Journey through NCBV

Business Plan Presentation

2006-04-19T16:39:00.000-04:00

It's over in that 15 minutes. That few minutes of attention when you get to present all that you had done for the past few months. The story that was written, edited, and edited again to be presented by 4 authors to an audience of venture capitalists, professors and students. Finger crossed that it would gain acceptance and recognition by the experts. The countless hours since we embarked on the journey, working through day and night to try and do NUS proud in the Wharton Business Plan competition, at the same time trying to pull through EAS 446: engineering entrepreneurship II.

To Jeffrey (our CEO), Raj and Estee, can you guys still remember the time when we meet after work every weekday from 7pm till 12 midnight just to conduct concept testing? Or the Sats and Sundays spent at Jeff's house figuring out our value propositions, the business model, and our marketing startegy? Remember when our morale was at an all time low and we just felt like giving up? How we successful pissed Estee off and she locked herself at home? Things seemed so comical now.

Jeff's place became super not productive and we shifted to a more professional setting, the science center. Too bad there's no pictures.

Amidst all the hard work, we took a day off or two each week for bonding sessions and to relax.

All these efforts and time spent was unleashed out in the 15 minutes of presentation and the 15 minutes of questions and answers that followed.

Jeffrey's slides proved to be the talkpoint of the day, and hopefully in years to come :P as Etoims wowed the audience with the many animations and our video of our product.

I guess it was the same with the other groups. The sweat and tears everybody had poured into their business plan, all for this 15 minutes of presentation to gain the recognition by the venture capitalists.

We made it. The VCs were totally impressed by our work. It was a hard and tiring journey, but one which strengthened the bonds between NCBVians.

kudos to Symmatrix who got awarded most improved business plan by our peers and Peiling who got awarded most value added by Professor Babin!

6th Batch NOC rulez!

Business Plan presentation in my dreams

2006-04-17T09:27:00.000-04:00

Today's my Business Plan 446 final presentation.

Last night dreamt that I was presenting it, not only to the class, but to the whole world!

Here's how the dream goes:

Someone was presenting in front of me. She halfway broke down, and thus the MC ushered me onto stage. I asked the MC whether the nation was watching because the audience in front was so big that it seemed like I am on a WWF Ring instead. The MC said "not only the nation, but the whole universe!"

So cool, can talk to the whole universe! Shiok haha. Anyway, I began speaking, and the words are exactly the same as my rehearsals the previous night. I turned around to look whether my slides are working. The slides are also the same as the ones in the real world, and I can even read the words on it. After I went on to my second slides, the slides suddenly cok up. It went to the slides of the girl that broke down before me.

I exclaimed "SHIT" (yes, in front of the whole universe who is watching), and started clicking on the wireless controller. After a few seconds, Neeraj came on stage and said "dude, this is about 30 odd slides in front." I gave up on the controller and fiddled with the keyboard. It miraculously appeared. After a while, Estee and Jeffrey also came on stage and the 4 of us meddled around with the slides.

I woke up after that. hahaha.

(oi, stop saying I stressed. Just felt the dream very funny! This means well prepared to the point of transcienting reality ^^)

chicken thigh or chicken breast?

2006-04-15T23:44:00.000-04:00

I prepared sphaghetti with chicken for lunch. As I cooked too much, I gave some to Niki when she came around the Sales Center. Because the meat was frozen, thus I had to fried the meat for a longer time.

Niki: 哇，味道不错勒。但是我比较喜欢 thigh meat.

me: 这是thigh meat.

Niki: 哇，能把 thigh meat 煮成 breast meat，功夫不错。

肥 B Vs 莱哪 in NCBV Platinum Chef

2006-04-08T15:40:00.000-04:00

finalists:
Phebe
Lionel

Venue: W311

Judging place: E611

Judges:
Yap Pei Ling (visual effect)
Jeffrey Tiong
Jaron Liu
Iris Tan
Wayne Chia

Dish in contest: Black Herbal Chicken Soup

Time started: 3pm

Winner to be announced at a later entry...

A Competitor

2006-04-07T11:26:00.000-04:00

Today right after I opened the sales center, a tall and handsome guy walked in.

I thought he was a potential customer, so I greeted him nicely.

He said "Can I have some information for my customer?"

I was not sure whether I heard that right. Nobody had walked in the front doors and asked for information for their customer before.

me: Pardon me? You interested in the condominium units? For yourself?

him: No, for my customer.

me: Just to inform you that we are not working with other agents for this business.

him: wow

me: but you can still have the information. You won't get any commission though.

him: why would I want to do that? I don't work for free.

he walked off. hahaha.

A Niche Market

2006-03-17T15:38:00.000-05:00

All right guys, before you start sueing me for racism, hear me out...this is one great idea that might award me the Nobel Prize for Peace...

Was sitting in my office eating banana (very similar to how Newton sat under the apple tree) when a great idea crossed my mind. At this point, I must thank Wong Jiali (she insisted on acknowledgement) for being the apple that fell on Newton.

Having been immersed in a world of entrepreneurship, with this word appearing to me nearly every single day, having drank, eat and slept business plan, I finally decided on a niche market which nobody has ever exploited. The racists!

The Racists' Guild is one of its kind. Of course, only racists can join. No non-racists, no anti-racists whatsoever.

Here's the Rascists' Guild pledge to its members, and the members to one another:

We, the racists of the galaxy, pledge ourselves as one united people. Regardless of race, language or religion, to build a democratic guild, based on justice and equality, so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and peace for the galaxy.

This implies that racists from ALL races can join. Guess what this means? It means racists get to interact with other races!

Due diligence (as successful entrepreneurs must always conduct due diligence) has suggested that racists are racists because they do not understand each other. Thus, the Racists' Guild give them an opportunity to learn more about one another. In time to come, these racists will cease to become racists, and they will be expelled from the Guild to make room for other racists. This business model saves money for investors as the Guild do not need to expand to make way for more and more racists.

Now doesn't this value proposition deserves a Nobel Prize for Peace?

Arrival of Spring

2006-03-10T11:16:00.000-05:00

Spring's here! Although the nights are still freezing cold, the days are getting warmer.

People are starting to walk around in t-shirt, there's even a half-naked man walking around as I walked to work today.

While stopping at the food truck at 11th Market to get my breakfast, caps were blown off people's heads and there's a mad chase to get their caps back. A cyclist got knocked over by the wind. Ouch! My laptop bag got knocked off my shoulder and landed on the floor with a thud.

The best thing was...when a woman pushing a baby tram pass my sales center door...the wind blew the door open and it knocked into the tram. haha....yah I know I seemed heartless...

but it's really funny what!

surprise visitor

2006-02-21T13:03:00.000-05:00

A little boy came into the Pearl Condominium Sales Center today. He looked around, took a cup from the water cooler, set at the receptionist table..I cant be bothered with him so I left him to explore the place.

I was too engrossed in my computer when he suddenly pop beside me.

Boy (B): what are you doing?
me (m): work
B: how old are you?
m: 23
B: I am eight.
B: how do you spell eight?
m: e-i-g-h-t
B: how come you know how to spell?
m: because i know
B: how do you spell ten?
m: t-e-n
B: how do you spell nine?
m: N-I-N-E
B: how do you spell twenty?
m: T-W-E-N-T-Y
B: how do you spell twenty four?
m: why not you spell for me?
B: i dunno, but my teacher know
m: you from China?
B: yah, but I am Spanish
m: ???
m: where's your sch?
B: first grade
m: I said where
B: very far
m: you got girlfriend?
B: just one.
m: !!!
m: what's her name?
B: Jack.
m: JACK!!? Is she a boy or girl?
B: boy.
m: what's your name?
B: Jack.
m: you know you very irritating?
B: yah
m: ...

Visit to Baltimore

2006-02-06T09:41:00.000-05:00

Kailee came to Baltimore, Maryland, United States for an interview with John Hopkins University for a research program from Wed to Sun.

Very excited at meeting a friend, so rented a car and drove down to Baltimore to meet her. Zwl and Liang Liang came along too as we the crabs in Baltimore is quite famous.

Reached there, met up with Kailee, and drove around looking for crabs. A bit sad, all the crab houses are like closed. Disappointed...settled for Philips Seafood Restaurant to eat crab instead.

It rained...ended up in shopping malls instead of looking at historical buildings. Drove back Philadelphia with Kailee so that she can meet up with Peiling.

Peiling then brought her to White Dogs while the rest of us went to Pat's Cheesesteak, supposedly the best cheesesteak in Philly. Bought a cheesesteak for Kailee for breakfast.

Bought cheesecakes from Cheesecake Factory in Baltimore.

Drove along South Street, got into a spastic jam, with my bladder bursting.

Went home to get some sleep, while zwl and liang proceeded to Monk's for some drinks.

Reached home at 11pm, slept, woke up at 2am to bring Kailee back to Baltimore.

What a weekend...felt as though I drifted through it...

Good Luck Niki!

2006-02-01T09:12:00.000-05:00

昨天老板开了会，

宣布我会到新的办公室上班。

虽让已经意料了几个月，

但消息还是来得很突然。

今早和往常一样和niki一起上班，

然后想到今天是最后一次能和她一起上班。

平时觉得她很欠K，

但还是觉得有点依依不舍。

以为有个学妹过来后，上班时有个伴，

现在又是一个人了。

So De De…

craving for Fish

2006-01-25T12:55:00.000-05:00

I used to hate fish. probably because my dad is forever trying to stuff fish down my throat. We never fails to have fish at the dinner table.

After I came to the United States, I started missing fish. There's lotsa beef and chicken. But difficult to find fish. Especially steamed fish.

And so I was especially happy when my colleague introduced me to this place called Tian Wang Restaurant in Chinatown, at 10th Race.

My favourite: Ban Lan Fish with Bean Curd and white rice.

Am eating it now. Yum yum.

In the Office

2006-01-20T14:10:00.000-05:00

Niki to boss: Sorry I have to leave early today.

Boss to Niki: It's ok. I will make u pay for it (pat on the back).

Happy Birthday Gean!

2006-01-20T10:01:00.000-05:00

Negotiation in Process

2006-01-19T00:14:00.000-05:00

Phebe and I will doing a negotiation case as our sch assignment.

Time: 12 midnight

Venue: Park Towne Place Apt #w311

Buyer: Phebe

Seller: me

Case: 1 vehicle to be sold by me. Phebe want to buy

Went back and forth about wat's wrong and wat's good, until...

me: look, give me a higher price. $8000, i throw in turbo for your machine. Look turbo, sound turbo, move turbo.

phebe: be realistic. it is a disposal van. I do not need turbo.

me: u can clear the streets twice as fast. The disposal can clear trash 10 times as much. U can be more efficient.

me: ok tell you wat. I give u free lightning stickers on your van body. damn fierce...ppl see already also siam.

phebe: no no. i dunwan the turbo...

me: u tell me what u want, I zhng the van for u nice nice.

----------
The above is not included in the submission. We agreed it was bullshit. haha.

ABCXYZ

2006-01-17T11:27:00.000-05:00

Was chatting with Jiaxian a while ago...we were talking abt her phone that has a very poor reception...

JX: my phone ABCXYZ

me: err...wat's that? sounds like the buttons on sega II

JX: oh it means something like $(*@#&^

COOL!

In very deep trouble

2006-01-16T12:56:00.000-05:00

Ok, I sit down think about it, realised there's way too much work to do...

1. Wharton Business Plan Competition cum EAS 446, everyday after work till 12 midnight.

2. Every week wharton negotiations 12 page journal, after wharton BP discussion maybe 2 page per day.

3. Every week wharton negotiations 1 negotiations case. meet up with partner to bargain.

4. every week EAS 446, 1 critique

5. negotiations and EAS 446 readings.

6. Business Case report due March

7. internship report due dunno when, but maybe March

on top of dat, work work work...

holy crap...how will i ever survive this semester...

A Day in New York

2006-01-03T10:50:00.000-05:00

Spent a day of shopping in New York with Ziling and her friend, Weisong (eh not u lah bro, this weisong is a girl).

Wanted to meet up with Phebe and company but someone, well, someone, happily charged my handphone in her house and forgot to bring it out.

So the three of us ended up shopping ourselves and were determined to stick together so that we will not get lost.

As zwl and me were 2 very poor children (weisong was happily on a shopping spree), we can only try on the clothes and take photos before putting them back on the rack. so sad right...my $200 fleece coat is still sitting in New York waiting for me...

Extracts from: How to be a Successful Slave-Driver

2005-12-30T13:05:00.000-05:00

I wrote a book based on "a friend's" experience while working in a company overseas.

Disclaimer: This is based on "a friend's" experience and may not be accurate.

Law 1: If a public hol falls on Sunday, Give Sunday off. Monday is a normal working day.

Law 2: If someone works on a public hol, no matter where in the world, you have to work too.

Law 3: It does not matter if u are on hol. U are on 24 hour stand by to come back.

Law 4: Holidays = temporary not at work.

Law 5: If there’s 7 days in a week…why should we only work from Monday to Friday? What about Sat and Sun?

ok if I got more tips I will let u guys know.

Third Day in Chicago - Christmas!

2005-12-27T17:12:00.000-05:00

"hey Peiling it's snowing!" Peishan exclaimed. Peiling, the piggy-wannabe who slept from 10.30pm till 7am, scrambled to the window, in the process nearly squashing me flat. I was wrapped nicely under the blankets...dun think I dunno what is happening ok, I just did not respond.

Aniwae, it snowed for that few minutes. We were determined to build our version of snowman after zwl declared that they were building snowman over in New York.

"hey, we build a small one, then we use photoshop to explode it to man size..."

"oh, just take a photo of the snowman. They wun know how big it is anyway."

Had an urban hike around millenium park and the city of Chicago. Peishan the tour guide brought us around, and we had a nice walk to Lake Michigan, where there's a nice layer of ice over the lake surface.

Check out the pictures...

Deciding it's too cold, we sorta gave all sorts of excuse that we could not reach Navy Piers on foot and went home to get the car. We finished our tour today at Navy Piers.

Went home about 4pm to prepare food for tonight's Xmas Feast. There's Peiling, Peishan, Kaitian, Dennis, Agus, Rhonda and me! What a gathering! MERRY XMAS EVERYONE!

PS. ok time to go home. come back for more pictures on navy pier and xmas feast!

Second Day in Chicago - 24th December 2005

2005-12-27T15:21:00.000-05:00

It's Xmas Eve! Instead of snowing, it rained. Haiz, nevermind, still got one more hope tomorrow for a white xmas.

Peiling woke up real early, and I woke up to the sound of tapping on my laptop; She's viewing our photos taking on the first day.

Decided to kajiao zwl. I think she's playing with snowman or something lah, but here's the farnie part:

zwl: eh, they building a snowman...taller than me!

peiling: oh wow! that's so nice! but actually hor, taller than you not really a big deal *laugh*

HAHAHAHA. we dilly dallied until mid morning, had some leftovers deep dish pizza and proceeded to University of Chicago. University of Chicago is real old...with ivies crawling all over the place, and it really looked like Hogswart. A bit of it anyway. Cool huh? The place's very gothic like. Visited the Oriental Museum, looked at some ancient civilizations exhibits.

Went to meet Agus and Rhonda for lunch in Chinatown. Decided to do groceries for Xmas Feast. Those two were late, so we visited the Asian Supermarket.

After lunch we decided to go Whole Food to do more groceries. Haiyah, that dum dum Peishan locked us out of the car...All of us. She's getting quite a habit of that. Ended up having the security guard unlocking the car with a long jack and paying 20 bucks tip to the guard.

Whole Food is very expensive. Very healthy food inside...no choice lah, dun care...buy...oh, there's the very nice chocolate Truffles...and we were like going back and forth the samples so that we can grab a few more, and ended up buying one box ourselves haha.

After that proceeded to Trader's Joe. Got ice cream and cookies there. With that, we ended our day and sent Agus and Rhonda to somewhere in Downtown while we returned to our apartment to laze around. Cooked Bak Kuk Teh, and watched Harry Potter and The Globlet of Fire on Peishan's Mac. Peiling cooked Tang Yuan for us...It's 冬至!

Peiling the piggy-wannabe slept at 10.30pm while I prepared the potato salad and cleaned up the place. Yawnzzz.

First Day in Chicago

2005-12-24T12:22:00.000-05:00

Journey from Jackson Station to O'Hare Airport Station takes about 45 minutes. The train's cleaner than Philly's, but I still do not like the lay out, especially the cushions. They looked dirty, and I bet they are dirty.

Went to the luggage claim area to wait for peipei. She tapped me from behind a while later. The train here utilises tickets instead of tokens. The tickets' dumb...you cannot choose how much u wanna put inside. A single trip costs $1.75, and if you get back into the station within 1.5 hours, you get a transfer rate of only $0.25! I did not know and toink in another $1.75, so now my card balance is $1.50.

For ppl without cars, unlike us where we got Peishan haha, it's better to get the day fares.

Peipei and me returned to the apartment to put down her luggage, and then we began to explore Chicago. It is already afternoon, and we decided to go shopping! Yay! Wanted to go Magnificent Mile. It's something of Orchard Road.

We walked and walked and walked...and...erm, we cant seem to find Chicago Avenue haha. A while later we realised the road was OVER us instead. Climbed up a flight of stairs, to another whole new world! There it is, Magnificent Mile, over us!

There's very interesting stores here alongside with very expensive boutique. The American Girl is quite interesting. They sell dolls for like 80 bucks, and then you get to buy clothes and accessories, for like 20 to 30 bucks, and you can change their hairdo at the salon for another 20 to 30 bucks, and there's a doll hospital...errr...rich kids' stuff!

There's a nice structure, know as the Water Tower, which was the only structure not burnt down during a fire. It looked very
magical!

Met Peishan a while later, outside Walgreen's. We made our way to Giodarno for Deep-Dish Pizza. Wanted to meet Nipsy and company, but well, they cannot find their way around haha. So ended up not meeting them. Ordered a Spinach Pizza and buffalo wings. I would not have touched Spinach Pizza usually, but since Peishan recommended it so I tried bah. It was not until mixing with her for these few days that I realised she enjoyed spinach. Bleah. Talking about spinach pizza, I
remembered going to the movies with ZWL and she got me a spinach pizza from her office for dinner. She ended up picking out the spinach while I ate the cheese and the crust. “你 hor...拿晚餐给你吃还这样麻烦..." haha. yah, that's Spinach Pizza for me. Please guys, I declare that I hate anything green on my pizza. Normal pepperoni will do fine.

Yupz, that's first primary objective completed. We walked to have hot mead at some pub. Mead is actually fermented honey. Nice! Warm Hot Mead with cinnamon on a not that cold night. We got to

The Cheesecake Factory and bought 2 cheesecakes home: 1 snickers cheesecake and 1 peanut cheesecake. They were fantastic!

