Lost in America... STILL!

Labels: Room-mate gossip

posted by Funkee Ego @ 5:48 PM 0 comments

:)

My room-mate, Kristi Perkins, got engaged last night!~

Isn't that exciting? I'm so so so happy for them. They plan to get married sometime in August when their internships for the summer are over.
Story: Jason brought Kristi to Thai Ruby (this Thai restaurant right next to my apartment complex) for dinner. First thing that went wrong- the waiter brought out THE plate before the dinner. Well, Jason calmly told them to bring it back.
...
After dinner, Jason handed his camera to another couple next to their table and told them to take pictures. Second thing that went wrong- the man who was suppose to capture the special event asked, "What am I suppose to take?" Fortunately he caught on and started taking them. His wife started tearing up and exclaimed, "I could be part of history!" Hee hee!
Then the waiter brought the plate of 3 tulips, a small flower card and A BOX out again. Kristi read the card and written on it was "Will you marry me? Love, your one true love" to which she replied "Yes!" of course!
Then she opened the box and there was

nothing.

The next thing she knew, he was down on one knee and slipping the ring through her finger. YIPEE! Then he asked her again and she replied "yes" again. *swoon* Anyway, may I say that this was not a "Marcus Khong proposal", because even though I'm sure Jason has a voice 10x better than Marcus (Jason's in the BYU Men's Chorus), he did not sing and embarress her in front of everyone.
That girl is crazy over him and she wanted to marry him badly, but she knew that he's a slow mover so she wasn't expecting him to propose to her last night. And he is crazy over her as well. They make such a cute couple. I'm so darn happy for them!

:(

Kim, my favorite room-mate, left this morning. I took her leaving especially hard, probably because we were very close and when the rest of our room-mates were out dating, she was my "date" on many weekend nights.
Kenzie (McKenzie) is at the Grand Canyon hiking, and when she gets back, she'll be moving immediately to another apartment.
Cari has moved out.
Kristi is leaving this Saturday.
Heather is going home once Havalah's wedding is over.
Havalah is getting married.
Joycey/ onni is no more working at TS with me. And many other co-workers have left for the summer already.
Tim got promoted so he won't be working at the store anymore. He's the new financial secretary of the Cougareat and he's going to be great, but that's one less close co-worker.
Nancy is... I know where but it's complicated.
Letisha is going home to get ready to serve a mission.
Clarissa is already home, so there's nothing to look forward to this next Memorial Day weekend.

WHY? WHY DOES EVERYONE HAVE TO GO AND LEAVE ME HERE?

I sound like some pathetic self-centered brat, but I really hate to see everyone leave. I love them, and separating is just emotionally hard on me.
My Singaporean friends will all be here (HOORAY! THANK GOODNESS!). But a lot of my close American friends will be gone and I hate that.

Labels: Room-mate gossip

posted by Funkee Ego @ 5:17 PM 0 comments

My First Easter

Last year didn't count because I didn't do the whole traditional Easter celebration.

But this year, Easter was so much fun! Even if I did not participate in any chocolate-Easter-egg hunt...

Tyla (my room-mate) cooked Easter Dinner, consisting of Cheesy/ Funeral Potatoes, chicken fillet, green bean casserole (my favorite!) and an ambrosia-salad-thingy (I have no clue what it was but it tasted wonderful!). Even Clarissa said that the food was "like professional." Ha ha! I agree. Tyla is a great cook!

And then my room-mates and I dyed about 18 Easter eggs in total. My first time dying eggs and SO FUN!!!

Here's the really funny part- we thought that it would take too long to hard boil them, so we decided to "blow" them, meaning we poked two holes in the top and bottom, and blow through one hole to push the raw white and yolk out through the other side. Sounds gross huh? Yeah, it got a bit icky, but half the fun was trying to blow through without getting dizzy .

Me, I poked nice holes in one egg, started blowing, and blowing and

"CRACK!"

Dang!

