Thoughts in Boston

Surprise! I'm blogging again. Yea I've been pretty busy this past week settling into Boston, going for orientations and stuff, and I keep putting off writing this blog post until now. I have many thoughts to pen down and I guess the most coherent way would be to list them as general subject headings and talk about each a little bit.

Weather

It's an often-made joke that when conversation is awkward, people talk about the weather, and I only fully appreciated it when I came here - because there really IS something to talk about, unlike in Singapore when it's just sunny and humid all year round. When I first arrived it was pretty cooling, you could walk around everywhere without sweating that much... but it's actually getting hotter! Damn. No idea why.

The nights get pretty chilly, dipping to 15 degrees sometimes. So it's literally colder outside than indoors (air-conditioned).

I'm hoping it gets colder actually, because I have no fan in my room so it's HOT in the day :( No a/c or anything! I mean, if it's cold you can just wear more clothes.. when it's hot... you SUFFER. Well you can fan yourself with stuff but that's troublesome.

Food

The. Food. Is. Freaking. Awesome. I am working on a blog post that I will post next Sunday (not this coming one) night I hope, and you will see how awesome it is. But just to give you a rough idea - restaurant - style buffet every single meal. And the food is good. (This is dormitory dining halls, AKA hall food in Singapore)

Courses

Many of my friends return from exchange boasting about how little they studied yet how well they did - but somehow I don't think I'll be able to end up like them. I just feel the compulsive need to study... yet again, I am lazy to begin and my brain feels hella rusty. Plus I'm not really getting enough sleep every day because my Muslim roommate wakes me up at 5AM everyday to do his prayers -_- sigh.

ANYWAY. The courses I am taking are pretty awesome - one of them has 4 tests - the first 3 are not cumulative tests (i.e. Test 1 covers Chapter 1-5, Test 2 covers Chapt 6-10, etc), but the final exam is cumulative. However, your score is the best THREE out of the four tests. Which means that if you're satisfied with your first 3 tests, you don't have to take the finals. HAHA. What a joke! Why so easy one. (Maybe the content/tests are very hard that's not what I meant.)

Then I have another module - two essays, no finals. haha!  And another module with 2 tests - no final exam. So essentially.. I only have one finals. Woohoo!

Friends

There is a very open culture in the US where you can go up to anyone and strike up a conversation and then know the guy's name and where he was born and how many pets he has and when he lost his first tooth. Ok I am exaggerating but it's really very NORMAL to do that. Consequently I realize what the whole 'picking up girls' thing is not as woahhh as I thought it was... well my definition of 'picking up girls' is just chatting with a girl and getting her number (not having sex with her) so maybe it's different. I think I have done that (get the number, not have sex) like more than 5-10 times already, with both guys and girls (remember, not the sex).

Ironically (or maybe not), I have made more asian/international friends than American friends. I don't know, there's something about americans that make them harder to talk to and befriend... ironically. This seems to contradict my earlier point but firstly, half the people here are not Americans but international students, and secondly, talking randomly to Americans does not necessarily lead to having a longer conversation and exchange numbers.

Accent

Do I have a US accent yet? No I don't. Nowhere close. Don't think I'll be able to develop one.

 

Ending Thoughts

I admire students who study full-time here, or anywhere overseas in particular. It's quite a big commitment, and a big adjustment to have to make for 4 years. I can't imagine that, really. I'm just really glad I have two Singaporeans here that I can really get along with, and we are meeting new people together. And my favourite part for now is the food hehehe nomnom.

Tower of Terror / I can draw!

I was at Disneyland and California Adventure Park in the past 2 days (the Disneyland blog post may or may not happen because it was just too awesome and will take very long to blog out my thoughts and thus I'm too lazy to begin on it), and one of my favourite rides was the Tower of Terror.



On the exterior, it's called the 'Hollywood Tower Hotel', and it sticks very well to this theme in the exterior and interior decor, as well as the ride staff managing the people inside.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="544"] 'Hotel' lobby[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="545"] Staff dressed as bellboys (or whatever they're called)[/caption]

The queue begins in the lobby, and then they'll let in about 20 people at a time to enter this room they call the 'library', where the lights suddenly go off and a small TV flickers on to play the introduction video of the place. The general idea is that this hotel was zapped by lightning and then the people disappeared into the Twilight Zone (the narrator has an emphatic pause at the end of the video: "... where they were all transported to... -pause- ... The Twilight Zone" and those who were riding this ride repeatedly would enthusiastically say it together with him haha quite funny. After this video, we are then directed out of the library to the 'service elevator' where the ride takes place.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="620"] Elevators![/caption]

Now, I actually headed to this ride the moment I entered the park, because it sounded like the most fun one. It was a freefall kind of ride - the kind they raise you high up and then drop you, rinse and repeat. I wasn't prepared for the whole scary theme!

