Adventurous Christmas Eve

After yesterday's not so successful experiment but still exciting, Ping planned for another experiment today. Was pretty kuai as Ping came in right at 7.30am, have everything ready and inoculated the culture at 8.30am. At 9.15am, Ping took some vials down to 4th floor to get counts and on her way back, she realized that she left the lab AND office key IN the office! See...both sets (office/lab and the 4th floor) of keys have the same keychain - MBL keystring. So when Ping know that the string is hanging out from Ping's pocket, Ping thought that was the office key. But it was not! It's the 4th floor key! So what was Ping suppose to do??????????? It's Christmas eve!!!! Steph and Dion are both back in Illinois. Tom is at Ohio. Fan didn't have the key to the lab. Uri!!!! Ping called Uri, feeling bad that it's Christmas eve and ask to get the key from him.

Then when Ping look at the bus schedule, it didn't seem to be that convenient after all. The earliest bus is at 10am. Ping gets to Uri's place at 10.20am. BUT the next bus back is at 11.20am!!!! That is totally not possible! Ping's culture would be way pass OD of 0.1 already! And Ping needs to spike it! Next thing that came to mind - bike!! So Ping got the hypoxic chamber room key from Fan - that's where Ping 'parks' her bike - cycled to Uri's place and got there by 10.05am!(That's a 25 minute ride - from BPS to Lake Lansing) It is the first time ever since Ping got back from M'sia that she wishes it does not snow and the temperature does not drop. Why? All Ping had for a sweater is Fan's MSU sweatshirt that is super huge! It was freaking cold! Underneath the sweater, it was just a t-shirt! But after cycling for a while, it started to feel pretty nice. The sun start shining, there wasn't much cars to worry about, the sceneries on the way there was wonderful. It would have been a lovely cycling trip if Ping wasn't constantly thinking what OD her culture would be by the time she got back.

Took the key from Uri, said hi to Norbert and Channah, went to the bus stop to catch the 10.20am bus. Ping had to borrow Fan's card for the bus as she didn't have her purse with her either! Finally got back to lab at 10.35am and culture was at 0.09 OD. Phew! Still can spike it!

What a Christmas eve! Now that everything is back to normal and drama is over, Ping still wishes that it would like this outside. *grins*
This picture was taken on December 3rd of 2005 - we haven't even seen snow falling and staying on the ground yet. It snowed a little early November but it didn't stay. It snowed for a couple days while Ping was back in M'sia too but by the time Ping was back, there wasn't any snow pile visible. Ping totally miss the snow! Just doesn't feel like it's wintertime. A little too much like Spring.

Kurma chicken and roti canai

Wheeee...it's time to go home for dinner! It's been nice working today as the 'experiment' is finally working! Well...not totally yet but it's one step forward. Definitely boost the excitement for tomorrow. Now Ping just wants to go home, get a good meal of dinner, maybe watch a movie and go to bed.

Made Kurma chicken a few days back but now only the potatoes are left. Ping used too much potato. But it would definitely be good with some roti canai!! Ping also added some chick peas just to thicken the curry. But of course Ping didn't make it from scratch lah. It is the wonders of Hup Loong!! - imported all the way from Penang!! They actually sell it at this online Malaysian FoodMarket store but USD 4.95 for one packet! Can you imagine how many packets can you get from Chowrasta market with that price??????? Gila!
As for the roti canai, it's the frozen Roti Paratha from Kawan. No fresh roti canai here *boo* Ping only have the picture to drool at.

Jolly Jolly day

Ping accomplished two things that makes Ping happy.

Ping get to talk to tua taukeh and propose her idea. Tua taukeh agreed to let Ping ponder on that and we agreed on Ping's priorities. Yippeee!!!!

The other one...Ping came to peace with a thought that was juggling around in her head for the past two weeks that Ping have been back. On the day Ping left home, Panda told Ping something that confuses her. Ping was afraid she was reading too much into it or that Panda was upset at that time. So Ping just push it back and avoid thinking about it. Today, Ling and Fan wanted to know what happened so Ping told them about the conversations. That's when Ping realize that Panda is most likely confused and couldn't take it in any longer, decided to tell Ping about it. It feels like Ping was telling a sad story. Not upset, just sad...how one would feel at the end of a sad movie like Tristan & Isolde. Ping only wish that Panda knows how to help himself 'coz Ping can no longer do anything to help Panda.

Now, it would be awesome if there's some snow on Christmas day. Maybe if Ping is 'gooder' these two days, Santa would give Ping some snow on Christmas day. *bleh*

The Exchange

Hmm...when was the last time Ping went clubbing? The last Ping can remember is during Spring break this year, when Mike came back for a visit. We went to Rum Runners to watch a piano duel. That was also the last time Ping had an alcoholic drink at a club (don't count Woods Hole lah...that time everyone drinks and the dorm room is just down the road). Ping didn't have to drive and Ping had a chaperon.

