and i u n f o l d

I went to a hoe-down tonight. Hee.

Kelly invited me to it, since she thought I might be interested in coming. So I went. I mean, who knows when else I might be able to go to a hoe-down? Heehee.

Anyway. It was fun. It was different but fun in its own way. I ate some food, met a few people I’ve met before (mostly Kelly’s friends) and got to meet more new people. It was slightly overwhelming, but I really did enjoy myself. There was square-dancing, and I felt completely lost during the whole thing. It didn’t help that no one in my square knew what was going on either. Heh. But still, we enjoyed ourselves, laughed a lot. There was line-dancing and I will deny it if anyone ever repeats the fact that I found it fun. Heh heh. The really cute part was all the outfits; loved it. A lot of people wore cowboy hats, plaid shirts, overalls, a lot of denim and it was just SO cute. I loved it.

Oooh… and we had ’smores! I mean, I’ve had marshmallows before, but not with crackers and chocolate. That is some damn good stuff. It was sweet as hell but I liked it.

And I’d like to say that something about Southern guys are cute. Hee. I dunno, it might be the whole Southern charm thing… and being able to look good in a cowboy hat. Bwahahah. And the accent. I just think it’s cute. But yeah, cute Southern guys!

Anyway. Tonight was fun. After the hoe-down, I went over to Kelly’s place where we hung out a little and watched an absolutely terrible romantic movie called “Meet Prince Charming”. It was so bad but somehow we watched the whole thing and laughed over it. Geez. We would have been better off watching “The Breakfast Club” or “Up Close & Personal” which were our two other options.

I really like Kelly’s friends. They’re great; I can talk to them and get along with them and it’s just… nice. The funny thing is that Sarah (one of Kelly’s housemates and friends) were talking after the movie and we just talking about culture differences and stuff like that and somehow it came up that she thought I was outgoing. Which, to anyone who knows me well, is not quite true. Heh. I mean, I can be be outgoing and usually am around friends… but not so much around new people. But, like I told Sarah, I’m really making an effort to be friendly and outgoing while I’m here. Cos I don’t wanna leave here without having made any friends or anything like that. Y’know? And Kelly said a similar thing too, about me being outgoing, which amused me a little. But it’s cool. ‘Cos I do want to get to know more people. So, yeah. :)

And I don’t mean this in a bad way, but it was a nice change not to have Aishah with me (she decided not to come and start her readings instead) because when I’m with her, I’m in my comfort zone. And sometimes I like being in that zone, and not feeling alone… but other times, being with someone I already know gives me less motivation to go out there and be friendly and meet other people.

Alex, my roomie, has gone home for the weekend. I like her and we get along, but it’s so wonderful to have the room allll to myself for the next two days.

Thursday was the Pig Pickin’ Picnic by Study Abroad, which was kinda fun too although we didn’t stay very long. Met a few people that I knew from the dinner we had together when they were in Singapore. That was great; and they were (again, I’m saying this a lot, but it IS true) friendly and very nice and asking how we’ve settled in and stuff. The most coincidental thing though was that there’s this guy in my American Political Thought class (his name is Dan) who also studied in NUS last semester… and it so happened that we had taken Comparative Political Thought together! So that was a major coincidence. And I had lunch with him and Kelly this afternoon, which was good. It’s kinda nice to be able to talk to other people about Singapore.

Oh, and I have this newfound almost-but-not-really quasi-infatuation with this dancer dude. Heh heh. I saw him dance during Fall Fest and he was so so good. I mean, he’s this skinny, geeky-ish white dude and he looks so unassuming but damn, boy can shake what his momma gave him. It’s so cool. He is so good, and well, I have this thing about guys who can dance well. It’s hot, what else can I say? Heh. And he happens to be in one of my classes. I saw him walk into the class, looking all cute-dorky in his polo shirt and glasses and my eyes bugged out once I figured out why he looked familiar to me. Hahahah. But, to my defense, let me just say that I’m not the only who found him hot while he was dancing. ;)

I’m still on a mini-high about JM/M5. Heh. Told ya that I could live off this high for a while, and it’s true. I can and will. Every time I listen to them, I have this stupid, giddy smile on my face. Hee!

