whispers in the wind

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Harry Potter and the deathly hallows

The new trailer for the first part of this amazing series has just come out!:)
Watch it at www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=16023

It doesn't show much but for potter fans out there its better than nothing:)

Nikita at 1:38 PM
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Friday, November 20, 2009

"Yesterday is history tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift; thats why they call it the present"
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Love this quote. yet I can't wait till I can go back home!!! 3 more weeks! This next week is going to fun what with thanksgiving...:)

I hate being someone I am not and my job right is all about that. If I had to name one part of my job that I hated it would be this. If I don't like someone, it's not in me to be all friendly to that person. But now I have to 'pretend' for lack of a better word to like everyone. It's not that I won't be civil to people I don't really like...I can do that. It's the "Hey how are you? Everything going ok for you? come talk to me if you have any problems!" that i hate...

Nikita at 7:20 PM
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Sunday, September 20, 2009

West side story

Went to NYC on Sat. It was much warmer than the previous time. But we had much less time to go around the city. That was a bummer especially since this time we came prepared with a list of places and directions to a couple of places to see. We mostly walked down Broadway since half of it was closed down and had a bazaar running with lots of different stalls. visited Planet Hollywood too but I personally didn't eat there since it was kinda expensive so I went with the guys to a small Brazilian/Italian restaurant near-by.
The show wasn't too bad. Loved the dancing! And now that I know some Puerto rican culture thanks to Sol, I could get some of the themes running in the show. However whenever they lapsed into Spanish I was completely lost. But other than that it was good:)

Nikita at 10:10 PM
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Tuesday, August 11, 2009

The past Sun and Mon has been very hectic but enjoyable.
After mass on Sun, I went out for dinner with my church choir at Botak Jones. Afterward, some of us went to MacDonald for dessert and ended up talking till 1.30 in the morning. Ben drove me home and we all met for breakfast at the market a few hours later at 9.30am. The insisted I try all the usual breakfast fare Singaporean like themselves had grown up eating like Chee Kueh( not sure of the spelling!), glutinous rice, soybean milk, prawn mee and Lor Mee. I ended up eating the latter and tried a little of the former as well as Soybean milk. You can imagine how full I must have felt then! But since Mon was a public holiday and Tues was the first day of school for those from NUS and NTU, the rest of the day was spent with friends. I met Michelle and Cynthia for lunch ( which I practically ate only ate a bit of Mich's salad) at Novena Square and then Cynthia and I joined Isis and Vanessa at the famous steamboat restaurant opp Novena church for dinner. We were so stuffed that we could hardly move afterward.
It was truly a fun day!

Nikita at 7:37 AM
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Oh how I hate dentists...or should I say going to and dealing with dentists...no offense to you dentists out there( esp my cousin:))

Due to what my regular dentist told me, I have lost another tooth today. I lost 2 of my wisdom teeth about 3 months ago. At that time, I asked to check out some of the teeth next to the problem giving wisdom tooth as one or more of them was always giving me pain. He told me it was from the pressure excreted by the wisdom tooth( due to the lack of space in my mouth). And so I went on with my life, but still experiencing pain from those now and again. I just chalked it up to the slow healing process of having my wisdom teeth taken out. But lately it started hurting with more fervor so I wanted a second opinion. After searching around, I found a dentist by the market near my house. Upon arriving there, he told he was fully booked till next week but said he would take a quick look at my teeth( at the receptionist's desk mind you). It took him like 5 seconds to diagnose that I had a decaying tooth hence the pain. Since it needed looking to immediately, he gave me a list of dental clinics nearby. I went to one of them later that afternoon and the dentist there promptly gave me the same diagnosis. His options were 1) fill in the hole at the tooth but with no guarantee that the decay had not progressed so far that the pain would not stop. If so, I would have to come in again to have the tooth extracted. 2) was simple, just extract the tooth now.
Since I have a phobia of dentists, I REALLY wanted to just fill in the hole and hope for the best. But I knew that since the pain had been going on for the better part of the year ( since last Oct..but I don't really know if the pain was from that or just the wisdom teeth pushing against everything or both) the decay was prob in a bad way already. So thus I am now 1 short of a complete set of teeth( not counting wisdom teeth).

Nikita at 7:23 AM
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Monday, August 10, 2009

I can't believe that my Bestie Isis did something SOOO SWEET!!!

