Designer: Manikka
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remnants of tahoe:

we had a buffet at hotel Harrah's on sunday for brunch! rockyroad brownie and eclair..!

valentine's kisses from zk....for hannah and i in the midst of burning brain cells studying for sociology of work midterm the day after.
blister!!! horrible. horrible. horrible.

more pics from Tahoe :)

10 of us drove up to lake tahoe last weekend to ski!!! since there's no snow here in berkeley anyway. what was supposed to be a 4hour drive turned out to be nearly 7hours because of the jam from berkeley to sacramento. but nvm, i compensated for the lack of sleep..nearly slept all the way haha. hannah did most of the planning for the trip with zk's help. we were quite ready for out little trip to the lake with all the groceries in the booths (to cook a chinesenewyear dinner on saturday night!) and cartons and gallons of water so that we dont dry up inside, and the cookies and marshmellows and sweets and chips and yam yam(!!) and of course, most importantly, MOTION SICKNESS PILLS!! haha. i think precautions were taken esp after one person threw up in another person's SHOE on the last road trip haha!

the weather at tahoe was freezing....compared to here at least. i din haf a waterproof coat and i most certainly couldn't go skiing in my black wool coat or the white wool one, so i borrowed alice's white puffy jacket and leanne's ski gloves. i din know we'd be going skiing if not i'd have brought my own..



this was lunch for hannah and i..we shared. as usual! nachos with cheese and jalapenos and caesar salad. nachos was heavenly, literally haha. and there were yellow, purple and red nacho chips!! mmm nachos...i love!

Sunday Supper @ IHouse
11th Feb '07 Sunday

Ihouse has this tradition to have Sunday Suppers twice a semester (there's this story behind the origin of sunday suppers. but it started on the steps on a building in nyc years ago when an american guy said hi to a chinese student and the chinese guy was so surprised because he said he'd been in the states for quite a while and that american guy was the first to say hi to him...and so that american guy and his wife started hosting suppers at their house for international students and voila! so started the sunday supper tradition).

nothing to rave about where food is concerned but it was interesting to see the effort put in to incorporate stuff from as many cultures as possible, whether through the food or through costumes and the items performed. in view of the then-soon-to-be chinese new year, there was even a lion dance performance haha. here are some of the pics taken, cant put all, no space!

backlag of pics to put up:
a rough idea of what my room at International House looks like--
it's tiny,
there clearly aint ample space for clothes or storage, and
a double deck is inconvenient because climbing down every morning when i'm half asleep at 8am still scares me (and it's been 5 weeks!).

However, despite my room facing the main street of Piedmont Ave where i can see the front steps of Ihouse from my window, where the sun's rays shine glaringly into lethargic afternoons in the room when i'm trying (very hard!) to read and not fall asleep, I do get a pretty good view of what's happening just outside Ihouse, such as - when the cops drop by at Ihouse occassionally, or when people go partying and come back tipsy(or drunk or just plain wasted) on thursday friday and saturday nights, or when the Fraternity house opposite has parties and sorority girls run around in their undies and guys yell "take off your clothes!!!". haha, it's pretty happening.


tuesday, hannah, zhikuang and i had lunch at this japanese restaurant on shattuck. the salmon/avocado/cream cheese sushi roll would have been better if there was a more even spread of cream cheese; but the softshellcrab/unagi roll was Enorrrmously good, and the rather long spicytuna/tempura ebi/avocado roll was just awesome. nuff'said. price wise, i'm not so sure if it's considered "ok" for 1 roll to be USD9 (~SGD14) but we sure felt that lunch that day was worth it!


oh and did i mention that there is this little cafe which is only a 5-min walk from ihouse that is opened by some folks from hongkong and they sell BUBBLE TEA!!! WITH PEARLS!! they call it tapioca though. and it's buy 2 for the price of 1...And they have hot bubble tea too, which tastes heavenly on cold chilly days and nights!! :) :) :)

on a sidenote, i can't remember if the 2 large blended juice smoothies i had in LA last year with the guys were from Jamba Juice (i think it was!!), but the mango-a-go-go smoothie i couldn't resist buying on wednesday after class was soooo goood!!

last weekend, while the rest of them went on a roadtrip to the Pacific 101 highway to see the coast and the beach, Hannah, weiling, ivan and i had glorious mexican food for lunch at this place called Fruitvale which is merely 5 Bart stations away from Berkeley. sorry to say, i cannot remember the exact names of the 5 dishes that Ivan ordered for us because the names were kinda complicated and in espanol!

i do, however, still remember that there were salsa chips and red/green hot sauce for appetizers (these are so good, compared to peanuts in chinese restaurants), there was a crispy taco and 4 soft tacos, and there were flautas to top the list! yum! i have to go back to fruitvale for mexican fare. according to ivan (who is mexican), food there is rather authentic. i believe him because the town of fruitvale felt totally different from the all-typical american town of berkeley (i think it feels like that at least), fruitvale had a entirely unique latino feel in the air, which was really interesting :) and groceries (otherwise known as junk food i.e. mashmellows/cookies/gum/chocs) were so much cheaper as compared to the supermarkets here in berkeley! yay!

oops, forgot to talk about the flowers, from who for who. haha... from a latino guy who helped us take a picture to hannah!

i went shopping!!! woo hoo!!! at san fran last saturday with the girls and wai kit (although wai kit kinda gave up on us halfway and decided to go back to berkeley instead of going to forever 21 with us haha). but the afternoon just wasn't long enough for me to visit those specific stores - namely A&F, AE, Old Navy, Forever 21, VS, Hollister. only managed 3 out of 6 :(

got a shirt from a&f for chuan...it was a pretty good buy, and so were the white and blue long sleeve hooded tops! :) bought 4 bottles of lotion from VS since they were having an offer. i still feel sore, no make that Very Sore over the mysterious disappearance of my 8 Victoria's Secrets bottles of lotion and shower gel that i got from Cleveland's branch during my work and travel trip last summer, so these 4 new bottles are to compensate for that. BOO.

and we had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory!! yay! i got to taste the yummilicious kahlua cocoa coffee cheesecake again, 7 months after i last had it in chicago! we also ordered a fresh strawberries cheesecake, a tiramisu cheesecake and a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake! yum! the kahlua cake was worth the 45 min wait :)

I-house had a Spring Dance last sat night. the music was kinda disappointing, lousy dancing music. it was totally house music or worse..eww. spoilt my mood..booo....we need to go clubbing! in san fran!!! when when when?!?!

on a happier note, today was a great day of eating despite my 10hour stint in school from 9am till 6.30pm. thursdays and tuesdays are d-r-e-a-r-y---d-a-y-s. Leanne, Hannah, Zhikuang and I had lunch at this Mexican place on Telegraph Ave, the crispy and soft tacos were great! i love mexican food! i met zhikuang after class and we both decided that we could jolly well do without I-house food for 1 day, so we headed to the sushi house at asian ghetto on Durant Ave for Japanese food! we had 2 sets of maki-Anne's Maki (20cm long maki roll of salmon, avocado, roe, cheese and i cant remember what else was in it that made it so delicious) and the Oregon Maki (basic 6 pieces of fresh salmon and avocado sushi). mmm mmm mmm! interesting conversation we had over dinner.

and he called on saturday...