100 Days :)

Well a little less now, but it was when we took this picture last week

Spring Time

So it's been a pretty crazy Spring, and I was already bad at updating before adding in crazy schedules. With finals next week I decided that now would be a good time to give a brief overview of all the excitement that has gone on this semester.

In no particular order:

The spring semester was complete in meeting this years camel friend. He was a bit shorter this time, but he is awkwardly bending his neck down to try and make me look like a giant.




Erin and Bryan got married just a few weeks ago! I don't have any pictures of the wedding, but you can visit the photographers (Matt and Kate Altmix) blog and check out the amazing pictures
http://www.altmixphotography.com/2010/04/erin-bryan-are-married/

It was a week filled with lots of work and fun. Kyle and Vanessa came down and the whole Bell clan made it too :) Many family friends joined in on the fun to make this a beautiful day for Erin and Bryan, and it was. Here are two pictures of some relaxing before going to the rehearsal for the ceremony. My mom and I are enjoying the sun on one side of the table with Erin and her long loyal friend Lauren on the other.












My mom met Sideways the dog on campus after Patti was gracious enough to come meet us and give a quick tour around Tech Tower.


Quynh came to visit Atlanta one weekend on her spring break. It was unfortunately colder than our last time together, but it is still always good times. Currently she is studying hard about to graduate from the University of Virginia this semester.

I got engaged to my best friend :)

Poole's Mill Covered Bridge, and the 'cascading falls' where we had a picnic lunch

I got a new friend :) This is Lizzy. She is a sweet pound puppy. (Well not actually puppy, she is a full grown half black lab, half dachshund) Andrew loves her and approved that she is not a chihuahua.

A day in the life of Lizzy: "Every morning the first thing I like to do is look out the window. If I look cute enough Carly will come open the blinds for me to keep an eye on everything. After a while being a watch dog can be a little tiring so I must lay down on the pillow to help reserve my strength, but I keep my head high and attentive. Once lookout time is over, I like to play with my friend Hippo. If I am good sometimes I even get a treat to snack on midday. Between my crumbs and hippo's stuffing all over the room Carly tries to blame me for her room being dirty. After snack time I must brush up on my notes. I'm a very studious puppy and can't wait for finals to be over. After a few minutes I let Carly come back to take over the studying while I keep her company laying in her lap. I like to end my day with a nice rest on the bed after a good play time with hippo and my ball of yarn. It's a rough life so I must get a good nights sleep to prepare for the next day's morning window duties."

Finally Got One :)

Carly and Colin go kayaking in Malaysia

This past weekend me and Colin went to Kuching, Malaysia for a relaxing trip before starting to study for finals. While there, we went on a kayaking trip. It was more for scenery than adventure as the river was classified as a level 0. Here are some pictures from our river trip for your entertainment.

before we started



Our guide took us to a small waterfall along the way

Cambodia

A few weekends ago, Team NUS traveled to Cambodia. (Yes, we have a name - just in case we can't spot all of the freakishly tall white people in the group we just call out for the team)

The trip started as we left PGP, our dorm, at 3 in the morning to catch our 6am flight to Siem Reap. Once there we went to our hostel, ate some breakfast, and then headed straight out to see Angkor Wat - a very old temple built around the 12 century. If you ever see picture of Cambodia, this is probably the place you will see; the picture of Angkor Wat is even on the flag.

Me sitting in front of Angkor Wat


Team GT in front of Angkor Wat



Asian size staircase on the right-very steep and small
A more western size friendly staircase built on the left including a handrail for

After a day of exploring the temples of Siem Reap we woke up the next morning to grab a bus to Phenom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. The bus was about 6 hours so we didn't do too much once we got to our hostel. We grabbed some food, then hung out on our deck area. It was very nice, with couches and hammocks and on a lake. The next day was filled with lots of culture and history. We went to the killing fields and s-21, a former elementary school that was turned into a prison during the Khmer Rouge regime. It was very weird to see classrooms even still with chalkboards in them turned into cells.
Our next day we flew out in the late afternoon, so we went to a local market to fill some time. It was interesting to see, but very very warm with all of the stalls being so close to each other and under a cover. There was not much air circulation going on in there.

Random picture of me and Quynh in Singapore

Friends in Singapore!

This past week I had 3 visitors come to Singapore: my mom, erin, and oscar :) I was lucky enough for them to take a break from their busy work/school schedules to come see me! Oscar made with with the new giraffe lamp. All four of them should be on the way home right now. They should hopefully be getting in Sunday night in atlanta. They left very early this morning (3:30) :(, so they will definitely be exhausted on their 'day' of travel.

They had one night in Singapore, then it was time to go see Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I don't have class on Monday so we had to take advantage of them being here on the weekend. We had 2 packed days of fun and animals. The first day started off with us playing with wild monkeys. We got to feed them and take plenty of pictures.

Once we started feeding them, our guide knew Erin really liked her new friends so he taught her how to attract them to sit on her shoulder. The conversation went something like this, "Now these monkeys are kind but remember to be careful as they are still wild animals...okay so here hold this food over your head while this wild monkey climbs up your body to fetch it." This one was very happy just to sit on Erin's shoulder(as long as she kept feeding it)

The second day we woke up bright and early again to go feed/ride the elephants :) We fed them papaya and peanuts. They were so happy.

After we gave them a little snack, everyone lined up to ride the elephants in this nice little circle. Erin,one other girl, and I were the last to go on. We started in the circle when all of a sudden he(the elephant) was told to leave the circle. We rode him down to the river where he was then commanded to just tilt over and we all went under water. Once everyone got in the water it was time for bath time. This consisted of just chilling in the river splashing water on the elephants. (After they were done bathing, my mom got to get up on the elpehant from in the water to ride him out of the river.)

We are now back in Singapore from our great KL adventure celebrating St. Patrick's Day.

Saturday we stumbled upon a free food festival wandering through one of Singapore's many malls. First we were just eating all the free samples, but we broke down and got ourselve's a little bit more of a snack. It was chicken satay with rice -pretty tastey, the drink- lemon with sour plum

After our snack we (that's Quynh) made our way to a Ducktour. It was a tour of some of Singapore part on land and part in water. We got to see the Esplanade, or Durian as they call it, which is Singapore's version of the Sydney Opera House. We got to see a good amount of other stuff on the tour, but most importantly we got to go right by the merlion! :) yay merlion.

Sadly they had to go back home and the week came to an end. It was a lot of fun, but way too short. They are both headed back to work and Erin has to study tons now for her final tests, and I guess I should catch up on some reading.

for more fun visit Erin's blog

Thaipusam

A few weeks ago I got to watch a festival called Thaipusam here in Singapore. I'm not very good at explaining it, so I will refer you to wikipedia for that part: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaipusam

Here are a few pictures of the festival:



Sorry, not very much to this one. Just putting up some new pictures before I leave for the week. It's our recess week -aka spring break- here. Tomorrow I am headed off to Vietnam with a group of 8 other friends :) So, there should be more pictures hopefully when I return. My batteries are fully charged and ready to go.