BACK! 1 DAY TILL I SEE MY HOMELAND.

Back from the 16-day West Coast USA trip!
So many pictures, so many stories, so many moments..
Perhaps I'll blog about it in my next two-months-internshipless holidays.
Another blank spot in my resume.
Could be a blessing in disguise, hopefully =)

The trip was a blast, thanks to the 4 who made it happen.

Just went to the bank and back to close my bank account
and to cash out all the remaining balance.
Was initially a bit worried about carrying the money back to where i'm staying now (40th and Chestnut), which is just one street away, but then again, Philly's an urban city and shit happens.
Seeing my bank balance on the bank-closing statement diminished all worries.

Less than 24 hours till i'm on my way home in KL!
SWEET.
It has been one full circle.
Studying here was fun, and the travelling was superb,
but nothing can really feel like home, no?
Can't wait to see my family and eat good goooood food!
It's about time I talk without trying too hard to conform to ang-moh england.
hahaa. Please don't ask me to demo.
Cannot make it one.

So anyhow, since I have nothing to do but wait for Pacey to emerge from the toilet so that I can wash up and sleep, here's a sneak preview of how the West Coast trip went.
Let's see.. hmm.
We visited the F.R.I.E.N.D.S set in the Warner Bros studios in Los Angeles!
I sat on the red couch Jennifer Aniston used to sit on! *faint*
Oh, OH! We got to be live audience for the Jay Leno show in the NBC studios in Los Angeles!
And guess whoooo the guest stars were!!

Paul Bettany, Duff Goldman and Nick Lachey.

AHHHAHAHA.
If you tell me like that I also won't know who's who.

• Paul Bettany plays Silas, the albino monk in Da Vinci Code!
• Duff Goldman is an extreme dessert chef hehh
• and Nick Lachey's an artist, who used to be in 98degrees!

FUN sia.
Jay Leno's jokes are funnier real life.
Maybe cause everyone's laughing, you kinda feel the need to laugh along.
Or the angmoh's will look at you and wonder why this ching's taking up such a valuable space in this freezing studio. (Their studios are cold cause they use a lot of lighting during shooting, and this really heats up the studio, causing make-up to melt, and the live audience to be uncomfortable)
Hurhur. Anyways, it was an unique experience.

Speaking of Da Vinci Code (which is fiction by the way), we watched it in San Francisco!
A lot of book readers are critics are at extreme ends of the reviews and ratings, but I'd recommend reading the book before watching the movie.
Yes, the book's more thrilling and you maybe disappointed with the film,
but you'd be worse off if you didn't read the book beforehand because the details in the book will really help you understand it all.

Hehhe.. got ahold of this, quite farnie =)
WATCH WATCH!
http://www.syfc.org.sg/events/dvc/cinema.html

Off to bed now.
Good night my dear family and my 2ndlft,
who are the only few people who actually read this blog =)

3 DAYS TO GO!

Had the honour of cooking 3+1 dinner for the 40th and Chestnut people.
Big thankyou to my mum, who taught me how to through email =)
Highly recommend cooking with an apron on.
Shirt has oil stains on it now.
Pictures up when I get ahold of them.

Three days till the 2-week trip to the West Coast!
Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, San Francisco, Yosemite National Park, Death Valley National Park, Las Vegas, Grand Canyons.

yabadabadoo!
haha call me childish. WHATEVER.
I'm going to the west coast! =D

My God works wonders.
More and more amazed with each passing day.
I was crazy to have had any doubts.
Thank You for shining through at the end of the day.
May we remember that it was You,
and not "us just bring lucky", for all the blessings showered upon us.

There are only two ways to live your life.

One is as though NOTHING is a miracle.

The other is as though EVERYTHING is a miracle.

HAPPY-FYING

Yaahoooo
I've found a new blog to read!

Reading cK's blog was ohkay...


UNTIL I FOUND A NEW ONE!!
haahahhahaaaa.
Yes, the power of stereotyping seeped into me,
and I assumed that all of them were beng-ish,
with not so powderful england.
(Unfair statement, cause my china cannot make it,
and cause they're affection for one another beats any other feeling).

