some reasons that keep me going

Aya & Lauren'ts wedding (finally!)

As promised, from long time ago, a blog entry bout Aya and Laurent's wedding. Darn, i know it's been for ever, the newlyweds have already come back from their honeymoon! Argh... sorry for the long delay, I'm a horrible person...

It wasn't the first wedding that I've attended, but it was the first wedding amongst my close friends. The fact that Aya was the bride of this marraige made the occation even more especial, so much so that I was able to overthrow my previous skepticisms and bias bout visiting China. Frankly, I was happy that the occation gave me a good reason to step foot on Mainland China. (No, not Motherland, just Mainland)

Altho the actual wedding reception won't be until next year, their civil ceremony was really heartwarming, knowing that 2 people whose care and devotion for each other made them unite at the point and time where they were--on Thursday May 24, 2007, Aya and Laurent got married in the French Embassy in Beijing. Words cannot describe how proud I am, seeing them overcome the uncertainties and differences.

And it was quite obvious that their marriage was filled with blessings from family and friends, since 15 people, from 4 different countries, speaking 5 different languages, have all come together to share their happiness.

But before the official ceremony, that day actually started at photo studio in the morning, where JunJun and I met the groom's friends and relatives for the first time. They were great people (no wonder Laurent is that nice as well), and despite some minor communication problems, we all still managed to have some picture fun of our own while the bride and groom were asked to stay in the other room for the photoshoots.

Once the modelings and shootings were done, hunger kicked in. However, we had little time to waste since the appointment with the French embassy was coming up shortly, so we decided to grab something quick around the corner.

And the only good stuff around the corner was--McD's. LOL

It was then when, a bunch of us, all properly dressed up like any guest to a wedding should be, walked into McD, ignoring all the glares and stares, and happily ordered the good 'ole "le Big Mac" et "burger avec le fromage".
Quite funny to see the McD's lady come over to help us take our orders, and it was specially cute to see Aya, Laurent, and the rest of the gang being very very careful with their burgers, for any drop of mayo or ketchup can ruin their pretty clothes.
FYI, I'm still boycotting McD's, that's why I didn't order anything from the store, but it sort of satisfied my wish (or someone elses' dreams as well) in a way, to be dressed-up and eat at a fast-food restaurant.
I mean, hey, it's fun!

Once the burgers were in our tummies, we proceeded to the French Embassy (btw, people were still looking at us on the streets), and a few of the newlywed's co-workers also joined us for the celebration.

It was my first time to see how the civil ceremony is done. Very simple, very formal, very paperwork-ish. Short and sweet.

The embassy's officers showed up with some formal documents, everything ready so the couple and their witnesses can sign. They read the paperworks, made sure all the information is correct, and asked us to sign the documents.
And then... "I pronounce you Mr & Mrs Viard~!"
All this, of course, was in French!
Me like~ ^__^

To me, this is how a true wedding ceremony should be.
No duties, no obligations, no hazzles, no selfishness, no need of lavish luxury and preparation.
Pure commitment, pure happiness, pure desire of sharing the special moment with your beloved ones.
And all the best wishes and blessings from friends and relatives.

I can say this over and over again: CONGRATS AYA & LAURENT!!

Happy Ever After

Special Congrats to Aya & Laurent, the new Mr. & Mrs. Viard~!!!


May they two live happily ever after <3>

They're both adorable and they well deserve each other. I can't be more happy for them ^__^

More details of this French-Japanese wedding in China coming up soon.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH ^__^

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR B-DAY WISHES!!!!
<3 <3 <3
Your messages, phone calls, emails, cards, etc. are the best gift that I can ever ask for. Thank you so much for remembering~~~ You've all made a *ahem* 18 year old very happy.

Your wishes are a bless, and I do feel blessed for having you, you, you, and all of you as friends, within reach or distance away, I know I can count on you for whenever I need, and you know I'm here for you as well.

Thank you my friend.

With tons of love and lots of slobbery kisses.
nong

My bestest weekend ever (IV final)

Toriaezu

Yui and I woke up early in the morning to make good use of our day, hoping to tour/sightsee what’s left to see from Tokyo. Of course, apart from having all the fun, I on the other hand, had other ‘serious duty’ that I needed to accomplish. They included several orders from different people: 1) takuwans, or Japanese cured radish, and furikake, not any furikake, but those 100 yen ones ONLY for my sister (note: we DO have takuwans in Taiwan, but she insisted I get her some from Japan, and she demanded them to be GOOD. For god’s sake, we don’t have the same taste buds! How am I supposed to know which ones you like?); 2) medicine pills for my mom; 3) muscle pain reliever for my dad; and 4) the most important item—Wii!!! for me and my brother.

Some of those things were easier to get, random stores will do. Now, as for the Wii, the foremost critical purchase of the trip, was a little trickier. See, Taiwan sucks because it’s not selling Wii yet, so the closest place for Taiwanese to get the console was from Japan. However, seeing the surplus in demand and lack of supply due to the restricted delivery of machines from Nintendo, Wii was a hot and hard item to get, even for the local Japanese. So Yui suggested the following: to go to Akihabara, and place all our best over there. Sounds like a good plan to me!

I’ve heard quite a lot of stories about Akihabara, and how it’s the hometown for all otakus. Hehehe~ Don’t know bout others, but that fact alone raises a lot of interest from I Nong. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ‘interested in’ otakus, but I think they are rather some kind of interesting group of people among others. And so, after breakfast, Yui and I rushed to Akihabara for Wii and some Otaku-seeing.

