Finally arrived

1. i wished i could teleport,then we wouldn't have to suffer long uncomfy flights, long boring waiting times in transit and weird airports with no clear directions. No joke la,flying and transiting for 30+ hours.

2. it was FINALLY wed 7 may when we arrived, cos we were acty travelling back in time, to the morning of 6 may etc. L.A is 15 hours behind SG and virginia is 12 hours behind SG. The time difference really got us all confused.

3. L.A airport sucks. No proper signage and directions, weird ppl who can't answer our qs...westerners aren't tt friendly and nice afterall. Lucky papee told me we shd take a shuttle bus, or we would have walked all the way to terminal 5 from Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT) like our juniors. But we still almost got lost (had a hard time getting to T5 and getting our tix), and waited at TBIT for our juniors when they acty proceeded to T5 thinking we had alr gone there. So when we finally reached there, they had just arrived there too (cos we shuttled and they walked hahaha) There's a reason why Changi Airport is the best :)

4. Had to help this China family at T5, was rather wary of them cos was afraid they were acty trying to steal our things on the pretense of asking for help haha. They were acty sitting China Southern for a boston bound plane but were waiting at T5,which is the terminal for delta air,mexican and some others. So they were acty at the wrong terminal,wrong gate and basically, they missed their flight AND couldn't speak english. so DON'T TRAVEL TO USA IF U CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH COS PPL THERE ONLY SPEAK ENGLISH. And they thought i was from China just cos i could speak chinese. damn lame la. So we sought help fr different ppl and eventually managed to tell them where they had to go. Hope they caught their next flight.

5. Was pissed when i lost my belt loop during the security check at LA airport. cos i forgot to remove my belt and when the person told me i had to hurry and hand it over to my junior's basket cos my stuff alr went thru e machine. And we had to scan our lappies separately, so mafan cos i had difficulty stuffing it back into my pack aft tt. And my pack almost killed me la. So heavy and hard to access my stuff. Am aching all over now,from lugging luggage everywhere and trying to stuff my bag into the cabin compartment every flight. Can feel my biceps coming up alr lol.

6. I realised i need TAIWAN MONEY. but the taipei airport food is damn ex la. like NT200 for a bowl of noodles. lol. but am transiting there for almost a day on the way back, so if i'm not gonna use US dollars i better change some money.

7. My friends are well-prepared! They brought those multi-plug extensions so if not for yue hao's I'd probably be squatting by the wall with my lappie now. lol.

8. China Airlines sucks cos there's no leg room but the service is still ok. Delta airlines sucks even more (arguably the worst as far as i can rmb) even tho there's more leg room cos it's a damn small plane and u acty have to PAY USD2 for headphones. And the seats are plasticky and cui, apparently they can be removed and used as flotation devices -________-. An excuse for not upholstering the seats haha. I was stuck in a window seat with 2 angmohs blocking my access to the aisle and i was dying from thirst i was contemplating getting to the toilet for water when they announced u have to pay for this and that on board but i was lucky they served drinks. Was wary tt i had to pay for the drinks but saw ppl getting water for free so i just ordered water just to be safe :) and they said "peanuts,crackers or cookies" which sounds damn nice but the cookies turned out to be just a measly 2 pcs of plain biscuits. but better than nothing la, given that it was complimentary haha. seriously we were shocked when we heard we had to pay to use the inflight entertainment and for other f&b but then maybe domestic flights are like that. Whatever it is, all 4 flights killed my neck. For the first time in my life my neck felt it was about to break cos i felt the pain in my neck for SO MANY times man. Each time i tried to slp, be it to the left or right, my neck hurt real bad. Am considering getting those yummy neck cushions i see in every airport. think they cost USD12.99 if i'm not wrong. And i was sad my camera was up in the cabin compartment with 2 angmohs in the way cos I SAW SUNRISE FROM THE HORIZON FROM MY WINDOW in the delta flight from L.A to atlanta,at ard 4am ( i duno whose time). And i saw those beautiful fluffy fleecy cotton ballish clouds below the plane and felt happy despite my neck :)

9. Am still aching all over. More than once i thought i was gonna get DVT and after every flight when i got out of my seat i felt like a mummy waking after 1000 yrs of latency. My neck,shoulders and arms are aching now even as i type and i hope i recover soon cos orientation's tmr and training shd start on sat.

