Roadtrip number: Two Amount of anticipation: Plenty Destination: Beech Mountain, North Carolina Distance: Approx. 270 miles from Atlanta Duration: 3 Days 2 Nights No. of people: 25 No. of people skipping classes for this trip: Some No. Vehicles: 5 Average cost per person: $120 No. of burnt pockets: 25 Amount of fun & excitement: Tonnes Amount of adrenaline rush: Undefined Number of snowfall witnessed: One Number of crazy people posing near highway exit to experience snowfall: 25 No. of tired and/or bruised bodies, who also enjoyed burning pockets for this trip: 25
Will put up 2 personal videos of my road trip in my next entry!!
Laid to Rest at 5:35 AM;
Friday, January 26, 2007
Will be heading to North Carolina for the weekend to ski/snowboard at the famous Beech Mountain! Anticipating fun & excitement!!! Dun ever think that it has been all play and no work here. Has been struggling to keep up with the fast pace culture at Tech. And I've been burning midnight oil almost every night to turn in homework for grading or prepare for quizzes! So I guess it's a partially deserved break till Chinese New Year then. Meanwhile, whilst praying for journey and safety, just wanna show u my apartment.
Last three pics are taken at the common level, and there's also a mini gym with several machines and weights, but the CRC still rules!!
Laid to Rest at 2:09 PM;
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
I finally managed to attend a church service on Sunday morning! Amen. (Just posting this to assure all of u out there I’m not attending Tom Cruise’s Church of Scientology ok? ) Dawn (fellow GIP mate) and Wenyu (her contact, thanks for the ride dude!), Timothy, Andrew and I, a group of 5 went to the Atlanta Chinese Christian Church and what an experience it turned out to be!
The early service is an English worship service, so the attendance (about 50-70) paled in comparison to the Chinese language service later (approx. 200). Those who attended were mostly college students and young working adults just like YAS, as well as the occasional ang moh who stay nearby or have friends here. Besides getting in touch with a Christian environment, I met more Asians than any other time I had in Atlanta thus far. ABCs, ABKs, ABJs, PRCs, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Malaysians and Singaporeans – you name it, they are all here.
The place has a modern-day chapel look and the interior reeks of the good-old cathedral design [Culture shock factor #1]. (No photography allowed, but managed to snap a quick one during the sermon!) They began by singing a couple of hymns [Culture shock factor #2] and next come the sermon (they have preaching series too! This time its on praying…) and you’ve guessed it, an Asian pastor for the day! The preaching is quite similar to Trinity, but it ended in less than an hour. The pastor wraps up with a prayer but there is no altar call [Culture shock factor #3].
[Culture shock factor #4] was impressive. After the prayer, the celebration host IC (who recognized us at the entrance as first time visitors and spoke to us before service) became the emcee and made announcements. “Today, we are delighted to welcome so and so from … missionary, and …, Raymond Chua, and my GIP mates’ names, they are a group of exchange students from Georgia Tech.” We were actually introduced to the entire congregation, froze in our seats but managed a feeble wave to the entire crowd and a couple of warm handshakes.
After the benediction, which was the Lord’s Prayer [Culture shock factor #5], we headed to the canteen for a Meet and Greet session [Culture shock factor #6] for donuts and Chinese tea [Culture shock factor #7]! It’s basically a like the Meeting Place for fellowship and catch-up between members of the church. It’s so embarrassing, apparently everybody were intrigued by the “exchange students announcement”, and no less than 10 people came up to us and did some introduction and small talk. This is despite the fact that they were in their own cliques, but took the initiative to know us [Even more impressive Culture shock factor #8]. The preacher, Pastor Thomas, also came forward to welcome us.
It doesn’t end there mind you! We were then invited to join the rest of the people (everybody!!!) to attend Sunday school (not the kids kind where u just talk about bible stories or explanation of the bible) [but still…Culture shock factor #9], and today we learnt about meditation and prayer. It’s like a Tenet class at Trinity, where there will be like a workshop lecturer and practical session where we tried to apply the meditation techniques.