Unfortunately, it was not our best day in Akihabara… No signs of Wii (all sold out in stores, not taking reservation nor do any of them know when they’ll get more machines) or otakus (because it was Monday morning, I guess otakus have life other than mangas as well) whatsoever… Sad. =(

Either way, it was around noon, so walked around for a bit more, then went to where Aya’s office was, hoping to catch some lunch with her. But Aya’s training was running a bit late that day, so Yui and I had a Japanese rush-hour style lunch without her. We stopped at a ramen store, and the order was taken through a machine and not an actual person! Basically you insert coins and pick the food you want from a list on a machine, located at the door of the store, then the machine will issue a coupon and your change, which later is to be handed in to the chefs. My ramen was quite alright, a bit too salty, but the gyozas were really good! Me likes gyozas a lot.
Then, we dedicated the rest of the day for shopping. If I didn’t remember wrong, we went to Shinyuku that afternoon, where Yui got a cute pair of green shoes, and I got shall, umbrella for Amy, socks, card holder, etc from Muji. We also went to Don Quijote, a store where they sell all sorts of things at cheap prices, and there is where I got quite crazy… The spree was me holding a basket, go thru isles of goods, and whichever snack that looks appetizing would be thrown straight into the basket. I mean, it’s quite hard to find a disgusting Japanese snack anyway, so why waste time thinking?

However, I do regret buying that much stuff, because we had to carry them all to Roppongi Hills, this trendy neighborhood with pretty people and pretty stuff. Again, once we reached Roppongi, the first place we looked for was a Café, to sit down can catch up some breath from all the walking. After enough rest, back to walking and shopping again and sightseeing and eying pretty ladies (yes, just ladies. No specific pretty gentleman in sight). Roppongi was, in my opinion, very chic, but since none of us were familiar with the place, guess we need someone who knows the area to take us to the specific worthy sites else we’d just be walking around in circles, scratching just the surface of something truly fantastic.

As the time for home rush-hour was approaching, we also tried to wrap the tour of the day up, grabbing some final groceries for breakfast (yummy bread) for the next morning, and started heading back to Yui’s place to meet up with Aya.
We decided to chill for the rest of the evening, because we all walked too much for the last few days, so instead of dining out, we made it cheap and picked up some bentos and drinks from stores near Yui’s place, and talk and chill my last night in Japan away. Aya was the first one to pass out though, poor girl, she was stuck in the office receiving corporate training and meetings the whole day, and I have to thank Yui again for taking her day off to show me around! Thank you~!!! Hope you’re enjoying your cute green shoes right now!.

My final day in Japan was brief for I had a flight to catch in the afternoon. After breakfast, we sent Aya off to the station, and waited for the grocery stores to open again to run some final errands. Jeff was right, a tourist is never to bring too much money to Japan, I used up all the yen that I had at hand, including the last US$100 that I exchanged the day before... I feel so guilty now…
To wrap up my tour, Yui and I tried so search for some anime CDs for Jeff (FYI: for those who need anime related stuff, just head straight to Akihabara, don’t bother trying anywhere else), and failed the mission, got some coffee and I bravely challenged taking the train to the airport by myself. Yui was nice and smart enough to instruct me to a train that doesn’t require any transfers, and as all good things come to an end, I had to say goodbye to Yui as well. And splurged some more while I was wandering around the duty free (this is when I start hating my credit cards).

No matter how many times I’ve said this over and over again, I will say this, again.
I love my trip to Japan, I had one of the best times of my life ever!!! I missed seeing my girls, it was great visiting Aya’s mom and family, and I enjoyed meeting up with the old friends so much! If I can choose to live certain period of life again, this definitely would be on the list.

Come to think about it, the 3 of us haven’t been altogether for almost 2 years, and this kind of gathering is surely comes on the right time. Oh! This can even be as our bachelorette gathering for Aya! So unbelievable that the next time I see her, she won’t be Aya Kitani anymore, but will be Mrs. Viaud (hope I didn’t remember Laurent’s last name wrong… @__@ ). The first of my best friends who is getting married… How amazing is that?! Hehehe, Aya’s always filled up with surprises. And there are no words to express my happiness for the start of her next phase in life with Laurent. =)

Alright, this is all from my trip to Japan. Realized how much I enjoy traveling around to meet old friends in their respective countries. After seeing the place that they’ve grew up in, and being more acquainted with their culture, it gives you a better understanding of your friends and how and why they turned out to be such awesome people.

Thank you Aya & Yui for being there for me! You are the best!

That’s Japan, toriaezu. There will be more traveling soon, and this certainly won’t be my last visit to the wonderful Sushiland~! Next time, I shall consume large amounts of raw food until I drop.

My bestest weekend ever (III)

Simple is more

Basically, I was blessed by the God of weather throughout the whole trip in Japan. The air was cool and crisp, puffy clouds were up high the blue skies, and despite some minor and short sprinkles of rain in the late evenings, the weather would turn back sunny again the following morning.
Sunday morning, Yui was coming over to meet us and have breakfast with ojiichan’s place for breakfast. Yui arrived around 9, after elections because she’s a good fellow citizen and wants to exercise her civilian rights for the very first time. I want that too!!! I’m 24 years old and I’ve never voted before…
Anyway, we headed to Yokohama, a place relatively newly developed. Right as we got off the Yokohama station, I was impressed by the new architectures surrounding the area. Modern, clean and crisp skyscrapers standing amidst well-developed chic district adorned with distinctive landmarks. Well, basically the whole Tokyo is like that, yet each city’s design, atmosphere, and how it’s presented is so different from each other it’s exceptionally unique.
Our first stop in Yokohama was in a mall. Not just any mall, but this mall had what I’ve been craving for 2 years—Cold Stone!! Aw~ how I missed their ice cream~ We shared a Strawberry Banana Rendezvous, and oh yeah~ it felt like paradise. Supposedly, Cold Stone’s opening a store in Taiwan, but I haven’t seen any yet… I want more Cold Stone!!!

