dannywtan

shutting down...

2007-03-23T10:39:00.000-04:00

Hey Guys,

Sorry for not posting for so long and losing track of everything! Unfortunately life has become too crazy for me to maintain this blog... and yes... I'm gonna shut it down. The good news is... I'm coming back to Singapore in mid-may so I'll look forward to seeing everyone then. It'll just be for a week or so though... but hopefully can catch as many people as possible. Take care people... till then...

Danny

I'm back...

2006-12-02T16:19:00.000-05:00

Hi People,

Just realised that its been more than 1 mth since I last updated my blog. Sorry about it. Been super busy and also there are some unwanted distractions. Good thing is I am kept busy by many exciting new things, things happening in school, at work, and personally. School is coming to an end! (at least for this semester) Next week is our last week of school, and since I have no exams, my winter break officially starts on the 7th of December. Not that it means anything though since there's no break for work. HAha. Oh and the unwanted distractions actually came from Singapore. Damn that pathetic loser who's got nothing better to do with his life. Forget it.

Anyway, I think I am really getting used to the life here. The longer I stay here, the more I start to question why Singapore is the way it is... hmmm. It's kind of like a weird feeling, like you wanna defend it but yet can't, but what the hell, I'm a product of this screwed up system anyway. Oh but I do really miss my friends alot... (people, you know who you all are... hehe) Actually its really everyone! Like just turning around the corner and seeing a familiar face, friends who I always hang ou with, and most importantly friends who I have deep, long, meaningful "heart to heart" talks with... Oh and my family! Heard my dog grew some new fur... YAY! haha... my poor botak dog... I wonder if she will still remember me when I go back. I guess missing the friends and family is really the only draw back of coming here. Luckily the technology makes it possible to keep in contact with them all... (believe it or not my mom who has never touched computers in her life is actually msning me regularly now, haha. And she even knows how to use the video chat function!). Oh and I recently had a few good conversations with my close friends too, something I have been meaning to do for a long time.

Ok actually enough of my babbling, if you wanna know more about what's happening in my life, drop me an email! I better start uploading my photos now if not I'll never get to sleep.

After my last trip, the next place I went to was New York. Went there with another friend and we had a lot of fun just walking around the city and touring the free museums. YES! the world class museums are all free! you just have to make a donation based on what you feel like. Urm, let's just say that we donated what we felt was a reasonable amount of money based on our financial circumstances. :) poor college kids. Oh and I stayed at my secondary school friend's place which was like smack in the middle of East Village in Manhattan. (which is only like the coolest place!) Plus we went to one of those comedy clubs, and I got to say I really didn't expect to laugh so hard at those stand up comedians... they're really good, or was it what they put in our drinks? Haha. Here are the photos...

The skyline from the top of the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts.

An Egyptian pyramid in the Museum itself!

After this we went to the American Museum of Natural History! This is a great museum where they have like real dinosaur fossils and stuffs.

Anyway I didn't take too much photos with the dinosaurs cause I'm definitely going back again! Haha. We spent too much time in the museums in the first day so thats all we did in the day. But the many original art works from Van Gogh to Picasso just totally blew us away. Next up, Times Square!

This biggest Toys'r'us (how the hell do you spell this thing man!) has a ferries wheel in it! haha... damn cool! And just outside Rockefellar Center there's this huge outdoor ice-skating rink which I am definitely going to go skate on during christmas! The next morning we visited the Statue of Liberty! Well, we were told actually its called the statue of Liberty Enlightening the World! So there you go...

Ater we took the ferry back from Liberty Island, it only took us a short walk to get to...

The mood changed pretty fast once we got to the World Trade Center. (just like 2 mins walk) Hmm, don't ask me why, but I just can't handle stuffs like these and my tears just started flowing at the memorial center. Its just like the sadness was overwhelming and you just have to feel for them. They had like audio tapes of people who were stuck on top calling home to leave messages for their families, and radio recordings of firemen rushing up the buildings just when it was about to collapse. The firemen and police are really courageous! I was just blown away by everything I saw.

After that we did more touristy things in new york, like visit the UN headquarters, Empire State Building, 5th Avenue (the fashion street), and caught a bus home to Philly. Short weekend trip, but absolutely fantastic. There's just so much to see in New York. It was also great meeting my long time friend Thomas! (oh and he brought us to little Japan in New York which is like full of cute japanese restaurants! Sushi dinner... yum yum!) I'll definitely be going back again and spending more time there!

