what i'll miss

I'm coming home soon! Just 2 weeks to go.. Kinda silly that when I finally go home, pb will be Colorado instead. Haha. Been wanting to finish up my blog entries but zooomr is currently undergoing transition to Mark III so I guess I can't upload my picts.

If you've noticed the 'Time is running out' column on the right, it lists the places that I've yet to blog about. Lots to cover! Last few weekends were spent crazily zipping around states trying to visit as many as possible. Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana, Wisconsin, Florida.

• Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee
• Skyline Drive, North Carolina
• Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
• Indianapolis, Indiana
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Orlando, Florida
• Miami, Florida
• Mount Rushmore, South Dakota
• Yellowstone, Wyoming

And today, after work, my colleagues and I are headed for our most adventurous travel EVER. We're gonna drive through half the continent, towards the oldest national park in US, Yellowstone!! It's gonna take 27 hours of drive. Do wish us good luck.. haha. We'll also visit Mount Rushmore along the way.

Our route covers
Ohio - Indiana - Illinois - Iowa - Nebraska - Wyoming
Wyoming - South Dakota - Minnesota - Wisconsin - Illinois - Indiana - Ohio

We'll be back on Tuesday.. so hopefully zooomr is done by then and I can do my updates!




As much as I'm looking forward to going home, I know that when I'm back in Singapore, there'll be part of me left here in Cleveland. After all, I spent 1/24 of my life here! In case I forget anything, I'm gonna start listing these things out as I remember, and probably post this right before I go home.

1. Travelling travelling travelling - How I can just hop on a plane / drive distances to visit some superbly famous landmark that appears in movies!
2. The weather or rather, the climates - I reached US in the Summer where it was so hot, yet got very very cold when the wind blew. I loved the lack of humidity, fantastic for makeup that stays on your face and not having to use facial blotters. The days were so long, and the sun was up from 5am til 9pm. You had such a long day to accomplish everything you wanted to do, and the non hot+humid weather made your mood really good. Before we knew it, it was Autumn. The leaves turned orange, then suddenly, they were all on the ground. I wasn't prepared for that and hardly took any good photos of the gold foliage. Autumn was really weird, it was cold, and there was even snow now and then.. Kinda freaked us out about how Winter would be like, if Autumn was so cold. I'd always thought the climates follow the official date on the calendar at my office desk, but it's not like that. Autumn just blended into Winter, everything at the same time.. I thought winter meant snow everyday.. but I learnt that, snow is like rain but only cos it's cold. Since it doesn't rain everyday, it doesn't snow everyday.. And there are warm(er) days as well, like, 0 deg celsius.. or cold cold days where it reaches -26 deg celsius, including wind chill I think. And, and who can forget Spring? When you see lots of duck/goose/squirrel shit on the ground outside the office! And of course the actual animals.. coupled with little green leafy shoots bursting out of the once barren trees, and trees filled with pink/white flowers.. gardens of multicolored tulips.. deers chomping on dandelions.. all with a nice airconditiony temperature in bright sunshine.
   
3. The wonderful US colleagues. George, Linda, Sahi, Lynette, Scott, Jeff, and that's just the test team. Those from the other teams have also interacted with us in some way or another. They have been so helpful not only in work related topics, but helping us to get accustomed to the place here, answering our questions, telling us where to get asian food/markets, introducing us to restaurants and places to play. Or just popping their head into the singaporean office to say hi or comment on the crazy snow out there: 'So, still liking the snow?'
4. The flexible work culture. Colleagues can come in and talk to you for an hour.. You can take off days and work back the hours on a weekend/daily.. You can take personal off days for obviously, personal reasons. Everything's cool. Not that I do that much, cos I think in America, everything's based on trust. Everyone looks relaxed and all but they still get their jobs done, and they are really damn zai at what they do. Don't think I'm exactly very zai so, better work harder..
   
5. Tapaoing food to work and not having to feel paiseh about it cos even the big bosses do so
   
6. The friendly Americans who greet you and say 'How're you doing' on the streets, not just people in the corridor at work, but all the shop assistants, and neighbours and even some strangers on the road.. When you smile back and answer 'Good', even when you're having a not-so-good day you instantly brighten up just by a little at least.
   
7. Shopping. I tell you, the great singapore sale is crap, compared to the sales they have here. Firstly the Factory Outlets which sell designer wear real cheap.. eg Coach, ahem.. Secondly the fact that you can shop online and ship stuff cheap cos you have an US address.. Also.. things like mail in rebates, www.slickdeals.net and google checkout that can make your items free.. my my my.. I'll definitely miss their return policy as well. Almost everything can be returned, usually with no questions asked! Even if you don't have your receipt, they will give you store credit instead.. Like I said, I find that a lot of things are based on trust in America. Which is really cool, it would never work in Singapore cos there are bound to be some real cheapos who take advantage of loopholes in this system. Not that there aren't cheapos in US, but I think they still have the basic integrity not to do anything that's not so right. And and and because there are 4 seasons, there's a sale all the time for the previous season's clothes!! It's cool if you stay here for long and you can just get stuff for the next year.
8. Abercrombie and Fitch, and generally all the very long teeshirts and very long sleeves.. sigh
   
9. My baby camry solara.. or just, the fact that I can drive here.. also, the huge and FREE parking lots which make it easy to park.. It's also even easier cos there are seldom any dividers (there are just yellow lines drawn on the floor), so you could easily drive across a few lots and then still have the front of your car facing the outside so that you don't have to do any reverse parking for that. And the absence (almost) of parallel parking in Cleveland.. hoho.
   
