Day 3 - 22 Dec 06

Snorkelling at Hanauma Bay

On this very day, Xiayi, Mark and I decide to go snorkelling, while Boon has gone off diving and Shanlong to the Iolani Palace. It was the perfect day (almost) to go snorkelling, with the sun out in its full glory.

A picture of us on the beach. Scandalously, this photo looks like I wasn't wearing anything! I was wearing a pair of trunks, which magically disappeared in this picture. ;p

Did I say it was a beautiful day yet?

Snorkelling was damn fun man.. It was my first time snorkelling and I loved it, except that the water was a little too cold for my liking. But it's pretty amazing, the marine life you see. Too bad I don't have pictures to show for it. I have to go to Tioman or something now.... maybe even take up diving! ;p

A trio at the end of the day, looking significantly tanner.....

Bottom fishing!

In the evening, we made a booking to go out fishing, for once, something all five of us went for. :) It was fun to say the least, watching the sunset into the ocean, and the city lights come on. We even got to catch fireworks from the sea. (Apparently the Hyatt or some hotel has fireworks every week).

Kenny's catch! Kenny caught about 3 fishes in total. Although not quite the marlins I thought we were going for.... ;p

Here's what I'd call a three-some.

Day 4 - 23 Dec 06

Day 4 was what we called OTOT (ie. Own time own target) day. Shanlong, Mark and I had brunch at IHOP, which they've not had yet apparently.

A rather unglam shot of Mark and Shanlong in IHOP.

Then Mark & I wanted to go to the Iolani Palace, but we decided not to go in, cos it was too expensive for a visit to a small bungalow (USD12!!) But we took photos of it nonetheless...



More chilling at the beach after that. (yes, our itinerary was something like, eat, chill on beach, more beach stuff, eat, sleep.. hehe)

Dinner was at this place called "Side Street Inn" and it's worth mentioning cos it's DAMN BLOODY GOOD! We had the recommendation from our guidebook Fodor's, and sure enough, it was worth our visit. It serves the darndest bestest pork chops and fried rice, which is out of the world.............................. (series of dots before this indicates salivation)

Shanlong with a prized piece of pork chop. Thinking of it now makes me really hungry.... I wanna have Side Street Inn again!!!!!!!

Labels: Hanauma Bay, Hawaii, Side Street Inn, Snorkelling

I was gonna write a proper blog entry, but i'm way too tired. been up early the past couple of days and didn't help that the night before, i was awoken by the heater in my room switching itself off (there was this click) and i couldn't get back to bed till at least an hour later, which by then, was only about 2.5 hours before I was due to be up.

kenny--catch up---->
-------------------------------------------------sleep

(as you can tell, sleep is way ahead of kenny)

Finally, I get to blog about HAWAIIIIIIIIIII! :)

Day 1 (20 Dec 06) - Diamond Head Crater

On this very day, because Xiayi and Boon Leong had been delayed on their flight to Hawaii, the trio consisting of Mark, Shanlong and myself went do a little bit of exploring of O'ahu, or rather just Waikiki. After having a little breakfast at MacDonalds (which had interesting local food), armed with a Goza (beach mat), from one of the ubiquitous ABC Store, Mark and I set off for a morning of suntanning/wading at the beach. The beach at Waikiki, though crowded with tourists is hon-to-nee su-goi (really amazing!).. And the water is surprisingly cold for the warm weather...

Lunch was at this Japanese Ramen place - There's an incredible number of Japanese tourists and establishments all over the island, so much so that every shop had signs in English AND in Japanese. And of course, everyone started speaking Japanese to us, seeing that we're Asian looking...

Thereafter, we decided to hike to Diamond Head Crater, which is somewhat the nearest attraction to our hostel, which looked like this:
I was occupying the top bunk... ;p

The trek up Diamond Head crater was somewhat easy (it was meant to be, considering it's supposed to be good for "family outings"), so we finally got up to the top. Of course, Shanlong and I treated ourselves to some shaved ice as well, which is actually very expensive crushed ice, topped with syrup. It's somewhat like ice kachang, without the kachang. hehe

Here's Kenny at the top of Diamond Head crater.