Take Care everyone! Will try to update my blog again real soon once I get my hands on my halloween party photos and photos from my Thanksgiving Seattle and Vancouver Ski trip... (there's a big story to tell... but let's just say that after that trip... if there's one thing I have learned, its to RESPECT THE MOUNTAINS!) later... :)

Vermont & New Hampshire...

2006-10-25T09:22:00.000-04:00

Hi Guys,

Sorry again for the long wait... been buried by sch and work... Anyway, life is starting to get exciting around here as things are beginning to happen at work and school, also I might be on to something new. Oh quite excited about this weekend as we have a big halloween party and also tomorrow I will be going with fellow Singaporeans to the Eastern State Penitentiary. (a prison converted into a haunted house where real people hide around the corners and scare you "fright night style"). Looking forward to a spooky fest soon oh and I bought my first ever halloween costume! Everyone wears a costume during halloween so have no choice... (not gonna tell you guys what I bought but you will see it soon...) Oh yeah and I just came back from New York this weekend! ITs a great place! (no pictures yet cause they are still with my friend) Met a long time friend Thomas who's studying at NYU and its simply great to see him doing so well! I'm really happy for him.

Ok since the photos aren't here yet I will talk about my last trip first which is to Vermont and New Hampshire... Well they are really different from the cities which we have visited previously as its morelaid back than anything. While we were driving in Vermont, all we could see was acres and acres of farm and mountain and hills and trees... It was truly liberating to be driving through a place like this. Well the same goes for New Hampshire too... You can go on for miles on the road and its nothing but you and the sky. But of course there are build up areas too and most notably Vermont is known as the home of Ben & Jerry's! We went to the factory and had a great time eating ice cream for lunch... Here are the photos...

1st Road Trip...the last day.

2006-10-11T12:23:00.000-04:00

Hi Guys,

Decided to post the last part as a separate post cause its simply too tedious to drag the photos all the way from the top to the bottom. (can anyone help me out and teach me an easier way?)

Anyway on the last day, we went over to Cape Cod. Cape Cod's a beautiful place where you can spot whales in the sea and also surf and hang out by the beach. Its basically a small strip of land extending out into the ocean and its about an hour's drive to the tip of cape cod. Well at the end of it, there's a nice artist community called Province Town. This place is really bohemian, kind of like you have left the world behind once you reach there. Everything is so laid back and the sea breeze simply blows your mind away. Its really the kind of place you want to stay in for like 1 or 2 years to write a book, or paint, or something...

Oh but before Cape Cod, we also stopped by this little town along the way called Plymouth. This is a small little town by the sea with lots of heritage too... Enjoy...

And here's Cape Cod...

We even found time to slip into a Winery for a quick wine tasting session... :)

The end of a long trip... and the spirits are still high! :)

Ok! That's it for this super long post! Anyway, just wanna say that in case this looks like a travel post, well... it is! Yeah most of the stuffs I'm going to post here will be photos and travel adventures that are a little hard to describe over email or anything, so pls stay tuned if you wanna see more photos!

On the other hand, my 2nd road trip will probably be my last long trip for some time as other things are starting to get busy. (finally...) Well there are lots of other things happening in my life too besides travelling, but I probably won't post them up here. (I might occasionally...) If anyone wants to have more insights as to what is happening in my life now, just feel free to drop me an email yah? Of course if you prefer the traditional way... my address is 3923 Pine Street Apt 1F, Philadelphia, PA 19104. Alrighty!!! will post about my 2nd road trip which I just came back from soon... till then... take care everyone!

p.s. Just thought that I will share some interesting quotes I came across in an art gallery in Cape Cod.

"All things will turn out fine in the end. If its not fine, its not the end."

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, its measured by the number of moments that take your breath away."

"To the world, you may be just one person. But to one person, you might be the world."

1st Road Trip Continued...

2006-10-11T09:18:00.000-04:00

Hi Guys,

Sorry this post came late again... the truth is... I tried to post after I came back from my 2nd road trip this weekend but after writing and uploading pictures for 2 hours... my laptop went bonkers and shut down by itself! Argh... anyway, its damn sian. But I will try to re-do everything now... :) Yupz, even though I am very excited to tell you guys all about the 2nd trip... which was filled with beautiful scenaries... I will finish up on my first road trip before that. So here it is...

