pre-departure

Saturday, July 01, 2006

haha:D right after obs was a week's worth of pre-departure programme. And it was fun:)

The highlight was of course cooking lessons at Shatec. It was a really nicce session - at least it helped assure me that cooking is not such a daunting task afterall. However, the hands-on session proved that, perhaps, I am not meant to step into the kitchen.

First mistake: I boiled the spaghetti, but i forgot to add oil to the water... so when we drained the water, the spaghetti clumped together:( Luckily Yunqin knew how to salvage the situation - she placed the spaghtti back into water. Smart girl:)

I had to fry rice to... At first, I put just enough oil to line the pan, and I thought it was a lot. But an assistant came around, shook her head, and asked me to add a lot more oil. Wow! (they say its ard 11 tablespoons of oil)

Moral of the story: Fried rice is really oily - you put a lot of oil, and the rice still comes out looking dry:(

Anyway, I started out well enough, until I had to fry the egg. Guess what? Here comes mistake 2: I did not know we had to control the fire as we fry the egg... so the egg was stuck to the pan:( and it became cao4 ta1.

But i told myself nevermind, and continued to fry the rice. I happily stirred fry the rice, and third mistake: I forgot all about adding soy sauce! oh man! by the time i realise it, it was too late. The rice was too dry to add anything. Sigh. Had to salvage it by adding pepper instead. So the rice turned out bland.

The stewed chicken turned out good! because Yunqin was in charge of it. Hee.

But i guess i'll not cook when I'm in US, unless

1. it's a group thing, and i'll offer to prepare the ingredients. They can handle anything to do with the stove.

2. it is deep in winter, and going out for food is not an option, and I have no rations.

3. it's baking:)

yup! after that, our watch decided to have a Raja KTV outing. We made our way to Youth Park, sat down and started eating the food we ate. Then its off to orchard party world. I must say we have really good singers amongst us!











@ youth park!

On friday, we also had a sharing session with our seniors, and it was really insightful! For example, I have decided to take my driving test in the US, although I'll still continue with lessons in Singapore. Firstly, it's the time factor. I'll not be able to get a test date before I leave for US. Secondly, and the more important reason, is that it is MUCH MUCH easier to pass in the US. The test is only 5 minutes! You just drive around a block, and wah la! You get your license.










group photo of us (departing batch) n seniors from wisconsin-madison

pictures courtesy of kangyi and khian hong