Day 2 (21 Dec 06) - Parasailing/Surfing

This was decided to be the day of adventures. We made a booking for parasailing at noon, and headed off for some Hong Kong dim sum for brunch. And there were 4 of us, less Shanlong, cos Shanlong doesn't really do activities vaguely related to heights, water and excitement, which I suppose worked well, since it was tandem parasailing.

A candid shot of Xiayi in the boat. It's somewhat scary I thought to be in a small boat like this in the vast ocean. You're suddenly very vulnerable to the elements. Every small wave lifts the boat a few feet up and crashes down in the next. Somehow, I'm a little more used to the Fastboats I was handling back in the Navy.. haha...

Xiayi and Mark about to fly away. On the same boat was this family with 3 kids, of which the youngest was something like 4 years old. When the brother and father went up (they were first), the youngest girl seeing her daddy flying away cried so hard. Of course, the rest of us in the boat found that amusing though.....

Kenny & Boon Leong on their way up. It's strangely peaceful once you're up in the air. No winds, no waves, just the peaceful sea beneath our feet and the shore a distance away. If only everyday was this peaceful.

After that, we decided that we were gonna go for surf school and do some surfing! So we forked out some USD40 for a lesson, which by the end of, we had some semblance of a surfer:

Kenny preparing to mount his board

Kenny on the surfboard. This photo looks somewhat impressive, but actually, the waves are pretty small (relative to the 25-foot waves on the North shore) and the water where we were learning is rather shallow (slightly more than waist-deep), which is quite helpful to use amateur/novice surfers. ;p

Dinner was at this Japanese restaurant called Aka Saka, which Shanlong & Mark were raving about after their dinner there on the first day. Must say they do serve pretty good Japanese food, something we don't really get here in the UK (not without cutting deep into the wallet that is..)

So this pretty much concludes our first two days on the sunny island of O'ahu, Hawai'i.

Labels: Hawaii, Parasailing, Surfing

Because I've been way too busy to blog about my trip to Hawaii, which is a must-read, I shall tease you with some shots that I have recently scanned from film:

This was shot on a 18-35mm lens on a Nikon F5 last term. One of my favourite shots. It's amazing how this shot turned out well, considering I shot at ISO400 for a Velvia 100F film, and got it push-processed (don't worry if you don't understand the terminology! ;p)

This was taken at Waimea Parks in Oahu, Hawaii. I hadn't expected an effect like this, but I must say I am quite pleased with this shot. Shot again on a 18-35mm lens I THINK...

So yes, stay tuned for more!

Labels: Hawaii, Photos

Snow Flower & the Secret Fan
by Lisa See

I bought this book while I was in Borders at Boston, cos they had a 3 for 2 offer, and I already had 2 stuff, which meant, if I don't get a third item, very bo-hua (loo-gee) you know. And the very thing that attracted me to this book was that it talks largely about nu shu - a type of writing in China known and used only by the women-folk and also talks about the various chinese cultures, like bound feet.

But one thing I wondered was, how much would an American-born chinese author know about the Chinese history? I must say Lisa See has been really extensive in her research and has skilfully put together a masterpiece.

Just some information on the book. The story takes you through China, at a time before the Taiping rebellion (1851-1864) and happens in a small village where a girl called Lily (the protagonist) was to tell her story. Bearing in mind that at this time, women-folk lived in seclusion from the man and the world outside, an age where girls had their feet bound. The story goes on to tell how Lily is matched with a lao tong (old same) called Snow Flower, who will later change her life in more ways than one.

It is as some writers who read the book said, ".. a triumph at every level."

