Chinatown CNY Parade

Went out with the same SEP gang last Saturday to the San Francisco Chinatown CNY Parade organised by the school. I have never seen any overseas parade before, so I thot it would be an eye-opening experience. My 2nd trip to this big city, so I decided to hang around the Chinatown area for most of the time. The overwhelming crowd brings back lots of memory cuz I used to visit Smith Street every yr, one of the busiest roads in Singapore Chinatown during the festive season.

Then we went to dim sum restaurant to have lunch, it was so crowded that we have to stand and wait for the next available table. Nevertheless, it was a worth waiting cuz the food was really delicious and we don't have much of these in Santa Cruz anyway...

Pork Rib Rice

My favourite Siew Mai & 纸包鸡

Full and satisfied!

At about 530pm, we started to 'chop' a place at the parade area so that we can have a great view. Was quite disappointed with the parade, somehow the CNY mood is different here. Got a video below....Singapore Chingay better ba...

The Chinatown Gate

Song Recommendation: February 2009

Title: Mad
Artiste: Ne-Yo
Album: Year Of The Gentleman

Is this his route to RnB superstardom? This dude is so in demand right at the moment, in fact, I think he has found a way to distinguish himself from the pack by offering something different this time round. This is the 3rd single released from his 3rd album and I just love the way he can write music which everybody can relate to. One of his best sentimental introspective midtempo ballads I believe. The teary piano tinkles in the background throughout the song together with his high-hat rhythm, contrasting the lyrics about him wanting to make up with his girlfriend. The main theme of this song: Arguments are not worthwhile in the long run.

Btw, I give this song 4.5 out of 5 leaves....

Invitation to the ILC

Angela invited us over for a simple dinner at the International living center (ILC) where she is staying. It is the best place to stay if you want to get to know more friends, esp all are on exchange from various countries. Hahaz, MisterLyon can taste more homecooked food le!

The Chefs

Table full of dishes!

Japanese pancake & some salad (forgot the name)

Sweet n Sour Pork & Bak Kut Teh (How I miss u....)

Finally, the 8 of us who came over!

San Francisco Trip Day 2

We stayed in Hotel Whitcomb for only 1 night, so we had to leave for home in the afternoon. The Golden Gate Bridge was the highlight of this trip! We were there on the first night but it was really foggy. So we went there again in the early morning....

I decided to buy my first pair of sunglasses....

Brenda and I did the star-jump while Angela took our photo. Tried like dunnoe how many times...lol

Tried the In-and-Out Burger. Yummy!

We wanted to visit Alcatraz Island (former miltary prison) but all the cruise tickets were sold out.

I went around shopping, and walked past several candy stores. The pic above was taken at the "Candy Barrel". They are really sold in barrels... 一桶一桶的

It was time to return, so we decided to skip the BART and catch the Caltrain from San Frans, it took 1.5 hrs, I almost fell asleep... The trip was a fun but short one. The next long weekend will be in February 14....We are going to LAS VEGAS!!! Must go there and huat!!!

San Francisco Trip Day 1

19 January was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in other words, a PUBLIC HOLIDAY!!! And it nicely fell on a Monday, so it was an extremely long long weekend for us. 6 of us embarked on a trip to San Francisco, departing from Santa Cruz on Sat morning. The whole journey took like 3 hrs, bus, train, MRT....At some point, we were like rushing to catch the next train/bus cuz we don't really know the timing, it just felt like Amazing Race to me..

Highway 17 - The bus that takes you on the Expressway to the San Jose Caltrain Station.

The Caltrain is double-decked!

Their "MRT", also known as BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)

By the time we arrived, it was like 1pm. Damn hungry, so we chiong into Cheesecake Factory. Ordered my fav Fish N Chips and Chocolate Raspberry Truffle.

We took the cable, not knowing where it was heading. In the end, we ended up at the terminal and it was the North Beach!

I love Tuesday!!

