SIMON AMMANN, why are you so awesome. :’)

He’s definitely my favorite athlete of the Games. Why? Because this mf sweeped both ski jumping events with the gold, and now he has the record number of medals for any ski jumper. He did the same exact thing in Salt Lake, and I’m so glad that he’s in top form for these Olympic Games. In the Large Hill event (which was today), he got the best jumps in both rounds and he was over 14 points ahead of Adam Malysz, the silver medalist. If that isn’t a testament to how great he is, then I don’t know what is! What an amazing, amazing comeback.*

Can I just say, I freaking LOVE these Olympic Games. A lot of my favourite athletes (Ammann, Kramer, Bilodeau, Kearney, Shen & Zhao, etc.) have been doing so well this time around. My friends and I have been watching the games every single day; we’ll bring our homework and food to the lounge so we can cheer and shout at the TV screen and er, attempt to multitask.

Some thoughts on the men’s free-skate:

• So glad Lysacek won the gold. I love a determined, hardworking athlete, and he’s really deserving of the medal. My heart broke when Takahashi fell in the beginning of his free skate and Oda Nobunari had the bizarre incident with his laces. I’m glad that Takahashi still got a place on the podium, especially since it was his last Olympics. Despite the fact that I’m generally happy with the way the results turned out, the judging on figure skating continues to baffle me (they totally underscored Johnny Weir).
• Speaking of, I was completely turned off by Plushenko. His free skate was quite sloppy, and I’ll be damned to hell if I ever see another pelvic thrust from him. Not only that, the real kicker for me was his sour attitude after he got the silver. A quad does not a gold medal make, especially if you fall or get a wobbly landing. Evan still had the better program, and Plushenko needs to stop calling the wahmbulance. Nobody likes a sore loser.

Anyway, I can’t wait for the 1500m speed skating (GO SVEN!) tonight.

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* — Yes, I’m a huge ski-jumping fan. I wish it got more coverage in the US, because those leaps are AMAZING. Is anybody else a fan?

… the Opening Ceremony! My favourite parts were k.d. lang singing “Hallelujah” and the fiddlers. A pretty good way to kick off the Games, if I do say so myself.

And then the next morning, I watched Simon Ammann ski-jump his way to the gold medal. I’m such a huge fan of Simon; it’s so great to see him make such a strong comeback after Torino. I love how he knew he had the gold once he landed his final jump.

Not long after ski jumps came speed skating. I have two words for you: Sven Kramer. His skate was amaaaazing, and he pretty much blew all his competitors out of the water. Svencouver, indeed.

Alex Bilodeau is also a favourite, not just because he kicked ass on the moguls, but because he seems like a genuinely nice guy who really deserved that gold.

Last night, I was on the very edge of my seat as I watched the pairs figure skating. While I do like watching the free skate programs, the ~scandalous~ judging and the backhanded commentary on TV kind of spoil the figure-skating-watching experience for me. Nevertheless, I was so, so, so anxious for Shen and Zhao. The short program was stunning, and I was absolutely ecstatic when they won gold!

And how adorable is this quote from Zhao after the victory?

“I think it’s kind of hard to continue skating. So maybe it’s time to have a baby.”

I can’t wait until the LH ski jump (SIMON!), the speed skating events, luge, skeleton, and the ladies’ free skate. Expect more incoherent Olympic squeefests from me! In the mean time, let’s bask in the Oly love and tell me about your favourite moments during the Games!

Case in point: the duck rice (and soup, gratis!) below.

Grand total? $3 SGD, which translates to $2.16 USD. Back in NY, $2.16 could probably buy me the soup, but definitely not the duck nor the rice.

Anyway, I think we could all use a bit more food porn in our lives, so without further ado…

(click on images to enlarge)

Sago with strawberries and mango, on top of ice. Don’t be fooled by the fluorescence — the dessert had a coconut taste to it!

NAAN. I don’t think it will ever be possible for me to remotely dislike naan, especially not in its fluffy, buttery, garlicky goodness!

Mee rebus is this dish where they combine noodles, a spicy/sweet gravy-like sauce, chili, cilantro, egg, peppers, and bean sprouts to full-blown deliciousness. I need to look up recipes so I can try to replicate it back in the States.

Naan again, because it totally deserves another appearance.

Grass jelly and IQ balls for dessert. The name and colors kind of funky, but um, you’ll have to take my word that it’s really good, especially when you’ve been walking around in circles under 80-some-degree weather. It has the same coconut-esque taste as the sago above, if that helps.

