Friday, December 28, 2007
7 days in Orlando and 4 of which in theme parks...theme parks overkill, no doubt, but I'm lovin' every minute of it *contented grin*
Strangely enough, the first step into the park I felt kinda extravagent. I mean, all the materials and manpower and energy guzzling machines...FRIVOLOUS!!!! The laser shows and fire effects shooting rightt into the sky, not to mention the big space its taking up. Strange. We pay to get shocked, to be put in danger, to experience man-made nature without the dust and the dirt and the smell. Oh well, fake as the worlds may be, I love living in the fantasy. Where everything is lovely and happy and colourful and danger is experienced within safe bounderies and eveyrhting ends up happy ever after.
Favourite ride was It's A Small World. There's something appealing in the way they play "it's a small world" sang by little children in all the languages, and they represented many many different cultures by having figures of children in the costumes and a backdrop of respective nations. Its so innocent and you wonder, why can't people live like tht, all the different skin colours and national costumes alongside each other, undivided by economic background or culture. Diversity looks so appealing. The lady operating the ride was a young jolly plump lady. From her station in the control centre over head, she was waving her hands above her head to the music. As I got into the boat, some ppl in the boat waved back. Haha, after the ride as I left the place, suddenly I realised the whole queue of ppl waiting to board were waving with her. Amusing sight.
Theme parks today are different from those of the past. Wayyyy superior. NO more the normal roller coaster, log rides, and kiddy rides. The special effects are so cool, props and sets are new ans colourful and every ride, even those supposedly kiddy ones, are worth the 45 min wait. Universal studios Island of Adventure and Disneyland Magic Kingdom are the best whooo.
And so..the 10 days with my family is overr.
tis xmas, plz stay wit me..
xx
2:04 PM
# # # Saturday, December 22, 2007
When I was young, and I knew about atrocities, violence, crimes, that happened, there were 2 ways I comforted myself. 1. These things happened in the past. Society has matured; no one does barbaric acts anymore. 2. No country will allow such things to happen anymore. (How could they?) People are sure to step in.
When I grew older, I was still naiively sure of those facts. The UN will step in, or the US will step in. Its the great USA, afterall, founded on the principals of human rights and justice. And that was what the books and media told me. UN peace corps, doing what they should be doing, putting the world's wrongs right.
And maybe that's the consequence of growing up in a sheltered place like Singapore. Because my belief in those stuff are destroyed within 4 mths of moving here. In the 1800s, people actually saw it in themselves to randomly imprison and capture Africans and sell them for money. In the 1940s, when treatment of Jews became appararent, the US refused to budge, as did many other countries, in their immigration laws and whatnot. Even the proposal to help
children died in Senate
. Maybe you could say that was then, and now is now. That things would have changed now. Yet, similarly, calls to cancel debts in Africa, stop the genocide!, halt the civil war! today are carried out with half a heart. Nevermind their not doing things to help other nations, but innocent victims of the Vietnam war, Vietnamese and Americans alike, are yet to be compensated as well. And the USA is also carrying out the very things they oppose and critisize.
And that's when I learnt the word "impunity". Its depressing that in this day and age, supposedly more matured and civilised, people with money and power are still doing things that only benefit them and getting away and it. And if you're in trouble, no one's going to help you.
tis xmas, plz stay wit me..
xx
1:34 PM
# # # Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Examshave been over for a week and these few days have just been spontaneousity in its purest!
Tues was boring. Did a couple of household chores...
Once xinyi and shuying were let off we spontaneously went to eat ice cream and a banana split. and then we spontaneously went to north. and spontaneously went to find mel and girl talk. and spontaneously went to john's house to surprise him at 12+ on his birthday.
Friday...went to briarwood.
Sat. Meijer's. Movie: lust caution at night. good! and it startd snowing...
Sunday: snowday! snowed non stop since the night b4, and carried on snowing for most of the day. snow piled up to 30 cm and it was DAMN COOL. to watch the softsoft snow..and to fall into a soft bed of snw..INDESCRIBABLE. to wake up with snow filing up your window...and tyou can build a snowman on your roof (like some people did on th roof outside my room)...and xiaowei and rongsiu and i went out to roll around in the snow and bury rongsiu in snow and all tht...hahahhaa.
Monday: slept early. vaguely rmb rongsiu and kevin climbing thru my room window out onto the roof to build snowman there (now there's a snowman watching rongs at night) wish i could have joined them but ah, oh well...sleep calls.
Tues: rongsiu and i met sansan at markley for lunch. after which we went to his room at oxford which is V NICE. oxford is nice and peaceful and uh...rustic. Watched disney channel with him before heading back to my dorm to pack (last minute...as usual...) and rushing off to the airport with john and chenli. For some reason, the lst activity before i left, having a quiet lunch and gathering with rongs and sansan, made me kinda happy. It wa a different company, it didn't involve serious conversations, it involved disney channel, the locations were peaceful, and it was my last free day in ann arbor (before i know it i'd be back again and the whole rat race will begin. again.) thinking back, the whole tuesday just seemed so surreal.
Anyway made my way to detroit airport (which was actually v nice) and took the an hr and a half flight to dca. didn't take me too long to realise that there were many terminals and i have no idea which terminal my family was going to arrive at. and it certainly didn't take the security officers too long to realise i looked kinda blur and lost either. "which airlines are u looking for, ma'ma" asked them. and "singapore airlines" said me. the fact tht i was in a national airport with all domestic flights totally escaped me. "come, i don't think you understand," said them.
He took me to a map and showed me, see here. terminal A: delta, southwest e.t.c.e.t.c. terminal b, continental e.t.c.e.t..c terminal C, where you are at: northwest. And then I realised, shit, no international flights, am i lost?! Heng, found the email of my family's itenery in my comp and managed to find out their coming on continental. Made my merry way to terminal B =D
tis xmas, plz stay wit me..
xx
5:44 AM
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