Christmas is almost here!

abandoned? Happy Early Thanksgiving y'all! anyway just a short update on the most recent concert I was at! Curtis Peoples is a singer songwriter from California and he was really good and funny on stage! he even covered N' Sync's "Bye Bye Bye"

http://youtu.be/ielj0EG1jLw

super awesome acoustic set from Kris Allen, btw. he sounds exactly like how I pictured him in my mind and on American Idol! 

http://youtu.be/2yTkiqZui3k

Boyce Avenue (a YouTube cover band, in case you don't know) were pretty good too but they sang a lot of their originals and we were quite drunk by the time they performed. hahaha! here are some pictures:

Curtis Peoples 

Kris Allen

Boyce Avenue

my friend, Quyen and I with Curtis Peoples

hope you're all doing well! can't wait for my exams to be over!

R

CONFESSION TIME

BERK

Final year begins!

HI GUYS!  LONG TIME NO HEAR FROM YOU (especially 2 of you)

In case you guys haven't met our flat pet, this is Totoro the hamster.  My housemate and I adopted him after a sad story, we saved him from certain death (so he says).  He also wont tell me what Totoro's original name is except that it's "a stupid chinese name".  He's a happy hamster though!

That's him getting to know my dad

Mayu and I went to visit a pet shop (you'd be surprised how hard it is to find a pet shop that sells birds).  Mayu's dream pet is a bird.  

Specifically a parrot.  I thought she meant those colourful parrots, but nooooo her ideal parrot is called the African Grey parrot (see above) which looks like a giant pigeon.

Also Mayu found this weird Japanese recipe which involves stacking a billion crepes on top of each other and putting cream and nutella and bananas in between.  Highly recommend 5/5

So then my parents showed up, and if you have my dad as a friend on FB (add him now) you should have seen ALLLL the stuff he put up on my wall.  They stayed for a few days in the UK, we got stuff down then we flew down to Copenhagen where we got on a cruise!  

In the UK they thought that Stonehenge was a good place to visit.  People I told that I was headed here all gave me really funny looks.  It's one of those places where you get there and you think "well that looks cool.  what next?".  Literally could have stopped by the side of the road and taken a picture.  But still, interesting place!  Fun fact of the day, NO ONE KNOWS WHY STONEHENGE WAS BUILT.  

This here is in Copenhagen, where I saw a packet called Pumpernickel and decided I had to try it.  

Don't try it.

In Copenhagen there are bikes lying everyday, FOC.

(Didn't try taking one in case I got arrested)

  

So this is the boat we got on.  It's essentially a big hotel that floats - up to 3000+ passengers and about 1500 crew, or so they say.  This is the nicest pic I have of it.

And this is the main common area of the boat.  Next BERK trip = cruise??!

And if you tell them it's your birthday they give you balloons and stuff.  We celebrated my chinese bday and my dad's real one

This is a park in Oslo full of weird ass sculptures, and this is my personal favourite - man kicking babies.

[Vigelandsparken Sculpture Park]

We spent a day in a town called Aarhus, Denmark; was just a pit stop on our way to Berlin.  There was this old church tower and I was bored so I went to climb to the top, there was no one else there, and when you reach the highest room it's pretty dark and deserted.... and on the far wall.  I think those were torture instruments.  Got the hell out of there quick!

Spent another day in Berlin - went to see a couple of landmarks then HAD TO GO SHOPPING FOR THIS ONE BAG MY SISTER WANTED WHICH MY PARENTS PROMISED TO GET.  Great sightseeing in Berlin, all the best department stores (I am not amused).  After we got this bag, I started rolling it and my mom said, "What are you doing?  It's new.  You have to carry it."  At which point I had to carry a new bag in a plastic bag for the rest of the day =]

Next we come to Tallinn, glorious capital of Estonia. That tower in the back is called....

KIEK IN DE KOK.

(sorry i'm easily amused)

In St Peterburg, Russia, my dad kept asking me to pose with random paintings in all the places we went to.  I'm not completely sure what criteria he uses to select the pictures for his collection of photos of me + paintings, but i think it has something to do with naked women.  

