Catchup Ketchup

19 Jul 2008 09:35 am | Category: Eric, Sharn, Travel, Vacation, Work

Don’t ask about the title….I just realized that it’s been SUPER long since either of us posted.  I put that down to the busy busy lives we’ve been having recently.

So here’s a brief re-cap of what’s happened so far (and we HOPEFULLY will go back and provide a bit more of an update on each of these things in a little bit).

Eric – I got back from my second business trip to Europe on May 31st and then pretty much went to Utah for two weeks for work.  I took about a week and a half off around the July 4th holiday to go to Canada and Seattle with Sharn to take care of her visa stuff and now I’m back at work trying to forget how fun vacation can be 🙂

Sharn – After school finished, her sister, Sarah came over from Singapore and Sharn’s been showing her around the West Coast.  The first week Sarah was here, they came up to Utah to visit and I met up with them when I could.  While there, we saw the Heidi Lin and her family (Abby and Jade have grown up so much!), Rendy Marican (good luck on your internship in Buffalo), Nat and Rie Woo, Jason and Jovina Orme (Jason was my last companion on my mission), and Sisters Lai and Tan (Tiffany’s back now, so I guess I don’t have to call her “Sister Lai” anymore).  The second week, they went to Disneyland down in LA and had a blast there (while I stayed home and went to work 🙁 ).  Week 3 was the trip to Vancouver and Seattle which was a ton of fun and surprise, surprise, we ate a ton of food.  It was really great to meet up with our college buddies, Andrew, Laura, and Clancy Wan (he’s such a cute little boy), Marcus, Rebecca, and Mathias Khong (Mattias is also REALLY cute), Chris and Katrina Nye (Katrina, if you’re reading this, got a job yet?).  A big THANKS to Brother and Sister Wan for letting us stay at their place in Seattle again!  This was Sharn’s first trip to Vancouver so that was really fun too.  A big THANKS here to Sabrina Chen and her family for putting us up while we were up there!  We were able to catch up with Alice Wu and her family while we were there and a few of the other Sinaporean families that have immigrated over.  Also, I managed to have lunch with Mike Chong, a friend of mine from when I was young (our mom’s are friends from way back), awwww.  The drive from San Jose to Oregon, Oregon to Seattle, Seattle to Vancouver and back was about 2000 miles for us.  Not too sure how that worked out cause I didn’t think it was that far.  Ah well.

I think that pretty much sums up what’s been going on over here.  I’ve been at training this week and Sharn and Sarah have just been chilin’ around the Bay area.  Next week, I’m finally back doing “work” while they’re heading out to Las Vegas (lucky them and unlucky me).

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It’s summer time!

13 Jun 2008 08:37 pm | Category: Sharn, Work

Yay! It’s official! Today was my last day of school. Friday the 13th. Yikes. But nonetheless, it marks the end of grading papers and lesson planning for at least 6 weeks while Sarah is here.

The last day of school was basically all fun and games. In the morning we had carnival games and mini golf. Each class had to design a carnival and a hole for the mini golf.

Our theme for the carnival game was “Flower Power”. You had to toss small tiles into flower pots to get points. My students painted the sign and made the pots. Awesome kids!

There were other games like bowling, ring toss, coin toss, water relay. They even hired a magician. Cool! And I got to be the magician’s assistant! They even had face painting, and I did one on my arm.

Our golf course theme was “The Yellow Brick Road” from the “Wizard of Oz”. Super cute course, but the hardest one. Tough!

Notice the poppies on the side. The kids made 250 poppy flowers. They were poppied out after that!

After that we had a picnic lunch on the field under a huge tree. I bought my kids popsicles. They love me for that 😉 After lunch, the kids played games on the field and ate more ice-cream (they were selling ice-cream and the line went all the way down the entire building block!).

I have such awesome kids! They love helping. I’m going to miss my class. It was no doubt a hard year. My class had the most number of boys with the least number of girls out of the three 3rd grade classes. 14 boys and 8 girls. And even the parents agreed that the combination of boys wasn’t the most ideal. Some of the most mischievous boys! They were a handful, but I love them. Today as we were saying our goodbyes, I almost burst out in tears. I love teaching! And I love how they love you back. It is definitely a rewarding job. I’ve learned so much this year and I have all this ideas for a better year next year. For now, I’m just gonna enjoy my summer!