Once we consumed our necessary nutrition/energy, we strolled towards the pier, passing by Landmark building (the tallest building in Yokohama, very impressive), by a ship that was left from the expo years ago (now a new site for flea market, yay!), and through another pathway filled with cherry trees. There were so many couples and families out that day, either enjoying between themselves, spending some good time with the kids, or walking their dogs. Seemed that we were the only “noisier” ones around, but hey! They were MY dates. Next by the pier, there stood 2 red-bricked buildings in a giant plaza (I call it the Red Square), and coincidently, that pace was celebrating its 5 yr Birthday, and for this reason, the plaza was filled with colorful flowers, attracting even more tourists like us. We took a few pictures of the flowers and with the flowers, also saw Bay Bridge from afar, later we window shopped in the red building. I originally planned to just window shop, but we found a cheap store where I contributed 2000 yen for a jewelry box and a new pair of sunglasses. Me like~

Junjun joined us after she finished her part of the shopping spree at the flea market, then we all walked again, in the park, this time to Yokohama’s famous Chinatown. We had Chinese ramen and some gyozas, however I wouldn’t leave Chinatown without tasting some Nikuman! (meat buns) But we were so full! But I craved for nikuman! But we were so full…But nikuman… Finally we found mini nikuman place so we could indulge in the savory juice of the nikumans without being at risk of exploding.

The Japanese Chinatown was very touristy, everywhere and everything you see was eh… food. A lot of nikuman, a lot of shiaolongpaos, a lot of dimsum. Food food food all over the place!
Since we couldn’t eat anymore, we actually got sick of Chinatown very soon, and switched the location to a different neighborhood right next to Chinatown (just across a bridge). Funny thing is, once we reached there, the first thing we looked for was a coffee shop to sit down. Haha, I think we aren’t far from the age where we need to sit down 1hr for every 30 min we walk =P

My order there was a sesame milk latte and a mont blanc (chestnut cake dessert), then we had a matcha latte, a regular latte and a strawberry latte on the table. The mont blanc wasn’t as impressive as I’d thought, because they always look so good on tv! The thick creamy chestnut/hazelnut cream topping layered over a soft spongy cake… Not that it was bad, but I guess I’ve expected too highly bout it. But the sesame latte~! Oh wow… that was really something. Don’t go ew when you hear sesame and latte, because it is very GOOOOOD~~~ who’d have thought?! And… why does coffee match with so many different flavors! I love coffee.

And I love coffee + friends! We sat in the coffee store chillaxing for hours, with no special plan in mind, but just enjoying each other’s company (and recovering from the walks, haha). If only these kind of things can happen more often…

Daikanyama was our next location, and who’s the best person to take us around there but our fashionable Kamechan?! Daikanyama is a trendy neighborhood with expensive clothing boutiques. Expensive but very pretty nonetheless, feels a bit like Soho in NY. For dinner, we ate spaghetti with chopsticks, yay for fusion food~! And yay for spaghetti! That’s another food that goes well with many other ingredients.Since all stores were closed by the time we got out of the restaurant, plus it was drizzling, so we didn’t stay out long, said final goodbye to Kamechan and hit back to ojiichan’s place for my suitcases for I was switching to hotel Chez Yui that night. I really didn’t want to say good bye to ojiichan tho… He was such a sweetheart! Ojiichan~ come visit Taiwan when you have the chance, ok? And thank you so much again for everything!

Yui’s place is near Haneda airport (old intl. airport), located at very convenient place: across the street from the station, next to the grocery store and above a take out place. Heh, she has everything she needs! Her apartment is not big or lavish, but cozy, some people think it’s too small, but I see it perfect for single person. At least I feel that it would be a perfect size for me. Being Yui’s place, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see everything GREEN. Green curtains, green sheets, green kitchen shade, green carpet, her green M&M… Yeah, pretty easy to get the whole picture.

The whole apartment thing made me reminisce our Northgate days, when and where we both would do goofy things together, laugh at each other, and have fun even if we were dealing with the most boring thing. Good times. I miss them dearly.

The apartment can fit another person, I think. Hm… maybe I can take Yui’s suggestion and live with her again.

My bestest weekend ever (II)

My pon du chocolat, you tombi!!

So yeah, after the tasty dinner that Aya’s mom prepared for us (Thank you so much Aya’s mommy~!!!), the 3 of us girls stayed up late again doing silly things and random chats like we always do. On Saturday morning, Yui was the first one to wake up, punctual and early bird person as she’s always been. For the record, I did hear the alarm, just didn’t pay too much attention to it, since I knew Yui will eventually wake us when she feels that we’ve slept too much. Then it was time to wake Aya up. Oh gosh~~ that did remind me of the good old UW times. “Aya, time to wake up~”, “Ayaa, okinasaiiii”, “AYA! Wake up~!”. Alright, we didn’t do that this time, but I always find it quite entertaining to wake Aya up. Our breakfast was another feast, with coffee, juice, variety of bread and salad ready on the table. In a way it’s good that I’m not living in Japan, else within 1 week, I’ll blow up like a popup-fish. We finished breakfast and got ready around 1030 am (or later?), and Yui was right, we ALWAYS take more time that we originally intend to. Oh well…

The outing of the day started from Kamakura station, which is really close to the main street of the city. I’ve also started the city tour with local city “sabire” butter cookie, in shapes of a dove. Needless to say, too yummy I regret now that I didn’t buy more.

