aka HALLOWEEN

An excuse to dress up and drink. Except there was not enough alcohol and too many people cramped into one street; angry Americans yelling, “get off my fucking stairs!!!?!”; and distasteful music. The highlight of my weekend was actually finding a female toilet after freezing out on the street, so for me Halloween was overhyped.

Halloween dinner at DUC

All they serve at DUC is chicken...

Here is their attempt at making Halloween food. I think this is a crab?

Exchange kids...look at colourful Jana in a sea of black...very effective!

Friday 6th November, 2009

Marco’s b’day!

This time there was plenty of bad quality of beer, beer pong, beer-induced sickness and bear hugs.

Beer pong

Birthday boy!

Boston Beer! - we're currently doing a case analysis on Boston Beer Company, hence the nerdy excitement

Saturday 7th November, 2009

Atlanta Hawks vs. Denver Nuggets

Hawks won with 125 points, to Nugget’s 100.

Game was more riveting than baseball – which in itself is not a hard feat…

So what is the secret to having a good time in America? You need to drink and/or eat greasy food. Bah! 

Next week is Miami

A trip down memory lane – reliving childhood, but this time, actually going on the rollercoasters! I found that screaming my lungs out was an effective diversion to the feeling of imminent death. However, it has made me rethink sky-diving/bungee jumping – I loathe the feeling from free-falling – that you’ve still left half your guts on the top of the rollercoaster, even after you’ve touched down on the ground. Nevertheless, in hindsight it was a good experience, but I won’t be going on any more rollercoasters anytime soon…

Looks small from a distance...

Goliath

Entrance to Six Flags

Welcome!

Scorcher - a rollercoaster where you stand upright

Goliath

Not that many people around cause we were relatively early

Panic

Overlooking Goliath and Scorcher

Gotham City - inverted rollercoaster

Batmobile

American lunch - burger and fries, in massive proportions

Bumper cars! My second time driving ever. First time was go-carting when I was ten. Really must get a crack on real-life driving!

Jana

SUPERMAN!

Ultimate flight!

This ride straps your arms and legs, and then tilts you 90 degrees forward so that you are facing downwards. And then you take off like Superman....

Like so! Except I was so petrified, I was holding onto the bars for dear life, and couldn't even muster a Superman pose until the end when the ride was over.

Getting close to the ground

The Great American Scream Machine

I totally underestimated this rollercoasting, thinking it was just 2 (relatively small) drops. Little did I prepare myself for such a bumpy, rockety, screeching ride. At times, I was actually standing on my feet (because they don't strap you down on these old rides)

In the background you can see "Ninja" which has 5 loops

Me, Milan

Goliath again

And finally, Ben&Jerry's on the way home!

It was a gorgeous day, and we were visting Liberty!

Picture Perfect

I still can't believe we were there!

Madame Tussauds!

Most of these are on FB, but this one still gives me a chuckle. Oh Elton

George Dubya, I luvya

hahahahahahahaha. Marco & Madonna

Only in NY

Top of the Rock - Overlooking Central Park

Can you see her?

Financial District Walking tour - our tour guide

New York Stock Exchange

Wall Street

Ground Zero

Flag of Honor - names of all the victims from September 11

Sunset over Ground Zero

Bodies Exhibition - Real Life human bodies - muscles, skeletons, tissues, the effects of diseases on organs, dissected human bodies, embryos. Gave me nightmares a week later

Dinner at Carmines - Historic Italian Restaurant

Portions enough to feed 3-5 people

Bread pudding

Wednesday 7th October

Packing for NY. Deliberately underpacked so as to create a 'need' for shopping

Pre journey hype

 On the plane, Jana and I watched ‘The Accidental Husband’. Worst movie ever, beyond words. But it did provide pretty good view of Manhattan’s skyline and got us all excited for our arrival…

View of Manhattan from the plane

We arrived pretty late during the night, and to our consternation found that the hostel (L Hostel) was located in Harlem, where there had been a stabbing the previous night.  The hostel gave us the worst room (or rather, lack of room). It was merely an open space with 6 beds, and everyone on our floor could access it! So much for security.

Thursday 8th October

Nevertheless, woke up pretty early the next morning to begin exploring…

First view of Times Square after exiting Subway

 

Recognise this? From Forrest Gump

You may be wondering the significance of the following photo but Maoz has a special meaning for me, Kev, Michael and Samit. We first discovered this franchise in Amsterdam one cold evening and instead of going out clubbing, we went to eat here (as one usually does at midnight). It was the best felafel we had ever tried. We then stumbled upon a variation of this vegetarian delight in Barcelona, and then in London, and now New York! But sadly there is no Maoz in Sydney – otherwise we would run the stall into losses since it’s a buffet and being cheap uni students, we’ll be willing to sit there all day. No kidding.

the New York Post Office

 

Flatiron - First skyscraper in New York. Skinny, isn't it?

