The U.S. of A!

University Baptist Church

2008-12-14T13:31:00.004-05:00

Presenting...

University Baptist Church, the church that housed me for Fall 2008 in UIUC.

The interior

This is one cool lift. Its the reaaaally old kind that only exists in black and white movies.. and in UBC.

You go into the lift, close the gate, press 'level 2'.

The lift slooooowly makes its way up.

Maximum number of people the lift can hold: 2.

Ahhh... the sanctuary.

See the Christmas tree at the front?

Area of refuge. How apt.

That's Pastor Brett, with his back facing us.

So anyway, this morning's service was my last in UBC. I'll definitely miss the people there. They've been super to us, organizing numerous outings and embracing us as fellow UBC-ers right from the start. I've always felt welcome in UBC. UBC was a blessing, and I am grateful for it. Thank you, Lord.

Philadelphia

2008-11-29T23:25:00.012-05:00

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

2008-11-28T23:24:00.008-05:00

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.

2008-11-27T22:29:00.002-05:00

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.

0867

2008-11-17T16:23:00.002-05:00

Welcome to my dorm!

My desk.

This is my bed!

I have a microwave oven and a fridge below the bed.

Where we brush our teeth and do the dishes

The corridor leading to the toilet

Chicago II

2008-11-15T19:06:00.005-05:00

This was an 0h-so-random, yet oh-so beautiful trip to Chicago, with an oh-s0-wonderful group of friends on the saturday before Thanksgiving.

We had lunch in Chinatown.

We caught a Gay Rights Demonstration in the middle of the road.
There was light snow in the air! I was so excited about it.
They call light snow flurries.

I caught a double rainbow!

The inside of Water Tower Place, where we spent almost the entire day.

ZR and his happiness: A bbq pork bao.

This is Chicago at night. You cannot imagine how excited I was to finally see the city again, after months of isolation in rural champaign. Doesn't it look like orchard road?

Halloween

2008-10-31T12:41:00.004-04:00

A friend from Busey-Evans Dining Hall, Jackie, suggested that I be an Ipod silhouette for Halloween. And thus, that was what I did.

A typical Ipod advertisement.

Huiling the cavewoman, me the ipod ad, and Lester with his cheap afro wig.

We are at the Lobby in Sherman Hall, just about to set out for the SSA party at Yongji's house.

This is the host, Yongji. He is a Jedi.

The guy behind is Jordan. He is Napoleon.

This is a thief and a murderer. First, she attempts to steal my ipod.

Then, after realizing my ipod is actually a piece of sponge wrapped in paper, she tries to kill me in her raging fury.

I am playing guitar hero!

I am good at it!

A few days before Halloween, there was a shooting threat. Somebody threatened to shoot someone down in Green Street. As as result, on Halloween night, Green Street was totally empty. The only few people there were policemen. There were helicopters hovering above the area, carrying snipers in them, all ready to gun down the shooter. But he never appeared. No shooting happened.

St. Louis

2008-10-19T11:36:00.010-04:00

I guess I havent been updating in a long long time!

Here are photos of a roadtrip we made to St. Louis, Missouri. There was nothing spectacular there. The midwestern area is really quite boring. However, we all came back with special memories of unforgettable company and thus I guess that's all that matters. =)

Driving over a bridge, above the Mississippi River.

The Mississippi River!

I was quite excited about seeing this river. Not quite what I had imagined it to be like though.

This is where we had our lunch.

The two boys

and us.

First stop of the day: Anheuser-Busch Brewery.

There were pretty horses that looked dressed for christmas, for reasons nobody knows. The horses just stand in one position 24/7. Must be a pretty boring life.

We joined the brewery tour, where we learned how to brew wine!

Zong posing in front of a mash tank.

After the tour, there was a free flow of beer and pretzels.

After all this time in America, I still hate beer. Oh well.

Next stop: Gateway Arch!

This is all of us.

