Airport arrivals

If you want to see the happiest faces in the world, go to the airport. People aren't exactly at their best at that time, but walking out of that arrival hall is the happiest thing in their lives. Familes hug, lovers exchange kisses and friends wave frantically at each other from where they are standing. I saw the funniest thing today though. This man kissed his wife, and then quickly wiped off the lipstick marks that were on his lips. HAHA. HAHAHA.

On a side note, do you think this guy likes his job?

I reckon not, since he wasn't even looking at the exit door, but in the opposite direction!

London 2.0

Today I woke up with the sun shining on my face. I felt a new sense of purpose in my life again, but I felt sluggish after breakfast. What is wrong with my body? So I watched Chuck, Season 3, episode 4. Boy, you should have seen the fire in me again. Chuck is one of my fav shows and it reminded me so much of the US, and how long I have been away from Philly.

I set out of my room earlier than usual so I will on time, meeting Jermyn at Bayswater for Chinese food. Bloody bus took so long yesterday because of the horrible traffic along Oxford Street. God, how I love and hate that street so much. I love it because it's such a shopping paradise, but I hate it for the sheer number of people there regardless of the time of the day. I know I'm technically a tourist myself, but to hell with the tourists, stop visiting Baker Street and congesting the streets where I live!

Met Jermyn at Gold Mine. He dubs it the Singaporean place. I overheard conversations and there were so many familiar accents. I love it! Rushed off to take the bus (which passed by Oxford Street again) to Leicester Square to meet Eggy for tapas :) I get really excited whenever I get to ride the bus, because London buses give u such great perspectives of London. I love people&place-watching from where I usually sit. It's on the second deck, at a little corner where I can retreat into my own shell and observe the world as it passes by. I like how the traffic gets so bad that even walking to your destination is faster. I see little kids taggin along with their parents, panting a little to catch up as the adults take bigger strides. I imagine how conversations would go as the daughters show the dads shirts that they really like. I mentally note down places with cheap sales going on. I do everything on the bus! As I alighted, this one couple took a picture with the bus stop as their backdrop, and I naturally became one of their background actors. Good, now I'm in someone's picture forever.

Good company with a pitcher of Shangria and tapas. I jokingly told Eggy that 2 glasses of Shangria would knock me out, so she would have to scoop me up and send me home. Our conversation lasted for a good 2 hrs. Wow, how time flies! We walked out of the restaurant when it was storming outside in London. Alright, I exaggerated a little, but this is the heaviest rain that I've ever seen in London. Well, there goes my plan of taking a nice stroll along Charing Cross Street before heading back to my room.

At 7pm sharp, I set out again, this time to Jon's place. He made dinner for me while I baked some cookies (and then he took over after dinner again)! This boy promised me a baking session since dunno when, but he had to postpone it so many times. Finally, he was free to bake! and he offered the "dinner package" as well. You know, Vi-Zanne Ho doesn't say no to free food, so I said yes immediately!

Ta da! John Foo. He made his famous honey-coke-chicken with a dozen other dishes and we (myself and his 3 other housemates) wiped out the food in no time!

Our cookies :)

Later that night, one of his Malaysian friends came and join us for a chill hang-out session and I must say, I learnt so much about Malaysia (about politics, scholarships, people's lifestyles etc etc) from him. And we laughed. A lot. So much so that I can't sleep now! It's weird how I have to learn about my own country from someone else, but that's the best I can do right now, can I? I'm far far away from home, and every year I go home feeling more like a tourist than a local now.

Anyhow, it was a great, great day. And Sister is arriving in a few hours :)

My after graduation plans (hopefully!)

Volunteer in Ecuodor
http://www.interexchange.org/content/197/en/Working%20Abroad/International%20Volunteer%20Opportunities/Opportunities%20Available/Volunteer%20in%20Peru%20%7C%20Working%20Abroad.html

Volunteer in Peru
http://www.interexchange.org/content/197/en/Working%20Abroad/International%20Volunteer%20Opportunities/Opportunities%20Available/Volunteer%20in%20Peru%20%7C%20Working%20Abroad.html

I need to start saving again after this London trip :)

