Had a busy, busy week. Hmm... where to start? 

Let me start by elaborating on my last post. I think I shocked a few people, sorry for worrying you. A senior took us out for dinner that night and on the way back to the hotel, the car was stopped by the highway patrol because there were 4 ppl seated at the back without seatbelts. Really sian-half. Now I'm just waiting for my ticket to come in the mail so that I can go pay my fine.

Monday to Thursday morning was mostly spent learning this software that I'll be using for work in the future. Then also squeezed in 2 house-viewings in the evenings. And attended my first Ho-Ho on Wed evening. Ho-Ho is the weekly company party. Free food, drinks and many little kids running around with face paint and goody bags because the theme this time was Children's Holiday Party. Being young-at-heart, I took a picture with Santa:

Thursday afternoon and Friday were the most "exciting" days (read: mentally-draining, exhausting, busy!!!). In summary, I got my car on Thurs afternoon and took 4 exams on Friday. 

2001 Mitsubishi Mirage ES, nice and small (unlike that huge monstrosity called the rental car that has gotten us into parking troubles TWICE at Ranch 99, the Asian supermarket). The entire process of getting a car was based on communication, trust and blind faith but I'm not feeling too eloquent now so I'll leave that for another post.

Currently still having some housing issues, sigh. Really hope things will turn out for the better soon. Not left with much time at the hotel. Many thanks to Kor, Yu-san, Gills for your encouraging comments and also all of you out there for your concern (I know you all care, just shy to say right? Heh).

Three weeks into my stay here, I spend a chilly half-hour with the highway patrol.

I think I've experienced it all now. The whole American experience.

Am I having fun here? Yeah well sort of I guess. It's not full-blown, all-out fun though. Maybe the novelty is wearing off. (That was fast...)

Take a moment and think about the situation I'm in. 

1. New job. First job (sort of).

2. Foreign country, foreign culture, foreign environment, foreign people.

3. Away from family and friends.

4. Away from homely comforts.

I know I'm lucky to be here. I feel lucky to be here. But it doesn't mean all is sunny and clear blue skies. My problem is that over-worry, over-think, over-analyze. Or more succintly put, I'm a kancheong spider. So although there's only car, house, work, moolah and travelling to think about, I'm already feeling a little overwhelmed.

(And still got time and energy to blog. Mary, Mary, so contrary.)

Sigh. I suppose everything will work out somehow. 

Some introductions first, since I figure these people will feature very often from now on.

From left: Albert, Daniel, John, Uma and yours truly :) We are the Oceanside peeps!

That photo was taken on Thanksgiving morning, when we woke up bright and early to take part in the Turkey Trot down by the beach. It was 5km long, I managed to finish it a little faster than the Great Eastern Run, probably cos of the cool weather and Uma who has fantastic stamina. Albert and Daniel finished among the first 250 and they got medals!

Guy in a turkey costume and kid with a turkey hat:

Was supposed to go to the San Diego Zoo with some seniors after the run but the plan was canceled so we went to catch Madagascar 2 and managed to squeeze in a second movie, Australia. Then it was back to the hotel for dinner and a short nap before we headed off for shopping at 1.30am. The day after Thanksgiving is commonly known as Black Friday and stores nationwide will have huge sales that typically start at midnight or really early in the morning so we drove to Carlsbad Premium Outlet to check it out.

Oh yar. We have a rental car now. It's rather large, like the size of Dad's Camry. Still trying to get the hang of it.

Anyway, the outlet was bustling with people when we got there. Some shops had long queues outside and Starbucks had even longer queues haha. I bet people wanted to pump some caffeine into their bloodstream to shop throughout the night. The shopping was ok I guess, but it's unfortunate that I just arrived in the States and I can't afford to spend too much, not until I've settled my permanent accomodation and bought a car. But I still dragged 3 guys behind me for a good 4 hours haha :)

Just slightly before the sun rose, we left the outlet for Best Buy, which is a major electronic store here and this is the place where Black Friday took on a whole new meaning for us. To cut a long story short, Daniel lost his wallet, got it back with the cash missing but the cards in place and now, he'll never ever step into Best Buy again. We went back to the hotel for another short nap, then headed out for the Apple store in the afternoon for Albert to get his MacBook and ended with shopping at Walmart. And that's about how I spent Thanksgiving 2008 in the US. 

First day of work.

Jamey, my manager, described it very aptly. "It's like drinking from a fire hose." Totally.

