What DSA meant to me

I would first like to congratulate all the participant of the DSA camp. I can't tell you how touched I am when I see all of you were on the dance floor, trying your best to put on a good show. Makes me remember how I was also like each of you for the past two camps, going through tiring drills, stressing about makeup and everything.

Well well, time really flies. This is the 4th year I am with DSA. Many people actually don't understand why I am so loyal to the club even after so long. I have not achieved anything remarkable nor I improved tremendously in my dancing. Well, DSA actually thought me something that what you achieve or what your results are are not that important. Most important is that you truly enjoyed yourself, enjoyed the process and of course you enjoy the company everybody has given you. I can say DSA has given me so much memorable experiences.

DSA is like my second family in school. They are the most crazy people I have ever met! However they are the most true to the heart people as well. Nobody judge you in DSA. Whether you are good or not, as long as you are committed, you are welcome to this big family. If you stay long enough, you will realize, they are one of the few people who will laugh, cry, get angry, "kau peh" together with you. They are also the people who will help you when you are in trouble, pull you up when you fall and most importantly, cheer for you even they are going on to the same dance floor with you.

During these 4 years, you might not achieve anything, just like me. You might also plan to stop dancing as you got bad result. But please do realize, dancing doesn't affect your studies. Yes, we need to practice hard during competitions and performances, but trust me dancing does not affect your studies. Maybe you just need better time planning, maybe your learning method is wrong. Furthermore, our club has already produce numerous first class holders and a few dean-listers! So, dancing doesn't affect your studies.

Soon, I will part with the DSA family. But,my friends are always going to be my friends. I hope DSA will be the place where you can find your second family away from you family. DSA will not be DSA without this family base.

Finally

Finally, I have ended my exams for this semester. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), it is not the last paper of my university education. This exam has been a long drag for me. I have papers right from the first day of the official exam period to the last day of the exam period. And to make matters worse, my last paper is on the last slot of the official exam period. LOL. I am not here to whine about my long study/exam period. I know I should be thankful that I don't have 4-5 papers crammed within 2-3 days. Oh well, thank god everything is over now.

Since I am so bored now, I shall dedicate this post to all the warriors who fought diligently with me. First of all to all pens that have sacrificed their lives for me to write legibly on all the answer sheets. Next, all the papers that allowed me to scribble with all my chemical equations, calculations and whatever not. After that to Taylor Swift and Jay Chou for giving me awesome songs to kill my boredom in the midst of study. Your songs are really one hell of a stress-relieving songs. And to all the countless games that help me take away my mind from the studying.

Now to all my human warriors. Boyfriend, thanks for accompanying me all the way, although you finished your exams one week earlier than mine and you should have went out for a huge celebration. And to my love ly roomie Chin Yun, sorry for staying up so late :D

Maybe this is not for me

It's been the 4th year already. But, I still see no signs of improvement. I hate progressing so slowly in things. And of course arguments between us during practice is not very good as well. I can imagine the steps, and what need to be done. I can describe too what needs to be done. But when it comes to actual dancing, I cannot apply what's running in my head to the moving muscles. And, I still can't solve the very serious problem in this, straightening my legs, and achieving grounded-ness in every step I take. I still cannot do spins properly, keep my posture upright. Sometimes, it is really frustrating. Frustrating because I never achieve something prominent in my life before. Piano, I'm only at the 7th Grade. Why don't I continue? Financial and time problem. Studies. I used to think I'm quite good until I came to Singapore. There are freaking a lot of brains that has way more capacity than I do. Furthermore, I can't really speak fluently. And now this, not going anywhere because I still feel like a beginner. Even some beginners can dance better than me! It's true that to improve at something, you must make certain sacrifices. To do this, it means time and some money. I would really love to pump in money if I have them. But this is quite impossible at the moment as at times, I will need to worry if I have enough to eat, to last me till my next pay, which is only a mere $200 odd. I would really love to spend more time too. But my grades are far too important for me. Maybe some people will say I am just giving excuses. But I always believe that you can only keep your interest when there is progression, a prominent one. And you have to have some good guidance as well. A teacher that is willing to teach and have patients. That's why, I secretly hope that someday, I will be able to touch the black and white keyboards again!

