Some interesting stuff I experienced in the States

1. I got lots of static shocks in Las Vegas. Once I touch something metal, I will get a static shock. A big one. For example, a telephone or a water cooler.
2. I found four 1 cent coins during my trip.
3. I always wake up at around 3.30am almost every morning.

Try to think of some more. Will update it soon.

Best of the West

Ok, it's been one week since I came back from the States and it's time to blog before I forget about it.

Dec 03. First day, reached the airport at 7.30am, flight 9.40am. Delayed for about an hour. Left at about 10.30am. Stop-over at Tokyo Narita, second time I've been there this year. Then to Los Angeles. Slept about 2 hrs on the plane. Reached LAX at about 11.45am local time. By the time we cleared customs, about 1.30pm. Then went hotel in Fullerton, near Anaheim. Wyndham Hotel Anaheim Park. Then went shopping for some water and foodstuffs at the nearby Henry supermart. Then went for dinner at a Chinese Restaurant. Untypical Chinese food.
Second day, Disneyland Park Anaheim and California Park. Hopping Pass. Went for some famous rides, such as the Indiana Jones. Then went over to California Park, another theme park by Disney but not about Mickey Mouse and friends, but about other stuff like Bugs Life and anoynmous stuff. More rides. Then went back Disneyland for more rides and the Fantasmic + fireworks show at 9pm. Got there at about 8.40pm. People waiting there since 7pm. Then they cancelled it. Because of strong winds. No show. Nothing. Then went back hotel.
Third Day, Universal Studios Hollywood. Not much, Jurassic Park water ride, Mummy Ride, some other rides, shows and 4D shows. Everyone's favourite was either the water show or the Shrek 4D. Other stuff, nothing much. Then another Untypical Chinese Dinner in Los Angeles Chinatown.
Fourth Day, Sea World San Diego. Two hour ride there. Reached there 11.15am. Saw the Shamu show and some other water animals shows. Cool. Hyped up over Shamu. Went for some rides which were outright boring. The only nice ride was a 4D show about the Haunted Lighthouse by RL Stine. Left at 5.15pm back for LA. Slept.
Fifth Day, bus to Las Vegas. Left at 8am, stopped over at Barstow for 1 hour to shop. Reached Vegas at about 2pm. Stayed in Stratosphere Hotel. Walked into casino first thing I reached there. Big one. Smelly one with cigratte and cigar smells. Open Concept. Had to walk past casino to get into hotel.vRested the whole afternoon. Night went for dinner at a so called food court but when we got there, there was only a McDonalds, Mexican food (Cali Cantina), some pizza and a prezel shop (Wetzels Pretzels). Ate the Mexican. Not to my liking. At night, went night tour where we looked at free shows from 8 to 10.30 at all the hotels cum casinos. Short ones, about 4 to 7 minutes only per show.
Sixth day, woke up at 4am to go to Grand Canyon. Got to a private Scenic Airlines airport and took the 6am flight. 19 people (all from our tour group, thankfully) squeezed in a small plane. Took 1hr10 or 20 min to get there. About -8 degrees C there. Then got onto bus and went to Grand Canyon. View was magnificant but the wind made it very cold. Had hot chocolate. Then went to another place for another view before having buffet lunch. Then took the same flight back. Reached Vegas about 1pm. Then went hotel to rest for a while. Then went casino hunting to look at the different hotels. Took a bus, the Deuce, runs along Las Vegas strip. Whole day ticked for 5 dollars. Expensive compared to Singapore's. Then came back to hotel and sleep.
Seventh day, Took Southwest Airlines dimestic from Las Vegas John Mc Carran airport to Oakland. Reached there, crossed the Bay bridge into San Francisco. Went to Chinatown for lunch. More typical Chinese food. Went for some sightseeing (Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate, where I walked on the bridge, Twin Peaks, Civic Centre, went past the Gay and Lesbian street (I think Castro) where had lots of 7 colours flag)and then went hotel and then took a walk along Market Street and nearby. Then went for dinner (at Chinatown again) and then, I got fever. No choice but to walk and so went shopping a Macy's and more shopps before going back to the hotel and sleep.
Eighth day, took the cable car for 5 dollars a way (Powell and Hyde line) and got sick (stomach problems, fever) on the tram. Stopped at Lombard (crooked street), then walked down to fisherman's wharf. Didn't take bay cruise. Had clam chowder in a sourdourgh bread bowm before taking a F trolley (tram, name is F) back to hotel. Slept on a very comfortavle couch in the hotel lobby and slept from 3.30pm to about 5.30pm. Then woke up and went for dinner at a Thai restaurant in O' Farrell road. Food was nice, had soccer showing on the TV. Then went to di last minute shopping and then went back to the hotel and left for the airport at 7.30pm. Reached San Francisco International Airport at about 8pm and then checked in, had a small snack at the food court (proper) and then went inside for duty-free shopping before heading back to Singapore via Hong Kong. Reached Singapore at 11.30am (around there) on Dec 12. Had a nice trip.