Ever since the 'drinkers' left, Ping usually have to drive and Ping's partner-in-crime - Fandango - doesn't drive!! And since Ping's tolerance to alcohol is super low, no driving is allowed if Ping wanna drink. This past Saturday, Larissa and Zarini asked Ping to go to The Exchange as the Hukster was playing. But it would be kinda weird going to a club and not drink right? Not only does Ping not can't drink alcoholic drinks, but Ping don't drink pop either! Totally weird. So Ping invited her partner-in-crime to come along.
Off we went to The Exchange, Ping thinking that it would be pretty subtle and nice since finals are over and most undergrads would be gone by then. Unfortunately, Lansing has a decent size community that The Exchange was still packed with people. Packed!!! Totally not Ping's choice of environment. But thankfully, we found a table all the way at the other end of the club, where we could barely see the band. Then, Ping found out that Larissa was probably not gonna come so Ping was really glad Fandango was there. It turned out to be pretty fun later although Ping could only see their guitarist, Mark.
The Hukster mostly plays old songs from ACDC, Jet, Eric Clapton, Stones, Johnny Cash and bunch of others with an addition of their own songs here and there. Fandango and Ping totally sucked at naming who sang the songs. We could sing along but while we were trying to guess the source of the song, we were totally wrong! Bleh!

Friday night

It's Friday night! Went out to get some baby stuff for Uri and Rachel's baby, Channa. It was also a Christmas shopping trip for Jen...so productive when one knows what they want! Dan used to take forever to go Christmas shopping, last year, he had to go back to Cali without a present for his lil bro, which he end up getting him a Blockbuster gift cert. online.

After all the shopping, we went over to Steph's place and had fun making and EATING dinner. The appetizer was Tater Tots - kinda like French fries but it's much shorter and fatter with a crispy layer on the outside.

The main dish - cocktail sausage wrap. Jen cut the Pillsbury Crescent dough into half and we wrapped it around the cocktail sausage, or frankfurters as they call it here (have to be careful when buying them because some of the sausage are thin, tiny, oily ones that taste weird. Never did develop a taste for them. They can also come in round shaped like the Sausage McMuffin at McD). Baked them in the oven (biasalah...all kuai lo food uses the oven as a very important cooking utensil..a si boh, ha mik pun beh hiow choo) until it's golden brown. Reminds Ping of Tua Ee's hot dog bun...it's been a long time.
We also had salad - one of the food that Ping really likes here. They should definitely serve it at McD back home. Steph introduced Ping to a new salad dressing and Ping loves it! It is the Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette. This is now Ping's second favorite salad dressing, next to the Japanese miso-sesame-ginger salad dressing.

sushi

This trip back home, Ping only had one meal of sushi. Ping have been eating sushi here in Lansing every once in a while so that wasn't a priority on Ping's things-to-eat-back-home list. The sushi here are pretty good too, except for the raw seafood ones. Don't dare to try them since fresh seafood are hard to come by in Michigan...no sea lah!

We were in KL at that time. Walked from KLCC to Bukit Bintang Plaza. It was a nice walk as Ping haven't look around KL for a while. Ping can say "I walked the streets of KL!". Hehee.. The only scary thing was the thought of being robbed was constantly in the mind, especially when a motorbike whiz by. Is it because Ping had a bad experience before? or Ping now carries a handbag instead of a wallet in the pocket? or walking in KL is scary? No idea but the thought was there.

Alright, back to the topic. We arrived BB Plaza close to lunch time and Ping and dad thought of sushi. Looked around, no Sushi King or Genki Sushi at BB Plaza! But we saw a Japanese restaurant that serves sushi. They just opened when we stepped through the door. The sushi trail has yet to start so we just ordered from the menu.

The setting was unique as they are separated into booth where you get a little privacy (as compared to the counter style chairs for Genki or Sushi King).
The food was just so so but Ping didn't expect it to be super good as the place look a little chiplak for real Japanese food. The seaweed wrap was a bit 'lau hong'. Ping would definitely not go back to the place. The most fun experience was that the sushi trail was an electric train. Definitely caught our attention.

back to work

Ping was back in lab since Monday. Got a warm welcome back from Steph and Jen!!

Here's the office....

Here's the lab...
Ping took down the lights few days ago as Ping have to be productive again. Kekeke...The balloons are all gone too, except for 2 that are still under Ping's table, waiting to be exploded. Ping's favorite is this little gloved face. It's sitting on Ping's desk now. Isn't it cute?

Transiting at LAX

This entry was typed when Ping was at LAX, trying to get herself comfortable on the wooden chair.

It is just an airport but Ping have spent quite a number of nights here. The first time Ping came to this airport, Ping was full of hope, happiness, wanting the trip to be something meaningful. It was in May 2004. Great friends dropped us off and that was the last time Ping had so much fun with them. Ping never met 2 of them again. We met only for a short while but they were real friends.

Arriving LAX that summer, Ping and the special someone stayed close to the airport. But from the packing and last minute gathering with friends, we were so tired that we slept most of the afternoon away. It wasn’t until later at night that we met up with Sree and Meena. We never overlapped in college. We met at Campus Kitchen. But they became close friends to Ping. Meena especially. We talked about our guys, clothes, our bitchy boss, family, craps. She was the first, along with Sree who told Ping that when they look at Ping and her guy together, they knew it was love. When they hear Ping’s guy talked about Ping, they could see he loved Ping a whole lot. Ping told Meena about the ups and downs but she said, regardless, she could see he sayang Ping a lot and it would be worth it.

