I wanna remember what happened in Washington D.C. and NYLF and Curie, which is why I'm gonna write an entry on the entire trip in the USA. This is one of the best trips I've ever had in my life.
Sunday, 13th June 2010
Left home at about 3am because had a 2 and a half hour conversation with Aslam before that. Fully packed and ready to go! But was feeling really gan chiong or worked up cos I was afraid my bag would exceed in weight and won't be able to get past immigrations. 23.2kg, but I still could get thru so now I was totally excited for the trip. Met some of them for the very first time like Kwan Wei, Pei Wen and two ACJC J1 students, Priscilla and Debbie for the trip on the plane. Also saw Rio Hoe and Clavance with the other grp of people from GYLC. Apparently they're only back on Sunday, 27th June which is one day before CT2s so good luck to them!
On the plane and finally having that excited feeling of going overseas. Last time I had it was back in Dec 2008 where we all went to USA (yay) to LV, SF and LA. Those were the good days right after O Levels and having a three-month holiday. And now, I'm heading to the States by myself!
Left SG in the A.M. and saw the sunrise, which was immaculate. Went to Narita Tokyo Airport first to transit and watched some movies on the plane like the Hurt Locker. It was really good. Had a 13 hour flight all the way to Detroit Michigan and had another hour and a half flight to Ronald Reagan National Airport, which happens to be in the state of Virginia. So total time in the plane was 24 hours, but we arrived in USA at bout 5pm on Sunday 13th June 2010, so it was kinda weird but totally awesome cos' we get an extra day on the plane haha. Waited for the shuttle service for a while and found out that a river separated two states: Washington DC and Virginia.
Headed down to Georgetown University and remember someone saying that the people don't look too friendly. Haha, I was like, this place is filled with Americans! Where are the International students! So anyways, we dropped off just outside O' Donovan Dining Hall where the rest were having dinner and we just arrived at about 6pm-ish. Carried our luggages up the flight of stairs (argh) and went to the NYLF Office.
We saw Dwayne and we told him: "we're students from Singapore and we just arrived"
Seeing only me and Kundan, he went: "brothers... come in" and in went 12 of us and he panicked!
So we found out our groups and I happened to be in CURIE, same group as Kundan! Gordon was in Li and four of them happened to be in the same group Freud! Kaymond, Eugenia Samantha and Debbie.
So we bathed and changed into our formal clothes and went straight for our introduction session to the program at the ICC, after which we headed back to the West Wing to have our very first MED Session. On the way up the lift, Kundan and me saw our very first groupmate Rachel and when we went to the Y Wing 8th floor, we saw the rest of Curie! At first, everyone was really quiet and to break the ice, we introduced ourselves to everyone. Singapore, hmmmm wonder if the rest of Curie knows where's that! So we played our very first gamebreaker, the Adjective Name Game. I'm Goofy Gavin for obvious reasons haha. After which, we had the Match and I talked to some of them, namely Andrew, Jill, Chelsea Burks, Brittany and Claire and found out they were warm people to talk to! Also found out that they were YOUNGER than me haha.
It was 10.30pm and we headed back to our bunks where I met my roommate Alex for the 1st time. Remember him asking me whether Singapore's near India and I was like, it's further South by a little. And had a chat before knocking out about 12.
Monday, 14th June 2010
Woke up in the A.M. at about 7 and had the first breakfast session ever. Met Gordon's roommate Ethan and after which we headed down to our second MED session where we were talking about Leadership in the field of Medicine, getting ready for Dr. Hameed Khan's speech. Off we went to Gaston Hall which was a nice walk from the West Wing to the place. Sat in between Far Deen and Anthony for Dr. Hameed Khan's speech which was about the Human Genome Project. Didn't understand most of it but I got the main idea that it is related to research which was a 'fruitful' experience for me last year in SRP. But it was inspirational and I remember him talking about our mother being an African woman millions of years ago.
After the talk, we had our first lunch session where I saw KFC and was dying to eat the tender chicken thigh. Thing is, they don't have the chicken but only burgers! So I had 5 hot wings and an OR burger to go along with wedges and a drink. Oh Americans eat a lot btw! So we met Dionna and had lunch with Andrew where I saw Spain being beaten by Switzerland. Oh the WC Fever in the States wasn't as bad as I thought. I expected not many to know about soccer but there are awesome dudes that know soccer. Oh my lunch was about 12 bucks. After which we headed back to have our MED Session which was about Problem Based Learning I guess and I was grouped with Hannah and Anthony and Kundan. After which we had a wonderful dinner session with the other Americans Stephanie and Tabitha in particular where we discussed on different school cultures here and in Singapore and was given a pleasant shock about the culture there haha. I think I was starting to like the people there! and had another MED Session and went to bed, haven't really warmed up with Curie just yet, in fact we were kinda distant apart haha. But the next day was gonna be slightly more fun where we'll head down to George Washington University to hear more about the Medical School Experiences!
Tuesday, 15th June 2010
TO BE CONTINUED BECAUSE GOING FOR JTS NOW BYE!
God Bless and Peace!
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