Rotorua-Wellington Family Trip Winter 2014

Hi all!

It's been two weeks since I came back to school for my second term. I've been so stumped up with schoolwork (the struggles of being in fast-track) that I haven't been able to post here for the past two months :(

My family came to visit nearing the beginning of my winter break. They spent two weeks here while I was still in school, and got to spend one out of three weeks of winter break with me. In that one week, we went to Rotorua and Wellington (to extend my passport but was promptly declined because it was too early to do so :P)

Mt Ruapehu! We didn't go skiing there this time due to lack of time :P

 

The Luge ride at Rotorua! Absolutely loved it! As they said, once is NEVER enough. My brother and I got to get on it twice, first time in the beginner's track, and second in the intermediate track (it started raining then!). The second ride, coupled with the rain, was definitely the more exhilarating experience! <3

Going up after the second ride!

Hobbiton! We got really lucky that it didn't rain during our tour. It started raining after we returned to the starting point. We got to know some tricks they used in the movies, and got some drinks at the Green Dragon Inn.

Skies of Auckland

I've been in Auckland for about four weeks now. Moving towards Week 5 at school, we've had out first two common tests at school - expecting three more next week. The Queen's birthday's on Monday, so we're expected to spend our long weekend studying for the tests O:)

Today at sixth period we had a school-arranged quiz event for under-18-year-olds (whee! :D). We got divided into groups according to our birth months, the dean asked us questions related to movies and New Zealand. My team, Girls on Fire, got third place. The prize for us was a box of assorted Cadbury chocolates ;)  My friend's team, who won first place, got movie tickets! They also had A TON of snacks and drinks laid out for us to munch upon, and later smuggle home. Our not-under-18 friends came along after last class of the day ended (quiz participants weren't considered absent because it's a school-arranged event) and helped us clean out the snacks. Another friend of mine happily bagged all the chips and dips in plastic bags from who-knows-where, and with a half-full bottle of three-litre tropical juice in one hand, walked happily home in jandals.

All in all, life's been just awesome here, although I always find myself falling into the temptations of food like churros and cookies. Things are bloody expensive here, and apparently Kiwis think so too. 

Well let's leave it there for now. Here are some random pictures I took over the weeks since I came here :)

 Sky Tower

 Future university's clock tower

Aotea Square

 

 Town Hall

My First Two Weeks Studying in NZ

Finally I'm back to this blog! I've just gone through my second week of school in Auckland, and I can honestly say that I have simply been LOVING it! :)

Of course, I was overwhelmed at first - new environment, new house (homestay), new people, new city, new school. I was actually more than ten minutes late to orientation day (my school's very strict on punctuality), so when I encountered my then-future-classmates for the first time, my hair was flying in all directions, my face flustered, my clothes untidy due to rushing down a hilly road.

Lucky for me, I've met amazing people in my programme, and it doesn't feel like I've only known them for two weeks. I've met people from countries like China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Thailand, and even Fiji!

The teachers are experts in their fields and all have varying teaching styles which . Then there's homework. On orientation day I selected Statistics, Accounting, Biology, and Economics. I also have to do English because I have no IELTS history but whatever. All but one of my subjects regularly keep us busy with homework - some daily, some weekly. The first week was insane, but I'm starting to get used to everything, and it's going even better and quicker than I ever expected.

As for my homestay, I'm blessed to be staying with a very friendly family. I have a housemate as well, who stays in the room across mine. The location of my house gives me the option to commute via train and bus. I'm a train person, but I catch the bus to go to school because the trains rare and crowded in the morning. Plus, my host mom makes delicious salad and pasta, and our three big cats are adorable beyond words. I never thought I'd grow to be fond of cats. Ever.

One of my friends' birthday is on this weekend, so we all gathered during a mutual free period, grabbed some lunch from McDonalds down Queen Street, and went for a picnic at a park behind our school. Before this I'd never known that our school had a park right behind it -_-" Long story short, it was an awesome outing that involved a prank, a victim, a dare, and lots of laughter :)

I've taken some photos of Auckland, and I'm going to post them here so stay tuned! :D

Last but not least, happy birthday Teri!! :3

アリシア

Super Easy Uiro Mochi 【ういろう作ってみた】

Yesterday I tried making uirou （ういろう）which is a Japanese traditional sweet, or wagashi （和菓子）. Uirou, a specialty of Nagoya, is a mochi-like confection that is firmer than mochi (it holds the shape of its mold better), and has been said to be somewhat similar in texture to konnyaku.