Went home, ate the cheesecakes, and went out in Peishan's car...this time to Green Mills, a jazz bar. I dun really enjoy jazz, they make me sleep, but Peiling is mad abt them. So we squeezed in, sat at a table, shared them with 3 really hot girls...wah, so pretty lah, the ang moh with them so lucky!

Drove back home about midnight. End of first day, and our primary objectives in Chicago all met!

Flight to Chicago

2005-12-23T11:12:00.000-05:00

Ended work at 5.15pm, rushed home to pack. Nipsy insisted that I drop by his apartment before going home. Confirm want to pass me Xmas present haha.

Guess is correct, but never did I expect it to be a miniature Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker's lightsaber. It's totally cool! I love Star Wars! haha...this must be the happiest Xmas I had ever went through, coz I got so much presents from everybody! Thank you everyone *muack.

Took R1 train with Nipsy, Jaron and Ziliang to the airport. Left my fav Northface gloves in Nipsy's place, but luckily I got spare. Not that good though...if it gets freezing in Chicago I would need new gloves.

Peishan was late! Nevermind lah, just happy to be here haha. The rest left with their friend and so I waited for her alone. Agus cannot meet me until Fri evening. The evening's nice, not too cold...temperature went up a bit to 40F, which is considered warm by Philly's standards.

Saw Peishan's lao pok car haha. Err..funny, it seems as though I had just seen her the day before. No words such as "howz life?" or "how haf you been?", only "sorry I am late!" and "oi, you stupid lah..."

aniwae, she made some turns here and there, go up the highway, which somehow reminds me of East Coast Parkway, until she say here got no trees...yah it sux. not dat nice. And I reached her apt a while later. Wow her apt very nice! Very nicely kept.

Took a shower, came out freezing cold, well, dun blame me lah, she hiding under her fleece blanket, it looked nice and warm, so I tried squeezing in...until she kicked me out after I made fun of her.

The living room got 2 sofa beds. Slept on one. She left work already...now playing maplestory and waiting for 11am to come. Gonna fetch Peiling soon from the airport. Yippee! What an amazing Xmas I am going to haf!

A Chicken Delicacy for Lunch

2005-12-22T13:54:00.000-05:00

Fast food is abundant in Singapore. It may also be your daily doses of oil and fats. But to us NCBVians, it became sort of a rarity to eat fast food. One thing, our allowances seemed to diminish at an astonishing rate. Rents, taxes, phonebills seemed to be our mortal enemies. They are the tyrants that deprived us of better food. And of course, we faithfully pour our money into our personal travel funds...no choice, not a single soul donated to Kaihong's travel Fund since I sent out pleas via emails, msn etc.

So with the meagre sum left, I satisfied myself with a 4 dollars rice with a piece of meat spread out over 2 lunches. Others eat their leftovers from dinners of rice and vege and some little meat for lunches. And those who are lazy to cook veggies and meat eat a big bowl of pasta with lots of tomato sauce for dinner, and run the risk of gaining 11 kg in just 6 months, for example, our Only Indian Friend, Nipsy the Gey Leng Gay.

I am flying off to Chicago today! To pamper myself, I decided to have KFC for lunch. Guys, it's my first time eating KFC here ok...believe it or not. Oh, how great the first bite taste! The succulent meat combined with the herbs and spices made every bite relishing. It's been a long time since I had tasted such meat.

The mashed potato has also better texture, saltier, taste so much better than Singapore's. Instead of a cold bun, they had a nice warm biscuits that melts in your mouth. No coleslaw though. But it's worth the $4.65 that I paid. Just too bad American chickens aint bigger than Singapore chickens. Unlike the human race.

Nevermind the long queue, and the less than courteous service...does not matter whether Burger King has the biggest burgers, or McDonald has better services...KFC just rocks. Long Live Colonel Chicken. *burp*

Standard phrases for babies

2005-12-21T15:07:00.000-05:00

One of our agents just gave birth to a baby boy. She brought the little baby to office on 2 occasions.

”哇！好像你！”

“眼睛好像你！”

“真乖！长得很像你！”

How come I left look look, right look look, also dun see any resemblance...how can the baby with round face and baby fats look like his mom who has a thin and long face leh...

A Dream

2005-12-21T02:15:00.000-05:00

The seniors are leaving le. Some has already left for home, while others are packing when I am typing this.

I have grown used to the small community here. I look forward to seeing the familiar faces everyday...Peiling, Xiao Pi Gu, Phebe, Eric, Neeraj...it's nice to go home after a long day's work and hang out with them.

And yet I am beginning to dread the day when I am finally due to return home. To Singapore. Singapore seemed so big suddenly. Will we go our separate ways? XiaoPiGu said "不会的。我们还是会keep in contact." I also want to believe in this, but how many of us still hang out with our JC classmates? Perhaps meet once or twice a year?

If I go back to NUSSU, I wun even haf time to meet them for dinner le. I will have a new group to hang out with, just like Danny, Rena, Cheryl, Jeremy...I missed those days. I missed all my friends. And yet, I have grown so used to the presence of this bunch of NCBVians who had taught me the meaning of true friends.

Even if I am free, the NCBVians would have their own friends when they go back. They will have their bfs, gfs, schoolwork...will we even stay together? Will our friendship stand the test of time?

好烦...what will my future be? Will NCBV cease to be nothing but a surreal dream in time to come?

zizifeng's fetish for trees

2005-12-12T11:03:00.000-05:00

Me taking a break between studying in the office for my exams on Wed, and thanks to my great observation power I realized that my darling friend aka act cute wong aka ZWL had a sort of fetish for trees...N the way she jumped and bounced to the trees, and HUG the trunks that is twice her width is quite breathtaking. Here's some evidences...

Looking for trees to hug...

Found one at last...

Monkey see Monkey do. Iris the Dreamy Princess wanted to try and test out the kick in hugging trees...

Her next victim. A tree outside our apartment. I got a video of her running up to the tree and slamming her arms around it...you guys can get it from me if you want. Hilarious.

After receiving complains from neighbours about 'a little girl molesting trees and something abt sexual harassment blah blah' Peiling and Jaron decided to get her a real Christmas tree for her to hug until shuang.

That's us adjusting the tree for 'the most comfy hugging position'

NOC...full of wierdos...

27th November 2005 - Bryce Canyon

2005-12-06T16:34:00.000-05:00

ahhh...so cold...and my left ankle so painful. Can barely walk, wondering how to climb Bryce Canyon today.

Our car by now is in a big mess. We just anyhow throw our stuff inside, and thus there's barely room to even sit. Peipei and Xinyu did not even have much leg space at the back, coz it's full of bags and utensils and other stuff.

I just wanted to stuff everything into the boot and get on with the drive. The cold's making me very irritated, and my leg's hurting so much that I did not want to move around. In short, I woke up on the wrong side of bed (or rather sleeping bag) and was in a very bad temper. Fuelled again by Nipsy's choice of S words.

So I wanted to stuff the tent into the boot. And Nipsy somehow decided to be neat and tidy and insisted on folding the tent. Well ok, suit them, I shall sit in the car and wait. And so I did. Drove off to Bryce finally after fiddling abt an hour.

First time seeing snow! Wow! And the temperature's -3 F! errr..haha, that's like -20 degrees celcius! woah...the temperature's in the car quite nice, and my 火气 went down a bit. Reached Bryce, and it's so beautiful with all the snow covered trees!

Drove around, like a dead village, with no signs of life. Even the visitor's centre not opened. Sat in the car outside the visitor centre and waited for it to open so I can use the rest room. Took my own sweet time in the rest room washing up...actually I realised I took my own sweet time washing up every single day so much so I was always the last one to get ready. A bit paiseh haha...but then again, what's the hurry leh? hee...

Ended up doing drive and taking photos as the ranger did not recommend any treks. Too slippery. See pictures for Bryce!

My ankle was hurting so much that I refused to leave the car after the first few stops.

Then we decided to head to Las Vegas! Yay! hotel room, hot shower for the night!

We decided to drop by Zion again for lunch. Instant noodle was not a bad idea lah, and picnicking by the mountains sound velli nice. It's cold though...

And nipsy decided to be neat and tidy again and packed the car boot. So I just sit inside the car and watch again since I was not in a very good mood to start packing in the cold. Why cant we pack in Las Vegas where it's warm anyway? wierd...

soon we decided that it's not possible to cook there since the wind was quite strong. Peipei suggested eating bread for lunch and drove on to Las Vegas. BREAD. BREAD AGAIN. i am SICK of BREAD. i need adult food. adult food = nice hot food cooked by FLAME with MEAT. ended up refusing to touch any bread. the sight of those bread made me sick. And yah, I am quite choosy about food since I am now out of Army and there's no reasons why we should torture ourselves just because we were on a camping trip...a good camping trip = good tent, good food, good fire, good sleeping bag...

saw a Burger King and stopped there for lunch. Lucky the rest decided to stop, well, I would have stopped too if the rest did not want to stop. I was the driver anyway. The burger so heavenly hee. All my pissed off energy inside me dissipated and I came out of Burger King a happy man. Nipsy and me bought two peanut butter ice cream for the gals who were sleeping in the car.

And thus we carried on to Las Vegas, City of Desire...

Zion 2nd day - Up Observation Point

2005-12-06T16:12:00.000-05:00

Wah Peipei's sleeping bag quite warm! The 2 gals hid in the car to sleep. There's one farnie incident that happened in the tent before I got to sleep, but I shall not pen it here. Those interested can ask Peipei or me hee.

on 2nd thoughts, let me pen it here in lalaland language:

腻泼死：wo3 men2 shui4 zai4 yi4 qi3 cai2 bu4 hui4 leng3

开开：(xiang3 dao4 xinyu shuo1 de4 hua4) BU4 YAO4! ni3 shui4 na4 bian1, wo3 shui4 zhe4 bian1, ni3 bu2 yao4 geng1 wo3 guo4 lai2.

ok, let's get on with our day's event. Spent the morning picking firewood, and getting them from other campers who left. Collected quite a bit, feeling quite satisfied that I would have a nice fire roaring tonight.

Proceeded to trailhead of Observation Point. Went the wrong way and reached Weeping Cliff instead. err..Weeping something, I forgot the name. There's icicles forming on the cliffs, and I thought they were beautiful until one of them dropped on me! heart attack...better leave...

an hour later and we were climbing up and up and up, and panting like mad, sweating like I had never sweat before...and we did not dare to stop, for the wind was so cold and we would lose body heat so fast that we would soon suffer from hypothermia. And so we climb and climb...and 2.5 hours later we reached the summit.

Shall not say much, pictures were do the talking:

Sprained my LEFT ankle on my way down. my RIGHT ankle had not healed properly from Hawk Mountain trip. Yay, now I am legally Bai Ka. Hobbled around the campsite, and I had to say a big thank you to Nipsy and Xinyu for collecting more firewood! Thanks guys! Muackz!

Had a nice big fire going! yippie! dinner's the best so far in this trip: hot chicken, hot noodles, hot luo han veggie, biscuits...hee...only coldwater's the sprain in my left ankle. Oh, I rented a sleeping bag at a shop near the entrance to Zion since Peipei said she needed her sleeping bag. It's great! Was so warm in the tent, and so comfy that I thought I was sleeping at home hahaha....Great day!

Off to Zion

2005-12-06T15:49:00.000-05:00

Yay! Woke up feeling great! The ground's quite hard and very uncomfortable. Peipei vowed to sleep in the car from tomorrow onward *lauf*

That's great! I can borrow her sleeping bag. no more cold nights yey...

oh, Healthy Request Campbell Mushroom Soup SUX. I nearly puked out my first mouth. disgusting. we bought it coz it's like 4 for $3...

Left early hoping to reach Bryce Canyon and begin our trek. Upon reaching Zion first, I thought to myself why not we spend our days in Zion, camp both nights here, and we can go Bryce for just a day's trip since it will be so cold up Bryce. So ended up going Zion instead.

Zion was nice too. Not as majestic as Grand Canyon, but to me more beautiful, perhaps because of the vegetation that makes a nice green and brown, and streams of blue by the river. We pitched our tent at the campground, and pondered over whether to go Angel's Landing or attemp Observation Point. Ended up attempting both over 2 days since we were undecided. hee...

Zion was really beautiful. It was a very nice walk up and the weather was just right. We were panting up when a 2-year old kid bounced past us. We struck up a conversation with that 2 YEAR OLD KID and HIS GRANDMOTHER who seemed to be going up with no difficulties while the 4 supposedly fit Team NCBV members huffed and panted up.

Upon reaching a rest point, we spot our destination about 0.5 miles away. well, quite deceptive, coz in actual fact, it's like steep ascent and we really need 2 hands and 2 legs to CLIMB up...nipsy gave up and we got no choice but to leave him at the rest point while the rest of us attempted to reach the summit.

The climb up was superb! I thoroughly enjoyed it and I can see the two gals loved it too. The view was breathtaking as we climbed higher and higher, and thus looking farther and farther. 不愧是“欲琼千里目，更上一层楼”.

Went back campsite to find that we the wind was not quite pleased with us. It's so strong that our tent were blown away! We chased after it and tried ways and means to secure our tent. Our stoves refused to lit either. The wind kept blowing the flame off. Ended up hiding behind the car, dragged our tent to the other side, and sat around our stoves.

At this point of them I was wondering what happened to all that was thought to me...

"A fire is the most important element of an enjoyable camping experience, for it provides only only warmth but it also keeps animals away..."

Seemed like I had thrown everything away. Quite pissed off at myself for being so ill-prepared, as if it was my first time camping and heck-cared everything. Our meals were ill-prepared, many a times eating cold right out of the cans, and it had been a long time since I had eaten like that. It's like back to sec 1 days when I was camping and did not know a shit about what real camp cooking means). Nipsy had to rub in with his everything also heck care attitude, with more barrages of screws. His limited vocabulary is really testing my patience to the limit.

Lucky there was this kind couple who invited us over to their fire...their fire really saved our lives that night. I resolved to build a fire the next night and stop being such a "first-timer"...

25th November 2005 - Trek down Grand Canyon

2005-12-06T15:27:00.000-05:00

Cold. My feet's numb from pain. Tried rubbing them with my hands, but I cant feel them. My sleeping bag's cold, fleece blanket's cold, and my down jacket...icy cold. The cold's so painful, it's like icy daggers stabbing at me. I saw peipei sleeping happily beside me in her WARM SLEEPING BAG, and at this point of time I felt really pathetic. and suddenly, I realised there's this very cute kitten sitting on my feet. Nevermind how it got into here! There's no holes in the tent! I nudged it gently with my legs hoping it will go away, but it refuses to budge. Ended up carrying that little rascal out of the tent. And I decided to go to the car and heat up a bit.

Knock Knock! I was simply amazed at the sheet of ice that formed on the car's windows as i rapped the window. went in, turn on the heater...and crap, IT'S COLD...wrapped myself in my blanket and tried to sleep. but my feet's still cold. very cold...drifted in and out of sleep, until abt 3am when peipei also jumped into the car. well at least someone's up to accompany me now.

we decided to drive to the toilet and washed up. upon returning, the rest had woken up, and we decided to proceed up GC. Too cold for comfort. I cannot even bear the thought of spending another night here.

Had cold tuna and bread in the car again for breakfast. so thankful for the Philly Cheese that I bought at a convenient store the previous night.

we parked outside the Marketplace and hopped into the shuttle. Suddenly, the view of Grand Canyon came into sight...

OH MY GOD. AHHHHH...we were flabbergasted. the Majesty of Grand Canyon came baring down on me and left me breathless. And suddenly, I felt that my life had been so minute compared to the million of years these rocks had been standing here. My troubles seemed to drift away into the far beyond as I gazed into the horizon.

We tracked down the Grand Canyon and reached Ooh Ah point where we took some pictures.

We then proceed back up to get our stoves. We decided to buy 2 MSR stoves since it would be more economical then to rent. And we won't have to return here to return the stoves.

In the afternoon, we proceeded down Bright Angel's Trail. Had lunch at a small ledge. Did I mention Nipsy nearly knock out on the way back up while the 2 gals bounced happily up? *shame shame*...

Oh, and we saw a sign saying there's vacancy at Mather Campsite. Decided to camp one night there! Yippie! No more Flintstone City! Stupid campsite. Mather even had a nice shower and, although it's $1.50 and lasted only 5 minutes, we were grateful for the shower. Else 腻魄四会很chou4. wo3 yong4 han4 yu3 ping1 ying1 else 他会古格 this sentence. and mind you, that was what Xinyu said: can you ask 你颇死to zhang3 egg4/zhang3 zhui4 (hokkien) because 他很chou4.

I was so amazed at that lah haha. But all three of us, being true blue 华初弟子, I totally understand them.

Had a nice warm meal of instant noodle. Would have been nicer if the noodles were put into 100 Celcius boiling water instead of putting in when the first few bubbles were seen. noodle would not have become so soggy.

here's how nipsy eats instant noodle:

between mouths of noodle...*sniff sniff*...screw it...screw it...*sniff sniff*...screw it...

machum suffering from withdrawal symptoms of glue sniffing...believe me nipsy, that night if u said just one more word of screw my fists would be in your face...

oh, slept at 6am. because night came very fast. this time i wrapped myself in 6 LAYERS of socks, 3 layers of clothes, and hee..very warm woh! Plus peipei wrapped herself up like one big cocoon...so nice as hand rest. In the middle of the night got one group of mad mexicans who think they own the campground. shouting like mad...so inconsiderate. And I thought they were 倪破斯的同乡until he refuted saying they are mexicans. hee...wat's the difference anyway?

Off to Grand Canyon

2005-12-06T15:08:00.000-05:00

It's Thanksgiving! While most family spent their time preparing feasts at home, and perhaps start on their Christmas Tree, Peiling, Nipsy, Xinyu (peiling and my Hwachong Friend), and me prepared for our flight to Las Vegas. We are going to rent a car from Las Vegas and explore Grand Canyon, Zion Canyon, and Bryce Canyon for the next 6 days!

I woke up at 4am to do some last minute stuffing of equipment into my bag. While the rest of my house slept, I dragged my huge haversack and two handheld bags and went over to East Building to meet up with Nipsy and Peipei.

Reached airport abt 6am. We passed through security without much problems this time round thanks to our Philadelphia IDs. (YES, WE HAVE PROPER IDs NOW INSTEAD OF SOME ALIENS IN THE STATES). Think back Vermont trip hee hee...

