Day 2 in Mexico

Whao! I managed to wake up on time to get prepared for the business trips =) But the breakfast was really screwed up. There were onli some fruits and cottage cheese. Luckily i brought alot of snacks to munch alon the way. We reached Walmart at 8am where we had out first business visits. We were suppose to learn about how Walmart manage their business in Mexico and wad was their business strategy. But well i was observing the entire store more coz that was my first time ever being in Walmart and i juz wanted to know more bout how it looks like.

After that we went to another company called Scantibodies where they made antibiotics, pregnancy kits and some other stuffs. It was realli cool to see hw the ppl work and learn bout the history of the company.

We then proceed to Tecate brewery. They manufacture Tecate beer there. We had tacos and beer for lunch and the tacos were the best tacos ever. It was jus sooo delicious. After touring Tecate brewery, we had a long bus ride to Ensedena where we checked into our hotel. After checking in we walked along the road to find a nice place for dinner. We settled with a seafood restaurant and i had salmon. It was realli delicious. Petter was very nice again as he had a seafood combo (wif lobster!) and he let me try his food. Oh the lobster was realli good =)!

After dinner, all of us walked to this club along the road and party. There wa sooo many of us that we managed to bargain to not need to pay entrance. It was like the coolest party i ever went coz everyone were so happy and there were so many of us. Everywhere u turned u see farmiliar faces. But since it was my roomie's first time clubbing i had to take good care of her. I wanted to make sure that she was ok.

I played games with the other ppl and it was sooo funni and nice. I went back slightly earlier wif my roomie coz she didnt want to stay too long. But i enjoyed myself sooo much =)

Day 1 in Mexico =)

Before i set off for Mexico, i was not in a good mood and i even didnt felt like going. Thank God i went coz i had SOOO much fun =) We arrived in Mexico in the evening and we checked into the hotel. My roommate for day 1 was Sonya. She's a nice and fun girl =) This school business field trip has more than 100 students coz both Global Strategy (the course which i am taking) and International finance are coming. So its a realli big group (which makes it more fun!)

After checking into the hotel all of us made way to this restaurant near the hotel. We had beer and shots there and it was realli fun coz we were like a big family. The bad bad thing was that the menu was in Spanish and there wasnt much picture to describe the food so alot of us had difficulty ordering. And secondly due to the large influx of ppl, the food took FOREVER to come. The worse thing is some ppl didnt even have their food. I couldnt finish my food coz i drank beer so i pass it to poor Aldo coz his food didnt come and he was starvin. Aldo and the other italian exchange students were realli nice and funni ppl. Especially Aldo coz he dances to practically every music.

After dinner we went back to the hotel to get changed and prepare for partying. Before setting off we had some alcohol at one of the hotel room. It was realli nice n fun chattin wif everyone. Everyone were so happy that everyone was hugging everyone (including me). But well eventually we set off for downtown in cabs where the night begun.

Prof Voigt was there too and i even took a nice photo wif him =) But he didnt drink coz we had to wake up realli early the next day so i reckon he didnt want to risk it. Anyway i paid 10 buck to enter for open bar, which meant that i could anything that i wanted. But since i know that i had to wake up early for my business visits the next day, i controlled my consumption of alcohol. But i was realli happi and i was dancing like mad.

Petter was realllli sweet to buy me flowers when this lady approached him to ask him to buy flowers =) I had a realli wonderful night. When we got back to the hotel we went to Ellen's room where Sonya, travis and some other ppl were at to have a short chat b4 heading back to the room to sleep... Nice!

Walmart Visit!!!

Whao! This Mexico trip is the funnest thing in LA! Hee all of us had SOOOO much fun! The walmart trip was nice coz its the first time i ever went to Walmart. I had wanted to go to Walmart for sooo long and i finally have my chance to. Walmart is realli big and they have everything. We had the chance to talk to the managers and ask them about their business strategy. Realli interesting how they manage their chain of stores in Mexico.

