Merry Xmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!!! Enjoyed all the gatherings, parties and outings! If I didn't reply your xmas sms or icq msg so sorry...hehe. May each and everyone of you have a wonderful 2005 too!

The Late Show

okie. still in office. i can't wait to leave. but no. alot of shit to clear up. haiz. xianz. haha, but still got abit of time to blog.

nothing much to report. xmas is coming. looking forward to it. and i got my thursday off. and thursday night is dept xmas dinner at some latin club in clarke quay. xmas eve will be at kk's. 1/2 day of work on xmas eve. haiz.

seems like this year the festive spirit is alot livelier. walking down orchard road also can feel the xmas spirit. the crowds are definitely back. now orchard road so bloody hard to walk through with the thick crowds. i rather hang around in the east and play squash or something...

okie lah nothing much to say liaoz...

A Day In Office

in office right now. sibeh xianz. got arrowed for the standard chartered dinner and dance best dressed table competition. gotta represent my department. what the fuck. this kinda shit let newbie do. anyway we're doing this lady marmalade dance lah. sibeh boliao and really just trying to sell flesh thats all. the guys gotta wear tuxedos without any shirt inside(with bowtie of course!) and the girls wear garters and the bushy dresses a la moulin rouge. jeez. though there is word that we will probably win something but still, abit the boliao lah.

life in this job has been quite okie. this is my second week liao and each day i seem to be staying later and later. but then again the job's fine, i kinda enjoy it and the fact that whenever i leave office, i'm dislodged from all my liabilities at work. so there. not too bad. unfortunately i'm still not really very productive. product knowledge-wise i'm trully pathetic, every fuck shit also dunno gotta ask seniors. least they're nice. but then at least i'm polite and i'm super power at taiji. can slowly but surely channel people's queries to either call some other time or better yet smoke the shit outta them. kie lah. good joc this is so far. no complaints.

still raving and ranting. saturday got pri school dinner. how long we've been together? since pri 1. thats 7yrs old right? so i'm 25 now, so 25-7=18? good lord. 18 fucking years. haiz. people like jinglong and yaoquan, jackson, hanlong. gosh. so many of them we still bother to keep in touch. i think our class had like 42 people in primary six. which local classrooom can even squeeze in 42 people without parents shouting child abuse in primary schools these days? haha.

seems like after uni i'm actually getting closer and closer to my friends from pri sch, sec sch, and jc once more. macham like long lost liao all coming out to work and all got our own lives apart from our academic institutions liao. therefore can afford the time to look up the old birds and old friends. rekindle the old friendship flames. not too bad lah really. life is good.

girlfriend-wise really can't ask for more if you'd ask me. life is good. love for another brings joy to every other thing i do. so thats another good thing. hope this keeps up for a long time to come.

family's great. talk to parents alot more now that i'm permanently staying at home. so much to talk about. interact more with bro and sis as well. yet still if given the choice and if i can afford it i'd move out of home into a pad of my own. really relish my own independence. so how? make money and save up properly lor. don't get into any sort of debt or loan either.

anyone reading this:

DO NOT APPLY FOR A CREDIT CARD.

i've seen so much of it. the debts racked up is crazy. you wonder how people can accrue so much interest and charges. yet its so prevalent in consumers these days. the plastic card lets you spend so much so easily. all you need to do is flash that stupid piece of plastic and what you want you get. then at the end of the month then you call up the credit card company and scream raising hell that the late charges you accrued were "not right in principal" geez i laugh at these people. scream kick and cry all you want, at most i waive off your late charges for you, see how many times we'll do that, then see your credit card debt and watch your sad life wittle away as you realise every month you gotta pay half your salary on instalments that you have signed on for. haha.

instalments are another bitch lah. knn, instalments are all a lie. you end up paying 1.5times the actual amount you thought you'd pay. how many times you here people crowing about having bought a car at so-and-so cheapo price? sheesh please lah if you really want to tell me your car was a fucking cheap bargain then tell me that you made one lump sum payment for hte car, then i'll wow at you and say thats really a good buy. these days the instalments all standard wan. you think you pay 60k for a hyundai getz and after factoring instalment you actually pay 90k. for fuck??! might as well spend that 30K to take taxi until you save up enough for 60k. one month let you save $1000, take 5years to pay a lump sum 60k car, let you take cab for ,lets say 300 out of 395 days in a year at $10/day, the money you saved got enough to take cab for 10years! as compared to 60k on instalment say pay 550/mth for 10years. for the next 10yrs of your life $550 of your salary goes to the car. then you become a slave to your car lor lidat. no need to buy house, no need money for wedding, no need money to do anything big anymore. how sad. such is the reality of hte society we live in. haiz.

enough ranting lah. i take a break now maybe later post something up again...

Back

i'm back!

this is just to please those of you who're complaining i ain't bloggin' no more.

long time no blog.

still alive and kickin'.

everything's fine.

work's great. made lotsa good friends.

training's almost over. work proper gonna begin.

life's good.

went to windy's wedding on friday. first secondary school friend wedding i attended. was thoroughly enjoyable. we had a full table of our old dhs 2b clique. there was jinde jiajie yipeng dirui xiaojia emmeline esther shiwei and sharon. things've hardly changed. everyone still looks the same. everyone still behaves the same(well almost) and we're still having tons of fun. yipeng and shiwei are still together. everyone's got a boyfriend or girlfriend with the exception of dirui who's just been dumped(sorry, bro). and no, i'm not a paedophile just because i'm dating someone 3 years my junior. apparently everyone else's other half around the table are within 2 years of us old bags(thats 25 healthy years, mind you!), except yours trully. still was a tip-top back-to-school bonding experience. will be meeting up again soon hopefully! next up either emmeline or esther's turn. haiz. another $88 ang pow to prepare.

sunday played softball at bishan park. quite fun. alot of us. all alumni peeps. nice to have an active alumni group to play softball with. next week hopefully can get the current hall team to join us in the festivities.

think thats all for now. shall tryta blog more often lah.

oh, and the incredibles is really good while bridget jones suck even worse than a shinco brand vaccuum cleaner.

Training Quite Xiong

and my first week of work has gone by.

its been tough. learning all the hardware and software of the computer systems and products of standard chartered. and yet its been a fun-filled learning experience. outr trainer for this week, christine is very nice to us, like an older sister lidat so we get to talk cock with her and all that. also got a good bunch of friends in my training group, all 7 of us. like though today we kenna arrow to change the noticeboard decorations(wah lao! always arrow newbies for this kinda shit work!)the girls all sibeh onz and happy to do it, while us guys keep complaining haha. but fun lah, being with them, all damn good at talking cock. thats what a good job is about right?

today started to learn to swim in the sea. had to pick up calls from customers. i was attached to this girl named adeline as my senior. same batch as julian. she is super zhai and damn fast with her work(i suppose the longer you are at the job the better you are at it) so there's really alot to learn from her. and she takes the time to explain to me all sorts of things, so very thankful, even more so considering she has a call target to meet inspite of having to put up with my blurness and slow movements. promised to buy her a box of chocolates as a reward. haha.

aside from that sometimes will hang out with my fellow trainees while sometimes with julian and other staff. all the staff there really very nice so thats a really good environment to work in. the managers so far have been pretty nice to us too. and its mondays are beachwear days! can wear berms tshirt and slippers! no kidding! and fridays are jeans days, can wear tshirt jeans and comfy shoes(my lifestyle nikes!) so good!

kie lah think thats about it for my job. next week gotta stay back after work with my gang to do the stupid decorations and fuck shit. meanwhile after work really dun have much of a life. just now while having dinner i received my 7th call for an interview since i sent out my resume 2weeks ago. yesterday had one from a filtration company, this afternoon dbs called, and then just now richburg motors called. the fucker who called was an ang moh can?! shit man hope i dunt end up regretting getting into a job so early, else i'm gonna curse the hr department of stan chart for being so xiao onz. knn.

but 'least work's fun lah.

so far.

haiz.

Lost And Found Job

the last few days have been flying by for me. not sure if its because i'm enjoying every minute of it or i'm just constantly kept too busy to smell any roses.

i've gotten a job liaoz! have been officially welcomed to the standard chartered family. doing the same job that julian does, as a sales consultant. got through my second interview with the big boss, ann kong(who was really intimidating) with a coupla hitches but ultimately she offered me the job. really excited and looking forward to start work - tommorrow! wah so fast.

we had a oldie guys night out on friday. got me julian joe thomas ah aow john weixiong steven and howren. ate at the golden mile towers basement steamboat(its really quite good!) and then played pool afterthat. was really cool to catch up with them again after so long. most of them are still the same though, 'cept everyone's working. we kept suaning steven about his ambitions to be a police officer, saying hte only reason they'll recruit him is so that he can help act as the baddies on crimewatch. haha. pool was fun too. then we had dessert at army market afterthat. and everyone's turning into a smoker! haiyoh...

yesterday was dinner with the 44 gang. had fiona and simon(her da nan ren!) bock lian leon kelvin chun and myself. we ate at nooch at paragon basement. was quite fun, though being the subject of torrid questions sucked. we went to nude at wisma afterthat and i got high after a bottle of carlsberg. geez i suck. and then there was this malay waiter who was so obnoxious and rude! he said something to the effect that we were cheapos and who came only to drink their promotional beer! wtf?!?! argh so pissed off. that guy totally spoiled the rest of my night. haiz. asshole.

think thats about it. later playing softball with the even oldies corrinne they all at bishan park. but seems like not many people going leh...

tommorrow starting work!

