Philadelphia

Thanksgiving break:

The streets of Philadelphia and the bare trees in the winter

Amazing public art in Philadelphia

I'm not sure if this is the headquarters of Fox News, but if it is, it is sure way smaller than I had imagined it to be.

At Rittenhouse Square, where I had a quiet breakfast by myself on Black Friday, when the world was busy snatching for bargains in shopping malls.

Wharton Business School, SMU's source of pride and glory.

Broad Street. A display of flags of countries all over the world. I found Singapore!

And as of always, no city is ever complete without a Chinatown.
Presenting... Chinatown in Philadelphia!

THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF PHILADELPHIA.

The start of THE annual Thanksgiving parade. It showcased bands from schools,

and floats. Haha, Kermit the frog. =)

I love this photo! I always wanted to be a clown someday. If anybody you know is looking to fill up a temporary clown position, CALL ME!

SC's NBA game.

Independence Hall.

The famous Liberty Bell.

According to SC, there is a trademark finale scene in one of the Rocky Balboa movies in which he stood at the steps of the Art Museum of Philadelphia like that (look at photo). The pose is so famous that the museum erected a statue in memory of it. Look! I'm doing the exact same pose!

Mutter's Museum of medical oddities. Eargh! There are gruesome stuff in there! Not for people with weak stomachs.

Here is a model of Eastern State Penitentiary. It's a closed jailhouse. America's oldest prison!

How a typical cell looked like.

Prisoners had a small area behind their cells for them to exercise in.

This is some underground punishment place.

Pittsburgh

Thanksgiving break:

We are in Pittsburgh!

The Cargenie Museums:

1. Carnegie Museum of Art



2. Carnegie Museum of Natural History



Phipps Conservatory:

Plant lovers would absolutely go mad in here. It is rooms and rooms of plants! Every type of plant you could ever imagine. Desert plants, tropical plants, exotic plants, orchids, whatever. Something interesting: im already so accustomed to the dry air here, that when i walked into the tropical room, the air was so thick with moisture i thought i was suffocating.

Here I am with a Swiss Cheese Plant, named for the holes in its leaves.

This is at the Strip. It is a strip of shops. It's also the place where we witnessed our virgin substantial snowfall.

If all the snowflakes were ice-cream flakes and gum flakes,
Oh what a snow that would be.

Next up, the Cathedral of Learning, in the University of Pittsburgh:

An example of how one of their special nationality classrooms looks like. They have classrooms designed in the styles of different nations. The designs are spectacular. There is an audio guide that visitors can play by flicking a switch by the door. And no, this is not just a ploy to boost their tourist trade. They actually conduct lessons in these classrooms.

This is how the main hall looks like. Kinda like something from the pages of Harry Potter, no?

Snowman attempt #1, outside Primanti Bros:

They called it a snowbird.

Snowman attempt #2 was part of a birthday video I made for xiting outside Comfort Inn. (Speaking of Comfort Inn, you cannot imagine how glad I was to finally be able to stay in a proper hotel after so many hostel nights.) Anyway, I must have looked like a mad person, stealing accumulated snow from the top of random cars (beacuse there just wasnt enough on the ground) and then singing "Happy Birthday" alone, in front of a snow cake and a tiny snowman. After I finished making the video, I made another snowball and stuck it underneath the original snowman (It was originally only made of two snowballs).

I was so proud of Frosty that I decided to place him at the back of our car as a surprise present for SC and AYXY the next morning.

Wahington D.C.

Thanksgiving break:

Ronald Reagan International Airport, where we camped overnight on our last night. Everybody should camp overnight in an airport at least once in their lives! Put it on your list of things to accomplish before you consider your life complete.

This is Chinatown in Washington D.C.
It's like any normal town, except that the signboards are translated into Chinese (Starbucks = 星巴克, Subway = 赛something, etc.) and there is Chinese food.

Metro: their version of MRT. Very expensive ($7.80 for a day pass, or $3+ on average per single trip). It's super, because it takes us to the very doorsteps of most of the attractions.

How cool is this!??! Church of Scientology. Hahaha maybe Tom Cruise attended service here before.

International Monetary Fund building hahahaha wooohoooo!

The World Bank Group, just beside IMF.

Federal Trade Commission building

WWII Memorial. This is only one of MANY.

Lincoln Memorial

Jefferson Memorial
Took this photo from across the island because I couldnt be bothered to walk over, and we had no time to anyway.

Vietnam War Memorial

Korean War Memorial

Washington Monument

The White House

U.S. Capitol

Library of Congress

Holocaust Museum

Washington D.C. was really cold. I almost froze to death the first night I was there. Was really relieved to leave for Pittsburgh to escape the wind chill.

We slept in a hostel located really conveniently, like five minutes from a metro station just across the street from a 7-11. Can't remember what it's called. Talked to some people there who had really interesting stories to share. Should have taken some photos of the hostel. It didnt occur to me at that time. But I will remember to take some photos of our NY hostels.

We had a special pre-Thanksgiving dinner, cooked by the people who run the hostel. It was my 4th thanksgiving dinner. The first was at a BRIDGES meeting in campus, the second (thanksgiving lunch actually) in UBC and the third in Peabody dining hall. For the sake of people who don't know, thanksgiving dinners consist of long bean casserole, turkey, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. It is standard thanksgiving fare. Meaning, I ate the exact same meal 4 times. Well, it kinda made up for the past 20 years of my life not having celebrated thanksgiving day.

Thanksgiving day is a really big thing here. It's almost on par with Christmas. Long ago, when Columbus came with his new immigrants, they fed themselves by toiling the soil. The native americans were helpful, and taught them farming stuff to help them with their produce. During harvest time, the new immigrants found that they had a lot of food, and were very grateful to the natives for it. Hence, they decided to hold a harvest festival and invited the natives over to dine together. That was the very first thanksgiving dinner. Henceforth, people have kept the tradition of having a thankgiving dinner once every year during harvest. This also explains the type of food served (natural food grown from the ground, like pumpkins, sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc).

Oh, another thing. I made an effort to appear in most of the photos this time. haha.