Last Break

Spring quarter has begun, and it's been two days of attending classes. Who would want to come back to school after spring break? Not me for sure, hehe. I spent 12 wonderful days in Peru with my Kellogg friends. It was a wonderful, wonderful trip.. What an amazing country! So many different sights and experiences. I never knew anything about Peru, and I would have missed out a lot had I not decided to join this trip. It was almost like another KWEST trip.. GIM trip.. whatever. Super fun~ Many thanks to Jorge and Flavio for being such awesome tour guides and taking care of us all. I'm thinking how I should dedicate some space to tell all the stories on our journey, as it will be pretty long :P I'll have to figure that part out first. But below is a picture of Machu Picchu, one of the trip's highlights where we went on our 8th day before returning to Lima. Amazing sight, isn't it? In the middle there is Waina Picchu which we spent about an hour climbing to the top. Worth it!

Group picture time.. Behind is the Canyon.. Magnificente!

Bab-el

The first time, I wanted to watch this movie because I saw Cate Blanchett (yep, and not Brad Pitt). The second time, it caught my attention since a lot people in hollywood media didn't even know how to pronounce the movie name. But most importantly, it won golden globe best drama and nominated for 7 Oscars. So I thought, why not?!?! I didn't really catch much from the trailer, but after watching the movie I realized I wasn't even close to guessing what it was about.

The stories were set in different places in the world - Morocco, US, Mexico, Japan. Stories that seemed independent, unrelated, told in different languages. An American couple having a trip to Morocco, and the wife got shot by a kid who was practicing his rifle that his father just bought. The couple's children were left at home with a nanny who had to leave for Mexico for her son's wedding, and decided to bring them along. And a Japanese girl, mute and deaf, going through her life of silence, ignorance, and insult. Her father turned out to be the owner of the rifle which he had given to the local guide that took him hunting. Confused? You gotta watch it yourself :P

I like the fact that it wasn't clear which incident happened when, and as it continued you gradually understand and start putting things together. But even more than that, I looked up the movie title, and it's quite interesting. It refers to a town in Hebrew bible, Babylon, where Tower of Babel is located. People spoke the same language, and they tried to build this tower to reach heaven and become godlike. This made God angry, and decided to make those people speak different languages, so they could no longer communicate and stop building the tower. So it ties back to the "language" obstacles told in this story, where people try to "say" something but it is not always "heard." Everyone had to struggle along the road; not everyone ended up with a smile.. not everyone was given a second chance.. I think it's a really good movie, and it tries to communicate a lot. A bit difficult to understand, yes (so might require post-research hehe), but worth watching..

directed by: Alejandro González Iñárritu
released: November 2006

PS. Apologies to some who I've mentioned watching this together. I couldn't help it! After my terrible final exam, I needed a distraction hehe..

Old Times

Surprise surprise! Finally get to catch up with my old buddies. I know it's been my fault for not going downtown often enough hehe.. Glad that Oil called, and luckily they had a car yesterday which made things much easier. We went for a late dinner at this thai restaurant I've never heard of. The name Dharma Garden didn't quite appeal to me, but the food was great.. super spicy, I likeeee! So we ordered like crazy.. partly because it was late (and I intentionally did not eat anything beforehand). So stuffed in the end.. What a great night out! not talking about the food, but the driving, getting lost, chatting, all of it. Makes me really miss the old days...

Cute couple mak mak.. Petzio, i envy you! haha..

with oil, ong :)

Rock it!

Yay~ Finally it was d-day for our performance at Asian Rock Night 07. This was an event organized by undergrad students at NU, and I was just jamming with the thai band. Others performing included those from Malaysia, Korea, and Taiwan. After the practice sessions every Sunday for the past several weeks, we rocked tonight! Everyone did a great job, and it was really fun for me. Stage-fright kicked in though, and almost couldn't remember the lyrics for the second song (even tho I had it written on my palm!) People would find it difficult to picture me singing this genre, but honestly it wasn't like hard rock or anything. One of the two was bra branner's "shaking" - the only band (with female vocal) that seems close to the theme tonight. I prolly won't listen to those songs for a while.. Too much listening for the past month already :P So again, thanks to n'orm, chlump, jeff, and vee for their solid backup, n'em our male volcal, and everyone who showed big support (both by being there and thru other means..) :P

