I abused my stomach over the course of the week. Pizza on Tue, Crystal Jade on Wed, Sushi Tei on Thurs and Moovellous set lunch + bday cake on Fri.

Oh I abused my wallet also. How could I forget?

Wednesday's lunch was with the Cornies haha. No lah, I mean my Cornell friends :)

Thursday's lunch was with pltmates. Dear dear Jyang returned from USA and Anna's accessory made a rare appearance too.

Friday's lunch was with my colleagues cos it was the last day of work for a fellow intern. Bday celebration for one of my supervisors followed in the afternoon .

Merry christmas everybody and happy birthday to jyang, who's stuck in JFK right now. Well if this is the suckiest way to spend a birthday, you can be sure that the rest of ur birthdays will be absolutely terrific in relative terms :)

On the eve of Christmas Eve, this was what I did:

The scrawny cat which bullied me lived in a hawker centre where tables were beige and seats were green. It really was a scrawny thing, probably in its teens, covered by a dull white coat of fur and random black spots. What I remembered most was the pair of pale blue eyes that conveyed its nonchalant attitude and that attitude was directed towards me.

While I was valiantly guarding the four plates of nasi briyani (the other family members went to get more food), that little squirt came out of nowhere and leapt onto the seat next to me. I did what any other young woman would do. I waved my hands menacingly at it and said "Shoo."

IT DIDN'T EVEN LOOK AT ME!

"Shoo!" with more frantic hand-waving. This time, it granted me a slight inclination of its head.

"SHOO!" with prolonged hand-waving. Right, I finally got its attention. That was when I noticed its pale blue eyes. I stared back at it and stood up, hoping that the extra height will intimidate it. Its sole reaction was to blink at me. Just one slow blink, as if asking "You think I'm scared? Pfft."

Internally, I was frothing at the mouth. While I underwent such mental anguish, the cat decided it had enough fun at my expense so it removed itself from the seat and strolled away, disappearing as fast as it appeared.

I lost. Call me loser.

Thyme's Law:
Everything goes wrong at once.

Malek's Law:

Any simple idea will be worded in the most complicated way.

Think there's a book that contains such variations of Murphy's Law. Anyone knows the title? More importantly, does anyone have the book? I'd love to read it :)

Went to Shu's house yesterday to make alot of noise. Memorable moments include the ill-fated 20% discount on pizza, QH's controversial shirt and the subsequent debate between herself and El, everyone ganging up to bully me during mahjong, and Shu playing an outstanding game of bridge. To echo Jo's sentiments, yesh, let's try and meet up more often.

Quote of the day:

"Veni, Vidi, Velcro"
(I came; I saw; I stuck around.)

Story: The Ter Kwa and I.

I ordered a bowl of Minced Meat and Mushroom Noodles (Xiang Gu Bak Chor Mee Pok) for lunch yesterday. Silly me. I should've known that there was pig's liver in it. I dun like to eat pig's liver. Almost to the point of 'hate' actually. I know it's nutritious etc., believe me, I get more than enough reminders from my mother. So anyway, it was a bit too late to tell the vendor that I dun want the ter kwa, and I was also quite hesitant to tell her "Auntie, mee pok without ter kwa" because it reminded me of that Mr. Brown podcast. I might burst out into uncontrollable laughter on the spot if I hear myself say that.

So staring at those 1 small, 3 medium and 1 large pieces of ter kwa, I started to devise ways of getting them into my stomach without too much protest from my taste buds. The first strategy I adopted was to dunk the whole piece of liver into the soy sauce of the chopped chilli. Unfortunately, the soy sauce wasn't quite spicy enough. The next piece of liver was dunked into soy sauce and eaten with a tiny piece of chopped chilli (I have low tolerance for spicy food...) but it still didn't work. Think the chilli itself just wasn't spicy at all. On my third try, I finally found the perfect solution. I ate the liver together with a big mouthful of mee pok, taking only a few bites to help me swallow the food.

Okay fine, I pretty much swallowed the ter kwa. And the remaining pieces. So much for strategising.

Moral of the story: When all else fails, revert to your roots. Forget civilisation. Embrace barbarian-ism and uncouth-ness.

PS: Seriously, dun take my words seriously.

Exams are over, hols have started. To kick it off, a blog revamp.

Ta-da.

Okay I seem to sound less enthusiastic than I ought to be. I blame this on having to wake up at 5.45am this morning and the impending rain. When I'm trying to study, I love the rain. It calms me. When I'm trying to sleep, I love the rain too. It cools me. When I'm trying play... well you get the idea. A tan is so out of the question now.

What have I been up to lately? Well right after the last paper, went out with the girls (Qiaohui, Engel, Priya and Angie) for dinner at HV. On Friday, I pigged out at the library. My mom lent me her library card and my dad's (I can't remember the last time he borrowed a book...) so I made full use of them. Saturday was devoted to driving, vivocity and a free threading. Sunday was devoted to cooking, reading manga and LOTR. Monday was devoted to subject registration and more LOTR.

Lemme just rave a little about the books I found in the library. My habit is to walk down the shelves in alphabetical order, so the first author I checked out was Boris Akunin. Was looking forward to reading another book in his Erast Fandorin series but there weren't any new ones. I'm quite fond of Fandorin. Sigh. Akunin did have a new book though, featuring a nun this time. Haven't read the book yet but I dun think Akunin will let me down. I walked down further to Lindsey Davis for my all-time favourite informer with dark curly hair. Lo and behold! A Falco book I haven't read! I thought I must have cleaned out the entire series back in 2004. Anyway, that made me deliriously happy. I just finished the book last night (well early this morning to be exact...) and yesh, I think I'm in love. I might just re-read the whole series now.

Happy hols everyone!

Taken from the Oxford University Press blog:

Elbow bump--a greeting in which two people touch elbows, recommended by the World Health Organization as an alternative to the handshake in order to reduce the spread of germs.



You've gotta be kidding me.

(A little blogging to distract me from unwelcomed but necessary intellectual pursuits. I love euphemisms!)

Was compiling a list of to-do things after the dreaded exams. Realised that I'm in for alot of present-shopping cos of the overwhelming number of friends whose birthdays are in December. Some have wishlists *cough Jyang cough* so that makes things a little easier. (Btw dearie if you want something else, must say hor...) Then most others dun have wishlists so I can forsee weekends spent perusing shops in a crowded shopping mall. Hurrah.

I'm not complaining, I love my friends. The jostling and elbowing is a small price to pay for the friendship we share. Yesh, I am sometimes capable of such sentimental emotions so dun look so shocked. Close that jaw.

