interdependent

i know this is a way overdue post. but as everyone says, it’s better late than never :P i’m now camping overnight in jfk while waiting for my flight in 6 hours. it’s one of those “save money so we can spend more” schemes we devised. hahas.

i’ll try my best to recount most of the stuff that i’ve gone through in the past many many days. unfortunately most of my photos are with jianlun so i can only wait for him to upload before i add more photos to this non-photo blog.

day 1 was a crazy day for us as we really raced against fatigue, weight and time to get down to san diego. imagine 4 asian girls juggling with 10 luggages on public transport. it was pure madness. thanks to various people i met along the way, including the awesome anna, i managed to make it to my flight out to new york.

and so after more than 25 hours of travelling by plane, bus and train, i’ve finally arrived in the big apple. some in the group were so exhausted that they refused to go out. but jianlun, amanda and i (thereafter called the MIGHTY TRIO) insisted on going out and exploring the city. we went into various shops, took random photos and had our first pizza from a really friendly and nice atmosphere pizzeria. and it was crazy yummy too. the next day, we went down to woodbury common premium outlets where we did some crazy shopping. i got a pair of (kids) suede boots for just US$20! everything was just so enticing there. 

then the highlight of the trip was on 31st dec. that was in fact the whole reason why we were even in new york – TIMES SQUARE BALL DROP COUNTDOWN. we woke up to snow fluttering down. and though we were really excited to see snow for the first time, we were really worried about the weather too. and it certainly didnt help that the papers were screaming “ARTIC TEMPERATURES”. but we decided heck it. we have to do it. and we did! but gosh it was crazy. we met and “hung out” with random people in the crowd, particularly with a group of brazillians and another group from new jersey. the most notable was an ABC called mike who was constantly clowning around (or as amanda put it, being attention attracting) yet was really nice to offer a seat (he brought a foldable chair) and heat packs to anyone who needs them. and so we spent the last 7 hours of 2008 in -10 celcius to attempt to catch the Ball Drop (which actually none of us managed to witness because we were too busy celebrating the end of our torture). it’s certainly something you have to at least do once in your life. actually it’s something you should only do once in your life.

the rest of the new york trip was just filled with visits to various sites such as the American Natural History Museum and catching a Broadway show (we did Mary Poppins, which i fell asleep throughout).

next up we headed over to boston, which was much quieter in comparison to new york. on the first day we arrived, we went down to the waterfront, where we trekked for a really long time through the chilly wind to get to a really famous restaurant called No Name Seafood. even though it was only 530 when we arrived, we were so exhausted that we decided to just eat anyway. and so we feasted on seafood. the Mighty Trio ordered a steamed lobster that came in it’s shell and we had to dissect it on our own! and they served really really good chowder. it was just so amazing.i really hope i can do that again soon. YUMS!

the Mighty Trio also did a self-guided tour of the Freedom Trail of boston, where many of the important sites were pointed out. there was the beautiful State House, the way smaller but really significant old State House, the food-filled Quincy Market and old cobbled-stone streets. we spent quite a lot of time at random spots along the way and didnt managed to catch our final destination at the USS Constitution, which is the oldest commissioned vessel afloat in the world (i think they purposely kept it afloat so that they could earn this title. haha).

we went to harvard the next day and the place was so pretty. i was so tempted to just sneak into someone’s hall to see how it really looked like on the inside. and i bought my teddy bear a harvard shirt to make it smart (it’s freaking not called goondu k?!) that night we ate one of the best burger in boston before heading for a naked comedy show. and gosh were they really naked. you should have seen how shocked amanda and i were at first when they came out with their weiner. the first few guys had really really small penises that we wondered if it was even real (i know it sounds so dumb. but it really seemed too small!). but it was a fun show :P

after boston we went over to philadelphia where we did something none of us ever tried before (i know we did tons of stuff on this trip we’ve never done before but this is seriously THE thing) – COUCHSURFING. if you’ve never heard of it, it’s basically this network where people open up their room to visitors to stay for the night in their place. and we did that with a bunch of really sweet guys (eyal, joey, matt and deep) from drexel university. we met so many new friends there and i went for my first ever hebrew lesson with eyal (and that is motivating me to want to start learning hebrew). the Mighty Trio also rose up to the occasion by cooking sweet and sour chicken (the chicken version of the sweet and sour pork we always eat) for a potluck party we had. and man, it was a blast! this whole couchsurfing thing is seriously darn fun!

we didnt do much visiting in philadelphia cos we were starting to get exhausted. all we saw was the city hall, franklin institute’s chronicles of narnia exhibition and upenn’s archaeology and anthropology museum. and of course chinatown where we ate singaporean-malaysian food for the first time in a long while. that certainly made me miss the food back home. YUMS.

after that we joined mervsters and lingmin, his really smart fellow SMU-UPenn friend, to go to hershey’s and lancaster. we were really luckily to get upgraded on our rented car and we had more space and even a gps. hershey’s wasn’t as exciting as we expected it to be as the theme park was closed for the season (winter season sucks) and the chocolate world was some “romanticized simulated chocolate factory” that was actually an utter disappointment. it’s only saving grace was the two pathetic pieces of chocolate they gave at the end of the ride (im a sucker for free stuff. though not as much as someone i know) and the huge hershey’s store they have. but i have to admit that the hershey’s store was really amazing and i was so tempted to get everything i see. i should have bought the “World’s Biggest Hershey’s Bar” for qg but i didnt :( (im sorry baby… i’ll get something else wayyyy nicer for you k?!)

and since we were really disappointed that we couldnt catch the boston bruins ice hockey match (which was obviously played in boston), we decided to make it up with a hershey’s bears (i know… it’s all too cute right) match, which they unfortunately lost. on a side note, we suspected that we must have jinxed the teams that were playing in cities we were in, e.g. boston bruins, boston celtics and hershey bears all lost their games when they were playing during the time we were in their cities. but then im pretty sure it’s just coincidence. hahas.

oh! and a quick fact for all those of you who condemn me for eating white chocolate because “there isn’t any real chocolate in it”. white chocolate is made from cocoa butter that in turn comes from cocoa beans. so it IS a chocolate. hmph! white chocolate rocks.

after hershey’s, I (take note of the word – it’s “I” cos it was I who…) drove us down to lancaster where everything was disappointingly closed cos it was a sunday. but we managed to catch a glimpse of one Amish family going somewhere in their horse carriage. we also ate some shoo-fly pie (i thought it must be really filthy) which was actually filled with molasses. crazy sweet. the crowning moment of that whole trip, which kind of reversed all the disappointments we had gone through, was the lunch we had at a diner. it was the american diner that one really had to go! the food was tremendous, the portions were humongous and the price was cheap! we really ate till we could eat no more and it was the most satisfying meal i had thus far. after that, we made a killing at the stores and bought so much again. but it’s only because we are set out to improve US economy through spending :D

the night we came back to philadelphia we went to try the famous philadelphia cheesesteaks and it was so not worth the hype. i’ll rather a chicken rice over that any time. but then it’s just my personal taste. someone else will probably adore it.

after philadelphia was new york again, where i spent till im nearly (joanna pay and evangeline pay, please note the word “nearly”) penniless. but then i bought so many nice stuff for me, i, various random people, michelle, and myself :D i know! im so nice right?! hahas.

so thus conclude my hopefully interesting documentation of my US trip thus far. if i’ve the chance, i’ll add in photos to this post to make it wayyy more interesting :D