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Bad Parking Spot

08 Jun 2008 03:05 pm | Category: Stupid


The complex\'s entrance sign crashed into the side of a parked car.

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Beauty day

25 May 2008 08:04 am | Category: Sharn

So, while Eric is blasting his time away in Europe. Here I am another weekend occupying myself. Good thing I have friends and people who love me here!

My friend, who’s taking a class on make-up, asked me to be her model for that day. It was her “graduation” day, so they had to take someone in and show what they can do. It was a small group of ladies in their thirties and up, learning how to take care of their skin and how to maintain their beauty. I am truly amazed at how much time and effort (and money) these women put in to maintain their youthfulness. And you know what, it’s awesome! They really do look good for their age.

I’ve never really been one to pamper myself much or take time to dress up, do facial, make up, and all that girly stuff. But I guess taking care of myself now that I’m still young is really important. I may have nice, supple, youthful skin and thick, bouncy, rich hair now. 😛 But it’s not gonna last long if I don’t take care of it now! Ok! I’ll do something about myself. At least put in more effort than I am now, I guess. 😉

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The most diverse city in the world…

23 May 2008 11:44 am | Category: Eric, Travel

Dunno if that’s really true about Amsterdam, but supposedly they have over 170 different nationalities represented there, about 20 more than even New York City!

Amsterdam was definitely the most fun city I’ve been to this time round in Europe.  Lausanne was very idyllic, Brussels had cool architecture, but Amsterdam was fun!  The tourists definitely make parts of the city pretty nasty, but the people are so friendly (not in that way if you’re thinking it) and tolerant.  Just walking around the city, the first thing you notice about it is that you’re surrounded by really cool architecture.  It’s totally different from all the Gothic architecture I’ve been seeing in other parts of Europe.

Amsterdam Canal

Best of all…they actually have GOOD Chinese food!  Yay!  I was blown away by the amount of Chinese people in the city.  There were a ton in Brussels too, but those were all tourists.  These ones are actually locals!  Sadly, I didn’t get the chance to see how much Chinese groceries cost, but it’s made living in continental Europe suddenly attractive.

The Red Light district (De Wallen) was interesting 🙂 It was definitely a random place to meet a guy from Singapore.  But there you go, you can always find someone with something in common with you in the city.  I was amazed at vast range of people you find in the Red Light district.  There were groups of grandmas walking around, bachelor parties, couples, and even families with kids!  Here’s a safe look at one of the cooler alleys in the area:

The narrowest alley

Anyway, I had a blast in Amsterdam just chillin’ and walking around the city.  Definitely have to go back so I can go to the Van Gogh Museum, Rembrandt’s house, and the Anne Frank house.

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Another weekend

18 May 2008 09:01 pm | Category: Sharn

You know what. It’s a lot of effort thinking of a catchy title for a blog post. So, I give up. I’m just not good at that kinda stuff.

Anyway, so while Eric was getting knocked up over in Amsterdam, 😛 I spent time with Joyce, who’s stopped over in California before she heads back to Singapore. Her brother, Patrick, lives here too, so we spent our Saturday together. We went to Oakland Chinatown to get some cheap, yummy yum cha. It was only $17 for the 3 of us and we ate our fill! Then we went to the Oakland Temple VC to see Sister Chong and Sister Soh. Sister Chong has only 2 more transfers before she’s done with her mission! Time flies! They’re doing awesome, btw.

After Oakland, Joyce and I headed to a karaoke bar and sang 2 hours to our heart’s content. Actually, to my heart’s content would have been all night, but they charge by the hour, so, 2 hours just had to do. I haven’t sang like that in over 2 years. It felt good!

So, Saturday was fun filled. Sunday was fun filled too. We had Linger Longer after church today. I made little sausages with swiss cheese and bread wrapped around it.

I don’t really know what you call this. But I would call it a hit! It was gone in a snap. Yum!

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Where I’ve Been

17 May 2008 03:26 pm | Category: Travel, Work

Michelangelo\'s Madonna with Chile in BruggeI’ve been getting some comments lately from those of you who read our blog that Sharn’s been doing all the blogging…so here I am!

I’ve been in Europe for the past 3 weeks (same countries as before, Switzerland and Germany so far) for work.  I have to say, the first time was a lot better, mainly cause it was so new I think.  If Sharn was able to come this time, that would have been more fun (cue the “awwww”).

