Jeszeccentric*

Yo seriously. The Spanish are so laid-back, it stresses me out. How ironic is that?!

I’m definitely a lot more mellow about it now. If you can’t beat em’, join em’ right? I used to go absolutely nuts swearing at how every blardy shop was closed from 2-5pm, not to mention Sundays. But I adapted, as long as I’ve been prepared for that 3 hour siesta break (almost literally everything closes except restaurants/bars, so that the Spaniards can chill), buying my stuff or going to the print shop before or after.. I’ve been good. Its been good for me, chillin’ and not taking things too seriously. I don’t know how this is going to effect me when I get back to Wes though. Hopefully deep down somewhere, I can muster some sort of nerd-mode-ism and get my fast game back on track.

Anyways, as I was saying.. laid-back Spaniards.. my law Prof didn’t show up last week to class. This week he told us, he forgot.. says he was confused as to which day he canceled class. If this happened in the US.. ?? And then my Art Prof just told us today, class for the following 2 weeks are canceled. Our last class is the day we take our exams. Yo seriously. I have no complaints and all because I literally suffer through 2 hours of that wretched ‘what is art class?’ every week. But seriously.. the Spanish really take their breaks seriously no? =p But.. no more art class!!! WOOOOOOTTTT!! =D

My parents and my brother are in Hanoi now, hope they’re having fun. I seriously have to get down to backpacking South East Asia. =(

Valencia has just been a wonderful breath of fresh air. I was absolutely fascinated by churches in the beginning here in Spain, but after your 110th chapel.. everything becomes a blur really. And so its trips like these which you remember.

Day 1 was the 4 hour bus ride to Valencia from Madrid. Upon arriving, we head straight for lunch. Of course being servied Valencia’s famous prawn paella.

The paella without the prawns for me please

After a full stomach and rather sleepy heads, we begin the historical tour of the city. This combination however is very unfortunate for a bunch of 30 restless students.

Tower

Plaza

Church

Holy Grail. I don’t really know how many churches claim to have the Holy Grail, but this is one of them.

Dead pope’s hand. Long story, google it if interested. =p

Nightfall / Evening fall / tarde

Ceramics musuem / palace. This is the Chinese room.

Cool ceiling designs from a long long time ago

The ceramics museum / former palace ballroom. Austin, behind me is angry at having to listen to a tour guide repeat herself 4 times over.

Liz and I still in a rather cheery mood. =) End of Day 1.

Day 2 is the best day ever!! We visit the city of arts and sciences which is a combination of the Science museum, the Reina Sofia art musuem (yes, Madrid has one too), the Hemisfera (which has IMAX!) and the Oceanografic (the Aquarium). I loved this! We were given a 2 hour tour of the science musuem, which was nice, but we would have prefered just being able to run around and play with the interactive stuff.

From left to right: Reina Sofia, Hemisferic, Science Musuem

=)

The Hemesferic, you can’t really see it right now, but it was built to resemble a huge eyeball floating above a pool of water. The eye even blinks with the aid of a steel and glass shutter operated by hydraulic lifts.

Science museum. They use alot of glass in modern Valencia structures, to take advantage of the Mediterranean light here.

See the Reina sofia on the right, that’s supposed to be a feather curving over the top. Looks like a rather strange helmet no?

Mice are genetically 90% the same as us humans. And yet look how different we are. =p

Look mom! I’m everywhere!

Playing with mirrors is fun! Haha, being lil kids when we were allowed to roam free for awhile during the tour

I don’t really know why there were brassieres in the Science museum. Oh, but yeah.. it takes scientific knowledge to make them I suppose.

Unfinished structure behind. I’m not sure exactly what its going to be though.

In the children’s science section I find out I’m a mutant. Thats my most mutant-ish face. >,<

I told you I was a mutant!!

Chillin with my super evil mutant friends.

After the Science musuem, we dashed over to the Oceanografic’ to experience swimming with the fishies and dolphins! This is really random too, but watching the dolphins, it was one of those times where I felt that I would just be happy working with these creatures. I remembered wanting very much to work with animals when I was young and just being so happy swimming with the dolphins in the Bahamas.. so.. I considered studying zoology after I graduate from Wes. But I don’t really want to study biology.. i just want to play with animals.. so how?? =p

Omg, I was so excited for this honestly.

Sea lions!

Damn ass huge scary jellyfish

My dolphins!! There were so many here though, which surprised me because I always just assumed that since they’re so rare, a center or aquarium will only have a few of these creatures.

Fishies

We crawled through this tiny tunnel to sit in a small enclosed area, to await the breaking of waves above us. Which was awesome!