On the 2nd day, we went to this cute little town called Salem. Its located to the north of Boston and beside the ocean. As some of you might already know, Salem is well known for being the "witch place". Well to cut long stories short, very long ago in Salem, women used to practice medicine using herbs. As they became better and more respected, some people started to fear their power and thus created this whole witch story to persecute them. (there's actually an interesting side story to this. Women back then weren't allowed to do much and were always expected to stay at home. However this girl did not want to conform to the norms and went out to "party". When she was caught, she claims that she was under the influence of witchcraft, and thus the whole witch hunt begins...) Anyway, in the end most of the east coast were affected and 5 people died eventually. (the museum stressed that no one got burnt at the stake or anything in America, that happened in Europe). So yeah... the whole history behind Salem being a witch town. Nowadays, its mainly a tourist area with a nice seaside view and many eclectic shops selling things related to Salem's rich history. Here are the photos...

America's oldest candy store... right here in Salem!

Salem was also a very important harbour and seaport during its time... now there are mainly leisure boats...

Alright... off to Rhode Island!

New Port, Rhode Island. This next place is all the way south of Boston so we had to drive through Boston to get there. New Port is well known for its mansions, and by mansions... I mean really really huge mansions!!! Most of the mansions are lined along the ocean front over looking the cliffs so you can imagine how majestic they are. We did the cliff walk, with the ocean on one side and the mansions on the other, and we also did the scenic ocean drive which was super cool! (we caught the sunset on the drive). Well... New Port is so beautiful that words can't really do justice to it... so here are the pics...

After the scenic ocean drive, we went to downtown New Port where the restaurants and pubs are all located on the wharfs along the shore. Sea breeze, good food, beautiful people... what more can you ask for?

Anyway, a little side story. We had to wait for 40 mins to get a table for dinner at one of the restaurants, so we decided to have some Ben & Jerry's ice cream first. (Its probably about 12 to 15 degrees there?) Anyway, we had too much ice cream, and when our food came, we didn't even manage to get to the main course. Haha. The appetiser and soup wiped us out and in the end we had to take out the rest of the dinner and eat it as breakfast the next day. Look at the portions!!!

Anyway, I guess MArk, Weijie, and Yiping will all agree with me that New Port is the highlight of our trip. It's really beautiful and the people are great... Definitely a must go if you come to the east coast. And the end to a wonderful day...

My first road trip...

2006-10-02T22:55:00.000-04:00

Hi Guys,

Yupz, just came back last night from my first road trip. Went up with Mark, Weijie (fellow friends from NOC) and Yiping. (Good friend from Singapore) Can you imagine we drove 1000 miles??? haha. Well technically only Mark and Weijie drove so all thanks to them that Yiping and I got to enjoy such a wonderful trip. Lots of photos...

The plan was to set off at 4am... but guess wat? When we met at 4 outside our houses (Mark and Weijie live just across the street), we realised that our car had a BLOWN TIRE! So we had to change the tire at 4am in a slight drizzle. Then a drunk american couple walked past and told us "it sucks having to change tire at 4 in the morning, come have some beer and weed". Well we politely declined and they went into their house promising to bring us some beer and food, but I guess they probably fainted right after going into their house. Haha! Well, hardly the best way to start a trip but what's a road trip without a little adventure yah?

The first place we visited is Boston. We drove up with lots of expectations because we have heard so much about how wonderful Boston is! We did the freedom trail which is a walk around the city's historic landmarks... It is marked by a red line of stones around the city.

Along the freedom trail is a place called Faneuil Hall where they had a food court selling all sorts of food, a market selling all sorts of things, and street performers.

After that we also took the Boston subway to visit the famed Harvard and MIT. Well to be honest, Harvard was beautiful, but the air has a weird smell. Its located at the north of Boston and is pretty much like Penn, a self contained cute little town focused around the University. MIT was sadly quite dead when we went there. So yeah, not as great as we expected them to be. But still, it is great just to be there and absorb a little of their history. The intellectual atmosphere is absolutely infectious when you know that you are at a place where the world's smartest people live and study.

The founder of Harvard, John Harvard.

One of the Harvard libraries...

MIT... a few nice buildings here and there but largely a very quiet place which gives off a very scholarly feeling. I think it should be very conducive for research. :)

At the end of the night, we found a nice restaurant called the Purple Shamrock in downtown Boston where we had a lobster dinner which was cheap and good! The famed Boston lobsters... simply delectable!

What a DAY!!! Anyway, I wanted to post the whole trip at one go... butI just have too many
pictures so I am going to make multiple posts. That's all for Day 1 in Boston. Will try to post the other 2 days as soon as I get some time during the week. Till then... enjoy and take care!

its a big world out there....

