AND... after:

Guess I'll be putting the boxes in my room. I kinda got quite abit of space. and they look pretty cool. Like some art piece or sth. So I decided just to style them up abit. ahaha.

doesn't it kinda look like how I display my stuff in my room? except, (mom would say) it's neater la... and just like all moms, she'll ask me to keep it neat and clean always and always. hahah. this is prolly the only photos u'll ever see cuz it's gonna get messy again. :) ahhaha WILL SOMEONE SHOW THESE TO AUNTIE PLEASE???

Thanks!

Moving over, yet again.

So I woke up this morning at about 7. Just couldn't wake up any earlier than that! Great. It was raining. I finally got to see my floormate. He's an uncle! His room is next to mine. and he's the one who has been smoking and snoring... arghh... I've never seen the guy in my one whole month of staying here. and now I see him when I'm about to move out. I guess it's cuz this is the first time I got up and out so early in the morning.

Anyway, I made my way to the Manhattan Mini Storage. It was finally time to get alllll my super heavy boxes outta the locker. I had to do it all alone because there were no helpers around. asked for help and wasn't given any. They really should have pple working there to help out. argh.. I know right?! So ridunculous. I had to climb a ladder to get it out. It was sooo heavy. I almost broke my neck, skull and back. but finally THANK GOD, I managed to get them all on the push cart. Thank God for that too! I got a cab and the driver was really helpful. I got on and went over to my voice teacher's house. She gave us her old tv set. pretty cool huh. Anyway, the cab was packed with stuff and despite it all, I managed to arrive at my new apt.

Bud was there to help and we moved everything up the stairs by rolling, carrying, pushing and also with the kind help of a neighbour.

When everything was in my room, I started to unpack. I tell ya... I'm actually a pretty fine unpacker. I unpacked all my clothes and organized all my books and scores and filed some important stuff. Everything started to look good. It started to look like my room in Singapore. I purposely arranged everything that way; to look like my room at home. :)

But guess what... now I miss my room EVEN MORE! Here's the before and after looks.

Before:

I went to buy the table today. It's a real nice table and the size is just nice for my room. yup... pretty perfect. :)

Hours and hours earlier:

I was in the lift on the way down to the basement to see the table. XXX told me there were many music students in the building and when her singer-friend came over from Boston, she met many people she knew there. XXX was nice enough to fetch me back in her car all the way to my new apt. She stopped at the traffic light and I spotted my friend from mannes crossing the road right before my eyes!

yeah I guess there really ARE many music students in the neighbourhood huh!

I had such a long day today. I woke up at 6.30! my gosh.. anyone who knows me know that i do NOT ever wake up so early unless I'm experiencing jetlag. Waking up at 6.30 is a big no no. anyway, I woke up so early so I could run over to the bank to withdraw money to pay for the rent of the apartment. I couldn't find the bank. So thank God, when I asked the security guard at some building at Penn Station, a lady working as a teller at the bank walked past! He told me to follow the lady cuz she works at the bank.

Anyway, so I reached the location at 9.45 and I was early cuz the appointment was at 10. So when everything was done, Bud and I went for tea at starbucks and we sat there and talked til 12. and we passed this place called "Sleepy's". They sell mattresses, shower stuff, blankets... etc. We got some necessities for the new apartment.

Boring counterpoint lesson was at 2. So when class ended we went over to Bud's apartment to grab some stuff to clean the new apartment.

I swept and wiped the entire floor and Bud cleaned the toilet and wiped the kitchen cupboards. It was pretty tiring and we were both convinced we lost alot of fats and gained alot of muscles. We finished cleaning 2 hours later and I went back to Bud's apartment to help her lug a heavy suitcase and a HEAVY box of loadsa stuff back to the new apartment cuz she decided to stay in the apartment starting tonight. NOTE: This new apartment has no elevators. So we climbed up 4 stories. Again, we are convinced we are gonna get very much into shape! My gosh... help me with my boxes and luggage. just HELP ME. they are sooooo heavy.

Anyway, by the end of everything it was 9pm and I was having a big migraine. Terrible. I was already feeling weak due to ____. So I was feeling kinda sluggish. yeargh... anyway, glad it's all over. I'll have to wipe the floor again. It was FILTHY. i swept the same area a few times and there was still dust everywhereee... Arghh.. breathed in all of it. Contributed to my migraine. :(
I also wiped the floor. But I think I'll have to do it again cuz it's STILL dusty. argh!!! all cuz of the renovations!

Took two panadols the minute I got back and I'm finally feeling fine. :)

I was looking around for food after church today. I stumbled upon this diner just right opposite my church. REALLY COOL DINER called "Ellen's Stardust Diner". The food wasn't that great. But EVERY waiter and waitress in there can sing. They perform everything from broadway to jazz and retro songs. It is amazing. They actually work there to earn money and collect donations to pay for an acting, singing or dancing class every week until they have found a broadway company to join! In every broadway company in ny, someone actually worked at this diner before. COOL

and what's better than performing at a diner's in the heart of allll the broadway shows- Times Square!

It was really enjoyable! I ate my not-so-great pasta slowly so I could enjoy the songs without looking like was watching a free show.

Some comments on the website:

Posted by Sara J. on 07/24/2009

Amazing Entertainment and Good Food

The food isn't amazing, but the servers are! If you're looking for an entertaining meal, Stardust is the place. The waiters and waitresses are incredible singers waiting for their chance to star on Broadway. Honestly, some of these servers are far better than the stars on Broadway now.