Job Search For A Soul

yay. i made it to the 2nd round of interviews at standard chartered! whoo. going for it at 3pm later. hope for the best!

been actively searching for jobs since i came back. took a really long time to get my resume and cover letter(i HATE writing cover letters) up and running but its finally done. its alot easier now like once the skeleton is complete the rest of hte work just revolves around tweaking little details and making sure you don't send the wrong shit to the wrong company!(did that TWICE! KNN)

so anyway i managed to start sending my resumes and letters on tuesday. then what do you know on wednesday i get called up for not one not two but three interviews! wah. thought i was damn popular. but no lah haha. out of the 3, 2 are for selling insurance wan(knn so the position name is really very tricky). the last one was julian's standard chartered bank. still i went for all lah. go listen and learn also good right?

the first one was for prudential. i applied for a business development executive post. those bastards sell insurance whether you are an insurance agent junior management associate or the toilet maintenance executive lah so now you know in prudential, everyone has got a policy to sell. but not that i'm bad mouthing the profession. after the talk i realised that it really is quite a lucrative insurance market and the only problem with the profession is the public stigma against it. i mean seriously there's nothing wrong with selling insurance and more often than not the policies seriously do serve to help you (A) financially protect yourself against mishap or (B) save a fuckload of money. so really, nothing wrong with that right? but the interviewer who interviewed me, this Josephine woman, made a very realistic and valid(i was really impressed by her honesty in this business) point - alot of the social stigma has been created by insurance agents themselves. from their over-pesistence to their capitalist attitudes, this is what's become of the insurance industry. so its quite sad. of course not all insurance agents are like that, alot genuinely want the best for their customers too as either way both customer and seller wins mah. then of course she proceeds to say that "under her wing"(knn i thought she was gonna say under her skirt), she will train me to be ethical and successful...yada yada and the sales pitch overwhelms her. still it was interesting and she was relatively nice lah. till she asked me to address her as "da jie"(big sister? - fuck you!).

the second one was more interesting lah. standard chartered, as a sales consultant, julian's working there, and the environment looks pretty good(with tons of chio bus!). i dunno how i spent an hour and a half there but it felt bloody xiong. two managers asked all the standard questions, then told me the demands of the job, blah blah, standard(roll eyes) stuff lah. but afterthat a more senior manager came over and asked me to do a role play with her. i wasn't too obliging since she didn't look very young. then i realised the role play was an on-job role play. chay. wah so xiong still must pretend pretend siah. anyway she gave me a whole list of faq about one of their products and then she was supposed to call me and i was supposed to "assist her". the whole process wouldn't have been so tough had it not been for her stupid "to make this role play more challenging" task of typing a separate document altogether. so anyway i went through with it. i realise i sucked at multi-tasking cuz i only managed to type one paragrapgh and a half of that shit she gave me, though i felt i had to spend most of my time finding the answers to her stupid questions...so i came out of the interview feeling like crap. at least julian was there to show me around so that made me feel slightly better. but i made it to the second round of interviews! whooo!

the last one was a financial planning position. this company is apparently a wing of prudential. i didn't like it that much. the guy interviewing me, kevan, talked ten times more than i did. in the end the gist was pretty similar to that of all that josephine talked about. they, who call themselves the pathfinders, do apparently have better administrative and manpower support than jo's, but still if i ever did get into insurance it'd be with jo bah. geez i swear if my parents weren't so against the idea of me becoming an insurance agent i'd definitely give the profession alot more thought.

yup. so that was my three interviews in one day. haven't gotten any calls eversince. haha. except for today's second round in standard chartered. but then again everyone says the calls will come in around a week or two after the resumes are sent. so at the the worst this first round gave me pretty good practice.

anyway something really funny happened when i went for dinner with chun that evening. i was in a very mean mood(though at that time i really didn't realise it) possibly cuz of the tiring day. we had finished our meal at this ramen restaurant called ajisen in taka and while i paid the bill i also applied for their cheapo membership lah(10% off subsequent meals!). then as the poor cashier was writing my name on the card she had the indignant cheek to ask her friend beside her whether my sirname was spelled L-U-M or L-V-M?!??! i mean wtf??!?! then chun said its L-U-M but i suddenly(this was instinctive, really!) said damn loud to chun, "wah lao, L-V-M how to pronounce?!?". eeks. obviously the cashier heard it lah, and all she could afford was a wry smile. then i quickly smiled, took my card and left. haha. wah what a fucker i was. but seriously. that woman has the WORST handwriting EVER! ask to see my cheapo card when you see me.

think thats about all.

Goin' On The Job Hunt

long time no blog liao. don't have much in my head, nor my pockets right now. spent most of my time over the last few days typing out my resume(which doesn't look too impressive in my opinion), and sending them out to various companies. hopefully will get a job asap so that i won't feel so useless at home. meanwhile will try to get some crummy temp job without having to sell backside.

Home. Where I Wanted To Go.

there's an inexplicable good feeling in homecoming. maybe its a return to all things familiar and all things missed. maybe its being able to see all your loved ones and friends again. it sure feels good to be back.

and so my great american trail concludes.

i returned on the flight to singapore from japan feeling extremely tired. so tired that it turned out to be a good thing. coming off an excruciating 13hr flight where i couldn't get a single wink's rest i ended up on the plane back to singapore with a double-seater(the capacity of flights heading to singapore always seems inproportional to calculated distance from the location of departure - the further from singapore you take the flight from the more empty its gonna be) by the window. so i curled up like a lost puppy and nested 6 of the flight's 7hrs. missed even my dinner and snack, and didn't catcha single movie(the previous flight i watched 5 movies in all).

my great american trail has been the summer of my life. recounting it would take a pretty long time i can imagine and trying to remember all that's happened in this period would be near impossible. but its a good thing i kept a running blog and a keenly-updated written journal(writing a book about my experiences did cross my mind). so the next step would be to quickly log my digital pictures with details before my infamous short-term memory kicks in.

the first chapter of the trail began with myself joining the camp chief ouray cast of 2004. never having been exposed to a children's wilderness camp before, alot of the camp's culture and experiences did open my eyes to excessive american culture. it was also fueled by the fact that i was the only international camp counsellor in the camp and therefore had a monopoly on all affairs outside the states(hardly anyone of the staff had gone out of the american continent before). on hindsight i think that was a really lucky break, and thereby enhanced my immersion into the american way of life. which is really interesting, even in the smallest things. so i had a lot of fun going through 2 weeks of staff training, 8 weeks of children's camp, 1 week of girl scouts camp and 1 week of active older adults camp. the friends and relations cultivated along the way has been priceless. and i believe alot of these relations will continue to pepper its prints along the path that is my life. best camp in the nation. best summer of my life.

the second chapter of the trail started the moment i was delayed for 19hrs on the amtrak from colorado to chicago. the whole tour that i had pre-planned for weeks prior to the trip turned out to be a tour of a lifetime with so many memorable experiences. in the belief that opportunity and chance are often mapped by you own creations, plans and attitude, there is little much i can ask for out of this holiday of a lifetime. for starters joe makes a fucking good travelling companion. pardon the language but it deserves such emphasis. i can hardly ask more from a travelling companion. funnily enough joe mentioned at the beginning of the trip that this trip together would either make us hate each other forever, or bond us closer as brudders. i knew it would turn out the latter. we had so much fun, with my boliaoness and and optimistic positivity and his brutal honesty and agreeable-to-any-interesting-idea all blended with our sheer enthusiastic sense of adventure, i think we made up a team capable of winning next season's amazing race.

nevertheless the places we chose to go and the mode of transport we chose to take(we should've coined a name for our car like betty or something) really aided our appetite for adventure and the unknown. in all we drove more that 3700miles of american and canadian road. hit a grand total of 3 cars. got pulled over by the police more than 5 times. and slept in the trusty cavalier more than 3/4 of our holiday. in a way that car was indeed our home, home of stinky shoes(mine), dirty clothes, maps and constant backaches. a host of fun nonetheless.

working at haagen dazs was another rewarding experience, learning shitloads and experiencing the american teenager's working life(we totally blended right in). pay was good and everybody liked us alot.

but i've gotta say the biggest highlights of the trip on a personal note would be seeing the niagara falls from both borders, and the climb up mt katahdin. the climb will probably rank as one of our greatest achievements i think. what's your highlights, joe?

so i'm done packing. packing is tiring. but i'm glad its done. wonder when i'll ever take all that crap out again. wonder when i'll get to use them again. from my 2-man tent to my crazy creek, from my thermarest to my sleeping bag, i wonder if i'll ever get a chance to use them so extensively again once more.

sigh.