Yup, I am really lucky that I finally (after 5 Sems in NUS) have a free day for myself everyweek. I guess most of my classmates have it too. As I have mentioned to some of them, this Sem is the most flexible one since we can choose our own desired modules and don't have to accomodate to the ESE schedule. The timing for my lesson is pretty easy to remember.

Mon, Wed, Fri

EART 121 - The Atmosphere (930am - 1040am)

ENVS 168 - Biogeochemical and the Environment (11am - 1210pm)

ENVS 25 - Environmental Policy and Economics (330pm - 440pm)

There is however a discussion (or tutorial in NUS) on Thur Evening which just forces me to go to sch just to attend it -_-

So far I have been punctual for my morning classes, hengz ah! Now that no one is around to wake me up, I have to prepare myself with my 2 alarm clocks. hahaz, ya, together with my watch and handphone, these 4 alarm gadgets have to wake me up no matter what. I guess I just sleep early the night before, Mister Lyon has to make it a habit!!

I just returned from San Francisco on Sunday night, uploaded the photos in Facebook, will blog abt the trip a few days later after I have choosen the good ones for my blog.

Today was a free day for me, I started to cook a meal for myself.

I apologise if this picture gives u nightmares. Its my first try, I know it is really bad but I am learning. So next time when I look back to this blog entry, I will judge if I have improved a not. Harshbrown, nuggets, egg, thin pork slice with bbq sauce, rice, hahaz....btw, I realised that cooking rice is very easy using microwave :p

First Week in California

Its really great to have a person to bring me around an area that I havn't been to. Somemore that person is related to my family, yup, Cousin Chor Tiong. Thanks to him that my friend n I have a place to live during Christmas-New Year week. He has been working in Fremont for abt 8 years and is living with his university friend who is the landlord. Had lots of fun playing with the landlord's child, Edmund, who is rather playful and naughty, hahaz...Cousin was on leave that week and he actually changed his plans because I was coming to the States and he wanted to bring me around. Just wanna say a big "Thank You"!

The apartment is really huge!

The big LCD TV and cute piano for little Edmund to practise

Cousin (left), his landlord's family with little Edmund, me and my friend Wang Han

Happy New Year 2009

I know this is super duper uber late, but HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Yea, I am back! Back with a new layout which I have been choosing for the past couple of weeks. I really like this new blogskin, it is the Autumn theme! Lots of stuff to blog about, especially in this new environment that I am livin in right now. I am going to write as much as I can, though I can't squeeze everything in this first post of the year. It would probably take me a week to blog everything that has happened in this short span of 3 weeks, I will try...hah

28 Dec
Day of departure. I didn't sleep for more than 4 hrs the night before, woke up at abt 545am but didn't wish to get out of the bed which I will be leaving for the next 6 mths. Didn't feel sleepy at all probably because I was too excited abt whats gonna happen in the day. Arrived at the airport Terminal 3 ard 730am when qt was already there waiting, hah, really sorry abt tat. Checked in my luggages before going for breakfast at the foodcourt.


Thanks to my friends who have sent me your well-wishes the day before, really appreciate!

It was a long flight, 6 hours to Seoul and another 10hrs to San Franscisco. I was assigned a window seat, surrounded by Indians. For a moment, I thot I was on the wrong plane. Have nothing much to say abt SIA, great service and entertainment. I think I watched 3 movies in total and I listened to the whole of Jay Chou Concert album, one which I didnt had a chance to buy. The 2nd part of the flight was the worst, eyes were so tired and I really wanted to sleep but was awakened by the annoying baby cries. I am pretty sure there are at least 2 who kept on crying throughout but the air stewardess couldnt do anything abt it. Oh ya, it takes 7 hours to fly across the Pacific Ocean from Tokyo to the States. Can't believe it can take so long, gosh!

Reached San Francisco at 11am, greeted by the long queue at the Customs. One thing I don't like abt Custom Officers, they like to take their own sweet time! Ya, I totally hate that, haha...