entries
the first few steps in the hwachong journey
Sunday, February 26, 2012 @ 11:32 AM
Nearly 1 plus months into Hwachong (including the 2 weeks of IP weeks sian-ness) and I'm starting to like Hwachong! (: Kinda used to all the tutorial and lecture system already so yay~ Even the EMB has become something I check as often as my email LOL!
So 16-27 January was the IP activities week, which MANY people started ponning towards the later half of it lol. Generally quite a boring period, spent most of the time sitting in the auditorium and listening to talks and talks and more talks. So nothing much la. Only thing interesting was CNY celebrations I guess? Louhei with 408 was just pure awesomeeeee! :D And it was then that hcwushu's performance was so freaking cool that I was actually swayed and for a split second tempted to join wushu again.
Then was orientation starting on 31st January~ Had to say goodbye to 408 (for real D:) and started hanging out with my OG. Was veryyyy apprehensive about it after the first day of icebreakers with them cause it was really quite dead aish. BUT THE SUBSEQUENT DAYS IT GOT WAY BETTER! Especially those post-orientation days where we went out for dinner and bonded through them! Like the first one in KAP where we bonded through SUPER DUPER EPIC MURDERER GAMES! And the other one in Aston's where we spammed mindf games hehe! And the last one on 3rd February where Nathanael treated us to pizza! And we played mushroom and got chased away to high school side of dunno what reason. At high school side was more murderer and a mini-sodache session with a few other OGs hehehe cause there was Nat and his guitar! (: That moment felt very, very magical when 3-4 OGs came together in a circle to sing the batch song as one.
PIZZA TREAT!
Orientation games with OG28 was very memorable, LOVEEE the slippery slope especially! Hahaha tried 3 times with Christopher but failed all 3 times, despite not being successful, I think our slippery slope journey was superrrr dramatic! Especially the last one where I slipped like 2 times flat but didn't slip all the way down and had to pull myself up with the help of Chris LOL. (Y) And the other game I loveeee was the cap game! Didn't mean to be violent but somehow my violent side came out. D: BUT IT WAS FUN HEHE! Went in with 1 cap and came out with 3 OYEAA! :D
Next half of orientation starting on 6 February was with CT! 12S75. :D Well to be honest the Sunday I saw my class list on isp, I was quiteeee...apprehensive about my class too. First CT session was just pretty awkward with CT tutor haha! BUT I'M LOVING MY CLASS NOW ALREADY! :D I think we bonded more through the CT flagpainting and the class skit! So yayyyy! The guys in my class are really sporting,thumbs up to them! :D
11S75 + 12S75! Goshh seniors and their damn good pranks!
Oh and during this period OG28 still met up for dinner on 7 February! :D Subway at btp followed by mass pool-ing session which only cost a dollar for each person zomg~
OG28 @ Subway
And after school on 8th February, met up with 408 and had dinner at burger shack (first time there oooh), and we went for the stargazing event! Superrrr eventful full the moon was like super huge and bright and there were actually starts to see my gosh! Played MRT game with 408, sang on top of our lungs, danced like siao! Hehehe we were just mad! xD
Stargazing wtith 408!
Then war games on 9 February! I LOVEEE MY EXPERIENCE THEN! Got sent to jail hehehe (okay I know it's bad to be in jail but if not for this I wouldn't know how the jail looks like), teamed up with somebody from another faculty to breakthrough another faculty's defense (failed in the end, but it was a cool experience), and the best part is solo breaking into Athena's territory during the last 5 minutes of the game! :D And the siren sounded when I was in so I was sitting in Athena's territory feeling very bright as a yellow-coloured member HAHA! And feeling honoured looking around seeing that everyone else who broke into were guys except me! xD
Campfire on 10 February WAS THE BEST WAY TO END ORIENTATION. Apollo was sitting right in front, with my class sitting at the front row hehe! Cheered likeeee maddddd despite my epic screwed up throat already! Apollo won the class skit AND THE FRIGGING WAR GAMES HOLY!! The moment they played the video and the words were in YELLOW, and then the silhouette of our two FAC HEADS, I WAS PRACTICALLY BURSTING WITH JOY ALREADY OMG. Never felt thisssssss happy seriously. COS IT'S FRIGGING WAR GAMES! xD Went madddd during the campfire, more dancing, more human train (gosh I misssss human train it was literally like a roller coaster ride in the dark), more cheers, more craziness, YAY~
School started on 13th February (meh-ness) but at least there was POP to end that day! Congrats to Ares for their win, a really, really well-deserved one! Somehow Apollo's beginning was screwed aish, but still a good performance! Though I was sooooo happy when all faculties were given a chance to encore, and Apollo rocked the stage without music yo! :D And after this was more human train, more dance, more cheers, though not as high and crazy as the Campfire heh!
Getting hyped up for Apollo Fac Dance Presentation :D
Jianyang's birthday celebration @ Sogurt with 12S75
Swim test last Tuesday was coooool~ Have been ages since I last swam so the feeling of entering the pool was really good. (: Would have wanted to be in the swimming module if not for the mafan-ness girls face after swimming. All the changing and the hair LOL. Ohh and I'm so glad my dilemma over CCAs have been resolved. Spent like 3 days moaning over it goodness. And I'm honestly very, very shocked that I got into hiphop la, still remember being soooo damn scared before the auditions. D: But yeaaa first prac session last Monday was cool! And I realised I really do love dance after all. :D But yep made my decision to run for council, and regardless of the result, I will treasure this campaigning process. Though I love dance, but somehow my heart lies with council. Glad that I finally made this decision, and yep let's see how things turn out the next 1+ months~ (:
Went back to Nanyang on Friday for Prize Giving Ceremony, and yea it felt good to be home, albeit a little surreal and out-of-place and feeling old haha. Met up with 408 again, and it felt awesomeee. (: Shall end of this post with this awesome picture!
408 ♥
first working experience!
