Erina's Great American Escapade 2008

Back in Sweet Home Singapore

2008-08-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

And I repeat, it was dawn!

A familiar sight, for the fourth time

And we went back with our UCLA merchandise

From Bangkok to Singapore, we had different seats!!! How could they! I'd rather I have that kinda seats from LA to Bangkok!

It was uber spacious

And a large pillow to go with

Hmm. This looked suspicious

Ah!

I know what it is!

A table! How cool!

Bye bye Thailand

Thailand is the only place that I've set foot on for four times, but only around its Bangkok airport. -_-

Singapore, here I come!

Ah familiar sights (and sounds, I could hear! HAHA)

SINGAPORE!!!

And we're home!

This marks the end of my American escapade.

I kinda miss that place, in a way. School. And of course, shopping. HAHA.

I guess I'll still go back again, but to another part of the US. And make sure the weather will be good.

Thank you all for reading =)

Last day in the US =(

2008-08-05T03:35:00.000-07:00

How time flies! I was in the US for nearly 50 days already. Kinda miss home, yet still wish to continue studying at UCLA. Probably taking the academic modules would be more interesting than how it is like in NUS. Probably.

Our flight was late at night back at LAX (in the end it was delayed to nearly midnight), and we had to check out in the morning.

My luggage was packed to the brim

And the car was packed to the brim too

Bye bye Lemon Grove

We went to Irvine for dim sum, the place where we missed when we went there earlier on.

The card where the ladies will stamp to note that you've ordered a dish from a particular category

Har gow and siew mai

Fried Rice Noodle Singapore Style which we didn't buy

And of course, we ended off with Yogurtland.

And here we are, at LAX. Again!

Tom Bradley

We were going to take the delayed flight in the middle of the board

My barang-barang - two check-in baggages, four hand-carry items. Madness!

Towards the later half of the journey we saw some lights below - land! And after checking it out I think it was Japan that we passed by.

We could ask for fruits and I did. Just for the fun of it =P

And all of a sudden it was dawn! We were reaching our destination!

Continued in the Aug 7 post!

Last day of touring

2008-08-04T05:53:00.000-07:00

There were a couple of places we went to today. La Jolla, Coronado and Cabrillo.

La Jolla is pronounced as [la ho-la], not [la jo-la]. It is one of the famous beaches in San Diego, perfect for the summer.

Pacific Ocean

V-formation

A rock like a frog

Two snorkelers in the middle of the ocean

And very strong waves

We didn't see any seals though, I think it was not the correct season

Many birds atop a rock

A painter

The withered and the strong

The fire brigade of SD

I'm standing atop a tree!!! A not-so-tall one

Plants which look like they've been sprayed with white paint but their colour is like this all over the roads. Could be the roads

Pots of flowers hanging from the lamp posts in La Jolla

Follow me closer to test your IQ

Many prospects

And we were on to our next stop, Hotel del Coronado. In order to get to Coronado we had to cross a bridge. Flyover. Freeway. I dunno what you call that but it's really like a bridge. Coronado is located somewhat off shore.

On the bridge

Thanks to the lamppost, the photo is totally thwarted =(

Here we are

Hotel del Coronado is glamourous! It is where many movies have been shot and many celebrities have came to stay.

The main entrance and a little girl

The lobby

Me: Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of us all?
Mirror: Obviously not you!

Chandelier

Take a seat!

The garden at the centre

Shops

Swimming pool in the foreground, the sea in the background

The very vast beach

And the sand is made up of different coloured...uh...sand!

erina in coronado

The sand is naturally coloured this way

Marilyn Monroe came to film some movie long time ago

And we hit the road again

This time to Cabrillo National Monument

Juan Cabrillo discovered Califonia, and there are many places named after him around SD. Like yesterday's Balboa Park, we found many things related to him.

Oh I forgot to introduce something very important. Our rented car! It is a red Pontiac who-knows-what-model-it-is. This car and its colleague have brought us to many different places in Southwest USA.

Check out the wind! HAHAHAHAH

I think this is a sparrow

The hunchbacked squirrel

Hotel del Coronado from afar

The bridge/flyover/freeway I was talking about just now

Old Point Loma Lighthouse

The Cabrillo statue in the distance

And on our way back we passed by a cemetery

There was this place called Fashion Valley in SD, a really humongous place filled with large-scale department stores and retail outlets. But it was too big, we went to another shopping mall which name I forgot.

And we found a Boudin cafe there! Remember Boudin? The sourdough bakery I went to in San Francisco.

Ivan's beef thing

My waldorf salad! It was super good! Like super super good

And then we drove back to somewhere near our hostel at Skyline Dr, it's a Mexican restaurant recommended by our hostel owner.

We ordered a burrito with tomato salsa, avocado salsa (O-M-G!) and mayonnaise. The avocado salsa was goooooooooooooood.

Rice and beans. Check out the sliced avocado!

Fried fish. And check out the avocado! HAHA

The avocado was really good. It was soft yet textured and there was just this unique taste to it that I really like it. However I don't know how to cook avocado, so I reckon I better not try yet.

Tortillas was served in some special kind of...of...I don't know how to describe

Was the food good, you ask?

I think it was!

Then because Ivan just had to drink some alcohol, we found a 7-11 store for him to buy a Heineken (which I had a few mouthfuls and CY had more mouthfuls and Ivan drank almost the whole thing back in the hostel afterwards). Nearby the store was the San Diego State University. And it had a pretty bridge.

That's it, our last night in the Land of the Free.

A few places

2008-08-03T02:38:00.000-07:00

Today was another round of sightseeing.

First stop was Balboa Park - A Landscape of Art and Culture.

Reuben H. Fleet Science Center

Natural History Museum

Scribblings on the ground

Botanical Building

Spreckels Organ Pavilion

There was supposedly a huge pipe organ behind the shutters. But we were there too early to be able to catch even the afternoon performances.

Onboard the tram

Starbucks Coffee - catering

Museum of Man

A rubbish bin!

