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last 3 nights in winnipeg 8:45 PM

The past few days had been a frenzy; it wasn't just the repeat episode of squeezing 4 months of memories into 2 suitcases. But yes, settling final travel itineraries, settling accommodation for Laura and Judy, tying up LTM admin issues for Prof and Edwin, calling home, writing Christmas cards and gifts too of course, for friends both here and back home.. all these kept me real busy after the exams. And I'm just glad I've managed to do it all, squeezing in some time to also catch up with everyone else before leaving home. So amidst all the adventures of getting lost downtown (and I got stranded yet again yesterday!), here's a summary of my last 3 nights in Winnipeg.

xx

Sun, 14 Dec - Christmas and farewell party at Laura's
Dinners at Laura's always entail tantalizing spreads and splendid decor, and what more for a double-occasion during this holiday season! Mr Fox started dinner off with a toast to all of us who were either going home or going away, and it was just heartwarming to have gathered together one final time in the heart of this festive cheer, soaking up the spirit of this season filled with love, friendships, joy and laughter. :)

I finally tried drinking egg nog for the first time in my life! Sweet, rich and creamy.. delicioso.

Feasting (our eyes and mouths) on the fascinating gifts and goodies that Mrs Fox'd specially prepared - the scroll-like thingy on the left is a Christmas cracker, something I've always wanted to see and have a go at popping! Haha.. I've wondered about them since I was young, when I was still in the age of Enid-Blyton fairytale short stories, heh. The cracker contained a Christmas joke, a pack of "Believe" xmas tissue paper and chocolate. The baby mitten held a Starbucks gift card from Mrs Fox as well. To the right is homemade dessert trifle and shortbread cookies, yummy!

The generational divide, haha - Laura's grandparents and Judy's mum and dad were at the party too

Left: A final picture with the Mexicans and Laura/Judy (before we meet again in January)
Right: The Fox Family, who has been superbly kind, hospitable and thoughtful in taking care of us. They'd integrated me into their family right from the very first time we met, and I'm just so thankful to have come to this very cold place with very warm people. :)

 

We'd gotten Mrs Fox a set of cute Christmas side plates as a token of appreciation, and in return we received lots of Christmas gifts from Judy and Laura's parents as well. Mrs Fox also gave me a special handmade snow-doll from a crafts shop, something she said will remind me of the cold weather and Winnipeg. :)

Christmas Riddles from the Christmas Crackers - scroll all the way to the end of the post for answers!
1) What do you call someone who's afraid of Santa Claus?
2) Which animal doesn't eat?

xx

Mon, 15 Dec - Exchange students' dinner at Earl's
Monday night we organized a final exchange students' get-together at Earl's on Pembina Highway, wasn't a very large gathering but uber fun all the same. For some of us, it was catching up in the longest time ever as everyone'd been caught up in the exam stress, and it was indeed a night of getting to know and re-know people better. :)

Chocolate lattes served in cups that looked like soup mugs

L-R: Sandy (Holland), Adriana (Mexican), Lindsay (AIMS vice-president ), Momo and Marcel (Germany)

Julie (France) and Ayumi (Japan), I wrote a letter to her entirely in Japanese!

 

Momo and Jin Wook (Korea), and all of us with the bubble-like decorations hanging overhead

 

An illegal Asian gangsters gathering at the AVM elevator landing, heh. Thereafter we hung out at the AVM Level 4 Lounge, chatting, making random videos and showing off judo/aikido moves, haha. :)

xx

Tue, 16 Dec - Farewell dinner at Natalie's, Get-together at Tavern
Tuesday started off quite horrid for JS and I actually. We were both seriously lacking in sleep due to the previous night, and had to stay up too to pack our luggages. It was all quite rushed as we'd planned to send a suitcase to Vancouver via Greyhound on Tuesday, but there just wasn't time to get started on packing. We'd needed to head to CIBC too to terminate our bank accounts and arrange for a wiring of the fund balance back home, so there were just too many things to settle in such a short period of time.