Narita Airport, Chiba, Japan

ah ha! bet you all thought that narita airport or new tokyo international airport(apparently thats what narita translates to) is in tokyo right? wrong! its 2hrs away from tokyo(and i'm not just talking downtown tokyo here) and its in chiba county. fast fact.

so anyway here i am back in narita airport where i had started off my american trail blog. i'm really super duper wooper excited to be heading back to singapore. i don't think words will be able to substatially express that excitement towards the plans i have, the people i miss and of course the places and food i missed.

the plane ride here from chicago took 13hrs. it was absolutely uncomfortable, i dunno how i managed to tahan the whole ride considering i couldn't sleep a single wink. dunno how i survived the trip there too(must've been the excitement). anyway i got lucky(as always), flying alone has got its perks if you're willing to look for them, i was placed in the centre seat of a three-seater by the window. so naturally the three people seating there couldn't have known each other prior to the flight. but i guess we three were in a sociable mood so we managed to chat up. on my left was a japanese dentist(must be rich) who spoke fluent english, lived in tokyo and has lots to ask about singapore and say about japan. and on my right was a vietnamese canadian lady heading back to vietnam for the first time in 5 years who had even more to say about vietnam. she was headed for ho chi minh city. so it was nice to have their company all through the flight, there was alot to talk about wow about and laugh about...just in their company and i realised i've learned so much more about tokyo and vietnam.

eastern usa highlights

okie so i'm absolutely pissed that the blog i typed while in times square didn't turn out. had so much good stuff to write about but now its more of a monotonous narration of whatever i can remember.

so highlights were aplenty. lets see...

okie as far as i can remember, after our haagen dazs tour of duty, we left for philadelphia. its a really interesting city and it prides itself as one of the oldest cities in the usa dating all the way back when the united states of america only consisted of 13 states. so the tour of philly was a walking one for joe and i. spent the whole day on foot. we had parked our car at the airport(safest place we could find) and had taken the subway down for a whopping us$17. i think it was here that we walked the most in one day. possibly so. i dunno. still the highlight turned out to be an ugly one. we had walked so much that by the time it was time to go back it had turned dark. now i' gotta say that downtown philly is seriously one place you DO NOT WANNA BE when the sky gets dark. even the lonely planet tells you so. but no. we bopianz. hungry and ended up in mcdonald's. everywhere you see african americans. everywhere. i'm sure whatever estimate of their numbers after dark would be grossly underestimated since you can't see them all. okie so joe and i were happily enjoying our big mac meals when this hobo comes and ask us for money. xianz. i mean its bad enough that they harass you on the streets but in a restaurant? that takes the cake. anyway i came up with this whole bull dropping tale(then again alot of it as true) about how we're really poor students who have no money and live out of our car. so finally the guy relents and is willing to accept whatever loose change we've got and i give him a grand total of 11 cents, though he left pissed and even chided me for calling him `dude'. such gratitude. still it instilled enough fear in us to be wathcing our backs the moment we left the macs and for once in my life i was so relieved to find a train station. its weird cuz once we were in the underground, almost everyone down there was white! how queer. they probably have a secret tunnel to congregate there bah. wonder where all the asians hide?

so that was it for philly. we drove off early next morning. found ourselve sin atlantic city! the vice haven of the east. whatever you can think of drugs sex gambling, all also have. just not as glam as las vegas definitely. i wasted about us$40 in the tropicana casino but the main highlight was me getting chatted up by hookers both on my way to the hotel and from. it is good to note that we checked into a hotel less than 50m from the casino and i got chatted up a grand total of 4 times! forgot what they said exxactly but the most straightforward(desperate bitch) was something like "i'd love to suck that juicy cock of yours, big boy...". now how'd she know i was a big boy?

we left the next day and found ourselves in washington dc. whoo. nice place and its got all the monuments and memorials that you always see on tv. also the new ww2 memorial really looked very good and majestic. main sights included the reflecting pool and the abraham lincoln memorial where martin luther king jr delivered his "l have a dream..." speech, senator john kerry spoke out against the vietnam war, and where jenny waded towards forrest in the movie forrest gump. so it actually felt pretty surreal just to stand on the steps of the memorial and imagine how it all played out. also the mall, capitol hill, the white house and most memorably, the smithsonian museums. most of these places have got super high security. so it was a good thing we walked around without any bags. the museums i've gotta say are one of the best i've ever seen in my life and whats even better is that they were free! whoo! so we got to see alot of dinosaur bones and learn alot about american history and even see the hope diamond(does anyone know what that is?).

finally it was up to new york city! whoo! i can't gush about it enough. it just feels so right ot be there and i sometimes feel like i fit right in. just like in chicago. so the biggest gushing highlight that will make everyone jealous is that joe and i managed to catch 3 broadway shows in a mere 2 days! we watched mamma mia(abba fans will LURVE it), chicago(starring wayne brady from "whose line is it anyway?" - he was hilarious!) and the lion king(best propped theatrical ever ever ever - heck they even managed to put an elephant on stage!) and we spent on about us$63 on ALL 3 shows! thats the recommended price if you're willing to stand for over 2hrs per show. but with our strong legs, it was well worth it. cuz for us$20 you get to stand on the first level of the theatre, which are really small(like the one in raffles hotel) and they're right behind the us$80 seats. there's really nothing to complain about.

so we also visted times square alot, naturally since the theatres were along broadway and times square. times square is really like the billboard advertising capital of the world man. its amazing that you'd spend more time reading the billboards than noticing the stores beneath them. and there's an ultra HUGE toys'r'us there which has an indoor ferris wheel and 2-storey barbie doll house. wow. its been featured on the apprentice before. aside from that we went to battery park to see the tiny little dot that was the statue of liberty(no point taking the ferry to see it since it was so overpriced and the queues were crazy long). also went to ground zero. it felt kinda grim and surreal to be there and just trying to imagine all the drama and panic that went on in the final hours of the collapse of the twin towers was enough to keep us both in sombre moods while we were there. haiz. okie and then we saw the empire state building and the rockafeller centre. and then we spent a whole lot of time just walking the streets of new york. its really a joy to walk but a pain to drive. so if anyone of you's ever there, walk.

guess thats enough of recollection for one blog. i'm gonna go take a huge shit now and then go to my boarding gate liaoz. will be reaching singapore around midnight. can't wait.

Chicago, Illinois, USA

geez, this is my fourth attempt at composing a blog and i've had enough disappointment writing a blog only to see it unprinted.

anyway, i'm in chicago now. arrived this morning at 7am. immediately got onto a cab and checked myself into the travelodge near to o'hare airport. chicago just got hit by a cold spell last night and the weather's freaking cold right now, i really won't be surprised if it snows tomorrow. and the best part is right now i'm in the chicago public library in downtown in my berms and slippers. geez. no wonder the whole world's staring at my shivering calves...

the train from pittsburgh was really interesting. it was a crowded one so i got assigned a seat(previous they didn't need to do that). i got to seat right beside a 13yr old amish aspiring magician. the amish have always left me perplexed i've gotta say. the world's moved on but these people choose to live on without the use of technology thereby rendering them without the car(they actually still use horse carts), the computer(never heard of it), television(instrument of the devil) and even electrical lighting(oil lamps for them). still they've managed to get around and keep their tradition alive till today. which in itself is an amazing feat. so this boy's name is paul and throughout the ride i get bombarded with questions about singapore and my way of life and blah. i let him play my handphone games and i try to satisfy his questions as best as i possibly could. amish come from huge families and are devoutly conservative christians. they don't like to have their pictures taken and they dress in standard farm clothing even when they go to the city. so for paul who happened to be with his brother matthew and mom on the train, they were all wearing 19th century farming garb. wow. anyway all the way till we both fell asleep around 3am, he was either bombarding me with questions or showing me some pretty cool magic tricks. and i tried my best to be a good audience. so least hte ride was pretty interesting. by the end of it he gave me his address(no email) and i gave him mine and i told him to write me. his mom also gave me an amish souvenoir keychain which was radically cool.

pittsburgh

i had this really long blog lamenting the waste of the first blogging waste back when i was in new york with joe. was blogging in brandie's sister, brittany's room when all of a sudden the internet connection crashed. i could've hollered enough expletives to bring the house down. no kidding.

anyhoo, pittsburgh with the grabskis was a total blast. i'm so thankful for brandie and her family for making my experience living with an all-american family such a wonderful and memorable one. and all of them loved me to bits(must be the lack of a male presence.

the house brandie's staying in is in the tiny town of hopewell 25minutes out of pittsburgh and her mom, megan stays with her step dad, ed and stepsister, brittany. then brandie's sister, heather lives not far away, whose husband is on duty in iraq and she's gone all crabby and lonely because of that. i got to sleep in the basement of the house which was really cool with me. first day i was there brandie brought me on a short tour of pittsburgh(she hardly knows much of hte city herself haha) and then we went with megan to watch brittany's soccer match which they lost oh-so-unfortunately to a fluke goal to a rival high school.

at night we went to cheong. it started off bad cuz i was not allowed to enter one of the trendier clubs because i didn't have my passport with me(bloody ic is not enough for those snoots). so we went to the south side and hung around in the clubs there. it wasn't too bad but alot of hip hop and pop. drinks were downright cheap on a wednesday night so i totally had too much to drink. we tried all sorts of shots and rums and they were really unique because their shots were ultra-concentrated sweeteners as well instead of just straight up vodka or whatsoever liquor. so it was obviously alot easier to down. i thought i was okie but then we went to a diner for supper which was when everything kicked in and one thing led to another and all of a sudden i was wasted amongst the barstools of the diner and the whole diner's employees starring down at me. haha. i don't really recall all that happened but according to brandie i had gotten up to go to the toilet and then kinda fainted and the waitress thought i had alcohol poisoning or something. anyway gist was that i was well taken care of and the huge burly cooks did a great job of carrying me to brandie's car. haha. so that was it. 4th time in my life i get wasted. right in the heart of pittsburgh. i think the only bits i recalled were scenes of brandie screaming that i'm from singapore and i was here to visit and everyone was like "whoa thats helluva long way from here!", and me somehow hurting my elbow. hmm.

okie enough of that nonsense. next day we just hung around in the towns of aliquena and aligheny and hopewell. brandie brought me to her favourite eating places and see some sights. in the evening the whole family and myself watched the first of hte presidential debates. kerry is definitely a better debator. and then at night, even though we both said we won't cheong anymore, we somehow appeared in this hip club in the university of pittsburgh in downtown. that's cuz it was 80s night! whoo!! and the club scene this time was alot better. alot wilder. and alot more fun! not to mention that i drank alot less too.

