me 'why not?' when i asked whether i was goin to get a bf by the end of last yr or not); or maybe, it was one (or more than one) of the pennies that i threw at the fountains durin the trip.
i guess none of that really matters now coz my dream really came true and i'm damn happy. ^^
oh~ it made me extra happy coz it broke my record of 5 days!!!!!!! oh yeah baby~~~

but there are still some problems... he is basically my frist bf, and i really like him a lot. after all those yrs wondering about relationships, those worries have now surfaced again. how to keep a healthy relationship? what things can make him happy? what not? how can i become a better gf? am i doing the right things? does he know how i trully feel? is he sure that he wants all this? is he sure that he wants to be w/a grl who's gettin all paranoid rite now??? @____@
yes i know that i should just follow my instincts, and do what feels right. and if not, talk to him. communication is the best tool.
easy to say, but hard to do sometimes. it's not that i won't talk to him, but i still feel a bit insecure. perhaps i want it to be PERFECT, but there's no such thing. we'll see... see what happens
ay... contradictory life...
ay... really... poor him that he has to deal w/me now... (too late to look back~ wahahaha~)