I'm finally home.



Here are some of the lovely people I spent my time with.


Some of the guys with our ever cool professor Dan on the left.
The crazy place that is Hollywood.


The Grand Canyon. It's more beautiful than it looks.


Trekking across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and almost getting my face blown off by the wind.

More photos coming up when I've gotten all of them in order:)

Arrived at LA today, it's not as glamorous as I envisioned it to be, it’s actually kinda run down in some places, and like most of America, is starkly divided between the haves and the have nots. I’m staying in a hostel that’s opposite the Kodak Theatre where the Oscars are held every year, so I suppose that’s quite exciting in terms of being in the middle of town and everything.

Almost everything here has got to do with the world of entertainment, from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Odditorium (hurhur) to Hollywood Wax Museum, History Museum, and the pavements lined with red stars to commemorate the careers of Hollywood greats, and of course, the souvenirs – the cutest of which are mini Oscar statues congratulating their receivers for being the best Mother/Son/Teacher etc.

There are just sooo many different people here!! For example, on the way home, there was a group of extremely rowdy teenage girls who were possibly prostitutes. They were swearing their mouths off and the whole train just kinda turned around to look at them, but after that, the other passengers just acted as if this were a normal occurrence.

Then outside our hostel. There’s this group of people who are Jesus lovers, so they’d be screaming with loudhailers “Give me a J!!!!...E…S…U…S!!!!!!!!!” What do you get?!?!? Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!”

And I happened to walk past the loudhailer just as they leader was starting the cheer, so my ears were ringing for a bit. I haven’t actually resolved what I felt about that, because on on hand, I think it’s admirable that they are proclaiming their love for Christ in such a public manner, but on the other hand, it just seems kinda in your face and all that….Hm, these are possibly the same mixed feelings I get towards street evangelism….

Along those lines, I find myself getting more impatient, bad-tempered and worst, of all, more judgemental about others. Take for example those teenage girls on the train, basking in their overt sexuality. Or H, with her whining. Or a myriad of other little pet peeves that bother me.

But the thing is, they don’t deserved to be judged like that by me, because God knows I have much worse thoughts and I haven’t been exemplary in my behaviour either. I didn’t manange to get in touch with the LA disiples, so of course I’m disappointed by that – was looking so forward to visiting the LA church.

Ok, 3 smokers have sat across me and I’ve been inhaling 2nd hand smoke for the past half hour -_-‘’

Off to bedroom bow:)

I'm falling asleep in the Green Library in Stanford right now - just so tired!!
But I know there's work to be done, so I'm blogging for a while to sufficientlty wake my brain up in preparation of research.

Well, came back to Palo Alto from Berkeley yesterday, and upon our return, we visited the Opportunities Industrialization Center West (OICW). The people there are deeply passsionate about the work that they do to benefit the East Palo Alto (EPA) community, with many of them having grown up in EPA themselves.

EPA is what I suppose someone would call a "ghetto", except that it has evolved from a majority Black community in the 1970s - 80s to the current majority Hispanic-Latino community. Most of the families there don't have a father figure because so many of the males are incarcerated and are absentee fathers.

Youths don't really seem to be motivated to invest in their own education, probably fuelled by Hollywood-style fairy tales of striking it rich by rapping or making it into the NBA. As Ms Chache (pronounced "Shashay") (I LOVE this woman!!!) "They think they got a bit of bling on their necks and they all that."

The parent(s) also tends to feel guilty and splurges on designer gear for the kids when the money could have otherwise gone into something more constructuve like buying books or their kids' college fun. Another Chache quote ("They got them $75 Nikes for them baby feet. I ain't gonna dress up my daughter in designer while I look like a ragdoll.")

Anyway, we had a really long discussion with Chache with what can be done to help the community, and she wrapped up by reading us one of the poems - entitled "I belive in Love". Kalamu Chache, I want to remember that woman.

We met so many fascinating characters here that I think the way I view people now has irrevocanbly altered. People here may not be especially religious, but they are doing so much good and they have so much passion for their work.

Some people I don't want to forget:
Lauren- effervescent Stanford girl. wrote on the 4-million smiles campaign
Ami and Paul - Viet-American girl and her WASP boyfriend who provided a blanket when it was freezing during Macbeth out in the open, sent us back to Comfort Inn, talked and shared with us their experiences and perspectives on American multi-culturalism. Ami wrote about the foreign maids in SG. Paul works in Google.
Bernard- smart gentleman. wrote paper on the political corruptness of the Singaporean judiciary system.
Prakash- viny's friend who works at Google as A GUI designer. Loves his job. We got a free smoothie courtesy of Google, who feeds all its employess for FREE.
Jamie-NY native who came to Berkeley to study cos the weather here rocks :P He brought us mountain climbing. The view up at the peak was AMAZING. Almost the entire San Francisco Bay Area was visible.
ACES group - a group of students interested in business. Had donuts and milk during the meeting. Taiwanese guy drove us back, but Vinod saw a Jack in the Box sign and an alarm went off in his head, so we ended up walking in the cold for 40 mins.

Ok, time to do research, will recount my experiences soon!!

*visit to Oakland, trying to find a church, visiting 9 churches, attending services, lunch with Dan and the guys, shopping, murals, People's park, tree huggers, zen, love, esoteric profressors, Macbeth, Memorial Church, meeting Singaporeans in Stanford and Berkeley....