2008 X'mas cards

IT's different this year cos i dun have all my card making materials!!! i miss my twilling pen... and my little foam tape. hehee... tried to make it look as exp as possible. HEhe... Its back to basics this year. C'est pour mes amis en Montreal!

BIG breakfast at Beauty's Luncheonette

Hearty breakfast at 'Beauty's' on Mont Royal

:D

Ooops... this seems to be becoming some food blog. HAha...

CoCo Rico, la Malajube et la poutine a la Pool Room!

It's been a testy day of my french today... HAha.. seems like the whole world wants to speak to me in french today.

WEnt to CoCo Rico, this portugues chicken place for lunch at the Pleateau in St LAurent. WEll, we were supposed to go to Schawrtz (this place famous for smoked meat), but the Q was juz too long. We couldn be bothered and settled for the chicken place right beside Schawrtz. WEll, schwartz ended up becoming take out for dinner. HEHE.. HHEHe... I've been wanting to try this chicken place for a while! And lo & behold, its good! and.. cheap! HAha.. we shared a place of chicken and ribs. Love teh ribs! N guess what! they have custard in their portuguese egg tart! I love.... custard! HAha... Of course, i tried to order in french. it went all right i guess. HEHe... Oh, and i found this bakery that sells D-O-N-U-T-S. I sooo need to go back there to get 'em. HEHe.. OH, and we caught 'Cirque Du Soleil' on St Laurent. HAha.. literally...

CoCo Rico REsto
See that BIG suckling pig there?! the guy there is SLICING the pig. Yes, slicing it....

Roasted chicken , portuguese style
Fleshy ribs!!! The bread is juz 30 cents! Hha..
My custard filled egg tart!!!

The totally run down lookin Schawrtz. WEll, the best food are always in run down places yeah? hehe.. so they say...
Check out the chunk loads of meat in the display... HAHa.. doesn look so appetizing now.
can you spot a guy on a unicycle?!! whatever they call it...

WEnt for Malajube concert in the evening at Metropolis. Beer & i practically waited for 2 hours before they performed! well, some unkown amateur bands were perfoming be4 them. AT least the wait was worth it. Malajube is juz so awesome!!! yes, they sing french songs.... but i juz love their songs! i can understand, provided i read the lyrics. Couldn quite catch what they were saying in between songs, except lots of 'Merci beaucoup'... Hehee... Their playing is juz sooo tight, and they have so much chemistry with each other. They had 4 keyboards btw. HAha... and the crowd is juz crazy....! ANd Beer was sitting beside this old man who claims to be the dad of the keyboardist.... right.....


The crowd grew from this...
To this!
Malajube!
The lights practically blinded me. tsktsk...




Oh, not to forgot, my dear Butcher from Montreal Pool Room has changed his cheese! He used inferior cheese for the poutine the other time. But i gave him one more chance today, and its back to the good old poutine! HAah... the cheese that melts with the hot sauce and piping fries!

SNOW-Y pics

'Naked' tree!
Snow-filled balcony...

Garbage as well. Hehe...

Street outside house! Can you see how nice these houses are!
Cars buried in snow...
Junction outside house.

Was reading this stanze in 'Proverbs 3' and find it very comforting. Especially at a time when the Module Preference Exercise reminds me that i'm about to enter my year 3 sem2! Also, its a time when its scary thinking what's gonna happen after that cos i seriously have no idea.... WEll, lotsa ideas actually, but no idea how they're gonna work out. WE'll see:D


"My son, preserve sound judgement and discernement,

do not let them out of your sight;

they will be life for you,

an ornament to garce your neck.

Then you will go on your way in safety,

and your foot will not stumble;

when you lie down, you will not be afraid;

when you life down, your sleep will be sweet.

Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,

for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared."
- Proverbs 3:21-26 -

Lotsa snow!!!

Hui qin knocked on my bedroom door at 10am!!! (that's early for me btw) to see a heck lot of snow and snowfall! HAha.. seriously, it looked kinda scary... and i saw a lone soul walking on the streets. ITs cool and funny in a way. yet scary. HHE.e..

with courtesy from Mr Kent. Thats the doorstep by btw...

I'm amazed... with facebook

I'm amazed at the power of facebook. I can actually create an event and invite people that easily! It really saves the trouble of calling people.... and smsing them... then calling back again. Simply takes forever... Well, convenience probably comes at a cost of lack of that personal touch.

Finally done with my ATOC 250 natural disasters term paper! And juz completed the final and last assignment for 'Cognitive Behavioral Therapy'! HAha.. did that in 5 mins! i'm getting efficient. HHEH. relatively though. One more term paper from "Deviations in child psychology" to go.. then, its exams! then... its california!!!