Again, it was another pleasantly cool and sunny day, and there were already quite a few people in the streets enjoying the day like we did, in hopes to take advantage and contemplate the cherry blossoms widely spread around the city. In the middle of the main avenue there was a pedestrian walk that had 2 rows of cherry trees alongside the path, where everyone was walking, including us. At the end of the walk, there was the famous local temple (that I don’t know the name!! >__<), which was the place that we were heading.

Apparently, that Saturday was a good day for weddings, because there were 3 couples getting married that day in the old Japanese traditional way wearing kimonos. Being religious or not, I think it’s always nice to have God’s blessings on your special day, that’s why Yui and I kept on trying to persuade/brainwash Aya to have a Japanese wedding with Laurent as well. Since we’re joining 2 different cultures from 2 different countries, it’s the best occasion to have 2 weddings in different styles! I mean, this opportunity is really rare~! Aya, please have ceremonies to wear a white wedding dress AND a kimono, please~ because Yui and I want to wear the black sexy kimono as well! Hahahaha~

I liked this temple a lot. The place was huge, tons of greens, lakes, small bridges, and a huge plaza with FOOD VENDORS! We could smell the food from afar, before we even reached the temple: takoyakis, jagabatas, toriyakis, sweets… To be respectful to the Gods, we headed to the temple before we gave in to our cravings, yet we still stopped by each vendor to first check what was good for later.

The temple was up a hill, with a thousand-year old sacred tree resting at the bottom of the long stairways. After offering the proper regards to the Gods, we stopped by the souvenir stand where I got a small gift for a friend, in hopes to bring him luck since he’s starting a new life in a new place. I guess should have prayed for myself as well because we saw the fortune stand on the next window counter right after, and we all asked for our fortune. Both Aya and Yui got pretty nice fortunes; me, however, got the worst fortune. Ouchi. We immediately tied those papers onto the bamboos so I can get rid of that bad karma. Please God, don’t give me any bad luck!!! Take it away~~~

The bad luck fortune didn’t bother me for long tho, because we hit straight to the food stands, and that basically got us really distracted. For lunch: takoyaki (fried octopus balls) and jagabata (butter sautéed potatoes), found us a tranquil place to sit down and pigged out. I never knew that jagabatas were so good!! I wonder if that’s something feasible in a house kitchen… More touring and sightseeing around the temple and its garden before we hit the main street and continued out food feast again. Second part of lunch: taro-croque and honey ice cream. They were SO GOOD! And I regret for being so gluttonous, kept my eyes solely on the food, and forgot to take any picture of them!!! Sorry folks, cannot share my happiness with you this time.

Jagabata & Takoyaki~~

What’s good about Kamakura is that not only it has mountains and hillsides, but it is also close to the beach! And since the weather was so nice, it would be a waste if we didn’t stop by, and oh no, we cannot go to the beach empty handed. We picked up a donut each from Mr. Donuts (they were at 100yen each! Yui got a matcha fashioned, Aya got a pon du chocolat, and I got a churro), some drinks, and an exquisite small berry cake called “Nana” from a chic pastry store.

As we walk close to the beach, we could fee the breeze getting stronger, carrying the subtle salty scent of the sea, and we could also see a few birds flying on the air, crows, pigeons, other giant birds, maybe enjoying the day as much as we did. Too bad the water was still too cold to get in, so we sat down at a ramp, proceeded our fun. It was then, when the most hilarious thing happened.

Yui was busy cleaning her shoes from all the sand that she’d stepped in, I was chilling with apple/peach tea and contemplating the view, while Aya was very anxious to start with the dessert. She picked up the bag of donuts, took out her pon du chocolat, and suddenly, Yui and I heard a horrific cry from her. We turned our heads to where Aya was, and saw her jumping up from her seat, staring at her empty shaking hand while screaming: “My pon du chocolat!!!”. There it was. Better say, there it wasn’t. Aya’s pon du chocolat. It was gone, within split seconds. We rose our heads up where we saw a bunch of birds flying above us, cackling like mad. It wasn’t hard to figure out that one of the birds had stolen Aya’s donut at the speed of light. We looked around trying to find the little thief but it was pointless. That freaking bird must have flown far far away to finish that choco donut of Aya’s. Then again, Yui and I couldn’t seriously help Aya track her donut either way because we were cracking up from the whole incident. It was too hysterical to see Aya’s face in panic, hands shaking, and knowing that somewhere out there, some bird (or birds) is secretly celebrating by themselves because they successfully stole one entire donut out from a human’s hands.

Man, those birds are VILE! They honestly are! We have no doubt that they were watching us from the start, from the moment we stepped onto the beach with a bag of donuts, and they hid behind us, trying to catch the perfect timing to execute the burglary. But the most interesting thing is that it happened to Aya. For some reason, these are the things that would only happen to Aya. It was a LOL plus ROFL, literally. Not only for us (Yui was already tearing from all that laughter), but for other people that were next to us too. No wonder no one else had food with them! The girl sitting next to us had only a 6-pack but no food… Smart move. Someone should have warned us!! Poor Aya… We’ll get more donuts next time, ok?

