Writing this on Christmas Day! :) There's a bitter-sweet feeling looking at these photos.
I skipped the entire of Orientation because I hate games and I just don't like social interaction through bonding games and stuff. Kinda regret that abit cos the result of which was that it was difficult to get close to them after. The Christmas dinner was the first time I dined with some people. Thankful for the experience!
We actually had this Christmas Party at the beginning on December because many of us end exams on different days and everyone's leaving Kingston on different days as well. We were all so excited about it! Had a floor meeting, and split everyone into groups; we could do the food, decoration, cleaning up etc. I think the budget was $15 CAD per person but I was impressed with how the dinner went even with just $15.
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| Plates and Utensils borrowed from the Jean Royce Dining Room |
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| Decorating the Room |
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| With Suzanne |
Suzanne, the girl on my floor I shared the most similarities with. She's from Malaysia and much of Singapore and Malaysia's food are similar. There're even often disputes about what food is whose in the cultural 'food history' world. We are also the closest two geographically when we're back in our hometowns. Just so easy to hang out with her :)
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| With Lisa |
Lisa, from Britain. So in love with the accent really. Haha. We have days when we go to school at the same time. Was nice having company walking to the bus stop :)
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| With Morag |
Morag, from Scotland. I remember the first time I spoke to Morag was when she invited me for drinks with them on a Thursday night. Thurs night is a quiet night for our floor cos most of them head to the club on Princess for a late night out.
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| Julius cooking up some bacon :) |
Julius from HongKong :) Julius is one interesting dude. From Hong Kong but he's fluent in English, in fact he speaks english with an American Accent. Unlike most of us who were here on undergrad exchange, Julius was on a Master's Exchange. Boy, he can cook.
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| The Food Team :) |
Dan, Julius and Meryl in the Kitchen :)
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| Checking if its done.. |
Gosh I was there and these bacon strips were shedding so much fat its scary! They wrapped mini veal sausages with bacon I think. Was really nice but anything more than 3 it'll be too salty. Heh. Our way of portion-control.
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| Roast Beef and Veg :) |
Dan's roasted beef. Dan can really cook big stuff on his own. The last time, he made turkey (I think, can't remember) and some other courses and invited us to join him. I only had the bread pudding and it was awesome! :) He says he lives outside (out of his Family home) in Scotland, like most Europeans do but he loves cooking so he does cook often for his flatmates. My mum was thinking of getting him some Asian spices but I forgot completely about it because I was too busy with preparing for the wedding.
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| Some of these became leftovers for the next day :) |
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| Julius, Jasmine and Dan |
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| Christmas gift from Kimisha :) |
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| With Kimisha |
We had a secret Santa gift exchange :) So sweet of Kimisha to develop the only photo we had together, taken at Copper Penny after Ursula's performance some time back. She gave me that pretty box too but there's no way I could have brought it back considering my lugagge was already exploding :o. Thanks for the thought tho!
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| With Emily |
"What are you having with your porridge?" - Ems. This was the girl I learnt that porridge = oats from. Chinese typically mean congee when they say porridge so I was surprised to know its not the same to everyone. Emily's from Australia and many Caucasians refer to porridge as oats. I always have Quacker (Brown sugar and maple flavoured) oats for breakfast and depending on what fruits I have, I like to mix the combi. Ems always asks me what I'm having when she sees me in the common room in the morning.
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| Christmas Tree Brownies! |
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| With Mike |
With Mikey from Australia. Seems like the Australians on my floor are early risers. I usually see them the first thing in the morning. We often find ourselves having meals around the same time too so I always get to see the yummy stews Mike makes. He makes cooking seem so effortless. He can cook a simple veg stew the same time I cook a tomato olive omelette. What...
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| Eline Preparing the Brownies |
Eline from Belgium. She saw me roasting brusselsprouts one day and was like 'EEUK you like that?' Its a veg that grows in Belgium and she hates it haha. Together with Anouk from the Netherlands. They can't seem to understand how I like those bitter veg. Well it really isn't so bad! Throw some bacon in and all will be nice :)
The Christmas Dinner came to an end really quickly. It was more fun the beginning of the dinner when everyone was still sober. Nonetheless I still enjoyed my time with the floor mates. These form one of the very few fond memories I have of Jean Royce Hall.
Shall take the chance to wish a Merry Christmas everyone!