Date: 24th August 2004
Place: Alltel Pavillion at Walnut Creek
Time: 7pm
Who: Maroon 5 & John Mayer
What: Best. Night. EVER.

I still can’t believe that I saw them live. It’s kinda surreal.

Let me start from the beginning: it was a long-ass journey to get there. Seriously. Neither Aishah nor I can drive and we didn’t know anyone well enough to bum a ride there so our only choice was public transportation. According to the online trip-planner, it would take us an hour and a half to get to Rock Quarry Road (along which the Pavillion is located). But there were some hitches along the way.

Firstly, there was a minor traffic jam on the expressway ‘cos of accidents and also, I think, because of the bevy of cars making their way to the venue. So that threw us off our schedule. Our second problem was by far more severe and slightly scary. The bus didn’t actually go to the Pavillion (no buses do) and so we had to stop quite far away. Much farther away than I had anticipated. And so we had to walk. A long way, a very long way. I checked online and it seemed like we had walked about 2 miles. Although that wasn’t much fun at all, I was glad for two things: a) the road was fairly busy and so we weren’t forced to walk on some deserted road and b) there were houses (and fairly nice ones too) along the road. That made me feel safer and less scared. Because it was scary to be walking along that road. And it seemed like people hardly walked there cos some people in the passing cars honked at us or gave us strange looks. It was kinda freaky. And I tried really hard not to panic. At one point, I was wondering what the heck we had gotten ourselves into. Hmmph.

At any rate, I think we were too determined to get there. And eventually we did. It took a long while but we arrived safely at the venue. There was a moment of panic on my part when we were at the Will Call window and the lady scanned my card and it seemed like nothing came up. But eventually she realized that I had gotten the tickets through S.I.N. (Strength In Numbers, the M5 fanclub) and we got our tickets. Phew.

We made a restroom stop and when we went moving into the Pavillion, we realized that M5 had already started playing (it was “Tangled”, I believe, and jugding from their setlist that I’ve seen online, we probably missed “Through With You” as well. Gah) and we hauled ass to our seats. I’d like to take this moment to rave about our seats. They were 8 rows from the front and dead center. Where the mic-stand was, we were there on the 8th row. I was sooo damn psyched. Dead center is a damn good place to be. And 8th row isn’t too shabby either. :)

M5 was so so good. I was just kinda like in this dazed state the entire time, so my memory is kinda fuzzy on some bits (if you asked me to recite their setlist, I wouldn’t be able to!) but I do know that they are just so amazing live. Adam is just… woah. He’s very intense; I mean, I kinda figured he was but it’s different when he’s standing a few feet in front of you. And since our seats were dead center, and he was at the mic-stand quite a lot, you can imagine how delirious that made me. Heh. Really, when he’s standing there, hand on his mic, looking straight ahead into the crowd, it was very easy to pretend that he was looking at me/us. Heh. Delusions, but it was a very nice one. ;)

Adam’s vocals were spot on throughout the night. He sounded damn good. Boy sounds better live, I think. Very sexy, and I was just about dying (and/or having a near-orgasmic experience… ahahaha). “She Will Be Loved” was so so beautiful. They did “Woman”, which sent me into a greater frenzy, since I love it. (And Adam sounded dead sexy singing it too!) The bridge from “The Sun” killed me and made me squeal (ohmyfuck, he sounded yummy!) “This Love” rocked and “Not Coming Home” sounded better than it does on the album. “Sunday Morning” was sooo mellow and “Harder to Breathe” was the opposite. Heh. They also did “Shiver” which is one of my faves.

Adam is such a milker. I can’t remember what song they were doing, but he was milking it for allll it was worth. And it was hot, yo. Heh.

It’s almost unbelievable but Adam is even more attractive in real life. He exudes this aura/vibe when he’s performing and it just draws you in. He’s very charismatic. And when he smiles, it’s like woah. The man was like glowing… maybe it was the lights, the fact that he wore white, but still… he was glowing like a light bulb. And he does this little strut, which is so hot. Heh. I kinda went camera-crazy and took a helluva lot photos of him. I had to! I couldn’t not do it. Heh. And… Adam + guitar = GUH.

