simple dinner

Last week, after Dozie passed his prelim, we had a small celebration dinner at our place. It was a very simple but unique dinner prepared by Ramon (所以說吗, 如果想找一個很會廚菜的男朋友就是要找一個 Spanish 還是 Italian! Haha!).

Appetizer was salmon slice with capers. The first time Ping had capers was when Ping had lunch with tiptup and dk at one of the restaurant at Falmouth. Almost like assam but less sour and much smaller.
Main dish was roasted chicken and omelette. The omelette is much much better than the classic American omelette (which usually comes with cheese!!).
It was definitely a very simple dinner with bunch of crazy jokes. Besides that, been a quiet week so far. Met up with Ming Woei and Ee Foong this evening for dinner at Suria - the only place we can get M'sian food if lazy to cook. Waiting to find out if the single colony on Ping's plate is a positive transformants....

pokok sudah sampai

Another happy thing...Ping got a pokok cili from tiptup!!!

Thank you so muchie!! The pokok is still very healthy. Already put it in the pot with more soil and the flowers are still fine. In fact, the flower buds didn't tanggal at all.

one colony....

One colony. One! On a selective plate. There's one!! From a transformation reaction that Ping had yet to have success with. Usually there's no colonies. But Ping has one! It is a pretty normal size colony too!!

This one colony might not mean anything to anyone. But it means a lot to Ping. It could still very well be a false positive transformant. BUT it was Ping's happy news for today. A colony grew! on a plate that Ping had never had colony before! Is it a true transformant? That we shall see if it grow on the streptomycin plate tomorrow morning. Then there's the restriction digest check. But for now, a colony grew!!! Yippeee!!!! Sometimes in science, we just have to find excitement from little things. Because big things too often bring disappointments. La la la la la la!!!

twice...in a week

Ping thought he graduated...but Ping saw him twice in a week!

第一次 - 他在過馬路，　我已經上汽車了所以他看不到我. 但是看到他的時候覺得很開心. 原來他還在這裡!

第二次 - 就是今天! 跟朋友一起去吃午餐. 回來的時候碰到他. Hmmm...我該打招呼? 他還記得我吗? 我還沒想到要怎麼就跟我笑了. 就這樣, 我就覺得超高興 得!他還記得我哦!

Haha...他是誰呢? 他就是一個好特別的人. 只看過他几次而已可是每次看到他都是會怎麼得開心. 我也不知道為什麼. 一定不是愛...可能是因為我們第一次見面的時候我們有很多東西聊吧. 但是我也不想認識他多一點. 現在這樣的感覺比較好玩. 默默得看著他. 远远看他的時候, 他還滿可愛的. 但近近的時候, 其實一點都不可愛, 是害羞. 看不到他的時候, 回想看到他. 但是看到他的時候, 好想不知道該說什麼. 好財我們每次見面的時候都是在Salsa dance. 可是如果說話的時候, 我們兩個都說不停. Haha...不要說太多了. 終極, 我今天好開心!

真的沒想到他還記得我!!!! 已經要到半年沒見到他了, 我真的以為他已經畢業了! 現在我在開心的唱張棟梁的其實幸福很簡單...因為幸福真的有那麼的簡單!

Canadian goose crossing the road

Near ahmah's house, we have to stop for gu (cow) to koi kae lor (but Ping actually haven't seen any gu around there the last few trips back). Here, at Trappers Cove, we have to stop for 'go' (Canadian goose) to cross the road. They are actually pretty 'gong' because they will still cross when they see a car coming.

potluck dinner

We used to have potluck dinner at Western every time there is a birthday or any M'sian holiday. It was always at Edmund's place - probably coz that's where the bachelors are? hehe...or maybe because Edmund is always willing to clean up afterwards (remember all the talks after that? really miss the times when you would come over and just hang out...but of course you barely talk to me unless BK is not around *grins*...thinking back, you barely talk to me every time BK is around..even during Burnham days!!）

