Christmas 10 years ago
Was it 1998 or 1997 ? It was Christmas. There were flurries and it was freezing cold.Few days earlier, we parted with Yee Ling in purdue and we went on to Chicago and finally drove all the way to this little house in Iowa State, where we had an authentic christmas dinner, with Turkey and all. And that was the one and only one time that I have tasted a turkey.
There was a gift exchange. I gave Ling Jia Yi a special gift. It was a mask typically worn by bank robberers. She accepted it happily (at least from my observation) and wore it.
Everyone poured their hearts out during the trip and there were confessions of crush, love, etc.
Details of the trip start to fade out. I could have forgotten the facts. I hope everyone in this photo says a few words in this blog to strenghten my memory of it.
Merry christmas everyone!
posted by steve tan at
1:29 PM
15 Comments:
This is a Rashamon (罗生门）and I guess our memories our fragmented and together we can piece together the entire story.
First quiz, who the photo?
first quiz, who took the photo?
hint: not yeeling.
i remember the first day and the last night of your stay in Nebraska - seeing you guys coming out from the minivan parked outside my apartment; and how everyone gathered in my room chit chatting, on the last night before we parted.
i think is someone's friend - non-Chong Hwa person.
Oh yeah, it's Nebraska, I got mixed up.
Yeah I recalled your nice little cozy apartment.
For some reasons I cut hand accidentally and I was bleeding in the toilet. You saw it and quickly offered me some cotton.
Did we spend a night at your apartment? That, I don't remember.
Yes, I accepted it happily until someone said that I was not suppose to take it. Anyway, thanks! but where's the mask?
It was 1996 winter to early 1997. I remember we cooked dinner and Sim Yean and I made ABC soup, but with too much pepper...
~linjiayi
i just remember that you "compensate" me with another gift later. It's a CD, Thanks so much, I still have the nice CD with me.
~linjiayi
Merry Christmas and happy new year to all! I am very glad that Siew Wai sent this link to me and thanks for the posting, Steve.
I have these pieces of memory with me…
I remember JiaYi flew to Michigan to meet us and we dragged our luggage all the way to the train station on a very cold winter morning. We took the train to Chicago to meet with the guys. They were waiting for us in the burger king nearby; each one took turn to stand out in the cold to wait for us.
We then drove to Yeeling’s apt and spent a night. I remember Kok Kai complained about the toilet sit’s lid was loose and fell easily. I also remember Yeeling treated us buffalo wings.
The road trip was adventurous, Kim Eng did a great job driving the minivan. JiaYi and I were playing some song titles games in the back of the van.
I actually didn’t remember what we cooked in Kim Eng’s house until I saw JiaYi’s blog. But I do remember Wai Tou’s cheese cake was delicious. The stairs at Kim Eng’s house was really uneven. I think I fell off the stairs many times. We watched the movie “dead man walking”. Kim Eng kept teasing “the dough man” (mian4 bao1 ren2) and said that he was sao3 xing4 gui3. It was a really fun memory!
Most people came back to Michigan and stayed at my apt for a night and drove me to the airport, actually even waited with me in the airport. Thank you for the wonderful memory! This reminds me of a Japanese movie “after life”. “The premise of After Life is simple: over the span of a week, twenty-two souls arrive at a way station between life and death, where they are asked to choose just one memory to take into the afterlife.” I remember the movie was long and not totally great, but I can never forget this thinking of picking one memory and bring it with me to afterlife. Do you have one pick out?
Ah, this is Sim Yean.
sim yean's comment reminded me of a song by pink floyd, "wish you were here". the lyrics, of course, has nothing to do with the trip.
i wished i were there when you guys were going for the trip! i was depressed for a while that i couldn't go. oh man... it is still kinda regrets.
sim yean forgot to mention about one thing. while i visited her this may/june, we were glancing through her wedding photos, and suddenly there was this photo of the trip popped out. it was taken at jinlo's house. she said, “噫！为什么会有这样的照片在这里？” she then started telling me all sorts of funny things that happened during the trip.
and of course, we couldn't stop laughing...
it was so good...
hey, sim yean, you gotta show them the photos we found in your wedding album. :)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj1L5jxlY4U
I remember a few other details.
1. We were in the streets of Chicago. Kok Khai has a bear hug on me. We were just two cheerful fellows fooling around. One muslim lady passed by and casted a very frustrated look upon us. It took me a second to realize that we totaly looked like gays.
2. The big confession of Lin Jia Yi at Wai Tou's house.
3. We had very delicious chicken steak rice at an taiwanese restaurant in Iowa State.
4. Jin Lo's room was in the basement, and it had a somewhat scarry toilet.
5. On the way home to Montreal, Thye slept through the entire journey. He wasn't even aware of takeoff and landing.
6. One car lost sight of the other and for a moment we thought we were forever seperated. Somehow we managed to reunite thanks to a sysmtematic numbering system of the rest areas, and a lot of phone calls towards common friend. How did we survive without a cellphone?
" They were waiting for us in the burger king nearby; each one took turn to stand out in the cold to wait for us."
Oh man, this is so touching!
i also remember somebody had a crush on Sim Yen during the trip...
/deep-throat
I remembered dunno who showed me the photo of the one you posted here after the trip, and I immediately regretted not joining you guys that time.
It was late 1997, I remembered it was cold winter time.
-daishi
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home