Marina supermarket

This is the Chinese supermarket that we go to for Chinese groceries sometimes (I have been able to get lup cheong, fishcakes and cheaper vegetables, fish and pork here compared to Safeway).

Previously, we have relied on the kindness of Sun Sun (a fellow Singaporean studying here) and her family to get a ride in their car to this supermarket in Cupertino, 40 min drive from campus.

Recently, the school community started a free shuttle every Saturday from Jan to Mar from campus to Cupertino.

Here, I am enjoying a cup of bubble tea - strange thing is, in Singapore, I never really craved for bubble tea, but over here, sometimes, you just miss food and drinks that is Chinese/Asian, and a taste of that can send you over the moon, and ease that feeling of home sickness...

First movie here in US!

Casino Royale.

This is the first movie we watched since we came here 4 months ago. Partly because we have no car to drive to the movie theaters, partly because we are trying to save money (a ticket costs US$10.50).

Thanks to Barnes Court - the apartment we are staying at - they organised a free movie outing, complete with a US$5 subsidy per person for dinner at In-N-Out, a traditional California fast food outlet (the burgers taste better, simpler and not too greasy, and the fries are baked and unsalted and not deep fried).

So we had a free dinner and movie that night! Yay! Hopefully, this is not the last movie we are gonna watch here...=)

Btw, movie seating here is free seating (i.e. first come first served - you get to choose the seats you want to sit on, similar to Australia)

Las Vegas and Grand Canyon

In between our east coast trips (we came back on 28th Dec 06) and start of school term (9 Jan 07), we decided to "squeeze in" another trip - 4D3N Las Vegas, with a day drive to Grand Canyon.

Vegas was what I expected - lots of slot machines, gambling tables, lots of food, lights, entertainment (both sleazy, high end and also family friendly kind). We stayed at the Luxor Hotel, at the southern end of the Strip (Las Vegas Boulevard) - the pyramid room was so-so only (we were on a budget - maybe next time if we ever get to go there again, we will stay at the Grand Dame, Bellagio).

The drive to Grand Canyon was fantastic, even though we had to start off very early at 715am, as it took us 4.5 hours one way! The view there was unbelievable - it was a shame we can't do some hiking at one of Mother Nature's most beautiful creations - we only had the time to drive to various lookout points and walk around the rim, before we had to head back to Vegas at 3pm.

These are the photos we took:

Las Vegas:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLCkA

Grand Canyon:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLCsg

New Haven, Boston, clam chowder & lobsters!

We took a bus from NYC to New Haven to visit HL's friend, Kailun, en route to Boston.

New Haven is the first planned city in the US, and it is also the birthplace of the Frisbee and the lollipop (not sure how true that is - did not see any Frisbee or ate any lollipop there! :P) It is also the place to eat the "world's finest pizza" - although we didn't get a chance for that too (instead, we had really good Malaysian food for dinner on the only night we were there)...

Kailun brought us around Yale University and its campus - it is a very beautiful place - old and rich with history...

The next day, we took a bus to Boston, the largest city in New England. Our hotel was pretty awesome, right in the city! We wasted no time in checking in and heading out sight-seeing! I will let the pictures tell the story:

New Haven:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLCXA

Boston:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLCfg

PS. also check out the Washington D.C. blog entry, which appeared between my "New York New York" and "9 January" postings

maiden golf endeavor

HL's first attempt at golf, and our first time at the Stanford golf driving range

HL's classmates, Ben and Jung In, were our "instructors" for the day, and they did a very good job! Within one hour, both HL and me made some good progress (it helped that I took some golf lessons before, although that was many years ago)

Here are the videos of our golf session:

dim sum!

our first taste of dim sum since we came here!

HL's classmate, Ben and his wife, Yawen, brought us to Cupertino for dim sum on the 1st day of 2007 - it was very crowded and we had to wait for close to an hour to get our seats...

We proceeded for bubble tea after that - a sweet ending to a nice afternoon! :)

9 January

today is our 2nd wedding anniversary.

HL was very sweet - he got 3 roses yesterday, hid them above the fridge and gave them to me this morning...

today is also his first day of school for winter quarter, and his classes will stretch all the way till 9pm tonight!

Washington D.C.

We took a 2D1N tour to Washington D.C. - it was what they called a "Chinatown tour" - the tour group comprise mainly of Chinese people (both staying here in US and tourists from mainland China). Besides us, there were also couples from Taiwan, Malaysia and Australia.

The tour guide is of Chinese nationality as well and he conducted the tour 70% in Chinese but he speaks decent enough English for the benefit of those on the tour who don't understand Mandarin.

We set off on a tour bus from Chinatown in Manhattan, the largest Chinatown in the East Coast (the largest one in the US is apparently in San Francisco). Our first stop was Philadelphia, where we viewed the Independence Hall and Liberty Bell at the Independence National Historic Park. Baltimore was our next stop where we had 1/2 hour to walk around the beautiful Inner Harbour.

We finally reached Washington D.C. (which stands for District of Columbia) in the late afternoon, and only had the chance to view the Capitol House and Museum of Natural History.

The next morning, we head out at 7am from Maryland (where our hotel was) back to Washington D.C. - White House was our first stop - unfortunately due to security reasons, we can only view and take pictures from a far distance away...Next up was the Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Jefferson Memorial and the National Air & Space Museum.

This is the link to the pictures taken there:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLCOg

New York New York

We flew to NY on 16 Dec night and arrived there at 645am on Sun 17 Dec (east coast is 3 hours ahead of us), blurry eyed as we can hardly sleep on the plane...

We were picked up at the airport by my friend, Harry, and went to his place in New Jersey, where he put us up for 2 nights...We stayed at another friend's (Wanyin's) place in Brooklyn for the last 5 nights of our trip after we came back from Boston...

New York city is actually made up of 5 boroughs - Manhattan (the main financial and social/happening borough), Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Bronx. It is a place of people, life, lights, sounds, smells and activities.

It is above all a place of contrasts - well heeled/well dressed people walk side by side with the homeless and the man in the street who are struggling from pay check to pay check, neon lights of big advertisements and billboards highlight the flashy lifestyles of rich New Yorkers, shiny and spanking buildings stand alongside dirty, old and cramped structures, which look like they may fall apart anytime...

But the city appeals nonetheless - with its lifestyle options and choices, job opportunities for those who are willing to seek them, lure and promise of riches for those who are lucky and willing to work hard...

We had a great time in NYC overall - the link to the pictures are as follows: (2 albums - you need to copy and paste the link on your browser)

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGL-Y

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLCGA

Happy new year 2007!

2006 came and went in a whiz - I guess the most significant event was us coming to the US for HL's further studies...

As we count down to 2007 in our one bedroom apartment on 31 Dec 2006 on campus in Stanford, watching TV for the live coverage in San Francisco city with fireworks for the event, we only hope 2007 would be a better year for us and our loved ones, and that all our wishes will come true...

We were glad to celebrate the last day of 2006 with a fellow Singaporean, Sun Sun, and her family - we had cheesecakes and drank strawberry wine and did the countdown together in our PJs!

Happy new year 2007! A good start to all things brilliant!

we are back!

We are back after a long hiatus!

During this time away, we went to the East Coast (namely New York, Washington D.C. and Boston), and just came back from a 4D3N trip to Las Vegas (where we also drove to Grand Canyon)...

The trips have been fun and memorable, and we met up with friends in the East Coast (who kindly put us up when we were in New York and New Haven) and Boston.

As expected, we took lots of photos with the digital camera, like true blue tourists!

We will detail our trips in the next few blog entries with links to the pictures taken - have fun looking through them! :)