Memoirs of a Girlie

2006-01-24T19:43:00.000-08:00

Wehh.. Back in Champaign.. So sad.. Go back to all e bks n lectures and the most dreaded hw.. =(( But not all's bad! A few of us freshmen, SQ, tgt with the new batch of exchange students drove down to Tuscola for a shopping trip. Onli bought a set of pjs for myself. Heh.. Cut cost.. Nt so spend thrift liao.. In fact on a tight budget lo. Sigh.. =(( Sobz.. And summore this yr dun get to collect ang pow money! Wehh.. Or at least nt as much. But guess wad, i oredi received a few packets liao! Wahaha! From my parents, grandparents, and a few of my aunties! So nice rite?? But i wan my reunion dinner.. Wehhh :( Cryyy.. Fortunately, the ssa here is treating us well! We're all having a tuan yuan fan on campus! Steamboat! Heh.. Shall update u guys on it when it's here. Meanwhile, I shall go back to do my hw! Can u imagine, 1st wk of sch n i hv so much hw liao! Weh.. It's like i got hw due everyday lo. Sobzzz.. I realise this post sounds realli sad. Hopefully my nxt post will be on sth nice! Heh.. =))

Singapore!

2005-12-31T02:09:00.000-08:00

I'm back in sg!!! Yay!!! Just realised i haven been updatin my blog since a mth ago. Thx Paul for reminding! ;)

Ooh! I loveeeeeee Singapore mann! Nice weather, can wear my shorts n skirts! Lala.. Realli deprived of wearing those there lo =(( And i got to eat my favourite wanton mee in lavender, oh lua, crystal jade porridge! Wah! Happy happy! And see all my dearest frens and family! Lala.. But i got comments saying my face rounder! Super evil! Haha.. :p

Ooh, had a chalet for the Dsta ppl in aranda, after my family stayed there for a day. Super fun and happening! Had a round of monopoly, played super many rounds of bridge, chatted, and played bluff in the middle of the nite! My bluff is super lousy la (means i'm honest! blink blink) Haha.. Then i decided nt to play cuz i'm so lousy at it, and decided to be lousy and go to slp. It was 6am then liao. Haha.. :p

I love sg mann! I dread gg back, doin wk.. Worse still, programming. Scared.. :( Nvm, wait till summer and come back again! =))

Happy new yr everyone!!! =)

Boston!

2005-11-29T22:49:00.000-08:00

Back from Boston! Ate super a lot! Wehhhh.. Had the best lobsters, best creme brulees, best frappes, best burgers, best cookies in Boston! It was crazy. And obviously i put on wt.. My cheeks are rounder n more pinch-able liao :( WEHHHH.. :( But it was fun and exciting. Did a lil shopping, and went to Salem by train. Salem was cool, had many pretty scary witch performances, and learnt a lot about the Salem witch trials. Went to MIT and Harvard. Harvard has a pretty campus. Made a lotta Singaporean frens at MIT, and had a small Sg gathering at Boston Chinatown wif some Stanford ppl hu came down, and MIT ppl. Then we went to Chicago for a few days. Met the crappy CMU ppl. Had a gr8 time laughing. Had Sg food like chicken rice at Penang in Chicago chinatown. Oso had cheesecake factory.. Had vanilla bean cheesecake which was so damn gd.. Wehhh.. Did shopping on black Friday, the Friday after thanksgiving. Everything was on sale. Went down Mich Ave, and bought sum stuff. One of my best buys were 2 pairs of jeans frm Levi's at 26 bucks altgt! Amazing rite! =) Wonderful trip mannn... Lalala :)

Oh yar, do look at my photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tellnanah/