It's really been the 4th year already. I've did numerous performances and competitions. I really love them. Now watching the new batch of people coming in, I do feel happy for the club. I hope everybody will progress well. Friends who started with me are progressing really good too. Getting stronger and better everyday. I am really very proud for everyone:) But as for me, I don't see any point of continuing this seriously anymore. Sometimes, I just feel like letting go of everything as I just think maybe this is just not for me.

Post exam

Finally. It's over. Yes, my life as an exchange student has came to an end on 11th June 2011. How shall I celebrate it? Well, I don't actually have the choice to choose, because, boyfriend and I were planning to go to Scotland, by bus at night. Since we have to board the bus from London Victoria Station, the only obvious place to celebrate my liberation is to go to London. Therefore, after paper and lunch, we headed to London.

This should be my last time hanging around in London. There was so much to do, but sadly, so little time. I wanted to go to Borough Market, eat one last piece of their awesome cheesecake. I have yet to try all the delicious food sold there, the pies from Pieminster, the Cheese Raclette, etc. etc. I suddenly regretted not coming to London as often. 

However, we ended up going to yet another market in London called the Portobello Market. There is not much food or maybe we didn't manage to look for them, but if you are in the mood for shopping, this is a good place to be, with a lot of clothes and vintage stuff.

Taking the final chance in London, boyfriend went around to took pictures of London, the Big Ben, Westminster building, the London Eye, the Tower Bridge, both day and night scene. Sometimes, I don't really understand why boyfriend (other photographers as well), spends so much time just to get the right picture. But after looking at all the beautiful pictures, I think it's all worth it.

All in all, London is a chaotic city, in my opinion at least. It's a great city to visit but not a great city to leave in. It can be so busy, sometimes busier than Singapore. I just feel very uncomfortable around a lot of people, and London does give me that sense of uncomfortable. Not to mention the forever cold London weather, although it is already summer, temperature can still stay around 18-20 degrees.

But, for now, I am on my way to Scotland. 

Guildford

The University of Surrey is situated in a small town called Guildford.

The stag

Well, after being here for 4 months, I think this is really the first time I am writing about the town that I am living in. But really, there is nothing too interesting about this town. It has the high street which every town in UK has. It has a Tesco to serve all the students and residences here.

Tesco-not the same as the ones we had in Malaysia

This is where we usually get our groceries. It has a castle! And inside the castle, it has a garden with a statue of Alice through the looking glass. Yeap, the Alice from Alice in Wonderland. The garden was actually to commemorate the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He spent most of his vacations in Guildford!

Guildford Castle-not very well maintained but still strong and sturdy after over 100 years?

Gate leading to Alice's garden

Alice through the looking glass

So, this small town of Guildford is where I spent my semester as an exchange student. We were all quite lucky as Guildford is near (south-west) London (fastest train takes about 40 minutes). So we could just hop on a train on a weekend and just go to London for a day.

During the semester, I met quite a few people, mostly my housemates, from the dance club and also fellow Singaporeans, both full-time students and exchange ones. Get to learn about Brit's culture and understand more about the carefree living style of the "ang-mohs". Although sometime I do get frustrated and unhappy with the actions of my housemates, I am still happy that I stayed on campus and not off. Who knows what kinda room I will get if I were to get an off-campus accommodation. Maybe I will just fall into a trap and didn't get a room at all.

Everybody is friendly here. They'll just casually throw you a "how are you doing" even if they had just met you yesterday. And "Cheers" seems to be the "in" word to say here. Hahaha it replaces everything from thank yous to welcome and from hellos to goodbyes. Yeap, cheers mate!

Now, now. One more week to exam and two more weeks to end of my exchange semester. Nope, revision hasn't been done, which is quite abnormal for me and yes, I am really thinking of going home soon. But I am very much looking forward to the big Europe trip with boyfriend. This might be my only chance to come over here, so gotta do this before leaving the beautiful UK/Europe.

I'm glad that I actually applied for exchange and thankful that I was offered a place. I don't know how much I have changed during the exchange program, but I am happy that my boring life as a student has changed to an exciting one during this swapping process. Next time, when people talk about their overseas trip, at least I have something to say and not just sit at a corner quietly, enviously listening to other people talking about their life in a foreign land.

Home. I'm missing you

I can't really show this but I can't take it anymore. I really want to be back home, this instance. Missed everything at home. At least, my neighbor will not slam his/her door every single they. Yes. I really want to go home! Like everyone else after exams next month. But I know I can't go home without the Europe trip. I can't even whine about it because it is an act of being weak, as interpreted by somebody! I really really want to go home now *sigh* I didn't realized there are still 73 days to go.

