Retreat ...

Picture 81119, originally uploaded by John Foong.

A photo of all of us (except that I'm taking the photo!) at the ski lodge. It was a great weekend ... great snow, lots of time to relax and muck around, lots of food - there was a 24 hour supermarket store just up the road! Too perfect. :)

We had a great time of sharing, playing stupid games, and singing praise songs together too. And, of course, staying up really late at night talking about, well, stuff ... :)

Aggressive Alpine Skiing

Picture 80936, originally uploaded by John Foong.

So, this weekend we had the Business School Christian Fellowship Retreat ... in the snow at Squaw Valley (where they had the winter olympics in 1960). Of course, when you're a hopeless snowboarding beginner like myself, that doesn't really matter - I just kind of stay on the beginner slopes. And even that didn't prevent me from slightly hurting myself ... enough to convince myself to stay home on Sunday and watch movies / sleep in instead ...

This shot is taken from 8,700 feet! Which is almost 3 kilometres above sea level. I'm king of the world! Geographically. And briefly. :)

Btw if you're bored / missing the snow, head to http://www.mausland.de/swf/228 ... it's this silly little flash game when you have to ski ... agressively. See if you can beat my top score of around 4,000 ...

A night at the shooting range

Picture 80619, originally uploaded by John Foong.

For our next house outing, we decided to head to the local firing range for some shooting (we had to test out our new Texas shirts - see photo). After testing us to see if we could load a semi-automatic gun (We all failed the test!) ... they decided to train us to show us how to load and unload it .... then it was off to the range! An indoor one.

It was LOTS of fun. I'm pictured here with a big gun (which I wasn't allowed to use ... I had to use this puny small one). I wasn't very good, but at least I was kind of on target ...!

We had a blast! (oh dear)

Jason's man shower

Picture 80502, originally uploaded by John Foong.

One of my friends from business school, is about to have his first baby (via his wife Emily, of course!). Emily and her girlfriends had a baby shower ... which led us to think, why not Jason?

So we threw him a man-shower, complete with pancake breakfast, ping pong ... and some stupid baby shower games. In this one, we each had to take shot glasses of different kinds of baby food, and guess the ingredients ... i was VERY bad at it; though i really enjoyed eating the fruity ones!

We finished with a good time of prayer. Fatherhood ... how exciting! :)

White Party! For Charity ...

Picture 80232, originally uploaded by John Foong.

Every year, Stanford Grad School of Business takes part in the "Challenge for Charity" - where we try and raise money and do volunteer work to (i) beat other business schools but more importantly (ii) raise money for charity. One of the key events is a huge charity auction, where everyone dresses up in white and bids on items donated by other classmates (see separate post on something we donated).

The white party is LOTS of fun. Based on P.Diddy's white party in NYC. I was lucky enough that my friend (who is exactly the same size as me?) passed-down his white suit which he got tailored in China. See what you think! (pictured here with a fellow classmate, Jess!)

It's all-white, huh?
(Geddit? All "right" ...?!) :)

Spicy Asian Boyz! For charity ...

So I decided to try and auction off a whole lot of different charity items this year in an attempt to raise money for this "Challenge for Charity" auction. Once the final results are released, I'll let ou know how much they went for ...

... the marquee item was 8 of us Asian men (Chinese / Korean / Japanese / Indo / etc) in the 2nd year decided to get together and offer an unforgettable Asian experience at our local Chinatown (a suburb called Cupertino):

Join 8* of the Bay Area’s hottest Asian bachelors on a smorgasbord of food and culture. Prize includes an escorted ride to Cupertino in our Japanese/Korean-made cars as we, you and 7 friends pig out on authentic Chinese noodles, great sushi and the like; wash it all down with a serving of Asian “beer” (aka bubble fruit tea), and then work it all off with an intense session of competitive karaoke. Optional guided excursion to the nearest Chinese discount store is also included at no additional charge.

Who are these sizzling hot Asian men? Steve Chung, Andrew Chung, Naoto Saito, Pandu Sjahrir, Phat Quach, Min Fang, John Foong, and Micah Rowland. Bid now and spice up your life!

*note: 8 in Chinese means ‘lucky’!

Go to www.getsomespice.info to see our full photo shoot and profiles (seriously, that is not a joke!).

Return to the kitchen

Picture 79977, originally uploaded by John Foong.

After inheriting a large kitchen in my house, and having cooked a lot in my tiny "dorm" kitchen last year, one might expect to be cooking every 2nd day.

Not so. In my 15 weeks (yikes! it's been that long) living in this mansion, I haven't cooked a full meal once.

That all changed a few days ago when I finally I had to come good on one of the prizes I auctioned off for charity last year, "Dinner for 3 at John's house". I dusted off (literally) the wok and cutlery and, with my mate Micah, cooked up a storm - San Choy Bow, and Foong Soup; and Lasanga and Salad (Micah's contribution). Not to mention the dessert - double layered Kansas chocolate cake covered with blueberries (truly the best fruit ever)! Pictured here with our guests. (it turned out to be a "dinner for 6")

It was nice to cook again. :)
(though cleaning up still isn't much fun)