In this new one, the guy studies in Melb!
It was nice to read a blog written in more powderful england!
And he studies in uni,
so they have the J/K-Pop look also,
but they're more matured looking and seh!
ahhhhaa.. must be the stylo hair.

HOORAY.
and this one is just as sweet.
and they have a supernicesong playing in the background.
and they go to school and get work done.

PS to all the straights out there
hahha, the almost-universal view of them being cute
is not some perception created by the oppressed community
cause they're unfairly treated.
A lot of girls really think they're cute!
STOP WONDERING WHAT GIRLS SEE IN THEM =)
now you know.


okaymuststopwastingtimenow.
Room looks as if an angry hurricane tore through
and left a hellofa mess behind it.
And I'm the only survivor.

Mickey (the mouse) ran away i think.
or maybe he died of hunger after the exterminator duct-taped the hole.
He used to squeeze his fat brown body through it,
and search my waste-paper basket.
*Faint* Thank goodness for duct tapes.

IT'S TIME

You Are 60% Weird

You're so weird, you think you're *totally* normal. Right? But you wig out even the biggest of circus freaks!

How Weird Are You?

Hahha, disturbing picture.
How weird are YOU?

Had my final paper today
Have gotten over it, I hope my dad will soon.
shigh. Come all the way here only know how to play.
The people who matter expected more than that, snsm.

"Exchange only what.."
"Only need to S/U right?"
Don't listen to them...
It can be more than that if you want it to be.

I felt a whoosh of air behind me, as I walked out of the classroom.
Maybe it was a sense of relief, like... finally.
Maybe the closing door caused the air movement.
Maybe... I farted.
hurhur, okaynotfunny.

It was more than that.
The closing of the metal door marked the end of my life
as an exchange student here in the United States.
That was fast.

It seemed like it was only recently last sem,
that we had the 0405 and 0506 Block Comm dinner at Raffles City.
That night, i went into my B513 room for a last glance,
found a soft toy teddy bear in the middle of the table,
and a card full of farewell messages and best wishes,
surrounded by scented candles arranged in a heart-shape.
sho nice, thank you b-blockers.

Scouted around for cardboard box prices,
and checked how much shipping stuff back costs.
I hate to say this, but it's time to pack up and leave.
We have vacate the rooms here at Stouffer College House at noon this Sunday.

I have one aim, to try to pack up most of my things by tonight.
Cause we're going to shop at Chinatown tml afternoon.
Followed by SEP (3 NUS and 2 SMU) fancy end-of-sem dinner at night.
Then NCBV cell group later in the night.

Gonna cook for the 40th and Chestnut people on Friday! =D
In appreciation of their warmth and kindness,
and for inviting me to eat dinner over at their place these past weeks.
Like the time Adrian cooked chicken rice.

Total spread that night


Adrian's beautiful artwork and handicraft
But Kelana Jaya, Jalan Gasing and BIZAD chicken rice uncles,
you will always be the chicken rice uncles of my heart.

(Lawrence, Wendy, Cat, DeLiang, Andy, Me and Adrian)

Will be going on a chill-out road trip to Bucks County
and a coupla other areas around it on Saturday =)
They're all in Penn, but i'm not sure where.
Sounds fun =D

I have one, and only one option.
and that's to try to pack up most of my things by tonight =)

SUNDAY: NICE FUN DAY OUTSIDE!

I held on tightly and stared straight ahead,
fear messing up my internal intestines and system.
My palms broke out into a cold sweat,
and I steadied my grip, in fear of letting go.

The slow journey upwards was excruciating.
A part of me wanted to take off and run away from the madness,
but I knew it was far too late.
For it had already taken off.

What am I doing??
I asked myself in a frenzy of panic.
I looked up at the faces around me.
Some of them looked excitedly back at me
Ready? Are you ready?
Their eyes seemed to taunt me.

"Steph, are you sure you wanna be doing this?"
they asked before I embarked on the ordeal.
They knew of my low treshold for such absurdities.
"Of course! You guys already went through it,
Looks fun leh."

The say the front seat gets the best view.
I don't want the front seat! I never asked for the best view!
The red tracks ahead grew shorter with every passing moment.
The time came. I whimpered softly in fear.
Time stood still as the car balanced at the tip of the structure for a split nanosecond.

