I am writing this from Boston. A place of much significance and memories. (and of course great company!!)
I will attempt to recount my experience chronologically.
day one.
I attended Singsem, and met many Singaporeans at the event. I realized I do not know a lot of them but it was a good opportunity to meet people 'from the same land, in the same land'. I must say I really enjoyed Prof Mabubani's plenary on Singapore's Defence and Security. Many thought-provoking questions asked, many clear responses given. It was insightful to say the least. As much as we get to learn about Singapore, it seems that a takeaway I have gained was the motivation to work harder just so that I could become more intellectually astute. It may be a stretch but something I definitely hope to work towards and not lose sight of.
After the seminar, we had a mini-RJ gathering
Toured Harvard, and as much as the buildings were fancy and all. Somehow i think stanford has started to grow on me. And i'm loving the country club feel! =]
Had dinner at Quincy's Market,
went to the Cheesecake Factory and headed back to the backpackers lodge. Walking around Boston was a pretty nostalgic experience but I think I will talk more about the nostalgia in day two. Boston Clam Chowder was the dish of choice, since we were in boston after all. and the cheesecake was just pure sin! the long walk back to our rock and roll lodge was -well for lack of a better word- long. but we managed to get there with our nifty iphone gps-es. and the shear power of bus 11. a good day overall, a tiring one.
day two.
Some of us went to tour Harvard again, but I decided to sleep in. At lunch time, we woke up to head to Little Italy. Had pasta at a decent pasta place and got cookies from mike's place. there was a queue. so i suppose it was good huh?
Those at Harvard went to the Charles River Regatta and said it was not that exciting. So instead we went back to the Quincy area for shopping. It was quite productive. =] I got a jacket and a scarf! no prizes for guessing the colour though! (especially if you know me well enough!) Towards dinner time, we headed to chinatown and had good food at penang, a malaysian restaurant. Roti Canai, pohpiah, asam laksa, bahkuteh, chickenrice,charkwayteow, sambal kangkong, stir fry veg. DURIAN MILKSHAKE, CHENDOL, PEANUT PANCAKE. I was a happy kid.
After that we went to visit Peabody Terrace. It was so wonderful to be at a place that was all too familiar. Almost surreal. The apartment buidings are still the same, the play grounds still woodchip. The function rooms, the diagonal walk way leading to our apartment. The water fountain's gone though. Needless to say, I was taking many many pictures of the place.
Momentarily lost my bearings but soon found the familiar route Marc and i used to walk to school every day. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes and an insurpressable grin on my face -- such a nostalgic experience -- I recalled all the memories I had of boston, of peabody and realised how 11 years have just flown by and I've come back to the place where i once lived on my own this time. The school was very much as i remembered it as well. Those green doors the black words on a white washed building. The play ground at the side. but i guess i didnt get to explore more since it was at night and the school was closed!
we headed back soon after, stopping by 7-11 along the way to pick up some food for the hungry. the long walk back to the backpackers inn seemed less dreary this time round and we prepared to depart for California the next morning.
also, a picture of our truly humble abode.
my first attempt at photoblogging. =P and some of the pictures are pretty terrible. I will improve on my camera skills!