Labels: Lisa See, Snow Flower And The Secret Fan

I have not updated my blog in the last few days because:

a. I have been plain lazy
b. A chipmunk took control of my laptop and I couldn't use it
c. Work has been piling up on my desk, and I'm trying to finish it
d. Too many (coxing/rowing) outings in the last few days cos of training camp

You can now decide which of the above is true and which is not. I must say option b is quite a a convincing one. ;p

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San Francisco

So after 9 days in the East Coast, I fly off to San Francisco, CA on 13 Jan 07 and where I was to meet up with my travel companion - Chea Lu.

The first day we went wandering on a bicycle which we rented from the hostel. It turns out that it wasn't the best of days to be out, for SF was shrouded in a thick blanket of fog. And Chea Lu will later share her life changing experience of how she spent a whole day cycling, when she's only done a max of <30 mins previously. :)

This was as much of the Golden Gate Bridge we could see on Day 1.

Just to show that I was on a bike and we were on the Golden Gate Bridge... ;p

The Golden Gate Bridge on the 2nd day we went back, bright and sunny this time, by bus that is... =X

This is the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park - which I think has a very quaint oriental feel to. Of course, we were also joking about how everyone who was working in the JAPANESE tea garden wasn't actually Japanese, but chinese/taiwanese/hk-er... ;p

So of course, how can we miss the seafood in SF. We went to this restaurant called Joe's Crab Shack, where I had a WHOLE dungness crab to myself... yummmmmmmmy... and the restaurant was so cute that the crab came with a bib to tie around my neck. :)

Alcatraz

We went to Alcatraz the next day. Here in this picture, you can see "The Rock" in the distance. Here is the bit where I talk about Prison Break.

Must as Prison Break is an excellent drama series, it must have stolen some of its idea from Alcatraz. Of all the attempted escapes (refer to this wiki article) from Alcatraz, Prison Break seems to have adapted the most popular and widely known one. Besides, it's already been featured in the movie "Escape from Alcatraz" and not forgetting "The Shawshank Redemption" (which I say is an excellent movie, one of my favourites). But then again, I must say that it being a prison with relatively basic structures and stuff, there're limited options to how many types of escapes can be planned. :)

California Sea Lions! In case you're thinking this is some sort of Aquarium or sealife park, you're wrong. This is just one of the floating pontoons on Pier 39 at the Fisherman's Wharf. It is documented on Wikipedia as well.

Stanford (Palo Alto) & around

So after spending two days in San Francisco city, we head off to visit Siswi in Stanford, where she will bring up to more places than we could have dreamed of. ;p
This is a picture of the Memorial Church in Stanford. Stanford doesn't really look like a University, with palm trees lining the boulevard (which costs a shitload of moola to maintain in the Californian weather apparently), and the architecture gives the buildings a sort of Mediterranean resort feel.

For some reason, I've been convinced by Siswi to do this hike while on holiday. It was organised by the Stanford Outing Club and was a hike up this mountain which I cannot remember the name of, which will take up to an elevation of 1500ft before we descend on the other side to head to the beach, 6 miles away. And then of course we have to head back to where we started right? So it was twice the elevation and twice the distance. But of course, it was fun lah. :) (and Chea Lu went shopping in the meantime. she wasn't about to have two life-changing experiences on one trip! haha)

The next day, Siswi rented a car and we went on a road trip for the next two days!

Napa Valley

We went to Napa Valley first, which is the wine-producing region in California. The grapes had already been harvested for the year (duh, it's winter), so the vineyard's were empty. But we managed to stumble upon a winery, (William Hill Winery - we were quite lucky cos it said "By appointment only" at the entrance), where they even gave us a quite tour of the factory and we even had a wine tasting session.

Such nice smooth wine going down the throat gave us a sense of euphoria afterwards.

Beautiful maple leaves which had not fallen yet.

We then went on a trip to a Krispy Kreme factory where we also had some freshly fried Krispy Kreme doughnuts ourselves, before heading for dinner at this yummy Indonesian restaurant in Berkeley. I had this dish called Mee Tek Tek (no no, it's NOT mee tetek), which was really yummy. We also had pretty authetic gado gado and tahu telor. Heavenly!