But I do want to declare that most of the shopping done this year was for other people and so in the last month of Year 2006, I am determined to pamper myself. In other words, retail therapy for me, myself and I. I want twinkly, dangling thingys for my ear piercings, dammit! Rooaaarr!

Okay. End of rant. Thank you for reading. *bows*

Once upon a time, a little girl who learnt how to talk earlier than how to walk was, well, learning how to walk. Her difficulty was that, well, her head was a bit over-sized for her little body. (Which affects her centre of gravity, if anyone out there is asking...) Eventually, she learnt to walk tiny steps and not trip over her own two feet. Well, not too many times that is. Once, she did trip. When she picked herself up, her mother, who witnessed the embarassing episode, asked her why she fell down. The little girl replied with a little pout, "Because you never hold my hand."

Lesson 1: It's okay to be slow, just as long as you get there eventually.
Lesson 2: It's okay to fall down, just remember to pick yourself up.
Lesson 3: Don't blame others when you fall down cos your head is big and that's really a personal issue.
Lesson 4: But I guess it's okay to grumble a little, just bear in mind Lesson 2.

Hope this quirky (Zing: qwrky? heh) little thingy cheers you up a little. Exams are around the corner, everyone's feeling the stress. Good luck mugging and may Starbucks never run out of coffee :)

I think it was something that Prof KH said. Has been nagging at the back of my mind since then. When a scientist tells you to "increase your oxygen intake so that your synapses do not overwork", he really means for you to "take a deep breath and calm down". If a scientist declares that there is "a specimen of Drosophila exploring fluid dynamics in a solution comprising 5M chicken and 2g of salt", he really means to say "Waiter, there's a fly in my soup".

My sorry attempt at being witty. If I failed, just tell me.

Thank you Denise for inviting me to your party and happy hatchday to you :)

I removed the tagboard and have yet to find a replacement so meanwhile, just leave comments.

I lied.

Ok I didn't tell the whole truth.

I scratched the car AND cracked the bumper.

The aftermath of the incident wasn't too bad. Spent an hour polishing off the paint marks. Can't do anything about the crack though.

Kor confirm will suan me. I can just feel it coming.

*bleah*

Die. I scratched the car. Summore it happened when I was driving the car into the porch.

Sheesh. What a great way to end the hols.

Dear blog *pat pat*, I have sorely neglected you. For that I sincerely apologise. Aww dun pout, that's so unbecoming. Behave yourself.

Right now that's done, all I have to say is:

Aaaaaahhhhhhh.

The hols are here. It's been going alright so far, all 3 days that have just passed. El's should-have-been-a-surprise party was on Saturday and Sentosa. I must say she has a really funky family. Father offered everyone beer, mother dyed her (El I mean) hair red, brothers goaded El and JS to french, woo hoo. Then on Sunday I had a competition and won myself a $30 Takashimaya voucher so that will probably go towards a nice pair of shoes. Earlier tonight I had dinner with Jo, El and Zing. We spent most of the time thinking back of NCC days and *gasp* I realised I couldn't remember a thing about UDI camp. Safe for sewing press studs onto 5 sets of uniforms, I can't even remember which platoon I was in. I keep saying that those 4 years were the best years of my life, but on retrospect, heh, I can't remember much of it now.

Hello senility.

A bit sleepless now from all the laughing just now but I'll make up for it. It's the hols!

First things first: erm kor, I know I promised u the pictures. They'll come, but not so soon okie? Thanks for understanding :)

Right. On to the main topic. Which is essentially just some ramblings. Like my hair is straight now (yipee). I hope Mom knows by now that no matter what she says about liking my curly hair and natural curls being totally "in", I will rebond my hair when it's curly. Period. Twice a year I endure a one-sided conversation about the condition of my hair. Simply uplifting.

Then there's school. I dunno if it's getting more bearable or unbearable. It's sad that I have to use words like "tolerable" to describe what I feel about school. IMO, to excel in university isn't a matter of which JC or Poly one came from but more about the passion one has in his or her studies. I lack that passion. I really really admire my peers who keep up with their readings, do their tutorials seriously and source for supplementary material to study. For a person who lives a mere 20 min away from school, I think I'm awfully privileged. The scary thing is, I'm not taking advantage of it.

But that's depressing so let's not go there. There's always bliss in denial.

Had a few interesting lab sessions lately. Like the BS306 Developmental Biology lab where we observed worms copulating. That's the closest you get to pornography in lab. We had a field trip to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. No report to submit, just plain walking and enjoying the scenery. Just like primary school, those sweet, lovely childhood days. Just yesterday was the BS309 Genetics lab and I learnt that rebonded hair cannot be PCRed. And dyed hair too. Since most girls and guys nowadays have chemically treated hair, I wonder how that will affect the data collection and determination of the genotypic and alleleic frequency. Hmmm.

My account balance is finally looking a little better. Soon, I'll be able to splurge a little on clothing, shoes and accessories yay. So that's something to look forward to :)

"Did you get love enough?" she asked.

"What's enough?" he replied wistfully.

--Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood

Mood: Glad.

Glad that my mom and dad are healthy and happy. Well ok dad caught the flu bug from me and mom is quite busy with tuition and singing but they are in good health and cheer so I'm glad.

Glad that kor has good frens to celebrate his bday with him and for him. 2 celebrations + hand-made bday cake leh... this little sis is very very jealous haha :)

Glad that jyang is having a great time in USA. I hope your days are fun-filled and worry-free. And if you dun think of us (or me), it's ok. I certainly didn't when I was in Cornell. *grin*

Glad to know I've got great frens. Although I dun have many frens (yours truly ain't much of a social creature), I have a special bond with every one of them. More or less la.

Yup so I'm glad. But I'm not content. My list of "wants" will go on forever so let me just say the number 1 thing on my list:

I want to be rich. Disgustingly rich. So rich that I can make sure every kink of my curly hair is ironed out before it even gets to peek at sunlight.

Don't laugh. I'm dead serious.

My dear sista left for USA yesterday. Almost one year ago, I did the same. To quote Cherlyn, "I wish it was 14 Aug 2005 now."

School sucks. What's new. From now on, blog updates will be sporadic. Full-time students have the full-time responsibility of studying full-time. So I'm a part-time bummer now i.e. slack whenever I can haha.

I wish.

Singapore Open Shooting Championships 2006, my third year participating. Coach told me last week that the 1st time is to gain experience, 2nd time to test water, 3rd time must "go there and whack!" I didn't whack anyone (pls, shooting is a non-violent sport ok) but I'm damn proud of myself.

yay :)

There were only 30 participants in my category. In the 40-shot competition, the moment I fired my last shot and lowered the gun, the timekeeper signaled the end of the competition. So I literally fired to the last second, "wasting no time at all" as what Mr Eddie Lim (ex-coach) said jokingly. The spectators applauded. I could only smile, still dazed by that fact. I thought I had a minute left. I came in 8th thus qualifying for the finals. Then I think I climbed up one placing after the finals. No prizes for being 7th but I think the knowledge that I improved and shot well is the best prize for me.

