STOMP

Yup. I went to watch Stomp! Damn.. It's good. Their choreography, energy, rhythm and synchronism .. It's just Wow! Can really imagine the hardwork put into practising to get everyone in sync. It's not just pleasing on your hearing, but it stomps your heart as well. Furthermore, it's very visually pleasing. Great use of lighting to enhance the visual spectacle. There's even comedy! When my eyes are not wide with astonishment, I'm laughing my hearts out. It's really an amazing show, and definitely watching and hearing it live is so much more different. You can sense the whole audience amazement, all entralled by the performance. What's great is the interactiveness too. Because it's about percussion, beats and rhythm, anyone can do it even without instruments. A clapping of your hands, stomping of the feet and snapping of the fingers makes rhythmn, so it was very easy to bring the audience into the performance.

Houston is great in the area of arts and culture. There's always so many activities going on. Practically everynight there's plays, concerts and dances. There are quite a few halls and theatre venues all clustered together as the theatre district. And frankly speaking, it's not that expensive. Often you can find discounts for events you are interested in. Like for Stomp, I only paid USD30 for a great seat! The quality of the programs are brillant and interesting too!

Think by the end of 6 months, I would have watched more shows and listen to more concerts than I ever have 10 years in Singapore. Somehow, I'm just more generous with my spending on such events here. Maybe, I still feel like I'm travelling. Just want to gain as much out of the experience as I can. Hey, I'm already in US, how often do you get such chances? My logic is to save on food and spend on activities! It's odd.. but I'm just like that. Guess being a vegetarian helps in the food costs saving. This does not mean to say that I scrimp and save on things I eat. I'm still generous when I go grocery shopping. It's just that I don't eat out as often, probably only when I go out with people. Normal deals will just be home cooked food. Hey.. at least my cooking will improve after this 6 months, I hope. Hee. I believe I will enjoy this 6 months very much! Woo Hoo!

Walking

I've always been a walker. Meaning, I've always enjoyed walking. But very often, especially in SG, when the buses and MRTs bring you to everywhere, there's hardly a need to walk anything more than 200m to your destination from the busstop. Needless to say, SG's weather doesn't exactly encourage walking. Not the most pleasant thing to walk in 3o+oC heat with humidity forever at like 95% or higher.

Houston is different. Well, at least Houston NOW is different. The weather been changing every day. It can be raining, cloudy and humid, bright and sunny, chilly and breezy. This morning, it's the last one. It's like 22oC outside now with the wind blowing in your face. Still, it's pretty nice. Little chilly, but nice. Also, the streets of Houston are decorated with flowers, it's really pleasing to see them as you walk by.

I've taken to walking between my home and office recently. It's about 1.5km away. So, it's not that far really, takes me about 15-18mins? You might think I'm crazy, cos I actually have free shuttle buses I can take to work, from like across the street. But it's really nice to walk outside. Like this morning. Feel refreshed when I reached my office, unlike the previous days when I just feel like sleeping. Also, it doesn't take me much longer to walk than take the shuttle. If you include the time to wait for the bus, I can actually get in the office earlier! G takes the shuttle most of the time, I often reach earlier than she does.

Next time you see a good weather outside, do consider walking along the streets. You might see something interest, or just enjoy the good weather.

For me, as long as it isn't raining, I shall walk as much as I can! (Oh.. saves money and burn calories too!) Hee.

New Pastime.

It's Monday morning here. 10.08am as I write. And the interesting thing is ... I'm at home! Haa. Houston been hit by the cold front these few days. Think the building that I work in got hit by lightning or something, so there isn't power in the building. It's the only one in the Medical Center that kanna power failure. So.. Whoo Hoo for me! Went down and came back home cos they say that the power won't come back up for another 8 hours or so.

It's a really gloomy day today. Grey clouds flying by in the sky. Was raining intermittenly the whole day yesterday, think through the night too. The canal outside my house is flooded with water. The weather bureau even issued a flash flood warning for Houston area, though I think us in the city not very affected.

This is the canal just outside my house. If you look closely, you can see a path that disappears underwater. Haa. Usually, people cycle on this path to get to school and work. But guess not possible for today. Think the water level is like nearly 1m higher than normal. Apparently, many roads were flooded around Houston. Thankfully everything is pretty fine around my home though, besides the faulty traffic lights.

So anyhow, now that I'm bach home. I'm really pretty bored. Can't always sit in front of the tv. Not that much stuff to do online either. Oh.. anyone got interesting websites to share? I'm not good with surfing.. Realise that I've posted quite a few blogs already these past weeks. Guess it's now my new pastime. Sorry that you are reading all this rambling. Next time if the title sounds boring... Don't bother to read further. I'm not exactly a good writer.