Oh.. and i've got free lodging in San Jose, California! HAha.. totally love Hong Ye & his fren! I'm always a sucker for free accomodation. Hehee.. I cant wait to get to california and bask under the sun WITHOUT the constant swift of cold airs at -10 degrees celcius!

I'm so excited about the talk on "Cross-linguistic differences in the manifestation of language impairment in children: How are they related to the underlying cause?" tml! It's organized by McGill's School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, in one of the research seminar series. It's somewhat related to one of the modules i took under 'Language & Cognitive Processing'. Apparently, McGill constantly has such talks and seminars and such everyday. Seriously, they have a whole list of ongoing events everyday in the downtown campus. For example, lotsa FREE music concerts (JAZZ concerts!) in the Schulin faculty of music. Gosh, i think i'm becoming so auntie with all these 'FREE-stuff' talk. HAHa..

P.S. time for X'mas card making! So exciting to shop for stamps and paper at Omer de Serres!

Free pizza & T-shirt!

I totally L-O-V-E Mcgill. & Microsoft as well. HEhe..

Today, we dropped by at 'Wong 1050' for the Microsoft talk. Apparently, they were having free pizzas! HAha.. well, the talk was interesting though. Basically they are McGill graduates currently working in Microsoft who are here to carry out recruitments. People in the room were basically engineering students. And the females made up four. HAHa..

I learnt that there is actually a form of advertising: through gaming. Basically, there's actually this company called 'MASSIVE' which basically advertises for clients through video games such as 'Guitar Hero', 'Halo' whatsoever... Its like when you play those racing games for example, you'd realize these insiduous appearances of big brands like 'Coke' etc on the billboards?! yes, thats what
'Massive' does. Getting out these brands onto the video games. Apparently, their selling point (as compared to other mediums of advertisment such as TV) is the target group of the video gamers as well as the 'impressive' statistics (people juz adore numbers and percentages) of advertising reachability to the masses. But then again, watching the video of a stimulated game got me thinking how much of this advertising materials is actually retained in the gamer's brain?! (think 'short term memory limitations'). Seriously, the gamer would most probably be concentrating so hard on the game and strategy whatsoever, how much of this information is actually retained at the end of the game?! HAHa.. i juz cant help thinking of such stuff. Then again, their objective might juz be to create some form of impression towards that product.

Oh, Hui Qin and i got a free T-shirt from Microsoft! HAha.. didnt manage to grab the X-BOX though. Some Daniel Dude won it anyways. HAha.. it was some raffle lucky draw thingy. I'm satisfied with a stomach full of pizza ( had 3 slices! HAha) and a cute little t-shirt!

it says,"Hey Genius we want you". Hehe...

Finally got my MAlajube tix! HAH.. so excited to see them live!

MIdnight surprise!

LOgged on to MSn tonite and found a pleasant surprise! My little cousin can use MSN! HAha... You would find him answering me with 'one-word' answers. And a 'y' abbreviated for 'yes'. And those weird motion emoticons which juz scares the hell out of me. HAha.. well, he's trying. And i'm so glad to see him engaging in something related to language. It's a start at least, an informal way of getting exposed to language. Hopefully it doesn deviate to singlish. HEHhe..

I was asking him what he wants from disneyland. And the conversation went like this.

** says:
who do you like from disneyland?
Goh says:
ok:P
** says:
snow white....
** says:
winnie teh pooh
** says:
mickey mouse
** says:
donald duck
** says:
minnie mouse....
** says:
?
Goh says:
winnie the pooh
** says:
ooooh
Goh says:
toy
** says:
same as chryst?
** says:
HAHAH
Goh says:
:P
** says:
what if i buy you a winnie the pooh book????
Goh says:
no:(
** says:
arent you getting a little too old for a toy.....^o)
** says:
haha
Goh says:
no.........
** says:
hahhaha
** says:
ok
** says:
i'll see what i can do:D

It's juz so cute how he says 'no' when i ask him about getting a book. hehe.

Voices of a Distant Star...

Yes, i'm blogging twice in a day! HAha..

ANyways, watched this anime by SHinkai Makoto during JApanese Animation class. I think its reall brillant with the content and pace of the narrative. Of course, the NASA part sounds a bit far-fetched, but no harm with some novelty yeah?!

It almost put me to tears. HAha.. the typical love story... Whoever said animations are amateur works?! well, thats what i thougt before... Hehhee...

Hmm... quality isnt that good. HHehe.. no choice.ENjoy!

-9 degrees Celcius....

The temperature reached -9 degrees today.It wasnt even this cold with snow! My jeans felt like some air-conditioner, i could constantly feel cold air all over my legs! so much for jeans being warm...

