Friday, December 30, 2005
Friday, December 23, 2005
Friday, December 16, 2005
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Monday, 21 November
The grand plan to escape Cornell was full of drama. We had booked the tickets online in hope that we would be guranteed seats on the bus. We should have known better than to trust the Ithaca bus system. First of all, the information on the website was wrong. We thought the ticket counter would be closed at the time of our departure so Cherlyn and I took a trip down to the bus station on Monday to collect our bus tickets. Next, when we got there, we couldn't collect the tickets because all 4 of us had to be present. And they tormented us more. At around 5pm (on Monday still; our classes had ended for the day and we were in our room), the person called to say that we had to collect them by 6pm that same day and we told her she was nuts. She then said we had to be at the bus station by 11 am on Tuesday (the bus departs at 12.40pm) or else. Of course we couldn't be there at that time, our classes haven't even ended. In fact, Denise and Kristal had a prelim that only ended at 12.05pm on Tuesday.
Tuesday, 22 November
We met up with Denise and Kristal after their prelims and a senior (Colin) drove us down to the bus station. On the way there, it started snowing huge flakes of snow. Whee. We arrived at 12.15pm, only to be called "bad girls" by the old crone at the ticketing counter. Whatever. This first bus was to bring us to Philadelphia. We made 2 transfers at somewhere and somewhere else (haha sorry I can't remember...) and it was snowing heavily at those places. The snowflakes were huge compared to the ones that I've seen previously. Yesh, call me a mountain turtle. Anyways, after about 7 hours on the bus, we finally arrived at Philadelphia (whoopee!), only to get ripped off by the cab to the hotel. Sheesh. Ok, the whole story goes like this. We had the directions to our hotel. According to mapquest, it's only a 4 min drive which translates to about 10 mins walk maybe. We wanted to double-check anyway so we went to ask a couple of bus drivers and even the security guard there. Those liars. They all said that it was at least a 15 min drive there. One even called a cab for us. The cab ride cost $20 and guess what? It really was a 4 min ride there. They were all in it together man, ganging up to cheat us. Yar well now we know so... Our room had a spectacular view of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. And I really do mean it. The first thing we saw when we went into the room was a breathtaking night view of the bridge. We all went "wow" at the same time haha.
*The funny things that happened in our room. Well it wasn't that funny. Just observations of one another's sleeping habits. I slept on the same bed with Cherlyn. She hogs the blanket. I woke up in the middle of the night to put on my jacket cos I couldn't tug the blanket out of her grip. Denise and Kristal were on the other bed. Apparently, Denise slowly edged her way to the centre of the bed over the course of the night i.e. Kristal was being edged out of the bed. Kristal and I decided that Denise and Cherlyn can share a bed the next night.
Wednesday, 23 November
We helped ourselves generously to the complimentary breakfast and packed a bagel each for lunch later. Part of money-saving measures hee. Our first stop was University of Pennsylvania a.k.a UPenn. Comfort Inn had a free shuttle service that can bring us to anywhere within 20 blocks of the Inn so we had the driver bring us to as close as he could to UPenn. That still wasn't close enough, so we went underground to take the subway there. Lucky for us, we actually met another Singaporean at the station. He's from NUS but I think he's doing his professional attachment at UPenn, so he's working and studying at the same time. Anyway, it's really a small world. He brought us to UPenn and gave us some rough directions as to where to go and how to get there etc. We spent about 2 hours in UPenn, before walking almost 20 blocks back to the city center. It was a very cold and windy day. We periodically took short breaks inside buildings to escape the cold. After looking around at the city center and taking pictures, we headed to Chinatown where I had roast duck noodles for lunch. Yummy! Egg tarts for dessert too. We just couldn't resist it when we walked past the bakery. Our last stop for the day was the historic area of Philadelphia, which was quite near our inn. We spent about half an hour lining up to see the Liberty Bell, which is really one of many bells that used to ring on top of the tower in the city. What set it apart from the rest were the words engraved upon it, something about liberty. Throughout America's history, various groups of people had used that phrase, and hence the bell, as a symbol of liberty and freedom. Yeah something like that. It also had a big crack down the middle. Amazingly, this big crack was actually drilled into the bell on purpose to stop the tiny hairline cracks that threaten to spoil the bell. Funny logic in my opinion but if it works, that's fine with me. We headed back to Comfort Inn to pick up our bags and had the shuttle send us to the bus station. We arrived at 5pm, about an hour before departure time (to Washington D.C.) and to our horror, there was already a long queue for the bus. At least 40 people were ahead of us in the line. Don't worry, we got on the bus. They knew it was the holiday season so had prepared additional buses already. It was 3.5 hours ride to arrive at Washington. I was surprised we arrived on time because I vaguely remembered a huge traffic jam on our way out of Philadelphia. (I was asleep for most of the ride though, hence "vaguely".) When we arrived at D.C., it was snowing. Bo pian, must take cab. We were determined not to get ripped off again so this time we bargained with the driver. $12 for a 5 min cab ride. Oh well.
*Kristal and I slept soundly. Cherlyn apparently whacked Denise's ear while they were both sleeping.
