Peru Collection

Pictures from the peru trip is up, finally. Took me a while to finish the whole collection.. hopefully people would enjoy them. Again my collection is more of scenery rather than people :) I wouldn't be surprised if after a while people get bored and give up.. To me, there were so many things I loved about this trip. And I tried to capture as much as possible. Of course, sometimes it's difficult.. you lose the moment and it's gone. Just like on a gloomy day.. and the sun comes out for 10 seconds and disappear into the clouds.. that's it. No more sunshine.. So I would end up with a gloomy picture.. but that's just reality :)

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 :)