At training this evening, I shot:

94+94+93+93=374 or 93.5%

WWWWWHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

*grin*

Got woken up at 8am by Jyang. No I'm not angry or anything, it's just hearing juicy gossip early in the morning does tend to put one in a rather weird frame of mind. I just have one thing to say to Zing: Honestly girl, don't you know me well enough (or us for that matter) to NOT tell me wat you don't want the rest to know? Don't blame us for poking into it, you asked for it the moment you told me, Jyang and El. Hee.

Oh and thanks to you, I shall never be able to look at Lord of the Rings without bursting into giggles.

My social life has been rather active recently. FOC 2006 just concluded. Had alot alot of fun and got to know many people, especially my fellow programmers. It's also amazing how the Buccaneers actually have the most pple involved in this year's FOC. Why I say amazing is because we were such an un-happening group during our FOC. Xaviers and Zionites were way way noisier than us. Also got to know many juniors, those one year younger than me so it was a fun experience overall. I realised in the camp that I'm terribly bossy also... another character defect to add to the ever-growing list...

Then just this afternoon I met up with the Cornellians. There was this exhibition of USA universities by the Singaporean students studying there so besides meeting Cornellians, I met many of my ex-classmates like Si Hui, Zhimin, Adela and Wei Ying. Also met Jinyue, one of my 'kids'. Think her mom thinks that Jyang and I are both nuts. Think that both Jyang and I dun really care haha. Oh and I finally finally saw Anna. Dear dear Anna who ignored all my SMSes. Dear dear Anna who bought the Cornell T-shirt for me. Dear dear Anna who is thus forgiven. So now everyone is looking forward to the great big gathering at Jo's house this Saturday yay! :)

A quick update before I disappear for the week. I've been busy with FOC prep, work and some errands. Work is tiring, I'm having second thoughts about continuing but I want money too so sort of caught in a dilemma there. I missed FOC pre-camp yesterday, bet it was fun. I went Sentosa with El, Jyang and Qi. As usual, all 3 sent me "sorry jyin I'll be late" messages. We finally got to the beach at 12pm, walked about 20 min trying to find a good location. Found a good location and proceeded to nua for more than an hour, playing bridge and eating custard apples. Then we made El strip, played frisbee, acted silly, the usual nonsense. Went to cycle and ended up at Ben & Jerry's. Made our way to El's, washed up and had dinner with Zing. We taught her mahjong too and I think she has natural talent for it, just need to practice more i.e. play more mahjong with us. De arrived, we played more mahjong, then sent Zing to the MRT station at 11pm and headed out for a midnight movie at 12am. We watched Pirates of the Carribbean, returned to El's and chit-chat for a while more before we all fell asleep. Then this morning, I finally showed them my USA photos heh. I headed home first cos need to pack for FOC tmr so yup here I am now.

Ok I'll be back on Friday 21 July :)

Photos of Stong. Mostly people photos so I feature widely in them. Blot out my image if you get sick of seeing me.

That's us in a cave. The rock behind us resembles a kris, a traditional Malay dagger.

Us again with waterfall to the right (of the picture). We slid down the slippery rockface very fast.

I can cook, no matter where the kitchen is haha. From left, clockwise direction: Fish, Elton, Ridzwan, Yali and yours truly.

The beautiful sunrise. It makes the hike up all worthwhile.

My dearest tutorial groupmates. From left: Parhana, Kerui and Esther. This was the homebound train.

2 highlights of the week so far:

1. Dinner on Monday with Jo, De, Jyang and Shu. Received Part 2 and 3 of my bday present. Yesh it's extremely belated but it doesn't matter cos I LOVE THEM! Thankew thankew all of you :)

2. Senior's Camp from Tue to Thu i.e. it just ended, I still need to catch up on my sleep but thankfully got a nice tan heh. I guess the camp was pretty slack, except for "Campfire" night. As a first-time costume mistress, I left some costumes behind *slaps forehead*. Good thing Edmund saved the day haha. I'm actually pretty proficient with the sewing machine now. So I can cook, I can sew, I'll have to work on my "keeping-the-house-tidy" skills but I'm on my way to housewivery and auntie-hood.

Someone save me. Please.

Looking forward to Sat (meeting platoonmates) and Sun (meeting Cornellians hopefully). Calmly accepts the rapidly-diminishing account balance. I love money, but I think I love my frens more.

I had a weird dream last night. I dreamt that platoonmates and I were gathered in a small dusty room at one of the upper levels of AMQ. It was late afternoon cos the sun's rays cast a yellowy sheen on everyone in the room. So the whole platoon of us were just sitting up straight minding our own business (a.k.a stoning) in our No. 3 uniform. Then out of nowhere, I decided I was bored and started kiwi-ing my combat boots because apparently NCC Day was around the corner and I was part of the marching contingent. Anyway, setting aside that odd discrepancy, a Mdm came up and wanted to have a few words with me so I told her to "hang on there for a moment, I want to get this side of the boot done". So when I was finally done, she was obviously rather vexed at me. Of course I had no idea where I got the guts to tell her to "hang on for a moment" but it happened and I braced myself for a scolding. She scolded me for dropping my beret on the floor and went on to harp about how I was a specialist already and still displaying this sort of atrocious behaviour. At that point, something snapped in my mind and I started shooting back at her. I admitted I was wrong but mistakes do happen and everyone will drop their beret sometime or other in their life as a cadet. I then rambled on something about my passion for NCC which was exemplified by my neat and smart uniform and lastly, I told her how I wished officer-cadet relationships could improve by the officers not nit-picking at minor mistakes. I excused myself and walked out of the door with my platoonmates, leaving that Mdm slack-jawed at my audacity. But of course, she had no grounds for rebuttal. Hee I even remember Zing, El and Jyang giving me a good pat on the back.

So back to real life. I can only describe the feeling as weird. Puzzling. Queer. That sort of thing. It also reminded me of all the times that I crapped my way (and my platoon's) out of certain uncomfortable situations. That's right, jyin the crapper. In fact, this whole dream was an ego-booster for glorious little me ha. I guess I'm likedat sometimes.

I have plenty of other stories likedat, real-life stories (Jyang and Shu simply love to reminiscise about me PMSing during Pt A camp). But I'll leave that for another time. Meanwhile, I shall savour this little dose of ego on a cold and rainy Sunday :)

Still waiting for Yali to post her photos on yahoogroups cos I think she has some nice pictures of me. Well as nice as they can get with me as the model.

