bug bites

so i'm in DC for training and got to stay at the Ritz Carlton at tysons corner (yay!). and it's so beautiful and fancy and posh - i've forgotten hotels should be like this, and not like those dark dank run down places i stay in for the past year and 4 months!

 view of the room, so fancy!

so the last thing i expect in this wonderful hotel in the winter (where it's cold and dry) are bugs. but the next morning i woke up, noticed an itch on my left arm so i put some aloe vera on it and went off, thinking i just got one tiny mozzie bite. as the morning went on my arm itched more and more so i looked, and turns out i had 4 bites in a row! in a straight line! now could it be.....-horror- bed bugs?

those eeky pesky bed bugs that can follow you home and infest your bed and home??!! omg i was so worried i kept googling the differences between bed bug bites and mosquito bites and it was really unclear. both bites look similar but bed bug bites should be tinier/pimplier/redder and have no center bump the way mozzie bites do...

What are you...bed bug bites, mosquito bites or just some other bite?

then i got back to the hotel and by then the bites have progressed to this stage:

Uh-oh...looks worse than before...

So now the bites are no longer just itchy, but have become painful and itchy. bah! they look more like mozzie bites now, or some other bites that cause some allergic reaction of sorts...

i complained to the hotel people, they came by and checked the room for bugs and bed bugs but couldn't find any, i made a report and they switched me to another room. ok fine.

after i got to my new room, i looked into the bathroom and up at the light, and there it was. i was seething with vengeance and anger and hatred and such painnnn!! I've got to get you I've got to GET YOU, if not your comrade who got me so bad I've got TO KILL YOUUU!!!

so i chased it down, and viciously stabbed at it with a tissue paper.
it repeatedly evaded my stabs.
i almost smacked it with my two hands but no, it prevails, but i'm relentless, i'm determined and my blood boils with burning vengeance, and at last with one final stab against the mirror it stopped moving. i slowly lifted the tissue paper, and there it lay, broken.
wings broken, four legs fallen, with some yellowish substance under its crushed torso and no sign of blood. it was one of at least two mosquitoes that resided in this floor, not to mention this hotel.
SUCH OUTRAGE!!!!
then i called and told the hotel it's probably mosquitoes and not bed bugs and what do i get? i get nothing but a set of painful welts on my arms that swell and make me unhappy and distract me for the next two weeks. at least.

                                       

At long last, vengeance is mine...

What this has taught me is there will ALWAYS be mosquitoes in DC area, even in the winter. even in a fancy hotel room. argh. and that even after you've taken revenge, it's never really sweet because the harm is done - i'm hurting forever (or for the next two weeks), and the mosquito is dead forever. it's not even the same mosquito that attacked me, so well. violence never solves any problem (other than avoiding more mosquito bites)...

survived half dome

At the top of the world! (or just half dome)

don't think i'll ever do something so crazy again - i just completed the half dome hike in Yosemite National Park yesterday - spent over 12 hours on this hike (beginning 3.05am and ending at 3.27pm), the longest I've ever done, and probably the longest I'll ever do unprepared.

it was gorgeous with plenty of beautiful scenery on the way up and down. the main problem was my fitness level (or lack thereof), lack of preparedness for the burning of around 4000 calories on the trip, lack of good shoes, and lack of awareness of the need for electrolytes replenishment (i.e. gatorade drinks that will replenish my salt from all the sweat...). with a good pair of hiking shoes, trekking poles i'm pretty sure the effort needed for the hike would be quartered or even halved. sigh.

also, i didn't train at all for this, and maybe i should have - at least climbing something like 100 flights of stairs everyday would have helped. i did absolutely 0 preparation for this, except hike mission peak the weekend before (which did help in strengthening my climbing muscles, but not enough, soo not enough...)

the one good thing was the weather was perfect for the hike - cool when we started because it was dark, and not too hot when we reached half dome as it was still morning around 9+

i must brag - i climbed up the cable section in around 25 minutes (9.05am to 9.30am), when others may have taken 40 min or more! hohoho...

perhaps because of my overenthusiasm and misguided belief in my strength i thought i could make my way down with no problem, now that the difficult part is done! unfortunately, here's where my body started to protest way too hard...my muscles started to strain really hard and it got painful to walk, especially uphill or downhill. it definitely felt like walking in a viscous liquid (not just water, more like gel), and with lead weights on my calves.

