Snaining and Umbrella flashing.

Today when I woke up and looked out of my window, I saw snow laden cars and people in their snow wear. The window however, had alot of water droplets on it.

'Condensation' I thought. Afterall, since there was snow on the ground, it couldn't exactly be raining. (I know , after CAREFUL thought, that condensation won't form on the outside of my window since the inside is warmer. SO YA. IM NOT STUPID!)

Anyways, well, yea, it was raining , together with snow. Hmmmmm.

As per my past post where i said it was snowing and raining at the same time , let me tell you, its DAMN WEIRD. DAMN DAMN WEIRD.

I shall give snowing and raining a new name:

Snaining. (you heard it here first!) (Edit: Crap. I googled 'Snaining' and there's already a term like that in the urban dictionary. CRAP!)

Oh wells, yes, so while I appreciate rain, I don't exactly appreciate Snain.

The following are certain things that might happen in snian..

1) The gound is wet hence your shoes get wet.

2) The ground has snow, hence your shoes get wet. Also, Snow mounds on the road are mischievous things. They don't tell you if they're real snow or fake snow. HENCE, many times you step into a mound of snow because there is no other way across, and surprise surprise, you're ankle deep in water! Ho ho ho. Wet Shoes!

3) The ground has ice, hence you slip + your shoes get wet.

4) Fake Ice forms, and so, well, yes, you crack the surface and your feet are bathed in nice slushy , as Shufen puts it, Chng-teng-ish water.

5) The wind is strong, and your umbrella decides to do a flash.


Regarding the flashing umbrella, I was next to this lady, and the wind was blowing like a 10000 watt hairdryer, and as we were trying to navigate the fake snow mounds, I said, "this is horrible!". Immediately, her umbrella did a flash and I was like. hmmmmmm. "yea, that's horrible!"

Notice the snow/rain. This was after it stopped raining for a while. So what I had to deal with, was twice of that. or maybe even 10 times. hoho.

I had thoroughly soaked shoes for the whole of lesson day today. Hence I went to get water proof shoes. Not exactly nice, but yea, they'll do. Expensive though :(

I'll be visiting Washington D.C. on friday, so am looking forward to it! :)

CNY Day 1 and Day 2 and Day 3 and so on and so forth.

I was bored and so I decided to ramp up the oomphness of the blog.
Like the new red? Its REDDER, BRIGHTER and BOLDER.

For the curious ones, you might be asking, "but why, dear Liang Yuan? Why? "

Well, hear yee my little curious ones (the non curious ones, you might want to click on the 'back' button which will lead you probably to google.com and you can go google 'mirror mirror on the wall, who's the ugliest of them all.') , the answer is because CNY HERE IS LIKE *(&%^%^&&*()*^.

There.

I'm SO SO SO thankful for my 2 lovely cousins and friends who are here cos without them, there would literally be no CNY celebrations for me.

NY has No CNY Festivites, No visiting, No well-wishes at all. urgh.

Why oh why?

In the Year of the Ox, in MY YEAR, I HAVE to be away for CNY! Away from Chinatown in all its red, gaudy, gold and glittering splendour, away from the bright glowing oxen grazing peacefully on road dividers, away from my house where the second level has turned bright yellow, away from my wonderful friends, away from my superlarge and super great family!

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I shall find some pics of Chinatown now. gimme a sec.







WHOOOOAAAAAAAAA.

Singapore actually has like a dedicated CNY website can.
http://www.visitsingapore.com/cny/

go and visit! quite nice.

Ok crap. I cant find 2009 CNY pics of chinatown.
BUT I KNOW THE DECORATIONS ARE DAMN NICE COS I SAW THEM LIGHTED UP BEFORE I LEFT !

(SORRY IF THIS blog post SOUNDS DAMN CHILDISH but i have lapsed into the childish bloggin style again)

ok, so what did I do for CNY eve?

Well, I went to visit Chinatown. Guess what, all the stores were closed. urgh. No mood liao. See the pics lor, damn no mood.

NO MOOD RIGHT?
YA LOR!
EVEN MY RED TEXT HAVE MORE CNY MOOD!
DONG DONG DONG CHIANGG!