The recipe was ridiculously simple - mix and microwave. It was so simple that I was convinced it would turn out to be a fabulously troublesome monstrosity of goo, but no. It actually did become what I believe it was supposed to become. Boy was I fascinated when I took my wobbly Ditto out from its mold :3

My uirou may be pink but don't be fooled - it's vanilla-ish flavoured. I added pink food colouring on a whim. Here's what my uirou looked like, all cut up and ready to serve ↓

The ingredients I used were as follows:

★ 80g of all-purpose flour (you can also use rice flour)
★ 60g of sugar
★ 250ml of water
★ A pinch of salt
★ 1/2 a tablespoon of a flavouring of your choice (I used vanilla xD)
★ Pink food colouring just for fun.

1. Sift all dry ingredients together in a bowl, then gradually mix in water while whisking. Mix until all lumps are gone.

2. Strain the mixture into a heat-proof container (I used a round Pyrex container). I think it's better to use a square one if you have it. Make sure the liquid sits a few inches away from the top of the container.

3. Cover the top of the container with plastic wrap (leave some parts unwrapped on any two sides of the container) and pop it in the microwave. Mine was cooked in 6 minutes using a 700W microwave.

4. Let sit to cool completely then refrigerate, and you're done! :)

To make these, I took reference from these two recipes:
http://lunulata.tumblr.com/post/54725914806/uiro-an-easy-delicious-japanese-confection-you-can
https://en.cookpad.com/recipe/189420

It's a really simple recipe, and really fun to make and eat. You can try it out with all sorts of flavourings - matcha, strawberry, chocolate, red beans, etc. I wish I had matcha powder on hand! This would have been perfect xD

昨日「ういろう」作ってみました！
意外と作り方は簡単すぎて、上手く出てくるのかなって不安がありました。笑
見た目は微妙ですが味とテクスチャーはよく出てきました（＾＾）
材料はシンプルで、簡単に電子レンジで作れます！

詳しいレシピはこちらです↓
http://cookpad.com/recipe/189420

作るのは簡単で楽しいんで、みんなさんも作ってみてください♬

アリシア

Now listening: I Swear - All 4 One

My Top 7 Songs of the Month

Hi all!

Welcome to the end of March 2014. Time really does fly.

Within this month I've encountered and rediscovered quite a lot of amazing songs, and so I thought I'd list seven (because it's my favourite number) of them here to share with you. So without further ado, here are the songs I have been in love with this past month, in no particular order!

1. Top of the World - Carpenters



I'd never listened to the Carpenters before I heard of this song, but I realized it was somewhat familiar as I listened to it. The modest yet charming intro pulled me in immediately, and Karen's voice had a lovely twang to it that made me enjoy the song even more. I've listened to this so many times, yet I'm still not tired of it. Never had I been so exasperated because a song was only three minutes long.

2. To Zanarkand - Final Fantasy X



Ugh. Beautiful and touching. Why oh why hadn't I discovered this song earlier?

3. Tong Poo (東風) - Yellow Magic Orchestra



That intro. That bass line. That piano. That chorus. Too groovy, and I just had to dance. Absolutely love, love, love it x)

The English name made me laugh for a second, but only that one second. Tong Poo is another one of Ryuichi Sakamoto's compositions. The piano version is the epitome of cool, I highly recommend that you look it up :) I'd never heard anything quite like it - it was its own genre.

*Edit: I had to replace the old video with this new one because the other one got take down due to copyright issues. The sound quality and video aesthetics in this one is not as good, but I hope you still enjoy the song nontheless!


4. Eurodancer - DJ Mangoo



My brother told me about this song one afternoon, and I was hooked by the first listen! Apparently this is what quality techno sounds like.

Bought a Guitar + Words of Gratitude

Hello everyone!