Back

Finally back from the States yesterday late morning. Couldn't wait to eat Chinese food again, so wolfed down a bowl of laksa from the airport canteen. Got sick in the States, especially the last part. Ultra tired, slept from 6pm yesterday to 8am today. Woke up not long ago. Updates about my trip in the next post or two.

Whoopee

Whoopee. I'm going to the States first thing tommorow. The western part. The three big cities, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco. Packed our bags and prepared to go. Yay. Can't wait. Wonder whether I can wake up tommorow. Hope so.

Dec Holiday

Yes, I'm going to the States on the 3rd of December. Cool. I will be going to the west coast area; Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Fransciso. Quite a last minute booking, just booked it this week. Surprised that there were still places. That means that I get to skip 1 week of gym but I'll miss the class chalet.

Holidaez

2 weeks of the holidays are gone and I haven't done much. Haven even started doin my holiday homework. Then still got dat CCA of mine. Must go back 4 times a week x 4hrs. Tiring hor. Sooner or later I'll get gymnophobic, ya? Still thinking on where to go this December for holidaez. My bro wants to go America Disneyland. I anything also can. Sigh... Holidaez quite boring.

Long time no Blog

Ha, I haven't been blogging for the past 2 month or so. In this two month, lot's of things have happened, in and out of school. I haven't had time to blog because of the common test, my brother's exams, and many more. Sometimes I also don't feel like blogging. So, I'll make this post short and sweet (ok, maybe not sweet). Firstly the inter-class soccer tournament. Ok, we got kicked out in the first round, but I organised the tournament which was quite fun. Then we had lots of 'exciting' weeks before the common test then after common test, it was all play. Until now.

Malaysia 'Marathon'

Ok, I've just came back from Malaysia yesterday night after the Tioman trip which takes that to 3 trips to Malaysia in 3 months. Went to Sarang Buaya last Friday and saw almost the same stuff as I saw during the Church Camp in June. My digital camera broke down again. Back for a night, then left for Tioman early in the morning on Saturday. Managed to get to school on time and took a about 3.5hr bus ride to Tg. Gemok and another 1.5hr fast boat ride to Tioman. Then we checked in to our resort rooms which was good but the air-con broke down on the first night. then we went trekking in the forest and mangrove while it was raining before going for a snorkelling lesson where we saw a big turtle and many sea urchins. The next day was a whole day of snorkelling at Tulai island where we took a bumpboat which took us 1hr. We snorkelled first and we saw lots of jellyfish. We then had our lunch at a beautiful beach where there were komodo dragons. Then we went snorkelling in a mangrove swamp but the water was too shallow and so we didn't. There wasn't anything nice at the mangrove and so we snorkelled back to our bumpboat and headed back. the ride back was very choppy but fun and exciting with the element of not knowing what will happen ande lots of funny stuff happened on the boat back (shan't elaborate). we finally got back and after dinner, went for a night time mangrove walk where we got to touch and hold dog-faced sea snakes before having a bonfire at the beach. The final day we went back to the mangrove for a survey and we collected some specimens and did a presentation before having lunch and taking a 'treacherous' walk to Melina beach where a guy talked about saving turtles. we walked back to our resorts and checked out before going to the jetting and waiting for the boat for 1.75hr which was very late. We had our dinner at an Italian restaurant before coming back to Singapore at midnight. I had a nice trip in Malaysia. Think of going back sometime again next time.

