Having Pinkberry on a cold night out in NYC wasn't such a good idea!

Guess my worries about food in NYC were unnecessary. Tonight we went back to that Jap place we fell in love with the first time we ate there. Good authentic Jap food at cheap prices. How cheap? The two of us had a small place of appetizer (stewed slice beef and potato), edamame (green, soybean pods), a bowl of katsu don and shoyu ramen. And it cost us about 17USD. That's cheap for NYC! The only drawback was the place was so packed that the queue to get in was pretty long. But it was great. On our way back to campus, we stopped by Pinkberry for some healthy yogurt (haha, must emphasize the word healthy to make myself feel better). It wasn't such a great idea cos' tonight was super cold! The temperature today was 12 degrees celsius. The weather's turning cold, and I'm kinda worried about the impending winter. I don't think I'm equipped to deal with it. This morning I wanted to leave the house wearing a pair of tights under a denim skirt, and thank God I changed my mind and instead wore my jeans over it. Guess vanity needs to be cast aside when warmth is at stake. The cold is just too unbearable for me to dress to the nines and look cool and hip! 

Forgive my ramblings. It's late. I guess it's also because it's the midterms period coming up and I'm kinda exhausted. Not that I've been studying hard. In fact, I haven't. I'm taking five courses (the norm is four) this semester but one of them is really insignificant--I just attend 1 hour lab meetings every fortnight and do some video codings for that course. Only sad part is that I'm paying a hefty sum for course credits to do that course! Oh no, I'm rambling again. Caught the "discursive flu" from my professor; she really goes on and on. She is a very nice lady, but unfortunately she goes on and on. Anyway, I think I need to exercise to shake off the exhaustion and restore some vitality in my life. I really hope I don't get fat. Though there isn't fantastic hawker fare or Chinese food here, there are quite a few options to choose from. Today, I bought a salad and I couldn't finish it. So I left slightly less than half of it and left it under my table in class, thinking that I would bring it back home to eat it as a meal--food's not cheap here u'know, and the salad cost me USD6.23!!! But I forgot about it :( 

Okay, I'm turning circumstantial....I think I better stop before I go into "word salad" mode. Will provide more updates soon. Oh yes, praise God! I need to give Him some glory here. I somehow have made it into several research labs that will hopefully put in a better place for the PhD applications. I'm sure I'm in good hands and He has a great plan for me. I'm so eager to get my hands dirty on some research work! 

Here's a retro clip for those 70s, early 80s babies. Fantastic singing, and wonderful sense of nostalgia...be prepared for several laughs too. Enjoy! 

ming tian hui geng hao!

"We Are Singapore, We Are Singapore..."

Had an awesome day today...though now I feel kinda fat...=.= Probably because we just came back from dinner at Deluxe along Broadway (we had creamy fettuccine with grilled chicken, a tomato cream soup, and a cheeseburger with fries!!!), plus we just dropped by West Side Market to get some groceries after that. We'll be attempting to cook rice tomorrow--yippee!!!--with our new Ang-mo brand rice-cooker. Hopefully the rice that comes out won't be Ang-mo-fied *horrified*!

We went to this Singaporean potluck lunch at TC today, and made so many new Singaporean friends---yay! You have no idea how happy I am :D It's nice being around people from home...*warm chummy feeling*. And eating Singaporean and Malaysian food... But for me, the best part of the interaction is not having to cook up a pseudo-American accent. I just find myself code-switching very naturally when I speak to Americans. Some of my lab-mates actually told me they like my Singaporean accent. Heh, it sounds refined because it's the Queen's English. I'm trying very hard not to code-switch now; it can be effortful trying to think of how Americans would say something and focusing on the content of the message, but it's just so natural to do so when you hear someone speaking with that accent to you. I'm proud of my Singlish accent, and I use it when I speak up in class! (: But of course not the cannot-make-it, super broken kind-lah! Our slangs are cool though...Haha! Anyway, I was so exhilarated. There was so much to talk about cos' we didn't know what course they were in or what backgrounds they came from. It was so easy just making conversation and speaking naturally. Then some of us stayed back to play Cranium. That was so much fun-lor! We'll probably register ourselves with the Singapore Consulate in NYC. Apparently, they hold events where they'll invite Singaporeans living in NYC to attend. There could be free dinners. We heard that recently George Yeo came down, and many tried to take photos with him heh...

After having a whale-of-a-time, we headed downtown to Times Square Church for the evening service, which was as usual, AWESOME. This time the choir did not have their choir robes on, so it was a pretty sight with so many diverse colors among the group onstage. It was the same choir that ministered in the mornings. Woah! They practically spend a whole day in church I guess. The worship-leader was excellent; female powerhouse. She was also new to us. They started with a series of upbeat Jewish-type songs. So catchy that I couldn't help dancing along. As usual, Pastor Conlon spoke brilliantly, though at some point I was really sleepy. He just speaks so much hope and truth into people's lives and I just find it so amazing. Every week I just can't wait to go to church to praise and worship the name of the Lord, and to hear the Word preached to us. The service always ends with a time of worship, which is great. And the choir would minister in song during the offering collection. The song they sang tonight was absolutely beautiful: Total Praise composed by Richard Smallwood. 

