could it be

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Could it be, could it be, could it be that Elisia has returned to the blogging world? *sparkly eyes*

Maybe.

I’ve been out of this for too long. Ever since I got married, got a job, I just couldn’t find the time for anything. Not to mention the boy always tells me to stop wasting my time on leisurely things. To make things worse, work got more demanding with long hours and assignments that never seemed to end. Now that I’ve quit my job, I get more breathing space to do the things I’ve neglected so much. Of course, during this time I’ll also be looking for my next job, but at least I can go back to this place…something that I started years ago and am unwilling to give up no matter how many times it seems it has died.

Here are some things I plan to do during this break:

  • Get back on track with my health
    It’s easy to forget to drink water when you’re really busy. People can tell me that it’s no excuse, but it happened. I would sit at my desk, work on my assignments and just not find the right moment to leave my desk to get more water or even go to the loo. Wait a minute, I don’t even feel the urge to pee coz I don’t drink enough water. As a result, I got constipated. It could be four to five days before I actually felt the urge to go to the loo. I feel my body is really all whacked up. I have this persistent pimple problem on my back which I suspect is coz my body is not releasing toxins as it should be. I also suspect that it’s causing me to put on weight and for some strange reason, not get sick too. Anyway, I’ve been watching my water and food intake now that I’m at home most of the time. Have also started some sort of exercise routine with jogging twice to thrice a week. I really need to watch my health especially since I plan to have a kid later.
  • Keep up with close friends
    I am sad to say that I’ve neglected some of the people who are dear to me. I always knew that both work and friends were important, but somehow work took over my life. This fact only hit me real hard when I attended a leadership course and one of the topics was about self-renewal and relationships. It made me pause and think about the important people in my life and how much time I’m actually spending with them. I do not want to cut out these people from my life as they have always stood by me — through the good and bad times.
  • Plan the wedding reception
    We are the weird couple. We do things in reverse or in any order we like. Even though we decided we did not want to have the usual Chinese banquet, I still would like to spend my special moment with my loved ones. It is my way of saying thanks. Date has been settled…in June. We are also not having a traditional photoshoot/wedding album thing since we decided what for pay so much for an album that’ll probably end up under the bed. But…but…I still want to have beautiful pictures of me and the boy taken and displayed. So I’ve decided to create my own album. The boy has stated very clearly that planning this is my task since he did all the planning work for renovating our place. This is gonna be tough, but I hope it goes well. Yikes.
  • Find a new job
    That goes without saying. Period.
  • Watch some anime
    Or rather plow through the growing list of anime. Compared to dramas, I find anime easier to watch as the episodes are shorter and well…anime guys are so much cuter. Oh no, am I turning into some weird otaku? Anyway, be prepared…coz there will be some weird kyaa-ing posts soon. I’m 28 and married, but I think I can have some private space to fantasise and have some kyaa moments right?
  • Read some books/manga
    I have quite a collection of non-fiction and manga begging to be read. Also need to complete them so I have more space for new ones. I reposted this stats fact thing on Facebook recently. I realised that I’m forgetting quite a bit of what I learnt in Stats class. Got me all fired up to revisit what I have forgotten. It is true that I like analysing numbers even if I’m not like pro at it. It’s comforting to work with numbers and find out what they mean. Numbers never lie. And they are so much easier to handle than people’s emotions. I hate how work became like a game. Those who knew how to play it moved forward and up the ladder, while people like me just seemed to be caught in a neverending loop.
  • Do some cross-stitch
    I have a few kits that I’ve not completed. Hope to find some time to do them…bit by bit. Right now this is quite low priority. We’ll see…

And of course while I do all this, I have my wifely duties to fulfill as well (e.g. clean the house, cook, iron clothes, etc.)

Wish me good luck!

struggles of an international student in USA

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I would have reposted this on Facebook but I have too many comments to make. Lol.

27 Struggles Every International Student at an American College Knows Too Well

My comments:
#1: I don’t really get jet lagged coz I hardly sleep on the plane.
#2: When I entered college, I was past 21 which made me legal to drink in both countries. I don’t drink anyway.
#3: Yes, in my case it was which group to tag along for a Thanksgiving trip or stay back
#4: No comment, but I must say that clothing from Aeropostale and American Eagle were cheap (compared to when they opened stores in Singapore).
#5: Yup, I still remember some kid in my rhetoric class edited my paper — circled ‘learnt’ and said that word doesn’t exist.
#6: Didn’t have that problem.
#7: Oh yes. The omelette at this pancake place my aunt took me to, could feed at least two people. That said, I put on weight when I completed my four years of college. Enough said.
#8: I remember talking to Wen about this. It’s different talking to people from Asia and Americans. It’s the way we were brought up and what we’re familiar with.
#9: In my case, my parents were too busy fussing around my grandpa. It got quite frustrating at one point when I was talking to my mum and she was just not really listening at all.
#10: Didn’t have that problem.
#11: Didn’t have that problem, but I did have to adopt the way Americans spoke coz they seemed to have trouble understanding the English that came out of my mouth when I spoke normally.
#12: Haha, this is too true. I missed my Myojo Big Prawn Noodles and Nong Shim Claypot Ramyun so much that I asked my mum to ship some to me. KS missed Ayam brand Chilli Tuna. By the way, the instant noodles in the US is crap. Every flavour of Maruchan tasted the same. The only decent cup noodle was the spicy Nong Shim cup.
#13: Didn’t have that problem.
#14: Yes.
#15: I did not maniacally scramble to the International Students’ office to get my I-20 signed before I returned home for the summer, but I remember the hassle of getting it signed anyway.
#16: Didn’t have that problem.
#17: Didn’t have that problem coz I could switch. Anyone who comes home with a weird accent after just one to four years abroad is trying to show off. It’s true.
#18: Didn’t have that problem.
#19: Huh? What’s that?
#20: Didn’t have that problem coz I wasn’t seeking a job there and Illini Media is a mostly student-run organisation.
#21: Nope.
#22: Not really. Holidays are good coz that means no school.
#23: Didn’t use those then so had no such problems I did have a problem of wanting to call someone back home but couldn’t coz of the time difference.
#24: OMG. YES. I’ve to deal with: “Singapore is part of China right?” and that my native language is not English. Sure, Singapore’s national language is not English, but I can safely say that we’re the only Asian country that uses English as our first language and main language of instruction.
#25: How many times have I heard “all Asians look alike”? I am going to roll my eyes at the next person who says this in front of me.
#26: Not really, but I did feel a tinge of sadness when I had to leave. Left behind my good friends Christina, Stephanie, Wen, Owen and Prof. Vargas.
#27: Didn’t have that problem.