Now for something a little happier. See the cow statues below? Really cute and colourful right? They are the dancing cows. Houston used to have like some cow festivals in the past as Texas is very much associated with cattle. Anyway, these cow sulptures are found in the Clinical Care Center of Texas Children's Hospital. Throughout the building, can find cows all decorated in all sorts of fashion. Kind of like the lions that we had for a period of time (remember?), except they are cows.

This Weekend

Just came back from a dinner with other Singaporeans and a Chinese and an Indian. All of them, except the Hwachong guy works for a oil company here in Houston. Quite a fun bunch. Conversation was flowing and laughters all round the dinner table. Some of them been here for over a year, others just a few weeks. But most of them don't live in the city but about half an hour's drive away as their company is in that area. So most do have a car, it's impossible to get around without one. Guess I'm lucky in that I don't need to get a car. Could still do most of the stuff like grocery shopping every weekend by just walking for 15 mins or so, or take the rail. Also, guess becos I'm in the city, I'm more involved in the happenings here. Would still go out on weekends for activities.

Last night, went to the Millers Outdoor Theatre to watch a tango performance. Was pretty good. It's a place like Fort Canning's greens. An outdoor theatre and people sit on the grass slopes to watch the performance for Free! Lots of the locals bring blankets, food and wine to sit and enjoy the performances. Nice place to spend the evenings and there are performances every weekend.
Today, went downtown for an Art's festival. But becos of the rain, they cancelled it. Was quite surprised to see the stalls closing when I reached. Slightly disappointed for I could see that it would have been very fun and vibrant had it not been for the rain. It's a festival where they bring in artists all over US to sell their art works and also performances. They was a Broadway 'cafe' where there were supposed to be performances of Broadway numbers, but alas.. Luckily, the pianist decided to hang around and he started playing his compositions etc. for fun. He's pretty good. You could listen to his pieces on his website http://www.scottgrahampiano.com. So that lifted my day.
Enjoyed this weekend pretty much. Though I spent the whole Sat afternoon cleaning. Think I suck at cleaning. It's times like this when I realise I've been taking my parents for granted. I don't do that much housechores at home. Even daily cooking takes up so much time. Think I spend like 2 hours each day cooking my lunch (bring to work everyday) and dinner. Each day passes really fast with all this household stuff to do. But helps me pass the time, if not I will be sitting in front of TV or the laptop all day long.

Took photos of the downtown buildings as I was on my way back from the Arts Fest. It is a cloudy day... the top of the buildings were actually shrouded in clouds...

This was taken from Eleanor Tinsley Park during the Cityfest last weekend. Houston's downtown skyline isn't that fantastic though. Or maybe I haven't found the correct angle. Think SG's CBD prettier. Hee.

Sunset

Took this as I was walking home on Sunday. Nice right? Okay, I admit I tweaked it a bit on Picassa (the sky was probably more blue than purple), but still was really beautiful. Been rather cloudy these couple of days, one of my colleagues said that a cold front is coming. Wonder how cold that will be. It even rained today, for the first time since I got here.

***
The most coincidental thing happened today. I went to the gym at my place for the first time, and guess who I should meet. Another Singaporean! Of course, how do I know that he's a Singaporean? Well he literally wrote it on his back! Haa.. Kind of. He wore a Hwa Chong singlet!!! My eyes nearly popped out when I saw the "华初" on his back. Now, how lucky can you get? To meet another Singaporean living in Houston, in the same apartment complex, and a Hwachongian at that! Haa. Turns out that he is in his 2nd year in Rice University and even keeps in contact with a few other Singaporeans working here! We exchanged phone numbers and he even said that he would try to arrange for something this weekend with the other Singaporeans! How cool is that? Haa.

You might think that I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, since lots of Singaporeans come to US to study. But Houston isn't exactly one of the popular choices for study. People usually pick the famous unis in the west or east coast. There are lots of Asians here in Houston since it's so cosmopolitan, but I doubt the Singaporean community is significant at all. I was prepared to not know any other Singaporeans. But hey... guess you never know. Life is full of unexpectedness!

Dare Devils

Didn't go to the Chicano Fest on Sat, too lazy. But went to another festival on Sun.. It's called CityFest. It's by the Christian groups, an apparently goes round all of US to spread messages. They have like concert, kid's activities, food and even stunts etc. And of course, lots of preaching.. got a bit too long for me half way through one of the stunt program. Was thinking like.. hey common, let's get on with the program. But hey, the show is free.. Can't complain too much eh. Ok... shall not bore you with my complaints.. Let you see some dare-devils in action!