Sunday, January 15, 2012 @ 9:16 PM
Last day of holidays, wow can't believe it passed by so quickly. Like graduation was on 4 November? Then till now seem wayyyy to fast man! First part of holidays were spent at the opposite end of the globe, next part was mostly half working at Pepper Lunch @ Jurong Point, a quarter at bridge lessons and a quarter having random outings. Shall blog about my experiences at Pepper Lunch and being a banquet waitress at Regent Hotel for 2 days! ^^
Okay start with the shorter one la, Regent Hotel. Worked there from 6pm-12am on Christmas Eve and Christmas itself. The working conditions were really good la, there's staff dinner buffet spread, free transport back home (both nights I had a cab directly to my house's doorstep!), and air-con ballroom with free wedding show! xD Work there was fun, would have continued cause I got pretty much used to it after the second day, but the court shoes I was wearing totally killed me. Cause it has relatively higher heels than normal, plus you have to walk superrr alot, felt my feet aching the whole of the next day. >< Quite horrible really.
Before working there we had to attend this training session thingum at the employment agency, which was pretty interesting cause you get to know all the details behind a banquet, since most of the time we're the ones sitting down just eating, you don't really notice all these small stuffs.
The training booklet is superr informative la! Stuffs like how you should portion the fish, in which direction should you serve the food into the bowls blahblah, though I gave up following it and just did what I felt comfortable in the end heh!
Okay the cool thing about being a waiter is you really get to see the behind-the-scenes of a banquet, like surrounding the ballroom is actually this long corridor with kitchen and everything you need for the banquet. Freaking convenient and cool really. Like you get to see all the busy-ness of the kitchen and the dishwashing place, really a world of difference from the calm and peacefulness of the banquet itself HAHA! Oh another thing about the behind-the-scene part is that there's actually this special employee's entrance at a corner of the hotel! Frigging cool la! Then when you enter it's really the place where you see all the different people working there - waitresses, chefs, cleaners, etc. Even the cafeteria where you get your food! Everyone gathers at the same place. Pretty damn cool!
The first day of my work (Christmas Eve), got pretty freaked out at first cause when we reported to the banquet for work, the manager look damnn scary. Like there was this bunch of guys who reported like 5 minutes late, and he was like "What time is it now? What time did I ask you to report? Write your name here. You can go home now. Good I can deduct more money." SCARY SHIT OKAY. But heng he was okay later LOL. So first thing they did was to distribute the menu and let us familiarise with it, not only with the food but also the wedding couple's names haha! Then they started grouping us and allocating groups to tables, which we then proceeded to check our table settings, arrange them, prepare our side stations (where you put all the plates, bowls, serving gears).
First day of work was a breeze for me, was grouped with 2 other super experienced people, and another newbie like me from ACS, we were in charge of 3 tables, and the whole wedding dinner was quite different from the usual chinese dinners, the whole thing is portioning at side station (ie we portion the food at the tables at the side and serve people their individual portions). Oh it's like this cause the couple organised the wedding such that there was elaborate decorations on the lazy susan (the glass round thingum you turn round and round) which was quite hard to remove. So it was relatively slack cause the 2 more experienced one portioned while the ACS guy and I served. And those 2 were there to constantly guide us as to what to do next, so it was quite fun really. Plus the ACS guy and I would take untouched leftovers to the back to 偷吃 sometimes hehh! DAMN WASTE OKAY REALLY.
Second day of work, was assigned to table number 15, and I had to serve that table all by myself. Was superr scared cause it's not portioning at side station anymore, instead it was ALL dishes except the first cold dish (which was family style, ie they take the food themselves) portioning at lazy susan. THIS IS HARD OKAY. Especially when you have not enough space - table filled with wine glasses and everything. Yea and my table particularly requested for a lot of wines la, like 6 people had a glass of wine. Oh and about the drinks, IT'S SUPER MAFAN LA, cause the bar is outside the ballroom, so whenever we wanted to refill soft drinks or wine or beer we have to walk all the way out of the ballroom to get them. Wine is the worst, cause they don't allow us to use trays to carry them for fear of accidents, so I had to keep walking to and fro my gosh. Okay my portioning was not bad, everyone had relatively equal amount of food, but cause I was super noob, my lazy susan became quite dirty in the end with all the sauce drips here and there HEHH.
And the people at my table abit.. cold la, maybe it's just me cause when I portion they stare really hard at what I'm doing, quite scary LOL. Oh but got this damn nice old man will try to help me with small actions (like take his own portion.. cause I'm supposed to not only portion but also to distribute the portions, quite mafan really). Oh then the fish part totally scared me out, heng someone helped me portion it at the side station so all I had to do is to scoop up the parts on the plates and serve hehe! Damn scared of disfiguring the fish if I were to portion it LOL. Though managing a table myself was pretty stressful, I feel damn accomplished la! Like WOW I actually managed to do that without any super big accident or anything~ Oh another thing about this is you really have to manage your time well! Like if you're lag and slow you'll 害 your table to receive their food later, so it really feels good when you get the dish from the kitchen and see that there are still many dishes there, shows that you're one of the earlier few to serve the dish! ^^
Oh and about the second day, don't know why the manager assigned me to do a guy's job. =.= Well I assume it's a guy's job since I was the only girl doing it. Before the wedding dinner starts people have to register outside the ballroom, then there are people assigned to walk around with trays to serve drinks to these people lor! Woa the tray was super heavy la, totally trained my biceps LOL.
Okay now to Pepper Lunch! Started work on 7 December, Wednesday, have been working for 21 days as of now, total of 141 hours, excluding breaktime. Still remember being so unfamiliar with the uniform the first day I wore it, and feeling so out of place, feeling as if everyone was looking at me weirdly LOL. But now it's totally HECK LA and I'm so used to wearing the uniform! (Was even more used to it than hongzi LOL)
My nametag!
Second one though cos the first one mysteriously dropped out. ):
The uniform I'm so familiar with now!
Haha it looks superrr like the hwach guy's uniform!
So before I started work they gave me this paper for me to 'study'. But I didn't heh. Honestly it took me quite some time to 'dare to' say abit of jap, since I don't really speak much jap. Plus next to Pepper Lunch there's this Korean restaurant and you'll keep hearing tonsa ANYEONGHASAEYO! Which kinda makes me..confused? HAHA plus I'm more of a korean person than a jap person la.
