Hi guys..my friends convinced me to come out of the house..it's a sunday today..and we planned to go to the movies to see Django Unchained..the movie wasn't bad..its good for you guys who like gory details..we also planned to build a snowman before the movie..and hahaha...it turned out to be fun, even though our snowman looked horrible! I arrived 15 minutes late on purpose..hoping my friends were almost done with the snowman and i could take pictures with it and tell people that I helped make it (but these nice people decided to wait for me before they got started..sheesh!)..it turns out that its not so easy to make a snowman, or maybe we just didn't have the skills, coming from countries which never sees snow..haha..anyways..here are some pictures..

We found this guy on the other side of the park..the snowman we made is the fat one smoking a cigar..haha..

the snow is beautiful, isnt it? =)

Hi guys..im back! Im so tired because of the long flight ( 2 hours from LAX to Raleigh + 3 hours layover time + 4 hours from Raleigh to Boston) + 2.30 hours of bus ride from Boston to Hanover..then another 20 minutes of excruciating pain of dragging my heaving suitcase through the 8 inches of snow from where the bus dropped us to my house..i was all dizzy and i puked once i reached home..my skin is also breaking down, its very dry and so many zits are coming up to say 'hello world'...

Enough of the complaints..Sorry guys..

Well..Last week was my birthday...i got a lot of birthday wishes from friends and family which made me feel so loved..thank you guys! I was in California during my birthday, and I didn't tell my friends that it was my birthday..I don't really remember people's birthdays so I feel bad at announcing mine to people, so I kept quite..

Little did I know they planned a surprise for me..all of us where in San Francisco and we just arrived..it was a looong drive from LA (6 hours plus traffic)...and we were resting in our hotel when my friend, Nadiah said that it was just 8pm & we should explore the city..it was raining and I was reluctant (i now realise that the weather effects me, haha)..she said it'd be fun to walk in the rain, and I was like..OK fine, i'll give it a try..we walked around and she said she wanted some pastries and cakes..so we went to buy some..i had no idea it was for my surprise..

Then we went and met the boys (they went their separate ways from the hotel to find some cigars i guess)..we walked towards Union Square, which is kinda like a place where people sit and hang out..then my friend said 'Owh no, I forgot that I need some socks at H&M, izza can you 'teman' me?'...i said sure and i was thinking that I needed some socks too because I only brought a pair to San Francisco and they were already wet..

So the guys proceeded to Union Square, n Nadiah & I walked around..It was weird because she seemed to forget about H&M and just kept going into any shops that looked interesting..then she finally said she didn't want any socks and lets go meet the guys at Union Square..

I was already confused...Haha, so we walked to the square, and I saw that the guys where sitting at a table and there was the pieces of cakes that we bought with candles lit up on them..they got up when they saw me and sang happy birthday..

Haha..it was such a nice surprise..i mean, besides my friend Nadiah..I just met the rest of them the day before..and here they were celebrating my birthday with me..it was soooo sweet of them (tears~)..

and besides my lovely friends, my awesome bf also surprised me with an entry from his blog where he posted these pictures:

Awww! im the luckiest girl in the world! thank you baby! love you sooooo much even though we're 10000 miles away~ (sob sob)

I feel so fortunate and blessed..Alhamdulillah for all the love from my friends and family..love you guys so much too! =)

Hi guys~ I'm at the airport..waiting for my flight to California! well...not exactly, I have to transfer in Charlotte, North Carolina first..It'll be a long flight..(8 hours)..i'm not sure if I'll have time to update my blog this week because I'll be staying with a friend near LA for 6 days..The plan is to go to San Diego and San Francisco..can't wait! Till then, take care everyone..

Cam whoring is a must when you have free time and there is a full sized mirror in the bathroom! =)

Hi guys! I have to be quick with this post..i was looking at haute couture dresses and i fell in love with ElieSaab's collection (fall winter 2012-2013) ..owh my god...i love love love them! then I went to a few websites and saw that the prices were waaaay over what I thought they were gonna be...T_T..i guess i was in denial, I mean I knew they were going to be expensive but I kinda hope I could at least afford one. Owh yeah, I looked into these dresses not for normal wear but for potential wedding dresses. You'd be crazy to think I would want to buy haute couture for normal events. My dad does not own a multi million company and we do not live in a mansion! Haha..take a look at these beautiful dresses...The colours he uses and the details of his designs are amazing~

For the full outstanding fashion show..you guys can go to his website here...

Why can't money grow on trees or fall from the sky???=(

Hi people! Joyce and I had a lunch date on Sunday..and when I looked outside here's what I found:

You can't really see it in the pictures but the snow was falling pretty heavily..I almost didn't wanna go out..Said to Joyce 'Joyce, it's snowing pretty heavy do you still wanna go out for lunch?'...

She answered 'Yeah sure, and this does not count as heavy snow'...

T_T

Its not? Seriously? Owh man..i guess it's gonna get worse..right now the snow is about 3 inches thick..i 've heard that it could reach up to 8-11 inches..just imagine with each step you take your feet goes deep into the snow..