About 2 weeks ago I went out with her and while we were out, I got her to help me choose and buy some Chinese herbal tea since most of the time the aunties at the shop doesn't understand English. So when she asked why I was so interested in tea I told that I always loved tea and coffee and this past summer I have been trying out different types of tea. Mostly the ones I have tried are the English teas as it was more difficult for me to get the Chinese teas.
So as a birthday gift, she went out and found 21 different types of teas( as it is my 21st birthday this year) both Chinese and English ( some brewed already and some in tea bags) and put them all small separate containers. She even labeled them in both English and Chinese so if I ever wanted to buy it at the Chinese herbal shop, all I had to do was bring the the container:) So sweet and thoughtful!!! On top of that she gave me a sketch book with a few of the pages already decorated with my pictures and some notes from her.( She knows that I lost my passion of drawing after AEP but still like to draw once in awhile)
I LOVE YOU SIS!:)

Nikita at 10:39 AM
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Sunday, August 9, 2009

Happy National Day Singapore! :)

And so the whole nation is once again bathed in red.
And in exactly a week from now at this time in the US, I will be sleeping in my dorm room awaiting the week long RA training. Sad that the hols had to end so fast...can't believe I'll be a Junior! An upperclassman! woah! I hardly feel like one though:P

Nikita at 12:37 AM
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Saturday, August 8, 2009

Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.

- Henry Van Dyke

These words bring much comfort.

Nikita at 5:52 AM
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Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Europe trip 2009

Here's the link for some of the photos we took on our trip. Its only day 1- day 5. The reason its taking so long is cause I have a father who got very trigger happy and ended up taking a total of over 1500 pictures just on his camera! Mine on the other hand has only about 500. So going to both of them is quite a hassle. Part 2 will be up shortly!

Part 1: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=87823&id=617829821&l=d846674a62

Nikita at 2:52 AM
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Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Hooray!

I finally passed my driving test! Went down to Altoona this morning since I am now done with classes and drove Susan's car to the DMV and took the test. I'm so happy to be finally done with it. Spent my first day of the summer hols out in Altoona, shopping for stuff and going out for lunch. It is a pleasant break from all the running around I had to do yesterday what with me collecting everyone's keys and doing their Room conditioning reports before they leave the college.
Can't wait to go home!:)

Nikita at 6:03 PM
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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

I realized I haven't updated my blog in ages and sadly its going to stay that way till my last 3 weeks of school are done. I my so busy with work that I don't have time to update. Hopefully once most of the work is done I can write a short update.

Nikita at 12:19 AM
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Sunday, March 22, 2009

Another busy and horrible week has gone by and I find that every weekend from now till the last weekend of the semester in May is filled with activities I have to do. This past weekend I had my Ice skating event for the girls in my dorm and residents in Miscigna Hall. It went pretty well...lots of fun and laughs watching others fall on their butts. Fortunately I didn't fall:)

After the event, Caitlin N, Caitlin Gary, Victoria, Kathleen and I went to State College just for a day of fun. We checked out this organic coffee shop which sells books too for Victoria since she's allergic to almost everything under the sun and can only eat certain foods. Then we met up with Maura, Caitlin N's friend whom I've met before, had dinner at Panera Bread and dessert at Rita's. We mostly talked and caught up with each other and relaxed. Then we all headed down to 'Wegmans' which is a huge grocery store that sells lots of organic foods (for Victoria) and also many imported goods from around the world! I found food items I've only ever seen in Singapore or India there!!! It was pretty awesome.

This morning Kathleen and I went canning,which is holding out cans for people to donate in by busy roads, in Ebensburgh, for Colleges against Cancer (CAC). We raised over $200 with just the 6 of us! So proud!!:D We all ordered in a pizza for lunch to reward ourselves later

I forgot to mention....on Friday, I went to sell Daffodils with Kathleen at Ebensburgh for CAC. There was this one lady who I think was a doctor of some type that when we asked if she wanted to buy daffodils, she replied with "do you know if your organization is Pro-life?" My first reaction was "what the heck is she talking about? what does being pro-life got to do with Cancer??" Then it hit me that she probably wanted to know if we condone stem cell research or something like that where embryos would be used. None of us knew for sure so she went of after telling us she refused to support a group that was not pro-life and we should know such things before going around selling stuff. My feeling on this is that even if CAC did support stem cell research, our money is also going to improving medications, helping patients who can't afford treatment and so on. Shouldn't you at least try to help them then?? But anyway, I later found out that we are pro-life. For research, we only use stem cells form the umbilical cords of babies that have died from natural causes and we do not condone abortion.

Nikita at 2:55 PM
1 COMMENTS

Monday, March 16, 2009

New York Honors trip, Spring 2009

I went to New York City this Saturday as part of the honors program to go see 'The Phantom of the Opera' on Broadway! I loved it!! The technical part of the show was so well done that I was left stunned! The only thing I did not like was the girl playing Christine. Her voice wasn't that great. But the guy playing the Phantom was excellent! I so want to see another show on Broadway now!! We even got great seats near the stage(Orchestra seats).

Since it was a long drive off, I had to be up at 4am to get to the bus ahead of others so that I could get a nice seat with Caitlin W. Unfortunately, everyone else got there even earlier than us so we got separate seats next to people we didn't know. That was a very uncomfortable ride. Once we got there, we just wandered around till 1.30pm( when we had to be at the theater as the show started at 2pm) which felt nice after being cooped on the bus for 5 hours straight. Caitlin, Victoria( a freshman who just joined my choir...she's awesome:) ) and I had decided beforehand to visit "The Strand Bookstore" which boasts 18 miles of used, new and rare books. We were joined my Matt and Amanda from my honors class and Jen from Victoria's class on this adventure. I say adventure because we really didn't know what we were doing. Kathleen had given me her detailed map of New York and the surrounding boroughs which includes a subway map. Since it was too long to walk to the bookstore ( and we only had 3 hours to get there, eat lunch and get back for the show), we decided to take the subway there.

