We were away in Seattle the past weekend. Shisheng's mum was there for a religious conference/ceremony, and we joined her there, along with a few other of her Singaporean friends. School reopened the following Monday, and our plane touched down in Indy at 5am Monday morning. Poor Shisheng only managed to catch a few winks, and then rush off to school. He has a very tight schedule this semester, having to be a teaching assistant for a very heavy module with lab sessions coupled with his increasing workload for his research. I volunteered to help him out with the marking of the students' assignments. That was before I knew there were a total of 105 scripts, and the assignment had like a gazillion questions, and they are not MCQs! Plus, the students were either very studious or very kiasu. Gave answers which were one-paragraph long when one sentence would have sufficed. Come to think of it, that sounds like me when I was a student... *sheepish grin* Now I have a taste of how my teachers must have felt.
Tuesday -- Shisheng's mum and friends (a total of six of them) came over to Indy to visit us. It was nice to have them around as company. Pretty jovial bunch. We were initially worried that they will be bored, since there is nothing really interesting here. But they were so easy-going that in the end it didn't really matter where we went. They were simply happy around one another. We brought them to Walmart, the local shopping mall, the veggie garden and an apple/raspberry/plum orchard for fruit picking.
Poor Shisheng fell sick mid-week, prob due to insufficient rest, driving too much (he has been driving long distances both in Seattle and Indy since Friday) and, as speculated by his mum's friends, because mummy is here to take care of him. Unknown to him, he became the subject of much teasing when we were all having lunch without him (he was resting at home). And some of his baby stories too. Hehehe...
We were slammed with two "summons" within a span of five days too. One for parking and another for speeding. His first speeding ticket. We didn't really feel we deserved one, and we attributed it to the policeman having to meet his nightly "quota". No matter, we still have to pay the very hefty fine. We shall be law-abiding residents from now on, and be cursed by the drivers behind us for keeping to the speed limit.
The six "elders" flew back on Friday. Saturday was a pretty happening day for the region. There was the Farmers Market and Global Fest. We went for both, together with the Chias. Global Fest was really an eye-opener. We learnt tidbits of information about various countries. Easter Egg painting from Ukraine, Rosmaling from Norway, dancing from the Middle East, African art, lacemaking... There was even a food fest showcasing food from different countries. I tried some Turkey food made from lentils. Interesting... but not my kind of food. I guess lentils are not our kind of thing, unlike in Turkey where it is a staple.
We then proceeded to Tippecanoe mall to do some shopping. Poor Joshua had to jagar the kids at the playground while Shisheng, Linnet and me went window shopping. Then Shisheng made an interesting observation that all the adults sitting around the playground are all men. No prizes for guessing where the women have gone.
Bought two pairs of jeans from American Eagle. I am again impressed by the service I get in the US. The jeans are sized by length in addition to the usual size 0, 2, 4 etc... I needed to get a size "2 short" but they only had "2 regular" and "2 long" (a sad reminder of how short my legs are). The sales assistant said that they can order it for me and then ship it directly to my house, at no extra charge! In the end, I paid only $30 for two pairs of jeans! Joshua commented that jeans are very cheap here, and I realised it is true: you can get Levis at USD$30 here, while I bought my Levis in SG for SG$100 plus! Ouch!
Dinner was at Wendy's. If I have a favourite fast food chain, this will have to be it. Lots of greens in the menu. I ordered a BLT salad. I am usually not a salad person, as I prefer my veggies cooked. But the veggies were so fresh and delicious I didn't have a problem munching them down. Shisheng likes the baked potato (yes you can sub fries for baked potato!).
The girls went a little wacko and started showing off their singing skills. They amazed us by singing adult songs such as "You're My Inspiration" (although Linnet claims it sounds more like "You're my perspiraion") and "Lemon Tree" (Claral only knows the part which goes "IIIII-so-laaaa-tion"). This is the result of being on a road trip for 2.5 months and listening to the same CD over and over again.
Claral, Hannah and Irwynn at Wendy'sThe coming Monday is Labour Day. Linnet's mum is coming from SG, so we are going to drive down to fetch her, at the same time day-tripping to Indianapolis. I will be the one driving. Have to get enough practice so that I can drive down to the airport by myself when Huiling comes end Sep!
4 comments:
haha i m so gam dong you are practising ur driving for me babe! hopefully u dun get overly stressed! i cant wait to visit u! i miss girly chats haha
Hahaha... Aren't you worried that you have to ride in my car? Yeah, looking forward to you coming over as well! We can cook up something together! :P
i do hope the weather is fine, sigh, if i had known about the hurricane season during sept and oct, i probably would delay my trip...bummers, fingers crossed!
Yeah, it looks pretty bad. I never paid attention to weather as much until I came over here! Hopefully it will clear by the time you are supposed to fly!
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