To avoid the same thing happen to our precious cake Nana, we left the beach and went to a small park instead. Free from scary bird thieves. Needless to say, the cake was great. Although we did feel a bit funny and miserable having 3 girls with 3 spoons sharing a tiny cake. Hahahaha~~ We walked back to the station again to move my belongings to my next host of my Japan trip—Aya’s ojiichan’s place in Tokyo.

Aya’s grandpa is one of the coolest grandpa that I’ve ever seen. He’s 83 (??) years old, but still very healthy and super cheerful, it’s something in their family! Haha~ He bikes and does 300 sit ups EVERY day… How amazing is that for a person that age?! Ojiichan was really sweet in letting me stay at his place for the night and he even greeted us with more Japanese snacks! We had dangos (mochi balls) and sakura mochis (mochis with red bean paste) as our afternoon tea before we headed off to Shibuya, where we were meeting the old UW gang.

Shibuya was as crazy as it has always been portrayed, either in movies or tvs. There. Were. So. Many. People!! The intersections were extremely large, yet somehow, when the streetlights turn green, people can fill that empty space out like little ants charging towards sugar. Very scary. I never feared of getting lost except in Shibuya, when I felt the need of holding Aya and Yui’s hands. Junjun and Nobu were already waiting for us in Shibuya. We toured around the place really quickly and went to a game store to kill some time while waiting for the others to arrive. The game store was pretty cool, and we saw experts at the DJ machine and on the DDR. I want to call them nerds but they’re so good and so cool at it that I can only bow to them (~~ bow~~). We played Mario Carts (was so much fun!!!) and took pictures with the machines together~ YAY!! That makes me feel like high school again~~

Dinner was at an izakaya, and I was so happy that Hiroki, Asako, Yuka and Taro all joined us for the night! Too bad Dai was busy… Didn’t get a chance to meet with him this time =(

I had a blast over there~! And it was one of the best things that I can ask for now, being able to meet, hang out and relax with some good old friends. Years can pass, lives are different, maybe even people have changed, yet regardless of all these variables, once we all met, we could feel like the old times. Share our thoughts, share our dreams and lives, and share lots and lots of our silliness. Gatherings like such help me appreciate my own life so much more than I’ve ever thought of. It reminded me that I got friends out there who I can trust, share laughter and sadness, it reminded me of my past wonderful life at UW, and it also reminded me how lucky I am for being able to know them.

But like every other good old hang outs, it eventually came to an end. It felt GREAT to meet with them, after 4 years. Thank you all so much for meeting up with me!

Hontoni arigatou gozaimashita.

PS. Those who haven’t met up with old friends, I strongly recommend you do so. ^__^

My bestest weekend ever (I)

A spiritual journey to the ancient city

So I finally went to Japan last Thursday, after so many years of broken promises. Everyone else had visited it but me, so it was about time I decide to visit some good old friends. Excited throughout the entire flight, I arrived at Narita around 9:20pm, where Aya was already waiting for me outside the airport hall. It felt so weird to see Aya there, after all, we haven’t seen each other for almost 2 years, yet it didn’t feel distant for a single bit. We could catch right on on the very instant and start our silliness in split seconds.

From the airport to Aya’s place in Kamakuro took around 2 hrs, that’s when I first experience the complexity of the Japanese transportation system. They have a Metro, JR, and other small local trains that run around the city and its surroundings. It can be very convenient, but honestly, it’s quite complicated and the train maps look like a mess. I think people who aren’t familiar with the metro system in Japan are not worthy to live there. Hahaha~ but once you figure out how to take the train, you’re a true Japan master.

It was already past midnight when Aya’s mom picked us up at the train station and Hitomi was waiting for us in their cute warm house up in the mountains (yes, like Aya’s told us many times before, she does live up in the mountains, and the slopes were quite steep!). Aya and I caught up with some good old times and didn’t get to sleep until 3am, not because we were tired, for both of us were too excited, but Aya had to work the next day.

Woke up the following morning with some gorgeous bright sunshine. Aya had gone to work so Hitomi was my guide for the morning! First stop, we went to see Kamakura’s famous Daibutsu. The Daibutsu turned our slightly smaller than I expected it, but it was still a quite impressive piece of art. What I like about the temples and shrines in Japan is that they all have a garden in it, and all their gardens are adorned with plants that are well taken care of. I was also very lucky to arrive at Japan during the cherry blossom period, thus there was cherry trees blossoming everywhere I go. I didn’t have to fly all the way back to UW and the Quad to see the cherry blossom! Hahaha~

With Daibutsu and Hitomi

Hitomi and I quickly toured around the Daibutsu temple so we can go to our next stop that is another temple not too far from there. On our way to the next temple, we saw some very yummy taro/matcha ice creams. We couldn’t resist and got some! And it was sooo good~ I also got some taro yokan (I like anything with taro~) and local oil-absorbing tissue (that baby sucks oil like wonder!). Aya’s mom joined us for our next temple, this one looked typical but it has a pretty seaside view.

The taro/matcha ice cream was soooo goooooood~~~

Temple. I'm so bad at remembering names.

For lunch, we had spaghetti at an Italian restaurant near the beach. Although I was still full from my late breakfast and taro/marcha ice cream, I finished my whole plate of pasta because it was too delicious~~ I always wonder, pasta is such an easy meal to prepare, then how come mine doesn’t turn out that good??? Where’s the trick?

