WE ARE IN LA LA

we're back in los angeles after 5 days in beauuutiful san fran. im telling you, san fran is seriously one of the nicest places i've visited. nice weather, nice people, interesting places to visit, although the food wasnt that great. la isnt as cold compared to san fran, probably due to the traffic and higher number of people. i havnt perspired at all over here, the only time i perspired a little was when i was carrying the luggage from the hostel to the main road. the weather in san fran is damn nice, although it can get a little chilly sometimes.

anyway, i noticed that americans are generally friendly people. catch each other's eyes while walking down the corridor and you'll probably get a hi or how are you doing from them. unlike singaporeans who will probably quickly look down on the floor and pretend there's something there. friendlyyyy. ask them about their day in return and you'll get a fine or awesome in return. sometimes hearing things like this will really make your day. i've also noticed that they like to use thank yous as a form of sarcasm, similar to the way we use eh thanks ah.

we spent the whole of yesterday at the golden gate park. it's this park that is the size of a housing estate in singapore or something with beautiful scenery. we went to the japanese tea garden early in the morning, followed by the academy of science and then stow lake. the tea garden was damn nice, i like the japanese houses in the garden and the landscaping. the entire place wasnt very big, but maybe the way it's designed made it seem much bigger. the academy of science was an interesting place. it's this science centre/discovery centre -like place, just that it's much more interesting. the key attractions of the academy are the 3d theatre which was showing this boring 3d show about the life story of a butterfly and how a praying mantis ate the butterfly. nothing really spectacular. i think i was asleep for 2/3 of the show. then there was this exhibit showcasing the flora and fauna of tropical rainforests. we didnt bother visiting this cos we thought that we had enough of it already back at home, and the queue at this exhibit was really quite long.

the attraction i was looking forward to was the planeterium, which is this dome like lt with projectors projecting image from the floor onto the dome ceiling. which means that it's actually this super wide screen tv. anyway, the planeterium is supposed to give us an idea of how small our world really is, as compared to the whole of the universe. the show was alright at the beginning, but towards the ending it started to get a bit boring. i was dozing off towards the end of the show, and the reclined seats didnt really help in keeping me awake. still, i think the academy was still quite a good visit, although the entrance fee was a little steep at 20 usd.

we went to stow lake after the academy. i dont know why it's called stow lake, cos to me it's like this stream, just that it's longer and a little wider than most streams. maybe we were at the wrong place. but still, the lake/stream was still quite nice, with ducks and pigeons and people boating, and along the way we saw a family of squirrels at the botanical garden.

uncle tong drove us over to ocean beach after that, and it's damn bloody cold at the beach. i couldnt really take pictures properly cos the wind was damn strong. small people will confirm get blown away. in the end we didnt go down to the beach, cos we were all having trouble walking and there was sand blowing everywhere. so after the beach we went to some other places before having dinner at a chinese restaurant, which was good cos i was getting sick of eating oily stuff with no fibre for the past few days. the claypot rice served was totally different from the singapore claypot. instead of dark soy sauce, we were given this diluted dark soy sauce or this light soy sauce. and meat and everything was separated from the rice before being mixed. still im not complaining, it's like the first nice meal in a long while.

so today we're in la now. havnt really explored much, but westwood really seemed like a safe palce even at night. no hobos or people chasing after you. and you can actually see students still walking around the place at 9pm. we walked past our apartment just now, and from the outside it looked like it's a damn nice place. dont know about the inside yet, but i hope it'll be as good as the outside. we wont know until monday, cos that will be when the present tenants will be vacating the place. so now we're currently putting up at this place called the calremont hotel which is only 3 mins away from the apartment. this whole thing is acutally quite convenient, and the ucla ent is only like what, 5 mins away from the apartment? the only issue is that my lt buildings are damn far away from the entrance. i think it'll take something like 30 mins to get to my lessons. not good.

i need to shower and sleep, not thinking properly already.