I'm back in Singapore, I landed in this hot, humid place on Sunday, 3 August 2007 at 4.50am. Sigh and I'm already missing LA.

Things I miss about LA

1) The weather, how it feels like you're always in an air conditioned environment especially when the wind blows and you're in the shade. How it feels like when you're in the desert areas, that's a different thing altogether.

2)My hallmates. Oddly enough, I felt strange sleeping in my own room last night, the room felt too big and too lifeless. This is what happens when you share your life with another person for 6 weeks, 6 weeks of having to be mindful that your roommate is an early sleeper, of having no privacy to speak of when there's at least another person with you 24-7 (the only time I was ever alone was after classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays when she was having her classes and I was done with mine, and of course, when I went to the toilet). However, my roommate, my classmates, my floormates, they were all great. My experience in UCLA would have been nothing had it not been for them. They were the people with whom I went to Westwood with after classes, be it to visit Ralphs to do some shopping for snacks and water, or to Diddy Reese's for some ice cream-cookie sandwiches, or to Pinkberry for great frozen yoghurt, or to Noodle Planet for American toned-down Thai food, or to the movies at Mann (we caught Transformers and Harry Potter at the Village at Westwood). These were the people who went to Santa Monica with me, who walked down 12 blocks (even the LA people) just so the Singaporeans could go get Krispy Kreme before walking back the same 12 blocks to go to the pier. The same people who went to Las Vegas, 6 Flags, Universal Studios and Disneyland with me. The people who had their meals with me, crapped and joked with me at the lounge till it was 2am (a week before our exams lol). It was great, seriously it was. And it's so strange now that I won't get to see Jaime's crazy antics, Sophie being sarcastic to Jaime, thankfully I can still see Anu's funny facial expressions hahahaha. But it's not as entertaining when Andrew and Kanchana get into an argument.

3) UCLA/Westwood. I will miss the campus, it's just so breathtakingly beautiful that it puts NUS to shame. I remember the shock I got when I realised I had to walk down the hill and then up another to get to class every morning, but those walks were pretty enjoyable in the weather that we had. A 15-20 minute walk to class every Monday to Thursday. Westwood I will miss for Diddy Reese and Pinkberry. Lol. It's just UCLA's neighbourhood.

4) Santa Monica. Especially the 3rd Street Promenade. It's so lively, vibrant. I could spend every other weekend there (in fact I was there almost every other week). How could you go wrong with 3 blocks of shops (though the factory outlets had more variety and had cheaper prices), a beach and a pier 3 streets down and Krispy Kreme 9 blocks from the Promenade? Not to mention Bubba Gump was around the corner. And there are street performances all over the Promenade (they expect to be tipped when you watch, some of them can get nasty if you walk away w/o tipping, you'd probably understand if you do that for a living).

5) The theme parks a.k.a Disneyland, Universal Studios, 6 Flags Magic Mountain. FUN, FUN FUN! Need I say more? Too bad I didn't get to go to Seaworld and Knotts Berry Farm.

6) The factory outlets, I only managed to go to Primm, since you need a car to get to the outlets and none of the Singaporeans from my faculty was willing to die (considering our faculty's oddly high death rate for students on exchange, who mostly end up dying in vehicle accidents and my apologies if it sounds as if I'm trivialising it, I assure you, I'm not). But I did get to buy tops from Old Navy while I was at Primm(I LOOOOOOOOVE OLD NAVY!!!!).

7) Las Vegas, for its night life, I mean I almost didn't want to go back to the hotel at night if I hadn't been so tired! You spend the whole night out in Vegas and no, I didn't gamble or drink (not legal for me).

8) Krispy Kreme. No explanation needed if you've had them.

9) UCLA Central Ticketing Office for tickets to places of attraction like 6 Flags, Disneyland, Universal Studios. Save between $10-30 off admission!!!

Things I WON'T miss about LA

1) Their public transportation system. It's so bad it makes Singapore's look like Albert Einstein designed it. I remember the really freaking and scary incident the day we went to Universal Studios. We left Universal Studios at 9pm, waited for the first bus for 25mins in the freezing cold night weather with the wind blowing (wind chill factor, anyone?). When we finally got on the bus and alighted at the bus stop where we had to change to a bus that went to Sunset/Galey, we were stuck there for over an hour! And by then it was 10pm!!!! So what we had was 3 freaked out girls (2 of whom were really small sized, ok I'm considered really small sized there ok??), none of whom were local, had no male friend in the group and there was this group of 5 rather rowdy local guys at the bus stop. We were so scared and desperate someone suggested praying to the "Bus God", hahahahaha. And it wasn't as if we were stuck in some remote part in LA. One hour later when we saw that another bus plying the Westwood route was coming, we hopped on the bus and high tailed our way out of there! But the freaky guys were on that bus too and dropped at our stop. Thankfully they went the other direction. Our nerves continued staying in high alert till we reached Hedrick where the residential halls of UCLA came into sight. (Don't tell my mum whatever is in red, ok?? Shhhh.... I don't need an earful)

And then there's the time we sent an hour (a big group mind you) at the bus stop at Ackerman Union waiting for the Big Blue Bus, only to realise that the bus doesn't come in on weekdays and we had to walk to Le Conte to take the bus! Lol. And the other time we saw this hugely obese woman seated at the back of the bus turning to her left and spitting at the corner of the bus! She proceeded to wipe her spit-covered hand on the seat in front of her. YIKES.

The train system there is really confusing too, I mean trains headed to different parts of LA would stop at the same platforms, so we almost ended up taking the wrong train until someone figured it out!

2) Strange, freaking people in LA. For example, the strange guy who called out to us at Venice beach, he said "Yo! Asian chicks!" and proceeded to sing "I love you" to us. And then there's the weird Caucasian guy at Hollywood who stood to a side for us to pass and then proceeded to make some racist comment about Chinks. And the African American homeless man who said something about Asians.

3) Not having my own toilet! I mean when you have to share the toilet plus showering facilities, of course you'd miss having your own toilet.

Basically that's it. Last night was strange, sleeping in my room alone. It was too quiet, the room was too big and the bed was too low (my bed of 6 weeks was so high I had to hop on and off it).

Heh, I was so jet lagged yesterday I was saying all the wrong things. I still am jet lagged but considerably less so today. I have a dental appointment tomorrow. And I forgot to bring my retainers to LA so that means I didn't wear them for 6 weeks. SO DEAD.