Flight took abt 5.5 hours. A farnie incident on the plane:

announcer: dear ladies and gentlemen. We are now filming Charlie and Chocolate Factory for your pleasure viewing. You may purchase headsets from us at $5 each.

apparently nipsy did not hear what the announcement said.

nipsy to air stewardess: excuse me. one headset.

air stewardess: ok. $5 pls.

nipsy to himself: wat! hmm, must look cool. else malu.

nispy to air stewardess: ok! no problem

And to show his frustration at losing that $5, HE LEFT THE HEADSET ON THE SEAT AFTER ALIGHTING THE PLANE! Talk about having few nuclei in his brain...

It's amazing the minute I step out from the gate. Notice it's the gate, not the airport...there's rows of slot machines right outside the gate! haha, wow, this is Las Vegas! ok more will be on Las Vegas on future entries (last 2 days of our trip).

Aniwae, we rented a car and drove off to Grand Canyon. Lucky we had the brains to upgrade from a small economy car to an intermediate. Else I got no idea how to carry our barang barangs.

I had been driving for 2 hours before I had to slap myself to keep awake. The view outside is...erm...sand and more sand and more sand and...more sand. And the road is one straight road up in front of me. borring....peipei soon took over coz I cannot take it anymore.

But seriously speaking, I am quite wowed by the scenery. The range of mountains in the horizons looked so mysterious and so majestic. As peipei put it, mother nature is really a very fine sculptor. We drove on and on and on for the next few hours, reaching our campground, Flintstone Campground at about 6pm. And it's DARK. really really DARK. Wanted to see GC today, but guess have to wait till tomorrow. Anyway, we drove up to the Marketplace in GC to check out the stoves rental.

Reached GC after another 40 minutes or so. By then I was really tired with driving. Mentally stressed with the dark roads and the incoming cars and so irritated at the cars behind with their headlights. Well, the Marketplace was closed too. hmm, let's find a place for dinner...so headed to a pizza parlour...neh, too expensive! went back to Flintstone Campground.

Saw a nice spot outside the toilet, yay! near the toilet!

"no dude, let's go inside more. Camp at the entrance dangerous."

I was like thinking to myself, wat's the problem with camping near the toilets with such a nice ground...but nevermind. he wants it dark dark at the corner ok lor. a bit dulan at having to walk far far to the toilet, but nevermind. my mood's not dat bad yet to start having things MY way.

the night's really spoilt when we had to eat dinner in the car. those cats, VERY CUTE WOH! but hor, so irritating lah, kept trying to get at our food. so we had to eat dinner in the car. well, actually i dun really mind, but cold food at the end of a long day really gets at me. but den again, it's only the first night, and thinking of the next day made me quite happy, so I lived with the cold tuna and sandwich in the car.

The sky's really beautiful! It's really millions, and suddenly I felt the elations of astronomers as they looked at stars through their telescopes. It's really amazing! I have never seen so many stars before!

The weather's real cold. We huddled together in the tent, and drifted off to sleep...

Proud to be a Singaporean!

2005-11-19T18:24:00.000-05:00

I was having lunch with one of the investors of my company's project today, when the topic of Singapore came up. It's always the case. "Oh you are from Singapore!"
And he started praising the world of Singapore. Especially the Government. And of course I have to try to say something good back to his home country, but nevertheless, a sense of pride welled-up inside me. And he mentioned that although it is a very small country, she had made herself a name in the globe as the little power red dot who had risen without resorting to backside-licking or other underhand methods. While we had no culture like China or America, we had effectively integrated the best from both sides of the world, and like what he said, a country where East meets West, absorbed the essence to become Western East (he said in Chinese, so it seems a bit farnie translating the original words to English).

Not to say I am trying to POR the Government, but apparently all the people whom I have spoke with said one common thing about Singapore: The uncorrupted and efficient Government, besides the fact that it is very clean. Nevermind that we get fined for everything we do;or certain policies that might not Singapore as free as America, but one thing for certain: Singapore Government gets whatever needs to be done, done. And it's free from corruption, the single vital recipe to a country's survival.
And of all the clients I have talked to, those who have visited Singapore wanted to stay there when they grew old. And others whom have not seen it, but heard of it, put Singapore as one of the top 5 countries they planned on visiting.
And then it strucked me how our youngsters are dying to get out of Singapore, while those who have seen the world wanted to go back.

So my message to you, readers, be proud of Singapore. Singapore is so efficient that everything had been well-catered for, and yet the people are still complaining and wanting for more. Still not convinced? Spend a few years overseas, and you will be dying to go back.
Nevermind that the Ang Mohs dunch understand us. Or that the traditional Cheena-ist dislike us for being part Western part Eastern. Be proud to be a Singaporean! Live as a Singaporean human, die as a Singaporean ghost! And like true blue entrepreneurs that Singapore has been trying to cultivate: 就为我们自创的 Singlish 发扬光大吧！

Handsome PAPA and pretty MAMA

2005-11-17T18:46:00.000-05:00

thought of papa and mama, so here's a nice picture of them...

报仇！ZWL aka zizifeng 的真面目。 POOOOT!

2005-11-17T17:27:00.000-05:00

this picture has been resized to a small small one coz the original size 吓死人。。。

- photo deleted le. felt guilty haha. too bad for those who did not catch it before removal! -

PS. sollie ZWL! now u know how bored i am in office...改天再向你赔罪！

无聊的子琳

2005-11-16T20:19:00.000-05:00

it's knocking off time soon...and I dunno why today all the agents are around in the office. Besides the usual Julie, Sze, Lee and me, the rest of the agents are around, laughing and talking cok.

Must be the weather. The farnie weather has gotten into everybody's head. ZWL msned me and asked me for office number. So I gave her lor...

"weh, you want for what? dun call me hor, the whole office can hear our conversation"

riinnnggggg...

"hello good afternoon this is Pan Am."

"may I speak to kaihong?"

on hearing ZWL's voice I started laughing...did not really expect her to call...

"OI! I told u dun call..."

"你听起来很好笑。在说一次给我听。。。"

aniwae, i tried stifling my laughter as well, quite unsucessfully...

and the other kaypoh agents crowded around me and ask me why i was smiling happily into the phone.

"eh why you smiling so happily? your gf?"

"no lah nutting"

I buay tahan and very paiseh coz all eyes on me so hung up on her. dunno what to say anyway and I cant really stop myself from laughing. After that gsggj nutting happened...

msn (ziling): why you hang up on me? i going to try again.
msn (me): NO NO DUN PLAY...

and those kaypoh agents...

"ORH! CHATTING WITH GF DURING WORK TIME"

and they crowded around my computer screen trying to get a peek at msn conversation, but i smart, i switched to word document.

"no lah aiyoh...she asking me abt some project stuff lah, sch work..."

rinnnggg...

alamak, confirm her again...

but still I must be professionally right?

"good afternoon, pan am how can I help you?" knowing full well it's the little pest disturbing.

Silence...so I wait lor.

and from the other end of the line: "hee hee hee..."

and i ended up chuckling into the receiver again.

and suay suay Julie was like standing right beside my table looking for some stuff...and even she took the chance to poke me can?

"I give u some advice. Never give ur office number to your gf. You will never be able to shake her off after that..."

reputation tarnished liao...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AH TIONG!

2005-11-15T20:06:00.000-05:00

We celebrated ah tiong's birthday last night after SPIN meeting...

Had lots of fun and laughter after giving him his 'present', an elephant thong. haha...and we tried to make him wear it.

Somehow ended up stripping Nipsy instead.

Entered the room, with all of us sitting on the mattress, with Nipsy right in the centre and Jeffrey on the opposite end of the room.

Entered Jaron who sat beside Jeffrey.

"Oi Jaron! Come over here. Watch show."

"dunwan, jeff is my buddy. I must sit with him."

"COME HERE LAH JARON. HE'S PERFORMING FOR US NOW..."

"ok."

With dat, nipsy is now surrounded..

"let's count 1, 2, 3 together and Jeffrey will change into the undies!"

And Nipsy happily counting with us...

"1, 2, 3!"

Nipsy got stripped instead. And we accidentally torn his pants...

HAHA WHAT AN AMUSING NIGHT. thanks everybody for supporting the plan, and extra thanks to estee for being the loudspeaker! You singled-handedly took the surprise out of the plan we drawn so painstackingly. GOOD JOB!

Good Luck for your papers, dear friends!

2005-11-15T17:02:00.000-05:00

YOZ to all NUS kias!

Good luck to all your papers! After exams can play le! My exam on 14 Dec woh, so late :(

But luckily i only got 1 examinable module haha.

ok will write more interesting entries when my life gets more interesting! TATAZ!

lady "bug" killers

2005-11-06T17:33:00.000-05:00

My room became a lady-bug farm...

On Sunday morning, Nipsy and me got a new morning exercise....we were killing bugs, over 70 of them, and flushing down the toilet bowl.

I got tired of killing them and put them in a container instead...here's some photos...:(

A duh-duh night

2005-11-05T04:01:00.000-05:00

Sze, my colleague, is so helpful he even tried introducing gals to me. During his wedding, he insisted on me going to the bridemaid's table with all her friends to see if I got any '缘分' but I ran away...

So just now at the Chamber of Commerce dinner he's at it again...

Iris came first and registered. "see you later handsome!" And yes, Iris did say that ok, so you better stop laughing.

Sze: eh, this one not bad what! Try to 交往 with her.
me: no, she got bf liao.

And den Gean, Ling and Ling (haha, ok, it's Tzeling and Peiling) came together...

Sze: eh, dat's Gean ah? she not bad what...try to 交往with her.
me: NO! She's the NOC co-ordinator and she got a bf!

Sze: the other 2? the short one quite compatible...
me (covering my face): no! she got a bf!

Sze: then the taller one lah. can try to 交往 with her too...
me: NO! THEY ALL GOT BF!!!!

and then just now on the phone with papa...

papa: 你交到女朋友没有？

faintz....eh, I am not gay ok! It's just 时机未到！

Thank you Danny, Cheryl, Junxing and Eeyong!!!

2005-11-05T03:34:00.000-05:00

My buddies and buddettes sent me a nice bookmark with well-wishes all over it. So touched!!! Thank you guys, and wait for me to come back! We will make up for all those missing suppers!!!

为了未来梦一生

2005-10-28T18:01:00.000-04:00

星期五下午，一个人在办公室好无聊，决定再尝试写文章。

我们在这世界生存的意义到底是什么？我们的生命是命中注定？还是我们真有能力以双手创造我们的梦想，人定胜天？命运真的存在吗？我们无法证明它的存在，但也不能完全否认它存在的可能性。要不然的话，为何人生会那么不公平？有些人一辈子不努力也有先祖留下的遗产，虽然会用光，但毕竟也能享福。而他人却刻苦耐劳一生，却平穷得三餐都有问题。有些人能拥有美好家庭，而他人却无家可归。如果说这不是各人命运，那又是什么？难道说是上辈子欠的债，要来生还清？

命运真的能主宰我们的一生？倘若是这样子，那我们真的能以双手创造出我们的梦想和未来吗？我一直都相信人定胜天，但永远与命运作对的人真的很可怜。全力以赴后，却有时也得不到想要的东西，这就是人生吧。所谓阴阳道理，在这世界，一个人的失，却是另个人的 “ 得 ”。一个人忧愁，却能使另个人快乐。如果这双方都相信人定胜天，那必有一人失败。难道这就是所谓的命运吗？

辛苦了那么久，尝试了许多喜忧哀乐，有点累，很想放弃人定胜天的人生道理，向我的命运低头。但我真的很不甘心向命运低头，因为这是失败者的行为。还是继续为我的未来奋斗吧。我的未来在我掌心中，是好是坏由我来决定，不需命运为我安排。而令我感到欣慰的是在这世界，也有许多的战斗者，与我并肩作战。就让我们一起创造我们自己的 lalaland 吧！

THIRD DAY MISSION VERMONT - BAR HARBOR

2005-10-18T02:29:00.000-04:00

ah...finally in bar harbor. After being labelled 'siao' by jeremiah and a few others, from travelling from North Vermont to Maine.

It was a beautiful town! Small, but beautiful. And the six of us were jumping around in this field near the coast like small kids. running around but dunno what we were doing. and smiling stupidly at one another hahaha. It feels good!

Main Objective: Eat Lobster.

Secondary Objective: Merchandise.

in this shop, we saw a travel guide on the nature parks here. And we spotted some interesting places to go to...

nipsy: dude, lend me your camera.

me: for wat?

nipsy: take photos of these few pages.

me: WAH LAU, SO CHEAPSKATE...

aniwae, found a nice trekking place so we decided to pay the place a visit.

It's called MOUNT CHAMPLAIN, the mountain that changed our lives forever...

me: eh, easy to go up or not? izzit like bukit timah hill?

pling: i think should be lah. just take our water bottles up can liao.

2 hours later:

me (hanging on the rocks): JUST WANNA TELL U GUYS YOU ARE THE BEST FRIENDS I HAVE EVER HAD. IF I FALL DOWN TELL MY FRIENDS IN SINGAPORE I LOVED THEM...

pling: TELL MY BF I LOVE HIM TOO IF I DUN MAKE IT BACK...

and nipsy was gasping for breath as he attemped to cross a ledge. It's so crazy, we were hanging on the rocks 300 meters above ground with no safety harness, sandals, and improper footwear.

And that ledge was named Ziling's Rock aka Move The Ass Rock, as she invented the simplest and farniest and safest way of crossing the ledge...literally by sliding your ass along. Ziliang the brave soul baby crawled across much to our horror.

Aniwae, view http://ncbv.blogspot.com for some photos that we took at the summit. The rest is history. And thus team NCBV was formed at this instance...

Had lobster at this restaurant and it's the best lobsters we ever had! Camped at a campground here...first time car camping! So fun! Ziliang got scolded 2 times by other campers due to the huge amount of noise he made.

on the way to the camp ground, after descending from Mt Champlain:

ziliang: my turn to sit in front! I give directions!

the rest were too tired to argue, for if we were still alive and kicking, we would surely have rejected him...

pling (driving): eh ziliang, how much longer to the campground?
ziliang: 15 miles.
pling: so long meh?
ziliang: dat's what it says on the sign (points to the speed limit)
nipsy: DUDE! DAT'S THE SPEED LIMIT!
-------------------

nipsy: eh ziliang, can u see Eagle Lake Pond? (we saw the pond so wanna confirm location)
ziliang (immediately answer): no
nipsy and I looked at each other wondering whether to believe him or not. After a few seconds curiosity got the better of us
me: urm, ziliang, can lend me see the map?
I took over the map, and immediately we saw Eagle Lake Pond....
nipsy cant control his laughter: DUDE! THE WHOLE POND IS SO BIG HERE!

and ziliang tried comparing 2 maps which is different...
me: eh, no need compare lah. u wun see anything similar one.

so much for ziliang being vehicle commander hee hee hee...

And that night, ram studied in the car (he got a test when he gets back, so poor thing) while the rest of us squeezed into the tent. so shiok! and the sky is so full of stars...

here's conversation which irritated the hell out of nipsy. he was sleeping between ziliang and me. I was feeling a bit bored, so started talking to ziliang:

me: eh ziliang, you believe in ghost?
z: nope.
me: den wat is howling outside the tent?
z: dat's the wind
me: how u know is the wind?
z: common sense
me: den why cant it be ghost?
z: coz i cannot see ghost
me: u mean u can see wind?
z: no
me: den how u know is the wind?
z: coz I know
me: but if u cannot see wind why it cannot be ghost?
z: den why you think is ghost?
me: i never think is ghost. I asking whether is ghost. so can u explain why you think is the wind and not the ghost?

And we went round and round until nipsy bua tahan. "dude, can u shuddup and stop bullying ziliang? He obviously is being played around by you"

and peiling kept nudging me on the other side...I think she buay tahan too...

me: no wat, i discussing an important qns with him. why u say i bully him?

me: so ziliang, why it cannot be ghost?

nipsy: SHUDDUP!!!!

SECOND DAY - MISSION VERMONT

2005-10-17T02:56:00.000-04:00

Pling woke me up gently at 5am, to discuss some changes of plans. I sat up in my sleeping bag. And I tell u, I can barely move...the wind howled like crazy and there we were, sleeping in the wind. Coz that stupid lodge had only 3 walls with a roof, and while I was grateful for the fact that it protected us from rain and gave us some hard ground...WHY CAN'T THEY JUST BUILD A BIGGER LODGE WITH 4 WALLS AND A DOOR LEH???

I expected the change of plans. Looking our equipment and the way we were carrying, I do not think that we are prepared to attempt our second climb. And it's really too cold to start walking now.

I ended up going back to sleep and woke up about 2 hours later. brrr...had breakfast, and we started descending. Saw the pond in daylight finally. It's nice! Really beautiful! And we spent most of our 2nd day travelling up north.

Oh man, the mountain we are gonna climb, I forgot the name paiseh, was shrouded in CLOUDS lah! Aniwae, the scenery was beautiful beyond description. We opened the car doors...and we ran around the place once, took pictures, and ran straight back into the car. Too cold lah! And den, refusing to admit that we cant attempt this climb...

me: oi, grab our bags, take photos and fake the rest we did climb.

And thus we all grabbed our barangs barangs, took some photos and went back into the car.

pling: eh now how? go where?

nipsy: niagara falls only 2 hours drive away from here!

ziliang (jumping around in the car seat): LET'S GO LET'S GO!

and seeing ziliang so happy...

me: dunwan lah. u see he so happy...dun go.

zling: eh, go maine eat lobster!

pling: ok!

nipsy: ARE YOU GUYS SERIOUS? IT'S 13 hours drive away...

me: can lah. take turn.

nipsy: ok. drivers say ok we also ok...

And so the 6 of us drove to Maine. I tell you, we were really so insane...hahaha...

We stopped by Ben and Jerry's factory on the way. And on the way we got stopped by the police 2 times for speeding lor. One time by Peiling and one time by me.

1st stop:

we were going at 85mph when Nipsy saw the police car...

Nipsy: POLICE POLICE!! SLOW SLOW!!!

and the next instance the police lights were flashing

and we were so experienced with being stopped by police, we auto pulled over before the police asked us to pull over. and we even have time to discuss how to handle the police.

me: so how? what story this time?

nipsy: send zling to airport. rush for time.

rest: ok.

Ended up with $185 fine.

zling: ok lah, considering we got caught 4 times liao and we only pay once, worth it.

...