Okay so majority of the time I was doing service. Ie giving customers their orders, arranging table tags, clearing trays, wiping trays and spoons and chopsticks, refilling sauces, setting up trays for dishup Got abit sian of it since I keep doing the same few things, even closing also all service. Though service closing is relatively fun and satisfying, it's like every night 大扫除! Wiping table tops, table stands, emptying sauce bottles, sweeping and mopping the floor. x) And you feel really good seeing how clean everywhere is after you're done! And somehow cause of wushu or something I have this affinity for long sticks..? So in a way I really like sweeping and mopping la! Heh!
So being stuck with service I really wanted to try out other stuffs, tried a bit of dishup for a number of days. Dishup is fun, but gets stressful when there are tonsa orders really. Dishup is like the link between the kitchen and service. You help kitchen scoop rice, get appropriate sauces, cheese, miso soup, mashed potato, and help preparing the takeaway stuffs (disposable bowl, cover, fork, plastic bag). And you've to shout onaegashimas! Felt a bittt weird shouting that at first LOL.
Learnt abit of cashier too, but only did one order cause I'm too fearful of cashier. Scared I'll key in wrong stuffs. Though I like money and calculating stuffs, cashier is still :S for me heh!
And a couple of days back manager finally allowed me to enter kitchen! Was Player 3 (also known as the meat taker haha), which basically is to just get the appriopriate ingredient for the orders (must weigh them accordingly), and crack eggs when needed, and microwave certain stuffs (like pasta and hamburger), and refill the meat when they are low, and help Player 1 (the main person who cooks) refill his ingredients when they are low (eg corn, cheese, onion, spring onion, cabbage. taugay, sauces). I like being meat taker HEH! It feels like a game la, seeing the order and getting the right ingredients! Two people attempted to teach me to cook, heh tried cooking salmon pepper rice and chicken pepper rice! But still abit hesistant to cook cause my technique isn't there yet, like how they hold and sauce containers and sprinkle the pepper, got technique de!
Yep so that's basically what I did! Peak hours are like hell, especially when orders somehow get screwed up or when there are so many orders that people have to wait quite a while. Especially now when school has reopened already, woa like at 2-3pm there are SUPER A LOT OF SCHOOLKIDS LA. Madness. And ohh the churning of the receipt is quite scary. Like there's this receipt printing machine that tells us what orders to cook, and it'll churn out receipt non-stop when there's a huge bulk of orders. I'll always be like "URGH SHUT UPPP' HAHA.
THE FIRST EVER PAYSLIP OF MY LIFE! ^^
And ohh my fellow colleagues are mostly SUPER DUPER NICE. Like the first few days of work I used to not really like them cause there were a lot of bitching and politics around. :/ BUT SOMEHOW as the days past there's less of them! ^^ And everyone's really nice! Like how I was late for an hour but the manager didn't even scold me, she just counted me one hour less! SUPER NICE OMG. And how they'll let you leave earlier if needed and if there's enough manpower. (Only left earlier once la). And how they are really forgiving la! AND THEY EVEN GIVE AWESOME VOUCHERS LOOK BELOW:
Okay and being in service most of the time, naturally you'll meet nice and mean customers. Nice customers are those who are very understanding, and will say Thank You when you serve them their food! It's not needed la, but a Thank You really can make your day! Mean customers are those who..are just pure mean. Like if there's a slight screw up in the order they'll give you this super 臭 face and talk to you with attitude. Really buaytahan. Like there was this time we added the egg in the wrong plate, and this particular plate was meant for the maid in the family dining then. The mother got super pissed that the egg was in the maid's plate, and was like the egg should be in her son's plate and not the maid's plate. So we were like okay we add an egg in the son's plate and give a free egg to the maid (since it's less waste of food, rather than totally throwing away the maid's portion and giving her a new plate without egg). AND THE MOTHER DEMANDED TO REDO THE MAID'S PLATE. Insisting that she doesn't want egg in that plate when we were more than willing to give the egg free. And the tone she talked to us felt..abit like cause it's the maid's plate that's why she doesn't want the egg to be there. Gosh.
And there was another guy. Cause he was waiting for his icecream to be served. At that time it was peak hour, usually during peak hours there'll be tonsa icecream order and I'll icecream machine will need some time to replenish la. And this guy didn't want to wait, so I asked him if he wanted to change his icecream to something else (since the meal is like drink + misosoup/mashedpotato/salad/icecream) and he didn't want any of the side dishes, but wanted another drink. Which I can't do that la. So he gave this rather pissed look when I asked him to wait for 5-10 minutes. Another colleague of mine when to talk to him, and she noticed that he was timing me LOL, thing is the colleague didn't tell me he was timing me until after I gave him the icecream, which meant that I gave him within the 'time limit', like I totally pwn him la HAHA.
Just really cannot stand how some customers must give this accusing look, talk in that very accusing tone. Though we're just doing service, WE ARE HUMANS TOO OKAY, waiters or in fact anybody regardless of what they are doing deserve to be treated with respect no matter what. Hmph. Haha but yea mean customers have become a part and parcel of this job la, pretty much used to them le~
Okay that's pretty much it! Earned aboout $800 in total from my work! ^^ Awesomeness teehee! Other than work..bridge lessons were coooool~ And the random outing and shopping! Watched Mission Impossible 4 and Sherlock Holmes, and I prefer the former honestly, somehow I prefer more action packed scary scenes heh! AND GAHHH TMR OMG. TOMORROW. Damn sian after looking at the IP activities schedule. I can already feel myself getting all fidgety and restless in the auditorium seats la! And all the tests zzzz! I can't even remember how it feels like to write and piak there's a english diagnostic test first thing on the first day right after 15minutes of annoucements zzz. ORIENTATION WEEK HURRY COME!! And honestly, I'm scared for tmr meh. BUT I GOT MY DEAREST SANBA-ERS. So I hope it'll all fine and good for now! ^^ HELLO HWACHONG.