(ยืมลิ้งค์มาจากน้องออมอีกที)

band members: (from top left) em, chlump, vee, orm, me, jeff

from backstage, while n'em was singing..

with our awesome guitar soloist.. he's really good!

you can barely see it, but that was the lyrics I wrote on my palm :P

I stayed on to watch the Malaysian and two songs by the Korean band. I couldn't believe I knew one malay song (of course from sseayp)! So i ended up singing along for a bit, hehe. The koreans were really good too. There was one guy who looked like "dek-naew" type, he sang really well. After watching others, I realized I will need to practice talking to the audience noi'.. cuz none of us said a single word, from beginning till end.. hehe.. but well, as if I'm gonna do something like this again a na~ Very unlikely indeed..

The Road to CSO

Again, yesterday I joined my friends to the concert. This time a smaller group, and we all fit into my friend's cute little red beetle. Left evanston around quarter till seven, and headed downtown to the concert hall. The program was CSO playing Sheherazade, but something happened on the way and we missed Sheherazade which was the first part before intermission. What was the thing that happened? Well, to make a long story short, the car ran over a huge hole on Lakeshore drive and it basically exploded. None of us however realized it did, and so my friend kept on driving for another 10 mins or so. Until we made a turn and came to a stop at the light, then we smelled something very bad and pulled over. Apparently, there was no air left in the tire - completely flat! And we'd been driving like that without knowing. So dangerous. Luckily there was no accident and we were safe. Called up service, and asked them to check before replacing with the spare tire. No serious harm done with the beetle, except she needs brand new tire :) So that wasn't so short after all..

We made it to the second half of the concert - Franck: Symphony in D minor. This time we were so lucky with the (student) tickets cuz we got seats on the main orchestra area (ground floor). Compared to 6th floor last time, this was really neat ;) Again, I think dress circle is still best. The conductor, Philippe Jordan, was pretty young.. and also good looking! eiei.. And he was really 'in' to the music that at one point he actually jumped. First time ever to see a conductor jump.. really.

Anywho, the road back from CSO we were super careful watching out for all those 'holes' out there.. can't believe the road surface is so bad.. and I thought Bangkok is bad already.. We should file complaints! Actually while the service guy was changing the tire, a police officer stopped to have a look. He asked who was driving, jokingly.. so I said it wasn't our fault but those big holes' He was like, well.. you didn't have to drive over them, did you? errrr.. alright officer, we hear ya! :P

The rest of the night was good time.. late night supper, conversations, and even some sing-alongs.. I wouldn't have left had it not been because of my early morning meeting today and a fully-booked Sunday schedule. I'd rather not come back to the lonely apartment of mine so soon.. just trying to keep me from spending too much time with myself..

Blocked

Silence.. fills the room
Emptiness.. fills my head
Sun.. gone too soon
Darkness.. lies instead

Future.. stays unknown;
Past.. still unchanged
Lost.. in this world;
Lost.. in this phase

Seek.. and you shall find;
Try.. and you shall succeed
What.. if it's not true?
What.. if I don't believe?

Viajeros Lunch

Didn't get to write about the Peruvian Lunch at Jorge's the week before. As an intro to the Spring break trip, Jorge invited us to his place for his home-cooked Peruvian lunch. I had no idea what a Peruvian dish would look like, so I was really eager to find out. The dish he prepared was called "Aji de Gallina" or chilli chicken, although it didn't look red at all because the chilli is yellow. Basically it is chicken strips with yellow creamy sauce, served with rice, potatoes and boiled eggs. I asked for extra chilli sauce on the side, and man! that was good! Again you know how crazy I am for chillis.. According to our trip leader, Peruvian cuisine is divided into various regions in the country, and aji de gallina is from Lima/Central coast. He also said he wouldn't let us try this dish when we're in Peru, so we can't compare his cooking with the locals hehe. But it was actually very nice. And I tried to search for some photos of the dish, and apparently he's pretty close :)

Comparison: from online vs. our featured cook's :)

Introducing Aji de gallina to the group...

Now that I've heard so much about how great the food is there, I really can't wait! Hoping I won't gain too much weight during the two weeks.. Otherwise Spring quarter would have to involve serious exercise to prepare for graduation..