I was genuinely nervous as I was waiting to begin the ride; my heart was thumping in my chest and I was trying not to look too nervous lol. The whole setup was pretty good and awesome (though on repeated rides I begin to realize that the plot is a bit irrelevant and stretched.)

Once you got loaded up in the elevator, the staff then checks your seat belts and gives the final  brief about no flash photography etc, and I LOVE how they keep up their acting here and deliver some sort of eerie farewell when they step out of the elevator to keep up with the whole haunted hotel / twilight zone elevator thingy. I will recall as many as I can.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="647"] My maiden ride! I didn't know there was a picture taken at this point so I was not prepared for it :o[/caption]

Staff: "... Enjoy your stay." -angles head downwards while looking up and gives a super creepy evil grin as the door closes in front of his face- (my fav actor haha)

The Ride

The elevator descends quickly about 1 floor and opens again, with a large mirror, and the narrator says to 'wave goodbye to your real world self', and then the mirror becomes some screen which shows distorted silhouettes of ourselves. The elevator descends further another 1-2 floors and we see some of the ghosts from the intro video earlier (some kind of hologram or sth, really ghost-like looking).
They disappear and then reappear far in the distance in an elevator, and the narrator says something like their story was of the past, but today, the story... is YOURS. And you see their elevator DROP away into oblivion and there is a brief 'oh shit' moment of realization when suddenly your elevator suddenly drops quickly (I think it actually accelerates quicker than 9.81m/s2 (Gravity) because I tested by holding a coin in my hand - the coin actually hits the ceiling)

After the initial drop, it accelerates upwards and then the doors open when you're at the top of the hotel, showing you this awesome sky-view of the park, which is also when they take your picture, then the doors close as you drop again, and this repeats about 2-3 times. Really awesome stuff haha.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="572"] Enjoying myself a lot better the second time[/caption]

Staff: "... It was nice knowing you." -evil grin-

I actually walked right back in for a second time after the first ride was over. So fun! I love freefall rides. My favourite one was this ride in Taiwan where they raise you damn high and you can actually see the ground getting further and further away as your legs dangle... and then you DROP like 15 stories or something (this one maybe drop about 5-10 stories only)

After going around the whole park and taking the fun rides, I was left with time to kill, so I decided to ride this a few more times to camwhore hahaha.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="509"] Look at the little girl in front of me - she was actually quite scared before the ride and the 3 girls in the front row was trying to assure her it was ok.
After the ride, the little girl was SOBBING like mad. The poor little thing was probably scared sick![/caption]

Staff: "This elevator has been known to have some technical difficulties and failure, but we heard it only affects the first 3 rows, so don't worry about it." (there are only 3 rows in the ride LOL. This dude is funny)

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="499"] I'm doing Shrek ears[/caption]

Staff: "... if you have any comments or questions about safety, do feel free to - " -elevator door closes as she's talking and shuts before she can finish- (I LOVED this one haha. They're so creative!)

At this point, I was getting bored of the whole intro video and the 'buildup' before the ride, so you can see my increasing stages of boredom in the next few photos:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="672"] Falling asleep...[/caption]

Staff: "This elevator has had its ups and downs, so... I wish you guys all the best." (so punny haha)

 



Reading something else because the ride is boring.
(I -think- the couple in front of me are acting-posing.... I can't be sure though lol)

 

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="537"] camwhoring on my own, don't care the actual camera already hahaha.[/caption]

 

Yup, that was the last ride of the Tower of Terror.

Overall, I felt Disneyland was better than California Adventure Park - the rides were about equal, with CAP maybe SLIGHTLY better, but Disneyland was obviously more magical. I'm not sure how I would spend more than 2 days there though, don't know why some people get 5 day passes, unless you really go for EVERY SINGLE thing.

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I was walking around burning time at CAP when I walked into an animation class. Check out my first drawing!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="560"] When I finished this, my first thought was 'WOAH. Did I really just draw this?? '[/caption]

The rest of the drawings I did weren't as cool, but oh well.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="469"] Mickey![/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="495"] Pooh bear! I actually drew something else before this but I don't even know what it is so I won't post it (Agent P? K?)
Dedicated this to my gf haha she likes poohbear[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="505"] I asked for the teacher's drawing too so I could give it to my gf. The teacher's name is Katey. I thought she may end up being some famous Disney artist or something so should take haha[/caption]

Not bad eh, my sketches?