300th Post: Of Stockholm, Sweden - Go naked or go home

Go naked or go home. That would sufficiently summarize my Stockholm trip over the weekend. It seems like in Sweden, the locals like to go naked and express themselves freely. Back at our hostel where we stayed for 3 days, the shower cubicles were separated only by a thin piece of glass, which was semi transparent , and you could see all the other ladies showering beside u. Alyssa and Kelley had the most horrible experience showering, and I was a little freaked out - I showered in 2 minutes and dashed out of the bathroom asap once I was fully clothed. Lol, but anyway, the reason for my post title "go naked or go home" was because of the Viking Sauna tour that I did with the girls. You wouldn't believe it, but it was helluva fun despite the craziness of it all. All you do is, shower, sit in the sauna for 15 minutes, then go out in the cold and take a dip in the frozen lake, go back in, take a shower and sit in the sauna again. The locals do it naked all the way, right from the shower room to the dipping. I was slightly flabbergasted when I found out that the ladies and gents all dip in the same lake naked together. WOW. The one lady whom I was talking to said she does it every weekend, then take a nice walk in the woods beside the lake.

I did it when there was literally a snowstorm outside. And I loved it. I wanted to do it again, but I was afraid that my body couldn't take it =P

You know, when in Sweden, do what the Swedish do.

Hostel lounge. No-shoes policy enforced in the hostel as well.

Just chilling on the couch in our room. Our hostel was way too cool!

And these would be my herd for the weekend. They followed me around because I was the only who knew the directions. Basically, I knew Stockholm inside out by the end of the trip.

Some touristy pictures of me at the Old Town - Gamla Stan

I don't even know how to describe the wind which was ridiculously strong.

Another touristy picture :)

Stockhome at Stockholm.

Cute window.

They mean it literally.

Skansen, the outdoor musuem in Stockholm.

Cute Swedish babies.

Viking Sarah tried to kill me.

Sarah and I taking a picture off the reflection of the mirror at the shop.

One of their national symbols - the Dala Horse

The Dalecarlian Horse (Dala Horse) is the traditional wooden statuette of a horse originating in the Swedish province of Dalama.

Buying hotdogs and snacks at the tiny traditional booth next to the bus stop.

Alyssa was really excited when she found her Swedish Fish at the candy store, but it tasted horrible.

Viking ship at the Vasa museum. In the large shiphall stands the warship Vasa - the only remaining, intact 17th century ship in the world. The lower rig has been rebuilt, complete with masts, stays and shrouds.

And lastly, of food at Sweden - These swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes and radish and pickles were orgasmic. I don't mean it literally, but they were awesome!

Best part of the trip was of course meeting hot swedish guys at Macs. We stopped by MacDonalds as our last stop after a night's out at the bar/pubs at Stockholm. Partying in Stockholm is so expensive btw, and buying alcohol is impossible (The one bottle of beer that I bought from the bar was 6 pounds!!!!!! Can faint). And there is only ONE liquor store in the entire Sweden (repeat, sweden, not stockholm). Apparently, the free-est country in the world taxes their alocohol big time, which is good in a way, because the people won't binge that way eh? So anyway, we were at  Macs at 12am, talking loudly like typical American tourists, and then these two Swedish guys tapped on our shoulders to ask if we were from America. They proceeded to join us for our supper =) I want to say, we had great conversations, and the most unbelievable part is, one of them actually did an exchange program in Haverford college, just 20 minutes away from SJU back in Philly. Oh my sky, what a small world!

Sweden 2010 - you are epic :)

DONE

Lion King wasn't really up to standard. Perhaps I went with too high an expectation, and that immediately made all the difference. I liked their rhythmatic African songs though. I'm adding Africa to my bucket list now :) Hehehe. Any sponsors?

Honestly, I think my boss thinks I'm crazy. I have two papers due today and I still went to work yesterday and then for a musical. And I ended up staying up all night, squeezing all the creative juices out of me. It's now 8am in the morning and I am done. DONE for good. I don't even want to check through my work anymore. I want to sleep. But before I do that, let me munch on my apple and walk to the Regent Campus to submit that damn paper. 70% of my grade depends on those papers, and I hope that justifies my all-nighter. And then, carry my rucksack down to the library to return ALL of the eight books I borrowed for my papers.

Tomorrow - Stockholm for the weekend. Then it's easter break for 3 weeks. 1 more week till I see mama, papa and jiejie :)

Too cute!

Today boss disappeared from the office for like a close half-hour. I thought he had some emergency meeting, so I shrugged and took my seat and continued working. I managed to produce an automated excel spreadsheet using macro to help produce reports for the department. Man, I am so proud of myself for learning everything from scratch and single-handedly finished it! I am an Excel and Powerpoint expert now. That's right. You heard me right. I am boasting about my microsoft office skills. How geeky can I get?