We went for free lunch today for teh second time! haha. i'm totally crazy about the free food that mcgill is giving out at SSMU building everyday. Well, Hui qin and the rest arent so enthu. Hehe.. its my kind of food. Considering they cant fathom how i can eat pure brown rice everday. HEHe.. Apparently, this free food thing is ongoing the whole semester. And we only found out in teh last week of semester! ahha.. well, better than nothing.

They're actually petitioning and doing publicity for the poor and hungry in Montreal, promoting some kind of anti-capitalism against the 'rich' who eat buffet at The Reine Elizabeth Hotel. Hui qin asks," How come they can bother to do such stuff?" Well, if you ask me, they're a bunch of motivated and enthusiastic socialist advocates.

Some pic! well, only a couple.

X'mas lights from Mcgill till St Catherine. love that Big 'christmas tree' right in the middle!

Snow outside house.... Battery went dead on me after taking one pic! hehe...

David Gray!

Recently discovered this singer David Gray in Katie's ipod! Absolutely love his songs! hehe... And he's going to Toronto and CHicago for his tour next week! Now i need to find a way to get there... hehe.. JK. His songs have a melancholic nature. Especially 'This Year's love'. But absolutely love his album 'White Ladder'.

BLANK

No idea what title to put... cos this post is just about everything. hhhee..

WEnt to Toronto & Niagara Falls over the weekend. The falls just look awesome, especially at nite when it gets illumninated. WE kinda got a free shower cos the waters were jus too strong. hehe.. it was kinda funny taking a pic and having water splashing on ya face. N i finally got to sending some postcards back home. hhehe..

COuldn say that much about Toronto though, just that it looks like 10 times of Singapore and a place with a Chinatown population of 40,000 chinese. HAHah.. kinda like little china there. I got so excited at the authentic HK eateries there! 10 dumplings cost only CAD$5! haha...

Well, weather in Montreal is getting really cold. IT started out with flurry, followed by freezing rain and now, its raining hale. Basically they are all different versions of snow, which just doesn get to snow. The road gets all squishy and squashy with black and white snow alike. WEll, the white snow basically gets black when pple step on it. heheh.. Nevertheless, it just puts a smile on my face to see WHITE snow all around. Thank god i'll be back home by the time it gets REALLY Winter...

Oh, happy 21st to Si too! Glad that the album came to good use!

P.S. Looking forward to 20th December when i'll be in California!!!

FUNNY random blog...

I think i'm getting REALLY slow.... with my brain, hands and legs. i wonder whether its a good or bad thing. Well, probably cos weather's getting chilly, and i cant bring myself to walk too much in this weather... HAHa... which is a sign that i'll most prob get fat. I think its starting though, especially when i'm living with 2 hungry ghosts...

On a lighter note, i was randomly reading people's blogs when i came across this. Seriously, it was a random blog....

"The kids had an ice skating party on Weds. night. The place was mayhem - kids all over the place, pizza being served, drinks, sweets....I got on skates but my kids had to drag me around the rink...my skills leave something to be desired.

During one of our trips around the rink my son ran into his friend Shannon - a little Chinese girl. He told me that he wanted to marry her. He said the same to her. She replied, "I can't marry you, you're not Chinese."

He said, "Yes I am, I'm half chinese." I said, "No you're not!" He said, "Yes I am - I"m half Korean." I had to hold back the tears - it was hysterical."

P.S. The author is the boy's father and a fellow at Stanford uni. Interesting....

SNOW!!!

I came out of the metro this morning to find it snowing!!! its juz so marvellous to see small white shiny stuff falling from the sky... and you get so amazed at how God made this world!!! HAHAha... i was practically smiling to everyone on the street... they probably think i'm crazy.... who cares... its snowing!!!

Juz for Si!

Si was asking me on MSN lately, "why nothing on your blog lately?". So, being a nice fren, i decided to post something. Its funny why she asked that when she can tok to me directly on msn! hehee...

its been a while since i blogged.. i think. well, nothing up lately. Went through a really crazy week of 3 mid terms (well, take the word 'crazy' with a pinch of salt). After that, its juz slacking all the way man... hehe.. weather's been pretty cold lately. 'Someone' has totally turned down the temperature of this air-con. Could 'someone' pls tell that 'someone' to turn it up? that'd be really good! well, juz means BYE BYE to my beloved havaianas.... and hello to boots and shoes.

Its halloween week. Went to vieux port on saturdy to catch 'Le Grande Masquerade". Its this parade with people all dressed up parading all the way from mcgill till vieux port. Great stamina in this weather! hehe.. it was interesting to see them all dressed up and all. Well, i think its kinda like chingay, minus the gaudy costumes chingay people wear.. hehee.. and the weather of course.

