Day trip to Buffalo

The last weekend trip was to Buffalo. Nothing really exciting in the city of Buffalo except for the trip to the museum.

Took a detour to the American side of Niagara Falls.

See the tiny rainbow at the bottom left of the picture!

Then we went to a museum where we secretly snapped photos of art worth MILLIONS of dollars! Eliz taking a picture of a Picasso.

Strange reflective ball outside the museum.

Buffalo is where Buffalo wings are invented. And they were invented right here at this bar called Anchor Bar! Truthfully, I think BBQ wings are better than buffalo wings...

Then we drove around Buffalo trying to find the highway that will take us home. Whenever we passed a nice monument or building, we hopped out of the car to take photos! Big huge building in Buffalo City!

To Market To Market

On the last weekend, we took it easy and went to another city nearby called Rochester. What I love about Rochester is the weekend market! It really reminds me of the countless markets that I went to in Europe where the villagers will just drive up in their trucks and sell their produce. But I've yet to see a street market in the USA that can compare to London's Portobello Market where East and West, modern and antiques all come together to Portobello Road in Notting Hill, London to tantalise tourists and Londoners alike!

Outside the Market.

Farmers will just drive their trucks up to the market and display their produce.

Fresh cheese...

I think my $600 Canon took this picture of peppers pretty well...

Huge octopus tentacles!!!

Arty Farty 2

Since I was interrupted from blogging coz my plan was ready for boarding on Saturday, I'll continue with the Arty Farty post.

Me outside the museum...

pop art!


nice impressionist works...

industrial works

modern art makes one ask: "is this art?"

but on the whole, the works were beautiful!

It's HOT in Singapore

My room's air con is at FULL blast and it's still HOT. Just when I've gotten used to the cold New York weather, I am whisked back to balmy Singapore. Back to reality.

Arty Farty!

I'm a HUGE fan of art from the French Impressionists era. So when I was in Buffalo, I popped by a museum with a few works from the Impressionist era!

OH! Just heard the call for boarding. Heard that there's no free Wi Fi at Newark airport. So I think this will be the last entry for quite some time. Donno if i got time to blog in SG. haha..

Enjoy the Van Gough pic

Graduation!

Yeah! I graduated! After 6 weeks of studying and exams (and a lot of shopping squeezed in between) I've finished the course!

Too bad Ethan had a itchy nose when the picture was taken though...

Now, I'm sitting at the airport in Syracuse, using the free wi-fi service and updating my blog. haha... Managed to check in all my shopping without paying overweight baggage charges! Woo hoo! 2 bags, 53.5 pounds each.

Bye Bye American Life

6 weeks flew right past! It seemed like it was a few days ago when I got off the bus onto cold, wintery, snowing Syracuse. Now, spring has arrived, the snow has melted, the weather is warmer and I WANNA STAY ON!

But all good things has to come to an end, and the ending is bitter. Bitter coz I have to figure out a way to pack 6 weeks worth of shopping into 2 check-in bags, 1 hand carry bag and 1 laptop bag. We've come up with strategies like hand carrying heavy items like chocolates, stuffing socks into shoes, removing all unnecessary stuffing... but dear me, I'M STILL OVER WEIGHT!!!

Speaking of over weight, I am kinda worried about my weight. 6 weeks, 9 tubs of Haagen Diaz and Ben & Jerry's ice cream, LOTS of cookies, pasta, MEAT, potatoes, mayonnaise and limited opportunities to exercise is not doing my health good.

But I'll be back soon, Monday morning, bright and early at 5am, refreshed from 30 hours of traveling (coz of transit time)! Anyone free to meet me on Monday? I'll give an extra big present to the person who skips work to meet me for lunch on Monday!

Life here

Life here in Syracuse is drawing to an end, so here's what I've been up to for the past 6 weeks!

Typical dinner served at the hotel. We have dinner provided every Mon to Thurs.

But sometimes when we're bored with the food, or when we're late for dinner (which is from 5-7), we cook!

The best meal I've had in Syracuse (and perhaps in the USA for that matter) is in this BBQ joint called Dinosaur!

I'm dreaming of the food as I blog. It's BBQ food at it's best!

Outside the restaurant

Some people has told me that the snoring wasn't loud. Ok, here's a LOUD snoring clip of my roomie. Just 2 more night of snoring before I'm free!

One last factory outlet shopping spree! Everytime we go there, we go with an empty boot and come back with a full boot! Scary!

more of NYC!

the day began with a subway ride downtown. See how Yap blends in well with the locals!

The financial district of NYC!

And at Wall St, the NY Stock Exchange where billions of shares are traded daily...

A few streets away is the WTC site. Visited a small memorial center for the site and I was struck by the tragedy of the 3000 over lives lost that day.

Also, I took the Staten Island Ferry (free!) to Staten Island. Well, not that there's anything to see on the island, but the views of Manhattan was fantastic!

Also got to see the Statue of Liberty along the way...

Then, I walked on the Brooklyn bridge and took in the beautiful sights of the city.

I'm telling everyone that walking the Brooklyn bridge is one of the must dos of NYC.

See ya NYC! You can bet I'll be back there again!

NYC's architecture & a Broadway musical

The walking tour of NYC continues with stops at the Empire State Building,

Rockefeller Center (whic has a beautiful ice skating rink at the foot of the building)

and St Patrick's Cathedral. The thing about NYC is that it has LOTS of beatuiful buildings and architecture but the entire city is so built up that one can't appreciate the buildings from afar.

And then that night I caught Hairspray the musical! WOO HOO!

And surprise! The secretary from Ugly Betty was performing in the musical too!

The NYC whirlwind tour continues at Central Park!

Lunch was at Chinatown. The weather was TERRIBLE!! Big winds blowing all around...

Then, we split up and I went to visit Central Park. The prettiest buildings are those that surround central park offering park views.

Even passed a few museums...

Central Park is this HUGE park in the middle of a concrete jungle. Even in winter, the beauty of the park, and the respite from the bustle of city noise is welcoming even to a visitor like me!

The park has lots of winding paths and I explored only a tiny portion of it. Lots of things can be found there...

Like bridges...

statues...

playgrounds...

even a castle!