=)

More than 3 weeks into Boston and we are settling real fine. Ken's started school and geting real anxious about work. The readings are a lot and he's getting uptight about a particular module on school leadership. I have not seen him in such deep thoughts for a long time and recently, I saw that side of him more and more. So, yes, he's been real serious about his studies. =) And it's nice to be able to spar with him on issues pertaining to education; it's our passion after all!

Today, I went down to Boston Partners in Education, an agency which seeks to involve the community to enhance the academic achievement and nurture the personal growth of Boston's public school students by providing them with focused, individualized, in-school volunteer support. Yes, I signed up to be a volunteer and went down for the interview. Ken was supportive and went with me and as usual, directed me to the place (my sense of direction is really awful).

The interview went ok. Actually it was just a chat and I guess the main reason why I wanted to volunteer is because I want to know more about the US education system and to be constantly in touch with the classroom. What could be better than being directly involved? I have time on my side and basically, I just want to keep the passion alive. Well, they would do the match soon and who knows, I would be in the classroom again in October! A kind soul (from an interest group) from BC has also emailed me a contact from a school whom I could liaise with if I want to help out in the school. Yea!

We went to Chinatown after that but were sorely disappointed that it was just-like-that. Maybe we didn't really explore that area well? But I guess both of us just wanted to head home. Might as well since Ken has an evening class by Hargreaves.

I must have my cajun food when I'm at South Station!

Bubble tea in Chinatown. Lots of them!

Boston Marathon. A marathon I would not be able to run. Photo would do just fine!

Full-time housewife

Yesterday was Ken's first lesson or his faculty's orientation (rather) and I was pretty much on my own. So what did I do?

In the morning, after brekky and QT with the hubs, I set off to Boston Public Library to borrow all the cookbooks that I wanted. Gosh! This library is superb and holds most of the books that I want (except for some which were like, gone forever - couldn't be recovered). So I went home with 5 cookbooks to be devoured for the next 21 days:

- Food network kitchens cookbook
- 75 wok & stir-fry recipes
- Harumi's Japanese cooking
- Everyday pasta
- Culinary boot camp

After lunch (just plain biscuits which we wanted to finish) and an online movie, I went supermarketing. It was during this trip that I started to think about my new role as a housewife. Yes, I traded teaching to be one working for the household. Now, I do more comparing of prices of food across supermarkets and planning meals (which could be a real challenge). Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I felt enriched reading up on cooking (not just the recipes but the art and science of it) and appreciated the time to do what I like. But sometimes, I wonder how much I am contributing to the society by my staying at home. Oh yah, did I mention that I spend about 2 to 3 hours just in two supermarkets?

Of course, the hubs enlightened me in the evening with some of his thoughts. I'm thankful for his wisdom but am also excited about an upcoming interview for a volunteering position related to education.

So there you go, on a normal day like this, I do research on cooking and also the practical part of it and when the weather permits, I will be training for my marathon which I have very much slackened. I should be hitting >20km now!!! I'm leaving you with a pic of a car that I love...the red JEEP!

Orientation, Internet, Football and Shopping!

So, quick weekly update.

The past week has been filled with orientation programmes.

Tuesday night was grad international student welcome. 

Wednesday was international student orientation. 

Thursday was grad student orientation.

I have no idea what happened on Friday. I think my mind chose to voluntarily forget everything as a symbol of mourning for our loss wireless connection.  That’s right, on Friday evening, our wireless internet died. No idea why.

We thought we might have to wait for Tuesday (after holiday) before we could find someone to figure it out, but rejoiced Saturday evening when it came back on.  And then decided to die again on us again on Sunday evening.  Every other day.  Maybe the college went for some half-price wireless programme and didn’t read the fine print...

Saturday was brilliant. We went for the Boston College first football game of the season.  First ever American football game for both of us. I always wanted to watch gridiron, so it was fun. =)

The match itself was fun, though it isn’t as exciting as I thought it would be. All credit to the players, but the start-stop nature of the game REALLY slowed it down a ton.  15mins on the game-clock takes about 45mins real time. Including the half time 20min break (which was the only time during which game clock time was even remotely similar to real-world time...), the whole game (which in game-time is about an hour...) would end up taking about three and a half hours.  That’s how Americans spend their weekends; getting sunburns watching American footy.

Cricket is worse of course but that’s another story.  Next, I should find out how long baseball, hockey and basketball games last before going for them.

This coming Tuesday will be Lynch School of Education orientation.

This Monday, incidentally, is a public holiday. Labour day is supposed to mark the official end of summer.  So long summer, it was swell while it lasted.

So because the wireless decided to take another shot at the afterlife, I’m drafting this while offline, aware of the promise of weekly updates that I just made last week.

Hopefully, once this is done, I’ll knock out a chapter summary of one of the books I’m reading for one of my modules.  Book is called “The Principalship: A Reflective Practice Perspective” by Thomas J Sergiovanni. 

I’m on the last chapter now. This would be impressive if I didn’t tell you that it’s also the first chapter I’m reading since that’s what the author advised.  It would be even less impressive if I told you which page of the last chapter I’m on, so let’s skip that.

Monday late afternoon as I type this, the wireless has come alive once more.

We spent the day trying to get to Watertown to do some shopping.

