my life @ www.zoeliam.com

August 27th, 2008 by Zoe

I’m totally hooked onto the 家好月圆(Moonlight Resonance)!!! I watched a little bit here and there while I was in KL and in Bobo’s. But last night I finally decided to start watching all over again from episode 1. And damn! I watched 5 episodes in a row til 4am. Which explained why I was late for my French class this morning. Yeah boo to me, being a lazy ass. But I finished almost all the reading assignment for my philosophy class though. :)

And guess what, I forgot to change the time & date of my blog back to US time. I just changed it as well as changed the time & date for my laptop & camera as well.

I also think that the Honda service guy doesn’t want to do any business!!! I’ve called his office phone like 2 times which I left voice message over the machine. He just called me back once and I was in class so didn’t hear it. He left me a message asked me to call him again. So I called, and he didn’t pick up again!!! Whatthefuck. So I left another voice message and get no reply! What is this?!

Geeeezzz. Don’t wanna do business then say la! Aiyor. -_-

Posted in Dailies, School's Life, U.S.A. | 1 Comment »

Back

August 25th, 2008 by Zoe

Got back in East Lansing at about 5:30pm.

To my surprise, my apartment didn’t look that bad after 3months+ of not staying here. And the management sort of painted the apartment. They moved my stuff around a little bit and I felt that the wall is slightly cleaner.

I wanted to wash my bedsheet but realized I didn’t have any quarters. I mean, I do have some but not enough to get them washed and dried. But luckily I found a clean one so changed it. Ahhh… Back to the life where I have to do everything on my own and most of the time, alone.

There’s so much on my mind. I wanted to get a lot of stuff (think: refrigerator is so empty now!). I think I’m just gonna hire the company to steam my carpet. Feels really terrible after 1 year+ of not steaming the carper… It feels so…. flat? Not fluffy anymore, you know.

Better get it done before the school gets crazy!

Also, need to send my car for service on Tuesday (hopefully there’s empty slot for me!).

Hmmm. Bus pass’ price increased to $50. Now it’s about $4/gallon for the gas (like $50+ for my car’s full tank! OUccch!). Get quarters. Wash my bedsheet. Wipe tables. And…

Okay. I think I sould like a real aunty here now.

Time to get ready for school.

Hello nerdy Zoe! :)

Posted in Dailies, School's Life, U.S.A. | 5 Comments »

安全抵达美国了

August 23rd, 2008 by Zoe

已经抵达美国了。暂住在Bobo的家,因为我的车在这里。

我在新加坡哭了三次左右。很想念马来西亚的一切。男朋友越安慰,我就越想要哭。努力地告诉自己还有一年而已!

在香港飞往芝加哥的时候,我整个人完全是在发热气。

一上飞机,倒头就睡。迷迷糊糊地醒来时,牙肉都在发痛。

只要牙齿和牙齿碰到就疼痛了。

想想我吃东西时是有多么地难过。

搭长途飞机就是这样,每一次我都喝不够水。因为在十多个钟内一直要上厕所是一件非常麻烦的事情。

如果我没有记错,我每一次去美国都是搭UA896,经济舱内是三四三星的座位。即三个座位靠右窗边,另三个靠左窗边,四个在中间。

我个人很喜欢靠窗边,就是最里边的那一个。因为有时可以看到美丽的风景。睡觉时又可以把头埋在窗的方向,这样我就不会把头栽到别人的肩膀上(超尴尬的!!!)可是麻烦的是每一次要上厕所都得麻烦坐我旁边的两位乘客。非常地不好意思。所以,就自然而然不想喝太多水就不用一直上厕所。

终于抵达芝加哥的时候,有种“哇!终于!”的感觉。虽然已经是第三次了。第一次很兴奋。可是这一次却不是兴奋的。带点悲伤。忘了说,我们的那个飞机师是赛车手还是怎样,竟然比预计的抵达时间早到了40分钟!那很好因为在美国clear custom还蛮久的。第一次的时候就因为这样miss了往Lansing的班机。

然后,我因为declare我有带食物来美国,所以有一件行李被搜查。

很好。

我在我来也买的鸡肉丝和妈妈买给我的罐头猪肉全都没了。

因为美国的custom说马来西亚的鸡肉和猪肉有virus,所以不能入境。

眼睁睁的看着还没吃过的食物就这样被丢掉了。

很不甘心。觉得很浪费。可是没办法。

所以,别携带肉类和蛋制的食物来美国。

忙了许久,终于抵达了。

我的感想?