Snow

2005-11-18T00:46:00.000-08:00

It's getting coldddd.. V v cold.. Avg temp at night's like -7deg now.. :( Lowest can be about -9 =(( And there was snow the other day! White powder-like stuff falling on ur head. The wind's the killer mann.. I almost felt myself being blown away. I'm serious.. Felt like my feet were almost lifted off the grd.. Wehhh... Anw, thksgiving break's nxt wk, so u prob wun hear frm me online.. I'm gg to Boston from sat to thu, then Chicago until sat to meet the CMUians, Xinghao, Jiaqi and Mingwei.. Well-deserved break mann, it was sucha long time since the previous break. But when i'm back, woah.. My finals will be coming up =(( So i guess cant slack during the break too. Hw miserable is tt la :( Anw, my dorm mates just invited me over to eat their food. So nice rite.. There were scones and biscottis and brownies and gourmet popcorns, and there was like an endless supply of milk. Felt so blessed! Haha..
*Cant wait to go back sg! Less than a mth! Woohoo! =))) *

Jarhead

2005-11-05T02:00:00.000-08:00

Watched a war movie today.. Jarhead.. It was pretty disturbing, din like it a lot. But i guess it's a gr8 show, but it's not my cuppa tea. I was pretty affected by it throughout the movie, so i guess it's nt a movie for ppl like me. But those of u who enjoy war movies, i highly recommend it! Haha.. Yeah.. ;)

Halloween 3

2005-10-30T01:06:00.000-08:00

9) Joshua the Chicken!! Poor Joshua.. He was feeling so hot in his costume.. And he kena a lotta attention when we were walking along the streets. Some gals wanted to take photos wif him (tt's gd) but others kinda passed pretty bad remarks.. :(

10) Scary Dominic!!!! FREAKY!!!
11) Apartment mates! Oh yar, we already rented an apartment together for next yr. 4 bed room apartment, 400/mth per person. Qt steep rite.. :( But it's nice! Has skylights! =)))
12) Wednesday from Adam's family.. The hand on her costume's super freaky la!
13) Me and spongebob pinata! Poor spongebob kena whacked into bits in the end :( Oh, Joshua and Zhixiu decided to join me in the photo as well. Haha.. :P

Hallo 2

2005-10-30T00:22:00.000-07:00

4) Me and Jonathan. Check out his afro wig! Cool sia..

5) Me and Tracy.. Garden fairy.. Aw...

6) Welcome to the dark side..

7) The rock stars! Check out their make up! Better than mine la! *Jealous*

8) Superman!!!

Halloween

2005-10-29T23:27:00.000-07:00

So we went to Zhixiu's (my DSTA buddy) place for halloween party.. It was so fun! My 1st halloween party! Heh.. =)

Some photos I took..

1) My halloween outfit! Witch! Taadaa! My costume costs 20 bucks together, including hat and my fishnet stockings. Hehe.. Cheapest liao! Joshua spent 100 plus on his chicken costume! But i had to modify my costume and get the witch hat and stockings separately. The dress was frm ebay. Spent 15 on it. =)

2) The whole gin gang.. Junwan (as lil bo peep), Joshua (in the chicken suit), me, Tracy (as garden fairy), Dominic (character in scream) and Qing An in unidentifiable scary costume (Qing An's an exchange student)..

3) Me and Zhixiu.. He was the ghostbusters guy! Haha.. :)

Shopping!

2005-10-22T20:51:00.000-07:00

So we (exchange students and freshmen) went shopping today at Tuscany, a factory outlet, which is a 40 min drive from campus. Super a lotta stuff to buy la. Weh! Gap was having a 40% sale, so i went in and bought 2 knitted sweaters, 1 cami and 1 bag. Spend like 80 bucks there. Then i went to hush puppies and bought maroon suede boots for $40. Nice! Then i went to rue 21 to get lots of stuff: 2 tops,1 jacket, 3 skirts, 1 track pants and 2 sets of pyjamas! I absolutely love my pyjamas mann! So pretty! Haha.. Spend 90 odd bucks there, but for many many things. Heh.. I bought so much tt the shopkeeper had to go to the storeroom to get the biggest plastic bag for me. Oops.. :p The last stop was e best mann! Polo Ralph Lauren! So much cheaper and much more affordable than Singapore. I bought 2 polo tees, $19.90 each, one for my mum and one for my dad. :D And i bought a red long sleeve crew neck shirt with polo print for myself too! Nice! =) But i was the greatest spender among all of them la :( Spent like 270 altogether? Weh rite? But nvm, i dun get to shop tt often anyway. N i'm nt intending to shop for the nxt couple of mths. Can i realli do tt? I certainly hope i can. Dun hv so much spare cash le. Haha.. :P