memories are made of these

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Recently I decided to visit my much neglected blog. Went through my friends’ blogs and found (what I think is) a gem on Nad’s blog. She has this link to a scrapbooking site called Project Life by Becky Higgins. Didn’t think too much of it at first. I mean I know Nad is into scrapbooking, and I’m just clicking around being curious and all. But as I explored the site, I started to have ideas. I had no clue that the new age scrapbooking was that easy! There’s also Simple Stories and Echo Park Paper Co. Choices, choices…

Now, I’m thinking of starting a small project. To do up my own wedding album. I haven’t taken official photos yet, but when I do, I’ll rather document the event in my own way rather than pay for something which looks nice but will probably end up under the bed after a few months.

account suspended

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My Twitter account has been suspended. I think it’s coz I seldom tweet personal messages now, and have been tweeting ads from Churp Churp and Socialberg aggressively recently. But but but…I put a disclaimer as my profile description so it’s up to you whether you want to follow my account. I also tag my ad tweets with a prefix ‘[AD]’ so people know. I’ve emailed the Twitter folks, but have yet to receive a reply.

I am sad.

new food items at Starbucks

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Mmmmmm…sounds good to me. I don’t usually have meals at Starbucks coz the food is awfully pricey ($12+ for meatball pasta when I can get a decent plate of spaghetti at Cintech for $6). It’s just an occasional thing when I do decide to eat something there. I usually get the meatball penne or roasted chicken and vegetable wrap or creamy/curry ugly chicken puff. I strongly recommend the wrap. If you think it’s small and won’t fill you up, you’re wrong. Plus the mushroom truffle dip is really good.

train fault

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Life has a great way of screwing around with you when you least expect it to. The day when I decide to take the MRT home instead of a cab after working late, I get not one but two…TWO freakin’ train delays due to “train faults”. Haha, now I don’t even know whether the train fault is real or just an excuse to kick people out of the train for whatever reason. The first one was on the circle line. Stopped for a couple of minutes, but I couldn’t care two hoots coz I was having a nice snooze. The second one was on the East-West line. This time I was freakin’ tired and hungry and just wanted to get home quick so I lost my patience and was already silently cursing SMRT. Everyone got booted out of the train. Luckily I had a straight bus home from Kembangan station else I would have bombarded SMRT’s twitter account with an angry tirade of hate messages.

The question is, why are we experiencing so many train faults now? Is it coz the trains are old? Or is it the tracks that are old? I don’t care which one is old, SMRT had better get their act together and make sure the tracks and trains are serviced regularly so that the number of train faults are kept to a minimum. Better still, never happen until a couple years down the road.

confidence and j-clothing

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Omg…I just discovered this really cool shop in Plaza Singapura called JRunway. I haven’t been to the physical store but I just checked out their website and they carry clothing by Putumayo! A part of that brand carries lolita fashion. I actually have two lolita blouses from that brand. Gotta check out the physical store coz I also found out that they are having a sale and selected pieces are going cheap. Woohoo!

Speaking of Japanese style clothing, I’m not one to say that I’m totally into it but I do like the style. How shall I put it? I’m not confident about my looks and I definitely don’t spend time dolling myself up just to achieve a certain look. That reminds me of what a friend said on Facebook this morning. My friend, Jo is on the plump side and she totally adores Disney princesses (especially Ariel). She said that this lady once said something really mean to her. Something to do with her size and whether she would be successful in reaching her dream of working in Disney as a Disney princess. That was downright rude and mean. Jo might be plump but I totally dig her confidence. By the way, she does makeup so well too.

I told her that she is one of those in J-Net that gave me the courage to stand on stage and take part in the J-Net fashion show. For once, I did not feel like anyone was judging me based on my looks or the clothes I wore. I could be me. Thank you Jo. You’re a great inspiration!

 

just give me a reason

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For a minute, I thought of ONE OK ROCK’s “The Beginning” coz the opening lyrics are: “Just give me a reason to keep my heart beating.”

Nope, it’s this song by Pink. After watching the mtv for it and finding at least three other covers of the song, the chorus is stuck in my head now.

 

The first cover I watched (actually the first mtv I watched of the song) was by Kylee and Sam Tsui.

 

And then, I found out my favourite YouTube artiste, Megan Nicole, did a cover of the song with Jason Chen.

 

And then, I found Tiffany Alvord (another YouTube artiste) did a cover too with Trevor.  She sang a song with Megan Nicole before. Her facial expression and the way her mouth moves when she pronounces words while singing reminds me of Mandy Moore.

 

There probably are a lot more covers out there, but just basing on these three…the verdict? I think Kylee and Sam Tsui wins. Both have rather strong vocals. Megan Nicole is ok, but Jason Chen sounds a tad too whiny. Not saying he isn’t a good singer, but just not that great for this song.