Diwali - Festival of Food

I never experienced Diwali celebration since I lived in countries where they don't celebrate it. Never knew how fantastic this Festival of Lights would be until I came to Kursk.

I got open house invitations nearly every day, 5 days in a row, and the food spread was mouth-watering. (Mutton is their must-have dish @_@ I definitely will crash all Diwali open houses if I were in Malaysia)

Open house No#1 was at Pradeep's. Just a small gathering for a few close friends, but it was nice. Less is always more! (more food portion for us, I went back & forth to the kitchen countless times just for his butter chicken)

The 2nd open house were Ruban & Kamini's, both my groupmates. Our whole group were there dressed in the theme for the day- Indian traditional (mine was a long top from First Lady, cheating I know, but it can pass the theme!). It's a known fact that Kamini is such a great cook, so everyone who turned up that day were damn lucky. From payasam to vada to acar till mutton curry, every bite makes you crave for more.

I dont know how it started but we went all the way from watching some cool cover vids to funny vids and ended up watching growst vids (as the pic above - someone doing a farting show on Brit's Got Talent) Who on Earth would like to be acknowledged for farting skills? Besides, who enjoys a farting show anyway???Please tell me they threw away the mic after that incident!

The highlight of my Diwali for this year was Bestie D's open house. Just take a look at what she put for us on the table, on that day...

Egg Sambal which was tip top!

Chicken Varuval

Paneer (cottage cheese)

Curd

Since it was just among us and her housemate(which plays guitar very well), we decided to karaoke. Kicked off with Malay songs then jumped to Indon favorites. Obviously only the 4 of us were singing coz only we four are Malaysians. Shreyas did try to sing along with us and I can give him 7 out of 10, while the rest just echoed "kuu" (dariku) "muu" (untukmu) "tai" (cintai) etc. Aren't they a bunch of supportive people??

At last to be fair and square we sang Jai Ho where everyone screamed their lungs out especially for "Ho".

There we go, Jai Ho!! (followed by Ho, ho, ho)

End up, today I'm having a sore throat. But the fun was worth losing my voice..

Wordless Wednesday

Perfect Supper

It's 2315, and I'm still awake, staring at my case history which is only partially completed. Brain is washed out and I'm having these symptoms..

Stomach growling.

Couldn't sleep.

Having moderate homesickness.

Stress.

Solution to all these : EAT

2 bars of these...

.....dipped in

Chocolate milk...

which is enriched with....

this ultimate favorite of mine!

This is what I call a PERFECTO supper. Just the way I love it!

Waving goodbye to my diet, who is helplessly tumbling down the drain now..How I wish to not see you again...

Of A Weekend

I was pretty busy lately, hence the 1 week silence (I realized that after I wanted to post this week's Wordless Wednesday, when I saw that my last post was last week's WW) How sad is that?? This therapy cycle & Dr.Prosalov really kept me occupied!

When the weekend came, I was promised myself to enjoy it, the whole out of it. Books & notes pushed aside (far aside). These 2 days of break is strictly gonna be for me, my friends & anything that makes me happy!!

ON SATURDAY : DEEPASHRUTHI '11

For the first time ever in history of Kursk : Malaysian Indian Students Assoc., Indian Students Assoc., and Sri Lankan students union joined force to organize one big event for Diwali 2011. TOGETHER. It was a great idea but requires alot of effort & proper planning as these 3 bodies have to divide everything EQUALLY among 3 countries - number of performances, places to practice, how many MC's, how many tickets to sell, everything counted PER COUNTRY. However, at the end of the day, everything came smooth. The concert turned out great as the best of the best performers from these three countries rocked the stage! Hats off to the organizing team!

THOSE WHO ROCKED THE STAGE :

Dhandiya by Gujeratis

Inauguration

Bhangra by Kurskgabroobhangra

Russian Folk dance

Machi open the bottle by Sri Lankan boys

ALL-Final year students

Chul Bul Pandey

Star Crew - my fav on that day!

Vada Pochae

Ragging - but the other way around. Juniors vs Seniors.

It was a remarkable night and I enjoyed the whole 3 hours alot! I was among the last ten people to leave the hall..

All the taxi companies boycott me that night! *not fair!*

ON SUNDAY : PHOTOSHOOT (again!)

This is my final year in Kursk, so everything is "last" for me - last autumn, last winter, last birthday bash, last September in Russia,last October, last InterMalaysian games... and the list scrolls till the floor. Yes, I'm a bit paranoid coz I realized that I really took for granted many things i.e lots of opportunities and moments during my 6 years stay over here. Now, I'm trying my best to compensate it.

Probably last picture with this tree - Paranoid syndrome

I pass by this one every day, but I never realized how HUGE it was!

My main transportation over here, and I never had any pic with/in it!

He was 973 years old when I first came. Time flies!

Im sure I'll miss this one - Sunday breakfast rituals with besties!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy New Year of Last Year!

In Netherlands, we booked a hotel in Katwijk. It is located at the coastal area and I seriously have no idea why we opted for a seaside resort in the midst of peak winter.

