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!

Santa and the Reindeer

How cool is this?! I met Rudolph and Santa!!! 2 weeks before Christmas, Santa leaves his house in the really cold North Pole to deliver the gifts he's prepared for us :) He comes to Kingston for two weeks. Of course I had to be there to meet him! Even if the only opportunity to do so was the morning before an afternoon examination. 

Did you know the Kingston patrol police ride horses? :) I met one during summer. During winter, sights like these are more common though :) I think people can hire the carriage for a ride down princess street:)

Reindeer!! These are such magical creatures to me! I've never seen a real reindeer mainly cos I think they can't survive in Singapore's weather.

Was in the Royal Ontario museum and saw a pair of huge antlers that look really aggressive and was really wide. Deers, Elks, Reindeers, these animals are the pride of Canada's wilderness. It must be stunning to see them wandering freely in the white forests. Didn't get a chance to, but neither am I adventurous enough to see these animals in the wild. Glad the city arranged for Reindeers to be brought to Cityhall for Christmas :) 

What I saw at the Royal Ontario Museum

So you may ask, what exactly is a reindeer? 

According to Wikipedia, the reindeer is a species of deer called the caribou. The caribou has many other sub-species of which some are already extinct.

So, what's the difference between a deer, an elk, and a moose?
Good question. I didn't know as well! So for you guys I did some brief research.

The following images are from all over the web:

A Deer

A Moose

An Elk

So judging from the photos I got from a google search, the animal I saw at the ROM seems to be a prehistoric moose. They are quite distinguishable if you know what to look out for. 

Antlers:

The antlers of the Elk, Deer and Reindeer look quite similar but the size and span are very different. The moose's antlers are less sharp, look less aggressive and almost look like hands. The reindeer's antlers look grander than that of deers but have less height and span as compared to those on an elk. 

Neck:

The neck of an Elk is covered in hair that's of a darker colour than the rest of its body. The hair on the reindeer is of a more uniform colour compared to that of the Elk.

Why, hello there! :)

Its staring at you!

I feel like a little kid at the zoo! So exciting to see these creatures. :) Boy those antlers were sharp. Seen videos of animals with antlers clanking them during the mating season to establish power and its scary. These reindeers were so sweet when I fed them crab apples. 

Most of us in Singapore haven't seen crab apples as well. They are tiny apples that grow in temperate regions such as North America. That in my hand is a half bitten crab apple. So tiny and cute!!

Reindeer and Crab Apples *Nyam Nyam*

That's not all! I met santa too! :) He was such a nice old man, bet the children love him! There was this mega huge thick pillow on his right leg for kids to take photos with him but he insisted 'Big kids are kids too!'

And so I sat on Santa's lap too :)

It was such a cold day, negative twenty-two or something. After this, I met a friend for lunch who told me that the coffee he spilt froze on his leather gloves while walking to city hall because it was so so cold. Oh so so cold :( It was so cold I didn't even bring my skates out cos I knew it'd be impossible to skate with my knees half frozen. 

Imagine santa who has to be sit still in the cold! His elf, who took this picture for us, and the people who took care of the reindeers. I was cold to the bones. Santa says my coat isn't for winter. Guess I need a new coat! Ah I should have wished for a Canadian Goose Winter Coat hehehe. 

Its Christmas Eve, so Blessed Christmas everyone!

Kingston City Hall (Winter)

Kingston City Hall is a stunning landmark in Kingston. It lies at the heart of downtown Kingston. Princess street is a very long street that extends out of Kingston and at the downtown area, this street slopes downwards towards the Kingston Harbour. At the end of Princess street, is the Kingston City Hall. 

The City Hall was built in 1844 and its architecture reflects Kingston's status as capital of the Province of Canada at that time. The capital of Canada is now Ottawa, to find out more about Ottawa visit here. So, this building is now designated as a National Historic Site of Canada. 

I love this place:) In the summer, there's the Springer's Market which I will update about some time soon. In the winter, because it'll be too cold to have an outdoor market, this square transforms into a skating rink and is accompanied by a huge Christmas tree lighted by Mr and Mrs Santa during the Kingston Santa Parade 2013. 