I've resumed air pistol training after a 2 week break. Coach commented on how he felt a little apprehensive about me when he started coaching the NTU team.

Why? Because I am so small.

Well more accurately, compared to my teammates, I am really quite small-built. But he's glad that I'm reasonably strong. Well at least strong enough to hold the gun steady for 40 competition shots. And my stance is quite stable too, so that's good. In fact, it's also good that my toes and feet start to feel numb after standing still for about half an hour or so. Queer isn't it? Apparently, badminton is a no-no for shooters (sorry shu!) and playing piano is good for triggering. Then he also recommends swimming with one's arms only to build up arm muscles. I wonder if I can swim 10 metres likedat...

Guess I'll find out soon heh.

Meanwhile, it's nice to have met up with jyang, adila and shu recently. I think those 4 years of s**t really bonded us well. I really glad for those 4 years of my life. They were the best. But don't worry, I dun dwell on the past that much. I think "now" is pretty cool too. At least no ugly school uniforms yar :)

Over the weekend, I went on a hiking trip to Gunung Stong in Kelantan, Malaysia. Dear Yali, who was the trip IC, invited me sometime in March but I turned her down at first cos I didn't know anyone else on the trip. Later, some of my tutorial group mates expressed interest in the trip too so I signed up for it. I'm glad I did. I rediscovered the fun of trekking up a mountain, pitching tents and field-cooking heh. Besides having marvellous trip ICs, I was lucky to have a very energetic guide and tons of fun people on the trip too.

We took an overnight train on Friday to reach Dabong in Kelantan on Saturday morning. After breakfast, we explored 2 caves. We then started to hike up the mountain, eating a mobile lunch along the way. The climb up was torturous but the waterfalls made the climb worthwhile. Waterfalls are so fun! I remember sliding down 2 waterfalls and going underneath 1 of them. Although the water was cold, it was incredibly refreshing. We spent the night out in tents. Before we went to sleep, the guide predicted rain in the morning so we were furiously water-proofing all our belongings and were prepared to dash for the shelter if the rain was heavy. Luckily, the rain fell lightly so we had a peaceful night.

In the morning, we had pancakes for breakfast haha. Yali's idea actually but well now I know that it is possible to have a tasty breakfast out in the wild. The original plan for Sunday morning was to hike up to the summit but that plan was canceled because it takes 5 hours to reach the top and another 5 hours to descend back to the base camp and we didn't have the time to do that. So we had a leisurely breakfast before setting off on a short hike to another part of the waterfall and playing with more water heh. At 3pm, we striked down our tents, compressed the garbage and by 4pm, we were making our way down Gunung Stong. We had dinner at the small kopitiam beside the train station and after that, we just sat around and chatted or watch World Cup on TV. The train arrived at 10.45pm and once again, we spent the night on the train.

Yup so it was a short trip but full of memorable and hilarious stuff. I'll post some pictures as soon as I kop them from someone :)

I finally shot a new personal best at competition. My previous record of 356 had remained unbeaten for 3 years until today at NUSIS, I shot 360.

3 years man... call me retarded...

88 + 93 + 95 + 84 = 360.

It's the last series that wasn't up to standard *sheepish grin*. Lesson learnt: Thou shalt not panic when thou has 12 min to shoot 10 shots because it isn't the first time I had so little time!! If my memory serves me well, NUSIS should be my 4th time standing at the range till the very last 2 min.

So? The next time I do something foolish like panicking, it will be inexcusable. So there.

Latest happenings in my life:

1. Everyone in Marketing class today commented about how fast the month went by. And I commented that in 2 weeks time, we shall be free of one another's company. Wondered who perceived that as good news, who perceived it as bad.

2. I am W-O-L-S. I finally realised what a great site youtube.com is.

3. I've finished watching Da Chang Jin. (wahaha)

4. I'm hooked on Boris Akunin's books again. I ready The Winter Queen and Leviathan more than a year ago. Was ecstatic to see 2 more books on the library shelves recently. The Death of Achilles is definitely better than The Turkish Gambit and I found a new love: Erast Fandorin.

5. Now raise your hand if you haven't the slightest clue what I'm talking about.

Good.

6. Bacteria life cycle is surprisingly similar to product life cycle. Lag, growth, maturity and death. Seriously. Go compare Microbiology and Marketing textbooks and you'll know I'm not lying.

7. Me will never get around to watching MI3.

8. NTU has me confused about when the results are released. "First week of June" meaning this week or next? Infinitely irritating.

9. Me want straight hair.

10. Now raise your hand again if you saw that (No. 9) coming.

So smart, of course in any list, my hair will be featured. Goes to show how well you know me =)

Shufang, my NCC junior, passed away last night after a long, hard battle with cancer.

My deepest condolences to her family and also to the Part Cs, who were always by her side.

immortality

there is a vision and a fire in me

i keep the memory of you and me inside

and we don't say goodbye

we don't say goodbye

with all my love for you

and what else we may do

we don't say goodbye

--"Imortality" by Celine Dion and the Bee Gees

We don't say goodbye Shufang.

Finally played mahjong at El's. And got to know the accessories more. Like how Eugene (Yali's accessory) is very very good at mahjong. Not just the different "patterns", there are certain formalities that ought to be followed also. I would like to see a showdown between Jyang and Eugene one day heh. Jiashen (El's accessory) is a fidgety drunk, but one who can play mahjong while drunk is quite amazing. He also proved that durians and alcohol do mix as he was seemingly fine after having both. Before ending up at El's house, we (El, Yali and I) were at the New Paper Big Walk with Jyang, accessory and fren. Jyang's accessory, Howie, is still as thin as ever. Jyang fren, Jasper, also as thin as the accessory if not thinner.

So where's my accessory?

Ha :)

Just a quick update on my life for the sake of frens that I seldom see...

Wait scratch that. I haven't met up with anyone recently.

Ok well you get the idea. So wat's the dastardly jyin up to now? *evil grin*
1. Studying. Principles of Marketing, 3 AUs, 5 lessons and many many projects.
2. Watching Da Chang Jin. I'm halfway through.
3. Er hmm... wow guess that's it yar. I dun even maple alot now...

Well I wanna watch MI3 cos Tom Cruise cut his hair, but can't find any company. I wanna watch X-Men III cos Hugh Jackman is sooo drool-worthy. I definitely will watch Pirates of Carribean 2 with Shu (aiyar qihui why u not coming back for winter?). I'm more captivated by Captain Jack Sparrow then Johnny Depp himself though. Of course, Johnny Depp's cool too.

