St. Louis Zoo

Two weekends ago, we went to the STL Zoo. I held off the post on our visit for more than a week as I was busy struggling to mug for last Friday's exam.

Anyway, friends who knew me would have long identified the fact that I dislike animals. The reasons why I tagged along was because I need a breather from the gruelsome revision, and also because I did not want to be alone in the apartment on a weekend while the rest of the gang went out for some fun. Definitely not my kind of fun though, but a great opportunity for more photo-taking sessions.

Near the entrance. As usual, the sun was blazing hot.
One of the numerous stalls that sell drinks and snacks.
Spotted a dead deer hanging on the tree!
Us and the grizzly bear. I think Hubby was smittened by the bear.
The only part of the zoo I like is this chilly world of Penguin and Puffin Coast. Though it's freezing cold inside the cove, at least we're away from the heat and more importantly, the stench of all the other animals.
This must be Hubby's favourite animal, since he insisted on leaving only after he saw this highly endangered cat, the Amur leopard. Looks like any other leopard to me.
Lastly, a group picture before we leave. Check out more pictures on my Picasa album if you are interested, as I'd uploaded all the pictures.
Dinner was at Denny's to celebrate Zhiwei's birthdat in advance.











Nothing spectacular about the zoo. I think we have a better zoo in Singapore, especially the Night Safari, that beats the STL Zoo hands down anytime. Since I have nothing impressive to comment about the zoo, I shall end my post here.


We just came back from a 3D2N trip to Chicago 2 hrs ago. Will update on the trip very soon. Till then, tata!

All about Food

I've been pretty proud of myself recently. The week before school started, I was trying to be a nice wife by cooking up a storm for the hubby. By others' standards, the "storm" was probably nothing to be pompous about, but it's really such a feat to me. Knowing that the impending heaps of school load means Hubby and I will probably have to succumb to very modest dinners for the many nights ahead, I tried to cook some "exotic" food that required some time and effort to make up for the expected simple fares.

Wanton mee dry! It had been my second staple food when I was young, unlike other kids who craved for McDonald's instead. I was so crazy about it that whenever my parents brought me out to dine, I'd definitely have that with lots of chilli. Still one of my favourite food, I decided to try cooking it from scratch, without having to wait for another 4 months before we get back. From scratch it means having to make the wantons and Char Siew myself! Such an achievement right? It was delicious and Hubby said it was his second best homecooked dinner to date. The texture of the noodle was not quite what I had expected it to be though, maybe because it's made in US. Still, it was good enough to satisfy our cravings. Do pardon the broccoli. I know it's not meant to be there but because the nearby supermarket does not sell chinese greens, I had to get a substitution for the Cai Xin (or whatever veg it is supposed to be).

This is one of the more fancy lunchboxes I had prepared for Hubby. Fancy because the Lor Bak falls under my category of "Exotic Food". I've had cooked this twice when we were in Singapore, but it was much successful this time round. Reason was becasue I had the time to let the meat simmer for a good 2.5 hours, for the melts-in-your-mouth texture. Hubby said this is the best lunchbox I'd prepared till date, cause Lor Bak, Tau Pok and egg are all his favourites. I know Hubby's lunch don't look appetizing here, but that's because he was so excited with his yummy food that he did not bother to present the food nicely for the photoshoot. Heh...


I went to the Chinese Supermarket on my way back just now, and saw this!

I love mooncakes! Last year this time, I did not have a chance to sink my teeth into these savory pastries as I was trying to diet to look my best on our wedding day. How time flies. It's been almost a year since we've been married. With no display of lanterns along the streets or in the shops here, I had forgotten the Mid-Autumn Festival is drawing near.

Since I can't have my slice of Da Zhong Kuo this year, I reckon a box of $10 mooncakes is the next best companion one can have during the coming Mid-Autumn Festival. Pretty modest mooncakes, especially since it is a product of USA. The yolk is very fresh, the white lotus smooth and the skin thin, almost perfect. Only if the white lotus paste is slightly sweeter to suit my sweet tooth, it will be heavenly. Anyhow, at $10 for 4 pieces of decent double yolk mooncakes, it's a steal!

I've been longing for Krispy Kreme for the past few days. Whenever we visited the supermarket in the evenings, it's either sold out or only boxes of a dozen of these darlings were left. Since I had the time to squeeze in some grocery shopping this noon, I had to grab a box of half a dozen of the Original Glazed. Yummy! Now I can look forward to waking up early for breakfast tomorrow.