The weekend's over! Time flies man! Life here has been a wonderful experience so far. There's so much to look forward to and I'm so glad I'm alive. All because of Jesus man! I'm just soaking in all the cultural experiences here. There is so much diversity and I'm glad to contribute to this diversity as a Singaporean. U'know, being a minority here makes me so attuned to the ethnic mix here. Though we have all these implicit ideas about the different races, there is so much within-group variation that we often ignore. Nonetheless, you just pick up certain tendencies of different groups. Whatever the case, we'll all be singing the same tune in Heaven! Oh maybe not...we'll have some singing Country, some doing rap, and others doing opera! That'll be lovely! 

My apathy towards politics...

Americans ought to be vexed over the looming economic downturn. Exacerbating this worry is the failure of the country's lawmakers to come to a consensus on the proposed US financial bailout. I wonder how different factions are going to resolve this matter, but I am far from worried out this at this point. I'm definitely more perturbed by the draft intro I need to submit in less than two week's time for my Empirical Research course. This apathy towards the current economic and political situation is probably borne out of the desensitizing effect of exposure to copious news of political turmoil and upheaval around the world. Countries are changing leaders (in some cases, ousting them), and new leaders are tasked with the gargantuan task of "cleaning up the mess" in their new governments and countries. Perhaps, I'm not so disturbed because the political situation at home is stable (ha ha, with the trinity reigning at the top, of course). Isn't it something to be thankful about? 

I'm more helpless at the fact that the weeks are flying by so quickly. It's been more than a month since I touched down in NYC and now it's autumn. The temperature's getting lower and we're seeing more and more precipitation in the coming days. Glad I finally got my rubber boots and leather boots after scouting weekend after weekend through all the female shoe sections of departmental stores. I really hope I'll be able to survive the cold. The nights now are really chilly and I dread the impending winter. Okay, going to stop here and leave you with some photos of the pasta we cooked on Wed night. 

Pesto base linguine with mushroom and italian portobello mushroom sausage

[Belle, saw the photo of the spaghetti you cooked on your blog...check ours out!]

Tucking in to what's 10x better than Pasta Mania's pasta...!

A Flushing Discovery!!!

Praise God! Found a new place to feast on Chinese and Malaysian (pseudo-Singaporean) cuisine, and to buy Asian groceries from (can find Milo, Chu Qian Yi Ding, Kai Lan, Ribena, century egg, etc.)! Yippeee... This place is called Flushing--don't ask me why, I really have no idea. It's in Queens, another borough of New York City (the others being Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, etc.). Haha, it's like a second Chinatown with a little Korea attached to it. My friend, Celia from Taiwan, recommended me to this place called Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao, which is (obviously) known for xiao long bao, and so (obviously) we had xiao long bao!

Super juicy xiao long bao!!!

Eating the xiao long bao with care.

We also had pork chop noodles which was extremely tasty, soya bean milk, and you tiao. And it was cheap!! Compared to Manhattan, that is. Later on, we went to Macy's and got me a pair of red, polka-dot rain boots! I really like them. But I'm too lazy to take a photo of them and post it here. Maybe next time yah. They cost me 69 bucks. As I was paying I was chatting with this Chinese-American salesgirl who has the same last name as me, birthday in October like me, and wants to go to TC. So much details in just a while eh? That's because she spent a long time helping me to apply for a Macy's card which was unsuccessful in the end because I didn't have a Social Security Number. Meanwhile, I also helped to do translation for two customers who could only speak Mandarin. Knowing chinese is really helpful--especially in the line of work I want to do and it looks good on my CV too. I just joined this research team at the School of Epidemiology that is embarking on a project to do with Schizophrenia in the Chinese-American immigrant community and I'm in the translation team because I'm bilingual! It is a precious language. Don't lose it. 

After shopping at the Chinese supermarket (where we bought 12 packets of instant mee!), we went to have bubble tea. They have Quickly there. But it wasn't as nice as the one in Singapore. The pearls were too chewy and tasteless. I bet I can find better ones here. My mum should really set up a stall selling bubble tea near Columbia. It'll be money-raking! Finally, we had dinner at this place called Sentosa, which serves Malaysian (not Singaporean) food. We had Hainanese Chicken Rice and Curry Chicken Rice, and they were pretty good! Haha, and cheap too (again as compared to Manhattan). They have other stuff like Roti Canai (that is, Roti Prata) and ice kachang. Looks like we'll be back for more. 

Won't be missing Singapore food no more!

I'll be going back on Tuesday to meet my relatives for lunch. Apparently, I got two distant aunts (or grandaunts) there and I'll be visiting them at Flushing together with my uncle who is coming to NYC tomorrow. Got a lot of shopping to do when I go there on Tuesday. It's gonna be a 1 hour plus ride on the subway man. It's pretty far but worth the visit! 