I haven't karaoke yet! That is definitely unusual behaviour on my part. Normally the first activity after exams will be hitting K-box but that hasn't happened yet. (again attributed to qi... heh) Haven't had mahjong session yet! OMG this is so so so disastrous, a catastrophe, an abomination of all things holy... the vices that define my self, I'm losing them all! Argh.

Having said that, I feel a lot better now. I would feel much much better if I had the money to do all the above. Money is scarce this time round, so meanwhile, I'll practise my ninja skills and be patient. Money will find its way to me. Or I can go out and find it, whichever is faster.

And so as an ending note, did anyone get the joke in the previous paragraph?

Like many other people in Singapore, I am hooked on Da Chang Jin.

There, I've said it. So having said that, I shall go on to talk a little about Da Chang Jin. The plot is full of twists and turns, I love watching how they cook the food and Chang Jin's foster parents are absolutely hilarious. My parents and I stayed up till 2am watching Da Chang Jin last night, and I think it was about 1 am when I had an epiphany about Chang Jin.

You know what I think? I think Chang Jin is very much like a cockroach. I don't mean this comment to be derogatory though cos I was reminded of something I came across in a book when I was young. Apparently, cockroaches have existed since prehistoric times and somehow survived the Ice Age too. So like cockroaches, Chang Jin really knows how to survive through tough times. And everytime I see Lady Cui's face when her scheme is thwarted, I bet she's thinking, "Ooh that Chang Jin's as hard to kill as cockroaches..."

According to my mom, Chang Jin has a paragraph of 25 words long in history books. In a patriarchal society such as Korea in the old times (and many other Asian societies of the past), that is probably a great feat. So whether the drama is historically accurate or not, it is a great source of entertainment and I will continue to watch it and keep myself nicely amused for the next 3 months :)

My exams ended yesterday. It took far too long in my opinion. 20 days from the start of the first paper to the end of the last paper. That's as good as 3 weeks of exams. Which also translates to about 1 month of being cooped up at home studying. Well all that is over so... WHHEEEEEE!! The bummer is out to play!!

Right after my exams, I met up with Shuyi at IKEA. I wanted to buy bath towels but after 45 mins of browsing IKEA, let's just say that there are better places to shop for towels. Hopped over to Queensway to check out sports shoes after that before heading home for a nap and a jog. So yesterday wasn't that eventful la.

Shu and I went to MacRitchie today. Supposed to meet at 8am so I left the house at 7am. I can only say that it has been way too long since I travelled early in the morning so there was heavy traffic everywhere and I was very late. Which is quite unusual cos among my bunch of best frens, I'm the only one who is either early or punctual. It's really comical sometimes because if the whole bunch of us is going out for lunch or something, approx 5 min before the arranged meeting time, I'll either get calls or sms saying "sorry jyin i'll be late". Almost always, without fail.

We had no idea that we were about to face a whooping 10km hike. It's 5km to the HSBC Tree Top Trail (TTT) and 5 km back. Which we did not know before hand. So it was a kind of "wow" feeling but of course it didn't deter us. Know this: when a woman is determined to burn calories, nothing short of a meteorite crashing will stop her. We hiked at a leisurely pace, chatting and catching up with each other's lives. We reached the TTT at 10am, so that's 1.5 hrs to trek 5km. The TTT is a 250m long suspension bridge and it really really is a long way up from the forest ground. They weren't kidding when they said it was tree-top. You can only walk one-way when you're at the TTT so we took our time there to read the various info signs and identify the trees or plants featured in the signs.

So after that, we decided not to take the same 5km route back to the main entrance cos it was just too long. We took another trail and walked for about 45 min before reaching a bus stop (a.k.a. civilisation haha), took a bus down to Thompson Plaza area and had lunch.

I just hope I didn't eat more than what I burnt in calories. Then the whole hike would have been pointless :) Happy hols ppl!

Blog revamp. (stating the obvious...)

I'm still in the midst of tweaking the code to my liking. Will also add a tagboard soon. One of the drawbacks of this template is that it doesn't really scroll down when I use my mouse scroller. So you might wanna try clicking on the arrow heads on the right to scroll up and down. They're kind of small and hard to see cos they blend in with the black. Other than that, I quite like the design.

It's GREEN.

Some pictures to liven up this place and also in commemoration of the end of a very very tough paper :)

Malaysia, Batu Pahat. My hometown. That's my parents and my uncle on the far right. We're posing in front of a jambu tree. My mom loves jambu and devours them at an amazing speed. Sadly, I have not inherited her fondness for the fruit.

Mom, Kor and my cousins. We always bunk over at their house when we go to Malaysia. Picture taken at a temple overlooking the confluence of two rivers.

Kor and I at some CC event. Note: straight hair. Note again: how nice straight hair looks.

Roar.

But actually, I'm a little hesitant to rebond my hair now. There have been recent studies relating the occurence of cancer to the frequency of hair-dyeing. Maybe I'll invest in one of those flat-iron thingys. *ponder*

If you're reading this, please take some time to read "The story of Joan" in the Sunday Times, Life section.

Thank you, sincerely from the bottom of my heart.

Was listening to some songs i have in my mp3 player...

1. "When you say nothing at all" by Ronan Keating
"You say it best, when you say nothing at all".
In other words, please shut up.

2. "Push" by Matchbox 20
"I wanna push you around, well I will, I will".
The ultimate bully song. Remember back in primary school where the big bullies in school will push you off the swing during recess time? Bet this song was their anthem.

These lyrics kept me nicely amused for a while heh.

I hate curly hair.

With a conviction.

In my opinion, the person who invented rebonding should get the Nobel Peace Prize.

For preventing yours truly from wreaking havoc on this whole planet every bad hair day.

And everyday is more often than not, a bad hair day.

Begone, curly hair!!

Extremely unnatural I know, updating my blog twice in the same week. What can I say, I'm inspired.

No, I'm not. Just the overwhelming reluctance to do my lab reports forces me to turn my attention towards something productive. Well I try to convince myself it's productive otherwise the guilt sets in.

Anyway, I just returned home from Cherlyn and Felicia's birthday party. Thankew thankew very much you two lovely ladies, the food was delicious, got to know Benny which was a bonus. And of course, you (Cherlyn) even forgot about us but it's ok.

Really.

My first exam paper is in 19 days (woo hoo) and the last paper ends 20 days later. State of revision: deplorable. Reason: lab reports. Scientists are sadists. I'm already a sadist so will I become a scientist?