But I'm happy to say that after that and another unsuccessful attempt, I managed to blow out 2 other eggs. Yeah!

And I dyed about 4 eggs. I felt very accomplished. Hee Hee!

I think I'm going to love this Western holiday...

Labels: Room-mate gossip

posted by Funkee Ego @ 2:43 PM 0 comments

10 Things I Love:

My annual list of 10 Things I Love... in lieu of Valentine's Day. I'm sorry I can't go into much detail because I'm typing this at *gulp* *sshhhh* work and I've NO TIME. Got to study for tomorrow's major history test (what a sad way to celebrate V-Day huh?!).

Oh yes and I've omitted putting "God" in because it's, like, duh...

In no particular order:

1. My family. I miss them sooooooooooooo much. Well, except for Myra and Abish's squabblings.

2. Spring- I can't wait for the cold to GO AWAY. And for the flowers and trees to start blooming again.

3. Good Friends, and that includes my Family Friends, Singaporean and American. I miss my Singaporean friends A TON but I do enjoy hanging out with my American friends too. Helps with the homesickness. With one exception- Mr N. Woo. That one I'm still struggling with. Oh yes and he is dating the Korean girl... what's her name? Rea? Yeah I saw them holding hands.

4. Singapore food- THE BEST!!!!!! Laksa, mee siam, satay, chicken rice, tandoori chicken, hokkien mee... I even miss some of the fast food there like Mos Burger. Waaaaahhhhhh!

5. My room-mates- trust me, they do make a difference.

6. BYU. Yeah, I've been corrupted. Whatever. People can put down BYU all they want, but they can't deny that's a relatively good school (in US standard) and I'm really enjoying my time studying here. :p

7. Being single- I'm not kidding you. Of course I don't want to be single forever, but right now, I'm at peace with my "single" status. Ha ha! Being single now just feels great! Isn't it so ironic for V-Day though?

8. Cooking- new hobby! Moving off-campus has given me the chance to really learn how to cook and I'm enjoying it so far. I'm not a good cook but I try.

9. Eating- another new hobby. So sinful hor? Heck! Ok, when I mean I love to eat I don't mean some obsessive disorder, but a love to try new food. I don't mind spending a bit more money on food if it's good food.

10. Road Trips. LOVEEEEEE THEM! Not that cheap, but a cheaper way of travelling around and some nice bonding time.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!!!

Labels: Room-mate gossip

posted by Funkee Ego @ 12:30 AM 6 comments

Sunday Chinese New Year Dinner for my close American friends

I decided to have an early Chinese New Year dinner with my room-mates, Tim and Letisha (2 co-workers) today. I know CNY isn't till two weeks but I figured that the Singaporeans would do something that weekend (and it's also President's Day weekend so onni might be coming down too). I didn't want to do it next week because it's Fast Sunday and I needed to taste the food before I serve, right? (:p) So CNY celebrations with my room-mates came early.

According to them, it was FANTASTIC. Score for me! And score for them for being able to eat quite authentic Chinese food! I sound so hao lian (arrogant) to say this but you have no idea how worried I was that they would not like the food.

I cooked rice, mah po tofu (thanks for the idea Clarissa onni) and boiled wan tons, and then because I had satay sauce and curry sauce, I made fake kebabs (made of chicken, beef, pineapple and red peppers) so that they could dip in. I was soooo worried that they wouldn't like the wan tons (meat ones ah, NOT the cheese one. Hee hee) and the tofu (hello?! Americans are reputed to dislike tofu right?) but they ATE EVERYTHING. Even the mah po tofu. I think it's because we cooked tofu in a different and nicer way. I also served some Singaporean biscuits which are very hard to describe and hard for you to understand, but anyway real Singapore biscuits that my mom had sent over and they liked it. Wow! Even I was impressed. And they showed genuine interest in getting to know more about the Chinese culture by asking me many questions.


Then I gave them each a hong bao/ red packet containing not $$$ (not married, very bad luck one) but two Singaporean candies. Plus the girls got to pick one Chinese "thing" (fans, purses, an Oriental-design tissue box cover) to keep. I'm so glad my mom sent all these over to give away.

