My First Year Anniversary!

I know what you guys are thinking about... Nope, it ain't my first year anniversary with a boyfriend or spouse la...sorry to disappoint you! Well, July 25 is the official date that I first came to the States!! hehehe!!!

I can't believe that a year has whizzed by so quickly! And next month, I'm gonna start another chapter of my life as a Sophomore at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)!!! Yippie! I'm no longer a Freshman! I hope it will be more a better environment there and I'm looking forward to expand my horizons and meet more new frenz there!

Besides that, I'm hoping to catch more games, plays, concerts, etc. at the university because it will be free of charge for UTEP students!! hahahah! FYI, it is not cheap going for those concerts and basketball games here! So thank God we get to watch and support our uni. team for free! Go Miners!!

Scavenger Hunt!!!

On Friday, I competed in a Scavenger Hunt at college. It was pretty fun running around the campus like a lunatic, trying to figure out the answers to the questions in a booklet ASAP!!! I learnt quite a bit with this experience too! All in all, I would like to sum it up with this verse:

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." ~ 2 Timothy 4:7.

Guess what??? I won first prize!!! hehehehehe!!! I finished the rat race in 40 minutes, k? Do you see the clock in the picture below? We started at 10:00am and I finished at 10:40am. Then, we took the picture at 10:41am! The prize was a $25 Applebee's gift card! (Applebee's a restaurant here...it's equilvalent to Chilli's or TGI Friday's) Here, gift cards are very common gifts... I was really happy, man! Too bad you guys are not here, if not I'll bring you along for a meal! LOL!!!


Davette (the organizer of this event) and me after I won first prize! Don't you think that Davette's a cool name?? She happens to be a cool person too!

Chico's Tacos!

I'm pretty sure y'all haven't heard about this makan place before. Well, they only have it in El Paso, Texas where I'm at...hehe! There's one just around the corner of the street near where I live but I've never tried the food there even though I've been here for a year already. Two days ago, my classmates suggested that place for supper after our night class (that's their version of mamak lar...). What can I say? We were starving!!!

Well, their specialty were tacos, of course! Since it was my first time there, I decided to just try a single order of tacos (that's 3 tacos). That's what all the gurls in the group ordered. However, one guy had to act macho and order a single and a double serving of tacos! FYI, the double serving had 6 tacos! So altogether, we watched him sapu 9 tacos! We, gurls were stuffed with that single order but he managed to eat so much! And mind you, he's a slim lad! How can people eat so much and yet, look so good?? Yeah, I know...that's a stupid question..high metabolism rate and exercise will make anyone look great! By the way, he plays basketball for college. That's where he gets his daily dose of exercise...

I'm starting to love Mexican food as I indulge in it! Their salsa (I love the homemade ones with freshly chopped onions, tomatoes, green bell peppers, and other stuff) and the chile con queso (that's melted cheese with salsa mixed in it) are superb! We dip the colorful corn chips into those dips...(I didn't know that blue and red corn existed until I saw those chips...not artificial coloring, ok? I've even seen the corn fields and there are blue and read corns growing!!)

Oh and I think I better not get started with other Mexican cuisine such as the enchiladas, menudo soup, chiles rellenos, mexican rice, tamales, and tortillas!!! Yummy! However, nothing beats my mom's home-cooked Chinese dishes la! That's #1!!! hehehe!!!

USA Independence Day!

On the 4th of July, 2006, the US celebrated their 230 years of independence from the British...Now, I wonder why it took Malaysia 181 years later after US got their independence for us to be Merdeka??? Anyway, this year was the first time I'm celebrating their Independence Day! We were invited to a friend's house for BBQ. But I only remembered to take out my camera during dessert time...Ooops!! hehehe... so here's the only picture I got!



My uncle baked the chocolate cake while my aunt & I decorated it..it's so easy, guys! Some blueberries, strawberries, and vanilla frosting were all we needed to decorate it! Cool eh? Maybe you can try decorating a Malaysian flag, if you're patriotic enough...hahahah!!!!

Asian/Pacific Islander Extravaganza!

On June 28 2006, a bunch of us (students, teachers and faculty members) organized an Asian/Pacific Islander Extravaganza. It's the first time our college was having this extravaganza. Needless to say, I was in the committee and I chose to help out with the others in my group to bring a little piece of China's history, culture, and food to our college! After all, I am a Chinese right? After two whole months of careful planning and weekly meetings, we managed to come up with the menu, powerpoint presentation, showrooms, facts, etc. Altogether, we exhibited 6 Asian/Pacific Islander countries in this extravaganza. Enough said for the time being...Now, let me present you with some snapshots from this event:


Our showroom!


Tibet corner...


Our Chinese group...FYI, through this event, I met this bunch of people here! Some are from China, Taiwan, and I'm the only odd one from Malaysia...hahaha... It's amazing how one event like this can unite all of us. Now, I can practice my rotten Mandarin here as I can have more conversations with them! I'm telling you, they are so fluent in it, man! Oh, one of them even brought her laptop that has a Chinese software. With her laptop, they helped to translate the visitors names into Mandarin (obviously I can't do that since I can't read those chinese characters...). Then, I printed out the names and gave it as souvenirs to the visitors. One of the visitors was going to use the Chinese name printed out to make a tattoo on her arm! How cool is that??


Now, you maybe wondering why I'm posting this picture right? Well, it's not because I'm taking a picture of this guy sitting in the field (who happens to be cute but my friend's boyfriend!)... see the pile of dirt covered with a few palm leaves? At 12pm, they dug out that pile of dirt...guess what's beneath it???


The soldiers and some volunteers just finished digging out *something* from the pit hole...


It's the Kahlua Pig!!! It's one of the traditions of a Polynesian Island....It was my very first time witnessing the outcome of a 300lb pig being cooked in the ground for 24 hours! A chef hired by the school and some guys from the U.S. Army Reserve came to jaga the pig overnight just in case some stray dogs might wanna dig up the hole and have a bite of our main course...hehehe...

So there you have it! Cool eh? Oh, and the pig tasted so good!! It was cooked just right..succulent and tender! Yummy! We also had other dishes for the hungry crowd..the Mongolian Beef, Chinese fried rice, Chicken Adobo from Phillipines, Kimchi from South Korea, Sushi from Japan, some kind of soup from Vietnam, coconut pudding, and pineapple from the Polynesian Islands...

We were also entertained by a couple of performances and here are some random picture of it!



Lots of students, teachers, faculty staff, and their family members came to this event. All in all, I would say that this extravaganza was extravagant!!! I'm looking forward to the next one! Till then!