OIP Week 8 - Shop Till You Drop

What better way to end off a rough week than with some shopping therapy? Jieqi and I took off with the Portland gang on Saturday morning to Seattle Premium Outlet, which boasts over a hundred different shops and brands, and impressive sales which would drive the most avid window shoppers insane with temptation.

Can you feel your wallet shrinking yet?

Our first order of business was food. We stopped by the foodcourt for some Ranch Chicken. Unfortunately, the chicken tenders weren’t all that tender, and the meal was overpriced for its quality. Not that we were expecting better—after all, it was a tourist trap. Still, we took what we got and ate enough to energise ourselves for the shopping journey ahead.

I take crappy photos.

The gang broke up into smaller groups for functionality’s sake. Our group, consisting of five handsome young men, met its first ordeal at the Disney Outlet Store. I walked away with a couple of plushies and a box of Marvel’s Avengers figurines, and USD30+ poorer.

Oh there you are, Perry!

Next came a volley of brands and factory outlets: Puma, Adidas, Nike, A&F, Hollister, GAP, Under Armour, Guess, Levi’s etc. You name it, they had it. The group took several hits to their wallets, but found a soothing balm at The Fudgery, a dessert place that specialised in fudge, ice-cream and shakes. Kok bought a large double-scoop cone, with caramel and cheesecake-flavoured ice-cream. I got a cookies-n-cream Fudge Chiller, which was basically a milkshake with fudge. My professional advice? Share the damn thing. It was delicious, but there was too much of it and after a while it became a chore to finish.

That's one monster of a cone.

One of our last stops was a chance encounter. We stumbled upon a place called Hot Topic, which sold novelty goods designed around cartoons, anime and pop culture. Everything from shirts to bags to earrings to hairclips, slapped on with all sorts of motifs. Possibly most of our time was spent there, and while I didn’t get anything (unfortunately), the others eventually walked out with bags full of loot.

Feels like a Stitch endorsement.

Tired and hungry, our group decided to head down to Chinatown in Seattle for dinner and grocery-shopping. Uwajimaya is an Asian supermarket specialising in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and other Asian goods. Its premises also house a Kinokuniya and a foodcourt with Vietnamese, Korean, Hawaiian and Thai specialty vendors.

I know what you're thinking. Where's the damn food porn?

We had our dinner first at the foodcourt. I patronised the Korean BBQ stall, which sold a fusion blend of Korean and Japanese food. They had good kimchi and beef bulgogi. We ate (and I neglected to take a picture) and went about our grocery shopping, stocking on banana milk, Thai milk tea, mini cream puffs, sushi rice, enoki mushrooms and *gasp* Kobe beef.

The drive home was pleasantly filled with anecdotes of our various travel experiences and recommendations. We arrived at our apartment with our groceries at about 9pm, having spent a full 12 hours or so in the city.  

The next day, Samantha brought the Catholic Trio to Boiling Point, a Chinese hotpot restaurant near Bella Bottega. I ordered the lamb hotpot, which came with a delicious mess of kiam cai (pickled vegetables), enoki mushrooms, vermicelli, egg, fishcakes and lamb, amongst other ingredients.

Not the same as MTV's Boiling Points.

Finally, after a solid hour of soaking in the pool, Gang B207 retired for a hearty dinner with stir-fried Kobe beef and sushi rice cooked with salt and brown sugar. A fitting end to a beautiful weekend. Cheers~

E/N: I nearly forgot. My good friend Farris Chua AKA Drift Daren is one amazing handsome dude. Any girl would be lucky to have this humorous, warm-hearted and considerate guy to call her own. If I had a picture of him I'd post it up, but the blog will probably crash at the sheer weight of his awesomeness. (Y) 

OIP Week 7 - Route March

Some people travel for leisure. Others travel to find luxury. But here at Gang B207, we believe in travelling to experience pain, hardship and the harsh, cruel realities of life.

So we went to the park.

Marina Park

Kirkland’s Marina Park is a nice little scenic crescent-shaped spot facing Lake Washington. The gang took a bus down from across our apartment complex towards the Kirkland Transit Center. From there it was a short sunny walk to the park. But seeing as to how we are all Singaporeans, you don’t just make a beeline for your destination. No, the first thing you do is get some grub.

