is that I get to borrow DVDs anytime to watch for leisure (and erm, in-depth studies into film/scene analysis of course, haha.) I took a peek at University College's Media Lab library today, and to my delight there is a whole assortment of films I'd wanted to and would love to watch! Tsk. Silly me didn't take advantage of this "free rental" service earlier la, bleah - to think I only started borrowing films recently for my individual film paper, as well as to entertain Nic when she arrives in Winnipeg tomorrow!
But anyway, after working so hard for the monstrous Small Business presentation today (yes it's finally over, phew..), I suppose it'll do me good for now to snuggle and feast my eyes on Anthony Asquith's The Importance of Being Earnest, as well as Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet, heh.
There are still many titles that'd caught my attention; I reckon I'll revisit the Media Lab quite often before the end of exams. I hope to watch the films Prof'd mentioned in class too, especially those that were censored/not featured in Singapore; it's such a rare opportunity.. Yay! :)
Quotable Quote:
“How can you still enjoy movies, I am often asked, when you spend all your time analyzing them and researching them? All I can say in response is that I enjoy movies more than ever, but admittedly, in a very different way from my very first excursions into the illuminated darkness.” – Andrew Sarris
Off to Bunbury-ing!!
"Having a Passion Party is a great way to spend an evening with your friends. You'll giggle and learn as we show you ways to spice up your love life with lotions, potions, lingerie, and things that go buzz in the night. Discover intriguing secrets of sensuality as you learn the top 5 secrets to SEXCESS from The Party Lady." - adapted from the Passion Parties website.
xx
Haha.. so one night Laura and Judy just said, "Wini, there's a Passion Party on 21st Nov, and you're going!" and at that time I was obviously clueless as to what that was. They tried explaining (and JS was around btw) by describing it as a "Tupperware party, just that they aren't selling Tupperware.." - tskkk. But I would have wanted to come anyway, just for the unique experience and seeing what kinda interesting stuff they have in North America, haha.
So Judy was excited about making some exotic-erotic-looking baked goods for the party, and I was roped in to help out. Amber (the Party Lady) lent us her one-of-a-kind cake mould (as shown below), and I also suggested making boob cookies! Heh.. it's my 2nd time making them now, pressing choc chips into mini mounds/domes of dough of all sizes - I think they can become my signature one day, ho!
Lo and behold! Notice that for nips we had both chocolate and butterscotch chips, the latter of a nude colour for variety. Haha.. Judy also insisted we make "hair" for the cake so I suggested choc rice sprinkles; it also has 2 lil' silver studs! Hehe. Everything's homemade by the 2 of us, even the icing! :)
Judy and I had had many funny encounters and accidents with the mould and cake by the way. No matter how self-conscious we were in holding the mould, it always looked suggestive in some way when held near to our bodies/faces! Haha.. I was so afraid of denting it too cos I kept accidentally knocking it against random pillars and walls - imagine if the cake were dented?! Judy also unintentionally made "wrong" comments when the cake was in the oven, like "Oh look, it's RISING!" and "It looks so good in there!" - HAHA.
We all wore nametags for the night, each with a (supposedly) kinky name like "Flexible Fox", or "Juicy Julie", which I thought were very good names. But I was so busy making final touch-ups to the cake, I wasn't able to have a say in mine! The only W words I could think of for this were "wild", "wacky", erm maybe even "wet" la - yikes - so the others decided to help by consulting a website that created personalized nicknames with letters from your first/middle/last names. WAHHHH. I became some random Princess Tush, I dono where it came from and it doesn't resemble my name too la! Haha.. tsktsk.