Then the rest of the evening, was the amazing boat ride at Albufuera. Which was what my last post was about. What a way to end the day. Happyhappy. =)

The last day in Valencia, we visit an art museum. Had the usual art I didn’t understand, but there was this one particular room with insanely colorful pictures and funky art which I enjoyed. We end the afternoon and our trip to Valencia by visiting the beach.

The art museum, IVAM

Valencia has been good to us. =)

The boat skims effortlessly across the water, sending ripples into ever expanding rings. High-pitched laughter and incessant chattering fade into the background. And as the sun slowly begins its descent, I breathe in. And feel at peace.

For the first time ever since leaving Wesleyan Crew, I felt myself really missing the feeling of breaking the water’s surface with the blade of my paddle. Feeling the adrenaline rush, the pulse of heart, perhaps even the sensation of my muscles screaming for air. I had flashbacks of a row of paddle blades sliding then cutting into water simultaneously, effortlessly. Staring straight ahead as ordered, as trained, I remember the heaving shoulders, the constant bobbing head of my crew mate. I also remember one cold early Friday morning, in negative temperature.. feeling as if I would die of cold and exhaustion, but feeling the exact sensation I felt a few hours ago. That of peace. And with that I left with a smile.

Signing off from Valencia, Spain.

just so if you’re a bit confused. I don’t particularly wish I was either. I don’t miss being in an all-english speaking environment (I wouldn’t have said this 2 months back though!), I just miss being around good friends.

I’m back in Madrid, London was about 2 weeks ago. And I’m going to finish blogging about it.

I just finished my Spanish exam today. So I’m allowed to finish blogging about this now. I’m also going to Valencia tomorrow for the weekend with the rest of the Vassar-Wesleyan Madrid program kids.

Anyways, picture blog of Day 3 and Day 4 London. Highlights of Day 3 include seeing Nubie again!! I know Nubie from high school where she was my senior debater. She’s studying in Oxford now, Oxford Oxford, like THE Oxford.. not Oxford Brookes.. all you Oxford Brookes people who say Oxford, instead of Oxford Brookes.. sorry, I know I’m ranting.. and this doesn’t mean I don’t like Brookes people.. see why can’t they say Brookes instead of Oxford?? Total, que.. Nubie. I haven’t seen her since high school!! And then Jin and I try to be cultured for the day. You’ll see what I mean. And we have ROAST DUCK. Amazing roast duck at Four Seasons. *yums* Mouth watering just thinking about it now. And we spend our last night in London at Mel’s place (thank you Mel!).

Day 4 was basically just chilling and seeing the Soo Jin (how dare she leave before me) off at the train station where some drama happens. Mari kita berdrama drama. The stupid sign board didn’t announce the arrival of her train, and then suddenly, it starts flashing.. train on time.. omgwtfwtf.. so we run. Run, run, run. But obviously the train has left. Run abit more here and there to catch the next train, and all is well. This guy fixing the train ticket barriers was also nice enough to let us through for free to say goodbye to Jin. So nice right?? Sigh, like I said a million times lar.. its the people of the city/country which make the place great.

Pictures!! =D

Meet Nubie! =D Circus freak!! *shes not really lar, inside joke sorry*

Me and Ben’s big clone. Totally his quote.

Met Nubie at Waterloo and took a walk down to Big Ben & Parliament Square

I really like this picture. =)

We head to Chinatown to meet up with Dolz for her goodbye lunch. And so Nubie meets Jin and Dolz!

Dolz leaves back to Liverpool. Thanks for coming down to London that weekend Dolz. =)

This is also where I say goodbye to Nubie. Supposed to see her in Madrid but scheduling conflict means I might not see her again. =(( Get back to me on the Real Madrid match Nubie!

I like how we’re all in dark blue/black trench coats/coats

After lunch, Jin and I head to Harrods. This is what my face looks like when I can’t afford stuff. Thankfully I didn’t have this face when we walked into Harrods, because I heard the doormen are supposedly quite picky on who they let in. You.. hey you.. the scraggly gangling young girl wearing a 30 euro cheap trench coat and who doesn’t look like they’re making enough money to shop in this place!! Out!!!

In Harrods, a tribute to Diana and Dodi Fayed. I used to love love love Princess D. I don’t even know why, must have been my mom’s influence.

London’s National Art Gallery. Spending the day, trying very hard to be cultured in. FAIL.

No pictures allowed to be taken inside with Van Gogh and all, so we take outside okie?!

Still at the Art Gallery. I’ve said it many times before, I’ll say it again. I love this girl, thanks for allowing me to drag you everywhere.