Stomachs growling, we found a quiet little shop selling hotdogs (or ‘hautedogs’, as its sign said). It was a simple place with simple fare (and no public restroom). I ordered a chilli-cheese dog topped with onions, relish, mustard and mayonnaise. The result was a monstrous-looking beast that was as delicious as it was messy.

I dare you to eat that with your hands.

After lunch we walked towards the park, stopping first at the pier where the locals launch their yachts out onto glistening Lake Washington. The pier is situated beside a row of expensive-looking townhouses with an excellent view of the lake. We took some pictures, mesmerised by the clear water, while Jackie got himself acquainted with a family of ducklings.

Houses that cannot exist in Singapore.

While we stopped to soak in the flora and fauna, we noticed a couple of folks enjoying ice-cream out in the summer sun. We left the park with a new quest: to get ourselves some ice-cream. The quest was, unfortunately, a failure, and we wound up buying some bubble tea at an Asian vegetarian restaurant instead. Kenneth got a vanilla milk tea, and I got my favourite Thai milk tea.

It was hot and I couldn't wait.

As we made our way back to Marina Park, Shaun spotted a people coming up from a secret stairway holding cups of frozen treats: it was ice-cream! But since Kenneth and I were already loaded up on cold drinks, we weren't in the right frame of mind for it. Shaun and Jieqi weren't burdened with the Taiwanese beverages, however, and entered the rustic parlour to order a cone of rock-road and a strawberry shortcake ice-cream pop respectively. They ate while Kenneth and I watched grudgingly, bubble tea in our hands and stomachs.

I scream for...

Once we were done gallivanting, Jieqi decided we should walk all the way back to Redmond. Hungry for some punishment, we foolishly agreed. As we began our long walk, we bumped into an old Swedish lady struggling to push a pram loaded with two grown kids up a long and steep slope. At Shaun’s suggestion, we offered our help and pushed her pram as far as our paths converged, conversing along the way.

The slope eased out and we bade the lady and her grand-kids goodbye. We walked out further and soon found ourselves devoid of road. After narrowly avoiding oncoming traffic and dashing across the highway, we finally arrived back in pedestrian-friendly ground. We stopped under the shade of a tree and looked into the distance: a cloud of smoke was rising from the treeline. It seemed like there was a fire of sorts, though we couldn't be certain. So we stopped to do what any respectable Singaporeans would do: we took pictures.

It's like haze all over again.

We had a pit-stop at MacDonald’s to drink up and revitalise ourselves. Note that the distance between Marina Park and Gates of Redmond is approximately 5.6km. The other three got themselves dinner at Mac’s, but I opted to wait and see what else we’d stumble upon. True enough, we found a Little Caesar’s takeout sitting along the road, where I got a box of Deep Deep Dish Pizza.

Not just Deep, but Deep Deep.

The most important lesson in all of this? Appreciate side-walks. 

OIP Week 6 - Dinosaurs

What do you know? It’s already Week 6 of our Overseas Immersion Programme, and time for another update. This school week has been particularly exciting, with DigiPen organising a tour to Motiga as well as a talk by James Portnow and his crew from Extra Credits.

James Portnow came by on Thursday night, along with two other presenters, to give an insightful talk on marketing for indie games. The talk, originally designed to be presented to indie strategy-game publisher Slitherine, used case studies to highlight the various problems and mistakes made by indie developers when marketing their products. Some of us even managed to catch a photo with the rock-star-like James.

Staying back for some Extra Credits.

Stretching out the awesome, on Friday afternoon, DigiPen brought a handful of students via shuttle bus to Motiga, an indie game-development studio based in Bellevue. We took a tour around their impressive studio, caught a glimpse of their ongoing project, Gigantic, and even got to play-test the game.

Photo courtesy of Alvin Wong.

Saturday morning was spent finishing up the rest of our assignments before heading out for lunch at Sushiland, just outside the Regal Bella Bottega Stadium. The Japanese sushi place had a traditional sushi belt and plates ranging from 1 to 3 USD each. The beef udon, tuna maki and seared salmon were absolutely fantastic, or perhaps it was just because we haven’t had sushi in a really long time.

I want more.

After lunch, Gang B207 wandered around Bella Bottega and its surrounding area. We came across a hobby shop called Games & Gizmos that specialized in miniature war games. They also sold board games, card games and various gaming accessories.

Cool beans.