Last week my family and I (on an impulse, you might say) bought a classical guitar :D

So yeah, there she is. Our first ever guitar. I have yet to give her a name. What do you think would be suitable? Leave your suggestions in the comments :)

So far I have managed to play the first few chords of Canon in D (just enough that one can tell what song it is xD), Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (kinda), Happy Birthday (kinda), and some basic major chords. Painful blue nooby fingers aside, progress has been rather stagnant, but I plan to watch more tutorials and fool around a bit more with the notes. Hopefully I'll be able to learn some more songs before I have to leave this baby at home when I depart for NZ :')

Also, I just wanted to say a big, big thank you to everyone who's read and commented on my blog!!
I know I haven't been able to post much (purely because I often find myself lacking the topics that would be of interest to you all), but I will definitely try to update more often after I leave for NZ (end of April!). I'll give myself some corporal punishment if I don't.
My blog isn't much at all, but I'm always grateful, elated, and honoured that you're here. 
As always, thank you for visiting and reading! Come back soon! :) 


今まで私のブログを読んでくれてるみんなさん♪
本当にありがとうございました！
これからも頑張って色々投稿して行きますので
また遊びに来てくださいね～　(*´・ω・｀*) ノシ

アリシア

Now listening: Top of the World - Carpenters

Singapore Once More!

Hi! How's everyone doing?

My family and I flew to Singapore to attend my cousin's wedding last week :) To say the least, it was an exciting four nights and four days for me, which included meeting up twice with one of my best friends studying there, roaming around a bright bustling city, indulging in amazing food - once at sinful hours, and so much more.

First off I'll start with some pictures of the infinity pool on the 57th floor of Marina Bay Sands, where I stayed for the first two nights. The hotel was crowded with tourists as it is all-year round, a big percentage coming from countries like China, Japan, and Korea.

Night view

The first night I was there, I decided to bring my phone with me to the pool after seeing other people do the same (i.e. risking their fancy iPhones' fragile little lives). Silly idea, but yolo, I thought.

I didn't know the pool was shallow enough for me to just walk across it, so I swam my way to the edge of the pool, holding my phone above my head with one hand, the other submerged under water to paddle. I didn't want to soil the leather-like casing either. I got some pics, but due to the darkness none of the pictures came out presentable. In the end I splashed some water inside the cable port, but thank goodness my phone was still alive :X

To top it off, they kicked me out literally right after I made my way to the edge of the pool because it was closing time. No regrets though.

The next day, I decided to bring my phone into the pool once more, clutching it high above my head with two hands as I walked carefully across the pool. Having figured out this critical information from experience the other night proved to be of contribution to my rather silly yet rewarding decision. I still ended up dropping one of my hands in the water though, so it was another one-handed picture-taking sesh. Yet this time I produced much better results - accredited to sufficient daylight ↓


Spoiler/destroyer of visual illusions and fantasies: The infinity pool actually has an edge D:

Here are some photos I took from the Skypark! Lesson learned, btw: Always wear pants under your skirt in Singapore. The winds will show no mercy! Apparently it's bad enough on sea level (as I found out while walking along Orchard Road), but the wind did not spare me the trouble of having to repeatedly pull my skirt down whilst attempting to walk around at 57 storeys above ground level.

Also I managed to meet up with one of my best buds, Lala, now a JC student in Singapore. We had a lot of fun just walking around, loitering in arcades, eating, and talking about school, life, and other nonsense.

We'd come across a food fair at Tampines Mall during our first meet-up, and among one of the stalls that were there, one was advertising brownies. We tasted the samples and they tasted great! Maybe a little too sweet for my taste, but still delicious anyway. The attendant proceeded to tell us that their main branch offers message writing services on brownies, that could be done in minutes depending on size. That's when the lady said to stop by for our next birthdays, so she literally spoke an idea to my head. LL's birthday's coming up (it's in two days!), so our visiting that stall was like fate xD

So the next day we were to meet, I made my way to the branch at Dhoby Ghaut and later surprised her with a personalized "Happy Birthday" brownie. It turned out much lovelier than I'd expected :D

 Birthday celebration in advance <3

Then I moved on to Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa for the last two nights, where the wedding took place. The resort was beautiful! They had monkeys and peacocks roaming around as well. I never actually saw any monkeys, but my aunt had heard their chattering one morning. I did see two peahens, though. One had chicks trailing behind her :3

Family Weekend in Bali: Warung Kawah

I'd like to introduce Warung Kawah, run by my awesome cousin, Mona! She's a very talented baker who's just recently opened her own cafe in Cangguh, Bali.

