Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Christmas Eve
All of us ( Mr and Mrs Piskel, Andrea, Abby, Leah, Andrea's Boyfriend and me) piled into the car and we drove to church of course before that we had to brave the icy and (very) slippery walk to the car. I almost slipped and broke something couple of times. At mass, I joined the choir to sing along with Leah. It was great minus the fact that I didn't know most of the songs and I was singing Alto. This was still fine...I thought I'd just side read off the music score and listen to the Alto standing next to me. But lo and behold, the only alto beside me ( and the only one I could hear since on my other side were the tenors) was a lady who sang off key! So I ended up making the tune of the songs as I went along:P
After mass, Leah played a couple of carols on the piano and Mr Piskel and I joined her and sang. Dinner was lovely with baked Tilapia ( fish), and angel hair( a type of noodle like spaghetti) with clam sauce, salad and, bread and butter. Dessert was different types of cookies made by Andrea. Mr and Mrs Piskel were kind enough to let me drink some wine too which was sweet to boot!:) Then we just relaxed at the table swapping stories, mostly about the 3 sister's childhood and the dumb and cute things they used to do as tots. Soon, we will be driving out to view the lights and decorations around town. Sadly, it started raining today and some of the snow has melted. Hopefully we'll still have some left tomorrow and my dream of having a white Christmas will come true! Nikita at 8:31 PM
Mississippi Trip ( part 1 )
I had the great opportunity of going to Long Beach, Mississippi from the 12th to the 20th of Dec to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina rebuild their homes. It was a tiring 20 hour bus ride to and fro( we actually took longer coming back cause we made a stop at Birmingham, Alabama) especially the sleeping aspect. Try wedging and folding yourself ten times over in 2 bus seats...it's not the most comfortable position let me tell you that.Kept waking up every 20-30mins to change positions.
We left on Fri the 12th at 3.30pm and arrived at Long Beach at about 11.15am the next day. After freshening up and a quick meeting, a group of us decided to walk the 2 miles to the gulf of Mexico. Imagine! Us in a beach in December!!! It was a great walk after being stuck in the bus for so long and I even got to see the confederate flag hung at some of the houses. On our way back, we stopped at an old cemetry which had tombstones dating back to the 1800s. After dinner, we played a game of LIFE( boardgame) and then went to bed early.
The next day was our fun day out. We drove about 1/1/2hrs to New Orleans and was dropped off near the French Quarter. We headed first to the River walk to feast our eyes on the Mississippi River and then decided to hunt down a famous restaurant known for their Southern Fried Chicken( famous cuisine of the South). But to no avail, we couldn't find it and settled for a small cafe which sold Cajun food, like Blackened Tuna or Chicken which is a spicy mix of spices with meat and Jambalaya which is a spicy mix of rice, spices, sauce, shrimp, chicken, corn, sausage, among other things. We spent the rest of our day visiting shops. I got to see these guys that stand absolutely still in funny positions and you pay them to take a picture.I accidently took a picture of one of them not knowing you had to pay them ( later I found out one of them tyelled at my friend to pay him when she took a picture of him). Ate dinner at Hard Rock Cafe.
Nikita at 12:31 PM