---------------------

2nd stop. I was driving along this dark road in Maine, and I can only see one car heading towards me. Passed by each other. AND THE CAR U-TURNED AND ON THE POLICE LIGHTS.

me: huh? wat the shit??!!??
ram: dun worry, he not chasing you. just go.
me: u siao ah? u mean got other cars around meh?
-----
police: Sir you know why I stop you?
me: I have absolutely no idea.
police: you were speeding. going at 65 mph. the limits is 50mph
me: really? oh...so sorry, there's no sign...
police: where you heading to?
me: Maine.
police: This IS Maine
me: errr...
pling: bar harbour!
police: your license pls

at that moment my mind was like: another 30 bucks fly away...

but after the police walked back to his car, I sort of woke up and my mind began to clear up. Late at night lah, sleepy...but when he came back I was determined to tell him I was not speeding
-------
me: Sir, I dun think I was speeding.
ram: yah, I was keeping an eye on his speedometer
police: I am not going to argue with you coz I am not going to issue a ticket

after that I did not really bothered with what he was talking about. As long as he dun give me a ticket he can lecture all he want. but he's really nice lah.

At about 6am we really cannot take it anymore. pling parked the car at a petrol kiosk and we dozed off in the car...

FIRST DAY OF MISSION VERMONT - Little Rock Pond

2005-10-15T08:34:00.000-04:00

Never felt so unprepared for trek before since a long time ago. The team got no proper equipment, including stoves which we are going to borrow from Mountain Goat in Manchester. And we are going to rely on 2 torches...Pling's and mine maglites. And there's no lanterns. Hmm....it's going to be unpleasant at night without lights...

Rushed to 30th train station to catch R1 to Philly International Airport. And we have 15 minutes to do so. haiz. half walk half ran there.

At the airport while queuing up...

me: eh guys, the sign says no sharp objects. I think the check in is not here u know. We are going to be quite screwed with all our knives inside our bag.

so we ended up asking the guard where we can check in our bags and thus, at the counter...

lady: can I see your IDs pls?

Ended up only pling and me got driving license. The rest are labelled 'no ids'. Thus, Pling, me and Zling (being a cute girl, according to her) got an A class ticket, Ziliang for a B class ticket, and Ram and Nipsy got C.

lady to ziliang: since u have no ID, you have to go through additional security checks

ziliang: you mean i don't have to queue up if I got an ID?????

lady (dun understand): huh??!!??

me to the rest: so embarrassing. let's get out of here...

-----------------------------------
guard to ziliang: stand still sir.

ziliang started doing some ballerina act and turned around.

guard: sir pls stand still...

nipsy: what is ziliang doing? hahaha...

ram: i think he dun understand what the guard is trying to say...
-------------------------------------

finally up the plane. Just abt to take off...

peiling: i need to sleep. zzzzz....
-------------------------------------

abt an hour later, we arrived in Manchester airport. Just abt to land...

peiling: i need to sleep. zzzzz....
-------------------------------------

To cut the story short, we got a car at Manchester airport and drove off to our destination. On the way we stopped by an inn, a nice one by the way, to have lunch, and we decided that we loved this place. And come to think of it, we must be quite mad to go on this trip. It rained the whole day and it's COLDDDD....drove around for really a bit, enjoyed the scenery. It's beautiful! And peiling and I take turns to laugh at each other for not being able to view the scenery coz we both took turns at the wheel.

Reached Little Rock Pond at about 6pm. Dammit, it's late...but we went ahead anyway.

And soon we were floundering around in the darkness. Stupid place, so many stones. And streams everywhere. And it started raining! Took about 3 hours to reach the overnight lodge. Took water from the stream to drink and cook dinner.

It was here that Nipsy earned his title of Nipsy the gey leng gay. In the middle of the night...

Nipsy to kaihong: dude, wrap your legs around me dude. I very cold...pls pls...

I was damn disgusted.
------------------------------------------
Nipsy (hallucinating from the cold): WAH, RACCOON ON RAM'S HEAD!

me: wtf???
-----------------------------------------
And I went to answer nature's call...halfway peeing, I was illuminated with light. I thought was nipsy playing a trick on me, but when i look up, I saw the moon smiling happily at me. Wah, talk about being in the 'moon'light.

After nipsy and I finished our shift, we drifted off into a slumber...and boy, am I grateful for my sleeping bag! It's so warm and comfy. Nipsy, on the other hand, tried to find ppl to hug him...

packing our equipment

2005-10-15T02:54:00.000-04:00

I looked at the food we had laid out in front of us, and wondered are we having a banquet every night. We split into 2 teams to buy food, Nipsy and me went to Fresh Grocers, while Pling Zling Zlang and Ramraguram went Chinatown to buy canned food.

And we both decided to buy that bit of extra...and that extra turned out to be...erm....a little too much.

Aniwae, I first separated out the food into the different meals and then packed it into bags for us to carry individually.

And then I proceed to the sleeping bags. Wah kaoz, never seen such big sleeping bags before. So big that I cannot stuff it into my bag. Thus have to carry by hand. I wondered if it is such a good idea as experiences told me that we should always leave our hands free in case we need them during the trek. It soon turned out to be sound advice but I shall leave the details to later entries.

And then I look at my clothes. Dunno how much to bring, dunno how cold the weather is, dunno whether to risk the amt of clothes for rain...aiyah, so mafan. Ended up settling for one set to sleep in, one set to trek in, and one extra set for emergency, together with 2 jackets.

Feels good after packing the bag. Zling and Pling went parading around their house in their haversacks and took a few dum photos hahaha. First time trekking in the States, so excited...gotta sleep soon. Must wake up at 5am the next day.

Expedition to Vermont

2005-10-14T20:54:00.000-04:00

From 15th Oct 2005 to 18th Oct 2005, Team NCBV decided to undertake an expedition to the Appalachian Trail in Vermont.

Team NCBV consisted of the following, their call-sign in brackets:

1. Wong Kai Hong (Wolf)
2. Yap Peiling (Pling)
3. Wong Tze Ling (Zling)
4. Chen Ziliang (Zlang)
5. Ram (Ramraguram)
6. Neeraj Kumar (Nipsy the Gei Leng Gay)

The next few blogs will be on their near-death experience, as well as the satisfaction of conquering 2 mountains over the 4 days.

Prof Jaron Liu's Theory on Sun Approximity

2005-10-14T15:37:00.000-04:00

During an entrepreneur seminar yesterday, I had the privilege of having an insightful discussion with my band of brothers' member, very good friend and colleague Professor Jaron Liu.

He introduced the his latest paper, the Theory on Sun Approximity to a few of us.

Prof Liu: Dudes, I heard you guys going Vermont tml. Have a good trip.

me: yah, it will be cold. dunno how much clothes to bring.

Prof Liu: Dudes! You dun have to bring that many. It will be hot.
THE HIGHER YOU GO, THE HOTTER IT IS.

me: huh? how come?

Prof Liu: you get nearer to the sun, dude. It's hot.

me: bleah. den why ppl wear winter clothings up Everest?

Prof Liu: Everest is an ICE MOUNTAIN.

FREE

2005-10-14T15:22:00.000-04:00

Wah, never feel so happy and carefree for long time loh. I am going to Vermont tml! Mid term project for BE303 cleared. yahoo! best thing is after mid term break that week no assignments. Unlike some university in Singapore. Experience the power of nature, the greatness of mountains, the beauty of the flora...hopefully can see cute animals like squirrels and chipmunks along the way hee.

Weather report says "snow rain". or izzit snow storm? Fall got snow storm one meh? First time camping in cold weather, dunno how much clothes to take :(

Have to borrow backpack, and it's not the usual big size that I carry...sacrifice on equipment. Ahhh...but aniwae, think I shall enjoy myself this Fall break.

VERMONT HERE I COMEEEEEEE....

A newspaper report

2005-10-13T16:20:00.000-04:00

This is an article from Daily Pennsylvanian:

Campus mourns teammate, friend

Wharton senior Kyle Ambrogi remembered as kindhearted; he had struggled with depression

By rachel feintzeig and mara gordon

October 13, 2005

Kyle Ambrogi's name is still on the mailbox outside his old apartment on South 40th Street.
Inside, the TV is still blaring a sports game and Budweiser posters still cover the walls. Enough energy drinks to supply the entire football team lie stacked in the corner.
But the four seniors living here say that the house feels empty without their fifth roommate.
He isn't coming home, and it is enough to make these hulking football players break down and cry.
That fifth roommate was Ambrogi, a Wharton senior and star running back who came to Penn a little over three years ago, straight out of St. Joseph's Preparatory School in Philadelphia.
On Monday night, he committed suicide.
Two days before, Ambrogi led the Quakers to victory in a game against Bucknell. Scoring two touchdowns and helping to secure the game, Ambrogi seemed like he was on top of the world.
"He looked fine," football Head Coach Al Bagnoli said after the team came together under a gray sky for a shortened practice yesterday. "That's the tragedy."
But the 21-year-old, whom friends called "bubbly" and "positive," had been suffering.
"He'd been dealing with his own little personal battles," Wharton senior Rob Mattar said of his former roommate.
"Did we see it coming? I don't think anybody would say they saw it coming."
While friends and coaches say they did not know the extent of Ambrogi's depression, they did know something was wrong.
"We'd been monitoring the situation for quite a while. A lot of different people were monitoring. All indications ... were that he was on an upswing," Bagnoli said.
Another of Ambrogi's former roommates, Wharton senior Scott Pickett, said that Ambrogi had been especially upbeat the past few days and that it looked as if he was "doing really well."
Then, on Monday night, police responded to a call from a home in the Philadelphia suburb of Havertown, according to Lt. Charles Moore of the Haverford Township Police Department. Ambrogi was found dead at around 9 p.m. in his family's home. Delaware County Chief Medical Examiner Frederick Hellman declined to give the cause of death.
On campus, news of the suicide spread to his football teammates.
About 40 football players gathered at Ambrogi's house, standing outside in silence.
"Obviously everyone's in shock," Mattar said. "But everybody came together."
At Ambrogi's old high school on Tuesday, teachers found themselves crying in the hallways.
"He's one of those people who breaks the old, untrue stereotype about athletes not being good students," said Ambrogi's high school Spanish teacher, Frank Raffa, who recalled that Ambrogi once wrote an entire spanish composition about his mother, Donna.
Friends remember Ambrogi as a 210-pound football player who loved The Simpsons, iced tea, cooking and giving hugs.
"I hadn't seen that kid mad once in my entire life," said Mattar, a former football player who first met Ambrogi during his freshman year.
Many of Ambrogi's friends are on the football team and were barred by the University's Athletic Communications Department from commenting, but Mattar said the loss has hit everyone hard.
"We haven't slept in a long time, that's for sure. I don't think anybody really has," he said.
This is the first suicide at Penn since the spring of 2002, when a Wharton senior killed herself in her Sansom Street home.
Penn officials said that the school is well equipped to help students cope with the tragedy and that they are focusing on making students aware of on-campus counseling resources.
"We're asking students to be extra-diligent in looking out for one another," Associate Vice Provost for University Life Terry Conn said, adding that it sometimes "takes students a few days to process [tragedies like] this."
A wake has been set for Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. in Havertown, Bagnoli said. The funeral is planned for Monday.
The Ambrogi family declined to comment yesterday.
For now, Ambrogi's roommates continue to make daily trips to Havertown to visit Donna Ambrogi and Kyle's brother, Greg -- a Wharton sophomore who also played on the football team.
Greg was absent from yesterday's practice, but the other members of the squad were running, throwing and tackling just like usual. The Quakers will face Columbia in New York on Saturday, and the season must go on.

The Test

2005-10-12T02:50:00.000-04:00

ok, it's 11.50pm, Tuesday, and I am sitting in front of the computer trying to figure out how to live through tml...

There's work from 8am to 8pm, coz boss say must stay back do some work, mid-term paper 20 pages meeting at Wharton from 8pm to dunno what time since Thurs must submit, and on top of that my engineering ethics paper to do, engineering entrepreneurship test to prepare, 2 sets of readings to be done by Thurs morning. And a seminar to worry about on Thurs evening.

They say "大难不死必有后福"...something good better happen if I live through till Thurs. Wonder how Neeraj and Iris are coping. 3 engineers struggling together in a world of essays and quizzes. What is this world coming to?

working on Sat and Sun

2005-10-08T19:41:00.000-04:00

It's a Sat, and I have to go work. Coz I going to Vermont next Sat to Tuesday, and due to the No-Leave Policy, I figured I better volunteered to make up for those 2 days during this weekend.

Woke up to the sound of wind and car alarms. It was the fiercest storm I have ever seen in my entire whole life! The branches of the trees outside my window flaired around wildly as if the thundergod was whipping them. And the car alarms were apparently caused by the storm. Machum singing Beethoven No. 9 in the rain.

And I felt so American as I trudged to the post office at 9th street in my coat, hugging my laptop and my parcel close to me. The brolly I had in my hand was furtile. It sort of demonstrated it's flexibility by twisting in a variety of ways but not keeping me dry. I comtemplated bringing my trenchcoat but figured I kinda look stupid coz everybody else were just running around in jackets.

Took me 1 hour to settle my parcel. First time sending a parcel back to Singapore and were unfamiliar with the admin stuff. Good thing nobody was around and I had the full attention of the counter.

Picked up a bacon-cheese-egg sandwich at a nearby food truck and trudged again to the office in the rain.

And now here I am writing this blog waiting for 5.30pm to come. Sian sian sian sian sian....tml Sunday also must come...sian sian sian sian sian...sob sob sob sob...

Fall Break

2005-10-07T12:42:00.000-04:00

For those in NUS, if you start questioning why the supposedly 1 week break ends on Thurs, and that it is stupid, you might want to take consolation in the fact that Upenn's Fall Break last only from Sat to Tues.

Might as well don't give break. Pui.

6 Flags

2005-10-02T02:53:00.000-04:00

Happy Children's Day!

On this very special day, Estee, Jaron, Kelly, Jeffrey, Neeraj, Ziling and me went to 6 flags, a huge amusement park the size of 3 NUS where they supposedly have the world's tallest and fastest roller coasters.

Come to think of it, I must have been crazy to even try out some of those stations. Upon reaching, we tried this spinning machine where we sit inside cabins and the machine just spin us round and round. Peanuts. Jaron squeezed in with Estee into one cabin and squashed her flat. Coz he scared.

Looking for more thrill, we went to Batman and Robin. This station simulates how Batman takes off in his batmobile. We were happily chirping away in the queue when the vehicle before us took off...and then silence.

"uh..guys...did you see the thing take off?"

It accelerated like to 80 miles per hour in 3 seconds I think.

And before we know it, it came back. Stunned faces from those on board.

Well, we had our turn, and I must said it's fun! It shot off and turned a few rounds outside before we reentered the 'cave'.

Thrilled by the ride, we headed off to another station that is near to us. The Nitro. Little did we know that it is like the 2nd most scariest ride in the park...

Well, I had this moment where the coaster hovered at the point where it turn, and slowly I started to look downwards as the coaster shifted down....and...UH GUYS, WHY IS THIS THING STILL GOING DOWN. UH...I AM LOOKING VERTICAL AT THE GROUND...I CANT FEEL THE SEAT! UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.....

My heart seemed to flew out of my mouth while the coaster free falled down. I DUN WANT TO DIE HERE. SAVE MEEEEE....and the coaster went up and down and sideways and spinned...and those crazy people in front of me were flailing their arms around while I held tied to the bar. Should look at Jeffrey's face after the ride. He cant even breathe properly.

Superman station. This is fun! We flew around!!! I CAN FLY!!! like SUPERMAN! they strap you to the back to give u sense of flying, and it's COOL! How carefree I was at that moment, swooping down to the ground in one instance and flying upwards heading towards space the other. Waited 45 minutes for this 1 minute flight, but it's worth it.

Other stations include Batman Station, horror trail, and lots of other fun stuff. There's this Awakening show at 6pm, where ghouls and zombies and the undeads have a procession from an entrance to the Blood Fountain. Kick start Halloween. It's cool! And these undeads wandered around the amusement park while the sky turned dark, and there's fog everywhere, and scary music everywhere throughout the park. It's great!

Neeraj, Jaron and Ziling tried out King Da Ka while the rest of us hunted out ghosts at the cemeteries. Jaron seemed to grew balls. King Da Ka was 45 storey high, speed at 125 miles per hour.

We played from 11am to 11pm, and cant really finish the park. So we made a resolution to return another time. It's fun to scare yourself silly after weeks of boredom.

Another Day

2005-09-29T20:30:00.000-04:00

And yet another day at work. Not much changes to my monotonous life here...woke up earlier than usual, cant get to sleep, irritating alarm from a cell phone across the room, so soft that it only irritates me but no one else and serves no purpose. so went online at 6.30am, not a lot of ppl. guess they are still haven fun at that timing in Singapore.

Went sch at 8.30am, end classes at 12 noon, somehow I dunno how but got full marks for my essay and quiz...oh ok, happy a little bit. So incredible and amazing. Well this means the next assignment no need do lor. Get 0 also pass what. Presentation ended today...going to start on my 20 page essay soon, and after that to hell with the module.

went chinatown to have lunch at this restaurant called Penang. Sells Singaporean food. Had Mee Goreng the last time but I think they used the whole packet of soy sauce. Tried Char Kway Teow this time round. Nice. Chicken Rice also nice. Next time try Mee Siam. Portion velli huge, can eat 2 meals.

Reached office at 1pm, now it's 5.30pm...rotting until 8pm so that I can go home and have dinner. Nobody on MSN. haiz. seems like my day will be a bit longer liaoz. Difficult to pass time.

Nutting whatsoever interesting. Finished all my projects, trying to gsggj and act busy. Hope the next project is going to come soon, or I will end up gsggj in the office for dunno how long. Else boss ask me what I do today I also dunno how to answer.

Tonight got Smallville season 5. watched one episode with Neeraj last week (some old episode) and decided not bad. Today Superman flying. and telling his sweet heart he not from Earth. But I cannot watch coz I stuck in office. bleahz.

This blog very sian. I also very sian. I can see my colleagues also very sian. And I bet all my fellow NCBVians also sian. coz we talking about damn boliao stuff on msn. "The wind very cold today hor?" "Eh, the leaves turning brown leh!" "Eh, the cleaner just replenished the toilet roll!"

Dunno how long can I hold on. Cant wait for weekends to come. Going 6 flags to play roller coaster and other suicidal games. Figured out might as well die from fright and height then rot in office.

Meanwhile there's still 31.5 hours of sianness before Sat...sobz sobz...

A little sidestep from NCBV

2005-09-27T20:17:00.000-04:00

My friend's mum said something meaningful, so I thought I might just blog it down...

she said everyone on earth actually has a person meant for him or her.. but the reason why some people don't get married is because their partners married the wrong people, or their partners died... so that's why they remain single for the rest of their lives.

And when you marry the wrong person.. it might end up in a divorce... or unhappy marriage... and you miss the chance of ever getting to know the person meant for you.

