Ah Les in US

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Decided to post some old pictures. These were taken a few Saturdays ago, during one of my first off days after the summer season started full swing. Went around the area sightseeing with Meiyan and Qingyi.

This was taken at Monroe Park, the park opposite my hostel. Pretty small park with basically nothing much except this fountain and a few other statues.

Outside the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart with Qingyi. This is the church that I go to for mass every Sunday coz it's located just opposite the road. One thing different from masses in Singapore here is that during Holy Communion, you get to either receive the Body of Christ or the Blood of Christ, or both. Cool.

The interior of the church. I love it! Reminds me of some Roman church. I definitely wanna go to the Vatican one day. I like the way basin-like structure that holds the Holy Water too.

Picture on the left shows Boat Lake in the background. It's a pretty small lake with just a fountain in the centre, though they rent little boats that people can juz rent and relax out on the lake. The other picture shows the little island around Swan Lake, infested with ducks and yep, swans.

Proceeded to Maymont Park next, which is slightly more than an hour's walk away from our residence. This kinda walking distance might sound obscene in Singapore, but here, somehow all of us thinks it's manageable. Well, most of us anyway.

Maymont's kinda like a giant park with mini sections inside. We went through the entrance near where all the animals were kept. There were like deer, sheep, foxes, eagles and bison. It was like a mini zoo.

Two little lambs relaxing in the shelter under the afternoon sun. On the right, a gray fox posing for the camera.

This is us in the Japanese Gardens. I love the scenery! Bonsais, koi, little arched bridges and even a little waterfall made the place look so surreal. Makes you appreciate the beauty and majesty of nature.

This is the waterfall that everyone's so hyped up about. Already looks so good in the picture. Imagine what it's like seeing it in real. I can't wait to see the Niagara Falls.

Ermm.. this picture was supposed to be a cool picture of us doing a duel scene in those Chinese kungfu movies. Ended up looking quite cock. Damn. I knew I should have chosen better weapons instead of the two measly twigs.

Next up were the Italian Gardens.

These were the steps up to the Italian Gardens. Reminds me of the famous Hong Kong cemetary built on the slopes that is always featured in movies.

Overall, the Italian Gardens looked pretty nice, sorta like Fort Canning. Think Ang Mohs would like to hold their weddings at this kinda venues. But for me, the Japanese Gardens were definitely the location of the day. Period.

Posted by Ah Les @ 5:18 PM
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Sunday, June 25, 2006

It's been quite some time since I arrived in VCU, and starting to get used to my surroundings. My daily groceries and other necessities obtained from supermarkets Ukrops and Kroger, and my little meal treats at Five Guys, Qdoba and Coldstone Creamery, all a stone's throw away from my area of residence. Decided to use our off day to explore other parts of Virginia. We decided on Williamsburg, a small town east of Richmond, mainly coz some people wanted to go to visit historic sites there, and most people wanted to go there for cheap shopping.

Rented a car from this place called Enterprise Car Rentals. Not a bad company. We managed to rent a car and a minivan for like 200 plus a day, so each one of us paid like less than 20, which is very reasonable considering the crazy prices of transport here in the US, which is why we try to walk to places within a one hour radius from our accomodation in downtown Richmond.

Both are Dodge models. The car's a Stratus, and I can't rem what's the model of the minivan, but they are really powerful. You can juz feel the car raring to go when you rev up the engine.
Made driving really smooth.

The hard part though was the fact that it was left hand drive! Damn not used to it la! I'm so used to traffic coming from your right and keeping left when turning. Here it's totally different! I was worried I would turn into oncoming lanes so I had to look left and right everytime coz I would always end up being confused. Even the gears are on the right instead of the left! I ended up constantly turning my wipers on instead of signalling. But after a while, it's quite fun. Not a bad experience to be able to drive both left hand and right hand drives.

Williamsburg is about 44 miles away, about a 45 min drive from where I stay, but we ended up lost and took about 2 hours coz the road signs were inconspicuous and the maps were practically useless. With some help from passerbys and a lot of luck, we finally managed to reach Colonial Williamsburg around lunchtime.

Colonial Williamsburg is a historic site. From what I heard, this is one of the first places in US where their ancestors settled, near the Jamestown, Norfolk area. Tranquility and serenity sums up the mood of the place. Definitely not my kind of place. Too quiet. Too empty. Too boring. Reminds me of a history field trip.

I like the 3D map found at the entrance of the visitor centre though. It's cool. Reminds me of one of Hann's archi models.

Doesn't this look like the scene at the start of 20th century fox?

This bridge is known as the Bridge to the Past. It connects the visitor centre to an open area of sparsely populated colonial buildings. We headed back straight after taking this photo. Way way too boring stuff.

Drove around the countryside and found a meadow where there were many horses, so we went down for a look.

The horses here are really tame. This one here is photogenic too. It actually put its head through the fence, allow us to pat its head, and face the camera too!

Palomino. My favourite breed of horse. Brown horses with gold manes. Don't they look majestic? Makes me wanna take up riding. These horses badly need a bath though.

