Spring Break Day Five!!! ( Toronto) THE NIAGARA FALLS!!!!!!

Spring Break Day Four!!! (Manhattan-Buffalo-Toronto)

Spring Break Day Four (Alone in New York- lost on the way to airport)

Our flight was scheduled to be 9:30am. So ALL of us agreed to set OFF FROM our hostel at 6:30am as we had to take the subway to JFK airport (we didn't know how long it will take & we wanted to avoid the morning office hrs crowd). At 7am, ALL of us were still sleeping!!! We were all so dead tired that no-one woke up until 7am!! Haha.. so we rushed, went to the subway, by that time, the trains were all so crowded, we knew that we couldn't possibly get on the same carriage together WITH our lugage. So we splitted up. Ron said: " Meet at Columbus." Then we splitted up.

I got on the same carriage with Wenhui, but Eugene who was helping both of us carry the luggage (Me n Wen shared 1 luggage), couldn't squeeze on the train. Worried for Eugene, Wenhui left the carriage just as the door was abt to close. She waved "Meet you later!" I happily nodded.

So i was alone.... And being squeezed near the door, i couldn't see any of the subway maps on the train walls, I was trying hard to listen out for the conductor to say "Columbus". After some time, i sensed something was not right.

I turned to the person next to me & asked " Have we passed the stop Columbus?"
The person stared at me " Columbus Circle? The one on the 56th Street?"
"Erm, is there any other stop named Columbus?"
The person shaked his head"No... There's only Columbus Circle."
"Ok.... Have we passed the stop?"
"Yeah, it is 2 stops away now..."

ARGH!! I missed my stop. I took out my hp wanting to call/msg the rest to tell them that I'll be late. BUT THERE WAS NO reception in the subways.... Oh man....

So i figured my way to get over to the other side, so that i can take the opp train back to Columbus.. (the subways in NY is quite confusing, you can't just get to the other side tt easily.. there are so many exits/entrances/stairs/routes-I had to ask my way ard) . By the time I reached Columbus. I looked opp.. there were no one there. So i went out of the subway station- in order to get reception & i wanted to call the rest to ask them where they are..... But i couldn't reach any of them.

Alright... The only thing I rem is that we are departing from JFK airport(Luckily I rem its JFK & not LaGuardia!) . I had no idea what airline/flight no/terminal we are going to take. I asked abt 4 pple how to get to JFK airport... All of them provided me with totally different routes. Wow. The last person I asked was this female cop/conductor...

"How can I get to JFK?"
"Ok baby you gt to take the A train."
"Where do i take the A train?"
"Alright baby, you go down to the left...... "
** i was wondering if she's accurate bcos another lady told me to take the D train**
"The A train goes straight to JFK?"
"Yeah baby"
** i was confused by the so many versions.. **
"Ok, I'm a little confused, do u mind if you point out to me on the map where the route goes & where JFK airport is?"
I led her to this big map on the subway wall.. & she pointed out to me...
"Oh... Sorrie, how do i get to the A train?"
"have you been listening to me? You got to go down to the left...... "
"I'm sorry!"
"laughs. Good luck lady.. Is that all the luggage u haf?"
She looked at my backpack & a plastic bag ( wenhui's shoes).
"uh... my luggage is with my other friends.. Thanks anyway!"

Oh man, I kept all the NY maps in my luggage as i thought that we are all going to Buffalo, I wouldn't need those till i'm back in NY. And I've only shoes & slippers in my backpack & i'm carrying Wenhui's shoes.. I've only shoes, no clothes! hahah...

When i reached the platform... I asked another guy again.. (There are different trains that passed by the platform-eg: Aexpress, A, E, B).. They all passed the same platform.

So i took the A express train. Fortunately it was the correct one. (Aft that then i found out that all the routes are also correct, there are a few trains tt go to JFK, but the A express train is the fastest. There is a A local train which stops at every stop. If i had taken this, I might miss the 11am flight)

When i reached the airport, I called Wenhui. Eugene was waiting at the station while Wenhui was waiting at the airtrain. The rest were all at the airport. Phew.

THE CATCH:
There are another 2 versions of this incident:
1) Wenhui & Eugene
2) Ron & Su Hui & Alvin

1) Wenhui & Eugene also missed Columbus stop, so they went ahead to JFK airport-all along thinking that I was with the rest. Despite missing the stop, they managed to take the same A express train as Ron & Su Hui & Alvin although they all were on different carriages.

2) Ron & Su Hui & Alvin got out at Columbus, didn't see anyone-so they thought that I was with Wenhui & Eugene & they went to JFK airport. They had probs finding the correct platform for A express train, which explains why they ended up taking the same train as Wenhui & Eugene.

Hahaha.. So when they finally met up at the Howard Beach station (aka JFK airport), they were like "Hey, good! everybody is here!" Then the 2 grps of pple, looked at each other.... "WHERE is liming?"

Hahahhaha... Nobody know that i was missing all along! They tried to call me, but this time, i'm in the subway-no reception.. Finally when i met Eugene & Wenhuji at the station... & the rest were at the terminal.. Ron managed to get all of us on the next flight. Even if I hadn't been late, the rest of them still couldn't reach there in time for the 9:30am flight.

So we took the next flight at 11am. Finally everybody was back together.

Spring Break Day Three!!! (New York- Manhanttan)

We set off around 9am to take the Staten Island Ferry. It is a free ride. All of us kind of split into smaller grps, me, ZD, Wenhui & Eugene travelled tog for this day. Soo Whee & Ron went on the Ellis Island Ferry where they get nearer to the Statue of Liberty and their ride cost a fee. Then Mark & Wenbin went somewhere else.. Haha I'm not sure.