i think what i should have done was be prepared for the descent, not just the ascent. should have taken a lot more breaks on the way down, drank more electrolyte water, ate more food etc. especially after the super strenuous hike up, my muscles were dead tired and being over-stressed. every step felt worse than the last, and after a while 0.3 miles felt no different from 3 miles or 30 miles to me...it was that long when i'm suffering every step of the way. interesting how your perspective changes when you suffer, time grows longer and everything becomes harder.

now i know better what suffering means, and what being stone tired really means - it means your muscles have turned to stone and you literally can't move faster than a snail's crawl.

honestly - really really proud of myself for doing this - 4800 feet in elevation rise (an equivalent of 450 storeys climb!!), at 8800 feet of elevation above sea (which also makes it difficult at high elevation) and around 16 mile hike roundtrip! i was so certain i can't do it, i won't do it, won't suffer and won't put myself in the situation where i'm constantly being embarrassed by my lack of fitness, but i still chose to do it.

till today i still wonder why, but i think it's due to the enthusiasm of all my coworkers and other people i've spoken to - they made it seem easy and so i took the chance.

half dome was never on my bucket list, but doing something crazy once in a while isn't too bad. i guess i do have that adventurous streak despite my risk averseness and dislike of suffering =P

also many thanks to my wonderfully strong boyfriend, who carried most of my load and eventually all of my load (and my love), and waited for me patiently and tried to encourage me with his constant "go go"s (btw, those aren't encouraging at all, those are just scathing to me when i AM going, just going really slowly because i can't go faster). maybe more breaks and going faster in between would work better than going slowly at a snail's pace?

look at this link! it says it's America's 10 most dangerous hikes! if i had read this i probably wouldn't have done it lol, i didn't even think twice about the danger, only worried about my fitness level haha http://www.backpacker.com/trips/california/yosemite-national-park/america-s-10-most-dangerous-hikes-mist-trail-half-dome-ca/ 

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on a side note: figured out 3 important elements to helping a friend/bf/gf who is suffering and making a slow and pained hike back down:

1. Distract - sing songs, make conversation, point out happy and nice things, take things slow. This distracts them from their pain and makes the experience positive instead of constant negativity from the pain
2. Follow them, don't lead - Following behind will help as it doesn't make them feel like they need to hurry up to catch up to you, but don't follow too closely either. Let them set the pace and you go along behind while doing number 1 and 3.
3. Encourage - give positive encouragements, e.g. You're doing great! You've done so well to come this far, I'm really impressed with how much effort you're putting into this, I can see that you are trying hard, good job! The effort and the trying is what matters, turn it into a positive experience. Even white lies could help - you have done better than most other people i know, i'm so proud of you!

Number 3 is kind of over kill, number 2 is nice to have but not necessary - number 1 is the easiest and best one of all. By doing those things, you're not only distracting them from the pain, you're distracting them from their looming sense of failure. No one is concentrating on them being so slow and failing, we are all concentrating on the joy of the moment. That's the most important part to hiking - the process, not the speed or strength or how fast or slow.

this is me.

this is real, this is me. just did this big 5 personality type test, and a lot of it does seem like me at my worst. this is me with my bf, the way i act with him brings out the worst in me. that's kind of counterintuitive right?

Big Five Test Results

Extroversion (72%) high which suggests you are overly talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting at the expense too often of developing your own individual interests and internally based identity. Accommodation (48%) medium which suggests you are moderately kind natured, trusting, and helpful while still maintaining your own interests. Orderliness (74%) high which suggests you are overly organized, neat, structured and restrained at the expense too often of flexibility, variety, spontaneity, and fun. Emotional Stability (24%) low which suggests you are very worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious. Inquisitiveness (60%) moderately high which suggests you are intellectual, curious, imaginative but possibly not very practical.

Take Free Big Five Personality Test
Personality Test by SimilarMinds.com

i am SLOEI (3.1% of women, 2.2% of men): http://similarminds.com/global5/sloei.html 

i am also limbic (14.3% of women, 6.6% of men): http://similarminds.com/global5/limbic.html 

seems like i'm kind of doing what my personality type suggests, so not too bad.

bursting with energy and excitement!

ahhh music makes the world go round...and makes a joy very happy!