But it's only information-overload, Oceanside (OCN) is a great place, people there are so nice, it's just awesome. 

The highlights of my day were the grey area tour and the shift change meeting where I got a chance to enter the manufacturing plant. Especially the latter, where I had to gown up before entering (remember those days Bippies?). 

It's too bad pltmates can't see my excitement, since they were complaining how I don't seem very excited for my USA trip prior to my departure. Well rest assured that I'm absolutely brimming with excitement right now, before the novelty wears off.

Some pics to make you all jealous:

Do these look familiar?

Heh. I'm now at Oceanside, and will be staying here for the rest of my one year in USA. Arrived at San Diego Airport at 8.30pm on Fri and was picked up by my managers and seniors. They brought us to Residence Inn Oceanside and later dinner at an Italian restaurant across the road from our accomodation. It's heart-warming really, especially since I've just left from a great bunch of people in San Francisco:

Hope we get to meet up again :)

16 Nov 2008 San Francisco City Tour

Awesome day, awesome weather. A little hazy at the beginning but it cleared up soon. I simply fell in love with the azure, blue sky. 

It was mostly a stay-in-the-bus-and-look-at-the-sights tour, but we did hop off at the Golden Gate Bridge, Twin Peaks and the beach for quick snaps. 

At the Golden Gate Bridge, there was a lonely sailor:

We decided to cheer him up a bit:

Had a great view of the entire San Francisco City up at the Twin Peaks but really caught my interest was this curvy road:

Stopped by the beach as well...

And the famous Victorian houses known as the Painted Ladies (but suaku-me only first heard of it on the tour). It's apparently featured in the TV series "Full House" (which suaku-me thought was a Korean TV drama.)

Government building with gold-plated roof:

Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39. Famous for the lively (albeit noisy) sea-lions...

...and I think that is Alcatraz (former prison) at a distance:

17 Nov 2008 New Hire Orientation

Basically my first day of work which started off with the completion and submission of various official documents and getting my photo ID taken. The facilitators next brought us through what Genentech was all about. The tagline, mission, values, goals, culture, benefits (which I'm not entitled to but doesn't bother me cos hey I'm just glad to be here) etc. Might sound boring the way I list it out here but by the end of today's session, I'm pretty convinced that I'll try my very best to remain in this company heh. The entire session was well-paced and addressed many concerns that new hires will have in mind so two thumbs up Genentech! 

I've got 3.5 more days of orientation here in South San Francisco before leaving for my working location at Oceanside. It's in Southern California, 1.5 hrs away from San Francisco by plane or 8 hrs away by car. Sigh. I definitely want to go to San Francisco again to see more sights and attractions but I'll see how it goes. Oceanside's not affected by the forest fires at Southern California so that's great news. Had my mom worried for awhile there. *Don't worry Mommy!*

I have arrived safely at San Francisco, checked in to my luxurious single suite, took a nap surrounded by fluffy pillow goodness and I'm now officially jet-lagged.

So at Changi Airport some hours ago, I was taking pictures with my mom...

...fellow bummers and...
...and Bippies.

The flights were pretty uneventful. The first flight was to Hong Kong for a one hour transit. However, we still had to alight from the plane to immediately join the security check queue to allow us to re-board the plane so that was pretty silly but good exercise for the legs. Managed to get some sleep on the flight to San Francisco, which might explain why I'm jet-lagged but whatever. Generally, the seats were uncomfortable but the food was good (Magnum Classic and Haagen Daz dessert!). 

Finally arrived at...

...San Francisco International Airport, boarded the shuttle to Residence Inn and checked into this:

All this for me and me only. Woo hoo! I hereby order you to be jealous of me hahahah! They dun call it "Residence Inn" for nothing I guess.

Gonna have a tour of San Francisco in a few hours time so I'm going to head back to bed to see if I can get a little bit more sleep. Meanwhile, don't worry about me, I'm enjoying myself here :)

In a few hours, I'll be departing for USA for a one year training programme in bioprocess manufacturing. The good news is, this blog will be revived with my American adventures. There isn't any bad news yet. Hope it remains that way.

Thank you everybody for your well-wishes and farewell gatherings. I'm gonna be out of your lives for a year but do drop by here so that I can entertain you with the happenings in my life and likewise, I hope you can keep me in the loop with what's going on in your lives (MSN, Skype, Facebook or email me!) cos you are all precious to me :)

Bye!

OMG.

I used to write letters.

And I had TWO pen-pals.

I really am rediscovering myself.