10. Am sad cos my adidas jacket turned furry at the part my backpack's front support attaches at the waist :( And the black and white striped long sleeve i wore for the flights has turned furry too lol.

11. Am sick of raisin bread. In the subsequent CI flight from taipei to L.A, the food sucked la. It was either zha jiang mian or hong dan (which i duno wat it is) so i ordered zha jiang mian. but because i was sitting beside the pantry for like 11 hours, i felt sick from all the smells and it didn't help that that restricted my neck to slping towards the left cos if i slanted to the right my nose would get it full blast. So i was alr feeling sick from the pantry smells and when my zha jiang mian came, i just couldnt eat it la. Flipping open the foil made me wanna flip alr so i just had the fruit cocktail (canned,no doubt). So i was hungry after tt and had to eat my squashed raisin bread. And i felt like vomiting, i duno why, but i survived la :) At least i wasn't like Shi min who got airsick and every flight was like hell for her cos she had to go to the toilet to puke. Take home msg: NEVER SIT NEXT TO THE PANTRY. and my raisin bread still survived. When i saw it cost $2.90, i knew i cldn't abandon it. I think i ate like half a loaf throughout the whole trip and i shall have it for breakfast later. I acty took the trouble to stuff it into my check-in baggage in L.A before the security check but we got thru unscathed even tho we declared food cos they asked wat kinda food,we said instant noodles and they let us pass :) Then i transferred the bread back to my pack. And it's still with me hahaha.

12. Richmond airport is weird. The arrival and departure halls are together so when we arrived,we walked out from the place ppl enter when they're boarding. And we had to walk past all the departure lounges when coming out. Then it was damn inefficient, cos we had to wait pretty long b4 the luggages came out. And it was weird we didn't have to past customs again when we exited the airport. We arrived at 10+ am on wed 7 may but waited till like 12noon and the Kings Dominion (KD) reps arrived but there was acty some screwup. Speedwing said they'd informed our employers to pick us up but apparently we had to contact KD directly if we needed pickup so we were acty waiting in vain tho some of us tried calling KD and asking the airport to make announcments. So the KD coordinators were acty there to receive the 1230pm flight,so we had to wait for them and when the bus finally came it was 1+pm. Then it was a massive operation moving all the luggage up the bus but were were 1 of the last few so there were alr ppl up the bus to do all the work lol. All we had to do was lift the luggages up the bus. Then we had to pack ourselves in too, i think ard 38 of us, 3 to a seat. And everytime i c the NTU guy in the "U for Union,Union for U" singlet i just wanna laugh la. So he's from Student's Union, but i think he's a PRC. Ride was more than 30 mins, legs were getting numb from being squashed up with my bagpack on my lap. Finally reached KD at ard 2+pm then had to collect room keys. Couldnt choose our roomies but i was lucky to still get yue hao. The rest did internal swappings and ended up with their intended roomies :) Had to lug our luggages up the stairs but lucky we're only on the 2nd floor.