Security

Something tells me that I wasn't very smart to put on the web the picture of my apartment complex.. So decided to take it out. Of course, it doesn't mean that somebody will come hunting for me (Ahhh!!), and think there are like hundreds of apartments within the complex, but still.. not very smart of me. Shouldn't even list my exact work department either.. So took that out too. Okay, I may be paranoid, but hey.. better safe than never. Let's just hope that no psycho saw my blog already. Haa...

First Week in Houston

Hi everyone. I've been here in Houston for one week. And it's been great! The people here are very friendly. My work place - a cell processing facility of Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is in the grounds of the Texas Medical Center. Do not think that the TMC is just one building... It's like a congregation of ~16 institutions , so like maybe 30 buildings!! Everywhere you turn, you see doctors, nurses, medical workers, students, patients etc. And the medical worker are really keen to help the people, their attitude and service is brillant. Haven't taken much pictures of the area yet.. But got others to show you.

Flew off at 6am Sep 30. Will miss my family (not yet though.. it's still just one week). Poor Mom, will be all alone at home. Took Northwest airline and had to transit at Tokyo and then Detroit. Didn't get to see much in Tokyo airport though as my transit was short. Detroit airport is huge. There are like 75 Gates and an internal skytrain, meaning it's inside the building! Anyway, my flight to Houston got delayed by 1hr+, so arrived only at 7pm Houston time. So in all, I've been flying and waiting for like 26hrs!Yeesh. Still bearable actually cos there was in-flight entertainment from SG-Tokyo. Watched 3 movies! Poseidon, Just My Luck and Beauty and the Beast! Haa.. The last one still brings tears to my eyes. Hee.
Stayed in a hotel for the first 3 nights as had to get the apartment furnished first. It's not bad, has a small kitchenette with most amenities. It's for people who are on extended stay in the area, since many people all over US comes to TMC for treatment. Next morning, took the metro-rail to downtown, hoping to find something interesting to see. But alas, it's a dead town in the main city on Sunday afternoon. It's so hard to find eating places that are open. Was so happy when we saw Macdonald's and Subway!!
Spent most of the weekdays settling into my apartment and running around doing errands. Moved in on Tuesday, though my furniture only came on Wed. The sweet apartment complex manager let us spent the night in the model apartment, so at least had a bed to sleep in. Both of us spent $420 at Target on Tuesday night to set up the house! Things like pots, pans, bed linens etc. Was crazy, shopped for like 3.5hrs there, right until they closed!
Houston is a huge city. Everything is all spread out. Stores are here, there and everywhere. While public transport doesn't have that great a coverage. Most people here drive, so guess it's not a problem for them. But in my case, often have to spent like 3 hours going to different places to get my things done. But luckily, it's mainly the initial settling in. There's a foodmart about 15-20 mins walk from my place, so at least weekly shopping isn't that troublesome. Spent like $60 there this morning! Haa... I go crazy in supermarkets. Just keep buying. But I do intend to bring my own lunch everyday to work (cut costs), hence guess I do need quite a lot of food. 3 meals a day, 7 days a week.
Went to a Greek festival just now. The facility manager offered to bring us along. It's an annual fair organised by the Greek community. There's authentic Greek food (love Greek salad with feta cheese!) and dance performances and trinket stalls. There were so many people! The food is great and was very fun!
Tonight, probably will go attend an outdoor concert. It's called the Chicano festival, where there are Spanish dance and concerts. Of course, I can't understand any Spanish, but should be fun as the weather is great now and one can just lay on the grass and watch the concert! Best of all.. it's free!
Houston is rather vibrant in the arts scene. There are many activities going on especially on the weekends. Plays, concerts, dances etc etc. Every weekend, there's some stuff on. Especially now that the weather isn't as hot.. It's about 80+F in the day, sunny and cloudless with cool breeze. Really great!! Think the night as dropped much colder, but still it's very nice. The humidity is low too, so you don't sweat at all!
Basically, everything has been pretty good. Really glad I have this opportunity. Never been away from home for so long... Will be a good chance to be independent and brush up on my cooking! Hee... Take care everyone. Drop me an email or we can chat over MSN sometime! Oh.. Houston is 13 hours behind SG time for now, will become 14hrs sometime in November, due to winter. Yup.. that's all for now.. enjoy the pictures!

Changi Airport with Mommy dearest, Dad and Bro. Sis's too lazy to send me off.. Can't blame her.. It's a bloody early flight and anyway, the cab can only take 4 ppl. Tokyo-Narita Airport

Detroit Airport
TMC - MD Anderson Cancer Center - Very huge and nice water feature. It contains a carpark!!!

Greek Festival - Lots of people! Lots of great food! Greek church and sundae!

My apartment - The Greenbriar. Living room. Dining room. Kitchen. Bedroom with walk in closet! Bath.