Their set ended way too soon for me. I wanted more, damnit! I wanted to hear “Secret” really badly… but I think that had they sung it, hearing Adam sing it live really would have killed me. Heh.

So, there was a short intermission after that while the sets were switched. I called Cal and gushed. Hee. And Aishah and I were squealing about how much we love M5 and how good they were and how we couldn’t believe we made it. Spoke a bit to a lady sitting next to us. She said that I must be a big fan since I was singing along to every word. Heeheehee. Well, I am a big fan. :P Anyway. She was nice and she asked us where we were from etc etc. I asked who she was there to see, and she said John but she also enjoyed M5.

After about 15 minutes, the lights dimmed and everyone surged to their feet and started cheering for John. Honestly, my first thought was that John is waaayyy more attractive/hot in real life. I always thought he was cute but in person, it’s like magnified ten times. Heh. He was tall and lanky and he looked really comfortable onstage. I was telling Aishah, “Damn, he’s so hot!”. I can’t remember what he opened with, but I remember that he closed with “Back To You” but I’ll get to that later.

I also always knew that John sounds better live than recorded, when comparing live tracks with his album tracks. But actually hearing him live was a different experience; his voice sounds like melted butter. I mean, seriously. It’s very smooth, very husky and really quite sexy. Heh. If his live tracks sound ten times better than his album tracks, then I’d say that he sounds 100 times better live and in person.

And his guitar-playing is just wow. Again, I knew he was good… but damn. He is really talented. And I loved how sometimes (or most of the time) he would get so into the music. It’s kinda felt a little private to me, like looking through a window and watching someone rock out in the privacy of his room. I really loved that about his performance, especially when he was playing the guitar (which was pretty all the time. heh).

He sang a mix of songs from both albums. “Your Body Is A Wonderland” was so much fun ‘cos everyone was singing along. Same with “Why Georgia” and “No Such Thing”. “Come Back To Bed” was so beautiful. He sang a few lines of “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” (hee!) and a Marvin Gaye song (the title eludes me).

My mind is currently blanking on a lot of details but possibly my favourite memory of the night was his performance of “Comfortable”. It was the first of two encore songs he did. The lights were dimmed, he sat on a chair with his acoustic guitar with a spotlight on him and just sang it. I can’t describe how absolutely beautiful that song sounded. That is one damn good song and it’s even better hearing it live. I think that was the “Wow” moment of the night for me.

There were a few funny bits when he was talking about beliefs and taking a stand and made a joke about Republicans (this was before he did the Marvin Gaye song) and at the end, when someone was asking for him to return a visor and cap that had been tossed on the stage (I was like, “Huh” What the heck?”). John returned them; “Because I care”, he said. Bwahaha.

It was a damn good night. Despite the shaky and somewhat scary start, the experience definitely erased that earlier crap. They were both very good live and I can’t believe that I saw two of my favourites on one night. Eeeeep!

After that, we slowly made our way out. We wanted to buy water (we were so danged thirsty after the long trek and screaming/yelling. heh) but it cost $4 per bottle which was absurd. I wanted to buy a maroon baseball t-shirt with “Maroon 5″ on the front and a “5″ on the back but they only had large sizes left. So instead, I bought this way cute pink skirt which has an “83″ on it and “John Mayer” along the hem. So cute. I like.

We called a cab to get back to campus and it cost us a hefty $80. But we had no choice, so it couldn’t be helped. I was on an adrenaline high and didn’t sleep til like 3am (even though I had a 9am class this morning!), cos I couldn’t stop listening to the live JM/M5 tracks I have on my computer. Heehee.

I took 100+ photos so it’s unsurprising that my battery died half-way through John’s set. But still, I managed to snap quite a few pics of John. Some of them are blurry-ish (I think I worked my zoom too hard and snapped too quickly. Hehehe) but most of them are quite clear, which is great. Memories, memories! The photos are posted here. (If you happen to want a HQ version of it, let me know.)

