As I finally climbed up the dark damp stairs of bloody Philly Trolleys station, I saw everything I'm so familiar with - Spruce street, Triangle Diner, Mayer. And I had a great sense of nostalgia! My trip to Yale is over. I wished I could've stayed there for one year.
That's y ppl love travel. It's a real escape from real-life chores. When I stepped into my own room all the problems started coming back. Loads of homework strewn all over(and under) my desk, "buy cell phone and DC" on the to-do list, Mask & Wig email reminding me of the hectic week ahead, recollection of a hot chick I saw on Locust Walk on Friday, well actually quite a lot of hot chicks, regret that I didn't pick up the hot chick that I always wanted to pick up when we were alone in Mayer elevator, sadness that no hot chicks picked me up at Mask & Wig kick-off bash, hahahaha, yeah my real life chores are basically based on hot chicks...
Yale was certainly an excellent escape. Everybody was going to New York. My friend at NYU is not free to walk me around. I didn't wanna become an electrical light bulb between Ding and Tian. Therefore, Yale became an escapade. I don't know what escapeade means but oh well.
I spent fucking 6 hours on travel, because of my stinginess. I stared at the NJtransit ticket machine at 30th street station for 5 mins and I was like: fuck, if I go Chinatown now it's 4 dollars, wait, 4 dollars 17 cents cheaper. So I made a wise decision and headed down to Chinatown, wasting another one hour staring at weird mysterious posters at a run-down theater ticket house(Mogwai came! fuck) and talking to ppl who only speak cantonese.
But exploration of different transport means was so fun. I got to learn that Greyhound was also at 11th street station!
I worked out the cheapest way to go Yale finally:
Roundtrip Chinatown bus to NY: 20 bucks
Good: Cheap and fast, if you go at off-peak hour you have the luxury to occupy the four seats in the row
Bad: ppl speak bad english. misunderstanding. I wanted to go to Grand central, the driver showed me the way to Grand street. No light at night so cannot read on bus. But advice for small children reading this blog - reading on bus is no good for eyes.

Metro-north train from to New Haven: 26.75 bucks
Good: big comfortable seats, easy to fall asleep
Bad: Long trip. No toilet. Old ppl easy to pee their pants while asleep

Subway from dorm to Chinatown: 2.60 bucks
Good: so cheap!
Bad: so dirty and no sense of security

Metro: 4.00 bucks
Good: modern and fast, easy to spot hot chicks(very good)
Bad: Dirty, confusing, too many lines, all stop at different stops, what the fuck?

Total: 53.35 bucks

okay now about the stay itself.
Yu ting is an awesome host except being away for half an hour when I arrived(but of course i was like 4 hours late hahahaha) and extorting a dinner from me.
It was so great to see Yu Ting!! One of the few best friends I've made at Singapore. What's more she's a girl and can look chio(singapore slang: pretty) at times. haha! I wrote the above line in case she's reading this. But hell, it was awesome to see her again!!!
We had a few good conversations. She concluded that Americans are nice but they are too self-centered. I didn't really agree, I think that Americans are just not really used to coping with Chinese. We have so many cultural differences. But I think she made some sense by saying that. Americans are in general independent and maybe that's the reason why they're self-centered. My roommate Andrew is in general a nice guy. But he can spent his entire day sitting in fron' of his self-assembled com(which is amazingly cheap) DLing mp3 and comedies, chatting on AIM and doing who-knows-what on his facebook homepage. But I'd rather believe that it's the cultural difference that makes them seem a bit distant from us.
She speaks in an almost-perfect american accent now. Damn I was so jealous of her she adapts so fast everywhere. Apparently she is popular as ever.
But I think she has her own problems too, well I have my own problems too. She was very candid in telling me her thoughts. She even told me frankly who she likes and who she doesn't. Like seconds after that person went away. What the hell?! haha yuting I like your frankness. I regret being not as candid as you are. We had great fun talking behind ppl's back(her roommates in particular since they don't speak Mandarin hahahaha).
It was parent's wkend. Thousands of parents not ard. Yuting's roommates don't like their parents, seems like not even respect them. It surprised me. No wonder American Beauty had huge echoes. The parents are all so nice I kinda feel sad for Sam's dad when we talked to him in some funny college's common room whose name i could never remember.
I crashed a Yale party. There were oh so many hot chicks who are oh so hot. I also crashed a Yale concert and fell asleep.
I met a couple of Chinese at Yale. Cai Li the overachiever. Xiao Xue the knowledeable and independent, Shen Yue the hot and fashion girl, a Shanghai couple(who i think is a weird combination) and a Shanghai senior. These ppl has some organization called QC and they're gonna invite Yao Ming!!! man I was inspired.
Yale has a beautiful campus. The Gothic buildings are so arcane and gorgeous. and the college house with no right angles. Apparently Xiao Xue knows so much about Yale that Yuting paled in comparison as a tour guide.
Last but not least, among Yuting's weird suitemates, there was this girl who I had to mention. She whose name i forgot, sth like mallory? was wearing a G-String when I entered her room!!! wah lau made me nose-bleed immediately.
Thank you Yuting for the wonderful trip!! I was so tired and sleepy at the end but I love my journey. It was all worthwhile.


leaving skool guoyandao at 4:00 PM [comment]

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