Artists along the Cabrillo Bridge

The Old Globe

Here's how the construction look like

Shakespeare

Alcazar Garden

Mingei International Museum

A crocodile outside the Mingei museum

We explored around and walked down a path...

...where it was rather forested

People were practising Chinese kungfu

We then walked to the House of Pacific Relations which is made up of little cottages, each containing cultures of different countries.

The United Nations Building

House of Argentina was the star of the day, there was traditional Argentinian food for sale

Spinach Empanadas

House of the United States

House of Sweden

This old couple were holding hands while waiting for a show

In the House of UK there was a picture of John Travolta dancing with Princess Diana, dated 1985

In the House of Finland, obviously. They should just change the models of the phones already!

A traditional Polish candy

A wedding going on

We went back to the car and off we went to our next stop, Old Town.

A shop selling many sun-related stuff

A marketplace

Some street show going on

Old Town trolley, relying on propane fuel

Inside a church

A Beetle with very cute lights

Next stop: Little Italy.

DIP? I later found out that it meant there was a dip in the road terrain. I didn't know what it stood for when I first saw it haha

Little Italy Market

There were recipes on the ground!

Next stop: Mission Beach.

Guess the name of this sculpture

Did you get it right?

A coconut tree made out of surfboards

So many boats, so many rich people

San Diego International Airport was just a stone's throw away

Dinner (or supper!) - KFC

They've got grilled chicken, so healthy

And the crispy chicken which wasn't spicy

That's it for today!

Updates!

2008-08-03T01:08:00.000-07:00

Erina is in San Diego, will be here for the next few days.

Will reach Singapore on Aug 7 late morning.

See ya.

Knott's Berry Farm

2008-08-02T22:52:00.000-07:00

We went to Knott's Berry Farm today.

Before that, let me show you what breakfast is like at the hostel.

Roti Prata with maple syrup and butter?? Nooo those were pancakes. HAHA. The owner said she likes to flatten the pancake else the inside won't be cooked. Alrighties.

And we went to Knott's by car. Knott's is a theme park focused mainly on Snoopy.

Ghost Town in the day

The first ride of the day: Ghostrider. Managed to convince DJ and CY to ride too.

But the queue was really long.

And some people were bored queuing and obviously some people weren't

The Ghostrider was still supported by wooden structures

The continuous queue at the top level

The Ghostrider gave me a headache. It was soooo bumpy! But damn fun.

I can't remember what this man was making, something to do with metal souvenirs

Check out DJ and CY in my shades.
And the guy at the back was smiling too

The rides at Knott's were good!! They were entertaining and exciting at the same time. Other places were not as fun and exciting as Knott's.

This was just a train to bring you around Knott's

The frail looking captain

Yikes! Some gun-welding people are gonna take our lives!!!

No la, they merely came in and pointed the gun at random and say stupid things.

And we took this mine ride which threw us into pitch darkness.

Lunch-cum-dinner was at a buffet.

And we went for some Snoopy on ice show.

Many Charlie Browns and Lucys

And we were back to the rides!

The Xcelerator!

AAAAHHHHH

The grass below the track obviously had been through a lot

While queuing we saw someone's Spongebob balloon drifting away

And we waited till sunset before it was our turn to go

Xcelerator was superb!! If you ever go on that ride, keep your eyes open and remember what you see when you go to the highest point! I opened my eyes but I only remember seeing lights. It was dark and the coaster was going damn fast. Oh mann I wanna go back on it!

Ghost Town at night, really ghostly

We left at about 10 p.m. and drove to a fast food restaurant for dinner. Jack In The Box.

Some sourdough chicken thing

My burger was damn good. Superbo! I wanna eat one more!

Shortbread cookies I bought from Knott's

A few days left in the US.

Moved out!

2008-08-01T03:24:00.000-07:00

Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

We moved out today.

I spent a lot of time packing last night 'cos I just had too many things. =S

Look.

Wasn't it horrible.

Sigh.

Last look at my bed and the desk that I never really used except to put heaps of stuff on it

We also went upstairs to check out the rooftop that we'd been to only once and the pool that we'd never utilized.

However the pool was locked up when we went up =\

The view you see from the rooftop

This is the closest I can get to the pool. There's a jacuzzi beside it too

And it was time to go. We moved our stuff down, I was the last to leave and it was hard when I took that last look at the apartment. There was too much great things that happened here which I will remember forever.

I'll miss everything here.

=(

Sigh. I didn't really want to go because I wanted to continue studying there but well too bad, there's the university back home waiting. -_-

I also had to say goodbye to my favourite bag of all time.

Byes

I let it go because the zip gave way again and I couldn't use it at all, much less bring it back. Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I really liked it. So I gave it to charity and hope that no one will curse me for giving them a bag which zip was spoiled. It just needs a little fixing and it'd be as good as new! And it's such a pretty bag!

Back in the car.

WE HAD TOO MUCH STUFF.

The rented car (Pontiac) was too small for all of our stuff, and poor DJ had to put up with Ivan's luggage at the back seat. For me I had Ivan's guitar.

And I enjoyed the other Snapple I bought on the way to San Diego

We had a hard time looking for the hostel because the hostel has absolutely no signboard. And the hostel is actually a small hostel and it looked just like any other house in the US. The GPS told us that we reached already but we just couldn't see any hostel -_-

And when we shifted in, the owner had sooooo much to say. Rules, how good the hostel is, etc. Our mum, that was what we would refer her as.

After putting down the stuff we set off for our first day in San Diego.

San Diego Convention Center - where we parked the car

We were going to Seaport Village.

Cinderella's carriage, anyone?

DJ and I were hoping for some kind of free map inside the Hyatt but in the end we found none.

Nevertheless, a pretty Hyatt

And here we are. Seaport Village. The hostel owner recommended us to come here.

Many cute houses

One of the random signs in the village

One of the highlights of the village is the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier docked at the port itself.

And therefore the history that came along with it.

The photo above was trying to show how much the sailor missed his love. It is one gigantic statue, therefore you see the tiny people jumping around them. Haha.

