Time to update...........

It's Thanksgiving WEEK !!!

I am having the best week here ever. No classes and no work for five days, how great is that. On top of that, i semi-moved to my new apartment for this break and having my own place is soooo cool. My own room with my own bath and living room and getting to cook my own food.....Just heaven.

On Tuesday, our dorm officially closed for the break. During this break, students living in the dorm have to pay $40 if they want to stay in the dorms. As if that isn't bad enough, they also have to move out from their room to another dorm. How crazy is that... Anyways, since i have my own apartment now (refer to previous posts), i just moved to my apartment for this break.

So on tuesday night, with the help of a friend, i moved out. Well, some of my stuff anyway. I just took some of the clothes that i would not need for the two weeks after Thanksgiving we have left. And also all the food stuff i compiled in my room. So i got into my apartment and now everything is about set. Except i need a bed, and a desk and also nearly everything that a new room needs. I only have a pillow for now. Ahhaahahaha, lotsa shopping to do when moving out day is really here (Dec 15th).

On thanksgiving (Dec 23), i went to have a Thanksgiving Dinner with a local family (no, not T's house). I actually only got to know all of them on that day, having tagged along with a friend to their house. Really friendly family...........Thanks Andy and Tara and Andy's family for having us.....Really great food..............

Stirring up the sweet potatoes for my Sweet-potato-pecan pie

Anyways, for this dinner, i did not want to go empty handed so, i made pie. First time i made pie ever and according to the taste testers later during the night, it was good :). I myself am pleased with the result. Not that i am expecting it to be good as we deviated from the recipe so much we might as well not have followed it. We kinda quadrupled the recipe and somehow it worked. And also we brought it unbaked to our guest's house as we were behind on time (sounds familliar?........old habits die hard...check the deepavali post for another mishap on timing)

The two brown pies closest to the white carrot cake is mine. The brown is NOT from overbaking like i thought, but from the roasted pecan nuts

And speaking about Thanksgiving (aside : Thanksgiving is on the last Thursday of every November), the biggest sale on the American calender happens on the Friday after Thanksgiving, (affectionately?) called the Black Friday. Being a kiasu and calculative person that i am, i couldn't resist not going to this sale. So, on the night before, i grouped with other like-minded persons, namely the other Malaysians (ahahahahhaa, don't u just love the kiasu-ism of Malaysian citizens), and we came up with the plan of attack. We examined every 'Specials SALE' brochure from every store in town (we specially bought the newspaper for this) and unanimously decided the best place to be at first was Staples : The Office Megastore. So, with the plan in mind and alarm clocks set at 4am, (aside : sales usually start at 5 and there usually will be a line already at 4. Some crazy sales items have limited supplies thus it is best to be the earliest bird) we went to bed.

We all woke up at 430 and at 445am, we were at Staples. Since this store opens at 6am, we were the first to be in the parking lot. As it was cold outside, we decided to stay in the car. Soon, more and more cars came and all of them wisely chose to stay in the car. Until this lady came along and started the line. Seeing that, everyone rushed out of their cars and lined up accordingly outside the store (us included of course. We being doubly kiasu, were eyeing everyone's move from our car, and seeing the lady getting out of her car, were out of our cars before anyone can say "it's cold"). So, there we were, outside at 5 degrees, at 5 am in the morning, waiting in line for this store to open.........Naturally we did what Malaysians do best when bored and cold and huddled together.......talk crap. I swear, we were so loud and crazy, it annoyed even the most patient of the shopper. And since everyone was tired from waking up early and possibly still feeling the ill effects of the turkey meal, i would think we annoyed almost everyone there. We gossiped about the other shoppers in line (in our language of course..aahahahha....who thought Bahasa and Mandarin/Hokkien would come in handy in the Land of the Free), came up with crazy shopping senarios (one involving one of us taking all the good stuff and setting up a "black market" gerai right outside Staples) and basically crapped ourselves through the one hour we had to wait. And finally, when the store finally opened, we went in and got ourselves all the good stuff. All of the lmited supplies stuff were swept by us of course (jealously eyed by other shoppers). So, what did i get??? I got myself a speaker, a memory card for my camera and also a 1gb pendrive. All for cheap, cheap, cheap...

After Staples, we hit Walmart and then every store in Bozeman (not kidding....we went to every store in Bozeman...kinda like divide and conquer..with one car going to half the stores and the other car going to the others...while keeping in touch with one another with our cell...essential to get all the good deals around town). At the end of the day, i added bedsheets and a towel to my collection of goodies while around me; laptops, desktops, cameras, clothing, blenders, petfood, jeans, slow cookers were being bought. After the sales, we all went to our respective homes and slept (finally). After napping, we each then set-up our toys and played with them and boasted about them. With all the Malaysians living in the same apartment complex as me, this was easily accomplished and might i add, really fun.

Anyways, that was Thanksgiving for me. Still have one more day to go before school but i don't think anything fun would happen as this is the time to catch up on homework for many of us, me included.

But hey, two more weeks to finals and then we are DONE with this semester. Oh how i love how the time flies.......

Thanksgiving pie.............$ 12 Dollars
Speakers ..........................$ 20 Dollars
1 GB memory card..........$ 14 Dollars
Having the time to do whatever i want.........Priceless

ps: I am sooooo enjoying Mandarin and Cantonese songs now