So what would you call the big area in front of a gallery or important building or what not? In Spain, large square-ish areas are called plazas. So I’m just going to call this the plaza in front of the Art Gallery.

Next stop, National Portrait Gallery.

Penguins deserve to have portraits too!!

Jin chooses Prince, ahem, Charles over the penguin.

Notice Big Ben in the distance behind Jin. After a long day trying and failing to be cultured, Jin and I decide to walk back to Waterloo instead of taking the tube. Like I totally believe the best way to see a place is to get lost in it.. and Jin was gullible enough to trust me. =D Hello, I reasoned that as long as we could see Big Ben, we couldn’t get too lost. And I was right okie!

Jin says, mandatory tourist photo with red telephone booth. I took one of her. But I refused to pose.

I posed for the red double-decker bus though!

Lang-man anot?? See we totally made it back safe & sound to Waterloo and really enjoyed the walk too!

Dinner at Four Seasons with the girl who ‘gap choi’ for me!! Nobody gap choi (take food) for me since like.. forever.. okie, since Madrid.. and i almost cried! >,<

Jin and friends from high school / Aber Uni. I know Xue Lieh, the guy in the winter cap from Taylors A Levels.

Roast duck and green veggie. Omg, damn syiok!!

We spend our last night in London at Mel’s place. =D

The really sweet waffles we bought to share with Mel.

This is basically us at Kings Cross station (another Monopoly board place. hehe) seeing Jin off. Stupid girl leaves before me, wtf.

You can just barely about see my outline and Mel’s.
Byebye. =(

“..all it takes to be happy is to have someone to share it with”

- Neffy, 9th November 2008

Photo picture taken in Hong Kong, 7th June, 2008

Neffy’s arrival date in Madrid, 17th December 2008

I miss you. And I can’t wait to share my happiness again.

P.S. This revelation also applies to my family and all my bff’s, all around the world, whom have stuck by me through thick and thin, and whom I miss dearly. Every single day.

Day 2 in London was packed with most of all the touristy things I wanted to do! And which my bff’s willingly came along for. *love* Enjoy the picture post.

Alan (whom we were staying with) lives right outside the London Eye. Sweet location, so just walking out and around the building gives us this view. Parliament Square and Big Ben! Neffy’s counterpart Big Ben. HAHA. Usually~~

The one and only emo-shot Dolz tried to get us to do. FAIL KAO KAO. Haha.

Then we had the more mundane common pose, but it still turned out better! =p Haha. Love u Dolz.

=)

London Eye

Just a walk across the bridge brings us to Parliament Square, Big Ben and this is Westminster Abbey

Dolz and I

This was taken on our way from Westminster to Buckingham Palace, right outside St. James Park. We walked everywhere that day and saw so much more of London.

We arrive at Buckingham Palace to a huge crowd milling around waiting. Since there was a crowd, and we had the sheep-herd mentality, we decided to mill around too. Haha. Then we met..

No, not Her Majesty as Dolz hoped. =p Meet Johnny. Johnny is a 79 years old London pensioner. Hes a total sweetheart. Its people like Johnny who made our stay in London all the more amazing. Noticed that we were looking kind of lost and so asked us if we spoke English. And then proceeded to give us a run through of what was going on. We were just in time for the Changing of the Guard!! Lucky us!

Johnny explains that the reason why they’re in grey and not in their usual striking red, is because the guards are in their winter uniforms. And if I remember correctly, he also said something about how the bearskin hats that they wear are 7/8 pounds? Thats about 3 kilograms!!

After Buckingham, Dolz leaves us to meet up with another friend. While Jin and I continue on to the Tower of London.

Jin the sweetie (whom I miss everyday) who ran around in the rain with me doing touristy-things without ever complaining once. Even though both of us looked like very unattractive drowned rats at the end of the day.

Inside the Tower of London, we head right for the perimeter walls and towers.

While we’re walking along the perimeter walls, we get some good views. Okie. The London Bridge is pretty unimpressive. But you know, if its falling down falling down..

A rather strange but really cool building seen from the perimeter wall.

Haha. So cute! These metal structures were placed all around the tower, I think to give a sense of what the castle’s defence would have been like back in the day.

This is where the Ravens are. You can’t really see them lar I guess in this picture. But the saying goes, when ravens leave the tower, the building and the monarchy will fall. Which is why these ravens have their own Raven Master to care for them on the Tower grounds. -_-

In a random tower, a video camera films us onto a wall. Haha. Spicing up the dreary tower are we?

