//...kennie's little beach paradise...\\

Friday, September 23, 2005

DAY 2
World Premiere of the movie Flightplan
1900hrs
Alibis: Bran, Jingrong, Siwen and Xueli

Celebrity #7
Name: Jodie Foster

Claim to fame: Oscar winning or nominated actress (no idea). Acted in a series of great movies - The Silence of The Lambs, Contact, Maverick, Panic Room, Nell, Anna and The King

Confirmation: 100% (with photos)

Celebrity #8
Name: Teri Hatcher

Claim to fame: Acted as Lois Lane in the early superman series and now one of the leading ladies in Desperate Housewives

Confirmation: 50% (captured her in the photos. Resembles her a lot but nobody seems to remember seeing her on the red carpet)

DAY3
Universal Studios
1200hrs
Alibis: Bran, Jingrong, Siwen and Xueli

Celebrity #9
Name: Jerry O'Connell

Claim to fame: Acted in a stringy of forgettable roles. Only remembered him in Scream 2 and Joe's Apartment

Confirmation: 100% (with photos and the confirmation of the studio tour guide)

Celebrity #10
Name: Viggo Mortensen

Claim to fame: Acted as Aragorn in the Lord of The Rings trilogy

Confirmation: 0% (We were tired of looking for celebrities on the day of our departure and we gave his new movie premiere a miss. Haha)

DAY 4
Taipei Airport
0700hrs
Alibis: Bran, Jingrong, Siwen and Xueli

Celebrity #11
Name: Zhang Shan Wei

Claim to fame: I remembered him as a host and quite a crappy singer with a funny look. lol

Confirmation: 100% (Xueli went up to him and questioned his identity and went ahead and took
some pictures of him)

Kenneth set up the umbrella @ 11:19 PM

(0) comments

Hollywood is freaking Hollywood

After the last entry, I thought I won't be seeing anymore stars for the moment. Come on, can you imagine seeing 5 celebrities in one day, say in a span of 5 days in Los Angeles I have seen celebrities for 4 freaking consecutive days! hollwood is happening baby and its happening under my nose.

Alright! Let me introduce the stars that I have met and have come to a pretty close proximity to

DAY 1
Post emmy awards party
2300hrs
Alibis: Nijam, Clement, Bran and Stanley

Celebrity #1
Name: Paula Abdul

Claim to fame: Singer, choreographer and dancer of the 1980s. One of the judges of the hit TV series American Idol

Confirmation: 100% (with photos)

Celebrity #2

Name: Phil Keoghan

Claim to fame: Host of the popular reality show The Amazing Race

Confirmation: 100% (I can't be wrong)

Celebrity #3

Name: Eva Longoria

Claim to fame: One of the lead actress in the hit series Desperate Housewives

Confirmation: 100% (I saw her twice and she was wearing the same dress for the emmys and out of all the celebrities I was the closest to her when I saw her - like maybe a person's distance)

PS: She is really gorgeous!

Celebrity #4

Name: David Boreanaz

Claim to fame: Acted alongside Sarah Michelle Gellar in the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Angel and later on came up with his own series titled Angel

Confirmation: 100% (Again I cannot be wrong. He was in breathing proximity)

Celebrity #5

Name: Shannon Elizabeth

Claim to fame: Acted in American Pie 1 and 2

Confirmation: 95% (Thought the name was familiar when the paparazzi shouted and she was wearing the same dress in the emmy photos I came across)

Celebrity #6

Name: Jessica Simpson
Claim to fame: Singer in the Britney Spears Christina Aguilera era and wife of ex 98 degree member Nick Lachey and went on doing a reality TV show on their marriage called Newlyweds

Confirmation: 20% (Well, the paparazzi shouted Jessica and I went around sourcing for a Simpson, an Alba or a Biel and the closest I found was a blonde chick and I thought Simpson it must be. But after walking past her from a distance, I am not so sure.)