Walmart is most successful in the US but outside US, they normally dun do that well. Mexico is the only country that Walmart is doing very well outside the US =)

Everything's NOT Going My Way

Things hasnt been going too well man. The only good thing now is that mid-terms are over! Yeah... Finally man. I almost couldnt breathe... And with all the smoke and smog from the forest fire over here... Phew! Anyway fortunately the forest fire didnt affect my area. Its pretty far from here so im safe and sound. Dun worry ya (actually no one asked me bout it lor! Except for Ryan Leong Jia Rong) HMPH!!

Im heading down to Mexico today for the school trip. The thing along the way we will travel nearer to the forest fire area and i reckon the PSI would be pretty high there. But fortunately we will be inside the air-conditioned bus so it should be ok. And in case of emergency i have my inhaler with me so all should be fine.

I will be back on Sat night so till then, no msn coz i will not be bringing my lappy wif me =)

Ok let me describe why i said everything hasnt been going well for me. Firstly, for one of my group project which consisted of 6 ppl, all other 5 evaluated mi as the person who contributes the less. This is wad they said:

Findings:
We believe Max, Sam and Peter are equal in value and cannot be ranked. We feel that though Joelyn continued to be an inflexible group member with regards to meetings, and provide quality work relevant to our group goals. (She has done work, but requires a lot micro-management and quality control to her products.)
Fixing the problem:It is difficult to reprimand Joelyn because of the risk to the project, and workload to other board members. Decision on the next process is pending.

Damn mean and nasty right!! TMD! They never think that the project which we will be doing is introducing Krispy Kreme to spore and i shared my knowledge wif them coz i had a Marketing Research project done on that topic too. In addition i am also doing Krispy Kreme for my other project here and i send them all my work lor! KNN! Sorry for all the bad word coz im juz to angry and upset. So i sent all of them an email tellin them that I AM IN A DISTRESSED STATE. Which i actually am. They are jus so not understanding. But WHATEVER coz my grades are not gonna get transferred back anyway. Hmph.

Ok at least i feel better pouring all that out. Then yest i went to the ATM to draw cash and i actually forget to take my ATM card. Luckily all my money is still in there but i have to wait for 7-10 working days before my card will be sent to me and im going to Mexico today. Damn. Then in the evenin i was takin a nap when there was a fire drill at my apartment. My roomies were in the kitchen cookin and none of them knew that i was sleepin. They ran down and lock the door. If it wasa real fire i think i die liao coz initially i thought it was some stupid's car alarm that went off.

Haiz so many things happened recently. But i will be strong =) Hopefully everything will be fine. I miss my family very very much!! The feeling of wanting to go back to spore is gettin stronger and stronger. But well i know time will fly by.

Alright i miss everyone very much! Gotta set off to school to go to Mexico liao. Tata...

The Best Sushi

I had the BeSt Sushi here in LA!! Oh my the food was simply AwEsOmE! Its not any normal kind of sushi that u ever had. The rice realli melts in your mouth. And the sushi fillings are jus sooo good. Jeevan, Ethane and Joe asked me to join them for sushi which i gladly did. And all of us were starving coz it was pretty late le. So when the food came i forgot bout taking photos coz i was onli interested in devouring the food. Ha it was jus sooo blissful. So once again, i juz HAVE to bring my family here in Dec. Hee my brother will LOVE it man.

Fortunately for the second round of food i ordered them not to eat it first so i can take some photos...

Jeevan and Joe

This was the best.... Its some spicy tuna crispy rice cut roll. Its not spicy at all anyway. But the rice was like fried on the outer layer and oh my god it's juz so nice.

Maguro (tuna) with salsa and avagardo. Its realli nice too. Ethane keep thinking it' beef. Ha..

This was a cheese tempura wif crabstick which I ordered coz i love cheese. hee

Ethane and Me. The lobster salad on the foreground was absolutely fabulous too... Simply divine...

And outside the toilet... Had nothing better to do =)

Anyway the bill came up to bout 150 USD for 4 of us. Alittle on the steep side but given the quality of the food and the satisfaction that i got out of it... I would sae it was definitely worth it!!