Crown jewels! Okie, so we wait in line forever to see the crown jewels. First we climb the winding steps of a tower to see the crown molds (without the jewels) and to read abit of history. We then descend from the tower, Jin and I visibly upset that we queued up for so long just to see fake diamonds and read about wonderfully big jewels. Seems we had only seen part 1, part 2 was in another building. With hugeass thick iron safe doors. No pictures were allowed but I sneaked this one. =p This is the Imperial Crown of India. Jin and I went on the travelator 3 times just to gawp at the jewels. The travelator moves alongside the crown jewels so I guess you can’t stop,stare and block everyone behind you for too long

The building where the Crown Jewels are kept. Along the same note, the Sovereign’s sceptre is freaking amazing with the 530-carat Star of Africa, the biggest cut diamond in the world!!

This is the poor White Tower. White Tower is old and deserves much care. =(

The armouries are inside White Tower. Thats Jin staring at all the guns. -_-

The chapel of St. John the Evangelist in also inside the White Tower

Displays of ermmm.. endowment are also inside the White Tower! HAHA. Suits of armor and such.. I just don’t really understand why this would be necessary, but I suppose ‘breathing space’ is important in war.

And while they begin herding us out of the White Tower, Jin and I notice a little unexplored nook, no one seems to be interested in (either not interested, or just didn’t notice). And hey there its the loo!!

This is how Jin believes the good ladies and lords of the realm go to the loo.

This is my version. HAHA.

Tower Green, the place of execution for nobility. Just so no one’s confused, the Tower of London has a glorious past but is best remembered as a place of imprisonment and perhaps violence. Henry VIII sent two of his wives to their deaths here in Tower Green.

Doesn’t seem like anything fascinating does it? Well, here’s the story. It was 4.30pm and the Tower was about to close to the public. Jin and I had one stop left, which was the Bloody Tower. The line for it was long though, and with only 8 minutes left, a Yeoman Warder approached us and warned us we might not make it in time. Yeoman Warders guard the tower, they live in the Tower and wear uniforms dating back to Tudor times. There are some 35 of time living in the tower premise. I don’t personally know how I’d feel living in a place where so much violence has been committed, but hell, being a Yeoman Warder is a great honor. Anyways, point is.. the kind Warder allowed us in! Seriously, like I said.. its kind Londoners like this which made my trip so fantastic. And we’re the last ones into the Bloody Tower!! He also proceeds to show us the markings behind this door, telling us those markings are devil signs. It was SO creepy! The Bloody Tower was spooking us out - this is where the alleged killing of the little princes and the poisoning of a husband by his wife and lover took place. And then on our way out, the nice warder asked us if we were the last ones.. I said yes, I think.. and he replied, yes certainly a few ghosts left. O.o

The tower was so much fun though!! =))

And then we wrap up the night with..

Chicago!! In London!! Hahaha. Dolz, Jin and I had lunch in Chinatown (naturally) and we decided to buy tickets for a musical. Les Miserables, Wicked, Lion King, Grease.. were all sold out, but there were seats left for Chicago! We were nice enough to think of Alan and Addie.. -_- which was kind of stupid in a way, since they decided to plonk themselves into the most central seats while Jin and I were stuck in the aisle seats feeling ripped off. I decided to do something about it and not feel resentful, so requested that we change seats, to which I get a response along the lines of.. “but I’m short..” Sigh. Addie also slept through most of it which sort of made me like.. seriously?? Sigh, petty stuff petty stuff.. And I know it. Theres much much deeper problems to our friendships I suppose, but oh well.. Thank God the musical was awesome!! Hot hot hot. The singing could have been better certainly, more powerful.. but I loved how the choreography and songs mesh together so nicely. Especially when they used words to form part of a beat. =)

Chicago in London.

End of Day 2! Blargh. I have to do Day 3 & 4 soon, since all my blogposts are catching up on me. I’m going on another daytrip to Avila tomorrow which means another post. And I’ve also yet to blog about my awesome 4 day weekend before London.. BLOG JESS BLOG.

I set off for London with Andrew Friday morning. Around 12.30am to be exact, for a 6.30am flight. Why? Because the metro closes at 1.30am and Andrew and I didn’t want to spend 50 euros to take a cab later on. So we spent a few hours in the airport, lying on the cold, hard, cold, hard, cold airport floor. As you can imagine, I did not manage to get any sleep at all.

Upon arriving in London though, there was nothing a nice hot shower couldn’t fix. By that time though, I was starving. Waited for Addie, the burfday girl to finally show up. Our reunion was a tad bit strained, since I was rather grumpy from the lack of sleep and food. All was well however as we headed out for dim-sum. Woot!! Seriously, best lunch in a long long time. I love dim sum as you can tell. And it was nice catching up again. Addie doesn’t seem to have changed.

