Eight days later...

31 hours of travelling took me halfway round the world and i'm home at last. Eight days later, here I am. I've acclimatised and gotten over my jet-lag (although I haven't gotten over the stupid ridiculously-slow internet connection here) and i'm back to normal. Currently, i'm still waiting for university replies which are like really late and i'm getting kinda anxious. But to blow off some steam, I go out to meet my friends!!! It's only been a while but so much has changed now since classes have commenced.
I'm really gonna miss my sister (merci!) and life in America. The experiance was really great and all. Going to miss the shopping and sight seeing.
You know what, i'm at a loss of words now, so i'll do another post some other day when I feel like i'm up to it.

What to do when there's no snow?

The day after revisiting New York, we headed for the town of New Haven for a short half day trip. Guess where we went?!

That's Yale University!!! Yes we visited Yale! Yeah, the place was really really nice coz the building was historical and all that. We took pictures and videos of the outer fascade of the buildings coz we probably couldn't get in. It was kinda quiet and deserted and i'm guessing it's coz classes haven't started yet or something. The uni is spreaded out around so it's pretty big if you ask me.

The inner courtyard place in particular was really nice coz the building would then surround you all round and I felt like I was in some medival site.

Yeah, that's me and my sis in awe of the place...do we look in awe?...Hehe. But it was cold there that day and I had only this hoody on me and the whole time I was waiting just to get inside some building which was heated so as to stop me from bloody shivering.

We then paid a visit to the Yale Art Museum coz it was free and it was a self guided tour of it. It seemed pretty small from the outside but inside...there was like four floors, an outer courtyard and so many things to see. There was art from the Greek empire including sculptures of Gods and stuff, there were things from Asia which included China, Japan, Korea, India and even some from Africa which looked so creepy. I really liked the art and crafts from China...coz I am Chinese and I also liked the paintings from Europe, the ones i'm guessing were from the Renaissance period...yeah, those were really good. But my sister and I didn't enjoy the abstract art that much. It all looked (artists, divert your head away now) crappy to me...

- what the?...

-umm...

-hmm...

I hope you get what I mean. I just don't see what's so artistic about it. It's just so...blah!!! Maye it's coz i'm no artist...but I must admit, some...and only some of the abstract art was worth of being displayed. If you called that art, then I can do art...

- First, find a medium

-Then, let your artistic talents flow!

- Touch up a little here and there, add a little light for display...

- And voila! I call it, Essence of Trashcan II

Anyway, yesterday, my sister took a day off and took us to beautiful Vermont. It's supposed to be really nice, with great scenary. It was alright but I think it would look better in the summer or fall when there is more colour in the trees. But why did we go there? You see, it hasn't been snowing in Bristol lately and we're all getting kinda antsy about the mild winter, so what better to do than go up north to a place with SNOW!!!

- Our first glimpse of frosty goodness (I kinda make it sound like food, don't I)

It wasn't really snowing all that much when we got there. We visited a couple of places like Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory, where we had a tour of the place and ate some fantabulous ice cream (Imagine...ice cream in winter). Then, we went to a place called Cold Hollow Cider Mill, where I had like 4 small cups of all-natural Apple Cider which was really refreshing. YAY! Then, there was wine-tasting, watched glass making, look at art pieces in galleries...but that will appear in my next post coz in this one, all I wanna talk about is:

- SNOW!!!

- SNOW!!!

- And More SNOW!!!

I finally got my snow. I was half satisfied, coz the snow wasn't deep enough for me to do my snow angel...haih...But at least I got to see it fall and accumulate and all. The first picture was when we were in Stowe, Vermont and it started to snow and the next two was when we were on our way back home and it started to snow, so my sis took an exit to a town and we jumped out of the car and play with snow in the middle of a carpark! Siao I know. But I may never get to see snow in the days to come so might as well make the best of the opportunity!

But the thing is, when we arrived home, it started to snow like really early in the morning!!! But, it was really little and it quickly dissappeared...sad.

Anyways, I will upload more photos of my trip to Vermont in my next post and possibly in Ringo and Friendster...so hang on!!!

New York: Revisited

Heya guys, I've been very lazy to post pictures up here coz sometimes it only lets you load a limited amount on each posting. So if you wanna access more photos, you can either check out my friendster or ringo sites. You can also see my sis's blog ( E.B.O.F. under my friend's blogs).
On Jan 8th, we revisited New York coz it's such a mesmerizing place and we haven't really toured all the places we wanted to tour. This time I wore my new coat so as not to freeze my a$$ off like the last time! Here are the pics along with commentary!