I am attempting to cook Laksa later. I need good food to energize myself to prepare for the race this Friday. Spicy food's for the weary soul. If I succeed, I shall post a picture of it soon!

Intelligence VS Dilligence

While the rest of the guys are having fun with Texas Holdem n beer next door on a Friday night, I am mugging away alone in the apartment. I am trying very hard to catch up, struggling to cramp all that were taught in class in my puny brain.

I've tried real hard making conscientious efforts to be super attentive during lessons, but somehow my brain just wondered around after every few minutes. Is it because I have aged, or is it because my brain is half dead? Maybe the lessons are just too intellectual for me, thus I feel too lost to even be able to concentrate. Sigh...

School Begins

School workload has been crazy. It's only the 2nd day and I was in school for almost half a day, from 8am to 7pm. I've quizzes on the 3rd and 5th day of class, an assignment due on the 4th day and a final exam 10 days later. Intensive classes are held 4 hours per day for this course where I get 2 credits upon completion, compared to 1.5 for the rest of the courses to be completed in half a term. How more crazy can this get? No wonder I am complaining.

The profile of my class is very interesting. Of the 40 students enrolled, only 3 are married. I guess 2 of them are the 2 oldest guys in class; one at 65 yrs, and the other older, but I have no idea how old. The last person is obvious of course. The mean age of the students is 24, while the median is only 23. I guess I must be one of the oldest in class, but luckily most thought I am only 24 or 25. Heh... Another amazing thing is, the average GMAT score of my class is 710, with the average quatitative score at 99.9% percentile! This grades are comparable to the ones from Yale and Sloan's MBA graduates scores, according to this GMAT website. An astonishing piece of information! Makes me feel super stressed out now, coz my scores are pretty far from the average and that makes me a below-average student. A very competitive class, no doubt.

It's been intriguing making friends with people who come from all over the world; China, Hong Kong, Korea, Israel, Thailand and of coz different parts of the States. However, I am alarmed and saddened to know that I am one of the very few who speak less than perfect English in class. Many of my peers from the asian countries who did not have English as their first language in school, speaks much better english than I do, with perfect pronunciation. I feel so ashamed of myself. Speaking in perfect Mandarin has never been my forte too, so that leaves me at the bottom of the list when it comes to conversing with my coursemates. Sigh...

Thus, I am feeling very stressed and demoralized now. I do hope mingling wih them often can help to brush up my communication skills by leaps and bounds, and I wish I do have the intelligence and motivation to study hard enough to pull myself up from the ranks.

Six Flags

Saturday was the day we had the most fun on a single day ever since our arrival. Our outing to Six Flags was AWESOME! I can't really remember when was the last time I was on a roller coaster; it's probably donkey years back, and it's really exhilarating to go on those pulse-pounding coasters when my heart is now older and weaker. My heart and I had our fair share of thrills and frights throughout the 6 coaster rides. Some of the coasters and tracks were completely made of wood, one was a former Guiness World Record holder and the other goes up a 90 degree track vertically, just to name a few of the very interesting coasters they have in Six Flags.

Queuing to go up Mr. Freezer. I saw some happy and scared faces. Haha... The wait to go up the coaster itself was terrifying enough actually.
Mr. Freeze, the coaster that goes right up the spine-chilling veritcal track at lightning speed, using the new linear induction technology, so claimed the website. It then comes down and goes round the entire track a second time in a reversed direction. The scariest coaster ever. I almost backed out while in the queue. I'm glad the ride did not last more than 45 seconds.
Batman The Ride - I was panic-stricken by these ski-lift-style chairs.
Another very steep drop, the Ninja.
The Boss, the 5,051 ft. wooden coaster behind me.
See how steep is the wooden coaster's track?
That's Shaun Soh and Say Kwee in the 1st car, on Screamin' Eagle, a one-time Guiness World Record holder. It races through drops of 9 and 8.5 stories, at speed up to 62mph. An absolute scream, that I agree.
Making funny faces to entertain ourselves during the long queues.
Say Kwee, Shaun Soh and me, and our $7 coke bottle. At least we get free refills the entire day for the exorbitant price.
A group photo, just before we leave the amusement park. Zhiwei looked like he's holding Hubby's wrist. Wahaha...








See more pictures at my Picasa album.