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Wendy here. My motto now? To just have fun and enjoy life =) Don't overcomplicate things, be happy. « go back

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Boston at 1/19/2011 11:43:00 AM

Boston comes across as basically a very intellectual, pretty, and historical city. Love it so much! I now envy people who study there! Here's where I went:

1) Harvard University
One of the most well-known universities in the world. We went through one of the school areas, the place where they have the John Harvard statue. Funny thing about it, according to tour guide, is that John Harvard is NOT (as the statue claims) the real founder of Harvard and that statue is not even a real image of John Harvard. They just made a statue of a random student because they didn't have a photograph of the real John Harvard. Kinda sloppy work on the university management's side, if this rumor is true. Lol. So anyway, Harvard is pretty, lots of trees, with a mix of old and modern buildings. We saw Harvard Law School which looks cool and intimidating; Science building with a huge calculating device from back before they had calculators; some library and couple other buildings.




2) MIT
Omg this place is pretty scary! We went to this building and on the hallways there were like posters of clubs/events and stuff. SO many of them sounded super Math, including some Harry Potter show done the Math style (it's called Harry Logger and the Deathly Twigs by Logarhythms Winter Concert). But well, what should I expect from a uni that celebrate Pi Day right? It really comes across as an elite school, for people who are wayyy too smart. Basically the places gives off very mathematical/engineering/science vibes. Not where I would belong I guess. We did see some cool stuff though: photos that are not developed/shot the normal way, involving bullets and the like. Looks damn cool. The labs look good too, and we passed by some dangerous substance in a gas cylinder (there's a label that made us think it's dangerous but I forgot what it is). We also saw the following amusing poster, something which I guess is pretty common in all of US... Lol. So yeah, interesting visit ^^






3) Trinity Church
Nice looking church in Boston. Tour guide said it's like the most beautiful trinity church in the East Coast.


4) Boston River Cruise
LOL this cruise reminds me so much of China!! The whole boat is like filled with Asian people, mostly Chinese! And a lot of them look damn bored somehow!! Some were even like, sleeping in the boat. Probably too tired from touring non-stop. Anyhow it was a pretty nice cruise in the beginning, we kept taking photos and camwhoring all around. We got a really nice view of Boston downtown and the city skyline looks awesome in photos. Then, after a while it got boring and too cold, so we went indoors with the other bored people. To entertain ourselves, we started trying to capture photos of seagulls/white birds. I like, took a gazillion photos of empty skies because the birds were flying around non-stop: it's so hard to capture them in photos.
One funny thing is when we landed on the shore and all the passengers were leaving the boat, it feels like we're illegal immigrants who just came from China. Like seriously FOB. XD It's pretty funny and we kept cracking jokes about that. Ah things we do to entertain ourselves....





5) Quincy Market
An awesome shopping area!!!! I love the place so much!!! It has a great food court with all kinds of food: italian, chinese, mexican, american, clam chowder, etc etc. And right outside the food area there's a lot of carts selling like souvenirs, crafts, accessories and clothes. Bought a nice painting here, wish i bought more!

Then outside the food area, there're all the clothes shops like American Eagle and Urban Outfitters and Victoria's Secret. Urban Outfitters is a cool shop, lots of interesting little gadgets/toys. There's also a shop by the Boston Art Museum or something that sells really nice art pieces and things with imitation artworks like bookmarks and mugs. If I had more money I'd so buy more things from there! Then there's also a comic bookstore and a place that sells all the cute little soft toys and things like that. Cutesy stuff that I kind of like looking at but will never buy. Lol. I spent like 4 hours in this place cuz Karen and gang had left back to NYC and I was waiting for Quek and YYY to come back from Florida. It's pretty awesome though, sitting in Quincy Market looking at people. I happened to sit next to two girls who started making out in public just like that. They are like so young, like from high school or something. LOL. Then there's a group of high school kids sitting in a nearby table who kept looking at them kissing and laughing. Interesting stuff! XD Not that I have anything against lesbians but PDA is like, too interesting to resist gawking at. =P

6) Penang restaurant
Malaysian food. That's all I need to say! =D
Food was okay I guess. Not awesome but when you're like deprived of Malaysian-style food, anything tastes nice!
Oh and we bumped into Duck aka Yin Wei here! He was just eating lunch alone. Such a coincidence! Plus, I just love bumping into people, makes my day so much more interesting.