We later drove to the station to pick up Junjun, that was joining us for the rest of the afternoon. We were waiting and waiting outside the station until this Junjun-look-alike girl wearing kimono approached us. And it was! Junjun, coming back from her kimono class, wearing a kimono!! I’ve never seen Junjun being so “traditional” wearing such traditional clothing or any of my friends wearing a kimono, I think kimonos are a really interesting garment. They have 3 different layers, tons of way to tie up the knots of the obi (belt), and it takes 2hrs just to wear it on. The most attractive part for me is the neckline area, where the collar is semi-open and the subtle contour of the neck looks so sexy~

@ Aya's elementary school. They have very pretty garden for kids.

In any case, Junjun was wearing her kimono and it’s very fun to see her because her movements became softer as she moved slower with all cloths wrapped around her body. We first stopped by Aya's elementary school to look around, and the next place was a bamboo garden. This garden was drop dead gorgeous. After the main entrance, you enter directly to the bamboo garden, formed solely by tall, green bamboo trees. With the bright sun shining above, the bamboo leaves glisten as if they all spread tanning oil on. The place also reminds me of “Crouching Tiger”, hehe. At the end of the rock paved road, there was a small cabin that served tea. We sat down to enjoy our cup of green tea served with 2 cubes of sweets (made with wasanbon fine sugar), admired Mother Nature’s beauty with exchanges of interesting conversations. Very Zen-like. I think my tea was so good that it attracted a bug, and got drowned in it…

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon!

Tasty green tea and sweets

Classic background needs classic model to pose

After the bamboo garden, we headed back to Aya’s place because it was getting slightly late to be going to other places. So we moved back to the house, chat over more tea and yummy goodies to burn some time. We were waiting for Aya and Yui to come back from work, so we can reward their hard work of the day by having Sukiyaki~! Green onion, shiitake, onion, veggies, super silky tofu and uber tender meat. My first sukiyaki tasted so delicious~~ (drool…) Uh… I want to have it again…

Just seeing this picture makes me drool... I want sukiyaki again...

My babies <3 <3 <3

As the year of the pig approaches, now is a good timing to wrap up this year with some doggie talk. Many already know, I love dogs. I've been dying to have a dog for my entire life, but it wasn't until this year, the year of the dog, that I got, not one, not 2, but 3 lovely dogs living in my house. How wonderful is that?!
Ok, they're not all mine. One is living w/my brother and the other 2 are at my sister's place. But they pretty much are in the same family, so yeah, I consider them as my dogs too. =)
Here's a bit about them:

**PROFILE**
Name: Meggie.
Gender: Female, 1+ yrs.
Breed: Akita Ken.
Color: Black.
Loves: Any food other than her daily dog food, scratches on her stomach.
Hates: Going outside the house.
Interesting fact: Meggie has a lot of toys in her possession, yet for some reason she loves Uber, my stuffed animal, the best. Whenever she comes into my room, she'd search for Uber, and run away as soon as she gets hold of it.
Meggie is the first dog that we had in the house, when my bro in law brought her back, costing him 2 bags of dog food. Regardless of her size, she's afraid of everyone and everything. Took all of us a while to get close to her. She might be too shy, but she has some gorgeous almond-shaped eyes. Beautiful. Meggie is simply beautiful.

**PROFILE**
Name: Dien-Dien (= little dot).
Gender: Male, 1 yr and almost 2 months.
Breed: Schnauzer.
Color: Greish/White.
Characteristics: Eats everything.
Loves: Scratches on his back, anything edible, being chased around.
Hates: When my nephew teases him, leash, and his jacket (worn only when taking walks in winter).
They only dog that was actually "purchased" with money, but it was worth it because it's quite hard to see a schnauzer as handsome as he is. Dien-Dien is my sis' baby. A true mama's boy. Currently seeking for a good-looking female schnauzer so we can have baby Dien-Diens (future polka dots?? =P ).

**PROFILE**
Name: Kenny.
Gender: Male, approx 1 yr old.
Breed: Unconfirmed Malepoo (maltese + poodle).
Color: White, yet he gets dirty easily.
Characteristic: Natural clown by , naturally high, short attention spam, hops around like a bunny.
Loves: Walks, when people say "Wanna go out for a walk?", play with food, chew toys.
Hates: N/A.
Kenny's previous owner gave Kanny on adoption because he/she was leaving the country. When Kenny first arrived, he had the WORST haircut a dog can ever get. That's why we had to shave his hair all off to make it even. Kenny is the funniest dog ever. The only dog that needs to wear waterproof sleeves when peeing (else he'll pee all over his front legs because his short attention spam doesn't allow him to focus on one tast at a time). Easily distracted. Sometimes he runs too fast that when he suddently slows down, his rear legs won't be able to reach ontime so he walks doing a headstand stunt. Endless list of funny stories about him.

I love them~~ They are all my babies~!!!