In her shoes

2005-10-21T23:51:00.001-07:00

Finally! After being deprived of movies for many many many mths (actually nt tt many), I went to the cinema! The freshmen rented a car and Joshua drove us to the cinema near Meijer. The guys wanted to watch "doom" at first, but i din tink i'll like it. So me and sunyi decided to watch "in her shoes". The others kinda dun mind watching, so off we went to buy tix for it. Gd show mann! Everyone shd watch it! Stars Cameron Diaz n Toni Collette. And Cameron Diaz's super pretty la! Check out her clothes too(and not forgetting the shoes!) I realised Toni Collette looks like my dance tcher, esp when she smiles. :P N as usual, i cried again during the show.. :( Oh, everybody thked me for recommending the show after watching it, even joshua! See! So muz watch ar! =P N tmr i'm gg shopping! Yipee! *jumps up and down* =))))

Pumpkin Carving!

2005-10-19T18:50:00.000-07:00

More photos! Had cell group yesterday, and we carved pumpkins. The process was super duper fun!

(Refer to picture on top) How to carve a pumpkin:
1) Hug it (?)
2) Dig out pumpkin contents and pumkin seeds.
3) Carve it!
4) (Additional step) Bake pumpkin seeds! (Fresh gua zi frm the oven! Yum yum!) Fresh gua zi's damn nice. We ate it w/o cracking it. Apparently americans dun crack them open. We added salt and oil to it b4 putting it in the oven. Tasted gd! =)

I was greeted by fresh, hot Hershey's chocolate-coated popcorns when I went into the room! Jennifer made them. :)

We decided that the our group's pumpkin should be an old man. Cuz it has "white hair" on top. (you'll find out why later..)

A photo of my group with the "old man"! (Left to right: Christine, Karen, Junwan, Me and Renee)

Me and Renee carving pumpkins.. I carved the side burns, which are jagged edges. I muz say tt i'm qt pro at carving :D

Me and the 3 pumpkins! Notice why our pumpkin is the old man. The other 2 pumpkins have green stalk on them but apparently the stalk on my pumpkin was non-existent and replaced by a white stub.

The old man and me! =D

Chicago pictures!

2005-10-19T18:31:00.000-07:00

Haha.. Know this is v v late, but these r e photos i took in chicago.. 4got to upload frm my cam.. Heh.. Enjoy! Oh yar, i'm gg chicago this sat! Aurora! It's this factory outlet! Shopping shopping! Yay!! =))))

Downtown chicago! One of the carparks in chinatown, where we had dim sum! I love dim sum! =)

Me and josh on the van! The little red van i was talking about in my previous chicago post. :)

Pictures of Lake Michigan.. Pretty rite?

Self-shot again! (as usual.. :p)

Cornfields behind me.. Sooo pretty! :)

Umich

2005-10-17T22:47:00.000-07:00

More photos!

6) Me and tracy outside her rm!

7) DSTA scholars! Nice nice!

8) Jerald n i! Walking along the streets of UIUC.. =)

9) The other Umich ppl walking behind us!

10) Finally, a group photo of both Umich and Illinois ppl with e alma matar. (Photo courtesy of Sunyi. Thx Sunyi!) =)

I hope the Umich ppl had fun! I had lotsa fun bringing them ard e sch! N i feel like visiting other ppl/schools too! Mabbe i shall go umich one day! Haha.. Heard tt there's this factory outlet which is 1.5 hr drive frm umich! Absolutely love factory outlets! Shopping!!! YAY!! =))))

Umich

2005-10-17T21:22:00.000-07:00

Hey! Here r sum photos we took when the umich ppl came to visit. 5 of them came, (Jerald, Jeremy, Christine, Val, Junrong) specially detoured frm chicago to come visit us in e land of corns! Hw nice..