~ Okay, so from Bristol, we first have to drive about 45 minutes to the New Haven Train Station. But that day, there was like this thick fog which hung around the air, so my sister had to drive extra careful. And that caused us to miss the train and had to take the next one (Haih...wasted half an hour) But anyways, the train ride which took 1 and 1/2 hours landed us in Grand Central. From there, we had to take the metro (pic) to our first stop, The American Museum of Natural History.

~ That's the American Museum of Natural History. It's big, it's spectacular and it's where the new movie 'Night at the Museum' is supposed to be based in. Yes that's right! But don't worry, we didn't stay past the evening...

~ Inside the museum, photography is permitted...so YAY! Here is me with my new friend from Mexico, Rocky! Nice to meet you Rocky. Moving on...

~ In the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, I spotted this delightful >Arrghhh!!! It want's to eat my brains!!!<>

~ There was also the Dinosaur wing which showed bones, bones and more bones!

~ But alas was my favourite section, the Guggenheim Hall of Minerals and the Morgan Memorial Hall of Gems!!! It's all mineeee...muahahaha...muahaha..ahek..ahek >tercekik<

~ After the museum, we headed to the ferry port station thingy to get on board for a free round trip to Staten Island and back. And on the way, we got to spot the Brooklyn Bridge and also Lady Liberty (but it wasn't up close so she still seemed pretty small) The ride was somewhat...windy. Both my mum and sis had their hair blown left and right, up and down (I called it crazy hair syndrome) But me and my short hair encountered no problem whatsoever! Lalalalala...

~ Then, for the rest of the evening, we walked around, passed the famed Madison Square Garden...

~ Fifth Avenue lah...

~ And also the biggest store in the world!!! Occupying a whole block on it's own and several stories high, it's MACY'S!!! Oh, and we also managed to squeeze in some shopping time at H&M which was just around the corner...

~ And that's when we finally reached our destination: The Empire State Building!!! Yahooo! It's the one with the red and green litted roof behind me. So we went in, stood in several queues, waited for minutes and minutes, purchased tickets, stood in more queues, took 2 elevator rides up to the 80th floor observation deck and I tell you, it was all bloody worth it. The view was SPECTACULAR. It was just absolutely AWESOME.

~ The view from the 80th floor...

~ Me, just taking it all in. All views from all four sides of the building. Yes, it was windy up there and yes my mum and sis encountered crazy hair syndrome again but it was really really worth it. The view......WOW. The windyness really made it difficult for us to take pictures up there but those are the few good ones.

~ Since there was another line for the elevator to go down, we decided to walk all the way down until our legs melted and we were reduced to mere meatballs rolling down the staircase. Just kidding, it was only like 6 floors coz', from there we had to take a different elevator down...hehe

~ Our final stop was back at Rockefeller Center with the huge Christmas tree and the open air ice-skating rink. There was like so much less people there compared to the last time we visited (Thank God!). So, we got to go up all the way to the edge to peek at the rink.

That is pretty much all we did for our day our in New York. In total we took like over 200 pictures (I know) so, I won't be able to post all of them up. But I will post some additional ones up in Ringo.

Picture time: NY

From New York with Love:

- First we arrived at Grand Central Station via train from New Haven

- We visited ze famous bull on Wall St.

- Then went on a little walk around battery park to see if I can go to Liberty Island

- The wait for the ferry was too long so we decided to tour the city

- First was central park where mum and sis played CSI:NY

- We then walked far and wide, creepy street upon creepy street

-Until I spotted this man and wondered 'What's inside?'

- I then continued on strolling up to 5th Avenue

- I stopped by Radio City Music Hall

- And hung around in the middle of Times Square

-Until the last pit-stop: Toys 'r' Us

To sum it up

So, i'm half way through my stay in tha US and so far, i'm having the time of my life, as I have described in my previous posts. But let's be truthful. Here are some things from my point of view about this country, both good and bad:

1. People drive like super speedy here. Practically everyone passes the speed limit. If you drive slow, you get honked (but that's a given)

2. Shopping during the sales and holidays is a carzy, frenzy-ish experience. People throng malls and stores like crazy!

3. Okay, for some of the better things, store assistants here ALWAYS ask if you need help and ask how you're doing (but I don't think some of them mean what they are saying coz there are a couple of rude-ass people I have seen at the airport, in New York and just yesterday at the Premium Outlets)

4. You'd think it's cold here but out of nowhere, someone comes round the corner jogging in nothing but scanty sports attire!