The ferry ride took approx an hr to get to Staten Island & back & including the waiting time. It was pretty fun. The statue of Liberty doesn't seem that tall/big, esp when you viewed it from the ferry.. It was a gift of friendship from France to the US and is a universal symbol of freedom and democracy. Anw, it is an icon for NY so the main purpose of this ride is just to see it.

Near to Battery Park & the ferry terminal is the The icon is the Raging Bull. After which, we set off to Brooklyn Bridge, which was built to connect the island of Manhattan to Brooklyn. If I rem correctly at the time of its completion in 1883 it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. There, you can also see the nearby Manhattan Bridge. We didn't walk the whole bridge, i was hungry for lunch so we just walked half of the bridge..

After lunch, we headed to the Empire State Building where we paid 18 bucks to go up to the top of the bldg to see the skyline of NYC. It was the world's tallest building when it was completed. It was so crowded, I think we queued for almost an hr just to take the elevator up to the top. But the wait & the $ was worth it. The view from the top was impressive. Look at the pics. You can also see Statue of Liberty from there. We also passed by the New York Public Library which was so pretty! Too bad it was closed, so we could only take pics of its exterior.

As night falls, we went to Grand Central terminal (aka one of the stops of subway), the terminal's main hall has a cathedral-like ceiling, very different from the rest of the stops of the subway. The Chrysler Building is in the vincinity. The Chrysler Building is architecturally interesting- sculptures of cars are carved into the brickwork. Walter Chrysler commissioned its construction in honor of his success in the automobile industry. After dinner, we headed back to our hostel. There was enough sightseeing in 1 day. Also, we had to wake up early the next day to catch our flight from JFK to Buffalo. Our flight was sheduled at 9:30am.

Spring Break Day Two!! (New York-Manhanttan)

We reached NY Largadia Airport at 11 pm. Initially we thought its not safe to travel ard NY late at night with our luggage, so we didn't book any hostels & we spent the night at the airport. From 11-6am, i played poker, ate, sleep, ate, chat while others studied or slpt. Most of us have a few tests the wk aft our Spring break so many of us brought materials to study during our free time.

When dawn breaks, we set off for our hostel which is located on 101Street. We took subway there and walk down a few streets dragging our luggage. It felt really exciting to be in NY.

Soon after we checked in, we set off for the Central Park which is just one street away from where we live. The park was huge, with a few lakes inside and we strolled for~ 2 hours-took tonnes of pics and we left for Lower Manhattan- Wall Street area.

At the Wall street area, there are the titanic edifices such as the New York Stock Exchange and the Federal Reserve Bank buildings. Another famous landmark is the Trinity Church which was built in 1766. It was once the tallest structure in New York City. George Washington attended services there. Since it was a Sunday noon/afternoon, the streets were relatively quiet. Can't imagine how it will be like to be walking here on a working day. Probably we will be swarmed with working adults with super duper fast walking pace.

We had late lunch at Chinatown and toured nearby Little Italy as well. It seemed like a totally different NY when we got out of the subway at Canal Street (aka Chinatown). It seemed like hong kong to me. People were mostly speaking Cantonese and the food there is not only cheaper than Midtown, it was really authentic Chinese food. Much better than those I had in Texas-Austin and Houston. It feels really nice to see so many Asians around since Texas A&M is a relatively homogeneous university with not as many Asians as UC-Berkeley or other city universities.

Next we went to WTC site on 120 Liberty Street. At night, we went to Times Sq to see the city lights. It was amazing. The huge number of animated neon and television-style signage makes you feel the vibrancy of NY. Just see the pics. We did very little shopping, except a few shops like Hard Rock Cafe etc... We were all so busy taking pics throughout the night before we finally head back to our hostel at 1am... After the short nap the night at the airport, all of us walked for almost an entire day. Next morn we agreed to wake up ard 8am. What a long day............

Spring Break Day One! (CLL-Houston)

Finally Spring break arrived!! Yay! On friday 9 Mar, SO many pple skipped classes, me also. Hehe.. I skipped 1 out of my 3 classes because I haven't pack finish.

We all took 3 cars in total to get to Houston. 1st one set off at 1pm with Soo whee & Ron & Evelyn(driver), 2nd one ard 2pm with Zheng Dong, Alvin & Eugene & Eugene's vietnam frien(driver) and i took the last car with Joyce, Wenhui at ard 4pm with Gary & Ming (driver)..

Really kudos to our friends (Eugene's friend, Evelyn, Gary, Ming) They esp drove us to Houston's airport. If not for them, we probably have to take a cab which is SUPER expensive. Houston is ~an hr drive away.

We spent the night at Houston at Holiday Inn. All 8 of us squeeze in the room to save costs. Hahah.. And we ate Chinese food for dinner at Sinh Sinh, bubble tea, and VERY GOOD cheesecake at the "Cheesecake factory" at Galleria and i finally watched a movie!! Finally! Ever since I arrived in US, i haven't been to the movies. Why? Because there's so much more things to do, no car to get to the theatre, and the movies are nt cheap. We watched the movie "300". We booked online but the theatres here are free seating. So we shld get there early to get good seats.. But we kinda lost our way there aft eating dinner so in then end, we all (~12 of us) had to split up & i sat at the 1st row.

The next day (Sat 10 Mar), we all had dim sum as brunch!! It was good. After which, we set off to Galleria (a veri big shopping mall-think of Taka + Paragon combined). None of us bought anything because we had to set off to Hobby Airport at 3pm & our luggage were all nicely packed. Again, very kind-hearted Ming drove us to the airport. Both the vietnam friend and Evelyn had sthg on, so theY couldn't drive us..

And off we fly to New York on the 7pm flight. It was ~3hrs flight. :)