Sunday, December 24, 2006
riding by the Pacific
The feeling is..magical. Having the magic of having the wind in your hair, the sun kissing your feet, the sound of the huge waves crashing against the shoreline, the smell of salt that waves through the air…for a moment in time, it seems that everything little nagging piece of worry that had been bugging me during the school semester seems so…insignificant.
I’m typing this in our road trip-ing mini-van while we’re cruising along the coastline. The view outside is simply mind-blowing..it feels as though I’m on a jet miles up in the air: looking down to see nothing but the vast pacific ocean and the sunlight being reflected against the crest of the turquoise waves. Highway one totally rocks; its definitely the best thing that I’ve experienced since coming to the states (:
And for the first time in my life, I caught a sunset along the horizon. I’ve lost track of the countless failed attempts along Pasir Ris/Sentosa chalets to catch sunrise/sunsets…they never happen at all no matter how East/West we always think we are located at. Amazingly, it just happened in a couple of minutes for the sun to descend into the horizon. I managed to catch a couple of pictures before it totally disappeared into the Pacific Ocean…really really pretty; I’m totally satisfied (:
ilovetotwirl at 12:38 AM
palo alto / monterey
So we finally got our car for the roadtrip on the 6th day; a white Chevrolet mini-van with abundance space at the back to put our loads of junk and suitcases (: We headed north from San Jose to Palo Alto to check out Stanford which I would say is a pretty nice place to be studying in. Comparing Stanford to Cornell, Stanford would be more of like a country club and Cornell would be a nature resort. Stanford has Mediterranean architecture, orange buildings and palm trees lined along its concourse and there’s some sort of a Vatican City-cum-Nevada feel to it. The weather was good though; imagine it being winter and we didn’t have to be wrapped up in our Michelin jackets or ugly Ugg boots huddling around campus for warmth. Then I would be able to save on my winter wardrobe and perhaps expand my summer one. Haha. We didn’t hang around Stanford for long though because there wasn’t much to see with no kids around as the school was already deserted for winter break by the time we got there. Wanted to visit the library (a university’s library is a measure of a school’s prowess) but unfortunately it was already closing by the time we got there.
Stanford University during dusk
So we just headed down to Monterey which was supposedly a nua evening for us. We really wanted to nua because traveling can be that tiring and we are really supposed to be on holiday. Nothing less than 9 hours of sleep everyday is acceptable. But by the time we got a motel and settled down from grocery shopping it was near midnight again so our plan to nua really failed. So we just flopped around, drank a bit and vowed to have an earlier start the following day.
Pimpin' around Monterey's Bay
The bay area around Monterey was a lot like San Francisco’s, but was smaller and definitely less touristy. We initially wanted to do some whale-spotting cruise but eventually decided that it would be time-consuming. So we just had our Boston Clam Chowder again and headed out from Monterey to Highway One, probably the best thing that happened so far (:
ilovetotwirl at 12:30 AM
Friday, December 22, 2006
san francisco / san jose / santa cruz - cont'd
And then after trawling the streets of SF for days, we headed down to San Jose to meet jm's russian roomie who was kind enough to host us for 2 nights. It was pretty chill at San Jose...we would eat cheap junk like Pizza and Chinese takeout everyday and soak in his friend's hot tub which was really shiok. (: Then we would play RISK till the late evenings and wake up for early for our first beach adventure in California.
It was strange because it was technically winter and so we were the only mad enough kids who would brave 10 degrees celsius of cold to play along volleyball along the beach. And the guys couldn't stop wrestling each other along the beach all in the name of fun which I thought was pretty retarded. Haha. A pity it was really too cold for us to enter the water though; so we didn't get to do much besides hanging around the beach to chill.
On the third day, we headed out to Mission Peak which is a mountain just alot like Bukit Timah Hill BUT alot more steeper. Almost died going up there which was a terrible reminder of how unfit I was. I was panting madly on the way up and trailing behind the guys...how embarassing. Still, I was secretly happy when we decided to abandon our climb uphill 1/4 way through because of the terrible rain and the taxing uphill climb. We decided that since we were on holiday, we shouldn't be torturing ourselves :/
And so, Sergei dropped us off at the San Jose airport, which pretty much ends our adventure with the Russians and marked the start of our roadtrip (got our car at the airport!) Can't hardly wait for the drive down South ahead!
ilovetotwirl at 11:18 PM
san francisco / san jose / santa cruz
Every now and then, we escape from the small little town of Ithaca, in search of bright lights, warmth and adventure to live, a story to tell that will hopefully make college life more interesting.