Following that, it was a 5-Guys-Lost-in-America reunion as we met up with Moses to watch Jurassic World. The film had its moments, despite its lack of focus, plot holes and its inability to please Kenneth, a hardcore Jurassic Park fan who apparently takes dinosaurs very seriously. Still, it was kinda funny watching three Marvel actors from three completely different Marvel films acting in the same non-Marvel movie (which beat out Avengers: AoU in opening week, FYI).

Nobody learned anything from that first movie.

When the movie had ended and we’d had our fill of bitching about it, we decided to have dinner at Jack in the Box. I ordered a Bacon Swiss and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Tender beef patty oozing with meat-juice, crisp bacon and stringy melted Swiss cheese tucked between two warm toasted buns. Yum.

This picture doesn't do the burger justice.

We finished off the night with a not-so-quick stop at Bella Bottega's QFC (dubbed by many as the ‘Bigger QFC’), and stocked up on supplies. Our empty refrigerator was filled by the time we got home.

On Sunday, the Catholic Trio again tried out yet another unexplored place called The British Pantry, which was a pub, restaurant, bakery and gift shop all rolled into one. Samantha and Moses ordered their speciality Fish & Chips, and I went for some smoked salmon. It was decent, though nothing compared to that seared salmon from Sushiland. They had some very addictive tartar sauce though.

A'ight, mate.

The gift shop had a nice stock of commodities you don't easily find in American supermarkets, like Ribena, Ovaltine and Horlicks. I'm still trying to decide if we want to buy a bottle of Ovaltine or Horlicks—those things are expensive as heck (13+ USD for a small bottle). Budgets aside, I’d kill for a cup of Milo…

OIP Week 4/5 - Barbeques and Markets

With the influx of assignments these past couple of weeks it was difficult to get anywhere interesting over the weekends. Week 4 was quite uneventful. A huge handful of the exchange students were invited to Marymoor Park for a barbeque, organised by the Resident Assistants (RA) who were in charge of looking after us while we’re here.

The barbeque ended early due to the unexpectedly good turnout and the subsequent lack of food. While the others stayed to play some soccer and talk to the RAs, Jieqi, Kenneth and I (henceforth we three, along with Shaun, shall be known collectively as the Gang B207) got ourselves lost. Marymoor Park is huge, and Singapore’s East Coast Park has nothing on King County’s 640 acres of grassy fields. We stumbled upon two of Marymoor’s landmarks, the Clise Mansion and an old windmill that is no longer operational (I think).

Look, Mom, a windmill!

Week 5 was a little more promising than Week 4. While one-half of Gang B207 stayed home to work on their assignments, Jieqi and I visited the Saturday Market just streets away from Redmond Town Center. It was a lively place, though nowhere as large as Portland’s Saturday Market, with a decent crowd and vendors selling a variety of homemade goods.

All those people...

The summer sun’s bad enough to compete with the blistering weather in Singapore. To beat the heat, I bought myself a nice tall mountain of shaved ice, smothered with grape and cherry syrup. We walked around the market for a bit, exploring the different stalls and listening to a duo of musicians play up the instrumental theme from Pirates of the Caribbean.  

Ice & music. Rock on.

For lunch, Jieqi got an Italian sausage sub, while I decided to try out some Mexican tamales. What I did not expect was for tamales to be like giant Mexican rice cakes stuffed with pork. The flavour was quite mild and I didn’t particularly like the starchy texture.

Food!

We took our takeaway lunches and walked back towards Redmond Town Center, discovering another second-hand bookstore along the way. I stumbled upon The Gate Thief by Orson Scott Card, the second book in his Mithermages series.

We returned to the apartment and steeled ourselves for a night session of Wrath of Ashardalon, a Dungeons & Dragons board game featuring warriors, wizards, dungeons and, of course, a huge-ass dragon. A night of battling monsters in the depths of Firestorm Peak took a lot out of us, and after the game, we retired for the night.

Beware, the Dragon's Breath!

The next day was Sunday, which meant Mass at St Jude’s before the obligatory lunch-exploration session. Together with Moses and Samantha (henceforth we shall be dubbed the Catholic Trio), our explorations brought us to Pallino’s, an Italian place that served up modestly-priced pasta and sandwiches.I got a plate of mac & cheese that was all right, though it could have been way better. 

Remember that Friends' episode?

As mentioned, these two weeks have been pretty subdued. We’re hoping things will pick up in the next few weeks, but the time we have left here grows shorter with each day. So till next time, may you never have to face Ashardalon’s deadly breath.