Last time, I spent weekends in the following places:

  • Zurich, Switzerland
  • Minden, Germany
  • Berlin, Germany,
  • London, England
  • Visited family in England

So this time, of course I had to be different and see other places.  So far this time, I’ve been to:

  • Lausanne, Switzerland and Bern, Switzerland
  • Brussels, Belgium and Brugge, Belgium
  • Amsterdam, the Netherlands

I’ll end out the weekends with another visit to my family again.  I was hoping to hit Paris on my way from Germany to England, but unfortunately, I have to stay in Germany longer than expected.  What I really need to do is commit to spending like a month in Europe with Sharn so we can wear ourselves out traveling all over!  I still want to go to Prague, Vienna, Rome, and Barcelona!  Not too sure what’s in Portugal, but I’m sure it’d be fun to visit there too.

I guess enough rambling from me, I just thought now’d be a good time to post, while I’m relaxing in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (and no, I haven’t tried any special brownies!).  Oh, the photo is of the only piece of artwork by Michelangelo to ever leave Italy during his lifetime.  It’s a sculpture of the Madonna (Mary) and the Child (the Savior) and is found in the “Our Lady’s Church” in Brugge, Belgium.

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Carissa’s Recital

10 May 2008 08:26 pm | Category: Music, Sharn

Today was fun! I hung out with my branch president’s family. Their oldest daughter, Carissa, is nine and in the 4th grade class right next door to my 3rd grade class. Carissa invited me to her violin recital. I’d never been to a violin recital before. This gives me an idea of what to expect for my kids in the future!

It was really cool. The kids were awesome. They prepared very well. There was one student who was 70! He started taking piano lessons a year and a half ago. Shows that age should never stop a person from learning!

I took some videos with my cell phone, but it wouldn’t let me upload! It says the video doesn’t meet requirement guidelines. Ok. Sad. But at least it let me upload my pictures.

After the recital we had a little refreshment. It was more like a dinner! Asian parents. They went all out! Food was great!

Oh, and I have to add that the photo taking was CRAZY!! Parents taking photos are worse than the paparazzi! But of course, I’ll probably be like that too!

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Go Gladiators!

05 May 2008 05:10 pm | Category: Sharn, Work

So, a couple of weeks ago, our school (Challenger School) had an inter-campus sports day. Our campus (Strawberry Park) was hosting the Berryessa Campus. Our middle school students competed in basketball, soccer, and flag football.

To get our students roused with competitive school spirit, the student council decided to have a poster competition. Our campus’s mascot that the student council chose was The Gladiators. Students from all grades were supposed to create a poster around this theme. Our principal would judge and choose the top three. Every teacher had to submit one poster from their own class towards this competition.

Now bear in mind, my 3rd graders were competing with middle school students in this competition. But nevertheless, we did our very bestest and we came up 3rd! Imagine that! I’m so proud of them!

This is a mini version of our winning poster:

The winning poster

Notice how the gladiator in the picture has the balls stacked up on his sword. Genius, I say! My kids are genius!

Well, about the sports day. Let’s just say we did our bestest too!!

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Day of adventure

03 May 2008 08:11 pm | Category: Sharn

Ok, it’s not really a day of adventure. It’s just how I spent this weekend without Eric. It’s quite nice really. No one to wake me up so early with sounds of cartoon on TV. I thought I was just going to sleep and sleep. But, I woke up at 8:30.

We’d bought this lens restoration kit for our car. We didn’t have the chance to use it when Eric was around. So, I decided to try it. The headlights on our car don’t shine and aren’t clear. It looks like a layer of fog permanently on it. So we bought this to try and get it to shine again. I spent an hour with sand paper and polish, working on the headlights. And it worked! The headlights are nice and shiny now. Hopefully, it stays that way.

After that, I decided to walk to the mall. It’s only about a 20 minute walk from home. And it’ll be my exercise for the day. I got a new pair of jeans and a new pair of flip flops! It took more than 20 minutes to walk home though, since there was stuff to carry and I was tired from shopping . 😛

In the evening I also had dinner with Maggie and John Thompson, a couple from our branch. They also had the missionaries over. John made lasagna, very hearty lasagna. And he’d also made a cherry pie. He ground his own wheat to make the pastry for the pie. Awesome!

Overall, I’d say it was an eventful day. Yay!

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