And then the screaming began.
Good Lord, have mercy.

The car hurled itself off the tracks at lightning speed,
propulsing its way down 155 feet towards the ground,
in a crazy attempt to kill all (I thought later)
... oh my squeamish insides.

As soon as the descend started, it ended.
The momentum gathered on its way down
easily propelled it up the first loop.
The 3 inversions including 3 vertical loops, 1 corkscrew and 2 boomerang loops blurred into a 2 minute 20 seconds nightmare.
Like the atrocity, the screaming never ceased.

As it began to slow down,
signalling the end of the horrific ordeal,
I looked up, dazed.
The sun shone into my eyes,
and I quickly averted my gaze and looked around.

Around me, everyone sat, in the exact same positions as when
my conscious mind left them 2 mins 20 seconds ago.
The spring wind blew a cool draft of air,
and the girls shivered slightly in their light jackets.
Everything was fine.

Sunday
Church was fun!
The pastor was in a good jolly mood.
He stuck out his hand and high-fived the worship singer onstage. LOL.

The 40th and Chestnut quintet (Pacey went to Canada) arranged for a picnic and jioed me along! =D The weather was great for a picnic. Sunny but cool. Wendy and I searched for a nice spot on the grassy lawn, and we settled down to await their arrival. They came promptly.

When I saw what they had in their hands,
my heart cried out in joy!
and fell at the same time.
They brought along a ... frisbee.

So long never play le!
But shit, tomorrow got exam, still got lots to study.
In the end, the darling yellow plastic disc won my favour hands down.
Hahha, like there was any doubt.

We had a lighthearted lunch of ham+cheese sandwiches,
and 3 different types of salad
- potatoes, carrots topped with croutons,
-peaches with sausages
-fruit salad
on a funky maroon paper blanket.
Timothy, Rex, Kai An and Shamir joined us shortly after we started,
and we all tucked in.

Highlight of the day
The Ultimate Frisbee 5-on-5.
Syok siaa.. so long never play.
4 months of frisbee inactivity suck.
There was an occasional breeze,
but nothing much hampered our spirits.

Can't wait to play more in the near future!
I returned and continued to cram for my group study at 8pm.
I never really appreciated group studies in the past,
but working with Sherry really helped.
The Jap Civ exam this morning not too bad.
Thanks 2lt for telling me what I shouldn't have heard,
but did anyways =)


My Bad.
I almost swore never to mention them here at the chunks,
but reading this line was super heart-warming.
"im so so addicted to darlin..."
So sweet haha.
How do they eat so much and still remain skinny!?
If there is one thing that can support the claim that the blog is a hoax,
this would be it.

Around me, everyone sat on the funky maroon paper blanket,
in the exact same positions as when
my conscious mind left them 2 mins 20 seconds ago.
The spring wind blew a cool draft of air,
and the girls shivered slightly in their light jackets.
Everything was back to normal.

I slowly turned to my right,
and passed Lawrence the handphone.
Still shaken, I angled to face Shamir and asked,
"Shamir, weren't you afraid of your handphone falling when you videoed the ride?"
"Hha, I just wound the handphone safety cord around my wrist.
How, exciting? Syok? Wanna go Six Flags with us next time?"

"HAHA. See the video already so scared and squeamish,
how to sit on the real thing."

Six Flags

A few of the NOC seniors drove to the Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey on the day before.

The videoed ride is The Great American Scream Machine.
It's one of the tallest, longest, fastest looping roller coasters in the world.
Looks damn huge.

The King of all Roller Coasters is Kingda Ka.
I don't quite know how to explain it.
Shall Cut and Paste.

Kingda Ka breaks all world records for roller coaster speed and height, becoming the tallest and fastest roller coaster on Earth. This jaw-dropping thrill ride launches riders from 0 to 128 mph in 3.5 seconds before catapulting them 456 feet (45 stories) into the sky!

It's something like you go up at a 90-degree angle and pound down at a 90-degree angle.

Picture to help visualize, and video to watch if you have nothing better to do =D
Not for the faint-hearted.
http://www.sixflags.com/parks/greatadventure/Rides/KingdaKa.html