It's been 2 months since i'm here... reflection time... hehe.. kinds fast... it feels like forever since i've been living here:$ its funny how i'm here for 2 months and taking the metro, walking on St Catherine street, going to Pool room for POUTINE @ 2am become so natural. Btw, POUTINE is my new fab food. heehe. totally sinful french fries with cheese and poutine sauce/gravy. Waking up and sleeping whenever i want to, on a 'single-event-a-day' kind of schedule unlike in singapore when i can do 1001 things in a day. How did i ever do that?! gosh...

oh! and its planning for eoy trip time!!! i'm TOTALLY excited for it! HAhaa.. been busy coordinating it with different people. Whoever said that working with people is easy... hehee. nah... i still love these peeps:D hehe.. its kinda settled and i need to source for flights and hostels n VEGAS hotels! the rates are juz creeping up every single day. its scary...

P.S. feet TOTALLY hurts from walking for almost an hour on my freaking high-heeled boots... i cant even bear to walk up the hill to Stewart Bio...:(
P.S. sorry si, cant make it for ya party! and i wont get to see ya when i go back!!! no worries, we'll have cake when you come back!

it's winter... soon...

the leaves have turned yellow.....

randomness...

145am... and i cant sleep. Brain's juz thumping away with random thoughts... it's one of those nites when i'm sooo tired i can sleep 24 hrs straight, but my brain refuses to give me a rest. Is this a good sign that i have an active brain? probably not at this moment....

so... here goes my randomness...: 'human behavior in blogs or the action of blogging'

I've always wondered, what's the rationale behind blogging? the efforts to set up a blog: rack ya brains for an ULTRA cool but not so cheesy blog address, choose a way... cool skin that gets people asking you where you got it, create a playlist with ya fav songs which, the definition of fav probably changes faster than you can say 'blog', create a tag board for pple to write TOTALLY short and curt comments, create a list of links to ya frens' blogs to possibly LINK you up with the whole world, upload pics/videos which always seem to take forever, thinking of the title for ya blog post while you're doing something totally out of this world even before you get to post about it... fine, i admit that thats me. But dun lie through ya teeth that you didn go through all these...

Psychology: the study of human behavior. IT's cynical how i study it, yet i dun understand human behavior. The more i understand, the more i get disgusted by it. ok. sorry, disgusted is probably too strong a word... let's try... 'bewildered'. and yes, i know that i'm part of the human race. I've kinda concluded that you can TOTALLY get to know a person through a blog. I dun mean the individual, but the general human race in this case.

I could probably interview a thousand pple and ask them the qn,"why do you blog". And i think i'd probably get a fifteenth (dun ask why 15th, randomness remember) of that number of answers. It could be to boast/announce to the whole world that they DO exist as an individual and not merely a drop in the ocean of billions of people; it could be to announce to the world their impeccable technological skills or artistic flair as they compete to see who creates the most advanced blog eliciting the most 'ooooh-aaaah'; it could be b'cos they are TOTALLY bored out such that they need to be expressing their thoughts while mumbling to themselves and typing on an 8 inch keyboard; it could be to flaunt that picture-perfect portrait you took at a latest club on a friday nite with a shooter in hand and your face is juz all the over the place, only difference it's with different pple. Photoshop could have done a better job.

I guess this applies to every other modes of 'networking' (so they call it) that we have now: friendster, facebook, a system that lets you send SMS to every single fren what you are doing that VERY/at EVERY instant! gosh..... can you even sue that fren for harassment? I guess it definitely goes beyond blogging. Or probably, see it beyond the individual, and you see a psycho-social perspective. Beyond that, its a Vygotsky-perspective of the 'larger environment'. Voila! A tripartite model of you, ya social circle and ya 'larger environment'.

So what caused this human behavior? The evolution of human race (probably an evolution of increasing self-satiation/growing egoism?) OR a widening social circle such that it makes you SOOO hard to keep communicate, you need all these gimmicks? For goodness sake, we've survived an age without computers, phones, Blackberry, the Internet. Probably all you need is some psychologist to teach you some social/communication skills. OR the 'larger information' of infotechnology 'forces/compels' you to adhere to such behavior. Or it could simply be the 'larger environment' of culture which advocates such a mode of communication. or it's the physical sense of a 'larger environment' where you start to know a bigger world (beyond ya little island where you live on) out there actually exists. Probably due to a phenomemon called 'gloablisation'.