finally yesterday i thought my train left in the afternoon but turns out it was at night so that allowed me to hang around more with the family. brandie had to go work(she took the previous two days off), so i ended up being entertained by megan at first, playing a scrabble game with her. think she's pretty impressed since she got whipped good. then she brought me to heather's high school openhouse parade(where she's teaching). its like a procession with marching bands and floats and stuff so it was a pretty interesting sight. then together with brittany she treated me to a really spendid lebonese dinner. it was kibae(raw beef) and grapeleaves. pretty interesting. finally she brought brittany myself and heather to this uptown to do clay painting. it was really fun and she said it was supposed to be a bonding session for all her daughters. we had a really good time and brandie came over to join us after her work. then it was time to go and brandie sent me to the train station. gonna miss the whole lot of them but we'll be keeping in touch.

so thats it for pittsburgh.

joe had written about the experiences we've had since we left long island after our haagen dazs working stint. i guess i'll elaborate on that later tomorrow when i'm in narita airport. it was a really memorable trip with him and we've had all sorts of the greatest funniest and crazy experiences. but more on that tomorrow bah. i'm left with 15min on the computer - i was dumb enough to try to apply for a library card only to realise you can get a temporary pass for free. and i'll be walking around chicago downtown, its a lovely saturday.

catch ya later.

oh joe, if you're reading this, i have no idea what these guys did to the library computer system here in the chicago public library but its a whole lot better now. the internet access is not on the 8th floor anymore, its on the first floor and there're about a 150 computers now and the system they are using(use library card number) is alot easier and faster. just so you know.

Long Island, New York, USA (cont'd)

okie so our work in haagen dazs is finally over. you can read about it in joe's blog. we've learned alot and the people loved our work ethic. i'm pretty sure susan wished we could've stayed longer. still it was a good experience and the money was good, but its time to move on.

visited the tanger outlet in riverhead a coupla days ago. bought alot of stuff. spent like $110 in total. wow. i love cheap stuff.

anyway yesterday was a big highlight. we were down in the big apple again. bought my train tix to pittsburgh and to chicago.

took the subway to new york city from queens. we wasted $8 on toll driving in and out of manhatten in just 15minutes. knn. all thanks to yours trully making a wrong turn. but then again it was all for the better. traffic in downtown uptown crosstown manhatten is c-r-a-z-y. its killer. i mean i've seen shit traffic but here it takes the cake. the taxi drivers are the worst i've seen and most unsympathetic(as i video captured an incident of taxi-bullying) and the way people drive its just surprising there weren't more accidents. still my 15mins in there has already upped my international driving experience points by 2000. i'm a grandmaster driver now.

and then we visited times square. its really awesome. really should be the advertising capital of the world. the billboards are so aplenty that you can rightly spend half a day just keeping your neck at a 45degree angle reading the crap on those advertisements. and extremely bright and motion enhanced so it really feels like being in a huge loolapalooza concert with little entertainment spots littering the entire block.

also went to the empire state building. by saying 'went to' it just meant hovering around the entrance and the ground floor taking silly pictures. it costs us$12 to go up and the queue was 30min long. so fuck that.

bought my train tickets in madison square garden. it feels weird being in the mecca of entertainment venues. like its supposed to be damn ooh-seh but there was nothing really spectacular about the place leh. at least the amtrak station is perhaps one of hte best i've seen all throughout my travels though. hmm. as with most of new york, maybe everything's overrated on tv.

bought alot of 'i love new york' goodies and souvenoirs. really like tourist.

Haagen Daz Crew Evicted

okie. still in long island, new york. still working in haagen daz. somewhat tiring but still fun. and now we can go home telling everyone we get to serve silly ice-cream and eat loads and loads of cookies & cream while getting paid like s$12/hr. whooo. money's really pretty good. we got our first pay on saturday. got like us$80 for less than 12hrs work. dunno how they do the math but you don't hear me complaining! both joe and i are getting better on the job too, so we're more zhai at doing the various shakes and smoothies now(like yesterday i made the ultimate large 31-flavour shake for myself - and then had to lao sai thereafter, maybe i'm slightly lactose intolerant). in summary, the job's still fun and i enjoy serving customers, but legs getting somewhat wobbly.

yesterday after work stacy told us we've been evicted. apparently the landlord for their place found out that including us there're 6 people living in that little place they've rented out. so they gave the ultimatum that both me and joe must go. haiz how sad. so last night we spent the night in the car. it not too bad lah sleeping in the car. for a moment i even missed the cosiness of the reclining seat. and since we've still gotta work another 5 more days till our next paycheck, it looks like we'll be stuck in smithtown till the end of the week.

the night of sept11th after work we also drove all the way to manhatten, new york. went to the place where the world trade centre twin towers were, ground zero. they had a commemoration(i'm sure you've read about it in the papers) there and they shined the 2 giant beam of lights which represented where the towers stood that they did 3yrs ago. it was really beautiful, and the place was packed with people and even at midnight there was a horrendous traffic jam all across manhatten island.

it feels kinda surreal to actually be at ground zero and then you start imagining the horror and devastation that happened and they play across your imagination as you comb ground zero with your eyes and i guess its really a very scary sight to witness. all 16acres of that flat caged space full of construction crew used to stand the world trade centre and its subsidiary buildings. melissa was telling me that she's been up to the top of the towers before and at the top there were starbucks and other cafe outlets crew like ourselves and none of them survived. and that alot of people even in long island knew at least a friend or a friend of a friend or even kin who perished in that disaster. makes you think about our own silkair crash, just magnified a few thousand times more.

*sigh*

on the way back somehow joe and i yet again got ourselves hopelessly lost. it didn't help that stacy and sergei in the backseat couldn't provide much help as they were sleeping. i dunno what's with the both of us and our uncanny sense of adventure(mostly mine) but we both always get lost and end up driving for hours and asking for directions(who said men don't ask?). haha still we both admit its fun and anyone else with any less patience would probably have blown his top countless times.

the lot of us including christina also went to the long island beach a couple of days ago. we met this really nice guy who was escaping the storm in florida who showed us where the nicest beach in long island was. its this little place called little africa. didn't look too bad, but no surfs, just calm water and on a clear day(it was when we went) you could see across the channel over to connectticut. i remember sergei being very enthusiastic about swimming( he eventually did) since there's very little seashore in the ukriane i guess, while joe and i just rolled our eyes. maybe we take our shores too much for granted, else its just too dirty and murky lah(which i firmly thought so). we've also decided that on 27th sept we're coming back here to have a stayover bbq. yay.

been thinking about home alot lately. and thinking about everyone back home and all the food and places i miss just gets me pumped to return home. its such a cliche(that i've even mentioned it more than once since i came here) but its really true that absence makes the heart grow fonder. also i think you only appreciate what we have and how good the life we lead only when you've travelled so far from home for so long. haiz.

about 21 more days till bozo comes home.

Long Island, New York, USA

its 9-11 today. oooh. wonder if anything bad's gonna happen. still, its a wonderfull saturday and we've got the morning free.

so guess what? joe and i are actually working right now. we're working in this little town in long islang called smithtown at the local shopping mall(its still huge) at the haagen daz outlet! thats right! we're both haagen daz crew! haha. its been fun, yesterday was our first day of work, pays $6.75/hr and we've told them we are available anytime they need us. its been pretty interesting, yesterday we were made to try all the different flavours available and then learned to make every single thingy on the menu from shakes and dazzlers to sundaes and scoops. we've got an okie supervisoer, susan and some nice high school kids who teach us the ropes pretty well, especially alex. hopefully the next few days won't be too xiong for us. still the money's good.

anyway we're also staying with joe's friends sergei, stacy and christina right now. there's also christina's boyfriend, also a sergei. they're pretty nice(except for the boyfriend) and we all share this tiny little apartment-attachment-like thingy. its good enough for us not having to sleep in the car(for me at least) and they're pretty well equipped so we're living comfortably.

so after montreal we travelled to quebec city. its a pretty beautiful old city with old forts and all and joe and i spent alot of time walking through most of the upper forts of the city which has been commercialised.

mt katahdin

next came what will probably be the highlight of our trip. we climbed mount katahdin!!!! set in baxter state park in maine its >5000ft high(doesn't sound that high but its the 27th highest mountain in the usa) and of course, the starting point ofhte appalachian trail. we drove to the park and then in the wee hours of the morning waited outside the gate till it opened. the hike took us 8hrs total. it was bloody xiong and i chose to take the toughest route on a rainy day which took us through the infamous and notorious 'knife edge' its a mile-long trail of huge jagged rocks only about 5ft wide of which falling over either side would result in painful bone-crunching death. i definitely underestimated it from what i read in magazines but the knife edge was absolutely hardcore. joe and i could've died man. haha. and we were one our fours most of the way and usually had to do alot of rock-climbing stunts. it was crazy, but nonetheless worth it. from the top you could see across 5 different states around new england and that was really something. still joe and i agreed that no words will ever trully express the dangers and excitement we went through during our climb to the top. i took alot of pictures along the way and those perilous pix might help offer a glimpse of what we went through. its pretty funny on hindsight that while we were dangling and dicing with death we could still afford a smile at the camera. typical asians.

afterthat everything paled in comparison. i thought the niagara falls were awesome, but katahdin kicked mega ass. so thats currently our #1 thing-we-did-in-our-travels.

then we drove down to portland and then boston. but since we only drove by we will probably head back again for another visit. boston does look like its got alot to offer.

among the highlights of our trip also included me getting pulled over by a police car TWICE within an hour. the first time was for speeding at 49mph in a 25mph(who drives that slow?!) little town and the second time was a routine check because the officer suspected we were drunk or something in the middle of the night. BUT both times the officers were really nice and instead of giving me a fine they gave us directions to baxter state park. must be my politeness.

we've been meeting alot of different nice people along our travels and the current lot we're staying with are no exception. well hopefully we'll still meet more to come. meanwhile thats all the update.

