Friday, June 24, 2011

Yosemite Park

I wanted to go to a National Park in the US for very long because they are, of course, entirely different from all the forests you can see in Asia and the landscape and climate is has also much more variety.

Two of us went coz the other's guy's girlfriend said she has a "bad feeling" and hen-pecked and no-backbone him withdrew from the trip. It was a 4 hour drive and it was my first time driving in such a beautiful scenery where its a sea of golden mellows everywhere along the route of California. No wonder they call California a golden state. So sunny and golden!!




We drove up the steep and windy road up the mountains and before we even enter the park the view was breathtaking. Huge waterfalls turn into rivers and huge mountains in the distance. We saw some unmelted snow on the ground too.





so we parked and explored the park and decided to hike up the yosemite falls. the upper one. The weather was so cooling that I didnt even sweat a bit.



It was a torturous 4 hour climb up and 2 hour climb down. My legs and body hurts so much, and that was that for the day.







Oh we stayed at Curry Village, which really like a campsite but with more amenities. they have like campfires and story tellings and there were no lights at all!



This is where we rested for the night and the night was FREEZING because we were like in a valley between two mountains. I think it went down to 0 degrees or somewhere near.

Second day was much simplier, we just walked and walked along the trails of the lower Yosemite Falls and we saw a deer along the way. I was hoping to see a bear or a mountain lion but no luck.






The whole park can be covered in 2-3 days and they have free shuttle bus from one place to another.
I love nature! Especially with pine trees all around, its so christmasy!
I hope to see some bears some day.

Friday, June 10, 2011

@ Berkeley 3

Sometimes I feel like I should travel with myself or with my clones.

My friends have totally no ideas about anything. yeah anything at all.
They haven heard of
Abercrombie - one of the most famous clothing brands in US
or H&M - one of the most popular clothes retailers in the world
or Krispy Kreme - the best donuts in the world
or In n Out burger - US's best fast food
or LV/Prada/Hermes are EUROPEAN luxury brands and not american
or Greyhound - the famous US coachbus
or Glee or Forever 21 men or Old Navy or American Eagle
or how to cook spagetti
or What/when is INDEPENDENCE DAY
or what is an outlet
or what is Froyo
or what is the pearl in bubble tea made of. No clue.

Totally. Sometimes I feel like I'm talking to 2 cave aliens from another planet and bringing them around earth or around San Francisco, when I'm there for the first time myself.

Serious?!?!?!?!
They are already 24 years old and they have no clue about such things?!?!
Have they been living as a fossil!?!
where have they been all these while!??!

Most of my uni friends (also in engineering) know about all these stuff before we talk about them. I mean, these are some very basic social stuff you need to know at the very least while you live in this world of commercials and retailers.

I sound like I'm very knowledgeable but there are far many who knows more than me.
I think this trip is really an eye-opener for them, but to me it feel like bringing a 24 year old to Sentosa or Orchard Road for the first time. I'm sorry for being harsh but to me its irritating to talk to somebody with a different wavelength and I need to explain almost every meaning of the words I said.

"Oh, there's a plaid shirt in H&M which has a nice cutting!" - huh what's plaid and what's H&M and how to tell if its a nice cutting?

Monday, June 06, 2011

@ Berkeley 2

I take back my last sentence.
I guess its just a matter of getting used to the new environment.

so far I've been adapting well in Berkeley!



The climate
yeah it is really cold although its considered summer, but the residents said that it is one of the coldest summer they have experienced and it will get warmer in June or July. The unexpected rain was caused by the tornado in other states and it was raining these few days. and cold. When the wind comes it feels like the exam hall aircond blowing right at your face.
I have to wrap myself with a thick woollen blanket every night to go to sleep and i hate waking up in the morning coz its so comforting to sleep in. HA
I LOVE to bathe in the hot shower but i hate stepping out.
I LOVE a cup of hot chocolate in the cold morning.

Its a love-hate affair with the weather. But I'd choose this weather over Singapore's anytime. At least I wouldn't sweat even if I ran a few hundred meters. but my finger and toes are cold all the time.

The Town
Well, Berkeley is a really small town. The supermarket, Target is 40 minutes away (imagine you have ride 40 minutes just to get your groceries) and everything is so sparse. Talking about groceries, Ben n Jerry's is SO CHEAP! 2.99USD for 1 pint!!! OMGGGG. we bought a lot.
(huiting! there's ben n jerry's in FROYO!!!!!!)



There's a train called BART but its really expensive, like $8 a ride to San Fran.
The bus comes at 30 minutes intervals.
It made me appreciate the small city of Singapore even more, everything is right at your footstep - Train, NTUC, Malls, Cinemas, clinic, everything is just so convenient.



oh the view from my house is really amazing.



The People
They are really friendly and random. I always have interesting bus rides. Once I was waiting for the bus and some random lady came and asks me for relationship advices. WHAT? do I look like a relationship advicer to you? But she's really friendly anyways.

The School
UCB is really proud of their bears.
Their cheer is Go bears!
Their student link is called bearfacts
Their STARS is called telebears
Their edventure is called bspace
and they even called their wireless airbears

who would get a name for their wireless networks!? and they even have a UCB merchandise store right in front of the school, selling everything UCB and bears related.

Oh I've met many international friends along the way! My HRM groupmates are french and mexican, we love to learn each other's vulgar languages.

In one of the supermarkets, I met this cute taiwanese girl who used to live in Malaysia studying at a british international school, currently studying at Beijing University, doing an exchange here now. And she introduced me to her friends, 2 Hong Kong guys and another cute Japanese girl who loves gundam as much as me!!
She promised to visit me in Singapore and bring gundams along. HAHA




San Francisco
Its just a 45 minutes bus ride and its free for all UCB students! So far I've only explored the CBD and the shopping district Union Square and fisherman's wharf. I haven been to other places, but its a shopping heaven here. I wanna buy everything back!!

I'll blog about my weekends next up. Now its time to study for midterms. hais.
I'll start on my video project soon.