Love story in Harvard?

Posted on January 27th, 2008 in California, Place of interests, Road Trips, Travel by yeehan

Not sure if you know about this Korean drama. It tells of the love between a Harvard Law School student, Kim Hyun Woo (Kim Rae Won), and a Harvard Medical School student, Lee Soo In (Kim Tae Hee).

Though the story is set at Harvard University, the series was actually filmed at the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

So, being an avid Korean fan, I went for a short tour around UCLA, trying to reenact the scenes in that Korean drama. With the beautiful Korean star, we had some nice memories together at UCLA. Oh heck, what am I talking about? With my imaginary Korean actress, we had some great memories at UCLA. Too much Kimchi in my brain, I guess. Anyway, this was my third university that I have toured in US, after Stanford and Berkeley. As such, I was sooooo tired that I fell asleep. (What excuse is this?!)

Anyway, UCLA is a beautiful campus. I think it would be nice if you are able to tour the campus. Oh ya, being a crazy sweatshirts collector, I cannot resist the temptation of buying the UCLA hoodie. This is my third sweater I bought in US. The list will be long. I’ve yet to visit the east coast yet!

Here are other random shots at UCLA.

Before visiting UCLA, we drove to the LA civic district for a drive through tour. Here’s a very nice building somewhere near the library. It’s the US Bank Tower (formerly Library Tower). It’s also the tallest building in LA.

Here’s my short trip to LA. I guess I’ll go there again sometime. There are still lots of places to visit!

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Christmas in LA

Posted on January 24th, 2008 in California, Place of interests, Road Trips, Travel by yeehan

It was Christmas and my friends were still sleeping soundly on the beds. Hoping that I can maximize my stay in LA, I went out to take a stroll down the Hollywood Boulevard. Ahaa! The Hollywood Walk of Fame. I have heard lots about it in TVs and read in the news.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a sidewalk along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood, which is embedded with more than 2,000 five-pointed stars featuring the names of not only human celebrities but fictional characters honored by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for their contributions to the entertainment industry.

I thought it was for human celebrities but it turned out that these characters also appear there. You are one lucky chap, Winnie!

Now that I have seen the stars, I was hoping to find the foot and hand prints of all those celebrities. I remembered Jackie Chan had his nose print embedded there. And then after a few minutes walk, I found them right at the Chinese Theaters. One of those that I found was my current state Governor when he was still a movie star. He’ll be back!

Now that I have found all those Hollywood icons, it wouldn’t have been perfect without the giant Hollywood Sign at the hill. There’s this nice shopping building where you can get a nice view of the words. But it’s too small to be captured on the camera. Actually I personally find that they hype of Hollywood is just too much. It’s turned out to be quite ordinary for me actually. Not sure how other thinks.

So we decided to go nearer to the Sign! This was the nearest that we can get to. Drive along N Beachwood Dr and that’s the nearest you can go to unless you plan to do some hiking. Else, I guess this will do.

What other interesting sights in Hollywood? We visited Hollywood Hill and Beverly Hills. We drove up the windy roads of Hollywood Hill along Kings Rd and Queens Rd. There were nice houses along the roads and hoping to find celebrities’ houses, we stopover and asked one of the residents there. He was kind to tell us some of the places to visit. And he told us that Michael Jackson and Paris Hilton used to stay somewhere near Queens Rd or Kings Rd. But he can’t tell us the exact location. There’s this very nice view on top of the hill.

Next stop was Beverly Hills. We know that there are a lot of celebrities who stayed there. But we don’t know who lives where. While driving, we saw this Star Homes tour bus. Guess what we did? We roughly knew the celebrities’ houses although we still can’t figure out who stays where. But at least we know the celebrities’ houses. The bus driver must be mad on those few cars behind him for about half an hour.

Here’s one of the houses there. If you intend to build your own house, you can come here to get some inspirations. The designs are awesomely nice!

We passed by Rodeo drive too. It’s where all those famous designers’ stores.

The same evening, we drove to Santa Monica for sun set again. If you have the time, you should drive down to the beach for the sun set. It looks rather romantic and it’ll be one of the places I’ll bring someone next time.


Doesn’t this guy look rather cool in this photo? I think so. =p

After having the ‘romantic’ outing, we decided to go back and have a nice Christmas dinner. It was absolutely tough to organize, given that it was Christmas night and we have 18 people. How to find a restaurant to accommodate us? We managed to find one finally. Fab-ulous café. It was an Italian restaurant. We have friends from Texas, Toronto (or some where in Canada), Berkeley, Singapore and Silicon Valley. It was an interesting night.