The only 2 things that didn't go well was
1) The Home Teachers (2 church guys assigned to visit us) came to visit. I don't mind them visiting but they came at the time that I had set aside to cook, so dinner was pushed back. Plus they stayed for close to an HOUR! Dinner was to be at 5pm because Kristi's boyfriend had to leave at 5.45, but because the visit took so long, I had to rush once they left to complete cooking.

2) Because I was in such a hurry, I couldn't cook everything I wanted, like the Vegetable Curry, real Teriyaki Chicken and the char siew (I completely forgot about the char siew. Ha ha!). Oh well, maybe another time.

Even though the food was slightly Americanized and not the real stuff you get at home (thank you to Lee Kum Kee sauces!), it was so fun to be able to cook for them and just share with them a part of my culture.

Labels: Room-mate gossip

posted by Funkee Ego @ 9:00 PM 3 comments

My room-mate room-mate is finally OFFICIALLY engaged!

Her fiance, Bob, proposed to her over the Christmas break... without a ring.

And the bigger sin- he didn't it romantically. Heck, he didn't even get down on one knee when he asked. Urgh! Guys can be so dense.

Well, he re-did it this past weekend (I seriously ordered him to do so on Cari's behalf) and this time he pulled a Marcus-proposal. Bob brought Cari to a restaurant (yummy!), and here's the funny part- he ordered dessert and the waitor (Bob's friend who worked there) went to get the dessert plate before they even ordered dessert. Ha ha ha!

Anyway guess what was on the dessert plate? THE BOX THAT CONTAINED THE RING!!! The ring is gorgeous (although it's too big for my liking) though. Cari just screamed and everyone looked them. Bob didn't get down on one knee, but that's because Cari told him not too- she was already embarrassed.

Speaking of marriage and proposals, I just found out that my friend whom I used to stay with in the dorms is engaged after only 3 months of courtship.

The thing that really amazed me was the fact that she was a hard core I-am-going-on-a-mission person, and now she's doing a complete about face and getting married. WOW!~ I'm happy and excited for her but it was something that I totally didn't expect from her. Actually, I don't think anyone from the dorms expected it either.

It's so interesting. Hmm... It's the right thing though. If you've found your marriage partner, junk the mission and get married. Of ocurse, the 3-month-courtship part is a bit extreme that I think even the church does NOT counsel.

Well as for me, I'm hard core mission now, and marriage is the furthest thing from my mind now. I don't even really want to date anymore. It's not because of my mission though, but more because I really am starting to dislike dating. Guys don't seem to put in much effort now and frankly, I've been single all my life that I'm really starting to like my independence. I bet even if I get a bf now, I would still need some time off from him just because I'm too used to doing things my way and my time, and I'm just too headstrong. Having a bf would be nice, but I'm in no hurry at all to obtain one.

Labels: Room-mate gossip

posted by Funkee Ego @ 11:53 PM 3 comments

CHAOS!

Everything is so chaotic now. Well, everything except my apartment. Had to clean it up for cleaning checks. It was so nice to walk in to my apartment today and see how tidy and clean everything was. Aaahh...

Other than that, everything's crazy!

Work was INSANE today. I took another double shift, and then took on a 3rd one because one crew memeber didn't come in (I think she forgot that she took this shift because she's home already!), and the other closing co-worker had never closed before. Worse, it's LIME-AWAY day. Oh no! So I decided to stay back to help her close.