It is not so often here at MSU since the M'sian community is much smaller. With potluck, there's always too much food and sometimes the combination is totally out of place...like the one we just had last weekend. It was a small one - the regular M'sian gang, some friends from TT's lab and a few 'rarely seen' people.
Ping brought the chap chye. LP made cha ye tan, TT brought herbal soup anｄ　菊花, Jo made chicken with mushroom gravy. We also had some tandoori chicken, fried rice, some vege dishes,
and salad. For desserts, there was some kind of pie and brownie with icecream.

chap chye

When not sure what to eat and don't feel like cooking, chap fan is one of the best thing to get. Back in M'sia lah. Here a bit sien. No matter where you go, it is the same choices - burgers, wraps, pizza, subs - all got some kind of flour - Chinese, Mexican, Korean, Japenese - a bit high on the price scale and they usually serve enough to feed half of a family in M'sia.

Chap fan is also known as the economy rice in M'sia. It is suppose to be a pretty cheap dish but it seems to be getting more expensive, at least in KL. They usually have about 20 different type of dishes laid out - from vegetables to different kinds of meat to seafood. They will give you a plate of rice and then you can pick any combination of the dishes. Chap fan is very convenient because when you're hungry, you can ask for more rice, when you're not so hungry, you can ask for less rice. It is also one of our family favorite choice because all of us get to eat our favorite dish instead of all of us eat the same thing. Ping used to eat chap fan for lunch everyday during high school because it is also faster and mummy only get one hour lunch break. The best one in Penang is the corner one at one of Green Lane's kopitiam. Didn't go there the last trip home as there's also chap fan near our house at Sungai Emas but Ping still prefer the one at Green Lane - more choices.

Last week, Ping wanted to char tang hoon (glass noodle, 冬粉) - like the regular ones that you can get from a char kuew teow stall. But then Ping started to think about chap fan and one of Ping's favorite dish from chap fan is the chap chye - tang hoon stir fry with or bok nee (black fungus, 黑木耳) and tau kee (beancurd strips). So Ping made a trip to Oriental Mart and get some stuff to make chap chye!

Ingredients:
tang hoon (soaked in hot water for a few hours)
or bok nee (soaked in water overnight)
hiow kor, black mushroom, 香菇 (soaked in water for a few hours)
kim chiam, lily bud, 金針 (soaked in water for 10-20 mins)
tau kee (soaked in water overnight)

or tau eu, black soy sauce
dissolved chicken stock

First stir-fry the tang hoon (mummy, the tang hoon didn't liam lah, instead was easily chooi, maybe chim chui siow ku) with the dissolved chicken stock. Add the tau kee and allow it to simmer until soft. Then add in the rest of the ingredient and stir-fry.
Easy leh. Actually, Ping didn't like the kim chiam at all but without it, seems like something is missing so Ping add it in but always pick it out. It would taste even better if there is teak gah kee (no idea what it is called in English or what exactly it is so Ping haven't found that here) - another one on the list for stuff to bring back. Keke..

Potter Park Zoo

While there's only one major zoo in M'sia, there are zoos at most big cities here. Potter Park Zoo is located at Lansing and this is Ping's first zoo in the States. It is VERY small (we finished walking around it in less than 2 hours!) but much cleaner and not so chau bi. In fact, when you first walk into the zoo, it feels more like a park (something like Taiping Zoo) rather than a real zoo. There are only a few group of people here and there. Zoo Negara is definitely much more fun and exciting!