i just listened to Apink's Remember and watched their happy dance, i feel so energized and restless because of that. it's playing over and over on loop in my head, and i want to jump up and dance and sing out loud! except no i can't, i'm at work T.T

anyhow, i'm even more excited by a little surprise i've been preparing for the significant other :D unfortunately, i have to keep it to myself for another 3 freaking months. i've kept it in for 1 month alrd, but i'm bursting. i want to shout out loud and show off to the whole world how ingenious i am, and how much i love him! but no i can't. got to keep it quiet. got to keep it secret for another 3 months. mission impossible >.>

the most i can do is hint at it here, since he doesn't really read my blog, like EVER. and if he somehow does check it, it's not like he can tell what it is anyway hohoho. and serves him right for not reading my blog.

lalala. visiting texas this weekend, bought my friend her favorite gummy bear candy haribo! i'm happy :D

places to check out in west of singapore!

http://www.thesmartlocal.com/read/singapore-west

Here are 23 things to do in Singapore West side! My favorites are the Tea Party Cafe, star-gazing at Science Center and walking the old railway line.

Also, today there was an odd coincidence. I was standing behind this guy who was dressed quite casually in jeans and t-shirt at the priority access security line. Piqued my interest because he's kindof cute and he's so casually dressed, yet group 2. i looked at his bag to figure out if he's silver, gold or what status, but couldn't figure it out. his bag was quite formal though, so i figured he had some kind of professional job, but was creative/music-related maybe?

i also wondered where he was flying to, maybe my flight to denver? or maybe a flight to chicago like so many others were flying to? i wondered if he would end up sitting next to me, which would be kindof funny.

as i walked past him to get to security, he was walking my direction too. i turned out to go to the united club and he vanished. that was the last i thought of him - or so i thought.

i got on the plane later, and put my stuff up and down. then sat down. 

and lo and behold! it was the same guy who was standing in line in front of me at security! the guy i briefly wondered whether we would end up sitting next to each other! and then we DO! what are the odds of that??

he didn't seem to recognise me though, so i was wondering if i wanted to talk to him or not. in the end i did. he sneezed, i blessed him, he thanked me and then i told him i noticed him at security because he was dressed differently from us.

we launched into conversation and turned out he's deloitte. learnt a lot about his practice. interesting stuff. he's also a berkeley alumni! gobears!

life is so full of odd coincidences.

wow

saw this today, about hate and how it grows. really cool, and i would love to teach this to my children one day

https://i.imgur.com/ueJez27.jpg 

moving on, moving in

i'm feeling a little sad. i'm moving out of my current place in dc and selling casey (my car), and moving in with the bf in california. feeling a little nostalgic.

casey has been with me for 2 years and she has served me well. she's my first car, and she underwent a sex change from female to male and now back to female again (because when i bought her, she was female, but i thought of casey as a guy name so i called the car him, but now i think of him as her again...).

goodbye casey. i love you, and i'll dearly miss you. treat your new owner well, and think of me once in a while ok?

goodbye dc. you've been pretty good to me, and i'll definitely be back to visit again!



i still have another weekend here, but i am feeling detached already. and it's hard to dislike this place when now i'm finally having friends and the weather is warm and good...

i guess i'm moving on. and starting a new phase of my life soon.

milestone number 2!

hello all!

wondering what milestone number 2 is? well, milestone number 1 was when i got my first paycheck last september. milestone number 2 is ~ getting my first raise and bonus!

woots! it definitely came much faster than i thought it would, and it's because we lucked out with the financial year change to april - it means that we would have worked longer than 6 months and are eligible for the raise and bonus. we got ours pro-rated for 8 months out of 12, but it's still pretty good and a lot better than nothing. i'm really happy and enthused about this!

what shall i get my parents? what shall i get my bf? i don't even know, what should i even do with my first bonus other than save it up...

life is good and my firm is doing well, work is going great and i am really happy where i am right now. sometimes i can be happy really easily about life, and this is one of those times. :D

useful stuff

I read this article today and realised that there was a very applicable lesson to be learned here - just two days ago i failed and scolded myself repeatedly in my head and out loud at how dumb "I" was. I was then stuck in an endless cycle where "I" am dumb and the anxiety levels and depressive levels both rose sky-high.

Maybe instead of doing that, I should have addressed myself in 3rd person and thought about it objectively. thought about how I acted, reacted and then handled the whole situation, and then give "Joy" the right advice. I guess it would have been much better if "Joy i being dumb. What should she do next?" were the thoughts...