This was trying to depict a scene where Bob Hope was giving a speech and his listeners

Many birds in the distance

Love

And we left Seaport Village for Gaslamp Quarter. We walked there, since it wasn't that far anyway.

Passed by a train track

Gaslamp was another historic site in San Diego, and today it has been transformed into an area where clubbing is rife. However, it is still quite a pretty place.

And there was a vintage car shop in the quarter, so we went in and took a look.

This was my favourite!

All of a sudden in the distance there were a lot of people coming this way! For a moment I thought there could be some strike but no la, it was just people leaving the Petco Stadium.

Hard Rock Hotel

Gaslamp Quarter - Historic Heart of San Diego

People mountain people sea

We managed to enter the stadium thanks to a very very very nice man who just let us in knowing that we only wanted to take photos.

A baseball match had just ended

People queuing up for the train

And we made our way back to the Convention Center. Then we saw this really cool elevator.

And went in for a ride

The rooftop of the convention center

And that was the end of the day for us.

Last day of school =(

2008-07-31T01:59:00.000-07:00

UCLA has come to an end! =(

Saya sangat sedih! =( =( =(

Today's my jazz exam, and also my final day at UCLA. Sigh.

Jazz exam was alright, the listening part went fine, but there were little details in the text which I neglected. =X

After exam I went to meet CY and DJ and Ivan to take photos around school. Since I took pictures earlier on there were just less stuff I wanted to take.

The UCLA Bruin Bear

The food court where we always have our lunch on most days.

Rubio's - Mexican

sbarro - Italian

Panda Express - Chinese

Greenhouse - Salad by the weight

And we left Ackerman for the outdoors.

And we saw Divya!

Central Ticket Office - the place where we buy tickets to theme parks and attractions and the movies at a cheaper price

Fowler Museum. Behind the black glass doors is the auditorium of my jazz class

Royce Hall

Powell Library

Royce Hall

We went inside Powell Library to take photos.

Compare this to our science library. -_-

The lobby

There were some stuff that we wanna get at Santa Monica, so CY DJ John and I went to Santa Monica to shop.

UCLA Campus Shuttle

At Santa Monica we saw a girl who can sing performing at 3rd St.

Notices on the Big Blue Bus 1

When we returned to Westwood, we saw that there was a premiere going on!

Pineapple Express. Opens in Singapore in October -_-

Someone was holding on to this. Are they so mad about movies??

Judd Apatow - producer of Pineapple Express

Cameras ready

James Franco - one of the leads of PE

Emma Stone

Jon Voight - he winked at me!

Seth Rogen - co-writer and one of the leads

Christopher Jarecki and Alicia Silverstone

Someone had got Franco's autograph on a TV show poster

Franco at an interview

Daniel Craig (James Bond) and an unknown =X

Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy

We went to Starbucks before checking out the premiere and during the premiere I finished my drink but had no where to throw. Somehow the cup sat nicely on my bag.

Some reporter high-ing the crowd

After the premiere we went to eat cookie ice-cream at Diddy Riese. It's like a cookie sandwich which ice-cream in between.

The many different cookies you can choose from. And that guy was saying, 'No photography inside the shop'

Oatmeal Raisin cookie and Sugar Cinnamon cookie and mint ice-cream

We went home for farfalle - finished up all the pasta we had.

Guitar Exam!

2008-07-30T13:15:00.001-07:00

I just had my guitar exam.

It was alright, I screwed up here and there but I think they were rather minor.

Phew.

I was soooo nervous! Haha like my hand became cold and I couldn't think properly and seemed like my notes were flying away. And good thing I checked out the chords 'cos he asked us the fingering of the chords!

And thank goodness I remember!! HAHA.

Actually, I think everyone's gonna get A 'cos I saw.

No bell curve for this, so I think I'm right!

I love classes at UCLA!

Just not those academic kind, thank you very much.

Jazz's up tomorrow!

Fixing the leakage

2008-07-30T01:38:00.000-07:00

Someone came to fix the carpet in the morning after DJ and CY left and I was about to leave for my guitar exam too.

He came with a moisture detector and after some scans on the carpet, he removed most of the carpet in the living room.

I had to leave and when I was about to, another maintenance guy came in to look at the problem of the sprinkler.

When I came back from school, I saw the messages they left behind (they were supposed to do so).

Just in case you can't decipher the handwriting.

Our staff was here today, 7/30/08, and did the following work: Check leak from unit #208 (the unit upstairs) caused by clogged toilet that overflowed.

Stop laughing! That was so disgusting!!! ARGH!

But I just couldn't stop howling when I read the card.

Today was the last day of exams for the rest of them, so they decided to go to Venice Beach (which I went last week). And since I was having dinner alone, I cooked the CQYD instant noodles that I brought from Singapore.

Delicious!

EARTHQUAKE!

2008-07-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

There was an earthquake today! My first ever experience with one.

After jazz class this morning I wanted to go to Ralphs the supermarket to get some toiletries. Hence I went to the shuttle bus stop that can bring me to Westwood.

While waiting for the bus outside Schoenberg Music Building I thought I felt the ground moved a bit. I looked at my feet and was bewildered.

Then a lady asked everyone at the bus stop, 'Did the ground just shake or was I hallucinating?' And I nodded to her. Haha. For a moment I thought it was because I was giddy or something.

You can read about this here. (credits to Rong Chen for the article!)

Apparently it was a 5.4 earthquake and the center was actually quite far away. So we only felt tremors here in LA. Thank goodness.

I'm still safe and sound and in one piece! If you bother. =P

When I got back to the apt I had lunch and slowly checked my mailboxes. My UCLA mail had a number of new messages! I was wondering how come.

Till I read this.

.....Well, checking my mail certainly won't be the first thing I'd do if there was a big one.

Things one after another

2008-07-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

A number of things that usually won't happen to me happened today.

This morning when I left for jazz class, I saw four bottles of beer outside the door.

Which gave me a good shock.

I told the girls about it and we decided to ignore them. When I returned from jazz class in the afternoon the bottles were gone.

