Hola Comida!!

There are a million reasons to say YES and not to say NO to this outing opportunity. The day Senor Omar announced about this visit to USM Engineering Campus for the International Food Festival during my Spanish language class two weeks ago, I did not have the second thought on agreeing to participate the moment I knew the date of the trip is on 10th of March 2009, which is today! The top 10 reasons why this outing is worth my participation is because :

1) It's FREE of charge

2) We will have excuse letter for the classes today (the best way to skip classes)

3) When you say the word FOOD, it's the biggest temptation for me, and when you mentioned the word International, it is a MUST GO urge.

4) It would be my chance to get to know some of my Spanish language classmates better

5) I've never tried Spanish style food before, so this is a good opportunity

6)I've never been to Engineering Campus, and since my curiosity mode is on, there is no way I should ever say NO...

7) Another reason for camwhoring, urm, i mean, taking nice photos of the view and the food.

8) I want to see if Senor Omar knows how to cook!!

9) I love outing!!

10) Have I mention that it's free?? I think that reason alone could trigger everyone to join this outing if were given this golden opportunity!!

Okay, so as usual, if going for an outing, I would be on the punctual mode. Woke up around 6 a.m. and I was one of the early birds this morning, to be at the Language Centre as early as 7.35 am. The USM bus would pick us up from there. But as usual, (or was it curse?) whenever I am early, the other person must be late, and not just late, but late late, as in terribly late. The bus driver who was supposed to pick us up at 8 am finally reached the Language Centre at around 8.30 am. I know it was just 30 minutes but well, I was there as early as 7.35, so for me, it was like an hour wasted on waiting, ya know..

The journey from USM main campus to the engineering campus was like about 30 to 40 minutes, and when we finally reached the engineering campus, my first impression was like, wow, it was soooo lonely there. I barely see any student walking at the sideways at the university. And then, there were fewer parked cars in the parking area. If this were the main campus, some of the cars don't even park on the parking lots, but at the non-parking areas. The cars were just like two to three cars at a parking area with 20 to 30 lots. Man, such a waste, don't you think?? But I guess most of the students use the bike or walk to class everyday, so there is no need for buses to fetch them everyday, thus less air-pollution.

Then, when we got out from the bus at around 9 am in the morning, we stood there watching the Spanish language teachers do some preparations for the Spanish food stall. We did not help because as usual, everybody was trying to help, so me and my friends gave them the opportunity to help by not helping.
See how we can help others by doing nothing?? Hehe.

We took some pictures and then we went wandering around the campus. My two friends, Dijah and Tze Ping had not have their breakfast, so we were searching for cafeteria to feed ourselves.
After searching for about 10 minutes, we saw the cafeteria.
Tze Ping (left) and Dijah entering the cafeteria



Man, the cafeteria was really big. It was not like in USM main campus, where there are small cafeterias in every hostel. This cafeteria was like an eating hall. And there were many stalls. Moreover, it was really clean compared to our cafeteria back at Penang. I mixed kuey tiaw, fried rice, fried mee and fried egg on my plate and ordered orange syrup and the total was only RM2.40. RM 2.40 for food and drink! Man, it was way cheaper than the cafe back in the main campus. I would've paid RM3 for food alone if this was back at Penang.
Wow, I totally like it here in the case of the food's price. ;)

After eating, we went back to the International Food Festival court and took some more pictures. We tried to help by promoting Spanish food such as tortilla de patatas, which is a kind of Spanish omelette mixed with potatoes, tapas which is a kind of Spanish sandwich, and other kinds of Spanish food. I was drooling over the food, thus I quickly buy the food coupons to buy the food. It was worth every cent, the price, cause I paid RM1 for two tapas, and also another RM1 for two tortilla. I was surprised I still have space to put all that food even though I just had a meal at the cafeteria before that.


Tacos (upper part of the photo), tapas (lower part of the photo)


The tacos de hongos (which is tacos with chicken)

Then, me and Tze Ping went to watch the demonstration for the Chinese style cooking and got the chance to taste the sample of the food. Man, how I love food tasting.

While busying myself savouring over the wonderful smell of the food, there was one thing I noticed about Engineering campus. There were more guys than girls in this campus was the first thing. The second thing was that, I realized, NO WONDER there were NOT many good-looking guys back in USM main campus. If there were, they were only a few of them, on the scale one out of 25 male students. Sorry, make that 1 out of 50 males. The reason why there were not many good looking guys back in my campus was because they were all here, HERE at the engineering campus!! I can confidently say, 1 out of 5 males in this campus is a hottie. Seriously.. The average looking in this campus would probably be a hottie if they are to be measured by USM main campus standard. No offence, USM main campus guys. You are lucky to be here because if you are at the Engineering Campus, you will never get a date based on your looks and style alone (slam the USM main campus guys for being so vain, and perasan diri hensem) and also the fact that the girls there are rare species??