San Francisco was a pretty cool place to be in; alot less fast-paced than the shady New York City. The architecture of buildings are alot friendlier than the tall and grey skyscrapers of Manhattan. Most of the homes are like low-rises/shop houses kinda style that are built on really steep slopes (was quite a pain to be climbing those mini mountains around the city). And like most city areas, most of our time was spent eating and shopping. Ate all the good chinese food, japanese food, thai food the past few days. I seriously think I'm going to gain a few pounds after this roadtrip. We decided that there were mainly 2 kinds of days : fat days and super fat days. Basically we would have 3 heavy meals a day and lots of sinful treats in between like dark chocolates, cheesecake factory desserts, coldstone creamery ice-cream and bacadi. Too much of an indulgence over the past few days, and everytime we tell ourselves that tomorrow will be a thriftier/healthier day but then again the same sinful cycle restarts the moment we walk past good food that never fails to beckon.
One thing I didn't like about SF though was that there were lots of beggars and homeless people on the street. THAT when the minimum wage law is 9.15USD/hr (caught that off some ad inside a bus) which is a freaking lot more than what i used to earn way back in January for my qualifications. Sometimes people should just seriously go get a life and make a decent living instead of begging on the streets. How pathetic some people can be. -sounding terribly unsympathetic here-
Anyway, we did all the touristy things possible over at SF in the past 3 days covering Alcatrez (the infamous prison), Union Square, Chinatown, Japantown, Haight and Ashbury and Fisherman's Wharf. It was really cold along the bay area and we seemed underdressed for the terrible weather everyday. Thankgod we survived (:
ilovetotwirl at 10:25 PM
Friday, December 15, 2006
and it draws to an end...
I'm sorry I haven't been updating anything recently; life over the past 2 weeks have been pretty much consumed in studies, finals, examinations and papers. After getting buried in all the studying, mugging and stressing, everything's finally come to an end. It's over; final examinations, Fall'06, Freshman freshie semester. The campus is practically deserted now, everyone scrammed as soon as they were done with papers -- the hall is unusually quiet and I think I'm one of the rare remaining souls to be stuck in the dorm room.I'm heading out of Ithaca in 45 minutes. This is probably the third time leaving this place, after Fall Break and Thanksgiving. But this time its really different, I'm really going home. First stop is to head to San Francisco bay area where we'll be embarking on our roadtrip, suitcases, swimsuits, guitar and all of us perhaps crammed in the backseats of some SUV, all the way driving down to Los Angeles. I'm pretty psyched though, although what I'm looking forward to is really the second destination of my winter break: Singapore.
Oh yeah, so I've decided to come back on a very last minute note, slightly unannounced, and for a rather short period in Singapore. I decided that Mexico, no matter how Indiana Jones it sounded, wasn't going to beat anything like home. Besides, its time after 5 months which seem forever, of being jealous of hallmates whose home was never farther than an 8 hours flight away, to rest and recharge in a safe sanctuary. Yep, I'm really coming home after changing my mind 1001 times over the past 2 months.
This whole semester really just went by in the past; too fast, too hectic, too blinding. It really wasn't too long ago when I had to bid everyone goodbye at the departure gates, travelling on the bus 5 hours from NYC to get to this little Ithacan town, making friends with people around the hall, getting used to writing paper after papers and reading all those crap philosophy article, bombing the hard and fast prelims, crashing all those frat parties, experiencing my first snowstorm last week. So much has happened, and there's so much to tell of all the little culture shocks, excitement and disappointment.
Whatever it is, its good enough for me this semester. Enough of all the hectic work+ try-to-play-hard schedule. For the next 2 weeks, its just going to be a nice trip around a sunnier side of the states with good o' people and then finally a lone 24 hour flight home.
So I guess I wouldn't be hanging around this blog much till much later. Gotta start unplugging my laptop, brush the lint off my jacket, and seriously figure out the damn number combination to my stupid suitcase. Grrr.
Till then, people (: California, Singapore here I come!
Post-note: Almost 24 hours of travelling later, I'm finally here at San Francisco :) After enduring the loooong bus ride, the bumpy plane trip to fly westwards in an attempt to escape the dreary cold weather I realized its as cold here. -_-!!
And miss alyn, YOU DIDNT TELL ME YOU WERE COMING BACK. lol. I guess we shall meet on your continents if luck permits next Spring Break ;)
ilovetotwirl at 8:41 PM