And then, after getting done, I was about to leave when I noticed that Freshchetta (the pizza stall) was still a mess. Normally they get out way earlier than Teriyaki Stix does, and when Rachel Sheppard closes... Let me tell you, she closes so fast that sometimes the Student Managers ask her to stay back to help other stalls close. Well, this time Teriyaki Stix closed earlier and Rachel seemed to be very lost. Hmm... something was definitely wrong here. Therefore I went to ask her if she needed any help. Apparently she had a sudden allergic reaction (oh no!) so she couldn't use the chemicals needed to clean, so I stayed to help her finish closing. That took another half hour...
I went to clock out, saw the time (8.47pm) and
stopped.
Because my mind started counting. I clocked IN at 10.47am, and I clocked OUT at 8.47pm. That meant that I had worked 10 HOURS straight, with only a 15min break between. Isn't that crazy? Or suicidal?
The only thing keeping me alive now is adrenaline, the thought of the darn paycheck (I need $$$ to buy Christmas presents!!!) and that tomorrow is the last day of work before a nice long one week break.

Everyone's packing and leaving for the Christmas break. My room-mate room-mate is gone already (I didn't even know she was leaving today. I thought she was leaving tomorrow!) and another one left yesterday morning. My co-workers are slowly disappearing (hence all the double and triple shifts...), and the one that's hitting me the hardest is Nancy's leaving. I know she's only going to be gone for a month-and-a-half or so, but I'm still sad. And I couldn't even go for her farewell party tonight because of the last minute 3rd shift at work. I'm sorry Jenny- I couldn't go to Ali's recital because of Nancy's farewell party, and in the end, I couldn't go for either. Urgh! The really chaotic thing though is that all flights to Dencer, Colerado are CANCELLED OR POSTPONED. And since half the flights from Salt Lake go through Denver... Apparently they cancelled 2000 flights yesterday, and closed down all highways to Denver as well. Crazy huh?! Normally Denver is prepared for blizzards, but this snow storm is different because it's a tropical storm coming from the south, and is too heavy to go over the mountains, so it keeps hitting the mountains and dumping WET SNOW on Denver. Ewww...

Christina and Clarissa are coming down to spend New Year's with me (I'm so darn excited!), and while it's not chaotic in the normal sense, I've got to plan what we can do and how we are going to go about doing it (I don't have a car. Heck, I can't even drive!) and what am I going to feed them. And where Chris is going to stay for the next 3 weeks. Oh well, she can always stay with me (I'm sure my room-mate's won't mind) if we can work out the space problem, which I'm sure we can. It's chaotic to plan all these you know... even now, I have no idea what we are going to do exactly.

Rebecca just gave birth. Yeah yeah! Not chaos for me but chaotic for him and his wife and MY AUNTY BERYL who is now in Provo. I'm so excited! Woo Hoo! I can't wait to see the little cutie! So now I have baby Mathius Khong (er, I forgot 1 or 2 't's) and baby Jacob. Ooh...

Oh yes and one more thing- WHAT THE HECK DO I BUY FOR EVERYONE FOR CHRISTMAS? And worse- WHERE THE HECK DO I GET THE MONEY FROM? The sky? The tree? Stress ah...

Labels: Room-mate gossip

posted by Funkee Ego @ 11:50 PM 6 comments

Pet Peeves (written last night in anger, so don't mind the bad grammer and un-Christmas mood)

Pet Peeve 1:
The apartment just above me is holding a party on a Saturday night, and the music is still BLASTING even though it's 11.26pm (according to my accurate computer clock). I swear the ceiling is going to collapse anytime due to all the dancing upstairs.The ceiling is creaking from all the stomping. And I'M IN MY BEDROOM with my door close and I can still hear all the noise.

I've nothing against dancing and partying, but FINALS ARE ONLY A WEEK AWAY, and is this how they spend their time "studying"? Yeah right, studying people of the opposite gender I bet. Party away all you want in the beginning or middle of the semester and I'll join you, but there are people who want to study at this point of time (like ME) and don't appreciate the noise.

STOP PARTYING AND GO TO SLEEP!

Pet Peeve 2:
Jenny, you better make sure Ryan doesn't read this- he's going to be mad about this.