Passion Parties are designed to inform and educate women through tasteful in-home presentations where you have an opportunity to experience sensual products specifically created to enhance your romantic relationship - "tasteful" here is a pun cos there are obviously many edible products amongst the massage lotions and creams, haha. Amongst these were the Edible Body Pen (comes in choc or strawberry somemore), White Chocolate Passion Powder, Fireworks Hot Fudge Surprise etc; you basically use them to write/dust sexy messages on your partner and erm, lick them off anytime. Heh.. so we had a tasteful experience since Amber made us test these products on ourselves and see how yummy they all were! It was a whole night of squeezing and licking for us (haha), and it's amusing how Amber had to disclaim "this is yet another edible product", or on some occasions, "don't eat this it doesn't taste good!"
The Passion Hot Heart Massager and Nipple Nibblers, which is actually a fruity-menthol balm which creates luscious lips and nips for a tasty kiss and whatever-else you want. And since it was the cheapest of all products, most of us did buy nip-nibs (to use as lip balm..) Haha.. and to the right is Love Smitten, essentially a mitten with ridges to serve as a massager, it's damn ticklish! Hehe.
Passion Products are listed in 2 separate catalogues - one consists of all the nice, sweet, sensual products which help enhance a romantic relationship, while the other has all the kinky stuff la, haha. I really like the former though, while the latter is just scary. We were all extremely amused yet disgusted when shown monstrous "designs" of everything, with all its different vibrating and swiveling functions can! Haha.. the Japanese models were the most exciting; power-packed with various features - though they looked kinda weird since they had "faces" imprinted on them to help look more subtle and less threatening. :S
And if you ever watch the TV series of Sex and the City, you'll know that The Rabbit was featured in one of the seasons. According to Amber though, this product is only mediocre although it became popular for awhile because of SATC, yep. Oh and lastly, we also played Dic-Tac-Toe at the end, where we each wrote 9 of our favourite products in the grid and Amber shouted out random product names for us to cross out, something like Bingo. And I won! Haha.. I was actually set for a 3-way win somemore leh, and I had a 15% discount on whatever I bought that night, which meant 45 cents off my nip nibs. Haha. Still a discount!
Earls
Thereafter we joined Judy and her high-school friends at Earls, an upbeat restaurant bar. We'd wanted to chill longer after most people left, and since it was Tyler's birthday Judy and I decided on popping by Baked Expectations. It was a good choice too, cos it turned out that Tyler (despite being a Winnipegger all his life) had never tried its cakes, and it was Julie's first time as well! :)
"The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and, instead of thinking of how things may be, to see them as they are." - Samuel Johnson
To me, this is more than just taking in the sights and sounds of new unfamiliar places; it is also about seeking to understand one's international friends, their thoughts and behaviour and why they are as such. This is where sensitivity, empathy and Osland and Bird's theory of sophisticated stereotyping come in. :)
The Duckworth Quad in fall and winter (though both do not depict the same building in the distance, haha). Notice there isn't any sunshine in the 2nd picture, though it was only 1pm. :(
looong update 8:46 PMPeople back home are surprised my blog hasn't been updated over the past 10 days, and I can't believe it either; it feels like I haven't written in the longest time ever! But it was a hectic week with the Small Business exam and Personal Financial Planning presentation, the latter which went quite well - I think it might be the best finance presentation I've ever done in my undergraduate years! Haha.
So well, this is just a shout-out to everyone that I'm surviving; and just a couple of things that'd caught my thoughts and attention that I'd like to share. :)
Weather Report
I figured it makes complete sense to first chart my progress in the battle between all-summer-Singaporean and colder-than-cold-Winnipeg, haha. I know it's raining alot in Singapore now that the NE monsoon's arrived, and it's prolly cold on some nights I guess. But eh, I think that just means 20 degC the most (least), whereas I'm standing at -20! Haha.. I just think it's amusing somehow, and maybe after this stint in Canada I no longer have to wear jackets in class, heh.
