Saturday, January 27, 2007

The Day After My 2 Week Confinement

I'm BAAACK!

Can't believe that I survived the first two weeks of BMT. It's been pretty fun getting to train and know new people. Shall upload my (almost) bald photos soon!

I've never loved my room as much as I'm loving it now. Army really changes your perspective of civilian life.

Gotta go nurse my flu now. *cough-cough* It sucks to fall sick in camp. Trust me.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

The Day Before The Day That Will Change My Life

I'm enlisting tomorrow.

It's beginning to sink in, but it's still kinda surreal. I can't explain how odd it feels like. Seems like just yesterday when I was just talking about enlistment and now, I'm actually going to be enlisted.

There seems to be these two opposing forces churning in my tummy. One's telling me that everything is going to be fine, while the other is pessimistic, whispering words of doubt into my mind's ears. I know that this must sound really emo, but that's how I feel right now.

Let's just pray that I'll not die for starters.

Till next time, goodbye.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

The Day Of My Return

I'm back and unpacked!

Now I gotta start packing for NS. Hmmm.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

The Day I Talk About Food In America

If there ever was a country where you could get a large variety of food choices, it's America. And I'm a really lucky boy cos I've been able to try many different types of food since I got here. Today's blog entry is hence dedicated my gastronomic adventures.

There's a popular misconception that authentic Asian food and cooking materials are hard to come by in the US. For the record, I've been to 3 different Chinese supermarkets here which consist of mainly imported food-stuff from China and Taiwan. Maybe there really wasn't much of these stuff 10 years ago, but there are plenty now.

And the most memorable restaurant I've been to for Asian food has to be the Jazz Cat Café. They served mini hot-pot's (aka shabu-shabu)!

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Imagine this: You're freezing on a cold winter's night. Then, your friends decide to invite you for a meal at a cozy little café that serves one of your favourite dishes that is completely appropriate for a night like that. That was how I felt when I got there.

There's also something that's really common here which we hardly see in Singapore, and that's Mexican food. Although I'm not a huge fan of black beans, I sure am in love with nachos and burritos! Here's something I had at Baja Fresh:

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Filled with tender, juicy beef slices, fresh tomatoes, gravy and served toasted with melted mozzarella cheese, this burrito is heavenly. They even provide you with a side of nachos and fresh veggies topped with cream cheese. Looking at it already makes my mouth water.

We also visited some of the more well-known restaurants, one of which being Bubbe Gump Shrimp Co., which was inspired by the Academy Award-winning movie, Forrest Gump. Those who are allergic to prawns (like my dear Aunt Stephanie), be warned.

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Scampi Sautéed in Garlic & Butter on Fettucine

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Shrimp Bucket

To match the theme of the movie, the management even came up with this:

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Not the two smiling giddiots, silly. The sign saying "Run, Forrest, Run".

The other well known establishment that I visited was Pink's Hot Dogs.

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Being the pig that I am, I had 2 hotdogs. The first one I had was the Guadalajara Dog:

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I'm guessing it was a Mexican inspired thing. The sausage was juicy (cos it's home-made), and it was matched perfectly with tangy tomatoes and light cream cheese. Mmmmm...

My second one was their signature Chilli Dog:

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If you still remember what the "Coney Dog" at the now-defunct A&W tasted like, well, it tasted almost like that. But better.The topping is more like ground beef in gravy than chilli. To be honest, I didn't even taste any chilli! Nevertheless, it was yummy.

There were also some cute finds at Disneyland. Like this really ginormous turkey drumstick:

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Doesn't look big to you?

Here's yours truly trying to get a bite:

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My jaw hurt k.

I also got a taste of Mickey!

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Ok I'm lame la I know.

If it wasn't winter, I'm sure many people would have flooded Baskin & Robbins. It wasn't too bad.

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Strawberry and Vanilla

I'm pretty sure most of us are avid chocolate fans, be it openly or secretly. Either way, none of us can resist the temptation of the chocolate world's crème de la crème, GODIVA. There's a huge variety of Godiva's products, from their best-selling bite-sized chocolates to cocoa powder.

Guess what I had?

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I got a GODIVA Dark Chocolate Chocolixir!

I really can't describe how great it is. You have to try it to know what I mean.

And that's it for my special entry about food. More to come soon!

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

The Days In San Francisco and Lake Tahoe

San Francisco is a land of steep slopes and cold showers. The people are incredibly friendly and the Chinese are overflowing. It's true. The first day I arrived, we drove past Chinatown and it was swamped. Felt like I arrived in China or something. But it's pretty cool knowing that there's actually a large Asian community there.

I keep talking about Asians (and Asian food) because when you're in a foreign country, it's always comforting to see the people that you can relate to. For the record, I utterly despise the ang moh pai ABCs (American Born Chinese). They seem to think that as long as they dress, speak and wear as much make-up as Americans, they automatically turn white, sans their roots. I mean, come on, no matter how white you behave, you'll be yellow-skinned forever unless you get to trade bodies with some white guy in a freak scientific accident. And if you don't have your roots, you're nothing.

I'll let the pictures do the talking about the rest of my trip there. Have fun viewing!

San Francisco
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The Golden Gate Bridge was swamped with tourists. We had to wait for about 15 minutes before we could even get a decent shot without stranger's heads in the background.

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To illustrate my point of San Francisco being a land of slopes and hills.

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Our San Francisco ride. Cost a hell lot of money to rent.

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My future school! Right...

More pictures of UC Berkeley:
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It's soooooo beautiful!

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Night lights on Union Square

Lake Tahoe
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Say "whoa....."

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I thought this was funny. It's so adorable that the shops are actually honest about their financial situation.

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Yes, that's snow.

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I've got snow boobies! :D

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The happy couple and the 电灯泡。

Fisherman's Wharf
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The picture's abit blur.

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I LOVE Crabs!

Random Photo Moments
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This little girl was too cute to miss. Saw her and her daddy at the airport on the day we were departing from San Francisco.