The next day, all four of us met up with Ning, another girl Ping met at CK, who brought us around LA. We walked along the most well-known street in LA, drove by Beverly Hills, ate really good and cheap Thai food, joke, teased, laughed and had the best time of our lives. We took pictures with “Hollywood” but Ping never did get any of them. But it doesn’t matter. Sitting here in Terminal 1 waiting for Ping’s flight back to Detroit, the memories come floating back. With or without the photos, the short time we had here at LA is still fresh.

Today, Sree and Meena is a newly married couple. On that wonderful day, all four of us were unsure of what the future lies for us except that Meena and Ping had a common dream – hers came true just about a week ago. At that time, Sree and Meena just got their first job but were both situated in different part of the States. Ping was going home with her guy. But we were both from different states in M’sia. Ping’s hard work paid off with a successful application to grad school in MSU so Ping’s plan was to come back to Michigan in a few months. He was to find a job back home and stay. The moment we board the plane to go home was the end of making a dream together. We never talked about it. We never ask the question we wanted to ask – asking each other to stay or not to go.

But life is all about taking chances right? While Ping is in a crappy mood because her butt is aching from sitting in uncomfortable chair all night, she is going back to a great research project (not exactly going smoothly but it’s a fun one!) whom she is enthusiastic about, to a lab full of interesting stories (although it’s getting smaller), great American friends (who are totally not like those we used to think Americans are), her own apartment (although it can be lonely sometimes) and her very own life. No doubt, Ping have thought what would it be like if Ping had not come here but what’s the point right? It doesn’t mean the dream Ping had in May 2004 is not achievable, it just may be with a different person and not as soon as it would have been (but who knows, even if Pinghad not come here, it could take even longer!). As the commonly heard phrase, "what is love without suffering? " One could not really appreciate what they have until they lost it.

Back to life in Michigan!

Right now, Ping is enjoying Nora Robert's Chesapeake Blue and two packs of Mamee! Yum yum!

on the bus

Ping arrived Detroit about an hour ago. Instead of renting a car to drive home this time, Ping booked a ticket with Michigan Flyer. It's a new bus service that runs between Lansing and the Detroit airport. However, Ping booked for the 9.20pm bus as Ping wasn't sure how long the luggage and custom clearance will take. But since Ping was early, Ping went out to the bus stop at about 8pm and not too long, a bus came!! Wheee!!!

There's more to this. Unlike most bus service, it has a 'laptop station' where they have a laptop hooked up to a printer AND wireless internet connection! That's exactly what Ping is using to type this entry. Isn't that awesome? M'sia should start implementing this. Keke..

fruit basket

An old joke but was brought up yesterday during dinner.

For Hokkien lou pohs, what are the fruits that should be sent to the guy whom she's having an affair with when the lou kong leaves the house?

5 fruits

1) Ang ki
2) Ang cho
3) Li ya
4) Lai ya
5) Chiam

*grins*

wrong number

Ping's house number - *** 1212
Bayview Beach Resort - *** 2123

If one were to dial with carelessness and add a 1 before the 2, dialing *** 12123, the 3 will go unregistered and they would end up dialing Ping's house number. You would think that it is not very common but we get at least one call a day asking for Bayview Beach Resort. On weekends, we can get up to 3 wrong number calls.

A few days back, dad picked up the phone

Caller: Bayview Beach Resort?
Dad: No, this is hill view.
Caller: Oh, do you have any rooms available?
Dad: Oh, no. This is a house facing the hill.

Mum and Ping laughed our heads off. Dad probably scare the person away. But isn't that a good opportunity for us? Can build a small little room at our spacious garden and rent them out to people.

要去了

还 有机天我一订要回去美国了。 可是我很不想回去。到美国， 家里觉的很静，很
孤独，生活想是没有什么意思。每天都是工作。 早晨作直到夜间。回到家也是一个
人吃饭。 这里有爸爸， 妈妈，还有很多 亲戚。 婆婆 当 然会很不高兴。
那怎么办呢? 没办法，必须要勇敢好好过去这几年。

Breeks

We arrived at Gurney Plaza a little less than an hour before the movie on Wednesday. Yet to get lunch, we decided to go to a fast food restaurant – Breeks. BAD service! The staff seems to be more interested in eating their lunch than serving us.

We ordered the fried fish lunch set (top), which came with a scoop of ice-cream and a bowl of soup, and a blackened Cajun fish. The fish were satisfactory but the Cajun fish was served with barbeque sauce instead! They didn’t even serve us the soup until dad asked the waitress, “Miss, when do we get the soup?”. She smiled and said that it is suppose to be whenever we want it but she forgot to ask us. It took us a while to get their attention to ask for anything. Definitely a disappointing lunch. Si pek kui somemore. We should have gone to try the Food Loft.

The Red Kebaya

Went to watch Red Kebaya with parents yesterday at Gurney Plaza.