Okok this post has gone on forever, bye!

Adventures in USA - My First Casino Experience

Today, I stepped into a casino for the very first time, in Las Vegas. To be more precise, I stepped into 192812 casinos. To be even more precise, it's probably about 8? I don't know.

The one which I chose to play at was the MGM Grand though, because it's like the most famous and all.

I really wanted to play Poker (Texas Hold'Em) but the poker section was kinda cordoned off into a very exclusive-looking area, and the youngest person there was probably 60 or something. Yes, I think everyone besides the dealers had white hair!

Thus I ended up circling the Blackjack tables and the first thing I thought was - WHY ARE THE STAKES SO HIGH. Ok fine they are actually very low, but to a noob like me it's very high. The lowest minimum bet was $10 -_- So that's $10 for every hand you play. Mad right! Ok sorry la poor boy here.

I began to have second thoughts about gambling, but then I thought if I came all the way here and I didn't try it would be such a waste. So after a long time of circling and standing around, I saw someone leave a table to leave it empty, and I quickly sat down and exchanged $50 worth of chips (my budget) and asked the dealer some questions to learn the casino style of playing.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300"] Photos were not allowed at the casino so I have to use stock images[/caption]

The Actions

The first thing I learned was the actions in Blackjack. I never knew they existed! But basically there's a standard way of signalling whether you wanted to hit or stay: tapping the table meant you wanted another card, and doing a hand swipe parallel to the table meant you wanted to stay.

Beginner's Luck

I stayed at that table for a while, getting quite lucky on many of the rounds but went through some losing streaks. Some other people joined the table and being the super noob I am, I apparently made some stupid moves!

Like there was one hand where the dealer's open card was a low card (4) and I had a 12, and I made the signal for another card. Then this Asian woman next to me burst out: "BUT THAT'S A FOUUUR?!!!!"  (When dealer has a low card, it's a high chance he will bust, so you're supposed to stand if your cards are decent) (HOWEVER, after further research, I found that it's not always a bad move to hit in this situation when I had a 12)

She immediately apologized for her uncontrolled outburst and I just gave a sheepish look that said 'sorry i'm a noob'. She lost like $50 before renewing her chips anyway so ... GUESS WHO'S NOOBER. hahahaha nah I'm kidding. I was lucky.

Strategy

I quickly left the table at one point when I was $15 up, deciding it was enough. I cashed in my chips, looked at my watch, and decided I had way too much time left. Time for another round.

This time round I tried to employ more strategy. There were two types of tables - single deck tables and shoe game tables (4-5 decks). I avoided the single deck tables because those seemed less likely for multiple winners - if someone else has a picture card you're A LOT less likely to have one.

I lingered at multiple tables to check out how the hands were going. There are actually complex systems of monitoring tables like the Hi-Lo Strategy which was popularized by the (awesome) movie 21 (WATCH IT if you haven't!), but I just used a very basic primitive system - if I saw several pictures/blackjacks/high cards being played on that table over a few rounds, I would just skip it immediately (since that means less of those in the deck) and move on to the next table. If the dealer was winning many and the previous red flag was not met, I would hop in shortly, because the players' cards can't continue to be that bad!

Using this, I rotated around 3 tables, and I pulled out after I won another ... $45!! Woohoo!

Ok fine this seems very small to you regular casino-ers I know, but it's a lot for me! And I ALWAYS played minimum bid, too scared to play more haha. If I was at the single card table I may dare to play more if I was card counting. (e.g. increase bid if the deck was hot)

Overall

[caption id="attachment_1753" align="alignleft" width="300"] my winnings :D
Poker chips included in illustration for fun[/caption]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I won a total of $60 :) Happy happy. And I had the thrill of playing/gambling too, which was what I wanted to try out. After doing some Googling, I realized there was a wealth of information out there that I had yet to learn about Blackjack. It's actually a very complex game and not the simple 2 card game I learnt when I was a little kid! Strategy charts, card counting etc. So interesting :D

If I had a chance to play again, I would probably do it. But smaller odds please? I don't mind not winning that much, I just like the whole strategy bit ^^

 

Adventures in USA - Day 4!

Ok I will do a standard format for my Adventures in USA blog posts from now on to a) save time b) make it easier to read. The format will be - one liner outlining what I did, 3 highlight photos, then my random thoughts for the day, and a link to my facebook album. Short and sweet.

