Down in Boston

Harvard square was NOT fantastic. Neither was MIT. Haha... prefer NUS campus. Serious. Anyway, highlight of the trip was not the tourist attractions. It was the food! Yupz, after me, Gwen and Felicia seperated from the rest, we took a walk down to the tallest building in Boston to view the scenery of Boston. Pity it was closed, but we still managed to grab some good seafood at Legal Seafood chain in Coupler's Place. Like Gwen puts it: "Its the first time we didn't bother about the cost and just ordered what we felt like eating" We had crab rolls, lobster bisque, authentic New England clam chowder with HUGE clams, fish, prawns, calamari... the list goes on. A meal meant for kings and it only cost us 35 bucks apiece. Woohoo!

We then bought desert wine and ice wine to enjoy in the hotel room, but... our corkscrew broke. Can you believe it?! So we had to lug these 2 bottles of wine all the way to Wildwood. Grr... By the way, did I mention the Kahlua cheesecake we bought from cheesecake factory? It was simply delicious.

Slack.

Falling sick

Poor Gwen fell sick on the bus today. Reminds me of that day when I dumbly drank milk first thing in the morning before I headed out to the supermarket to purchase Shu Ling's birthday grill. That caused me to miss the chill out session after the grill as I went to sleep early. Argh!! haha...

Slack.

Wonder of the world

I went down to Niagara falls about 20 years ago. Now I'm back. Not much memory remains of then but this time round it was an extremely enjoyable trip. Wished my parents were around to enjoy the scenery and fun as well. We took a ferry caled the "Maid of the mist" which brought us under the falls. Not exactly under but so close that the current was too strong for the boat's engine to bring the boat any closer. Water splashed on us like rain, bringing gleeful screeches from us. It was like we were kids once again.

Niagara falls has 3 parts. Bridal falls, Horseshoe falls and American falls. All of them are so gorgeous, pun unintended. We were snapping photos like Japanese tourists.. haha... especially when they found out that How Lun had a camera capable of taking nice shots. Next we took a walk right under the falls. Decked in yellow raincoat and sandals, we proceeded to the bottom of the falls. The platform named "hurricane deck" was our destination. There we stood feeling the wrath of Bridals Falls - the smallest of the 3. The water beating on our back was just so SHIOK! Then... we started ripping each other's raincoat, while we were still under the falls. First victim to get wet: Ying Kiat. Haha... Clever Marc stayed out of the fray.

Slack.

Relaxing

I realise I did not blog my trip to Cape May. Anyway, this Tuesday we were give 1 day off so the group of us took off to Cape May which which they proclaimed was nicer than the ones here at Wildwood. So, we went there, rented a bike and visited 3 diferent beaches there... haha. We basked in the sun, played with chilly water and came back with a nice tan. Satisfied. =)

Last night we went clubbing again. This time round while protecting a lady friend, I nearly had to fight with this bloody, rowdy, drnk American. He said that I touched him and said he will throw me a punch if I stopped him from dancing with the lady. But he didn't dare to do it. Phew... My group had too many guys. He then tried to rally support from the other Americans who totally ignored him. Poor loner... geez.

Slack.

Americans

A girl came to my stall with her mom and brother. She pas dressed prim and proper and knew exactly which prize she wanted and how to spend the least money to get it. When she asked her mom to pay for her game, it was a mature explanation of how she wanted it and how it was worth it. A pretty convincing argument she put up. So convincing that her mom paid for the game. She looked me in the eye and asked me to start the race. It was to the extent that it was actually intimidating. After the race, I tried to smile when passing her the prize and expected to bounce in jubilation like the others, but she maintained her pose and took it from me with a polite thank you. Not too bold and not too reserved. So matured.

She can't be older than 8 years old.

Americans never cease to amaze me.

Slack.

Ben & Jerrys

Did I mention that Ben & Jerrys ice cream only cost S$3? Haha, plus there're 20 different flavours to pick from. Woohoo!

Slack.

Work work

No customers the whole day so all I was doing was using my mic to converse with another Singaporean nearby in Chinese. Yes, in chinese so that no one know what we're talking. Did I mentioned that I've to use mic to converse with my customers through all the din? Yupz, and I also have to say silly phrases like: "Come on folks, step right up, don't be shy. There's always a winner, there's always a prize. It only takes 2 to play and 5 players for choice." It is now deeply ingrained in my head after I repeated it so many times that even Marc remembers it. So I go on the whole day yelling into my mic that's strapped around the back of my head. Sucks. The yelling gives u a sore throat. Anyway, the story here is that I've a friend in a nearby stall with a similar game, so she has the mic as well, so there we are conversing happily for everyone to eavesdrop, but they can't understand Chinese... haha... That's what I did for 7 hours straight since I had only 9 customers.