Another lesson to be learned from another article. i think my boyfriend is this kind of guy, who actively seeks network across groups, he seeks to understand as many kinds of people as possible, and he is kindof a loner. he doesn't fit in well with any particular group, so he enjoys being a drifter. meeting people who are of different groups, different cultures, backgrounds etc.

i've got to take a leaf from his book and be like that too haha. then we will be successful :D

Women, low confidence and how it impacts our careers

i've been reading articles about how women tend to have lower confidence than men, and so seem to do worse than men in getting themselves promoted etc. Confidence seems to correlate with people's perception of your competence, so it's quite important to act confident. though for us women, if we act too confident, we are penalised for being too aggressive...we are really walking a tightrope here.

Here's the article, it's kind of long though: http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/04/the-confidence-gap/359815/

Here's a shorter one if you'd rather just read this: https://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/5-common-confidence-mistakes-women-confidence-quiz-114141437--abc-news-deals.html

Here are my results for the confidence quiz here: http://theconfidencecode.com/confidence-quiz

Seems quite true, i do have low confidence and i'm constantly trying to act more confident at work. not sure if it's succeeding but i do see the importance of acting confident, and i need to really speak up more and do these things.

Low Confidence

Thank you for participating in The Confidence Code Assessment!

You are now part of one of the first research studies specifically related to women and confidence and we’re excited to work together to gather insight that will help women around the world embrace confidence in their lives.

Based on your responses to this quiz, you have lower than average confidence. 

What does that mean?

First, you are not alone. Many women, at some point in their lives, including us, find ourselves on this end of the spectrum. In general, you are more likely to feel uncertain of your opinions and of your abilities. You are probably quite risk-averse, and may be critical of what others would embrace for themselves as success.

How can you work to improve your confidence?

We believe there are a number of things you can do to start improving your confidence – here’s what we suggest:

Get focused. 

To help build your confidence, start small. Those of us who are confidence-challenged frequently feel overwhelmed. So start by deconstructing a larger challenge or assignment into smaller ones. Teasing out the individual parts of a challenge, and accomplishing even one-tenth of it, can give you a confidence boost. And just working towards a goal and taking action creates positive momentum. 

For example, if you are nervous about giving a speech at an upcoming event, break it down by setting a small goal for yourself of brainstorming for just 5 minutes a day. Once you’ve brainstormed, spend another 5 minutes a day polishing the speech. And once it’s polished, spend 5 minutes a day practicing in front of a mirror. 

Be grateful

New research shows that gratitude is one of the keys to happiness and an optimistic mindset. That mindset encourages confidence. And this demands a slight change in perception. Find gratitude in the tiny things: As someone lets you merge into traffic, notice, and be grateful, instead of just zipping ahead looking for your next maneuver. And – just say thank you when you get a compliment. Believe, and be grateful for, the kind words said about you. It will transform your mood, and simply saying, “Thank you, I appreciate that,” will also make the other person feel good.

Ban NATs

NATS man the frontlines in the assault on confidence, and they are every bit as annoying and insidious as their phonetic twin. We’re talking about negative automatic thoughts. Unfortunately, they buzz around more frequently than positive thoughts, and can multiply at lightning speed. They are thoughts such as, “That dress was too expensive, why did I waste my money?” or “I’ll never finish this project; I knew I wasn’t up to it,” that never seem to leave our brain.

The only way to get rid of NATs is by challenging them with logic. First, recognize the NAT. Then, use the 3 to 1 rule to get rid of them. For every 1 NAT – a bad thought – think of 3 good things you’ve done that day to banish the NAT. Do this every time a NAT pops into your head. “That dress looks good on me. I’ll wear it often. I needed a new one.”

If you’re struggling to come up with positive alternatives by yourself, imagine what you would tell a friend who confessed to having that same negative thought. This is putting self-compassion into action. You’ll be surprised how quickly you can trim those debilitating feelings down to size. It’s easy to do for others, yet we let them roam freely in our own brains.