Ping can't remember when was the last time Ping went to Zoo Negara but daddy used to bring us there on Sunday (probably way back before Ping started going to Sunday school) and we would spend the entire day in the zoo. It was always so pack that we have to squeeze our way around to get near the cage to see the animals. The cages are much larger and there are way more animals at Zoo Negara too. But Ping can't remember much of it except for the giraffe where we get to feed them and the KFC train that goes around the zoo and the flamingoes in the centre lake. Sometimes there is also a bird show where they make the parrot talk. Those were the days when we don't have to think of anything and when life was much more simple.
Back to the Potter Park Zoo, we happens to go on the hottest day of the summer - all the animals were sleeping!! Most of the cages were empty because the animals rather hide in their indoor area. The animals must be thinking - all these gong lang, jit tau ah neh tua lai kia zoo. Ping's favorite was the baby snow leopard. They kept him/her indoor but the room was so small and it doesn't look fun at all...a bit ke lian. But it is sooooooooooo cute!! It looks like a small baby playing with a toy. It was funny seeing the leopard attack the soft toy like it is expecting the toy to fight back.
The funniest thing - their zoo even have chicken!!! In M'sia, chicken walk all over the place, not in the zoo! When we were walking close to the chicken area, the sounds feel like we're walking around a kampung..hehe.

Mummy ar, maybe your next life you can be a lion/lioness since they sleep 16-20 hours a day and that seems to be your hobby? Keke...

One of Ping's favorite is the Muntjac. They are soooo cute and they got a really pretty and 'eu siu' face. Ping found out from Wiki that they are the natives of Southeast Asia...maybe that's why so 'bin sek'. Haha!
The most geli one is the Axolotl. They look like a baby hamster at the stage when they just come out from their mum and still haven't sae mo. The interesting fact is that they can regenerate their own body parts. It must be pretty cool doing a research on them but every night sure 'bang' the axolotl wan. Actually, if you do a image google for Axolotl, there's a lot of cute looking ones. But it is still too geli to look at a real life one! Reminds Ping of the rubbery stuff that daddy used to buy back from Shanghai...the one where we can throw at the wall and then it'll stick and fall slowly down.
Heard of Gila Monster? Wonder if it has a 'gila' characteristic...hehe. But for those of us who have been in the States for a while, we would know that the way they pronounce 'gila' is actually 'hila' so it probably has nothing to do with the lizard being gila.
Another one that is pretty interesting is the Tamarin. They remind Ping of a 2 part movie where there are tons of this little creatures that took over the world but one of them is really nice and cute and is actually a pet of the main actor...totally blank on the name of the movie even though Ping have watched it tons of times!! The Tamarin seems to be tame enough to be made a pet too! They are also vegetarian so don't have to worry about them eating you! They actually have a 'kuai ku' look too!
Another one of Ping's favorite is the Llama! They are very social animals as the moment we walked close to their cage, one by one came out to greet us..haha..of course not lah...it's for food lah! But they have super huge teeth that Ping didn't dare to feed them at all. While they are very friendly, we cannot manja them too much because they will start treating us like one of them, which is spitting. To them, spitting is a common way of treating each other so they don't think it's a problem although Ping would not appreciate being spitted at by a llama even if it is because they like Ping. Eeeeee....
Other than these, there's not much interesting ones. As M'sians, we always expect to see monkeys and orang utans in the zoo but there's only one monkey cage, unlike the cages after cages of monkey and orang utans back home.

Zoo Negara is definitely way better!!!

Memory Pieces

昨天跟朋友去Chicago 看戲劇還有去玩玩. 要到Downtown 的時候, 有一種酸酸的感覺. 這是我第一次沒有跟你一起來. 如果到我們走過的地方我會覺得那個回忆是開心還是苦呢?

已 經快到三年了. 有很多我們以前的回忆我也不會去想. 我認為如果沒有去想它我一定不會想念那時候的我們, 也可能在我腦海里不再提了. 但是這兩天在 Chicago 走走的時候我才覺得我們的一切是不可能忘記的. 不管是三年後還是十年後, 那記憶一定會還在我心里的. 我們剛剛分手的時候我以及吵你給我我們拍的片但你以及都不會給我, 原來沒有照片那會議也不會消失.