Thursday, 24 November
We had grand plans for the day. Unfortunately, we overslept. We woke up at 8.50am and rushed out to the lobby to grab the free breakfast that ended at 9am. Our first stop was to the White House. We couldn't go in, so just took pictures outside the fence. Yeah, that sounds kinda pathetic, I know. What to do... Yup so after that we walked about that area, the National Mall, and took a look at other memorials like the Lincoln memorial, Vietnam War Veteran Memorial, WWII Memorial, Washington Monument. Sorry I can't post any pictures, remember to bug me for them when I return home yar? Next, we went to the Holocaust Museum which, as the name suggests, is devoted entirely to the atrocities of the Holocaust. It is perhaps the single most depressing thing in Washington D.C.. We proceeded to a happier place, the Air and Space Museum. Ranked No. 1 on Yahoo Travel's Places to See List, we definitely didn't want to miss this. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time left cos we were due for a Thanksgiving dinner. Cherlyn, Denise and I decided to return the next day but poor Kristal had to make do with snapping photos only and skipping the exhibits totally. Just to clarify, Kristal is a fellow Singaporean sophomore, NOT exchange student i.e. normal student doing the full 4 year course in Cornell. Unlike us, she has a GPA to fulfill (we only need to pass haha) so she returned to Cornell earlier to study for a prelim. So yesh, the highlight (in my opinion) of the trip: the Thanksgiving dinner. You may be wondering where the fourth member of our group (a.k.a Jowyn) is. Well her roommate, Michelle, is from D.C. and a family friend of hers invited her family and us over for Thanksgiving dinner. Which is so so nice of them, afterall we are practically strangers and Thanksgiving is a traditionally family affair. Anyway, on that cold Thanksgiving night, we had a nice warm dinner. In fact, it was a huge feast. Not only was the food good, they were really so nice to us. Tummy felt good, heart felt good too, if u get what I mean. After dinner, we played games. It's actually really simple but damn fun. Won't tell you guys how its played here cos I wanna play it again when I return to Singapore hee. Ah I neglected to tell you about our benefactors, the Subata family. Mr. Subata is Japanese, his wife, Kate, is Caucasian and their children are gorgeous. There's Lan, Mie and their younger brother whose name I can't remember, I'm sincerely sorry. Besides their family of five, their future-in-laws were also present. Mie's fiance, his brothers and mother (I think). Mom's Japanese, Father's Caucasian (I think... again). Then there's Michelle's family, consisting of her Mom who's Japanese, and her brother's Daniel and George. Her father is a diplomat, currently in Iraq. Yup so all the 2nd generation people are Eurasian, specifically Japanese-Caucasian. Right so after the games, there was the dessert, then the (the Subata's) showed us a video of this organization their involved in. It's like a youth organization and they make use of the performing arts (singing, dancing, skits etc) to promote AIDS awareness among youths. Then the youngsters had a break dance competition, no kidding. Besides Lan and Mie, all the others break dance. I have videos as evidence. Mr Subata even showed a trick or two. They're really an amazing family. We, the Singaporean free-loaders, were also persuaded to put up a little impromptu item, so we sang a song or two, recited the pledge and sang the national anthem. The Subata's gave us a lift back to the inn but before that, they took us for a spin to see the night view of the memorials and monuments. This was my first Thanksgiving Dinner and I had such a lovely memory of it because of the Subata's. They really extended their warmth to us unconditionally and unhesitantly, I'm sincerely touched and grateful to them for their hospitality. To quote "Little Women", it's like knocking on a stranger's door on a cold winter day and opening it to find yourself at home again. What a wondrous and magical feeling.
*We all slept like logs.
Friday, 25 November
We sent Kristal to the bus station before heading for the Pentagon. It was a let-down actually, cos we couldn't enter the building. Neither could we see it's famous pentagonal shape. So we went to Pentagon City, which is a mall near Pentagon. Did some window shopping before going back to the Air and Space Museum. We spent most of the afternoon there looking at the exhibits before heading to Chinatown for dinner. On the whole, it was a pretty slack day, largely because we were all exhausted from the previous day and we didn't dare to return to our inn too late also because it's not very safe. Most of Washington D.C.s population is black. Most of the white people we see are either tourists or at the richer districts of D.C., which isn't very big. In fact, most of Philadelphia consists of Afro-Americans too, except for the UPenn area I think.
*I got a bed to myself hee. When I woke up in the morning, to my horror, Denise was sleeping on the floor. Decided she could have the bed to herself the next night.
Saturday, 26 November
We caught the 9am bus to Atlantic City, New Jersey. Atlantic City is basically a casino city. There are 3 major casinos: Trump's Taj Mahal, Bally's and Caesar's. Each has a different theme (Bally's is like wild wild west) and they all lie along the Boardwalk. Atlantic City is easy to navigate because all you need to do is to walk from one end of the Boardwalk to the other. The Boardwalk is really a wide walkway of wooden planks that run parallel to the coast. We arrived at 2pm at the northern end of the Boardwalk but alas, our inn was at the southern end. We took more than half-an-hour to carry ourselves and luggage all the way there. Exhausting. The innkeeper was very helpful though. By far the friendliest innkeeper I've met. After setting down our stuff, we headed out onto the Boardwalk, making stops at souvenier shops, peeking into the casinos here and there. We spent about 45 min in Ripley's Believe or Not Museum, which is filled with weird and bizarre artifacts. It was generally alot of walking around. When we got back, we had a nice chat with the innkeeper's son, who's actually a law grad. We were actually looking for information about this lighthouse that we wanted to visit the following day and we learnt not to rely on the mass media too much. It was at such an ulu-fied place that we abandoned our plans for going there.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Seven things that scare me:
1. Losing my family.
2. Losing myself.
3. Losing my friends.
4. Any of the above getting hurt, ill or general malaise.
5. Scary movies. Yes, I'm a chicken. Cherlyn is a testament to that.
6.
7.
And there you have it. I'm a brave person. I dun have 7 things i'm scared of. I only have 5. So there.
Seven things I like the most:
1. Sleeping.
2. Manga.
3. Reading. Er not just manga. I read other stuff too yar.
4. Music.
5. Singing.
6. Eating.
7. Hanging out with my friends.
And I bet you thought that tormenting people would be in the list too. Well guess again. I'm nice ok.
