That's Fabian (from Mexico) on the left and Ramla (from Africa) on the right. They're pretty spritely kids from White Center Heights Elementary School. Had a fun time corresponding and playing games with them at our meeting.
This trip was quite eventful, I must say.
18th Feb
We were supposed to meet at the lobby at the unearthly hour of 4.45 am so that we could get an early headstart on the highway to Leavenworth but as usual, Raymond and girlfriend both overslept and hence we set off 2 hours later than schedule. Tsk. Our car was stopped by the police on the highway because the driver was speeding at 86 miles per hour, which was 16 miles above the speed limit. The miracle is that the officer let us off without any fine even with Gabriel's flimsy excuse of having panicked when he missed the exit. Haha.
The ride to Leavenworth was bumpy and I felt carsick for the entire trip even though I was sitting in the middle row of the car. Though I think a major factor for my carsickness was because of lousy driving on the part of the driver. Well, I was quite relieved when we finally reached and took in the beautiful sights of Leavenworth.
The ride to Leavenworth - notice the first few rays of sunlight on the mountain peaks?
Finally the horrendous drive is over! =P
We stopped over at Mac's for some breakfast, but I was too queasy to eat anything.
McDonald's - German style
Raymond took over the driver's wheel and we headed off to the Leavenworth Hatcheries to take a look at salmon breeding. However, we got lost on the way and stopped along the trail for some photo-taking. -_-
Monkeying around in the snow..freezing cold!
After a few wrong turns, we managed to get to the salmon hatcheries. I saw lots of salmon fry, but no full-grown salmon. =( Thought I could catch some for dinner. Haha. There wasn't anybody to bring us on a tour around the place, and we were quite puzzled until we saw a brochure giving us directions on how to take a self-guided tour. Apparently they don't have enough money to hire a tour guide.
Argh! Killer Salmon! (that's my SC junior Huiling, by the way)
Salmon life cycle
Ready for a salmon race?
Group photo at the Leavenworth Hatcheries
Next stop: Leavenworth street tour!
The architecture is quite beautiful but doesn't look quite like an authentic German village. In fact, it looks a bit contrived. (Or maybe it's because my expectations were too high.)
Beautiful, isn't it?
Even the signs look like they're from an amusement park...
Next to a large mural on a wall.
Posing with a...well? Fountain?
After a stop at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and some free and easy window shopping (there really was nothing to buy at Leavenworth), we had lunch at "Der Andreas Keller" where I had a dish called Kassel Melt which comprised 2 slices of grilled salted pork with cheese in a Kaiser roll, topped with German mashed potato and weinkraut. The weinkraut didn't go down well with me at all because it was quite sour and smelled like it was fermented. Yuck. The Kaiser roll was also quite hard but at least overall the taste was ok. I may like German culture, but I sure don't like their food. =P
Lunch is served. =)
Photographer trying to be artistic here..resulting in an oddly-angled photo.
Schmeck Gute!
With the cute waitress - the service there was good!
After lunch I demanded that we visit the Nutcracker Museum. Haha. We were supposed to pay a $2.50 admission fee but after some haggling with the curator, she let us in for only $1.00 each. The museum had over 1000 different types of nutcrackers ranging from the size of a fingernail to 6 feet tall. Too bad we weren't allowed to take pictures of all the nutcrackers though. Some of them were really amazing.
The largest nutcracker in the entire world. I think it can crack a coconut.
Or is this the largest one? Hmm I don't remember. Haha. (Btw I'm holding the lever behind it.)
The Mouse King from the "Nutcracker Suite".
After having spent a bomb on our lunch, we decided to make full use of the well-equipped kitchen in the family suite we stayed in and we bought some stuff from Safeway to cook. Although it was a budget meal, we had roast chicken, pizza, lasagne, and even strawberry fondue.
19th Feb
We stopped by at Lake Wenatchee on our way back from Leavenworth. The view was simply breathtaking - snowy mountains against the azure blue sky. I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful sight.