Ah, finally a picture of my jazz lecture at Fowler Museum A108. It's an auditorium.

And then there was the earthquake mentioned in the earlier post.

Oh and I bought two bottles of Snapple from Ralphs, have no idea what Noni berry was so decided to try it out. And I think I don't really like it.

Oh and I video called Rong ChenG today!

But he was at McDonald's and can't possibly talk to me 'cos the entire restaurant would be able to hear me. We typed anyway -_-

And then it was bedtime.

DJ and CY slept first, and it was about 1 a.m. that I slept. Considered early already okay. So when I finally laid in bed and was drifting off to sleep...suddenly there was some weird noise coming from the living room!

Super scary 'cos I was the only one awake and I didn't dare to check it out. =P

And then some weird noises came from the toilet.

The noise continued.

Till I finally gave up and switched on the lights and to my horror the sprinkler was leaking!!

Without any smoke!

And the water was eekily yellow!

Liquid was flowing, I really mean flowing, from the sprinkler and it was soaking up the carpet so I took two cups to collect the water and went to wake DJ up.

I then checked out the toilet and water was dripping from the ceiling lamp.

Some sort of minor flood in the bathroom

I switched on the comp and called up Work Order. While waiting for someone to come check on us, a hole in the ceiling started to leak too!!! *faint*

You can't see clearly from the above picture but there was some hole and liquid was flowing out from it too.

Later the people who came to check assured us that it wasn't urine or anything like that etc. and someone would come in the morning to fix the problem and change the carpet.

We didn't know what happened that caused the leakage, but at least there wasn't any smell or anything like that.

=S

Yeay!

2008-07-28T09:34:00.000-07:00

We got Mr. Mayer's autograph today =D

HAHA. Like what only.

After Ivan ended class today he drove me to Amoeba Music 'cos I wanted to get Mr. Harrison's album too!

=D

I'm gonna get anther autograph! YEAY!

But Ivan scratched the car against a column in the carpark at Amoeba. I'm feeling guilty about it because I think the car rental company will fine him and I was the one who wanted to go to Amoeba =(

Yikes!

2008-07-28T00:50:00.000-07:00

I haven't entertained you guys in days!

Ooops.

But still, please be patient =P

I have a much-procrastinated concert report and exams are next week.

I haven't thought of what I wanna perform for the guitar exam.

Die.

=S

A great day out alone!

2008-07-27T08:43:00.000-07:00

Exams were around the corner but there were a couple of stuff in L.A. that I hadn't seen and I wasn't too happy about it.

They planned to study on this very Sunday. I thought hard about it and since my modules were rather manageable, I decided to go tour by myself! I wouldn't want to go back to Singapore and regretting that I hadn't seen this nor that.

It was a hard day to plan! There were several locations and I had to research the metro to take and plan how I was going to walk.

I wanted to wake up early - like 8 a.m.? So that I could catch an early morning bus to town. In the end I overslept (HAHA what's new) and only managed to catch the 1245 bus 2.

Bade farewell to DJ and CY and reached the bus stop a few minutes early 'cos you really wouldn't want to miss the bus. By missing that would mean that I'd need to wait for an hour for the next bus.

Here comes the bus.

A single trip would cost USD 1.25, but I'd be taking quite a number of buses today so I decided to get a day pass for USD 5.

Since I'd be out till past dinner time, I brought Wheat Thins with me. And my jazz text to read when I have the time, spectacles just in case, a map of LA, shades, sweater, and the white piece of paper you see there was the itinerary for the day. Like where to take the bus and what bus to take etc.

I was supposed to alight at Sunset/Vine, go to the stop at the other side of the road and take line 210 to Melrose Ave.

Stop #1: Paramount Pictures.

From the bus stop at Melrose I had to walk like five minutes to get to Paramount Studios. And it was awfully quiet. I was quite scared actually.

I wondered why I decided to go peek at Paramount since I had nothing to do there except to take a photo of it. And see it. Which I did.

And so I was done with Paramount Studios. No intention to enter since I'd have to pay entrance. It was really really quiet.

See, not a single soul down Melrose

Stop #2: Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Hollywood Forever is back to back with Paramount, so I had to walk down Melrose and make two left turns to get to HF.

And it was so quiet

It was kinda spooky since I was gonna walk beside a cemetery to get into it. And I can feel how peaceful it was because it was just silence.

And all of a sudden out came a school.

Imagine your school facing a cemetery!

And I walked all the way to Santa Monica Boulevard and made a turn and continued walking and here I am. 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard - Hollywood Forever.

Infinity ~ Forever

There were clusters of tombs crammed together and right by the roadside like the ones above

I can't remember who this was for

HOLLYWOOD

A curious well at the entrance

And so I left. In fact the cemetery was the most crowded of all the places I've been to so far. Other than the buses.

Exited and turned right to the bus stop where there was 4 to bring me downtown.

I alighted a stop late -_- 'Cos I misinterpreted the information I found and the information given on the bus.

It's just a longer walk up so it's okay.

Los Angeles Times - where they churn out the daily news

Metropolitan Water District - I don't know what they do exactly

Where were all the people??

Ahh! Peeks of Stop #3

Stop #3: Walt Disney Concert Hall.

YEAY!!! I'M FINALLY HERE!!

I've been looking forward to the WDCH before I arrived in L.A. as the guidebooks were talking about its magnificent architecture by Frank Gehry and so on. I wasn't well prepared enough to plan to watch a concert (no $ no ticket no company), but walking around WDCH was good enough. There was a concert going on by the California Symphony. And you could hear the concert from outside, it was really pleasant. There was a tenor singing too! For a moment I thought the music was coming out of a CD.

WDCH is the home of LA Phil (they're coming to Singapore in October! Anyone interested?? Join me pleeeaassseeeee!). Just that for the summer season LA Phil parks itself at the Hollywood Bowl.

Music Center - I didn't check it out - was just beside WDCH

Went shopping at the store and I actually spent quite some time there! Bought a couple of souvenirs as well.