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

its a good thing joe beat me to blogging about this place. got writer's block and can't really think of what i wanna write. so if you really wanna know what's been going on just go read his blog.

its true. the couple we've been staying with the past 2 nights have been hospitable and inviting beyond words. their reception and welcome towards strangers like ourselves and even mark and his merry gang(yes, we're ALL staying under one roof now, all 6 of us) is exceptional and really an eye-opener into the degree of the kindness of strangers. in fact the pay it forward attitude the danny(the husband) spoke to joe and i about where they were first accorded such hospitality while they were in algeria by a family of muslims is somewhat infectious. and we hope we'll do our part as well.

speaking of which joe and i were chilling out on top of mount royal in downtown montreal yesterday(where you can see an aerial view of the enormous city of montreal) when we saw this stranded korean duo who were looking for the area code of kingston. to cut a long story short we found it in our hearts not only to approach them while they eyed us with suspicious conmen alertness but also to actually aid them in finding a youth hostel and even giving them one of our rare hostel maps which we got in singapore. needless to say they were all smiles thereafter. but i think what my just-woken-up mind is trying to say is that under real circumstances and societal norms, joe and i would've just flicked our cigarette butts away and drove off, if not for the infectious spirit of sharing and caring.

so apart from that everything else has been still really rockin' hard. joe and i went on a city tour of montreal whole of yesterday. the tourist info center is probably the best i've visited so far in this american tour. old montreal is spectacularly bohemian and arty-farty coupled with its 19th century architectural getup really creates an atmosphere of olden montreal, place of narrow cobbled streets and buildings of stone enveloping you for blocks and blocks in the city.

mark's travelling with another 2 guys and a gal(there's this freaky story about the gal which if anyone's interested ask me when i come back) and they seem pretty nice people. but they're travelling on an ultra budget as well and it looks even worse for them because 4 of them share a car smaller than ours and even sleep in that little automobile. how to survive? but they do. well to each his own level of comfort and how they wanna spend this trip lah.

and still i can't stop praising the mckinleys(danny and marian), the couple that took us in. i feel indebted and i guess i'll send some bak kuah back when i get back to singapore. they entertained us with a lovely chicken dinner last night over beer and wine. it was fine all-american household dining. and we chatted for a really long time over alot of things. it really helps that they're retired teachers so much of this good attitude also spawns from their thirst for opening their minds to new cultures and more knowledge. i just hope that we've created a good impression of us as singaporeans. naturally we've already been labelled as nice smart intelligent and adventurous people. hopefully we don't rear our ugly side.

so the ugly side in me came out for 2 nights in a row when i felt the urge to go gamble. luckily i set a limit of $20 both time i went to the montreal casino. first night i lost it all on the quinzella machine, last night i lost about $7.50. nice to have such fun at times.

think thats about it. joe and i have been travelling together for almost a week and a half liao. and we're still having a great time. so thats a good sign. joe said at the end of the trip eitehr we'll hate each other or we'll bond closer. i'd say at the way things are we're certainly heading for the latter.

life is good.

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

in ottawa ontario canada right now. its the capital of canada. there's much to see. alot of old buildings and stuff and there's always the ottawa river. the parliament building which we visited yesterday looked really old and majestic and we even managed to go up to the bell tower to soak in an aerial view of the city. later on will probably be walking around town with joe.

living out of a car has got its perks and cons. but we're getting used to it. and there's always the thrill of posing as:

A) students

- as we're doing right now using the university of ottawa's library internet access. its orientation for the undergrads right now so it makes our tasks even easier. we walk into university/college gyms easily to use their showers as well without the fear of people suspecting that we're not students. and its always easy to talk to people or staff along the way.

B) tourists

- whipout our cameras and we become instant stereotypical chinese tourists who're eager to see and take a picture of anything! we get treated better this way especially when we're in touristy spots . but this pose is probably the least used and more often than not done by me than joe.

C) hotel guest

- for this pose, nonchalence is key. and joe and i do it really really well. we get into hotels to wash up or use their toilets or even walk around to their top floors to get aerial view pictures and we still get treated like guests. aaah the life. it is good to always be prepared to mouth out a room number "that you're staying in", will surely save your skin sometimes. most often used pose since toilets(or at least good ones where you can take your time for a good shit) are really hard to find in downtown.

D) locals

- another favourite. the way joe and i speak we can easily pass off as locals. once again nonchalence is key. and canada's even easier to do so since the asian population here is so huge. helps to ward off unwanted attention.

oh well anyway we'll be off to our next destination. if only i'll stop buying all the cheap stuff that i find while shopping. already purchased the entire first season dvds of the simpsons and futurama(it was C$19.99 who could've resisted??!!!) and alot of trash from the factory outlet in erie pennsylvania liaoz. jialatz. its gonna get even uglier when i go live with brandie.

oh yah joe got a speeding ticket yesterday doing 143km/h on the highway. cost us C$157.50. bummer. gotta drive like snail from now on. haiz.

also had my first strawberry milkshake in a super duper long time from mcdonald's. its like triplethick so it was hard to suck and that sucked. joe was compelled to try one too.

faked our way into the university of ottawa by posing as first year students moving in to hall. luckily i'm observant so when we were approached by some volunteer student who was handing out directions to cars i was immediately able to respond "stanton hall" to his where-are-you-heading-to request.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

went to erie pennsylvania and then buffalo. buffalo's definitely a larger city than the way its wbeen made out to be in travel books. but its streets are somewhat underpopulated and deserted. alot of "aw per"(black skin) negroes all over the place.

so the niagara falls came and went. we saw the falls from the american side and the canadian side. both towns are called niagara falls, haha(okie so maybe only i find it funny). majestic to say the least, and sometimes even overwhelmingly inspiring. honeymoon capital of the world and a bloody infestation of tourists all year round. the falls by day and the falls by night are two entirely different episodes. capitol hill by the falls in the canadian side is also a wonder. a really nice entertainment district. when we come back someone please ask me about kirk jones.

toronto's a really nice place. very cosmopolitan and vibrant and there's alot going on in this city. been driving around alot.

montreal next.

Cleveland, Ohio, USA

in cleveland now. in their public library using the free internet. not as vibrant as chicago but still at nice city. feels safe. got a bank account in charter one bank, which has just been bought over by citizen bank. haha.

buffalo by tonight.

Chicago, Illinois, USA

this is our last day in chicago. don't have much time to blog. in the chicago public library now. chop chop notes.

train from denver got delayed by 17hrs. first by flooding in nebraska then electrical thunderstorm in iowa. reached chicago at 1130am on saturday morning. made a complaint that due to delay friend from chicago whom i'm supposed to stay with was now in detroit attending a wedding, back only sunday. got a free complimentary room at a downtown hotel(travelodge - worth $100!) as compensation.

met joe. hugz. he's staying with a romanian couple sorin and alina.

tour chicago the next two days. grant park navy pier john hancock sears magnificent mile loop most things in downtown we've walked twice over.

night before went to swanky club called excalibur. really swanky. i like. music's good and we got free entry from a brochure i found. got chat up by an ah-neh studying here. joe pukes after a bottle and a half of corona. we leave.

no enough public toilets in the city here. we have to pretend we're occupants of the hotels whose toilets we wanan use. not too hard to do that though. hilton marriot westin we've all tried their toilets liao.

nothing is free in chicago. just so you'd all know.

but i like this place. city life is super uber vibrant. night life is lagi vibrant and evrything here's so on-the-move. i love it.

oops, joe caught me blogging. he says hi to everyone.

buffalo, new york next. leaving today.

Last Post in Camp

this will be my last and final blog from the cco office liao. today we had the aoa closing vespers. kinda sad that the oldies have gotta go. they were a fun bunch. and they loved all of us too. haiz.

we had a talent show where i performed with the guitar for the first time all summer. turned out quite okie. also turned in a riotious cross-dressed act playing a flight attendent while performing the 'if i weren't a counsellor' song.

we had aoa olympics as well. was way fun. we played super dumb games like see who can kick their shoe the furthest, scissors paper stone tournament, and other oldie games which were pretty fun anyways. in the end my singapore family won and we actually got medals! haha then i sang our national anthem 'majulah singapura' to them and then we took victory pictures with the singapore flag. how nice.

this was a moving letter written by one of our participants that probably summed up everyone's week the best:

AOA Camp

For a short time I can lay aside the mantel of maturity and seriousness and just have FUN!

I did not have a chance to "go to camp" as a kid. But now I do it in the comfort a queen-sized bed with indoor plumbing, and electricity and delicious food someone else cooks - and cleans up afterwards! All the above-mentioned are most welcomed to a body that doesn't work as well as it once did.

Camp is a wonderful opportunity to escape the rush of the crowded city and enjoy the peace and beauty of nature.

I am continuously amazed at the creativity and artistic ability within everyone that has the opportunity to express itself.

It is a time to make new friends, see old ones, and to realize the quiet courage with which they live their lives.

Last but not least it is an opportunity to interact witht young adults that are not a part of any of my friends families; to hear about their plans and dreams and know we are turning the world over to a group more than capable of dealing with the problems of this old world.

Thank You.

