holiday from real

mood: pensive

So I'm 5 days from home, and I can't wait. I'm sitting in the lobby of our hostel in L.A. hastily typing this on Val's laptop. It costs $5 a night to use in Internet here and we're so broke that we're sharing it. 

Coldplay is singing "Lost" over the radio and for some reason the lyrics seem particularly appropriate tonight.

Just because I'm losing
Doesn't mean I'm lost
Doesn't mean I'll stop
Doesn't mean I would cross

Just because I'm hurting
Doesn't mean I'm hurt
Doesn't mean I didn't get
What I deserved
No better and no worse

I just got lost
Every river that I tried to cross
I'm just waiting 'til the shine wears off

You might be a big fish
In a little pond
Doesn't mean you've won
Cause along may come
A bigger one

And you'll be lost
Every river that you tried to cross
Every gun you ever held went off
I'm just waiting until the firing stopped
I'm just waiting 'til the shine wears off

I'm just waiting 'til the shine wears off
I'm just waiting 'til the shine wears off

Today we took the Greyhound from San Diego to L.A. We're staying in this hostel that's right in the middle of Hollywood Bvld so we spent the day walking around, saw Mann's Chinese Theatre and all the hand prints and stars on the ground. Then we went over to the Sunset Strip for awhile. But to be honest it was nothing much. 

Okay Cynthia broke my reflective mood by rushing in and telling the guy at the reception that she can't turn off the shower. HAHA. But actually I had problems with it just now too. 

Anyway, tmr is Universal Studios, which I hope is fun and not too scary and/or expensive. Then it's a 2-day trip to see the Grand Canyon with a night in Las Vegas. Then back for one night in L.A. (Santa Monica and Venice) then home!

CORS is killing me. I'm like so confused and hate waiting to find out if I got a module. Basically I'm taking 3 lit modules and hopefully French with Yiyun and Introduction to World Religions with Amanda. The only thing is that I don't think I have enough points for French cause the lit mods are expensive. Hmmmm okay I don't think anyone cares about that but I just have to get it off my mind. Anyway, I just realised that this is my blog so I can write about anything I want!

I bought a bag that looks like a camera today! 

Things I wanna do when I get home:

1. See everyone! 
2. Eat Xiao Long Baos, Laksa, Sakae Sushi, ALL MY MUM'S COOKING
3. Move back into hall and decorate my room with all my new stuff!
4. Have a really really good long shower
5. Have a really really good long sleep

I think it's gonna be pretty hectic when I get home, I'm gonna be jumping straight into SWOC and school and whatnot. But I still can't wait. I think I'm just really tired of living out of suitcases and constantly being in a new place and all the buses/trains/planes and not having home-cooked food.

Next summer: Europe!

mood: full

Okay I'm going to qrite down everything we've done the past few days so I don't forget. The internet is down at this hostel in San Diego so I only have a few minutes cause I think everyone wants to use the com and hates us for hogging them.

The second day in Monterey we went to the Aquarium then went to Fisherman's Wharf. The next day we went on this disastrous whale watching trip. Seriously. The seas were so choppy the guy said it was like winter conditions. I was so sea sick and threw up in the Pacific Ocean then spent the rest of the 5 hours sleeping. So I didn't see anything! What a waste of time and $36! :( Then we went cycling slong the coast which was really nice and then to the Dennis the Menace Park!

We got to San Diego yesterday and had nice Mexican food then we went to the zoo, which was nothing special. Singapore's one better. But there was this performance with trapeze artists which was super nice. It's Zookeeper Week so it was about Zookeepers telling their stories. Today we went to La Jolla, this beach near San Diego where we biked and kayaked. We saw this sick seal, it was wounded or something I think. It kept calling out to this other seal. Then we came back and had a home-cooked, traditional English Supper. It was cooked by one of the girls who works at the hostel we're staying in. SO SO YUMMY. There was roast chicken, potatoes, stuffing, carrots, corn. HMMMM. :

mood: happy

 I really cannot get over how great this hostel is! I just had the nicest bath, even though I only got 2 4-minute tokens and was so afraid the water should get cut off. It was clean, there was a place to put my toiletries and clothes and towel, the water wasn't like pathetically weak. And then I went to wash my face and brush my teeth and there was a proper mirror and proper lights and a counter to put my toiletries! AND FLOWERS in the toilet! AHHHHHHH. 