Seven most important things in my room:
1. Bed.
2. Blanket.
3. Bathroom.
4. Bolster.
5. Curtains.
6. Fan. I figure this will be switched on 24-7 when I return.
7. Air-con. I'll try not to switch this on 24-7.
Seven random facts about me:
1. Once I killed a chicken. It took me about 2 to 3 mins though. I sincerely repent for putting the chicken through all that agony. I'll try to do it faster the next time.
2. Rebonded hair 3 times already.
3. Scaled Mt. Kinabalu.
Seven things I plan to do before I die:
1. Bungee jump.
2. Fall in love.
3. Get married.
4. Have kids.
5. Make sure my parents have a happy, comfortable life.
Seven things I can do:
1. Blow bubbles with my saliva.
2. Raise my right eyebrow.
3. Cook Hainan Chicken Rice.
4. Pointe work with the proper shoes.
5. Annoy the hell out of anyone.
6. Lend out manga. Well it's my brother's but I'm sure he'll understand.
7. Whistle.
Seven things I can't do:
Seven words I say the most:
Seven celeb crushes:
1. Brad Pitt.
2. Takeshi Kaneshiro.
3. Richard Gere.
4. Julia Roberts.
5. Celine Dion
6. David Tao.
7. Johnny Depp.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
We reached Port Authority Bus Terminal and my first impression of the bus berth is that it resembles an airport. There are boarding gates for the buses and they are sort of dark and underground. Yup NYC is not a very clean-looking place. Our first stop upon arrival was the visitor's centre to pick up maps. We didn't get too lost haha.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Right, I think it's still autumn here.
Yeah so anyway, I'm taking (yet another) break from cheonging homework to blog. I'm actually trying to finish homework that's due in 2 weeks because I'll be away the whole of next week for Thanksgiving break. In fact, I'm waiting for one of the assignments to be posted online so I can complete it while the library is still open. It's the biostats assignment and I need to use the software in the library to complete it. Unfortunately for me, it's still not posted. Gah. The library closes early on Fri and if he still doesn't post the assignment, I'll be in for one helluva rush to complete it when I get back from my break. Sigh. I'm not hopeful. In fact I'm hungry.
There you go. I'm constantly hungry nowadays. People, when you see me again, just wanna let you know that I know I gained weight. Yup so the constant reminders ain't very necessary, if you get what I mean.
The cold weather makes me wish I was back home in Singapore. And then I think about how warm it'll be, I get second thoughts again. Think about it: I'm used to an air-con-like atmosphere here. The heat is probably going to be nearly unbearable when I return. A whole 30 degrees change in temperature. Whoa. Not to mention the household's electricity bill will shoot up due to my excessive use of air-con. Not good, not good.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Monday, November 14, 2005
Anyway the director of the International Students Office was very kind to organise a lunch (pizza) cum info session about American Football. Then later, we all trooped down to the stadium to watch the game. It's the last game played on home ground for the season, so the turnout was pretty large. We were told that this game was particularly significant for the seniors (graduating/final year students) cos it's their last game in Cornell. It was nice and sunny too, a pleasant change from the cold of Thursday and Friday. It was actually quite an easy win for Cornell. In fact, we always had the upper hand. After the game, we went down to the field to take pictures with the football players. Finally I know where all the cute American boys are hiding. My roomie is quite gaga over them now, but it's just a phase so hopefully it'll pass haha. What about me? Haha well that's something for me to know and u to never find out *smirk*
Besides that, there's basically nothing much happening now. The week that just passed was a rather boring one. We had little homework, one or two quizzes and no major tests. Not that I'm complaining but that did help to occupy my time now that Penelope is far far away in Neverland. Cherlyn and I watched about 6 movies I think over the course of the week. Movie rental in my hall. Did I tell you I love Balch? hee.
I'm looking forward to next weekend though. We're taking a trip down to New York City for broadway and to check out THE PREMIUM OUTLET (translates to more SHOPPING) *grin* Thanksgiving Break comes right after that weekend and I'll be going to Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and New Jersey. After that, the exams are round the corner. Hopefully there'll be enough snow by then for us to take a day off to go skiing during the study break. Then after exams, I'll probably go to Florida and head back to New York City to spend Christmas. And then, I balik kampung.
Friday, November 11, 2005
And I formally bid farewell to the nice warm weather of 15 degrees celsius and above. I don't think it will come back while I'm still here. Lately, the wind has been very strong. In fact, on Makanmania afternoon, there was a mini-whirlwind right outside my window. I was trying to nap at about 4pm that afternoon when I heard this whirring sound. When Cherlyn and I drew the curtains to take a look at what's outside, we were quite surprised to see that the sky was dark already, much like the 7.30pm sky in Singapore. The really shocking thing was to see the trees swaying in the wind and the fallen leaves on the ground being blown up really really high, higher than our window at the second floor. And of course the howling of the wind and lightning that streaked across the sky added to the general mood of cold, windy and colder. So that's the marvellous Ithaca weather for you. At least it snowed. Now let there be enough snow for a snowball fight. That would be heavenly.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
The night of “food-mania,” as Makanmania translates, featured 23 different entrees as well as Singaporean games and singing by SSA members.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
1. Penelope came alive. Mind you, this is very brief, possibly only for a day or even less.
2. I'm in the computer lab which has windows messenger.
3. I'm at the laptop rental centre in my hall.
4. My roomie is sleeping so I'm using her laptop.
From observing everyone's msn nicks, I figure that the exams are drawing near for the NTU and NUS people yar? Good luck everybody, don't give up! Oh yar and SMU person (I think tt's only you, shu) too :)
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Monday, October 24, 2005
Another trip organised by HILC, Cherlyn and I happily chup in haha. We went to Six Flags Theme Park at Darien Lake, Buffalo. The bus left at 10, we reached at 12.45pm or so, where we met up with Jowyn. Jowyn spent the weekend at Rochester with a friend and judging by the interesting stories we heard, she had a rather wild time there. *cough, frat party, cough cough* Yeah anyway, it was the worst day to be at an amusement park because it was cold and wet. It rained almost perpetually and temperatures were definitely sub-10. I'm pretty certain that as the afternoon progressed, it hit sub-5 at some time cos we could see the mist from our breath. But did that deter us? Of course not!
