Mooncake Festival

I guess everyone back in Malaysia will have a good day eating mooncakes today. The children will play lantern aand light up the candles, as what I did few years ago.

Same as last year, I am not able to celebrate this festival with my family again. Anyhow, my family doesn't have the custom of celebrating this festival after we have grown up. We just eat some mooncakes and maybe light up some lanterns if the children are around. Things were different when I was still young. I used to carry the lantern around with my cousins few days before the mid-autumn day. We even made some lanterns to participate in the competition held by school. We also sang some songs and observed how full the moon was on the day itself. Sweet memories are always vivid in my mind and all the memories are definitely my best companion when family are not with me on these special occasions.

There will be a celebration held by Chinese Language and Culture Club on this coming Friday. It will be a whole new experience for me to celebrate this festival oversea. Hopefully I can satisfy my craving for mooncake on that day.

Happy Mooncake Festival!

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Oops so much lazy in updating my blog recently.
Not going to talk about the Hayride trip since I had uploaded the photo to Facebook already, so let the photo do the talking.


Weather is so much colder these few days. For me, it is like raining day everyday because I could hardly see any sunshine in the early morning. I don't like rainy day for sure because it makes people emo, but luckily I am still fine as usual because I didn't listen to much emo songs nowadays.


So many things going on but so few things to scribble here.Coldness makes people lazy,believe me.

Don't lure me, pizza

Finally, weekend is here again. I would definitely start my every Friday post with this sentence. 


But I guess everyone is complaining about the growing pile of homework,and I am not exempted from this as well. I didn't use the word "homework" since i left secondary school, but now I am going to use it very often from now onwards.I hate it to the core!


Not going to talk about the topic of homework here but I am going to talk about pizza! I can easily get delicious free pizza here by attending kickoff events of some clubs. Take this week as example, I had pizza for three meals already. Even if I couldn't get the pizza for free, I can always get some coupons from the booklets in my mailbox to purchase cheaper pizza.It is undoubtedly hard to resist the temptation of mouth-watering pizza, but it is even tougher to accept the fact that I will gain weight by eating all these unhealthy food. 

There is always a trade-off. Maybe I should go for gym more often after this. 

No more pizza, no more pizza please! 


No more pizza, no more pizza...

I hate to say this

Argh I am really careless this time.

I lost my keys! Keys can be duplicated but not the key chain.

The key chain has specific meaning to me and another friend in Australia. 

I feel guilty for breaking the promise. 

I feel bad because the three guys and three girls are not able to meet after three years.

Haiz how should I compensate for my carelessness?

Student Organization Fair

Today would be my second visit to the Kohl Center, the center for recreation and sport. The Student Organization Fair was held there and I definitely couldn't miss the chance to discover something new.

There were around 300 clubs and societies here, and I had a hard time to decide which club to join actually. Basically, I narrow down my decision to those clubs which will provides free food for most of their activities! I came across the booth of Hong Kong Students Association and I joined the club without much hesitance. The main reason is that there will be a steamboat gathering during mooncake festival and most probably I have the chance to play mahjong there. They will even hold a singing competition very soon. 

Beside the Hong Kong Club, I also join the Korea Student Club and Chinese Cultural Club. I did write my name on the list of several other clubs like First Year Student Experience Club, Milk Enthusiast and International Student Association. I do hope that I can have a lot of free food for this semester!

But all in all, I am most interested in Hong Kong Club because I know I have the chance to practice Cantonese again! 

Life Update

Couldn't believe that I managed to wake up at 620am and go for the morning class at 745am!
It had been more than half a year I didn't wake up so much early, but from this week onwards, I have to wake up as early as 620am on Monday.

Went to my first anthro discussion and was surprised to find out that the TA dyed his hair color blue! Class participation is so much important for education system here. We are expected to attend the class and talk in the class in order to get a good grade.

I was able to survive throughout the whole afternoon without taking any nap due to the anticipation of having tomyam mihun as the dinner. We are getting more hardworking in cooking recently. Normally we have two veges and one meat for each meal. It is quite fun to try out all the dishes that I have seen but never cook before.

And I still hvn't received all my textbooks! By the time the textbooks reach safely at my partment, I am going to die of excessive reading!

The tomyam mihun with taufu, tomato, fish and mushroom. We were actually having tomyam fish as our lunch but there was too much soup left, so just add in some vermicelli and other ingredients to save the time of cooking dinner.

This is mum's recipe-tong shui with corn, maccaroni, carrot and 木耳. I left out much more ingredients because I couldn't find them here at all.

The chicken rice with lady fingers.