Phew. I think I got it all down. I’ll probably edit this if I recall anything else about last night to squee about. Hee.

I can’t believe I was at a John Mayer/Maroon 5 concert. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I never thought I’d see them, let alone both in the same night.

Needless to say, it was amazing. Really really amazing. The kind of experience that you don’t forget, y’know.

I took lots and lots of pics. So many that my camera battery flatlined mid-way through John’s set… and yes, I admit that I may have taken waaay too many photos of Adam. Hee. I am a fangirl, yes I am.

I’m dead dead tired, and my adrenaline is still running high. Weird combination, but there it is. And I need to somehow get to sleep ‘cos I have a 9am class tomorrow.

Details tomorrow! And photos! Squeeeee!

I think this experience may have killed me. I could live off this high for at least the next year. Heeheehee.

I’m excited for two reasons:

1) First day of classes. I just came back from my first class (Peace & War) and I think it’s gonna be fun. Hah. I’m such a dork. Got two more classes in the afternoon.

2) John Mayer & M5! Today is Concert Day. Wheeeeeee! Aishah and I worked out how to get there by bus (and boy was that a pain in the ass!) and we’ll be getting there by the skin of our teeth, and hopefully we don’t get lost and get there in time. And we’re probably gonna have to take a cab back since the buses probably don’t run that late. But! Whatever! All that is sheer details. We’re going to see John & Maroon 5! *bounce*

I’m also taking the time between classes to finally post some pics of my dorm room and campus. So you can check them out. :)

P/S: It’s Chad’s birthday! Heehee. My not-so-secret boyfriend He turns 23 today. So, happy birthday to him! :)

P/P/S: Hah. This also means that I’m turning 21 in a week. Geez. And I’ve deemed the JM/M5 concert as a birthday present to myself. Bwahahaha.

I’ve been meaning to blog… but I didn’t know where to start. And since tonight is Fall Fest, I figured it’d be a damn good place to start. Heh.

Fall Fest is… chaotic. Hee. It’s like a huge party, even though its purpose is to check out all the clubs and organizations of the university. There’s free food, drinks, free stuff and games. It’s really crazy, but in a good way. It’s from 9pm-2am, and when Aishah and I left at about 12-ish, it was still going strong.

I kinda knew what I was looking for; I was looking to join a hip-hop dance club. We saw them perform and they were pretty good. In my not-so-humble option, though., I felt that Blast! is better. Heh. But� y�know, they were good too, in a different way. Anyway, I�m interesting in trying out since I�ll probably become rusty from not dancing for months. Heh. And plus, it�ll be fun and a good way to meet people. So I�ll definitely try out.

The other fun thing we did was get on these giant slides. It was so much fun; made me feel like I was 12. Hee.

On a more general note, it has been really great here so far. It�s really hot, and that can be comfortable but I guess that coming from a tropical climate makes it easier to deal with. The campus is just gorgeous and such a lovely change from NUS. Sometimes, when I walking through the quad, it makes me feel like I�m in England or something. Heh. It�s really pretty. And I bet it�ll be prettier once fall comes around.

My room isn�t as bad as I thought it�d be. From the virtual tours, I thought it�d be bad, but it�s quite okay. My roomie, Alex, moved in today and she�s nice. And the great thing is that we do have a bunch of things in common. We like the same tv shows, some of the same music and we can talk with each other; it�s not awkward or anything. And she brought a lot of stuff with her- fridge, tv, rugs and stuff- which makes the room feel and look a lot more homely, which is just wonderful. I�m starting to feel really comfortable here.

I miss home though. I didn�t think I would at this point, but I do. It�s not like massive homesickness; I�m just fine during the day and I�m enjoying myself but every time I talk to my mom or read her emails, I just miss home. I miss my mom the most, I think. Which isn�t really surprising.

I�ve adapted pretty well, I think. People have been really great and nice, which makes the whole meeting new people thing a great deal easier. Having Aishah here has been a help too, cos I have someone to experience the new things with and I don�t feel so alone. The funny thing is that we have so much common that it�s kinda funny when we�re talking to people and our answers are similar. Heh.