Printer Problems

Recently, my printer has been causing me countless late nights. I dunno why, but my printer has always been stopping in the middle of printing and it just goes haywire, keep taking in more paper and printing crap on it. The printer is also quite slow, taking about 2 minutes to print a page of word document. My dad says that it is because of too much stuff in the computer, but I doubt so. My printer model is Epson Stylus photo 710 and I think it’s about 5 to 6 years ‘old’. Think it’s time to change a new faster and better printer soon.

Breaking Things

This post was written on a Sunday night, and for the past few days, Friday and Saturday. I have been breaking my own things. On Friday I dropped my MP3 player and now it’s spoilt and I have to bring it for repair. And on Saturday I broke my orange glasses because I was wearing it in the car and sleeping. The funny thing is, I have a scared feeling in a few minutes before the thing breaks, and before I went to take my MP3 before dropping it, I was scared and I was scared before I went to sleep in the car. Thankfully, I managed to literally break the record by breaking things everyday by not breaking something today. Phew.

Dr William Tan

These few days have been fairly ok with nothing much interesting going on at school or at home. Except for yesterday. I was at Carrefour at Plaza Singapura and I saw Dr William Tan. He was wearing a blazer and so we said hi to him and asked him how he was. Then we talked a little bit about the marathon last week and after that, we continued shopping. This man has been a very inspirational character for us.

UltraMarathon

Yes! Dr William Tan completed his 24 hour UltraMarathon and did 607 rounds of the track (243.0076km, new world record). There were many people down there supporting him and I went there thrice- 6 to 8 (30), 10.30 to 11.45 (30)and from 4.45 to 5.30 (31) and I ran 10 or 11 rounds in total. The atmosphere was wonderful, even at night. Dr Tan was truly an inspirational chractor to the school and I. I bought a lot of foodstuffs and a twenty dollar signed poster with a bag. The shirts were all sold out besides the XL at 11.30 pm and all were sold out when I went back the next day at 4.45 pm. There were signed T-shirts by Dr. Tan for auction and I heard that the highest bid was $555. He finally completed his run at exactly 5 pm according to the clock tower and everybody was cheering him on which shows the Rafflesian spirit. Then he had a 'press conference' after his run and we asked him some questions. What surprised me was that no news channel has reported this amazing feat yet (10.30 pm, 31 July). Mabye he wants to keep this a secret until he gets his Guinness World Record. And a final word before signing off, I would like to say, "Thank You Dr. Tan for being asuch an inspirational role model for us. Keep on going!"
Visit this website for updates and reviews: http://www.shutternews.com/#

Long long time

It's been a long long time since I've posted. Meanwhile, I've been busy studying for tests and doing homework most of the time. The other times I've been surfing the internet and I hope to buy something that I really like from ebay but my dad doesn't allow it. We had an inter-class soccer match last Friday against 1K and we lost 2-1 in the first half. Guess it was quite comical. Let in 2 goals in one end, and score a goal at the other end. German is getting quite boring with our new teacher and worse, he smokes. Today was Geog test and I think that it was ok. CCA has also started this Monday and we are very slack. Oh yeah. We had a RI lecture yesterday and the LT3 was sooo cold I went to the 'toilet' 3 times and slept non-stop for 1 hour. I guess I should sleep earlier.