From left: Shaochun, me, Zong, Awyong, Huiling

Last desperate stop in St. Louis. A baseball stadium.

This is at an outlet mall, Tuscola. Huiling bought this luggage bag, where we stuffed all our purchases in. We must have looked like mad people, dragging this all over the place.

We rearranged the boys' closet for them while they were returning the car.

Very neat, no?

On a side note, Zong won an award for having the cleanest room in Sherman Hall. Wow!

Curtis Orchard

2008-10-11T12:16:00.005-04:00

The SSA (Singapore Club) organized a trip to Curtis Orchard. It's a place where apples and pumpkin grow. Cool eh? So countryside.

What a pretty entrance, don't you think?

Can you spot the apples?

Hint hint: Isaac Newton

Here are some red apples!

They're all on the ground beacuse we visited the orchard in fall, and I guess the apple season had already ended.

A few apples were still hanging on the branches though! This is one of them! Huiling and I picked it together. We picked it together because it was darn high and on the other side of a fence. Hence, we synergized! It was yummy!

Pumpkin time!

This is a pumpkin. Do not be deceived. It is very much heavier than it looks.

But I am strong.

As are the rest.

(These are baby pumpkins here.)

See this crazy man?

What can I say? He was screaming for us to do this.

Ugh, we found some diseased fruit.

Alright, these are squash. And no, they're not diseased.

Apple pies from apple orchards are delicious.

Billy goat gruff on top, trying to act cool, and Lindy goat gruff below him.

Arthur, Illinois

2008-10-09T14:55:00.007-04:00

A visit to the Amish Country.

Most popular car model among the Amish: Stallion.

Do you think the sky is pretty? Cloud count: 0.00.

The Amish are a group of extremist Christians. And I really mean EXTREME.

Go Wiki them!

This is not a toy! It is a fully functioning telephone!

Angel Cake. It looks suspiciously like a sponge cake. Wait, it IS a sponge cake. It's named Angel Cake because they jacked the price up all the way to heaven. $7USD for white pandan cake.

Whoops! I didn't manage to snap any photos of the Amish! Anyway, they weren't free to entertain us. We went on a saturday afternoon. They were busy preparing their houses for church on sunday. The Amish take turns to hold services in homes. The church a few pictures up is for people who are not Amish but stay among the Amish (probably to make money from the tourists). Go Wiki them (again)!

I read this in a book in Borders: "Our children know nothing except to go to church."

Corn Maze

2008-10-05T15:06:00.000-04:00

The inside of the ticketing area is like a toy store.

Halloween decorations

And Christmas decorations!

What the maze looks like from the top.

What it looks like inside.

Happy

2008-10-05T03:24:00.004-04:00

I chanced upon this. Decided to show you people.

The five of us.

From left: Rachel, Yiling, Aywong, Kailing, Lindy

Snickers pie

2008-10-01T21:55:00.005-04:00

Guess what? Snickers can be made into snickers pie!

Tada! Yummy.

They serve this in Peabody Dining Hall every wednesday. I'm currently working in the dining halls to get some extra cash. Am doing dinner shifts from monday to thursday. The time slots are really weird. Dinner is from 4.45pm to 7pm. I thought people started eating dinner at 7pm.

Rantoul

2008-09-20T15:06:00.003-04:00

A church retreat to Rantoul, organized by University Baptist Church.

This is Janice from NUS FASS.

Pastor Brett drives a kickass convertible! I made him pose in the car for me. The little boy is his older son.

This is his younger son. He loves Janice so much that his mom immediately offered Janice a babysitting job upon hearing that she was looking for a job.

Introducing Julia from Brazil. We found a poster of Pastor Brett on the wall.

A few other members.

This is a s'more! It's made of a roasted marshmallow squashed in between a hersheys square and graham crackers. Yummy! You can make it in the microwave too!

Starting the fire.

A bigger fire.