I�ve met a bunch of people. My mentor, Kelly, who went to NUS last semester, is wonderful. Yesterday, she drove us to a Super Target to get stuff that we needed, which was a major help. And she�s been introducing us to her friends and just helping to orient us. She�s lovely. Really nice.
And like I said, my roomie, Alex, is nice as well. Met some of suitemates as well, and they seem okay too. So everything�s just dandy. Heh.

And I�d just like to say that there is some major, major eye candy here. Heeheehee. Seriously. There�s a cute guy on my floor (I�m trying to get up the nerve to introduce myself!), a cute RA that I�ve seen a few times (pretty pretty eyes) and just tonight, we bumped into this guy we met in Singapore, when we went to the dinner with the Carolina students who were there for the summer. And he is just so effing hot, it�s almost wrong. Heh. He has this Tom Welling/Clark Kent vibe, complete with pretty eyes and dimple and lovely physique� and it�s just mmmm. Heh. I can be so easy. I admit it. I embrace my shallowness. Heh.

Hmm� what else? Classes start on Tuesday, which I am actually excited about. It�s gonna be fun. Anddd� of course, the JM/M5 concert! Eeeee! *bounce* That is gonna be so so good; I can�t wait. The bad thing is that we�re trying to figure the best way to get there and the way to get back, since the buses probably won�t run that late at night. The transportation is a major major issue that we need to work out. Hmmph.

New York was great. I wanna gush about that but I think I�m gonna save that for another day when I feel more awake.

So, finally, the day has come. Heh. I kinda have a fatalistic side sometimes, and I didn’t want to anticipate this whole exchange thing too much, lest something happened to derail it. But all that trouble and headache preparing for these next 4 months have paid off, finally.

I’ve got a long, long flight to look forward to. Gaaaah. Singapore to New York, via Frankfurt. And 20+ hours spent on a plane. Funnnn times.

I’m probably gonna miss a lot of things from home. Little things. And my friends too. But I’m excited. And, of course, there’s the JM/M5 concert to look forward to. Heehee.

Probably won’t be able to get online in the next week while I’m in NY. Will probably blog again once I get hooked up at school. :)

4 days and I’m so stressed out. I hate packing. Hatehatehate. I decided on bringing a large luggage, hoping that I could fit all my stuff into it. Seems like that might not be completely possible. Gaaah. The luggage is full, I’ve closed it, and I don’t wanna open it again until I reach North Carolina. ‘Cos if I open it, I just know that I’m gonna try and cram more and more things into it. Aaargh.

I have so much barang barang (that’s Malay for things/stuff… there’s a nuance in the term that I can’t quite translate, but you get the point) and it’s like I have to bring everything that I might possibly need. I haven’t yet packed my CDs, my make-up stuff, stationery, accesories. I have a list, it’s long and not everything is checked off yet.

Oy.

And I still haven’t finished my ficathon fic. Which needs to be done in the next day or two. Monday latest. I feel really bad about not having it done.

On the upside, and lemme tell you that this is a damn effing wonderful upside, Aishah & I bought the fanclub reserved tickets for the JM/M5 concert! Like, OMG. Heeheehee. We finally got off our asses and got them, and just in time too, given that the fanclub tickets sales will close in a few days. And so, I find myself being a member of the M5 fanclub. My first fanclub membership ever! All those years of being a rabid *NSYNC fan and I never even thought of joining theirs. Heh.

Obviously, I’m excited as hell about it. John Mayer! M5! (Adam!) On the same night! Really good seats!

I’m gonna get my hair cut tomorrow. Unfortunately, my favourite stylist, Michelle, is away and won’t be back til Thursday. Hmmph. I’m probably gonna go back to the mod haircut with the bangs that I had a few months ago. I really like it and it grows out pretty well.

I wanted to change layouts before I left. But that’s probably not gonna be possible. Bah. We’ll have to stare at Daniel (and his prettyness) a while longer. What a hardship. ;)