1) At moonstruck cafe along green st, (from left to right)me, sunyi, junrong, jeremy, val, christine, jerald, junwan). Btw, moonstruck sells v v gd desserts.. e mint tingle (chocolate chip n mint milkshake)'s super duper gd! N e tiramisu's v gd too.. I'm always contemplating on wad cakes to eat.. Haha.. :P

2) Illinois ppl with the alma mater, our school statue.

3)Umich ppl with the alma mater :) (Check out the guys' poses!)

4) :P Evil me taking pictures in sunyi's room of the umich ppl slpg.. Poor things, muz be v tired after the road trip to uiuc. :(

5) Narcissism!

More photos will be posted once i upload my photos frm sunyi! =)

South Park 2

2005-10-09T21:50:00.000-07:00

Did anyone tell you this image creator thingy can be addictive? Ok, now i tell u! It is! My 2nd piece of art work! Cuter! ;)

South Park

2005-10-09T21:31:00.000-07:00

Cute rite? I did this on http://www.vexatori.de/zib/spstudio.html You can choose from the many accessories and facial features they have to combine into a nice picture like this! Thought i'd share it with you all.. Haha.. Fun fun! =D Go do it and send the completed one to me, or post it on your blog! :)

Tag board =)

2005-09-21T20:24:00.000-07:00

Sry! Typo! Tagboard add's http://nanahtagboard.blogspot.com When u all r free go tag k, looks damn miserable!

BUS

2005-09-14T21:43:00.000-07:00

In my previous post, i've mentioned hw nice and friendly ang mohs are.. A few days ago, I was on 21 Quad (bus) gg back to my dorm.. After tokking to JW on the phone, the guy sitting beside me told me "hey, nice phone". And then we started talking! So exciting.. I dun even noe him b4 that. He's a damn cool guy taking industrial design frm Minnesota. He's a senior and he's taking Chinese classes. How cool is that la! Hahaa.. Realised qt a lotta angmohs can speak Chinese. My lab partner, Billy, for my ECE class can speak Chinese too. But he only knows one word: bai jiu (white wine) Hm.. Anw, my lab partner's damn cool too! He's born in England, mum's frm Spain, dad's frm german, and his great great grandmother's like from some south american tribe! N he said tt explains y he got droopy eyes cuz it's a hereditary trait. Haha.. Kk.. Shall post abt more happening stuff in the future. :)

Tag board =)

2005-09-14T21:41:00.000-07:00

Hey! I got a new real tagboard now! *jumps up and down* So pls tag on it.. Looks v sad nw :( Anw, the URL is http://nanahtagboard.com Thks! :)

Chicago!

2005-09-09T01:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, being the lazy person i am, i've stopped blogging for qt sum time. But i'm back again!! Haha.. I shall update u all abt my trip to Chicago! Chicago! I simply love it mann! Haha.. So much shopping to do! Went Chicago on Labour Day weekend.. Our seniors frm SSA drove us there, in vans. I was in a bright red one! Haha.. It was approx a 3hr trip to Chicago frm campus. First, we headed for dim sum at chinatown. N we searched for moon cakes too! [I'm in the MAF (mid autumn fest) committee, acting as publicity officer! Haha.. Cool rite! I'll update on MAF soon i hope.]

After lunch, I din care abt the signature cheesecakes, and headed straight to where all the shopping is! Michigan Ave! Woohoo! Gr8 place for shopping.. But price's a bit steep tho.. Gap, Guess, Tiffany n co, Kenneth Cole, Nike.. Woah.. Bought 2 Gap camis, 1 Gap shirt and 2 Levi's jeans! Guess hw much the Levi's r? I bought 2 at 29.99USD each! N one of them's a special edition (low flare), n the other's a superlow bootcut! Super happy la! Hahaha.. :)

After all the shopping, JW (junwan) and i met Janice n Ray n Lik Ying (sg seniors), as well as Dominic n Josh, for dinner at this restaurant tt sells Creole food (basically they're food frm New Orleans, like cajun chicken)! It was realli gd, n there were super a lotta sauces there! We all had a gambo (which is rice, chicken and peppers in curry) each, and i shared with JW n Janice a scallop entree (which has 5 pathetic but nice scallops n mashed potatoes, but tt's abt the smallest entree u can find there) and a sesame crispy chicken, which also has mashed potatoes.