雖然我們之間也有難過的關, 這兩天我只能想到我們開心的時候. 讓我走過那個地方的時候很想跟自己笑一笑. 真的好象我在看戲, 一個我和你演的戲. 每一次跟你出去約會的時候一定會覺得自己好像一個公主一樣. 還記得有一次我們送我爸媽回去的時候, 你已經好了好了可是你還是帶我去吃 dim sum. 只有你會這麼 manja 我. 想要什麼你也會給, 真的是一個好幸福的感覺.

去年, 有一天我發現我已經一個月沒想你了, 我覺得很興奮,因為我可以很大声, 很信心喊出來- It's over!!那時候的感覺好像有人在我背後把一個大大的石頭拿走. 跟你通信的時間已經沒有伤害了. 以前我會問為什麼我們要變成這樣. 我們真的沒有情人的命運吗? 可是現在我覺得作好朋友比較好因為現在的我們已經沒有受傷了. 反正有很多不開心的事我也已經忘了.

好想你的 'doo doo'.

"Claypot Briyani" konon

We were driving around Little India back in November last year. Couldn't remember if it was one of the trips when we were there for daddy's favorite past-time of driving around Penang or because wanted to get a sari (which Ping didn't get because it was crazy expensive. Ended up getting a dress that Ping hasn't had the chance to wear yet...maybe this weekend to Chicago..hehe). Not having to drive, Ping get to look around and saw an ad promoting "Briyani Claypot". *shiok!* Ping haven't eaten 'nga poh kai fan' (claypot chicken rice) or nasi briyani yet so that's a great combination!

This is what we got....
Sure...we got claypot and we got nasi briyani. But that's not what Ping had in mind!!! They didn't cook the nasi briyani in the claypot! They just use the claypot to 'tae' the pui and chicken. Grrrr!! Kena tipu! So disappointed! One of the best nasi briyani that Ping had before is the one at "The Janova" somewhere at the State, near the place where we apply IC in PJ (arghghg!! Ping can't remember any building landmarks around there!!). We used to go there every other week when we were still staying in PJ and when daddy was around. Haven't been back to see if it's still there.

Besides the nasi briyani, we also ordered the naan and tandori chicken. This was much better because it is hot while the rice was not hot enough.
Ish...now want to eat Indian food already. No good Indian food here :(. Sienzzz...

Greektown, Detroit

Went down to Detroit last week for Lin Pei's Canadian visa application. While waiting for her visa to be processed, we went to Greektown for lunch. Didn't know where the good Greek food are, we asked some guy and he recommended Pegasus. It is well-known for their Opa! dish, which is a flamed-cheese dish but we didn't know about that so we didn't get it. It was pretty fun seeing all the flames though. The food was pretty good but it is obvious that most of the stuff were pre-cooked and they just had to heat it up.
We got one of their combination platter - green beans, lamb chop, roast chicken, spanakopita (spinach pie) and rice. Ping was not too impressed with the chicken as it was sort of blend but the green beans was awesome, so is the spinach pie. The rice was not cooked very well either - too much water, but maybe it's because Ping like rice that are more 'liap'.

The other two dishes that we got was Moussaka - layered eggplant, potatoes, and sauteed onions, seasoned with spices - and roast lamb in tomato sauce. They vege dish is good but could definitely make do with less green peas and the eggplant was cooked a little too long. Ping likes the roast lamb the best since Ping don't cook lamb and haven't had it for a while.
Mediterranean food is one of the food that Ping has never had back in M'sia and is pretty well-known here. However, it is also one of the food that Ping won't be able to take everyday just because they have a lot of weird spices. Ping's favorite is their rice with almonds and crispy noodles!
After lunch, we walked over to Astoria pastry before heading back to the Canadian Consulate. There were sooooooo many cute ones we didn't know which one to get. In the end, Ping got the one on the bottom right corner of the picture.