However, this is a more conservative church, and they don’t raise their hands in worship, nor did they speak in tongues and neither did they mouth out their prayers! [Culture shock factor #10,11,12]. I learnt that they are less of the Charismatic/Protestant denomination, but more of the Evangelical kind.
The last bit of the church visit was the highlight of the day! [Culture shock factor #13]!!! They serve lunch like a community, like those in temples in Singapore. Adult members will put $2 in the offering box while the children $1. As for us, since we are first-time guests, we got a free lunch. They serve food like army cookhouse style where they just have rice and a meat dish – which was amazingly delicious! It was indeed an interesting visit!! It left me thinking: Are they really so vibrant and proactive or is it just their nature friendliness??
Here's the spycam shot!
Verdict: Vibrant Atmosphere? Yes and no... but thou shalt not judge!
Laid to Rest at 8:27 AM;
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Its been rather cold from the moment I stepped onto US soil. The temperature has been fluctuating between 10 to 0 degree celsius; mostly at abt 5 degree celsius. We joked that its like Antartica, while Americans say its quite warm liao - compared to other states! Freaks!! Or are we the freaks?! If they dun see snow, it's not considered cold i guess...
The strong winds and dry climate here made the cold even more vicious; especially the mornings! For the record, I've been able to see my own breath nearly every morning (that's a good measure of how good it was man...) and has won at least three layers of clothes when I go outdoors (lesson learnt after shopping and playing soccer with just 2 layers and caught the flu for the last two weeks).
VJ Titanium makes another guest appearance in 2007, dispelling rumours that he is gonna quite the blog music video scene. Here's one rockin track entitled "Cold"!
Static-X - Cold
Note to mum:Please don't click on the "Play" button if u dun like the kind of music I listen to. If u are game enough, do put on the earphones ok, so u can enjoy. Luv ya!!
Laid to Rest at 1:09 PM;
Saturday, January 20, 2007
This outing is basically no-holds-barred, shopaholics gone wild kinda stuff. We had a monotonous 2 hr drive via the interstate for abt 40 miles. Btw, its quite low tech here to the point tolls are collected at gantries like in Malaysian highways, rather than the more refined ERP system in Spore.
Now back to the crazy time spent at the place. It’s made up by small shops or outlets, hence the name, all of which sold famous and even designer products to offer shoppers a all-in-one shopping experience. Namely: Hugo Boss, Kenneth Cole, Calvin Klein, Polo Ralph Lauren, Coach, Liz Clairbone, Tommy Hilfiger and many many more – abt 100 shops in fact!! Here, they offer their merchandise at about wholesale prices, and it’s almost half the retail prices found in departmental stores or shopping malls.
Well, I bought some stuff at Nike and Adidas. The jeans at Gap were damn cheap, like Giordano price like that! Bought some T-shirts from Banana Republic (for some reason, they were not allowed to open a flagship store in Spore). And the catch of the day: A pair of Oakley frames at about 30 to 50% less then the market price in Spore!!! We went on our splurging extravaganza for abt 6 hrs plus walking thru the trove of shops till we literally; and physically dropped! Pockets were burnt in the process but no animals were harmed in the entire masochistic ordeal.
As for dinner, it was a tat special as we manage to find some Asian food near Chinatown. It was not Chinese food but Korean food! It was surprisingly good (hot and spicy…) and value for money. The end of the day, our first ever road trip in US, a long weekend also marked the beginning of real studying!!!
10 academic facts at Georgia Tech that will shock u! Count your blessings now!
Fact#1: Lecture class size are like tutorial class sizes in NTU (varies from approx 20 to 40). Lecturer recognizes u easily and don’t ever think of skipping lectures! Fact #2: There are no tutorials. But it doesn’t mean it’s a good thing! (Read facts 3 to 6.) Fact #3: Some modules have quiz every week! Fact #4: All modules require homework must be handed in, and is graded! Fact #5: There are still midterms and final exams!! Fact #6: But everything from homework to quiz to exam have about same weightage! Not to mention term papers and projects!! Fact #7: Textbooks here are 3 times as much as in Singapore and more often than not, they are compulsory! Fact #8: Americans/GaTech students also study (mug) like hell! Fact #9: Americans/GaTech students who don’t mug are freaking smart!!!! (Kaoz -_-") Fact #10: Everything here is more fast-paced, more stressful and competitive than in NTU!