Kenneth set up the umbrella @ 4:36 PM

(0) comments

Monday, September 19, 2005

Ahh...after our little trip to the universal studios, we decided to have a our dinner and Hollywood and then across came "Kenneth". I thought someone was calling another Kenneth. But being me, I turned around nonetheless and I saw Clement, Stanley, Wanyi and Nijam - The Loma Linda gang. Wow! We met up like fate brought us together. lol.

Anyway, they decided to join us for dinner and after dinner we all decided to go back to our little humble abode at Alta Cienega Motel and we squeezed 9 people in a car. My personal record broken!

The boys decided to have a little boys night out while the girls stayed in the motel. We made our way to Sunset Boulevard and found ourselves in the middle of a party with limousines, security, paparrazi. And we realised that it is the post Emmy awards ceremony party!!!!! I was so star stuck. I saw like almost 6 familiar faces(will tell you who on my next entry). Oh man! Forget about Zoe Tay and Fann Wong man. Anyway after that we visited some club with some people dancing around the pole collecting bills simultaneously (I can't afford to be blantant here cos a lot of people will be reading this haha). I can't say that they are fully dressed but well....you know the usual lap dancing requests etc. It is a once in a lifetime experience and though everything is peachy, I did feel some sense of sympathy towards these people getting like $1 plus tips for flashing their boobies. Oh well....I am still freaking star stuck man

Kenneth set up the umbrella @ 5:32 PM

(0) comments

Universal Studios was awesome literally. I had a really great time playing the rides and stuff.

1. Van Helsing - this is like the haunted house of the park and though I must say its pretty good, there are far too many people in the house for it to be scary.

2. Terminator 2 - This is some 3D show and its pretty moderate. Not a big fan of Asta La Vista.

3. Studio effects of Madagascar, Bourne Supremacy, Land of the Dead, Backdraft. They are pretty good especially the hosts. Quirky and funny.

4. Jurassic Park - This ride is awesome. Though its a little anti climatic but overall one of the best

5. The Mummy - Most exhilarating ride but just too short. And I screamed my lungs off.

6. Waterworld - Really great show and I got wet!!!!!!. They showed Miami Vice when I first visited Universal studios many years ago. Much better than the actual movie. Haha.

7. Back to the future - The lowest point of the theme park! Really stupid ride. They warned people suffering for dizziness not to ride but they didn't warned us that it will cause us to be dizzy.

8. Fear Factor Live - Really cool show. Wanted to be a part of it but the timing seems to be really off. But anyway it is really cool

9. Shrek 4D - Lord Farquaad came back as a spirit and wanted to get Princess Fiona back! The effects are really cool

And throughout the rides we took a lot of photos with many characters. Cool

Russell with his Gladiator outfit!

Charlie Chaplin doing a little dance

Spongebob with an ultra long nose

Donkey!

Woody the Woodpecker??? I think that's his name....

Kenneth set up the umbrella @ 5:11 PM

(0) comments

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Right now I am in Los Angeles in a pretty rundown motel. Its pretty darn dilapidated but thank God the landlady is a chinese and the breakfast is pretty good for a motel too. The people here in LA are much less friendly than the people in North Carolina. Its pretty shady too and the people here are just too "funky". I miss NC.......
Just went to Santa Monica beach today. Did some suntanning and got a little burnt but the biggest deal is that one of my toes got caught by a fishing hook and the whole hook actually went in. I am just praying to God that I will not come down with any diseases due to that.
After tanning, we went to the mall as well as Third Street Promendae to do some shopping. And Siwen finally bought her Levi's jeans after weeks of delibitation. Tomorrow we are heading to Universal Studios!

Santa Monica Pier!

Beach is freaking cold in the morning. That explains all the jackets

Siwen and Xueli trying something funny

Bran and me trying something funny too

I am taller than Bran!

Kenneth set up the umbrella @ 1:05 PM

(0) comments

Friday, September 16, 2005

Revelation

How ya'll doing?

Alright, I will be leaving North Carolina tomorrow for LA. Things had gotten a little sappy for me. I will really miss Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina and mostly the lifestyle and the people living here.

