I'm in America!!!

It was a slow first 2 weeks but then Jacob and I went to Madison to visit his brother Tim and it was super fun!

Before I came I was a little bit sad because my 21st birthday is not till 2nd July, so I thought I wouldn't be able to get into bars/clubs and have beers and other shit. But then when I got here, we realised that in the US, the 02-07-90 on my IC reads as 7th February instead of 2nd July. So I AM kinda 21 after all!! How lucky hehe.

The first week I was here, we drove up to Chicago. Actually only Jacob drove, I just awkward-car-danced to all the songs we were playing on Pandora. (They have this really convenient online music streaming site here called Pandora. I don't know if it works in Singapore or not, but basically you enter a song to create a "station" and they'll just keep playing similar songs on the station. I wish Singapore had all these free online media sites.) Anyway it was so strange in Chicago at first, because it was all snowy and icy and cold the last time I went there in the winter of 09 but this time it was scorching. Jacob's friends came along too, and they brought me to this club called Visions. Coincidentally, they were hosting an Asian party there that night so we all got in for free. Word. Clubbing in the US is like clubbing in Singapore, except in Singapore the girls dance better.

Then we went to Madison. Madison is a total hippie town but in a good way, and there are also a record number of Volkswagon buggies here so Jacob got punched a good few times. The first night, we went to a bar/cluband met Tim's hot friend and her hot sister. It was epic how they kept getting hit on with at most a 2-minute gap between each hopeful guy. It's even worse than the ah bengs in Phuture.

The next day, Tim brought us to an indoor gun range. He told us about this one guy who was shot in the head with his own bullet when it ricocheted off something so the whole time I was feeling super anxious and paranoid, but had to act all cool and calm because it's a gun range and I felt like I should be acting manly and macho. Except I was too weak to cock my own gun so Jacob had to do it for me before I could shoot. And because it was a real gun, there were shells flying out everywhere every time we fired a shot. Being the super suay person I am, I got burnt by the shell immediately after I fired the very first shot >:( But it was still super fun though, and I think for a first-timer I wasn't a bad shot at all!

Then we went to Noah's Ark, which was America's largest water park. It was very good for my self-esteem because although I looked rather bulgy and lumpy in my bikini, most of the other girls there were bigger than I was :) They had this super insane 10-storey high water slide called Scorpion's Tail which started off with a drop that was approximately 80 degrees, then looped UPWARDS before going back down. And while we were queuing up for it, we could see the underside of the slide and the people just shooting down past us at like 50km/h. It was so steep and scary-looking, and we were trying to figure out how you were supposed to start off on the slide. It turns out that you had to step into this little box and lean back against the wall, and they would count to 3 before opening a trapdoor below your feet and literally DROP you into the slide. When I dropped, I only screamed for a second, but only because I got too scared to even scream any more. Sadly, water kept shooting into my eyes so I had them closed the whole time and couldn't see the cool part where the slide looped upwards and my feet were above my head. IT WAS SO INSANE THOUGH.

And Tim also brought us sailing and popped 4 people's sailing cherries at one go: Jacob's, mine, Alvin's, and Junn's. Sailing is unexpectedly chill and fun. We had beer and jom and a good time was had by all. Tim had an especially good time showing off all his sailing knowledge and jargon like hiking out, hiking stick, jib, sheet, tell-tails, hard alee, tacking, jibing etc. (okay now I'm showing off). Jacob had to pee so he peed overboard off the back of the boat.

Then there's also been some not so fun moments. Like when Jacob and his friend got drunk on 3 drinks each and he lost his iPhone. And since I got here, I've seen 2 tornadoes pass through the area I was in. The first time, Jacob and I were driving to a Chinese restaurant. When we got there, the rain and the wind were so bad that the moment I stepped out of the car and opened an umbrella, it instantly got turned inside out. But even if it didn't, it wouldn't have been of any help because the rain was just flying at us from all directions. The second time, it also HAILED. Tim, Jacob, and I were driving back from Noah's Ark and the rain was so heavy that we couldn't see the traffic lights, or even just the road in front of us. It was such a weird experience because even though Singapore's weather can be really unpredictable, it's still so mild compared to the weather here.

So yeah I think this trip has been amazing so far :) This summer break has been good. Cambodia CIP was fun, then Batam was fun, and now the US is also super fun! Wish I could just keep traveling everywhere on a perpetual holiday. Ahhh.

Some opinions are difficult to swallow, but I'm not forcing mine down anybody's throat. You don't have to read what I write if you don't like it, and if you read it, you don't have to agree with it.

I'm a person with an open mind. But I do have opinions about things, some stronger than others. I don't think my opinions are better than anyone else's, and I respect others' opinions even if they differ wildly from my own.

My opinions are flexible. If you can sustain a reasonable debate with me and you have valid points, I may concede. Some people think I enjoy being contrary and argue for the sake of arguing and being difficult, but that's not true. I like arguing because I like challenging my own, as well as others', opinions. It changes the way you think and keeps your brain from going stale.

Arguing (or debating, to put it more nicely) isn't stupid. There may be a commonly accepted "truth", or a very obvious answer to a question, but sometimes I like playing the devil's advocate just to question the status quo. Why not? There's no harm in it. You may or may not find out something new, or gain a new perspective on a situation. Unless you're completely certain that your own opinions will always be the only ones that are absolutely correct, but that's just arrogance. 

So the next time I (or someone else) ask something seemingly stupid, give it some thought and answer sincerely. You could belittle the question or scoff at it and think I'm being stupid, but that doesn't do anything other than make me think you're being boring and stupid.

Jacob to me:

"Dreamt I was in some kind of race with Seth Rogen and we were both Klondike bar delivery men and we are fighting to deliver to the same ppl so we had to race in our big ice cream trucks heh then there was one point when we took a break and just ate Klondike bars ourselves"

I was reading these discussions about life, religion, and the universe in general on this forum yesterday, because it's after exams and I'm getting sick of just sitting around vegetating.

It got me thinking again about physics, astrophysics, and quantum mechanics. I wish human brains (or at least MY brain) were capable of imagining what 4D would be like, seeing time as a tangible thing, and understanding the concept of space being relative. And I was thinking - what came before the Big Bang (if there was one)? Even if it was nothing, even if it was outside the realm of time, the nothingness had to exist in something, some sort of dimension - it's just that we can't comprehend that sort of dimension so we aren't able to come up with some sort of mathematical formula or use physics to explain it. I really wish someone could understand it and explain it to me. I can't stand thinking about these sorts of things and not getting any answers.

Argh! I really wish I were better at physics, or paid more attention during physics lessons in secondary school. Maybe I would've taken physics in JC, and my life would've been very different now. Maybe it's not too late! Maybe I'll go study physics after I finish my business degree. Wish I had a pocket physicist to teach me things and answer all my questions about life, the universe, and everything.

"42."