Last night in LA before heading back on Wednesday. Before I end off this post, I just wanna wish Happy Birthday sis! Wish you happiness always! =)

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Los Angeles-beached

Posted on January 21st, 2008 in California, Place of interests, Road Trips, Travel by yeehan

Second day in the City of Angels. I went to Disneyland CARpark three times in one day! Notice the word. Yeap, I have only been to the carpark, not the theme park. I had to go to the consular to settle some documents so I didn’t join my friends.

After settling the documents, I went to Santa Monica Beach with another friend of mine. We had a nice stroll down the beach and had a nice time chatting. Too bad we don’t have beer and peanuts and girls. Else, it would be perfect at the beach. Anyway, here’s Santa Monica beach. What to do at the beach? Well, you can walk along the beach. It is a very long stretch. You can sit on the sand listening to the waves. You can sunbath. What am I talking about? Basically just do what you do on beach except going into the water unless you are feeling very very hot. Because the water is very cold!

Nice pebbles at the beach. The water is really quite cold.

Santa Monica Pier. There is a small themepark for kids. There are also a lot of street artists along the pier. They draw, they sing, they dance.

There’s this temporary Iraq War memorial. It’s actually an awareness about the war in Iraq and the number of casualties suffered. The view is quite unique though.

On that day, we saw this sky proposal too. There’s this small plane flying around to form letters in the sky. I supposed it’s to propose to someone. Maybe I should do that next time if I’m filthy rich.

Another angle of the beach. Notice the houses facing the beach. They must be enjoying their lives watching sunset everyday!

Another place to visit. Go to the Los Angeles civic center. The building architectures there are quite nice too. But we didn’t do much there except driving pass the buildings and looking in awe.

That was my second day in LA. Third day coming up! But for today, Happy Birthday dad! Be happy always. =)

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Los Angeles- City of Angels?

Posted on January 16th, 2008 in California, Place of interests, Road Trips by yeehan

Los Angeles is one of my stop during my long Christmas break. The five day trip was pretty interesting. We had different adventures each day. On our drive to LA, we drove by Highway 1, one of the best scenic drive in California. The road is a bit windy so we have to drive more carefully. Each turns gave a different view of the coast which made me feel like stopping the car to snap photos when possible.

Drive by the place when the sun sets. You’ll get a very nice view. But it also means that you have to be more careful because there’s no street lamps. One bad mistake means bye bye. Okok, the road is not that bad but still must really drive safely.

We got a nice and cheap accomodation in LA which is Motel 6. I’m not sure if there are any cheaper and nicer but for sure Motel 6 is a reasonable choice if you wanna go budget. We stayed there for 4 days but the first night was rather annoying coz of the bed squeeking on the room above us.

On Sunday, we spent the whole day at Universal Studios. It was the weekend before Christmas so the crowd was rather huge. We spent more time queuing up than the actual rides. Go to Universal Studios when the door is open and spend the whole day there. We went there a bit later and had to give a few places a miss.

The rides were Jurassic Park, Revenge of the Mummy. It was a half an hour queue for a few minutes of thrill. Other attractions to go for is the Studio Tour and Waterworld. Plan the routes properly so that you won’t miss some of the attractions. There are specific show times for some of them. Here are some random pics at Universal Studios.

This one was taken before the Mummy ride.

Notice the half wet sweatshirt? Be prepared to have some water splashed on you when you take Jurassic Park, the Ride. I’m gonna spoil the fun. Here’s why.

Here’s the view while on the ride. It looked quite nice though.

I’m in Happy Feet! (I think it’s Happy feet and not big surf)

Do I look like the ogre in the picture? Where’s my Princess Fiona? I’m going to Far Far Away to seek for her. Tadaaa!

That’s the end of my first day in LA. Pretty interesting given that a guy like me who has not been to an actual theme park until now. (You loser!). But not anymore. Haha.

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“David Blaine” Street Magics

Posted on January 6th, 2008 in Videos by yeehan

I just find these three videos simply hillarious. Take a look at the ‘David Blaine’ Street Magics. It’s just plain stupid but still very funny. “What the efffff?” And the way he looks at the camera. Oh my. Hahaha

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