Had breakfast at century cafe on the morning. The one in pink is Danielle and the one in blue is Britney.

Waiting for our breakfast to come!

Ice Hockey

2008-09-17T15:27:00.000-04:00

Hi! Just a random photo I found in my phone, taken during an Illinois Women's Ice Hockey training I went for.

Hahahha. Way cool. I like! But I didnt join the club, beacuse they're collecting dues of 200USD per sem. And I don't have so much time on hand to commit anyway. So that was probably the one and only hockey practice for me over here. Gotta do intense secret training when I get back to Singapore.

But it was fun while it lasted.

Market at the Square

2008-09-14T13:07:00.007-04:00

We went to the market on an early saturday morning!

This is Lincoln Square Mall, a dead mall.

Every saturday morning, the market at the square is open.

It looks like a pasar malam.

I bought a sunflower for Kailing. Then we bumped into Ziwei and her friend Dan. It was Dan's birthday, so I gave the sunflower to him as a birthday present. The happy birthday boy and his smiling sunflower!

Want a pet that you'll never have to clean up after? One that will never spoil your furniture? One that will never make noise? How about pet grass?

Reminds me of this toy I had when I was a kid. It was some monster thingy with grass as hair. You cut the monster's "hair" as it grows, and give it different hairstyles.

A christmas tree with pretty handmade glass ball decorations.

Aha! Pumpkins signal the coming of Halloween!

Random fruits/vegetables.

Here we have eggplant and... eggplant.

Cute doggie.

This is Zong, smiling to himself as he sccops up his peanut butter.

Flowers for Mum

2008-09-12T01:10:00.000-04:00

Hi mum! This is your dreamland!

Illinois vs Eastern Illinois

2008-09-06T17:33:00.011-04:00

American football! Just like what you've always watched but never understood in chick flicks - except it's live this time! And in America! Yes, there's the all famous quarterback that the entire female population in the college is dying to date. And of course, the cheerleading squad.

Friendly match:

Illinois (orange and blue) vs Eastern Illinois (white)

This is the huge Memorial Stadium in UIUC, where the game was held. It's bigger than the Indoor Stadium.

I suddenly remembered I read somewhere that people like to look at faces, so from now onwards I will take more photos with faces! There, that's awyong and I.

The Eastern Illinois team doing their warm ups.

The Illinois team running in, with the entire stadium of people screaming and cheering like mad people. The team looks huge right! That's because there are 99 players in a team! But only 11 of them play in a match. It's a very intense game, so they have to keep switching players.

The marching band enters.

They make pretty formations! It's amazing!

The word ILLINI. The athletic teams in UIUC are called fighting Illini.

A mass of orange fans. "Wear orange" was printed on the ticket. The entire stadium was filled with orange people. The Eastern Illinois team must have felt so overwhelmed.

The match begins!

A touchdown for Illinois!

Illinois wins 47 - 21!

Yay! My school rocks!

Ye olde spirits

2008-09-01T17:32:00.011-04:00

The cemetry in UIUC is called:

Ironic or apt?

I found a tombstone of a baby. Baby Moore was probably still-born, that's why it doesn't have a name. Or maybe the mum died pregnant and they decided to remove the foetus and bury it separately.

The entire Hall clan.

The surname Eng is so Singaporean.

This guy here, he died while serving the army in World War II.

Kinley! One of the halls where my classes are conducted in is called David Kinley hall.

True enough, the bodies of David Kinley and his wife lie inside.

What is a cemetery without trees?

Some figures outside the mausoleum.

The mausoleum.

It's prettier than the cemetery!

I see that Frances Hesselschwerdt has already reserved a place for herself.

Saw this lying on the road on the way back from the cemetery.

Death is in the air.

Concrete shrubbery

2008-09-01T00:35:00.000-04:00

Because Clara requested, I'm posting up pictures of the buildings in UIUC. =)

Sherman Hall, where I'm staying in.