Ireland and Northern Ireland

Yes, its two different countries! Next on our Spring break itinerary is the Ireland and Northern Ireland. For your information, Dublin is not part of the UK. They use Euros, but they still drive on the left side. Anyway, so we heard, Ireland is a super scenic place. Although there’s nothing much to do, but the scene over there are enough to take your breath away. Plus, Dublin is the home for Guinness. So, you can actually go for a brewery tour!
Throughout our stay in Ireland and Northern Ireland, we stayed with Paddywagon. They are a big chain in both the countries, having hostels (value for money) and conducting tours around the two cities. So if you stay for more than 3 nights with them, you get a free tour from them. Besides that, they also offer airport transport for free!

Happy days in Paddywagon

So, the first day is Dublin. We went to the Guinness Brewery on St. James for the tour.

Guinness

With the tickets, you get to have a free pint of Guinness at the Gravity Bar (which usually costs 5 euros per pint in pubs) and also a shot in the tasting lab. Yes, before a Guinness can be qualified as a Guinness, experts do actually QC them by tasting in the Tasting Lab. And then, you can also try to fill your own pint of Guinness. Like what boyfriend did. Certified! Haha.

Boyfriend in the background

And the next day is Sandemann’s free walking tour to understand why there is Northern Ireland and Ireland and not only one Ireland. Interesting history!
To eat in Dublin is fairly expensive. For a few meals, we actually opted for McDonald’s instead of proper pub food! A full Irish breakfast can easily costs you almost 10 euros while a Guinness beef stew can take another 10 euros away from you. But the Sandemann’s tour has incentives from this particular pub called O’nells.

We get a main and a drink for 10 euros instead of the normal 20 euros. So we finally got to try the Guinness beef stew! And it was really really good!

Guinness beef stew

Mushroom bacon soup

Next stop is Belfast, Northern Ireland. From Dublin to Belfast, we are actually crossing an international borders. But since the 80s or the 90s, things between the two countries got better and thus, no more tight security checks while travelling between the two countries. As our tour guide have said, you might not even be aware that you’ve crossed the border. We took a 4 hours bus from Dublin to Belfast and reached in the evening. Since it is spring, we still have day light even time like 8pm. And a must see thing in Belfast is their long stretch of political mural, which I find it quite fascinating!

Imagine you drew all the things on public walls of Malaysia/Singapore, the next thing you know is you are in court. Well, we do have graffiti in Malaysia, but it’s all xxx love yyy, or zzz is here. Meaningless! After resting for the night, we took the free tour from Paddywagon to Giant’s Causeway and Derry/Londonderry! Look how beautiful this is?? Our tour guide, Troy, is a funny person with a good sense of humor. He is all excited bringing us into the nature while telling us all his Irish jokes in his heavy Irish accent. And most importantly, he brought us to this place called Causeway Hotel for a nice lunch. (Well, he practically eats there everyday). Now some picture of scenes!

The Carrick-a-rede rope bridge...yes I can't believe I actually crossed it

Giant's causeway. These are all made from valcano's lava

Giant's Causeway

Blue sky, blue sea. Lovely

A cute couple, telling the whole world nothing could beat them, not even the waves from Giant's Causeway. Romantic

Compared to Dublin, Belfast is a cheaper city. First night, we had pub food! It is called Brennan’s bar, just across the Europa Hotel. We heard about this bar from our friends and they heavily recommended it to us, describing the cheeseburger as heavenly. So boyfriend and I decided to try it. But, it was unfortunate that their cheeseburger was out, so we had pie and a mixed grill instead.

Mixed grill with champ

Pie and fries

One side dish that you must have in pubs here is CHAMP. Champ is actually mashed potatoes, with loads of butter and cheese, and some spring onions. It’s….no words can describe it actually. Delicious! And in the Giant’s Causeway Hotel, we had this cheeseburger and Irish coffee (whisky + coffee). No Ireland trip is complete with it. The cheeseburger was just okay and boyfriend and I had decided that we are not big fan of Irish coffee.

Cheeseburger with bacon and champ

Irish coffee

After the trip from Giant’s Causeway, we took away our dinner of jacket potatoes and cheeseburgers (yes, again) from this shop called Spud for only 5 euros, before taking the free bus back to Dublin. Paddywagon’s staff were kind enough to let us on the bus!