Definitely not a movie that Ping would pay to watch in the cinema. However, Ping wanted to watch something M'sian or Chinese, which is why we ended going for that movie. Another reason was because the movie has scenes in Penang but disappointingly, there were not many scenes. Most of the show were situated in a house that we don't know if it exist and Cheong Fatt Tze mansion, which Ping has been in before.

Anyone gone up to the 1st station of Penang Hill? Ping wonders if the house in the movie is real. Is there really a house there? Passing the 1st station countless times, it didn't seem like a place that is easily accessible. Now Ping is curious and wants to go there but parents are not keen into exploring places like that. Chai chai lah, Penang u chin chia che ko su...especially areas like that.

homecook food

Homecook food! There's no food better than homecook food. The best cook is Gee Kim but mum's food is way better than any food Ping have eaten for a long long time. The vege is "or kui tau" , which literally means "black ghost bean" but it is actually French bean. Mum stir-fry it with "hae bee" (dried prawns) and a bit of sambal. The soup is lotus root soup with chicken bones - leng ngau t'ng. In the States, chicken bones are only available at the Oriental market or if you were to buy whole chicken. Here, we commonly use chicken bone to make the soup tasty as we don't like to eat the chicken meat after using it to boil the soup. Lotus root are not always available at Oriental Market. In fact, Ping has only made this soup once in the States.

The black dish on the left is "or bak" - blackened pork. That's one of Ping's favorite. It is lean pork meat marinated with dark soya sauce and stir fry with pepper and light soya sauce. Mum used to make them when Ping was in high school. She would freeze them and when Ping comes back from school, heat them up with a microwave and have that with rice. Yum yum! The shelled dish on the bottom right is "la la". That's another popular seafood but it seems to be rare these days - extinction??? When Ping was a little Ping, we could just go to the beach with a little basket, sit down at the area where the water comes up to the sand and sieve out the water. We used to be able to collect enough for the entire family of 15. That was a long long time ago...

What could be a better meal than this?
Oh yeah...mum even made us snack! This snack is a Beijing local delicacy. Dad introduced it to us while he was in Beijing. The preparation takes forever as the potato has to be sliced to very thin strips. Can't remember what exactly it is called..something "tu dou xi" (potato strips). The potato strips are dipped into hot oil along with dried chillis until the color turns golden brown. Unlike the long preparation time, eating it is really simple. *grins*.

marketing

Wet market - that's one of the many things that Ping have yet to see at the many places Ping have visited in the States (excluding Chinatowns). The closest one to us is the Tanjung Bungah market. There's another small one just at the end of the road from our house but those are smaller stalls and have lesser choices. So parents usually go to the Tanjung Bungah market unless they just want to buy one or two things.

To get fresh stuff, one would have to be at the market really early, best before 9am. On Ping's second day back home, mum woke Ping up at 7.30am (7.30am!!!! Ping is on holiday!!!...hehe..but Ping was excited so it was pretty easy to wake up). At the market, there is also a section of hawker stalls where we had our breakfast before going over to the market. One of the best food there is their "kari mee" (curry noodles, which are available at Ria in Lansing but it sure is nothing close to this one).

Ping is not a big fan of mee so Ping usually get a combination of bihun (thin rice noodle) and mee (yellow noodle). The soup for kari mee is made of chilli, coconut milk, and ground up spices. The stuff that comes with it are usually tau pok (beancurd), tiny prawns, and po ho (mint). The one that we have here also comes with sotong boi (cuttlefish's tail). Yum yum! Most spicy soup dishes also comes with a spoonful of chilli (no idea why) but Ping usually give it to ahmah.

Wet market is actually pretty gross if one has already been to the Western countries. Ping is sure most of Ping's friends at the States would feel gross seeing this pictures too as the Western countries have cleanliness as a very important aspect of their culture. However, growing up with even worse environment (ie. the Bayan Baru market), this is a pretty organized and clean market. Growing up eating food bought from wet market rather than supermarket, we know that no problem is encountered unless a virus had infected the farm where the food come from. But if Ping was brought up in a Western country, Ping would probably not step into the market.

The picture on the left is the seafood section. There's where we get the catch of the day - ranging from fish to cuttlefish, prawns, and sometimes, if we're lucky, lala (a type of soft-shelled mussel)! The one on the right is the fruits section. Look at the variety of fruits!!! Ping bought xie liu (na shi hwa yi, fu qian hua jiao shen me ne?), which is very expensive in the States as they are important from Korea or China.

As M'sia is a Muslim country, we have to respect the Muslim's choice to not eat pork. So pork are usually sold in a separate section. It is away from all other food so that they don't have to pass by the stalls.

The best thing is, the prices at wet market are bargainable...to some extent. Ping is not good at bargaining so mum and dad does most of it. Ping only stood back and carry them. Hehe..

Pan Mee

Just before we catch the bus at Puduraya to come back to Penang, Ping had "Pan Mee" at Petaling Street - Chinatown of Kuala Lumpur.

Pan Mee is one of the dish that is specific to KL. There are a few stalls in Penang but they are not as good as the ones in KL. It is a type of rice noodle soup dish. The soup is a type of chicken stock soup or ikan bilis stock soup. It is also served with vegetables, usually "mani chai" but the one Ping had has a different type of vege. Nevertheless, it was delicious.