*sniff*

so anyway tomorrow's an exciting day for me. the rest of the staff have decided to travel with me all the way to denver to see me off. how nice. as well as to have dinner and then go to elicht gardens(dunno if its spelled right, but its a six-flags-owned amusement park) to have fun! whooo!

feel alot closer to the leftover staff right now in general because we see each other so often and we spend so much time together. there is also a different maturity level as compared to with the cabin counsellors, so talking to them is alot more joy. will be sad to leave them.

got my total pay today which, after tax deduction(i dunno why) came down to around US$1.5k. its more than i expected so thats a good thing.

its really late liao so i'm going to sleep. my stuff is more or less packed but i've got so much things i really dunno how i'll be able to bring it all back...haiz.

Red, White And Blue

active older adults camp is really awesome. i've learnt some much in just the last few days here, what with all the old people's favourite activities and all that camp enthusiasm.

significantly, yesterday the after dinner program was called red white and blue. it was supposed to be a patriotic session of sharing all things american. so everything in the dining hall was draped in the three colours, we used napkins, cups and plates with american flags painted on them and there were flags everywhere. it was somewhat interesting to see how patriotic the oldies were. and patriotic americans they really were alright. alot of them read poems, talked about what it is to be an american and even tap danced.

the true highlight for me was the forum with the national guards. they were like our reservists at home in singapore, have been trained before and only need to serve a few times a year. there were four of them all from a medical unit on training in grand county. so they came to the front and fielded questions. the oldies subsequently asked alot of questions about what it was like to serve and where they served before and blah. what struck me was the amount of respect and gratitude these oldies had for their soldiers. i mean the fact that its not very evident in singapore is one thing but these oldies were saluting and praising and thanking these four guys who've got day jobs and haven't seen much combat before. and they were telling them how special they were just for being willing ot defned their motherland with their lives and blah. so it just kinda made me wonder just how much alot of singaporeans take the army for granted, yeah, even those who've served it - i wonder how many would really stay in time of war. there was also an important message about fighting for freedom and how far they've come as a nation and its really akin to the plight singapore had went through 39 years ago before we became a republic. the only difference perhaps, is that i don't think many singaporeans appreciate our independence enough. okie so i'm an emotional patriotic sap. bite me.

that aside marty mary ann and michelle got a raise from the ymca(yay! now they're paid above the poverty line!) so we all went to 'the pub' in winter park for a drink. the bartender was excited when he realised i hailed from singpore(though i doubt he knew where it was) and was shouting at the bar about this visitor from far away. it was an enjoyable night. first time all summer that all the staff were actually eligible to enter a pub in fact. so that made it even sweeter. i had 2 budweisers and got buzzed(so lousy), must've been the altitude. marty also asked me if i would come back next year. told him i really hoped to but see how things work out for me. haha. well i really would like to come back but i know chances are slim. he did say though that pa and ma get a discount if they wanna come!

this morning anne taught me crochetting!! yay! its addictive and its alot like knitting. so most of the morning i'm like a little quiet squirrel sitting in the corner with terianne sara and michelle, knitting away. my attempts of a scarf will bear fruit by the time i get back home.

i also learnt to line dance and square dance. its so fun! just follow the instructions can liao. no wonder so many oldies in singapore are so into it at those community centres. also got a quick waltzing lesson from lydia - it was her birthday - so i asked her for a dance and it turned into a waltz lesson for me! ha!

grace called later on. said she and rae cooked special singapore food for me since i was gonna leave day after tomorrow. so i went over to the kiva. turned out to be fried rice and sardines. its not too bad lah considering that i haven't had anything this authentic for the past 3 months. we ended up talking till late afterthat. its always good to yak with singaporeans when you're in a foreign country for so long. makes you miss home family and friends.

think i've learnt alot just from hanging around with these old people. they trully appreciate life and are thankful to have lived so long and so well. we had get-to-know-you session on sunday night which was where everyone had to tell the rest of the people sitting in the circle that if they had a favourite t-shirt what would be printed on it and what it would say. while i said something like it would have a singapore flag and blah, alot of the oldies said that theirs would just have the words 'glad to be alive' or 'happy to be here' and so on and so forth along these lines. you really can see the enthusiasm they possess, even at such an old age when they're physically and mentally more restricted than myself and yet more eager to learn a new skill than me(and by golly i AM eager most of the time). this morning i saw a 70-yr old woman go down the zipline(its 1km long flying fox where you grab a handle bar and you glide down from a rope about 50 feet above the groud) and she was really loving it! they all have this really endearing spirit of having fun and enjoying life not only at activities but during normal routines like meals and long drives. it is but a sobering reminder to enjoy life as you live it and to stay positive in times of adversity...

2 more days to the american/canadian road trip!!! whooooo...

3rd Album Posted!

the third album of swanky good-looking photos are posted! really wish i could put a caption to all the photos, at least they'd be easier to comprehend than just a mish-mash of smiley faces. still, will make an attempt to find some other site more worthy of my masterpieces.

once again if anyone needs me to share the site of the photos do leave a message. note to self: gotta find a site that allows sharing from a single link.

enjoy!

Active Older Adults

AOA has begun. the old campers came in this afternooon. there're only 33 participants, which means our job here is really easy street. michelle's in charge of the whole camp this week, which kinda relegates marty to a normal staff role like the rest of us. mike sarah rae and caroline have left and there'll only be 11 of us running this camp, but i've seen the schedule and its really damn lobo. alot of our working schedule will be like the participants, which is do what you feel like. there'll be alot of activities going on concurrently going on during activity periods and as staff we're not obligated to join in(thank goodness). alot are geared towards the older folk(duh - it is afterall active older adults) such as racewalking, crochetting, leather carving and so on and so forth. still its bloody relaxing and it gives me lotsa time to do things i feel like(like reading) and to just hang around and play fun games.

since these are older adults, they're supposed to be pampered. its amazing. today's dinner they served steak potatoes and corn cobs. wah lau, best meal i've ever had in the chipeta dining hall all summer man, no kidding. aside from that we basically just tell the participants(its weird not being able to refer to them as campers) what's gonna go on the next activity and stuff and they just decide whether they wanna do it. if they want to then we'll lead them but if they don't wanna do anything or wanna do things where we needn't be involved, then better still.

still they're a fun bunch. i haven't had myself aquianted enough to know names yet but everyone's really sporty, enthusiastic and seem to be determined to have a good time. no whiney old folk(worst combo) who get cranky easily. seems like it ain't cheap to come here so i guess if you pay to come to camp then you might as well enjoy and participate in everything right? thnk if got chance pa and ma should come for something like this. i'm sure you'll both enjoy it to bits!

and along the lines of the olympics, the theme for the camp is olympic week. god knows what kinda games they can play with those old folk without foreseeable any injuries occuring. and they're group everyone into 4 families, singapore jamaica scotland and australia! yay singapore! the older folk seem more interested(at least more genuinely) to know about signapore and some of them have actually stopped over before. so that might be a good thing.

so there have been a coupla highlights for the day.

vespers would easily take the cake. lindsay was telling a story about moonrocks(a certain sweet that emits sparks when you crunch on it, its amazing but true!) and then she gave everyone a piece to try. then all of a sudden one of the aoa participants asked very loudly to another participant "can i borrow your teeth?!". that totally cracked us all up. the best part was that she was serious, since she had already cleaned and kept her dentures after dinner.

then when dusty went up to sing a song, the participants shouted for him to sing louder. when dusty jokingly retorted "you mean you can't hear me from there?!", someone in the crowd shouted back "well not all of us have got our hearing aids with us you know!". which i found super funny.

aside from that i spent the next 2 hours after vespers playing dominoes with mary ann andrew dick(mary ann's dad) and kay(mary ann's mom). it was really fun. first time i've ever played it and i won enough for them to tell me that i'm a natural at the game. don't think they'll invite me to play again though. haha.

5th Peak

just climbed 5th peak alone this morning. took me 2hrs to get to the top. what a great way to start my preps for further trips to come. its approx 8,600ft above sea level. it helps that i'm already at 8,190ft from satanta, so there wasn't too long a distance to climb.

started at 830. hiked past archery and tried to find the trailhead, which i couldn't. i went the wrong way twice, once ending up at riflery, which wasn't a very pleasant find considering the morning cold and the cloud cover still over-lapping us here in cco. in the end i gave up and just bashed up the mountain from the swensen trail. the hike up was really morbid. all around were aspen trees and then slowly the landscape changed to pine trees and then finally just near the summit of 1st peak, gravel and rocks.

from 1st peak, you can see most of camp chief ouray and snow mountain ranch. it was a very rewarding view considering how tough it was to bash through the slopey forest. i gave a huge "yawp" of triumph when i got there. its amazing just listening to the echo of your yawp traverse the entire valley.

2nd peak, the most exciting peak was alot tougher to climb but not only could you see all of what you saw at first peak, but also the town of granby and the great rocky mountains valley as well. each time i got to a peak i'd give a "yawp" of triumph(which i learned from scotty and brian kurz)

3rd 4th and 5th peaks were not as exciting. their summits were pine-covered, meaning you couldn't see most anything without pine trees blocking you. the pine cones grow bigger the higher up you climb thats what i noticed. there was cloud cover everywhere though the fog started dispersing as the morning wore on. it was cold at the top, could see your breath even by the early afternoon. still it was a huge achievement to get there. i sat around for awhile, wrote in my journal then started heading down hoping to be able to get down by lunchtime.

the trip down was alot faster for obvious reasons though i almost rolled my ankle a coupla times if not for my walmat hike-worthy hiking boots. i took the trail down which took alot longer and finally found out that it started off at the reservoir. wah so far from camp.

first mountain cleared!

