-9 degrees celcius.

PICTURES TODAY!!! (: okay so i don’t know why the pictures come out in a gallery format, so just roll your mouse over each picture for its caption, and click on each picture to enlarge it. then to go back to the gallery just click ‘back’.

we woke up at 5a.m today, owen, myself, edward and owen’s dad, got all bundled up and got into the truck at 6am, then we set off for lake tahoe! owen’s dad was going to ski and edward was going to take snowboarding lessons while owen and i planned to drive around enjoying the view of lake tahoe and go TUBING! unfortunately.. by the time we got to soda springs, it was about an hour to closing time (4pm) and we had to line up for about 40 minutes to get the tubes just to go once! since we didnt want to pay 20 bucks for that, we didn’t. haha! had lunch at a nice cosy diner place where i had yummy french onion soup and garlic bread (: oh and for breakfast i got a breakfast bagel and coffee from this little cafe across the street from the gas station we stopped at. so far so good… no amusement park food owen’s folks are such great cooks, so i’m lucky enough to enjoy yummy dinners every evening at their home (: tonight we came back from the snow to a hearty dinner prepared by owen’s mom: pork roast, sweet potatoes, corn bread and broccoli…mm-mm.

so my first experience of snow was nothing short of breath-taking, although it wasn’t snowing. the houses all had a fat layer of white ‘icing’ on their roofs and steps, and they looked like cakes. i realise that i love walking in snow but hate walking on ice. in fact i slipped and fell once in the carpark haha! a little bruised but still alive (: oh and i brought back a little jar of snow for elfie! looks like ice kacang, but nicer.

we actually crossed the state line into nevada for a while, and went into a little casino called crystal bay or something. i was armed with a dollar bill but unfortunately we didnt know how to operate any of the machines. they didnt have the one-armed bandit! i wanted to sit there and pull the arm like a granny with a bag full of quarters.

so tomorrow… we’re going to downtown san francisco! owen’s giving me a lil’ tour and we even have… an itinerary. haha! getting up bright and early at 8am so we can take the BART and get there when everything comes alive.. i cant’ wait (: and then we’re coming back in the evening to help prepare new year’s eve dinner with the family!

sounds like its going to be another splendid day with the goldstroms

enjoy the photos!

walking orlando

and it’s DAY ONE of the adventures (proper) of ellie and desiree! (it was almost just adventures of desiree, but i managed to squeeze ellie into my luggage, thanks to his extreme flexibility and tenderness. unfortunately i did not take many pictures today. but this was because i was simply too overwhelmed by the vastly different lifestyle (and the fact that i perceived it as a lifestyle i’ll be adopting, seeing as i’m going to be here for 7 months) that people here lead. not that it was much different from what i experienced in LA or newyork, but a year of being back in singapore makes you forget certain things. oakland, and specifically rockridge, owen’s neighbourhood, is the nicest neighbourhood i’ve ever been in.

so the flights were alright, better than the other long haul flights i’ve been on. although i had the emergency exit seats with more leg room, and happened to be sitting next to a man who graduated form uc davis in 2004 and lived in sacremento, i was also surrounded by wailing babies with incredible stamina. and i mean, incredible. as a result, i think i slept for about a total of 20 minutes for the whole 16 hour journey.. and the food was alright… expected more from singapore airlines, but there was ONE thing that saved the day. the cream cheese and crackers were DIVINE! and i remembered xixi saying she asked for milo so i did and it saved me from the super cold coldness of the cabin. oh and it was so funny and nice how they asked me if i wanted them to hang my coat for me, like something out of an old english novel. then they opened a small closet-like compartment that i didnt even notice in the wall and hung my coat in there. haha!

when the pilot announced that the temperature in seoul was 3 degrees c i was shell shocked. hahaha. good thing we didnt have to go outside the airport. the staff at the airport keep speaking to me in korean and maybe they think i’m being stuck up for not wanting to speak korean to them. all the girls there look like they’ve share the same nose/eyes/mouth/chin as a korean celebrity. i’m not exaggerating. its so obvious that it makes a normal person look ugly because they haven’t had any plastic surgery done. if you know what i mean!

