Yan can cook!

My Goddess culinary skill are improving day by day! From day 1's Chow Mien (mee goreng bowl) with corn/baked beans, it has become zhap cai beng!

Day 1: Pathetic chow mien with baked beans and tuna

A few days later, yummier rice with corn and chunky chilli beans

Another week later, maggi mee with banquet!

Next, instant flavoured rice with brocolli, carrot, mushroom, with garlic fish, banquet and chicken soup (courtesy of Yanling)

And just now, white rice with brocolli, carrots and mushroom in oyster sauce, fish in oyster sauce, and carrot and mushroom egg!

As you can see, the oyster sauce is a treasure! It really made things taste so much yummier!!!

Fruitful Day

Today, or should I say yesterday was a fruitful day for my Goddess for she did all the things she said she want to do in U.S. even before she came to U.S.

First, the horny devil, her friend and her went to the Science Museum. The entrance fee was not cheap! It cost $9.50!!! It was quite an interesting place though.

The section she liked the most was the optical illusion place.

See the Incredible Freddie transform

Then we saw live demonstrations of a snake devouring a mice and a mice basketball match.

After which, they headed to Willow Lawn, a place where my Goddess has been wanting to go there for a very long time because there's Krispy Kremes, Bath and Body Works and Victoria Secrets there!!!

How exciting! She has finally got a chance to experience the Krispy Kreme experience for herself after much awaiting!

Yummy!

One dozen of donuts all gone within 15 minutes, devoured by 3 people!!!

After that, shopping at Willow Lawn!!!

There were sales going on at Victoria Secrets, Old Navy and Bath and Body Works, so she bought like a 101 things!!! All the pay and hard work gone down the drain!!! But it's those kind of feeling that "if you don't buy now when there's a sale where everything's so cheap, you will super regret it later!". Even the horny devil bought a lot of things.

Don't ask me why she bought sunglasses again - it was spoilt just the day before yesterday all thanks to a guest.

But things are really cheap after discount! The sunglasses costs only 2 bucks, the tops 6 bucks, and the Bath and Body Works stuffs on average 4-5 bucks each!!! See what I mean by "if you don't get it now, you will super regret it later" although there is a little regret from the hole burnt in the bank account.

Finally, the wonderful day was ended with dinner at the Chinese cafe (again) at Carytown. But how can they resist the good food with lots of vege??

Carytown was chosen because they wanted to catch a movie at the Byrd Theatre. The tickets there only costs 1.99 bucks, and there's a pipe organ performance every Saturday night. This place was highly recommended by the people at King's Dominion, so they wanted to experience the culture for themselves.


It was really crowded on Saturday nights, as compared to the last time when we passed by. They caught 300, a show watched by my Goddess before but it was all worth it!

So the night ended late but well, painful (because of the deficit) but worthwhile!

Kiasuism

I thought Singaporeans are kiasu - queue for Hello Kitties, queue for freebies, chop seats using tissue paper and rush for sale. Well, I was wrong. At least we queue. The other International students that I know of from the European countries (mainly Russia and Siberia) rush for everything - they push and shove to get onto the bus, sit right in front, and push and shove their way down again from the bus, even if they are seated behind and all those standing in front has yet to go down. They also don't bother to move to the end of the bus when standing, but standing instead at the front portion. They are also the first to sign up for company trips. It is really madness every morning and evening while getting onto the bus to and fro work. It is really survival of the fittest and fastest. I think a war is going to start soon here...

Virginia Commonwealth University

My Goddess has finally got Internet access!!! I heard her spoke to me on Skype earlier on but I didn't know where the sound came from, so I kept looking at mom who held me up. Anyways, here's more updates:

We have moved! And yes, that was like 2 weeks ago - the exact time period where I MIA-ed, all because we didn't have Internet access since we weren't given an ID and password. Everyday, I feel like a Singla (a term borrowed from Bangla). We just work, come back to the dorm, bathe, cook our own food, eat and sleep (since we have no Internet). And on our off days, we hang out at Chinatown (instead of Jurong Point or Little India). Glad that we have Internet connection now - at least I'm connected to the other part of the world now.

There's still some slight problems now so I don't intend to shut down my laptop till things are settled on Monday...

Anyway, here's what's missing for the past 2 weeks.

We have shifted all our barang barangs from Quality Inn to a VCU campus dormitory called Rhoads Hall.

It was sure damn tiring and confusing.
Here's how my room looked like initially.

And here's how it looks like after shifting of the furniture. Doesn't my shelf look like some minimart?

The campus is a city campus. So it's pretty near fast food restaurants which are affordable like pizza hut. Ever since the Mexican meal, this pizza hut buffet was the 2nd time I ever feel full.