Face failure

That’s right – you’re terrified of asking for a pay raise, talking to a stranger or raising your hand at a meeting. Imagine the very worst thing that could happen to you if you did. You’d be surprised at that how really, even the worst possible outcome isn’t that bad. The sky won’t fall on your head. The earth won’t swallow you whole – you will still be alive and standing. Just knowing that can help you realize the costs of failure are nearly always worth the risk that comes with trying something just outside your comfort zone. Actively identify one bite-sized risk each week you are willing to take. And tell us how it goes.

dumb me

sometimes it's good to have some failures. they keep you grounded, make you realise you have so much more to learn, and how dumb you really can be.

i've had a lot of things going well for me recently, and i think i'm getting a little complacent. gotta tone it down - i got a really outstanding performance review and have received good feedback the past couple of months, i've been told i'm really smart by these coworkers over and over and that i'm doing good work etc. really making me think i'm good.

and this week i've gotten myself invited to dinner with these much older coworkers, learnt so much from them regarding their experiences and their points of view and how they walk the political tightrope in the corporate world. one of the lady coworkers gave me really good advice - that we've got to observe and study the audience and cater to them in order to get what you want from them. for example, if someone has a super ego, you have to let them talk first, ask them for their opinion, and listen very carefully and sincerely.

i suddenly realised that the power of listening is so powerful, i should learn to use it more often and correctly with my friends, family and bf especially. i am too eager to talk and rant and get it all out and hear my own voice, when really i should be listening, observing and studying. i should also be willing to talk in a professional setting instead of being too passive. these guy coworkers i talk to - they are so aggressive and assertive, i feel the need to follow their suit. i think everyone has their own style, i'm going to sit tight and be humble and keep my eyes and mind wide open and learn as much as i can and listen. keep listening and observing.

and then i went and did something dumb, and said something thoughtlessly and really i was trying to make a joke, but it ended up sounding really racist. omg i didn't realise how insensitive i can be, growing up in singapore where we say things so bluntly and joke about each other's race/ethnicity without fear. it could just be my friends or my brother or even my bf's influence, but i realised that america is a very different country. they are super sensitive when it comes to things like race, religion, etc. we have to be careful what we say and how we say it, and whether to say it at all. we have to be careful to steer clear of stereotypes, and not fall into the trap of making racist jokes in front of colleagues (where it's not appropriate!)

now that i'm grown up and in the adult world, i can't be so insensitive anymore. i have to be smart about things, to be more prudent and tactful, to think before i speak, and think again before actually saying a word. all these jokes i want to make, i should save them for later with my friends or just throw them aside. you don't have to make them out in the open and embarrass yourself. sigh.

dumb me.

quiz of love!

i've been really interested in the quiz of love thing ever since it showed up on big bang theory, and sheldon and penny tried it out! then i read about it in an article from my bit-of-news app so i found those questions. totally going to try it out with bf when he's here :D

it's supposed to foster closeness between strangers such that two strangers can fall in love after doing this quiz and staring into each other's eyes for 4 minutes.

Here are the questions:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/fashion/no-37-big-wedding-or-small.html

Set I

1. Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?

2. Would you like to be famous? In what way?

3. Before making a telephone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say? Why?

4. What would constitute a “perfect” day for you?

5. When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?

6. If you were able to live to the age of 90 and retain either the mind or body of a 30-year-old for the last 60 years of your life, which would you want?

7. Do you have a secret hunch about how you will die?

8. Name three things you and your partner appear to have in common.

9. For what in your life do you feel most grateful?

10. If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?

11. Take four minutes and tell your partner your life story in as much detail as possible.

12. If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?

Set II

13. If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about yourself, your life, the future or anything else, what would you want to know?

14. Is there something that you’ve dreamed of doing for a long time? Why haven’t you done it?

15. What is the greatest accomplishment of your life?

16. What do you value most in a friendship?

17. What is your most treasured memory?

18. What is your most terrible memory?

19. If you knew that in one year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way you are now living? Why?

20. What does friendship mean to you?

21. What roles do love and affection play in your life?

22. Alternate sharing something you consider a positive characteristic of your partner. Share a total of five items.

23. How close and warm is your family? Do you feel your childhood was happier than most other people’s?

24. How do you feel about your relationship with your mother?

Set III

25. Make three true “we” statements each. For instance, “We are both in this room feeling ... “

26. Complete this sentence: “I wish I had someone with whom I could share ... “

27. If you were going to become a close friend with your partner, please share what would be important for him or her to know.

28. Tell your partner what you like about them; be very honest this time, saying things that you might not say to someone you’ve just met.

29. Share with your partner an embarrassing moment in your life.

30. When did you last cry in front of another person? By yourself?

31. Tell your partner something that you like about them already.

32. What, if anything, is too serious to be joked about?

33. If you were to die this evening with no opportunity to communicate with anyone, what would you most regret not having told someone? Why haven’t you told them yet?

34. Your house, containing everything you own, catches fire. After saving your loved ones and pets, you have time to safely make a final dash to save any one item. What would it be? Why?