So probably the next time you wanna type ya status in ya facebook account, y not juz try visiting (calling if that person if halfway around the globe) that fren/enemy and tell them in their face how ya doing. You'd either be exhilarated to see ya fren's happiness for you; or get a kick to see the look on ya enemy's face (btw, god says love ya enemy as ya neightbour....... along those lines)

P.S. dun be offended if you can identify yourself with whatever i'm saying. Trust me, i WASNT referring to you. I understand that i'm blogging at this very moment. So if anyone shld identify with this the most, it has to be me.

rainbow:D

there's a rainbow in the sky
on the green grass i lie
with the wind blowing in my hair
and Krispy Kreme in my hand

youtubing at 1am...

its 106am.. i'm scurrying to study for my behavioral neuroscience & deviations in child psychology mid terms for tml.... i think i can forget about sleeping (in case for all those pple who keeps telling me that i'm having lotsa 'fun' here; i DO STUDY fyi!) and i'm youtubing! how nice... well, found this video! Awesome vocals by Darlene... Michael juz had to take a back seat... haha.. check out the drum solo!!!

Dim Sum!

if you ask me what i miss from singapore, i'd say dim sum! hha.. well, in the food category at least. Went to chinatown, KAM FUNG to have dim sum. thanks to Hui qing's dear mum who gave us a treat :D hahaha.. she's been feeding us good food for the past week! my poor tummy... hehehe...

the dim sum was a little more authentic. Not too bad, considering montreal's standard of food (as i've reiterated before....). Hhehe.. HUi qing's mum did the ordering in canto. i cant really pass off my with pathetic canto which is limited to phrases like 'thank you', 'how much' and 'handsome boy'... HAha... well, grace knows my standard:$

Quebec city! 06.10.2007 - 08.10.2007

Quebec city is totally awesome... HAha.. its like a replica of a European country. Well, it has to bear some resemblance of a european city since the europeans took siege over it some hundreds years ago.. The place is totally awesome with castles, narrow streets, wall murals, and MANY MANY restaurants! Hhaa.. how can we resist food.

Quebec city's history runs way longer than montreal's. If you think montreal as authentic in their french heritage, wait till you see Quebec! Ahaa... THe tourist area was kinda concentrated at the 'vieux-port' where we basically covered the place in a day. The buildings are just awesome, with a strong bearing of the european flavour. You just cant get enuf of them. Its a city fortified with walls (yes walls which means BIG walls for battle. Not those walls in ya house...) and BIG cannons, facing the St. Lawrence River. These foritifications were used during the war against the French. Nevertheless, QUebec city fell to the french... haha.. well, how else would Quebec city be imprinted with such french flavour then! ok. enuf history lesson. Next: L'Ile D'ORleans.

BY hook or by crook, we had to get to that island to go apple picking! HAHa.. we found a way, something called 'call-a-cab'. HAHa... it sucks when you dun have a car and you realize that the whole world (on L'Ile D'ORleans) drives. Silly car rental policy in Canada which doesn allow rental to drivers below 25 years old... i cant help it when i'm THAT young right! hehe..

ANyway, the island is concentrated with farms, vineyards, restaurants along the coast facing the river. The view there was just fantastic! Gosh... the air was so fresh, i felt as if i could juz 'suffocate' any moment! HAHa.. we visited an apple farm for apple picking, followed by a vineyard/winery (cheap wine!), had DELICIOUS apple pie baked on the spot and a chocolate factory (homemade ice-cream). HAHA... it was totally an apple-day: apple muffin from the hotel's complimentary breakfast (they were REALLY good!), apples from the trees, hot apple pie... they shld juz have an apple ice cream... hmm..i think they do. HAha...

On the island, it feels like time has no bearing... where everything comes to a standstill and you are compelled to just enjoy the weather (not the winds but rather the sun!), the trees, water and beautiful houses. It really makes you start planning for your retirement... HAHa.. ooops, or is it juz me :$ fine... start planning for ya dream house then! hehee...

Overall, Quebec city's a really relaxing place to be at... where basically our pace became EVEN slower (as if our pace wasnt slow enuf in montreal) We had the LONGEST lunch since we've arrived in canada. HAHa.. tok about a leisure meal... well, it was the best meal of the whole trip! If you count the apple pie as a snack rather than a meal. Hehe...

Devotion - Hillsong United

Was listening to the album 'All of the Above' when i started to randomly google for it on YOUTUBE. Marvel at the wonders of the world world-wibe web.. again... and i found this! I think this song is juz so marvellous and great and Marty Sampson speaks of how he's inspired to write this song as a proof of how much he trusts in God wherever he is! Whether he was a kid, or 15 years old or even married (or engaged?!) as he flaunts that ring on his left hand! (all girls need to say "awww..." at this point of time)

P.S. dionne, think its really apt for you!

First church service in montreal...