2011
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 @ 2:33 AM
It's the wee hours of the 4th day of 2012, and listening to some really good music is putting me in a really reflective mood now. So yep time to dig out those 2011 memories and blog about them. (:
Hmm 2011 started on a rather down side I guess, became insecure, lost faith, trust, went to an all time low, times where smiles and laughter needed a considerable amount of effort, times where I almost let slip of close friendships, cause I was just too cooped up in my world. Well, I guess the saying of 'time heals all wounds' is rather true. Got back to myself thanks to awesome classmates, batchmates around me, found my happy, crazy, high self again. (: And yep from then on I think I matured quite a bit? In terms of thinking and stuffs, I'm no longer that childish, immature Hilary hahaha!
Academics were rather smooth-sailing for me I guess, ironically when Sec 4 should be the most hiong year. Didn't go through any particularly stressed-till-I-wanna-breakdown experience that year (unless I have forgotten lol). Moving on, non-acads stuffs, I still feel a tinge of regret for not contributing/doing enough for PSL and Wushu. Being a vice-captain of the team, I always felt inferior toward my fellow captain and vice-captain, hence forever being in the background, not-so-outspoken one during trainings. I could never really give suggestions or whatnot for trainings cos I don't exactly have experience in these stuffs. Oh well in all I just felt really bad for feeling inferior yet I couldn't help myself remove that inferiority. :/ But NYWS camp made it a whole lot better, hehe still remember that fateful 1-2 hour in the morning planning the whole amazing race during that period, efficiency at its maximum! And that picture of us all crashing on the floor! :D Competitions, and performances were all our last as a jiti, and I'm really glad that we pulled through together as a batch, though there were ups and downs, yea I admit I was a big part of the downs HAHA, I never regret joining NYWS as my CCA in Nanyang and meeting these really unique, awesome batchmates. It's just indescribable, how we managed to forge this bond just through all the trainings we keep complaining about. (: Indiv competition that year was the year I saw myself really growing up, used to be terrified, fearful of competitions, can't remember whether it was Sec 3 or 4 when I actually broke down cause I didn't know if I should go for indiv haha! But yea I grew to see results as secondary, and the experience as primary, since after all, it would most probably be the last time I 上场-ed.
Made many new friends that year too, the ones I remember best are mostly from 17slc facs and YAA. (: The experience was one unique one, from getting to know the true sides of some friends, to wearing court shoes and stockings for like 2-3 days straight haha, to going crazy dancing at hwachong in the evenings. Though I was only a facilitator, (and participant in 16slc), slc will always hold a special place in me. (: And it's really quite interesting to see the comparison between the people I was closest to in SLC, and the SLC peeps I actually still have close contacts with. Well, perhaps it's my fault for not reaching out to the first group. >.<
And finally, my dearest 408. I can never wish for a better class than this really, am very grateful for landing up in this class (after a series of complications in sec two haha), and to be honest, I think this class will be the best class I've ever had in my schooling history. (Unless my JC class proves me wrong LOL, which is quite hard to hahaha.) It's a class where there's really a huge mixture of different kinds of people, which makes the whole sec 4 experience an unforgettable one. How some will high when this particular teacher enters the class, how practically all the teachers love our class, how all of us are nearly quite comfortable with each other, how we can make all teachers smile and laugh, how we put up performances together (ARMOS, Graces, Teacher's Day Concert), how we ended up becoming like some mini gambling den during post-EOY period (and class chalet + ecp class outings), and how we became the Sec 4 Model Class of Year 2011. (:
I would really like to thank this 3 particular classmates whom I've grown really attached to (I think you know yourselves, too shy to write your name here la HAHA, so name you all A, B and C) during this period of time.
A, whom I never expected myself to be able to connect so well with her at the start of Sec 3, became that one person I confide in practically everything. (Though it's so hard to contact her through technology zzzz). I will definitely miss those times we could talk endlessly, how you keep talking about building muscles (HAHA), how we can just talk about everything and anything, sometimes even neglecting lessons completely (oops!). I'm glad I didn't lose this friendship (cause I nearly did), and despite us only meeting up once so far during this holiday (EEYER WHY ONCE ONLY T.T), we still could talk comfortably and endlessly ^^, I guess this is what people mean by really good friends. (: Sadly we'll most probably be parting ways in JC, haish, but I don't care must must must still catch up with each other okay! (Though I highly doubt she'll see this huge chunk of words meh LOL.)
B and C, both whom I somehow got close to through everyday lunch breaks I guess? And C cause she's forever in front or beside me during morning flag-raising and assemblies bahaha. B is cause we somehow really think alike-ish, which is just cooool to the max~ Okay start with B first, first thing I have to tell you, YOUR LEGSSS AHHHHH! HAHAHA! XD I think you are really mature, which is cool cause usually most people our age aren't exactly that mature yet? Okay your mature is like I don't know how to describe mature, 总之 it's the cool mature! And continue being ever so chill~ and also having your own very strong, unique perspectives in stuffs. Your blogposts never fail to impress me with your depth of thinking, really. You should learn to voice out these povs more often! Seriously! Hehe like how we'll 'gang up' together to rebut Weihui's super pro-PAP perspectives during GE! And in the future if you need any help in anything, really feel free to ask me (haha still remember the pre-eoys days? (: ), AND MUST KEEP IN CONTACT RAWR ANOTHER DIFFERENT CLASS PERSON together with C too. Aishh why my A, B, C all going away so far from me. ): Okay C now, I LOVE YOUR EYES HAHA! Okay and I think you have a really awesome character, should really consider taking up some leadership role in JC really! You somehow have this ability to make people really comfortable around you, and just love being around you. (: I'll miss how we'll always make funny facial expressions to each other to communicate LOL. And those msn/fb chats I can really rant to you when needed and you'll give really sound advice HAHA! I think I must really learn from you, though I also don't really know how to go about learning haha! You're one unique person, preserve that uniqueness of yours when you go JC okay! Ahh will miss you and A and B so badly. ): Aish why did the 三八 days have to pass by so quickly.