SO .

WHAT DID I DO NEXT??????

Well, I had a reunion dinnerRRRRR!!! with Yi and Si and Yi's friend yuki!

Guess where! At a Chinese restaurant called Shun lee where we were the ONLY chinese patrons!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

(Disclaimer: Yi! I am NOT criticising your choice cos you had never been there and I REALLY REALLY REALLY appreciate you arranging everything! Ur the BEST! BUT pleaseeeee let me COMPRAIN about the restaurant ok! once again, I am VERY appreciative of your effort! hehe <3>

Looks nice right?

Looks nice right?


Wrong!


1) aiyo, the food CMI. we ordered like 4 dishes, 3 CMI! Only the smoked duck was nice. The rest right, even I can cook better.
the beef hor fun had clumpy horfun. The tofu was just boring (but ok la, not THAT bad ). The fish was the worst! It was NOT COOKED!

So we called the waiter , told him it wasnt cooked.
He said oh ok, I'll take it back

So i was thinking, ok.....I think he will give us a new plate!

Well, Im thinking that way cos thats what they usually do at EXPENSIVE restaurants (this restaurant was like expensive ! )

so we waited.
and waited.

and then the fish came out
LOOKING LIKE SOME ONE ATE IT AND SPAT IT OUT AGAIN!

I mean, seriously, they just took the fish, all the bones and all, and re stir fried it wihtout even trying to make it look good on the plate.

It didnt help that the dish was the colour of SH*T!

Aiyo.

Can faint.

2) The waiters cannot take pictures!

take 1: finger

take 2: howcome only 3 ppl!

take 3: WTH?

So.....

one of the CUSTOMERS volunteered to help us take.
COS THE WAITER WAS LEANING INTO HIM TO TAKE A PHOTO!

Ahhhhhhh. correct.

WTH?

Me skyping with Yi.

ha! I called home and she talked to Pa over loudspeaker over skype.
I'm good. LOL










~




Ok, this has NOTHING to do with CNY, but I
am kinda amused that I'm always
Liang, Wong.

as seen in the name card i was given:

Can u imagine?

We're ALL
Liang, Wong

OR

Liang, TAN

SO FUN RIGHT!!!

Ah , now that's better. I got my prof to help me do another one.

:)

AND!
They use like 3 holes here

HENCE THE BIG ASS HOLE PUNCHER
..
.
.

Aiya, stop saying im whining too much, Im not complaining, I'm just amused.
ALRIGHT?

:D

Funny thing is, as i punch my papers, i always absent mindedly fold the middle part as though Im punching with a 2 hole puncher.

heh.

my mind has a brain of its own.

does that make sense?

hmmm

its 1 15 am here.
gimme a break


I PROMISE TMR's BLOG POST IS NOT GOING TO BE SO WHINEY / CHILDISH/ WHATEVER U WANT TO CALL IT!

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR AGAIN!

新年快乐，万事如意！

When you read this, you're either going to have or are in the midst of your reunion dinner.
It could also already be Chinese New Year in Singapore.

So,

新年快乐，万事如意

to one and all!

Whatcha think of the new blog look? Doesn't it just create the mood?

:)

~

Chinese New Year for our family is a very big thing. There are 3 full, and I mean, FULL days of visiting and 拜访-ing. I have many many fond memories of previous CNYs at home, but this time round, things are gonna be different! It will be my first time celebrating CNY away from home, in New York!

Ok, so I'm not exactly thrilled by the prospect of celebrating CNY here.

There's almost no CNY mood and with the cold, it still feels more like Christmas then it does CNY. Not to mention! On 初一and初二, I have school as per normal and worse still, I have assignments due on both days!

Hrmph.

But guess what, there's always a silver lining behind every cloud!

I will be celebrating CNY with both Si and Yi!

This will also be the FIRST time in a gazillion years that I'm celebrating CNY with Liang Yi!
Yi, this is momentous; you have to give me a super big Ang Bao can.