Ping's bak chang

It's Duan Wu Jie (端午節) - Dragon Boat Festival - this month. Back home, it is usually when people make rice dumplings (chang, 粽子). The rice dumpling is made of glutinous rice and various fillings, usually beans and chinese mushrooms in addition to pork. The rice and fillings are wrapped up in a bamboo leave and boiled until cook. Ping's favorite is Air Itam ahmah and tua ee's chang but recent years, Ping haven't been eating them much. There's always so many things that Ping wants to eat whenever Ping goes home that Ping don't get to eat all of them. Furthermore, ahmah and ee haven't been making them for quite sometime already. Another type of rice dumpling that is pretty popular back home is 'kee chang' (鹼水棕, alkaline dumpling) that is made up alkaline water (don't ask Ping, have no idea what it is) and it is really good with gula Melaka (brown sugar)!!

Since Ping don't get to eat it here, Ping decided to be adventurous this time and try it out herself. Had most of the ingredients except for some that are available from Oriental Market.

Ingredients

Glutinous rice (choo bee, 糯米)
dried mushrooms (hiow kor, 香菇)
dried prawns (hae bee, 蝦米)
black-eyed peas (pek tau, 白豆)
garlic

for seasoning - soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and five-spice powder (ngo hiang hun, 五香粉)

sesame oil

bamboo leaves
Ping soaked the rice, peas and bamboo leaves overnight. The prawns and mushroom were soaked in warm water for about an hour before cooking. The recipe is actually from Kuali, but Ping didn't add any meat so it is not really a 'bak' chang. Ping also could not find chestnut and kiam ark noi (salted duck egg) so just make do with whatever that is available.

Ping started out by frying the minced dried prawns and garlic with the mushroom. Then Ping fry the rice with the spices and sauces and mix in the beans. The hardest part is the 'pak' (tie) part. Ping kinda remember what the chang looks like but not really. So Ping asked mummy but mummy's description seems to be giving Ping the triangular shape instead of the pyramid shape. So Ping looked up online and found this video on YouTube by teckiee. Haha..keng leh!



But then without someone physically showing Ping, Ping's chang all look weird. But Ping is proud of herself because out of the 10 chang that Ping pak, only 2 went loose! So chin chai pak also never mind. heheh..but learning how to pak is now on Ping's list of 'stuff to learn from gee kim'.
Tua ee, what do you think of this? ahdik, can show this to gee kim and get her comments? Hehe.. Oh yeah, Ping also just realized that this type of chang is actually called 'kiam bak chang'..maybe because of all the tau eu that we use?? This is also the 'nyonya' style chang. The cantonese style has a lot more fillings in them like the one in the video - all kinds of different tau and don't know what yong and other stuff.

Ping also could not put too much of the filling in like the one in the video. So Ping's filling is actually very little compare to most of the bak chang that are much bigger. Usually, bak chang is pretty filling but Ping's bak chang, Ping can eat two to three.

This afternoon, brought some of them to the picnic we had at the Riverside Park at downtown Lansing. The girls liked it but Ping wish that tua ee and gee kim get to try it to see if it is 'passable'. Hehehe..

Lee Hom is back!!

Premiered today (or yesterday in Taiwan). After all the 'chink-out' style, he's finally back to the classical! Well, at least for this song. Still don't really like the "Xi Chu Dong Fang". Like listening to the chinese opera only lah.

王力宏 - 落葉歸根 (Falling Leaf Returning To Its Roots)

Fennel

Know what is that? Don't know leh. Don't think M'sia has it. Or if got also is very rare because Ping has never seen it until now.
It was the first Friday without Steph. Jen, Kristi and Ping went to Horrocks (that's because Ping wanted to go so Ping actually made a decision for our Friday night activity!!) so that Ping can get cheese curds. Since we were then, we also wanted to get some stuff for dinner - easiest is salad! Bought some romaine lettuce and then Jen suggested getting this vege thing that looks like grass with a huge round root - FENNEL. That was the first time Ping saw it. If Ping had seen it without Jen suggesting to get it, Ping wouldn't have bought or even tried it. It looks like grass. Like some kind of 'chang' that Ping wouldn't like. It is also know as 小茴香 (xiao3 hui2 xiang1) or pokok adas.

