Mid trip report..

Ok, it's almost half way into the trip and it's a good time to have a mid-trip report.
Money:
A lot poorer.
Luggage:
Flew in with 1 hand carry, 1 check in. Flying back with 2 check in, 2 hand carry and 1 laptop bag. (oh dear..)
Shoes:
Came with 3, flying home with 8. (another headache...)
Clothes (tops):
Came with 12, currently have 17.
Clothes (bottoms):
In with 3, going home with 5.
Weight:
Was 64kg, am still 64kg. Phew... Gym-ing every other day paid off. Yippee!


Just celebrated another birthday of a course member. Went for a $9.99 buffet! Really good to gorge on Chinese food. And it was rather delicious too!

I'll be going to Niagara Falls this weekend and probably Toronto coz it's another 1 hour drive. So look out for new photos!

Roomie!

The weather is getting worse! Today the weather channel forecasted that temperatures will drop to minus 12 degrees and we'll get 4 inches of snow! Brrr!!!!

Anyways, this blog will be about my roomie:

Yap! (That's his surname) He's a funny chap. He believes that microwaving food will add vitamins to it, runs for 10 mins on the treadmill and then uses it to justify eating half a tub of Haagen Dazs. Haha...

Sometimes he keeps me awake at night....


But on the whole, he's been fun to stay with. Fantastic cook! Oh... this meal caused the fire alarm in the building to go off! HAHA! He even took precautionary measures like opening all doors and windows before he started frying the chicken. But the smoke generated triggered the fire alarm! We had to apologise to the hotel guests that came out of their room coz of the alarm... "Sorry sorry, false alarm, no fire, go back to your rooms." haha...

The Finger Lakes

The finger lakes are a series of lakes in NY state that are shaped like fingers! It's also the premium wine growing region in NY and boasts beautiful scenery. So today, we drove down to the finger lakes to check it out.


Nice scenery from the restaurant and winery that we went to.


Ms Aw is a bit drink after tasting the wine....


But in ther winter, what's left of the vineyards are just wooden stems.


My delicious lunch!


The colourful wine in the winery.


Then in the middle of the tour, we got distracted and took a small detour...


Cornell University is located at the tip of one of the finger lakes. And within its campus is a suspension bridge over a gorge!


It's a beautiful scene, with the frozen waterfalls and banks of the gorge!


So that's all folks!

Albany - Capital of New York State

Did you know that the capital of New York State is not New York City, but actually Albany. It's a small city, 2 hours drive from Syracuse where I live. Perhaps everything evolves around the few stately buildings where the Senate and Assembly meets. Long time ago, the capital was in NYC but coz of the high crime rate, they moved it to Albany.

We parked at the visitor center and made our way to the State Capitol. On the way, we saw a cute little theater showing an Elmo show!

Then the city is on a small, gently sloping hill and it makes a nice picture when taken from downhill...


Then there's The Egg, something like The Esplanade (Durian) of Albany where musicals and recitals are held.


Then we went into the Capitol Building. Here's the grand staircase in the Capitol Building. Frankly, I'm not a big fan of the colour of the stone used. It's an ugly light brick red colour.


Then we toured the chambers where their Senate and Assembly sat to pass bills. Something like the Parliament in Singapore - but I wonder if the Singapore Parliment offers free guided tours of their chambers....


Then we took an elevator to the 42nd floor of the attached building to take in Albany from above.


When we were driving around Albany before we went home, we rounded a corner and found ourselves in a charming little neighbourhood, so we hopped out of our rented Hyundai Sonata and took a few photos!


Altogether, Albany seems like a pretty and quiet little town to love in.


A few meters from the neighbourhood was a park! Too bad its winter, this park would look so much more different in the summer!

A Birthday away from home.

When one cannot celebrate their birthday with their family, they make their own family and celebrate it with them.
We went to an all American restaurant: i.e. great, greasy food with HUGE all-American portions. Most beautiful was the melt-in-your-mouth rib eye steak.


Cutting the birthday cake: raspberry sponge with cold stone chocolate ice cream filling and covered with dark chocolate.

The people I work with!

The whole class, all 15 of us!

A Birthday away from home.

When one cannot celebrate their birthday with their families, they make their own family and celebrate it with them.

Syracuse City

I live in the outskirts of Syracuse city. A trip to Syracuse is a hotel shuttle and a $1 bus ride away. This sleepy little 'city' is kind of a charmless, industrial city which no tourist would usually come visit. No nice landmarks or restaurants or museums or shops or history that make it exciting. Perhaps the only interesting titbit was that it used to be called Salt City coz it used to supply America most of its salt.

After 7, all the shops close. This I know coz we missed the 7pm bus and we had nothing to do coz all shops were closed so we just waited, in the FREEZING WEATHER, for the 8pm bus to come. Yeah, there are only buses, no subway system in Syracuse. And the buses come in 1 hour intervals after 5pm! It was a really memorable experience to brave the cold and wait for the bus instead of taking a $28, 10 min, cab ride back to the hotel!

On the public bus to Syracuse!

Perhaps the most impressive building was their Science & Technology Museum.

Charmless city...