_________________________________
Oh, Here's an announcement concerning Yi!

Yi's gonna be spending the whole of next year in London, cos she managed to get the LSE Study Abroad thing from her University! So proud of her! :)
_________________________________


So Si arrived today and both Yi and I went to JFK to pick her up.
Horrendous journey there: The subway did not connect to the JFK airtrain cos of some malfunction (The Subway here is freakishly unreliable at times, urgh, how i miss the scrubbed clean MRT!) and so we had to get out of the train station, board a bus , and connect to the sky trains. Some of the poor passengers were lugging heavy luggages and you could imagine how irritated they must have been.

Yi already in the CNY mood, looking very much like an ang bao

Shades make you look cool, and they hide the eye bags! :P

Our little pre-reunion-dinner reunion.

So if you notice, my head board has disappeared! Well, I don't like putting my head near the window cos its too cold, so today I turned the bed around.

Let me tell you, that flimsy bed frame almost caused me a back sprain + hand sprain + neck sprain + ankle sprain + whatever sprain. That area was definitely not meant for furniture moving so I sort of had to perform some martial qigong aerobics to get it to flip around. But oh well, I have practiced enough furniture moving at home so yea, it still worked out in the end.

:)

Well, Mummy and 大姨 baked pineapple tarts for me to bring to the States, ( 大姨 your pineapple tarts are THE BEST! ) and well, we being in the CNY mood, decided to pose with the little bits of goodness.

notice Yi's tart in these pictures.....

Now you see it.........

....... now you don't! Ha!

Anyways, while I was searching for photographs to put for the banner above, I came across some photographs of ee Veron together with Da be nian and luo be nian from the 2008 CNY celebrations. As usual, Ee Veron had a radiant smile and all three of my aunties looked fantastic . Well, those were happier times.

Anyone who reads this, please tell Ee ee veron that I have asked after her and tell her to continue with her therapy to get well!




~



Ok, so yesterday, I went to visit MoMA.

______________________

INFOBITS by LY & WIKI

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, USA, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been singularly important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world.^[1] The museum's collection offers an unparalleled overview of modern and contemporary art,^[2] including works of architecture and design, drawings, painting, sculpture, photography, prints, illustrated books, film, and electronic media.

MoMA's library and archives hold over 300,000 books, artist books, and periodicals, as well as individual files on more than 70,000 artists. The archives contain primary source material related to the history of modern and contemporary art. It also houses an award-winning fine dining restaurant, The Modern, run by Alsace-born chef Gabriel Kreuther.

______________________

The next few photos aren't at MoMA.
I just thought they were cute.

SO CUTE RIGHT ??
Hui! It reminds me of you and your stupid toys. HA!

Entrance into MoMA

Those walls are big video screens. Very amazing, very magical. Watch the video:


There were also some unexpected things linked to Singapore which I saw in MoMA:

Apparently some famous architect designed the Concourse in Singapore:

For such a nice building, it actually had an unimaginative name: 'Beach Road II Office Tower'. heh.

The actual Concourse!

You might recognize the following sculpture. It was really small one created by Sculptor Henry moore.

A replica of his sculpture outside OCBC centre.
That's where Peach Garden is!

___________________
INFOBITS by LY & WIKI

Moore's signature form is a reclining figure. Moore's exploration of this form, under the influence of the Toltec-Mayan figure he had seen at the Louvre, was to lead him to increasing abstraction as he turned his thoughts towards experimentation with the elements of design. Moore's earlier reclining figures deal principally with mass, while his later ones contrast the solid elements of the sculpture with the space, not only round them but generally through them as he pierced the forms with openings.

Earlier figures are pierced in a conventional manner, in which bent limbs separate from and rejoin the body. The later, more abstract figures are often penetrated by spaces directly through the body, by which means Moore explores and alternates concave and convex shapes. These more extreme piercings developed in parallel with Barbara Hepworth's sculptures.^[38] Hepworth first pierced a torso after misreading a review of one of Henry Moore's early shows. The painted plaster Reclining Figure (1951) outside the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, is characteristic of Moore's later sculptures: an abstract female figure intercut with voids. There are several bronze versions of this sculpture. When Moore's niece asked why his sculptures had such simple titles, he replied, "All art should have a certain mystery and should make demands on the spectator. Giving a sculpture or a drawing too explicit a title takes away part of that mystery so that the spectator moves on to the next object, making no effort to ponder the meaning of what he has just seen. Everyone thinks that he or she looks but they don't really, you know."^[39]

____________________

The following pics are not in MoMA obviously.