Our guide then took us to the Indian Rock at Berkeley. I have no idea why it's called Indian Rock, but it's just this rock quite out of the blue on top of a hill, which gives an excellent, unobstructed view all the way to San Francisco.

On the second day, we set off IHOP for brunch. IHOP stands for International House of Pancakes, which i think is such a cool name. It's another American institution of course, and Kenny has the "must-try-them-all!" attitude...

Mystery Spot

The highlight of the day was a visit to the "Mystery Spot", so named because the laws of Physics doesn't apply. As a Physicists, i must say i felt quite dumbfounded by some of the phenomenon present. You should probably check out and explore their home page which gives you more information. (and it's true about what they've said on the website, cos we've had demonstrations when we went..) Of course, they're not trying to solve the mystery either, otherwise it won't be a Mystery Spot anymore right? ;p

Here a picture of the "Crooked Shack" or something like that, which unfortunately doesn't do much justice to the actual shack.

A advertising shot for the Mystery Spot. :)

The night was spent shopping at Gilroy Premium Outlets. It's a MASSIVE concentration of factory outlets and sells stuff at ridiculous prices. You can kinda imagine a factory outlet as a department store that is perpertually on sale at 50% off (or more). We only had two hours there before it was closed, so it was a pity. I'm sure even I could spend half a day there.. haha... But then again, it's hard to find things in my size.

So this pretty much concludes my trip to SF. And comparing to the same point on my trips last year, I had not suffered a mishap or misadventure yet... ;p

Labels: San Francisco

Some time back just before I left for my trip to the US, an email popped up mysteriously in my inbox. Turns out to be an email that my friend had sent to me TWO YEARS back, and contained the group photos of my first ever camp as an instructor. Brought back memories man.... It was a Primay 5 schoolcamp for Northland Primary at our Sentosa campsite.

When I first showed this photo to my mum, she was like ”eh, 你不在里面“ (i.e you are not inside!) and when I told her I was, she was like, "huh, 你在哪里？看不到leh" and then finally she found me inside the photo. So yes, I've managed to camouflage myself quite well.. hehe.

I remember this camp for a few reasons. 1. it was my first camp and i was quite excited about it (i am still excited about every camp i do though). 2. i learnt quite a few stuff and met quite a few people at this camp. 3. the 11-year-olds were soooo excited to get on the monorail, that i let them and so cute, they were waving to everyone we went by (at a speed of about 0.1km/h) so sad the monorail got shut down, now what will kids of today have memories of? got some more reasons lah, which i wrote in my little diary and stored inside my head. :)

I also remember panicking for what to teach the kids to do for the campfire with only 1 day to go. (Especially for P5 camps, quite a lot of time, the instructor are like the parents helping the kids do homework like that, must teach them what to do for campfire one...) So thankfully, we had a partner group and mine was Ying's group and she was teaching her group to sing the Ping Pong ball song. It goes to the tune of Jingle Bells (although not the whole sequence) and goes like this:

"Ping pong balls, ping pong balls, hanging on the wall,
one big big, one small small, hanging on the wall.
small one fifty cents, big one fifty cents, and if you want a big big one, also fifty cents,
HEY! Ping pong balls, ping pong balls, hanging on the wall,
one big big, one small small, hanging on the wall."

It still brings a cheer when I think about it, and I think it's possibly one of the things i still remember now... Oh, those days...

The instructors' photo! Lost contact with most of them after the camp though, although some of us eventually worked together for other camps after that.