I knew there was a roof garden and I asked for directions to the garden and there I went.

It was this ceramic rose that you should see when you go to the WDCH. It was a structure done by Gehry dedicated to Walt Disney's wife.

The view from the garden

The rose was situated by the wall of the building

This wasn't a reflection of the sun, it was a reflection of a wall of WDCH!

Asked a European tourist to help me take a photo. Unglam, but nevertheless, I was at the WDCH

Stop #4: Angels Flight.

It was just a few blocks away but still, taking the Metro seems like a good idea since I have no other reason not to. And it'd be an experience.

Civic Center to Pershing Square. Just one stop. HAHAHA. It just felt like taking the MRT from Tampines to Simei. Really near.

at&t, one of the main telcos in the U.S.

Samuel told me I must see the Angels Flight - there was some history to it. It used to carry people from the lower part of Downtown to the higher part of Downtown as you can see in the picture below. They removed the car altogether.

Right opposite Angels Flight was a marketplace. I had no intentions to go in - I didn't even know it was there - but went in anyway. So this is Stop #4': Grand Central Market.

When you enter it was a dining area, and walking through this section and going down a bit of steps was where the wet market was.

Food court

Market

And then another bus to Stop #5: Orpheum Theater.

It was Line 81 if I'm not wrong

Behind the bus stop there was a sign on the ground saying 'Warning! Door may open suddenly'

I think this is really amusing.

Take for example you walk on this pavement and just when you laid a step on the door it opens and you flyyyyyyyy off to I don't know where. I just find it really funny.

Really!

The Orpheum!

This theater was where the American Idols would have their Hollywood Week and so on. That was why I wanted to see the theater. Haha.

And I was done seeing.

And I hopped on to another bus to go to Stop #6: Staples Center/LA Live!.

There were no shows so it was closed

The other side of the center, where the TEAM LA store was located. But I arrived about an hour late and the store was closed already =( Else I can really look at authentic Dodgers and Lakers merchandise!

Just opposite was LA Live! There was some event going on and LA Live! isn't really totally open so I just decided to not try to enter.

Nokia Theater was where the AI finals this year was held

And that was about what I wanted to visit for today!

Bus 81...

...then Bus 2 to Westwood

There were a lot of people in this district but they were mainly Latinos, just a handful of blacks, no whites, definitely no Asians. Except for myself. So I guess I attracted quite a lot of attention because I was of a different shade of skin colour. When I went up the buses in this area people in the bus would turn and look at me. Kinda scary 'cos I was alone! And no other Asians in sight to give me some kind of consolation and security.

Oh well. Haha.

Back at Westwood, it was going to be dark soon! (It took me two hours to get back by the way)

It looked like it was going to rain

Ralphs - the supermarket that has provided us with most of the things we needed

Fox theater at night

I took 7 buses and a train which amounts to 8 trips. 8 x 1.25 = USD 10 and I paid USD 5 for my day pass. I saved USD 5 today =D

I'm just kinda sad that I didn't go watch the American Idol Tour and another performance at the Hollywood Bowl.

If I ever come to California again, I'll make sure I catch a show at the HB. And the show must have fireworks! Hahaha.

Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific

2008-07-26T06:03:00.000-07:00

Time to see fish and more fish and more fish.

When we reached there we were early and the aquarium wasn't opened yet. Hence we wandered around the harbour nearby.

Rainbow Harbor

The majestic Queen Mary

Lighthouse

People fishing

Hmmm. What do you call people who fish but they aren't fishermen? Fishers?

A very awkward group photo

Kiss the whale!
Jellies A very fluffy starfish

I realise I can't remember the names of all the organisms! =S I hope this doesn't mean a wasted trip.

Guess the name of the following fish. Do not scroll down!

...
...
...
...
....given up already?

They're called Shovelnose Guitarfish. Strum them!

Creepy A seal Another kind of jellyfish. I think they're really pretty A pearly starfish A pearl-less oyster Shark eggs! This is how they look like! Not eggy at all! Strawberry anemone LOBSTAAAAA! I WANNA EATCHU. No la. But many others near me did 'cos they were describing how delicious it looked

Now guess the name of the following fish.

I didn't see it anywhere, it was taken from a picture on the wall.

Give up?

YAHAHAHAHA. SARCASTIC FRINGEHEAD!

Hi, my name is Fringehead. Sarcastic Fringehead.

Okay okay okay, I'm mean. It can't do anything about its name since homo sapiens named it that way. And so be it.

Sand dollar. Money money money Horseshoe crab ~~Stupid fish~~ Stingray is smiling at you! Isn't it great to look happy all the time? They have stations where you can touch whatever they put there. Corals, stingrays, ... ... Peek a boo They feed on plankton which fall onto the seabed So crowded This aquarium was to imitate cold and harsh conditions Another jelly They are really very pretty!

The following is the edible section.

ARGHHHHHHH!

Giant octopus!

It's a she by the way. There was some footage where you could see her unscrewing the lid of a jar and taking out the food in it. Power.

Actually I dunno if she is too large to be considered as consumable.

It's gonna eat you up if the glass is not there. She's really huge Sea urchin Shrimps! Yum! Oh my look at those fleshy legs!!! This looks a bit like a deep-fried grouper but obviously it's not a grouper however I don't remember its name

Well now you know I'm a full-fledge seafoodivore.

No laaaaaa. I don't eat sea urchins and have never eaten any. They look weird enough to not consume.

Giraffe in an eel's body

Oh my

They can change sex by means of their own body processes. Imagine if you can do that for humans! Singaporeans will be a weird crowd!

So colourful!

Check out that little darling

A very curious seahorse

Turtle

Wow like life-savers?

And we went to see some birds and that was it for the day.

After much walking we decided to leave and then eat at a certain Chinese Restaurant. We walked like half an hour there to find out that it is closed.

So we walked back to the Aquarium area and decided on Outback.

I was to come to America for non-American food.

A wedding reception was to be held at Hyatt

This is how they serve their free flow bread. But the bread's good!