The first ride we took was the Viper. That one was pretty cool, turned us upside down once or twice with the loops. Then we headed for the Boomerang. The Boomerang was pretty interesting. We were first carried up a slope backwards so we were looking down on the slope. Then suddenly, without any warning, the brakes were released and we zoomed down the same slope we climbed up, up and down, sideways, a couple of loops and then a slow climb up another slope, this time facing forward. Then the entire ride repeats backwards. Wicked eh? We did the bumper cars too but I was quite unlucky cos my car wouldn't move. If my estimation is correct, I was displaced a grand total of 5 metres from my original position, thanks to the other cars bumping me along. Shucks.
By then, it was really unbearably cold so we hid in the theatre for awhile. Halloween's around the corner so the performance was entitled "Dead Man's Party". A mix of song and dance, it wasn't too bad plus it kept us out of the rain for quite awhile. After that brief respite (I admit I really needed it cos I dun have a high threshold for fast rides, even though I like the thrill...), we went for THE ride. Ride of Steel a.k.a the Superman ride is one helluva ride. The start of the ride is the worst. Here are the Ride Facts:
1. First Drop: 205 Feet (about 62m!!!)
2. Angle of First Drop: 70 degrees (argh!)
and there are some more but not that important. I really really hate the feeling of free fall after that ride, cos after the first drop, there were at least two more not-so-high-but-bad-enough drops so the feeling really really sucked. *shiver* But the rides are damn fun la. See how contradictory I am? Sigh.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Friday, October 21, 2005
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Monday, October 17, 2005
Sunday, October 16, 2005
The MIT hacks are perhaps the most intriguing aspect of their culture. Besides the "police car" hack, there are plenty of other things that the students put up on the roof of the great dome, including a snowman on a very hot summer day and a gigantic screw. Another famous hack involved turning all the chairs in a lecture hall to face the back of the hall. Mind you, these chairs were bolted down to the floor individually and it was all done overnight so it's really quite amazing how they were able to pull it off.
Here's a picture of the 4 of us in our coordinated clothing:
This was the second day, the one we spent at the Premium Outlet shopping. The picture was taken at the recep area at Day's Inn. We spent 3 mornings eating bagels by the window and waiting for the rest to wake up. Yesh surprisingly, most of the time, the girls were punctual but not the guys. Kind of makes you wonder what the world is coming to.
This the pic we took after our dinner at Legal Seafood. The guys from left: Jian Long, Chinning and Wee Lee (yes, I did get the spelling wrong haha). It's amazing how well we got along as dinner companions within 3 hours. As mentioned earlier, the 2 MIT guys left dinner with 2 very very silly nicknames and it all started when we decided to guess one another's JCs, secondary schs and primary schs. I think Cherlyn's school was perhaps the hardest to guess out of the 4 of us girls. Then when we tried to guess Jian Long's sch, he very nicely gave us some clues. He hinted that his school is actually some sort of confectionary and it's six letters long. And guess what happened next? Cherlyn was shooting out words like cupcake, donut, cookie, muffin etc. If I never told you before, one thing my roomie well-versed at is snacks of all sorts. So we (the 4 girls) started laughing non-stop, leaving the guys rather bewildered I guess. And Cherlyn wouldn't stop calling out different types of food! She kept going on, gosh! So if you take a step back and think about the situation real carefully, 2 of the smartest guys of '83 (they're all scholars) being laughed at by 4 silly girls is really quite sad on their part I think. Yeah I shan't disclose their nicknames here, think that's quite enough already hee. Btw, turns out Jian Long was from Pandan Pri and I (yesh the all-magnificent me) guessed it haha. *victory sign*
Yeah think that's enough for the night, back to mugging :)
Friday, October 14, 2005
7 October
There were still lessons on that very rainy Friday. Luckily for me, I only had two. Only 50% of the students turned up for lessons, judging by the attendance in the classroom and lecture hall. So after our lessons ended at 12.05pm, we returned to our room to prepare for our departure.
A little more background information on this trip: It's a mighty 5 car convoy with a total of 25 people going to Boston in Massachusetts. Yesh, coordination was a pain in the neck but it wasn't my pain. Bascially, the people in this trip were the 7 Toronto Trip people (Alvin, Yizhuan, Chining, Denise, Cherlyn, Jowyn and I) and the Singaporean freshies. Directions from Mapquest indicated that the journey there will probably take more than 5 hours but we all knew it would take more than that because traffic conditions were not good. Rain and fog was expected.
So we were supposed to depart at 4pm but only left Cornell close to an hour later. My car contained the 4 of us exchange students and Chinning. Needless to say, that poor guy had to endure our funny antics but let's leave that for another time. Anyways, the scenery was gloomy cos of the rain. The first 1 1/2 hours was pretty slow moving too cos we were driving through the small towns and the speed limit was 30 mph. Furthermore, our car, which Chinning borrowed from a friend, didn't seem to have much accelerating power, so we literally crawled up every slope. There were always 4 cars behind us on that road but they can't overtake us cos of the double yellow line so.. *shrugs shoulders* We had a few stops here and there, drove thru McDonalds for dinner (cos we were the slowest car already, so we dare not stop to eat haha). We finally reached our hotel (Day's Inn) at midnight, so that was about a 7 hour drive. Our room was very nice and pleasant to say the least. There was wireless network so Cherlyn and Denise could use their laptops. The laptops also doubled as our jukebox during the long car trip. There were 2 double beds so all 4 of us were able to get a good night's rest comfortably. Which we didn't really actually, we played cards till 3 hee.
