First-year part-iiieeee!!!!!!

With the last final turned in... we were done with classes!!! woot~! and of cos, our classmate decided to host a party to celebrate this marvelous event. haha. great job everyone, we survived first year classes!

our contributions to the party - guacamole, bruschetta dip, hummus, apple walnut squares (though not exactly squares that way we made it)

cheers!

dela and sihui came over to visit!

the first year class survivors!!!

chilling out...

human pile-up! XP

yay to us for being done with first year!!

Singaporean BBQ

YB and Carene had gotten a bbq pit, and so since it had been a while since we got together, and the weather was pretty good lately, it was BBQ-time!

It was definitely quite a spread... they made satay (authentic! from one of those premix packets... YUMMY!), chicken wings (nicely marinated by the lady...) and there were burgers, sausages, bacon-wrapped asparagus, pork chops, almond jelly (we made that!) and much much more! so so so full after that... haha.

the food is cooking..... waiting (im)patiently... =P

the cooks hard at work. great jobs boys!

group picture!

Memorial day wkend trip to NC

'tis the season to be jolly... fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!

it certainly isn't christmas... =P but definitely lots of people are getting married! first my dearest sister, then my 'sister' in Duke! Shudan certainly had lots to celebrate, successfully graduated from grad sch (Dr. Shen!) and having the wedding soon after! as it was over the memorial day weekend, i could squeeze in a short trip to make it to her wedding! and it was in a way a great excuse to fly back and see the lab once again. yay!

FM was a darling and flew with me to Durham... of cos, flying all the way there, we made full use of the trip and decided to head to outer banks for the weekend to have some chilling out time too!

nice little russian bistro that i found on yelp with great reviews. cosy place, run by this old couple. they have a bakery/deli next to the restaurant too. food was pretty good!

back in duke gardens!!!!! we had a little bit of time to kill before heading over to shudan's wedding, so we dropped by duke gardens to chill out... =)

The bride marches in... =) yay, shudan! the wedding was held in a very nice place called Carol's Garden inn. it's a bed and breakfast thing, so they booked the place for a night and could do all the preparations in the house. perfect arrangement!

exchanging their vows...

me with my duke da-jie!

picture with the Zhang lab! it was so great to see everyone again!

and so with the wedding over... it was off to the darling's little side trip to outer banks! thanks to darling who did the 4hr midnight drive while i slept soundly in the car... *muack* but after a nap, he was all ready for some fun~! we went to this racing park thingy where they had quite a few different race tracks with different types of cars.. and so we did the combo and tried 4 different kinds. the whole place was empty and we were the only customers initially (later on, there were maybe 1/2 more groups that came).

go-karts!

and of cos, we went to the beach and spend a gd amt of time lazing around, enjoying the heat... =) my shell art-piece!

and time for some seafood dinner! got the blue crabs, prawns and crab cakes... super duper full....
the food was not bad, though probably overdone for the most part... =P

the 3 yrs i spent in duke, never got the chance to come to outer banks, and to kitty hawk where the first flight was accomplished by the Wright Brothers! the guides were quite entertaining in telling the whol story... did u know that on the very same day, the Wright Brothers made 4 flights, but unfortunately, the plane got destroyed the very same day!

the rock marking the site where the plane lifted off...

FM stands on the grounds where the first historic flight landed... =)

beach/chill vacation = cocktails! haha...

darling got his yummy burger, and me got my fishy!

this is hilarious... marta, are u see-ing this? =)

stretching our arms and legs during our 4-hour layover at atlanta... it would have been nice if things were open (it was after 5pm already).. but still, at least we sorta saw atlanta a little bit! ^_^ this was actually 'accidental'. AirTran screwed up with some mechanical error and we had to take the next flight out of RDU. so we were given a night's stay at some ulu off-airport hotel, and took the next afternoon flight out. thus ending up with a long layover before our night flight ATL-> SFO

wasting time, playing with the camera.. haha.

home to the 1996 Olympics...

and my darling is an Olympian!!!!!

the water fountain in the centennial olympic park became quite some entertainment... heh.

an amazing dinner @ McCormick and Schmick's to pamper ourselves before the flight back home to sf to mark the end of the mini-vacation.