I tried to embrace the snow yesterday..i was walking home from gym (yes even though its cold and snowing i dragged myself to the gym which is a 15 minute walk from home, 'pat on back')..i was in the parking lot behind my apartment (in the first picture)...and the snow looked so white, pure and beautiful..so i opened my leather gloves, and scooped up some snow..

'shit..so cold..okay I'm done with experiencing winter god please let it be spring tomorrow!'

haha..yeah..i am a big baby when it comes to the cold...and to think I choose a uni located in the northeast of US where winters last the longest compared to other parts of the states..=(

doesn't fall look a lot more lovely and most importantly..warmer? haha..till then..take care guys! =)

P/S: my conscience says 'ish izza, you should bersyukur dpt rase salji ok..tk payah nk complain2..'

but it's cooooooooooold! =(

I am again...procrastinating in doing actual work..haha..;p

Uhh..i have no idea why I'm looking at wedding settings instead of looking for a summer internship...this is not good..haha..

well..you get bored of improving your resume & cover letter so many times, and also researching which companies offers both good salaries and an awesome working environment. so..you find yourself google-ing 'wedding settings' or 'wedding dresses'....i love weddings..everything is soooo pretty..and I think the best weddings are where your guests can feel the love in the air..and they also get absorbed in the happiness of the newlyweds and get that warm fuzzy feeling when they look at the couple..and some may reminisce the first time they fell in love..

In my culture, for a wedding you try to host a huge event and try to call everyone you know (usually the typical number of guests are 1000-2000 people)..personally, i would much prefer a wedding where only family and close friends attend..i would love that intimate feeling, and i'd be able to talk to all the guests and thank them for coming..gotta try to convince my dad about this~haha...anyways, i'm counting the days to see my bf again..being away from your loved ones for a couple of months is fine, but 15 months?=(

some romantic pictures of weddings i found that gave me smiles and that warm fuzzy feeling...=)

dissapointed. tired. sad. giving up. confused.

Haha..i love aaryaa for doing this..so we have this guy in my class, Prashanth..he's 22 and I always bully him because it's so fun to see him pissed off...and what's even more funnier is that he keeps insisting he never gets pissed off, when almost everything that come's out of his mouth sounds like he's irritated all the time..and he has this expression which is priceless..it's hard to describe but he squints his eyes and tightens his mouth..he does it all the time and we always try to imitate him..a friend of mine did a video of him doing gangnam style..it may not be funny to you guys because you don't know him..but i laughed so hard..haha...here's what he normally looks like..

this is the picture aaryaa used for the video...he was actually modelling for a friend in this pic..

and here's the hilarious video..haha..go prashanth!!Haha..LOL.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Hey there! What I love about studying overseas is that you get friends from all over the world...I'm very lucky that my program has a very diverse body of students..we have people from the United States (duhh!), China, India, Africa, Nepal, Korea and the Netherlands. 

A few of us who stayed back for the holidays decided to plan a potluck...it was a really nice evening..the dinner was supposed to be at 7pm but I came late. And when I came in everyone was helping out to make Momos. Haha..i've never heard of Momo's before..they are similar to dumplings..so all we had to do was fill the wrap with the fillings we made and bundle everything up..

I learned also that there are wines specially for dessert..they're suppose to taste really sweet..owh yeah, i made a simple dish of shrimp fried rice and used oyster sauce to enhance the taste...after we ate, we watched an awesome movie called 'Donnie Draco'..i wouldn't have understood the movie if my friends didn't explain it to me..it's very complicated & confusing..and there's a creepy ugly bunny in it..you should definitely watch it if you haven't (don't think any other movies have creepy ugly bunnies)..=)

Briyani rice, shrimp fried rice, momos, a salad, and chicken tikka masala (dhruv was kind enough to buy halal chicken for me to taste his tikka masala! so sweet of him~)

it's funny because i thought only depressed girls pig on ice cream, my friend amogh proved to me that guys do it too! haha..

Hi guys..what are you all up to? do you have some free time and do not know what to do with it? (i am gonna sound like a sales person but I swear I am not selling anything, haha)..if you guys like to read books, here's a book that you'll get a lot of benefit from reading..no matter what your occupation is or if you are still in school, whatever you want to be.

The book is called 'Now Discover Your Strengths' by Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton.

Now, I am not a big fan of motivational books and self-improvement books. But this one really helped me understand myself better, and I wanted to share this with you guys. 

This books helps you uncover & highlight your 5 most prominent strengths. So, why would we want to know this? Because if we do know what we're good at, it's like a light of clarity is turned on to the path of what career/job function we want ourselves to be in. I also agree on a point stressed in this book: people are often to focused in fixing their weaknesses and forget to play their strengths. Because sometimes no matter how you try to improve your weakness, you won't get better because you do not have the natural talent in that area.

The people who wrote this book did a profound study and interviewed 80,000 excellent & average managers/employees. So I am really confident on the content of this book. For example, their studies show that one of the prominent strength that doctors have is the characteristic of 'restoration'. Which makes total sense because doctor's are always fixing people, restoring them to the pink of health.