很累。

非常地累。

是那种精神上和身体上的疲累。

I’ll come home. :)

And yes, that’s my last photo of me and boyfriend in year 2008. I reminded myself to take one last photo with him (face photo of course) before I left but I only got this one.

Last dinner at KL in year 2008. @ Eden, KLIA. Surprisingly their food is quite delicious!

The super nice bedroom that I stayed in at Singapore’s transfer hotel. Terminal 3 Ambassador Transfer Hotel.

Nothing to do but take photos with the big ass mirror.

My two favorite photos in the plane. First one is damn unique. I was o_O when I saw it.

* 车子轮胎的气压没有问题,可是车子太久没驾驶,结果死火了。不过现在一切okay。

Posted in School's Life, Travel, U.S.A. | 2 Comments »

Another 26 Hours±

August 19th, 2008 by Zoe

I don’t know how to express exactly how I feel now. Or maybe I cannot express it.

I wanna be this silly kid who doesn’t wanna go back to the States.

On the other hand, I wanna be all nerdy and finish my study quickly so that I can come home next year.

*sigh* :(

去或留 — 我没得掌控,因为无论如何我还是一定要毕业。

明天,我又将离开这里,回到我书呆子的生活了。回到那种每天只睡平均4个小时的生活。

Been thinking so much lately.

I know I’ve been having so much fun or just laze around in the house throughout this 4-months summer break without working at all (partly I was so fat that I doubt anyone would wanna hire me for events jobs la). I didn’t exactly do anything very constructive. Except maybe cleaning up my room and clearing some old clothes and donated them.

But really, I don’t think I’m having too much fun. Because I’ll be so nerdy once my semester starts. All those crazy assignments and exams will just flood into my life. I have my mind cleared up a little bit and I found that my temper is really bad these days. Boyfriend should know. I’m trying to accept imperfection and flaws (I don’t even know since when I became such a perfectionist!). I’m trying to let go something that is not that important. Just when I succeeded in doing all those at times, I actually felt happier. :)

Like I’ve mentioned, my sister will be going to visit me in December (good news!) and boyfriend is trying very hard to visit me in February (double good news!!!) although air ticket isn’t cheap and it’s not easy to obtain the Visa. My 2-ways ticket (duration for a year) cost almost RM7K. Just the air ticket alone! It’s not helping especially the exchange rate between USD and RM is now about $1- RM3.34… I better make it through and graduate on time.

School fee increased as well. By 7.1% (but WMU’s worse! 9.2%, I think).

*sigh**sigh*

Though I’m not the one paying for all those, I still feel it’s all so crappy.

Look on the bright side… I already have a few plans for my last year there on my mind.

- Must go for skiing at least once!

- Visit San Frans, L.A. & Las Vegas. Hopefully Hawaii too…

- Another trip to NYC >> SATC tour!

- Continue to be on the Dean’s list. (Why is it on the 4th of the list… Not first ar?)

- Get myself involve with more activities in school.

- Shop my heart out for the branded stuff  *Feel so heartache to buy in Malaysia because so damn kao overprice! Anddddd I doubt that I can afford to buy them when I start working.

- Just enjoy my student life for the very last year (unless I do MBA in the future).

- Make snowmen (Just remember I still owe Cheryl & Melissa two snowmen… Even Melissa already did one! -_-)

- Must have more McD Chicken Selects! I forgot what it’s called in Malaysia but it’s the normal chicken la. However, it’s super yummy and different from Malaysia’s. Because it’s boneless and much tasty. Even tastier than KFC if you can believe it! Haha.