Dinner with Tua Ee and Tua Tiau

Ping was at KL a couple of days back. Went down just to apply for Ping's US Visa. Yeap, it's been 5 years since Ping first step onto the land of opportunity. It's also been 5 years since Ping walked the street of KL, knowing where to find stuff and where's the best place to eat.

This trip is Ping's first trip back to KL since a long long time. The last time Ping was at KL, it was late night and Ping only went to Zouk with Edmund. Didn't get a chance to look around. This time Ping, mum and dad was out since 7am in the morning to beat the long queue at the US Embassy. Even then, Ping had to be in line for about 10 minutes. Thankfully, the application process took less than an hour.

Once the application was done, we roam around KL, going from Lot 10 to Bukit Bintang Plaza, walking to Low Yat Plaza, crossing the street to Berjaya Times Square. Most of the places still looks the same except that the 'hip' stuff are much different, which doesn't seem to suit Ping. Therefore, instead of shop till Ping is broke, Ping end up window shopping as Ping did not see anything that caught her attention. This is Ping's first time to Berjaya too - there's a Borders there!
Later that night, Ping get to meet Tua Ee, Tua Tiau and ML for dinner at a Chinese restaurant at SS15. SS15 is pretty much the same as before, cars everywhere, but the road to SS15 is totally different. Definitely not somewhere Ping can drive around.

We had kangkung belachan, tippan taufu, ang hu char chai por, thai chicken, and claypot hu piou. The kangkung belachan is really 'phang'. Ping tried to cook the same thing using spinach but belachan and spinach just doesn't seem to match very well. The ang hu is very fresh and it is also unique since people don't usually use chai por to char hu. Best of all, where can we get such fresh ang hu in Michigan??? Definitely gotta eat lots of fish while Ping is back. Even if they do have this fish in Michigan, by the time it is sold to us consumers, all Ping can get is the fillet. The tail and head would be gone.

first meal in Penang

Ping arrived Penang International Airport at 9.30am this morning. Was really excited to be back and it felt good just being back although the weather is really hot and humid!! Mum and dad came to pick Ping up and we went for breakfast. It was a small kopitiam close to the airport. Ping had roti bakar with half boiled egg! A simply dish - a typical Penang style breakfast for some, but Ping had not made it for a long time. A reminder that sometimes the simplest thing can be more satisfying than anything more complicated.

Time for bed....it's still early but Ping is kinda tired from lugging around the luggage and barely slept this morning.

the flight home

Ping is currently at Changi Airport, Singapore. Guess what...this is Ping's FIRST time in Singapore or Singapore airport. Yeap..it's just right below M'sia and yet Ping have yet to step foot in until today. As of today, Changi Airport is Ping's favorite airport. There's tons of stuff to do and lots of comfortable chair AND free internet connection! They even have kiosk with webcams!!! Wow wee!! Isn't that awesome??? There's also lots of food places that are still open and there's so much choices that Ping probably would have a hard time making a decision if she was going to get something to eat.

The 11 hours long flight from LA to Tokyo was great. Ping had three chairs all to herself so she could lie down straight. The movie choices were awesome too! Ping watched Pirates of the Caribbean 2, The Cars (which is soooooooo cute!!), The Break Up. Besides that, all Ping did was sleep and eat. The first meal they served was some steamed fish that came with spiced yellow rice. Ping liked the fish but not the yellow rice, which was okay because they gave us a cup of Haagen-Dazs chocolate ice-cream for dessert (yum yum!).

They also served snacks in between but Ping wasn't up to eating so much food while sitting down for 11 hours so Ping packed some and skipped some. Dinner was chicken pasta which was really good! It also came with blackforest cake but there was too much icing on it so Ping just ate half of it.






After the 11 hours flight, the plane stopped at Tokyo for 1 hour, which Ping greatfully took as an opportunity to stretch and walk around instead of more sitting.

The flight from Tokyo to S'pore was about 7 hours. It was a fully plane so Ping didn't get to stretch out as much but it was fine. Unfortunately, the guy sitting next to Ping ordered cups after cups of wine which kinda make Ping uncomfortable initially - was feeling queasy from the odor of the wine. Ping started chewing gum and felt better once he stopped and went to sleep. Ping barely sleep on this flight which was bad because it's suppose to be at night in M'sia. Ping ended up watching The Lake House and The Devil Wears Prada. As we were approaching S'pore, Ping also caught part of House until the air-stewardess came to collect the headphones away.