Was doing some archaelogical excavation recently. At home. In my room. Believe it. I was cleaning out notes that date back to even primary school era so that's like more than a decade of procrastination, laziness and dust.

*cough cough*

Anyway, so in the midst of all that, I have come to realised something. It's like one of those revelations that come a bit late. (Way too late.) In my case it was probably very much suppressed and repressed, thrown into the deep dark recesses of my sub-conscious. And when I told my mom about my revelation, she was like, "Of course. Didn't you know that?" Damn. Even mom knows better than I do. What kind of person have I been, neglecting myself like that?

So now that I know I've been back-pedalling for a while, I shall make a conscious effort to rediscover the greatness in me and bring back my lost ego. (By playing lots and lots of lego, eating lots and lots of eggo, with pasta and sauce from prego!--Gills and I, in our MSN conversation just minutes ago haha)

I was pretty pissed off last week. At anything and everything. My poor Mom, she bore the brunt of it and patiently listen to my numerous tirades. I think its probably a result of being emotionally neutral for too long. And some parts of disatisfaction, insecurity and general low self-esteem. Well the steam has run dry now. I dare say that I'm a much nicer person to talk to this week and I hope it remains this way.

Attended the free workshop offered by Sony when I purchased a new Cybershot and it was a great learning experience. Now I'm itching to try out some of the tips and tricks that the instructor shared with us. Will I ever go into serious photography i.e. expensive SLRs etc.? Heh I dunno. It is interesting but maybe it's just a phase for me now.

There's simply nothing to blog about.

Well not until certain developments take place.

For now, I can only imagine and wonder at the numerous possibilities.

And leave cryptic messages here to keep you guessing.

What on earth is she talking about?!

Muahaha.

Introducing......

*drumrolls*

MOO-SAN!

Moo-san is the latest addition to my family. It (gender indeterminable due to lack of distinguishable anatomical parts) was given to me by these awesome people:

And everybody (I do mean EVERYBODY) loves Moo-san!

We heart Moo-san!

Er. Hi.

To you who still checks this blog, thank you. Thank you for the confidence you have in me updating this blog.

You should have noticed by now that...
1. I'm really not too good at maintaining this blog.
2. I don't deliver what I promise. (hint: photos)

So....

Okay current update of my life (the easiest thing to do cos uploading photos just takes too long!):
1. Will be jobless in less than a month.
2. Very busy trying to meet deadlines.
3. Not looking forward to the end of the month. Besides the change in employment status, I'm gonna miss fellow Bippies alot. ALOT.
4. Besides meeting deadlines, I spend my time in office playing with soft toys.
5. And now everyone thinks I sleep with soft toys. Which I don't. Honestly.
6. Just got back from Taipei a week ago. My 2nd grad trip haha. Enjoyed it tremendously :)
7. Love is once again in the air. Just not the air I inhale.

Yup. Er. Perhaps I'll post some photos when I'm jobless? I'd have plenty of time to do that :)

Sorry to have disappeared for more than a month. Work just overtook me, shoved me facedown into the muddy ground and jumped on my back a couple of times for good measure.

No la, it wasn't that bad. (Shouldn't scare the population of readers who are still in school hahaha.) Several highlights of my social life in the months that passed were:

Settlers' (or Settler's?) with colleagues sometime late-Feb. I haven't laughed that hard in a very long time. I also accumulated more nicknames. Sigh. I dunno what I do honestly, but they just keep coming! Why?!

Mind's Cafe (or Minds'? heh I can never remember) with dear Priya, Engel, Angeline and Qiaohui. Another very enjoyable session and some very happy news too :) hee.

My birthday!!! I was very very immensely touched by the surprise bday cake and presents from my colleagues. Domo arigato gozaimasuta minna-san! Now we have adorable moo-san and meh-san to comfort us in times of contamination, broken tubings, overfed batches and unsolvable problem sets :)

Met up with Pavaani and the rest of the nuts which was great and thankew so much for the lovely purple cardigan.

Dinner and movie with pltmates. Thankew very much for the handy pouch and concealer to cover my leopard spots. I'm making good use of them.

Dinner with some Stongers. Wow. Yeah wow. It was two years ago when I went up Stong and haven't really kept in contact with them besides Ke Rui whom I see in school and Yali cos we've known each other for so long. So it's really great to see them both and Keshia again. Ah those fond memories... brushing teeth at the top of a waterfall is truly a novel experience y'know... heh.