- More strawberry milkshake from Steak & Shake!!!

Er… That’s all for now, I guess.

I hope winter depression don’t strike on me again. Just once is more than enough.

Alrighty. Pray hard and I wish myself all the best!  **Motivation talk** L0L.

Til then… I’ll get to see everyone again in Malaysia and have hawker food next year. Ta! *waveees*

p/s: Bobo, see you soon and please don’t forget to pick me up, k. Thank you sooooo much! :)

Posted in Dailies, School's Life, Travel, U.S.A. | 3 Comments »

More NYC Love

August 18th, 2008 by Zoe

*Continuation from the Liberty Island.

Arriving at the Ellis Island.

Ellis Island was once a American immigration port and now it’s like a museum about immigration and immigrants. So last time, the immigrants had Statue of Liberty to welcome them to their new home and then recorded themselves at the Ellis Island. *I hope I got it right, man. Forgot most of the stuff. Basically, it’s a historical place la.

The signboard. I totally have no idea why SoonHan decided to hide behind the signboard.

The entrance.

It’s like how we arrive at airport these days. With baggage claims and all. But last time thy usually lost their check-in baggage. So they’d rather carry the baggage with them.

Manual of the US…? Hmmmm. Wonder what’s in it.

Population stuff.

I looked like I was angry with my hand putting on my waist. But I wasn’t.

From this side (left) it’s a American flag, from the other side (right) it’s faces of people.

Actually it looked very grand and well-maintained. But I think it’s kinda eerie to be there all alone at night.

They introduced the traditional costumes and stuff of each race, I think.

Some dorm they used last time.

We were very interested in this one. We quickly rushed over to see it. But like I said, quite eerie ler. I don’t know why I felt that way too.

The old photos.

Can read the Chinese words there? Click-able to enlarge, anyway. :) Okay, so I’m very bad with history and stuff, but I think I’m worse than bad! I really didn’t know Titanic was heading to US! I know it’s a very sad tragedy but didn’t know it was heading to US at that time. It’s such a shocking fact to me. I think Bobo gasped too.

Suddenly we found a stencil of Statue of Liberty on the wall. So must take photo. Heh.

We spent quite a while in the museum. Most of the time we just wanna rest. Kind of tired. We spent a whole morning past noon at the Liberty Island and Ellis Island. When we left the place, it’s already in the afternoon.

Waiting for the ferry at the jetty.

Only both of us sat on the floor like that and it was Bobo who did that first! Then I beh tahan so sat down too. Notice the people behind of us were standing? :P Haha.

Spot Spiderman when we arrived at the jetty from Ellis Island. L0L. The Spiderman had a lil tummy! Kinda chubby. I didn’t dare to go near him to take a photo. I actually hate all this disguised thingy especially clown! They’re damn freaky lor. So I was hiding and taking photos of him quietly. Bobo went and shout SPIDERMAN very loudy and I think he sort of heard it, then there’s the first photo with him looking more towards to my camera.

Told you damn a lot of Statue of Liberty wannabes lor. See for yourself, man! They’re very freaky too. Maybe even more freaky than the Spiderman. Some of them sat on a little box, some of them stand on it. So that they’ll look taller than normal human beings.

Next we went to Wall Street. Ahhhh moneymoneymoneyyyy! Can’t believe I’ve been there! Been hearing people mentioned about Wall Street for so long, there I was. :D

New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Cannot go anywhere further than that black fence behind us… I guess unless you work there or have some approval/permission or something then you can go in. Tight tight security.

Out of nowhere, there’s a church! & American Express Company around there.

How can we left out this bull at Wall Street??? :D

More of the bull.

So here’s what people said - touch the bull if you’re there because it’ll bring your fortune(?) - something along that line la. Like it’ll make you have more luck in earning money or something. Some people clearly have been touching on certain parts of the bull a lot until the color faded. *ahem* One of the certain places is its balls. Why balls, by the way?!