 

Spend the afternoon shopping along 5th avenue. Bought 3 coats (but ended up returning one of them since I was spending too much money)

the aforementioned coat that had to be returned!

Shopping bliss

Dinner at Rocky's in Little Italy

Italian chicken schnitzel (forgot the Italian name for it)

Little Italy

New Amsterdam: New York was originally founded by the Dutch

A stroll along Brooklyn Bridge at midnight. The song "You Said Something" by PJ Harvey came to mind

A lovely start to NY, though it meant our feet hurt for the rest of the trip!

Next post:

Day 2: Museum Mile: Guggenheim, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Natural history museum, MoMA, Empire State Building

Day 3: Madame Tussauds, Top of the Rock, Financial District Walking Tour, Bodies Exhibition

Day 4: This day was absolutely GORGEOUS…Statue of Liberty, Museum of Sex, Central Park, Chicago (the musical)

Day 5: Columbus Day Shopping Weekend. Discounts galore. We gave a new meaning to the phrase, ‘shop till you drop’

The concert was held in Georgia Dome, and according to Wikipedia, my trusty and only source of information, this is the second largest dome in the world after the Millenium Dome in London. It has the capacity to seat approximately 71,000 people, of which at least 50,000 were filled to see U2 (and Muse).

Second-hand tickets bought for $US35

For the first time ever, the Marta trains were packed with people. Some lame jokes on the train: "I'm going to U2, you too?"

This was the view initially from out seats. Notice how annoying that leg is - obstructing our view of the stage!

Muse was supporting act. SUPPORTING ACT! I was going to pay $100 to see them as the headline act in Australia...

Yep, there's that annoying diagonal leg blocking my view!

But Anirban, Si Wei and I weren't going to stay in that spot - we decided to jump seats. This is our first attempt and a minor improvement!

Muse's final song: Time is Running Out

After Muse, we decided to jump seats again, this time to the section just right of the stage. The tickets here would probably have cost us $80!

Look carefully at these 3 lucky camera-men! Best seats in the house!

Muse were alright, but not as great as U2. They were too loud so instead of hearing their actual songs, it was just a great din in my ears at times. I guess when compared to a successful band that knows how to work the stadium and audience, they paled in comparison! Nevertheless, it was good seeing them once in my life.

The following are photos of U2 in their 360 Tour. The lights and alien spaceship set were amazing! Not to mention the fact that Bono still crooned the old favourites like One, Stuck in a Moment, Beautiful Day, Vertigo, and With or Without You (in the second encore), plus some of their new songs in a 1hr 45 min set.

Bono

Exiting Georgia Dome

* Eddie’s Attic – an excellent evening spent listening to Ten out of Tenn, and restoring my faith in the South (in terms of music). Anirban had stumbled upon this live-music venue after researching the beginnings of John Mayer, so we decided to try this quaint little music room out – and what a pleasant surprise! Ten out of Tenn is a 10-person music collaboration of local American artists, mainly from Tennessee but also Chicago, playing indie-rock (reminded me of Broken Social Scene). During their performance, each artist would take the lead in singing & playing the guitar, whilst the others supported them, and this rotation went on for the entire night. My favourite performances were by Kyle Andrews, Mikky Ekko, and Joy Williams though the others were also really good! It was hard to decide which album to buy at the end of the night, but Jana, Anirban and I ended up getting 4 (Andrew Belle, Mikky Ekko, Joy Williams as well as the group album).

From the outside...

Ten out of Tenn (the entire band)

Mikky Ekko, Joy Williams and Jedd Hughes (guitarist for Keith Urban)

Jedd Hughes

For their encore, the band got off the stage and sung 'Don't worry, be happy' in the crowd. It was so sweet!

Me and Jana quite excited at the end

Clockwise from top left: Joy Williams, Mikky Ekko, Ten out of Tenn Volume 3, Andrew Belle

* Opera – after the initial success of Eddie’s Attic, I was excited to go out afterwards, and had heard that Opera (supposedly the ‘best’ club in Atlanta) was open for 18+. It’s incredibly difficult for me to go out in America because of their outdated and unnecessary rule of 21+ entry. So this was a rare opportunity and we rustled up enough people to grab a cab. Donning our nice clothes, we were ready to have a good evening…..but what a LETDOWN! Nobody was there by the time we got to Opera (round 1:00), except for a few shady short ugly guys. They were like moths which we had to try to swat away. I am disappointed that the only way in which Americans know how to dance (at least those in the South, I stand corrected about the rest of the country but hopefully I’ll get to see if NY is different) is to grind. I guess the slow r&b beats encourages this style, but all you see in the club is couples (guys/girls, sometimes girls/girls) dry humping. Get a room!!! In this respect I miss European or Australian clubs where you can have fun and dance with guys without worrying about your clothes flying off.