8 October
Sort of looked forward to this day of SHOPPING! Yesh, one whole day devoted to the Premium outlet where most of the brands are gathered at one location. We started at 10am or so and managed to cover the entire area. Oh I forgot to mention, we (the 4 of us) decided to coordinate our clothing that day haha. We all wore our red Cornell t-shirt and denim skirts, which of course drew alot of stares. I bet they were just jealous *humph*. Although I bought a couple of things, it was actually rather disappointing. Well Levi's let me down actually. The colours, designs and sizes there were awful. I came out of that shop empty-handed. Sigh. Oh well, at least I have my second-hand Levi's to comfort me. We bumped into Alvin and Chinning at Guess and we were thorougly insulted by them. Their shopping bags were larger than ours. 'Ours' = 4 girls combined. You see what I mean? Gosh, how can we lose to them?! Anyway, we were only about 1/3 through so we soon caught up to them in terms of purchases. Well not really me actually. I splurged on a necklace for Mommy, a t-shirt for Kor, a t-shirt, a pair of shorts and a watch for myself. That's all. Jyang, sorry I didn't get your Birkies. They had started to keep the summer stock and replace it with the fall/winter shoes so Gizeh was unavailable. Madrid was beyond budget. Lips, didn't see Hollister, sorry. Yeah so we literally spent one whole day there, headed back to the hotel at night, where I watched Iron Chef America before going to sleep.
Caramel apples! We shared one chocolate chip apple, yummy!
I met Rachelle!! What a coincedence! Rachelle's my Sec 4 classmate and gee I look fat next to her...
9 October
We went down to Boston City where one of the guys' friend brought us on a tour around MIT. One really interesting part of MIT culture is their "hacks". They've got this prominent building which has a dome-shaped roof and once, to protest against some parking dispute, a group of students spirited away a police car, took it apart and brought it up to the dome where they reassembled it. There are plenty others too, not just involving the dome and some of them are just pure ingenuity. We also took turns sliding down two of the corridors on chairs (those with wheels, like the ones in the computer lab). That wasn't too bad either :) MIT
After MIT, the day sort of went downhill. Boston was a mega-hard city to navigate so I dubbed this day as the Day of Hollanding. Holland=getting lost. We went to a restaurant called Penang for lunch, where we had a really good treat of Singaporean and Malaysian food (chicken rice, hor fun, duck rice, chicken curry, oyster omelette, kangkong). After that, we headed for Salem. And that's where we hollanded repeatedly I can't even keep track. I think probably the reason for that is we didn't have a proper map of the place. So it was a very frustrating experience for our poor driver (Chinning) and navigator for the day (Jowyn). We all took turns sitting in front btw. Well we finally found the place after approximately 2 hours of hollanding. The museum had closed but we managed to catch the show, which is pretty much a summary of the Crucible and the Salem witchcraft trials.
Salem. Those are buskers but you'll have to tip them to take a photo with them so I just took pics of them hee.
We headed back into Boston City for dinner at this seafood restaurant called Legal. Any bad fish would be illegal (bad joke, sorry). We were the last to arrive because we mega-hollanded again. So it was about close to 9pm when we placed our orders for food. The 5 of us shared a table with 2 of Chinning's friends from MIT, Willie (not sure of the spelling actually...) and Jian Long. I think the 2 of them regretted it sorely cos they walked away with very very hilarious (on our part, embarrasing on their part I'm sure) nicknames at the end of dinner. Anyways, I think that dinner was the start of the laughing sickness that afflicts our car. Up till that point of time, I haven't laughed so hard for a very long time. We said our goodbyes at around midnight, returned to the hotel room about 1am and promptly went to sleep.
10 October
Another mega-holland day. We set off for Vermont. Our first stop was the corn maze which took a long time to get to cos we had to navigate through the more mountainous regions and we couldn't call for help cos there was no reception for the handphones. But well at least it was a scenic route. Beautiful, beautiful scenery. The leaves have started to turn yellow, red and orange and some trees have shed their leaves completely. It was a clear day too, so we could see the mountains amidst the clouds (might have been mist or fog actually...) far far away.
The Great Corn Maze. Gosh. We split up into 4 groups according to our cars. Our car didn't even make it through 1 quarter of it. It's humiliating. Let's not talk about it. Wait till I return to Singapore, you can take a look at the videos I took haha.
Our original plan was to go to the teddy bear factory after the corn maze but it was too late by then and everyone was tired from running around in the maze. The alternative plan was to go to Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Factory because it closes later but I think every car hollanded while trying to get there so in the end, we decided to just check into our hotel. Our car was the first to reach. The rest of the cars hollanded and arrived about 45 min to an hour later. To pass the time, we played some taitee and indian poker. We then had Mexican fare for dinner which I felt was rather delicious.
I guess I should just do a little sidetrack here and talk about some more trivial stuff here. Well when I went to Toronto, we stopped by the Niagara Falls on the way back. Out of the 8 of us, the 4 girls (us, the exchange students) obviously have never seen the falls so we were all "ooh" and "aah" over it. The other 4 guys are upperclassmen so all but one have seen the falls like countless times I think. So Yizhuan very happily nicknamed the 5 of us (Denise, Jowyn, Cherlyn, Chinning and I) "mountain turtles". And on this trip, the 5 mountain turtles were all in the same car and very frequently, our car was the slowest. Well that's not our fault cos the car itself doesn't have much accelerating power so it crawls up any slope. Oops I think I've mentioned that before. Well anyway, we felt pretty good about coming in first that night. Turtle Power!