True, and a bit sad...dunch you think?

Fall is here!

2005-09-27T17:34:00.000-04:00

I woke up freezing. It's normal for the past week, but it continued to freeze on the streets even after mid day.

And the change was not gradual. It just suddenly became cold.

It seems like the whole city has turned on air-conditioning. The wind was strong, and I shivered as I walked on the street. Time to bring my jacket around.

Autumn has arrived! Yahoooo!!!

translator can cok up too

2005-09-27T16:27:00.000-04:00

I am supposed to translate a brochure from English into Chinese. Not knowing how to phrase the sentence "Glass. Daylight streams in" in a more elegant manner that is suited for its purpose, I used the translator of alta vista. This is what the translator gave me: 白天小河在玻璃里。

Jaron the Coke Drinker

2005-09-27T01:29:00.000-04:00

We were having a SPIN meeting, when Jaron took up this bottle of diet coke and took a long swig. Somehow, I dunno how he did it, but somehow he managed to empty half the contents onto himself.

"dude, i need tissue. quick dudes, tissue."

We tried to stiffle our laughter in due respect to the speaker, Stella, but we just could not help it. It's really such small incidents in our lifeless days that spiced up our moments. :P

the shit saga continues...

2005-09-26T19:01:00.000-04:00

Oh right! I got the Shit from Neeraj's place. A nice plastic brown piece of joke that scared the hell out of Eric. muahaha, sorry Eric, you are the champion!

Anyway, kept it in my pocket until I got home. Hmmm...Estee's in the kitchen, Phebe's in the living room, Kelly's in the guys' toilet...perfect timing to carry out my plan. I sneaked into Estee's room, go into the toilet, wetted the Shit and placed it in front of the toilet bowl.

A few minutes later, I saw Phebe entering the toilet....

---------------------------------------------------------------

Phebe (P): hey Estee...

Estee (E): EEEE. oh. I know. Must be Kaihong. Now I know why he and Neeraj were so sneaky just now.

I thought to myself, dammit, plan failed. no fun. Went inside their room and saw a comical sight...

Me: hey phebe! what u doing with that toilet roll?

P: I thought Estee shitted on the floor! I want to pick it up. Then I poked at it and wondered why the shit so nice one. And then I picked it up and realised it's hollow...

E: You stupid ass. It's you right. When I saw it I thought it was real.

P: I thought Estee shitted on the floor but I thought abt it and Estee never entered the toilet. I then suspected Kelly...
------------------------------
after a few minutes...

E: Phebe! How can you think I shit on the floor. So disgusting you know.

HAH! YOU GUYS SHOULD HAF SEEN ESTEE'S GROSSED OUT FACE.

Although not as dramatic as Eric, but the plan seemed to have sort of worked lah. The only problem is the two girls are not afraid of clearing the Shit.

If you guys think this is boliao, well, it means you guys still have some life left in you.

Neeraj's Crap

2005-09-26T18:54:00.000-04:00

Below is a scenario in Neeraj's house after he literally bought a piece of shit for $2. Shows how bored we really are that we ended up with these kind of jokes...
--------------------------------------------------------------------
It started with a visit to Halloween shop at Plymouth Meeting Mall, where I saw this fake piece of shit for $2. I realising the potential, grabbed it quick to have fun of my innocent friends..hehe..First planting in Jaron' shower there was no effect as he discovered it fast, only after poking it with his leg first. Wasn't a lot of fun putting it in Peiling' table as well, but I hit the jackpot when I placed it in my toilet next to the shitpot and moistened with some water. Following is the exact drama that happened between Me, Eric (E) and Ziliang (ZL):

Me : Ewwww..(loudly)...What the hell is on the floor...
E: (coming towards the toilet).. What issit..Issit a rat..Issit a dead rat..Tell me..(almost shivering)
Me: Take a look yourself..
E: (peeking)...Disgusting..Who shit on the floor..That too so nicely..yucksss...
Me: Call ZiLiang, probably he knows something about it..

(We all call ZiLiang and he comes and takes a look.)

ZL: That is disgusting..(collapses on the bed)..who did that..so nicely that too..
Me: Man it stinks bad

(And the "stink" suddenly appeared in everyone' minds.)

E & ZL: Damn it stinks.
E: I will get some incense sticks..somebody' gotta clear it.
ZL: You guys play Scissor,Paper , Stone..I will be the refree..

( And then took place an intense round of Scissor, Paper, Stone with Eric playing for his life. And my 2-1 lead vanished due to the extreme play skill of Eric motivated with the disgust with the piece of poo. He won it 3-2. And followed with the most amazing monkey jumps and bear hugs and soccer style celebrations which trust me Rooney wont do if he won the World Cup.)

E: You gotta clean it now..take all the tissue paper you need..I will cover you up with incense sticks (The most amazing strategic planning - am sure influenced by army days)
Me: Ok..lets do it.

(Having lost the game, and not been able to make Eric clean it, was a setback in my plans, so my mind was overthinking of what to do next)

Me: (flinging it on Eric, as if by accident) Disgusting....ooooops
E: You threw shit on me..you threw shit on me..you threw.........

(He went on and on wiping himself with tissues cleaning the "shit".)

Me: Hey dood,( picking it up by hands now)..this aint shit..this is just a joke...

I had one of the heartiest laughs I had in days and so had ZL, as Eric turned Pink and Red, and Blue and Yellow, and every color in embarassment and fun. Trust me I had fun, and I passed the thing to Kaihong for tricks on his family which I hope he puts on his blog. As MasterCard will put it.
Fake shit.. $2
Panic in house..priceless

A meaningful story

2005-09-23T14:47:00.000-04:00

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery,when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them. After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight. When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. When he was close enough, he called out, "Excuse me, where are we?" "This is Heaven, sir," the man answered. "Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" the man asked. "Of course, sir. Come right in, and I' ll have some ice water brought right up." The man gestured, and the gate began to open. "Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog, "come in, too?" the traveler asked. "I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets." The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog. After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book. "Excuse me!" he called to the man. "Do you have any water?" "Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in." " How about my friend here?" the traveler gestured to the dog. "There should be a bowl by the pump." They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it. The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself,then he gave some to the dog. When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree. "What do you call this place?" the traveler asked. "This is Heaven," he answered. "Well, that's confusing," the traveler said. "The man down the road said that was Heaven, too." "Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell." "Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?" "No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind."

只为那爱我愿

2005-09-22T21:13:00.000-04:00

another hwachong song...very meaningful...

愿我能把华初之光点燃原黄城之爱与心中滋长
原友谊能把你心温暖愿我有完成心愿的力量

没有瀑布与岩石的阻挡溪水就没有悦耳的歌唱
不愿途中无波浪无挑战愈经挫折生命愈灿烂

只为那爱我愿与你同行万里路
只为那爱我愿与你携手向前迈步
生命短暂多急促
既然碰上了又岂能虚度？

只为那爱我愿与你同行万里路
只为那爱我愿与你携手向前迈步
黄城两载多短促
既然爱上了又为何不付出？

一个我们熟悉的地方

2005-09-22T21:10:00.000-04:00

thought of a hwachong song...

欢迎来到我们的黄城一个我们熟悉的地方
欢迎来到我们的家园一个我们彼此相聚的地方

这里拥有我们的一切我们的朋友和梦想
唯有在一起我们才不孤单让我们的爱有细水长流

欢迎来到我们的黄城一个我们熟悉的地方
欢迎来到我们的天堂一个我们毕生难忘的地方

这里拥有我们的一切我们的朋友和梦想
唯有在一起我们才不孤单让我们的爱有细水长流

Ipod Ipod I love you

2005-09-21T02:06:00.000-04:00

hee...my 60GB Ipod came liao. By Fedex. So happy...it's a wonder how this cool little white box brought joy into my dull and miserable life. For that few minutes, I forgot all my troubles, my essays, my quizes, my readings. Good thing my friends are still on my mind. Aniwae, this cool little thing looks even cooler when I held it in my hands. It just made the cool me looked even cooler. It's a lifestyle.

Aniwae, in case you guys were wondering how much it was, it's 394 USD after tax. Free shipping. Did it online, since the online fever is everywhere. Free engraving.

Now can store all my pictures and videos and songs liao. No cover and holder...time to ebay...

whole new dimension

2005-09-20T16:26:00.000-04:00

NOC brought abt a whole new dimension of no life. I am pretty sure I have attended more classes than I ever did in NUS. Ok, I might not have attended more, but by the end of this year I am sure I would have. And I have written more essays than I have in my past 2 years in NUS, did more readings than I have ever done...

My life's pretty fun. It goes like this:

Monday, Wed, and Fri: wake up 8am, reach work 9am, work till 6pm, go home, eat dinner, do readings, do essay, prepare for quiz

Tues and Thurs: wake up 7.30am, reach sch 9am, go work 1pm, work till 8pm, go home, eat dinner, do readings, do essay, prepare for quiz

And because Monday to Fri is so tiring, most spent their sats sleeping. and then on sundays it's like OH NO, ASSIGNMENTS FOR TUESDAYS NOT DONE. and the cycle continues.

A shocking news

2005-09-18T23:17:00.000-04:00

Just came home from watching dvds at Jaron's place.

a bit hungry, so washed up, and decided to call my friend before cooking some maggi mee. Need to do my readings as essay, as well as prepare for a quiz for Tuesday. And research for a project due in 2 weeks' time.

After the call I did not feel that hungry anymore. In fact, I am not even the least sleepy. Just when I thought I am done with dealing with the bastard sex maniac when I came to America, he has strike again, and this time my friend's the target. When my friend mentioned his name I nearly fainted. The world's really really really small. Nano sized, like the new Ipod. And it's an irony that I am studying "Engineering Professionalism and ethics", for this sex maniac totally got no whatsoever moral values in him. Plays with girls, and throw them aside after he's done with.

Oh I might as well compliment this sex maniac a bit. He's so godly, he somehow has a girl in his room every single night, and who knows how many "on site trips" he has as well. And the best thing is he sort of "done it" with girls he barely knew after a few days. Talk about sweet talking. Perhaps I need a few lessons from him. And build a shrine in his honour. And he's so brave, he leaves his trail whereever he goes, to the extent that half the world knows what he's up to. And the poor girls who hang around him, oblivious to his adventures, do not know why people are snickering and pointing fingers at them behind their back, for their reputation has suffered and it has became a default knowledge that all girls appearing with him had "done it" with him.

Should I say it's heaven's will that I happened to call in that night to warn her and stop any tragedy from happening, or is it pure luck? Who knows what will happen next?

And for you readers, who think that I am exerggerating about the seriousness of the matter, believe me, I am not. For those involved in previous cases know the severity of the damages that he had caused, and the amt of work we had done in clearing up his mess.

The words that sort of danced around me in front of the computer screen only made me feel worst. Tried doing the essay on Intellectual Property, but only came up with the first sentence. Ended up chatting and warning my friends about The Maniac, as well as alerting my comrades in the battle against him that he has struck again. It's 2am.

I might as well start writing an essay on Moral Values, for I am sure I can score a A+ essay at that instance with that topic. How many times have naive and innocent girls fall prey to sweet-talking guys who turned out to be beasts. And these guys just pat their backside and walk off after they are done with, leaving emotional and bodily harm to those girls. And how many girls are fortunate enough to stop themselves before walking into the trap, which by then is too late?

It's really up to the potential victims to remain alerts to such attacks and hold fast to their beliefs, less in their moments of folly commit mistakes that will haunt them for life.

It's 5am, and I am still staring at an empty screen with that one sentence I started out with 3 hours ago. Fatigue had overcame me, but it's as if I have drowned a gallon of caffeine. I went to lie on my bed and tried to sleep, but past images flashed around me like butterflies.

An hour later, I am still staring at the ceiling. Heck, go for a run and maybe I will just drop from the exercise.

7 am. Sweaty, tired, and feeling more sick than ever. Still has the essay, and quiz and presentation to think abt. No work done yet. Sat in front of the computer again staring at the screen, hoping some familiar nicks will pop up and chat to me.

10.45am. "hello kaihong! Let's go fresh grocers and get some stuff." "no dude. I haven prepare the presentation stuff for tonight's discussion. Neeraj will kill me." "Neeraj suggest one." "ok let's go"

1pm. Ate Indian buffet at Tandoor Restaurant. Ate half a plate of some flour stuff and chicken, and stared at the rest wolfing down plates after plates. No appetite.

3pm. Reached Neeraj's place, and fell dead on the floor. Asleep for 1 hour before feeling the cold air of the air con.

Did a bit of reading till 6pm. The rest had gone to a Club Singapore event.

"eh, let's go Wharton now. The rest of the group should be there soon."

A day spent worrying with no work done. Hell to the sex maniac.

And while I am stuck here in the States, I pray for my family, and all my friends, to be safe and happy. Always.

Upenn Party!

2005-09-18T02:48:00.000-04:00

Oh, attended this Upenn Party with Jaron and Neeraj and Aileen and Noel. The others took the chance to sleep on Saturday, and some others have decided to do their readings and essays.

So the band of brothers (minus Eric and Jeffrey) went to have a look at how partying at Upenn is like.

What we saw totally shocked us and changed our perspective of Upenn. Upenn ROCKS! There's no place like Penn. It's great that we are students of Upenn. University of Pennsylvania. NOT Penn State!

(photos in Jaron's camera...yet to get it from him, but you guys can check out both Jaron's and Neeraj's blogs on my links for the photos)

Aniwae, there's 1 x million chiobus than in NUS here. Oh, we attended a football game too. Decided I dun really like the game. Firstly, I do not understand the game, 2ndly, they stop the game every 5 seconds to change team. But I loved the crowd! Upenn has like 5000 supporters. The other team (Dukshe or something) has 20. hahaha. we got thundersticks that goes bom bom bom bom when we hit them together.

some cheers we learnt:

normal chanting:
DUKSHE SUXS. (bom bom bom bom) DUKESHE SUXS. (bom bom bom bom)
repeats.

when the game got too boring, or duno what is happening:
WTF (bom bom bom bom) WTF (bom bom bom bom)

when the referee made a wrong judgement:
BULL SHIT (bom bom bom bom) BULL SHIT (bom bom bom bom)

when Penn footballers bring the opponent down, to the point opponent cannot get up and screaming in pain:
HAHA. (bom bom bom bom) PUSSY. (bom bom bom bom) HAHA. (bom bom bom bom) PUSSY. (bom bom bom bom)

Decided to go watch a movie in the evening. Jioed Jeffrey, Phebe, and Kelly. Cannot reach Estee. Upon reaching the cinema, Jaron flopped down a sofa and slept. This is the conversation we had:

"oi jabba. you ok or not"
(jaron gasping for air with half closed eyes and weak voice):
"I'm going to die. I cannot go any further"
"what happened"
"I think I walked too much"
"oi jabba! we can go back and dun watch movie one."
"no it's ok. give me half an hour more. i sleep here rest. you guys go get dinner."

reaching fresh grocers to have dinner, Neeraj and I started lamenting how no life we are. Well, no life until I got irritated at Estee's voicemail that goes "hiya. wassup. I am probably not available right now..."

"eh neeraj. let's bomb estee's voicemail. damn irritating."

Neeraj woke up instantly. "COOL!"

Estee ended up with 40 over voicemails until her mailbox cannot take it. not to mentioned more than 40 missed calls that resulted in the voicemails.

Estee called back, and we went "hiya. wassup. I am probably not available right now..." The phone hung up.

Ended up buying dinner and going to Jaron's place to watch dvds and eat. Decided 10.50 for a movie not worth it...students' price only 8.50 from Sunday to Thurs. Went to a beer shop to get alcohol, but cannot find anything strong enough. Neeraj cannot enter coz he dun haf driving license nor passport with him. hee. Proceeded to Jaron's house after that.

You should hear Estee's screaming after she arrived. "THOSE ASSHOLES..."

kekeke. no life.

Neeraj the Drunkard

2005-09-11T02:52:00.000-04:00

Prof Jan was great! In fact, I think he's the best consulting professor anybody could possibly have. Friendly, caring, and humble, very handsome too haa. He invited us over for a bbq gathering at his house...and my goodness! His house is BIG. Oh, when I said big, it's doing his house a disservice. It's really BIG. Like 4 storeys high, and if he did not put a roof over he actually can have a sky garden? It's just gorgeous! Anyway, some of us have made the resolutions to become a professor at Upenn after looking at this house.

However, the topic of this blog is Neeraj the Drunkard, so I shall not bore you with all the fun stuff we did at Prof Jan's house. Gean recommended Monk's. It's a little bit crowded, but well, it's Sat night! So we squeeze ourselves into one tiny corner while waiting for our drink. Anyway, while waiting for our seats, we were standing around drinking some ale when this Mr Orh decided to steal some drinks. Needless to say he got chased out of the tavern. The tavern really seems like those tarvern in medieval age...even the music sounds like those played by bards. Only difference is we are not wearing armour. And no dwarves with flowing beards. But we have a drunkard. Here's the conversation after that sly Jaron faked Neeraj into downing 2 bottles of beer and 3 cups of some other alcohol:

N: Pass me that bottle.
J: No dude. It's empty.
N: I SAY PASS ME DAT BOTTLE.
J: ok ok! chill dude, chill!
Jaron passes the bottle. and the most amazing thing happened. Neeraj turned it over, and start hitting it like the instance when you cant get the ketchup out of the bottle. Anyway, the rest of us were laughing hilariously at this comical sight

J: Put that down! I told u it's empty.
N: (points to glass of plain water) What's this?
J: white wine dude. cheers. (Jaron gulps down that glass of plain water while that drunkard continues with his glass of beer. Girls, be careful of jaron...hee..)
N: (points at coke) What's this?
Me: that's coke dude.
N: COKE? WHO BOUGHT COKE?
Neeraj tried to pour coke into his beer
Estee: NO! NOT THE COKE!

...

time to pay....

J: dude, it's 70 bucks. take out your card.
N: 70 BUCKS! WHY SO EXPENSIVE?
aniwae, we tried to fake him into paying, but obviously he's still able to calculate while drunk...not a bad feat huh? The quality of a NCBVian...always alert even when drunk...

Aniwae, we did not manage to cheat him of his money although he claimed the next morning that he had no idea of what happened except acting like a merlion outside the tavern.

Old Man Time - The Troublemaker

2005-09-08T20:02:00.000-04:00

Seriously, Time is giving us lots of trouble. It refuses to budge during weekdays. Yah. If u try pushing him, he just stops there and stares at you, and then he says angrily "if you push me anymore I will die of exhaustion." No dude, you cannot die on us. If you die on us i will never get back to Singapore.

