Backtrack

Austin Pre-Christmas Festivities with Beauty and the Beast, the State Capitol Building, a huge Turkey Leg and the GOP:

Equation

Magnetic Dartboard
+ Pictionary with supercompetitive people
+ Chocolate-covered almond clusters
= FunFunFun Evening

PEEKNEEK

O Happy Day

The Mun has landed.
And she won't shut up about the glorious Austin weather. Well I guess she's entitled to gush after flying in from chilly Charlottesville, VA. Haha, good to have you here, friend.
It was a sightseeing trip for both of us since I haven't really seen many of the Austin attractions either.

Day One: Historic party zone Sixth Street was really fun. I'm still underage, but it was great just walking the street, feeling the energy. The city really lives up to its unofficial motto: Keep Austin Weird. Everything's so quirky, slightly off-beat and random. It's kinda fun getting used to it. Mun really wants to go to Coyote Ugly. We'll do that when we get back.

Day Two: Church, then Trail of Lights with my roomies, Chris and Edward. A mile of Christmas lights and displays from various sponsors (there was this Beauty and the Beast one complete with the clock and the candle and the teapot with her son Chip but I can't remember the teapot's name and that's sad cuz I used to like her so much I had her on my birthday cake one year so can someone please tell me what she was called??) culminating in a huge spiral tree of lights which you stand under and spin with a friend while looking up and everything becomes momentarily psychedelic and '60s groovy and then you fall down on the autumn leaves and laugh 'til you hurt. At least that's what happened to me and Mun.

Day Three: Health-conscious grocery shopping at HEB, then a BBQ dinner, followed by a stop by 37th Street, where all the neighbors put up elaborate Christmas lighting. Again, operative word here: Random. This guy put his stove out in his yard, lit it with Christmas lights and made a kind of seascape out of it. There was a nativity scene featuring Bush and Cheney, and another house welcomed visitors with a large lighted Godzilla. Definitely an Alternative Christmas. After the requisite peppermint mocha break, we headed to 6th St again to listen to some jazz in this dingy but cosy little bar called the Elephant Room. Was mesmerized by the Matthew McConaughy/Ryan Gosling/Jesus lookalike double bass (i think) player, who just kept plucking and plucking with this blank, faraway look in his eyes. Such a gorgeous sound from that massive instrument.

Today: Intense (for me) outlet shopping with Kirsten and Kenaz. We hit all the right shops: Banana Republic, Old Navy, American Eagle Outfitters, Gap, Aeropostale. I mainly looked and coveted and lamented my financial state but got myself some cheap chocolate colored lace-less Converse sneakers. Grungey. I have to watch myself or I'll be strategically ripping my jeans very soon.

Yawn. 4-hour trip to Dallas tomorrow. Can't wait to see the godparents. I'll go now.

FAME

Haha I'm on the UT Website.

http://cns.utexas.edu/classroom

taken at 6:45am. that's why we look so zombified. my dear roomies are the 2 girls to my right. the 2 guys are my great 'crew leaders' who refuse to be called 'boss'. they gave us doughnuts again today for taking the extra effort to pose for the camera. believe me, on other days there's usually not even a hint of a smile at that unearthly hour.

as you can see, they're still looking for people, so if you guys wanna hang out with me at 6:30am cleaning tabletops and testing projector functions do drop them a line! :)

Two More Pics

Becks and I decking the halls

Group shot

Breathing Easy

Just back from a pretty fruitful study session with Chris and Kirsten. It started out at the library, then Kirsten and I left for Starbucks because we felt very strongly that the library was too brown. Extremely valid reason, I say. Green-and-red Starbucks just reeked of Christmas; it was like someone was pumping concentrated Christmas spirit into that tiny coffee shop. Listening to non-stop Christmas carols, from jazz to reggae to opera... sipping their divine peppermint mocha, which tasted like a molten After Eight chocolate square (the one caffeinated beverage I actually enjoy)... well yeah, the whole warm fuzzy atmosphere did get a little cloying after a while, but we found a good spot and I realised that I mug better when there's a comfortable level of noise and activity around me, as opposed to my surroundings being completely still and silent. Had a FILLING dinner at Mellow Mushroom, a stone-baked pizza kitchen. We shared an italian sausage and spinach pizza with the thickest, densest dough ever... real good.

Yesterday's Singapore and Malaysian students' party was a ton of fun. I actually put some effort into dressing up after many weeks of just dashing out of the house with frizzy hair and the same ol' windbreaker. Put my sneakers away and wore the gold/khaki pointies Beth got me. Didn't realise the power of an eyelash-curler until I borrowed Sobeyda's... now I'm gonna get one of my own :) We had a really cool bachelor-pad-ish function room to ourselves, and there was rendang, prata, curry chicken, noodles, fish ball soup, red bean dessert (!!!), bread-and-chocolate pudding.

After stuffing our faces, we had a really entertaining gift-exchange - the kind where you could steal other people's gifts. After swiping the sparkly Victoria's Secret body lotion from Soehan's girlfriend Adeline, I was shown the same charity when Pammy took it from me. Haha. I ended up with some designer chocolates, so I'm not complaining. It was just cool to meet a bunch of new people. Nice people, good food. That's all you really need for a party. An annoying-but-infectious festive soundtrack helps too. "Laaaaast Christmas, I gave you my heart..."

Still waiting for better party photos. 1. my newfound fellow Asian English major Kimee 2. Chris with the ladies

One! Paper! Down! :D

Nuo Mi Fan

Today's Dinner...

... was surprisingly good! Had dried shrimp and mushroom in it too. Couldn't compare to Popo's though. I'll be heading back to that Asian market on a regular basis, I can tell. To get my pickled lettuce...

and...

yummy!

A Post

Gotta remind myself that my finals are really pretty well spaced-out, they don't constitute 70% of my grade (like PS1101E in NUS :), they aren't cumulative and I'll be able to celebrate almost immediately when my dear Munyuk drops in from chilly Charlottesville, VA, two hours after my last paper. Have good things planned babe. Lotsa Mexican food, that's for sure! Can't wait.

Thank you all for encouraging me when I was kinda overwhelmed with missing home and all. I felt the love! As a dear friend wrote to me, if God has brought me here, He will bring me through it. In the best way possible. My feelings are real, but now I know what to do with them :) I'm never alone.

Happy Holidays, all... have lotsa fun at Vivocity and all the other great malls that have sprouted on our island in my absence.

Through the Mire

TGIF! I'm so happy this week is over... It really seemed like a challenge.. like ploughing through mud. Like that line from that Wilfred Owen poem - "... we cursed through sludge." I wasn't exactly cursing, but it was still tough to get through and I was constantly plagued by negative thoughts and a sour attitude. And an aching, gnawing homesickness that I could actually feel in my chest. But. I know who lifted me from the pit, from my terribly narrow outlook and discouraging internal monologues. Thank You Lord, for hearing my cry, for being the lifter of my head, and for planting my feet on solid ground once more. Be encouraged, guys.

Psalm 40
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

1 I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.

2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.

3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.