Damn good onion

Burger

Mixed platter of beef, chicken and shrimp

After lunch we walked around and made our way to the car.

There was a little cottage selling candies called the Candy Baron. Quite expensive, USD 4.99/lb if I'm not wrong.

This much costs me USD 7.99

The barrels may look filled but they're not. The sweets were placed on top of the covered barrels

Melodrama Theater

And we finally went to Cold Stone Creamery!

Some apple pie thingy. I love it 'cos the tang of cinnamon was just sooooooo fantabulous!

Enjoying my prized possession in the car

I told Ivan about my plans to purchase Mr. Mayer's album the night before, who knows he checked the address of the store and to Amoeba we went!

Oh and there you go, the Hollywood Sign

The staircase from the parking area

Amoeba music

It is one of the major music stores in L.A., and it was a huge shop! They like their shops to be big, I realise. Everything is big in the States. Anyway, Ivan managed to find Mr. Mayer's album and we bought one each!

Here's Mr. Mayer's album

On the way back to Westwood from Amoeba we saw a Carl's Jr. Jr. Carl's Junior Junior. I think it was somewhat like an express restaurant.

Some peanut bar DJ bought and shared with me

A section of a train as a restaurant

We bought Yeo's canned Singapore Curry and we cooked it with beehoon.

And afterwards we had Godiva Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory! =D

A glimpse of school in the U.S.

2008-07-25T11:30:00.000-07:00

I should just introduce you people my area and how I used to walk to school.

I'm back in Singapore at this time that I'm blogging, then I realised I forgot to take a photo of the exterior of my apartment. Like what the hell. Haha. You can't see much actually, there's no signage saying that that was Westwood Chateau.

Anyway.

When I leave the apartment I turn left and walk down the slope along Landfair Ave. to Strathmore Dr. Along the way these fraternity houses and apartments greet me. Those frat houses are rife with party people. Who party like almost everyday? I dunno. But there will definitely be something going on every evening/night.

This frat house was at the opposite side of the road

This was how a typical rubbish truck looked like

The 'feelers' of the truck could scoop up the trash bins and pour the rubbish into the container at the back.

Here's another frat house just down the road.

Another one on the right

And after going on down till I turn left at Strathmore, I see this.

And further down

And further further down...

A house on the right

Someone's car was from Alabama!

And then I'd cross this traffic junction.

This was a frat house on the right

After crossing the traffic light and walking further up there was a pathway that led into UCLA.

And I turned left to get into UCLA.

And then turned right. Some event was going on so they were setting tents up. On the left of the following picture was something like an indoor stadium in the UCLA context.

And then I turn left. (I realise I kept turning!) A pretty tree-ed area greets me.

Edwin Pauley Pavilion - the 'Singapore Indoor Stadium' in the UCLA context. See the facilities they have in UCLA!

And then I cut through the pretty tree-ed area and walk all the way past Ackerman Union, Kerckhoff Hall, the Physics and Astronomy Building, then I'll reach the Schoenberg Music Building where I had guitar lessons. Jazz lessons were at Fowler Museum and to get there I turn left after Ackerman.

Here's my guitar instructor Brandon Mayer and me!

He wasn't wearing the nice lavender checkered tie

Here's the exterior of the classroom and the corridor.

Ivan and I were checking out the noticeboards when I saw the album of my jazz lecturer!

There was an entire noticeboard about the various music ensembles (marching, symphonic band and orchestra) of UCLA.

Check this out! Too bad I went there in summer, there wasn't any show that I could see them perform.

I wanna go UCLA for SEP. But my grades aren't good enough and I've got no chance to even think about it already. HAHA. School looks like fun in UCLA. A very vibrant student life.

Outside the main entrance of SMB was a grassy area where many students would lie around in. Usually.

Here's the shuttle bus of UCLA.

Sigh.

I wanna go back in time and experience the summer session again!

Guitar Center + Irvine

2008-07-25T05:32:00.000-07:00

After school we went to the Guitar Center in Sunset Boulevard and then to Irvine supposedly for dim sum but it was dinner time when we reached and there was no siew mai. =(

Anyway.

GUITAR CENTER!

Hollywood's Rockwalk

Faces of guitar legends

A case dedicated to Elvis Presley

This is one heck of a guitar!

The Guitar Center is some kind of enormous shop or if you wanna call it, museum, that sells and displays many many guitars of all types and appearance.

This is a wall of the classical guitars area.

And this is just a side of the room

Gibson

Being a guitar noob I was particularly amazed and scared at the same time when it comes to those pricier guitars.

Like seriously expensive

I tried a Yamaha classical guitar which was priced at USD 300+. And it was damn good! The sound was thick and mellow and the guitar nice to use!

The Yamaha

This is the USD 1179.99 guitar!

However I don't find the guitar nice to use. Just that it was damn pretty.

So glamorous!

Infinitely many electric guitars

Whatever you're looking for!

And a souvenir to bring home =D

Guitar Center guitar pick

And we continued our way to Irvine. Irvine's a city that's located south/southeast of Los Angeles.

Passed by this restaurant but we never got to try!

Where did you study?
Hollywood High School. How's that?

One of the many signs that tell you you're on I-5

The place where we were going in Irvine is at Jeffrey Road, but just next to it was Wisteria...Lane! No la, I'm not sure whether it's lane or road or avenue.

Where are the desperate housewives?

This place was where we wanted to have dim sum

This is the Chinese restaurant. 弘城

But we went in to find that there was no dim sum. Therefore we went to this Taiwanese diner.

Here's how it looked like

Chinese tea!!!

I was so happy to see (and then drink) the Chinese tea but after that I realised that it wasn't true tea leaves.

Braised egg

Preserved egg with tofu

I think I took a very nice shot of these disgusting tau kee

This is my beef 炸酱面
I don't like it 'cos it's beef

Wanton mee!

抓饼
This is some Taiwanese version of the prata but it was tasteless

锅贴 pot stickers
But there was no vinegar and ginger to go with it

I don't know how to say this in English.
葱油饼

After dinner we went to get boba tea.

