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! (: