The Trip...

ooooook...

figured how to post pics already.. well, i shall show you what i did in the states for the past 2 weeks... didnt really take pictures of everything, but the important ones are there though..

WARNING: SUBJECT OF PHOTOS MAY NOT BE PHOTOGENIC AND APPEALING TO THE AUDIENCE... CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

it all started with a 12 hr flight to franfurt, germany, where we had a stopover for about 1 hour+

thats my bro... well, aniwaes, we ate like fat and short sausages which were called frank-something... haha... this pic was taken at one of the restaurants at the airport...

my dad...

well, so the flight goes on for another 9 hours to jfk airport at new york... and my bro rented a car there, so we could travel around the country...

we drove for about 2 hours to the state of massachusetts, amherst, and stayed in this motel called the university lodge... well, before that, my bro drove us to the very tree which he crashed into 2 hears ago, and apparently, that tree is now the shortest among the rest... he stunted its growth... the tree wasnt even scratched, but my bro's car, which was borrowed from a friend, was a wreck...

this is draggy... ok.. nvm.. shall cut it short...

so that night, the first night in the states, we went to a pub to eat buffalo wings... to be precise, 60 of them, shared among 5 people... madness... and on top of that, we ordered a huge nachos with cheese and jalapeno peppers and the works, and a whole rack of ribs... we couldnt finish it.. its too much.. haha... and the wings were great...

the next day, i ate my very first real donuts, which is not the doughy bread crap that singapore has.. these are REAL donuts... fried, not baked... we had cinnamon donuts.. it was really delicious...

so after that, my bro brought us to this all-girls college to look around the campus.. it was beautiful... the architecture was amazing...

after that, he brought us to this river, which was totally freezing!! it was the coldest place we visited in the states.. even with my winter gear and ski gloves, i was freezing mad... and my bro still wanted me to take off my gloves to take pics for him.. =.=

ok... the next day, we visited my bro's violin teacher when he was taking his masters in the states.. charles treger is his name.. my father has one of his recordings too... he's really amusing.. told us many of his stories when he was young... and the saddest thing was, i didnt gel my hair.. and i look like crap... haha.. oh wells.. oh, the lady in orange is my sis-in-law..

we spent a total of 3 nights at amherst, then we drove to boston city, which was about 3 hours away... i love that city!! soo many historical sites! one of them was this cemetry, which contained a number of historical figures, which includes mother goose, the woman who wrote nursery ryhms, and samuel adams, yau and adam's son, who was one of the people who signed the declaration of independence.. didnt manage to take photos of their graves, due to some unfortunate events... ooh, before we reached the city, we visited a fulte factory, burkardt or something like that.. dunno how to spell.. yep.. one of the top 5 flute makers in the states at least.. it was really cool, cause my bro's friend is working there, and there are only 20 people working in that factory...

we also visted yale university, which is one of the top 3 universities in the states.. i love that place.. it is sooo beautiful...

we ate lunch at this place called the marketplace, which is actually equivalent to singapore's finger food street, but much more high class and expensive... we ate lobsters, one each.. haha... its really really good... and the clam and lobster chowders, omg, its amazing...

and we went around taking pics of the very house which the declaration of independence was written and announced, which was exactly on the balcony... oh.. that statue is samuel adams btw...

so it was christmas day, and i tell you, the streets were totall empty! like TOTALLY!! we could even take our sweet time taking pictures in the middle of the road... it was as if the whole city was wiped out of humans! and the worst thing, no food shops were open... utter torture... we ended up in dunkin donuts eating muffins.. haha... so we ended up taking pictures along the way, and we attended a church's christmas service.. interesting...

we also went to harvard university.. didnt really like that place... i prefer yale... but it was nice aniwaes.. those two guys, the one in yellow and the most-front guy are my bro's friends who are studying there...

we stayed in boston for 3 nights, then we drove to evansville, indiana state... it was an 18 hour drive.. and we did it in one day.. haha... phew.. we visited the gelok family, which is the one my sis is getting married to... the girl on the extreme left is dan's, my sister's husband, youngest sister, who is 18, the same age as me.. i was attracted to her, but it wont work out at all.. we have two totally different personalities... i tell you, the whole family is extremely fun to be with... they also have a strong set of principles which they have to follow.. and they have a family 'coucil' whenever theres something wrong in the family and they will sit down and discuss it, not like singaporeans.. they shout and argue and they dont realise it doesnt solve anything.. oh wells..

the next day is the wedding.. the big day.. i was the only one wearing this long coat, and i look like some godfather or something, which everybody keeps calling me.. hahaa.. the procession was great... my sis and dan were sobbing when we were singing the hymns.. it was really touching.. how they went through difficulties, and i really mean BIG difficulties and tribulations to be with each other... the woman in red is my mum btw..

after the procession, there was a banquet.. it was really really really fun... i danced for the very first time in my life... both fun and slow dance.. haha... everybody was having fun that night.. my sis taught me how to spin her in a slow dance.. we didnt really have a real chance to say a proper good-bye to her.. she had to run out of the place while everybody was throwing rice at them.. you know, the tradition.. and the only way to escape was to drive away in their wedding car.. however, her friends filled the whole car with balloons, like so many of them! they couldnt even put their hand in.. haha.. sigh... i miss her...

so the next morning, i was already depressed... bleah... we headed back to new york.. we arrived at the big apple about 11 hours before countdown, and we ate chinese food there.. it was great, better than in singapore.. amazing...

we visited the grand central train station, the largest train station in the world, with 300 tracks in total... !!

we went to the times square... it was already packed with thousands and thousands of people!!! and it was 9 hours before countdown.. 9 HOURS!! and we almost got killed in the mob.. minutes after the photo was taken, we were walking in the human jam when the flow stopped all of a sudden... nobody could move at all.. i couldnt even lift up my arm to touch my shirt! and people were starting to get pissed and they started pushing.. they almost started a fight, which would leave us dead if it were to happen...

well, it was an exciting experience though... we managed to get out of the sardine can and headed to the airport, and there began my journey home.. and now i'm here sitting in front of my computer.. yep.. thats my trip to the states in a nutshell.. left out lots of things but i guess theres no point in telling you guys everything...

enjoy!&#@$#&%#