2006-09-27T17:38:00.000-04:00

Hey guys,

Sorry again for the late post, this has been another busy week. Work starting to pile up, readings are getting thicker, in general, bad week. Would have posted earlier over the weekends if I didn't have to attend to a stupid thing that came up. But either way its not going to bother me... Oh yah a good friend from Singapore is here so that cheers me up a little too.

Anyway, there are no pictures this week cause I have been so busy and have not been out much. But I am beginning to get alot of thoughts. Hmm... its kind of messy but I'll just try to talk it out.

I think one of the cons of being in a great place like this, (and by this I mean U Penn, not Philadelphia cause supposedly its one of the worst cities in US) is you start to realise how small and insignificant you are. Singapore? Most people might not even know where it is, and there are still a group of people who thinks that its a province of China. Well, I'm not complaining about Singapore really, I'm sure people will be impressed by SIngapore once they get to know it better. But the point is, no matter how well we are doing, we are almost insignificant in this big world. The best students from Singapore come to study in U Penn, but there just a handful in the tens of thousands of Penn students, and don't even mention the other 7 ivy league schools, as well as the various top schools in Europe. Well, I don't really know what this means to me or my time here, but it is a thought that keeps coming up.

On the bright side, the people here are really smart. So it kind of rubs off on you and make you want to improve yourself alot more. Anyway, I will keep this post short cause I my eyes are closing on me. In case any one is wondering, I guess I am just a little tired this week. Hopefully the weekend trip to Boston will revitalise me! :) I'll be sure to bring back lots of photos...

Cheers,
Danny

Center City

2006-09-18T21:05:00.000-04:00

Hi Guys,

Well sorry this post came late... was too busy over the weekend. Anyway, here are some updates...

I visited Center City over the weekend... well... in Singapore terms, its like I'm going from Ang Mo Kio to Bishan only... haha, but its quite a different place from University City. Firstly, its across the Schuylkill river. (don't bother trying to pronounce it) Its the downtown of Philadelphia, so its a little like Orchard and Shenton Way of Singapore. There you can find many boutiques selling branded goods, restaurants, condominimiums and offices, much like Singapore.

The most important part about Center City I guess is probably its historic value. It was here that America was founded! To cut the long story short, Benjamin Franklin fought against colonial rule and eventually established the United States of America. Actually I didn't have time to walk through all the historical sights cause its a weekend and most tourists places are crowded, but I think I will definitely visit it again. Among the places I went to is the visitor's center, the grave of Benjamin Franklin, and a park called the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier which was established to honour the soldiers who fought for America's liberation. The place was simple, yet solemn and grand and reflected the great traditions of this country.

Anyway, besides the historical districts, Center City is full of life and there are many nice architectures and cute little shops around corners. As usual... here they are... :)

Oh yeah before I sign off, work is great and things are getting better. Its time to really seat down and plan my time ahead. Oh and went for a few parties, one was a fraternity party at a frat house which was quite cool. The other was at a club downtown which was totally diff... 21 and above only so there are less students... Its great to know more people around here... :)

My room with my new poster bought from a sidewalk fleamarket! Yeah I know its cliche, but what the hell, its the cheapest!

On campus living anyone? This is one of their highrise blocks located right in the middle of the campus! 25 storeys high with a study room on top that has great view. Its open to all Penn students by the way!

View from one side of the study room.

This installation kind of marks the start of one end of Locust Walk, the main path that cuts through the school and where everyone walks through to classes. It's also where all their activities are held, think of a 1 km long central library forum only open air and lined with trees and historical buildings.

CCA Fair on a Saturday morning...

Our classrooms! Historical buildings with modern facilities...

One of many things build by the University and its alumni here in Uni City.

The historical sites...

There's no stray dogs and cats, but lots of squirrels!

City Hall in Center City

The streets of Center City...

Oh yeah and one more thing..... just thrown in to reward you for reading thus far... haha.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA
Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, speaking at Stanford's graduation ceremony. Be inspired!

Welcome to the City of Brotherly Love!

2006-09-11T22:21:00.000-04:00

Hey Pple,

Haven been able to post in the last 2 days as I was overwhelmed by school work and other things at home. But its finally almost all done now... so will try to catch up.

The university life is really vibrant here... they got all sorts of activities, cultural, sports, student communities, and of course... the various fraternities. There's lots of things happening on the cultural front, performances, concerts. On the sports front, they have a huge stadium which houses their college football team. The student union here is amazing, though I still have not seen the whole structure, but they publish a daily (yes daily) free newspaper for the students with lots of juicy information about the school, community and beyond. I still have not really figured out what the fraternities do, apparently they are like interest groups and they all have a house, basically for their really wild drunk parties I guess. Haha...