Charlie's Angels
Going back
Literally. The screw just popped out of my glasses while I was cleaning them and my lens went flying across the room in a dramatic fashion. It's near impossible trying to find the darned screw because the carpet is a dark brown colour and my screw is a tarnished silver that just nicely camouflages itself in the carpet. Sigh. Thankfully my parents forced me to get a spare pair of glasses before coming here.
Now the problem is adjusting to it. I hate having to adjust to new things when I'm already so comfortable with the old. -_-
After a week of blissful warm weather and bright, sunny days, the weather suddenly took a turn for the worse and the temperature dipped to between 30 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit. It was so cold today that we saw ice covering some parts of the school (which looks suspiciously like snow). The weather forecast for tomorrow is 17 degrees Fahrenheit to 38 degrees Fahrenheit with 20% chance of snow. Sheesh! If it snows I hope it's just before I need to go to school...because I heard that we don't have to go to school if it snows! Haha! Tomorrow is another bloody cold day, looks like I'll have to wear 4 layers instead of my usual 2.
I'm quite touched and surprised by the GIPpers' thoughtful gestures. Many of them went to buy or make stuff to give to us/the rest of the group..Simon, Michelle and Christian made almond jelly with longan (my favourite dessert!), all the guys bought a box of chocolates for all the girls, Fanny gave us all a bag of chocolates, the 1st floor cooking group baked cookies for everyone, Yuanfeng gave us all a rose each with a handwritten note, and the couples Hwee Chuan and Peiru, Raymond and Huiling also gave us sweets and chocolates. My goodness! Now we (the BS people) feel quite paiseh that we didn't even make the effort to buy something for everyone. So we're going to make muffins, but that will be a belated effort since we have to study for the Developmental Bio midterm and I'm going to be away at Leavenworth this weekend. Haha.
As a valentine's gift to myself (so sad right? I have to buy my own gift haha) I bought this cute little lamb called Meekins. It even has a birthday - May 15 2005. Will post up a photo of Meekins when I have time to fiddle with my camera. In the meantime, Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
After the end of the stressful Endocrinology midterm today, I decided to do something I had been putting off for a few weeks, that is to buy a pair of track shoes to replace my Nikes! So after school I went to the Big5 Sporting Goods store along University Way and this was what I found:
A pair of Reebok CT running shoes for only USD$32! (So Daddy and Mummy, no need to worry, I've already bought my shoes. But I'm going to totally wear out the Nikes first. Haha.) The women's section in Big5 was really small, it occupied a tiny corner while the men's section occupied the entire wall spanning the store. So I'm really glad I managed to find such a good deal.
Well time to say goodbye to my faithful old pair of Nikes:
This pair of shoes has had a good life man - bought in Canada, used for 4 years in Singapore, and then discarded in the US. Haha.
The midterm today was a total fluke. As anticipated, quite a lot of the questions asked were from this review sheet that he gave us, complete with answers some more. I like this module! We should have something like that in NTU too (like that's going to happen in a million years haha).
The day kicked off to a good start with the sun shining brightly through the blinds of my room window. In fact, the weather was pretty good the whole day and the sun was shining till about 5 pm. Seems like the days are starting to get longer again, which is good. Very good.
But of course I had to stay indoors on this lovely day to study for my Endocrinology midterm, while the rest went off to watch the Superbowl (for those who don't know, it's american football) between the Seattle Seahawks and the Pittsburgh Steelers. I wanted to see how the match was like so I set up the small tv that I had brought. All I could get for my efforts were some sound, occasional colour and a whole lot of static. So after that I went to Kyoto Teriyaki to eat my dinner and I managed to catch the 4th quarter of the match. The match was kind of disappointing because the Seahawks didn't seem to have strategy of any kind and Pittsburgh was a whole 11 points ahead of them halfway through till the end!
