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Day 1

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Day 2

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Day 3

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Day 4

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Day 5

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Day 6

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Day 7

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Day 8

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Regards,
Han Yang
Ngee Ann Polytechnic

Day 08* - LA

We visited NBC Universal Digital in the morning. In common, everyone felt that this is the most not-very-interesting section in comparison with the rest, especially yesterday, the whole day we had fun at Universal Studio. However, at least, we knew something: history of NBC (their logo changes after periods. And if you looked carefully, the latest logo is quite creative), the way they arrange lights in a stage to make a TV show (it’s look a bit messy to me, or there were some order maybe), etc. They would have a live show in the evening as we shew them prepare the outdoor stage. It would be better if we could attend the show, then our attitude regarding this section may improve a bit.

We dropped at Farmers Market in the afternoon, went around and had lunch. The Brazilian food is quite nice. The interesting thing was that they didn’t charge us base on the number of dishes we taken. They charged us by weighing the dish with all the foods on it (except the dish itself, of course).

We arrived at Fox Interactive Media (a.k.a FIM) about 3pm. Before coming here, I thought that Fox was a film studio just like Universal, as I only saw their logo at the beginning of some movies. I didn’t know that myspace.com belongs to them, I didn’t know that they had many other products as well, and they also need more IT staff at the moment. Lots of privileges included a house in Beverly Hill are given to you when joining them. So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead to apply for the job!.

We went to “99 cent” super market after the buffet dinner. Surprisingly, everything is only 99 cent each, for example: 2 bottles of water is 99 cents (I spent 2 dollars for them in the hotel yesterday). Actually, almost all the items are clearance-sale items from other stores. They are 100% new, only out of fashion.

We walked to the hotel after that, packed our luggages for the returning trip tomorrow.

(* late posts)

Regards,

An
Ngee Ann Poly

Day 9

Woke up this morning at about 6. Was chatting with Teng Yang until 2am earlier on and wasn't exactly intending to sleep, but somehow darkness and a nice bed makes it a conducive environment to do so. Oh well, 4 hours of sleep. So when I woke up, I realised that people had MSNed me, and I'm half-awake trying to figure out what they're saying, since the brain can't really function that well in the morning.

We were driven to the airport at about 10am, and due to LAX's highly inefficient system, we were very slow at the group check in, but at least we were able to board on United Airlines on time. So, there isn't a personal in-flight entertainment system, so must plan certain things to do. So I got out my Physics homework that CCK had set for us. Many thanks to Shu Wen (sat beside me), Manek (sat across the aisle) and Eddy (sitting in front of me) for the help in Pro Physics qns / PT / Kinematics 9.1. What was really hilarious was when Manek was teaching me, cos there were people constantly walking along the aisle, and the teaching was constantly interrupted.

Ok, so on the plane, there was this random American movie, and then Spiderwick Chronicles, Definitely Maybe, Hannah Montana and the Suite life of Zack and Cody. Spiderwick Chronicles I watched before, so nothing new there. Definitely maybe was definitely, or maybe a bit touching at certain parts. Of course, there's the complicated love life of the main character, being ditched and being rejected at marriage. And since United gave such lousy headphones, I used my phone ear phones instead which had the nice paddings for the ear. However, the jack wasn't a best fit, so I had to place my hand to hold the jack there, so that audio could play.

Food wise, there were pretzel snacks shortly after take off. And then lunch was served within an hour - teriyaki chicken, with extremely overcooked/uncooked hard rice, chicken ham salad, some random bun and a really sweet cake. And at the 8th hour of the flight, there was CUP NOODLES! WTF. And the flight attendants were basically going around with hot water. I'm so sure lorh. I haven't eaten cup noodles for so long that i can't even remember when was the last time I had it. And dinner was quite good, it was served at the 13th hour of the flight, 1 hour before touch down. Food wasn't too bad. Pasta, fruits, cinnamon glazed donut and some raspberry shortcake.

Currently, I am in HK airport waiting for my return flight to Singapore. Just a bit longer, say in 5 more hours time, I will be back in Singapore already?


Samuel Swee

Epic wombat movie

Wombat and kiwi busy many day, work on this movie. We think the term is "video-blogging". Movie epic, big and all about wombat and kiwi. Hope you enjoy this big big movie.

