downtown LA, vegas, the sheer awesomeness of the grand canyon and day one in hollywood...

it's been a crazy past few days.

we've been running around with our luggages from anaheim to rosemead to vegas and then to hollywood.

to give you an idea how much luggage our band has, just imagine that sending a mini-van for 15 people wasn't enough to handle our luggage. ALONE.

we couldn't really explore downtown la much. i really wanted to visit the cathedral of our lady of the angels but the place closes at 6pm and we got there at like 5.55. what the heck. though at least i got a small peak around the exterior of the church and the complex itself. it is huge and quite a sight. i can only imagine the interior until i look up the pictures of it for myself.

las vegas was an interesting if somewhat harrowing experience. while it's definitely a city of sin and lost wages, vegas is an astounding testament of human ingenuity and creativity (if somewhat tacky and over the top at times... though some would say that's the point of vegas...). some of the architectural designs of the hotels were just awe-inspiring and extremely beautiful.

if vegas was about manmade stuff, the trip to the grand canyon was all about nature's own magnificent creations. as we travelled from nevada to arizona, we passed by the hoover dam (cue the transformers and megatron references...) and it was really something to marvel at. the surrounding rock surfaces and the massive dam combine to make one impressive view. at night, the lights amid the darkness make it something to really behold.

of course, the dam paled in comparison to the canyon, which was just an incredible sight to behold. the rock faces look chiseled, as if carved out with precision by some giant sculptor with colours that seem as if caressed by a master painter's brush. even the sky over the canyon seemed extraordinarily beautiful and pure about it.

words can only describe so much about the wonders of the canyon, so i'll let a select bunch of my pictures do the talking for me.

enjoy.



yeah. that's just some of it. rest is on facebook. go look there.

the last night in vegas was a sober reminder to keep our guard up and that we're not at home. one of the guys got robbed at knifepoint during the late night at the casino opposite the hotel. definitely a reminder that we ain't in kansas (uhm... singapore... but you get what i mean...) anymore. at least the cash was the only thing he lost, so that's something to be thankful for.

leaving vegas with one helluva long bus ride later, we're now in hollywood. it's a strange place hollywood. where superheroes and even (shrunken down, human-sized) giant robots prowl the streets to take photos with bystanders for a tip. but somehow, it kinda feels like home, with the busy traffic and high rise buildings making it feel like orchard road.

all i want to do now is find liz montgomery's star on the walk of fame after failing to find it on the second day. that would be really cool.

oklahoma: week 3, anaheim, disneyland and christmas...

oklahoma city.

what a place.

it looks kinda sparse from the plane as it descended, but what a wonderful place it turned out to be.

how can i forget the dry, cold and windy weather that also gave me my first (if somewhat brief) experiences of snow?

how can forget the famous southern hospitality shown us by the people of oklahoma who made us feel so welcome?

how can i forget the great food we had at awesome places like trappers (ultimate fried chicken... and gator!) and spaghetti warehouse (spaghetti and meatballs and that awesome, awesome sangria...)? and what about the stuff we cooked too?

how can i forget the fun lessons that i had with the great teachers who taught me, as well as meeting up with the lecturers who taught me back home in singapore?

and how can i forget the company of friends, both old and new, who made the trip so full fun and enjoyable?

oklahoma city and oklahoma city university will always have a place in my heart. it was just such an awesome experience.

thank you.

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i might've been here before... 16 years ago.

but it all seems... alien to me.

it felt... odd. odd that i couldn't quite recall anaheim and that nothing really seemed to spark off the memories from all those years ago with jie and dad.

descending onto LAX provided somewhat of a culture shock too. after all, oklahoma was vast and sparse...

california, in comparison, looked like a beehive swarming with activity with its many clusters of buildings as far as i could see out the window.

even going to disneyland felt a little different.

rides like big thunder mountain and splash mountain felt just like they did all those years ago... but experiencing space mountain again just felt like a new experience.

chionging all the high adrenaline rides was a real rush tho. the maliboomer was a crazy freefall ride while soarin' over california was a simply magical experience that could've only have been done by disney. and california screaming? an absolute blast of an insane roller coaster ride.

one thing that didn't change?

those huge turkey drumsticks dad got me 16 years ago.

yum.