Also, needless to say, the international students were by far the best dressed. Next time I’m going in shorts!

Our house director actually thought we were going to see the opera, as opposed to the club. Ahh, I love the Europeans!

In da club...Angie, Jana and myself - IB girls!

Thursday 24 September, 2009

* Sean Kingston – Headline act for Homecoming Week. To be honest, I hadn’t really heard of any of his songs except for “Me Love”, so went frat hopping instead and only caught the last 20 minutes of his act. By the time I went to Sean Kingston, I being the asian lightweight, was sufficiently happy to listen to him croon ‘beautiful girls’. Not the most amazing concert I’ve been to but it was still enjoyable!

Sean Kingston

* After party at Moya – another 18+ club night, but surprisingly it was good! For one thing, there were more people, and although there was still excessive grinding, they played a variation of music (rnb given, but also pop and dance) that I had a great time dancing monkey style (ala flailing my arms around) with friends. Also, my new dress code for clubs: shorts, sneakers and tank! Assists with crazy dancing and also means I don’t have to worry about my dress being ruined!

An even crazier cab ride - 11 people this time. Now I know how it feels to be a sardine

Moya

View from the stairwell at the end of the night. Most people had already left

When we got back to the IB house, we chilled in the lounge and sobered up by listening to U2. They’re coming to Atlanta and I shall be seeing them in 2 weeks! And Muse is their supporting act!!! All for $35! (although we’ll only prob see them as little dots).

Si Wei and Marco

Will be hiding in my bat cave to study intensely this weekend. Have a 30% international finance exam next week – need to get my act together! It feels like it’s been a 3 month holiday thus far!

The event started off with an introduction from Dooley, the unofficial Emory mascot (the official one is the Eagle).

Then Carter came on. His first question was light-hearted: i.e. what do you think of Kanye’s interruption? He also answered a few questions about Israel-Egypt-Palestine (for which he won the Nobel Prize), health care reform in the US (needed), what he thought of Obama (22 out of 22 members of his family voted for Obama), whether racism still existed (yes) and other questions about his family. A few lucky exchange kids actually got to meet him and take a proper photo with him because they were clever enough to wait for him outside the conference room in which he was having dinner. But with my trusty zoom, I managed to get this blurry shot…

President Jim Carter

This past week I’ve been playing intense table tennis with Rehan and my butt cheeks have never ached so much (who woulda thunk!) Also went in a crazy cab ride where we squished 10 people into a 7 person cab. Played ‘flip cups’ and ‘beer pong’, and other cliche American games at a random’s bday party, then party hopping for the rest of the night.

A few other exciting news:

* will be heading to NYC in 2 wks

* booked flights to Mexico City for thanksgiving! swine flu? bah! Emory has the highest concentration of swine flu cases in the States. We have the Centre for Diseases right next to our uni…plus who can resist the call of sombreros, nachos, tequila, pyramids and volcanos! so far, around 6 of us are going.

* am now leaving for a music gig! pictures coming soon

A day at Georgia Aquarium, supposedly the largest in the world.

Here I got to indulge in my ultimate nerdy fantasy – laughing at ugly fish, with their ogly glassy eyes and pouty lips, and taking photos of them. A la the following photos. Enjoy.

View from the top

I wish my legs were as long as those on this hugeass crab (it was bigger than a lobster)

Beluga whale

hhhhhhahhhhaaaaaa

Starfish don't nearly amuse me as much. For one thing, where are their eyes?

I don't know what this is, but it has whiskers so I'm calling it a catfish

CUTEST chinese otters. Those frisky little things

Touching the mini manta rays. They feel like rubbery slimy gloves

New desktop background?

Looks like..

Gotcha!

shrooms

shark attack

whale shark

oh to be young again

Group shot - Si Wei, Milan, Michal, myself, Daniel, Kev (Anirban missing)

And last but not least, my favourite….

she has a fringe! Reminds me of hair spray. Or Dory from Finding Nemo.

We also watched the 4D movie but it didn’t live up to my expectations after the great movie we saw in Coca-Cola World. I was fully expecting rocking chairs and sea spray and wind, but instead it turned out to be some cartoon animation with lots of wholesome family tunes. Yeehhaa.

That night was spent watching 21. Great movie. Las vegas please! But not 21