WEnt for my first church service juz now... at Impact Church. WEll, i kinda found out about this church after googling.. the wonders of the world wibe web. ANyway, judging from the websit, i assumed that it'd be ALL RIGHT. you know what i mean yeah. Apparently, the church is made up of mostly youths/students

WEll, things didn really go as i expected... the sermon was all right. The pastor was toking about sacrifices through the story of CAin & Abel. He kinda adopted a more bible study approach through open discussions/comments from the floor... which again, i wasnt used to. Well, the last part kinda shocked me. they ended the service with hymns. yes hymns. they started doing this acappella thingy and sang the song 'HOly, holy, holy'. Ok, i dun mean to be mean... but guess i'm not used to it. The atmosphere was juz sooo serious and sombre...

Mont Tremblant, Quebec!

Visited 'Lac de Sable' (aka Lake of Golden Sand) & Mont Tremblant yesterday! HAha.. well, Lac de Sable is this really small town with REALLY rich pple who buy summer houses by the lake and probably leave it empty most of the time. Juz when you think the number of homeless pple in this world... that sounds really... 'nice'. Well, modes of transportations like bicycles, cars are basically replaced with sea planes, yachts/boats ( i mean BOATS and not sampan boats...) and garages for their mini-toys! HHAA.... WE took a cruise which brought us into the inner areas of the lake and got to see REALLY big houses.... and their mini toys of course. APparently, the land only costs 10 bucks CAD per square metre.... that adds up to around CAD$180,000 for a piece of land?! well, then again.... we haven even calculated in the construction/rennovation/maintenance part.... hahha...

NTL, the view was great! It was kinda surreal as you felt like you were entering into the forgotten land.... HAHA.. where civilisation and society doesn seem to be a part of this world... juz trees, the sky and many beavers! hehehe...

mini cruise ship on lac de sable...
Thats the boat house btw... yes, it means a house for the boat....
See those tiny white specks in teh midst of greenery? those are the BIG BIG houses...


Following this, we headed to have lunch in the city area.... it was a quick bite cos hui qing and i were busy shopping at the factory outlets... again. HAHA>. we got a steal: a tommy hilfiger jacket for CAD$8.55 bucks after discount and discount and discount and further discount... you wonder how they could slash the price from CAD198 bucks to CAD98 then to CAD9.99 then CAD8.55. HAHA>. then you realize, that humans are juz conscious-minded pple who wouldn mind paying the price for the brand. WEll, i want the brand, but not the price... hehhee... i'd like to think that i'm the smarter bunch fo these 'conscious-minded pple'....

Had another half an hour's drive to MOnt TRemblant. It's an island where the ski resort remains as the centrepiece of attraction. The place looks REALLY great as we got to view the moment when the leaves turn red, followed by a lighter shade of yellow which eventually fall, and the land turns into a white sheet! HAha... Again,, the WHOLE mont tremblant ski mountain is owed by this SUPER rich guy who created this ski mountain concept like 30 years ago!? but it wasnt popular till recent years... what can i say, this SUPER Rich guy thought far...

Mont Tremblant, Quebec!
One of the many cable cars... this leads to the start of ski mountain...
See what i mean when the ski resort looks so 'happy-go-lucky'... HAHa. reminds me of disneyland....
Foot of ski mountain where we took the cable car up...

terrified hui qing on the cable car up... HAHA... oops...


Fav pic of the day! He looks so cute with his green raincoat... he was soo shy to take a pic with the guyz... aww....

From left: Hui Qing, Shiyin, Sophie and moi:D
From left: Derek, Hong Ye, Lewis & Boon Han
HIghlight of the day! the REAL ski cars!!! HAHA...

random pic....

View from the ski car... it was totally awesome... kinda felt as if you could touch the trees... hehehe...

New York!

Took me a while to finally sit down and blog about my NY trip... well, here goes...

it was a boring lecture of 'Behavioral Neuroscience' (as usual) when my mind drifted off to making travelling plans... (whats new?!) thats when i decided to make a trip down to ny to find dionne! HAHa.. well, the shopping part in ny kinda motivated me as well...

Day 1: Took the GREYHOUND bus to ny... it was disastrous to start with! I was supposed to reach ny at 0715 21/9/2007. Lo & Behold, there was a bomb threat! no... you didn read wrongly, a BOMB threat. WEll, we were at the US border and the police came and literally took us hostages for full 5 hours... i ended up reaching ny at 1+pm... and missed my trip to WOODBURY:( ooops...

Well, i shld be glad that the BOMB threat was a false alarm and reach ny safe & sound:D thank god! Arrived at dionne's hostel and we went for dinner with her frens to celebrate her b'day! good korean food:D well, i'm sure better than that in montreal....

really authentically furnished korean restaurant...

Making my bed for the next 4 nites! All thanks to Dionne's fren who loaned me the air bed! Its kinda like the one i slept @ Tika & cindy's place! HAHa.. i'm soo amazed at the airbag! its so sophisticated! And guess what, its 10 bucks from target!


day 2: Jersey Gardens! Resourceful dionne found a way for us to take the NJ transit to New Jersey for FREE! HAHa... apparently NJ transit was having some free tix for tertiary students. The coupon didn really state tertiary students in New york so whatever... as long as i get a free bus ride;) I literally went crazy... HAHAH.. we kinda only had 4 hours to cover the whole mall and i had to chop chop.. seriously. HAHa.. the 4 hours werent even enuf... oh... and we had REALLY great burgers.. again, i doubt montreal will have such good ones... thumbs up for JOHNNY ROCKETS!

My burger and i!
My ORIGINAL burger....
Dionne insisted on taking this UNGLAM pic of me...
My shopping and i....


Lasagne dinner! at a REALLY authentic italian resto where we couldn even understand the menu... which shows how authentic they are! HAha...

Day 3: As usual, we woke up late..... i think... haha.... Dionne brought me to check out Times Square. Seriously, it was really a land of billboards... +neon lights at nite! HAhaa.. there were billboards of every single thing you could think of... cars, broadway musicals (how can we forget that!), phone companies.. etc. We checked out some shops like M&Ms, Hersheys, Hello Kitty shop. Lunch was at the makeshift stalls along the Flea market (i think its the Hell's Kitchen Annex) which is only open on the weekends. Well, its kinda like singapore's pasar malam... hehhe... but FAR bigger...

Billboards!

More signboards....

Lunch... from flea market.
Annex's flea market!


Dionne suggested to check out a church: Times Square Church. I was kinda looking forward to it since i haven attended a service for a month! ooops... due to unforseen circumstances rather than my own will though. Well, it was very Sister ACt church, which wasnt really to my taste. Didn really feel comfortable there and i could only think of 'how nice it would be if this was hillsong church'..... interseting vocals and band though!



Of course, we had to catch a broadway musical. my FIRST broadway musical: RENT! Dionne and i went for the 20 bucks rush tix and dionne's plaque card was the first to be called out (34 FRONT ROW tix are allocated according to lottery style). HAHAH... you shld see teh smile on her face when she went up to collect her plaque card. She looked like she had won a million dollars! hahaha.. Well, we got the FRONT row! how cool is that... and we could TOTALLY see every single cast's expressions, fine facial hairs (lighting) and even the occasional saliva spurting when singing... hhahaa.. well, they are humans too. It was REALLY awesome! I even bought the mug as a souvernir, or rather to brag that i've watched a broadway musical in NY! HAhhaa..



One of the many WEIRD buskers in NY....

Dionner & her beloved Mr Reese! Speedy lunch at a 'Kenny Rogers look a like but FAR better' BBQ resto. Church service...




Day 3: Dionne has school... ooops.. i felt guilty bugging her over the weekend and she couldn do her readings and studying. Hope she's finally caught up with her work! well, i had to entertain myself then. HAHAH.. i spent a full hour the nite be4 poring LONELY PLANET:USA and GOOGLE search machine to check out places to see... I ended up with this itinery: Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Century 21 shopping mall, Chinatown, SOHO. HAHa.. not bad huh?! for a day...

Took the metro to WHitehall station to catch the FREE ferry to Staten island. Well, the statue isnt at staten island but its cool cos the ferry PASSES by the statue! HAHA.. well, its free. cant expect much yeah?! IT was good enuf for me... cos you'd realize that teh statue of liberty is after all... a statue! which doesn move.. nor animate on its own. The zoom function in my camera will do the trick;) hehe.. There was an half hour interval in between the ferr ride from staten island back to manhattan. So i toured a little of Staten island. Seriously, the place kinda freaked me out... oops... weird pple... and weird shops! hope no staten island peeps reads this. I highly doubt so... hehe..

Upon returning to manhatten, i walked all the way up to Ground Zero, the previous World Trade Centre. It's kinda ironic to finally see the place, which i only had a glimpse of it through the black box. Ironic in the sense that its a momentous place significant of USA's current war on terrorism. Yet, it lies in the realm of normalcy with TALL skyscrapers surrounding it, cars passing by, passengers walking past. As if nothing happened and the empty land was merely one of the many ongoing construction projects. Well, a busker playing the song 'Amazing Grace' with his flute was kinda the only one giving meaning to Ground Zero....



Century 21 shopping mall! HAha... a mall where everything branded is going cheap cheap... DKNY, Nine West, Le Sport Sac, Michael Kors.... Americans are such suckers for cheap branded stuff. well, who isnt! HAHa..



Walked all the way up to Chinatown which was totally boring... yawnz... i expected to find some GOOD chinese food there. Apparently, it was merely a mess of makeshift stalls with asian proprietors selling 'I HEART NY' shirts, fake perfumes, fake watches, fake caps... blah blah...