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Yes, i'm on to the Prison Break craze now. I almost went into a fit just now when I realised that I couldn't find episode 13 on my harddisk! haha.. It's good it's good... :)

Labels: Northland, Prison Break

I'm staying in my room today. According the Cambridge Weather, the winds are howling outside at 36 knots right about now (that's about 55km/h) and coming from the West (ah, damn, that means Mary Poppins won't be here.... *frownz*)

"I'll stay till the wind changes"
-Mary Poppins

Labels: Mary Poppins

I'm back in Cambridge. I don't think i've yet to post a picture of my room this year, which I've just done some rearrangement for this term. Here's how it looks like:

Decided to go for the cosiness feeling rather than "more space". Quite satisfied with it I must say. :)

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OCD

I was staying at Allan's flat for the last week, before I got back to Cambridge and at his flat, that's this tangle of network cables that run along the corridor outside their rooms. It's bothered me for quite a few days when I arrived, not so much because it disrupts my movement along the corridor, but more so because if there was to be such a tangle of cables in the theatre, I know the SM or someone will definitely ask for it to be tidied up. I can almost imagine Joyah's disagreeable look when she sees the cable and she will say, "Aiyo, how come got so many cables on the floor one?", then of course someone like Kenny will tidy it up lah, which I did eventually do on Saturday, which Allan will say is cos of the OCD-ness in me. ;p

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Of books and shopping

I left for my travels on the 3rd of Dec with 3 and a half books in my backpack and I came back with many more. I brought:

1.We Need to Talk about Kevin
by Lionel Shriver

It's a book which many people find depressing to read. I must admit I FORCED MYSELF to get through the first half of the book, but I must also say that once you get through that much of the book, the going gets a lot easier, and in fact, it becomes a page turner as the plot starts to twist and turn. At the end, I find myself very saddened by what was said. You have to read it to find out, otherwise it will be a complete spoiler.

2.War of the Worlds
by HG Wells

After having watched the movie, I bought the book and finally had the chance to read it. While I must say the Hollywood version of the book has twisted the storyline, I must say the movie has done well to preserve the main parts of the story. But the most amazing thing I found about the book was that it was so ahead of its time. The book was written in the early 1900 before very advanced technology was founded, and if you read the stuff that it talks about, it certainly was what would be deemed as radical.

3.Eleven Minutes
by Paulo Coelho

In case you're wondering, the eleven minutes here refers to the actual time that people actually engage in "sex". It talks about this lady who becomes a prostitute and how she finds her purpose in life. Very Paulo Coelho.

4.Life - Quotes
by Paulo Coelho

I say this is only half a book because it really isn't a book. It's just a collection of quotes from Paulo Coelho's books, that serves as a sort of chicken soup for the soul, although I must admit, I didn't need very much of those during my trip. The experiences in itself was more chicken soup than I can have hoped for.

AND THEN, I managed to buy another 3 4 more books.

5.History of Love
by Nicole Krauss

This book has BEAUTIFUL language and I mean it. It's a really light and lovely read. I quote my favourite paragraph from the book (don't worry, it's not a spoiler)

Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering. When they were ten he asked her to marry him. When they were eleven he kissed her for the first time. When they were thirteen they got into a fight and for three weeks they didn't talk. When they were fifteen she showed him the scar on her left breast. Their love was a secret they told no one. He promised her he would never love another girl as long as he lived. What if I die? she asked. Even then, he said. For her sixteenth birthday he gave her an English disctionary and together they learned the words. What's this? he'd ask, tracing his index finger around her ankle, and she'd look it up. And this? he'd ask, kissing her elbow. Elbow! What kind of word is that? and then he'd lick it, making her giggle. What about this? he asked, touching the soft skin behind her ear. I don't know, she said, turning off the flashlight and rolling over, with a sigh, onto her back. When they were seventeen they made love for the first time, on a bed of straw in a shed. Later - when things happened that they could never have imagined - she wrote him a letter that said: When will you learn that there isn't a word for everything?

It's become one of my favourite books now.

6.Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
by Lisa See

Haven't finished the book yet so can't say much about it yet... ;p

7.MARY POPPINS!
by PL Travers

Yupz. I've not read this book before. And having watched the musical, i bought this book to read. I must say, the disney movie in the 60s was more closely related to the book, although I think the musical does justice to the character Mary Poppins a lot more.

(edit)8.For one more day
by Mitch Albom

If you've read and liked Tuesdays with Morrie or the Five People You Meet in Heaven, then you will probably like this book, although this isn't quite as philosophical as the two books afore mentioned. But it's still a refreshing read nonetheless. (And what a shame I missed this book out when I first wrote this post!)