11 October
We went to Ben and Jerry's first thing in the morning haha. It's a very happy place, that's for sure. And yesh, we of course had ice cream despite the cold. Btw, it's about 10 to 15 degrees celcius daily now. Cool right? Next stop was the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory. There's the Vermont Teddy that costs a bomb and then there are the "exchange students" cos those teddys are made in China. No I didn't get a teddy, I've got my bear waiting for me at home. Cannot be "flowery-hearted". Hee. After that, it was another long long ride back to Cornell. We reached after 8pm, dropped off our stuff at Balch then went down to Collegetown for dinner. And dessert afterwards. I think within that short span of about 2 plus hours, I laughed so hard until my sides hurt. Why? Because of Cherlyn la. *glare* That girl and her funny antics. And Denise just goads her on... yar it's a bit hard to understand I guess so let's just leave it there. Wait till I come back and you can look at the photos and videos and get a better idea of what happened.
Ben and Jerry's. (that's quite a duh thing but nvm...)
Yup so that sums up my fall break trip and probably the last of my road trips. Quite sad actually, cos road trips are really so much fun. Hope to be able to do something like this in the future. This whole week is gonna be rainy and rainier. Plus the cold. Brrr.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
After class on Friday, Cherlyn and I went to the second-hand clothes shop to pick up some warm clothing. If you don't mind wearing second-hand, then it's really a great place to shop cos there's some really nice stuff among the racks and no lack of branded goods too. Then we had mahjong again at night hee.
Saturday morning, we checked out the Ithaca Farmers' Market. They had fresh farm produce, but mostly organic, so the prices weren't very cheap. There was some interesting food there though, like Cambodian, Thai, Cuban and many more. I had a Cuban sandwich for lunch. It's some kind of bread with ham, tuna, and some yellow thing I can't identify filled in the middle. The entire thing is then grilled so the bread has a crispy outer crust. Quite tasty but full of calories. Oh well. We went to the second-hand clothes store again haha cos it was along the way back. I got a pair of second-hand Levi's for $9! Haha :) Ok it's not like extremely nice-looking but I like the colour and it's really comfortable, so yup I'm glad. Retail therapy works.
Jowyn's mom is here visiting for a week so she cooked us a delicious dinner, with bak kut teh (yummy!). Yar it has been some time since I had a meal of rice with 4 dishes so was really really very grateful for her treat. Mommy, when I return, can you please cook for me? I miss your cooking!
Then we had late night badminton. Played from 10pm to 1am in the Helen Newman Gym. I've never ever played so much badminton in my life I think, which goes to show how little I exercise. Incidentally, I just learnt that why exercise is especially important to your bones is because the stress on the bones actually help to keep bone mass and density high so there's less risk of fractures. Yup gals are more susceptible to osteoporosis so I shall try to exercise more regularly from now on. Needless to say, my body aches now la.
Sunday was shopping at the factory outlet in Waterloo. I didn't spend much actually cos we only had 3 hours or so at the outlet. And this was just a small outlet. There are the bigger ones coming up soon in my itinerary hee. Yup so do let me know if you would like anything specific, like a particular brand or something. Best if you can provide me with some details like size, colour etc. Otherwise you'll be at the mercy of my horrid fashion sense hahaha. I'm definitely going to one the coming weekend. It's my fall break and I'm travelling to Massachusetts and definitely will stop by their factory outlet so do let me know soon yar?
Then there was the Third Eye Blind concert at night which was pretty cool. Not really my type of music but the band is really impressive, especially the guitarists. The sound and lighting was fabulous too. We had late night bubble tea and spicy cajun fries after that before we headed back to bed.
Today I had an acute case of the Monday Blues. Boo hoo. Yar you guessed it, caffeine-sustenance was the key. What really woke me up was my last lesson of the day, Plagues and People. We watched a ghastly video about the Great London Plague in 1665. I was in need of fresh air after watching the show. It was a very well-made documentary, but definitely not for the squeamish. *shiver*
Yup so that sums it up so far. TCAT isn't going on strike thank goodness. All that's left now is my prelim results. Good luck to me :)
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Monday, September 26, 2005
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Oh yes, Edmund kindly informed me about a grave mistake in my previous post. Mid-AUTUMN festival, not midsummer's. Hmm, I must have been thinking of Sec 2 literature *sheepish grin*. Thx Edmund!
16 Sep
We were supposed to set off at 5pm but Cherlyn and I were waiting at the wrong pick-up place (oops) so we only set off at around 5.30pm. There were 2 cars and 8 of us. Yizhuan, Denise and Cherlyn were in Alvin's car; Chin Ning, Jowyn and I were in Luke's car. It was a 4 to 5 hour drive to Toronto. There was still a couple of hours of daylight so I spent most of the earlier part of the drive looking at the scenery. It was sort of cloudy, so the view wasn't spectacular, couldn't compare to New Zealand. We stopped at Burger King for dinner at one of the service areas along the interstate highway. I had a humongous Angus Shroom Burger or something like that, which is acutally the equivalent of Singapore's Mushroom Swiss but 1.5 times larger. Then the rest of the girls ate smaller burgers so that made me look like pig la... Self-esteem went down several notches... Anyways, there was this really interesting machine there also. You insert a penny (1 cent) and then crank this lever which will compress the penny into this mould and out comes this oval shaped thingy with words and designs. Er think my descriptive skills ain't too good hor, paiseh. Yeah we had to insert 2 quarters along with the penny and I actually didn't have enough. Then cos I'm always so slow, so the guys had already gave away all their quarters to the other girls (boo hoo!). So I went up to a couple of other people in BK to ask for change for a dollar. Then this really really nice guy just fished out all his loose change from his pocket and dumped it in my hand and refused to take my money. Very touched *sniff*. Nice person number 1.