Don’t mean to put another big ass photo. If I don’t, you can’t even see the wording back at there! So yeah, I was at the 911 place. The WTC. Whic is really sad. Because they’re going to rebuild another building on that same spot. So everything’s closed. Even the subway is closed. SoonHan and friends told me that previously they can visit the subway and the fence around the WTC had photos on it. Sometimes they even saw some people pray there. But not anymore when we went there. Luckily we found a sign written the WTC words there so we still can take a photo of it.

After 911 place, we headed to Central Park. Another dream wei! Dreamt of going there so badly because I wanted to find that fountain where Carrie met one of her ex-boyfriend there. I didn’t know what the fountain is called until I went Google after the trip.

Random statue nearby the Central Park.

I think it’s a very happy photo ler. Colorful and all. :)

The very transparent Apple store in NYC.

But first of all, we looked for this Apple store because it’s very special la. All glass and transparent. Yeah Apple fans go get your iphone there la. :P  *tease, tease, tease

There’s also a very nice fountain around there.

After we found the Apple store, HoeMun called SoonHan and said that he wanna meet up with us. So we had to direct him to come over to look for us because apparently his relatives were driving. With the traffic in NYC, it’s so confusing and hard to direct him especially when we’re not that familiar with NYC road names.

We sat on a bench nearby the Central Park entrance to wait for him. There’s a fake Statue of Liberty beside us. He stared at us, I stared at him. We just looked at each other like that. He tried to disturb us because he’ll get tips if we take a photo with him, even SoonHan noticed that! Annoying!!!

Finally, HoeMun came over and we ventured into the Central Park. Hah! ;)

Same spot, just a close up and a further distance shots.

At the very same bridge, I climbed up the bridge literally to take this photo. But the scenery is really breathtaking! Yes, very pretty. Can’t believe there’s such a nice man-made park in a busy city.

They’re having a doggy gathering, I guess. Lots of dogs/puppies running around there. Awww.

It’s really kinda hard for me to believe this isn’t a natural park.

We went up the bridge and down the bridge to search for the beloved fountain. Sighsighsigh. At this point, everyone’s very exhausted from walking.

Huge landscape! We have underestimated how big the Central Park is because it looks so tiny on the map. The park is freaking huge! I think it’s even bigger than Sunway town. Yeah, I think so. For real. No kid!

Oh look, baseball field!!!

Then SoonHan told us her story about asking for a shuttlecock in her school when she played badminton with her friends. But seemed like the Americans don’t call shuttlecock as shuttlecock there. (SoonHan, is this story right? Forgotten a bit liao). And I still don’t know what they call shuttlecock over there.

Guys navigating. The girls having ice-creams. :D

Haha. One of my dream is to have ice-cream at Central Park (like in the movies, ya know). I just thought it’s a bit too much so I didn’t say anything until SoonHan wanted to get an ice-cream from one of the stalls there. So I was like right just do it. So we all got one for ourselves. And Bobo ate until very messy la, and we had to help her to cover up if not Jojo will nag on her later. SoonHan being the “nanny” in our group helped her to clean up the mess. L0L. We had a lot of funny moments while we were at NYC!

This is our “finally” look!

FINALLY wei! We found it! The Bethesda Fountain~! ;)

We were walking walking walking suddenly HoeMun was telling us that he heard some water sound and asked if we heard it. As usual I thought he’s just joking around although I heard the water sound. But as we went closer and closer, we were like this is it! This is the fountain! I’m very very very bloody sure you’ve seen it in movies even if you’re not a SATC fan. It’s so bloody famous.

OhhhIwasthereOhh! :D

Sometimes you’ll get to see this in movies too. :)

When we were there, something romantic was held there. Yes right behind us! It’s a wedding, people!!! I think that wedding must be damn kao expensive but something very unique.

Below is the series of photos we took with the fountain. Fakeprophotosession started again!

Us without any sunnies on.

The couple and Bobo put on her sunnies.

With sunnies on and trying to pose like rich ladies. L0L.

Fountain + sunnies + that pose = super pretty photo!

Bobo looked like the girl who is waiting for the love of her life in any romantic film.