Appetizer: Seared Ahi Tuna... YUM...

Entree looked too good and we never remembered picture taking... =P the Surf n Turf combo (Jumbo prawns and fillet mignon) was amazing...

dessert: upside-down apple pie
and creme brulee!

rushed back in the nick of time for the flight (thankfully)... and it's back to sf, back to school... =P

outings jan-april

At the start of the winter quarter, when everything was still not crazy and hectic, a bunch of us took a short drive to Point Reyes National Seashore to hang out and do a short trek. Haven't taken advantage of the many national parks around the area... so it was great!


all the happy faces... =) the weather that day was perfect too!

The beach was enticing... and we decided to sidetrack from our trek and go play at the beach!

Brilliant idea to have fun and fool around! Recognize the UCSF? =) (spot me making the 'U'! ^_^)

Wonderful day at the National Park!

After that, we hit this brewery/restaurant around there for dinner, before heading back to the city. Great times, guys!

~~~

Finally... April was a little bit of a breather... and the foursome went for some wine country-ing. yay! After all, we are in California after all! Cheers!

ummmmmm.... wine and cheese is the perfect picnic lunch combination! Thanks to Marta's great cheese recommendations and albert's winery knowledge, we had a great day out in Sonoma!

Good view of the golden gate from the Marin county side of the bridge. Happy and contented with the day's outing...

and next, back to Mr Lee's place for some wii action! FM and I look hilarious in our boxing action... LOL.
~~~

YUMMY!!!! aren't these strawberries amazingly BIG?? FM and I had gone down to the IRM retreat in Asilomar, and on the way back, stopped by the fruit stands and bought this humongous thing of strawberries which really looked too good to be true!

and it was easter!! Marta din make plans to go back home for easter (she was sad..), but we made up for it by having our own little festive celebrations!!! =D

Presenting the traditional polish easter dish... polish sausages, egg salad, etcetc... we all had a little polish-ness infused into us! haha... this was a huge appetizer.. thankfully we ate that early... and went out to play frisbee before coming back for round 2! (meanwhile, our beloved ham was baking in the oven...)

Dinner time! happy easter to all, cheers! the meal was super-fantastic! biscuits, garlic mashed potatoes, bak choy with braised mushrooms, stirfry string beans, and the HUGE baked ham!!! and

OMG... this thing was a beast! at the end of the dinner, it seemed that we barely touched it! good job albert, our master ham chef!!! xD

wait... there's dessert still! with our big supply of (real) strawberries, this was a strawberrified dessert menu! there was strawberry panna cotta, and frozen strawberry margarita pie! yummy!
~~~

PARTY TIME! =) med sch had this social, and so we crashed the event!

our first round of drinks... tequila for the boys and bailey's for the gals...

i love this shot! so adorable!

~~~

somehow or another... we're really having this group dinner going strong! marta decided on a fine day she had some great ideas for dinner and she really wanted to make it... and so it was dinner at her place!

appetizer - pita bread with hummus... from rob's recipe. =) turned out great!

dinner time! we were starving by then!

Grilled chicken breast with long beans and sweet potato fries. sweet potato fries are so much better than the regular fries!

my dearest sister is married!

This year is a big year for my family... =P Weddings galore!

Few pple know about this. I actually was back in SG in early May for a super duper lightning trip for my dearie sister's wedding. and it's my first time being a bridesmaid too! -grinz-

Arrived back in sg on friday, had half a day to settle some of my own stuff (i took advantage of me being home to squeeze in a little of my own wedding planning too! ^_^) and the very next day was the big day!!

Early morning the makeup artist came, and ~9.30am or so, we set off for St. Andrew's cathedral where my sis was having the church wedding.

Sis and Darren... listening as priest Terry gives his words of advice and blessings...

The happy couple... now happily married!! so happy for them!

Me and my beloved sister -hugz- glad to be there for the wedding!