Christmas Dinner at Jean Royce Hall

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. 

Plates and Utensils borrowed from the Jean Royce Dining Room

Decorating the Room

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 :)

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 :)

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.

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.

The Food Team :)

Dan, Julius and Meryl in the Kitchen :)

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.

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.

Some of these became leftovers for the next day :)

Julius, Jasmine and Dan

Christmas gift from Kimisha :)

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!

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.

Christmas Tree Brownies!

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...

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!

Cirque de la Symphonie

As a band geek, I frequently watch concerts. I wanted to join the Queen's Wind Symphony unfortunately, they didn't have an extra instrument for me. I found a place where I could borrow instruments from, for free. However I didn't get about borrowing my instruments due to the odd opening hours and my travel plans. So I didn't get to perform this semester. 

Boys & Girls Club to borrow instruments

Nevertheless, I still got my dose of music from the Kingston Symphony Orchestra. So coincidental that it was their 60th anniversary! I went to their website and managed to get a discount for their ticket because apparently I qualified for the youth discount :)

The Kingston Symphony Orchestra was clean, precise, expressive and together; evverything a professional orchestra should have. :) The collaboration to perform several circus acts was genius! It definitely isn't easy to do a music collaboration because the band is often louder than other performing groups, or in this case, it could be easy to unconsciously play too loudly or too mechanically. However, the night's performance was delightful and awesome! :)   

Repertoire

So many pieces I like in this repertoire, so hard to pick a favourite! Well but I really liked the two pieces from Swan Lake :) If swan lake comes to Singapore I would definitely watch it again!

Tina, Neguine, Maria and Suzanne

The peeps who went to the concert with me! :) We all enjoyed the concert and couldn't stop raving about the many stunts that the circus people from Quebec pulled off. Been a long time since I've watched a circus show, so I really enjoyed it!

After the concert, the sun began to set. We spontaneously went to Spin Dessert Cafe for some dessert. I didn't have much, just a warm cuppa apple cider. I didn't think it was especially yummy but anything warm is appreciated in the winter :) During the summer and fall, the farmer's market at the springer's market square at City Hall always sold their homemade apple cider in huge bottles and they were sold reasonably as well. It had a richer taste compared to the one here which tasted watered down. Definitely a must buy! I regret not getting the huge bottle when it was still around. 

Apple Cider

Whipped Cream and Cinnamon Powder

So in love with Cinnamon! Cinnamon is available in Singapore but is not used as often. In North America people have cinnamon with pancakes, cakes, coffee, and even apple cider. I liked the pancakes with cinnamon sugar on the morning of Queen's Homecoming :) Shall write a post on that soon!

Back in my room :)

I opened the Luncheon Meat!

I don't know how to handle real meat so the only meat I cook is processed. That day I was cooking fried rice and I bought this from food basics while doing groceries. However, I didn't know how to open it :( Anouk, my floormate from Netherlands saw me fiddling with it and asked "Hey, do you need help?" She continued "You don't need that. You mustn't have opened that before." At that moment, I had a can opener in my hand. I somehow knew it was the wrong tool but that was the only one that had the potential to open the can so I tried it anyway. I must have looked so dumb!

I was surprised that she could open it because I don't think Caucasians eat much canned meat. I was wrong. She told me her mother sent her a box full of food items and there were many cans of luncheon meat. OH. So not only asians eat luncheon meat haha. A discovery for me. She took the can, twisted the key like metal piece off the bottom, thread the metal through it and began twisting in a clockwise motion. 

WOW. I've never seen a can open this way before and I still think its so cool! :O The pros of living in an exchange student hall is you get to learn new things everytime you're with your hallmates. :) Anouk was also one of the people I first spoke to because she was eating spreading Nutella on bread and I find that a more familiar sight than spreading hummus or jam on bread (which most other european exchange students do). :) A little dumb, feeling some connection over a jar of nutella. But yup :) People do seem more approachable when you share some similarities :)

Movie Night in the Common Room

Later that night, when I went to make myself a cup of milo, Jasmine had put on Aladdin. Movie nights start at 9pm and I seldom join them because my taste in movies is quite selective and I'd rather spend the time skyping than watching a movie I don't enjoy. But! This time its aladdin! I used to watch this on repeat when I was younger. I didn't mind watching it again now! Also, its coming to the end of the semester. I haven't spent much time with my hall-mates and I thought its the best time to do it. 

I kinda like how the arrival of winter makes us stay around in hall more :) As we approached serious winter, there were more days where we'd just sit in the common room and chat, or watch the news, or cook together. Kinda liked that :)