Uncle Chong

On 23rd February 2008 was approximately 2 months after Papa's death. He is my father and he was a great man. For all who have known him would feel the lost. For those who did not would feel the grief too.

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I hope you would all take a moment and have a thought of him.

~

Did he once fried eggs for your morning breakfast?
Did he once told you eat everything you can during a barbecue?
Did he once taught you how to throw a short put?
Did he once showed you the way to chop a bamboo?
Did he once talked and laughed with you?
Did he once encountered your life?

~

Let us all be reminded that the time with our loves ones is very precious. Look back for the past week, did you roll your eyes at your mother because she told you to do something for your own sake? Did you shout at your brother for being annoying when all he wanted was to play with you? What if you never got the chance to be kind to them again?

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Think about it the next time you argue with any member of your family.

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Please have a moment of silence for Uncle Thomas too.
Thank you.

Sleepover is an American thing?

It started to snow again. According to my foster mother, it's snowing a lot this year, so it's pretty lucky for us to experience it. But I have been feeling warm this few day. *wonders* It's either the weather or I'm getting a little used to it.

By the way, I do need to walk Cona the dog everyday. So I just took a couple of shots.

my house right behind

when it started to snow

about an hour later

Remember the AFS Winter weekend host family? They invited me and a few other girls to have a sleepover in their place. Since we are having our February vacations, we decided to do so. *grins* Called up Hana (Indonesia) and Ayano (Japan) to set the date and time with them. Asian click well? Nah, it was coincidence that Ayano stayed with me during the weekend and Cathy, my weekend host mother, knows Hana too. *laughs sheepishly*

Cathy came over to pick me up and then to Hana's. We went for dinner immediately after that. Wanted to go to Texas Road House for steak but ended up in Bugaboo Creek, another expensive restaurant for steak. *licks* I ordered steak with medium rare condition. It's kind of overcooked for me and somehow The Ship back in Malaysia did better. The Onion rings here are good though. My dish cost about $17. That would be around RM 60. How's that?

appetizer

steak and baked potato

Went to Hannaford super mart to get groceries with Cathy. We got tubs of ice creams, packets of M&M, chips and Starburst candies. We offered to pay but she didn't accept it. Sweet lady.

by the vegetable shelf mirror

We got back to her place. Rented a movie off the cables that cost $3.99 a movie. We watched Evan Almighty together while munching down unhealthy food. *grins* After that, we turned on the cable and continued to watch the movies shown there, which are Silver Hawk, RV, Harry Potter and a few others. Ended up sleeping only around 5am. *jumps*

Woke up at 11am the same morning. Wasn't really sleepy. Hana brought a plain t-shirt for us to draw on. She wrote our name and it became our 'sleepover-memory' t-shirt. *laughs* We scribbled on it and she's gonna put it on for the next AFS weekend in March.

Went down for breakfast and I decided to eat the ice cream we bought with bread. Gave Ayano a piece too and she liked it. So we had ice cream and left over steak for breakfast.

the sleepover t-shirt

the candies Cathy got us

me, Elise and Ayano

Cathy's puppy, Maddie

Played Monopoly and it was really fun. The company does matter. Ate handful of M&M while we payed rentals. *grins*

Around 3.30pm, we sent Hana home and headed to the University of Maine because Cathy's daughter, Emily was playing basketball there. *excited* It was the game between them and Oak Hill. We won by around 15points. *jumps*

Hana trying to look seductive holding Monopoly $100 bills?

basketball in UMaine

Of hearts and of loves.

Happy Valentine's Day to all.

Special dedication to my ever so lovely Mama and the very so talented and adorable Jiejie.

*licks and kiss kiss on the cheeks*

Hearts-shaped cookies above are baked by Catlin.

And so, the day started off with me going to school. *duh* The girls in my school were in the excited mood. I however was just feeling normal.

We developed our own films in Photography class.

In Beginning Food class, we made quick breads. My group which consist of Brandon, Cera and Sammy made chocolate chips muffins. *grins*

crepes group 4 made

chocolate chips muffins!

Renate, Mike, Paul, Mila and myself went to the Bangor Mall for Valentine's outing. Clearly some people had some feelings for some others. *winks* Not me so you know.

We just randomly walked around buying stuff and ate dinner. I had a chinese meal of chicken and fried rice. The owner is from China and i 'flaunted' my ability to speak mandarin while he served me. *grins widely* I'm in the States and it gets fun to speak other language once awhile!

Hanging out at the mall with these people were fun. We snap loads of pictures too. Made me miss Midvalley and cam-whoring with Nickie, Laine, Manda, Yee and Vinvin. *hugs you guys tight*

mikey's lolly

chineseeee

my new girl-friend from Norway

fooling buddies

love the skull-headband I was wearing

Paul from Austria-ever so wanted by girls in my school

Ps: Mama did something great. Spread the love everyone!

Month in Maine

It's February 12th today!

It has been officially a month I have been in Maine. I arrived in the States on the 9th January but came to Maine on the 12th January, a Saturday. The feeling was great when I first arrived here. Everything is so new and exciting. *grins* I am having a blast here! I am an American High School Senior and that's something not everyone can be. *laughs*




It has also been a month and 20 days since Papa has passed away. I love him so much. I love you, Jie and Ma very much too.

Let's highlight Julie Andrews and Christhoper Plummer from The Sound of The Music. They are getting old now. They have great voices and Julie Andrews is a legend. Go youtube and watch a couple of videos of them.

Visit to Augusta!

The AFS YES students had a cluster activity in Augusta last Thursday. We missed school for that. Edie and Nancy (our cluster coordinators) brought us to the Maine State Capital Building to check out more about the Maine Legisture.

The YES students in Maine are Lyle, Aajra, Germaine, Mike, Hana and myself.

They are really sporting and talented people.

We did paging in the Senate. It's a place where all the senators (republicans and democrates) meet and discuss about stuff. We sat there to passed notes and documents to certain senate throughout the whole meeting.

Met a couple senators and talked to Katarina from the Ukraine, who was in the US a few years ago in the FLEX Program and now back doing an internship for her doctoral work. *fun fun*

After that we went to the House of Representatives and snap a couple of pictures. *smiles*

in the Senate meeting

Senate Plummer

The House of Representatives

Mike from Germany

The Maine State Capital Building

Hana from Indonesia

Lyle from The Phillipines

Had lunch at the Capital Cafeteria. Ate meatball spagettie. *smack lips* We then headed to the Gabernor of Maine's office. Met him and had some question-answer session. Chat a little with him. Took some pcitures and got his signature.





After that, went across the street to the Maine State Museum. Had a very fun tour around the museum. It's a very delicate museum. They take note of very small details for all the displays. Mike kept on pushing me around all the way. *violence* The weather was very cold by the way. It was around -20 deg.celcius. *brrr*

Went across another street and found ourselves in the Gabernor's house. Met his wife and we had tea together. It was a pretty cool house. With special napkins printed, 'Blaine's house'. *winks* The whole place was decorated very nicely eventhough it wasn't a very big house. They had two cute dogs with droppy eyes. *stares*

The Maine Museum

Mike fooling around

doggies!

after tea with the Gabernor's wife

I love outings with AFS students and I am truly enjoying myself now. It's one of the 'UP' moments in life but I do know I will feel miserable at times. *laughs* No worries about me Ma.

Happy Chinese New Year to all!! I hate to have to miss Chinese New Year but make the best out of it! *hugs*