Reached our hotel quite late because of the delay earlier (read Trial and Error). Stomachs were growling and we have to reach Amsterdam early coz tonite is the night where everyone will be heading to the same place welcoming 2010. So we just checked-in, tossed our luggage inside the room, prayed and rushed our way to Amsterdam.

Amongst us, 3 were living in Germany, one in Paris and I'm the one from Russia. Yes, R-U-S-S-I-A. The place where they have cruel winter with no mercy and I've been living there for half a decade already. Yet still, compared to the rest I have the lowest threshold level to cold. I'm the one shivering like nobody cares and I swear I look like as if I came from Sahara.

Shivering even inside a building

After dinner we headed straight to the Dam square. We decided not to patrol around Amsterdam as all of us had been here before. Plus the crowd was like an endless ocean.

It was pretty the same old same old style & tradition like elsewhere - countdown from 10 to 1, when the clock strikes 12 midnight everyone shouts Happy New Year, hugs thrown to each other (even to strangers), bottle caps flung out of nowhere, massive fireworks brightened the sky.

Everyone was welcoming 2010!!

What was different is instead of Happy New Year, they wrote it in Dutch - GELUKKIG NIEUW JAAR.

We couldnt stay for long coz this Lady from Sahara was turning cyanotic, so we decided to just go back home. Just to make things worse, when we turned behind Afiq was missing! So Adhwa had to split finding for the missing kid & Hamal escorted us to the car which was parked like 30minutes walking distance from where we are now...

The moment I entered the car, that was the last thing I can remember. The next thing I knew was, were back in Katwijk.

...................................................................................

The next morning, we got ready & checked out early just to take a walk at the beach. I at first planned to stay inside the car, coz I can't stand the horrible cold freezing every bone I have, but turned out it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The sandy beach was so serene and breathtaking, it made me forget about the cold...

We took more pictures at the beach than during New year's celebration!

Next Destination : Cologne, Germany (just for a plate of yummy beriyani)

Trial and Error (Luxembourg-Brussels-Amsterdam)

This is a continuation of our Euroadtrip, from Luxembourg

We plan a detour to Brussels JUST TO HAVE KEBAB FOR LUNCH (I was more into the yummeh Belgian waffles) but my request wasn't entertained because I was the only choco monster in the group it seems and the rest opted for Mediterranean cuisine *sigh*

In the middle of the journey, much for my cursing of not gonna get to taste any Belgian waffles, our car ran out of petrol. The tank was nearly empty and we were in the middle of nowhere. It was so screwed up that we had no idea where we actually were (read: Luxembourg is so small that you can be in 3 different countries in 5 minutes, thinking you are still in Lux). Read Grand Duchy.

So when we saw someone passing by, we just did a trial and error. First, we spoke to him in English, asking the nearest petrol station - he didn't quite get us. Then, Hamal spoke with him in Deutsche - he didn't get us at all. Then again, Tiq spoke French with him - Alhamdulillah, he understood! Felt like jumping at one point eventhough I do not understand French, but when Tiq translated what he said, a huge fat frown came on my face. The nearest petrol station was 12 kilometres away :-(

Again we played the trial and error game, but as expected, we didn't make it to 12 kilometres. The car no cool one-lah! So Adhwa, together with our sole French speaking friend had to walk themselves up to the petrol station leaving the rest three of us stranded in the cold & rain, in the middle of Nowhere-land.

This was how Nowhere-land looked like.

This is what we did, to kill time..

Reacting the scene

Taking full advantage - this is the only chance to sit at the driver's spot!

There is no way Adhwa will let me drive - ever! (Base on the rate I fall asleep)

After nearly 25 minutes Adhwa & Tiq came back to rescue the rest of us. Of course, not knowing what we did to his ride while he was gone.

See all the happy faces?

We reached Brussels a bit delayed with our tummies playing all sorts of music - tabla, bock-a-da-bock, marimba etc. Mine was playing bongos. EVERYONE was extremely hungry.

That is why this is the only pic taken in Brussels. Too hungry to care!

Again, we played the trial and error game but lucky us, the restaurant we went in was the best choice ever made! Their kebabs were to die for!After lunch, we went to our Dreamland while our dedicated sole driver drove us to Netherlands. It's New Year's Eve tonight!

Amsterdam, see you when I wake up...

Wordless Wednesday

A Strike vs. The Gutter

Me and Bestie T figured out that both of us haven't been spending time together so much lately. Its sad that we both are staying in the same town, reading at the same school but living in two separate worlds with totally different schedules. So, we decided to go bowl - something we haven't done for a looooong time (the last was during Dosh's birthday).

We definitely woke up from the right side of the bed this morning, because Europa Bowl had 20% off for students and we were the only ones playing there at that hour.

For a second, it really felt like we had an indoor bowling alley built at home coz the two of us were just busy bowling, either striking or hitting the gutter, jumping like monkeys, snapping photos, mocking, teasing and laughing at each other so much loud like no one's business..

Definitely not a pro, not even close!

I swear, this is the once in a blue moon moments where I managed to hit a strike.

I suck big time in this game coz I can never be consistent, I get too swept away when I get a strike and I get too stressed up when I hit the gutter. Either way, I'll loose focus!

And later, I'll end up being an angry bird or a talking machine with a missing stop button , something like this...