Rink in the making :)

I frequent the Springers market for organic food in the summer, so I often came here. But towards the end of fall, it started getting really cold and stalls stopped their outdoor sales. For a brief couple of days, this square looked empty and desolate. On the day when I watched an Ice Hockey game after dinner at Woodenheads Pizza, I passed the city hall and was really excited to know that they had begun construction of the rink.

In a matter of days, the construction was completed and the temperature slowly descended into the negatives. I was so excited to be skating in the open! This is such a normal experience for locals but I was stoked!

Families young and old all at the rink :)

I have only skated once before coming to Kingston and that was at a small indoor rink in Katong (Sg). It was an enjoyable experience except for the puddles of water in the centre of the rink. The rink here was solid and thick and was never too slippery. In fact, the weather's so cold the ice is always rough and hard. I love the ice the most minutes after the Zamboni zooms around. 

The layer of water over the smooth ice makes it such a delightful experience. You just need to push a little and you'll glide over the ice. The feeling of wind on your face especially at the bend, just feels great! Oh that feeling is just too whimsy to describe. :)

On days where its dead cold (double digit negative days)  the skies are white. On slightly warmer snowy days (single digit negative days), its a pretty blue like in the photo below :)

On a slightly warmer snowy day :)

There's always a photo from this angle cos this view is from the staircase leading to the basement where there are lockers for you to keep your stuff. Its free of charge you just need to bring your own lock :)

At the locker area :)

They have speakers all around the rink playing songs from their Christmas Radio channel. And it is always playing :) One day I arrived at 7.30 am and the people working in the building saw me on the ice and said "Wow you're early! Let me turn on the radio for you!" such sweet people!

I miss listening to <Its Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas> by Buble, <Santa Baby> by Eartha Kitt, <Baby It's Cold Outside> by Margaret Whiting & Johnny Mercer, <All I Want For Christmas> by Mariah Carey, <Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas> by Frank Sinatra, and <White Christmas> by Bing Crosby.

The sound quality of old records make Christmas Songs seem all the more warmer :)

There are many more rinks in Kingston but this is one of the few that has lockers and toilets. I put together a short video (15s) of the sights and sounds at the Rink. Enjoy! 

Last Day of COMM270

Some really pretty pictures of Queensu in the winter in this post :) I've never loved the Queensu campus this much till winter. 

In the summer, people often formed queues outside the food truck. This food truck sells the usual north american bad food, fries, hotdogs, burgers and stuff. On the opposite side, another food truck serves halal food and there's falalfel, fries, vegetarian burger and all sorts of stuff. People sometimes eat along the benchs along the sidewalk outside the John Deutsch University Centre (JDUC) to people watch.

In the winter its quite different. Except during the times when people move from class to class, the streets are really empty. Sometimes I even wonder if there are people in the food truck cos all their windows are closed. But it is still in operation, you just need to tap on the window and they'll pop their heads out :) More people are holding onto coffee cups and everyone just wants to get off Kingston's windy cold streets.

Where most of my classes were

While everyone's walks by with their hands in their coats walking as fast as they possibly can without slipping on the ice, a curious asian girl walks onto what used to be grass to take a closer look at the trees. The trees are so pretty aren't they? Some branches were encased in ice, some branches were covered in snow. The ice surrounding the branches made each branch look bigger than it actually is and upon closer inspection, they are so clear, so prettily translucent it a dream.

Benches on the Street very quickly covered with last night's snow

That's the 'damage' a night long of snow can do. It takes a tremendous amount of effort to remove snow every single day! Friends who live on Markland Street told me that if you don't clear the snow and ice off the pavement outside your house, and someone falls as a result, you are responsible for the fall. :O yep just something interesting to share.

I go like "WOW we lost them benches overnight?!" Then I think about how I got to school and the roads were clear. Its amazing how Canadians manage the snow. I can understand how snow can generate alot of jobs. Thank to these people who take care of the snow, we can get to school on time and walk safely :)

In the Snow

This is snow that's rather firm already. Its quite fun to step into those huge dumps of snow when you get off the bus :) Hehe. you step out and just sink right in :) Fun fun! Thanks to my boots (Geox!), my feet survived all that fun :D

The fence reminds me of Narnia 

The Stauffer Library 

The Stauffer Library is NTU's equivalent of Lee Wee Nam Library or NUS's equivalent of Central Library. :) But unlike both these libraries, Stauffer doesn't have much food options around, unless you consider a muffin and coffee as a meal. You can cross over to the Sport Centre but there isn't much to eat there too. I love sandwiches! But they can be so unappetizing especially in the cold weather. I'd rather go back to hall and just heat up a can of Campbell soup and drink milo :D

Anyway! This is the last of teaching weeks in Kingston and the final lesson for COMM270 Business Communications in North America. I'm an Engineering student from NTU so I took the chance to map this course to my year 4 core module Professional Communication. :) Was a really enjoyable class because its a class for exchange students and the group is just so diverse. Students are also very vocal so we learn many new things from students of other countries. Really interesting.

