A story - San and Elaine
Sometimes I feel like writing a journal entry, but I don’t really know what to write. Then I realize that I have lots of stories from my past that are funny/interesting that would probably entertain my friends. So, I think I will write a few of these every once in a while. Some of them might even be about people on my friends list, but I think the majority will be new stories for most everyone.
So, the first story is about my roommates when I was on co-op at Lutron. Their names were San and Elaine, and they were both from Singapore
Living with these girls was an experience. Let’s just say they didn’t really understand or like parts of the American lifestyle, and they generally refused to listen to me when I tried to reason with them. San was definitely the more stubborn of the two. For example, she hated the fact that we had an electric stove, and refused to cook on it, especially to make rice. Instead, she devised a complicated plan to make rice in the microwave! It encompassed several different steps and different defrosting levels to complete. I could never really understand why she refused to make it on an electric stove, but the microwave was ok! Another time she wanted to make french fries, so she took frozen fries like you would get in the super market, and rather than baking them, she fried them…in extra virgin olive oil! Imagine trying to explain why one shouldn’t use $8 a bottle EVOO for frying purposes! Plus, they were totally inedible.
The other funny thing was that, even though they were both Electrical Engineers, they didn’t seem to grasp the way that electricity worked. For example, sometimes our refrigerator would go on the fritz, so they determined the best way to fix it was to turn off the air conditioning. Like the AC was pulling so much electricity that the fridge couldn’t run….
They also were terrible, terrible drivers. San didn’t have her license, but Elaine got one right before she came. They really didn’t understand the basics of driving in America. They didn’t seem to grasp the concepts of speed limits, or that it might be dangerous to go below the speed limit on the highway. After one time in the car, I refused to drive with them.
San would go to NYC almost every weekend (I think she had a cousin there). She would come back with lots of shopping bags, and claim that she belongs in NYC, not in suburban Pennsylvania!
Another thing was that San would work in her Engineering Notebook at Lutron, and then she copied everything in her notebook into a different book to bring back to Singapore with her. I told her multiple times that she wasn’t allowed to do this, but she didn’t care at all. (another example of Asians not caring about I.P., but that’s a different story).
Still, it was really fun living with them. I taught San to throw a Frisbee, which is pretty hard when you’ve never picked one up. I introduced her to Moxy Fruvous (the King of Spain), and she went with me to one of their concerts. I would bet she is one of their few fans from Singapore. Elaine’s mother (and sister, I think) came to visit her. I told her it was alright if they slept on the pull-out couch, but she insisted they would all stay in her tiny room (like 10*20’). I think her and her sister slept on the twin bed, and her mom slept on the floor. When her mother came she brought all this food from Singapore. I have no clue how she got it past customs, because the majority of it was fresh fruit. She brought Leeches, which was the first time I had those. She also brought this amazing dried BBW sparerib. Yum!
I think San ended up going to Georgia Tech for a graduate degree, and I’m not sure what happened to Elaine. I should have tried to stay in touch with them, in case I wanted to go to Singapore some day!
So, the first story is about my roommates when I was on co-op at Lutron. Their names were San and Elaine, and they were both from Singapore
Living with these girls was an experience. Let’s just say they didn’t really understand or like parts of the American lifestyle, and they generally refused to listen to me when I tried to reason with them. San was definitely the more stubborn of the two. For example, she hated the fact that we had an electric stove, and refused to cook on it, especially to make rice. Instead, she devised a complicated plan to make rice in the microwave! It encompassed several different steps and different defrosting levels to complete. I could never really understand why she refused to make it on an electric stove, but the microwave was ok! Another time she wanted to make french fries, so she took frozen fries like you would get in the super market, and rather than baking them, she fried them…in extra virgin olive oil! Imagine trying to explain why one shouldn’t use $8 a bottle EVOO for frying purposes! Plus, they were totally inedible.
The other funny thing was that, even though they were both Electrical Engineers, they didn’t seem to grasp the way that electricity worked. For example, sometimes our refrigerator would go on the fritz, so they determined the best way to fix it was to turn off the air conditioning. Like the AC was pulling so much electricity that the fridge couldn’t run….
They also were terrible, terrible drivers. San didn’t have her license, but Elaine got one right before she came. They really didn’t understand the basics of driving in America. They didn’t seem to grasp the concepts of speed limits, or that it might be dangerous to go below the speed limit on the highway. After one time in the car, I refused to drive with them.
San would go to NYC almost every weekend (I think she had a cousin there). She would come back with lots of shopping bags, and claim that she belongs in NYC, not in suburban Pennsylvania!
Another thing was that San would work in her Engineering Notebook at Lutron, and then she copied everything in her notebook into a different book to bring back to Singapore with her. I told her multiple times that she wasn’t allowed to do this, but she didn’t care at all. (another example of Asians not caring about I.P., but that’s a different story).
Still, it was really fun living with them. I taught San to throw a Frisbee, which is pretty hard when you’ve never picked one up. I introduced her to Moxy Fruvous (the King of Spain), and she went with me to one of their concerts. I would bet she is one of their few fans from Singapore. Elaine’s mother (and sister, I think) came to visit her. I told her it was alright if they slept on the pull-out couch, but she insisted they would all stay in her tiny room (like 10*20’). I think her and her sister slept on the twin bed, and her mom slept on the floor. When her mother came she brought all this food from Singapore. I have no clue how she got it past customs, because the majority of it was fresh fruit. She brought Leeches, which was the first time I had those. She also brought this amazing dried BBW sparerib. Yum!
I think San ended up going to Georgia Tech for a graduate degree, and I’m not sure what happened to Elaine. I should have tried to stay in touch with them, in case I wanted to go to Singapore some day!