A tree outside Sherman Hall. It's my favourite tree in the entire school becuase it's split so symmetrically.

This is the library. I frequent this place because I bought the wrong book for my macroecons module and refuse to buy the correct but ridiculously expensive one. Therefore I have to keep going back to the library to borrow the correct textbook.

Altgeld Hall. Looks like something out of Harry Potter.

Business building #1: David Kinley Hall

Business building #2: Wohlers Hall

Business Building #3: BIF

Chicago's Architecture

2008-08-30T17:31:00.005-04:00

A train in the train station in Chicago. Observe how close the train is to the building beside it. The windows don't blur out like those in the LRTs.

Tada! The beautiful city of Chicago!

A random sculpture and a random fountain. I like!

Apparently, this is supposed to the the Goddess of Grain.

The Lyric Opera of Chicago and some Music Building.

Roosevelt University

Only two of the many odd-shaped buildings in Chicago. See the two buildings that look like ears of corn? The lower part is the parking lot. Looks to me like if you're not careful you might just reverse your car off the building.

106 headless sculptures in Grant Park.

And the very famous 3rd tallest building in the world - Sears Tower! That's the view from the top (110 stories up). Nothing much also la. It's overhyped. The view from all towers look the same (to me).

Anyway, notice how the city plan is very grid-like? In the USA, the streets are all like that. First street, second street, third street, etc. Very neat and orderly. A tad boring, though. But beats getting lost.

Chicago's Chinatown is really what you'd expect a Chinatown to look like. It's a slump!

My favourite photo. It was taken in Sears Tower. I'm trying to eat the sun!

Ok anyway, I must say that I'm actually doing serious injustice to the architecture of Chicago in this post. The building designs are world famous and much more amazing than I made them look in these photos!

Sweet Corn Festival

2008-08-23T18:14:00.001-04:00

Urbana's annual Sweet Corn Festival!

It wasn't as crowded as I had expected it to be.

All the better! More space for me!

There was a car showcase of antique cars. I love this pretty yellow one!

Me, behind a retarded cardboard photo of a corn.

Yummy buttery corn! I like!

We bought a gigantic bag of popcorn. It was a never ending supply which lasted us a whole week. We put it beside a bunch of bananas, and by the end of the week, banana molecules had diffused into the bag of popcorn and we had banana flavoured popcorn! Ingenious!

Orlando Part 1 - Universal Studios Florida

2008-08-16T19:23:00.003-04:00

We saw her at the entrance, and after a victorious battle with a swarm of kids, we managed to get her to pose for a photo with us.

Look at what I found in House of Horrors: Chucky!

And some clown.

They chopped awyong's arm! Check out the blood!

Scooooooby doo.

This is a new attraction. It's some motion simulator.

MS stands for Motion Simulator.

MS stands for Motion Sickness.

Ugh.

We were halfway throught filming a movie when the attraction broke down!

What a disaster indeed.

An ultra cool group of people called The Blues Brothers who play and dance to amazing jazz music.

Every night, there will be a laser, fireworks and pyrotechnics display. Something like Sentosa. But Sentosa's one is better.

At the end of the day.

Universal Studios Florida: CONQUERED!

Orlando Part 2 - Because Fear is never a Factor

2008-08-15T04:48:00.008-04:00

I was a calafare in Fear Factor Live!

I didn't qualify to be a contestant because I didn't meet their minimum required weight. =(

This is my friend, Steve. He was a contestant!

He owes the Singapore Government one, for having had NS train him to be the strongest contestant! He was the last man hanging, out of 5 others.

The first two who dropped down were eliminated.

These are the four remaining.

As they prepared for their next stunt, I stole the show.

Here I am, preparing for my 60 seconds of fame!

A little girl with lucky hands spun the wheel of fortune and somehow managed to make it stop such that the pointer pointed at a scorpion.

This is a close up view of a scorpion.