Hence I have to bear with the Old Man holding his old walking stick as he shuffled along.

BUT Time sometimes decided that he needs an exercise. So every Sat and Sun that nincompoop decided to jog. And worst still, sometimes he RUNS. And he does that every Sat and Sun. So my precious weekends flashed by while my weekdays seem like an eternity walk.

To add on to the misery, I sit at my desk whole day long staring at the computer screen with images of my friends and family conjured up by my imagination right in front of me. And talking to a bunch of ppl on msn with the same fate as me. It's not so bad if I have things to do to pass time, but well...

Surely but slowly, my flight back to Singapore draws near. One year ago I never expected today to be like this. One year later, I wonder what will be my fate. Will anything change at all? Can I still go back to the nights where I had suppers with my friends?

And it is apparent that everybody misses Singapore, cause the talktime on the phone gets longer and longer. Some chat the whole night before going to bed, and continue chatting after they woke up. Others spent the whole time talking to the computer through skype or msn. And I am too tired to open my mouth. So I just stared at the computer screen and think of my family and friends.

America is great. I love the weather, the people, the culture...but I have decided Singapore is better. Coz my family and my friends are there. This is my family, these are my friends...we are Singapore, Singaporeans...

But I believe if I am in Singapore, I gonna miss America. Life is such an irony. Treasure what you have now ppl. That's the advice I give.

海内存知己,天涯若比邻.

kH

A day in Harvard...and a sucky dinner

2005-09-05T02:29:00.000-04:00

Visited Harvard University today! It seems more like a tourist attraction, with people taking photos, families having tours inside...really very nice. It's the branding I guess. Just like Upenn. Really proud that I am studying in Upenn. They put the logo on normal polo shirts and the price is like 60 USD. cool huh? I wonder when NUS can reach this kind of level.

Aniwae, it's orientation! We saw seniors carrying signboards, an example goes "HAVE YOU FUP" . so we asked what is FUP. Freshmen Urban Project. Haha! Orientation! We saw the fuppers, as they called themselves, doing stupid things, blowing balloons, running around with paints...but I missed NUS orientation.

And we greeted them like "Yoz! Fup you!" hahaha...they are a fun and friendly bunch. Visited a museum, supposed to be very famous, but I dunno the name coz I was following the rest around. Think is Harvard something museum, supposedly the biggest in Boston. Inside is amazing. There are dinosaur fossils, stuffed animals of all kinds, including tigers, sabretooth cats blah blah blah, birds, marine life, flowers...really had fun there!

Walked the historical trail of Boston the whole of the afternoon. Was excited about the town at first...it's so clean! So unlike Philly. Did not feel like returning to Philly after coming to Boston. Saw this guy doing juggling acts, and really cracked us up with his jokes. 2nd Performance involves some breakdancing and it amazes me the way they execute those moves.

Saw a church with a graveyard and lots of people taking photos there. Amazing. Graveyards are also tourist attractions here. On closer look at the signboards then I realised that Benjamin Franklin's parents were buried here!

Went past the old city hall, and there's someone getting married there. There's a donkey statue, and Jaron went to sit on it. Suddenly we cannot differentiate who's the real ass. hahaha. and Neeraj was like posing as a O in front of the ass. ok. that's Ass-O. and then Estee went to do a T. Ass-T. hahaha. Lame.

Got tired in the middle of the trail, so we went turned around and headed back to the start of the trail. Took the rails to another place...Fenway Park I think. Not good with the names, I just followed them around. Apparently this is where the champions of baseball, Red Sox, trained. It's their stadium I guessed.

We were really hungry, so went to this place...something grill I think...forgot the name again. Think if you guys look at Neeraj's blog the names might be there...the food was not bad. But the food portion is too small for American size. Seems more like Singaporean size. Kelly's friend joined us. Food was not bad, but dinner was sucky. Get it? Machum a reptile among our midst.

Well, for starters, his concentration was on the girls. Howz that huh? He turned his back on the guys.

And he speaks Singlish with this American accent. When Jaron's steak came, he went "raw then raw, well done then well done, dun half half..." Neeraj and me got the joke and we were laughing like mad.

Oh and we learnt a bit of Boston maths and Boston pronounciation which I will teach u personally if you want. From Kelly's friend, so most probably you might not want to know.

eg. 79-10 = 67
Add a r to all words without r, and remove the r's from words with r's. like cars became ca, and words become wod. Boston became Borston, but Neeraj said, OH, BOSTON-R. HAHAHA.

We were not so lost as before on our way back. Probably we became experts with the roads coz we were like turning circles on it nearly half the afternoon.

Eric and me decided to use the hotel facilities to the fullest, so we jumped into the swimming pool and jacuzzi in our shorts. Did not have our swimming trunks, but the water looked too tempting. Park Towne (our apt) has a swimming pool, but we have to pay $10 to use it. Goodness! $10 for a swim. bleah. So anyway we saw this nice pool in the hotel so we jumped in. Iris wanted to come in but too bad she cant. hahaha. So she sat by the poolside watching us swim, when we decided to splash her anyway. Got her all wet. Eric showed me his dragon punch, and I used Tai Ji Quan to divert the water to her.

Went to bed soon after...next stop the next morning is MIT!

Hunting for hotel Marriot

2005-09-04T02:58:00.000-04:00

Time to go to the hotel. Left Salem about 5pm, so that we can reach the hotel at about 5.30pm, and then we go Boston City for some really nice seafood.

well, we were in a happy mood, until we were still on the road one hour later. The roads here has NO ARROWS, the street signs seemed to learn the art of camouflage from the marines here, and we were touring round and round. Well, we can see the hotel from the highway, but unless we charge through the forested areas and the barriers, it seemed impossible to reach the hotel. So we went round and round, round and round...until some of us got fed up and got food from Boston Market which we stopped to ask for directions. Blondes are stupid. I always believed that was a myth until I saw it for myself. Those Blondes gave me a shrug to indicate they dunno what is Marriot Hotel. And I am beginning to think Indians are nice. Coz the nice Indian at the Mobil petrol kiok opposite gave me some nice instructions. But I realised that I still cannot find the road that he pointed out, so we ended up round and round again. By the way, Jaron's car got lost too.

Reached Hotel Marriot, dropped down Estee and Kelly and Ram, picked up Neeraj (jaron's car got there first, but they cannot be bothered with going Boston anymore coz we are so damn sick of being on the road.)

Followed Google map to try going to Prudential Centre, that's where the Legal Seafood restaurant in, but..hmm...well, to cut things short, Neeraj crushed the map and threw it away after half an hour of turning on the highway. Eric suggested we hit city first and think of directions, and we all thought that's a good suggestion. Entered Boston, hailed down a taxi next to us, and asked for directions haha. Anyway, we got a bit excited when we saw Prudential Centre rising above the buildings and I turned into the wrong lane...again. Got horned, but well, used to it already hee. Went down to park, and it's like...12 BUCKS PER HOUR. PUI. Called Aileen and luckily she informed us that legal seafood will give us complimentary tickets. phew.

We had a fulfilling dinner there. Spent 40 bucks on a lobster and some shells, but heck it. Nice dinner to a tiring day. Oh, we did not get lost when we go home. Cool.

A Day in Salem

2005-09-04T02:45:00.000-04:00

Yah! Long weekend and I going to Boston with the rest of the NCBVians. Took 2 cars there, super exciting ride which I will leave it to the rest to describe.

Reached Salem about 10am. Sounded Ali-babaish, so was not that excited about until I reached the visitors' centre...

hey, what is this? Graveyard tour to see ghosts...witches......pirates...and other leaflets also got pictures of witches...WOW! I LOVE THIS PLACE! This little town is quite deserted, and the houses are low and small. Lots of shops selling witches' stuff...potions, crystal balls, and there's this nice Harry Potter Cottage! Rocks man! I have a liking for this mysterious stuff and this place is totally awesome.

Paid 15 bucks for this combi tour: We get to visit the Dungeon, the Witches' Museum, and a Pirate Museum. yah! Apparently I learnt about the history of this place. In the 16th century there's this epidemic or something and ppl started dying and others seemed possessed. So those goondusamies insisted that witchcraft is the answer, so the stupid sheriff started dragging ppl to be hanged.
(come back for more photos...trying to upload more!)

Working culture in the States

2005-09-02T20:35:00.000-04:00

Difference in working in the States (does not apply to all, but the majority from feedback gathered from my peers):

1. No lunch break. Lunchbreak is own time own target, and can be as long as u want so long your boss doesn't begin to hint that your lunch break is getting too long.

2. Ppl preferred to eat in, coz firstly, no tips needed for takeouts, and secondly, it sorts of shut the boss's mouth up and make them happier that you are working through lunch.

3. No tea breaks. And to think I valued tea breaks during my army days.

4. Pace of work is so darn slow. I am beginning to learn how to use one whole day just to bind a single document, else I will have nothing to do after that.

I had lunch with Eric, Tzeling and Noel today. So shiok. First time I spent an hour away from office during lunch. Tzeling better still. Her boss gave the whole company half day off in lieu of Labour's Day. And my boss celebrated Labour Day for me by asking me to come to work early. And then she's not around when I arrived. 2nd day that I got woke up by office to go work early cause there's nobody in the office. Nevermind. I get to leave work early.

I shall start proposing new ideas to my boss soon. Maybe let me go around taking photos of the condominiums she's building and start working on some marketing strategies. Wanted to scan some photos inside the computer but no scanner...so suggested that I get a scanner and she's quite receptive to the idea.

My colleague Sze is really amazing. I covered his duties yesterday coz he's sick, and I ended up sitting at the frontdesk with nothing to do. And it's real peaceful coz somehow for some reasons the clients dunwan to come today.

Today he's back, and he's as busy as ever. And he can forgot the time to go home too. I shall ask the secret of hatching work from nothing.

Rotting around waiting to go home. one more hour to go...

Showing a client a condo unit

2005-09-01T19:29:00.000-04:00

A customer interested in renting a condo popped by the office, and our agents are out somewhere. Whole office empty except me, so Empress asked me to show him the unit.

ok...here goes a real interesting experience, and embarassing encounter of my life:

(took the keycard P208 from the drawer)

me: let's go!
(reached the lifts, and fumbled with the keycard, somehow I cant open that darn elevator doors. So the security at the lobby took pity on me and opened the lift for me, while laughing his head off)

Inside the lift, I did not notice there is a P2 floor, denoting penthouse, thus I happily pressed 2nd floor.

customer: does this building happened to have a gym and swimming pool?
me: I dun think so.

At that moment the lift door opened and shows a nice gym. My face grew quite red...

me: Oh! Here's the gym. Sorry I new here...
customer: what abt the swimming pool?
me: I dunno. Maybe we can take a look at the rooftop later.

And I walk one whole round on floor 2, realising that the whole floor does not have any apts at all.

me: errr...I'm sorry I cant seem to find it. Why not I go down to the frontdesk and ask? So sorry abt it.

Enters the lift.

Customer: Oh! P2! Here it is!

(customer presses P2 button.)

me: Oh! Yah!

A while later, he's admiring the view and I was also admiring the place. Not to mention I cant answer a single thing like security cost, upfront payment all that kind of stuff. Nice place. Pity we did not have this offer when we came here.

Work Timing changed

2005-08-29T21:21:00.000-04:00

ah...It's 6.21pm and I am dying from hunger...work timing has been changed from 9-5pm to 1-8pm as I need to attend lessons at Upenn in the morning.

Whole office's empty except me...waiting for the clock to tick 8pm so that I can leave.

tick tock tick tock tick tock...

Back to Franklin Mills

2005-08-28T21:08:00.000-04:00

The first visit 2 weeks ago was not enough. Thus this time we are back, and brought alone reinforcements. Eric went gaga when he entered...when we left the mills he was still happily shopping with Iris. *tsk*

Aniwae, here's the jokes of the day. True stories.

Joke 1 (inside Burlington Coat Factory, at the Men's Outerwear section where we were trying out winter wear):

Ram: Hey Ziliang, you not buying?
Ziliang: Oh. It was -10 degrees in China, and I had on 2 layers of jackets and another layer on top. Should be fine.
Ram: Oh. So -10 degrees in China should be the same as -10 degrees here?

Joke 2 (still inside Burlington Coat Factory, T-shirts section, trying on the 5 dollars one-liner t-shirts):
I put on a shirt over me to try coz I lazy to walk to the fitting room. Jaron did the same, and when he tried to remove his shirt, he pulled off his inner layer as well. Right in front of the whole crowd.
He did it again at another shop 15 minutes later, and quickly pull his shirts back down.
Jaron: hey dude, help me help me.
Neeraj stood there and laughed instead of helping him.

Joke 3 (while we were walking to USAcomms):
Estee was carrying a huge bundle of goods when we noticed Jaron not carrying anything:
Estee: hey! How can you let a girl carry so much stuff and you never carry anything?
(Jaron was bua long long-ing as he walked)
Jaron: Don't push me any further or else I will die of exhaustion
(He repeated this sentence at least a million times while all of us slogged with our bundles. HAHAHA)

6th NCBV Upenn Orientation

2005-08-28T02:53:00.000-04:00

Had a one-day Upenn orientation today. Missed NUS orientation so much...well, for starters, I had a very nice workshop in Upenn today for the morning. Some business case studies that required us to work in small teams. It's about working with people from different culture. Wah so fun right! But at least there's nice breakfast and lunch. Thanks to Megan for organising it! I heard that the July batch of NCBV students usually get 1 day orientation, while the Jan batch gets a whole weekend of orientation, and we get to travel to New York and stuff like that. We get to go for both orientations, so I am looking forward to the 7th NCBV's orientation.

Had a game of scavenger hunt for the afternoon. Ran around Philly, and would have enjoyed it more if it did not rain. The nice thing about Philly is there's quite a lot of historical sites to visit. I visited Betty Ross's house (and her grave), the lady who drew the American flag. I also visited Benjamin Franklin's grave, tossed a penny and made a wish on his grave, and museums, churches, and lots more. Enjoyed the afternoon. Neeraj and me even ran after a white horse to snap a photo of it.

We also visited the fortune cookies factory and bought a bag of fortune cookies. Hee. Neeraj was...well, unlucky on that day. Every cookie that he ate was not that fortune for him. And we passed by this STOP sign that reads STOP followed by EATING ANIMALS in small print. Thought of Ziliang hahaha. Go back a couple of blogs to see why.

And Neeraj got splashed by a bus after it went through a puddle of dirty water. *laugh*

Well, no prizes for guessing who are the champions. Reached Joy Tsing Lou and saw Megan waiting for us there. Yah! After one whole day of running around, we got to eat this damn shiok 10-course dinner that includes lobsters, crabs, abalone, shark fin, garoupa, chicken...we ended up packing most of the food coz the servings are really huge. And all of us are real satisfied with it. What a happy ending to a tiring day :)

(will add photos soon)

Farewell for Erica

2005-08-27T02:56:00.000-04:00

Erica, one of my colleague, resigned and spent her last day at the office. Julie threw a lunch party...well, sorta....for her and we got to eat a nice meal of white rice and 4 dishes bought at a restaurant in our own conference room. There is not enough rice to go around and Sam went nearby to buy white rice AND a box of cantonese fried noodle. The noodle was good!

Tried to get my boss to take a group photo with us, but she's having a meeting with one of our clients. Caught her going pass the conference room, so I went out to ask her in for a second to take a photo. However, her phone rang at that instance and after photostating her stuff she went right back into the office. Mission failed.
A while later, Julie called us all into the conference room and talked to us. She congratulated us on our good work performance..yay...and also gave Erica, and us, some tips about work attitude. Words from the Empress...so listen carefully:

1. Have a positive outlook towards work. For instance, go 15 minutes earlier to the office rather than late. And do not think that people do not know you have been working hard. Like staying overtime to do work...others will eventually notice you. So just give in your best.

2. Teamwork is very important. Always help each other and care for one another.

Dat's 2 important points. It's Friday, and all of us were in the weekend mood. Our boss went out and the office became a zoo. You get what I mean hahaha.

We decided that the lunch was not fun enough and thus went out after work to some steamboat hotpot restaurant for dinner. It's at 6th & Washington Ave. The food totally Rocks! And there's so much meat. I was like deprived of meat since I came here hahaha. Really feel like the most fortunate guy on earth at that moment. Check out the photos.

一封华文的书信

2005-08-25T20:45:00.000-04:00

好久已没用中文写信, 现在趁老板不在, 就写写试试看吧. 我与华文曾经是好朋友, 现在却成了陌生人. 身为一名中华弟子, 我实在深感惭愧.

我参加了国大一项特别的计划, 糊里糊涂的来到了美国, 虽身在一个西方环境里, 但很幸运能在一个华藉公司上任商业发展助理. 在这里, 我们必须以英文来应付工作的需求, 但老板与员工之间还是以华语来沟通. 这就象是上天给了我另一个机会与华文重逢, 再次与她交往吧.

能以华人的身份活在这世界, 我真的觉得很自豪. 尤其是当我在唐人街看到美国人在华人餐馆以筷子用餐时, 还有美国人努力的向中国人学习, 模仿中华文化, 让在我体内龙之传人的热血沸腾. 在这同时, 我也对那些身为华人, 却对华语一窍不通, 崇洋媚外, 还敢敢以亮相的声音大声说 "Why am I a Chinese? Why must I learn Chinese?" 这种不孝子感到羞耻.

想起几天前有个机会到纽约参加一项活动, 有个小孩拿着一份剪报问我上面写的是什么, 我突然感到一阵的悲哀, 但也只好以英文回答她: It says free hot dog. You can get your hot dog over there.　真是可笑．明明是黄皮肤黑头发，却不识自己的文字，反而是红毛人拼命的学华文，学咱们的文化．我也不能全怪她．所谓＂子不养，父之过＂．也不懂我这＜＜三字经＞＞的词记不记得对，太久没碰，都差点忘光了．唐诗宋词也不记得起太多了．

在写这封书函的当时，我又感到了华文文字的优美，但已有七年没碰华文了，用词不当也不知道，如有什么差别字，或如果表达得不好的话，敬请原谅．

老爸，您老实要我以华语sms你，而且老是逼我读华文报，我明白您的用心良苦，但我这短短的一封信就打了两个小时．不是我不会写，而是发明键盘的那个混蛋把华文输入法弄得那么复杂，又费时间．所以给您的简讯还是以英语来发好了．华文报我有看，因为公司只有华文报．哈哈．

要下班了，就此搁笔．

凯鸿致

A walk to office

2005-08-25T17:35:00.000-04:00

I woke up to the warm fingers of the sun as they carassed my face. The daily routine of washing up ensued and at eight forty I left the apartment for work.