And Then There Were 3...

yet another singaporean has arrived in snow mountain ranch to work her j-1 visa off. this time its rae. i remember her from my group during the aceglobal campusa orientation in singapore, really talkative and full of crap, nevertheless quite a ball to talk to. she came all the way from michigan just to work here(wow?!?!). spent most of the evening chatting and yakking about our experiences at the grill just awhile ago. tomorrow grace is cooking for us both in the most mini(we don't have much of a choice do we?) of singaporean gatherings. still i'm grateful there're people i can finally talk normal with.

rafting today was crazy. today's weather was among the worst i've seen. cloud cover was a 100%, not a single piece of blue sky. and we got rained on so much so that it didn't matter that i didn't fall into the water. and the cold was so bad i couldn't feel my toes and ankles early in the trip, and along with everyone else, was shivering all day long. the bright side to it all came in the form of 7 cute little girl scouts and their troop leader in my boat, who kept bugging me to teach them new songs(inclusive of the now-infamous gaku gaeku piong song), and i'm now known as 'piong' to these little pukes. haha. i may complain and roll my eyes but i loved every minute of teaching them songs and they lapped up every minute of it, and together we were known as the 'singing raft'. we also had a good guide named sailing(what kinda name is that?) who was really into doing the wildest things on the river. so he made the trip alot more exciting than what i'd normally expect. the fact that the little girls scream the house down with every sighting of a white water rapid regardless of how small they might've been, added to the excitement.

marty invited me over to his humble abode for dinner. we had brockwurst on the grill and chips. i like his little house. its so cute and single-oriented. i'd love to own one of those myself.

if you've got this week's 8 Days, Issue No. 724 Aug 19 -Aug 26, 2004 somewhere nearby right now, turn to Page 6, "best letter wins!". my mom wrote in a letter and won herself a nice dinner for two at Cafe de Amigo plus a bottle of wine. go ma! letter as follows:

Mama mia

A recent university graduate, my son recently left S'pore for the US on a three-month stint as an international counsellor at a youth summer camp there. Homesickness soon got the better of him; he missed the familiarity of home and country, and urgently requested for copies of 8 Days! I was like "Huh? 8 DAYS, of all things?" Anyway, we'd just received 8 DAYS #719 (Wow Factor) that week, and wasted no time in despatching the copy to him. This was his response: "Upon receiving the package, I took the 8 DAYS to read in the midst of looking after my kids at the camp; I just couldn't wait till the end of the day! My kids all surrounded me, ooh-ing and aah-ing at the cover and all the babelicious pics, curious about its contents and Singapore. Words cannot describe how much it meant to me, but it felt so, sooo good to see and feel something so familiar, and sharing it with others who had enjoyed the moment as much as I had. Thanks, Ma!" And I thank you all at 8 DAYS!

A very happy mama

Ed: No, thank you, ma'am. And your son, too. We're honoured.
We hope you enjoy your dinner for two at Cafe de Amigo.

i'm so proud of you mom! hope you and pa will enjoy your 26th anniversary together there!

Girl Scouts Camp

hmm.

its different.

girl scouts camp is only 4 days long, programs are approximately the same. but things are so different without the rest of the staff that are gone. rowdie campfire is different, program areas are different and the people i hang out with are different.

been hanging out with what's left of the staff. they're mainly the admin people, so on the bright side i'm getting to know them better. the girl scouts are pretty nice people too, most of the girls are between 9 to 16 and they're qutie disciplines and enthusiastic to have fun. was doing swimming activities with them all of yesterday and then doing archery all of today. tomorrow going rafting again! yay.

i taught the girl scouts the japanese frog song that i learnt as a scout, surprised they haven't heard of it. the gaku gaeku piong song? anyone? anyway they super duper loved it and now they keep calling me 'piong', and ask me to sing it to them wherever we go. geez. still its nice to be popular amongst the girl scouts.

had my end-of-summer evaluation with mike, his assessment of me, to least to say, was damn bloody impressive. i can't remember alot of bits but its so flattering that i'll show it to anyone who wants a read if i ever get my hands on it(which i intend to). i've also been recommended to be re-hired again next summer either as a cabin counsellor, challenger counsellor or trip staff. haiz.

diah cooked me dinner today! indonesian beef with fragrant thai rice(where in the world did she get that?!) it was fantastically delicious and it made me miss singaporean food even more! the oft-mentioned missing-of-singaporean-food-while-abroad may be a cliche but its really overwhelmingly true to the core. words can't describe my yearn for a good plate of char kuay teow or hainanese chicken rice right now.

to the best of my knowledge, there's an article of my travels in america in ntu's only publication worth reading, the nanyang chronicle! rumour has it that there's a really cute picture of me there. thanks beth!

not only do my farts smell bad anymore. my feet are getting smellier and smellier by the day. and to think i change my socks more than the average american. argh.

i've got too much things to carry. eeks. i got new stuff that i got this summer...my crazy creek, thermorest, and this new one-man tent which i kupped from the lost and found, a pair of hiking boots, rock-climbing shoes, a whole milk crate of magazines, one very valuable issue of playboy(i don't intend to bring that back though), alot of hemp, two cutesy stuffed toys(they are REALLY cute) among other things.

dunno how i'm shipping everything back.

The Singaporean Wonder

its a wonder that ironic as it may all sound, we're all guilty of being the proudest-ass singaporeans only when we're not at home. there's just too much that we take for granted when at home. and i'm not even starting on anything big and accomplished that we've done. i'm talking about the really little things, things like saying "wah lao eh", things like saying "comfeerm!" in that cheena twang that only we are capable of, and even punctuating your sentences with the stylistically subtle and simple word, lah.

so anyway it was with great relief when i heard that a singaporean had just last week transfered to snow mountain ranch to work. i went to look for her and its amazing just how excited i was to just spew all the singlish and mandarin i had festering in me the last 3 months. her name's grace and she's 28yrs old and she hails from aceglobal too! which means we'll meet up again on the 31st oct reunion! so we spent quite a long time sitting around the kiva just talking about our experiences in camp and singapore, all in singlish and mandarin! haha. she's had a not-so-good time at her girl scout camp so snow mountain ranch was a refreshing change for her. but she's not as excited as i was since there was another singaporean with her in her previous camp. nonetheless i enjoyed myself a whole bunch just yakking with her. only problem was that i can't scold bad hokkien profanities till i see joe in two weeks. boo.

the little singaporean wonders that will ever only be appreciated when you haven't spoken singlish or singa-cheena in 3 months are endless, but here's my two cents...

putting the word 'lah' or 'meh' or 'hor' at the end of your sentences

saying "comfeerm!" in that cheena twang that only we are capable of

saying 'wah lao' for the first time in so long

saying 'wah lan' and knowing that its different from 'wah lao'

saying 'si mah?' just for the bloody sake of it

having someone else know where in singapore marine parade is

hearing words like 'xiong' and 'xianz'

using the words 'si beh something something'

speaking singlish in singaporean twang

realising you're still fluent in mandarin even though you haven't spoken much of it for 3mths

bitching about american food

bitching about the weather

bitching about americans

bitching. period

ah, i love singapore.

In The End

and so its over. summer camp. i'm so sad. i really am. i can't really describe how sad i am. ever had that feeling about something that you knew the end would come and you knew how it would play out but you never wanted it to happen anyway? ever had that feeling that you know its over but you just can't let it go? i really dunno how else to describe this feeling, i don't think i've felt this way before. i cried the last two nights. i cried last night at staff closing vespers. i cried this morning when summer camp was declared over and everyone started going home. i don't think i've cried this much for such a long time.

i'm so sad of the prospect that every friendship i've fostered over summer will get torn to shreds by long distance and nonchalance. i'm so sad that most of these wonderful friends i've made i'll never ever see again. i'm so sad that this magical experience of a lifetime is finally over. and finally i'm so sad that when i look back at this whole magical experience years from now, it'd all look like just a dream...

so i said my goodbyes last night. it was a really sad night for all of us. it started off pretty well. we had a staff banquet where i had the best camp food(steak and corn cob) ever. alot of relieving of days in camp gone by, nostalgic inside jokes and group photo-taking. i even won the "cco staff member most likely to win the noble prize" award(which made me really proud) to top it off. it stretched till pretty late, afterwhich was closing staff vespers. people were crying even while walking to kiwani owapi. alot of staff had things to share.

when it was my turn i told them my sordid tale of how i came to cco, how i applied for the international camp counsellor's program and thrust myself at the mercy of every camp director in the nation. how by sheer fate and wicked sense of humour, assistant-director(she confessed) maryanne chose me out of all international staff available just because she thought from my resume that i had a wicked sense of humour(and boy was she right) that rightly suited the camp. how i came alone as the only camp counsellor from a foreign land with much apprehension and reservation. how i hate camp having to end. how i will miss every single one of them. and finally how each and every one of them have touched my life in ways they could never imagine.

i made alot of people cry. that sucks. i hate making people cry, but you know when your words are moving when within the bright glow of vespers fire you see people breaking down right in front of you. by the time i got to the finally thank you about the staff touching my life and helping me change the world, i was in tears too. haiz. and to think i told james i definitely wouldn't tear. and as a parting gift, i sang the song "hai3 guo4 tian1 kong1" by beyond, in cantonese. after vespers, we hung around giving each other hugs like never before, i think we stayed for more than half an hour just hugging everyone in sight. damn i'll never forget that.

camp magic

every closing vespers, someone would come up to speak about camp magic. with the camp magic jar in hand thats full of "camp magic" which really was just flammable powder that drew flame when thrown into the fire(the kids find it so amazing)', he would speak of what he felt camp magic really was and what it meant to him. camp magic has been interpreted into countless ways that i can't remember them all. but essentially it always represented something like a good memory of someone or something done in camp. but what was really implied each time this speech was made, was that camp magic was real. it was something you had to experience in order to believe. so i have my own list of camp magic...