Besides eating myself to a bloaty stage, I did other things in Singapore. Like ride a zipline! And a segway! And a cable car! And a toboggan! I also did lots and lots of window-shopping, walking, and picture-taking.

Anyway, I leave you with a photo of my breakfast companion and another of the beach at Sentosa!

Until then, there are more photos in my Flickr set — enjoy!

And so describes my first 12 hours in Singapore. Warm weather (compared to the usual slosh in NY) and so much good food to pick? I’m pretty much set for the next two days!

Because I’m one of those weird people that prefers to eat dessert first, this photo goes before all other food photos, hah! This was apple gelato with a hand-painted white chocolate coating made to look like an apple. The best part was definitely the chocolate “core” in the middle, hands down.

To make up for lost time, I present to you 2009 in picture form! (click the images to enlarge)

I went to London mid-March with my friend, where we ate lots of scones, Pret sandwiches, and Wagamama noodles. Since I had never been to the UK, I hit up all the usual tourist-y spots and museums. Suffice to say, it was a much-needed break from my midterms. And I still miss clotted cream.

The Green Tea Ginger Ale isn’t exactly a staple of my college diet, but the heap of papers and books in the background should give you an idea of the problem sets, papers, and midterms I had throughout the semester. Anyway, moving on to more pleasant things!

In late June, my friends and I took a roadtrip along the east coast of the US. Our itinerary included Virginia Beach/Norfolk (VA), Raleigh (NC), Charleston (SC), Asheville (NC), Washington (DC) and back to good ol’ NY. We clocked in enough mileage to make it to DC just in time for the 4th of July, which was spent at the National Mall.

Charleston, South Carolina: so many colorful houses, biscuits, and magnolias!

The Blue Ridge mountains near Asheville, North Carolina.

4th of July fireworks in Washington, DC.

When Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince premiered in New York, I stood in the crowds surrounding the red carpet and caught a couple Emma Watson photos (and some incredibly blurry ones of Alan Rickman, Bonnie Wright, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, and Daniel Radcliffe).

In early August, I spent 10 days in Egypt (Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, Hurghada) and Turkey (Istanbul). Both countries were incredibly beautiful; the picture above is the desert at sunrise.

Hagia Sophia at Istanbul.

After three weeks back home in Shanghai, I arrived in New York jetlagged as ever, thus beginning the Semester from Hell. I either overslept or pulled an all-nighter, I got sick on four separate occasions (I hardly ever get sick, which says something.), and I pulled off my worst GPA ever. Whoo!

So I came back home in late December right after taking a brutal final exam, and the next day, I went to Thailand (Bangkok, Pattaya, and Phuket), where I snorkeled, ate Pad Thai, drank so much coconut juice, and rang in the new year.

So in the spirit of New Year’s and my embarrassment at last year’s pitiful attempt at blogging, I’ve made a resolution to keep a regularly updated blog here. So here’s hoping I don’t go MIA this year! This site has too many cobwebs already.

With that said, happy 2010. Here’s to something great.

So, let’s talk about London. Lovely, lovely city — I was there on the week of March 15th. It was spring recess, I had never been there before, so I put 2 and 2 together. I went to the tourist-y places, the museums, the shops, etc.

on museums: I’m a huge museum geek, no lie! I usually spend hours looking through different exhibits, and when almost all of the museums in London are free of charge, it’s instant flail (as opposed to instant fail)! I ended up going to the National Portrait Gallery (really fascinating chronicle of British history through portraits), V&A Museum (by the end of the Stephen Jones HATS exhibit, I wanted a hat so badly), Natural History Museum (I have this unexplainable fascination towards taxidermy.), the National Gallery (amazing Picasso exhibition which had his rendition of Las Meninas!!! I might have died of happiness there.), the Tate Britain (halls filled with beautiful Turner landscapes), the British Museum (I loved the Parthenon pieces, but I loved the variety of displays.), and the Tate Modern (the “Poetry and Dream” gallery had some of my favorite artists like de Chirico and Magritte).

on food: Everybody loves hating on British food, but honestly, who can resist a good scone with clotted cream? And I honestly wish NY had Wagamama. Even just one would suffice. Oh, and two words: afternoon tea.

on other things I love about London: scones (and clotted cream), daffodils at St. James, the architecture, the conveniently placed “LOOK LEFT” and “LOOK RIGHT” labels on the streets, free admission in museums, the reliability (and cleanliness!) of the Underground, the toys section at Harrod’s, licorice macarons at Ladurée, Indian food, swans, markets, and Hogwarts Express at Platform 9¾.