Day 8

Today is the last day in LA before the entire group flies off back to Singapore tomorrow. Breakfast was rather cold - waffle, croissant, choco chip muffin and porridge. I just realised that you need to microwave the cold food to eat. Anyway, just as I was leaving the breakfast room, the staff just brought in the milk, so I took one and left it in the fridge.

Our first stop today was National Broadcasting Company. Notice that their logo is a peacock with 6 coloured feathers (the divisions of the company) and it is facing to the right (looking forward to the future). Basically, in NBC, there's no photography, so I'm gonna have to rely on words to describe my experience at NBC. So, we first watched this video about NBC, and that it and Universal Studios were one entity. "So we own Universal and Universal owns us". And then we had a tour of the various sets such as the Jay Leno show. We saw how some of the effects were created like that of in Heroes. There were wigs, masks and props lying around. The personnel there were all very familiar and friendly with one another, and was wishing our guide happy birthday. There was also this poster showing how they created the set for the Ellen Degeneres show, really interesting. And as with every studio, they showed us how they did their filming, with the help of CGI.

We then left for Farmers Market for lunch. The food there is excellent. I got myself a lasagna for $7.95 inclusive of tax. It wasn't too bad actually. In fact, I wished we had more time around there so can eat more food :D And there was also the fresh fruits stall where I got myself strawberries for $1.49. And also pistachio nuts for my grandfather for $5. And then before lunch, me and Clement walked about and went to a bookstore barnes and hobbes i think, and i got myself 2 fiction books and gift cards. $15.66 and 15 minutes spent there.
After lunch, we were to get to Fox Interactive Media. However, due to our good habit of being early, we were there 25 minutes before schedule. So we ended up stoning outside the building taking abstract photos and playing with water.

At 2.30pm, we entered the building, once again no photos. The whole place is a nice and comfortable working environment, and the guide is really a nice person! They even have their games room to play when things get stressful, plus they get to eat at their cafetarias for free!
For Dinner, we went to this place called Hometown Buffet. Arh, another buffet for dinner, but nevertheless, I still know how to control myself.
Dish 1: White Baked Fish, Popcorn chicken, cheese bread (or so I think it is - top right), mashed potato and potato salad.

Appetizer: Vegetable soup with added corn from the salad bar :P
Dish 2: Long beans, some vegetable, coleslaw with potato salad on it, beef slab, white baked fish and olives in the middle. Dish 3: Baked white fish, corn, sausage roll and olives.

After the buffet, we walked over to a 99-cent store to do our last shopping spree. So as usual, when it comes to shopping, I can't really control myself. So I went to get 3 gift cards again. It seems that I have more than 10 gift cards. Then we went to Albertsons supermarket. Where I happily got myself some chewing gum. Whee, lots of gum! And hershey chocolates! It's rather cheap compared to Singapore, since one big packet here is $3.49, and the currency is in our favour. Walked back with Clement and Mrs Chor to the hotel after that. I hate walking under the bridge when the sky is dark, gives the eerie feeling.

Expenditure for the day:
Books bought $15.66
Lunch Lasagna $7.95
Strawberries $1.49
Pistachio $5
99-cent store $9.24
Albertsons Supermarket $15.47
Total: $54.81


Samuel Swee

Day 07, in LA

We began our day with a "cold" breakfast. The breakfast at this hotel is similar to the other one at Comfort Inn, though here offers more variety than the latter and colder (everything need to be heated before serving). After breakfast, we set off to Universal Studio and a whole day of fun awaits us! However, we did some detour to the Staples Stadium (stadium of LA Lakers), before we went to a street where there are many stars on the street floor, which is what I have seen on TV before. We went around the place, taking photos together with people dressed up as some Hollywood characters such as Catwoman, Spiderman, Charlie Chaplin, Supergirl, Zorro etc.

During the trip from the hotel to this street, based on what I have seen so far, I would say that LA is more developed than SF. There are more buildings in the city compared to SF, and there are many others that are being constructed.

After this Hollywood lane, we left for Universal Studio. I must admit that before coming here, I thought we were visiting another company as like before. However, this exceeded all my expectations as it is a place of entertainment. Being a place of entertainment, they're actually a business as well, making use of technology to enhance the visual and sound experience; I wonder how much money they earn per day.

The place is so wide that maybe the whole hill belongs to them! The studios here are also very versatile to an extend that any type of scene can be created here. I also feel that this is one of the most creative place too. Why? In order to make any special look real, they have to create their own props and equipments, which are not similar to what we’ve ever seen before, etc. For example, to create the airplane crashing scene, they've used 500 different effects! This also somehow explains the reason why film production costs so much and amounts to millions of dollars.

