Sunday, February 22, 2009

Dinner at Judy and Bill

We were invited by the lady we met at the back of the photoshoot, Judy. This is his husband, Bill, who is preparing his salmon for us. Anyway, Bill drove and picked us up from school which was really nice and their house is like a 5 min drive from Bentley. Btw did i mention Bill has been a research scientist in MIT for more than 25 years. So this is their living room, if you want to know what a typical middle income family looks like this should be a good example.
Dinner time. The dinner was good. we had salmon rice and veggie and Bill told us about many interesting things about MIT including some really creative and wacky hex while Judy was telling us about the creative ways she used to find a nice man during her younger days. Its just amazing.
This is the latest additional to their house.
Old friends are The best friends well thats true but there will always be new friends as well.
Anyway a group photo.
Bill was showing us their family photos and family tree. One of the family photo showed something like 140 people coming together for a family gathering which is like ...
The scared MIT Quarter Century chair that Bill had. My god, there aren't many people who qualify to get this chair and the best part we got a chance to sit on it. Haha, will sitting on this prestigious chair make one smarter haha. I got to try.


Hehe here we are sitting on the quarter century chair. OkOk hopefully no need to study also can get FM (full marks) haha.











Another interesting artefact, its suppose to represent Judy's mum and dad in Norway.

New York Day 4

Ok, the last day of our trip to New York, we woke up and made our way to Central Park. Its within walking distance from our hostel and in between you get to see the places that the commers stay so its a contrast with the city.
Well, this is the entrance where we entered the park. Its kind of dead at this time of the year.
Setting up the tripod for the first shot.
and there we have it.
All doing some funny position which now i think back or rather look at the picture, i don't really know what were we doing
Imagine in spring whenthe trees are full of lush green vegetation.
The ducks are quite cute cause they are standing on thin layers of ice and sometimes they break and you can see them sinking down.
In the middle of the half frozen pond, a tennis ball...
trying to get some good pose.
fantastic wallpaper kind of photos
I don't understand why but they place a castle like structure in the middle of the park.
and to our next destination which was beside the park, the natural history museum.
It cost about $11 entry for students and actually no one really checks but well. Its a good place to visit everyone says its nice so its a die die must visit place.
Hehe the Trex...
Think this is quite interesting it looks like a flying turtle. This is the best part, the attack by dinosaurs

There are different exhibits but try to start from the top where they exhibit the dinosaurs. They are really good.
Go to the present animals, space and the underwater one as well. they are good.
Yah looking at this it reminds me please bring your own water or buy a subway in. The meals are really expensive there.
The underwater world exihibit, behind is the replica of a real full size whale. I think its a sperm whale Astro side
they include many kinds of geological artefacts and things as well. this one is a piece of marble.
And so we end the four days in New York. Many things to see and do and i really enjoyed the trip.

New York Day 03

The statue of Liberity, final seen oneof the world's most famous Icon. We didn't take a ferry to liberity island instead as good budget travellers we took the free ferry ride to Staten Island and we caught a glimpse of the icon. Pt to note unless you want to que for 2 hours to get on the ferry to liberity island, the staten island ferry is definitely a better choice and it departs every half hour from South Pier.
Group photo
The back view of the ferry with the city landscape
The statue and the city.
With the staten ferry service personnel, the younger guy was actually in the navy and visited Singapore some years back so we may be a small dot but we aren't that ulu haha.
Free shuttle but don't take the shuttle if you do not really want to visit the island the Sep 11 memorial is within walking distance
This memorial is structure so that if you see through them you can actually see where the twin towers were supposed to be.
At the side is actually the son's and daughters of staten island who were lost in the tragedy and somehow you can feel their lost especially when they put the photo of the person who had passed on.
Part of the stadium
Another photo of the statue of liberity at battery park.
Battry park is a memorial park so there are many places where it is indeed unqiue and special and of course photo taking opportunities.
To remember the migrants who labour for the success of New York if i remember correctly.
Oh and there are many squirrels around and some people actually sell nuts to the tourist so if you do want to to get close to the squirrels bring your own nuts.
This sculture was actually about peace and they got it from the Sep 11 site, its amazing it is still relatively intact after the collapse of the towers.

The wall street bull, it is said that touching the balls will bring good luck and well... lets wait and see
The act tough group...Everything is nearby so yah these are free sites to visit and take great photos.
Well, this is especially attractive to ladies but not to guys
The New York Stock Exchange... Finally, reach the world's financial capital. The pilgrim of every finance student.
The main entrance of the stock exchange.
Trinity Church
Oh, talking about food.This is a Japanese resturant just near the trinity church, its relatively cheap and good. The amazing thing its served by Indians. Food in new york is expensive but you can try get either road side food or maybe visit places like subway which had a promotion of a foot long subway for $5.
Acting cool again...
And this is the New York Federal Reserve, something which i am studying in my economics class
Grand Central station where a lot of movies were shot.
United Nations headquarters.
Can you spot the low flying plane, i actually wonder why did they still allow all these low flying planes in New York.
Unforuntately the day when we went it was close...

Desperate measures to get in without realising opposite the street, there was a police station... whewww thank god the police didn't see us probably sleeping.
Fun shots near the United Nations.
Hey hey i think Trump Casino just collapse.
Back to times square again. look what we found on the road...
They put a recruitment station in the middle of times square for their armed forces???We had dinner at Bubba, a theme resturant from the Movie Forest Gump. And we had a little surprise for Chong Hao, Scott. The Bubba crew sang a birthday song for him and make him dance which he was sporting enough to join in.
Talk about unique and once in a lifetime experience.

And thats not the end, another surprise another cake at the middle of Time Square and this time it was our turn to sing right in the streets. Lucky there was chairs and tables and we made good use of them. Ok, thats really once in a lifetime experience. few can say they celebrated their birthday in the middle fo Times Square.
Empire State Building which i don't really think very much except that 'King Kong' climb the building... Anyway to spend $20 to go up, forget it i had been to Taipei 101 and a whole lot of tall towers.We saw a gift shop with the statue of liberity which we failed to have a proper shot and definitely we won't miss it to have a go at it.Yah rather then going up, we just went to the lobby and take a few shots. If anything good came out, it was the Walgreens at Empire State Building which surprising sell a whoel lot of groceries at very good prices.