PS: To navigate through my blog, move your mouse cursor over the words 'ME, SCRIBBLES, TAG, ETC' and just click on them :) i know. it's cool. Thanks, Fedoragirl ;)

"There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away."
--Emily Dickinson

Enjoy my blog!

Best viewed 1024 x 768

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Day 2 @ Flagstaff

Yuen How, mummy bought you a shirt at Walmart today, it's long-sleeved. But the design looks a little....weird. But it can probably look very nice on you, there's a chance.

So anyway, you know mummy can wake up so early, that buffalo? ;) We set the hotel's wake-up call at 6am and she woke up before that, and made a lot of noise and was like very busy around the room. Asking me to on my laptop, check the email or something, and call you. When she asked me to speak to you on the phone, I can't even remember doing that today. We got ready and left a $2 tip for the housekeeper. Do you know they made our beds the first night even though we didn't put the door sign 'Please change the linens' at our doorknob? I also left them some mini chocolate bars. Then we took the hotel shuttle but when we asked the driver if he could take us to the greyhound station (as the front desk had assured as it was possible), he said he couldn't as he was going to be busy in the next trip to pick up airport passengers, that he has a schedule to follow. Then he suggested we take a cab. But as it seemed we were already delaying the line (the bus was almost full), we just decided to go to the airport first which is the original route. When we reached the terminal, the driver told us we could take a city bus further down the curb. We waited less than half an hour and had to pay $1.75 each for one ticket at a time. However, I had prepared $3.50 exact for the both of us. So the driver just printed the tickets for us from the machine, even though it wouldn't give back any change when i put in like, $2 to buy the first ticket and $1.50 for the second. So we arrived at the greyhound in less than 5 minutes. And mum observed that people were leaving their baggage in front of the gate in a line even though it was more than one hour early. Anyway, I took pictures of the interior of the station, and you know even the clock has the greyhound logo?? And if you don't know, a greyhound is a type of dog which look tall and skinny because of its long legs. It's quite a strange dog if you see it face to face. I've seen it upclose a couple of times while I'm here in the US. So anyway, when we got on the bus, the interior's length was really loong. it felt almost like we were taking a plane. And the seats had the logo all over it. The driver made a really long speech before we set off, among a couple of amusing things he said was 'please do not use the speaker function of your handphone as we all want your private conversations to be private' and...well, he said another amusing thing but i can't remember it right now, probably cuz of the $2.49 bottle of wine we just finished and with mum harassing me restlessly with her comments and antics while i'm typing this. and it's almost 11pm here. gonna go to bed after this. she just called me 'banjira komang' (whatever that means) and cracked up to herself. and she asked me to pick up our 3 small bags of trail mix in one hand just now to confirm that it was 1 kg. we found out after reading the label that it's 179g for one and 142g for the other two, so about 500g. not 1kg. lol. anyway, we bought them at Walmart, after hanging out for a while at yet another garden today. This time, a place promoted as a 'mountain garden', which i think only because you can see the San Francisco peaks (mountains) in the background. The garden is officially called an: arboretum. darn, mum won't stop talking to me. and she just asked why i'm not laughing with her. -_- anyway, after browsing 2 'gardens' in 2 days, we concluded the Americans like to keep it natural, unlike the Asians who really like to beautify the gardens and such. We thought we could see lots of wildflowers as promoted in the brochure pictures, but it was disappointing. By the way, just 5 miles to the arboretum costs about $15 each way for the cab fare. We really wanted to go to many other places, but all is only accessible by car! sigh....like, we could see a dead volcano, take a ski lift to a mountain, or view some indian ruins, but all these cost a bomb if you take a cab out there :((

After shopping at Walmart's, we took the city bus back cuz mum is having her period and felt dizzy, achy everywhere and lethargic. :( I wanted to go to a nearby astronomy place today also as there was a meteor shower viewing but she just wanted to chill out in the hostel room (by the way, we were picked up at the greyhound station by a 1963 baby pink mustang! it was super cool! it belongs to the hostel.). we had a long talk over family matters over the wine, and beef jerky again (she bought 3 packets, kiasu right?). and when she tried on this new denim shorts she bought for $3, she was so happy she could wear medium size and said she lost some weight over the past couple of days. she said you'll be pleasantly surprised to see her looking all sexy back in singapore. haha. She ate chicken salad again for our late lunch today. haha. i'm glad she enjoys the salads here. they're tasty, fillling, and fresh. she told me actually she doesn't really like meat, that she's more a veg-lover (and that's why her favourite dish is bibimbap), because i was telling her about my other roommate who self-chose to be a vegetarian from young without any religious or family pressure.

so yeah, we're taking an early morning shuttle out to the canyon tomorrow and the first thing we'll do is go to the bank to see if i can confirm my clains for my bank account fraud. i have to claim back at least $200 cuz i see in my statement online that that transaction has already been confirmed while the others are still in the 'pending' stage. sucks. then we'll try our luck with an airplane ride and catch the IMAX movie about the canyon, and then we'll walk along the rim at around sunset i guess. busy day tomorrow i guess, so I gotta go to bed like now, as my email is ending here :)

are you feeling better now? mummy was saying take care of your sons and encourage YY to go to NTU so that he can apply for such programs as this and YOU can join him then in future. haha!

god bless and good night!

PS: it was such a riot seeing mum being all wide-eyed seeing all these native american locals in flagstaff today. they were like, everywhere. she finally understood what the big deal was at the Heard museum.

Uni is a reader.
2:18 PM