Went to the Prime Outlets to shop after lunch. These shops are sort of like a factory outlet, so they sell branded stuff for a fraction of the cost! Nike, Calvin Klein, Oakley, Fossil, Guess?, Ralph Lauren, you name it. It's fun coz things are so cheap everyone encourages everyone else to buy and buy coz it's so worth it. I think the watches are a steal. DKNY watches are sold for like USD$30-40 and Armani watches are about $70 plus, which is way way cheaper than you could ever find in Singapore. Pity I couldn't find anything I liked. Saw a female Burberry's watch that was really classy. Had a light blue and purple strap and a pretty face. Wanted to buy that for my auntie but it turned out to be a whopping USD$170 bucks! Moral of the story: when you're in US, go for US brands. Don't go for foreign brands. They're damn ex! Seiko old models are sold for like USD$300 a piece! Dat's more than 500 Sing, which is damn boh hua. You can get a brand new model for less in Singapore.

Trying my best to look like a black rapper, though I think it ended up more hilarious than cool. Actually I really thought the baseball jersey was nice. Too bad the clothes here are so big that I drowned in the smallest size. Looked more like a lab coat on me. Nike should really be more considerate towards their less physically endowed consumers.

End of a long day shopping. We took like almost 5 hours to cover the 89 shops there. Totally shacked out by the end of the day. But I'm looking forward to Woodsbury, the premium outlets in New York. Heard from my friends there are about 230 shops there and the prices are even lower! I think Little Girl will go mad when she gets there.

Posted by Ah Les @ 3:24 PM
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Friday, June 16, 2006

Haven't been updating for a long, long time, due to a combination of long working hours and daily late night mahjong sessions. These pictures were taken about 2 weeks back, about the second or third day after I moved into VCU. Only managed to get the pictures uploaded now but I'll try to recollect the place.

The picture on the left shows Carytown, which is like one of the biggest shopping places in downtown Richmond. Been there for like about 3 to 4 times. Things are not exactly that cheap (quiksilver and reef board shorts are like US$50 a piece) but there are many small and interesting shops that makes walking down the streets a joy. It's like a combination of the small shops in Bugis with a Holland V feel, and the good thing about it is that it is a very long stretch of seemingly endless shops that you can spend about half the day walking up and down. Especially good for girls coz most of the shops sell very girl stuff. Bad thing though is that most of the shops there close about 6 or 7, and although it's only about a 45 min walk from our hall (yes! it's considered a walkable distance here!), we took a damn long time to find the place the first time around coz we couldn't find our way and reached there around 7 plus, so we ended up only being able to walk on the outside of shops.

There's also an theatre here known as Byrd Theatre. It screens movies that are about half a year later than the movie releases everywhere else. Good thing about it though is that it is only USD$1.99 a ticket! Normal cinemas here cost like USD$6 for off peak hours and USD$8.50 for peak hours. And it is normally packed on Saturday evenings coz there are live organ performances before the movie screenings.

And there's this Thai restaurant by the name of Mom's Siam that's an absolute must try! I dunno if we've been here too long and miss Asian food too much but the food's realli realli good! Especially their spicy drunken fried rice! I juz can't stop thinking bout it! And the waitress is rather pretty too. Looks like a slimmer and prettier version of Rong Zu Er. Haha. That's an additional bonus.

Red curry and Green curry. Not too bad. Serving's a bit small though.

This is what I'm talking about! Drunken fried rice! Spicy and fragrant!

And this is the waitress from the shop. Looks better in real person though.

My final verdict of Carytown: it's a nice place to spend a lazy afternoon, browsing through shops and relaxing along the sidewalk cafes, but if you're looking to shop, head somewhere else for better deals.

Posted by Ah Les @ 10:23 PM
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Monday, June 05, 2006

Moved from my temporary residence in Quality Inn to my permanent one in Rhoads Hall, one of the halls of residence in Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). One of the rare few buildings in Richmond that require an elevator I guess.

First sight of my new home.

With Swee Lai, Weng Hong, Xinyan and Xiuling.

I was allocated a room on the 17th floor, the 2nd highest floor. My level comprises of Singaporeans, Russians, Ukrainians, a couple of Bulgarians and an American from North Carolina. Feels really weird to be honest, coz they are quite noisy. They talk loudly, sing loudly and laugh loudly. And they walk to the common bathroom in nothing but their underwear (not even boxers), so it's quite embarassing for the girls that come to our level. But they are really friendly. I've learnt a few words. "Zdrasty" is hello and "Kfo staa" is wassup in Bulgarian. Haha. Not bad right? But I doubt I can remember what they've taught me.

This is the view from my room. I quite like it, coz I can see the church from my room. The church is beautiful! I love it. Will upload pictures of the interior of the church sometime later. And the room sizes differ from room to room. My room happens to be the largest coz it's a corner room, and it happens to be the only one with a mirror, so we gather in my room every night to play mahjong and some of them will come over to use the mirror in the mornings before work.

This is Ukrops, which is a supermarket juz 2 streets from where I live. I frequent Ukrops coz we can get cheap groceries and meals there. Never knew I could be so calculative about the prices of groceries until I came over to the US. Haha.