*smirk*

25 Dec
Christmas Day. We went to Soho and Little Italy. They were rather deserted though, prob cos it was Christmas. The rain didn't help things either. It's not so bad when it snows cos snow is solid so you can just brush it off your coat. Rain just seeps right in and in the cold weather, it's not a good idea to be wet. Sheesh I think this is wat procrastinating really does to me... I can't quite remember much about wat we did during this day. Except that it was just a pretty normal day to me. Nope, no festive spirit in New York City on Christmas Day. New Year's Eve is the one that everyone goes gaga.

26 Dec
Now I do know wat we did. Auntie Swee Tai, who's my mom's fren living in New Jersey, specially made a trip down to New York City to treat us to dim sum. Then we walked around Chinatown together until about 2pm where Auntie Swee Tai had to leave. Then the 4 of us went looking for this Abercombie & Fitch outlet that was supposedly near Chinatown, at Water Street. Well we were at the right street but couldn't find the shop. Hmph. So we asked around and finally made our way to the port/harbour front sort of place and wat a surprised we got. There were a whole bunch of shops and eateries there, quite a nice breezy atmosphere. We even bumped into a wedding entourage, think the bride and groom are Korean. I really admire the bride for a guts man... imagine wearing a tube dress and posing for pictures when temperatures are 5 degrees celsius or so. So not funny lor. We didn't hang around too long, cos Denise had to catch her night flight home. We headed back to the hotel, Denise picked up her luggage and we walked her to the Port Authority Bus Terminal to catch the shuttle bus to Newark Airport. Jowyn then left to watch broadway. Cherlyn and I met up with her after her show to go look for some late night snacks heh.

27 Dec
I caught a couple of hours of sleep. I'm pretty sure Jowyn and Cherlyn hardly slept cos they were busy swapping photos. Anyway, our cab arrived at 6am to bring us to LaGuardia (again...). I had to repack a little cos one of my luggages was overweight so I ended up with 2 hand-carry bags. The queue for security check was crazily long, as usual. Hmm then I guess that's pretty much it, the long long journey home. First flight was to Detroit to catch a flight to Tokyo. Lucky for us, we got bumped up to business class. Yup my 12 hour flight to Tokyo was in style and comfort. Hiak hiak. I sat next to this kind middle-age businessman who explained to me how to operate the controls of the seat. It reclines fully *smug grin*. Then the air steward came around to serve a salad. Then I realised that was only starters for dinner. He even asked if I wanted champagne. Woo hoo. I can't remember wat was the main course but I'll never ever forget the dessert.
1 luscious scoop of Ben & Jerry's ice cream served in a Godiva chocolate cup.
Heavenly.
Stopped by Narita to buy some Japanese goodies, then it was an 8 hour flight to Changi Airport. Once I exited the arrival gates, I gave my mommy a great big hug, then my daddy a great big hug too, and proceeded to poke Kor's tummy.

Yup so I guess that's about it. My USA experience. The last bits literally in bits cos that's wat procrastinating does to you. But one tries one's best so... :)

Ahem.

~Happy Birthday to me

Happy Birthday to me

Happy Birthday to me

Happy Birthday to me~

Thank you everybody for your birthday greetings =)

Right, back to New York City :)

23 Dec
Hehe. This day was the crazy day haha. We purchased the New York City-One Day Pass. This essentially granted us free access to as many attractions as we could cover in that day. Needless to say, we've got it all planned out to make the most of that pass. Keyword: Kiasu. Let's see if I can remember all the places we went to heh.
We started off the day at the NBC Studio Tour. They are the ones who brought to you Friends (I didn't know that haha). Radio City Music Hall Stage Door Tour was next. Our tour guide was a sweet Asian lady who enthusiasm about the place rubbed off on us too haha. Really enjoyed this tour. Next was the American Museum of Natural History where I got to see "terrible lizards" aka DINOSAURS! DINOSAURS! Yay! (I guess in many ways, I'm still a kid at heart). We somehow landed up at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum which was near the port. Hmm I think we wanted to get on a cruise but decided against it after we learnt that it would take 2 hours. Time was precious.

Our next stop was the Empire State Building Observation Deck. It was probably only 5.30pm but the sky was pitch black and the wind was merciless towards us up at the 82nd storey. Nevertheless, we were treated to a breathtaking night view of New York City. Our last stop was Madame Tussaud's wax museum. From what I understand, they have another museum elsewhere so what I saw wasn't the full collection of wax figurines. There was Brad Pitt (I hugged him!) and George Clooney (double squeal!) and many many other celebrities and prominent figures. My camera ran out of battery at the end of my tour there heh. We finally stopped torturing our feet and sat down for a good meal at Planet Hollywood.

What a day that was.

24 Dec

Christmas Eve. We slept in (definitely deserved it) and left the hotel room at 11am or so. Walked down 5th Avenue, popped into a couple of departmental stores. Ooh, there was this gigantic toy store (not Toy 'R' Us) that had lifesize elephant and giraffe soft toys. And they've each got a 5 or 6 digit price tag attached. Must be one terribly spoilt brat to own a soft toy like that. At midnight, we went to Rockefeller Center where the big christmas tree was to take pictures. Also met up with Yuan Xiang and a couple of his friends and we wished one another a merry merry christmas :)

Yes, I know it's rare but occasionally, the bummer feels guilty too. Namely, guilty for not updating blog *sheepish grin*. Well yar i've got a whole lot of inertia weighing down on me (both figuratively and literally actually... I haven't quite lost all the winter insulation on me yet). So erm I'm aware there's still the last part of New York City that I haven't updated, plus the tons and tons of photos I've promised to show. I guess the New York City update is entirely unexcusable but my photos... ah my poor photos. I am simply not fated to be with my precious photos. It's quite a long story.

But I won't tell. It's too long anyway. Plus the fact that I'm hopelessly lazy.

And I'm turning 21 soon. I haven't quite figure out what that means to me and how it'll affect me. Will probably get a huge slap in the face by reality again.

Ah what's new.

Birthday Dedication: Lan Pei

My dear dear lab partner :) Happy 21st Bday! Lan Pei's a very cheerful girl, passionate about the arts and always ready to lend a helping hand to anyone. Don't worry about the numerous bday-parties-aka-sabo-sessions yar? It's just a way for your friends to tell you how much they cherish you as a great friend :) Best wishes to you!

Okie, a short one. Better than nothing.