I like my US History Part II class, but there are some of us (once again, like ME) who have not taken it before and so cramming about 150 years worth of US History in 4 months is no joke. I'm already struggling to take in so much info and I really want the professor to go into details, not the students. Therefore, I would really appreciate if all the LAWYER-WANNABES in the class would STOP COMMENTING AND DEBATING SO MUCH IN CLASS BY GOING INTO TIME-WASTING DEEP ANALYSIS.
e.g. Topic: Reagan appealed to the moral audience.
Lawyer-wannabes: By appealing to this sense of morality, he gained favour with them because the people at that time were in the midst of the Cold War, and Americans felt that everything they did was moral. What is the meaning of moral? Moral is... Now in today's context, just compare him with the Bush's tactic's... etc...

STOP ANALYZING IT SO DEEPLY, STOP DEBATING ANONG YOURSELVES and KEEP QUIET!!! I really don't mind you commenting and contributing to the lecture, but when you start to go in-depth and divert from the topic, that's enough. I'm only interested in what the professor has to say (mostly because that's where the "A" comes from), not you.

Labels: Room-mate gossip

posted by Funkee Ego @ 11:26 PM 2 comments

My room-mate's boyfriend is the sweetest guy!

Today was her 21st birthday and do you know what he did for her?

He...

Sent to our apartment 21 helium-filled balloons (do you know how expensive each balloon is???) to our apartment bright and early in the morning.

And decorated the entire front door with the words "HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY TYLA"

And brought her out to Tucanoes for dinner. Tucanoes is this super super nice but super super expensive Mexican food resteraunt. It costs about $17 PER PERSON (for my A.C. friends, $17 is nothing but remember that we are all poor college students) for dinner!

AND organized a surprise birthday party for her at my apartment at night after dinner, and invited the entire ward.

This reminds me of Rendy. Now he's another sweetie. He brought his special one to Bear Lake over the weekend, organized a surprise party for her at the Chia's home, and even MADE an ice-cream cake for her.

Aren't they such good boyfriends? I need to find a guy like them...

Speaking of guys, I couldn't resist putting up a picture of Ji Sung, the guy I was talking about from Save Your Last Dance for Me.

Woo Hoo! HOT!!!

Labels: Room-mate gossip

posted by Funkee Ego @ 10:04 PM 5 comments

I went on a blind date last night...

And I actually had quite a good time. What happened was that my room-mate (Kristi) was asked out on a date by this guy (Jason). Well, since Jason was planning the date, he decided that they should go on a double date with his room-mate (Michael). Unfortunately, Michael is single and doesn't have anyone to go out with so...

Viola! Steps in Keshia to rescue the day. No lah... just kidding! But I did go out on the double-date.

They picked us up around 8pm (after the RS General Meeting broadcast which was wonderful btw) and we walked over to their apartment, where they cooked us dinner consisting of pancakes and their 100 different pancake sauces they owned. Why am I not surprise that they cooked us pancakes, being one of the few things men can cook? But I was pretty surprised that they hadd made the batter from scratch and it was wheat pancakes. It was my 1st time eating wheat pancakes and because I like healthy food, I liked them a lot. Wheat pancakes and their home-made maple syrup... yummy!

Then we walked to the Varsity Theatre to watch Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. The movie was good and very well filmed, but I think the 1st one had a stronger plot. For example, I still don't understand how Davie Jones (is that how you spell it?) bacame this monster. And Norrington is such a bad villian who really, after Part 1, you feel a bit sorry for, so I don't think he deserved to be written as such a wicked man. Plus, if anyone noticed, NONE of the many sub-plots had a resolution. Urgh! I hate that! And if the next movie has anymore lines about Singapore being the Red Light capital of the world then, I'm going to hunt down the production team and box their teeth out one by one.

Anyway, by the time the movie ended, it was close to midnight (and freezing!) so they walked us home and then they left.

They are really nice, decent guys, and I'm glad I went on it. I made more friends and I can see why Kristi and Jason are so good for each other, but dang! I wish it was a certain someone else as my date...

