The Omega Team

MMMM yum.... this is probably Taiwanese too, cos the only time I've had milk tea is at my Taiwanese friend's house!

Steps:
1) Make that special red tea, which is also used to make bubble tea. ("poa ba nai cha")
2) Put milk in it... to your liking
3) If you want flavoured mik tea, go for it. You can also put milo in it to make it chocolatey.

Mmmmmmm... chocolate.... milk tea.... *drooooooollllsss*

Coffee... geez... someone just asked me if I wanted coffee... I don't drink coffee. Tea rox!

When my friend Gina was visiting here, we often got into conversations about tea and Canadian coffee. She missed her 2nd Cup Coffee (she hates Tim Hortons *shocked*). Then somehow along the line, whilst she was in Australia, she met many Brits and discovered the wonders of tea. I'm still trying to convince her that tea is better than coffee. It is. It's healthier for you (supposedly).

But the best tea of all, is Teh Tarik! I really miss a good teh tarik. Teh tarik is a Malaysian/Indonesian tea. Basically it's plunger tea, with condensed milk. If you go to the right place, the people making the teh tarik put on a good show. They have the teh in two containers, and tip the tea from one pot to the other. It's really hard to explain, but once you see it, you'll enjoy it.


Taken from www.yuffy.com/tehtarik.html
The wider the distance of the containers, the better the show. :)

- you can sponsor us until 24 hours after the event (9pm 28th July)

Tonight I went to my friend's bday party. Very smart, I know. During dinner, the birthday girl asks our friend Mich how her trip back to Indonesia was. Then she tells us she went to London too, for a week. We were all amazed, cos she didn't tell us anything! She retorted, "Didn't Aileen tell you anything??" Hmm... you're our friend Mich. Aren't you supposed to be the one to tell us stuff? You could've e-mailed us... yes, yes, I know at the Cyber cafe's, internet costs 3 pounds an hour. (Which is about AUD$9!)

Now, I'm a huge fan of the Singapoeran MRT (Mono-rail transit). It's so clean, fast, efficient. And it's not far from well... the places I stay at when I'm in Singapore. At the terminals, while you wait for the MRT, there are telly's where you can watch MTV!

I've never been to England. So I can't really comment on the underground. But according to Mich, even though there's vandalism, it's so much better!

I'd like to see that!
(on another note, i'd like to see what accent english people think i have... since people are still debating whether my accent sounds english or not...)

I had the opportunity to stay there last July as part of "Days in the Diocese" for World Youth Day. It’s in southern Ontario, Canada – quite near the border to the USA. In fact, the closest major city to St Cat’s is Buffalo, New York!

I have to say, the people there are sooo nice, you just don’t want to leave them! The hospitality is fantastic – and I had great host parents - Fran and Kyle Tkachuk. *waves!* There’s a pub in St Cath’s called The Honest Lawyer Pub. As the name suggests, the place is really... ironic.

There is a bowling alley in that pub. This bowling alley’s pins were attached to strings. The bowling balls were really chipped. Bowling at that pub was interesting. For example, if you bowled down 6 pins, 7 pins may come down for your next bowl within that turn, or maybe even 3! How funny is that!

That happened to me 3 times - I took out 9 pins on my first go, and on my second go within that turn, 3 pins came down - 2 on the right side near the gutter, and 1 on the left side near the left gutter! Grr! lol

You know... bubble tea... it's Taiwanese. You can get it at Easyway Cafe and Utopia in Northbridge... they're actually opposite each other but Easyway is value for money in my opinion.

So how do you make it at home?

1) Cook the bubbles (ie, sago) by boiling it. You can buy sago at Asian food shops.
2) Make the tea. The tea isn't normal tea. It's a special red tea pronounced "poa ba nai cha", which is also available at most Asian food shops.
3) Depending on what flavour it is, just make it! For example, if you want a chocolate bubble tea, you can put milo in it.
4) Put it all together, and voila! You have bubble tea!

I can't believe it! Just to let you know, I will be picking topics out of my hat. :)

First topic - Teaching in Japan
Konnichiwa! :) *15 degree bow* ;)

Being an Asian Studies student, I look forward to working in a broad area dealing with Asia. One of these, involving my love of travel, is teaching English. I am quite looking forward to see if I can pass on my immense knowledge of English (haha), to Asians particularly in China, Japan, and South Korea.

What I didn't know is who I am going to teach. I am looking forward to hopefully teaching with a group in Japan, which teaches those who are 6-60 years old. However, I am reconsidering teaching with these groups, as my friend has told me about her classmate who used to teach English for that age group in Japan.

Some of his students were part of the Yakuza (think Japanese mafia type people). How scary is that?
Them: Give me 100% or I'll blow your brains out with my gun!
I hope they're joking though. Apparently some of his students body parts were chopped off, because if you disobey an order a part of your body gets chopped off. My friend also claims that his friend is now friends with the head of the Yakuza.

If that's true, how scary would that be? (My friend insists it's a true story... I'm talking to her right now about it).

Approx. 7 more hours to go.... til the start time (9pm) *yikes!*

On the 27th July (Perth time), I will be joined by Yasemin and Blandina, and possibly Pame some time along the track - 3 of my fellow UNV's. :)

*prays that my ADSL internet connection doesn't stuff up again... or else my ISP are going to get many irate phone calls from yours truly*

Wow.. the Blogathon has now broken the $60,000 mark! :o (Currently we've raised $61,246.94!) Just less that $1000 in less that a day. That's amazing!

The newspaper article is out... can I say, I am totally utterly embarassed. I hope no one I know sees it. *hides*

We (Blogathon people) broke the $50,000 mark set last year! Currently, we've raised $54,995.70 for our charities.

I can't believe it's almost 2 days til the Blogathon. I better get prepared for the Blogathon!

DONE
§ Nicked the microphone from the karaoke player and hooked it up to the computer
§ Borrowed a digital camera

MY CHECKLIST:
§ Earl Grey Tea or Dejaarleng (spell?) tea, high energy/caffiene drinks
§ Energy bars and other good snacks
§ Find more sponsors and ask them to nominate an idea of what they want me to do on behalf of them, regarding my country theme.... and find out more about Polish food^^
§ Download the timer, or buy an egg timer that won't wake up the whole house
§ Get my website in working order!

Paige and Paul from The Post Newspaper came around today to take a photograph of me and asked me a couple of questions about the Blogathon. I am going to be sssooo embarassed when I see that article!

Wohoo, to date, the Blogathon community has raised $45,382.05! How cool is that? Go us!

But please keep the donations rolling in.... email me at tennislurver@yahoo.com to pledge your donation, or to tell me what you want me to do for you. Or, if you're not from Perth, go to http://www.blogathon.org/sponsorsignup.php?p=614

I can't believe I'm doing this, this is so INSANE!

Only 3/4 more days to go!!

The theme for The Omega Team for Blogathon 2003 is *drum roll* well... COUNTRIES - in particular: Anthems/Theme songs, culture, and travel!

If you sponsor me you get to choose what anthem/theme song i get to sing, and stories about my experiences with different cultures or many of my travelling stories. If travelling is chosen, please note I have only visited: other places in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Hong Kong, USA, and Canada.

Also please remember to tell me if you want to be put on the Donor Honour Roll, and what name you want to be listed as on the roll. :)