camp magic to me is...

wearing the traditional chinese garb and pretending not to understand a word of english and see the alarmed expression on parents' faces when they bring their kids to my cabin

teaching kids to hemp and explaining to them that hemp comes from the marijuana plant

being such a role model and an inspiration to kids even though you're wearing your underwear outside your shorts

being an integral part of the simpson family and making shrink-e-dinks for everyone single one of them

shouting "hooray for pig" in the middle of a serious conversation

listening to kids ask you "did you die?!" when you enlighten them that you've served the military before

burning your knuckle in the shrink-e-dink machine(it was a toaster)

getting a nose bleed all the time

listening to kids ask "do you pee in your pants when you're in love?!" during the ever-popular girl devotions

wearing a hilarious size xs sequiny top and tutu combined with an exploding green wig and then telling your kids to be serious about what you're saying

camping out in parthenon pines and sliding 4ft downhill no matter where you're sleeping

peeing in the fire during campout

hearing people call you jackie chan wherever you go

seeing the jealous faces of other counsellors when you're constantly surrounded by kids

freaking the hell outta kids by shouting "what're YOU staring at!" when they glance in your direction

playing with horse shit

girl devotions

corny's laugh

hearing kids tell you you're the coolest camp counsellor ever while you're giving away snack, then hear them say the exact same thing to the other counsellor when you've run out of snack

taps

leading kids in a mad run all over the woods during all camp game

seeing campers take the dance so seriously

painting the scottish flag on your face and fighting war on the field between satanta and campcraft

not bathing for a week and a half

hunting for keiko and shamu the whales

learning a new dance to ymca by the village people

singing a chinese song at vespers and singing it all wrong and yet having campers coming up and telling you what a meaningful song it was

having girl campers declaring that you're their date for the dance and that every other female camper should keep at least 6ft away from you

wearing a cute full-body pony suit and telling kids to potato sack race

making a homesick camper smile, laugh, then cry again(because you threw the sproutball at his face)

telling campers your three ear holes were caused by the great beaver attack of '92

telling campers your name's really earl and you're from eastside chicago

sproutball

adopting a girl cabin just so your own boys can say they owned them

ballerina dancing around the dining hall

staff retreat

cabin movie nights with tyler

having a female cabin adopt your adam's apple

spending 3hrs scrapping sticky tape off the satanta floor

being dubbed "the most amazing asian counsellor in camp"

being the only international cabin counsellor in camp and yet never, not once, feel left out

being a part of cco staff 2004

these are all i can think of at the moment, there's really so much so much more and i miss them all.

haiz

Session 8: A Singaporean's Proudest Day

okie i really didn't intend to blog today. wanted to spend my time in the rac researching for more ideas and infomation about what we're gonna do once camp ends. but no. i really had to mention what an eventful day yesterday was.

yesterday we celebrated singapore's national day during dinner. i signed up to do the square off. and when i announced it was singapore's birthday, the whole dining hall exploded into crazy cheers. then all the staff decided it that signapore was worthy of the traditinal camp birthday song! so they made me stand on the chair with my huge singapore flag draped over me and everyone sang the song. it would be hte first and only time this summer that both male and female staff actually get together to sing that very song in the middle of the dining hall. in fact it was so scary standing in the middle because i thought the floor would collapse and we'd all fall through the floor when they did the ba-doom part and jumped. so there i was wearing the singapore flag over myself and being serenaded by 50+ staff. it was crazy. honestly, i've never felt prouder to be a singaporean. and then afterthat when everyone had gone back to their seats, i announced that i was presenting the singapore flag as a gift to cco from singapore, and the dining hall broke in raptuous cheers once more. haiz its crazy. this has been probably my most memorable natinoaly day ever.

such irony.

then our all-camp game was a game called WAR. the theme for this week was a scottish and english medieval rivalry, and this being the final session, WAR was actually a game of capture the flag except played over the vast fields that stretched from satanta to camp craft. thats at least 1km by 1km huge! its crazy! and we had the whole camp playing, so the scottish(that was my cabin and alot of others) were lined up along camp craft and we could see across the field the english who were lined up along satanta(they really tried to make it like braveheart). dividing us was pole creek, this really long and wide creek of about 3m wide that you had to get across to charge at your opponent. it was just c-r-a-z-y! so when the flag signalled the charge, all the kids charged like mad towards pole creek for the face off. and it was so hilarious watching kids try to jump the creek but end up falling into it instead, it was all out war!!! just pure madness. i've never seen a game played out at such a gargan-normous scale before.

wow.

ooh brandie just came to the rac and she asked me to go to town with her so will continue on thursday. so sad this is the last week!!!!

New Pix Posted

just updated my yahoo photos 2nd album so go ahead and take a look if any of you are interested.

Session 8: Happy National Day

and so the 8 weeks of children's camp has finally reached its end phase. how sad to think about it. i'm in cheyenne cabin this week with tyler again. everyone getting very laid back and slack - especially tyler who successfully pissed me off with his childishness(its worse than i could ever imagine). i don't really care anymore also, just maybe hope to let the kids have a good time and try to enjoy myself this last week of kids summer camp.

my cabin of supposed 7 kids got reduced to 5 because for the first time all summer, 2 kids(whose parents paid big money to send them here) didn't turn up. well thats their loss. we also got a counsellor-in-training, dan whose got a limp but he's somewhat cool, like a john lennon lookalike. so i've got ben sam davis tyler and connor(from session 2!) in my cabin. i like it small, it means i got less things to take care of, and i'mgoing rafting on friday! hooray!

haven't really done anything to celebrate national day yet but i think i'll do the square off later in the dining hall and tell everyone to say happy birthday singapore or something.

meanwhile i'm really pumped for the plans ahead after i leave camp and the time is right to begin planning for the travels over the next few weeks. there're so many things that i wanna do thats swirling in my head right now but i shan't reveal them till i finalise that i'll be doing them. but hopefully i'll get to climb a mountain, its thats worth anything here. haha.

Madness in Denver 2

okie so here's the continuation from where i left off when andy waylaid me in his study. we ended up talking for the next 3 hours about politics gossip and various other non-essentials that made us sound pretty in the loop about all things interesting(like the fact that he was an extremely desperate virgin)

so anyway after the ballgame which the rockies miraculously won, we headed back to andy's place. there was a lot more cigarettes and alcohol involved afterthat and then by midnight i think the only ones still alive and not groaning or passed out on the floor were myself andy nick brandie and jason. amongst the higlights of the night just before that were everyone trying to force me to cut a mullet out of my long locks(which they eventually failed), jason piercing his ear AND both his nipples in front of us(i think he was kept awake by the pain) and stephanie and kevin almost getting it on. all in all it turned out to be a pretty fun night. nick and i got pretty hungry around then too and so we walked 2 blocks down to colfax and i treated him to popeye's for supper. we hung around for almost an hour just talking about his life, my life and whatever. i it was a good bonding session for us both.

next morning justin and i were(we were sleeping on the same bed that night) and brandie and stephanie came in and jumped on us both. the funny thing was that when they both did the bed gave a really really load 'crack' sound which freaked the four of us so much that we immediately leapt outta bed hoping it didnt collapse. haha.

aside from that we came back to camp shortly afterthat.

Madness in Denver 1

its way past midnight now and most of the people in andy's house are asleep. its been a wild night.

right from the morning andy and myself(who volunteered for bus duty) went doen to denver with the kids pretty early. we had less kids on the bus as compared to last week, and the kids' parents came so early to pick them up that we were done before noon. so both of us managed to coax the bus driver to give us a short ride to colorado mills, a huge shopping mall in suburbia denver. its the same one brandie brought me to quite some time ago which had the target and borders stores. anyway i found a shop selling glasses and asked if they sell contact lenses. to my astonishment they don't sell them off the counter(like they do in singapore) but instead require a doctor's prescription for them, it being required by state law! horror of horrors! wah lao what the hell?! they scard terrorists use contact lenses to refract the sun's rays and burn down buildings meh! xianz.. means no contact lenses for me. then no time to make glasses somemore. nao hiah.

oh i also bought the zoolander dvd which i will be sending home...

anyway stephanie and brandie came to pick us up about 2hrs later(i had alot of fun shopping, dunno about andy though) and we drove over to andy's house in denver(the one i stayed in during mini-break. we had quite alot of people. there were the 4 of us, kolby nick kevin tyler jason james and justin.

gist was we got alot of booze and they wanted to get drunk before attending the baseball game between the rockies and the cincinnati reds. kevin justin and tyler had earlier been smoking pot(yup its really easy to get that here) and really looked super high and stoned. still we got enough alcohol to serve a platoon. anyways alot of them drank themselves silly, luckily i was sober after 2 bottles of bud lights on an empty stomach. the funny thing about them being really high is that you can tell that they are damn high and yet they are stil sane enoguh to get on with their normal lives like being hungry and not slurring in speech. the only thing we didn't allow the stoned people to do was drive the cars.

so there we were in coors field, its really magnificent and the atmosphere of being in an actual ball game is trully somewhat overwhelming. the rockies won the game 9-5, though we had more fun talking amongst ourselves and having a great ball of time making a fool of ourselves than concentrate on what's going on. still it was heap loads of fun. oh and we met kelly abrams and andrea and her boyfriend there too. too bad ken griffey jr wasn't playing.

argh just got interrupted by andy. will continue another time.