Anyways, we finally reached Toronto at 11.30pm or so and we went to check-in at our hostel. They messed up our reservations. We reserved 4 beds in an all-female room but when we got there, they only had 3 beds available in the all-female room and 1 bed in the mixed room. Needless to say, we were freaking pissed at them. We decided to take the 3 beds and forgo the 4th bed. So Jowyn and I shared a bed in one room while Cherlyn and Denise to the other 2 beds in a separate room. But it was ok, the bed was pretty spacious and the both of us are pretty small-sized so I had quite a sound sleep. We took the upper bunk next to the window. While we were settling in, one of the other girls sharing the room returned. She's from Germany and has lots of experience backpacking. She pointed out that we probably should draw the curtains cos there were people looking in. Jowyn and I totally did not notice it. Gosh. Yeah she also gave us a few tips here and there. Nice person number 2. The room was hideously untidy la, but i think the mess was from the other 2 girls who hadn't returned even when we went to bed at 1 am.
17 Sep
The guys picked us up from the hostel at approx 9.30am where we took a tour of University of Toronto. We then walked towards Chinatown where Yizhuan went to visit one of his friends. We then had dim sum for lunch. Oh yesh, it was heavenly. I think I'll dream of the siew mai tonight. I guess I should clarify, Wei Xiang and Howie are Chin Ning's friends at U of T so they basically showed us around. They left us for the afternoon to go rock-climbing so we wandered through Toronto city in the afternoon. We visited the harbour and CN tower. CN stands for Canadian National. It's a tourist attraction and typical of all tourists' attractions, it charges a nice exorbitant price too. We visited the gift shop though. Then we headed to the Princess of Wales Theatre to pick up the Les Miserable tickets for the night. By that time, it was about 5+pm, close to 6pm, so we've been walking one whole day and everyone just felt like their feet were going to give way. We found a place, sat down, took out the cards and started playing taitee. I can see you shaking your head already hee.
Wei Xiang and Howie met up with us at 7pm and brought us to this nice Jap restaurant for dinner. Problem was the show was at 8pm so we basically gobbled up our food within 20min and ran back to the theatre. Which was really quite a waste cos we didn't have a chance to savour the taste of the food. Shucks.
Les Mis was really good. I watched it before more than a decade ago so I understand much more of the plot and themes now. We were unfortunately sitting apart cos the tickets were sort of purchased last minute. But it was good. After that, we wanted to go to this building that had a bar at the top. The view is supposedly very good too, as good as CN tower and minus the entrance fee. When we reached there, you can't believe what happened. The bar was closed for a private function. Argh! We were all stunned. Gosh... what luck we have.
We (the girls) also had to make a few decisions. Cos we didn't want the night to go to waste and no one felt like sleeping i.e. more taitee perhaps. But the guys were all staying at the U of T pple's apartments, and we were at the hostel which wasn't that nearby. Then Jowyn and Denise also wanted to run the Terry Fox Run the next morning so if we were to stay in the hostel, the guys will have to wake up even earlier to pick them up. The only solution was to go stay over at the guys' place, which we did. There wasn't any refund, but I guess it's not the hostel's fault cos it was afterall a last minute decision.
The apartment is like a hotel room. We were glad to be there, even if we knew we would spend the night on the floor in the living room cos it's carpeted. Haha no la. We didn't even sleep that much. We were playing this really addictive Playstation 2 game called Taiko. Think it's the name for the Japanese drum. It's just like DDR but instead of moving ur feet to the beat, u hit the drum. There were also many other mini-games that were damn silly but a hell lot of fun. The walls were sound-proof so we didn't have to worry about waking up the neighbours. Yeah so we just kept playing that until 4 or 5am.
18 Sep
Chin Ning, Howie, Wei Xiang, Denise and Jowyn went to the Terry Fox Run. The rest of us slept in a little later. I eventually woke up at about 10.20am or so. We were playing taiko in no time haha. The rest came back from the run after 11am. Oh yeah, one more thing to clarify. Luke's girlfriend is in U of T for exchange programme too. She's from NUS. Yup so Luke drove up to visit her. He gave us a call and said he'll go buy the egg tarts and roast pork for us. I think the total order was like 96 egg tarts and more than 3 kg of roast pork. Then after an extended farewell to Howie and Wei Xiang (because Alvin left the road directions, and then his car keys in the apartment), we left for the Niagara Falls.
We reached the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls at 5pm. It's gorgeous. Breathtaking view. We took some pictures and I got my first Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt (yipee!). The view on the Canadian side is prettier but the boat rides on the American side is more fun so we drove across the border. However when we arrived, we discovered that the boat ride had closed for the day already. We actually missed the last boat by 15min. For the second time in 2 days, we were stunned. Really speechless about our luck. While we went to the ladies to freshen up and regain our composure (really! it was such a let-down cos the boat ride would bring us close to the Horseshoe Falls, which is the most majestic-looking one there), the guys went to check out the other attraction for us. Turns out that one was still in operation. The Cave of the Winds is this route that brings us down to near the bottom of one of the smaller waterfalls so you can get "baptised" by the Niagara Falls water. Well "drenched" is more appropriate actually. Anyway, we decided to go for that one since we already missed the boat ride. They issued us rain coats and sandals before we took the elevator down 75m to the base of the waterfall. The attraction has been in operation since the 1940s I think. It's a walkway constructed of wooden planks actually. Every October, they'll tear it down, and when spring comes, they'll construct it again, so it's really pretty safe. Yup so I literally had a close look at the waterfall, collected a bottle of Niagara water. There's this Hurricane Deck also, which is the closest you can get to the water fall, so basically when you walk to the closest edge, you are almost underneath the water already. Damn shiok!
