A Breath of Fresh Air..

I went to Calgary on Friday to check out CrossIron Mills, the new mall located in the suburb of Calgary (and to get away from the city that always sleeps). I call it mall, they call it shopping centre, lol. The mall is brand new, completed in August 2009 and is still expanding.

Got there as early as 10 am, reminds me how nice it is to do your shopping very early in the day. The mall is connected to a free standing outdoor store (it’s called Bass something). Never knew how big the store was, but my jaw dropped as I found out yesterday. Humongous!!

And then there was the uber big hockey store

The rest of the mall was just ordinary to me. Their Forever 21 is fancier than the one in my city. It has more lights and is more organized, just like the one in Jakarta They’ve got bigger Nine West store that carries more collection. HUGE La Senza that includes an outlet too I suppose. H&M, ALDO, Toys R Us, Build-A-Bear.. Pictures are taken with my Blackberry, so apologize for the crappy quality.

From there we went downtown to check out the Calgary Tower. It took me awhile to finally stand on the glass floor of the observation deck. But when I did it, phewwwww what an adrenaline rush.

Wearing Cotton Ink Fringe Shawl in Dusty Yellow

Last, my husband took me to Banff ’cause last time he went there with his brothers and Mom, he found a nice spot. I was honestly still very tired and a bit reluctant to go further than Calgary. However I always love going to a mountain so I said yes anyways and I also said “we should make this a routine”. So next, I need hiking boots..

Blog Swap by Courtney

Ni Hao, (Hello)

If you read my blog, you know that I’m in China for two weeks. I’ve been here for like 4 days, but it’s really going by fast.

I don’t have alot of time, and I can’t even post this on my blog because it’s blocked here. That’s why I can’t comment on anyone’s blogs, because it’s all blocked. I can’t post any pictures right now either. Sorry….

Anyways, here’s a run down of what I’ve learned here so far:

1. WC= Bathroom. I don’t know why they call it that but they do, and they know what that means.

2. Crazy drivers. They call taxis CHU ZU CHE, pronunced “Chu-zoo” and they are very crazy drivers. They are known to drive the wrong way. The traffic here is crazy too. They have no concept of lanes, they all just merge and honk their horns twice when going through intersections. They also park their cars on the sidewalk. No joke. Surprisingly accidents rarely happen, and when they do, instead of getting mad at the other driver like we do in the U.S., the drivers talk and agree on what to tell the traffic police aka the government.

3. Water here is very hot, it’s never cold unless you ask for it on ice. The water isn’t safe for drinking, so you have to use bottled water or boil it.

4. Chinese people like their seafood.

5. You can get a 5 star hotel here for $75/night. Being in China has made me feel rich, because $100 is equal to 700RMB. When I went to the bank to exchange my money, there was a guy standing there with a wad of US money. He stood there and offered us a higher exchange rate than the bank. If anyone did that to me in the States, I’d be sketched out. Not to mention that the bank would’ve kicked him out. But the Chinese like to haggle.

6. They call Q-Tips cotton buds.

7. The only English TV channels here are CNN, BBC, and HBO. I did see a David Archuleta video on MTV that was in English.

8. When the Chinese travel by plane, they buy traveler’s insurace.

9. I met a professor here in the Shanghai airport that is here teaching SU students abroad. Small world.

10. I saw a solar eclipse yesterday, it was so freakin awesome. It went dark even though it was like 10am.

Okay, hope that gives you all a glimpse of what I’ve been up to. Hopefully I’ll be able to write again soon.

Zai Jain (Zay je-an) (Bye)

check out Courtney’s blog here

The Grand Night Race

Racing is all about skill and luck. If one has the fund – luck – one can easily enter the competition. If one has skill – hard work – one can easily find a way up to the top. But behind a good racer, there’s an excellent teamwork put together by enormous number of other highly skilled people.

Singapore’s initial F1 Grand Prix was a BIG success. Salute to the Merlion country. It was as well F1’s initial first night race. A street race at night, illuminated by lights four times lighter than the normal stadium, it was no different than race on any other sundays. Only when one looked up in the sky one noticed that it was dark out. The streets were bumpy with some rough and curvy turns, a surprise to the race drivers but definitely challenging and made it even more exciting.

The success was also without a doubt supported by the Singaporeans – besides the staffs, volunteers and cops. They have always been highly self-controlled and organized. Only a little annoyance when everyone would stand up every time the cars passed – completely understandable, it’s their first times.

For those who did not feel like purchasing grandstand pass – mind the noise, it hurts – the 3 days walkabout pass is completely worth it. Watch the race on a giant screen with other enthusiasts and keep track of what was going on.

Definitely worth every cent, definitely one event to look forward to next year. And.. how about a round of applause and standing ovation, eh?