Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving coming thursday! In SG, it's not really celebrated much, but here it's a major festive. I guess it's kind of like our Chinese New Year, where familys come together to eat and catch up. Though, find it odd that one month later, they will be doing the same again over Christmas! Haa.. But I guess no one's complaining! Hee. G's been invited to so many dinners by different people in the company. They are really nice. But of course, she can only eat one dinner...

Gonna go to Chicago on Thanksgiving to visit my dear sister. Starting to get a little excited. Get to see another part of US and also freeze my ass off. Haa. Temperatures are predicted to hover around freezing but should be good weather with clear skies. Brillant for travel. Left all the planning to SY and her friends. I'm just gonna sit back and relax. Should be fun!

Today, my company's having Thanksgiving lunch. Since many people will be away around the festive, so they decided to have it earlier. There will be loads of food again! Haa. It's nice soaking up the merry atmosphere.

I'm really glad that I'm here over the festive season! Happy Thanksgiving!

Assortment

An assortment of pictures for your viewing pleasure.

1. Mr Toaddy. Found him in my bedroom late one night. He (I'm assuming it's a male.) kind of blended into my carpet as my carpet has a beige tone. Only mange to see him when he hops around. Finally caught him and set him free outside my patio. Think he was seeking a dry place to sleep cos that had been raining awfully a lot then. He's kinda cute actually..

2. Went to the Museum of Natural Science. It's rather like a science center essentially but with some exhibits about culture and history. There was one on ancient American civilisations. Apparently, the Maya children are named after their birth date. So from the interactive computer exhibit, I manage to get my Maya name. Cool huh. But think bit hard to write ah.
3. This place is called Kemah. U can kind of think of it like clarke quay but with amusement rides. It's basically beside the marinas here. Many restaurants around. The locals like to come here to hang out on weekend nights. We ate at a restaurant called the Flying Dutchman. Food was rather pricey though, but really good. The dessert was simply heavenly, one of the bests I've tried. Would go back again just to have the desserts (partly cos they mainly serve seafood, which isn't quite applicable for me. Haa.)
4. Went to NASA Johnson Space Center. It's the main control and training area for NASA space program. Part of the tour involves going round to a few buildings on the grounds - mission control center, training facility which have life size mock-ups of the space stations etc. This is a rocket, showing the different parts that falls off one after another. Dunnoe if it's an actual one - i.e. made but mission aborted or replica. As you can see, it's massive.
5. Lunch. One of my many home cooked lunches. Pretty? Very healthy! Pumpkin, rice, black pepper mushrooms and cai xin! Took me quite a while to cook it all in the morning though. Sometimes when I lazy, I will just bring minimal prep stuff like pita bread and tomato/lettuce/cheese salad. Super lazy, just fry some guo1 tie4!! Haa.
6. Went to the Museum of Fine Arts. It's a huge place. Could only complete one building (there's 2)! Anyway, some of the paintings are really good. Like this one. It's so life like, though can't quite capture the realness on my camera.
7. Went down to a POW WOW last Saturday. It was interesting, but nothing great actually. They just had like some costume and dance competitions. Dunnoe if it's just here, but the dances were just the people stomping around in a circle. The costumes were pretty though. There was also a showcase of a tee pee.. pretty small accommodation! Would get claustrophobic! Haa.
8. Nutcracker market. It's an annual fair/bazaar kind of event, organise by Houston Ballet Company to fund raise. Stalls there sell all kinds of Christmas stuff - food, clothes, jewellery, silverware, decorations etc. Of course, the food stalls interests me the most. Made my lunch out of trying all the samples! And goodness, most of the food were really good. That includes the caramel apple below. Caramel's not too sweet and it's fragrant with pecan nuts and a juicy green apple core! We also bought an amazingly nice frozen pecan toffee - that is the nicest candy I've eaten!

Venture Out and Jive

It's not the safest thing to walk alone on the streets of Houston at night. Never intended to, but realise that I shouldn't let that restrict my activities in the evenings, for that means I will be missing out many opportunities to do things. So I went out alone yesterday night.

Went down to Rice U. Z invited me to his social dance society's weekly dance class. Me, having never really danced before (excluding school dances), thought 'why not'? Should be fun (and it is). The beginner's class starts at 9pm, G wasn't quite interested, so I went down alone.

Wasn't very smart of me really, come to think of it. I had to cross the road after getting off the rail, with my direction sense somehow dulled, I walked towards a dark street, in the wrong direction. As I crossed the road, someone suddenly emerged from a dark corner and walked towards me. Instinct kicked in, I almost ran across juction without really checking for traffic. Of course, I could have been too sensitive, but always err on the side of caution I guess. That was a little scary.

The dance class was fun. In the short hour, I learnt the basic footwork of foxtrot and jive. Both are great dances. Between the two, I prefer jive. Guess, the upbeat tempo made jive really fun.

Foxtrot was fun and interesting too. Still kind of have two left feet. Haa.. always forgot to shift my weight at the end of basic step, resulting in moving off on the wrong foot. And I anticipate too much, not really following the lead (guy), hence often causing a tangle of the feet when I did foxtrot.

Jive is a much quicker dance. It kind of reminds me of some of the steps in Hwachong's dances, hence came a bit more intuitively for me. I can't quite get the turning steps right, but at least manage to keep in beat after the turn. Haa.

It's really important to have a good lead when dancing. Makes a whole lot of difference. Can make you enjoy the dance or totally end up totally stiff. And dancing is really a good form of exercise. My calf muscles are aching today along with my lateral abdominals! The former I understand, but latter.. hmm... Anyway, I had a good time. Hmm.. would like to try out other dances. Maybe I will find something I really like and do formal classes!

Nights and Flowers

It's irritating to have the sunset at 6pm everyday. By 6.30pm, outside looks like it's 8+ already. You can't really do much in the evenings. Like I would love to go to the musuem, but it isn't advisable to be out alone at night. I can't drag G along just because I want to go to the musuem. The place I stay, though supposing quite safe, still has it's share of incidents. Just last week, a resident of my apartment complex was a victim of car theft and assault, in the complex grounds! Z also mentioned that recently there was shooting at the supermarket I frequent. Yeesh. Really makes you think twice about doing anything at night alone. Daytime, Houston seems quite safe. Well.. I've yet went to any shady places. But with the daytime being so short, really restricts the activities you could do after work. Of course, if there's company, and someone driving, things would be much easier. But, it's not everyday that one gets to go out, especially when I don't have a car nor drive.

Sigh, it's only 6.30pm as I type. There's really nothing much to do at home in the evenings. Cook dinner, watch tv, surf the internet, watch anime. That's it. So bored. Yearning for shopping! Not grocery shopping, but looking at pretty clothes and shoes, or even furniture! Haa.. Actually malls are open till 9pm here, it's just that they aren't near. Without a car, it's really hard to get to them. The ones in downtown closes at 6pm.. Damn, it sucks.

When you are poor, you improvise!
I've always like flowers. They are so pretty. Was so tempted to buy a bunch of flowers when I was at the supermarket on Sunday, but one bunch of tulips costs $9! Then you still have to get a vase. So, being practical me, I didn't.
However, that did get me in the mood, so I ended up being a 采花贼。Of course, I didn't pick the planted flowers along the road. I picked the wild ones in the field, along with some weeds and pine cones. I didn't had a pot or vase, so I used my yogurt tub! Wrapped it with rough paper, and wah lah.. you get an instant flower pot! So, put everything together with a bit of 心思, you get an instant flower arrangment at $0!! Nice?