13. Last nite was hilarious. When i finally settled in and bathed it was alr 4+pm. Went to visit Yue You and Shi Min and cldnt return to my room cos my key suddenly cldnt work and i didn't wanna wake Yue Hao up so just camped at their room. Typed a long email on Shi Min's lappie but the internet was laggy (or maybe her lappie sucked) and it got lost when i tried sending it. Irritated, i went to slp too. (By then, yy and sm fell asleep alr). Totally knockout la,all of us.
Then i woke up to sm's frantic cries. We were supposed to wake up at 5.30pm to go find food cos all of us were starving but wanted to rest first, but nobody set the alarm and it was 8pm when we woke up. sm said we kena pangseh-ed cos she knocked on the doors of the others but no response. and she said she asked security where to eat, so it was either Denny's which was near the front desk (and quite ex) or BK which was a walk away. So we went to BK, and lucky i rmbed the "look left then right" rule cos we had to cross several highways. or maybe they were just long roads. My grilled chicken burger meal cost USD7.23 and the meat was salty, the portion was too big and there was no chilli sauce :( i couldn't finish my burger but managed to down the meat AND some lettuce in the bread (i didn't dig them out! Aren't u guys proud of me?? ;D) Couldn't finish my fries and drink either. We da-baoed the fries and they're still on the table now,yucks. Then when we walked back it was 9+ alr and it was dark and we were scared. It made me think of wolf creek and i told them the story and so lessons learnt are: Next time after 7 we'll just starve or eat at Denny's. And we will SHARE our food to save our money and stomachs. Ooh and not for the first time, i'm glad i have a Sony Ericsson phone cos the LED light saved us from walking into ditches or into the rope boundary on the way back.
Oh i forgot to continue the story. So when we got back, we found out tt acty we were the ones who pangseh-ed the rest cos for 1 of the rooms, they heard sm knocking but were too tired to get out of bed and for the other room,sm stupidly knocked on the wrong door. lol. So after tt sm had to take them out to eat.

14. Sunset is quite late, it was still bright at 8+pm. But this place is quite pathetic and ulu la. We only found BK,subway and a 7-11 within walking distance last night. Shall go explore later. I think there's no laundry either, unless we want room service. Last night was cold,but prob cos of the cold drink. Most of the ppl i saw are obese. yucks, hope tt doesn't happen to me. I can't see how they have to upsize their meals too. And there was Dr. Pepper at BK which the rest tot tasted like pi pa gao -________-

15. I shall blog more than email from now on cos blogger saves my drafts automatically but hotmail doesn't and i duno wanna risk losing my efforts typing long stories again.

16. Watched the last part of Gladiator on tv last night and went to slp ard 11pm. Didn't even bother connecting up my lappie cos was too tired. There's tv in my room but it's grainy. "Ghost" is on tv now,yue hao's watching. Woke up at 3am, 5am and 6am. Lazed ard till 6.15am but cldnt fall asleep anymore so here i am! Finally online. Now my legs are aching, prob cos i'm crossing them on the bed. Shall post pics soon :)

17. Ooh ya i forgot to talk abt the white mice. Delta airlines has such small planes tt i cld acty see how they loaded and unloaded the check-in luggage from the side of the plane,through my window. Unusual sightings included 1 crate of white mice, 1 crate of guinea pigs and a wheel chair. Wonder why the animals don't have to slp and don't suffer from jet lag cos when they went in, they were active. When they came out, they were equally active. Lol. Wonder why they have to be air-freighted around.

18. Ppl on the plane to virginia are damn high-tech. All the americans who took out their phones when the plane landed had phones like PDAs!

19. So other than an aching body and a hungry stomach and a few blue-blacks from bumping the luggage ard, i have arrived safely in one piece!! The air here is dry, sometimes my eyes feel damn painful and can't stop watering. But tt was ytd, maybe cos of the flights. The air aint tt fresh too, like quite dusty. And all my frens brought their stuffies! I shd have brought too :( The pillows in the hotel are quite short,so weird.

20. I couldnt find any network in L.A so i thought i had no auto-roaming but lucky i found T-mobile and Cingular in Virginia but Cingular's forbidden so i'm now logged onto T-mobile. No idea how much it costs to SMS tho. Saw alot of phone cards on sale in 7-11 but duno which to buy so didn't buy any.

Ok shall go webcam. Update again!