St Petersburg is a great place!

In Hellsinki.  My dad is professional photographer.  

And finally the cruise ended and it was back to the UK for me while my parents went home.  

My housemate made 2 cakes for my birthday.  This is how he keeps things a surprise.  

And this is the cake mayu ordered for me!  See if you can spot it.  I see she put up a few photos on facebook so you can go there =]

That's about it for me, I am 2 weeks into my final year here.  Gonna be doing the same stuff until March, that's when my finals are.  See you guys in December?!  And please update, YOU KNOW WHO ARE.  Hope you guys are doing well!

Totoro says bye!

K

where is the peoples?!

good stuff.

whatsuppppp people? OneRepublic this weekend! and classes are finally starting next Monday after a 3 1/2 month break! :o)

how are you guys doing? hope work is not too bad! I know K is enjoying himself right now. blog soon guys! 

R

WELL GUYS

Hi guys! Time for a random update from me, since I'm probably (finally) going to go into full exam mode very shortly.  I'm finishing the last week of my last placement for the year, then I've got about 2 weeks before my finals.  Sadly, not coming back this year, but then again none of you are around!

Here are some of the things I've been up to...

This is where we sometimes practice for exam stuff.. it's a music room in a hall, but i'm pretty sure it used to be a bomb shelter in world war II or something

Was at a BBQ the other day and it rained because this is England.  That's how you cook food when you're desperate

And i brought some satay

Took me hours to chop a billion shallots

And i had a special guest recently too

Concert which I bought the tickets to last november or something and they were sold out.  I was so excited about it, thinking that tons of people would be dying to go with me cause it's so hard to get tickets... well one year later and I found out that none of my friends even KNEW who the band was, and in the end I had to get mayu to come with me.  one week before the show I had to keep sending her youtube links to their songs, and I bet she didn't listen to them anyway!  still, i had fun though.

Mayu and I had an argument over what was the best (easiest?) way to make a melon dessert.  One is where you blend the melon and then add ice cream inside, the other is to chop melons and eat with it milk.  

WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK. 

Finally found a cool karaoke place in london, introduced by mayu's sister.  It's at the back of an old second hand bookstore and impossible to find.  

But you search for songs on this cool device "__". Unfortunately, they didn't have "don't wanna miss a thing" otherwise I would have brought the whole place down

=]

Apparently this is how I take naps

So I'm currently out of London in a smaller hospital, and since I'm only there for a month we don't really bring much cooking stuff and spices so we resort to weird things.  Picture here is a medical student eating apples with peanut butter which is "normal".

Housemate was out of the house and Mayu was coming over so I spiced up dinner!

Ming Yi was in London!  What about you guys!  (Elizabeth feel free to visit again anytime haha.  Now with accommodation in London!)

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Still waiting for your stories guys =P  But I know you're all probably busy with work too, so good luck getting settled in and with the grown up life!  When you get the time let me know what's been happening.. (that message was mainly for Amanda, I know you're reading this now Ken and you're very free, so blog!)

And finally, Elizabeth, Mayu gave me a shirt recently and i thought you should be the first to see

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You know who the real Kal-El is.

K

where are the OVERDUE posts?!

dude!! Ken and Slocum, where are your posts? we're about to have our second roadtrip already and you guys still haven't blogged yet?

since I'm in a good mood, I'll blog about the Austin part! 

@LAX airport having their favorite burger and fries!

the view from LA to Austin! 

@The Capitol

awesome BBQ @The Salt Lick

revenge is sweet, sometimes :P

paddleboarding @the lady bird lake!

@In N' Out

South Congress, Austin, Texas.

Jo's Coffee (apparently it's the best coffee in Austin)

some fiesta going on next to Jo's coffee.

@The Oasis on Lake Travis

I hope you guys had fun! I did have a lot of fun and it was nice seeing you guys again!! thanks again Keegan for the thoughtful gifts (even though we have yet to play it)! can't wait for our next roadtrip!!!! :D

R