However, customers started streaming in after my dinner break at 5. Apparently these guys were down at the beach for the morning and afternoon, leaving our theme park void of much human trace lest the Pier's associates (that's what we're called).It then got really busy, such that I actually worked non-stop for long stretches each time. So here I am in my bedroom, feeling drained and poofed. Nitez!

Slack.

A dark and gloomy day

Looting too much nowadays. Haha... because we work in game stores, we have access to stocks of chocolates, sweets and soft toys. Guess what, we start taking them for ourselves. However, it has became outrageously out of control. I hope we won't get caught.

Slack.

1 month

I've been here for one month but time flies when you're having fun... sigh! I'm already starting to plan my after work tour. I hope everything goes fine. I always feel that its a hassle to go places in big groups yar? Anyway, 4 should be fine and we've known each other for so long that it shouldn't be much of a problem. Haha... Here we go!

Shopping Galore

Shop shop shop was what we did for the whole day. We went down to some factory outlets in Delaware and did alot of shopping for branded goods including Nike, Gap, Guess and CK. I managed to restrain myself at the first cluster of outlets and left without spending anything at all. However, later on I bought Board shorts, skate shoes, Nike shades, CK underwear (haha), GAP slippers, Nike socks and a few other useful items. Nevertheless it came up to 200 bucks within 1+ hours. Haha... but they were really good buys. Imagine Nike shoes all going for under S$70! Yes, that's what it was like even with brands like CK and Guess.

After a full day of shopping I was so shack, all I wanted was to go back to drink the Malibu, Tequilla or Irish Cream that we bought at the store. But no... the guys wanted to go Harbour Inn for a drink, so I tagged along, dragging my feet as we walked to the pub. Am I getting old or are my friends just too energetic. Doesn't shopping drains your energy? Anyway, we headed down to the Bar and had a few drinks, making us high and woozy. We were mad. Dancing, screaming and stripping me... They were mad! And the stupid bar owner scolded me for stripping... but it was not my fault what... grrr... We were definitely rowdy, and had a hard time coming back to our residence. Nevertheless I'm quite happy I could get high and drunk without puking for once. Yeh!

Slack

Friends

New acquaintences and new friends appear everywhere you go. I just made new friends today. The Thais. They were here since March and thus will all be leaving soon. In fact, at 7am this morning, I just sent off a good friend I had just made the night before. Over here, we're making alot of friends and they are more international than I would ever dream of. We will go our seperate ways after the program, but everyone will leave an etched image as they played a part in making my experience as wonderful as it has been.

On a happier note, my day at work today passed much more easily despite the worse crowd ever that I've seen on a weekend. This was because of wonderful company I had with me. Cindy and me were given game stalls opposite each other equipped with mics and speakers to help draw customers to our stalls but we happily used it to talk to each other. Haha... time passed really fast as we were talking to each other whenever there was a lull (which was like the whole time I was there). We spoke in Chinese so no one else could understand our conversation though it was broadcasted on the speakers, haha...

Slack.

Philadelphia

Slept at 3am last night and had to wake up at 6am this morning to go to Philadelphia. All this after a 50-hours working weekend. Phew! Guess what, I still have to work tomorrow and worse still, my friends wanna play mahjong tonight! Sleep is really scarce around here, too much to do, too much to lose if I sleep. Haha...

Yup, Philly was fun, we went on an independence tour, boring one I must say. However, it was very informative about the independence of the United State of America. I didn't know that they went through so much hardship to gain independence on 4th July 1776. We then got to see the liberty bell and some other independence stuff like an independence documentary Ying Kiat insisted on seeing. However, the highlight was the end of the day. After window shopping at the Gallery, we headed to Chinatown for dinner where I had a plate of 油鸡面. Nice. We all had vey nice Chinese food which we have not tasted for some time. On top of that, we bought a whole ton of groceries like dried mushrooms and CCYD instant noodles where you cannot find elsewhere. We then ended the day at a very nice park which had a LOVE sign similar to the one you can find in Singapore near Park Mall Fish & Co.

Tired and sleepy. Mahjong time!

Slack.