2 large baked potatoes with cheese and bacon=2 pounds

So the last day in Dublin was spent by going to and outskirt trip, again free with Paddywagon, to Glendalough, Kilkenny and Wicklow Mountains. This is also a back-to-nature trip with a long stopover in Kilkenny. Glendalough means 2 lakes in Irish, and let the picture speak for itself about this place.

One of the lakes in Glendalough

In Kilkenny, we had pub food again. And yes, if you’re wondering, cheeseburger again! Besides that,we had Irish stew, which is cooked with mutton and served with some bread and butter. I should say the Irish stew is especially good. If tastes a bit like our chinese lamb stew. Ahh..comfort food. Kilkenny is a small town by itself. Nothing much to see actually but it’s a good getaway from the more expensive Dublin.

Yes, you got it right, cheeseburger!

Mutton Irish stew

After this trip, it was back to school and facing my FYP report all over again. Thank god it is all over. No more travelling posts until summer holidays.

Cooking 101: Cheese Baked Pasta

One of the must-acquired skill when you go for exchange is cooking skills. During these few month in the UK, I am shameless to say that my cooking skills certainly up by a few levels. From just eating ready meals to cooking everything from scratch, I can say “ Ma, I can prepare a meal for the family already!”
I love cheese! And pasta in the UK is considered cheap necessity. Same goes to all the ingredients that went “sacrificed” for my cravings for cheese-baked pasta. It might not be as nice as those you have in Kim Gary, Wong Kok, or Char Chan Teng, but it is certainly good to my standard and boyfrien’s “in-jim” standard. Anyway, just look at the photo, drooling already right? 

So to produced this awesome-pawsome cheesebaked pasta, all you need is, pasta, pasta sauce (carbonara or Bolognese), meat, onions/garlic (you can eliminate these if you don’t want) and the all time favourite mushrooms! Well you can opt out the mushrooms too if you are Mario-hater! Anyway just prepare the pasta like you always do. For both of us, we usually starts off with boiling pasta. Then, fry the onions until they turned golden brown and put in the meat. When the meat is almost cooked, pour in the drained pasta and add in suitable amount of pasta sauce. Now now, here comes the interesting part. CHEESE! For cheese-baked anything, mozzarella cheese is the main character. The one that gives you the thin strand when you pull! So layer as much mozzarella as you want on top of the pasta, and shove it into an oven and bake for about 10 minutes or until the top part is golden brown. (Do use a oven-safe dish) And voila, you have the awesomest cheese-baked pasta ever!(Unless your pasta is undercooked or something).
We always fry our pasta before serving, be it cheese-baked or no cheese-baked. And we always use butter. This will make the pasta all fragrant with butter and more flavourful. So, if anyone ever stumble upon this recipe, you could have a try.

Spain: Barcelona

The last four days of our Spain trip were spent in Barcelona. Boyfriend and I stayed in Sute Hostel. It’s a great hostel, if you ask me, for the price we paid-free wifi, free coffee/tea, free kitchen, friendly owner. It’s a bit of the city centre but by adding the transport to the hostel fee, it was still cheaper than getting a room in the city centre. Our friends spend their nights in another hostel called Mambo Tango, which is quite famous.

First day, after checking in and resting, we headed to the city centre and their market. Yes, La Boqueira Market. And boyfriend and I decided to have our most expensive lunch throughout our trip, 26 euros for lunch. But they were superbly good. Recommended by books like Lonely Planet and webs like trip advisor, this might seem like a tourist trap, but it was not. Pinotxo (pronounced as pinotcho) really serve good food. Good is an understatement. Heavenly I should say. Their ingredients were fresh and the staffs were friendly and helpful. Here is what 26 euros got us!

The friendly owner-some customers even asked for his signature

Bar style eating

Cod fish

The classic one: Baby squids with beans in some black sauce

Beef cheek stew which melts in your mouth

After lunch, boyfriend got us walking from the La Rambla to the Barcelona FC’s Stadium, Camp Nou. We ended up walking about 1 hour to a football stadium! I couldn’t believe I did that for football! But no, I’m no big fan for football. However, the stadium is very impressive according to boyfriend. The ones they have in London is considered miniature if compared to Barca’s stadium. After that, it was another long walk back to the Placa de Espanya for the musical fountains. The fountain supposed to go high and low with music background and with colorful lighting in it. But since the sun sets very late, we couldn’t see much of the lightings show. It is definitely a waste. After the fountain, we walked back to Mambo Tango’s direction for dinner in this restaurant. There’s really nothing to complain about the food and it’s sad that I couldn’t remember the name!

