10:20am Msia time…I’ll be in Penang, hopefully on my way to a good breakfast

What a wonderful picture, plus I made all the wonderful food in it. The vegetable kebabs were a great idea until I started skewering the vegetable and it took me a long time!

The tandoori chicken (on the grill in the picture below) turned out to be a great hit, the honey soy sauce chicken was less of a hit but they still looked and tasted good. The vegetable kebabs were well received, but personally, I felt I had overmarinated the vegetables. The zucchini looked more like pickles than garden fresh zucchini. Cooking the tomyam beehoon was rather challenging, I still have no idea what’s the proper way to do it. I need fry-beehoon instruction!

Syahrul brought sambal and a big tray of fried rice with shrimps - both were delicious. After everyone left and I managed to clear up everything, I finally sat down at 12:30am to enjoy the leftover fried rice and sambal.

By the way, I forgot to take deep breaths today.

BBQing in the rain

This picture in some ways summed up the bbq. But then the party also had some totally unexpected surprises. The bbq began as an idea to gather a group of students and family members for a graduation and farewell celebration. Just an informal messy gathering - aluminium foil, paper plates, plastic cutleries - no big deal sort of thing.

The weather was not the best for an outdoor party. The rain came and went and came again. At one point, we had to move the party indoors and cramped 5 kids and 8 adults in my tiny apartment, while 3 others remained outside bbq-ing. As the rain died down and the feeling of overcrowdedness overwhelmed the party inside, the party moved outdoors again.

And then something unexpected happened…

Yesterday when I went to get the chicken from Ika, she mentioned that she and her family might not be coming to the party. But I persuaded her to bring them over anyway, even if it was for a short time. I told her Duh has a nice backyard and a tiny creek, and her parents should at least see that. Am I persuasive or what?! So midway through the party, Ika and her entourage of six came. And among them is the Deputy Minister of Human Resources of Malaysia … now, I know who Ika’s dad is!

Anyway, with or without the presence of a VIP, the party was still fun. But I would prefer a party without the VIP-ness.

At times like this I wonder why I do this to myself - planning a party is stressful work. I spent the whole day running around (actually driving around): returned one item at Marshall’s, bought some items at Giants, picked up Marvin’s graduation hood and gown from the bookstore, went to Valley Farm market to get vegetables, picked up halal chicken from Ika, went to Saturday evening service, and then one last trip to Walmart to buy a metal tong. I’m sort of drained out now but I have five cut-up chicken and assorted vegetables in the fridge waiting for me to start work.

List of things to do tonight:
1. Marinate half of the chicken with honey soy sauce mixture
2. Marinate the other half of the chicken with tandoori yogurt mixture
3. Wash and cut zucchini, green/orange/yellow peppers and mushroom
4. Marinate cut vegetables
5. Soak bamboo skewers in water

List of things to do tomorrow:
1. Make more ice
2. Assemble vegetable kebabs: pineapple cubes, cherry tomatoes, mushroom, zucchini, green/yellow/orange peppers
3. Cook tomyam beehoon
4. Pick-up some people from lower campus
5. Remember to take deep breaths
6. Have a good time
7. Major clean-up afterwards

Here is to recycling good stuff - my makan list from 1.5 years ago. It is still relevant, not outdated, but needs some minor changes. Since I’ll be back for 28 days, I’ll list 28 items; one for each day.

My list of must eats in Malaysia:
1. wonton mee & sui-kow
2. dim sum
3. lots of seafood
4. char koay teow
5. hokkien mee
6. chicken rice
7. roast duck rice
8. bak kut teh
9. hokkien char
10. roti canai
11. indian mee goreng
12. roast pork rice
13. koay teow th’ng
14. satay
15. KFC hot and spicy (there’s KFC here but not as good)
16. egg tart
17. curry mee
18. chendol
19. Aaron’s two special meals (Aaron said that the meal he prepared during my last trip wasn’t a special one because he didn’t have time to make a special one. So in that case, let’s just make it two special meals this time!)
20. nasi lemak
21. steamboat
22. indian rojak/pasembor
23. nyonya kuih
24. 100-plus (I know this is not food, but I really miss it)
25. Shogun buffet
26. bak-chang
27. ais-krim potong
28. char hor fun

I’m currently doing a bible study by Beth Moore, called Living Free. In one of the chapters, there was one question:

What do you think of when you think of the word satisfaction? Describe the most satisfying event you remember experiencing.

When I first read this question, I immediately associated satisfaction with a job well done…like completing my qualifying examination or a very difficult course or maybe when the kids I’m teaching finally understood what I’m trying to teach them, but then some of these don’t really feel like satisfaction. For example with the qualifying exam, it’s over and done with but it doesn’t really feel great, it’s sort of anti-climatic.

But I did come up with one experience that has satisfaction written all over it - the first few days I’m back home after being away for a long time. There’s no worries, no cares, my family, my home, my room, my bed, my old junk - it’s absolutely satisfying. I just love it.

World Cafe

Today, the College of Education diversity committee, after weeks of planning, organized its first World Cafe to discuss the diversity climate/culture of the college and ultimately what each person is willing to do to make a change. I think the World Cafe is an interesting conversational process. Here’s one sticky quote: Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

Amazon packages

I’ve been receiving many amazon packages lately. Today, I came home to 4 packages and one of them even contained a Nikon p5000 camera. Lots of boxes for recycling. At the moment, I’m testing out the xtrememac ipod radio. After I’ve read the quick start manual and charged the battery, I’ll fiddle around with the camera. There’s also thirteen new books of assorted subjects. I wonder if I could read through all of them before handing them over to the real owner. Exciting times!