Football Season

Madison was so alive today! Early in the morning, I could hear the sound of vuvuzela the moment I woke up. Looking out via the window, I could see a whole group of people wearing red color shirts, the color which symbolizes the city of Madison. I only realized that there was a football match today! How I wish I can join the crowd at the Camp Rndall stadium but the ticket of 50usd is just so unaffordable for me at this point. I am waiting to get a free ticket,  wear the red badger shirt which I haven't bought and shout together with the crowd at Camp Randall!

While most of the local people were heading to the stadium, we were heading to Burlington to buy winter clothes. While waiting for the bus, we saw so many people wearing red shirts with the printed words of "Wisconsin" or "Badgers". It was so much invigorating to see all the pedestrians wore in red because it gave me the feel of celebrating Chinese New Year haha. I really wish I could experience the football fever here.

Talking about the mission trip today, finally I bought all the winter clothes but I am really broke now. Hopefully the sponsor won't bank in the money late, or else I have to starve after October and won't be able to go for any trip during winter.

Friday!!!

Finally Friday is here! But it seems like I have quite many ongoings for this weekend and guess I won't be able to rest well also.

Finally I have settled  the add & drop process after two weeks of classes, so I am taking 14 credit hours for this semester. I hope it won't be too hard for me because we are advised not to take more than 15 credit for our 1st semester here. Luckily I am able to drop the literature course of "African Storyteller" which is kinda a tough subject for me because I have to finish reading six books for this semester. I hate reading so much at this point!

So far I have the least number of classmates for my english class. This is definitely an advantage because I get to know everyone of them. We went through the meaningful ice breaking session where everyone of us was required to remember the particulars details of the other classmates. Most of my classmates are from China and they generally think that we cannot speak Mandarin. They are surprised and excited enough when they accidentally heard our conversation in mandarin. I guess many of us came through the same situation as well.

The rest of the classes are too big where I have around 400 to 500 classmates. I must go for those classes earlier in order to get a seat. If I sit at the back, I definitely won't be able to see the slides clearly because the arrangement of seats in lecture hall is just not slanting enough! 

 

CAL

Argh now only realize that I still need to apply calculus in my math class.
I thought I won't ever touch calculus again after completing my final paper of calculus 3  but I know I am totally wrong now.
Time to recall back all those integration techniques and limits bla bla bla.
I don't have any notes with me right now! I am going to suffer from recalling all those techniques which I learnt about one year ago. 
I just don't like calculus. 

I am late

Argh why the people here are so much punctual?!
Back in Inti, I was still considered early even I was late for the class for five minutes or more. But at here. I am considered late even when I reach the classroom five minutes before the class starts. It is quite frustrating to find a seat in a lecture theatre of 400 students.
The seat is merely enough for us to sit, but not to stretch around when we get tired. Luckily the class is not two hours long, or else I will just faint there.

Weather is getting colder and colder. People put on their sweaters everyday and some even wear their winter jacket already. It is freaking hard to open my eyes when the strong wind blows, and sometimes my tears drop because of the sand particles. Haiz I am going to utter the word "cold" very often in the coming months!

Free meal

Today is US Labor Day. Before this, i thought 1st of May is the worldwide Labor Day but it proved that I am totally wrong now. I don't care when is the Labor Day but I just know that Labor Day is defintiely one of the day to get cheap and even FREE stuffs here.

One of the way to save money is none other than looking for free food around. Whenever there is free food, we definitely would go to grab some! I had eaten several free meals throughout my two weeks stay here. Beside saving money, I could save my energy to cook as well haha.

The Hong Kong cafe nearby my apartment has the tradition to give free food on Labor Day, so here we were to get our free lunch!

I thought I would see a lot of Asians in the queue, but out of my expectation, there were actually many Americans there. Seem like getting free foood is one of thier traditions as well.

We waited for around half an hour to get our free lunch!

Ya here is the free lunch! Filling and satisfying enough.

Haiz classes going to resume tomorrow and I am pretty sure workload will flow in very soon.

Sunday

Yeah it was another day for me to be lazy and hang out! The main purpose of today trip was to visit xiao ting's house and have a feast at Kah Jing's house.

It is kinda fun to visit friends' houses. These are basically what I do when i pay a visit to friends' houses-Observing the structures and floor map of their houses, grabbing some pictures around the houses and taking a look at the refrigerator to see how much food they have haha.

This is Xiao Ting's room

Next we head to the second largest lake in Madison, Monona Lake. Last week I went to the third largest lake and maybe I should go to the largest lake, Lake Mendota in the coming weeks.

Get to learn some camwhoring techniques from Lip Fung

After that, we headed to Kah Jing's house for the feast!

It was quite surprising to discover that guys actually can cook better dishes then girls do. I am totally ashamed of myself! It is not that I can't cook at all, but the guys can definitely cook better than I do!