How to eat it leh? First have to separate the 'grass' part. This part taste a bit like 'anice' and seems to be the taste of ulam.

The bottom part looks like an onion but it is very hard and had to be sliced. It is very garing and almost tasteless. Jen says that it can also be roasted.

Both parts can be eaten. Ping don't know what else is the fennel used for but it taste really good with as part of salad, especially the green part. Now that Ping tried it, Ping likes it a lot. Makes Ping think of nasi ulam but cannot find any 'long kalui' to make it. Maybe can make it with the fennel....hmmmm....

Chilli plant

Ping's chilli plant is now pretty tall! But then still got no 'huan chio'. Don't know if it will even flower.

smoothie

After strawberry picking, got so much strawberry want to do what leh? Strawberry smoothie!!

Mix 3/4 cup of strawberries with a cup of blueberry yogurt. If Ping want it to be more 'cheng', add water or soymilk. Prefer the soymilk because it doesn't dilute the taste of the strawberry too much.
Adding orange is also pretty good. Lots of fiber!

And with the Magic Bullet, it is as fast as adding milk to cereal!!

That's Ping's breakfast for the week. Still got one more tupperware of strawberries. Wanted to try making strawberry pie but then Ping don't really like to eat them and there's no one else to eat so will just stick to smoothie. :P

Strawberry picking

Summertime is when all the tasty fruits 'bloom' and are cheap. Ping have always wanted to go berries picking (well since no berry plant can grow in M'sia), especially strawberries. Ping loves blueberries too but don't really know what to do with it besides eating it with cereal. Raspberry is so so only because most of the time they are sour.

So this weekend, a bunch of us drove down to Sturgis, which is about an hour south of Lansing, to a fruit farm - Nottawa Fruit Farm. The strawberries picking season is only about 3 weeks. They are pretty fragile fruit as we also saw lots of 'chau' strawberries. Strawberry plant is a bushy plant that is only about 1 feet tall. According to Wiki, the strawberry fruit that we're eating is actually not the fruit but an accessory fruit. The real fruit of the strawberry plant is actually the small biji that is inside the strawberry.

We got there close to closing time so we only spent about 30 mins there, which was good enough because Ping got tons of strawberries!! When you get there, they give you a basket made out of a box and guide you to a patch where it has not been picked. The plants are arranged in neat parallel rows and they'll tell you where to start and where's your limit. Since they are low on the ground, it can get pretty messy but we were lucky because it hasn't been raining for a few days and it was hot enough that the ground was dry. The strawberries are usually not obvious. You have to move the leaves around and look inside the bushes for the strawberries. They are much smaller than the ones we can buy from Meijer but as long as it is sweet, how small also never mind ler.

Pick pick pick....Guess how much this costs...
USD2.30 only ar!!! It is 50cents a pound!! Usually for that price, can only get 1 lb from Meijer. Bigger and looks prettier lah but size and look does not matter when it will eventually be eaten right???

Justin Timberlake vs. Jay Chou

The song choice for aerobics can be pretty important because it makes working out much more fun. On Thursday, the song the instructor picked was Justin Timberlake's SexyBack!!!! Ping thought that when Steph left, there's going to be no more SexyBack but no! Ping gets it twice within an hour's workout session! But guess what....

It actually is a really good workout song! (This is going to get Ping into so much trouble if Steph is around since Ping always gets annoyed when Steph plays the song out loud in the office...but she'll forget bout this post when she's back..kekeke!!) The chorus part blends really well for alternate or direction steps. It is long enough for about three sets of around the world.