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!

yui's coming in 5 days~~
la la laaaah~~~ ^___^

i miss yui
i miss aya
i miss my old roommates: tom, drew, natalie, chian, mel, jen, chels, christen.

i miss my old routine of 400 hoola-hoops a day
i miss my morning coffees w/liquid coffee-mates

oh, and i had the worst craving for eizel's the other day. T__T
not good, not good...
they should open a eizel's in taiwan too!!
or a krispy-kreme in tpe. who knows, maybe they will soon since they've opened one in jp.

my singapore vacation! ^__^

so, being a brat, i treated myself to a short Singapore trip a week ago.
hm... now that i think about it... 1 week ago already?! sux... why do happy times fly so fast?

anyway, eventho the trip was short, but it was very very sweet, just how i wanted it. after a few sudden changes and some extra fees, i took a late flight on sat 8th to s'pore. felt to excited that i was finally able to get out of taiwan. it's not that i dislike taiwan (well... in ways i do, still....) but i feel that i've been sofocated for a while, ever since i came back from seattle. and that was the main reason that pushed me for the trip, go get the hell outta here, and catch up with old friends, in hopes to live a bit of how my life used to be.

the real sg trip started the day after i arrived (coz it was too late to do anything on sat night), and we started the day with some very good/hearty breakfast, singapore style. mark and bren too me to maxwell's plaza, and the food they served seems more suitable for brunch/lunch than breakfast, because they were all so big and too rich for a non-morning person... heh, still that couldn't stop us from eating, we ordered these and shared

(ooops... bren's 30min-queue congee is not in the pic!) anyway, so above was the famous, must-try sg cho-queh-teo, fried carrot cake, and some X-queh (forgot the name again). all very yummy~~~ but a bit too oily for early mornings. in the back is an ice coffee and mark's hand =P

later squeezing those dishes in our tummies, the guys took me for a ride round downtown sg, a lot of buildings, but a lot of greens too! which made the city look pretty and not that crowded (considering that they have to pack millions of people in a small tiny "insignificant" island, keke). in a way, the city reminded me of vancouver, but with more trees i'd say, and of course, with people walking/driving on the other side of the road =P
bren took me around in the morning, while mark was at church, went to the fountain of wealth, window shopped in Paragon, and according to celest, that's a very "Atas" place. (hehehe~ making use of the only singlish word that i learned from the trip. )
in the afternoon, met up with celest and yl, walked some more, and shall i mention that we ate some more too??? hm... i think i'll skip the food part from now onwards... food was around the entire trip, different dishes that some i cannot remember the names now, but all very good and tasty. and imagine that i only had 1/3 of the whole sing food!!! ok, gimme a few more days next time and i'll try the other 2/3 ^^
what else on the 1st day... oh! also hang out with pearline, jomo and leo's old crush, lucinda in a coffee shop with mark. that was fun coz it kinda let you know more about how your friend used to be before you guys met
evening, mark took me around bay area, where we saw the merlion, fullerton hotel, and walked round the keys. nice nice~ really pretty. i didn't take pix coz my ran outta battery... damn it! oh well, pictures don't do justice of the real beauty of the sight of the moment anyway, and i've got all the beauty recorded in my head, just wish that it won't fade away too soon... oh~ and we had a delicious hot chocolate cake~~~ (drool...)

monday, SANTOSA! hehe, pretty tourist place. we took the cable car and went to the island where the underwater world was. that place was so much fun! it was small, but had many interesting sea creatures to take a look at, such as yummy crabs, weird little red-shinny non-shrimp no-shell dots, giant sea turtles, lazy hungry sharks...

i liked the underwater electric alleyway the most! ^^
fun fun~ (sounds as if i dun have any childhood memories...)
now this time, the cam ran OUT of memo space! #$%^@@... (note to myself: do not borrow cam from sis again)
oki, this pic was taken from the cable car, too bad cannot see much of santosa island =(
anyway, back to santosa adventure. mark and i walked around the place after the underwater world. since we got a package, the tickets included this 4D movie show that seemed quite ishy-washy... hehe, it turned out to be those simulator machines! it wasn't as bad as i thought, 2 different movie/rides that basically tried to shake you as much as they could. there was a lady sitting next to me that was so excited bout the ride, she couldn't stop laughing and screaming, even after we got out (maybe she doesn't have a childhood memory either).
and the ride made mark and i remember our winter disney/6 flags trip... aw... i want roller coasters........ i want to do that trip again.... =(
dinner was w/mark's family, where we enjoyed the famous chicken rice. YES, authentic chicken rice is GOOOOOOOD~~~~ we ordered a whole chicken and some other dishes, and we (well, basically mark and his dad) finished it all. good job guys!
at night, joined bren and his friends for a drink in this "gothem city" building's bar. the place was so decorated, too decorated for my taste. but the atmosphere was nice, and there was a band singing nice songs. bren's friends were cool too. apparently, they were drinking coz one of them got dumped, but for some reason, this guy was not drinking alcohol at all but ordered lime juice instead... @__@"
hahaha, good idea, i should do that next time.

tuesday... finally met mark's lovely sis, marie! yeah~ she's really cute, too bad never had the chance to meet her in seattle instead, else could have showed her around.
lunched with esther (haven't seen her for SO LONG!) and bren for bah-kuh-teh in the financial district. we tried very hard in persuading esther to take her aftenoon off, too bad we failed...
nevertheless, i got a nice pic of us!


more walking around downtown and places in sg. we went to this market that was selling cheap t-shirts, kinda like 五分埔 of taiwan. and both mark and i got a t-shirt each, YAY! my first and only shopping of the trip! i'm so proud of myself~
that day we had dinner round 8pm, but arranged to meet up w/celest and yl for rotti prata supper again round 11... that was kinda crazy... seriously... endless food....
oh! and leonard flew back to sg that same nite! so it was great to be able to see him in sg before i left the place. leo also joined us for supper, and we all (including celest's bf cowen) grilled the man for his late "dallas grl" and related issues of the topic. it felt like back in the times, instead that this time, we were at a hotter place, drinking milo dinosaur instead of a starbucks latte.