Ladyfingers

Onion rings by XT

pork ribs soup by Lew Jin

omelette with meats

Curry chicken by Teng Heong

A whole table of food!

The feast is actually  a birthday celebration for Teng Heong, which I only know when the main character arrived. After some games, we headed to State Street for a group photo, which I don't have in my camera.

So only a photo of me in front of the Capitol Square. The Capitol Square is very soectacular at night! I must pay a visit there as soon as possible.

Just a short one

Start from today, I should write a short post everyday about my current life.I am back to the life of writing diary again!

For the past few days, we stop dining outside and cook at home instead. I definitely can't afford to pay at least 5usd for my meal everyday.  Here is our lunch today

Sphagetti with with mushroom, carrot,tomato and sausage. How good it will be if I have shrimps!

Madison

Yeah, fianlly I reach Madison safely after a 30hours+ long flight journey. To cut the story short, I would talk about the environment, weather, food and people here.

Madison is definitely a nice and scenic place. It makes me feel like I am having a trip rather than studying here (the feeling is definitely going to be different when classes start haha). People cycling and ealking around, and the cars will stop for the pedestrians. Just know that pedestrians can have such a privilege!

Walking around the campus. Going to have a few classes at this hall very soon.

The statue of Abraham Lincoln. Students will rub his right shoes before going to examination hall and even sit on his lap when they graduate. If sit on his lap before graduating,then maybe nightmare will occur. Interesting right?

One of the church in Madison

Red Gym which houses many international students offices.

Science Hall. I am not going to have class here, i guess

Asian market. Can find many malaysi products here like milo, nescafe,maggi chili sauce, ping pong soda biscuits and others.

Walking around Lake Wingra

The weather here is kinda unpredictable. Although there is sunshine, but the wind is cold enough to make people shivering. On the other hand, it can be as hot as malaysia sometimes, but can be colder than genting at night. Weird weather!

For the food here, I had eaten many types of fast food for the past few days. However, we could find Asian food here easily, just that it is quite expensive. I still think that Malaysia food is the best!

The people here are so much friendly! Since Madison is nominated as the most livable and friendly city, I guess it will be very normal when strangers or passerby smile,talk or even exchange number with you. I had bumped into several americans who took the initiative to have a long talk with us. The most impressive one will be the lady and her family whom we met at Walmart. I was actually asking her where to get pasta sauce and never expected we could talk for such a long time. She even invited us to her house. More stories about my other counters these few days. I seriously like to observe people!

Aku Memang Tak Bawa IC

Why there are so many polices at Muar recently?
Everywhere I go, the police are there!The town seems to be very peaceful and there is no need to be aware of pickpocket at all.

But we were too lucky to meet the road block on our way to pasar malam today.There is nothing much to be afraid of, but I am just afraid that they would check the IC, which I do not bring all the times when I go out.(Would only bring along my IC if I did remember to bring my student card haha). 
After checking the license and road tax, the police asked some random questions

Nak pergi mana ni?
Pasar malam
Dekat mana?
Sungai Abong
Ada pasar malam dekat sana ke?
Ada ah
Owh itu bukan sungai abong la,itu Taman xxx
(Tapi itu memang sungai abong ah. Kami cakap tempat yang lain lo) 

Haiz don't care whether it is near Sungai Abong or not. As long as didn't ask for my IC, then I am fine with it. I don't have so much money left to pay for another rm300 after spending so much money to buy all the stuffs before leaving!

I totally forgot about the word "fat" when good food are in front of me! Fail fail fail
Ate non-stop at pasar malam there like cake, lekor, ban chiang kuih, doughnut and not to forget the most famous laksa at Bakri there.
Not much chance for me to eat all the local delicacies as well.
So the two weeks left will be my food splurge week 

自己跌倒自己爬

自己跌倒自己爬！

这是大家都很熟悉的童谣

记得小时候，我总会与同伴们一起哼这首歌

妈妈也总是会在我跌倒时说这句话

简简单单的一句话

我已好久没听到了

今天无意中听到邻居对她的女儿说

感到有点陌生

但儿时回忆又在脑海中盘旋了

Yeah that's it

Yesh finally my name is the on the flight list.

I was planning to call MAS again next week, but Pey Suh who is going to Maryland told me that she is flying on 23August as well. I was thinking since there are only two people going to Maryland and their flight is on 23rd, all the Madison students should fly on the same day right?!

Being curious again, I called MAS and finally found out that my name is on the list. The receptionist even asked me "sama dengan Teo Mou Jian, Tan Yeet Chien dan Subramaniam kan?"
Ya i know the first two persons but not the last haha

Relieved now but still "problems are always there"(i just like this quote so much). Maybe I am just too free that problems are overwhelming me

Wait mai wait lo

Yerrrrr feel like ranting and sighing all the time!Feel like shouting as well.
A lot of my friends called MAS and they were able to get a confirmation from MAS that their flight date will be on 23 August.
But why my name is not on the passengers' list?