Whoever thinks that all Americans are well cultured people are in for a shock. Out of our group, only Victoria and I have kind of lived in a city. Caitlin has traveled to cities before but not alone. The rest of them were basically country folk to put it nicely. So with Victoria's experience in taking the subway in Washington D.C and mine in Singapore, we figured we should be fine. First we searched for a station( they're harder to find then we thought...we walked by one without even knowing!). Then as we walked down the stairs with Matt moaning about how we were going to be killed in the bowels of New York, we got to the hard part....which train to take. I honestly have never seen a more complicated map!! The writing being minuscule didn't help either. After asking the lady at the counter, who said we needed train 1, we tried to buy tickets at the ticket machine( or what we figured was the ticket machine since nothing was labeled). I got stuck there for a good five minutes trying to stuff my 1 dollar notes in it since it kept rejecting my Visa Card with the lady behind be looking more and more exasperated by the minute and Matt and Caitlin laughing at my incompetency at feeding the machine notes.
So once all that was dealt with, we walked into the station and then proceeded to find train 1. Five minutes and a couple of staircases later, we came to a platform which didn't look like it had our train. So we approached an elderly couple( who blabbered to in Slovakian or something) and then a young lady who told us what sign to follow, and we finally made it to the correct platform. The whole time, Matt was basically muttering about how we should stayed in the surface so as not to get killed( I smacked and laughed at him for that!). It was funny to see his first reaction on getting on the train....he almost fell on his face because he didn't know he had to hold on to the rails as the train moved. But one train ride later, he was acting as though taking a subway was a piece of cake:P

The bookstore was overwhelming and the narrow aisles made getting around very difficult but I still liked it. We stopped at a Pizza place for lunch, where Matt in stupidity pointed at a pizza and asked for 2 slices of that thinking it was sausage pizza...It ended up being some sort of mushy vegetable pizza which frankly looked disgusting. After the show, we decide for the best of our well-being, we would stick to the area near by for exploring. So we walked around Times Square, ate dinner at a Japanese restaurant, visited the huge M&Ms store and waited in the cold for 45 minutes for Victoria when she disappeared to go find a particular store( all the time listening to Matt invent ways to torture and kill Victoria since he was the only one of us without a warm coat on ). Even with mine on I was freezing so I can only imagine how cold he must have been. We had no idea which direction she went and she wasn't answering her phone so we were keeping a look out for her. Caitlin and I offered to wait outside for Victoria while he stayed inside a store but he said that would damage his male pride:P Haha.... I'm glad he tagged along with my group...he made the trip so much more entertaining...

We got back at 1.15am and because I slept on the bus( however unrestfully), I was tired but not really sleepy. But I went to bed around 2am so that I could get up the next day for brunch. All in all, this was a fun trip minus the long traveling time.

Nikita at 7:09 PM
2 COMMENTS

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Much has happened since I last posted. Dorm life has been getting worse by the day due to childish behavior on the freshmans' part and all of us being cooped inside due to the weather. Most of my time has been used for school work, and preparing and organizing programs for the residents as well as dealing with all the mess from people having mental breakdowns.....All I can say is that I'm greatly looking forward to Spring break which is a week away!!:)

I took my driver's test last Fri and failed when my car did not get into the parallel parking spot by a few centimeters. The spot is located on a curve so when I started, the spot was at least 4 feet away from the car. I could not re-situate myself so I tried my best which was not good enough.Lucky for me, I'm stubborn to a fault so I'm re-taking the test this Friday again. Probably will give the instructor a headache at seeing me again so soon but who cares:P

Nikita at 4:33 PM
4 COMMENTS

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Last Saturday, I went driving with Susan and it went pretty well considering I haven't driven in the US since Spring semester last year (about a year ago). I can still parallel park(yeah!) and drive on the right side of the road:). Hence, I'll be taking my driving test on the 20th of this month, in less than 2 weeks. Hopefully all goes well! It is also the day Nick takes his driving test in Singapore...such coincidence! At least the weather had gotten much better and hopefully it will stay that way till the day of the test.

Last week, I also took part in the auditions of the Spring musical. I got through the first round and was called in for dance and music callbacks but unfortunately, did not get through that round. I didn't really expect to get through since my competition was a girl who had way more experience singing in front of crowds and at events( which she regularly does). She got the part in the end along with my friend Amy Cortright (whose voice I LOVE as its MADE for a musical). I'm not that disappointed...I tried my best and the way I see it is that I have more time to concentrate on my studies since I don't have much time for it anyway what with RA duties and programs and club activities and Vox Nova....

Nikita at 10:31 AM
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