The Standard

This is a realllllii nice chill out place that i definitely HAVE to bring my family here when they come. Hee i looovvee it so much. Its like roof top, chilled, and the music is nice. They place Hip Hop... Hee... There's like a pool, waterbeds, tables and chairs. But it can get alittle chilly up here. Spore shd open this concept... Hee juz that it wont be as nice coz the good thing is that the temp here is pretty cold at nite so it makes it even better =)

Some random ppl who wanted to take a photo... Hee

Yum Cha Last Sunday =)

Whao! Last week has been HELL week man! SO much assignments, projects and midterms. All at one go. Im glad i survived it man. And now, i've got 2 midterms next week. Seems like it never ends... Anyway im soooo sorry for the lack of photos. I had been sooo busy that i juz didnt even had the time to load them. Hee so pretty lag huh...

Anyway, last sun i went for yum cha wif some thai "uncles" that i got to know in Vee's aunt's restaurant. They were realli sweet to ask mi and my frens to join them. So, i brought Joy along. I was sooo thrilled when i saw the place coz it reminded me of spore and hongkong. I was like desperate for all the good food after eating here for 2 mths man.

The restaurant =)

Me and all the Thai uncles. They are mostly thai restaurant owners. The oldest one has a branch of like 20 over thai restaurants here in LA lor!!

More photos...

The food! Wad i realli liked is that it is somesort like an authentic hongkong style timsum restaurant with the push cart and stuff. And all the waiter and waitresses speak cantonese too! The first thing that came to my mind when i saw this restaurant was, "Wha.. Im so gonna bring Papa here when he's here in Dec. He's gonna love it!" Hee my daddy is always fascinated with chinese restaurant or chinatown whenever he travels. He's those typical chinese who cannot survive without chinese food... Hee...

We ate alot alot alot of food. So much that i nearly burst. Haha but i couldnt help it. It was good. Ok actually the timsum in spore is better but coz im here for like 2 mths and i haven had a chance to eat it, it tasted really awesome to me!! Hee. Anyway the bill summed up to about 100 USD for 7 ppl which is considered realli cheap. A normal bowl of noodles here in a foodcourt would cost you bout 6 bucks already. And chinese food is usually much expensive so i didnt expect it to be so cheap. Of course the seniors paid for the meal =) So nice rite. They then bought us to the supermarket and bakery to buy some stuff, before heading home. It was a nice Sunday....

Midterms, Assignments & Projects!!

Oh my god! I haven blogged for like so so long! Actually i have took photos when i went to "yum cha" last sunday and when i went to this rooftop lounge with edgar. But i had been waaaayy too busy with school work then i aint got the time to upload the photos... not to mention to blog. I have an individual assignment to hand in on monday (it's really hard and i spent the whole of fri + sat to do it), case to discuss on monday, a midterm on tuesday, and a group project to hand in on wednesday. Oh my god im like so so exhausted.

This weekend has been burnt with studying =( My fren asked me to go hollywood to club but i juz had to reject =( It's all about discipline ya... Nevermind coz i will make it up next week! But come to think of it i have another mid-term the week after. Oh my when will this end man...

Anyway everything has been pretty ok for me other than the heavy school work. I have almost fully recovered from my illness!! Which is great coz i really hate fallin ill here. No one to tak care of me, buy herbal tea for me, or cook lin yang for mi. I've been missing spore more and more recently. When u travel abroad alone for so long, u will learn to realise that home is still the best...

Hee... Anyway i realli hope that my WHOLE family can come to LA in dec. Jie this is directed at you. If you are still reading my blog, i hope u will understand wad i mean. I love you and i went through so much pains to get things planned so i really hope that things will turn out well. And i will pray that Kejiao will get her Visa.... Please please allow her to get it.... Hee... Till then, i miss everyone loads and loads. I love you mummy and papa!!

Check out my Slide Show!

USC football match!

I finally had my chance to go to my first American football match. Well im not into American football at all coz i dunno the rules and stuff but apparently, it is a really big thing over here, especially in USC. All exchange students were given one free ticket to this match and since it's free, i decided to juz go and experience it. USC's football is ranked no 1 while our opponent Stanfort, is ranked 10th. I always knew that American football is a very big thing is USC but its not until today that i know the magnitude of it. Oh my god there were like SO MANY people! Everyone were very enthusiastic and everyone had their USC or trojans T-shirt, cap, sweatshirt, pants... etc. U name it they have it. Its like i will never see ppl in NUS wearin the NUS brand in spore. Well maybe occasionally... But over here, USC is like a premium brand. Everyone wears the USC sweatshirt or tshirt to school.

