Thanksgiving... an American tradition

Today... I had my FIRST Thanksgiving dinner! =D This is also the first cultural experience I had in USA that is hosted by AIESEC. In the morning, I was shopping for hours... thus I only had 3 hours of sleep. If the will was any weaker, we would have surrenderred to sleep and missed this event... but I am really glad that I made myself attend the dinner!!

AIESEC Mizzou hosted this traditional dinner for all the trainees. The LCP, Jessica and her members were joined by 2 more AIESEC members from Wisconsin and Arizona. Before attending, I didn't know the significance of Thanksgiving. (Did u know... Thanksgiving is only celebrated in US?)
We were introduced to the history of Thanksgiving... When the pilgrims journeyed to US, they were welcomed by the Indians. They had difficulty adapting to the harsh weather and the Indians taught them how to farm corns, wheat... etc. Therefore, the pilgrims were able to survive their 1st winter in the new land. In celebration to that, the pilgrims and the Indians sat down together to eat... and that becomes Thanksgiving!

We had lots of good food, wine and beers. There was the traditional turkey, cheese pasta, salad, and pumpkin pie for dessert. Not to mention, Jessica got us to wear pilgrim hats and indian hats!! After eating, everyone said aloud the things that they are thankful for this Thanksgiving. When everyone had said their part, we all raised our glass and drank. Jessica made us clink our glass with EVERYONE in the room! Lots of food... lots of drinks... lots of laughter... and lots of PICTURES! ;o)

Birthday in St Louis

The fact being that this is going to be my first Birthday outside Malaysia... this day definitely calls for an entry in my blog! ;o)

Initially I didn't think that I would celebrate my birthday much this year. You see, as my birthday draws near, I started to miss the crazy people back home, esp the sampat (Malaysian word for crazy)AIESECers! ;p Then, a few days after I had Mate at Keren's place, Keren approached me, asking if I wanted to celebrate our birthdays together. Her birthday falls on Nov 22nd... and of course, double celebration is ALWAYS fun!! How can I say no??? So, we decided to hold a BBQ party for our birthday party on Nov 20th 2004... that date being a Saturday!

The moment we set the date and before we could send out invitations... DISASTER struck!! Elma invited everyone for her birthday... dinner on the SAME day as my party! =( Well, we decided to go ahead and invited everyone as well anyway. So, finally... about 20-30 people who turned out for my party and IT WAS GREAT!!!

Jack bought a birthday cake and we had so much fun... just talking, eating, drinking, dancing... and, all the latin music was just super! My 9 months in USA has made me a fan for spanish and brazillian music! I swear... I am going to forever miss this music whenever I go clubbing in the future!!

Not to mention, I had a few beers and got tipsy (only during parties, yah...). Not drunk yet, or I will be a mess at work ;p. The party was GREAT!! I kinda needed it, cause I have not partied like that eversince 2 months ago, Karin's farewell party! How I missed those party faces: Karin, Evon, Anca, Andrea and JUSTIN!!!

Nway, the boring part was, I had to leave the party to start work at 11.45pm, ler!!! We nearly got a ticket by the cop!! Tan Chin Chye was speeding and as we were about to reach MasterCard, we were stopped by a cop.... So, once the cop stopped us, we used the 'Jorge Bento Strategy'. ;o) Jack immediately rolled down the window, showed his license, started apologizing and explaining that we had to get to work. After listening a bit, the cop said in a harsh tone that we can go to work, but we must never speed again!! Phiew..........

So, I here I am now, at 4.38am... working... taking calls... DAMN sleepy AND i have a headache the size of a cannon ball. ;p

Mate... A drink from Argentina

My roomate, Maricel is from Argentina... (and I must add, an Argentine that is very proud of her country) Mari asked if Jack and I would like to try a TASTE OF MATE.... the Argentinian drink. How can I say no??? =) And so... Keren (another Argentine colleague) invited us over to new home for Mate.

Drinking Mate:

1. There is 1 person (usually its the mother) who will continuosly brew mate for everyone. This 'host' will place 3 tablespoon of leaves (similar to tea leaves) into a small metal cup, half the width and length of a regular mug.
2. The host will then put a metal 'straw' into the cup. One end of the straw opens up wide and has little holes to act as the strainer. This end is placed into the metal cup and you drink from the other end of the 'straw'.
3. HOT, STEAMING water is then poured into the metal cup to brew the leaves. You wait about 2/ 3 minutes for the Mate to be ready. You can add any flavoring of your choice: sugar, lemon... etc s
4. Once the drink is ready, you drink the whole cup from the metal straw. CAUTION: Drinking HOT Mate from a metal straw can hurt your tongue if you are not used to it.
5. Once the cup is empty, the host keeps pouring hot water into the cup and making cups of mate. Each time a cup is ready, the host pass the metal cup to the next person....

So, basically... YES, everyone drinks from the same metal straw!! Argentine families drink it together.... you drink it with your boss and colleagues... breakfast, lunch or dinner at anytime of the day. I liked the experience, but Dan (Hungary) and Garrett (Keren's american husband) finds it disturbing to share the same straw with everyone. ;o)

For more info on Mate, you check out: http://www.guillebaires.com.ar/Mate.htm