Laid to Rest at 1:03 PM;
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Yeah! So american to go on roadtrips!! the navigation, the preparation, the process, the end - all so exciting! We "ho-landered" a couple of times too! Thank God for the journey mercy He blessed us with throughout! Wat an awesome experience! The pics chronicled the entire trip. As the cliche goes, a picture is worth more than a thousand frickin' words.So I just typed close to a million words maybe? Nah...
Martin Luther King is a great man!
Laid to Rest at 1:40 AM;
Saturday, January 13, 2007
One Quiz
One Question
One Equation
One Mistake
One 蛋
(完蛋 = finished/liao4/doomed)
-END-
It's gonna be Martin Luther King Day on Monday (15/01/06)! Going on a roadtrip (25 NTU students on 3 MPVs and a saloon car) to visit Stone Mountain Park on Saturday and go shopping at a budget brands outlet in North Georgia!!!
Laid to Rest at 12:25 PM;
Friday, January 12, 2007
4th Jan 2007 - Woke up early for FASET. An orientation program for transfer and exchange students, cos Freshmen only comes in during Fall semester. But there’s like more than a hundred of us already! - Register subject, thank God everything went smoothly. Now it just depends if I can handle the subjects!! - Fried rice for dinner with friends.
5th Jan 2007 - Most unfruitful day ever! Played the worst waiting game of my life so far! - 930am to 12.30pm: Open bank account - 12.30pm to 4.30pm: Medical Review - ‘Nuff said!!!
6th Jan 2007 - Went Walmart for groceries!! - Went running at Piedmont Park. - Went Virginia Highlands, but what a letdown as there was nothing much to see. It wasn’t the Mohd Sultan Rd we expected, but just a few expensive pubs and restaurants around.
7th Jan 2007 - Find Church, but got lost and gave up after walking for 2 hrs. - Bought handphone in a supermarket! - Met Miss Chua for one last time at an Asian restaurant at Tech Square, but went dutch…
8th Jan 2007 - Feels lke a freshman all over again - Mad rush for locating places and not be late - Played soccer at 5degrees celsius, broke specs - Cooked gd dinner - School is finally small enough to walk all over
9th Jan 2007 - Brrr fell sick, got flu - Went medical center to take free medicine! - Classes cock up, venue not updated, missed one lesson… - One textbook for more than 100USD, count yourselves lucky, Spore!!! - Went for exchange students party. We have a bowling alley, a pool saloon and a freaking LAN/video gaming center!
Finally some explanations on photos: - Last one from previous blog entry was a swimming pool slide at the Recreation centre. It also boast CaliforniaFitness - lke gym facilities, an indoor running track and an Olympic swimming/diving pool. This place was used for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games too! - The cute buses are the Stinger and the Tech Trolley respectively. They are free shuttle services that bring ppl in and around GATech. - My School, the Materials Science Building, its also called the Love Building. Here in GAtech, all buildings have Names!! Named after scientists or researchers I guess... - Barnes & Nobles is the official campus bookstore, its huge!! - Random scenery pic, it does look like winter, and its cold btw! - Walmart!!! Need I say more? - 99 cents burgers at this drive-thru near GATech!! - Virginia Highlands, nothing much except me! haha - Foggy Sunday morning, spells doom for our search for that elusive church... - Sunday no alcohol!!! - My new US prepaid phone! Off the shelf of a supermarket! But its a low-tech one. - This is found in school itself, at the Student Services Centre!
Got a quiz tmr (first week of lessons only noe?!). Anyway, I got a module here every week got quiz!!!
Laid to Rest at 10:19 AM;
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
VJ Titanium makes a very rare appearance (hopefully more to come) here on US soil, and would send out his well wishes to all students out there! May God bless all of ya wif good health, wisdom and strength for the new semester!!! Cheers
Deftones - Back to School
Note: This is not a portrayal of any institutions I'm in... tho I wished!
