@ Microsoft

sniff. i'll be leaving this place for school in boston in 5 days. it's been kind of a learning lesson everyday so far. learning how to cook *well*, washing dishes, doing laundry, studying.. and all sorts of other things that i would have had mum doing for me. i miss mum's and dad's cooking. =| see? we all tend to take things for granted. at the very least, i'm glad i had some experience when i stayed in hall (university hostel) for most of my undergrad life.. =)

"The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything that comes along their way."

got this quote off an email. would add that the happiest of people delight in little simple things. always thankful at the end of each day as they watch the sunset, remembering God's blessings and goodness. i wanna be just like that, and i pray that also, for the people i love. anyhows, i just had lunch @ microsoft. it's amazing how such smart people exist on earth (yes love, you included =p).. how God has blessed each of us with amazing talents - we just need to appreciate, be thankful and use them to the best of our knowledge to give and bless others. =)

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i drove for the first time here this summer, yesterday. keng said i shld try a little. quite thankful he trusts me a lot. =) i've had my driving license for over 3 years now (how time flies -> also implies how old i am now..sobz) but i hafnt driven much, considering that i only take dad's car out *for a spin* once a month, whenever he decides to have a get-away with Mr Chong @ a fishing kellong in Malaysia (but we always have a constant stock of fresh fishies =p). in any case, the probability of me driving on weekdays (& sats) are almost close to zero, since parking is pretty expensive (not to mention petrol - except that dad always fills the tank full before he leaves me the car - how sweet of him right? =) ) and i've always found it a nightmare to look for parking lots. i can be at my destination area 10mins earlier but reach the place 10mins late simply because i've to find (& then fight for *blah*) lots. haha. the pros and cons of having a car..


anyhows, we went down to U-district yesterday after some microsoft ice-cream fest. met this Singaporean guy (Derrick) keng knew from microsoft last year and we asked him along. Gabriel, the guy who was in keng's organ class, invited us down to have potluck dinner at Acacia Court - the place that Shaohong and the rest of the GIP (global immersion program, an exchange program in NTU, where i did my undergrad studies) lived last year. we left derrick's car at microsoft and car-pooled down to Seattle. considering we saved about a good 15-20min off the highway because we could travel on the car-pool lane which required 3 or more pple in the car, it was a great idea. else we would have been stucked in the jam in 2 cars. so apparently, it's pretty strict here and pple do report violators - i mean if the car has only one person, the driver, driving on the restricted lane, you'd probably be pissed off enough to report. =p

we arrived on time to find that food wasnt ready to be served, as yet. food prepared by the students themselves.. *surprisingly* nice vegetarian beef rendang (i'm not a fan of vegetarian food), char siew (that's BBQ pork - yummy!!), curry veg, chicken wings, fruits, ice cream, cheese cake.. gosh, i cant imagine how much fats i've done. well, it was in some sense, a thanksgiving treat to friends and profs of sorts. we weren't part of GIP nor in the Singapore Student club thingy but nonetheless, we clicked pretty easily with the rest. i guess the fact that we were all Singaporeans bonded us together. so Derrick came immediately to the US after sec sch (RI - he's '86 batch and i was like ??wah.. my bro's '87!?) he's gonna graduate at the end of this year and return to Singapore for NS (that's army). put it this way: he has just turned 20. *gasp* which makes him underage for drinking here. haha. grabriel permitted him to drink yesterday coz by Singapore's law, the legal age is 18. [and you think you're in liberal America? *smiles*]

managed to phycho gabriel to go out with us and headed off to this place called 'Gameworks'. an arcade place where you can play unlimited games for just US$10. we didnt make it in - it was closed for some private party and there wasnt even a notice on the website (i'm quite sure they knew it in advance)! bleah. so off we went, to Bellevue Mall to catch a movie. we were deciding between 'The Breakup' and 'Thank you for smoking' which we eventually settled for the latter. after a call to seng (he's interning at google this summer). pretty much an American comedy. funny nonetheless. if you could pick the punchlines. =p it was raining heavily when we were done. sent gabriel home and then headed to microsoft so derrick could pick his car - i was jokingly *threatening* derrick that we'll just force him to stay over at our place.. =p

current plans for tmr (sat): we'll be heading to North Cascades National Park (i've google-maped it and found it north-east of where we're staying). think it takes a good 2-2.5hrs' drive. we should be fine considering the driver drove from Winsconsin (that's like north-eastern/central US) all the way to Seattle (west coast of US) and back last summer. crazy fellow but well, lots to learn from, i guess. keep us in prayers.. =)