Princeton

I can't believe I'm already home! It's so surreal...and like I'm back to reality. It was a relief to see my parents, jie, rui & qiang at the arrival hall...such familiar and warm faces! =D Haha piggy Brenda supposed to come but she couldn't wake up...but that's ok. Dad actually tried to scare me (which he was successful at for about a minute or 2) that they forgot my flight was this morning...yeesh. I actually miss the States...it's been an amazing experience! I'll continue to put up some pictures, but I hope to do up a photo album so I forget any of this great United States Adventure. =)

The pretty streets of Princeton






A Princeton Taxi


Richardson Auditorium


The pretty greenery of Princeton...there was preparation going on in the background (in the building under the arch) for a wedding!


You wouldn't believe that this is a school campus!


Seems to be a popular book in most of the ivy league colleges that we've seen...


The Princeton Public Library...pretty modern compared to their other buildings


Still the pretty streets of Princeton...


This is the student library, couldn't get access into it, but there was a small commemorative display talking about Princeton's history, was pretty interesting!


FINALLY. Found a ups box to drop-off the stuff that I wanted to return...was lugging it all the way from Ohio, searching high and low for a UPS that was open...


Their HUMONGOUS sports complex that goes all the way 4 storys UNDERGROUND! They even have a tennis court underground...how cool is that?


The inside of the huge main level of the sports complex




SMU trademark on the Princeton field...I just had to.


A few shots of the Princeton Theological Seminary...I just learnt that Princeton started out as a theological school, but somehow they don't make it very widely known...




The bust of Albert Einstein...he was in Princeton and made a large contribution to their society. They also make some revenue out of souveneirs because of him.


Albert Einstein's house...it was so hard to find the exact location because it's not a tourist spot neither is it a museum, so it's not open to public and taken over by some society group that Einstein started. We had to drive up and down the lane looking for the numbers on the house...and since it was a narrow one-way lane, we couldn't stop to take pictures, especially if there was a car behind us! So we stopped for a second or two, got a few honks from the car behind, just to take this picture...of an ordinary-looking house. It goes that his study was on the second floor.

It's my last full day in New York...in the United States come to think of it. Where did the days go...and where did the months go.?It's been an amazing past 3 1/2 months, an experience that's once-in-a-lifetime...I miss home, but I know when I reach back to Singapore, I'll miss the States too. In 27.5 hours, I'll be on a 24hr flight back home...back to the humidity, back to wonderful home-cooked food, back to my bed and my bolster, back to family, back to the comforts and shelter, back to efficiency, back to Shalom, and soon, back to school (euch).

It's been a pretty good day today, as we have hardly any agenda for these few days in New York, we're basically just walking around, taking in the sights and sounds. The weather was not too warm, with some wind in the afternoon. We started off the morning...ok, LATE morning (cos we couldn't get us, as usual) with a trip downtown to the United Nations HQ. It was pretty interesting cos it was like having my 'A' level text come to life! We got to see the conference rooms of the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic & Social Development Security...just like what you see on the news! With the huge UN emblem at the back of the seat of the Secretary-General and his advisors. I bought a little UN flag just for fun hehehe. Now I feel a sudden urge to read my 'A' level history books...maybe not.

Just came back from Bloomingdales' and the Abercrombie & Fitch store, which Ambrose CANNOT get enough of. This is the 3rd time in 3 days there's he's been there!! He's a true A&F nut. Well, at least he got what he wanted today! We just came back to hotel to take a little rest bfore heading out again, to Times Square one last time, and to see the glass Apple Store at night.

On the train, Carol was just mentioning how amazing it was, that we're still in one piece so far...and I quite agree with her. We were forced to be independent, ignorant of the dangers that could have happened to us many times along the way, but God has seen us through thus far, it's pretty incomprehensible. Going through so many things has really opened up my horizons and the way I see the world...it's not as small as I thought. Oh well, as a reply I told her, "yeah...one FAT piece." I wish I could laugh that off as a joke...sigh! =D

Oh yeah my camera is kinda faulty, so not that many pictures of NY...I'll get them from Carol & Ambrose.

I miss home! =)

First thing we did in New Jersey - outlet shopping at Jersey Gardens! Haha, yes that means more stuffing of new things into bags...I now have 3 huge bags!
This is the combined result of Ambrose Carol & I:


University of Pennslyvania at night...


While I was on the Chinatown bus from Boston to NY, was just counting the number of universities I've visited;
1. Columbia
2. University of Pennslyvia
3. Princeton
4. Yale (sort of)
5. MIT
6. Harvard

Carol ordering Chinese take-aways on the school campus, where I guess is open into the wee hours of the night to cater to the muggers in the school...


Princeton is so pretty! It's a whole town by itself, and it's so quaint and so very pretty...VERY upmarket too though, they had brands like Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, Bennetton along the streets across from the main campus. Imagine that. But it was so pretty =)

Shucks wanted to put up more pictures but the connection is slow and i gotta go catch some zzzzz. Till next time I guess!

wow so many things have happened in the past ONE week...

I've finally left Cedarpoint, and the whole thing was so surreal, the packing to the squeezing things into the trunk, to the driving away for the place that I've LIVED in for the past 3 months...all the good and the bad, all the memories...I just can't believe I won't be seeing the people and the place again, won't be selling over-priced water (US$2.50) to guests, nor pushing out the carts (below), nor taking any of the awesome rides ever again.