BUT! Ping has not come to the stage of getting the song into Ping's workout playlist. The best workout song is still Jay's 同一種調調 (The Same Tune). This is the best song if wanna do footballers pace or a basketball squat and jump. However, the heart rate goes up pretty fast with this song too because the pace is much faster than JT's SexyBack. Gotta alternate it with a slower pace for basics or medium level grapevine.

Macaroni and cheese

Now that's a typical American food. Almost everyone have their own version of mum's macaroni and cheese. There's also the Kraft 50 cents one up to the ones in the classy restaurant that costs USD8-9. Ping used to like them quite a bit until Ping started working in Burnham Hall. Everyday see until sien edi. Somemore they like to flood it with cheese and the pans are so hard to clean!!!

But every once in a while, Ping would get them from Meijer. Each box comes with macaroni and a packet of cheddar cheese (seems to be the favorite cheese here because they use it for almost everything, including a dip for broccoli!!! AND a topping for white rice!!! Gila right?).

Few weeks back when Ping was busy preparing for committee meeting, didn't have time to cook so Ping got a box of mac and cheese. Chopped some tomatoes and sliced some sausage (or as they call it here, hot dog). Bought some sliced carrots too (too lazy to slice it *bleh*).

Boiled the macaroni, drain the water, heat up a pan and stir fry the macaroni, tomato, sausage and carrot until it is slightly soft and there's some juice from the tomato. Then dissolve the cheese powder in the 'juice' and fry until it is partially dry ---> that's 3 day's punya lunch!!

South Haven's North Beach

The best thing about summer - Saturday can be an offday! Don't need to do homework! Of course not every Saturday lah..but Ping was glad to go somewhere for a while. Michigan so boring, where to go leh? It's sunny out, it's warm, we've got M'sians who misses the beach - go beach lor!

Went to South Haven's North Beach. It's been a while since Ping went to Michigan beach too...exactly 4 years ago actually. That was when BK brought Ping there to see the sunset...that was the most spontaneous trip we've ever made! Ping came home, he said let's go, bring you go somewhere. :) One of the best trip though! Thanks, dear!
Drove a bunch of M'sians, a Hong Kongnese, and a Canadian. With such a mix, Ping really miss the feeling of being with friends back home. All kinds of language - malay, hokkien, cantonese, mandarin, english - like rojak only. They are definitely a nice bunch to have in the car ride. Pretty 'chin chai' ppl also.

When we got to the beach, everyone are like so jakun. Like never see beach before. Haha...the feeling was just awesome!!! The sand, the water, the wind, the sun...too bad got no leng chai to kap only. *bleh* But Ping wasn't really looking either ler. We were too busy building sandcastle as LP has never built a sandcastle (even though she's from Penang!!!). The sand is much finer than the one in Penang, kind of like the one in Redang/Perhentian (err...whichever one that Ping went before..with Yong, Mei and Emily). Because of the heat from the sun, it is hard to walk barefooted because the sand gets really hot (although according to Joe, it is pretty cold deeper inside). The water though, is cool and would actually be really nice to swim in but none of us brought our suits. Oh, Ping also found a cute little beetle!!

Once we did the sandcastle, we buried Joe in the sand! (That's how he know that it's cooler deeper into the ground). That's what happens when one guy goes to the beach with 5 girls. We thought of stuff and he has to go along with it. Pretty sporting guy so it was fun! (haha! ahboy, maybe we should do this to you next time I go home..keke).

The beaches here a bit weird. Most of them are privately owned. There are only very limited space for 'public'. Gotta be careful where we set up otherwise can kena halau. The parking lots have an interesting way of collecting money - honest system. There's no pondok or no ah pek to jaga your car. They have a yellow box where you just put the money in. If this is in M'sia, for sure nobody pay wan.

After all the messing around in the sand, we got ice-cream, hang around the beach and lepak. 好放松, 好開心, 好好玩哦!