Gonna stop here cos' I need to do some work. It's the end of the weekend; another week just flew by. Tomorrow night is the debut of the new season of HEROS on NBC!!! Yay! Can't wait. Here's a song that I really love that Times Square Church did today--very uplifting!

UNCHANGING by Chris Tomlin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrGbVmfOw1A

Super hot Sunday - 09-14-2008 !!!

Hi everyone! I'm going to blog about today. It was really hot today. The weather has been a little erratic: cloudy and rainy on one day, and bright and hot on the next. Ha ha, it's been driving me nuts because I need to dress appropriately for the weather. I either end up overdressed and underdressed. So checking the weather forecast is a must before I leave the apartment. 

As per other Sundays, we went to Times Square Church today. Took some shots of the church facade and within the church:

Times Square Church located at 51st Street along Broadway

That's me standing across the street from the church!

The building is actually an old theatre so the ceiling is very elaborately designed.

This is the view from the gallery snapped before service began. The service starts at 10 am but people come here as early as 8 am just to secure seats! Last Sunday, we couldn't get seats cos' we went at 9.40 am so this week we were more kiasu! If you notice a man onstage, that's the senior pastor who was walking and praying before service. And people would gather at the altar area (below the stage) to pray every Sunday.

This was taken after service (obviously I'll be too preoccupied to take photos during service).You can see the choir onstage in their white robes and the pastor at the pulpit area. They were doing a baby dedication, so there were families onstage. And the crowds below are not extended family members. They were responding to an earlier altar call!

After church, we walked down Madison Avenue to go to the Apple Store to buy a cable for my new Samsung printer. Here are some shots taken along the way and of course shots of the Apple Store which was really cool. The place was crowded with people and according to the cashier I spoke to, he said the store opened 24 hours and it is crowded all the time (don't think he meant during the ungodly hours like 3 am though!). There were so many iPods, Macbooks, etc. displayed for people to play around with. And the store assistants, or "Specialists" really look hip, young and friendly. Ha ha, Mac is really about lifestyle and not branding anymore!

Travel by horse carriage - additional way of seeing NYC & getting tourists to spend $$

The smell of horse manure was really pungent in the air!

The mecca for all Mac fans! Ha Ha no prizes for whose fave store this is!

Apple fans - actually it's just one Apple fan, I'm not that fanatic yet!

Check out the contours of this building. Nice reflective surface too.

It's the Louis Vuitton building (rightmost building)! Fans of Louis sure must love this.

The previous photo was actually taken in Harlem. We took a walk along 25th Street to look for Havaianas. Happens that the only shop selling those flipflops is situated in Harlem. But to our disappointment, there were no male designs--now you know who we were shopping for! We didn't really take many pictures there cos' it was our first time visiting the area and we were busy appreciating the sights and sounds, and being vigilant. We were the only 2 out of 3 Asians walking around there on a Sunday afternoon--other person was this old Chinese woman selling terrapins to a bunch of Blacks...which was quite an interesting sight. I didn't dare to snap that on my cam so instead we took this pix of Popeye's...LOL!!!

After Harlem, we went back to rest before whipping up a nice pasta dinner. It was yummy!!! Ha ha, we are really perfecting our pasta...so far we have used 2 kinds of bases, marinara and pesto. Next, we'll try Alfredo! I must say, our pasta beats Pasta Mania's hands down! Watch out for photos of the food we cook in my subsequent postings! For now, photos from PINKBERRY, this hip dessert chain that has hordes of Columbia student supporters! Their desserts are simply heavenly and delectable - it's just yogurt (choose from original, green tea and coffee flavor) and select your toppings from an array of fruits and cereal!!!  

 

Haha,  just posing with my PINKBERRY! Relax, I'm not eating both portions.

Front cup: Med-sized, original yogurt with blackberries, kiwis, and Captain Crunch.

Rear cup: Med-sized, original yogurt with strawberries, kiwis, and mochi! 

Guess who ordered which... 

Answer revealed!!!

Finally made it home to set up my new Samsung printer with the cable I bought from the Apple Store. It looks nice right? But it's super heavy and takes up a lot of space!!! I was so frustrated earlier on that the paper kept jamming. And I later realized that my paper was considered "thick" and I had to alter the settings on the computer....zzzzzz....zzzz....zzz...zz. The stack of paper I bought cost me eight bucks--USD, mind you!!! 

Haha, it's super late!!! I've done it again! It took me so long to upload and format the photos. I had to drag each one to the exact spot and every time I uploaded them, they appeared right on top of my posting. Okay, shall end here...and that also marks the end of my day anyway. Just want to leave you with something that touched me during the service today...second verse of Amazing Grace. Tears just rolled down uncontrollably today as we sang it in church.

Twas' grace that taught my heart to fear

And grace my fears relieved

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed...

It wasn't by chance that I got to know you, Lord. It was by your grace that I experienced fear in my heart--the fear of things around me and the fear of You, Lord--and the only way to bring relief to those fears was to run into Your wide and open arms. And by that same grace, You calmed my fears and still do today. It wasn't by chance. It was all because of Your amazing grace.