so i arrived at SFO a half an hour ahead of schedule, tried to call owen but didnt know how to operate the public phones that kept spitting out my quarters, but luckily i spotted him a while later holding up a sign that read “Desiree” in purple marker. (: (: (: we hopped into his lovely green truck and drove across the bay bridge to his home… he tried to make me guess which one his house was from my googlemap streetview memory, but all i could remember was the distinct beauty of his street cus of the insanely gorgeous trees that were shedding amazing autumn-coloured leaves. these trees were lining the street in a haphazard (unlike singapore) kind of way and there were massive piles of these crunchy leaves everywhere! his home is a really nice and cosy salmon coloured house, decorated (xixi, abit like gene’s house but not so ancient) quaint and a little eccentric, tons of photos of his sister and him and their family, and he has a (quite) little black poodle called Orlando! he showed me his old room that he had cleared out and put an air mattress in for me and the rest of his lovely home… and then we went for a walk around the neighbourhood with Orlando! i’d brought my camera along because i knew it was going to be beautiful, but ended up not taking any pictures because i was too caught up with allowing myself to imagine i lived here and i was strolling around in my own neighbourhood with all its REALLY cool little stores and eateries and barbers and people walking their dogs walking past each other trying to pry their dogs away from the other one’s backside. there were many shops along the way that was like woodwould, the shop i worked at. and quite a few vintage/2nd hand clothing stores (not the gross kind). i think if i was left there by myself i could’ve spent the whole day browsing the area (: weifen we have to come back here!

for dinner we had chilli and corn bread and salad with orlando lying at my feet under the table..an all american meal says owen’s mother! and then i tried on some of the ski-wear that owen’s family’s lending me for our trip to lake tahoe tomorrow where we’re gonna be tubing! it’ll be my very first time seeing snow and i’m super psyched, really hope it won’t be too cold for me to enjoy it! weather prediction’s about 4 degrees C! we’re setting off at 6am tomorrow so i should probably get some sleep now… i need it!

photos soon! i promise! (:

ellie

This is Ellie. Ellie is a little more than a year old. He looks like an elephant, weighs like a puppy and smells like elfie. Doesn’t talk much though.

4 more days of sun

merry christmas!! you’ve found ellie & desiree’s new travel blog! for the uninformed, ellie is my beloved elephant (well, elfie’s elephant technically). i shall post a picture of him up here one of these days! in just about 4 days, we’ll be jetting off to “the sunshine coast” of america, except ironically according to the latest friendly weather report, temperatures in san francisco are ranging from 5-15 degrees c! although it won’t exactly be snowing, i decided to add that feature on the blog (lasts till 4th jan) to add a little christmas cheer (:

i haven’t packed!!! still have stupid module mapping nonsense to settle in school, hopefully by tomorrow. my suitcase is standing in my room ready to be stuffed and manhandled. i still can’t believe i’m leaving so soon and for so long!!! the last time i was away in new york for over 3 months but i didn’t get homesick probably because i was busy operating rollercoasters full of overweight burger-wielding people. and it was SUMMER! no one misses home when its summer. but this time its going to be winter and new years and studying and twice as long! plus xixi won’t be there! it’s great that owen was nice enough to offer to let me stay at his place for the first few days while i’m in san francisco waiting for weifen to arrive.. although spending newyears with strangers in a backpacker’s hostel sounds pretty exciting (: i could always do that another time, once i’ve gotten over the shock of the cold.

i think i’ve a pocketful of super duper excitement just waiting to burst somewhere inside of me and it’s beginning to show signs of anxiousness. i definitely foresee a night of sleeplessness the night before i fly off. i’ll miss everyone!!! my family and elfie and xixi and everyone in hall! elfie got my mom a webcam and i’ve installed it and taught her how to use it. hopefully we get to skype often! everyone should get skype! if you can’t (although you really should because it’s free) no worries, i’ll be sure to post tons of pictures up here so you guys can, in the words of sham the copter man “feast your eyes”.

and if my fellow flyaway friends ashok and shanta and kim ever get round to starting up their own travel blog, i’ll be linking them! (: oh and speaking of friends, thank you EVERYONE who came for our One Last Night of Mayhem that night. and ashok! please send me those awesome underwater pictures we took!! i guess we all could use a little friendly goodness PLUS kick-ass durian puffs now and then, especially when a bunch of us will be leaving for a good half a year but we’ll be back before you know it. so in the meantime, enjoy the peace and quiet. haha!