Philly

This is the 100th post but unlike Darren, I have absolutely no intention of dedicating this entry to my father, my mother and just about every ah kow ah neow that I know. The only persons I might wanna dedicate these entries to would be all the kind folks who've hosted me, but somehow I think blogging gratitude is kinda cheapskate as a form of expressing thanks, amongst other things.

I'm currently blogging from the humble abode of Esther and Ansel, who have kindly agreed to be my hosts for the duration of my time in Philadelphia (affectionately known as Philly). That's right, people, I left Chicago this morning promptly for Philly - or rather not so promptly, with raging winds of about -4 degrees celsius. Missed my check-in time by about 10 minutes and had to be shifted to a later flight. Good thing being that Chicago was home to United Airlines so moving to a later flight is about an hour's delay. Unfortunately that was another hour of McDonald's hell. Yes, folks, more McDonald's for lunch. *groan*. I feel as if I'm filming "Supersize Me 2 - the Asian Edition".

Admittedly, leaving Chicago wasn't something that I was all that excited about. It's a really great city, a place I would live in, given the choice (apparently the state voted in some interesting Senator by the name of Barack Obama - more on that later). For those of you yet to visit Chicago, miss it at your own risk.

An uneventful flight to the Philadelphia International Airport was followed with a pretty long heart-to-heart chat with Renhua, heading off to Barcelona. Pretty lucky that I was able to catch him before he flew off, although hauling one's ass across 3 terminals isn't exactly my idea of fun, especially with the wind blowing straight at you. And unlike the Singaporean airport, most US airports do NOT have places to eat outside the checking-in zone. Bah.

Being the consummate budget traveller (especially after that US$300 purchase, and not to forget a friggin' giant suitcase which is impossible to lug around and just pissing me off), I had to settle for finding my way around by way of the train and bus services here. I actually enjoy travelling by public means as opposed to touring the city I'm in by taxi - it gives me a greater sense of the vibe that flows through the place, and it gives me more spending power in time to come. Anyway, travelling independently has its perks when it comes to pretty much setting your own schedules and finding your way around any way you want, I suppose. I didn't even get lost. Hah!

Relatively uneventful night to wrap up my first day/night in Philly. Esther was kind enough to offer me a Pennsylvanian beer (and I was naturally rude enough to forget what it was) as well as dinner, the tv set and general discussion topics. TV shows included My Name is Earl, The Amazing Race & The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (featuring that Obama senator, who was actually funnier than Jon Stewart - no mean feat). Those are great but having someone to bitch about Singapore and bitch about the US and just about mutual friends in general is so immensely satisfying that it's one of those experiences that's pretty much irreplaceable. Yes, you ACS/ACJC kids, you're being bitched about. Stop twitching those damn eyebrows already.

Not much else to talk about, except that Ansel does some graphic modelling/rendering in his spare time and the lad is, for lack of a better phrase, FRIGGIN' GOOD! Saw his renditions of TIE Fighters and TIE Interceptors - very professional. Erm, yeah. That's all. And, oh, this quote from the Illinois Senator Barack Obama:

"The war in Iraq is kind of like driving a bus into a ditch. Obviously you need to reverse the bus out of the ditch, no matter how hard it is to do. Of course, you probably should fire the bus driver in this case."