"Morning" I greeted the guard as I walked pass him. "Hi!" he smiled and waved to me. That's something new. Usually he will greet me with "How ya doing". Perhaps he has grown used to me, and I am also used to seeing him every morning when I walk out the door.

The cool air of the morning brushed against me as I stepped out of the building. A mixture of cold and warm as the sun reached me with his soothing fingers again. Nice feeling. A little too bright however, and I reached for my shades. Just across a few streets my office stood out tall and proud in the background.

Taking the usual path I walked across the first road to a small park. I passed by the same homeless man whom I see everyday to and fro work. Sometimes he's sitting there staring into space; other times he's asleep with his hands folded over his chest. And I grew to pity him everytime I walk past him. The trees lining up the path, whom used to have a crown of lovely bright green leaves, suddenly became spotted with bits of brown, like a forty year old man starting to age with signs of grey hair. The air seems to get colder each day, and the temperature is practically freezing whenever it rains. Signs of fall coming.

I continued my walk down the path. Reaching Logan's Square, I gazed proudly at the Singapore Flag fluttering with grace on a street post, the sign SINGAPORE below it illuminated in the morning sun. Everyday without failed I sang national songs in my heart as I passed by the flag. Across the street is a spectacular fountain that will soon be frozen in a few months' time.

Few cars go by although it's a weekday morning. There's little cars here compared to Singapore. More homeless people in Logan's Square, many of them sleeping on benches.

And as I walked, I passed by a round and jolly man, another friend I have made along the streets. He sits there everyday, admiring the surroundings as time seems to stop still for him. He greets everybody who walks by with a cheerful "morning" and watches the world rush by. And since the first time I smiled at him on my way to work, I now waved to him everytime I walk by. He will grin back with a toothless smile.

The newspapers men loitered along the streets, waving the papers at cars who would stop and get a paper from him.

Beyond Logan's square lies a building with 3 statues of a man breaking away from the wall. Now that's what arts is. Very nicely sculptured. The first one shows the man mummified into the wall; the second shows the man breaking free from the wall; and the third shows the man freed from the wall with chest forward and both hands pulled behind in an yell of ecstacy and freedom.

This is followed by Drexel college of Medicine. Situated right beside a hospital, where I stare into the transparent class of the lobby everyday. A few doctors have rushed by me occasionally, dressed in an overall of blue with white coat. They give me a feeling different from Singapore doctors. More humble, an attribute which only serves to make me respect them more.

I continued walking, and after crossing a carpark I reached a funeral parlour. Someone has decided to depart today. The road was filled with black limousines (those that you have seen in the movies) with a small flag that reads "funeral" on each of them. There are also gentlemen dressed in black suit with black shades around the funeral parlour. Talk abt respect. And there's no sounds of mahjong tiles. Or incessant dialect chatters. Just soft whispers, and an air of tranquility around. College of medicine, followed by hospital, and then the funeral parlour. Hmm.

2 more streets and I would have reached my office. The last building standing in my way is the Philadelphia Convention Centre. The walls here reminded me of those used in ancient china for protecting cities, with the word Philadelphia written in Chinese (Fei Cheng).

And thus ends my daily routine of reaching the office. I have learnt to carry a brolly with me around to ward of Miss Rain.

And after typing for so long, I just have to get this off my chest at the risk of spoiling this piece of nice passage and most probably would get humtumed by my peers: HEY KELLY! HEY JARON! HEY NEERAJ! IT ONLY TOOK ME 25 MINUTES AS I STROLLED ALONG (VERY SLOWLY) TO MY OFFICE!

A Blog from Eric

2005-08-24T19:48:00.000-04:00

Reading Eric's blog (He's too stuck here in NCBV, one of the most handsome guys around) and thought I shall ignore copyright rules for once and paste one of his entries here. It's abt a dinner we had in Philly. Enjoy...
--------------------------------------------------------

They eat almost everything...

An innocent conversation we had at dinner last night.

Neeraj(N): So I heard that people in China eats almost everything. Tell us what u have eaten?

Eric(E): (interject) Maybe it would be easier if u tell us what you have not eaten...
(Some laughter)

Ram(R): So have u eaten a snake?

Ziliang a.k.a China-man(Z): Yea

N: Cow?
Z: Yea
E: Deer?
Z: Yea
N: Rabbit?
Z: Yea
R: Pigeon?
Z: Yea
E: Dog?
Z: Yea
N: Pussy?
Z: Yea

Silence...

Fixing a bed

2005-08-24T02:39:00.000-04:00

Saw a deal abt this 95 bucks bed pasted on the lobby when I came home. Grabbed hold of the deal coz I did not have a proper bed. I realised the mattress I am sleeping on is actually not a mattress. It is the bed stand lah! Why? Coz in the middle there's this really hard strip and I cannot sleep properly due to that stupid thing in the middle. And I cant go Ikea to buy a new bed, coz that means I have to find a way to transport everything back.

MY NEW BED!!!!

So I decided to take a look at the offer. Phebe and Kelly came with me. It's at North Building.

The couple living in the studio was quite nice. The studio furnishing is quite nice too! The bed was placed in the middle. Guess they bought a queen size bed so they wanted to get rid of the twin size bed. It was pretty light, and I quite like it. Estee wanted to bargain for it, but I did not really like bargaining and thus paid the 95 dollars.

Aniwae, Phebe decided to fix her bed too coz she found the bed stands in some drawer haha. Previously she slept with the mattress on the floor. So we began the ardous task of fixing the bed. Not too bad. We took like 2 hours plus...

Dat's me starting on Phebe's bed...

Yah! The bottom frame up. That took us 30 minutes.
This upper frame took us 45 minutes. Kelly decided to chip in... While Estee decided to sit and watch.

After hours of blood, sweat and tears, with tired grins on our face and sore and bleeding fingers..Phebe's bed completed with the stand! Tadaa!

A Busy Day

2005-08-24T00:53:00.000-04:00

I suddenly found myself with a pile of work. That's great! It's easier to pass time with work in the office, and work kept me occupied instead of being on msn messenger the whole day. Learnt how to do listing from Tze, and I had a really difficult time trying to discover what are counties and where they are located. Tze is a really dedicated employee and he's real nice in guiding me along the ropes.

I am also tasked to draw up a plan to market the pearl condominum owned by our company. And Julie's planning to do up a website. I was wondering how to do the website when she said she will get a professional to do it. One side of me wanted to do the website, but being quite poor at it, I was also quite relieved someone else is doing it.

I spent a good deal of the morning printing out loads of guidelines and forms. Don't understand a single thing abt them, but I guess I will slowly learn along the way.

The company computer died on me every 5 minutes. Argh, so pek chek, regretted not bringing my laptop along. And there's no photoshop, cant do picture editing. Think will put the advertising job on hold till tml. My project director said he will need me to take care of some details, but have yet to get to me. Guess I better finish off Julie's work fast so that I can be prepared for his work.

Dinner

2005-08-23T01:35:00.000-04:00

Tired and lazy to type much words. Estee and Kelly went dating at the bank, so I went shopping with Phebe at AcMe. First time there, at the suburbs in the next town near Phebe's workplace.

Came home at eight plus, then cook dinner. Check out what we cooked today.

A simple lunch

2005-08-21T12:15:00.000-04:00

A lazy Sunday, the girls went church, so Kelly and me decided to fix something for lunch before popping down to view the Unity Carnival.

Took pictures coz we very proud of our products and we wanted to show the girls our food and make them envious. Cheese pizza with seaweed and another double layer of cheese, alfredo pasta with bacon bits, and ben and jerry's marshallow fudge ice cream topped with lots of hershey chocolate as dessert. yum yum.

Party at Teetee and Bebe's boss place

2005-08-21T02:57:00.000-04:00

Estee and Phebe's boss invited us to his house to party. It's right in the suburbs, and Jaron picked me in Noel's car.

Went to New York for the kite festival before this. Initially I thought I cannot make it for the party, but since I came back early so I tagged along. The rest have gone earlier taking the regional rails.

We lost our directions thanks to the multi streets with the SAME name. Apparently they ran out of names to use on their streets. Why not use Kaihong Boulevard, or Kaihong Ave or something. That's better than Baltimore Pike on 2 different streets. Pui.

It's an experience sitting in Jaron's car. We managed to have 2 police cars chasing behind our tail, but luckily they not after us. We passed a speed trap, but Jaron happened not to speed at that moment. Close shave. And we went through 2 red lights. Not Jaron's fault...coz there's no stop lines and we were looking around for directions. But Ziling still ended up scolding Jaron throughout the journey haha. Well, I must admit I got a few heart attacks too. Well done Ziling!

The Boss place is amazing! It has a nice pool, and it's like WOW. the house is BIG. And so much nice food! If only I have a house like this. Don't feel like typing much now, so I will just fill this page up with pictures.

Neeraj's 100th glass of booze
Phebe and Estee: The 2 chiobus staying at W311
The Poolside Party
Ziling said she got no valuables on her...

Kite Festival at Liberty State Park

2005-08-21T01:38:00.000-04:00

(tried uploading fotos, but apparently something wrong with my fotos and I cant get a single up)

Went with my company to an event today. I just realised my company actually opens 7 days a week. My boss did not ask me to go along coz it's Sat and it's supposed to be my off day, but I asked to tag along as I thought I might be able to experience something.

It's all the way at Liberty State Park, very near the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Met my boss and her husband and Erica, one of my colleagues, at my office at 830 am.

It takes abt 2 hours to reach Liberty State Park. There's much interesting conversation going on between my boss and her husband, but I shall not go into details. Aniwae, Erica and I gay siaoed and pretended to sleep to avoid any embarassing situation.

Oh here's a farnie incident. Car running low on patrol, so we stopped by a kiosk. The kiosk here different from Singapore. We just need to stop at the stand, without turning off the engine, and the guy will fill it up for us. Clean the windows as well. But for our case...

(after waiting 15 minutes in the line)
J: This is taking too long (open doors and tries to get down)
L (husband of J): Don't get off! I am driving up!
(J takes no notice and alighted. She took up the screen wiper and stared at the patrol man. We were amazed and wondered if she's going knock the guy's head. Julie turned around with the screen wiper and start to clean the car. Silence in the car)
L: She cant keep still for even a minute. Must do something
(more silence and we just stared in amazement at our boss.)

It's about 11am when we finally reached the place. The whole sky was filled with kites! There's even this 300 feet long dragon that is about to take off! Cool! It takes kite flying to another level. There's even professional kite flyers here around, invited to fly kites here. So pls dun ask ppl to go fly kite again. haha. That's like insulting other ppl's profession.

We had a booth to market our products: a newly built condo at 9th & Arch. Very pretty place, in Chinatown. Good location. I had a good view of the statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and new york city.

Aniwae, it was very cloudy and windy. Looks like a storm approaching. Was waiting for lightning and I shall see ppl being fried. *lauf*

Everything was well until lunch. We had this coupon for free hotdogs, so Julie (my boss) sent Erica and me to get them. The queue was like super long, so I asked if there's any queues for VIPs. One guy directed us to another booth, and we got...erm...ONE CHAO TA CHICKEN WING per person. Dammit. Bad. So I went back to the previous booth to queue up for the hotdog. And I also get one per person only. VIPs also must wait with the rest. To sum it up, my day was really spoilt and we all really feel rotten.

Packed up around 3pm and left. Julie felt that it was a day wasted. She said wrong audience. True...ppl there was not interested in buying condos, they were more interested in flying their kites. Ah well, at least it's an eye opener for me. Spent another 2 hours home, and more interesting conversations in the car. hehz.

Lunch

2005-08-19T01:41:00.000-04:00

Hmm. It's 1pm, and I am still staring at the packet of noodles on my desk. I started eating like an hour ago...this time I smart. I bought take-away. First, it's too embarassing to eat in-store, coz I cannot finish and have to keep asking them to pack, and secondly, I just found out from my colleagues, i don't have to tip! haha.

Aniwae, it's this nice cantonese shop round the corner near Wong Wong restaurant. There's also Dou Hua, sesami paste, beef hor fun, fried rice and the usual stuff u can get in Singapore. Nice! The horfun cost abt 3 bucks only, and the noodles cost 4.50.

Aniwae, back to that huge packet of noodles that I am still staring at. My colleagues say is normal. haha.

Packed it for dinner. Phebe ate it. hee.

Popcorn

2005-08-19T01:38:00.000-04:00

Kelly bought some Popcorns on the way home.

It's sealed in a microwave bag. Estee had sandwich for dinner. Kelly and me shared a bowl of vege fried rice. And it's sweet. Cannot finish, so left the noodles I got in the afternoon plus what's left of the fried rice for Phebe who was at the bank and will be back late.

I also tried making potato-carrot soup, but it just does not taste nice without the pork ribs. Coz my soup must be Kelly-friendly. haiz. Oh for you readers who does not know what is KF (tm), it means there must not be meat inside.

Estee also fried eggs after our meals. Nice! I had it with 2 pieces of sandwiches.

Full liao, but curiosity got the better of us and we put one bag of popcorns into the microwave. The popcorns are meant for the Bewitched movie we gonna watch later on Kelly's laptop, but nevermind, we still has loads of snacks.

So the 3 of us got real excited watching the popcorns pop in the microwave. We even bet the timing that the popcorn start popping. All 3 of us won. It started popping at Kelly's time, pop like mad at my guess, and pop finish at Estee's guessing. It was at this moment that Phebe came back and we invited her to look at the popping. And the popcorn taste superbly nice! Salty with a taste of butter. Shiok! And thus the popcorn was finished by the 3 of us while phebe ate the leftovers.

Oh, still a few more seeds left. So we put the seeds into a bowl and stuffed it back into the microwave oven, hoping to see more poppings. Results: A bad stench from the microwave and we realised we burnt the bowl. POISONOUS GAS!!! All went to take cover after dat.

Estee also tried making some cornflakes honey thingy to be brought over to her bosses' place on Sat. First attempt, nice! And the 4 gluttons ate everything again. Argh, felt so full. Oh, I also shunbian finished up the Ben N Jerry's we bought yesterday.

Bewitched the show sux. I called Mrs Moey...missed her too much lah. So sweet, she missed me too! OSA should really have a retreat here and I show them around the place. The old ladies there will love the park. They can sit on the bench and gossip the whole day. Chatted with her for quite long, and Jeremy too. He happened to be at OSA. Missed everybody back at home. Hey guys, why not you all come over and haf fun here for the hols? I show u around. Come in Dec, and experience winter. hehz.

Knocked out before knowing what happened...and time for work. Yet another day.

A wet evening

2005-08-17T01:17:00.000-04:00

Arrgghh...It drizzled the whole evening, and it is this moment that I realised that shelter is scarce in Philly. Coz I was holding the brolly the whole time while I walked from my office to the 11th Subway station.

And it's cold! It rained the previous night too, and lightnings flashed at an astonishing frequency. Well, the whole sky practically lighted up continuously with flashes, and it seems like daylight! Wanna know how the temperature is like? Turn the air con full blast and sit in front of it. Yah. And the afternoon temperature? Turn the air con full blast, sit in front of it, and make sure the sun is shining on you. Warm but cool feeling. hehz.

Well, let me get back to why I was walking towards 11th Subway. I was supposed to meet my consulting Professor Dr Jan (pronounced as Yang) Van Der Spiegel for dinner. All 9 of us under him were supposed to meet in his office at 33rd & Walnut, Moore House, in Upenn. Was thinking of walking, but the rain made me think otherwise. Especially if there's no shelter.

Upon alighting at 34th street subway, I continued my sad journey under the brolly, hugging my laptop close to me while my slingbag ding-dong-bell around me. Made quite a few rounds before I found Moore House. Right beside Levine Hall.

Aniwae, I was the 2nd to reach. And I was quite sure Kelly's gonna be late. Hehz. He sure was late. Got lost again, without an umbrella hahha. Obigood (sorry kelly if you are reading this! I cant help but lauf heehee hee). It does not help if ur workplace is in the next town and it takes like 2 hours to get to your workplace haha.

We had dinner at this Indian Restaurant. 6 bucks for buffet. Quite cheap, and the food's good. Some of us were like the 3rd time here haha. We seemed to come here every Sunday. Aniwae, we had to share umbrellas and most of us got wet. Walked all the way again coz there's no transportation, and there's no shelter. Again.

After dinner...still drizzling! We went fresh grocers to get new stocks for the fridge, and well, the rest did not want to take taxi. So I shared the stupid umbrella with Kelly while carrying lots of goods, laptop, and my slingbag ding-dong-belling around me, walked a few streets to the trolley station, took trolley to 22nd Market, and walked the way home. Yah. Feeling very dulan coz my laptop's getting wet. Hope the casing can protect it well enough.

Reached home and realised cannot use internet. Must be the stupid rain. So it's not my fault I dunwan to blog! It's that darn internet's fault! Watched little Britain, and then had an early night. Nothing to do mah.

Oh, shunbian say a bit abt the next morning (which was this morning), Kelly overslept and panicked after I woke him up at seven and asked "oi Kelly, you no need work today hah?" haha. He has to wake up at 6.30am everyday by the way. I woke up at 8.15am everyday and wun be late. cheers :P

First Day at Work!

2005-08-15T23:13:00.000-04:00

Yoz ppl! Sorry for not updating for the past few days. Got tons of work to do.

Aniwae, I started work on Monday. Reported at 9.30am...there's no log in or log out thingy like other companies. There's only like 6 permanent staff here, including my boss, Julie Wong. The office is not very big, situated at the first floor of a condo owned by the company. The rest are all agents.

Yah, here's one interesting thing. I have 3 colleagues whose names all end with AH. Lucia, Jessica, and Erica. But they are not sisters, just happened that their names rhymed.

Given a research project the minute I entered the company. It was like "Hi guys! Morning" and the next thing was Zee came to me and said the boss wants me to complete this by 2 September. Unlike Singapore where you sit around, act busy, and drink coffee.

Lunch time here is own time own target. Aniwae, I had to have lunch alone, coz there's only like Zee and me in the companies, the rest are all out on mission most of the time, and we had to take turns jaga-ing the office. Lunch here is HUGE. I just had a Yang Chow Fried Rice, and the portion is like 2 boxes of what you get in Singapore. I think I will packet the lunch in future to avoid asking the waiter to pack the remaining portion for my next meal.

Here's the conversation I had at the restaurant:

me: Hi, I need to rush back to the office. Can you help me pack the remaining portion? And the bill pls.

waiter: ok sure!

(waiter returns with the bill of $7.44. I gave him 10 dollars and ask him to keep 9 dollars. must tip remember?)

after a while waiter returns me $2.56. He did not help himself to the change as what cab drivers here love to do. I took everything and left. A bit paiseh, coz I did not know whether to give him a dollar or not. Seems miserly haha.