5. Cars actually stop for people to cross the street...something unseen back in Penang except for some rare occasions.

6. People here love to use hthe word 'like'. For example: Like yesterday, I was like going to the mall and I like saw this book which was like so good and I like totaly wanna buy it but it was like so expensive and I was like so broke... (I hope you get the picture)

7. When you make an order in any restaurant, the waiter will ask you what you wanna drink first... and then come back later for your food order.

8. You have to tip atleast 15% to 20% when eating in a restaurant and that's on top of the other taxes...if you don't, don't even think of coming to the same place soon.

9. When you purchase clothing here, make sure you retain the receipt and when you get back, check for and imperfections. You can return them to the store as long as you have the receipt and the clothing tag is attached. You can even return them for no reason at all (if you're evil, you can wear the item a couple of days with the tag on and return it later...hehe)

10. Teens and people in their 20's are quite fit. But it's relatively difficult to spot a fit person in their 40's...they're all fat and obese.

So far that's all I can think of for now.

PS: Happy working, Karen!

New, New, New

Hello 2007. New year, new place, new experiances.
Happy New Year to all of you out there. Hope you guys ushered in the year with a bang. For me, it was just a quite moment with my mum and sis, watching TV in the apartment. Nice and peaceful.

Dec 29th was my mum's birthday and so, as her present, my sister planned a trip for us to go to Newport, Rhode Island. We mostly spent the day sight-seeing, which was like totaly awesome. Got to see a couple of boats at Bowen's Wharf. Walked round a couple of shops in the slow, peaceful neighbourhood. Then after, we visited...The Vanderbilt Mansion!!! The mansion was really really indescribable, like I couldn't even comprehend how people could actually have lived in there. It looked more like a museum in more ways. It was absolutely fantastic! Let's let the pictures do the talking shall we?

Newport, Rhode Island

-on our way to Newport

- hmm...i didn't notice there were no boats there

- ahh...there you go, boats!

- The Vanderbilt Mansion...WOW

- my "i'm a snooty rich a$$" pose

The following day (Dec 30th), we visited... NEW YORK... Yes NEW YORK BABY, WHOO-HOO! It was like totally one of the bestest place i've ever visited ever. It was all there, 5th Avenue, Times Square, Battery Park, Rockefella Center and oh so much more. The city was huge! Like to get around the city, we used the subway, coz' it was like the cheapest mode of transport: $7 for a day.

I absolutely LOVED New York. It was bloody great! To get there, we took bout' 2 and a half hours. We visited places like Battery Park and from there we could spot the Statue of Liberty, then we made our way to Chinatown, Central Park (everything looks dead there), Rockefella Center, and finally Times Square!!! It was so spectacular! I couldn't believe it myself that I was actually there!

I can't really upload anymore pictures in this post for God knows what reason, so I decided i'll put it up in friendster or ringo...and maybe both. If I have time, i'll put them up here as well! But for now, bye!

Much more to come...reporting to you live from USA.

Boston Day 2

We returned to Boston the day after our first visit. We arrived in the morning about 10 o' clock since the day before we decided to visit the museum of science to witness the 'Body Worlds 2' exhibition there. It you haven't heard of this exhibition, you can google it up but briefly, the exhibition features human bodies which have been preserved via a technique called plastination developed by Gunther von Hagens. It involves draining of the donated body's fluids (yes...DONATED) and then substituting it with plastic by injecting molten plastic in and when it hardens, the body is preserved. The bodies are exhibited are usually skinned so as to show the tendons, ligaments, muscles, blood vessels and muscles beneath. The bodies are also places in various positions as to display the movement of the muscles. Some diseased organs are also shown. Personally, I found it educational but also sickening. Unfortunately, photography was prohibited. Looking at the REAL dead people made me kinda woosy. So I guess, surgeon is a profession I won't be considering at all...

-outside the museum of science, by the river

After staring at dead bodies for an hour or two we payed a visit to the public park and walked around a little bit. (Now there's a sentence I never thought i'd use)

-the park!!!

-a huge LIVE christmas tree!!!

-some monument

Now i'm back in Bristol and my routine is back to sleep, eat and watch TV. It's not like I can shop and tour all week long can I? So anyway, we're planning to go to New York soon and considering to spend New Years there. But the cost of dining in a restaurant in New York on new year's eve is going to burn several holes in our pockets. So we probably won't be doing that. Bummer.

F.Y.I.: If you wanna see more photos, i'm going to upload them into my friendster or ringo account!!