Oh, hey, white flakes

I experienced snow for the first time today. :) It feels a little odd walking while getting sky dandruffs (yes, I call them that and I know, it ruins all beautiful images of snow... but that was the first thing I thought of this morning when I saw the flakes) blown into my face. Also, my hands and face feel like they're frozen every time I walk for more than a few minutes outside. Otherwise, I have to say, snow looks really lovely.

November's going already?!

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day and today is Black Friday. I had my first Thanksgiving dinner with some other Malaysians nearby. It was nice. We had turkey, pies, cranberry juice, and the whole deal (well, as best as we could make it!). Today is when many people go crazy busting doors at malls, grabbing deals on just about everything from clothes to electronics. What did I do? I slept in til about lunchtime. Uhuh. No waking up at 2 am and making my way to a mall to wait for the doors to open at 3 am. No, thank you. I'd spent enough and I think it's about time to put a hold on spending on things that aren't completely necessary until the next allowance comes in. :P

I'll be having dinner with the other Malaysian sophomores tomorrow night. We're doing it pot luck style, as usual. We'll have turkey again. And other good stuff. :) Oh, speaking of food reminds me... I'd been eyeing cake pans for a while now. I finally gave in to the urge to get one just so I can bake on the weekends. It does get really boring to stay in and just study over the weekends. I love having the smell of freshly baked or cooked things in the house, so hopefully this will satisfy my craving a little. (And I use cake mixes. No baking from scratch for me - not right now, anyway.)

Weirdly enough, I've found out that cooking can be pretty relaxing. I say it's weird because before I came here, I was hopeless in the kitchen. If you asked me to cook dinner for myself, I'd probably just settle for instant noodles. But now I actually enjoy preparing meals when I have some time to spare. Once in a while, I do succumb to making quick meals like heating up canned soup when my workload gets a little crazy. But for the most part, Beng Yen and I cook dishes we're familiar with. We've also tried some things we'd never cooked before. And so far, it has all been pretty safe. :P Everything's edible. Whew.

So yeah... there you have my short life updates. I kinda lost track of time in early November because I was swamped with school work and exams. They seemed to blur into a mass of stressful to-do lists. Now that I finally have some time to kick back and relax, November is almost over and Christmas is coming in a month. Wow.

I miss the sun (it has been below 0 degrees Celcius the whole day today - but no snow yet, just some ice on the sidewalks). I miss home in general. I guess the relativity of time has never been so prominent in my own situation before. Because even though I feel like time has flown by when I think of school, it seems to have stretched out when I think of how long it's been since I was lying on my own bed at home, listening to the crickets in the middle of the night.

My heart is in so many different places... sometimes it seems just so amazing. Yet quite painful at times, I must admit. But this sure is quite an experience.

Whee!

Midterms are overrrrrrrr! Well, technically, they ended on Thursday. I spent most of my time outside yesterday. Went grocery shopping, came back to store stuff for a while, and then headed nearby to Old Navy and Marshall's to check out clothes. :D

Today, Beng Yen and I went to watch Harry Potter 7. It's our first movie here. :D I don't have much to say about the movie because I have lost pretty much all interest in HP and I don't think there's anything worth shouting about in the movie.

Off to enjoy some moments of not stressing out. *happy sigh*