Haha either I have come to have very low standards or this is a really really good hostel. This is the first time I'm trying to make the days last longer in a place. I just love how it's so relaxed here and quiet and peaceful. :) :)

Edit: And we have individual bedside lights so now I'm going to read before I go to sleep! :)

mood: content

I love the place we're staying in now. It's the Hostelling International at Moneterey Bay. Everyone who ever comes here should stay here! We're paying $27 a night and the place totally rocks! Firstly, it's clean (which is already a vast improvement over the other places). It's big and roomy. The staff is SO nice. There's hot drinks, free food. I just love it here. I can't rave about it enough. It's such a relief to finally be able to spend time is a nice, spacious place. 

 
The common room! Can you believe it? Haha. I couldn't when I first saw it. That's where I'm sitting right now! Compare it to where we were just staying in San Francisco....


See the difference?

Granted, that's the hallway of the hostel in San Fran, but trust me, the common room wasn't much better. 

So now that I'm here, comfortable and warm, I'm going to back up and talk about the trip since I left Wildwood!

NYC, 15th July


It was a super beautiful day when we left Wildwood. This was taken from the bus on the way to NYC


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NYC at night

Niagara Falls, 16th to 17th July

Okay before I post the rest of the photos I have a confession to make... I cut my hair! Haha. I wanted to surprise my mum (cause she's always wanting me to cut it) but I decided it's better to post the photos now when the memories are still fresh.


Niagara Falls!


 
The town. It was super antithetical, having this super bright, noisy town next to this great thing of nature.


Before getting on the Maid of the Mist. They make everyone wear these same blue ponchos. 


We got so close to the falls!


After the ride. Haha all wet from the mist.


From the top of the falls. I had this overwhelming desire to throw something into the water just to see it go down the falls. But I didn't!


The thing about all the mist is that you get really nice and obvious rainbows. I actually saw all the colours for the first time!


Okay I really can't wait to get home and eat the laksa at my house downstairs. This is the bowl that Yappy's aunty made. Hmmmmmm.

NYC, 18th July


Back in New York; Grand Central station


They were having some display on Superhero costumes and fashion at the MET. This is the original costume worn by Linda Carter. I think she's the one who played Wonder Woman?


This was one of the sculptures in the Greek/Roman section and the expressions on their faces were super real, they were kinda scary. So according to the audio guide, this comes from one of the scenes in Dante's Inferno where the guy is being forced to choose between dying of hunger and eating his own sons. So his sons are pleading with him and he's really torn.




Weirdly enough I decided to pose beside the only thing that wasn't a priceless piece of art. This is just the decoration on one of the pillars. Haha.


I stumbled on some people having an art class or something and just eavesdropped. They were talking about a series of paintings called The Four Cathedrals by Florine Stettheimer where she's basically talking about how people are worshipping material things. 


This is called "The Cathedral of Fifth Avenue" or something like that I think. Anyway, my point about all this is that at least she had a point! Unlike the painting below...


I have no idea what this is supposed to mean! Or why it's art. After awhile I just got really lost. 

Anyway then I went to watch "I love You, You're Perfect, Now Change"


Before the show. Haha I liked it. They had very cute/funny songs.

San Francisco; 19th to 22nd July

I'm just going to post the photos from San Fran randomly cause I'm getting tired.


Sampling tea for free in Chinatown. It was so nice cause it helped with digesting a big dinner and got us all warm and toasty and away from the cold.


Haha the day we went to see the Golden Gate Bridge it was all covered in fog! In case you can't tell I'm saying "where did the bridge go?" Haha.


Hanging on the side of a cable car. You know those trolley like things that go up and down the hills.


Walking down the halls of Stanford


A super cool bookstore called City Lights Bookstore 


At Alcatraz. It was freezing.


One of the jail cells at Alcatraz. Aiya that place was such a tourist trap. So expensive and quite boring also. 


Yosemite. It's so beautiful it's like it's too good to be true. We look like we've been photoshopped into a postcard.


We climbed up a lot of rocks to get to this little waterfall. That was one of the funnest parts of the day!


This isn't at Yosemite, it's actually at Fisherman's Wharf in San Fran


We had our lunch by this river. It's so pretty right. And while we were eating we saw a deer among the trees across the river. And there were people swimming and kayaking. It was so picturesque, the kids cycling up to the river,dropping their bikes on the ground and jumping in. 




Cynthia reading under a tree in Stanford


Can you spot the odd one out?


Haha I'm checking my watch under the giant clock tower, get it?