We said a lot of goodbyes today from Mr. Luten, the doctors (inckuding Marlene), the administrative staff (Tami :) ), the receptionist, the service counter people, the students etc. Though we were only here for 2 weeks, they have been really really friendly and its was very welcoming. We joked that if we bring back this culture of friendliness back to Singapore, we will probably get stares. Haha. I just love this place so much and NC will definitely have a place in my heart.

This trip has kind of given me an insight of what I want to do. Before the exchange, I was sure I didn't want to do a post graduate course but now I really wouldn't mind doing a post graduate course overseas NOT in singapore. Well let me say that I am not a big fan of the education system back there.

PS: Xueli complained that she damaged a lot of her stuff (her socks, shoes, jacket, track pants and cap)

Kenneth set up the umbrella @ 9:29 AM

(0) comments

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

the entrance of the holocaust museum

Kenneth set up the umbrella @ 9:01 AM

(0) comments

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Road Trip

I had my first interstate road trip with our second rented car, a Toyota Corolla through Virginia, Washington and Maryland.
Virginia - Our first stop and we met up with friendly locals at Virginia. Close to 2 hours drive and honestly speaking, I was restless driving along the highway at 110km/h for a while. Haha

Our not so cheap motel with bad security at Maryland where we found out that there are 37 wanted people for first degree murder published in the newspaper.

DAY 2 - We headed our way to Washington by the metro and I had the most amazing experience since forever. The national holocaust museum is the finest museum ever. Before, I didn't realise the severity of the holocaust. Though the museum did a good job exhibiting the holocaust, no one can describe and fathom the suffering and the persecution that the Jews faced. It is like the must see place whenever you are in Washington cos your life will be changed after that.
Next we went to the national museum of american history and though it was pretty cool, nothing could beat the holocaust museum. Above is a photo of us and George Washington. Next stop is the national air and space museum where we saw a lot of planes and rockets.

We visited the different monuments - Washington monument, WWII Memorial and the White House during 9/11. Pretty cool Huh.

We spent the last day shopping at Potomac mills at Virginia. Ditto. Haha.

Kenneth set up the umbrella @ 12:52 PM

(0) comments

Friday, September 09, 2005

Alright, yesterday was a tired one. I went back to our cottage home and slept through the night literally. Must be from all the walking accumulated since the touring days of the campus.

Yesterday we managed to observe the clinical sessions of the year 4 and talked to a couple of them including the doctors and the dental assistants. Yes! They have dental assistants but its not a 1:1 ratio though. Though some cases are pretty similar to what we do at home, there are still some differences like they have mostly the auto injector gun while we are still doing the primitive way of mixing everything.

Anyway after that, Mr Luten took us to another tour around campus and he brought us to the Dean E Smith center where Michael Jordan once played for North Carolina and all of us got one free poster of the NC football team.

Next we went to meet up with Jingrong's friend, Kim at the Duke university and visited the chapel and the campus. The Chapel is the biggest and most awesome one I have seen, The buildings at the campus are very pretty and castle like. They described it as gothic but I beg to differ. People there are less hotter than the UNC people I feel. Haha. We took a little hike to who knows where and found ourselves a Mongolian grill restaurant and it was the best meal ever since for me at least. Kim was nice enought to drive us back and spare us the agony of walking again.

Go Heels!

Kenneth set up the umbrella @ 7:15 PM

(0) comments

Thursday, September 08, 2005

God bless America

Some building in the campus that looked majestic

Endo class where we found ourselves a little awkward being the only few asians around

World largest ram?

The 2 wonderful doctors that made us feel so much at home

Our first official day in UNC Dentistry. We started our first lecture of pulp biology aka endodontics with the year 2s. And we already are equipped with the knowledge so it made things easier. But the lecture was held really well. I guess the education system is just different from here and Singapore. What you get here is what you see in the movies, students engaging in a really personal discussion despite a big lecture group. Though the class was slightly rowdy than that of Singapore, I felt that it is a better way of learning. Oh well.

After the class, we were guided by Mr Luten around the campus and to Franklin Street and gosh it is a huge huge campus and we walked like we never walk before or at least for me.