really enjoyed this gathering, coz really, when will there be a next time for us to meet up like this again?
yes we are sure that there will be next hang-outs, yes i'm sure we will still care bout each other very much, yes we do try to keep in touch, but... it's sad and almost inavoidable that there will be changes among us.
my guess is that the next time we all meet up, there will be at least some kid running around.
now... whose kid is that? i say it won't be mine =P
maybe it's a little Tiffany Teo Ting-Ting running around w/a cowgrl hat, since leonard is quite "in the mood" of having a kid and he's ready to be a father, muuuahahahaha~~~

anyway, good times are always short and now i'm back in real life in the office again...
time to re-start the vancouver 2010 fund (since i've drained that old fund for this trip), where we'll all see ach other again. remember guys! bring your spouses and family! i'll bring my dog =P

VERY VERY special thanks to Marky Sparky, the main host/organizer of nong's sg trip.
mark: thanx for letting me crash at ur place for so long nei... thanx to ur mom & dad too! remember, tw's welcomes u and ur family, so stop by whenever u can, k? hugz~
also special thanx to celest, yen-ling, bren for showing me around ^___^
leonard, was great to be able to see you! good luck w/ur lady~~~~!!! show us pix of ur kid later!! =P

aw~~~ i love you all~~~ i dun wanna be here now... >____<

Meggie's gonna come to taipei and stay w/my sis for a few days! yay~!!
haven't seen her cute face for days and i miss her dearly =(
she's so pretty, sooo gorgeous. too bad she's still too scared of everyone she doesn't know. makes me wonder what the heck did the previous guy do to her to be like this...

anyway, i think it'll be interesting this couple days, seeing my sis house turning into a small zoo: 1 bird, 2 rats, and 3 dogs, plus 4 humans running and screaming and yelling around
hahaha~~ in other words, some mad house ^__^

Meggie~ Meggie~ Meggie~~~ ^0^
hope she'll wanna get out of the house and let me take her to the nearest park for a walk... it's kinda embarrasing to carry a 20kg dog on the streets just so she can do her thing, not to mention that that's a very huge kid to carry...

then, need to book stuffs. damn, keep on forgettin to collect my info, argh... need to book it NOW. can't wait, hehehe~~~

also, found it quite interesting that i've been meeting up with quite a few old friends from seattle this year: Mei, Chian, JJ, Wan, YL
it was great meeting with the girls, but it also felt a bit strange since we've changed our meeting place from seattle to tpe. but glad to know that they're all doing well

and i'll add some more people to the list starting from next week: Julia, RJ (round july i guess?), hopefully Shiaoma & Dama, Mark, Yui (maybe???), and Alan later this summer

special congrats to our sweet wanwan who'll be moving to the Big Apple!!

tpe food expo starting tmr! woohooo~~!!! me want samples!!

and Argentina is finally qualified for top 16 after all these years! VAMOS ARGENTINA CARAJO!
argh... should stop all this random thoughts! need to get a new brain

awsome!

ok, just found out bout this, artificial "Beer Belly"
when i first read the article bout this topic i could not stop wondering and picturing the image in my head. we've seen beer helmets, beer kegs, beer fridges, all contributing to the ever fattening american society. apparently, those beer driking helpers were drawing too much attention from others and i guess that's why they came up with a more subtle device for those beer lovers.
i mean, if drinking beer gives you beer belly (eventually), then why not have one right from the start, right?!

pros: you can carry this and drink whenever you want, wherever you want
cons: you can carry this and drink whenever you want, wherever you want

but must admit the idea is quite brilliant, literally having a "beer belly" yet not really. you're "fat", but during the course of a game you'll somehow loose that tummy (by drinking it out, kekeke). and who said that watching a game with some drinks at hand will make you fat?! muuuahahahaha

googled and found an official website of it ^__^
http://www.thebeerbelly.com/

the price seems a bit exp. $50 for a belly, although can be re-used, but it's described as a "spared tire" after all... now i wonder how long it can keep the drinks cool... warm human heat beer sounds nasty...

and i also wonder... can humans get anymore lazier than this?! >_< lol

my heroine

caught Aeon Flux on MTV yesterday! YAY!
it was late at night and i needed some good entertainment to help with my late-night spacing out when MTV suddenly started playing Aeon Flux
i was shocked at first. gosh... that show hasn't been on for years! and it was such a cool show~
but to tell the truth, AF is kinda too weird... well, i've always thought that it was quite scifi, but i guess watching that snow again at this age made me observe the show from a different perspective
lust, social issues, sexual oppression, some more lust
or is it me being the one who's too perverted?

anyway, watching AF is always entertaining. forgot how much i used to love the show! ^^
it doesn't have many dialogues, but when they talk it's so synical~!
my kinda conversation.

was invited to watch the movie version, but my bro in law has the pirated version in his pc already. watched a bit and... it sucked. maybe coz the movie was not clear enough, maybe the translation was not good enough, or simply maybe the subtitiles were in freaking simplified chinese... whatever it was, it was not good =(
cartoon version is better! =)

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...

i like this picture. i like the color and i like how it's not properly framed. i like the place where we took it and i like the pple that were around that time (aya, nobu, yui, carol ^o^)
by the way, i'm not picking my nose or anything, i'm just rubbing my nose with my index finger...

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!

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~)