When I arrive in Boston and settle down then I blog about other stuff k! When travelling quite busy ah!!

Today was the start of our Yellowstone tours! So the whole day was spent on a guided tour, which was basically looking at scenery and spotting wildlife. The wildlife part was probably the more fun/interesting part haha.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="533"] Bison (also known as (American) Buffalo) crossing the road while we were on the bus! Damn cool cos we actually saw it at the other side of the river of the bus so we stopped to take pictures, then it began crossing and then came out of the water then crossed the road.
They are extremely powerful and charge faster than an Olympic sprinter so we had to maintain our distance. Took this with my awesome zoom :)[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="479"] Beautiful scenery which photos will never do justice to.[/caption]

 

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="534"] sup[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1747" align="alignleft" width="500"] bald eagle! Super majestic looking can!! It was sitting in the tree like a boss, and the thing is we were super far away so the tour guide set up his scope for us to see! This picture was taken through the scope![/caption]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more boring lovely nature + wildlife photos, head over to my Facebook album to see them all! :)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150998729771356.416188.701936355&type=3

Random thoughts of the day:

• In West Yellowstone, all vehicles give way to passengers! It's like they will deliberately slow down even it's clear they can pass first and you are not crossing but waiting for them. And in those crossings with no traffic lights, the vehicles always stop and wait for us to cross. They're all super nice drivers!


• Yellowstone National Park is beautiful! I'm not even a nature person but when I was there I just can't help but be awed by how vast and amazing everything looked. And also how small Singapore was haha.


• Every motorbike in West Yellowstone seems to be a Harley Davidson for some reason. Every. Single. One.


• Why does Singapore not have microwave dinners!! Imagine a full meal of steak + entrees + dessert in a microwaveable container for just $5-7!


• The options in Singapore's supermarkets are SO limited. Here there's so much more food and stuff you can make easily from the readymade cans , etc. E.g. mac and cheese, lasagne, etc etc. Very clearly labelled instructions. I just love the supermarket in the US. (I didn't say 'supermarkets' because I've only been through one... maybe I'm speaking prematurely but I doubt so)


• I miss gymming. One of the things I'm most excited about is actually bulking up lolol. I'll be eating tonnes with the mealplan with US portions, so with the right exercises I will be bigger for sure when I return.

Ok that's all folks! Take care and thanks for reading as always :)

Adventures in USA - Day 2 and 3!

Highlights of the day:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="459"] Wax Museum![/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="464"] Ripley's Believe it or Not![/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="421"] Chinatown![/caption]

More pictures here https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150994529636356.415606.701936355&type=3

Random thoughts:

• Singapore's public transport is very good in terms of coverage of land area. There's SO much more walking to do in the US :/


• Places like Subway and 7-eleven in Singapore suck. There's SO much more variety in these shops in the US!


• I love how lemonade is an option together with the usual coke/sprite etc in fast food places! Why SG dont have!

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Day 3 - San Jose en route to West Yellowstone

We went to San Jose to stay for a night before catching a 6AM flight to West Yellowstone. The hotel we stayed in at San Jose was SO posh-looking and nice !

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="498"] The hotel lobby. See the previous link for the facebook album for some room photos[/caption]

The flight to West Yellowstone needed a transit at Salt Lake City - and I was quite surprised with the plane we took to West Yellowstone, it's like the smallest plane I ever sat and it kept rattling! Lol. But after a while it was ok.  The plane is only like 15 rows and 3 seats each row

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="480"] West Yellowstone Airport ! I found it weird because there was no customs or anything once you landed you have arrived. I guess it's because this is kinda like a town and there's nothing of great value here that they need to prevent people from bringing stuff in[/caption]

After settling into our motel (Which was quite cosy and nice ), we went for lunch:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374"] 2 medium (12") pizzas for the 4 of us... and we couldn't finish it because the girls couldn't eat their share lol[/caption]

And after lunch we went to nap because the flight was very early for us and we barely slept. I woke up after 2 hours though, because I didn't want to have difficulties sleeping at night. So here I am! Blogging and uploading photos like a hardworking blogger. Rawr.

Btw I have no idea if anyone besides my gf is even reading this :/ Is it very boring. What more do you want to see, let me know!

To whoever is reading, thanks! <3

 

Adventures in USA - Day 1!

Sorry I'm going to stop writing full length blog entries for these adventures in USA because it's much more efficient to just upload the photos on Facebook and caption them there, and the captions kinda make up the blog entry! So go over to

 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150992725866356.415388.701936355&type=1&notif_t=like

And check out the photos!