New York Part 1
22 Dec
We were at the lobby waiting for our shuttle van at 5.45am. We also tried to see if we could get some breakfast. Lucky for us, the staff had already started laying out the bread and muffins. The van-driver, this kindly old gentleman, told us to go ahead and eat while he loaded our luggage into the van. Now this is what I call service man... We checked in our luggage without much problems and actually had time to sit down for a game of taitee haha. It's been so long since we've played, my cards were starting to feel negelcted.
We arrived at LaGuardia sometime around noon. There was a minor hiccup at the airport. US authorities require people to leave their check-in luggage unlocked to facilitate security checks. They literally open up the luggage to check lor (siao boh...). So Jowyn actually left this lock (it wasn't hers) dangling on one of her check-in bags and what probably happened was that after the security personnel checked her bag, he probably closed the lock for her. Problem is, Jowyn actually didn't know the combination to unlock or something likedat, so I think she approached one of the security ppl to cut the lock for her. We boarded the bus for New York City and alighted at Grand Central Terminal to take another bus to Courtyard Marriott (our hotel. finally, no more inns haha). Well it was more like a mini-van which was absolutely filthy and reeked of cigarette smoke. The driver was the worst of the lot. Before helping us load our luggage, he told us he expected $2 in tips from each of us. I am under the impression that tips are freely given by the person receiving the service so we have no actual obligation towards him. Outrageous guy. If his mini-van was clean and if he had better manners, we would undoubtedly tip him. We did tip him in the end, but only after he unloaded our luggage. Gosh, the nerve of that guy...
Anyways, the room at Courtyard Marriott was fabulous, as could be expected for the price we paid. There was only one king-sized bed because we reserved a room for 2 for a lower price. It didn't really matter because there were still 4 sets of towels, plenty of pillows and even extra blankets each of us took turns sleeping on the floor every night. Kind of makes me wonder if the staff at Courtyard Marriott were expecting 4 ppl to turn up for a 2 ppl room heh. So we had a short rest in the room before heading out for Central Park.

Central Park is (like its name suggests) in the middle of New York City. And it is huge. We visited its open-air skating rink, went up some observatory tower thingy, walked by an abandoned amphitheatre and decided against going into the zoo. Along the way, we were accompanied by the stench of horse manure. Seriously. Cos there are horse carriages for tourists but no sign of horse toilets.

Sorry bad joke.

Dun think we did anything else after that. Probably returned to our room to eat maggi mee. And I watched tv while the girls swapped photos on their laptops. I've given up on Penelope. The coolest thing about the TV is that it's flat-screen and English subtitles pop up when u mute the sound. Yeah well I find it cool, dunno about you... :) The not-so-cool thing is that one of the movie channels switches to a porn channel after 12am. I found out about that accidentally. Please, have some faith in me yar.

Wow, almost 2 weeks since i last updated. Guess reality has really given me a huge slap on the face and I'm still reeling from the impact of it. I'm still determined, however, to blog about the stuff that happened in New York and coming home to Singapore before I really forget everything... (memory's not like what it used to be. getting old yar.) So just gimme a little time.

Who's still reading by the way?

Haha :)

Florida Part 2
19 Dec
Disneyland. We were determined to not miss the shuttle this time cos Disneyland is very far from our inn. In fact, the journey took an hour. When we got there, we had to take a monorail to another station (within Disneyland) where we took a ferry to Magical Kingdom. The entire Disney World comprises of 4 kingdoms (Magical Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot and 1 more that I can't recall) but we only intended to spend 1 day there (due to monetary issues... the ticket prices have doubled in 10 years) so we chose to go to Magical Kingdom. The rides at Magical Kingdom are family-oriented and a large part of those in Magical Kingdom are catered to suit the needs of younger children. If I were to rank the amusement parks I've been to in increasing order of thrill, it would be Magical Kingdom, Universal Studios and lastly Six Flags. Yup Six Flags is really hard-core. Memories of the Superman ride still send shivers up my spine.
Right I digress.
So I had lots of fun there. Not so much of "screams and thrills" but more like a general sense of happiness and joyousness. Some memorable rides include the Rocky Mountain Rollercoaster (the name's not entirely accurate but I'm too lazy to dig out my stuff to check), Pirates of Carribean (the 2nd movie is coming out soon yay! More Captain Jack Sparrow!), the Haunted Mansion (really quite entertaining except for the group of teenage girls next to us who wouldn't stop screaming...) and the Lilo and Stitch ride. Well that one wasn't really a ride but I thought the overall concept was pretty refreshing. Basically it's about Stitch escaping his prison and jumping around the room. Our seats had an additional shoulder guard which applied pressure on our shoulders to simulate Stitch jumping on us to dodge his captors. They also sprayed some stuff to imitate the smell of chilli dogs which was what Stitch was supposed to have eaten according to the story line so it gave the impression that Stitch was pretty near us (for us to be able to smell his "bad breath" heh).
The queues for the rides were at 10 min to 20 min initially but as it drew closer to noon, we started seeing 60 or even 80 min waiting times. But yeah, we managed. Also tried on tons of silly looking hats, both in Universal Studios and Magical Kingdom now that I think about it. I shall post them up soon :) Ooh and I took pictures with Mickey Mouse, Pluto and Chip and Dale. Mickey was so charming, he kissed my hand before I left! *squeal* haha! At 7pm we all crowded at the main street to watch the parade. They dimmed the road lamps so that we could see the full splendour of the brightly-lighted floats at night. The parade ended at 7.30 or 7.45, can't quite remember, and we hung around for a while more for the fireworks display at 9pm. Ah that was really my favourite moment of the whole day I reckon. I just love to watch fireworks cos it brings a warm and fuzzy feeling to my heart. The shuttle bus back was scheduled to leave at 10pm and we absolutely couldn't afford to miss that so we sort of rushed back to the pick up point immediately after the fireworks display. Yup we were definitely exhausted after 2 days of theme parks.

20 Dec
We wanted to visit Daytona Beach today but we found out that we were just too tired so we went to explore Downtown Orlando. We discovered there was really nothing there. We essentially took a one hour bus ride downtown to look at a lake (Lake Eola, supposed to be famous but would someone please tell me the reason why?) with a fountain in the middle of it. On the bus ride back, we realised that the main shopping area (for gifts and souveniers) was in fact just one street away from our inn. So we spent the rest of the day walking down International Boulevard. Went into a Harley Davidson Shop and ogled at the cowboy hat, visited the world's largest McDonalds too (why it's so large is because there was an arcade on the 2nd floor. But they serve gourmet sandwiches too besides the regular stuff so I guess that makes it special) and lastly had dinner at IHOP which is the acronym for International House of Pancakes (whee!). Yesh pancakes for dinner is highly unorthodox but I didn't travel several thousand miles for nothing right? Of course we had pancakes and they were really delicious heh.