My Prof, Prof Martha also made the lessons very engaging while at the same time equipping us with skills necessary for resume writing, and stuff. More importantly, she respects the cultures each student comes from and is always very eager to find out more. A really sweet lady :) 

International Classmates

Groupmates & my Prof, taken in Fall

I've always been one of the taller people in class but apparently not here. haha. Getting used to the average height around here. Unfortunately, they ran off rather fast after lesson so I was only able to get a photo with Bertrand the quirky guy in our group. :)

With Bertrand

With Manon

I sometimes have my lunch at the JDUC international student centre because there's a friendly microwave over there and a hot water dispenser. Since I live alone in hall, I have lotsa leftovers which becomes lunch/dinner for the next day. On days where I can't find the time to go back to hall, I'd have no choice but to eat alone in JDUC and catch up with the world stalking everyone else's facebook. 

All the other tables were filled with Japanese students who were on exchange together and whom all took the same module, english language. It was hard to befriend them because there were so many groupies. I just decided to mind my own business and I think they were used to seeing me sit alone they never bothered. One day, a girl asked if she could sit with me. I recognized her, she was from COMM270 as well! This girl was Manon :)

We got to know each other better during that coincidental lunch hour :) The university she came from was the one my elder sis went on exchange to while she was in Paris. We talked about how Paris is a beautiful city, about how Canada has a lack of good Camembert cheese and on and on :) Its nice how people from different countries can come together just because you are alone out there and just very willing to share your experiences and gain different insights.  

With Prof Martha :)

I gave my prof a bottle of Kaya spread when I returned to Kingston after a short trip back to Sg, which she loved! Made me proud as a Singaporean. Toast is everywhere in Singapore, some people don't even have toast cos its perceived as 'commoner's food', i mean like "why eat toast when there's french toast". But simple food like that has significant cultural meanings and is still something that brings the elderly at the coffeeshop together. There are many things we are blessed with and take for granted. You'd start to realise that when you're overseas. 

Val sculpting ice :)

After saying goodbye to our classmates, we headed out of the building together. Val was sculpting all sorts of shapes with the ice but it was terribly cold and I didn't bring gloves out so, no way was i gonna touch that :O. Xianyao had some other class so he left. Charles was supposed to go downtown to buy some stuff to cook but he said he was tired so he went back to Markland first.

That leaves the 3 of us girls, Val, Georgie and I to get the groceries. Was so fun with just the two of them! All the time in Kingston we never had a girls outing or anything like that. Took a bus down to Princess and bought some necessities, eggs milk etc whatever cookies were on offer etc. Even went to play with nail polish :D Could never do this with the guys around. 

We went to Dollarama and got some of that cheap brownie mix that tastes awesome! $3 for a box of brownie mix is luxury! (We didn't buy the even cheaper box of another brand) We always eat this brownie. :) Its so easy to prepared and its so cheap! $3 shared amongst 6 people is $0.50 each :O So cheap OMG.

Brownie! And yes, they served it on the same plate we had pasta on -.- This always becomes a discussion at the table because its my pet peeve to serve dessert on the plate you had your main on! I dislike the idea of using the same fork you used to eat spaghetti to eat brownie but this is worse cos the entire brownie is sitting on the savoury olive oil and whatever's left from dinner. :/ Oh well, but I got used to it :) Not too against it and I don't wanna take another dish out cos they never let me do the dishes I'd feel bad making them wash another.

After Dinner Activity

Snow angel!! BRRR. So cold. I think this was after we played Beer Pong and these guys lost YAY!! They had to do the snow angel as forfeit :) Ah. Even though we always complain whenever we need to leave the comfort of Markland to go outside in the cold, I think we all secretly enjoyed being out in the cold :)

Oh winter, you're missed. Christmas is approaching and its not the same without you!