So well, the cold is really as usual, just cold beyond description. Brr.. it stands at around -25 everyday now, and frankly I'd never have imagined myself to survive in such a climate. The thing is, the temperature itself is bearable, it's usually about -12 or -15, but the wind is what's making it really bad. With Winnipeg located on Manitoba's flat prairies, we experience the strongest and chilliest of winds, and a typical day at -15 can easily "feel like" -28! The weather forecast always has separate "actual" and "feels like" columns, by the way. Haha.. last week I tried walking to another building one night in the -17 cold, without a down jacket cos it wasn't with me - felt okay at first, but halfway through it got so bad I was chattering and couldn't think nor talk coherently anymore! Omg.. it's quite an experience really. But somehow I'd felt proud of my dare-devillish act thereafter, haha. :) I think an average Singaporean would cringe even at the thought of -10 la.. and that day I laughed at Vicki for wearing a ski mask in China last time (it makes you look like a robber cos it covers up everything except your eyes), cos I bet I'm going through something worse than her without any beanie, toque nor ear muff - I only wear 1-2 normal tops with my scarf and jacket! Heh.
The sun hasn't been shining these days too, not just for the fact that it sets at 5pm and leaves us all in a bleak dark state. Cloud cover has been slightly more than usual, affecting sun activity even in the daytime! So it's kinda miserable and gloomy at times when everywhere's a bluish-grey slate when you're out, and worse still when you're trying to do work in the late afternoons and it just feels like it's already 10pm! So I end up nua-ing most of the time instead, my brain tricked into thinking it should be preparing for bed. Rah. :(
Snowfall hasn't been abundant either - we've only had 2 nights of snowfall thus far, though temperatures are sufficiently low for it to stay on the grounds without melting. But Canada's winter has been weirdly fluctuating in recent years - according to locals, it's supposed to snow heavier now with optimal sunshine. Bleah.. I do hope it'll snow again soon. I've yet to make my first snowman, snow angel, and even an ice kachang in the open (which my friends were surprised was a dessert back home, cos they'd only suggested pouring food colouring in snow to be a pretty thing to do..)! I also want to go tobogganing and skiing before I leave Winnipeg..
And finally, I want it to snow too cos I like to watch flurries. They'd caught me unawares on a couple of occasions now, and it's such a dreamy comforting feeling to gaze out of the window, just marveling at the beauty of falling snowflakes while sipping on a cuppa in the Starbucks at Dafoe Library. :)
Thoughts on a Pod
On Relationships
Recently several couples have sprouted amongst the exchange students; true love blossoming for some, and perhaps for some others a mere surge of feelings and flings, which kinda sparked off some thought in me. From a cultural standpoint, it seems Asian societies aren't as liberal as Europeans/North Americans in the way they regard love and sex. But it probably remains true that every one, Asian or not, longs to have someone to call his/her own at some point in life. But if this solace were to come in the form of a fling, would or should one accept it? Perhaps the answer boils down to personality and the way one handles emotions and relationships, but yea.. it was a whole night of thought and reflection for me, understanding my perspectives towards matters of the heart and branching that out to bigger issues in general. I'm thankful Christine was around to be my engaging discussion partner too; we were sharing views and firing emails so spontaneously in the unearthly wee hours on a Winnipeg morning, haha.
On Friends and Graduation
In the past 10 days there was a period of time when I felt rather nostalgic and started revisiting Facebook profiles of friends from NY and HC, just to see how everyone's doing and erm, maybe kaypoh abit la haha. I remember having told Kaykey about it (while entertaining her during her boring Knowledge Management class), and suddenly I felt like just meeting and catching up with everyone when I return home! Haha.
While doing so I also came across many NTU Convocation pics, and I wondered how my own graduation will be like. Where I'll end up, and the whole revelation about job-hunting, what-ifs and what-nots. I remembered asking myself back in 2005 when deciding between SMU and NTU, whether I should go for an attractive accelerated 3-year program - and of course if I'd done so I'd never've been set to graduate into a recession.. Still, I don't regret having come to SMU; I believe in whom I've turned out to be, and I know I've definitely become a better person as such. I must cherish my final semester as a student before I set foot into the corporate world in less than 6 months!!
P/S: I may have many things to take on next sem, and many people to catch up with and bring around, but I won't neglect anyone I promise. :D