10. Coming home every fortnight to a clean clean house with bed made, toilets scrubbed, kitchen degreased and carpet vacuumed.
11. IPTV with loads of channels that you can choose.. ok I suaku, don't have that in singapore mah..
12. Skiing, snowboarding, tobogganing
    

dad+mum @ my office

Thursday, April 26, 2007

A tour of my office for mummy and daddy. Cos I really do work.

lake caution


my messy desk




some cool ball bouncing relay thing that the security guard kindly switched on for us

before spring came, i always stared at the botak trees and wondered how the leaves can just appear some day.. and this is what the shoots look like. it's all magic.. even now, all the trees are of different hues of green.

dad+mum @ brandywine falls

Saturday, April 14, 2007

We originally wanted to go to chicago this weekend but weather.com says there are thunderstorms so we ended up with a light itinerary. SHOPPING AT GROVE CITY!!! No tax on clothings.. dammnnn shiok. Mummy has finally been initiated into factory outlet shopping. In fact, most of the things that I bought, were egged on by her. tsktsk. allll her fault.


Sunday, April 15, 2007

So.. there really isn't much to do in Cleveland, and I brought them down to Brandywine Falls in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. And guess who I saw at the parking area.. Kevin and his parents! That totally proves how exciting Cleveland is and how many places we can actually bring our parents to =p

we popped by the ski resort which was nearby. no snow left!

dad+mum @ north chagrin reservation metropark

Friday, April 13, 2007

Back from the loooong tour, I was only let off for Thursday before bringing them around on Friday again. Heehee. Went to a park like, 10 minutes away from my place.

these are supposed to be er, waterfalls




there's even a castle here... kinda cool





on our way back, we saw a few deers cross our road! luckily they crossed in time.. they had bushy white tails.. cuuuute.


totally out of point but i thought this was so hilarious. at giant eagle after the walk in the park

also out of point, but notice something here? no, not the fact that i wear L. this singlet was made in singapore! how dumb is that, that i come all the way here to buy some singlet made in spore which is not sold there?!

dad+mum eastern tour day 8 @ boston, massachusetts

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Our tour ended with a brief visit at Boston, before rushing off to catch our flights in NYC [LGA/JFK/EWR] in the evening. So, it was really brief, and most of the time we were rushing everywhere.

pretending to warm their hands at a fireplace in our hotel near boston


boston sunrise.. and michelle, a friend I made on the trip.


we reached Harvard..




and MIT..





and then, took a cruise in the river...




and that was that.


lunch was a chop chop affair at mac donalds.. and soon we were zipped off to our respective airports..


at La Guardia airport. Most ulu but cheapest flights.


they wanted to take a photo of the guards so we pretended to take er, the background instead


end of trip! tiring, but lots of fun.

dad+mum eastern tour day 7 @ quebec, quebec

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

We set off for Quebec early in the morning. Quebec is crazy about their flag and you can see its white fleurs-de-lis everywhere, even at this public toilet we went to. Anyway my very playful parents grabbed the chance to play with the snow.. along with other tourists [mostly kids?!] until we got honked at by 李先生 [the driver, not my dad] before we embarrassedly went back into the bus.

we reached La Citadelle de Québec. It's a star shaped fort.. as usual I didn't pay attention to our guide who gave us all the historyish details. neither did most of the other tourists.. heh I think she got kinda pissed off with us barbarians.

we did see some men and women in their military uniforms walking around. i was really tempted to go up and ask for a photo with them. and i got a cheap thrill out of thinking how to ask them with my lousy french.. how do you say photo in french. i dont know so all i could come up with would be 'er.. photo avec vous.. sil vous plait?' hurhur. luckily i didn't meet any so that i didn't look stupid.

my parents wanted to take this photo cos of the snow blowing machines behind



after i took this photo in the souvenir shop everyone started following suit, esp the kids, haha

after that we went to a french restaurant to act high class and eat lousy overpriced food.

mushroom soup


their steak and my smoked salmon



i thot this was cheesecake but to my disappointment it was all cream.


we popped by le Château Frontenac after lunch. it's a hotel near where we ate..

after which.. it was time to head back to US. that was really all we saw of quebec. I've noticed how short my entries are for this eastern tour. I guess it's only when you go there yourself [as in not with tour] and explore the place, interact with the people and soak in the atmosphere, can you really experience a new place. All I got out of this trip was 'I've been there' picts, which is fine cos that was basically the main goal of this trip.

went through the mountains of vermont and new hampshire. check out the driver in cool shades. he has the BEST driving skills ever.. he's my idol siah. and he also cooperates very well with the tourguide anisa.. really professional.