Laid to Rest at 12:29 PM;
Was fully occupied throughout my stay at Georgia Tech so far and was dead beat enough not to blog constantly. Guess I won’t bore u with much essay-styled entries. So here’s a brief summary of what I did before moving into my apartment at Georgia Tech! 2nd Jan 2007, Tuesday The head of GIP administration, Miss Chua, met us and brought us to Target supermarket to shop for necessities like pillows, comforters and many more. We ended up looking like a bunch of fools carrying bundles of stuff using public transport! Had lunch at a restaurant called Macy’s Mac; which has a truly southern flavour and feel to it. It was a big place and was like a museum with all the memorabilia collected through the decades. Pictures of famous people from President J. Carter to the late James Brown were put up as they had patronized the place! Here in the south of US, I’m glad to announce they like tea too! They call it the wine of the South!! Miss Chua then met us up after lunch to visit ChinaTown, which is located quite far from the main city area. Only a few shops were opened and the food looks normal but expensive.
3rd Jan 2007 Finally, we got to leave the rather cosy hostel at Ponce De Leon, and check into the Georgia Tech residence. Then we went for a short orientation by the international relations officer, Zeb. We then went for our lengthy wait for our medical checkup and that basically wraps up the day as we begin to unpack at our respective dorms. Met my first of my three other roomies. His name is Tommy, he’s heavily tattooed, muscular and I was pretty intimidated when I first saw him. But our small talk soon revealed our common interest: sports, video games, gym and listening heavy metal!! Cool chap!
More to come… Gotta go for an exchange student party now! Ciao~~~
But before that, more pics!! I've enlarged them as requested from some ppl...
The last pic is not from somewhere we visited, it is found in Georgia Tech!!! Where? Stay tune for more embarassingly backdated pics...
Laid to Rest at 6:19 AM;
Saturday, January 06, 2007
As the clock struck 12, I’m holed in my refugee-styled hostel to post my earlier blog entry. The countdown was held at the Underground, and it was called Peachdrop – where a model peach would descend down a tower towards the New Year. Thank God I did not follow some of them as they witness a street fight when some passer-bys were involved in a shoving and tussle match in the human crowd. Country rock band, Lonestar, was playing at the arena but the persistent rain dampened the mood a bit.
New Year’s Day morning, we went to a famous a la carte café called Flying Biscuits and it was like breakfast and lunch combined! The portion was huge, the price was affordable and the meal was simply sumptuous. I nearly finished my “High Flyer” (one of their signature dishes), a feat no other could do! Haha… After such a heavy meal, we went sightseeing at the Piedmont Park, one place that wasn’t close and is absolutely free!!
After much photo-taking and enjoying the scenary, we went to where else but the shopping malls! All-time Singaporean favourite I guess… So we headed for the Lenox mall at Buckhead. “Eat your heart out, Vivocity!!” Most malls in America would have beaten Vivocity hands down in a size duel. The malls here in America is huge, the shop space are like three times more than what would have been in Singapore. Brands like Banana Republic, Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch were like Singapore’s G2000. Prices are also better than in Singapore, perhaps due to less tax. Bought my first CD here in US, it was bought after much consideration as it was half the price compared to that in S’pore!
For dinner, we ate pasta at a nearby restaurant called the old spaghetti factory. Service was top notch despite the wait for about an hour! We did not wait for tables, but for the waiter/ress instead. At this place, a waiter/ress is assigned to each customer or group for the entire dining duration. Everything will be take care of by that particular person – it is like having your personal butler/maid kinda thing.
I’ve never eaten so much restaurant food before! Gotta stop the rot of my pocket and the bulge of my tummy liao!!
Pics follow sequence of blog entry...although might not be described
Amazing US fact #1: The Youtube loads super fast here!! An MTV loads fully in 3 secs!!! In fact, the Internet is very fast overall!