Clockwise: HoeMun, Bobo, me, SoonHan.

My photo is specially edited by by Bobo if you wonder why the color is so special compared to the rest… Lots of credits to Bobo! :)

Us posing time! :P

Us looking at the side after our fakeprophotosession. Because the kid practically threw coins out from her mom’s coins purse into the fountain. Right. Coins. Not a coin. Or a few coins. But coins like coins are not money, like coins come free from the floor or the sky. And the parents actually allowed him to do that a.k.a. holding the coins purse for him to throw and smiled away. o_O”

Personal opinion here. I think that’s just purely wasting money. I personally threw coins into fountains or pools to make wishes. But it’s only like maximum 3 coins at one spot. And I tried my best to look for the smallest change I had in my purse. But throwing coins into fountains like throwing rocks in it is too much. Even if you’re super rich, it’s still wrong. I guess the kid might grow up without knowing/understanding the value of money and how other people suffer while he toss the money away like nothing. Okay end of personal opinion. Back to happy holiday mood. :D

Watched 27dresses? Remember the Boathouse mentioned in the movie? This is the it. We all didn’t notice until HoeMun casually pointed it out.

The girlies.

Damn lovely, ok! *You may notice Bobo is such a natural poser. She doesn’t need to think how to pose. She looks good in any pose.

Discussing where to have dinner. Thought of trying the Boathouse but HoeMun said it’s expensive wor. So didn’t make it.

A group photo. Bobo being the photographer, obviously.

There’s a story in this photo. It’s sorta like Bobo’s posing very hiao then I was like Oh-my-look-at-this-girl kinda look then SoonHan just stared at her kao kao like that. :P

Okay la… I hate to say this, but may we be friends forever after I have so much heartaches and ups & downs in friendships. *Eww so corny!!!

Love our pose! Last one at the Central Park. :)

So, right, we went to Bubba Gump in Times Square to have dinner since only HoeMun & I have tried this restaurant.  *Yessss Malaysia has one already. At The Curve, KL. Gonna write about it soon.

Deciding what to eat.

Our last dinner in NYC in year 2008. We made the trip through without any fights and arguments. *cheeers!**

The Shrimper’s Net Catch and the other shrimps (like sample like that, included tempura shrimps and another 3 flavor) are in my must-order list if I ever go to Bubba Gump. I ordered that in KL’s too!

Jojo ordered a pie for dessert. Turned out it’s really big for us. We’re all small eaters except HoeMun.

We finished the pie, however. Ok la, I confessed. I think I took a bite or two only. :P I was really full! After the dinner, we went back to the hotel and HoeMun went back to his relative’s place. This time farewell (sort of la) happened in the subway not the usual airport.

Oh wait! Gossip Girl big ass poster in Times Square! *wooott* Cannot resist but to take a photo of it. Heard that the 2nd season is going to show in September eh. Cannot wait!!!

This was taken while we were on our way back to the hotel.

I’ve been saying I wanna take one of it since day 1. But kept forgetting until the 3rd night. Read properly. It reads: Sleepy Hollow Garage. Damn spooky! Sleep Hollow is that scary movie and they named this garage by that name. -_- I wonder who park their cars there.

Last photo of the day! Before we went to wash up and go to bed.

They said I looked really red like I got sunburn. But I think it’s because I’m very heaty! Didn’t drink enough water and kept crapping and walking under the sun. It’s kinda turn hot on the 2nd and 3rd day. So yeah.

My wonderful NYC trip ended there. I enjoyed myself a lot. Good companion is very important. :)

The whole trip still seems very magical to me. Very unreal, if you know what I mean.

The moment when I saw Statue of Liberty.

The moment I was in Times Square.

The moment I was in the subway.

The moment I was in 5th Avenue (one of the most expensive street on earth!).

The moment I was in Central Park.

The bathroom moments with the girls.

The bedroom moments with us so tired but still wanna crap.

It’s all seems to be just a beautiful dream to me. :)

Posted in Friends, Paradise Of Food, Travel, U.S.A. | 2 Comments »

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