That's kinda a whole summary. I applaud your stamina and patience for having reached this point of my post. :)

(warning: long post ahead)

I continue this time with the highlights of my trip to New York, starting at Washington (which I realised was the name of my watch during OBS!)

Washington

I stayed in Washington for two nights - mainly because it was cheaper there than in NY, although I must say Washington is a darned boring place. Tried to visit the White House (you need to make an appointment with your congressman at least two months before... yeah right.), the US Capitol (you have to go early to get tix) and the Pentagon (it was Sunday, and noone was around, not a single soul), but was unsuccessful.

But I did go up the Washington Monument though, which offers a good view of what they call the "Mall", which is basically a long strip of park, flanked by the Smithsonian Museums (which are ALL free), headed by the US Capitol.

Kenny at the US Capitol. Notice that the pool behind me is called the Reflecting Pool. It was frozen when I was there though and became a skating rink for seagulls - it was quite an interesting sight.

The somewhat magnificent view from the top of the Washington Monument. You have to go earlier to get a ticket that tells you what time to come back. But well worth it i think, considering it's free. :) From the top, you get a good view of all the sights in Washington, almost...

The Washington Monument being painted orange by the sunset.

On my first night in Washington, after visiting the Mall, i thought I'd check out Chinatown. After some bashing through the concrete jungle, I finally found it and I also found this strange place that everyone seemed to be headed for. Upon enquiring, I realised it was an NBA match and I could still get tickets. So I bought the cheapest USD40 tix and went in.

It was the match between Washington Wizards and Houston Rockets. I'm not an NBA fan, so I can't say I know too much what to expect. And then I also noticed that there were many chinese people watching the game, for some reason, which I thought was because the arena was in the heart of Chinatown. I will soon find out that this is because the most celebrated sports personality from mainland China - Yao Ming, plays for the Houston Rockets. (Something that makes his fans fork out USD850 just for a ticket by the court! OMG...) I will also find out that this is one of the last few matches that he will play, after a fractured knee that put him out of action (I found this out while having dinner in Hawai'i)

So anyhow, here's a shot of the arena. It's quite cool I must say. Everything I'd imagined watching whatever little NBA on TV.

But it was certainly not the match that was exciting.. I thought it was the time-out entertainment that was the highlight. During timeouts, while players have having their team prep talks, cheerleaders and dancers come out. Also, they have this thing called "Smile Cam", which if you're caught on camera on the big screen, you have to smile. It's quite fun really. Thankfully i was sitting too high up to be caught "on air". They also had the same thing for "Kiss Cam" and "Dance Cam". It's quite amusing really.

New York

When I think of New York, I think Big Apple and the Statue of Liberty, so who could leave New York without seeing her. I had to make 3 trips before I actually made it there - the first time the tickets were sold out cos i went too late, the second time, I realised if I made an advance booking, I could get free passes to see the museum and go up the statue, so i made a booking and went again the next day.

It was certainly well worth the wait, although I think the weather could have been better. And the people who helped me take photos too.
There are a series of 3 shots by this lady I asked to help me take a photo of me AND the statue of liberty. Thrice, this is the photo I got. Somehow, she didn't get quite understand how to take photos.

Finally, after getting about 3 different people to take 5 shots, I finally settled for this shot, which isn't perfect, but it will have to do.

Times Square is yet another MUST-SEE. And it is so amazing, I thought. All the big screens flashing into the square, you wonder if they even need any street lights for the square!

(kenny getting so excited he ended up buying 1 pound of M&Ms) And I think in the US they redefine the word "Merchandise". They've got merchandise for every University I went to, with the logos printed on everything imaginable. Even for food products like M&Ms (check out the new M&Ms world!), or the Hershey's chocolate shop.

And how I can miss Broadway? :)

I made sure to catch Rent as soon I could, for it was a musical that I've waited 7 years to see.