After that, we left the cars parked at the USA side and walked back over to the Canadian side to the Rainforest Cafe to have dinner. It's a short walk, about 15min only, across this bridge. After dinner, we headed back for Ithaca so that sort of marked the end of our trip. Now for some pictures :)
University of Toronto
5566. From left: Yizhuan, Chin Ning, Wei Xiang, Howie and Alvin. Think they were waiting for us while we (the girls) were busy snapping pictures hee.
Chinatown
Siew Mai!! *drool*
The CN tower is the one in the middle.
The theatre where we watched Les Miserables.
The Niagara Falls.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
- They sell Levi's for kids here. It's cheaper and I can fit into them. Whee!
- I got my Nalgene bottle.
- My Medical Parasitology instructor is officially the most quotable person I've ever met. "I like Giardia. They're photogenic." Giardia, for your information, is a protozoa.
- I now know the difference between diarrheoa and dysentry, thanks to him too. A very enlightening lesson about faecal matter.
- Did I mention the 9 bruises on my right knee and the 7 bruises on my left? That was PAINball too, cos I was crawling through the bushes.
- My hair doesn't frizz here. It's really quite straight (by my standards). I love this climate.
- Someone burnt popcorn and set off the fire alarm one night. One girl ran out of her shower wrapped in only a towel. No, that girl wasn't me.
- I'm not going moonlight paddling and backpacking anymore. I'm going to Toronto. It was a tough decision.
- And Giardia is not spread by beavers.
- I wanna eat mooncake.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Last night, the four of us went to watch Cornell Chaos, which is a dance concert. 10 of the most popular dance groups on campus performed, I can't say that all of them were terrific, but my personal favourites were the tap dance, one of the hip-hop groups and Cornell Bhangra. (yeah surprise surprise... bhangra) Ooh so tempted to put on my dancing shoes again. Darn.
After the concert, we went to "chill out" at Collegetown. No lah, not like drinking booze or anything, we are good Asian girls okay... Went to have a really late dinner at Asian Noodle House. I had beef stewed noodle soup which was delicious. Must go back to eat again. Then we walked over to Collegetown Bagels where Denise got coffee and a bagel and we all sat down to play taitee. Oh man, I think I'm addicted. Well, as you should already know, things will happen when the four of us are together. This time, Jowyn knocked over Denise's coffee cup and spilt coffee all over the cards. Luckily, the weather here is dry, so we were playing again in 15 mins haha. Someone sign me up for rehabilitation.
Oh I heard news about next year's FOC (thank you Rosanne!). Can't believe I'm getting excited about it now... Sheesh, I thought I grew up somewhere between my 19th and 20th birthday. I'm keen to hear more about it, SBS ppl pls msn, email or post comments and keep me updated yar? Thanks!
Realised I haven't posted pics for a loooooonnnnnggggg time...
The view from the clock tower. If you looked closely near the bottom of the pic, in the middle there's this intersection. Well that's Ho Plaza. And if you look real closely some more, you'll notice some blue and yellow markings. That's a chalk advertisement. It's all over campus, clubs and associations draw, scrawl on the pavements to publicise their activities.
Another pic of the Harry Potter Library. I heard there's a brain collection too...
Paintball! (PAINball) That's Anna in the "Singapore is Sexy" T-shirt. Yesh dear platoonmates, Anna is very fine and well. (Me too, in case anyone is concerned...)
Alright, back to studying :)
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Just got back from the observatory, went there to see stars. Really lucky tonight cos the sky is clear so the stars seem really bright. But it's still not dark enough. Oh and yes, Cornell has an observatory. Nothing too spectacular, it does look like a mini-Taj Mahal from far. They only open on Friday nights, so I got a chance to see some stars close-up (they're still teeny weeny bright spots actually...) and Mars (which is just this much bigger bright dot). Yeah I guess I'm not really a "star" person but I do like to gaze at them. So pretty! The nicest ones I've seen so far are still the ones I've seen 5 years ago, halfway up Mt Kinabalu. Ah, those were really really gorgeous. I miss those days.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
What have I been up to recently? Well we've been trying to fill up our weekends with activities besides grocery shopping cos there aren't many summer weekends left and once the cold sets in, travelling will be quite uncomfortable. We've done this quite sucessfully after attending the Outdoor Club's meeting earlier tonight. Signed up for backpacking, moonlight paddling and caving, so that's 2 to 3 weekends occupied. We've also got a lobang for accomodation at Toronto so we're currently searching for transportation there. Really hope to find a coach there. Renting a car is also an alternative since Denise and I both have our license, however everything's on the opposite side over here i.e. driver's seat on the left, slow cars keep on the right etc. Hence, I'll need lots of encouragement (bribe me with chocolate!) and incentives (orange-flavoured lollipops also can...) before I try my hand at driving. Oh well.
There's a picnic this Saturday, followed by a dance concert so that is something to look forward to, especially when tomorrow's my longest day so I need all the happy thoughts I can get to sustain me :)
Jyang sorry I never drop by the campus store recently so couldn't check out the merchandise for you. El, yup sch's likedat sometimes, or maybe most of the time. Don't have any paintball pictures though, but if you're interested to know, I did have yellow paint on the right and lower part of my face. Paint does not taste nice. And no, I did not taste it intentionally.