Again, walked all the way up to SOHO! HAHa.. land of shopping... Saw AX (bought a couple of shirts for aud & I. Cheap! 25USD per shirt), H&M (ugly mass produced china made stuff), ZARA (EX!), BAnana Republic ( i love this shop now!).... Found some junk food t-shirts going for 20USD. wanted to buy this shirt that says 'I love my ChEVY truck' for aud.. but no sizes.. oops..



By the end of all these, i was carrying so much stuff! i didn have the energy to go further.. back to home it was! What can i say, it was a REALY productive day... HAha.a.


The 'ball' significant of 911 at Battery Park...
Statue of liberty...
No idea what that bridge is.... looks nice anyway...
Ground zero in the midst of 'giants'...

They kinda barriered ground zero with fences. BUt i managed to peek my lens through the fence.... this is what ground zero actually looks like. Kinda disappointing... expecting to see debris and all! HAhaa... ooops...
Not so nice china town....

Day 4: Well-equipped my body's energy level with a hearty breakfast at TOM's RESTAURANT. Its in the vincinity of dionne's hostel. In case you're wondering what restaurant that is, its the place where they film the exterior shots shown in SEINFELD! Thats what dionne told me. only started watching seinfeld in montreal. I had the breakfast special: pancakes with sausages! now, thats what i call DECENT pancakes and not the wet pancakes from EGGSPECTATIONS, montreal or crepe-look-a-like-pathetic pancakes from CHEZ CORA, montreal. HAHHA.. after certifying that its worth eating, bought a similar set for dionne:D i felt like her food taster;0 HAa.. Walked down all the way from 116th street (dionne's hostel) to 30+ street... explored CENTRAL PARK and a little more of times Square along the way. It's funny how manhattan can be separated from all the madness and hype by merely ONE street. That equals up to approximately 50 steps by foot. Central park was TOTALLY cool! Well, thats kinda cos they actually have tennis courts in the middle of the park! HAHa.. i was sooo excited to see it! i ended up sitting at one of the benches and juz enjoying the weather and the gameplay in front of me... well, i ended up watching how an african american coach THRASHED his students at a doubles games.. HAha.. well, probably cos the students (total blonde bimbos! seriously....) were beginners. You shld hear what they say when they miss the ball.... HAHA.. i almost burst out laughing... i miss playing tennis... :(

I realized that i could possible walk along the paths in central park cos i would end up taking 2 hours to cover the trails in it! so i decided to walk along the road beside the park.. and popped back in once or twice... HAHa...

AT times square, checked out VIRGIN store (this MEGA media store) for cindy... it has 3 levels of music CDs, DVDs and even TV merchandise (i.e. 24, Grey's ANatomy). I think cindy would juz go crazy at the DVD section... Popped by at Toys R Us where there were 2 care bears! not really care bears but you knwo what i mean yeah... all the kids were so attracted to care bear.. and the poor giraffe (remember the mascot of Toys R Us) was standing there.. so lonely... HAHAA... ooops...

Had enuf of walking around and went back early to pack up for my bus back. Bought an apple pie from KITCHENETTE (apparently its ZAGAT rated)... well, never trust ZAGAT then. wasted my 5usd!

MOST arduous part of the trip, lugging my 10KG luggage all the way to the bus terminal! i literally had stairs to overcome at every point! Thank god! he brought kinda pple to help me carry it down the stairs... i looked so flustered... hahaa.. seriously, there was someone to help me juz when i am looking at the flight of stairs helplessly!


I've kinda decided to boycott greyhound cos i had a bad experience.. again on my way back. They were supposed to make only 1 stop at albany on way back to montreal. APparently, the bus that nite made 3 stops! It wasnt exactly pleasant getting waken up every other time when the bus makes a stop... i was soo tired by the time i got back to to montreal.. i juz slept the whole afternoon! well, i was glad to be back in montreal... things start to look bakc to normal only in montreal... when the pace isnt so crazy and buildings arent too high.... and of course, the food aint too good as well! Hhaa..

Breakfast special: Pancakes & sausages! with orange juice and lemon tea and LOADS of maple syrup. HAHAH...
Tom's restaurant. Those who actually watch SEINFELD would know what i mean...
Central PArk!
Tennis courts in the midst of greens..... awww.... fav pic of the day!

Metropolitan Museum opposite Central Park...
Lake in central park.

Horse riding in central park.. they even have traffic lights and cars... this shows how BIG central park is! Care Bear in the house! arent they cute and cuddly?!
'Dinosaur' in Toys R Us... My 'ZAGAT-rated apple pie...


P.S. Special and BIG thanks to dionne for alowing me to disturb her peace for 4 nites! hope you got something nice from VICTORIA SECRET;)
P.S. I took 2 days to complete this post! it feels like a school project now... HAHA... enjoy:D