Picture of my coursemates! (at least most of them)

The Sequel

Today we took a longer drive just to shop. 4 hours to and fro. Spent an insane amount of money today. Going to 'eat grass' for the rest of the trip.


See how we have to suffer, queuing in the freezing weather just to get into the Coach store.


On our way there, we stopped by this little village called Windsor. Americans are very patriotic and if you're an American soldier in America, you're almost a god! See the "We support our troops" banner hanging across the street in Windsor.

Factory Outlet-ing

The pictures pretty much speak for themselves....


Rented a car, drove 45 mins, shopped from 11am to 6pm non-stop.



Then after that, we had the best Chinese ever! This is what life is!

Now, as I'm sorting out my stuff the only regret I have is not buying even more stuff! Ralph Lauren Polo Tees for SGD$17.80! Tommy Hilfiger Pants for SGD$15! Nike jacket for SGD$15! Argh!!

Tmr I'm going to another factory outlet with Gucci, Tods, Farragamo, Prada, YSL, Zenga, Hugo Boss... Oh dear.. Think I'm going to lift America out of its recession. Look out for a similar picture tmr!

A walk to the convienience store

Picture of me & my gang! Trying to convince them to make a 3 hour drive to the factory outlet stores this weekend! Pray hard for me!

Today began with heavy snow. Woke up to 3 inches of snow. Apparently, every morning at 5am, some people come and shovel the snow from the roads and pavement. So that people (or at least those staying at the Hilton) can wake up to snow free pavements and roads!

So after the heavy snowfall in the morning, the weather cleared after class today so a few of us decided to take a walk to a nearby convenience store.

The thing about Syracuse is that NO ONE walks here. So the roads are pedestrian unfriendly. Not only aren't there any pedestrian crossings at road junctions there isn't even a pavement for pedestrians! We had to walk on the road shoulder.
But we wanted to explore the area so we went ahead to walk there. So here are some pictures taken during the walk...


Finally, I'm located at exit 37 of Interstate 90!

Back to school

Things are falling into a rhythm. Wake up at 6:45am, shower, have breakfast, go to class, come back from class, go to gym, shower, than have dinner and than wait for time to pass before going to sleep!
The air is incredibly dry. My inner nose is bleeding from the dryness and my legs are getting scaly. Soon, my face will start to crack! Must keep up my SKII 5 step regimen to maintain ze face.
So it snowed again today during lunch time. Nice to see the snow flakes falling prettily down. Too bad I couldn't bring my camera into the compound where my course is conducted of I would have taken a few pretty pictures. But, here are some nice pictures of snow! Enjoy.


And one picture from the back of my apartment....

Colder and colder

Strange that as we move on to Mid Feb, the weather got colder! Anyway, here are some pictures of the reception area where I have my breakfast everyday. It has got a country & hunting theme going.

See the antelope horns hanging on the wall above the fireplace...

Then the huge chandelier made out of (hopefully fake) antelope horns!

Anyway, some of the team members want to drive up to Toronto over the weekend coz one of them has already made plans to meet his friend there. But my gang is kinda unsure about driving in this weather coz Toronto is a 5 hour drive away. So we plan to rent a car and drive around the area to familarise ourselves with the left hand drive and road conditions before we take on a longer journey. Think we plan to go to the Waterloo premium Outlets over this weekend. It's a manageable 45 min drive away. So all you people out there who bother to read, http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=9
Go see if u want me to get anything back for u!
It snowed during dinner time... Brrr.... Took the following picture just after dinner while walking back to the room.

In the Land of Opportunity

Hey everyone! After about 25 grueling hours of traveling, I've finally reached Syracuse, NY.
Singapore Airlines flight was good. Raided the snack bar for their sneakers! But bestest was the dark chocolate covered, cherry gracia flavoured Ben & Jerrys ice cream stick served for desert! Woo! Watched like 4 movies and a few other TV shows on the way there. One of which was Atonement. For those who haven't already, go watch Atonement. It's one heartbreaking show. I'm a sucker for these kind of shows....
Then after we landed to took a 5 hour bus ride to Syracuse. Why bus there and not fly? Coz the flights were fully booked. haha... But I'll be flying, not bussing, when I go home in 6 weeks.
So this is home for 6 weeks. Homewood Suites by the Hilton chain of service apartments.
Living area, sofa.
Kitchen area.
Sleeping area!
That's all folks! It's 12:20am or 01:20pm Singapore time. I'll try to get some sleep now.

First Day Out!

The bed was fantastic! Super smooth, super soft sheets. Slept like a baby. So taking a break now after going grocery shopping and mall shopping in Syracuse. Here are the highlights of the day:


In the car to the supermarket...

Spent a whopping USD$190 on groceries! Partly coz silly me forgot to bring along my face wash and razor.... Ben & Jerrys is SUPER DUPER CHEAP here! $3.29 for a tub. That's like S$4.70 per tub! I bought 3 tubs at one shot! My roomie bought another 3 tubs... There goes this morning's workout at the gym...

Came back to the room to deposit the groceries then a quick group picture then off to Carousel Mall!


But before we left, it snowed HEAVILY!

The Carousel that gave the mall its name. Though not a very impressive Carousel in my opinion.... Many shopping options in the mall. Looks like I might bust my luggage limit when I return... sharks....