When my extended family and I were in Bali over the past weekend, we visited her cafe (or warung) on its opening day, crowding the place beyond its original capacity xD

Now I know you all want to know about the food they have there. Here's what we were served at that day - chocolate cupcake, banana cupcake, and raspberry panna cotta!

I couldn't choose which one I liked best out of the three, but I definitely enjoyed the panna cotta . The sharp, tart taste of raspberry might make your face wrinkle at first, but combined with the soft and mild sweetness of the panna cotta, I could only wish there were more inside the jar :)

The cupcakes I really loved, too. Particularly the chocolate one, because it had cream cheese frosting on top. And anything with cream cheese is a win for me, haha!

For my drink, I opted for the Oreo shake, just because it looked really tempting in my niece's little hands. Other drinks my relatives ordered were the coconut shake, mint cucumber mojito, lemongrass mojito, spinach smoothie, and Snickers shake.

Among the drinks I tried out, I found that I liked the mint cucumber mojito the best, because it was extremely refreshing - exactly the kind of tropical treat that I would be craving for after a long day under the harsh Balinese sun. I liked my Oreo shake, it was just a tad too sweet for me. I loved the fact that there was another Oreo cookie hidden at the bottom of the glass :)

 

Warung Kawah boasts a carefree atmosphere with a rather modest interior, every inch of it meant to be a casual place where anyone can just chill out and relax without a care. The second floor, especially, had this comfy open-ended matress-like couch overlooking the balcony, and a closed room for parties looking for a little more privacy. I sat at the second floor, where I was able to enjoy my snacks and the breeze.

Warung Kawah:

Jl. Batu Bolong 38 b
Canggu, Bali
Tel: +623618469138

E-mail: kawah.batubolong@gmail.com
Tumblr: kawah-tropicaltreats.tumblr.com
Facebook: Kawah Tropical Treats

Be sure to drop by for a tasty tropical treat when you're in Bali! :)

アリシア

Family Weekend in Bali

Helloooo!

Last weekend I had been blessed with the opportunity to travel to Bali! :D We left on Valentine's Day night and stayed there until the night of the 16th. It was a short yet indelible one spent with my maternal extended family :)

We stayed at a beautiful villa called Villa Coraffan in Cangguh. I'd never even heard of the area before, and it was quite far from..well, everywhere. However the views were spectacular! We arrived in the darkness and I was so excited to see that we were surrounded by a paddy field even though it . I couldn't wait to see what it was like in the day, so I went and took pictures after munching down some breakfast prepared by the in-house chef, Mr. Putu.

So without further ado, here are the photos of the paddy fields surrounding our stunning villa!

Next are some photos of our villa! I adored the pool, it was beyond cool. The whole place kind of reminded me of where the cast of ANTM Cycle 20 stayed at while they were shooting in Bali. I thought it was insane!

Welcoming the Year of the Horse

To everyone who celebrates, happy Chinese new year! May the Year of the Horse bring joy, good fortune and health to us all :)

Although somewhat losing in terms of celebrants and "grandness" of festivity compared to the solar new year, virtually every Chindo* family celebrates Chinese new year (lunar new year). It's the one event where us Chindos become more "Chinese" and "in touch with our roots". No sarcasm there. I'm all for cultural things. And anything that comes in a red (or any colour within that spectrum, etc) paper packet ;)

My CNY was celebrated in the same way as previous years, with the CNY Eve spent at my grandma's house, and the other day spent spreading kionghi's and receiving hong bao's (or angpao as we call it) at my other grandma's house.

One thing I am always excited about CNY (other than the angpao's) is the food :D

 

Above is the picture of the awesome potluck that is dimensions apart from the Chinese food of Panda Express and the like. Okay so maybe not every single one of the dishes were of Chinese origin, but yeah. Any attempts of dieting during Sincia (the Chindo name of CNY) is bound to fail.