Then we headed to Navy Pier, where we sat on the ferris wheel and we were lucky to sit in it during the fireworks display, so we cld see the firewks rite in frnt of us, which is really cool! Did i mention that the ferris wheel is pretty high, like abt 4 storeys.. Haha.. Yup yup! :)

We went back to our hotels after the firewk displays, but before that, our van ppl went to Krispy Kremes, supposedly serving the best donuts in US (which i can safely conclude as 1 of the best donuts in the world). And when i had a bite of the original one (sugar glazed ring donut), I smiled and i cldn't stop smiling until the last bite. It was so damn gd! Haha.. It's soft n nice on the inside, and sugary and slightly crispy on the outside. Yum! :P I had another chocolate coated donut with cream , which is nice too! Then my hotel room mates (Lik Ying, Tracy, Sun Yi) and i went to tok, bathe n slp, which concludes the 1st day of the chicago trip.

2nd day was fun too! They brought us to this factory outlet, Gurnee Mills, where we shopped for our winter clothes. I bought a nice green DKNY down coat (~150USD, cheap! according to sg stds) and another white long downs coat. And of cuz i bought stuff like a furry winter hat (love it to bits!), scarf and socks. I oso went Abercrombie n Fitch and got a green halter and a blue long sleeved shirt for myself! N i bought heels too cuz i was feeling short :( Of cuz i spent a lotta money.. 500USD in total for the Chicago trip. :( BUT, it wasnt like i'm always gonna be in Chicago so i must as well spend more n feel happy. Haha.. :)

This is a really long post, i feel super luo suo, but i guess ppl hu noe me noe hw luo suo i can get. But tt basically sums up the whole of my Chicago trip. I wanna go there soon! =)

Tag board =)

2005-08-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

Oh oh! Juz changed my tag board settings so that anyone can post, not just registered users. :)So kp ur comments comin in! =)

Photos

2005-08-24T21:56:00.000-07:00

Yay! Finally posting sum photos.. This is the football stadium.

This is during quad day! It's sum cca walkabt like thingy, where ppl pull u to join clubs, societies, fraternities n sororities. frats n soros r like societies for guys n gals respectiveli. Left to right: Junwan (my roomie!), ME! , josh and dom. :)

Yeah! Self shot! My favourite! =) This is me in my orange illinois t shirt! Haha.. in the bball court in the sports complex. :)

Me and my mum outside LAR. Damn pretty rite? It used to be a hotel last time, then it's converted to a dorm =)

Convocation

2005-08-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

So today's convocation day.. Me and dominic were late for the engineering meetin :( and convocation :( Dom, if u're reading this, dun be late nxt time! :( Oh.. Highlight of today was act gettin back home. The ppl here r realli nice n frenly n helpful! Haha.. Cuz we were askin 2 american gals (Krysta and Ally) which bus services go back to LAR (our dorms). They told us they stayed opp LAR and we cld walk wif them. And it was nice along the way, we talked a lot and it was super duper cold tonite.. Yes, the winds were realli chilly! Brrr.. Yeah.. I guess fall's comin real soon. Haha.. Ok, tt's all for nw!

~I cant put my tagboard on my main blog cuz the board doesnt fit my blogskin :( But i love my blogskin too much to change it, so i'd rather sacrifice the tagboard :p

Church

2005-08-21T14:19:00.000-07:00

Today's a Sunday, meaning CHURCH DAY! Haha.. went to UAG (Urbana Assembly of God) for serivce. Really interesting pastor, there was like an introductory video to the sermon too! Cool stuff! And more friendli ppl! Janice n Raymond drove Junwan n me there. Then we met Joshua and Dominic (sg freshmen) for lunch @ LAR. We're going walmart wif our seniors later at 7.30pm. Oh rite, i 4got to mention the time difference. Where i'm in is 13 hr behind sg. So if u see me online roughly estimate the time k? :)

Jagong Land =)

2005-08-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

UIUC (University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign)'s like a super nice place.. =) U c brick hses like everywhere! My dorm's like a brick hse.. Looks damn cool n damn nice! Ok, i've been here for a wk. Lemme bring u thru wad happened:

1) Had like a super duper long flight (22hrs :( )wif 3 stopovers: tokyo, san fran n chicago!