Yep I think this practically wraps up 2011 for me! 2012 has begun, but it hasn't really set in since school hasn't started, so I'm still in the holiday-don't-think-so-much-about-later mood now. So in a way I still feel like it's December holidays, with a slight tweak in the last digit of the year LOL. Haish JC, I'm looking forward to it, at the same time scared. Don't know what to expect, plus all the decision making process, it's really making me uncertain. Stuffs like b or p still haven't 搞定 till now, and my CCA choices are still rather open, oh wells, hopefully whatever decision I make will turn out well? Just like how they did in Nanyang. (: Speaking about Nanyang, entering it for about an hour during the first day of school yesterday felt nostalgic and rather sad. It still hasn't really set in that I won't be stepping into this school regularly, that I'll be passing by the Nanyang bus stop every morning and stopping at the stop after it instead. Nanyang, thank you for the beautiful, memorable 4 years you have given me, and how you've shaped me to who am I today. The Nanyang memories will always be in my heart. (:
November 2011 Trip
Thursday, December 22, 2011 @ 11:58 PM
It’s been ages since I’ve last posted omg cause this trip is really long and good and I couldn’t bear to blog slipshod-ly. Sorry to keep disappointing my regular blog visitors! Anyway starting from the next paragraphs there’s like more than 4300 words, and I highly doubt most people will read everything. So omg if you actually bothered to read all the words here, 我真的对你感激不尽! Oh and btw the font of the captions of the pictures are uber big. Rawr don't know how to change it and I kinda give up thinking how cause I was rectifying something else. Meh.
Headed for
my really unexpected trip to US and Canada during the wee hours of 11 November,
the day right after Higher Chinese Os and right after Graduation Night. Felt
like some celebrity chionging to the airport after the event at Marriot Hotel!
:D Took the Korean Airlines (cause it was cheaper according to my mum) and
honestly I was super excited to take it cause I usually take Singapore Airlines
and I’m quite sian of it already, although yes it’s good and all, but you know
sometimes you need a change! And stopping over at Incheon Airport made me soooo
excited teehee! What I really love about Korean Airlines is considerably large
number of Korean movies (as compared to other languages except English) and all
the Korean food OYEAA! Totally ordered all the Korean food cause the other
alternative was western which is what I’ll prolly be mass eating during this
trip. I LOVEEEE THEIR BIBIMBAP GOSH IT’S HEAVENLY. :D And oh I also love how
the cup noodles you can request is the Korean 辛 brand one
hehe! ^^ Oh the second plane ride from Incheon to New York, we took the A380
(AWESOMENESSS), and that plane is absolutely cool to the max la! The stairs up
to the business class is super duper wide and grand, like those ballroom kind
(though I couldn’t go up la), and there’s such thing as a skyshop at the back
of the plane, where they actually display their products on shelves (more like
the products are glued onto the shelves haha). DAMN COOL CAN. xD
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| Korean Airline's Bibimbap that I'm in love with! Looks pathetic but IT'S FREAKING AWESOME! Package on the extreme left is the steamed rice! |
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| The Skyshop in A380! |
Manhattan,
New York (United States of America)
Arrived at
John F. Kennedy Airport in the late morning of 11 November. (I love how you
seemingly travel back in time when you go to US, but when you go back home you
lose a day so :/) Instead of taking a taxi all the way to our hotel, my mum and
I met dad (yea he was in US 2 weeks earlier than us for work) and we took a
train and subway to our hotel. Had quite bad jetlag cause I didn’t sleep and
was spam watching videos. Entered the subway station, and boy, everything felt
so super surreal. Like I was this cameraman in a Hollywood movie. And their
subway station is super cool, like it’s really old looking but yet gives the
very cool feel, I don’t know why maybe it’s just my biasedness or what, since the
stations are not exactly presentable looking as compared to Singapore’s haha!
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| Statue of Liberty! |
Went for a
2 hour cruise ride around half of Manhattan Island. (Oyea New York comprises of
several islands like Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan is where all the
big stuffs happen la, used to think that New York is just one big state haha silly
me) The cruise was pretty damn awesome, since you get to see all 3 bridges
(forgot their name eeks), and get quite close to the statue of liberty! Though
it’s quite 遗憾 that I didn’t go to Ellis Island to visit the statue up close. And it
takes you around to see Manhattan’s city skyline, there’s even a live tour
guide on board (and he’s quite hilarious haha).
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| Times Square |
In the late afternoon/evenings
we headed to TIMES SQUARE! I loveee all the billboards everywhere gosh! Super
colourful and eyecatching! Oh and that’s where I bought my black I ♥ NY at US$14 only! It’s the cheapest
price for a similar hoodie! ^^ Along Times Square you can observe damn interesting
people, like the way they advertise, instead of just giving out flyer, some
people just hold up this long stick with a poster attached at the other end and
they either walk around or just stand there. HAHA was quite amused I don’t know
why either. And they have damnnn good buskers! Like on the way back to the
hotel, in one subway station there was this guy singing while strumming a
guitar WITHOUT MICROPHONES WHATSOEVER and it sounded super godly. Other
interesting buskers I saw was this huge bunch of Black bboy dancers, FRIGGING
AWESOME PEOPLE. All the popping and locking and waves, gosh!! (Y)
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| It's common to see roses placed beside people's names |
Visited the
911 memorial park on 13 November, a place that I’ve always wanted to go. You
have to register beforehand to enter, as they want to control the size of the
crowd, and there’s even a limit to the size of bags you can bring (there’s no
lockers in there either), so backpacks are a no-no there. Can tell that security
is super tight (Y) but at the same time a bunch of policemen were more than
willing to take pictures with tourists hehe! Got a pic with them and I look so
small hehe I love how macho they look (though I don’t know what’s underneath
their uniform la hahahaha!!) I loveee
the concept of this memorial park, creating to huge waterfalls at the
footprints of the North and South towers, carving every victims names (from the
crew/passengers on board the fateful planes, the ones trapped in the building,
and even the firefighters who lost their lives trying rushing in the building
to save others), and how organized they were in carving their names. There are
even machines at the side for people to locate victims names, like they even
have photographs of these victims and their information (age, job, company,
country, etc) in these machines. Walking around the footprints and reading
their names, it’s quite D:. Especially when you see something like xxx and her
unborn child. Super :’( lah! It’s not uncommon to see flowers placed beside
names too. Near the park there’s this memorial museum (the smaller version
cause the actual one is still constructing), and there’s this part where they
wrote what happened every minute after the planes crashed the two buildings.
