A good but tiring weekend

Days 42 to 48, 19th to 25th Mar 2009:

Nothing much to blog on the class, we just continued on the fundamentals of processing Geophysics. The evening of Friday after class turned out to be a trip to the Memorial City Mall. Some of the girls wanted to go shopping for work clothes and i didn't really mind going so i tagged along. Ok, maybe tagged along isn't exactly the right word since i was the one driving...chauffeur would be more suitable. While waiting for the girls to finish shopping, i ended up getting a shirt as well. I got a couple of fridge magnets as well for my mom and sis.

After that, i had to send Su Yin back to her unit at Westheimer and took the opportunity to borrow her toilet as i was in need of one. After that, the 3 girls just took to chatting and i was stuck there for about 2 hours, watching tv while the girls chatted.

Saturday the 20th saw some of us going to the beach in Galveston. We started out a bit shaky, losing some time trying to find our way there but eventually we got there. The morning was a bit gloomy but thankfully the weather turned out sunny when we arrived at the beach. The guys just went straight for the water while the rest stretched out and enjoyed the sun. Later on, we had some fun burying Shangar in the sand and i really mean we had fun with the sand. I'll spare the details since i think i've already done enough damage with the photos i posted in Facebook, ha ha.

The beach, the beach!

Snacking and enjoying the sun

Fun with sand and Shangar :)

After about 3 hours at the beach, we went to The Strand, a famous street of sorts in Galveston. I'm not exactly sure what it's famous for, perhaps it's the old buildings but it wasn't bad. Got a couple more fridge magnets before we headed home at about 6pm.

A part of The Strand

Short carriage rides along the street for USD25

The next day, it was a trip to the rodeo. It was the very last day of the rodeo, so we didn't want to miss it. And there was more than one red face that day from the previous day's outing. Magda O was quite red or like a beetroot in her own words.

At the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, there were carnival stalls, livestock (such as cattle) on display and of course, the rodeo. I went straight from church to the place with Omon while the others all came together, so i didn't really see them until the rodeo started at 3.45pm. We spent too much time walking in the carnival area and lost the chance to view the livestock and browse through the merchandise in another part of the area.

The rodeo was quite interesting as we watched events such as bull riding, chuck wagon racing, calf scramble and mutton bustin'. Bull riding is quite a dangerous sport but there were a few funny moments here and there. Calf scramble was another interesting event as the participants (all teens) had to catch a calf. It was a charity event as scramblers who manage to catch a calf will get a USD1,500 certificate to purchase a registered beef heifer. They will then be able to care for and raise the heifer until they return to the Houston Livestock Show the following year for a special competition. It was quite funny to see the 28 teens trying to catch 14 calves; some wrestling was definitely needed and it was also great to see the girls having no problems matching the boys. Mutton bustin' involved kids clinging to sheep, kind of like a kids version of bull riding. The kids latch onto the sheep and hold on for as long as they can. The eventual winner turned out to be a 5-year old girl :)

The rodeo finished off with a rock concert by ZZ Top. Yup, i don't know who they are too (i think most Malaysians don't). They turned out to be quite old guys; the two lead singers had really long white beards. They're quite big over here, but some of the other Georisers like JB have also heard of them. Not exactly my kind of music, but it was ok all the same. Even though it was a very loud rock concert, Shifa and Su Yin actually managed to fall asleep, ha ha.

After the concert, we were almost ready to go home when Hannah asked if anybody was interested in going for a ride on one of the attractions at the carnival. Cecile, JB and myself volunteered and we all had a go at the ride, called Tango which was this contraption with an arm that split into three limbs that lifted its occupants in the air and spins them around. It wasn't exactly that exhilirating and it was a bit short but it was still quite fun especially if you're not going at it alone. I bet it cleared up Hannah's runny nose for a while, ha ha.

The board says it all

Carnival!

Bull riding

Calf scramble

ZZ Top doing their thing

Monday came again and i seemed to be extremely tired from the weekend's activities. Somehow, i still managed to make it through the day without embarassing myself. By Tuesday, i was fresh again and had no problems concentrating on the class. No more packed weekends after this!

Today, the housing management of the Marquis held a small welcome reception and dinner for all of us. It was a nice gesture i must say and i didn't need to cook dinner, ha ha. Of course, this also means that tomorrow's lunch will probably be a microwave meal. I wonder how i'm going to finish the chicken i bought...