And Then There Were 3...

yet another singaporean has arrived in snow mountain ranch to work her j-1 visa off. this time its rae. i remember her from my group during the aceglobal campusa orientation in singapore, really talkative and full of crap, nevertheless quite a ball to talk to. she came all the way from michigan just to work here(wow?!?!). spent most of the evening chatting and yakking about our experiences at the grill just awhile ago. tomorrow grace is cooking for us both in the most mini(we don't have much of a choice do we?) of singaporean gatherings. still i'm grateful there're people i can finally talk normal with.

rafting today was crazy. today's weather was among the worst i've seen. cloud cover was a 100%, not a single piece of blue sky. and we got rained on so much so that it didn't matter that i didn't fall into the water. and the cold was so bad i couldn't feel my toes and ankles early in the trip, and along with everyone else, was shivering all day long. the bright side to it all came in the form of 7 cute little girl scouts and their troop leader in my boat, who kept bugging me to teach them new songs(inclusive of the now-infamous gaku gaeku piong song), and i'm now known as 'piong' to these little pukes. haha. i may complain and roll my eyes but i loved every minute of teaching them songs and they lapped up every minute of it, and together we were known as the 'singing raft'. we also had a good guide named sailing(what kinda name is that?) who was really into doing the wildest things on the river. so he made the trip alot more exciting than what i'd normally expect. the fact that the little girls scream the house down with every sighting of a white water rapid regardless of how small they might've been, added to the excitement.

marty invited me over to his humble abode for dinner. we had brockwurst on the grill and chips. i like his little house. its so cute and single-oriented. i'd love to own one of those myself.

if you've got this week's 8 Days, Issue No. 724 Aug 19 -Aug 26, 2004 somewhere nearby right now, turn to Page 6, "best letter wins!". my mom wrote in a letter and won herself a nice dinner for two at Cafe de Amigo plus a bottle of wine. go ma! letter as follows:

Mama mia

A recent university graduate, my son recently left S'pore for the US on a three-month stint as an international counsellor at a youth summer camp there. Homesickness soon got the better of him; he missed the familiarity of home and country, and urgently requested for copies of 8 Days! I was like "Huh? 8 DAYS, of all things?" Anyway, we'd just received 8 DAYS #719 (Wow Factor) that week, and wasted no time in despatching the copy to him. This was his response: "Upon receiving the package, I took the 8 DAYS to read in the midst of looking after my kids at the camp; I just couldn't wait till the end of the day! My kids all surrounded me, ooh-ing and aah-ing at the cover and all the babelicious pics, curious about its contents and Singapore. Words cannot describe how much it meant to me, but it felt so, sooo good to see and feel something so familiar, and sharing it with others who had enjoyed the moment as much as I had. Thanks, Ma!" And I thank you all at 8 DAYS!

A very happy mama

Ed: No, thank you, ma'am. And your son, too. We're honoured.
We hope you enjoy your dinner for two at Cafe de Amigo.

i'm so proud of you mom! hope you and pa will enjoy your 26th anniversary together there!