Saddle Ranch and Chill Out at my place

Albert Hammon sang a song, "It never rains in soutern california". Well, it was bullshit! For the second time since we reached LA, it rained! (The first time was when we went to disneyland -_-)

And the rain here doesn't last for 2 hours.. it bloody rains for 3 days at once. And the rain is intermittent, which makes it even more irritating! URGH. But we try to cope I guess!

But we had a dinner planned a saddle ranch, so we had to take a train to Universal City to get there. And being the lucky people we were, the tram was not running when we reached there, so we had to come a steep hill in the rain just to get to the place!!

Well, the food kinda sucked. I think I made better steak at home. HAH!! But it was a cool experience, with a sorority having dinner there and lots of nice cool people. There was also a mechanical bull which I almost conquered but got thrown off in a bit! (Check out facebook for a video!)

Like wow, and best of all I got to meet a russian guy when all of us came over to my place to chill for a while. He's like the first russian I've met in my life, and he's a PHD student. It's cool, and that crazy dude was complaining that he was HOT in LA. -_-.

And we did something crazy... we decided to go to hawaii today and just booked tickets and we'll leave next wed! So for all the Waikiki 09 emails I've been getting, too bad! I'm going to the real Waikiki. HAHA!

The long awaited post

Haven't blogged for a while, for a couple of reasons.

1) It sucks to upload pictures on blogger and i hate it.
2) Life's kinda getting routine
3) Work's kinda piling up.

But oh well, just some updates on what's been going on here since mid jan!

1) We went to San Diego over the weekend, and it was a pretty cool trip with a lot of stuff to see. There is seaworld and the zoo(which I didn't go to), Balboa Park, the USS Midway (An actual aircraft carrier, 5***** recommendation), and seafood!

2) I went shopping at Santa Monica! Lots of great food and nice scenery there, but it's kinda expensive to really shop there. It's a good chill out place with great street performances that try to milk as much money out of you as possible.

3) We went shopping at at outlet mall called Ontario Mills. It was pretty cheap and didn't cost too much to buy stuff. I actually bought Tommy Hillfigger ties and belts for 15 bucks each, and Levis for 25 bucks.

4) Attended a few fraternity parties during Rush Week, which is kinda like orientation week where the frats open their houses to try and get new pledges. It was really fun, and was kinda the only thing about US school which we see on TV.

5) Went for a hike at Malibu, which is near the sea and just north of LA. It's a really beautiful place, and we got to get an awesome seaview and a visit to the beach. The outdoor adventure club here is kinda new, so i hope to get to go for more stuff with them!

6) EAT EAT and EAT more. I' ve been cooking real mean stuff. (Instant) curry, Ba Kut Teh, Steaks, Baked Salmon, Baked Rice, Baked tomatoes and potatoes, stir fried meats, Aglio Olio, fried rice, and a monster white wine tomato pasta! And we've been eating at real nice places thanks to all the people who bring us around. Roscoe's chicken (which is kinda like soul food), Ramens and other Jap foods in J-Town, a whole lot of different burgers, Dim Sum at Alhambra, and we haven't even finished exploring.

I'll try and put up more pictures! But in the meanwhile, check out facebook too!

CCA Day!

Started the day waking up at 10.30 for a 10am class, so we missed our first class due to oversleep. Haha... But when we reached school, there was a CCA fair which was pretty cool. If we thought Vivace in SMU was big, this was way cooler!! Here're some pictures.

(From left)

1. A sorority girl recruiting sisters.

2. An animal adoption club with a really cute shelter animal on campus.

3. The Singapore chapter! They do really cool stuff and we should be joining them for reunion dinner at this cool place called the Belachan grill.

4. Dance club auditions in hot pink!

5. Christian clubs doing recruitment. It's pretty big over here in SC.

Next, we went to the world famous walmart after class to get a new printer. According to my buddy, (whose words we must all take with a pinch of salt,) the library charges 12 US cents to print 1 page!! *faints*

We got a nice new standing lamp too for the hall, a toilet brush ( you wouldn't believe how hard it was to find this here) and a random can of campbell soup!!

Next we went to eat Hai Nan chicken rice. It was the biggest plate of chicken rice I've had in my life, but it was pretty good. So good in fact that we finished it before realizing that a picture would be nice. And to top off the meal, we had some Krispy Kreme!

Arrival in LA (Part 2)

And upon reaching my "house", I was greeted by some pretty nice views! Here's a couple of snapshots here and there.

First thing we did was open a bank account. And we turned the local Bank of America into a NUS/SMU in exam week.

And here's my blur cock buddy. Haha, if I wrote about the silly stuff he does, that's gonna be another blog by itself. Haha, but the whole geist of it all is he hates to be called "Mommy's Boy". So go figure.

Arrival in LA!

Fnally the time and internet connection to sit down and blog!!

Left on thursday after a night of no sleep to fly off to LA early in the morning. I can't believe the last meal I had in Singapore was porridge at the airport. And then it was off to a 3+ hr flight to Hong Kong. Thanks to Mich and my family for sending me off!

After stopping at HK for a 2 hour transit, I took another flight to LA! Although the flight had pretty good food and a rather cute stewardess (sorry no pictures!!), there was a bloody kid who was crying all the way and I couldn't sleep. Urgh!! But here's my ride to LA.

And here's LAX! Didn't manage to get any nicer and more glam shots. But the crappy stewardess told me the wrong shit about the bloody immigration forms and I had to shuttle between immigration and some far flung counter which handed out forms. So much for segregation of duties. (And on the note, so much for cute air stewardesses)

(From Left)

Outside the arrival hall, the shuttle bus stand, and my ride to campus housing which cost me $30.

Farewell to the VJ Gang

Met up with the VJ gang at parkway today, probably going to be a while before I'm at parkway. We had a crappy new year's eve set lunch, which came with a main course of steak which could bounce on the floor if you dropped it.

Next, we visited our usual haunt at level 10 Parkway Builders to engage in the favourite past time of children who never grow up. As John shows, class is permanent. HA-HA.

Dinner was spent at Roxy Square with our favourite Ban Mian auntie. It reminded me how quickly time passes, as it's been 6 years since we first ate from them. Really getting old man. As usual, Kee Sian went Kee Siao playing hold 'em, but I think he still afforded the bus ride home. :P

45 minutes to 2009, guess it's time to start making a couple of new year resolutions.

US Visa Approved! Luggage Bought!

Went to the US embassy this morning to settle my Visa. Suprisingly, the staff were extremely efficient and professional. However, the following items in my bag were detained at the security counter.

1) A stapler
2) A computer mouse
3) A camera
4) A handphone.

But overall, it was a quick and efficient process!

Next, I went to get my luggage. I walked Tangs, Lucky Plaza, John Littles, Isetan and Metro... And finally decided on this baby from Tangs!


Confirmed my flight for the 8th, then received news from Merrill that I got selected to attend Superday... which had to fall on the 8th of all days.

Scrambling to see what I can do now.. urgh!