First i called the English line, they connected me to many other sublines, but my call was in vain because they insisted me to give them the reference number of flight ticket number, which I explained to them I did not booK the flight on my own and I don't know any single detail about it.
Next I called the  Chinese line, the lady checked for me, but my name is not on the list.
Rommate called for me as well and they really don't have my name there.
Lastly, i tried the Malay line, the lady told me I was not listed also. Flared up ah.
Three lnaguages I called, just left out the Tamil line only. Wth!

I don't believe JPA will lfet out anyone, so I called them to get a peace of mind.
The lady said the agent hasn't confirmed with them, that's why they hvn't send us any email till now. Hmm maybe there is a possibility that the agent hasn't booK the ticket for some of us?!Aiya, I am really getting frustrated over all these stuffs aldy. What can I do now is just wait and this type of waiting sucks to the max! 
 

No Matter

No matter how reluctant I am

No matter how unwilling I am

I can't escape from it

I have to accept and face it

I ask myself not to think so much

I ask myself not to be afraid

And I know everything will be fine when time passes on
Ok let move and run

ZzzZzz

Just read an informative article about sleeping few days ago.

Now I understand why I always feel sleepy after lunch.

According to this article, people tend to feel sleepy when their body temperatures reach the highest point. 

Female reach the highest body temperature from 2pm to 4pm, this explains why I have to take a nap at around three haha. Male reach theirs from 4pm to 6pm, this also explains why the guys like to take a nap in the evening before taking dinner.

And I only realized that female actually have a type of hormone which acts as natural sleeping pills after reading this article! This is why female tend to sleep longer than male. This also explains why female look like zombie if they stay up for the whole night while male still can jump around.

So girls, sleep earlier and don't torture the body so much often!

Cute betul

Finally I had the mood to pack today. Before this, I tried to pack but I guess I was kind of unpacking the luggage that I brought back from Inti. See how lazy I am in this holiday! It is so much tiring to roll the squeeze the clothes into the luggage. Nightmare!

Out of tiredness, I carried the Baby Xiao Ke upstairs to entertain me haha.

Wow,he helped me to push out all the air inside the vacuum bag haha

Seem like he enjoyed lying on the vacuum bag as well.

The luggage is big enough to fit the baby!See how comfortable he is. How good it will be if I can bring him along to US. Then he can meet his aunt there also. Somebody please create a luggage that can carry people haha!

 

More things to pack after this. But it seems like my things are going to weigh more than 46kg. Trade-off will come in very soon

Herk Herk Herk

Terrible sore throat visits me again! Just bought several packets of laing teh to be brought to US yesterday, but now I have to drink it before the liang teh is delivered to US.

Dimsum + Sushi

Finally, I get the chance to try out the dimsum at the newly opened restaurant. But as what the adults said, the dimsum are expensive and not nice at all. Maybe Pei Fen and I should listen to their advice and ate something cheaper and more delicious for our breakfast.

First, the cha siu pao are just too sweet to be eaten as breakfast.

The so-called "lo mai kai" with some simple ingredients inside. I could hardly find some chicken and dried prawn inside there. Home-made lo mai kai is even much nicer than this one.

I forgot the name of this dessert but it doesn't taste nice either.

The siew mai with the stinky prawn. I bet they must have stored the prawn for quite a few days aldy.

Luckily we just ordered a few dishes. If not, we definitely would have a hard time to finish all of the dimsum. It was really a great disappointment since I had been looking forward to try this out when the restaurant just opened. Now, I miss the Fu Shan and Ming Kok dimsum in Ipoh so much. Even though the price are not much cheaper, but at least the ingredients are fresh and the texture of the dimsum are perfectly delicate.

But still, we sat there for around 2.5 hours to enjoy the tea and had some morning talk. The interior design of the restaurant is good but the food really taste awful.

Next, we went to buy some stationery before heading to Sushi King for lunch again.

Pei Fen's sweet sauce rice with chicken if not mistaken

My favourite japanese curry rice.

We were planning to eat some sushi but the waitress told us 20% discount will be given if we take the order and consume the sushi between 3pm and 5pm. So, we continue our shopping before heading abck to Sushi King again for hight-tea. Really ate a lot today till I was bloated.

Unagi sushi!

My first ever try of this sushi. Luckily the cheese layer doesnt taste as cheesy as I afraid of.

My second try of this salmon sushi. The salmon is not raw at all. Instead, it tastes realli nice when I dipped it with some sauce.

The toufu sushi

The sushi mentioned above are just some of the sushi that we ate. I wonder how this Pei Fen can eat a lot but still doesn't get fat.