Ok back to my work. Had a hard time looking for the stuff I really need. I have to compile information on the rail systems in China...including technology used, cost of construction, ridership, and China is so huge! Think this project is gonna keep me occupied for the rest of the 2 weeks.

I got my number!

2005-08-15T02:15:00.000-04:00

Yay! Got my phone number today! Finally after such a long wait. My Commerce Bank Debit card arrived too. Meaning I dun haf to bring cash around liao!

Did not do much today...went to see the Liberty Bell, but the place was closed already. After that went to the phone shop to get my line, and den went on to Fresh Grocers at 40th Street to get fresh supplies for the fridge.

We went to see Deuce Bigalow 2 after that. Bloody racist movie. Condemn the show already. Hmph.
DINNER AT FRESH GROCERS, BEFORE MOVIES. CHECK OUT THE WRAPS I AM HOLDING IN MY HANDS!

check out my bodyguards! who say I am tanned?
waiting in the immersion room...

Oh, my phone line is FREE on weekday nights from 9pm to 7am, and FREE all day on weekends! And the calling card is quite cheap...abt 1 cent per minute. Went to call a few people to disturb them haha. Called Danny, Junxing...and den Min, knowing full well she got lecture, and kena scolding *hiak*. If you are reading this...sollie lah, I purposely one! Tried calling Chunkiat, but he never pick up, and den I decided to try Engin Club room, and OMIGOSH, nobody! Seems like everybody has finally decided to study. Missed the clubroom very much. Down here no clubroom to slack.

Tml first day of work loh...life's gonna get real busy soon. See ya guys. Take care.

Shopping at Franklin Mills!

2005-08-14T02:57:00.000-04:00

Saturday! Today my household going to Franklin Mills to shop! It's this gigantic shopping mall in the suburbs. And I tell u. it's real ulu. We took a long time in deciding what to do after we woke up, coz Phebe needs to go back company to finish up some work, den aiyah, very messy lah. Ended up with Phebe deciding to go back on Sunday, so we happily took the subway to Frankford, den changed to bus. On the way saw the suburbs...first saw the lok cok one, den after dat take bus see the nice housings with garden. Really nice! But I decided I might not want to stay there coz no where to go.

Bus journey lasted abt 1.5 hour. Franklin Mills is really huge! There's a foodcourt there, but now I realised that the meaning of foodcourt here = a conglomerate of fast food. Nearly every stall sell burgers. But the fries here is superb! Mac sux. The service sux. Food sux. Pui. Missed Singapore mac. At least the aunties are nice to the customers. And the food comes out fast.

Started shopping around 11am...had lunch den walk around. I spent abt 250 bucks for the entire day! So shiok lah hahaha. Bought a trench coat, a down jacket that is very warm, and a nice jacket.

Summer sale mah, so buy more. But the shoes...don't have my size! Oh by the way, the gals (4 of them) went gaga the moment they saw the shops. Estee especially went a bit crazy over pink shoes. Oh, the shoes are really cheap, 10 bucks per pair, and Estee was real happy. And she's quite on about the clothes. Tried every single piece that she can lay on, stand in front of the mirror and put them on. Ended up taking photos. hahaha.

Estee cant decide on what shoes to buy. 10 bucks per pair.

Levis also cheap! I got 2 jeans and one pair of shorts for total of $69! Cheap like siao lah. The shoe shops was like....BIG. And I really mean BIG. It is like...shoe madness! There's also this one dollar shop where we bought some stuff hee.

Customer service was good. They give full refund of goods with no questions asked for a period of 30 days. Estee bought 2 jackets, go into another shop, saw better jackets, so she went back to the previous store and asked for refund. The store returned her money into her debit card at once. Really nice customer service.

A WISHING WELL to fake ppl to donate coins. It challenges ppl to see heavy coins or light coins roll down first. Kelly tried a dime and it went into the hole. I tried a 5 cents, quarter and a Singapore 1 dollar coin...saved them by blocking the hole at the bottom.

Ended shopping at...errr...9pm! Really amazing right! We shopped one whole day there, and we haven cover the whole area. Noel's here to drive us back at 9.30pm, so we had dinner at the food court again.

Lucky we got someone to drive us back. You will be amazed at the size of our goods. Check out the photos at the album! Sorry I a bit lazy at the moment to add pictures to my blogs. When I feel boliao I might do something abt this uninteresting blog of mine. haha.

Decided to go home first, and then return to the place next weekend. Franklin Mills really rocks. hahaha.

that's our household in our new winter clothings hee

Be glad that you live in Singapore

2005-08-13T18:11:00.000-04:00

Hey Singaporeans! Stop complaining abt Singapore, coz we realised that Singapore Government is really smart and clever!

Reasons:

1. Most shops here closes at 6pm, food stores closes abt 8pm, including fast food...what the hell, I nearly starved to death tonight coz it's 9pm and we cannot find food!

2. Our MRT and buses covers most of Singapore. Here in Philly it's super expensive to take transport. It's a token for each transport, that amounts to $1.30 everytime you board a bus, no matter how far you travel. And it does not go everywhere.

3. There's only a few shopping centres, and it's super far from where I lived. Unlike Singapore where u can get stuff nearly everywhere. It's difficult to find the stuff you want in Philly.

4. Ppl get shot for mistaken identity. Sad.

5. Getting phone lines is so difficult. They want to see your credit history, want to know whether u have delayed on bill payments etc. . Totally Siao.

6. Bus stops are just a signboard. Subways are just a staircase going downwards. And the worst thing is, sometimes bus stops got no signboards. Now this is really maddening!

7. The buses and subway trains are badly designed such that they rock around, and tne interior totally sux.

8. Someone please show them how the Singapore currency works. Different colour notes and coins. Here, the notes are all of the same sign, only the number on it is different, and the coin is totally irritating. 1 cent is a bronze coin, 5 cents is a silver coin, 1 dime (10 cents) is a SMALLER COIN than 5 cents, a quarter (25 cents) is the largest coin (wth again). So we go shopping and we get back hell lots of coins but totally confused how to use them.

9. U get 7% tax (compared to 5% gst, so mai kao bei kao bu), and above all you have to give TIPS at 15%. Is dat expensive or what?

10. The only nice place here is the people, the culture, and the nice buildings all around. Haa. Due to this point number 10, I still love this place.

Gay Restaurant + Pubbing on a Fri evening

2005-08-13T06:52:00.000-04:00

It was 8.30pm, and we stepped out of our apartments, and we wanted to take the shutte, when we realised that all transport stops at 7.30pm. THIS SUCKS! I cannot believe it! Singapore transport goes right through midnight....ok nevermind. We walk. We are supposed to be at a pub at 11pm but I forgot the name. Yah, the rest wanted to sort of celebrate their one month anniversary here.

Thinking of going Subway for Dinner. On reaching, realised closed. This sucks the 2nd time. We walked for about 12 streets before coming across macDonald's. Beside is this restaurant, and my friend said that the food there is good. So we chose the restaurant.

Ambience is nice, but there seems to be something wrong. Upon observing for a few moments, we realised that the waiters are behaving like AH GUAS! omigosh...not only the waiters, but all the staff there! But aniwae, we have ordered the food so there's no way of getting out.

Food's really good. Huge in portion. We had an amusing time watching the gays do their business. Even the way they walk, talk is gayish. Need I say more? We are totally surrounded by gays! Aniwae, we had a good laugh and enjoyed dinner. At least there's one shop that's opened. I bet the rest of the shops go home early to manufacture babies. Pui. Make me starve for so long.

Went to a pub after that. Forgot the name already. Not as rowdy as a Singaporean Pub. In fact the people there are just sitting there and drinking. No dancing, no watsover farnie business. The loudest table is in fact, US. Jaron and Neeraj are really alcoholics. Drink and drink, after that come and complain say the drink is fruit juice and cannot feel alcohol.

Pubs and clubs closes at 2am here. Bleah. Noel drove us home since there's really no night life here.

Weekends here, and we gonna explore the suburbs of the city. Nitezzz.

Hide and Seek in Philly

2005-08-12T23:13:00.000-04:00

It's so difficult to get the stuff I want in Philly. Wanted to get letters to write, and ended up walking around just to find nice papers. Finally found a shop which sell decent papers at Liberty just off 15th Walnut Street. But no envelopes! The lady said try 17th Walnut street. Arrgghh...

And then there came the trouble of finding the post office.

Busstops are just sticks around. But one good thing is the buses stop at every street! Only problem is you do not know whether those are bus stops or not!

Had lunch at one of our senior's place. She can cook really nice pasta! So different from the one Estee cooked last night for dinner. Well, Estee turned the pasta into some sort of cheese porridge. After which she declared she do not eat pasta. Hmm...

Wanted to get a cell phone line, but the system here is so stupid. They wanted my credit history which I obviously do not haf...hey did I mention this before in my previous mail? Pardon me but it's real pek chek lah. I bet if I am uncontactable long enough my boss will decide to do something abt it.

Aniwae, I am waiting for Kelly to finish his weekly report to his company...but the internet became quite cok up, or rather his computer, and he's now banging his head on the computer. Famished. Estee and Phebe not around...they forever cooking some different grass for dinner, but today they overtime. hee. at last can go out for some proper meal. Starved to death for the past few days liao lah.

Deciding whether to get a bike or not. Else have to walk to work. Only worry is winter when there are snow storms, haiz. Snow storms I also dunno how to walk. Nevermind, when the time comes I will find a solution.

I have to cut my connections now. Kelly needs to do his work. Will continue soon. Hungry....

3rd Day at Philly

2005-08-10T23:43:00.000-04:00

Nearly got knock down twice today -_-"

Firstly, policecars and ambulance here charged through red lights while horning, not bothering whether there are pedestrians or not. Well, they do look out for pedestrians, but I was unlucky enough to be at a blind spot.

Secondly, drivers are able to turn right on red. Thus this smart lady was looking at the signs not realising that I was crossing the road. If this goes on I got 100 lives also not enough.

Another thing: There are NO motorbikes around the area! Lots of bicycles and they cycle right in the middle of the roads.

Boss wanna meet me today, so walked for 30 minutes to workplace at 1100 Vine street. Upon reaching found out Boss not there haha. She went New York for some urgent stuff. So I tok cok with the staff. They are very nice ppl! We converse in Chinese and Cantonese. haha, my company rocks!

Aniwae, they told me to return at 4pm coz Boss wanna see me when she come back. Went to meet Iris to house hunt again. After that we went Upenn to get my student letter. There's a huge accident there, and there's like fire brigade, police cars...and we walked around the reporter!

Went to Penn Bookshop. The place is bigger than all our NUS co-ops combined can? And there are so many stuff to buy inside! I want to get all the nice shirts and cards...haha...really very nice.

Went home for lunch, and after that went back to my company to meet Boss. Supposed to meet the rest, but I got no way to contact them...forgot to take down their numbers! So I went Chinatown to walk walk, and saw a lot of amazing things! First the Macdonald's. The BAG of fries...is BAG, not packet is BIG. A large fries can be shared among 4! I also saw this guy using spray paint to draw pictures on shirts. Cool! Oh, the shops here mostly close at 6pm, so there's really not much night life except for pubs and food. Met the rest of the family (Estee, Phebe, Kelly and me) at Chinatown to makan. Walked through the nice streets back home. Sorry for the lack of details in this entry haha. Too many ppl wanna chat on msn liao. Ciaoz.

Here's some photos of my apartment...

A Philly Wanderer

2005-08-10T02:47:00.000-04:00

It was 8.15am, and I was woke up by the sound of mad rushing by Estee and Phebe. Kelly had already gone off to work. Too bad his company was so far away haha.

"Morning gals!" I greeted them. "Why you wake up so early for?" exclaimed Estee. "Remember to eat the apple pie we have prepared for you. Bye!"

So nice of them to leave some apple pie in the fridge. My work does not start till Monday, and since sch term has not started yet, I had one whole week free to myself to settle in. Seems like Iris was still sleeping, so I went on MSN. Chatted a while with my friends, when Iris woke up.

We had apple pie and some cinnamon roll. We decided to go do a bit of administrative stuff...I need to settle my student letter from Megan, the nice lady who will help me with my academic stuff in Upenn, and maybe go to the bank, apply for social security card, do some groceries...Iris needed to get her student ID at Upenn too, and open bank account. Oh by the way, we the NCBVians are gonna celebrate SINGAPORE NATIONAL DAY! Here in Philly, Park Towne Place! wah hahaha...I heard Jaron was busy hunting for a colour printer...to..guess what? Print Singapore flags! BUAHAHAHA. And Phebe was like practising the MTV that this year Singapore had for national day. Aniwae, Happy Mari Kita Singapore! Muack Muack!

Iris and I grabbed our cameras, documents and went off. It's 23 degrees today, nice weather! Cooling! Perpetual aircon in the open! First thing I learnt...ZEBRA CROSSINGS HERE IN PHILLY ARE NOT ZEBRA CROSSINGS! Nearly get killed on the first one haha. Lucky Iris pulled me back. It's sort of pedestrian markers. Hm...no green man, no red man...only green lights and red lights meant for cars and humans alike. Super confusing. "Oh. there's the subway, there's the bus stop, there's the trolley"...well, all the sign posts look the same. Cant differentiate any of them. Gotta walk to 30th station to get my tokens, which are used for transportation. 10 for 6.5 dollars, quite ex. So Singaporeans, STOP KBKBing about your expensive transport back home!

FIRST STOP - SOME GOVERNMENT BUILDING

Philly is simply amazing! The lazy lifestyle of the ppl is so different from Singaporeans. Streets are near empty, with lots of Ninja Vans everywhere.

NINJA VANS like this one shown is everywhere in Philly!

Parking is different from Singapore too. There's this small counter that marks a lot and you just put coins into the machine. A quarter for 15 minutes. Woah! And the buildings, shiok to the max. Wow! I love this place.

School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) at University of Pennsylvania

Went Fresh Grocers to buy icecream for tonight's potluck...hmm...had lunch there with Iris as well. My eyes nearly popped out after I saw how the chef serve the food. He took 2 bread, used BOTH hands to SCOOP up the meat (the scoop is full!), do it again with a second scoop, and pass that giant bread to the man. WOW! What a serving! Aniwae, there's a huge variety of cheese there...and I tried to act smart by going "what you have there?" "oh, we have swiss, american, dsfdf, sdfwe,gsdgsdg, adfadf, asdfgh (sorry, I don't know what he is talking about after that) so I settled for swiss cheese. Taste nice on burger king burgers, so that shall be safe. Cant finish our meal, so packed it back for next day meal. haha. Oh, 3 litres of soft drink here cost only 99 cents, and snapple cost 1.37 bucks only. Yah!

Walked around until tired. Visited my office too at Chinatown...took a slow walk back to home. The view is, spectacular. I really love the buildings here. Lots of statues and memorials too.

MEMORIAL SCIENCE MUSEUM A FOUNTAIN NEAR MY BUILDING

It's 2am now and I want to sleep liao. Pot luck at Jaron's place, mess up the place, had lots of laughs over there...Oh, we waved the Printed Singapore Flags while singing Mari Kita! hahaha. Ziliang also converted from China to Singaporean. Hmmm...oh, and I Neeraj converted from a Vegetarian to a meat lover. *laugh* .Will post up some pictures in my album some other time. Take care folks, and hereby I say to myself loud loud "WELCOME TO PHILLY!!! ROCKS!"

My First Day in Philly!

2005-08-08T23:23:00.000-04:00

Yah, it's 8th August 2005, 11.30pm, Philly time, and I have touched down on Philadelphia International Airport. "KAIHONG!" exclaimed Phebe. Turning around I saw Kelly (he's a guy! I am staying with a guy and 2 gals, not 3 gals. I am not a buaya.) and Phebe. My saviours! Finally. As I boarded a taxi to my apartment at Park Towne I have a brief flashback of my flight...

"ok let's go," my dad says. It was 2am, 8th August, 05 in Singapore and we were ready to go to the airport. Upon reaching the airport, I proceed to check-in my baggage. Not too bad, 2nd one there. A while later, it's my turn. Put everything onto the table, and opened up my baggage...35 minutes passed...and I am still standing there looking at Mr Dear Policeman...haiz, he literally took out every single piece of stuff I had in my baggage. Come on, I do not look like a terrorist! Turning back, I can see my loyal supporters and fans waving frantically at me and I turned back to give Mr Policeman a bored look.

MY LOYAL SUPPORTERS AND ME.

ok cut story short. After security check I went Burger King, thanks to all who came to send me off! ok brothers first...so thanks to Timothy, Weisong, Koky, Kailee, Samantha...and my Engin and Union friends, Danny (the champion of the world and Mr Kuok Pageant), Limin, Geraldine (did you sneak out again?), Eeyong and Junxing, Yiping, Edlina, Alvin, Chunkiat, Cheryl, Anthony and Jiasheng. Thanks a lot ppl for sending me off! Really really am very touched and appreciated it.

THE INFAMOUS 7 BROTHERS. 3 brothers turned up. That's Tim, Weisong, Koky, Samantha and Kailee.

ENGIN MC! The rest of those bo sim ones sleeping at home...

HELIO KER BAH BAH!

DANNY AND ME. KUOK PAGEANT WINNER AND FIRST
RUNNER UP.

MIN AND ME. LALALA HAHAHA

KUOK PAGEANT FIRST RUNNER UP AND KUOK PAGEANT PARTICIPANT

After that go say byebye to family.

PAPA, ME, DAGU, ERGU and MAMA

After that boarded flight. ok, smooth sailing until Tokyo, then..

"Dear passengers. Due to the heavy thunderstorm, we are unable to board the plane. Please be patient." ok, I wait...2 hours later I boarded the plane. Time check, tokyo time 1830h. And off I am to Meliopolis or whatever the name is airport, northwest of Chicago. Aniwae, I ended up missing my 3rd transit thanks to the customs as well as the late flight lah. Got another flight due at 5pm. Ok, it's 3.30pm, I have time...

"Sir, I have checked you in, but you are unable to board due to excess passengers." OH MAN! Do I have to spend the night at the airport??? Cut story short again...last min tell me I have seat, so rushed me in this tiny airplane, and then...

"Yo ppl! This is your friendly Captain speaking! Due to air traffic congestion at Philly International, we are unable to take off. Please be patient..." ARGGHHHH...got cramped in that stupid seat for 3 hours before flying off. So, my due time of arrival of 6pm had became an arrival at 11.30pm. Yah, so well, here I am! As my housemate Estee said "Welcome to Philly!" Oh yah. She said it to me 3 times just because I never reply.