7)Freedom Trail
We walked the historic trail or Freedom trail, past all the heritage buildings and iconic monuments. I vaguely remember seeing lots of intricately decorated buildings and nice parks all covered in snow and learning some history about the founding of the United States. Took lots of pictures of course!













Thus ends my Winter Break trip! Thanks so much to Quek for letting me stay at her apartment and being a great host. Finally finished writing the travel diary - 3 months after the trip ended! XD


2am at 1/15/2011 03:51:00 PM

Wheeee wanted to write something stupid but too not my style.

Few more hours. Can't sleep.

Anyway....Next semester is gonna be crazy busy if I get to go for BRIDGE. With Calc 2 (a nightmare), Microecons and work, I don't know how I'm able to balance everything!

All I wanna do is chill with somebody. But that's not how college should turn out right?? I should like be a super kiasu overachiever and have it all: lots of credit hours, work, clubs/some form of extracurricular activity, friends, relationship (not in that order). *flails hand around in panic attack*

I know I can do it though. I just gotta sacrifice on Facebook, sleep, wasting time, and cooking. Eat burgers/pizzas everyday! The fun!

Okay no this is my fried 2am brain talking. I'll wake up in the morning feelin like P.Diddy.

Teehee.

This post makes no sense sorry if you happen to have read it.


From NYC to Boston at 1/13/2011 11:50:00 AM

We joined a Chinatown-based company's tour that brings us to several places on the East Coast, on the way from NYC to Boston. Here're the destinations!

1) Yale University
This is like the third or fourth oldest university in US. The tour guide brought us to only a small section of the University, which is the college that has the oldest building in campus. It was freezing cold, so I basically just listened to what the tour guide said about the university, took photos then left to the warmth of the bus. Not a big fan of Yale anyway.


2) Maritime Museum @ New Haven, Connecticut
We got to go inside a submarine in this museum! SO cool! The insides of the submarine is really really small and narrow. I can't imagine ever living in such a cramped area. Even half hour inside the submarine made me feel uncomfortable. I felt so relieved to go out into the fresh air! The scenery in this place is really nice, as you can see in pictures below. There's also a super cool telescope thing that is free of charge. We got to see a bridge that is pretty far away, as if it is right in front of me. Technology =D






3) Breaker's Mansion
A super rich man's mansion, ornately decorated all the way from exterior to the bathroom. Luxury at its best! There's like marble, gold, tapestries, paintings, and many more expensive stuff all over the house. Just makes you go wowwwwwww! No pictures allowed, but there's an audio guide that explains each room and instructs you on where to go next. Enjoyed it a lot! And the scenery from the lawn is SO beautiful:





4) Bubor Cha Cha
An Asian restaurant in Boston Chinatown. Food was just okay, not really authentic, but passable considering I was quite hungry. Managed to eat claypot pearl noodles 瓦煲老鼠粉 which doesn't taste like the one back home but I shall forgive em cuz there's loads and loads of fresh prawns in it!!! LOVE PRAWNS! Something Wisconsin severely lacks, as does Nilai.


5) Panda Buffet
An awesome buffet with Chinese, Japanese, and American food, so much food I ate till I felt bloated. Some food are delicious, such as a seafood thingy and the mandarin oranges. Love it and need to find a Chinese buffet place in Wisconsin!

Thus ends the journey from NYC to Boston with all its stopovers. Next up: Boston city!


New York City at 1/08/2011 08:58:00 AM

(continued)

14) Wall Street
Seriously, I thought Wall Street would be more glam than what I saw. There's just some office buildings and lots of tourists, and of course the New York Stock Exchange. Nothing much, not really worth a visit if you're not in the area.



15) Radio City Music Hall Stage Door Tour
Radio City is a very very elaborately decorated theatre hall. The chandeliers, stage, carpeting, everything is super nice and lavish. The tour guide was very friendly too,kept making little jokes here and there while explaining the history of the place, the architecture of the building, and the various posters/paintings on the walls. It's really very cool, and we even got to see a teeny bit of the Christmas show that was going on. Oh and this place is famous for the Radio City Rockettes, a group of girls who do stage performances. Overall cool tour!