Anyway, that half-hour disappearance.... can be explained! Boss went off to buy me a present. Chocolates are my favorite! I jokingly told big boss that everyone in the department wants to make me fat so I will quit dating British boys and concentrate on my job.

22.... what a nice, round figure. 22 years of my life gone, but more exciting years ahead await me!

Thank you babe

I <3 this cute little face. Thanks babe for the lovely bday Belgian dinner + Belgian beer.

Can I still call u babe when u're like 70 years old?

Of March 14th

It's been a long, long day. And I am a happy girl :) Pre-Celebration/Meet-up/Hang out with friends today was great! So last night I slept at 330am. Politics paper is getting way too annoying I want to just throw in the towel and surrender. Woke up at 9am, touched up my paper a little and then Sankar gave me a call to inform me that brunch will be at tower bridge. I thought those two boys would sleep in after a long, wild night. Turned out I was wrong.

So I took the train to London Bridge station. TFL is acting up again. Every single weekend, the district and circle lines are closed, and today they decided to do the same thing to the Jubilee as well! So my 20-mins journey turned out to be 40-mins.

With Sankar and Jim at Tower London. Both gentlemen are actually in their 30s. I met Sankar at the airport, and then met Jim through Sankar.

See what I have to deal with every weekend? Disrupted lines.

St Patrick's Celebration at Trafalgar Square.

At 4pm, I was supposed to meet Yutaka at South Kensington stop. Again, my straight-forward journey from Tower London was closed, so I had to take the bus to Trafalgar Square and then catch the train. TFL is seriously playing games with me. I had to pay so much for transportation today ok! Was late meeting up with Yutaka, but Yutaka is a nice boy and he forgave me :) We went to ITSU, a japanese restaurant where Jan works at. I had promised Jan that I would stop by one day to have a drink, and I'm so glad I kept my promise! He made me free drinks (and attempted to make me drunk by offering more free champagne and cocktails.) Boy, you have to know that I have a tiny body mass. One solid drink is enough to knock me out!

Jan and my free cocktail that he specially made for me - Porn Star. WTH? One kind of a name, but I loved it! I wanted to stay longer as I was having this interesting conversation with his co-worker while sipping on my drink, but had to cut it short since I had to rush back to Picadilly to meet up with the girls at TGIF for more drinks and food!

My favorite drink at TGIF- Barnamint Baileys with Oreos

With the girls plus Sherene and Rhea who were sitting at the other side of the table :)

Then I had my free bday cake. The waiter made me stand on my chair and had the entire restaurant sing a bday song for me. How embarrassing.

And then the girls gave me some lovely make-over there with chocolate.

I was well-fed :)

And then we had one more free drink from the waiter - Strawberry Mojito!

What a day. Too many great drinks in one day. I am afraid this is not real. Is this the London life I've been living? Someone wake me up. Ok? Ok, thank you.

Of Shepherd Neame Brewery and Dover Castle on White Cliffs

This weekend, I decided to take it easy :) It felt so good having the entire Friday

 off instead of zipping off to somewhere in Europe for an intense travelling trip. Yesterday, I decided to go shopping, all by myself. I loved it! It's nice to have some alone time sometimes and think about my life without having to deal with anyone/anything.

But yesterday night, I had to work on my Accounting paper. I drank a cup of coffee at 9pm, and ended up working through the night till 2am.

Today, to reward myself for the hardwork well done yesterday, I opted for the Dover Castle day trip with the IFSA family. We stopped by the Shepherd Neame Brewery on the way to Dover. It's Britain's oldest brewery situated at this tiny town called Faversham with a population of only 18,000. The gang was complaining that there was nothing to see at Faversham. Granted, the town was probably the size of the Marylebone Campus that I am living at right now, but I really liked the quaint little shops and buildings.

I have friends, you know :)

Asian tourist pose is a must.

Haha. With Brette. He is ridiculous.

We gotta sample what I call the "finest" beer in town, even though the others begged to differ. Rhea dubbed it the worst thing that one can ever down. We had 4 different beers - Lager, Ale (Canterbury Jack), Bishop's Fingers, and lastly the Orangy one.

Dover Castle was about 1-hr drive away from Foversham. For over 2000 years these fortifications have protected the English Coast. Henry II built the castle in the 1180s actually. We were supposed to be able to see France from where we were, but the weather was a let-down =(

 Rhea and Sherene almost missed the bus from Foversham when they wandered off to buy some food and got lost. HAHAHA. They would.

With the girls at the Castle.

Now with the Babson and SJU family.

And here's my prom picture for the day at the castle steps.