What's boba tea you may ask.

It's bubble tea lo.

Just less fragrant. The tea they have in the States is not as fragrant as what we have in Asia!

They were selling bak kwa too. Known as pork jerky. But it's not as dry as how a jerky should be ma. Barbecued pork isn't a really accurate description too. They should come up with a new name for that. Like Not-so-dry-barbecued-pork jerky.

And then we hopped to Yogurtland.
The milk tea taken in Yogurtland

Check out the queue!

The system of Yogurtland is that you take a cup and put in whatever you want and then pay by weight.

So you dispense whatever flavour you want, out of like 10 or more flavours

Throw in fruits of your choice

The grains

And you put your yogurt onto the weighing scale

Ta-daaaa. We had two cups of those to share

And this was Irvine.

The Last Shopping

2008-07-24T13:16:00.000-07:00

No, not the last supper.

It kinda irks to know that some things you do in a foreign country is so gonna be your last.

Sigh.

But well, the last shopping might be a good experience since I know I won't be overspending already.

Went for class in the morning. It was the second last class of ETHNOMU 120A! I had to take a picture with Mr. Harrison.

And I did! =D Asked a classmate to help.

Yeay!

By the way, I didn't know the classmate was from NUS too. The first time I communicated with her was last lesson, she was carrying a Crumpler bag. So I asked her where she was from and she said Singapore.

See the accuracy of Crumpler = Singaporean.

I didn't see any American with a Crumpler. Or at least, I didn't notice. Americans carry Jansport.

Before waiting for them to pick me up at Murphy Hall, I was hungry 'cos I skipped breakfast so I bought Pop-tarts!

It's essentially like a piece of soft chewy biscuit. You can heat it up or eat it at rtp.

While waiting for them at the Murphy Hall carpark this middle-aged man spoke to me and we began chatting. Apparently I was very good at entertaining. HAHA. He was really amused by the things I tell him about Singapore. Like a fine city, etc. Well he gave me his contacts and I gave him my email, he said to meet up before I leave L.A. but I never bothered to contact him =P

The driver among us blamed me for not giving him the location of the outlet mall properly. I was pretty sure it wasn't my fault but being the MCP he is I just kept quiet. Hmmph. DJ further assured me that the fault was not mine. Thanks. You all should know how hard it was for me to keep quiet 'cos I have a high ego too. Bweehh.

Oh and along the way I saw this signboard. Ryan Seacrest!

Here's an example of how their freeway markers look like in general.

We went to Boston Chicken (again!) which was nearby for dinner.

And then to Cheesecake Factory to buy Godiva Cheesecake.

Cheesecake Factory's at Beverly Hills.

Anyway just for show. The Coach handbag I got for mum. My brother said it looked very auntie so it suits my mum. -_-

I wanted to get this really cute and rustic Levi's luggage but DJ stopped me and I got an Adidas duffel bag instead. I like it! It's red and shiny. HAHA.

And this Harry & David mint chocolate.

That's it with shopping!

The Dark Knight

2008-07-23T12:49:00.000-07:00

Planned for a movie today along with another group of NUS people here for the summer programme.

Dinner was at California Pizza Kitchen. Well you got to have something from California in California. Just like having Starbucks in Seattle.

We had some mango curry pizza and some shrimp pizza. I can't remember their names.

CPK's menu

Free flow of bread and butter

The shrimp pizza

The mango pizza

There was an item on the menu which I was curious about - the Singapore Shrimp Rolls. But we didn't order it in the end.

After dinner we made our way to the Fox Theater near CPK.

It was free-seating, so you had to queue early in order to choose your seats. It's the same theater where the premieres are held in.

This is more of an auditorium.

DJ and I camwhoring before the movie

By the way, they have hell a lot of advertisements prior to screening the movie too. Just like GV.

After the movie the weather was super cold. Nothing really weird since night time in LA was like this.

I still insisted on a cold drink though. Off to Starbucks!

Everything much alike what you see in Singapore, just that the crew aren't Singaporeans

And my all-time favourite, Green Tea Blended Cream (or Green Tea Frappuccino).

However the green tea powder they use in Singapore is more fragrant.

The ticket stub for the movie. The Dark Night.

The movie was loooong. Like two hours plus. But it was damn nice! Batman's old but still going strong =P ahhaha.

I should watch the prequel one day.

Alas alas

2008-07-23T02:07:00.000-07:00

Can someone just bless me and my laptop? Please don't let it work up =(

I have so many things to do (like completing my concert report, blogging, listening to jazz songs required for the finals next week, so many so many =( )~

And so I can't blog whenever I want 'cos the blue screen will just pop up.

Sigh. It hadn't worked up in quite a while and now it's back. Grrr. The old laptop has been giving me a lot of problems here =( and I have to keep using DJ's laptop!

Venice Beach!

2008-07-22T14:23:00.000-07:00

Here's my second go at Venezia during this escapade (the first being in Las Vegas) - Venice Beach! It's situated along the western coast (if not, where? HAHA) and it takes an hour to get there from Westwood via the Big Blue Bus.

It was just DJ and I because CY wanted to study -_- and Ivan has got rashes. He came out but went back again 'cos the rashes were reacting. (He went to see a doctor at the UCLA Medical Center and it set him back by USD 50 just for consultation alone. He was supposed to get the medicine from external pharmacies himself)

So here you are, Venice Beach.

Before that DJ and I shared a foot long Subway sandwich for USD 5.

Where you can get surfboards

Muscle Bay. Where you can see shiny and extremely muscular men strutting their stuff

Did the mum put sunblock on her baby? Poor thing!

Can you see the sand sparkling? It isn't so obvious here, but if you see it for yourself, oh my

And the water was so so clear

The fine sand

I was just chatting under the sun with DJ when all of a sudden I felt a splat on my arm. Then I saw that it was a chunk of sand thrown by someone who later apologised. I think she was sweeping the sand away from herself -_-

Happily showing off the tiny splat

And DJ's sharp eyes caught a hunk! O-M-G!

