我要为上一个entry 道歉。。可能写得太感伤了，引来好多关怀和你们的担忧。其实我现在很好，过得很开心。所以大家不要为我担心了！我只是发发牢骚罢了。。

爸爸妈妈，
你们一定要吃饭吃得安心哦。。
我每天在这里都有自己煮蔬菜吃，还有水果，果汁之类的。。所以营养很充足。我已经吃完了剩下的pizza啦。。哈哈，因为我喜欢吃pizza 嘛！以后不会吃剩下的东西了。放心。

这些我自己煮过的东西。。还能吃。。放心吧，我很注重营养的。

番茄炒蛋

菠菜面（Spinach Noodle) with a lot of spinach which I bought from Sunday market (it's a market where all the farmers in Seattle come tger and sell their fresh farm products), in miso soup.



Actually i realise i'm a very lucky person. I got only 3-day week! LOL..so today i finished class at around 3pm..and is going to have a long weekend! haha..That brings up my mood. (Even though readings for the weekend is piling as high as Mt Rainier).
I'm really enjoying my 'loneliness' here, like walking on the streets alone, shopping in the supermarket alone, and studying in the library alone. It's kinda exciting to feel free and independent all of a sudden. And realising, '我长大了’。 I dont really like to have people always tagging along with me or always talking to me non-stop, even though i can't live without company. But having some private space and being alone for sometime to explore on my own is very important for me.
I've made a great accomplishment by speaking up in class today. It was daunting cuz it's in front of so many experienced and more mature (age wise) people. Even though my point is not really on the point lol and made the prof frown for a long time, at least i made a little improvement on my own part in terms of gaining some self-confidence. I think it's like a vicious cycle. Once you start to speak up you'll gain some confidence which leads u to want to speak up more in the next class. At least that's for me. And if you don't speak up for this class and the next class ur confidence level just diminishes class by class..until it's harder and harder to put up ur hand and gain the prof's attention. So today I made it an effort to prepare for my readings ( i read one particular case for at least 5 times LOL) and sat quite in front in class (so that I dont see the faces of people staring back at me when I speak). Haha donno why i'm just excited by this and I think this gives me more adrenaline to prepare harder for my next classes so that I can contribute more in class, and show them that an undegraduate student can think as well as them. Btw, i realise some grad students are as dumb as George Bush..even though they speak alot and come up with long sentences and fancy terms, if u listen closely they really have no substance in what they're saying (not that I have any substance YET hehe).

Anyway, now i have the time to update u guys on a little bit more of my life here.. hope it's interesting enuf for u to read on hehe..

I went with my hosts to watch the Phantom of the Opera musical in town on Saturday. The place is just pure quaint and antique and everybody dressed up for the event...and i feel like some country pumpkin back in the earlier centuries, who got a cheap ticket at the back and was trying to get involved in upper class culture. Luckily my hosts arent dressed up either.

This is a theater call "Paramount"..


This is the entrance to the theatre hall..



And the hall itself looks like this.. ( i got scolded for taking this pic LOL)

The opera was in English mixed with french accent..and I had a hard time understanding what they're singing out. The music was too soothing and sounds like bed-time lullaby, and the hall was quietly dark..and it was raining outside..so u can expect wad I did.. i slept through 50% of the show. I just couldn't keep my eyes open! LOL..haha a waste of 40USD..but it's a good exposure..and a good sleep too. At least I got the general idea of what the story was about. Opera is like for you to listen rite...so don care abt the content la..just sounds nice to me will do haha (trying to make my own excuses for not understanding 50% of what was going on).

And on Sunday, I went for a boat cruise organised by my sch's orientation society (call "FIUTS"). I will attend a lot of FIUTS's stuff in future, cos they always organise activities every now and then. It's so fun meeting new people from all over the world!
It's a 3 hr cruise with lunch on board.



These are some visiting scholars from Africa. (from right): Jean (Madagascar), Carol (Zed) and Fazel (Afghanistan). Din tok much to Fazel. But I was excited to know that Jean (pronounced as 'John' in French) is a judge in Madagascar. Carol is working with her government in Africa on some public policy on human development (don't quite get what is that haha).
And this is Claudine (West Africa..couldn't remember the specific country T-T). She is working under her government on the control of HIV in Africa, and we had a good talk about that, as well as African culture..like what food they eat there. Anyway it's really nice to meet these people from totally different parts of the world, some parts where we've never even heard of..and they're all striving hard to learn new stuff in America like me. The worse thing for them is that they left their family and kids back home and made a big sacrifice to come here.

Made quite a lot of thai frens haha..(Noon, me, Seo Hoon, Apaporn, and *a thai girl whose name i din ask!*)








Okie, thats the end of my entry. TOO LONG isnt it? U guys must email me or tag me so that I don feel like I'm always talking to myself haha.


All the best for assignments during term break, and don forget to play abit before sch starts!!
Love,