I was having brunch at a crepes cafe run by Japanese women when I heard the theme song for one of my favourite Japanese drama serials, Love Shuffle. It felt so familiar and strange at the same time. I feel detached from the person I was before I came to L.A. I've changed more in the past two months or so than I did in the past year. Before this, I never even looked at my bills. When anything went wrong, I'd automatically run to my parents or my brothers for help. The experience of living alone in a foreign country has forced me to grow up and learn to deal with matters myself. It was something that I recognized as lacking in myself and it really spurred my decision to leave my comfort zone and go to a new place.

This seems frightening and daunting, but it can also be very liberating. Eating in a cafe with friends, walking in a shopping mall thousands of miles away from home, exploring the streets- these activities give me a great sense of freedom. Sometimes I wonder if I'll be able to live permanently in the States. I do miss Singapore a lot and I consider myself a Singaporean girl at heart. But there are times that make me think, This isn't so bad. Maybe I can live here after all. I wonder how I'm being remembered by those back home. I wonder if I'll return and find that things have changed and people have moved on.

On another note, I visited a new mall in Culver City and went crazy in the huge (2-storey) Forever 21 store. The offerings are SO much better than those in Singapore. I also found an Indian restaurant and got my Indian food fix. Yay!

I woke up last Saturday morning with a MAJOR craving for roti prata. For those who don't know what it is, it's a fried Indian flat bread that you usually dip into curry. But where was I going to get prata? The closest thing I could find in my vicinity was Thai food so I dragged my friend there for dinner.



The place made me feel like I'd been transported back to the Orient. I love the dark wood, hard-backed furniture, high ceilings, and plants. I'm more used to such details than carpeting and sofas (as comfy as the sofa in my apartment is).


On the recommendation of my friend, I tried Thai iced tea for the first time and it was delicious. I almost didn't want to drink it because of how pretty it looked when it arrived. Look at the layers of colour! The rich sienna is so enticing.

Then the food came and I was so excited to dig in that I totally forgot to take photos of it. I shared green curry and rice, spring rolls with sweet chilli sauce, tom yam soup and coconut ice-cream with my friend. Here are two shots of our nearly-finished food:




Happy, satisfied me!