Night view from my room. Spots on the outside of the glass make it seem like there's a meteor shower going on outside. But I like the effect. Cool.

Better view of the night scenery of downtown Richmond, taken from Austin's room.

VCU is a large campus, right smack in the middle of downtown. Thing is though, there are no definite boundaries that demarcate the school from the rest of the town, very much unlike our campuses back home, which make it very confusing whenever we walk round the campus. Good thing though in the States is that all the roads are straight with perpenticular intersections which make map reading and finding our bearings less tedious. Hope to settle into the surroundings as soon as possible. I've got more than a month.

Posted by Ah Les @ 7:13 PM
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Sunday, May 21, 2006

Went for a day's trip to Washington D.C. , courtesy of my employers at Paramount. D.C. is so different from Virginia! I can't comment on the activities, but at least the sights are much nicer, though we juz visited museums and memorials. Again. Americans seem to like to dwell in the past. Or maybe it's just this part of US. We took a 2 hr bus ride from Richmond to D.C. and spent something like 8 hrs scampering around to try to cover as much as we could, but really, there was really too much to cover.

Stopped outside the National Museum of American History, our drop off and pick up point. They have two streets lined with museums, museums and more musems. I lost count.

Those 2 streets and the surrounding areas are collectively known as the National Mall.

Started of at the Washington Monument, the most recognisable structure from afar. Too damn alot of pics of it but somehow, all din turn out too well due to the lighting.

Pictures taken outside the Ronald Reagan Building. I have no idea what this buidling is. Practically running from place to place after the photos were taken.

The American treasury department.

Photo taken with a statue outside the treasury department.

In case you're wondering what this is, it's the National Christmas Tree. To be honest I thought it looked pretty out of shape, but I heard it's pretty beautiful in winter, especially when it's draped with all the christmas decorations.

Xinyan, Xiuling, Me and Wenghong getting as close as we could to the White House. They used to open up the White House to tourists before the 9/11 attacks. What a pity. So near yet so far.

Zoomed image of the White House.

Chanced upon a limousine. It's damn long la! Only realised there was a driver inside the limo after we took the pic. Den we outside keep changing poses like idiots. Must have been quite xia suay.

The driver was nice enough though to let us take a few pics of the interior. Man, it's damn cool! I wanted to ask if he could hold the door for me while I took the pic but I decided against taking advantage of the driver. Haha. But it's ok. I'm gonna ride in this someday man.

World War II Memorial. The fountain you see here is known as the Rainbow Fountains (if I remember correctly). In the background is the Lincoln Memorial. The pictures don't do the place justice. It's beautiful!

Closeup of the Rainbow Fountains.

Taken at the Atlantic end of the memorial. The individual pillars represent the colonies and states that contributed to the American efforts in World War II.

Group photo at the Atlantic end of the memorial.

Even the flooring looks cool. This one looks very Roman.

Lincoln Memorial from the outside.

With Weijie, Weng Hong and Mr Abraham.

Breathtaking view from the top of the Lincoln Memorial overlooking the Reflecting Pools and the Washington Memorial. Looks very much more majestic in real life.

Ducklings relaxing along the Reflecting Pool. They are not the least camera shy. Very well trained indeed.

Proceeded to visit some of the museums.

Ripley's Museum. We all thought it was Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum, but apparently it was not. Juz some other museum named after another guy called Ripley.

This is the National Air and Space Museum. Looks very much like our science centre.

Food in Washington is damn ex! Mac's is like one of the cheapest alternatives, and the cheapest meal is like USD$7! And the smallest burger is a Big Mac! Haha. Most local people eat double or triple quarter pounders. At least that's what I assume.

National Gallery of Art.

Another boliao pic we took coz we din wanna keep using the same few poses. Turned out to be quite good. Haha.

The art gallery is beautiful. It is so large it consists of an east and a west wing, and each gallery leads to many other galleries, so much so that we got separated from each other unknowingly, and it was damn hard to retrace our steps because all the galleries looked the same. But I was really amazed by the paintings on display. Made me wanna be a painter too. Some of the paintings I managed to snap before my cam died on me.

The crucifixion.

St Francis of Assisi.

Photo taken with two policemen on horseback patrolling the park. Everybody seems to be wanting to take pics with them that it appears to me their main job is to keep the tourists happy.

This is a pic of the Capitol taken halfway between the Capitol and the Washington Monument. I have no idea what it's for, but it looks really magnificent, although I disliked the attitudes of the police stationed there.

Been quite a long post. That's all for now. Work's catching up with me and it's tough to find time to blog, but I will do my best. I hope.

Posted by Ah Les @ 10:12 PM
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Ah Les

Looking forward to a whole new experience of living the American dream.

Loves: soccer, takraw, music, sleeping, chilling out with friends, home cooked food, mahjong, shades, adidas, barbequed chicken wings, family and friends, Little Girl

Hates: raisins, kiam sng tee, waking up for 8am lectures

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Sony T7,
Adidas argentina away training jersey,
Lamborghini Murcielargo

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