Wow

Two weeks have gone since I last posted. Time really flies. In this two weeks, nothing much has happened. Only three "exciting" things happened. First, I went to support the trampoline team at CCAB on Thursday this week. We got 3rd for C div and 1st for B div in over ten years. Didn't make it to this year's competition but will go next year. Second, I went to the 1421 Cheng Ho exhibition and I wonder whether Cheng Ho founded America. Anybody who knows the answer? Then on Saturday the Sec 1 GEP (inculding me) went to Raffles Hotel to watch a musical called "Admiral's Odsessy" Whic was again about Cheng Ho. School's getting more fun.

Back to School

School is back in and I'm so un-used to the waking up times every morning compared to the holidays. But the first week of school has been an exciting one, new teachers, new timetable, swimming module and most of all, Youth Week. T-shirts were going for $3.50 a piece but I didn't buy cause' I ran out of money. By the way, I taught that the T-shirt was quite cheap.
CCA has also started and gym competition is coming and since I'm not in the competition, we did conditioning the whole training time. I don't feel like going to CCA tommorow.
The most shocking piece of news in the new term is that our German teacher will be not teaching us for about 1 term to go and teach another Sec 4 class whose teacher went for maternity leave and we'll be getting a new teacher. Moreover, she (our teacher) just found out today. Anyway, tommmorow is MUFTI day where we get to wear our own clothes to school. Yay.

another one 

whee, a pic of myself at the hitachi pavilion from the internet 

Another Holiday

Whee. Just came back from Church Camp in Malacca. Had some fun moments such as the Go-kart racing next to the hotel where I paid 30 ringit for 10 minutes of it where I drove like hell (very fast). Our family also went to a restaurant which Zong Yi's mother recommended and we spent half an hour looking for it but the look was worthwhile as the oyster noodles were delicious (you should go and try that someday). We stayed in Century Mahkota Hotel which the rooms were a little run down but the beds made it seem like home. We spent 4 days and 3 nights there (quite short, really) and we came home yesterday night (my dad drived real slow on the way back). Nice trip.

A picture on the third day where we queued up for about 3 hours for the Hitachi pavillion: this was after leaving the pavillion 

Fascinating Stuff in Japan

A lot of eye openers for me when I went to Japan.
A few things I found out about Japanese life, culture, heritage and technology

1. Japanese toilets are very clean
2. You can wash your bu** when water sprays from the toilet bowl in the toilets when you click a button
3. Their GPS system is very impressive
4. People do not talk in trains, nor do they use their handphones. They do not even make eye contact
5. People there are very friendly
6. They really recycle things there (9 rubbish cans each time)

World Expo 2005---愛・地球博

Back home at last after a tiring but exciting week at the Learning Journey to the World Expo 2005 + a little bit of Tokyo. Experienced a lot of memorable moments and so I'll write a brief summary of the trip, day by day.