Reading it just made me more :’( in my heart. The logo they created for this
memorial is “In darkness we shine brightest”. Super good logo really! (Y) This
place is a must go when one visits Manhattan!
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| Beautiful reflection of the sky from a building beside the memorial |
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| Took a picture with the New York policemen! Hehe xD |
Walked
around Broadway, Wall Street, all those famous streets/avenue in New York. It’s
just coolness ttm lah! But if you take away the cool factor those streets are
pretty much quite normal HEH. Oh then the even more awesome part came, we
passed by an occupy wall street demonstration and went super close to them!
What I like about it is how they are policemen around but they allow these
demonstrators to demonstrate so long as it is peaceful. And these demonstrators
have very, very creative and ingenious way of demonstrating. Some will even
pose for pictures! :D
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| New York Stock Exchange buildling |
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| The Occupy Wall Street demonstrators! Love the creativity of the guy on the left! |
Oh and
there’s a Chinatown in New York which really felt like I was in China, like
even the streetnames were in Chinese, billboards all in Chinese. It felt,
rather interesting seeing so much Chinese stuffs in a western place.
Beginning
of 14 November was spent going up to the 86th storey of the empire
state building, beautiful view of Manhattan, though it would be nicer if it’s
in the night I think, since seeing buildings everywhere of about the same
colours can get rather dull and boring. Oh but you can keep yourself occupied
by trying to spot iconic buildings from up there, like you can see the statue
of liberty far far away haha! And this huge green patch surrounded by tonsa
buildings which is the central park. Pretty cool concept, having one huge land
in the middle of the island dedicated to nature, though its manmade la, but I
didn’t visit it.
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| View at the 86th storey of the Empire State Building (accompanied by a pigeon!) |
Went to the central library WHICH IS JUST FRIGGING COOL TTM.
So damn different from Singapore’s NLB and goshh it’s a must see okay! The
interior gives the super Harry Potter feel and they have such rareeee books. Can’t
describe the awesomeness of this library in words, really. Proceeded to the
grand central station, another damn cool place haha. I like how they have very English-y
buildings amongst the modern high-rise ones. Oh and I stood outside the station
for like 5-10 minutes observing how after office hours along the streets of
Manhattan looks like. Practically every other person on the street was talking
on the phone or sms-ing. And they all work super fast hahaha! It’s cool how
fast-paced everything is here, but I think if I had to face this everyday it’ll
get quite D:.
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| SEE THE HARRY POTTER FEEL AT THE BACKGROUND!! |
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| Exterior of the Grand Central Terminal |
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| How the street outside my hotel looks like SUPER CHIO OMG! |
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| The 4 I ♥ NY shirt I got for Callie, Jermia, Kaixuan and myself! ^^ |
Niagara
Falls, Ontario (Canada)
SHALL MOVE
ON TO CANADA! Arrived Niagara Falls on 15 November via a 10 hour bus ride. Cause
the place is a tourist attraction, around it pretty much look like another
Genting haha, with haunted houses, 4D movies, that kinda stuffs. The Falls honestly
wasn’t that amazing when I first saw it cause I saw it from like far far away
from the hotel, couldn’t see the grandness of it from there. But going close to
it, I must say it was spectacular, especially the horseshoe one. I didn’t find
the American Falls that appealing though. (Yea Niagara Falls is made up of 2
falls – Horseshoe Falls and American Falls). Cause there weren’t much to
explore there, we went for a local day tour around the areas, visited a
chocolate factory (spammed ate sample chocolates there muahaha), chapel and a winery.
Oh this was when I finally like a type of alcohol – called icewine. It’s like
they wait for grapes to be frozen and harvest it. Really expensive form of
wine. Though it tested more like syrup than wine haha, that’s why I like it!
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| Tried to squeeze in both falls in a picture! Left side is the American Falls, right side Horseshoe Falls, though the right one doesn't look exactly nice here meh. |
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| Behind the seagull is the American Falls! It's looks hazy cause of the impact of the Horseshoe Falls! (The bird is actually nearer to the Horseshoe one.) |
Toronto,
Ontario (Canada)
Took a taxi
(driven by a super nice Italian driver) to the bus terminal to take a Greyhound
to Toronto on 17 November! This place is like another New York haha, though maybe
not as fast pace la. What is cool about Toronto is this 28km underground walkway linking shopping centres. Super duper cool
lah! It’s so that people will still shop despite harsh weather! We used that to
walk to our hotel, and on the way Starbucks was giving out crème brule frappe sample oyea~ Went to the St Lawrence
Market (super a lot of food items there, like EVERYTHING), and Bata Museum
(shoe museum, pretty cool cause they talk about the different history of shoe
from the different cultures/religions).
The next day we went up the CN Tower, which according to Wikipedia, “The CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, standing at
553.3 m, was formerly the world's tallest completed freestanding structure
on land. Opened in 1976, it was surpassed in height by the rising Burj Khalifa
on September 12, 2007. It has the world's second highest public observation
deck at 446.5 m.” Later in the evening we went to this place
called Casa Nova, built by some super rich Canadian. It’s like this damn chio
hugeass castle, witih like 90 plus rooms and 52 telephones and their very own
stables. The whole evening there I was trying to imagine myself living in it.
Frigging big there’s even like a secret passageway and a tunnel and a lift. MAD
LA. |
| Avril Lavigne's sneakers with her signature on it! It was displayed in the Bata Museum! |
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| CN Tower! |
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| Casa Nova, not a very nice shot of the exterior though so please see the next picture haha! |
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| Damn pretty la! But my flash kinda spoilt the picture, but it'll look horrible without the flash. |
Montréal, Québec (Canada)
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| Interior of Notre Dame |
Spent 19
November in a train to Montréal. Had my first time real life
French encounter at a metro station to buy tickets. The guy was super
unfriendly gosh and I felt as if I forgot all my French, fortunately I could
understand his super fast “Je parle francais seulement.” LOL. Checked into a
hotel with an epic newcomer receptionist, who had no idea where our room was
and brought us up and down the staircase, turned out it was in the same level
as the main lobby! Oh yea our hotel was surrounded around gay places which was
quite o.O. The next day we explored Old Montréal, visited the
notre dame which is this super chio chapel. Apparently there’s this part of the
chapel which is so well known for holding weddings that you have to book like a
year in advance if you want your wedding to be held there. The guide was like
joking to us about it, saying “Don’t worry, you have a lot of time to change
your mind.” LOLOL (Y) Oh and then was the first time I saw a confession room
too, you know those places where people who sinned will go into this room to
tell a priest but the priest cannot see him. SCARILY COOL HAHA.