We were playing Lego Man at the apple store's Kids section.
How apt!

:)

Anyways, this has been another long post, do enjoy your CNY and have loads of fun!
ps. Don't eat too much if not you'll get a sore throat and a bulbous tummy.

First Week of School

My First day of school was on Tuesday because Monday , being Martin Luther King Day, was a holiday.
_________________________

INFOBITS

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a United States holiday marking the birthdate of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., observed on the third Monday of January each year, around the time of King's birthday, January 15. It is one of four United States federal holidays^[1] to commemorate an individual person.

King was the chief spokesman of the nonviolent civil rights movement, which successfully protested racial discrimination in federal and state law. He was assassinated in 1968.

_____________________

Ok, Now I feel really ignorant because although I have always known of Martin Luther King Jr, I never knew he was assassinated. Oh no.
:(

Well, Tuesday wasn't exactly considered school because it was also President Obama's Inaugeration. Although we had lessons, the kind, nice and smart professor released us 45 mins early to watch the 'historic' event.

It was really fun because everyone was huddled together in a few rooms, all intently watching the inaugeration ceremony. Being Singaporean, such an experiecnce is rather enlightening and is quite an eye opener. Don't mistake me, I am not saying our politics leaves much to be desired; I am perfectly happy with our system (as Ying jie/Wei Kor should ALREADY know by now!), it's just really different to be in a country where people actually have that much passion for politics.

Bad picture of me, but it's the only one of me in that room. Oh well.



ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

WHAT TO DO?
SCHOOL HAS STARTED!!!!!!!!!


I should blog about my classes

BUT.

Finance is not particularly interesting can !

AYEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Oh ya! When Dr Rick Warren said 'SASHA' as though he was performing some ancient secret ritual during his speech, the whole room actually started laughing!

If u haven't watched it, go catch a clip! I'm sure if u you tube Dr Rick Warren, Sasha, you should get something.
Not sure. But try. it was hilarious.

Why on earth did he say her name like that?
Damn weird.

Unexpected Sighseeing I & II

Today was the start of proper lessons and more importantly, the inaugeration of President Obama, but that's a blogpost for later.

:)

So, yesterday was great for me because I had enough of cold rooms and decided to do something about it; Called up the maintenance people, said it was really really cold, *shiver shiver*, and they sent someone to take a look.

The guy realised the clogged filter was the problem and proceeded to change it.
(really now, that's not too hard to figure out considering that when I opened up the heat system to check the first time I was here, I almost died of an instant dust induced asthma attack)


I. Am. So. Thankful.

Praise the Clean Filter.
Praise the Warm Air.
.
.
.
.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
.
.
.
Well, later that morning Yihan and I travelled Uptown (If you haven't already realised there was a map on the right, you do now. Well, Uptown is upper manhattan, as opposed to midtown, where I am at, and down town, where Wall Street, the WTC site, SOHO is ) to visit Sengteck and Xinxin at Columbia.
.
.
I can only say, Sengteck, you are VERY lucky to be doing grad school in Columbia.
.
.
.
.
.
IT IS FREAKING BEAUTIFUL CAN!!!!!!!!!!!!

The gates right outside the subway kinda already hint at the kind of buildings you'd see inside.
I called them Greek, Yihan said they were Roman, but Sengteck said we're both sorta correct since the Romans were so influenced by the Greeks or something.
Whatever.
Go check up wikipedia if you're interested.




:)

.
.
Now now, ain't he/she/it cute?
.
.
.Hohoho.

Oh my! Someone made a sculpture of Liangyuan, Wong!

I love how he/she/it took the effort to be faithful to my hairstyle.

Xinxin and I.

He's reading law at Columbia Law school now. This guy has had some amazing journeys.

This is the alma mater. She has a hidden owl somewhere.

Sengteck says that if you spot the owl (without being told that there's a hidden owl), you'd be valedictorian for your year or something.