5th to 6th
left Singapore on an ANA flight (NH902) at 11.35 p.m. and reached Tokyo Narita at about 7 a.m. I managed to get about 2 to 3 hours of sleep on the plane. Went to Sea Life Park the first thing after we touched down where there was the big dome and thousand of fishes inculding b ig tunas inside the park (not the dome). It is a lot like Underwater World in Sentosa but better. Left my bag somewhere until we were about to leave the place.
We then went to Aqua city where we ate our lunch (ate 572 yen ramen) and went to Toys R Us for a while. Saw what I wanted at Toys R Us. The model train which cost about 9000 yen. Didn't get to buy it though, Mr Lim didn't allow us to buy. Some seniors, however went to buy some stuff and claimed that it was for their project work.
After that, we went to Miraikan where there were a lot of techno stuff, including the latest like the Asmino robot, how the Maglev works and the most impressive, the huge suspended globe which was made up from thousands of LCD screens.
We took a short walk to the pier and took a ferry across Tokyo Bay to Hinode Pier and on the way, we went under Rainbow Bridge which is a "staggering" 912 or 913m long.
Our final stop in Tokyo was at a Shabu shabu restaurant in Shibuya where the bean sprouts (tau gay) stank but the meat was nice and after the meal, we took a 3 half hour bus ride to Hamamatsu where we checked in to our hotel, Grand Hamamatsu Hotel at about 10.30p.m. and we went to our "favourite" convinence stall before retring to our hotel rooms.
7th June
The first day of the expo and we went to the Orange Hall in the Global House where we entered the Super High-Vision theatre where they showed us a video clip and they gave us an amulet where we hade to point the solar panel facing some LED panel and I thought that it would be a pain to the ear. We then went to the Mammoth Lab where they showed the real mammoth in a frozen container. We then went for lunch before taking the IMTS and visiting the European Pavillions where we wondered where the German pavillion was unitl we found out that it was at the other side of that long elevated walkway.
We then went to a buffet dinner near our hotel where I ate asparagus and before going back to our hotel rooms, we went to our "friendly" convinence shop.
8th June
The second day of the Expo and we went to the Japanese Pavillion which looked a lot like the Esplanade. We were treated to a lot of fascinating stuff, inculding the big globe where we entered. We then rushed to the German Pavillion where we queued 1 hour for a ride which took us through the history, technology and culture of the German community and I think that we got stuck in the ride for about 5 minutes. There was an exhibition about bionics after the ride in the pavillion. After lunch, we then went to the Circus world which was just a ride with some exhibits before going to the Mitushi-Toshiba pavillion in which we got to star in our own movies because of some advanced technology. We then had dinner which was chanko-nabe (type of stew eaten by sumo wrestlers) where I ate some tau gay which was tasteless and the whole table made a hoo-ha out of it.we had time so we went to a game and CD and DVD shop where I got a DVD for my music teacher. We then went to the convinence stall once again before going back to our hotel rooms.
9th June
The third day and we spent more than half the time in the Expo queueing up for the Hitachi Pavillion, but it was not a boring wait as we played Taiti with Mr Lim and borrowed his Nintendo DS and PSP to play. Mr Jee was there too and he helped us hold the card deck for a while. After queueing up for about 3 hours, it was disappointing to see that it we only spent about a 15 to 20 minutes in the pavillion, but it was a very exciting and eye-opening experience. We then went to the Sinagpore pavillion and I thought that it was not so exciting and there was not and attrctive factors besides the originality and creativity of the stuff and place. We then went for some last-minute shopping before leaving for Nagoya for a BBQ buffet dinner where we spend half of the time there trying to figure out why our food was not being cooked until we found out that the main switch for the gas was not turned on. Then I ate tau gay cooked "specially" by Mr Lim (again). After dinner, we then took a long and tiring bus ride back to Tokyo where we would spend our final 2 days where we would stay in Crowne Plaza Metropoitan in Ikebukuro.
10th June
We splitted up into our Tokyo adventure groups and left the hotel for Tokyo Tower by metro. The morning crowd on the metro was not as crowded as I thought it would be. We reached Tokyo Tower and got a discount to go up to the observation deck of the tower. We went up there and got a panoramic view of the surroundings. We even got to see the view downwards from the observation deck and we took some pictures lying down with our head on the window. It started raining and then we headed to Sony Tower where we saw the latest techonology which were cool and totally awesome. We then went to the top level of the showroom and we played all sorts of Sony's gaming machines there for about an hour. Time was running out so we headed to Asakusa immediately where we ate ramen and curry rice before meeting up again and walking down the long and famous (or historic) Asakusa street where there were a lot of shops selling a lot of historical stuff. we then headed for our Taiko Drum Session where I really enjoyed myself even though my hand ached all over. We then shopped at Asakusa street for some time before going to Akihabara where we could split up into our own groups except for the Sec 1s (which is...ME) who had to follow Mr Lim but I felt that it was good as he knew where all the good places were and he brought us there. Didn't buy anything there, however, as I did not see any good deals. Ate at Mac'donalds before shopping and time and time again, I left my bag there until Mr Lim reminded me. We then took the Metro back to our hotel where we had a mini party which was illegal at the lobby. I felt that we did not have enough time for our own planned activities at the start of the day and we could have spent more time doing what we have planned.
11th June
Last day of the trip and we went around Ikebukuro. Once again we could split up into our own groups except for the Sec 1s who like yesterday, had to follow Mr Lim. We headed to Toys R Us at Sunshine City where I wanted to get my model train wnd I found out that it only cost 2000 yen and so I got it immediately. We then headed to the animate shop across the road where they sold all those little balls and I got a few of them. We finally headed to Tokyu Hands where I got a few star wars figurines for my brother. I wanted to get more stuff there but there was not enough time. We made one final stop at an electronics shop where I bought a second hand Game Boy advance for 3780yen. Whoopee. And so before heading back to our hotel to leave for the airport, we stopped by at a 24 hour shop to get ourselves some packed lunch. We went back to our hotel and left for Narita Airport and we got there early so we spent some time doing our reflections and homework from the trip. We got on to our plane and we made the final flight back to where we belong, Singapore.