What's awesome is that with the purchase of this book, you receive an access code which you can use to do a test online called StrengthFinder. 177 series of question will be asked for the test to generate your 5 strengths. Don't worry, 177 seems a lot but it only takes 35 minutes, and you are encouraged to answer as quickly as you can & not think too deeply about the answers. Why? By answering with your intuition they'll get a better understanding of your natural talents. 

And they give you a long report (mine was 18 pages) giving some insights of your strengths and how to apply them.

Do you guys wanna know my 5 strengths? I don't mind sharing them with my awesome readers:

1. Learner : I have a great desire to learn and want to continously improve.
2. Competition: I always measure my performance against others and strive for the 1st place.
3. Woo: I love the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over (does this mean I'm a kiss-ass?haha)
4. Deliberative: I take serious care in making decisions or choices.
5. Achiever: I have a great deal of stamina and work hard. I get satisfaction from being busy and productive.

And thats just some short description of my strengths. The report gives you a whole detailed paragraph.

Another important point I learned from this book, to be an excellent manager, you cannot treat everyone in your team equally. Everyone has their own strengths & interests, and its our job as managers to assign roles that they can apply their strengths to, and in return our employees will get the job satisfaction from completing the tasks because their good at doing it.

I've showed you something that I sincerely believe will help you guys in your career...so it's just up to you guys to pick up the book and read it. Good luck! =)

Hiiiiii! I am very, very dissappointed in myself that I have not updated this blog as often as I want to. You would think that it's the winter break, I would have more time to write, right? Wrong! Working at the machine shop takes half of the day, and by the time I get back from the gym it's 7 or 8pm. Then I go right to preparing myself for my internship this summer. I have so many people to contact and so many books to read. But I love it. Being busy makes my blood rush, & believe it or not I'm happier when there are more things to do.

Since I decided not to go back, I made a promise to myself to travel to at least one popular place in the US. So when I was invited by a friend to join her trip to New York City, I was ecstatic. I mean, its NEW YORK CITY! Who doesn't wanna go there? Either you don't like travelling, or your general knowledge is so weak that you don't know how awesome NYC is.

And coincidently, I went during an event called Black Friday. For those of you who don't know what that is: read this. Basically it's just a day where there are major sales in all stores. And you guys know how weak my resistance is towards shopping, and yeah FYI I am broke now. I spent like around 1000 USD. I think I forgot that I am now a student & that I don't have a consistent amount of money deposited into my account every month. Damn~ =(

The trip was soooooooo awesome! Never in my life that I thought I would ride around NYC in a limo. I mean, I didn't even know you can do that. And also, I am a city girl. But owh my god,  NY is a city with a totally different level. There were so many people, and everything is so fast-paced. I was scared to even stop to ask for directions because everyone was walking so fast. I am an avid shopper, but I nearly fainted in the Steve Madden shop because of the rush. Guess I am not the hardcore shopper I though I was.

But yeah, I met great people. It amazes me, how you can build a bond and have a smashing time with people you just met. I felt like I've known them for years. We laughed so much that my stomach hurt and my mascara smudged because of the tears. I could go on and on about how awesome the trip was, but let me just show you the pics. =)

This is from the Rockefeller Centre where we had like a high class dinner (my wallet was crying).

Then we went shopping for 8 hours at Woodbury Premium Outlets. This is where my bank account got really damaged. Haha..

After that, my friends were too tired and slept because we shopped from 2am to 9am. I slept until 2pm, and woke up to walk by myself and explore Central Park. Which is quite far from where I stayed, my friend's apartment was in Newport, New Jersey. Around 20 minutes from NYC. So it was scary for me to take the subway alone, and find where Central Park is all by myself. I really didn't wanna wake my friend but I also didn't wanna miss the chance to explore so i just said WTH and went. No regrets at all though, the view at Central Park was phenomenal. 

After that I actually got lost trying to find MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) and gave up, almost cried as I dragged myself to starbucks to calm myself with a caramel macchiato. Another friend saved my day and called me up, asking me if I wanted to see a broadway show. I almost jumped and screamed 'yes! totally..i am soooo in!'...haha, i just love love love musicals theathers. And this was THE broadway, of course I was pumped to go.  I don't have any pictures though, we weren't allowed to take them. But I do have a few pics of Timesquare, the broadway theathers were located there.

The next day I went to Metropolitan Museum of Art, and let me tell you this...that place is huge. You'd take all day to finish all the sections. I was so tired by the end of the day, but of course you can't just go home to bed in a city like New York. So we decided to call up a few more friends to go bowling. Loved every second of the game, because we were dancing and laughing at how awful we were. After the game my friends kindly brought me to taste some halal street food and it was delicious. Surprisingly cheap too!

The last day was spent with having brunch with a few awesome girlfriends. Thank you for having me guys! =)

I would say, that the trip was so worth it. Please everyone, if you do get to come to the States, New York is a must see!=)