Alright, Ping should go catch some sleep as it's currently 2.48 am here. Definitely don't wanna be jet lagging later today.

leaving Michigan

Due to the last minute decision, Ping could not get tickets at reasonable price that leaves from Lansing. So Ping flew out from Detroit instead. Since Detroit is an hour plus away, Ping had to rent a car and drive to Detroit. Ping didn't feel comfortable leaving her car in the airport for 3 weeks. Steph dropped Ping off at Capitol City airport where Ping rented a car from Hertz – Hyundai Elantra. It is a really nice car as the stearing is small and the seat can be heightened but it doesn’t feel as stable as Ping’s Honda on the freeway. It was raining as Ping approaches Detroit, which made Ping more nervous as Ping felt like the car was swaying. But Ping arrived Detroit airport safely and in time to catch Ping’s flight to Phoenix. The flight from Detroit to Phoenix was bad for Ping. It wasn’t due to the weather but Ping could not sleep and was uncomfortable all the way. Furthermore, there were two girls who were chattering about their horoscope and were laughing so loud that everytime Ping dove off, their laughter woke Ping up. But eventually they were hushed by some other passengers nearby. They also showed “You, Me and Dupree“ but Ping did not buy the headphones so could not listen to it. Guessing from the actions and reading their lips, it seems like a nice movie. Ping thinks that Matt Dillon mumbles when he talks because Ping could not guess a single thing that comes out from his mouth. It always looks like he mumbles rather talk.

The wait at Phoenix is only an hour. The first thing Ping saw when arriving at Phoenix airport is California Pizza Kitchen. Ping was tempted to get it but Ping wanted to look for the boarding gate first. When Ping found the gate, the pizza place was too far and Ping was too tired to walk back. Ping typed this up while Ping was in LAX. They had online connection but you have to pay for it so this is a delayed post. The layover at LAX is definitely not comfortable because of the metal chairs. The comfortable chairs are only found after you pass the security check-point but they wouldn't allow Ping to enter 4 hours before the boarding time. Ping can already foresee her whole body aching tomorrow morning. This is the third time Ping transits at LAX and the lights of the city as we approach the airport still amaze Ping. It’s like the entire city is still awake at this wee hours in the morning, which Ping suspect is true although Ping have never stayed around at night in this city.

Besides the uncomfortable seat, it was freezing cold. These two combinations meant that Ping barely sleep all night. Could only doze off every 30 minutes. Closer to dawn, Ping got a cup of hot chocolate from Euro Coffee and it definitely did a good job at heating Ping up.

heading home....

Yeeehah! Ping will be leaving Michigan for Penang this evening. Till then...Ping will not be posting until Ping is safely home in Batu Ferringhi.

See you all home!!

kuaci

Remember the pumpkin that Ping and friends had carved for Halloween? That wasn't the end of the story to the guts. We removed the pumpkin seeds from the goeey stuff. Then spread it out on a pan that was sprayed with cooking oil, sprinkled some salt on it and bake them. That was the first time Ping learned how to prepare "kuaci". All this while, Ping thought that kuaci is directly removed from the fruit without having to be cooked.

Interestingly, Ping's friends don't remove the 'khak' when eating the kuaci. They eat the entire thing! So why don't we do that? That's easier than having to pek khak and then later have to deal with all the khak falling all over the place right? Or maybe the kuaci that we eat during Chinese New Year is the raw kuaci which is why we can't eat the khak? Hmmm...

This white one is one of Ping's favorite type of kuaci. The other type is the thin and softer shelled one - from sunflower. It's easier to pek but the 'ci' is very small compared to the less one. Chiak liow bo poi.

During CNY, some people like to serve the red and black ones. Until today, Ping never learned to pek those types of kuaci. It's very hard and for some reason, they just don't crack at the right place. Ping usually end up frustrated rather than enjoy eating it. Since Ping haven't been back for CNY the past 5 years, Ping didn't have any photos of kuaci that are commonly served during CNY but here's a site with a picture of the red kuaci.

Ping passed!!!

All the fear of having to use the unforbidden "I don't know", the waking up in the middle of the night thinking Ping is late for her prelim, the frequent wondering of how can Ping convey her understanding and knowledge to her committee members...it's over! Ping finally did her prelim on Friday, Nov. 10th, definitely an auspicious day now *grins*.

The best feeling was the relief that comes with the announcement "Congratulations, you passed". It was a simple sentence, nothing official but it's the best news for the past few months! All the while, during the writing period, the hardest for Ping was not to just go to the bench and do an experiment when Ping thought of something...there's always another experiment that needs to be done. Now Ping can concentrate on bench work again!!

Just after Ping got out from the closed-questioning session, the lab had bought Ping champagne and Ping had her name go into the history of Schmidt lab!!
It is a lab tradition that whenever someone passed their prelim or graduate, we would pop open a bottle of champagne and let the cork hit the ceiling tile. And Ping's name is now on the ceiling too!!

Halloween Day

This is almost a week old news now. But Ping just feel guilty whenever Ping try to blog or even think about stuff not related to research. With that said, Ping actually celebrated Halloween Day this year! It would have been a lot better if Ping didn't have her prelim coming up in a week but it was still a great Halloween Day. In fact, it's the 2nd time Ping actually do something fun on Halloween. The first time was at Western. It was held at Ellsworth Hall. Ping tried to look for pictures, which Ping thought we did take some but Ping couldn't find any. Maybe it was taken with someone elses camera.