Well I spotted it. So smart hor? I know..... :)

Just Fairy-tale-ish.

The Thinker

INFOBITS BY LY & HIS FRIEND, WIKI
The Thinker (French: Le Penseur) is a bronze and marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin held in the Musée Rodin in Paris. It depicts a man in sober meditation battling with a powerful internal struggle.^[1] It is often used to represent philosophy.

So, I requested for a proper american brunch, and Sengteck bought us to this nice quaint place called the Kitchenette.

Yes, Nice, Quaint Place.

无人是岛！
Pa always says this. I think thats the correct translation.
.
.
.
.
Well, I titled this post as such because basically, we walked and walked and stumbled upon this BEAUTIFUL winter-wonder land-ish park.




UNEXPECTED SIGHTSEEING I

Ok, maybe Sengteck knew it existed, but I never thought we would be seeing something quite so beautiful!

Columbia has a cliff and this park is located at the foot of that cliff.
It is so pretty these pictures really don't do it justice.

Behind us is actually a frozen pond.

Look! even the waterfall has icicles! My first 'live' icicles! heh.

Sengteck tried standing on the frozen pond. Even with the cracks in it.
Talk about being a risk taker.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Too bad it didn't break - it would have made for fantastic blog posting if it did.
But, oh well, I wouldn't want a frozen Sengteck now, would I.
:)

.
.
.
So yes, we walked and we walked, and once again, we stumbled upon a Cathedral!

UNEXPECTED SIGHSEEING II

Well, Sengteck knew it existed and so did Xinxin, BUT, xinxin , having stayed there for a gazillion years, NEVER knew it was such a fantastical, gorgeousical, fabulousical Cathedral.
It was the first time he stepped into that Cathedral!
.
.
.

THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF
SAINT JOHN THE DIVINE

INFOBITS BY LY & HIS FRIEND,WIKI.

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, officially the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in the City and Diocese of New York, is the Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. The cathedral is nicknamed St. John the Unfinished.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]}

Located at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue New York, NY 10025 (between West 110th Street, which is also known as "Cathedral Parkway", and 113 Street) in Manhattan's Morningside Heights, the cathedral is claimed to be the largest Cathedral and Anglican church and fourth largest Christian church in the world (although the title is disputed with Liverpool Anglican Cathedral)^[8].

The cathedral, designed in 1888 and begun in 1892, has, in its history, undergone radical stylistic changes and the interruption of the two World Wars. It remains unfinished, with construction and restoration a continuing process.

The Cathedral was under construction, but nonetheless extremely breathtaking.

Well yes.
Entry into the cathedral is free, but you are invited to make a donation.
We being like stingy Singaporeans, didn't exactly donate when we went in.
Furthermore, we didn't exactly plan to want to go in to sight see!
It was unexpected!
RIGHT?

BUT!

As we left, I wanted a picture with the beautiful door!
So I went up to it to take that photo up there and
admire its beautilities
(i love this word from UB).

GUESS WHAT I SAW!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
Hence, hence.
.
.
.
.

LOL
It was enough to make me donate before leaving!
Now I don't feel so bad !

Outside the Cathedral.
Isn't it just magical?
.
.
.
.
.
.
OK, so the day didn't end too well cos we went on a double decker bus ride.
Yihan was correct in telling me not to go for it.
1) It was cold
2) It was snowing
3) It was dark

With all the above mentioned factors,
we basically signed up for
AN EXTRA LONG BUS RIDE WITH A RADIO COMMENTORY!

we COULDNT see anything cos the stupid windows were stupidly fogged up.
The purpose of a bus ride is to sight see , no?
But the organizers still had to go ahead with it!
Talk about post purchase dissonance.

Urgh.

ugly photo

Ugly photo again

Ugly photo once more

Final ugly photo



SEE! ALL THE PHOTOS ARE SO CRAPPY LOOKING!
MAKES ME ANGRY JUST LOOKING AT IT!

share my anger with all of you.
Now, do you feel angry for me oso?

:)

Now I feel better.
Thank you for sharing my anger.
It is appreciated.
And I'm so foo of shit.

:)

Bye!