35. Of all the people in your family, whose death would you find most disturbing? Why?

36. Share a personal problem and ask your partner’s advice on how he or she might handle it. Also, ask your partner to reflect back to you how you seem to be feeling about the problem you have chosen.

the little things in life

hello! felt bored and totally feeling like sharing thoughts, so here i am again! back to posting something just to keep my thoughts in order and make myself happy :)

i spent the past two weeks being confused about my united miles...they used to be very consistent number of miles because i always fly the same distances so the numbers should remain the same. but these two weeks my miles have gone haywire and they've been awarding me not less, but more miles each trip! and every trip has different number of miles! i was so confused and thought their system screwed up (but i'm not complaining ^^"), but i was trying to figure out if it was because of the flight class or what, but no...

until i looked at the dates:

How could the same trip in opposite directions have such different number of miles?? turns out one occurred in february, and the other occurred in march. figured it out yet?

for those who didn't know, united just updated their miles award program in march 2015, which i KNEW but TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT until this morning. seriously, sometimes i get my best epiphanies when i'm just waking up, all groggy and lying in bed and thinking about life, the universe, and united miles.

so before that, united awarded miles based on the actual number of flight miles you flew, plus bonus miles for having status, but now they changed the program so it awarded miles based on the plane fare. so base miles = 5x cost of plane ticket (excluding taxes etc), and with status you get extra multipliers, like i get bonus 2x for being united silver: total of 7x of plane fare. now i always fly the more ex flights because of the timing of flight and last minute booking, so it's around $452 one way without taxes, giving me a total of 3164 miles!! woots!

life is good. it's the little things in life :)

p.s. the wind keeps howling outside. so noisy. just because of a 35km/h wind! gah.

p.s.s. i woke up thinking about "wake me up when september ends". it's a nice song.

p.s.s.s. having fun singing chinese songs. i miss those days.

fun goings-on

just learnt that it's goings-on and not going-ons. kind of counter-intuitive hmm.

anyhow i really enjoy talking to my girl group of singaporean friends, we are all over the world right now - me in dc/denver/cali, yb in china, grace in switzerland, rachel in amsterdam, wenyu in cornell, vanessa in paris (and soon to be in nyc), and eileen and hc in singapore! so cool haha.

here's one of the random conversations they had where they were trying to name the couples...

well i guess we ended up as "soy", though i do like soy haha. i mean to eat/drink. not so sure as a couple name >.> solojoy is not bad but kindof depressing, joylomon does sound like a pokemon haha. maybe soljoy?

and i did some digging around of solomon's name, and found this!

whaa...?

that's right, and there's more here: http://www.hercampus.com/school/cmu/solomon-sia-0

HAHAHA yes he was interviewed and posted on hercampus.com as a campus cutie! what a cutie hahaha...

let it snow...

it's snowing in denver! again. it gets annoying, and it's kindof the first time i got caught in snow as a driver (i've always been just a passenger so far at my work in denver).

then my rental car kindof looks like this (it's not the actual car but it's a sample one):

so i spend 15 min alternating between getting out to scrape ice off the windshield and getting back in to squirt windshield liquid (hopefully with antifreeze) and warm my feet up. by the end of it i was quite annoyed and tried driving off before the whole thing melts off, and i realised my visibility was too low for me to drive safely so i parked again and did somemore of the scraping and melting. so annoying omg. remind me never to live in a cold place like this, snow just complicates everything!

can you imagine, living a normal life in a normal city is already tough enough, now you have to deal with cold weather, low visibility, possibility of frostbrite and snow and ice and spending 15min heating up your car engine every time you want to go somewhere for half the year??!! what a waste of my life, and it's so dangerous to be driving around with snow and ice everywhere! you can skid! another car can skid! you cannot see easily when people are running across the road in the middle of the night!

anyhow i found icicles on the car too, something like this. who would have thought?!

on a good note, we did find ourselves some canadian geese hanging around despite the snow. they somehow can dig grass up under the snow, so cool right.

also, i've just been complimented on my nice beige coat (courtesy of my mum, who sent it over alllll the way from singapore last december! thanks mummy! ^^) twice in two days! so yesterday someone complimented on my coat when i was in the elevator at my client's place, and she asked me where i got it. i replied my mum bought it for me so i'm not sure haha.

then today someone else complimented on my coat when i was in the hotel elevator! she asked if she could touch it, seems like the coat had some texture to it, and i said sure! she touched it and was amazed by the texture of it hahaha.

 both of them are white females around 30s or 40s. seems like they've got good taste haha. i wonder why people suddenly started noticing/complimenting the coat only now, when i've been wearing it since december...maybe they've gotten tired of everyone else's black coats by now so my coat stands out to them hee. and i really like the coat myself too, it's classy and beautiful. my mum has great taste in fashion!

