all together now-

this is AMAZING. and hilarious. and sweet. and hilarious once more.

hohohoho, hoho~ ^^

well, im back from the US of A! definitely feel more angmohpai-ed. but whatever, it'll wear off. the West Coast has been awesome fun! a big part of this would be cos of the people i got to meet on this tour of course. especially the tans, angs, engs, auntie and uncle quek and uncle ben and aunt selena! and tour guide auntie seleen and bus uncle DaLong made the trip super funny too.

america is truly beautiful. did some sketches of roadside scenery and the grand canyon which we visited. will post up later just cos im so proud of them:)) its the first time i ever tried speed sketching, quite happy with the result although there is definite space for learning. most of the people we met were friendly enough, and there was a great emphasis on individuality/ingenuity, whereas similar behaviour in singapore would have got you plenty of stares and unwanted attention.

of course america has an ugly side too. at san francisco there was alot of homeless people hanging around.. at least more than we're used to in singapore. most of them were african americans. to be honest it was my first time in such an environment which made me quite scared, because you dont know what to expect. experiences include walking out of a store, and suddenly being surrounded by police cos the person who came out after us was caught for shoplifting, being sang to by random people asking for pennies and witnessing some guy peeing into a dustbin at a crowded busstop. (and then an argument started between him and another dude scolding him for 'indecent exposure'.)our tour guide actually told us not to wander around at night, but i went out with my parents one night cos my mom's friends visited us. and then this drunk nutcase started shouting after us as we were walking down the street. of course we ignored him and acted nonchalant but all i could think about were aikido moves and thank goodness the hotel was nearby.

what i learnt from this experience is that singapore is possibly as good as it gets in terms of safety; while this is definitely a plus i think it has made me rather dumb on the streetwise department. its as though singapore is an alternate universe, and all along we've been living in it!