This year, Ping was invited to celebrate Halloween with Steph, Jen and Kristi at Steph's place. It was definitely a unique Halloween because Ping get to carve pumpkins!! Last year, Nok, Ben and Ping went shopping for pumpkin at a pumpkin patch somewhere in Williamston on our way back from temple. But this year, Jen brought us to a shop not too far from Trappers to get the pumpkin. They have a pumpkin patch too but the pumpkins were already picked from the patch. We just have to choose the pumpkins we want - it has to be hard, especially at the bottom of the pumpkin. We drove back to Trappers with the pumpkin in the trunk, which was scary because you can hear the pumpkin bump around. But we arrived back at Steph's place with intact pumpkins!
Before anything is to be done with the pumpkin, we have to rinse it off to get rid of all the dirt. It is definitely the largest fruit (it's fruit right?) Ping had ever seen..definitely bigger than durian. Eh..wait..maybe nangka or chempedak is even larger? Hmm...can't exactly picture how big is chempedak now since Ping rarely gets to see the fruit. Just eat the chempedak goreng.

Once it is clean on the outside, the guts have to be removed. Initially, Ping thought we would be doing all this on the kitchen floor because it would be very messy but the way we did it, it wasn't too bad at all. Ping also thought that we would be saving the guts for pumpkin pie or whatever people do with pumpkin but apparently this type of pumpkin is not used for cooking. Are there any Hokkien recipes with pumpkin? Don't know any at all..and there's no pumpkin in M'sia either right? In the first place, is there a hokkien word for pumpkin? *bleh* The one pumpkin dish that Ping loves is "nangua chao yadan/xiandan" (pumpkin with salted egg). Dad introduced it to Ping when Ping went to Beijing. Ever since that first dish, everytime we get local Beijing food, that's one of the dish Ping would order. Here's a pic from Xi Hai Yu Sheng restaurant at Hou Hai, Beijing. Am sure you know which one is the pumpkin dish.
As you can see below, the pumpkin is not like most 'gua', it doesn't have a lot of flesh. So we just dig in with our fingers and pluck out all the guts. Using the spoon, we scrape until all the juicy and soft stuff are removed.
Once the guts are removed, we cleaned it up again so that it is not sticky on the outside. Then it's time to carve!! That's the fun part! Try guessing which one is Ping's... :P
While Kristi and Ping was removing the pumpkin guts, Steph and Jen made us pizza and garlic bread! The pizza was great! They didn't add the loads of cheese that you usually get from most pizza shops here. While the States are really big on pizza, they don't have those really good Pizza Hut pizza that we have in M'sia. We used to get the Hawaiian Chicken whenever mum is busy or boy wants to eat pizza. Here, the pizza are sold by number of toppings and there's ALWAYS loads of cheese! But Ping has learned a lot of good topping combination from Steph and Big K these past couple years. The toppings that Jen made for us was tomatoes and mozarella cheese.
Steph also bought us the Witches Brew wine (right next to the garlic bread). It is a spiced wine made right here in Michigan and is suggested to be served warm. Totally clueless about wine, Ping thought that wine are usually served chilled. There's definitely lots of spice in the wine and Ping is not used to it at all. Thankfully, Jen and Kristi also didn't seem to like the wine. Otherwise, Ping had to drink it all down.

proposal out of my hands

Ping finally handed in the proposal on Friday. Was it good? bad? Not sure but part of Ping feels good because Ping knows so much more writing the proposal that it almost feel like a price Ping had won, that Ping had the capability to write up a proposal good enough to hand it to professors to read. On the other hand, Ping feels nervous because that means it's exactly two weeks away from the big day (now it's only 12 days left) and there's still so much more Ping has to learn and Ping also has to figure out a way to relay the message to Ping's committee members in a way that makes Ping's research unique.

But as dad always reminds Ping, there's no trying. It's do or do not...so all Ping can do is try her best, which she will. Spent all weekend reading and building up the presentation. It is actually kinda fun because it feels like Ping is back in college again..it's like the finals is coming up in two weeks and Ping have to study for all the different subjects at the same time. It's actually better because instead of studying for four different subjects, some of which could be subjects that Ping have no interest in (like Physics!), Ping is studying all the topics that Ping is interested in. It reminds Ping of the stuff that makes Ping enjoyed schooling..writing notes! (Ouch..this paragraph brings out the nerd in Ping right?)

Since Ping haven't been taking lots of pictures lately and thinking of stuff to post is too distracting...Ping will just leave with this pic. It was a bucket of dry ice that came with the C14-labeled glycerol Ping ordered.
Before Ping forgets...Happy Belated Raya and Deepavali to everyone who celebrates it. Don't really when are they but it's probably over not too long ago. :P No signs of celebration here at all so it's kinda hard to remember unless mom tells Ping but Ping haven't called home that often recently either. :P

Taco night

Ping about to fall asleep....reading about soil moisture...so break time!!

Decided to be "pun tua" and procastinate writing last night so Ping went over to Jen's place for dinner (by invitation lah of course). It was just Jen, Kristi and Ping. Jen made us taco...yup, it's homemade taco!!! Ping have not been cooking for a while now...I know, I know..Ping could have if she really wanted to but it's just so easy to eat out or eat junk food (grins). Three more weeks..just three more and Ping can think of something else other than her comprehensive exam.

Anyway, here's the awesome taco! It was warm and fresh from the stove!