Here, we went to quite a few places that we had marked out before hand. We went (actually everyone) went on the Universal Studio Tour which was quite insightful as they showed what goes on behind-the-scenes. Also, the Water World show was also very nice with real actors from some of the well-known movies and TV serials. Shrek in 4D and Terminator 2 in 3D are also very nice too. I wonder how they make such 3D effects that looked so real.

The roller coasters rides we took in The Mummy and The Jurassic Park are quite exciting though not really scary, as we could not see anything much while we were moving fast. It was the same thing as just listen to the sound in a ghost movie.

The last place our group visited was the House of Horrors. There was nothing so special here, though the only thing that surprised me was when a stranger lady that I mistook for my group member jumped into me as she was frightened by the displays.


Regards,

An
Ngee Ann Poly

Day 6-New horizon begins

Reached comfort inn at 7:30. Everyone deeped into sleep trying to recover after the long wonderful night before. Surprisingly,when the alarm clock rang, it took everyone less than 10 minutes to get up and be ready for breakfast. Usually, they need more time to prepare, but today is a special day, a new journey begins.

Today, we will leave SF and depart to another city. Looking back at the hotel, everything just flashed back in my mind about the time we had in SF. All the places i visited, the joy that i had, the new experience that I gained,together they appeared clearly on my mind. It's wonderful to be here to enjoy, learn and experience new things. "SF, im leaving now" said Jacqueline, one friend of mine. I believe it is also what every individual one of us wanted to say after 3 enjoyable days here, in SF.

The sadness of leaving SF is quickly replaced by the excitement. We are heading to LA, one of the most well-known city in America for its reputation in producing popular entertainment — such as motion picture, television, internet content, video games and recorded music. Our knowlegde will be widen tremendously when learning and observing what currently are happening in one of the world's centers of culture, technology, media, business, and international trade.

In the midst of travelling, we stopped at Gilroy. Ladies have their best day in the trip. We went to shop! Almost all the popular internationally brand's stores are located in this area. But what really matters are the price of the products. It's obviously less expensive and more updated models than what are available in Singapore right now. Now, instead of thinking what to buy, we started to think what not to buy. Everyone has a nice day to wander around and make up their mind what suits their needs best. However, due to time lacking issue, most of us did not have sufficient time to visit all the stores. Therefore, we have to rush in order to possibly purchase we are really interested in. It seemed to be chaotic and hassle for those who really wished to check out all the available stores. Even for me, though i only visit four or five stores, my lunch ended up eating MacDonald in the bus. Sigh, it's fast-food and burger again. Since when i got tired of burger i wondered. Basically, there are no differences between MacDonald in Singapore and America.They did a good job to maintain the original taste of the burger which explains why there are so many customers around the world enjoying their product. Nevermind, I am happy for my new stuffs =) . In fact, most of us had a nice shopping day.

After leaving Gilroy, we spent the rest of the day in the bus. It took six hours for us to transit from SF to LA. It's kind of bored after all. Six hours on the bus made me feel more tired as i could not do anything but sitting and waiting for the time to come, the time we arrives. Every now and then, we can enjoy the varied mountain scenery randomly. I have to admit the time spent on the bus was not totally useless as a matter of fact. We enjoyed the scenery, mountains, valley, lakes, and farms along the way.It explained how beauties of nature in America attracts more and more visitors coming here to enjoy their vacation. The nature takes it course automatically in beautifying the landscape in one of the biggest country in the world, how amazing !

Six hours is long enough for us to feel tired and hungry. It's time for dinner. After reaching LA, we had the wonderful time at the restaurant nearby. It was an international buffet meal. We had a chance to try and enjoy various kind of cusine in different parts of the world from Japanese sushi to Chinese fried rice and so on. We really enjoyed the dinner with abundant food to fill our empty stomach after such a long day.

After dinner, everyone was too tired and sleepy to plan to go out. All we wished to do is check in the room, watching T.V along with drinking a cup of hot chocolate and enjoying the coolness of the climate at night. Afterward is a good rest,and preparing for tomorrow.
Tomorrow will come with more joy and fun!!

Thank for reading till the end =))) ,
Bui Huy Quang Vu(Ngee Ann Polytechnic)