Remember I said that I had Internet connection from Coldstone Creamery? Here's some pictures from there... The place is really cosy and the ice cream is super super duper yummy! And sinful of cos. I like it that we can create and mix our own ice cream with the various toppings. Yummilicious!

A few stores away from Coldstone is an equally yummy eatery called Five Guys. The burger is affordable and huge. And the fries - undescribable.

Work is tiring. We worked 6+ hours from Mon to Thu and 9+ hours on Fri to Sun. We stand under the sun or in the water most of the time with only a 45minute break. I am super tann now, and my skin is dry and wrinkled like a granny's. Luckily for us, we have off-days. And the very first off day that we had, we decided to explore Richmond, where we are staying.

Our first stop - Virginia War Memorial

And then American Civil War Museum

Picnic Lunch at Belle Isle - a nice place to chill out. It's actually a small island which used to house prisoners of war.

And finally, our last stop - Carytown, a little nice and quaint place with nice boutiques selling super expensive but pretty dresses, and cosy little dining places and bars. Before we went back, we discovered a treasure!! A eatery selling cheap Chinese food!! The portion is really huge and the price affordable! We especially love the vegetables there! This was the third time I felt full!

No Internet Connection!!!

Haven't been updating for a long time! This is cos ever since we moved to VCU, we haven't had any Internet connection!! OMG! I feel so disconnected from the rest of the world! I'm now at an Ice-cream place called Coldstone Creamery, eating ice-cream and surfing the net at the same time. The ice-cream here is so yummy and yet sinful at the same time! More picture updates the next time I've Internet!!

I'm a lifeguard now!

After 4 days of torture - swimming in ice cold water that's like on average of 18 degree celcius, the coldest being 12deg on the last day, I finally passed the deep water lifeguard test and am a deep water lifeguard now!! At first I was very happy because I can earn more - $8.75 an hour. But after learning that we will have lesser working hours than the ride operators as the water rides close earlier and are more prone to weather conditions, and hence we may earn the same or lesser than the ride operators, I felt a little sad. I really want to earn as much as I can to cover some of the cost back :(. And it doesn't help when Bub keeps saying we should do things as a group. And not pia work by ourselves :(((. So just hope I can find a second job soon after we move to VCU on Monday!

My other profession - Rapper Ching

And Ninja Ching

Ninja Lifeguards!

Graduating class of 2007

Road trips!!

Remember the last time I said I bought some things from Pemberton? Here's the pictures!

At work

My workplace

After a day of orientation and training, we had 2 days break, and so we decided to go on a roadtrip!!

Day 1 of our roadtrip:

As all the lifeguards have 2 days off. We decided to travel to some place a distance a way from where we stay. However, buses don't operate on Sundays, and cab fares are freaking expensive, we decided eventually after much deliberation to rent a car - a 12-seater in fact!

After much trouble - some rentals don't open; some are really 'niao' and only allow 25 year old and above with credit/debit card to rent a 12-seater, we finally managed to get a car (Phew~). As it was already quite late, we deicded to go to some place nearer- Williamsburg - where we can shop at their premier outlet and look at their historical sites.

After an hour plus of driving and some U-turns, we finally reached Williamsburg. The funny thing was - we went to the wrong shopping mall with nothing much to see. And we were comforting ourselves that we've come so far, and so should spend more time walking around it. After which, we decided to head down to the historical site of Richmond to take a look at them. Not even halfway there, we pass by the Chelsea Premier Outlet at Williamsburg and we immediately turned in to stop there. By then, we only had an hour left! So in the end, we didn't have any time for the historical sites which was a little disappointing.

Conclusion of the daytrip: I bought shades and a very nice smelling raspberry body lotion for myself - it smells like one of the sweets that we can find in SG - the pink and square one with wrapper.

I also bought 2 fossil watches - one for my sis and one for my father. My brother has a new Adidas watch too! Hope they like it!

2nd day of our roadtrip:

The roadtrip gang

First we made our way to the bank of America to start a bank account.

Next, we headed for a 3-hour road trip to Leesburg to another Chelsea Premier Outlet!! There were Guess, Levis, CK, Nine West and so many more other branded US stores selling their stuffs at dirt cheap prices! Levis jeans cost only 60 odd Sing Dollars or so and my CK jeans less than SGD$40 after all the discounts!!

The beautiful scenary

Fooling around at our pitstop

Chelsea Premium Outlet at Leesburg!!!

Interesting vending machine found in the toilet

By the time we finished shopping 3 hours later, we still have a lot of shops not visited! But it was already 8.30pm so we had to head back another 3 hours ride for the hotel for we have lifeguard training the next day. The road back was practically dark with reflectors as the only lights around. It was quite scary to go back! We missed a few turns too! But luckily, we found our way eventually and made it back safely.

My shopping bargains!