First we scoop the meat onto the warm taco shell, then sprinkle some cheese, lettuce and tomatoes, wrap them up and eat 'em! Jen also had some black beans, which she didn't smush them so it taste really good together with the meat.

Ping rarely gets taco when going out for dinner because they always come with tons and tons of cheese and sour cream (that's the two things that Ping still don't understand why they take so much of it here in the States - there's cheese in almost everything!!! sometimes too much of it makes Ping jelak). Ping did made her own taco one time...not really the Western style since it was made with left-overs - stir-fry black pepper chicken and egg! Ping had some taco shell left-over from making the Spiced Chicken with Crispy Tortillas dish and some black pepper chicken that wasn't really enough to make one full meal so Ping add them all together with some shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes. It wasn't really good since it was dry without any sauce but Ping made good use of her left-overs!! bleh!

Green beans

Not only are the fruit choices limited here in Michigan, but the vegetable choices are pretty boring too. Part of the reason is also because Ping is kinda picky and does not like the western vegetables like rhubarb, artichoke, olive, squash, and purple cabbage.

That limits Ping's vegetable choices to ----

broccoli - Ping's favorite! It's pretty easy to just stir-fry with anything too.
carrots - Ping don't know a whole lot of recipe for so usually Ping just steam it and snack on it, frozen mixed vegetables (combination of carrots, peas and corn) - usually when Ping eats instant noodles
corn - pretty cheap over the summer and is pretty good with a brush of butter
tomatoes - they taste a whole lot better here and Ping loves cherry tomatoes. Would even be better if they have 'sui boey' hoon here (remember how the ones at Carrefour are sold with a small pack of the sui boey hoon? Love em!)
brussel sprouts - don't know any recipe for it so Ping just add it to instant noodles too. Surprisingly, when mummy used to cook them on Sundays, Ping hated it!..hehe..
taugeh - once in a while, Ping would get them from Oriental Market but sometimes Ping is too lazy to peel off the tails so it's not very often that Ping gets them although Ping loves 'taugeh char kiam hu'...plus, there's no good kiam hu here either.
lettuce - Ping use them when making sandwich
ka tan lin liak - also known as okra or lady's fingers. The name in Hokkien probably came from kacang bendi but the pronunciation changed over time..probably?? It's not very popular here either but there are frozen imported ones that are very small. Unfortunately, ah mah decided not to plant them at home anymore..ish!
cauliflower - it's pretty common here too but Ping prefers broccoli to cauliflower so Ping rarely gets them. In fact, the last time Ping had cauliflower was when tiptup cooked dinner for us after our NYC trip!

Whenever Ping craves for 'or kui tau', also known as French beans, Ping would get green beans instead. They are pretty cheap here too; between 99cents to USD1.29 a lb. They don't taste quite like or kui tau but close enough to make Ping happy for a while. Hehe.. Ping's favorite way to cook them...stir-fry with shrimp! Sometimes when Ping is more adventurous, Ping would make green curry with it..like the ones they sell at nasi kandar stalls in Penang or the nasi lemak stall at one of the kopi tiam at Sunway Mentari.
Here's the homecook meal Ping had at tt and dk's place. Hehe..Ping just had to sit down and wait for dinner. Tt and dk did all the cooking and they were great! Especially since Ping just had 7 weeks of all American food, the homecook food was definitely a great meal!

The one on the top is beef stir-fry with button mushroom and baby corn. Don't know with what sauce but it was good! The bottom one is stir-fry cauliflower and carrots.

Spinach is another one of Ping's favorite here but with the recent E. coli outbreak where the source is spinach, it was all cleared from the shelves. It was distributed again early this week now that they have found the source but Ping hasn't gone back to the grocery stores since then. It is almost like kangkung. Ping likes to use it to stir-fry with belacan or hae bee or even just eat them raw with soy beans and vinagrette. Other than spinach, there's not much leafy vegetables here like 'huan chu ti' or 'chai sim' or 'tau miu' and many others.

vege Char Kuew Teow

Ping is low on groceries right now. Haven't found the time or effort to go all the way to Meijer (both Meijer are out of the way) to get groceries. But Ping was in the mood to cook and wanted to something from home. So with the limited groceries, Ping made a vegetarian version of Char Kuew Teow.
Sliced up some baby carrots, soaked the 'hiow kor' (mushroom), peeled the tails of beansprouts and mix them all together. When the kuew teow is partially soft, stir-fried it in a little oil and 'tau eu'. Finally, add all the vege and stir-fry until cooked. The last thing to add is the egg while the pan is hot. Finally, 'kui chui chiak' lah!

fungus from nowhere

Was walking towards lab one morning and a fungus caught my attention. Somehow, Ping have managed to walk past this tree without realizing there's a fungus hanging on to it so Ping didn't know when exactly did it appear.















Isn't it a unique relationship between a plant and a fungi? No idea what fungus it is but it is definitely huge and seems to grow well from the tree hole. If you look carefully, there's even a cobweb built from the fungi to the bark of the tree. Amazing isn't it? Anyway, the environmental people must have seen it and thought it might be parasitic or pathogenic to the tree because they cut it off. Sad...but as long as the tree still lives, Ping thinks it's okay.