16) King Tut NYC: Return of the King
Displays artifacts found in King Tutankhamun's tomb. I found it extremely boring, but might be fun for history buffs. Basically just shows things like the equipment used back then in ancient Egypt, and some of the cultural traditions of the time. A bit of the politics of the kingdom too.

17) Bodies: The Exhibition
This is pretty cool, exceeding my expectations! Shows real human body parts, such as intestines, nervous system, lungs, all extracted from unclaimed bodies. I learnt more biology here than one semester of college biology. Gross thing is some parts look SO like food: nervous system looks like ginseng, and there's something that looks like a slab of meat, but don't remember which human part. Best part of this exhibition is we got to talk to a guy at the end of the exhibition and ask him questions about bodies. He started talking about bodily differences among races, and how American Indians have similar structures as Asians, but they have more pronounced characteristics because their gene pool was restricted for many years. It was SO interesting, the way he explained his opinions. The way he talks just makes you believe in what he says, kind of like Obama lol.

18) Empire State Building
Because there were so many people queuing up to get up to 86th floor, we had to climb up 6 flights of stairs from 80th floor. Apparently they had not enough elevators, so they told us we could either wait for half an hour or climb up the stairs. So we climbed. And climbed. And climbed. Okay not that bad, but it felt like I was running away from a fire or some emergency like that, to use the staircase. Seriously... And the view from Empire State Building is just okay, we got to see NYC from 360 degrees around the building, but the steel gates are kind of a nuisance. All in all, Empire State Building is kind of a disappointment, despite all the fame.



19) Subway
The transportation, not the food place. How can I describe NYC's subway? Hmm....efficient? kind of, in the sense that I don't have to wait as long as I did for KTM. But, it's also dirty, old, and kind of ghetto. All this while, I'd think of subway as being better, cleaner. But, it's like this very messy system that is so hard to figure out. We got lost a few times on the subway and had to take the same train back, on the opposite direction. It actually wasted a lot of our time. And the person manning the counter is so unfriendly and refuses to guide us, just pointed to the confusing subway map. This is probably why everybody on the subway looks so depressed. No laughter at all...

20) Queens Chinatown
Messy messy place. I don't really like this part of town. Try not to stay here if you come to NYC. Manhattan is so much better. It's seedy and the people come across as very rude and unfriendly.

That's all about NYC I think. Gonna move on to Boston in the next post! =)


New York City! at 1/07/2011 07:01:00 AM

(continued from previous post)

7) Museum of Natural History
Super huge museum with 4 floors of exhibits. I went through the Hall of African Mammals, pretty nice cuz I got to see some of the animals I read about in African Storyteller. Then, on to African Peoples, Birds of the World, Mexico and Central American civilizations, all pretty interesting (but very factual..) Best part of the museum is in the 4th floor: Saurischian Dinosaurs, Ornithischian dinosaurs, and a section where they display extinct mammals. Super cool, just cuz you get to see life-sized dinosaur skeletons! And take photos with them! =D





8) Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum
The only place where you get to take photos with so many of your favorite stars and idols! There's President Obama, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, George Bush, George Clooney, Donald Trump, Taylor Swift, etc etc. They're realllyyy lifelike and you could get spooked out if you stare at their eyes. Oh and they're supposed to be the same height as their real-life counterparts. Definitely worth a visit, especially if you love famous people and taking pictures.


No prizes for guessing who's the fan and who's the star.

9) Broadway!
We went to watch Mamma Mia! The Musical at Winter Garden Theatre. Despite the blizzard going on outside, the show was AWESOME! Infectious music, perfect singing by the cast, lively dancing, pretty clothes, great choreography. Basically just makes you wanna get up and dance too! So felt like going clubbing after watching this musical, but not a good idea in the middle of a blizzard. Anyways, definitely go watch Broadway if you go NYC! It's super super awesome. Happiness! =D

10) Museum of Sex
With a self-explanatory name like that, there really is nothing much to say. Basically, tells you everything you need to know or always wondered about sexual activities. Lol. Even has one section abt animal sex. So yea, one-of-a-kind museum. Their mission is to preserve and present the history, evolution and cultural significance of human sexuality, FYI. A very educational museum visit. =P

11) Central Park
Only went there a while, and glimped it from the outside. Looks nice covered in snow though. And lots of snowmen in the park. wheee.