Black and brown rice with chicken in creamy sauce

Chicken with mozzarella pie with salad

In Barcelona, Sandeman’s do not have their team running around. But we were lucky to find this company called RunnerBeans that gives the Old City Tour and Gaudi’s Tour. We decided to go for the Gaudi’s one first and took the Old City Tour the next day. Gaudi is a modern architect in his era, designing buildings that are not quite fit into the buildings of the era. I thought that his works are buildings like they were from fairy tales, no perfect shapes. This includes the Sagrada Familia which is still incomplete even after almost 85 years after Gaudi’s death. For lunch, we went to Parc Guell, a park filled with Gaudi’s work, for a picnic. There were a lot of buskers and maybe illegal traders around. And they have special communication tools among them that will alert each other to run for their lives if there are any checks going around. These people are actually all over the place in Spain.

For the two nights we were in Barcelona, we ate in a restaurant called Ikaro, near our hostel. Generally, the food near our hostel was cheaper compare to the city centre like La Rambla and Barri Gothic. Ikaro has a lot of Chinese (maybe they are Taiwanese) waiters and waitresses. And they have English menu, which make ordering easy as we don’t speak Spanish nor Catalan. Anyway, for a small restaurant/tapas bar like this, they served thumbs up food. That’s why boyfriend and I went back for a second time before we left Barcelona.

Fried Calamaries, croquettes and Russian Salad

Grilled pork with eggs and salad (feta cheese)

Tortilla Espanyol with baguettes with home-made tomato puree

Beef steak with cheese-creamed wedges and salad

Cheeseburger

Did I mention Spanish serves great coffee?

  From Tripadvisor, I came across this tapas bar called Maitea Taberna. Like any heavily recommended eateries, their staff can speak fluent English. But, since the bar was filled with locals, we decided to give it a try. In Barcelona, a must eat thing is called pintxos (pronounced pinchos). It is tapas, served on a piece of sliced baguette, held with a toothpick. So you can choose between cold (on the counter) or hot (brought around by the serving staff right from the kitchen). Maitea Taberna charged 1.50 euros per pintxos. So this is how it works. You take as many food as you want/can eat and at the end, if you didn’t order any mains, the toothpicks will be counted and priced. Yes, they do work according to honest system. If you wanna cheat by hiding some toothpick, you are welcomed. But, I will not feel right to do that. Haha. Anyway, here’s the food!

Maitea Taberna

Arrays of pintxos

Some of our cold pintxos

Hot pintxos

Boyfriend and I actually went to Maitea Taberna for twice, but with one attempt fail. We went on a Sunday, without realising that they were closed! However, we found this hidden gem in one of the neighbourhood near Maitea Taberna, which serves yummy ice-cream!

Brina serves good ice-creams

 And for the fail attempt, we replaced our dinner with a 3-course dinner for 10 euros in Happy Grill and Bar. This was the place where we decided that we missed rice a lot and ordered a plate of fried rice. Paella fried rice to be exact. Taste was okay but texture wise was weird. For mains, we had a steak and a cheeseburger. In Barcelona, don’t expect succulent, thick slab of beef when you order steak. Our steaks, for twice, were a thinly sliced beef grilled to dryness. But it is of a perfect dryness that gives the beef’s fragrance, but dryness that was not too dry that you will choke! And for dessert, we had this apple-crumble thing which taste awesome!

Happy Bar and Grill makes us happy

"Chao fan" Spanish style

Cheeseburger, again

Apple crumble thing dessert

They sell pintxos too

As the last stop in Spain, I told myself I had to have one thing to bring everything to an end. Haha, emo! Yes, I was missing the sinful breakfast from Madrid, the Chocolat con churros. And when I wished hard enough, the breakfast cafe next to our hostel sells it. Aww~~lady luck is treating me well! Okay don’t need to explain much about this sinful breakfast as the picture tells it all. Deep fried longish doughnut dunked in a cup of thick, hot chocolate. Perfect breakfast!

The perfect and sinful breakfast

So, this sums up all my Spain gastronomic experience, both good and bad. I still love Spain no matter what, the land of sun, sea and beaches with good food!