Ever seen one in real life? No? Me neither. Until that moment.

Guess where the scorpion is going?

Looks like the little scorpion has a friend!

Little scorpy and its four other friends had a fun time playing in my hair.

Tada! I'm still alive and kicking!

Two other calafares drinking a disgusting concoction of rotten meat scraped off the floor of a factory, sour milk, mealworms and goodness knows what else. Luckily I didn't get the eating part. I'd have died on the spot. These people must be mad to have choked down such gross stuff.

Steve was the winner of Fear Factor Live! The one beside him in blue was the runner up. Steve won 4 tickets to Universal Studios. He sold them and splurged the money on Coach.

Orlando Part 3 - Islands of Adventure

2008-08-14T19:26:00.004-04:00

Orlando Part 3 - Disneyworld (Magic Kingdom)

2008-08-13T19:23:00.005-04:00

Orlando Part 4 - Disney Hollywood Studios

2008-08-12T19:24:00.004-04:00

Miami Part 1: Arrival

2008-08-11T19:04:00.002-04:00

This is Greyhound! My mode of transportation from Orlando airport to South Beach in Miami. I like it beacuse it is cheap! And guess what? It's the favourite means of transport for ex-convicts too! They get free Greyhound passes from the government as part of the the country's bid to help them assimilate back into society again.

The first glimpse of Miami from the inside of Greyhound.

Oh, look! the zebra crossings are blue! The zebra crossings here in the USA aren't really zebra crossings. They're very tricky. This blue one that you see is a real one.

Aha! This is a fake zebra crossing! You have to wait for the traffic light to change before you can cross the road. These crossings mean "you can cross here when the traffic light says you can", and not "you may cross here as and when you like, because you are a pedestrian and this is a pedastrian crossing".

Magic school bus! Not. An ordinary yellow school bus. And a random man posing for my photo.

This is the interior of a public bus!

Miami Part 2 - Exploring

2008-08-10T18:54:00.002-04:00

This is Bubba Gump, a restaurant selling shrimp-y food. If you've watched the movie Forrest Gump, you probably know how and where Bubba Gump got its name from. The smart owners of this business happily decided to ride on the popularity of the movie, and, poof! Out came Bubba Gump! And, just in case you didn't know, contrary to popular belief, Forrest Gump is fiction! It is based on a novel, not a life story.

Hard rock cafe, Miami!

Did you watch Miami Ink on TV? I didn't! But anyway, there's Miami Ink for you. The place where it all started.

And this is the inside of the Miami Ink parlour. It's some very famous tattoo parlour, where all the stars get their tattoos.

World Erotic Art Museum and my friend Shaochun. He doesn't normally look like that, trust me. He just happens to look like a disgusting pervert in this photo.

Miami Part 3 - Activities

2008-08-09T18:27:00.002-04:00

The pretty South Beach, where I did parasailing. =)

I'm on the right! The one beside me is called Awyong.

South Beach divers! Didn't get to dive, but

we went snorkeling at Key Largo, some island in offshore Miami. It was quite bad. Don't ever go snorkeling, if you can help it. Go diving! The one posing in front of the huge anchor is my roomie, Kailing!

See the patch of rain? It fills 2/3 of the right hand side of the sky. Bet you never saw rain like that before! Except in your secondary school geography textbook, of course.

Ok! That's all! Of course, it isnt all there is to do Miami. there are so many more activities that we didnt get to try out, like jetskiing and windsurfing. But it's alright, I can always do those some other time!

1st day in UIUC

2008-08-04T17:09:00.002-04:00

This is one of the first things we laid our eyes upon - moonstruck cafe! It's a chocolate cafe. Imagine sitting inside, drinking hot chocalate and reading a good book in winter. Bliss.

This is me at the bank. The money does not belong to me, unfortunately.

My room in FAR, our temporary housing before we left for our first holiday. Don't ask me what FAR stands for; I have no idea.