Laid to Rest at 10:18 AM;
Friday, January 05, 2007
Early morning, which is like 10am as most were recovering from jet lag, we headed down to Krispy Kreme, a local donut franchise. Late last night we actually went there to search for food, but they were closed. Then we settled for Papa Johns pizza which taste really great! Or were we famished?! Back to the New Year’s Eve special, the donuts were super sweet, a sugar overdose! Small they may be, but they are a dynamite loaded with deadly calories! We had leftovers and soon broke into a game of zhong ji mi ma!! It was a helluva icebreaker too! It was then we can break into more small talk among ourselves and truly get to know one another. All in all, the next few days of traveling around in Atlanta was a fruitful time of bonding and building friendships!
As it was New Year’s Eve, we decided to go to the Underground, a popular hangout according to the hostel admin staff. Then we headed down to Mid Town via the Marta (Atlanta’s very own subway/metro/MRT/u noe wat I mean), and decided to walk around. The sky was pissing rain throughout the day but our moods were hardly dampened by it; as we were driven by the adrenaline of exploration. At the Underground, we were overwhelmed by the Hip Hop culture over at Atlanta (60% Blacks)! Everywhere, the people, dressed like they are the extras or even the stars on MTV. Armed with countless bling bling and baggy fashion, you’ll feel alien wearing normal clothes. Or course, for a metalhead like me, I’m like a fish out of water!
The culture may be a bit hard to swallow, but I am coming to terms with it as other places were not as bad as I thought. First, we went to CNN, Atalanta, the founding place of the news network. It is the junction where journalists from all over the world would stop or gather for so news making. We also went to the coca cola museum, as Atlanta is also the place where Coca-Cola was created! A few of us did not join the tour though. The only thing you get was an elaborate history of why Coke is so famous and you get to try all kinds of weird flavours of Coke all over the world, plus, you can drink all you can!
i can't really be bothered with captions for the photos... but enjoy them anyway cos the Guessing game has just begun!!
All queries on pics are welcomed on my tagbored...
Laid to Rest at 11:45 AM;
Monday, January 01, 2007
Indeed I've safely touch downed, and horror upon horrors, the entire nation is entirely engrossed in a touchdown of a different kind - the NFL playoffs! Anyway, greetings from more than a thousand miles! Currently waking up in the wee hours of the morning to grab some available network.(the temp hostel has wi-fi, but when many r using it, the router jams and the network disables automatically!)
Phew! Thank God!! I finally landed safely in Atlanta, Georgia. After much drama - which started the moment I went thru the Singapore customs, that spans across 3 flights (flight to Tokyo exceeded my expectations, flight to Minneapolis was an arduous 12 hrs with no personal in-flight entertainment! Flight to Atlanta was delayed.) and a resulting late check-in at the Atlanta International Hostel, which used to be a brothel! Facilities are adequate and we will explore some places these few days as we have nothing to do!
The weather here is around 5 to 10degreesC and it was surprisingly comfortable than chilly (mountain tortise just breathed his first few breaths of visible air – machiam u smoking 24/7 lidat one! Cool sia, no pun intended)
Interesting happenings aplenty, from taking photos with a bunch of drunken revelers (rather involuntarily) and witnessing first-hand a gripping police car chase down the street where we are currently staying before going to Georgia Tech. No alcohol is allowed to be sold on Sundays according to state law! All this on the first few hours of arriving in Atlanta.
Will upload some pics once I have the time and the more generous internet bandwidth at Georgia Tech!
Laid to Rest at 1:07 PM;
ABOUT ICH
Psycho faraday.gonzo blogger.fanatic metalhead.gig goer.follower of Jesus.bhb church team striker.wld strip for Arsenal FC.
dean of sch of lameness.materialistic engineer.plays tennis/pool/snooker/bowling for fun.goes gym for vanity.
winning eleven addict.disillusioned guitar/air guitar hero.surfs the web but not savvy.self-proclaimed heterosexual fashionista.
avid reader of best-sellers & heavy metal magazines but no textbks.movie-chrondraic.TV/Youtube couch potato.habitual liar?!