UPDATES: OK, after talking to my dad, I realized the paragraph above needs clarification. The boxes were stuff that Victor bought from Amazon, shipped to me, to be couriered in person to him in Malaysia. I’m just trial testing all the gadgets, with his permission, of course! Yeah, according to my advisor, I sometimes write as if people can read my mind

The onslaught of pollen

In my few years here, I’ve never given much thought to pollen or spring time allergy. This spring however I’m beginning to feel the onslaught of pollen. All these trees and plants pollinating at the same time, spreading pollen everywhere. My car, which I have yet to wash (I cannot believe I’m my dad’s daughter!), is now covered in a thin layer of yellowish-greenish pollen. I also wake up sneezing, my eyes feel puffy, and I just feel like there’s a lot of microscopic things bothering me.

Tricky issue

When I first arrived here, student health insurance was about $500/year, now it is $999/year. Technology fee was $100/semester then, now it’s $150/semester. I don’t know what gas prices were back then, but this week gas prices has gone up close to $3/gallon and it cost me about $40 to fill up the tank. A first class mail stamp was 37 cents then, now it’s 41 cents. The rent has gone up. Even the price of a half gallon bottle of orange juice has gone up about $1. But student stipend has remained the same.

During the research forum this Friday, a group of us, doc students, will bring up this issue to the faculty. It feels risky, but the chair of the dept did tell us to bring up issues that we are not satisfied with. And this is one big issue that’s bugging most of us. As a “submissive” Asian student, I sometimes feel it’s more comfortable to just continue struggling, because I feel I don’t have anything to negotiate with, it’s like I’m at their mercy when it comes to money, among other things. But then after being here for 4 years, I should have at least assimilated some of the american assertiveness or demandingness. Even if we don’t get a raise, at least we make the professors aware of our financial difficulties. We have to give it a try.

Yay! Finally conquered the 40-minute barrier today.

This coming Sunday, I’m organizing a gotong-royong BBQ together with the other Malaysian and Singaporean students. Five of them are graduating very soon and leaving Lehigh for good. So the BBQ is a farewell and graduation party for them. Duh’s backyard has several bbq stoves, picnic tables and chairs, big shady trees, and lots of grass, which makes it the ideal location for a BBQ. There’s also a tiny river nearby, not that we’re going wash anything in it Coupled with the nice weather, I think it’s going to turn out great. There’s one problem though, I don’t know if I should invite the two malaysian professors. I wonder if their presence will affect the party atmosphere. But even so, I think I should.

Hexagonal painting

I plan to paint when I’m back home. I painted this during my last trip, using acrylic paints on prestretched canvas. I chose this design because it reminded me of the patchwork quilt blankets that my mom made. Since stitching pieces of cloth together takes too much time, so why not just paint it? Besides, I have a long history of starting complicated craftwork but never completing them. During my trip home in summer of 2004, I brought back a cross-stich piece called Max in the Adirondacks (an illustration of a cat lazing amidst fishing gadgets). I still have the unfinished piece in a box in the closet. Too complicated, too many colors and details, and it’s not fun anymore, feels like hard work!

May 6th run
Distance: 3.11 miles (5K)
Time: 40:10 minutes
Pace: 8:02 min/km
Calories: 316

I like running on the rubberized track - it’s mindless running, just round and round. Unlike the cross-country trail, I don’t have to look out for uneven ground or holes or sandy areas or muddy areas, and I don’t have to run uphill and deal with the physical and mental toil of the hill. But other mental toils exist at the track. Right now it’s the track and field season and LOTS of student athletes hang out at the track. There’s something very intimidating about “running” in the midst of hungry-looking athletes in training.

Anyway, I had planned to do a 2-mile run/walk at the track. I walked all the way to the track only to be faced with a group of training students. I did get on the track, walked a whole circle (or oval) and decided I couldn’t possibly run here so I proceeded towards the cross-country trail. I still see athletes on the trail but at least once they past me they disappear! So I set a distance of 2 miles on my iPod, and using my interval timer watch, did a run-5min: walk-1min thing. When I reached 2 miles, decided to push for 5K (3.1 miles). I’m thinking of setting a 35-min 5K goal for my next official 5K run, not even sure if that’s realistic. That would mean I have to run 1km in 7 minutes..no more penguin shuffle or tortoise crawl.

May 8th run
Distance: 5K
Time: 41:56 minutes
Pace: 8:21 min/km
Calories: 316

The cross-country trail is great too. It winds around corn fields, a tiny river, some houses, many trees, a football stadium, softball field (ewww), and just lots of grass. My dad would love going for his walks here. I’ve seen squirrels, chipmunks (really!), rabbits, deers, and birds. Running on the trail also strengthens the ankles as the muscles adjust to the varying terrains.

Today, I didn’t even bother going to the track, just went straight to the cross-country trail. This time I set a distance of 5K on the iPod and then realized I had forgotten to wear the interval watch, so using the Nike+iPod as a guide I just ran 1km walked 100m and repeated that. I wanted to try and do the 5K in under 40 mins - have to somehow pass that 40 min barrier. At 1.86 km, I bumped into Mary, my fellow small group member. We stood around chatting about the cross-country trail, exercise schedules, running in water, swimsuits and self-image issues. We parted and I continued on my run realizing that I won’t be able to go under 40min after that chat-break. I’m surprised that I completed the run in 41:56 minutes. I’m sure the chat was longer than 2 minutes and the run today really felt like the tortoise crawl.