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Friday, October 24, 2008
 It was raining heavily that day...And I was sitting at my desk, doing work... As I turned to look out of the window, I thought I saw small white specks flying past.. I stood up and wondered which inconsiderate neighbour was tearing up paper and throwing the scraps down. Then I stared... And I stared for like 15 minutes, I stood in front of my window and stared... "is that SNOW i see?" I talked to myself.. rationalised that it's too early to have snowfall anyway... Maybe I was imagining things... or maybe it's just the rain... In the midst of my looking out of the window, Diviya called me and screamed loudly into the phone that she saw SNOW!!! It was so exhilarating!!! I went downstairs to look for Geraldine and we both stood out in the chilly cold to experience our first snowfall! It was so beautiful :) Temperature's falling to almost 0 degrees now.. It's scary to think of how winter will strike soon... SPEAKING OF STRIKE... i know it's very dramatic But there is like a very very very high chance that a strike that will take place in York University. The headlines of today's newspaper screams "York Teaching Assistant Strike grow more likely".... And the conflict between the teaching assistants is escalating.... The thing is, apparently, the university will force a lockout if the agreement between them isn't reached by Nov 2... And the school administrationa actually announced that they are not likely to backdown whilst the teaching assistants said they're prepared to strike (with 85% of them actually casting a b ballot in support of the strike mandate)... Classes will be suspended if that strike occurs... And I really don't want to think of what is going to happen to us exchange students when that happens... But Nov 2 is nearing soon... *shudders*
11:57 AM
Monday, October 20, 2008
I should have done this post on New York City early, but I've been struggling/ still struggling with my heavily-weighted midterms right after I came back and really could find no time to pen this entry... It's still kinda surreal because the trip went past so quickly, yet, because of the packed itinerary, it really did seem that I went for a bit of everything..5.30am. The 4 of us were at the Student Service Centre, waiting for our cab to arrive. We began to panic when the cab didn't come on time, so we made another call to the cab agency and asked for another one to pick us up. But all is well, and we made it to the Bloor-Yonge Subway station in time to catch our coach.
 We met up with the rest of the group, and together, the 9 of us boarded the coach and began our journey to New York City!  We da-bao-ed breakfast to munch on the bus and pretty much slept throughout the journey there. Geraldine and I were up the whole night mugging, because we had SO MUCH to finish before we could leave. In an attempt to feel less guilty, we also brought some notes over to study, DUH, the notes remained untouched. But we were so tired...   We got to see the US side of the Niagara Falls when we were nearing US customs. Our tourguide, Noam, kept reminded us not to talk during the customs, only to answer the officer's questions and say nothing else, not to look at the security camera .... His tone and repeated advice made passing the customs seem so scary, but it was really not that terrifying an experience really! And the queue wasn't even long in the first place!  There were loads of Mexicans going with us on the trip, and they were pretty rowdy, to say the least... Like the girls were taking off the guys' clothes, doing wild dancing and singing loudly on the bus... The Singaporeans were simply sitting at the back of the bus doing what we enjoy best, EATING (and sleeping)~! Everyone brought different snacks so we were busy passing all our junk food around the group most of the time...The tourguide commented that we were very communal, and that he has never seen a group that took care of each other so much! heh!  There were a few stops along the way. Food was pretty expensive, so we spent most of the time out in the sun, taking photos and talking with each other...Got to know Meryl, Sam and Alex from the University of Toronto, which effectively broadens my circle of Singaporean pals in Toronto, to a grand total of 11 people!   See! The trees are really pretty now, because some are green, others turned yellow and some are red already!  The traffic was pretty bad, and we were an hour late in reaching our hotel.. We stayed in the Marriot Inn hotel that was in New Jersey, slightly off New York. We had to leave right after dumping our bags in the hotel that night though, because we had to rush off to Times Square for the night! 10 hours plus bus ride okay! It reminds me of the horribly long plane ride I have to endure when I go back to Singapore in December... but I shall not think of that first.. But I really liked the hotel. It was comfortable, bathroom's big, with 3 huge mirrors, and the best thing about the room, seriously had to be the heater. haha!    I had expected myself to go crazy shopping in Times Square, but surprisingly, this place was not at all THE place to rave over when it comes to shopping. Mostly high-end shops (with no sale), and tourist shops...       So, the group of us was attracted by this huge M&M flashing advertisement board, and we went off to visit the M&M speciality shop, and it was SO COOL! It was 3 storeys of M&M products, they had chocolate everything! No wonder the shop was so crowded.   This was super tempting!    We didn't have time for dinner, so we just grabbed $1 ice cream sundae from Mac before heading back to the hotel to retire for the night :) It comes with free peanut toppings here!!!!!! 
10:55 PM
The day started with a really nice breakfast buffet at the hotel. The guys woke up earlier to prepare the stuff for us, grab pastries and juice. Nothing fancy, but it's seriously one of the best breakfast spreads I've seen since my time here. And of course, we grabbed breakfast cereals up the bus to munch on for the rest of the journey today... It's embarrassing how much we secretly stuffed in our bags, but we really did finish all of them by the end of the day! We were laughing at each other when we saw each other's secret stashes in our bag lor! So Singaporean huh!   The first stop of the day was my favourite for the day- the Top of the Rock Observatory Deck :)70 storeys up! The view was breathtaking! And I really liked the weather at New York. It's really getting too cold in Toronto! (the temp is going down to -2 from Tuesday! :S)   I hopped up the wall to take this photo at the moment the security guard looked away. Isn't it gorgeous! I think if you look hard enough, you'll find the empire state building...     Then the group of us went to walk around the vicinity before we hopped on the bus... And we chanced upon this iceskating rink... And look what else I found! THE SINGAPORE FLAG! I miss home!!  We then went off for a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to Pier 17... We were rushing through the bridge cos we were behind schedule, but we still took loads of photographs.       And were given an hour to grab lunch! We queued for Broadway tickets, but found the tickets there to be more overpriced than those in Times Square, so we decided to get the tickets that night instead.... The tourguide then took us on a long walk around the city.... See Andrew stuffed between this bull's ass? Apparently, touching the bull's ass is supposed to bring you wealth or something. haha!  And we also walked along Wall Street!!! I've been studying about the Great Depression since secondary school, and it really felt quite surreal to be walking along Wall Street.... Finally I get to come here.    We also had a chance to see Ground Zero and the ongoing recovery efforts since the World Trade Centre disaster, and witness the construction of the Freedom Towers.   Another landmark was Trinity Church...    Sam and Meryl went off to the toilet, and the whole tourgroup kinda walked off without them, so we improvised this technique whereby we would "stretch the line" and have each of us walk in a singular path a distance away from each other, so we would catch up with the tourgroup. It was hilarous but the technique worked!!!    AND THE MOST EXCITING PART HAD TO BE THIS!!!I finally get to meet the Statue of Liberty. FINALLY! Happiness!    We went off to Times Square for the night, and Noam invited those above 21 to a private party at some nightclub in New York, so a few of us went off to check out the night scene there. And boy, did we party! Andrew partied till he lost his voice, and my muscles were aching from all the dancing that night... But I had so much fun! :)
10:54 PM
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