Anyway we left for Penn, which was a 6-hour drive away. I have to truly thank God for safety and protection all the way, it's been amazing how He's been watching over Carol Ambrose and I as we travel from state to state, by car. Here's a little snippet of an incident that happened on the way there -

"God has been watching over us, it’s been quite amazing come to think of it! We were stopped by the police for speeding at 83mph (speed limit was 65mph). It was kinda scary at first, because the fines are known to get pretty hefty around here, and we don’t usually speed, but it was just in that span of about 10min that we got up to 80 that the police caught us. The blue and red flashing lights were coming up behind us and we knew we had to pull over…I can tell you that my heart sank, it really did. In the states you cannot and must not leave or get out of your car when stopped by the police, they have reason to be wary and a pull a gun on you if you do…serious! Anyway the policeman was highly unfriendly, shone his bright torchlight into the car and into our faces, demanded to see a driver’s license and car registration, while chewing away on his gum. When he saw the driver’s license he scoffed, “Singaaapore? Singapore??” What the…” Like he has NEVER heard of Singapore before, and looked at the driver’s license as if it was a fake, cos he said uncertainly, “We don’t accept this here…” But when we insisted that it was international, he stood there thinking for a while. I was thinking to myself that this was going to take a long while, and was going to be a tedious and painful process. But he merely flipped the driver’s license over again, practically threw it back at us, and said simply, “I don’t have time for this, goodbye.” And then he got back into his car and sped off, probably to prey on other speeding cars. We were kinda stunned for a few minutes, it was just like that, we got off the hook! Thank God for a slack policeman who couldn’t be bothered to give us a ticket =D"

Just one of the many things really...

Anyway when we were in Penn, we went spent a day at a factory outlet shopping, a day just bumming around in the resort, and the last day in Philadelphia, a historic little town where America's history all began with the signing of the Declaration of Independance...and where we also went to see the University of Pennsylvania (of which SMU is modelled after, their Wharton Business School)

The Independence Hall, where the actual signing of the Declaration of Independence took place, written by Thomas Jefferson & signed and announced by John Hancock.


The first few words of the Declaration...


Benjamin Franklin's grave...nothing to shout about really. He was born in Boston, but grew up Philedelphia where he played a huge part in creating the America that she is today.


The Philedelphia Museum of Art...as confirmed guaranteed by Ambrose haha. Carol & Ambrose were just arguing what this building was called. Anyway, if it seems familiar to some of you, it was shown in one of the Rocky's famous scenes...coming down the steps.


A giant monopoly iron! Ok, out of point.


Our wonderful and beloved Oldsmobile 1995 Cutlass. Sigh. It has been faithful to us till the very end...it's another story of what happened to it (s story for another time), but just a 'sneak preview', the exhaust pipe came out when we took it to Atlantic City (New Jersey).


Trying to stuff ALL our luggage into the trunk, its was MAD. The back seat was full too haha.


The wonderful view of the beautiful Penn countryside...


Making my mark heh.


Ok that's all I the time I have for now...will keep this going for a while even after I reach home...on National Day! =D

Gabe, Ambrose, Yongchang, Carol & I took a day trip to Chicago to see the sights! This was about 2-3 weeks ago heh. Sorry for the slow updates...oh yeah, a DAY before Gabe got fired =P But he's home now, all safe and sound and happy. There's lots of pics, so I'll just put up a few. We set off at about 2am, with Carol driving and I navigating and keeping her company. After that it was Ambrose and then Gabe...it took about 5hours or so, so we were there by 8:30am, thankfully we didn't get caught in the traffic jam. What I didn't realise was that Chicago was 1hour behind from Sandusky, so we gained time going there, but lost time in coming back.

The interesting infrastructure of Chicago


An open lawn (Grant Park) in the Millenium Park where they hold concerts and functions, it's big! We parked here for the day, and spent the day walking around.


The Bean. Yes, that's what it's called. You'd think they'd come up with a more stylo-milo name...go figure.






One of my favourite photos! Haha we look like kids here, and we're so colour co-ordinated...


Monkey-ing around for a bit. We asked this guy on his way to work to help us take this picture, and he was really nice about it, and even started to make conversation. I was thinking wah, he's so late for work and he still want to stay and chat with us, cos it was already 9:30am by then. Then I realised that in Chicago was 1 hour behind heh.


We popped by Dunkin Donuts for a quick breakfast...it was really good timing, as soon as we stepped in, no more than 5minutes later, it started POURING! It was pretty heavy rain...and when we finished up our breakfast, it stopped raining. Like magic =) It was a really clear day for the whole time after that, thank God.


Lemon Juice in a packet...?!?!


Chicago Theatre! They were showing Wicked, but didn't have time to watch it...


NBC in Chicago, where Oprah Winfrey does her shows...


Yongchang climbing the Sears Tower heh. It is one of the most famous buildings in Chicago. It was actually the highest skyscraper in the world at one point of time, until the Petronas Towers in KL took over, by just a few more feet - by longer antennas. Haha.


The view from atop the Sears Tower...many famous people have come for chicago, many blues artistes, charlie chaplin, dan akroyd, ernest hemmingway...




Chicago Tribune! Kinda reminds me of Spiderman hehe.


Here at Navy Pier! Where all the shops and attractions are at, mostly touristy stuff =)


Gabe & Ambrose are sitting on some person that was famous or important to this city...poor guy.


The dock of Navy Pier...it may look like some Chinatown place because of the red and the lanterns, but that's because the Shanghainese version of Cirque de Soleil was in town.


Ok have a lot more pictures to load up, but will do it next time, am very sleepy and have to wake up early to go to Philedephia tomorrow! Must jian fei, been eating so much sigh...