Beware! The Secret of Women's Beauty....

Welcome to House 5's bathroom. This is Girls' Night featuring Jashay, Kathryn, Brittany Riley, Andria, Yours truly, Brittany Stahlman, Laura A. (not in pic) and Jessica (not in pic). Tonight we had accomplished a few things essential in preserving the physical youth and beauty of women at the cost of US$2. Magnifique!Freakkkkyyyyyy..........................

Recipe for success:

1. For the face -some clay mask Laura bought at Target. Wahahaha....

2. For the hair - heated sesame oil.....never try this...it stinked my hair and the entire bathroom and hallway. YUCK!!!! I couldn't even get the smell out of my hair even after shampooing it twice! ARGH!!!!!! Thanks a lot Martha Stewart!

Note how shiny my face was compared to the rest...hehe.

It was so much fun with the girls. While waiting for the sesame oil to take effect on our hair, we watched a chick flick called "Only You". The movie was sweet and it lasted about two hours or so. I guess because of that, we wrapped our hair up for far too long before washing them. Hence, the unremovable stench on our hair. =(

Before the whole self-pampering and fun stuffs, I was attending events and meetings all day right after class at 11am. First, I went for yoga in which the instructor was not as pleasant as the one on Tuesday but the moves she taught were more challenging. After that, I went to meet up with my advisor regarding the opportunities of undergraduate research presentation available in the twin cities followed by the attempt to meet my Psych Stats T.A. who asked me to go and see him at that time but he wasn't in the room (how frustrating); so I head straight to meet with Stephen, a TRiCAM lab coordinator regarding the reversal learning task for the CSIA (Center for Studies of Impulsivity in Addiction). After that, I went to Tea Garden at 4pm to hang out with my last sem's Cross-Cultural Discussion (CCD) group.

I feel the meeting with Stephen and the CCD group was quite rewarding and enlightening. Stephen went throught the problems of data analysis with me and explained clearly about the data and I noticed that I was sharper at noticing the questionable imperfection of the data and increase in my courage to just ask whatever I am not sure of. IT WAS SO SIMPLE TO JUST ASK!!!! I got the chance to talk more to Stephen and he taught me his strategy of tackling Psychology journals. Trust me, Psych journals aren't reader-friendly. It was nice of him. I feel good about this project and I'm all excited to start on it.

It felt good to be able to meet my CCD friends once again. We caught up with what each other is doing and had a good time sharing our experiences. Not long before we were going to leave, we talked about music and that I have completed my piano Grade 8 so Vinod was interested in hearing me play. I, of course, immediately refused due to my seriously lack of practice and confidence in playing. But, he insisted and convinced me to play for them a month later. So now, I have to start practicing. Oh no! But on the bright side, I suppose that is good for me. This is a chance for my redemption from previous founder in the 2004 performance back in IMH (International Music House) in Kuching. It's about time I face my fear.

After the gathering, I went back and rested for a while before going down to the TV lounge with the other House 5 occupants to watch Alicia's presentation on Mauritania, the country she worked in as a Peace Corp's member. The poverty-stricken country is located in Africa in the Sahara Desert. It was quite depressing to see how bad their living condition was. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the horrible condition. I was amazed by how the Americans were able to survive there. Unfortunately for Alicia, she was infected with malaria and Hep A there. It was creepy. One interesting part of the story was the part which the trainer taught the workers how to "use the toilet". They would carry a kettle pot of water on the right hand, and with their left hand, wash their "affected" parts with that. For serious hygiene reason, they should avoid eating with their left hand. Now I understand why Muslims aren't allowed to eat with their left hands. But, the rule doesn't seem pretty applicable in today's context.