I’ve uploaded a bunch of London photos here! Hope you like them!

• New layout: I wanted something illustrative but not so cluttered that it would detract from the photos in my blog posts, present and future.
• New location: Most people probably arrived here from the old URL blog.cindypepper.com, only to find a redirect to the actual domain! Why the change? Well, it didn’t really make sense for me to isolate the blog to a different subdomain, since it’s just as integral to my domain as all the other content. Plus, it was pretty easy to transfer everything, so why not take the inevitable move now? RIP old blog URL¹ — you were great while you lasted.
• New portfolio: I cleaned up and added new works to my portfolio, including a new webdesign section! Here’s hoping that there will be more portfolio content this year (!).
• Updated pages: I suppose that goes without saying, but I figured that with a new layout, I might as well spruce up whatever content I have. And as always, feedback is appreciated, especially since I plan on adding more.

Anyway, I am doing swimmingly myself. Busy, too. However, for the past two days, my nose has been grossly congested. (And I mean grossly.) This week was a bit light in terms of workload, but unfortunately, I can’t say the same about last and next week. I have many a paper, midterm, and problem set due next week that thinking about it puts me in a state of worry. I keep remembering that my spring break London vacation is in less than two weeks, but then reality hits me with another impending deadline.

Also, I can’t believe it is March already. Furthermore, New York got hit with heavy snowfall on the eve of March. The weather had been semi-decent for February; did the groundhog emerge from the burrow, only to see its shadow a few weeks late? The sudden cold weather is worsening my congestion, alas.

Well, seeing as my immune system isn’t so robust right now, I’m going to go to sleep and hope that I’ll be a little less congested in the morning.

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footnotes:
¹: Despite the redirect, I definitely recommend updating any blog.cindypepper.com links to this site at cindypepper.com, especially since I’m not planning to use that subdomain anytime soon.

om nom :3

Since I have had a busy week since returning to campus, here’s what I’ve been up to:

• New classes! I am currently taking Chinese Foreign Policy, Data Structures in Java, Major Works in Japanese Cinema, Macroeconomics, The New Europe in Literature, and Kayaking. I really like them all so far, with the exception of Kayaking, because it doesn’t start in a few weeks. It’s nice to have more humanities classes this semester, as opposed to the last three semesters, where I pretty much limited myself to science / math.
• Meetings … and lots of them. I’ve been getting more involved in extracurriculars, and I’m actually pretty excited about planning new things for these groups!
• I got an internship this spring at a web/interactive design company (!). I just started, and I can tell it’s going to be a lot of fun! Plus, it’s walking distance from a lot of great places to eat, such as Shake Shack.
• I’ve been doing lots of website redesigning for two of the groups I’m involved in. If anything on this list is keeping me busy, it might be this because I’m trying to get past the learning curve for Drupal. Basically, I’ve got my work cut out for me.
• Happy Chinese New (牛) Year everybody! 牛(niu) Year, get it?! Punny! I’m getting dim sum in two days and watching the parade in Chinatown — can’t wait!
  
• I am going to London with my friend this spring! I have only been to Europe once, and that was a short trip to Paris when I was 12. Basically, if you have ever been to London/lived in the area, recommendations would be great! Any museums/attractions that I definitely need to visit? Or food that I have got to try? I have already added Platform 9 and 3/4 to my list.

So that is basically my life of last week (and probably throughout this semester)! What about you guys? What have you been up to/what’s new about 2009?

What do you guys like to do for your birthdays?

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¹: Well, for me, it might be. I like numbers divisible by 5.

DAY V (12/29): After snorkeling, I hung out on the beach. Later, we took a ferry back to the Cairns marina, where I strolled around and ate an awesome dinner at the Night Market. Click the thumbnails for a larger size!

DAY VI (12/30): Cairns (CNS) to Brisbane (BNE)
The last full day of the trip was spent in Brisbane, where there were some nice beaches and parks! Pity I didn’t get to spend more time there. I had to wake up at an ungodly hour the next day to leave for Sydney and fly back to Shanghai. All in all, a great trip.

Now I have to post my Shanghai photos! Goodness, I’m so behind on these things. Not to mention, I have a bad case of jetlag. Anybody have tips to overcome a 13-hour jetlag?

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¹: Half of them didn’t work at all. The other half? Didn’t have water. Therefore, the sinks didn’t work and the toilets didn’t flush properly. They even gave us water bottles so we could pour water in the toilet to make it flush.