But if you zoom into the photo you can see that he's actually quite old. He'd got a kid with him but I didn't catch the kid into the picture.

Then DJ and I decided to settle down among a cluster of rocks and chatted for quite some time.

Windy and sunny at the same time

You can see Santa Monica from Venice

This psychic reader was around when we walked back down the same way. And maybe he noticed something about me or what, because he kept calling 'HEY THE LADY IN BLUE!' and something else which I couldn't catch. But I don't wanna listen to him so I ignored.

Obama merchandise on sale

I wanted to get a shirt with Obama's face on it, but DJ stopped me 'cos she didn't see the point of it. Quite cool ma. Hahaha. And it's not like a photograph splattered tee but an illustrated tee. Aiyaya.

And at sunset we made our way back.

Inside the BBB

And I saw my dream bus! O-M-G! It was parked alongside the road in Landfair, now it's there almost everyday =D So I look at it when I go to school and imagine that I own it!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH

♥

Verdict: What Venice?? But anyway I prefer Venice to Santa Monica. The latter is too commercialized.

The Last of Las Vegas

2008-07-20T02:11:00.000-07:00

Our last day at Vegas!

Went to the supermarket and saw this really nice bottle. That's their green tea, tastes different from the green tea we have in Singapore, and they like honey and/or ginseng in their tea.

And then guess what?! I saw Hofbrauhaus in Vegas!!! I didn't know there was one in Vegas. But we didn't plan to go there and so we didn't. =( I'd love to go have lunch there haha! I wonder if it's as good as the one I went to in Munich last year.

We were walking to Hard Rock Hotel/Hard Rock Cafe.

Here's HRH first.

They have Zildjian cymbals for lamps.

And saxophones for chandeliers.

A shelf-ful of Elvis

A Swarovski-studded kid's bike that costs...

Oh my

Guitars and jackets and photographs enclosed in glass cases around the casino

And we walked to HRC.

Caught a real funny license plate. I bet the owner of the vehicle doesn't know that there are extra meanings to 'APA LA'.

And we were on our way back. Nothing much today, really.

Caught our driver in action. No big deal that you take photographs while driving? Well, on the freeway, that is!

This rented vehicle is really cool. You can drive in both auto and manual modes! The P R N D M are for the auto gear, while the + and - are for the manual gear. You just + or - accordingly for the gear and the gear number will appear in a reader on the dashboard or something.

Jam? Not again?!

And it was another six hours' drive back to LA.

I got this shirt at HRC. I should've bought this in Hollywood, I rather the words say 'Hollywood' than 'Las Vegas' because I don't really like Vegas.

But still a great shirt =D

Grand Canyon!

2008-07-19T13:59:00.000-07:00

It was a loooooong looooooonnngggg drive. Looooonnnggg.

Today we're gonna cross the border again from Nevada (where Vegas is located) to Arizona for the Grand Canyon.

Set off at about 0640.

Greeted by sand after sand

And guess what? Two hours into the journey we got caught in a traffic jam along the freeway.

Just too many trailers that I felt so tiny

And up ahead you could see that an accident occurred.

I've set foot on a U.S. freeway!

Apparently we had so much time that we actually could take a self-timed shot.

How often do you get to take a posed shot on a free/high/expressway???

Finally everything was cleared! After an hour.

While passing by

Sweeping up the mess

YIKES!

So that was what happened in front. What drama to greet us in Arizona. Left the site at about 10 a.m.

We planned to go to the IMAX in the Grand Canyon National Park to watch a movie about the Grand Canyon. Reached the theatre at about noon.

It was only when the movie started that I realised I've watched that movie before!!!!!! WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY! =(

HAHA. I watched it long ago at the Singapore Science Centre.

It doesn't help that the movie was boring and Ivan the driver was sleeping for most part of the movie.

We had lunch at McDonald's (I seriously like the Macs here, they taste sooo much better and feels healthier, in that the apple pies are baked not fried!) at 1 p.m. and left at 2 p.m. for a further drive up to the Southern Rim of the Grand Canyon. You may think that we reached there in a short while but no, it took us nearly another hour HAHA.

It was going to rain! We were so worried that we'd end up not being able to see much.

But obviously the weather turned out fine! Just that it was slightly misty.

Here's the Grand Canyon for you! And me!
And it was soooo sunny there!

It was really an impressive sight, you just have to go there and see for yourself. But bring along a lot of energy. Whichever way you can.

Just in case you're wondering, no no we weren't hanging off the cliff to take this photo haha.

Many trees we saw there were blackened and dried, obviously the work of lightning.

Actually in the past the water level in the canyon was at the highest, where you see the flat tops of the rocks. However due to rapid water flow of the river, the earth began to erode and erode and erode and there you go, Grand Canyon! You can see some sort of the path of a river in the following picture.

Group photo taken by another nice tourist. I seriously don't know why John turned out to be like this when the photographer did tell us to say cheese. HAHA.

Looking all over in awe

Reached the canyon at about 3 and two hours later we left!

The sun was raining on us

You see pretty natural sights like almost everywhere. That's what I feel deprived of in Singapore.

Hoover Dam, the first hydroelectric dam of the US if I'm not wrong. Wanted to really stay there and look around but we didn't because of the lack of time. The interesting thing about the location of Hoover Dam is that it sits on the border of Nevada and Arizona. So you know we're reaching Nevada, back to the hostel at Vegas.

Had Tony Roma's for dinner. Chicken Tuscany pasta. It was not bad!

Here's an example of how a Nevada-registered car looks like.

Stay tuned for the next day, which I think I won't be blogging till long later. Make do with these okay. Haha.

Alas

2008-07-18T02:06:00.000-07:00

The writer will be on an escapade to Las Vegas, Nevada, and Grand Canyon, Arizona this weekend.

So this blog is coming to a temporary halt until the writer comes back.

And therefore more lag in updating. -_-

There'll be a guest for guitar class tomorrow. Hope it'll be exciting!