But yea, we kinda got stranded downtown, 2nd time for me in -48 conditions and strong winds, please try to imagine the 2 of us shivering in pain from frostbites and rolling our suitcases in snow. I think we looked really pitiful indeed.. bleah. Haha.. but yes, somehow we couldn't find the bus stop I'd searched on Navigo (supposed to take the cursed #55 bus which got me lost last Sunday and yet again)! ROAR. But yea, we decided to call for a cab while defrosting in MTS Centre, but cabs were all busy they couldn't get us one. Time was running out for us to meet Natalie back on-campus as well, bleah. Eventually I managed to call Laura to get Nat's number, and coincidentally/fortunately Nat was downtown so she came by to pick us up and fetched us to the Greyhound Terminal before heading to her place for dinner.

What a day, and what a saviour Nat was to have turned our mishap around! Haha. We had good homecooked dinner and desserts at her place, and a friendly chat with her parents too. Found out that she's half-Dutch, so I flaunted some of the Dutch words I've learnt, and amazingly her parents could understand what I said (Dutch phonetics are very hard to pronounce)!

After dinner we headed to Tavern's for drinks, the AIMS execs actually came specially to see the 2 of us, and we're just so touched they made time on our final night in Winnipeg.

Left to right: Julie, Chantale, Dylan, Natalie

 

The Singaporean gang, as we proudly and affectionately call ourselves

Thereafter Julie surprised me by delivering IQ's hot choc to my room in the middle of the night. IQ's is a place where we'd hung out quite often to read, study and chill, so her gesture was utmost significant. Her message on the cup was uber sweet and heartfelt too - "You really change my way of considering people and especially friends".. aww. Tuva me manque!

xx

Answers for Christmas Riddles
1) A claustrophobic
2) Turkey, cos it's always stuffed!

Heh.. Merry Christmas and Happy 2009 to all of you back home in advance! I'm coming home soon..! :)

Reach me!
Wini’s pfingo number: 31501405
Call me at only local (Singapore) phone charges when I’m online!

Mail me!
Winifred Lim
Arthur V Mauro Residence, Box 436B
120 Dafoe Road, Winnipeg, MB R3T 6B3
Canada

About me
You are an enthusiastic innovator, always seeing new possibilities and new ways of doing things. You have a lot of imagination and initiative for starting projects, and a lot of impulsive energy for carrying them out. You are stimulated by difficulties and are most ingenious in solving them. You can get so interested in your newest project that you have time for little else. Your energy comes from a succession of new enthusiasms and your world is full of possible projects. Your enthusiasm gets other people interested too.

Your feeling preference shows in a concern for people. You are skillful in handling people and often have remarkable insight into the possibilities and development of others. You are extremely perceptive about the attitudes of others, aiming to understand rather than judge people. You are much drawn to counseling and can be inspired and inspiring teacher, particularly where you have freedom to innovate. With talent, you can succeed in almost any field that captures your interest.

A difficulty for you is that you hate uninspired routine and find it remarkably hard to apply yourself to sometimes necessary detail unconnected with any major interest. Worse yet, you may get bored with your own projects as soon as the major problems have been solved or the initial challenge has been met. You may need to learn to follow through and finish what you have begun, but are happiest and most effective in jobs that permit one project after another, with somebody else taking over as soon as the situation is well in hand.

8/24/08 - 8/31/08
8/31/08 - 9/7/08
9/7/08 - 9/14/08
9/14/08 - 9/21/08
9/21/08 - 9/28/08
9/28/08 - 10/5/08
10/5/08 - 10/12/08
10/12/08 - 10/19/08
10/19/08 - 10/26/08
10/26/08 - 11/2/08
11/2/08 - 11/9/08
11/9/08 - 11/16/08
11/16/08 - 11/23/08
11/23/08 - 11/30/08
11/30/08 - 12/7/08
12/7/08 - 12/14/08
12/14/08 - 12/21/08
12/21/08 - 12/28/08
12/28/08 - 1/4/09
1/4/09 - 1/11/09



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