I first heard of Rent when I was working on "Completely Without Character"(CWOC) in Singapore in 1999 and we used songs from "Rent". CWOC was the story of Paddy Chew going public about his AIDS virus - he died the year after. But anyway, since then, I've always wanted to catch Rent. They showed it in Singapore before but I was underage at that time (duhz, anything with the slightest hint of homosexuality in Singapore is deemed inappropriate) and so I told myself that I'm gonna catch it at Broadway one day and I did. :)

Did I like the show? You bet! Although I somewhat didn't like the "happy ending" to it. haha. I loved the songs and I can't wait to see the movie, which I hear is pretty good too. I'd love to stage manage Rent - it's such an easy show to call. It's a static set, although there were some very clever staging too. Rent gets the "Kenny stamp of approval".

I also caught Avenue Q, which I've heard from various sources that it's good too. And sure enough it was, although I can't say everyone else in the theatre managed to catch the Avenue Q humour. If you think Avenue Q is some stupid puppet show, then you're wrong. It's an awesome muppet show. And yes, it's true - the muppets DO have sex on stage, although it's really hilarious. Not much of a storyline though, but just go in and laugh your heads off anyway. The songs are excellent and meaningful in some ways. Check out this one: If I Could Go Back to College or the video below: It Sucks to Me

Check this clip on Youtube. It gives a good summary...(the guy on the left side is an absolute bitch!)

Go catch it! :)

I better start writing about my NY trip before I forget all about it... hehe... :) And I think I shall skip all the boring day-by-day accounts for this bit, cos I spent most of my time (and money) visiting friends in their respective Unis.

Victim Host #1:
Pierre-Andre Salim
Yale University (Yale School of Drama)

quite an unglam shot i must say... this photo was taken at this kopitiam called "Yankee Doodle", where we had breakfast.

So this is the Pierre you hear me mention sporadically in my blog (refer to last 2 entries). We first worked with each other for Madama Butterfly, and for some reason, there's a looooooooong story to tell most times I work with Pierre... (hmm. Cabaret? haha) I wonder why. :)

Interesting Fact about Pierre: Other than sharing a passion for theatre, Pierre also takes an interest in Pebble(s), unlike rocks for me. ;p

Host #2:
Corrie Tan
Brown University

Corrie showing her collage of photos on her wall. I told her it's gonna hell removing all of them. ;p I only managed to keep mine on the wall for one term as well. But yes, we met while working for Madama Butterfly. (Apr '05)

Anyway, by some freak chance, I met up with Shouyi in Brown, who's like a long-lost friend - we knew each other in Pri.6 (ie.since 1996) and didn't quite keep in contact since then.

Interesting Fact about Corrie: oh no, can't think of any... maybe she's not interesting? *gasp* haha. Corrie is gonna be a journalist, and in fact wrote some articles in Life! a few months back, if anyone remembers reading article by her....

Host #3:
Xiayi
Harvard University

The trouble with getting people to take pictures for you is that most of the time, it doesn't turn out the way you want it to and it's too hard to explain.... ;p

This photo taken with one of the supposed landmarks at Harvard. By visiting Harvard, I've also made the visit to the other Cambridge in the US. (hurray!) This trip was somewhat a prelude to the Hawai'i trip, since we were to rendezvous there again.

Interesting Fact about Xiayi: She's an excellent cook and also a vegan. As a meat-lover, i'm not sure how that works out. But meat... yummy...

Host #4:
Laura Tsang
Johns Hopkins University

The first and only MOE scholar in the US - that must mean something. Again, this is the typical shot to be taken when visiting JHU. It's of the something tower, a name which I cannot remember right now.

Interesting Fact about Laura: Laura's also a fellow anime fan, except I think she's a bigger one at that than me, even reading some of the manga. We watched Ghost in the Shell, which i found to be quite cheem, while I was visiting.

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my next post, hopefully soon, will be highlights of my trip to New York (which actually is a summary for saying that I visited about 6 states in 9 days). stay tuned!

Labels: New York, Travel