I have plenty of photos but none taken by me haha. Shall upload some soon.

I shouldn't make promises so hastily next time. When I thought I had a nice long CNY break, I kinda did have a nice long break but also a nice long worksheet to complete. And then everything just kinda snowballed into tons and tons of paperwork. Plus the party my parents are throwing tomorrow means they need the services of Maria.

*runs into telephone booth and changes into super-hero costume*

Well anyway, what I'm trying to say is that Part 2 of Sri Lankan Travels will come soon. Akan datang. Meanwhile, let me entertain you with some wacky pictures and you can try guessing which one is me.

This process is also known as gowning. Its purpose is to simulate astronauts gearing up for outer space exploration. And yesh, I get to do this at work. Cool huh?

I just got notified by snail mail that I've won $400 worth of makeup in a lucky draw contest so I'm in the state of "pleasantly surprised". I think it's my first time winning something in a lucky draw. Or winning something substantial in a lucky draw. Happy :)

(And yesh I'm openly gloating. Muhahaha.)

Now, weekend please come quickly. I really need a nice long break.

Hello, Happy CNY everybody! Er hehe what can I say? I was bitten by the procrastination bug haha. And this isn't even a complete log of my travels in Sri Lanka but I think it's better to get it published first.

JY's Sri Lankan Travels (Part One)

Why Sri Lanka? Seems like an uncommon holiday destination for Singaporeans. Well indeed it is. In fact, it's probably more popular among the Caucasians because I definitely saw more of them then fellow yellow-skinned people. Regardless, if you are one who enjoys the rich cultural heritage of ancient empires and breathtaking scenery, do visit Sri Lanka.

18 December 2007 - Bandaranaike International Airport

We arrived slightly after 4pm. After clearing immigration and baggage collection, we made our way out of the airport to the pick-up area. It was chaotic, but we got onto our van safely. It took about 2 hours to get to Dad's apartment in Colombo city because of slow traffic but that gave me an opportunity to observe their traffic police in action. At most major junctions and roundabouts, there were traffic police stationed to direct traffic. I even saw them stopping the incoming traffic to lead pedestrians across zebra-crossings so that really impressed me. By the time we arrived at the apartment, it was close to 8pm. Mom and I whipped up a quick dinner and we sat down to eat as a family for the first time since... oh wow I can't even remember... possibly one year!

19 December 2007 - Galle
We set off for Galle, 4 hours down south of Colombo, at 7.30am. Galle lies along the west coast of Sri Lanka and is famous for its beautiful bays and beaches, handmade lace and Dutch forts. Enroute to Galle, we stopped at two Buddhist temples. Unfortunately, I cannot remember their names and well, don't blame me, you wouldn't either. Heh.
The outstanding feature of this temple the dome-shaped ceiling which causes even the slightest whisper to be echoed and heard.
This is a very holy tree, said to have grown from a branch of another holy tree that was grown from the branch of the tree that Buddha sat under when he attained Nirvana.The second temple is famous for its gigantic seated Buddha statue. It also has a pet elephant. Dumbo below is 10 years old and lives on a steady diet of fresh fruits provided to him by the temple-goers.We also stopped by one of the many sea turtle conservation efforts along the way. The one we stopped at was manned by a young Caucasian woman and had two kinds of ticket fares. Tourists' tickets were 200 rupees each; locals' were 20 rupees each. And it's actually nothing more than a few long concrete tanks hall-filled with sea water, containing a few turtles each. But it is sorta for a noble cause so...

That's a hatching ground. The sticks indicate which type of eggs lie beneath the sand.

We then stopped at the beach to take a boat-ride in a glass-bottomed boat specially designed for coral-viewing. Here's the beach (and my mom):

And the coral with fish happily swimming in between:Moving on, we finally reached Galle where we had lunch at a hotel and everyone else around us were Caucasians, most likely English. Turns out that Galle has a famous cricket stadium and the match between the Sri Lankan and English cricket teams was on the same day so many of them were watching the live telecast on TV. Anyway we weren't interested in cricket so after lunch, we took a short stroll among the fort walls and also went to the lighthouse.

Then it was back to Colombo. But not before stopping to take a picture of this boat:

It probably isn't meant to carry a lot of people and I do wonder whether it will be a comfortable experience for the buttocks.

Alright more to come soon. For the first time in my life, I will not be spending CNY in Malaysia but will be right here in Singapore so I should be able to finish blogging about Sri Lanka during the long break. Gong Xi Fa Cai everybody!