Whew, finally I get the chance to update my blog…it’s been, what, 3 days since my last update? For those who don’t know, I’m now 2 days into the New York/Niagara Falls trip with my parents and sister (my family lah). We’re currently in Ithica, NY, halfway between New Jersey – where our plane landed – and Niagara Falls – our destination.
It’s currently 5.30am US time at the moment, so everyone else’s asleep now. I kinda slept at 9pm and woke up at like 4.30am today…and I did the same yesterday. So weird…normally during the hols I’d sleep at 9AM and wake up at 4.30PM. Maybe it’s the jet-lag, but if I had this habit during school days I bet my mum would’ve been so happy lah!
Anyway, on Monday my parents and I left Singapore in the morning to go to the airport…There we didn’t have to check in normally, ‘cos my dad’s quite a frequent flyer, so he kinda got Solitaire membership for all of us. So we got our luggage and check-ins all taken care of and we got to sit in this lounge with free-flow of coffee, milo, tea, fruits, ice cream, noodles, sandwiches, juices, beer, etc etc. I suppose Solitaire members’re supposed to be rich fags or something, that’s why Kris-Air or whatever can afford to give free-flow of stuff in airplanes and lounges like these without having to worry about being overrun by typical S’porean kiasu-ism…
The plane ride (SQ dunno what plane) was 17hrs long…which’s pretty amazing when u think that trips to Chicago via Japan used to take over 27hrs. When I was a small kid trips like those seemed like a never-ending journey (never-ending torture actually) where I’d be counting down to the end of the trip 5hrs before it ended. Nothing really great happened on that plane trip, except there was this hot babe of a stewardess (I think she was quite new) whose butt kept like hitting into my head or elbow by accident when she was serving drinks…err nevermind. =|
Took the time on the plane to learn Japanese numbers and stuff about New York City. I also watched Sex and the City episodes and a few movies. Like Goal!, which I thought was quite shallow and lame, unfortunately, despite me being a Newcastle supporter, and 40-year old Virgin, which I stopped watching halfway ‘cos it was getting embarrassing for that dude. Stopped watching The Seven Swords or whatever halfway as well, ‘cos I kinda thought that the movie sucked. It lacked a lot of characterization…maybe they should just have FIVE swords instead of seven.
50 First Dates was quite nice though…It stars Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, and it’s about a man (Sandler) who tries who woo a girl (Barrymore) who had got into an accident and somehow got a condition where she forgets everything that happened during the day when she sleeps at the end of that day. So she thinks that it’s still 1 year ago and her family tries to keep up that façade for her protection…Don’t have the time to talk about the details, but anyway it ends (SPOILERS) with her waking up on a ship, watching the video of her life and what has happened while she had lost her short-term memory (she got married to Sandler) and then she gets up onto deck, sees and hugs the daughter that she didn’t know she had and she starts crying. Such a bittersweet ending sia…like how would it be like if you woke up everyday to watch a video about what has happened in your life so far and to know that all the sweet memories everyday would be personally lost to you forever once you’ve slept. I almost cried when I imagined how the life of that girl would turn out to be in the future.
Well, we landed shortly in Newark International Airport, where we met up with my sis who jus arrived from Chicago herself. We were supposed to go to Courtyard Marriot Hotel to stay for the night, but we ended up getting lost on the freeways of New York..-.- Even with the help of Neverlost, we kept getting misleaded and kept taking the wrong turn on the highway. (Neverlost’s some kind of equipment that is linked to a satellite. You just have to type in your destination and they’ll gather information on your current location and guide you – via the shortest routes or other preferences – to the place. They sorta scan your current location real time as well and they even highlight the route you must take in pink. It tells you the distance required before you reach the next turn and which exit to take, and this woman gives you verbal instructions on where to turn at appropriate times. It’s really a must-have nowadays for tourists in the US.) So we’d be 8miles from our destination when we’d take an exit that we THOUGHT we had to take…then that “woman” would go “Calculating route…” and the new route given would require that we drive another 20miles…=| We kept going around in circles and there was a ticking time-bomb too, in the form of my car-sickness and err bladder-control issues.
We managed to reach the hotel eventually however. 1+hour for a 3mile ride…imagine that. The whole family bunked together in 1 room for the night. Courtyard Marriot’s a kinda lower-class Marriot, and we didn’t even get complimentary breakfast or anything. They’ve got a cool mall nearby though, with factory outlets of almost all the major brands, etc. We went there the next day. I bought a pair of jeans there from American Eagle…cost me around US$30, which’s very cheap when you consider that a pair of similar quality would be around $70+ in Singapore and would go for like HK$300++ in Hong Kong (dun go shopping in HK city malls it’s damn ex) Oh anyway I’ll probably be going to many factory outlets in the US, so if you want me to help you buy stuff just write on my tagboard and I’ll see whether I can…acquire them for you. :)
We then took our car and drove it all the way here, in Ithica. Quite a scenic route and I took quite a few photos of the snowy bliss that we drove past. We’ve now spent the night at a Great Eastern motel, and today’s the next half of our trip to Niagara Falls. This USA trip seems quite ok so far. Of course I’d rather go out with friends and go bowling or K-Box-ing or LAN-ning. Or go out and play basketball or stay home and mess around with the computer. I'm beginning to miss my friends i think...had a dream about VJ schoolmates, cousins and even some RI dudes just now. But here at least I get to enjoy the scenery and especially the COLD! Lol I just miss those cosy winter nights when I lived in the US. With all that snow and all that freedom. And I just love the bigger food portions! Haha in Singapore sometimes I have to buy two meals just to feel satisfied!
Ok, I’ve finally finished typing this entry…sort of, Now I’ll have to wait for my sis to wake up and tell me her password or whatever so I can log on to the internet and post this. Typing this on Microsoft Word now…on her Apple IBook G4. I think I’m too used to Windows already. Apple is quite confusing. I think I might change to Linux next time, but definitely not Macintosh-type operating systems. Just can’t imagine life without right-clicks and double-clicks. And I don’t think I can run 2 internet browsers at once. Which really sucks ‘cos I’m like such a chronic multi-tasker. Ahh goddamnit. Maybe I should just go to sleep.