So, i bought my USC sweatshirt to wear to the match and also to keep as a souvenier. Its so big and nice and compfy...

On my way walking to the stadium.

The entrance of the stadium. I was told that Olympics 1996 was held in this stadium =)

While waiting to get into the stadium, we saw some aeroplanes in the sky emiting red and yellow smoke, which is USC's colour.

Starting from me (anti-clockwise): Me, Joy, Jay, Arm and Kookkik =)

Me in the stadium

Look at the crowd. Oh my there were like so many ppl and u can see that most ppl were in red and some in yellow. It looked realli nice =)

Me, Joy and Jay posting in our seats.

Preparing to start the game:

During the game:

Since this was a home game, the supporter for Stanfort was onli like i think 1 percent. In fact, i dun even think it is considered supporter coz it was like the band, which was located at one corner.

More photos...

Well the first 2 quarters of the game was pretty boring. Coz i dunno the rules so i dunno wad is going on. The during the 2nd quarter break, there was a band performance. Not too bad...

During the 4th quarter, the match got really intense. USC was leading all the way until like the last 5 mins. Stanfort had a chance to attack and when it was juz one min away from the end of the game, Stanfort had a touch down.... And the won USC with a score of 24-23. Omg it was so so so intense. Everyone were so worried. Well i joined in to shout and stuff but i didnt really felt as emotional when USC lost. But the rest of the ppl were like curing and swearing... It was an intense match and i did enjoy myself. At least i'd experience an American football match.

South Coast Plaza Shopping =)

On Friday, i went shopping with Jeevan (my fellow NuS fren) and all the other thai ppl at South Coast. Jeevan was realli nice as he borrowed a big MPV from his uncle and drove all of us there. Whao it was reali big... Its like many different big malls located at one place. Initially i told them i wont be joining them coz i didnt wanna shop anymore, for fear of giving into temptation. But then i decided that since i had never been there b4 and im here in LA, i should go and take a look. Hee so i ended up going. Well althought the place was big, i didnt realli buy much. Well guess it was because i was controllin myself and since all the things were kinda expensive or i could find them cheaper elsewhere, i decided not to buy them =) See how disciplined i am...

When we jus got off the car...

Inside one of the more prestige mall, i saw my future car and i juz had to pose some pictures with it. Oh i love it so much... Hahaha... Dream come true...

Nice huh... Someday... Somewhere... My dream will come. Hahaha... Well my best buy today was this coach bag. Oh my god it was so cheap. Only USD$100. When i went to Hawaii, Sue Ann showed me the coach bag she bought which i think is the same as the one i bought. When i saw it then i quite like it and SueAnn said she bought it for 100+. Well lucky me coz this was on clearance and it cost me onli like 100 bucks and it totally dun look that cheap...

I also bought a pair of jeans (bout 70 USD) from Abercrombie and Fitch. I was realli happy when i found that pair of jeans! I had wanted to buy jeans for so long but juz didnt had a chance. In LA, they dun hav cheap jeans that look ok. Its like all their jeans are branded such as Diesel, Sevens, Replay, Miss Sixty... Blablabla. I dun even see Levis around. And all those jeans costs like 200 USD per pair. Kaoz if i buy that my mummy will KILL me. But well that Abercombie jeans wasnt that bad hor, mummy =) By the way i charged it to my sub-card. Hahaha mus preserve cash liao!!

And let me explain. The reason why i need to buy jeans is because i only brought one pair of blue jeans here, coz i thought it wont be that cold. And in addition, when i came over, i was given a wrong baggage limit (some idiot told me that it was 40kg when it was actually 64kg) so i brought minimal stuff over as i didnt want to be over the limit. Hence, since i really need to buy a pair of jeans coz eventually it would get realli cold and i need to wear jeans, i hope this justifies my actions. Ok i dun even know why im explainin this here =)

So that was bout all that i bought today =)

Crossing the bridge that links 2 of the malls together.