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.