Then, the thing that lifted my spirit here was that my number was called for the lucky draw session. 609!! Yay!! I won a wrapped gift and later found out at my hostel that the content was a metal mug.

The wrapped gift that I won..

Man, I've always wanted an extra mug because currently, I only had one mug and I am very tension because I have to wash it everytime after drinking a hot drink when I only need to drink a cold water after that.

So, as a conclusion, I think this outing is totally worth my time and money (not the money for this outing but the money i spent there, because as I mentioned earlier, this trip is free of charge) and I even won a lucky draw. The feeling of winning something itself is already such a wonderful feeling, what more to say the prize was something that I've always wanted all this while.

Unfortunately, I was unable to upload the photos of the events for this outing because of the poor wireless connection here. Anyway, mi gusta comida de Espanola mucha!! Adios amigas!!

PS: Updated.. I think it would be such a waste if the photos during this trip were not posted, so I went to the library and uploaded all those memorable pics cause the wireless line in the library is better.. And one more thingy, too bad the group photo was not with me.. -_-

but it's okay, cause as long as the food are shown, then you will understand why I was drooling over them.. ;)

Little India, here we come!!

The date was 27th February 2009. I was awake by 7 am that morning. Had to get up early - not because of classes or club activities, but because of some field research that my SHE group was going to do. We were going to do a field research at Little India on Indian food in Malaysia for the Hubungan Etnik course. My group consists of 4 persons, 2 Malay guys namely Hafiz and Hakimi, an Iban girl whom I knew since my orientation week until now, and her name is Melissa, same name with my sister, and obviously we are from the same state, and finally, yours truly, a Chinese girl.

After getting ready and dressed up in a casual shirt and jeans, I walked to IK bus stop as early as 8.30 a.m. I was told that Hafiz would pick us up at 9 a.m., and my waiting place was at IK bus stop. So I went there punctually, which is extradiordinary for me, since I am always impunctual especially to lectures and my Spanish class. There, me and Melissa waited until almost 10 am. Man, he took such a long time~. And finally we discovered that he took a long time because he had to pick the car that morning from Seberang Prai. And poor Hakimi was waiting at Bakti Permai cafe alone, at least I was accompanied by Melissa. Hehe.

At first, we were lost while finding the way to Little India. Finally, we found it! I borrowed my sister's precious pinkish camera, and managed to take a few photos there for our project. I took pictures of variety kinds of food, and also the picture of the cafes, and also the pictures of the Chapati maker in the action of doing what he does best.. Man, I was kind of drooling over the chapati. And there were tosai, roti canai, and many more Indian food that I do not know of, but will absolutely try in the future if I had the chance to.
Hakimi, Hafiz and Melissa at the front of an Indian cafe
[Taking pics to prove that we were there and not just copied some pics from the internet online.. ;) ]


Chapati maker in action.. ;)

An anonymous Indian lady, me, Melissa and Hakimi posing in front of Shushi Banana Leaf Restaurant..

We took a picture of a Chinese family having their breakfast at one of the Indian cafe.. (Wana show the relation among races ma.. )
An example of modernized traditional Indian food... So that was how they preserved the Indian food legacy..

Then I saw something magical and heavenly when turned my head to the other side of the street..
I was drawn to the beautiful Punjabi suits which were displayed the Indian attires shops. It was my dream since last semester to buy a Punjabi suit. I was like, cis, I only brought RM40 here. There were so many choices, not like the ones that I saw in Kamdar, BJ Complex. These clothes were much more awesome and beautiful. I just managed to take a few photos before we took off. It was so sadistic because I didn't take photos of the beautiful attires. I was like, reminding myself, we were here on project, not personal satisfaction. So, maybe that was the reason why I did not take photos of the beautiful Punjabi suits. We didn't even buy the food there. Honestly, I did not buy them because I thought we have no time to wait for the Chapati (yummy!!) to be made. And I did not buy other ready-made Indian food because I did not know how to eat them, especially ladoo.

We drove around Georgetown and came to a halt at the seaside.
We managed to take pictures there..The picture of Melissa, Hafiz and Hakimi taken by me
(Personal note: Should have improved my shooting angle)


Me, Hafiz and Hakimi (Thank you Mel for offering to take our photo)
(Personal note: I guess I have body odour since Hafiz seemed to distant himself from me.. )


Finally Melissa, me and Hakimi.. This picture was the most normal cause of the angle and the models' discipline behaviour.. ;)

And finally we were back at USM at around 11.30 am. Melissa and me were just in time for the Literature lecture. It's such a shame that I failed to upload the pictures I had taken during our outing because of the poor connection in the campus here. I hope that I can go to Little India for a longer duration and for personal satisfaction again in the future.

PS, updated: Went to the library again to upload these pictures.. At least let you see what we experienced there.. Hmm, university project was kind of fun too it seems.. ;)