Keep dreaming Keshia

Labels: Room-mate gossip

posted by Funkee Ego @ 12:45 PM 3 comments

10 Signs that Summer 2006 is coming to an end...

I'm on emotional overload now so forgive me if I'm very serious and depressed now.

10) The sun is setting earlier. During the peak of summer, the sun sets at 9pm. Now it's setting at 8pm.

9) The temperature is hovering in the 80s and 70s now. Utah went over 100s for a few weeks, and that's even hotter than Singapore! Unbelievable but true.

8) It's almost a year since I came here. On the 23rd, that's my 1st anniversary to arriving in good ol' USA. Chris, can you believe it that you've been away from home for longer than a year already?

7) I just bought my textbooks for Fall semester online, and I'm going to buy more books on Mon from the bookstore. Btw, textbooks are WAY WAY WAY overpriced. We should begin a protest! I hate it esp. when they change editions- urgh!

6) Education week is next week (and I'm so darn excited to be busy for work again!) (22-25 Aug)

5) New Student Orientation (for the Freshman... gee! I'm out of the "Freshman" phase and officially a Sophmore-soon-to-be-Junior now!) is the week after that (30 Aug- 2 Sept)

4) School starts the week after New Student Orientation (5 Sept)

3) Breanna moves out of the apartment this week to another apartment complex. I'm VERY SAD. Even though I only met her in May, we're good friends now and she's so much fun. And she's very generous, always driving me around in her 23 yr old car. I'm really going to miss her.

2) I'm moving to the apartment next door this Saturday, and I'm going to start moving some of my stuff over during the week.

and...

1) Heather has already moved out, back to DT to become a R.A. An R.A. is Residential Advisor, and basically her job is to take care of the Freshman girls in DT.

Heather is my special friend. I knew her since my DT days, and she and I just simply... connected. When she moved out all her stuff (after 3 loads...serious!) and said good-bye to me for the "final" time, I just started bawling. It's like when everytime Clarissa comes visit me and we part, we know that we will see each other in the future but not sure exactly WHEN.

I think I've cried more times in the past year than I have in my entire life (ok, exaggeration but you get the point...)
Let me recount:

• When I left home Singapore to come here.
• When the first bout of homesickness came after I got here.
• When Clarissa left after Thanksgiving 2005.
• When I celebrated my 1st Christmas and New Year away from home (BUT I had a GREAT time with the Dalebouts so that made me feel tons better).
• When I left after my trip up to Idaho to see dear Clarissa this year.
• When the Clarks left just 2 weeks ago.
• When Heather left just 2 hours ago.

Being in the USA has been a wonderful experience and I'm glad the Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to come here, but man! There are some really down points as well.

Labels: Room-mate gossip

posted by Funkee Ego @ 8:05 PM 3 comments

And that's what room-mates do to each other...
KILL EACH OTHER...

OR GET CAUGHT (in bed no less) WITH THEIR BOYFRIENDS!

Bwa ha ha!

Alright not true.

Pic 1: Breanna's holding the knife and I'm holing the PAM. And poor Heather's trying to fend herself from us using a wooden baking spoon. These are my room-mates this summer (July-Aug).

We were baking cinnamon rolls (that were way way GOOD!) and just enjoying ourselves too much. I love my room-mates! I feel so sad that they're going to be moving out once Fall comes.

Pic 2: I miss these two sooooo much! That's Havalah, me and Brigg in bed. Yup. Not kidding.

But not any of our beds, so relax. We took these pics one Spring Sunday when we were really really bored... at Brigg's cousin's home. You should see the pics Brigg and Hav took in the bathtub (no clothes were shed FYI)... their parents would have gotten a heart attack.

Havalah was my room-mate in Spring term (May-June), and the one whose brother got married and had the carnival-themed wedding. Brigg is her fun, terrific boyfriend.

Anyway, with a room-mate and her boyfriend being so fun, how in the world can I not love and miss them? I miss both of them and I hope they come back in Fall to use the swimming pool!

Labels: Room-mate gossip

posted by Funkee Ego @ 10:00 AM 0 comments