12) Top of the Rock observation deck @ Rockefeller Center
The view from this place is pretty cool! We went in the evening, so we got to see all the night lights in New York City, which is everywhere in the city. So for miles and miles, all you can see is lighted-up buildings. Felt so in awe, like I'm such a little dot in this ginormous city. Ah Civilization. And the view here is better than the one in Empire State Building because you get an unobstructed view of NYC since they have glass walls here, whereas Empire State has steel structures around the building.

13) Statue of Liberty
Before going there, we played around in a park near the ferry station. It's all covered in snow, so very pretty. (but a pain to walk in) We couldn't manage to go into the Statue of Liberty, so decided to take the Staten Island ferry just to see the statue up close. It's like American dream come true, seeing the symbol of freedom and equality in real life. =)



(to be continued)

Labels: vacation

Big Apple at 1/06/2011 11:34:00 AM

Warning: This post is purely for self-satisfaction. Kinda like the travel diaries I used to write after every trip when I was a kid. Just easier to keep it here rather than in paper form. So here goes!

New York City!
So my first winter break in the US was spent in NYC and Boston, two pretty different cities. There're SO many interesting things and people we saw/bumped into! So, in chronological order:

1) Country bumpkin's journey to the City
-Flight to Minnesota was okay. Delayed for only abt half an hour.
-Flight to NYC was BAD. Delayed again and again, so Karen and I were stranded in the Minnesota airport on Christmas Eve. Really bad experience. Everybody in the waiting area were frustrated. Then when I was just sitting there innocently, this old guy (Guy A) next to me started talking to me about random stuff. So I just listened politely, nodded occasionally. Suddenly, a Hispanic guy (Guy B) passed by then sort of asked him to shut up, telling him we want him to leave us alone. It was SO weird. Guy A was offended and they started arguing loudly. Everybody turned around and looked. Damn embarrassing and I was actually pretty scared. Guy A looked like he wanted to start a fight. Wth. Eventually Karen and I escaped to get food and leave the battlefield. THANKFULLY by the time we got back things were peaceful again. Ugh what an experience.
-Finally reached safe and sound in Chelsea International Hostel around 11pm. Flight was delayed total of FOUR Freaking hours. Gah stupid Delta Airlines.

2) Chelsea, Manhattan
Pretty nice area, peaceful on Christmas Day (Duh.)
We were walking randomly and came across this really nice park next to the Hudson River (www.hudsonriverpark.org). Really green grass, nice landscape, with the river at the side. Love it! Was so happy to see snow-free grass that I sat on it =D



3) Chinatown and Malaysian Food
Chinatown in NYC is one word: messy! So many people and it really is like China! Chinese words everywhere, people speaking Cantonese, and smelly in a lot of places. But out of this mess, we managed to find a super nice Malaysian restaurant called New Malaysia Restaurant. I'm just gonna let the pictures do the talking:






Oh and the Portuguese egg tarts in Chinatown is awesome too! Forgot the shop name though.

4)Brooklyn Bridge
A very very very long bridge, which we successfully walked on, from one end to the other, in the cold. Great achievement right? =P We definitely spent a lot of time on the bridge taking photos. The view from the bridge is really nice, definitely recommend everybody to walk the Brooklyn Bridge at least once in your lifetime. It's worth it! But do bring a good camera if u wanna take photos. My camera couldn't catch the beauty of night-time NYC at all.

5) TIMES SQUARE!!!
Omg Times Square is definitely what New York City is about!! Flashing lights, of any color u want, people everywhere, limos, Yellow Cabs, NYPD, Broadway, .... You can't say you've been to New York if you don't go to Times Square! Again, my camera is lousy, but here's a little glimpse of the awesomeness of the place.




6) Christmas at Rockefeller Center
Giant Christmas tree outside the Rockefeller Center, and huge crowds of people around it. Pretty nice decorations too.



Thus ends my first day in NYC. Gonna continue in the next post, which is equally as much for self-satisfaction. =)

Labels: vacation

Travels at 1/02/2011 08:57:00 AM

Wheeee short blogpost because i feel like it.

I feel pretty awesome now.

Trips do always make me feel good.

It has been an interesting week.
Have so many stories to tell.
Don't know where to start.

So, leave till later when I look through the photos.

One thing I know is, I love Boston so much more than New York City! =D

And, best thing about NYC: Broadway. It's a must if u go NYC and definitely worth the price.

Ok that's all update more soon.