I'll just give some highlights here:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] me and the girls shujin(middle) and houjue(right) ![/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="329"] Achievement unlocked! "Take picture with the actual Golden Gate bridge."[/caption]

 

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="464"] Beautiful.
The skyline is not bad too.[/caption]

 

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="533"] Alcatraz Island!! My Facebook photo album has many many more photos from there[/caption]

Some random thoughts:

• I can totally understand how Americans can layer their clothes now - because the weather is so cold! And it's not even close to winter yet. If I lived here I confirm wear layers to school everyday and look (more) fashionable and chic.


• In and Out burgers are overrated.


• I feel honored and happy to have taken a picture with the iconic Golden Gate Bridge! ^^


• Dress warmly if you're taking a cruise in San Francisco, otherwise you'll become a popsicle like me

Ok, going to be exploring Fisherman's Wharf on my own tomorrow, need to research a bit how to get around! bye!

Adventures in USA - Day -1

Oh my god. I'm actually going.

Those were the thoughts that were running through my mind when I turned back and waved one last time at the family and friends that came out to send me off, as I walked around the corner into the limbo area.

It was a surreal, I-don't-believe-this-is-happening kinda feeling - like when you see a magic trick like a magician levitate, a coin vanish, etc. Except this time the magic trick was me, disappearing from Singapore, and reappearing in the US.

I was actually scared as shit and when I started hugging people I felt a surge of emotion rising in me and I had to suppress it otherwise I would start crying. But no. I had to stay strong, appear strong - my gf was already crying uncontrollably before we even walked over to the departure gates. I did my best to comfort her, hug her, tell her everything will be fine. It was so touching to see her cry that I almost cried with her, but no. I had to stay strong. For her, for my mom, for myself.

Some pictures to distract you from the wordiness of this entry:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="455"] Lovely friends who sent me off[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="485"] churchies! timo + bestie :D[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="315"]

VIP :)

VIP :)[/caption]

Adventures in USA - Day 0

A long flight is no joke man. I flew 19 hours from Dubai to San Francisco and almost died. Add on the fact that I was sitting next to an annoying screaming toddler and the plane (or rather just my section) had 2-3 screaming toddlers. Bloody little things wailing at random intervals.  What made it more annoying was that it's intentional wailing (i.e. she asks for something and mom says no), not like uncontrollable wailing (i.e. a heavy suitcase drops on her head)

The whole flight was like a marathon - I kept breaking the remaining time down in parts and kept looking forward to the next meal. That was the only thing(s) I had to look forward to.

Custom was amazingly long too, taking me 2 hours to finally clear it. Just hit at a wrong timing when there was a multitude of people zzz.

 

Anyway, complaining aside, I finally checked into my hotel at about 4++, but because my travel companions were only arriving in US at 7+ (which means reaching the hotel at 9+? zzz), I decided to go for a walk to also hunt for my phone card.

And OH MY GOD it was SO COLD! It's like, air con temperature which is blowing hard at your face! Stinging winds man. I was wearing my sweater which is decent thickness by Singapore standards but clearly too thin there. I learnt my lesson and will bring a scarf along with me.

And amidst my random walking, I stumbled into Union Square! Like I didn't even know what it was but saw this cool sculpture:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="409"] Union Square![/caption]

Plus I heard some music so I was wondering what it was, thus I walked towards it. I didn't even know Union Square looked like that! Haha.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="446"] Jazz band! They were damn good! Had many solos and improvs and stuff[/caption]

So by sheer luck/chance, I ended up standing there for a good 30 minutes just tapping my feet to the snazzy jazz beats and applauding enthusiastically at the end of every piece. They were really damn good!

After this ( I didn't stay till the end), I went to this pizza place just at the corner of the block which my hotel was on.

I went on to have the best pizza of my life:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="478"] Meat Mania[/caption]

There was pepperoni, ham, chicken, beef, smothered with delicious gooey (mozzarella?)cheese. And it's really gooey like you bite it will draaag out

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="419"] Picture to show you how far the gooey cheese can stretch[/caption]

Plus it was freshly made so the crust was perfectly crispy and nice! Omg I didn't know pizza could taste so good.

And it was for $6 (USD), so not bad! 7" one, with A LOT of meat as you can see. Still a bit pricey though, I gotta watch my expenditure on meals heh.

That's all folks! Hope to get an early night, have a looong day of fun tomorrow!