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it's that time of year again.

though, for obvious reasons... this year has been a break in my traditional christmas... well, traditions.

no christmas vigil mass at sji this year nor helping brother mike with the tree decos.

just midnight mass at st boniface church, which is roughly 2 miles from the hotel, which had a huge creche and SEVEN christmas trees (though only decorated with lights). which i walked to and half way of fro.

no family around for dinner and countdown.

just a dinner of maple glazed atlantic salmon and shrimp at red lobster with friends after shopping at brea mall. with chicken breast strips, calamari and cheese fondue for appetisers, a delightful glass of riesling to accompany dinner and a warm chocolate chip lava cookie sundae to top it all off.

no sifting through the presents under the tree and opening them all up after wishing everyone else merry christmas.

just a simple gift exchange with the others (which i wasn't around for since i was walking to church at the time).

it may not have been a typical christmas, but it will definitely, definitely stay in the memory for many, many years to come.

a merry, merry and blessed christmas to all my friends and family out there from anaheim. i love you all.

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if i had to choose one of my lecturers from ocu as one who i respected and whose company i would enjoy, i would have to say that dr musselman is easily one of my favourites. he's funny and knows so much, it's hard not to love the old coot.

we met him as a class for lunch on our last wednesday in oklahoma and he was talking about our exams and assignments when he started talking to me about mine.

he said he expected to hear big things from me because of that one little essay (well, sorta little 1,585-word essay...) because of the way i wrote it.

it was nice to hear those kind of words of empowerment from someone you respect so deeply... but i just can't help but wonder what old musselman thinks and expects of little old me.

only time will tell.

oklahoma: the second week...

ok, i know it's a little late and i'm already into the middle of the third week... but the second week in ocu definitely deserves a mention in this remarkable little journey.

we had our television production module and boy, was it some experience. nothing beats a through and through hands on module and it was some really awesome fun. we took turns familiarising ourselves with the various jobs you find in a television studio.

it started a little rough settling into the new roles, but with great teachers like karlie and andy (who looks and sounds a lot like tobey macguire's peter parker and makes all the girls swoon... he's probably one of the nicer chelski fans you'll find out there, even if i can't understand entirely why he likes big JT... anyway, here's your little mention andy! =) around, it eventually became so smooth that we made one pretty awesome final show that was on campus tv live.

with the amount of teamwork involved, it didn't take long for the group to bond with the group of five from the other class and now we're all just having fun as time goes along.

while 20 days isn't exactly the longest period of time ever, i can't help but feel that these 20 days have been no different from rest of the year in terms of the speed it has gone by in. it's like being strapped to a rocket that can hit speeds like mach 5.

i think i'm gonna miss oklahoma, even if there isn't a helluva lot to do around here...

oklahoma: the first week...

i haven't been able to write as much as i would want to on this sojourn thus far.

when i haven't been down in the pits of depression, i've either been so beat that i just fall asleep on the sofa bed at the lappy, been suffering from a terribly, terribly upset stomach that made me a walking zombie, been online shopping or just plain slacking.

i can't believe it's already been a week and a module past.

just above a week ago i was weeping for hwei yen and everyone at home, drowned out amidst the roaring engines of my northwest flight before finding my way to minneapolis.

before i knew it, the arduous journey to oklahoma was over and after a helluvan eventful week that included walmart visits, cooking attempts, (sorta like) food poisoning, playing with fossils, seeing bison and prairie dogs, buying cowboy boots for jillian and zach and watching a parade (for more information and pictures, please check out the facebook page).

time's still just flying away at a crazy rate, it's scary.

but damn, it's a fun kinda scary.

tinged with a hint of darkness.