蝸牛

Phew...committee meeting is done! Ping was super worried the night before because that was Ping's 'conditional pass' - to have a committee meeting in 6 months. Ping spent almost the entire night going through all of Ping's experiments to make sure that she can justify why she did what she did. It turned out to be okay. Got some really good suggestions and it seems like the sun is shining again.

This is the first weekend that Ping brought her guitar out again after a long time of having the guitar collecting dust. Wanted to play something slow and was googling around for chords and found the chords for Jay's 蝸牛. It sounds much better with piano than guitar but now Ping can't get rid of that song! It is a very positive song though. Jay had dedicated it to the Tsunami victims, encouraging them to stay strong.

蝸牛 (Snail) (Haha..Ping just realized that she doesn't know what is snail in Hokkien..hmmmm)

我要一步一步往上爬
Wo yao yi bu yi bu wang shang pa
I need to climb step by step

等待陽光靜靜看者他的臉
deng dai yang guang jing jing kan zhe ta de lian
Wait for the sun to show its face

小小的天有大大的夢想
xiao xiao de tian you da da de meng xiang
Small sky but with big dreams

重重的殼掛著輕輕的仰望
zhong zhong de ke gua zhe jing jing de yang wang
With a heavy shell, quietly look forward

我要一步一步往上爬
Wo yao yi bu yi bu wang shang pa
I need to climb up step by step

在最高點撐著夜片往前飛
zai zui gao dian cheng zhe ye pian wang qian fei
Errr...at the highest point, endure the night and fly ahead

小小的天有流過淚和汗
xiao xiao de tian you liu guo de lei he han
Small sky with past tears and sweat

總有一天我有屬於我的天
zhong you yi tian wo you shu yu wo de tian.
There will finally be a sky for me.

Err..it probably doesn't make sense in English but that is due to Ping not very good at translating it into English. Basically, what it means is that I have to work my way up step by step, enduring all the challenges that comes by and not letting go of my dream just because of a small challenge (small sky). In the end, I will finally find a place of my own (a sky for me). It is definitely much better in Chinese.

*If you want to listen to it - 蝸牛* Don't think he has an MV for this since he wrote it for someone else.

Mixers

During the ASM conference, there are also activities planned for the evening such as mixers. It is an informal social event where people of the same interest meet and talk about stuff, usually more science. This year, Ping didn't go to the division mixer - a mixer for microbiologists of the same field of study, like Ping's is microbial ecology or the MSU mixer - a mixer for all the attendees from MSU and their friends.

However, Ping did go to the Microbial Diversity mixer. That's the course Ping attended at Woods Hole last year. Ping is not a big fan of social events like that but this one is actually not too bad as Ping knows more than half of the people there and Steph is there too!! Even tua tau keh is there. It is also not crowded at all. The best thing - great appetizers!! Americans typically have really fancy decor and delicious finger food for social events.

There's pies - pecan is Ping's favorite! Ping actually had 2 of it! Yeah, basically had her dinner there. There's also some berry pie. The one appetizer that is served most often is vege trays and cracker with cheese. Ping had never learned to eat raw broccoli but Ping did started eating raw carrots when Ping came to MSU. Ping still don't like celery, even if it is cooked, unless it is cooked until nua nua in the soup and Ping cannot see it or pick it out.

They also had a chocolate fountain!! It's white chocolate but a chocolate fountain!!! That's the first time Ping saw one, what more dip from it! You just have to pass the fruits through the flowing chocolate a few times until you coat the fruit. It was a little too sweet but most of the appetizer stuff are usually sweet. Although their dessert stuff are sweet, American appetizers are actually much healthier - fruits and vege - compared to our nyonya kuih that are easily 'tiok chek' or chiak siow pa.

There also tiny pastries that looks really pretty. Ping didn't try all of it. Just had the coconut dipped with chocolate one (the lowest one in the photo) and it was good.