Winter travels 2014

again it's that time of the year. I went traveling with my bf to the Middle East this time! So adventurous! I could never have done such a thing by myself or even with my friends. It's truly a thing I do because my bf gives me the strength and motivation to. However I am at my limit - I don't like traveling so adventurously, I am more interested in checking everything out once and move on. I already feel like exotic adventurous travel destinations are getting to be too much for me. I only go because it's a great way to learn about each other, but also because I want him to think I am an adventurous person like him, and that I am open minded and up for anything. I want to be that cool girl, that's why. I wonder if it's ok to show him my uncool self...will he still love me？

Anyhow we went to Jordan - wadi rum, Petra, Aqaba, amman, dead sea. So beautiful this country, such wonderful people. Really loved Petra and learnt to recalibrate distances and what we can and cannot do...even got to sneak into amman citadel because we were so up for taking the back roads, the path less traveled! We also went to Cairo, Egypt and Jerusalem, Israel. Saw so much and learnt so much about the world and myself. And about him. I am humbled by how ignorant and naive I am, and learnt the complexity of humans and countries and politics. I only hope he doesn't think me too dumb :(

On the way back to the U.S., I had a layover at Frankfurt. I fell asleep at these cool chairs in Frankfurt airport. Perfect for sleeping because my legs can be raised to chest level, which is crucial for good sleep. Anyway while sleeping at the airport with lots of ppl walking past and disturbing me -yes that was an experience in itself-, I dreamt that I went to my gate and somehow the flight became earlier but now it's going to Houston and not dc anymore!!! I was so irritated because there's no flight to dc and I can't get home. I was thinking about whether I could go Houston and stay there then fly to work directly but I don't have any work clothes and stuff humph. And I was hungry so I dreamt there was kfc, McDonald's and Carl's jr. They all sold crepes and ice creams and sprinkles (these are the unfulfilled desires in Jerusalem where we didn't get to eat crepes), so I was choosing McDonald's for its joy berries and ice cream and crepe and sprinkle combo. It's got to be a pair combo though, so I was convincing some random guy to buy the combo with me. Hmm. And they sold soup noodles too, from size medium to size xl, which was hugeeeee like half the size of the table. Odd.

Then a kid cried near me and I woke up. Decided crying is annoying and I shouldn't cry where possible. It annoys people and make you unhappy. No good. And wifi in Frankfurt airport required registering and they send a passcode to my email. No wifi how to check email!!! What a joke, it's a catch 22...

Then for my Frankfurt to dc flight, it was overbooked so they were giving out 600 dollar travel certificates for people to give up their seats. I did that since I had time, didn't need to be back in dc asap, and it's 600 yo! I got rerouted through Boston then to dc, and here begins my airport "hitchhiking" experience! It was so tiring though, going through line after line, service desk after service desk, each leg of my flight required talking to at least 3 different people about my situation, which got so repetitive and annoying so far. I originally wanted to buy food from McDonald's but it was far from my old gate. Turns out my new flight to Boston was right where McDonald's was but cannot eat...there was no time, had to run to catch the Boston flight!

And wow it's been such a long time since I'm in a two storey aircraft!!! Time to find out why Lufthansa flights are always overpriced. The food was good but there was no good movie playing on the flight :( I saw gone girl, and guess what? I was just looking it up on wiki before the flight and talking about it with Solomon haha. So I watched. I wanted to watch it with him but I couldn't resist!

Omg gone girl is so creepy and good. Lots to think about and to discuss with Solomon haha

Ok that's about it for my rant today. I'm still stranded at the airport and waiting for my flight home, but I'm becoming some kindof airport veteran now, hitchhiking from flight to flight and getting step by step to my destinatio with minimal hassle and fuss :) we got a 7 dollar meal voucher for a coffee or something, but I got myself a green tea latte and lemon poppyseed muffin. Yum!

And I just got upgraded to first class for the first time! Looking forward to it, though it's not much since the flight will be only 1.5hour and I'll be sleeping...