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| Olympic Stadium surrounded by the flags countries who won at least a gold medal during the games |
Then we went to
their Olympic Stadium which was where the 1976 Olympics were held, pretty damn
long ago but the stadium was still super grand nevertheless! The guy who
conducted the guided tour was epicly zai, like he can memorise all the facts
and figures so frigging well, and can translate it into French so quickly also,
damn scary la! But it was interesting to know how they had to modify the
architecture of the stadium as time passed cause they realized some features
were impossible, like some retractable roof which failed (can’t remember why)
so they built a permanent one instead. Oh and there’s this inclined tower which
is like inclined at 45 degrees or something and it’s the world’s tallest
inclined structure. Pretty cool! Though cause the stadium is like so old, it’s
kinda like a white elephant already and they can’t destroy it either cause of
the cost and everything, so it was kinda amusing when the guide told us how
they tried to make use of the space, dunno what kind of sports and performance
venues and whatnot.
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| Saint Joseph's Oratory |
Went to a basilica named Saint Joseph's Oratory the next day (21 Nov) which looks
super, duper grand. Apparently more than 2 million visitors and pilgrims visit the
Oratory every year. It’s built by Brother André and it’s damn cool cause
they preserved his heart and stored it in the building for people to visit, and
they replicated the office he worked in and the hospital room he died in. Quite
amazed really. Sat in a worship session though it was all in French and I could
barely understand it meh. Oh and they were selling holy water for 50 cents haha
super interesting la!
In the evening we headed to Mont Royal (a mountain) via
public bus, it was frigging cold up there but the scenery was super beautiful
omg. Especially when we were there when the sun was setting, plus all the city
lights, absolutely stunning. Was quite shag when we went back to the hotel
cause we walked so much, and just nice it was a Monday and this convenience
store had Monday special which is any hot drinks of any size at only 99 cents
zomg. SUPER WORTH LA! So glad I could understand French else I’ll never
understand what the “ENFIN LUNDI” on the promotional poster meant!
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| The lighted cross on the top of Mont Royal, didn't post a picture of the city night view cause my crappy camera did no justice to the scenery |
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| The 99cents promo! (enfin lundi = only monday) |
Old Québec, Québec (Canada)
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| Snow everywhere~ ^^ |
Got to the bus
terminal to take a 2 hours coach ride to Québec City on
22 November. We didn’t really know what to do here since we didn’t plan much,
so we walked around on the first evening of arriving there and went to a
Tourist Information centre and this guy is superrr helpful, he practically
helped plan our 2 days there and he gave really, very good suggestions that
usually tourists wouldn’t go there. So after that as we were walking around,
there was this black guy who tried to get our attention by saying “Bonjour”. My
parents were obviously quite freaked out and hurried forward to ignore him,
then he continued by saying something like “Pouvez-vous prendre une photo pour
moi?” (Can you take a photo for me?). Somehow miraculously I could understand
him when usually I fail at understanding huge chunks of spoken French, was
quite scared but since I could understand him I went to help him lor, I think
my parents were still freaked out until they realized what his purpose was LOL.
Then he helped us take a picture too, and somehow we made friends with him and
found out he’s from West Africa (zomgg ikrr), and we invited him to walk with
us since we were walking around and he was alone, and he agreed la omg (oh his English
not bad de, but not exactly good either later you’ll know why). So my mum was
like telling me in Chinese haha we got a 保镖 EPIC LA. He was like 185m tall and really looks kinda
intimidating, even he told us that he was a ‘big boy’ LOLOLOL. We planned to
hope on a 5 min ferry to get to another coast to see the night view of Old Québec, but he didn’t join us, either I failed at communicating what we
were trying to do in French, or he didn’t want to spend money, mehh felt a
little bad then. Then when we came back my parents and I were super high cause
it was below 0 degrees and there were ice forming on the floor and we were
happily playing and crushing them. EPIC LA like children~
The next day we explore
the lower part of Québec City, AND IT WAS SNOWINGGG like it already
started snowing in the morning. I have seen snow before (in Harbin), but I
haven’t witness snowing itself. So was pretty damn excited in the morning (haha
it was very evident on Twitter), opened up my hotel window to touch the snow on
the ledge, and was being this happy girl announcing to everyone it’s snowing
buahaha! Then as we walk, I was doing
all sort of stuffs like opening my mouth to let snow enter to taste snow LOLLL.
It’s really like super finely shaved ice kacang! Oh and like when walking I’ll
try to step on places with untouched snow, ie super smooth snow haha the
feeling of stepping on ‘new’ snow is really awesome! Visited the citadel which
is like this star shape fortress served for protective function, still don’t
quite get how it works till now though. But the guide who guided us is this
frigging cool guy lah, he experienced five wars as an infantry, like how he
survived all five la my gosh! And he even has medals for what he has gone
through and he has already written in his will to put his medals in this medal
cabinet in the citadel. It’s like tradition for soldiers to write that in their
will. Frigging cool la zomg.
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| The Hurons have a really interesting language! That's how the streets are named in Wendake. |
On 24 Novemeber we
travelled 15km away from Québec City via public bus to a village called Wendake. It’s
like occupied by the natives of Québec, called the
Hurons. Though now they are mostly mixed and not pure Hurons (I think). When we
arrived there we had quite a hard time finding the place of the tourist
attraction to see how the traditional Hurons lived like, cause there were
hardly any signboards and hardly any people.