Started off badly as we waited almost an hour for the bus. We were rather discouraged, but pressed on.

And I think we're both glad we did. Wife managed to get her long awaited Dutch Oven at a pretty good price, and I enjoyed bargain basement shopping and hunting for deals. Nice pair of shoes for $20!

Back to school tomorrow. Oh well. =/

Go! Eagles! Go!

We waited for Hurricane Earl to sweep into our area on Friday, around 8pm as forecast by the weatherman. But...there was only heavy rain (not even storm!) and then our internet connection was cut off for another 24 hours. Apa ini!??

What a HUGE disappointment! The tropical girl just wanted to experience what a hurricane is! Bummer! Hurricane we did not have but we couldn't sleep well nonethless because of all times of the day, our dear neighbours decided to have a chat in the wee hours of the morning and they have come to a conclusion to involve the others as well. Their voices were so loud that a microphone would be unnecessary. It was torturous. The night before, some young lads decided to come together to watch a football match and made a din in the area as well. We were panda-eyed and gained some muscles here and there by getting on and off the bed, trying to open and shut the windows, according to the volume of the noise. I regretted not bringing my ear-plugs. I vowed to blast my music early in the morning just so that they could get a taste of their own medicine. Alas! The loudest the computer could go could only wake dear hubs up. In the end, it was revealed that we should show mercy. =p

We also decided that we shouldn't allow unhappy incidents to affect us and we went for a football match at BC. Homeground! We were supporting the Eagles! Hubs was excited and I tagged along. Who knows? I might enjoy! And I did! Hubs was explaining to me the game and it was exciting to watch the players in motion, their tactics. But it was a rather slow-moving game ( I don't know how to really explain; Ken should know) and by the 3rd round, we decided to leave since the Eagles was going to win anyway.

It was nice - Ken teaching me about American football and I, educating him about cooking =p.

Oh yea! Happy belated Teachers' Day to my fellow colleagues!

Ardent fans!

Autumn is almost here!

The falling of leaves signals the beginning of Autumn. Goodbye Summer! You made me sweat!

Orientation whee!!!

The orientation continued throughout the week and even as I am typing this, Ken is still in campus, attending the various sessions while I dropped out in the middle to come back to my culinary world.

Thus far, the people (students & staff alike) have been incredibly helpful and extremely warm towards us. Each spoke with much enthusiasm and confidence about BC that you felt it is the place you really want to grow with. I just attended the session organised by the Graduate Students' Association and I must say I enjoyed most of the sharing (just that I could get restless after a while =p).

I didn't go for the whole thing, that's for sure. In fact, for yesterday, I only went for the harbourcruise organised by BC. When I met up with Ken after his day of orientation, he was so hyped up and of course the pride he had when he got hold of a book for his required reading. It was by Andy Hargreaves & his academic advisor, Dennis Shirley (oh, Hargreaves! I love his works; he has impacted me much in my work when I read his papers last year). So, dear Ken was going on and on like a young boy about how he could loan the book for one whole semester (?!!) and some of the tips that he gathered from the sessions.

I'm excited for him as he's starting his term. He has his own anxieties too, of course. But as I gathered from some of the questions from the international students, I felt Ken is in a better situation than most of them. For one, he doesn't really have to think too much about finances (although the wife will help to deplete some of them) and thus does not have to concern himself with part-time work. He could really devote his whole attention in his studies though I hope (and I know he will) he could maintain work-life balance. The other students were asking questions about how to get jobs and stuff which, to me, was a great burden for a student. Having worked full-time and study part-time, I could totally empathise with them - the struggle between work, finances, studies and personal life. It's not easy at all. And to think that they have given up a lot in terms of finances, family and opportunity cost to travel miles to study here, that, is a decision that requires great courage and determination to pull through the whole course.

It's great to go back to school, to be in such an atmosphere. It's a great college and I'm sure Ken would be enriched greatly. As of now, I think he's raring to gooooo...and he has borrowed all (if not, most) of all the required readings! Oh! I'm sure he has much to share about his experience. Stay tuned!

Following are some pics taken while we were going for the 1.5-hour harbour cruise. A must-do if you are in Boston.

The mob from BC.

Orientation

"Hi, I'm Lynn from Singapore. I'm not under any programme. I'm just accompanying my spouse."

Applause given at my introduction. I was perhaps the only one (if not, another) who was not studying but was present at yesterday's International Students' Orientation. It was an informal session in which we had existing students in an panel giving advice to the new ones.

Of the turnout, almost 1/2 of them were from China. The rest of the students were from HK, S. Korea, Kenya, NZ, and some S. American countries. Singapore got her respresentatives from Ken and another fellowman, Matthew, who will be studying Theology (how's that?!). We were actually quite surprised to see another Singaporean and of course we immediately made contact with him after the session.

The BBQ was All-American buffet style, complete with buns, hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, pasta and cookies. I must say it was a good change from the Asian food that we have been having. We managed to catch up more with Matthew who just came over 2 days ago and looked seriously jet-lagged. =p

Back home, I have decided to enter this challenge on foodblog. Not that I wanted to win desperately but since I am already learning and experimenting with cooking, it is a might-as-well kinda thing. The challenges are also interesting; I would still attempt even if I don't sign up for it! Stay tuned for more updates in my foodblog!