At 2pm, we had pedo clinic to observe and it was really cool watching the whole clinic functioning. Many extractions were done and there were children crying and screaming but the one boy I saw was so brave that he only cried after the procedure in his mother's arms. They are all so cute. Man! Makes me wanna have my own kids soon. Though the functioning of the clinics is pretty similar to that of what we have, there are some difference like it's more spacious over here, they have digital x ray imaging, there isn't a need to do the paper form of treatment notes and some little extra help from the instructors

Have a good one!

Kenneth set up the umbrella @ 8:42 AM

(0) comments

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Our humble abode! Big huh. I am impressed!
My double queen size bed! Of course Jingrong is not sleeping with me. Haha
so cottagey....they even provide us with fruits in a basket!

Say a little prayer. This memorial is found at the park near our cottage home

Photo with the Dean - Professor Williams

Kenneth set up the umbrella @ 11:09 AM

(0) comments

Today we checked out of Marriott with some hesitation, knowing that our prepared accomodation will probably be not as good as what we had. We took a bus to see "Professor" Tom Luten at the school of dentistry and we had a brief introduction to the school. Apparently the undergraduates have to get a degree first before applying to be a dental student. The place is generally nice and welcoming. We seem to be the exact replica of them just slight smaller. They have the service counter, the photograher, the receptionist, the clinic cubicles, the lab 2 with their dummy heads etc.

Next, we were driven by a lady to this amazing neighbourhood and had this beautiful house for the next 2 weeks. It is like a small cottage and it is really big. Bran and I are sharing a place and the girls are having one. We have a room by ourselves, wireless connection, cable TV, kitchen, bath tub etc. It is like a hotel just that its a house this time. And the great thing is I think we don't even need to pay for the accomodation cos apparently UNC is this awesome gracious school. Haha. Thank God!

After that we visited Franklin street and had Mexican food for dinner and took a half an hr walk back to our little humble abode. And I just love the people over here. They are just so friendly!

Right now there is this show called Dial a Lesbian date with this babe stripping down! But she is mosiaced! Now the hosts are squeezing her boobs.

Have a good one!

Kenneth set up the umbrella @ 10:51 AM

(0) comments

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Lunchtime with people bigger our size......

Big big shopping mall.

Chocolate apple....something really unique but I didn't find it impressive though but it looks good!

Outside the chocolate factory

Dinner to go on the 2 hour ride on the car back to the hotel

Kenneth set up the umbrella @ 12:46 PM

(0) comments

Day 3 of my student exchange was spent shopping! Haha...Cos today is labour day so the school is closed and we are only starting our exchange programme tomorrow instead of today.

Today as usual we took a 2 hour drive from our hotel to Concord Mills. This place is like a ultra huge shopping mall with pretty decent prices. We just went one whole round from 12pm to 7pm, trying on clothes and stuff and just spending money. Haha. I spent pretty much on the branded stuff over there and the place is just therapeutic. Bought myself some Nike T-Shirts, a Guess berms, a pair of Levi's jeans and my first Oakleys. Haha. Heading back was a little rough as the roads are without headlamps and Jingrong was as apologetic as before for her navigating skills. Well, not that we blame her for it...Hah.

We learned a little of their culture and picked up a little of their slang for this 3 days and we realised the benefits of being bilingual when we talk offensive stuff about them (especially their weight issues and their unhealthy eating habits.

Have a good one!

Kenneth set up the umbrella @ 12:35 PM

(0) comments

Monday, September 05, 2005

Pontiac Gran Am....our beloved car for the weekend!

Wrightsville Beach......where you see everyone in bikinis and boardshorts

When it's all over......

Sunset at the town of Wilmington.

Harris Teeter - where we got our fresh water and our Ben and Jerry's

Kenneth set up the umbrella @ 8:24 PM

(0) comments

My SIA boarding pass.......love the SIA flight....so much things to do and of ocurse the stewardessSome fun stuff from delta. hated the journey...terrible seats...poor entertainment value
Colonel Sanders found lingering at Raleigh Durham Airport

My hotel room! Marriott! can you believe it?

Dinner with Marlene Teo who treated all of us to some japanese food

Kenneth set up the umbrella @ 1:14 PM

(0) comments