Perusing the dim sum menu. Absolutely enthralled.

Burfday girl, Addie with dim sum.

Picture together after goodness knows since when.

I had actually planned out a mini-itinerary for myself and wanted to see one or two churches, specifically Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral on the day of arrival (Friday), just because the churches would be closed to the public on Sunday. Addie however was in the mood for shopping and since it was her burfday, I decided might as well. So she brought me to the shopping district, I forget if we were somewhere in Picadally or Oxford Street. All I know is, is that it was one of those districts on the Monopoly board. *bleks* If anyone knows this area, please tell me, so i can rectify my rather embarassing ramble on monopoly board districts.

Addie in front of Ripleys. I basically shoved Addie in front alot of things to take photos with.

Somebody tell me where I am

Pretty streets of shops

What Addie calls, the football emblems of London.

So after an afternoon of shopping window-shopping walking around, not being able to afford anything, we head back to Alan’s place (which is in a phenomenal location, Waterloo, right outside the London Eye. I kid you not) for abit of a rest. And to get ready for Addie’s birthday night at Bleeding Heart. A posh little restaurant, which blew my budget and had my poor wallet, literally smoking. At 35 pounds for the whole meal, you can sort of tell why my heart was crying out for mercy. It was perhaps even more idiotic for me to convert pounds into ringgit. Yes, that brings the grand total up to 3 digits. Sigh. But Neffypoo made me feel better by telling me its a once in awhile kind of thing. And I shouldn’t feel bad about it. I shouldn’t feel bad about it. Right?

But to nicer thoughts, it was so awesome to see most of my A Levels gang again. We were definitely missing a few, but it was still great. We did however miss Jin at dinner since she arrived late, due to classes that day. After dinner though, Dolly and I went to meet Jin shortie at the Waterloo station. =)) The party/dinner was a pretty big affair, as you’ll see by the group picture. I made a few new friends, but more importantly got to spend a good bit of time chatting and catching up with old friends.

Alan & Addie the birthday girl

Rachel, Sam, Dolly and I. Sam and Dolz, buddies from A Levels Taylors. And Rachel I know from tennis! Such a small world, since we haven’t seen each other in years, and then suddenly we realize we have a mutual friend. =)

James Bond happy wanna-be. =p

Rachel and I with the birthday girl

Being stupid.

The birthday girl with 2 cakes

The birthday girl and I.

Group picture.

Omg. I just realized why the restaurant is called Bleeding Heart.
Omg. I know its lame. But seriously. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Also, because its such a monumental day in history. I must mention it.

Obama won.

Tired but happy. Pictures and updates to come, I hope.

Besides the little spat that I iniated with Ben, I had an awesome 4 day weekend. The best yet in Madrid. =)

I will hopefully be back to blog details soon. Preferably before my London trip this weekend. Because if I wait till after, there will just be too much to blog about. Which means, I never will.

Chao.

P.s. Jess is back in black. =))

I’m having one of those early-20’s life crisis thingies. All because I missed the deadline (by a whooping 2 weeks) of an internship I had been eyeing for awhile.

I don’t really know what I want to do with my life.

I’ve not really known since, forever. Literally. Which is why Wesleyan was such a blessing for me. Another 4 more years to do what I do best. Everything and Nothing. Liberal arts colleges = heaven for little lost souls. Wesleyan bought me time. But since I’m still wandering rather aimlessly, time apparently isn’t going to solve this. I’m a junior. A 3rd year student with one year left ticking down on the undergrad clock (if you want to get into specifics, a year and a half). Its almost general knowledge, that for juniors, this coming summer of 2009 is the do-or-die period for competitive internships. Theres this rather frightening train of thought, that if you don’t get a good internship, and by good - this means a top-notch, recognizable, high-pay company / organization - during your junior year.. you can forget about a secure job in a ‘prestigious’ company once you graduate.

I don’t understand why I care so much.

Lie. Actually I do. Its the same reason why I would have chosen Harvard / Oxford over Wesleyan. And as much as I love Wesleyan. And I do mean LOVE Wesleyan, if given that option.. would I really choose Wesleyan over the big-names, as I’d been boasting all along? I doubt it. Ashamedly, the same sort of psyche seems to apply in my internship search.

Perhaps I’m being too hard on myself. Its not wrong to associate ‘value’ with ‘prestige’. In fact, I feel its quite natural. So what’s really bothering me? Why am I looking at these internships when I have absolutely no clue if I am even interested in these sectors / fields? I tell myself this is precisely why I should. So I can learn from these experiences to find out what I really like.

But I don’t just want to like it. I want to be passionate about it.

And that is precisely what I’m missing. Passion.