Counting down the days

Since Liying has left Charlottesville, while Jeremy the lazy ass refuses to blog whatsoever (but forgivable, his girlfriend is literally in town), the onus falls upon yours truly to provide the details of the final ever weekend in Charlottesville (well, on an exchange basis, anyway).

Friday started out, well, with an exam for Public Choice, so you can imagine how exciting that was. So, anyway, post-exams, the other two kids were visiting Angie Turner, our academic co-ordinator prior to saying goodbye (Liying was leaving on Sunday after all). Turns out her husband owns an ice-cream stall named Dips N Sips and that they're friends with the Carltons, who were scheduled to meet us later in the day. Talk about a small world.

As usual, the Carltons brought us to a fantastic dinner place (Western Grill - which for some reason Jeremy thinks is Woodies...says something about where his mind is...) where basically both your Charlottesville correspondent and Jem decided to stuff ourselves with meat, meat and more meat (sounds kinda wrong, doesn't it?). Dinner was amazing and the company was just as great. In fact, the Carltons are perhaps some of the people we will miss the most. Personally, I think what really makes them such a wonderful family is the fact that they have got such huge hearts, in every single member of the family. For all the outward bitterness, cynicism and jadedness (or so I exaggerate, assuming I spell correctly in my state of 2 beers), to have been part of a family with the biggest heart is perhaps one of the rare privileges of my 24 or so years of existence.

Memorably, Frances, who is all of 8 years old, cried for us (more likely, Liying). How much bigger a heart can you ask for from an 8 year old?

Saturday was spent doing the customary rounds of farewell to a large group of people. The first goodbye was with Joon, who is probably too sweet for his own good. Despite being one of the most dedicated students around, he took lots of time off to hang out with us, both over this weekend and the last one. And for a guy who had to leave in 10 minutes, he lingered just to be with us. What a guy. Seriously, what a guy.

Later, Saturday night was accompanied with a buncha very very cool Singaporeans (the ones who stay at the IRC + Michelle a 'changmoh'). Ice-cream at Arch's, with Cheryl, Jem, Liying, Clara, Mun, Jennani, Shu'en and Michelle (I seriously hope I didn't miss anyone). It's really nice to see folks putting in so much effort to coordinate something for us, especially since we didn't hang out that much. To paraphrase a Ms Clara Lee, you guys rock my socks! (WTF does that mean, anyway?)

And Sunday.

Sunday kicked off with the fond farewells in the blog entry prior to this. Except it wasn't very poignant because I was certain of meeting all 3 again pretty shortly - that plus rushing to the Amtrak station. My turn to bear the pain of waking up early come Thursday (*groan*).

So Part 1.5 of the day was lunch with Cheryl, Jem and of course our beloved Andrew at Milan, an Indian restaurant in Charlottesville. The place is amazing - I've been there 3 times and every time I keep wanting to go back for more. It's so amazing that Jem's bitching about not going there earlier. And he always wondered why we never found the same love for "Hong Kong Buffet" restaurant.

Part 2 of the day was some time spent with the Singaporean gang at Kai's place watching 'The Best Bet'. Apparently yours truly laughed the loudest, a result of being part of a family that speaks Hokkien. Good pulut hitam (is that how you spell it) courtesy of Kai, lifts from Helen and just a nice time watching one helluva Singaporean movie to remind you of your heritage. And speaking of heritages, here's a recommendation from a friend in the UK: link here.

Finally, day ended with good ol' army bitchin' with Jem and some beers. Shit man, I am so going to miss having my own room and my friends being 2 minutes away. *sigh*