21 Dec
Our last day at Florida, we travelled to Daytona Beach. We wanted to go to Miami Beach but settled for Daytona in the end cos Miami is a 6 hour bus ride away. We still took about 3 hours to get to Daytona because we had to take a bus downtown to the Greyhound Bus Station which provides bus services between cities. When we arrived at Daytona, we realised that the beach wasn't that near the bus station so we walked for a good 45 min at least. When we reached the beach, we were kind of disappointed. It was too cold and windy for starters, and the beach looked kind of deserted. We strolled along the length of it for a while, then decided to head for Daytona USA, the racing track. That was a challenge too because we know we definitely couldn't walk there (6 to 8 miles is freaking long) but lucky for us, we met a helpful bus driver who set us on the right path. On top of that, we had reasonably good luck with the buses, always catching them just on time. Yup so we got to Daytona USA at 4pm or so, joined the tour and looked at the exhibits for the rest of the afternoon. We had to leave at 6.45pm to catch the bus back to the bus station. By then, it was dark and the 4 of us were walking out in the cold at the side of a really long but busy road. Heh. Well we met another kind bus driver. He was driving the bus back to the depot but he picked us up anyway and drove us some way along the road and radioed the driver of the bus we're supposed to take to let him know that he was to pick the 4 of us up. Anyway, when we returned to Orlando, we took a cab back to our inn because it was late and also to save time. We were leaving Florida at 6am the next morning so we figured we needed the time to pack.

This was when I was wrongly accused of flirting with the cab driver.

Argh.

Well it's a whole big joke, dun take it seriously :) Cos I was sitting in the front passenger seat and the cab driver is actually a Daytona enthusiast so of course I was obliged to make some small talk. Whatever were you thinking hmm?

Omigosh, I'm two days late. Oops.

Birthday dedication 1: Yali

Heh I still remember Arts Fest in Sec 3 or 4 where you dressed up like a movie star. That was fun. Thank you for the nice things you've said about my blog. More importantly, thank you for reading it! Happy birthday!

Birthday dedication 2: Andrea

Andrea jie jie! Happy Birthday! She's a really capable and independent woman and a great friend too. All the best in your future endeavours!

Florida Part 2 and New York currently in the works. Do stay tuned for it :)

Departure and Florida Part 1

16 Dec
We spent the day roaming around Cornell, exploring the places that we haven't. Brain collection at Uris Hall, Sage Chapel, the moving stacks at Olin library just to name a few. We also revisited some of our favourite haunts, like the Ag Quad, Dairy Bar and McGraw tower. At 4.30pm, we met up with some of the other Singaporeans to go traying on Libe Slope. Traying is pretty much like sledding except that instead of using a sled (which most of us obviously don't have), we use trays "borrowed" from the dining halls instead. The slope itself is pretty long and has varying gradients so we all "warmed-up" with a moderate portion of the slope. Then the 4 of us exchange students started to build a snowman (Whee!). Snowman-building is actually pretty tiring but we managed. Haha one of my long-time dreams fulfilled. After that, Jowyn and I decided to challenge THE slope. Gosh, that one was really no joke. I can't really judge how steep it was in the dark but the tray picked up speed really really quick. Then there was this bump near the end of the slope and I flew off the tray, landed on the snow with a thud, rolled once or twice before coming to a complete stop.
Ouch.
Yeah dun worry, I was just shaken but not hurt. Then we had to climb back up the slope. Now that was really tough. And quite hilarious too. Jowyn actually slid backwards after she struggled up the slope for so long. Then some of the guys (I think Guo Jian and Yizhuan) tried to help us from the top but they too slid down the slope.
So after that, Cherlyn and I went back to our room to pack. Really furious packing. Shavonne dropped by at 7 or 8pm I think to say goodbye to us. Really very touched by her sincerity cos by that time, the wind and snow was already quite heavy and yet she braved them both to come see us. She's really a great friend. Laura, our RA, came to check our room at 11.30pm and at 12 midnight, we started the tedious and tiring job of pushing our luggage to HILC. We were going to catch the 4am bus to NYC so we could have checked out later. However, Laura had a paper the following day so we thought it would be really unfair if we made her stay up so late. Hence we decided to check out earlier and spend the remaining hour or so at HILC with Jowyn and Denise. I can't really say this was a really smart decision now cos what was normally a 7-8 min walk to HILC became a 2 hour journey through the snow with extremely heavy luggage. Each of us had 2 luggages and we couldn't manage them both at the same time so we had to make 2 trips. We were totally exhausted and extremely annoyed at the end of it. So you see, I actually left Cornell not in the best of moods haha. Well it was much better later when we had to transport the luggages to the bus stop cos there were a couple of guys who helped us with it. Especially Shannon. Forever indebted to him. Guo Jian too.

17 Dec
I slept like a log on the bus after the extreme physical exertions. When we reached Port Authority Bus Terminal, we said goodbye to the freshies except for Yuan Xiang and Joseph. We were to deposit one luggage each at Yuan Xiang's hotel room so it'll make our travelling easier. Joseph was very kind to help us with it. After our luggage woes were settled, we made our way to LaGuardia Airport to catch our flight to Florida. We arrived in Florida at approximately 6pm, checked in at our hotel (more like inn) and headed out for dinner. We marveled at the fact that we could venture out in the night in just one layer of clothing compared to the normal 3 or 4 layers we have to wear in Ithaca.

18 Dec
We spent the day at Universal Studios. Well before that, we woke up early to stuff ourselves with the complimentary breakfast. The inn provided the best breakfast I've eaten so far while travelling. The muffins deserve special mention hee. Anyway, we ate the breakfast and missed the free shuttle to Universal Studios. Sigh. So we walked there. Our inn is quite near Universal Studios so it only took us about half an hour to walk there. We met up with Jowyn's sister and her friend at the ticket booth and proceeded in for a day of fun and excitement haha.
The first ride we took was the Shrek 4D thingy. It's a 3D show so we all had to put on the silly-looking 3D glasses. What made it 4D was when Shrek and Donkey jumped into a river (for example), some water is sprayed on our faces, or when there were spiders scuttling on the floor, something will seem to brush past our feet. Pretty cool :) Other rides we took included Jimmy Neutron (simulation ride), Twister (marvellous special effects, we all came out with messy hair), Earthquake (sitting in a subway train when an earthquake strikes), E.T. (riding a bike to save E.T.'s planet). The Mummy ride was the best. It was an exciting roller coaster ride with plenty of special effects too. M.I.B. was pretty cool too. We each had this gun that we were supposed to use to shoot aliens and earn points. We went for several shows too, like Beetlejuice Graveyard Rock, Animal Planet. The best one was definitely Fear Factor Live. The contestants were park visitors who volunteered to participate in the stunts. That was really way cool. We also went to the largest Hard Rock Cafe to pick up some gifts before catching the shuttle bus back to our inn. We're on a budget so dinner was Maggi Mee. Luckily there was a microwave oven in the room.