2) Din realli see cornfields when i got off e plane at champaign airport, cuz it was dark :( But i got to c it soon after when it's bright e nxt day! ;)

3) Ok, wad happened when i touch down after 22 hrs of bad experience on e plane: i was fetched to red roof inn (my parents' hotel) by janice n raymond (snrs frm sg). And they brought us to meijer (pronounced as my-yers, weird angmohs) where i got my bedsheets n comforter for my room :)

4) On e nxt few days, it's been fun cuz my dad rented a car to drive ard campus and slightly off-campus. (the campus' big remember? ;) ) So basicalli we ate Chinese food like for EVERY meal! Yes, u can find chinese food here along green str (it's like our orchard rd)! It wasnt too bad, but one interestin thing tt u may wanna noe: there's like fried rice in every chinese restaurant??? Haha.. Yes, they're damn weird.

5) And my rm mate (junwan) reached U of I (uni of illin) the nxt day. Yep, so we moved in to LAR (lincoln ave residence). And i had my parents to unpack my rm! Yay.. And my rm looks pretty nice. ;)

6) And there was lotsa admin stuff, like gettin an i-card (an access card, like matriculatn card) and registering for courses and stuff. Oh ya, the courses here are cool! I got gen-ed(general education) courses.. And i'm takin dance classes, which can be counted to my credit hrs for graduation. I'm also takin bioengine and world food pdtn (learnin abt crops!) as gen-ed courses. And of course i gotta do math n physics as well as computing for my main classes. My timetable's pretty nice! Like totalli not packed! Juz dat i've got to wake up at 8am on tue, wed, thu :( And i've got to stay back till 8pm for tue n thu =((( But on fri i onli hv one lesson at 3pm!! Yay! =)

7) Ok, nw for e fun part! The ppl n the american culture! I think i'm gettin the accent soon. yeah.. It's inevitable! Cuz if u speak in a singaporean accent here, they wun be able understand you. Yeah.. So i'm pickin it up, n i'm doin it well! (one of e my american frens said i cld speak english realli fluently ;) )

8) My floor has nice ppl! Oh did i mention tt LAR's an all-gals dorm. N my wing belonged to the non-visitation wing, meaning that guys cant even visit us! So they call LAR the virgin vault :( Anw, yup. One of the americans (she's called teresa) here brought me and junwan for lunch. And later she fetched us to bed, bath n beyond, a store to get lotsa stuff like cushions, rugs and all. So nw my table's niceli furnished! There's a small rug below my table so my feet will be realli comfy! And i've put 2 cushions on my chair! =) But the pt is, teresa's sooo nice rite? Haha..

9) Then there was late niter, which is like an event frm 8pm to 2am. There was a hypnotist, a standup comedian, and there were hip hop sessions, and lotsa stuff! Knew more of the locals who r my dorm mates. They're realli nice ppl. And there's this gal called Danny, she's sooo swt, and soo pretty! She looks like Britney Speares and Cameron Diaz! Woah rite? Shall take a pic wif her sum time :P

Ok, tt's a realli long post! Shall update it like every other day so i wun hv to type so much in one go! Rem: http://nanahtagboard.blogspot.com Leave ur comments! =)

1st post! (Tagboard URL included)

2005-08-20T22:48:00.000-07:00

Hey!! Finally after so longggggggggg i've decided to update mi blog!But the impt msg i wanna get across in my 1st post is tt i've got a tagboard! A makeshift one tho.. Cuz it's realli nothin like a tagboard, but still it allows comments! So pls kp ur comments comin in! I'll feel missed this way! Hohoho :P Anw, the URL is http://nanahtagboard.blogspot.com Yay! Hope to c ya comments there! Thx thx! :D