6 days have gone by spending my time in Japan. However, these 6 days were spent meaningfully and not a waste as I have learnt a lot of things there, not only from the World Expo but also about the Japanese culture and heritage and I have found out more about myself. I was really impressed about the friendliness of the Japanese and I wish to go back to Japan next time. And as one friend commented to me that you pay to go for learning journeys to do work, I think that you have to do work, but you learn in a fun and interactive way and find out more about other countries and at the same time, enjoy yourself.
Hope everyone had fun during the Learning Journey. I had. Lots of fun.

First half of a year in RI and I'm still ready for it. GPA of 3.8 in the first term and I think that was quite high in the class. The holidays are here finally, I can relax. Told my parents that I'll finish all my homework before I go for the Japan trip. Busy now.

It is coming

D day...5th June...11:35 p.m. 5 more days..... cannot wait

Japan Trip

YAY... 2 MORE WEEKS

Gym

I hate gym.

Relax

Finally I can relax. My German test was over yesterday. Now I look forward to going to Japan.

CT is over

Yay, it's over (It has been long ago) But I still can't play my XBOX because of my brother's exam which falls on this week and he will get distracted if I do. sigh... Anyway, I still have my German test next week. Gotta study. Good luck for all your tests.

2 down, 4 to go

Mixed feelings

The CT (Common Test: as known as Captain Torture) is coming and I'm preety scared. At the same time, I'm so excited that I can go to Japan.

Going to Japan

Yay, it's confirmed. I'm going to Japan. However, Mr Lim has "threatened" me over the past few days. Never Mind. I will still be going.

So long

Wow, I haven't blogged for such a long time since I was so busy. My father came back from Holand last Sunday and he bought a lot of chocolates and coffee and a lot of other stuff. The weekend has been quite tiring. And since school started, I been waiting for the results for the learning journey to Japan by Mr Lim. Hmmm... wonder whether I am going.

Oh No

Today, our class got of to a very bad start. The worst in my life so far. Mr Lim blew his top and got really, really, really angry with us and he stormed out of the class. Oh oh.

Okays and All rights

Today during assembly we had a talk on NE by Mr Jee. He was saying so many okays and all rights. I counted the number of okays and all rights he said in the last 5 slides plus the Q&A session which added up to 86 of them. Later Mrs Lim had a short 10-15 minutes talk with us and she said 45 okays and all rights in that period. Then Mr Lim reminded us something and he said 3-4 okays and all rights in less that a minute. Sooner or later, I'm going to get bored of all those talks.

Waking up myself

Sigh, my dad is leaving on a buissness trip tonight. Guess I will have to wake myself up next week.

Lucky me.

I almost lost my blogger account today. Phew.

Hi Blog

Hi Blog, I am Ernie from RI in Singapore. This is my first post and I hope its not the last.