Oh yeah last Friday, we went for this party organised by the Asian Student Union! Its very cool to see so many asians at a party in a foreign country, especially since there are so few of us. Got to know some more new people so its great.....

Oh and over the weekend me and my roommate went downtown to watch a soccer game, MAN UTD!!! haha... Apparently they don't watch soccer around here so we got to take a trolley to go to this Irish Pub. We had lunch there too and my god the amount of fries they give... I think the fries can make up a meal by itself!(and this coming from a fries lover) Then we headed to Ikea in a very out of town area but we did some good shopping and set up the rest of our apartment. Now it looks really cosy... hehe.

Had my first day of work today, and my boss absolutely rocks! Will not talk much about work here but right now everything seems to be going great, let's hope it stays this way. As for school, its just tiring and lots of work. In between I have to juggle other things like writing reports, shopping for groceries, laundry, cleaning my apartment and other things... hopefully things get better as time goes by.

Alright, not sure if I missed anything but if I did will try to add them in the next time round... some more pictures... enjoy.

A local diner. There are many other similar places too selling pizza, chinese food, mexican, greek, and others...

The picture says it all...

The local supermarket where we do our groceries.

The Penn bookstore...

Flea market outside the bookstore selling huge used posters and other things...

The football team training inside the penn stadium.

My thoughts on arriving...

2006-09-09T11:12:00.000-04:00

Hey guys,

On arrival... the feeling was actually surreal. Taking the subway, walking on the streets, it almost feels like I am stepping into a movie. There is an air of freedom as I look around me. So many people of different races and skin colour, speaking different languages, white americans, african americans, chinese, koreans, indians, japanese, hispanics, europeans... This is America! I can't wait to see the rest of it.

Anyway, the place I am staying at is called University City. It is 1 of 3 cities in Philadelphia(or so I was told). Well needless to say, University City seems like it was built for the Universities. I think there are a few universities around here, like Drexel, and of course, the famous University of Pennsylvania. Its full of students, and the environment I can only describe it as vibrant, yet scholarly. People here take their school work very seriously, of course its not surprising since this is the top 7 university in US now (last year it was 4th). But what's different from NUS is I guess people really enjoy studying here. Their faces says it all!

Besides the amazing school buildings, the rest of the area surrounding the main university buildings are also great. Its hard for me to describe, maybe the closest will be to imagine NUS, with all the roads within NUS pedestrianised, and the whole campus surrounded by Holland Village like buildings and places. There's no big shopping malls in University City, but there are alot of small shops with lots of character around. There is just so much to see and do!

Oh and what's surprising is that everyone walks around here. This may be due to the good weather, and also the transportation system kind of sucks. Oh and also the city is laid out in such a way that its great for walking. Its basically a grid, with the vertical streets from right to left numbered (for example, 1st street, 2nd street...) and the horizontal streets from top to bottom named (market street, ludlow, walnut, chestnut, and where I am staying, Pine Street). Oh yeah speaking of where I am staying, its this street just beside the university buildings. Its 2 rows of 3 storey houses facing each other across the road and its owned by a housing unit of U Penn. So as you can imagine, everyone staying in these houses are students. The other day I just met my neighbours, a very pretty brunette european girl, a black french lady called Rachel (she's doing law), and there is this hot blonde living on the 2nd storey though me and my roommate have not had the chance to talk to her yet. Haha. We are living on the ground floor by the way.

Ok I think this post is getting too long. Will get into more details if I can in a later post. Right now, got to go back to studying! The notes are also amazing, amazingly thick! haha... later

D

My place from the outside.

Locust walk, the main pathway that cuts through the center of the campus and where everyone walks to classes. Its highlighted as the blue line in the map.

Greetings from Penn!

2006-09-09T10:08:00.000-04:00

Hey Guys,

Ok firstly, I have to admit I am sceptical about blogging and sharing everything you feel on the internet for everyone to see! But I guess its the only viable and practical way for me to let everyone know how I am doing. :) So yeah, this blog is dedicated to everyone who wishes to keep in touch and want to know what's going in my life. Life's crazy over here cause I will be juggling work, study, and play! But nonetheless I will still try to update this blog as frequently as possible so please be patient with me. Lastly, to all you people who care enough to read this blog, thanks for your support and encouragement and feel free to leave comments on my posts yah? Take care!

D

p.s. Oh yeah and here are some pictures... :)

Detroit International Airport (My first port of call to the United States.)

The view from above.

My room & the street where my studio apt is located. Pine Street, University City.