Okay it's time to go look for something to eat! I'll leave with this, it was taped to the fridge in the kitchen at this hostel.

mood: awake

I'm sitting in the kitchen of our hostel in San Fransico and I have about half an hour before I have to go with Bona to the Amtrak station to get our train tickets from Moneterey to San Diego so I have to be fast!

No pictures, cause well, it'll take too long to upload.

Hmmmm, so I think the last time I posted it was before leaving Wildwood. From there I spent a day in NYC where I went to see JON STEWART LIVE! Haha. It was so so so so cool. Just walking in and seeing the set that I've been watching on TV and the Internet since I was in 17 was so cool. Haha okay I obviously have lost my ability to say anything but "cool". But you know what I mean. Haha the part I loved the most was when the camera went off and he was talking to all the people working on the show. Like he was a real person. And the guest was Pierce Brosnan. Super funny interview. I was here! Anyway I really really really wanted to take a picture with him but decided that hanging around and waiting was kinda pointless and would make me irritated and disappointed and ruin the experience. But anyway, it was just so cool. Haha okay I promise that's the last time I talk about it.

Then we went to the Top of the Rock, where the view of the whole of NY at night was spectacular. At first I wasn't expecting much cause I thought it was just another gimmick (which cost $20!) but it was so worth it! 

The next day I woke up at 6am and took a train down to Edison in New Jersey to meet up with Cynthia, Valerie and Yappy (the guy who drove us to Philly) at Yappy's aunt's house. From there we drove to Niagara, stopping over at Woodbury. It's this giant outlet shopping place, but I hardly bought anything cause frankly I'm quite tired of shopping (who knew it was possible?) Haha. By the time we got to Niagara it was aounr 11pm, which was kinda off our target of reaching there by 5.

The next day we went to see the falls and took this ferry called the Maid of the Mist which brings you right up to the falls, that was the best thing we did I think. It was so funny cause when we got near everyone got wet and started screaming at the same time. It's like we were on a rollercoaster when we were really just bobbing up and down on this ferry. We also went on this thing called Journey Behind the Mist which said that we would get to walk behind the waterfalls but turned out to just be tunnels that were dug behind the falls. The only time we saw the falls was through these two holes in the tunnels. I don't know, but I thought that it was going to be literally walking behind the falls, like can touch the water. Haha but now that I think about it I realise that that would have been kinda dangerous huh. We also went to see the whirlpools, which weren't really whirlpools and hung around to see them light up the falls at night. 

I guess the trip up there was nice although there wasn't really much to do at Niagra itself. I mean, how many different ways are there to look at the same waterfall? We saw it from the bottom, from the water, from the top, from behind, in the day, at night, lighted up. The town itself was really commercialised and expensive so we couldn't really do much. That being said, I think the thing I enjoyed the most was the driving up. It was like a mini road trip. I loved stopping at the rest stops and eating fast food and using the GPS (even though it was totally lousy and kept hanging). It was just to nice to drive and be able to stop wherever and go wherever and the scenery was really nice at times too. But there were times when it was really scary, especially when we drove back through the night. I really thank God for listening to my prayers and bringing us home safe.

So then we went back to Yappy's aunty's house. She's this super super super nice lady! She cooked us pineapple rice and LAKSA and just basically thought of everything and really took care of us. Plus she's so amazing. She's travelled to so many places and done so many things. Like she took the Contiki Tour to Europe! I really wanna do that one day. 

From Edison I went back to NY first cause I wanted to go the MET. That was pretty cool. but it got frustrating after awhile cause I felt to overwhelmed and lost. I think this part will be better with the pictures.

Then I met up with Val and Bona to watch this off-broadway production called "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" which was pretty good but I wished I could have watched a realy Broadway production, with all the lights and costumes and everything. That's the one thing I never managed to do in NYC.
 
So from NYC we flew to LA and then to San Fran where we are now! Yesterday was spent in Chinatown (AHHHHHHH all the nice food. I miss food from home so much) and then Bona and I went to see this improv show called the Secret Improv Society. It was so much better than I expected. Haha cause the real reason I went was that it's SUPER cold here at night (like when we first got to Wildwood) so I didn't wanna walk around in the cold and wanted to hide in the nice warm theatre. But the show turned out to be really funny! It's just so impressive how they can think so quickly on their feet. 

So that's basically what's been going on so far. I think I left out some stuff but if I can't remember it I guess it wasn't that interesting. Haha. Today we're off to Alcatraz Island! BYEE! :)