Life of Thadii.

Singaporeans at Heart
Sunday, January 4, 2009

It was a rather warm first night I spent in my apartment room. I actually surprised myself when I woke up with a little sweat in the middle of the night. I'm going to try leaving my window slightly open and see if the room feels cooler tonight.

Anyway the weather was great today. Not too cold and foggy! It's my first time experiencing the "fog" weather. And no, fog=/=haze. It isn't irritating on the throat or eyes. Visibility was rather poor at times and tall buildings were literally covered near the top with thick fog.

Here's a picture taken when the fog was a little less thick.

We were on the way to Chinatown in Atlanta, via the MARTA train system. Chinatown is a 5 minute walk from Chamblee station. And wow, talk about culture shock when we hit the place. The first and most obvious sign was that we started seeing Chinese characters all over! The next was the food court.

Yes, it's a "Singaporean"-style foodcourt with lots of authentic Chinese food. Finally! I guess that every single 24 of us miss Chinese food, whether or not we are willing to admit it. We were pretty ecstatic over it and the elation manifested in our actions. Everybody rushed to get lunch, most of us snacking on favorites such as 豆浆, 油条 and 葱油饼.

The one thing we realized was that the portions here are huge. A plate of rice comes in a mountain! No joke! We bought 4 dishes (here, each dish comes with a complimentary plate of rice) of 煮炒, and realized that we were tucking into a pseudo reunion dinner.

BTW that's 4 original plates of rice that we split into 7 plates, and we couldn't finish the last plate! That's how much rice they give here!

After the sumptious meal, we headed to the Chinese supermarket and picked up cooking essentials such as rice, meat, vegetables, and condiments (that's another 150USD flying ><). We also made a trip down to Publix, an American supermarket near the campus and bought a whooping 300 bucks worth of food (mainly breakfast and lunch supplies) and snacks. Ok I admit, the snacks was mostly mine and I paid a whopping 80USD for my own supplies and snacks, compared to my friends who paid an average of 40USD instead. But any of my good friends will know that I'm a junk food whore who can't be stopped regardless of price.

Now my room looks a lot nicer with the snacks. YUM!

Transporting our groceries back was really hilarious though. When we checked out, we realized that we bitten off more than we could chew, and that 6 pairs of arms could only carry so much. Guess what we did?

I wished I had the picture to show you, for dramatic effect, but it's with a friend's camera. We pushed the supermarket trolley back to our apartment! The uniquely Singaporean innovation has proved itself to be useful even in the US of A! I'll upload the pictures once Siqi gets it out of her camera.

It was really hilarious to push the trolley all the way back and Americans were staring at us through their car windows. At one point of time when pushing it back (it's a 15minute walk), a police car honked at us too! But apparently pushing the trolley on the streets isn't against any federal law hehe. Oh and a random fact: did you know that in America, not giving up the priority seats in their trains to the disabled and elderly is against federal law! I guess even America has her own draconian laws.

The trolley is now resting in my apartment. We'll go for a jog (yes, no joke, we're getting accustomed to the climate) with it to the supermarket tomorrow, and back.

Anyway, tonight marks another milestone in my life. For the first time, I cooked a proper dinner. And not just for myself but for my 5 other friends too! Mom, if you're reading this, I want to thank you for teaching me lots of "theory" about cooking that really helped me cook this simple dinner.

I cooked eggs with onion, and stir fried it with pork marinated with black bean sauce. 蚝油菜心 was the vegetable dish I tried cooking. I then cooked a can of sardines for good measure, in case my other dishes were bad.

I really hope you're reading this mom, and feel proud and happy. The food was good, really. They turned out more or less as how I expected. The biggest problem with the meal was the insufficient portions of rice and meat, and not the taste. I underestimated how much 6 people would eat, and cooked a tad too little. But I guess I'll learn!

I had a lot of fun cooking, and realized how difficult it was to even whip up a simple homecooked meal. Mom, I really understand your difficulties now. I'll really appreciate everything you cook when I get back to Singapore. Today, I ate the bits of meat, egg, onion, and even vegetable stalks that were left behind on the plate.

You know why? Becuase I felt that throwing away the little scraps were a waste of food. I finally understand what my mom always says by "不舍得丢掉". When you put in the effort to cook the food, it feels like nothing should go to waste.

After cooking and cleaning up ONE dinner, I'm exhausted. Still it's satisfying to know that I can actually cook. Anyway I think I'll be doing most of the cooking for my friends for the next 5 months and they'll probably do the washing instead. I hate washing up. It's a dreadful chore. But in America, things are a lot of easier due to the existence of the dishwasher. It's awesome. PERIOD.

Now I'm starting to miss Singapore slightly, but just certain stuff (besides friends and family) such as the Chinese food that I've been taking for granted and mahjong.

Maybe we'll bring out 4 laptops during Chinese New Year and mahjong the night away. Just maybe =)

One of the Thadii blogged at 12:05 PM.
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