I was never really much of a sports fan but being here in Seattle, watching everyone around me getting infected by Superbowl fever, has somehow rubbed off on me. So much so that I was actually quite riveted to the game and didn't pay much attention to my chicken udon. I guess I can understand now why people in the western countries love their games so much. It's one thing being an outsider looking in at a game between two countries or states, but it's a whole new perspective when it's your home team playing. I guess I've learnt something new again today. =)
Do you know that if you go to a store here with a coupon but the item you want to buy is sold out, you can actually get a raincheck that allows you to come back some other time but still be able to use your coupon even if it has expired?
I went to Walgreen's today with my coupon which allowed me to get 200 pack tissues at 99 cents each, but when I reached the shelves I noticed that all of them were already snapped up and there was this huge empty space staring back at me. So I asked one of the staff if they had any more stock (yet another of their good qualities - you can always ask them to check if they have more stock and they'll smile and do it rightaway. Try doing that in NTUC Fairprice and the staff will probably say there's no stock without even checking.). After checking for quite some time he told me there wasn't any, and then said I could get a raincheck at the counter. And I was still quite suaku because I couldn't believe it, I even asked him if I needed to pay first. Haha. Well when I got to the counter the cashier had to ring the manager to write me the check, and guess what? The manager said he had kept some stock (which apparently the first staff who served me couldn't find -_-) and in the end I managed to buy my 2 packs of tissue. All that trouble for just 2 packs of tissue.
I think the returns policy here is quite good (at least in Safeway, the supermarket near my accommodation); I've had friends who bought items that they thought were on sale but weren't, and they could get their refund from the cashier in a jiffy, no questions asked. If only NTUC was like that too. Haha.
Since 8.30 in the morning the winds have been howling outside with the sheer force of gales and it's been pouring like crazy. Even the "leafless" trees are shaking and swaying about like the huge tree in the harry potter show (the one that bashes up Ron's dad's car). The building I'm in also shook a few times just now. As a result, I don't even dare to go out to buy my groceries now. I saw a few brave figures venturing out earlier, but I think I'll just stay in the whole day. Haha.
We had a mini movie screening last night where the four of us watched "The Wedding Singer" on MY's laptop and gorged on chips and popcorn. Although I've watched the movie twice before, I still ended up enjoying it immensely and laughing at the antics of some characters in the show. Well, it was a good break after having vomited out a review essay for developmental biology in the past 10 hours. =)
Endocrinology midterm next Wednesday...sheesh. I've got midterms for the next 3 weeks! Argh!
Until my 2nd CNY welfare package arrived in the mail today! Yay! Thanks Mummy! =)
The prawn crackers cost only $3.95, but the postage cost $36. My goodness.
I went for the FIUTS Wednesday Lunch today because I wanted to find out more about the Leavenworth (a Bavarian village southeast of Seattle) trip on 18 Feb. Having read about Leavenworth in the magazine, I'm now quite keen to go and experience it. The problem is that I have a midterm exam the week following the trip and now I don't know if I should go or not. But I haven't gone for any FIUTS trip so far and I'd like to go for at least one in the Winter Quarter, just to make my membership fee's worth, if not to befriend other people. =P
Just to post some pics that I took earlier:
Shopping trip with my GIP buddies to Northgate Mall on the day before CNY eve
All of them were happily snapping away while I was eating my fish and chips. When I finally finished and wanted to take photos, the security guard came up apologetically and told us that we're not allowed to take pictures in the mall. (What kind of regulation is that?! I think the mall is hardly a good target for terrorists since it was so empty on a Friday evening.) -_- That explains the lack of pictures.
CNY Eve "Reunion Potluck"
Tim, Ankur and Huishan chatting animatedly
Eh, I'm very hungry already! Can eat or not?
Chicken rice and cabbage soup - prepared by our dinner group
Firing Squad?
Gabriel trying to get the firing squad to pose
Everyone trying their hands at making 'wonton'
The Spread
Sunset on CNY 1st day. The weather is always so good when I stay in to study. -_-
Note: You must have Quicktime to view the videos.
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