Fortunately we met this 79 year old guy who was walking for exercise
ESPECIALLY WHEN IT WAS STILL SNOWING, omg and he walks quite briskly, a lot
faster than the average teen here, super 佩服 la! Arrived at
the native village and it was very interesting to know how the Hurons’
lifestyle were like, like when planning a marriage the girl gets loads of
advantage. Three weeks before the marriage the guy will come live at the girl’s
clan house, and they will receive gifts from friends and relatives, and if the
marriage doesn’t work out the guy has to go back home empty handed while the
girl keeps the gifts, and if it does both gets the gifts la. Plus if the
marriage is successful the guy lives with the girl’s clan, not the other way
round. Pretty damn cool la!
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| A native Huron doll, I suppose they look like that in the past. |
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| Montmorency Falls! Though this picture doesn't do justice to it hmph. |
We then took another bus to a waterfall called
Montmorency Falls. IT WAS FRIGGING BEAUTIFUL MY GOSH. It’s 84m high, 30m higher
than Niagara Falls, and omg there’s this over hanging bridge where you can
cross over midway of the waterfall, plus sun was setting which made it even
more beautiful with light shining on it. And the thing is there was hardly
anyone, unlike Niagara Falls which was filled with people and people. Got back
to Old Québec and shopped at a supermarket for our dinner,
cause we wanted to have a different dinner at our hotel room. I realized that
their supermarket is A LOT MORE INTERESTING than our supermarket, they have
super cool food la (can’t remember what heh paiseh). Then outside there was
this natural ice skating rink which allowed people to skate for free so long as
they have their own skates, which made me think about how expensive kallang
leisure park’s skating rink is hahaha! Then there was some belly dancing event
which attracted a lot of crowds but I felt rather …. cause those ladies didn’t
exactly have very nice figures (I’m sorry) so even though my mum insisted on
taking my camera to take pictures of them I forcefully refused to HAHA.
25 November! Last day
travelling~ checked out and the reception guy was a mix of Irish and French and
Greek. COOL TTM LA. We took a taxi to the bus terminal and the driver was a Moroccan
and I could converse with him SUCCESSFULLY in French omg. Though quite fail
cause I had my first proper French conversation on the last day of the trip
LOL. It’s simple French la, like how I felt about the place, the weather, how I
find the people. Yeah, but my parents were damn amazed LOL cause they couldn’t
understand a thing. My mum was totally like “WHY YOU NEVER CONVERSE IN FRENCH
EARLIER!” after it. While waiting for our bus we went to a nearby market and
there was some Christmas fair going on. Tried alcoholic cidar omg one 9.5% in
alcohol and the other 13%, never drank so much alcohol in my life before la,
felt a little dazed after drinking it meh. Took a bus back to Montréal, then another bus back to New York (spent a night on the bus). Then
from New York took a plane to Incheon, then finally back to Singapore.
Practically spent 26 November travelling la! Oh and cause I watched and used so
much of their entertainment system, the last flight back to Singapore I hardly
touched the screen and just listening to my music on my iTouch.
Okay before I conclude
this post, some INTERESTING STUFFS of this trip! To make up the rather dry post
up there (I hope it wasn’t that boring la..)
1. Unlike in
Singapore, you can eat whatever you want in their subway. Got quite a shock at
first when I saw so many people taking their breakfast on the subway hahaha!
2. Oh and unlike
in Singapore, there’s no glass door/gate between the track and where the
passengers stand, so it can be really quite scary and dangerous.
3. And their
subway fees are really freaking expensive, Singaporeans really shouldn’t
complain about expensive transport la! Like a one way ticket cost US$2.25 in
New York, and Canada $2.50 in Toronto. Really damn costly!
4. Oh this is
really quite random haha. Cause on day my dad was wearing rather dark coloured
pants, with this black windbreaker, black gloves, black shoes, black haversack
on 17 November which really reminded me of Lee Min Ho in City Hunter bahahhaa
(and making me think of Kaixuan at the same time hahahaha!)
5. I realized that
Canada have really pretty low rise cottages around, and part of why it looks so
pretty and homely is that most of them don’t have fences or barriers surround
them, so it’s like just this small pathway right to their doorstep. Unlike in
Singapore where (I think for security sake?), all the terraces/semi-detached/bungalows
are fenced and have gates, making it not really nice looking. :/
6. This is about
whether I look my age or not. Zzz. Cause when we took a train my dad bought a
youth ticket for me, and it was for people aged 13-17 I think, and the train
master could tell that I was below 17 years old for sure without checking my
passport. Ironically, when we were climbing up Mont Royal in Montréal, we met this super friendly female who thought my whole family were
friends. =.= Okay I shall forgive her LOL since it was like 天黑了 and we were wearing jackets and hoods and hats and
stuffs so it’s harder to tell.
7. And the love
for Chinese! At the hotel we stayed in in Montréal, there was
this super enthusiastic old receptionist guy who kept greeting us with 你好 and 谢谢! Once when my parents asked him some questions about Mont Royal he said
visiting it in the night is 最好! And his 最好 was super
accurately lah! And then when leaving he went on saying 中国最好 LOLOL even though we aren’t from China. Seriously
damn cute la him!
8. Oh and usually
in most hotels you’ll see boiling kettle right, but in all the hotels we stayed
this time round they only provided coffee machine. (Why does this point sound
rather boring when it’s supposed to be interesting?!)
9. Oh and in Québec,
the people are really nice la! Even if you wanna cross the road when there’s no
traffic light or zebra crossing, like in the middle of a road, the cars WILL
stop for you willingly and let you cross, like even if you didn’t signal for
them to stop or anything. Really impressive la!
10. The cathedrals have DAMN GRAND ORGANS. Like thousand over pipes in them! For example the one below, taken in Notre Dame in Montréal has like 10,000 over pipes. MADNESS LA, BUT SUPER GRAND!
Okay that's all for my super wordy post I think it's more than 4400 words with the captions. Hope it wasn't too boring? >.< Got pictures mahh should be okay la hor? Hehe thanks for reading through hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed this trip~ Okay after this post still needa post on 2011, and my work! (But wait for a while for them la hahaha) Anyway Merry Xmas in advance to everyone~ Spending my Christmas working in a hotel mehh don't know if I should be feeling happy or not HAHA!