__________________________________________

Posted by anonymous on 08/23/2009

Subpar

Just don't. Awful awful food. 15 minutes to get a drink. Loud loud singing. Just don't.

__________________________________________

haha this person just doesn't know how to appreciate entertainment.

hahahah u know what? I was squinting my eyes at one of the waiter's nametag. He was a great singer and he really sounded like the original singer for "Unchained Melody". I was shocked when I found out it was "Eddie Bergerking" ahhaha y'know like burger king. ahha well. whadya know... maybe he made it up! This other female waitress was called "Buttercup" yeaahh.. uhhuh. anyway... it's so cool.

PS: Rekkha, when I came here, I thought of you.

So I did my first french manicure all by myself today! hahaha I'm actually pretty glad for the first time that my camera's not so good so u can't see all the flawssss...

I'm so glad I got to take this really cute photograph of this reaaallly cute old, old couple wearing matching outfits and holding hands. :)

So I wanna get this 2nd hand white desk for my new room. I emailed this person.

Blah
Blah Blah

and then my next reply

great. :) Thank you.

May I know when can I view it? Probably Wed and after? Can I have the exact address and your name and contact number? Thank you. :)

Charmaine

Note: I said EXACT address

He/she said:

I am on Park Terrace East in Inwood, easily accessible from the 1 or A trains. My phone number is xxx-xxx-xxxx. I can do any day, anytime after about 3 or 4 pm and before 7pm should work. Mornings are also a possibility.

best,

XXX

Char said:

Great. Thank you :) Friday at 3.30? Could I have your exact address?

Thank you :)

Charmaine

He/She said:

Friday is the only day that might be a little tight. Can we do 4pm?

Char said, yet again:

sure. :)

Could I have the exact address? Thank you very much

He/She says:

I will, of course, give you the exact address and apartment number etc. But, I'd rather wait until the day before you come, if you don't mind. I've only had one bad Craigslist experience in my life, but it was enough to make me cautious. See you on Friday!

Best,

Tildy




GEEE... could you have told me any later??????

This is not the first time I experience such emails HERE. people reply me. but they never answer my questions! why? can someone explain why???

outside my window
the sunlight reflects upon the rustling leaves
turning them from green to golden

I smell autumn

oh. my. gosh. I saw this picture of a wanted man (drawing) for rape prolly months ago at a subway station. He was seen at Washington Heights, Broadway, and Riverside drive (Upper West Side), following victims into elevators and sexually assaulting them.

I just turned on the tv. and the news reporter on the news said they caught the wrong criminal because the DNA found on the victims did not match the guy caught.

THIS MAN IS STILL OUT THERE.

People living in that area are really scared.

I walked into the supermarket near the Flushing house. There was a 14 year old Spanish (I think) boy arguing with the old Korean shopkeeper. How do I know he's 14? hahah u'll see...

Anyway, he wanted to buy a few items and he was short of 10 cents. The boy said, "C'mon. It's only 10 cents!" And the shopkeeper said, "No! No money no business!" hahaha. Then the boy said, "Y'know I don't even know whacha talking about!(The Korean old man did have quite a strong Korean accent). What business?! I don't own a business! I'm only 14 years old!" hahahahaha! And they kept yakking on until I finally said, "Don't worry, I'll give you the 10 cents."

I guess the boy felt kinda embarrassed. Didn't dare look me in the eye. but he said thank you and took it and rolled his eyes back at the shopkeeper saying, "Well... He just wouldn't give me a 10 cents discount!"

hahhaha. aiyoo.. that old man... abit of a stick in the mud.

I'm finally gonna have voice lessons on monday at 4pm.

Then I had a nightmare:

I dreamt that I was soooo terrible at lesson. I was so sleepy (this is prolly because I WAS asleep). anyway, my voice was breaking and I just couldn't sing properly. Then she told me to sing a song. And she just randomly picked any song from anywhere and expected me to sing it! Then suddenly she switched to "Mein Herr Marquis". I knew that song but I haven't sang it in a long time and in real life, she asked me not to sing that.

Anywho... I didn't have the lyrics.. nothing.. and I was trying to squint my eyes at the accompanist's score. I could hardly follow the words and the music even though they were like... magnified. I ended up singing half german and half english! Oh gosh.. I was Panicking even more when my voice teacher said(and I'm quoting), "oh my g**". She even slapped her hand on her forehead!

And I was thinking of asking her which other schools I should apply for for BM. I was seriously hoping she wouldn't ask me to stay in diploma FOREVER!

I think I'm waaaayyy too nervous about having my first voice lesson after such a long time.

Anyway, this wasn't the end of my dream. I had another one. Xiao Ying and Zhi Ying asked me out for dinner at Flushing. I wanted to bring my bro and my sis along too. I told them we'd meet them at 9. My sis brought her business project partner(whom I also knew because he was my voice teacher's student). Ok in real life, I have no idea who this person is. Anyway, we ended up going to this REALLY fancy, humungous hotel. and it was 20.50! we only had 10 mins to get to Flushing!

My sis said she had a project to do in this humungous function room! and she told me to ask them to meet us here. I was like... how in the world does anyone afford to EAT here?!

Then somehow, daddy appeared. Maybe it's because daddy always names himself our ATM. ahahahah! anyway, ... can't remember the rest of it. I hope Xiao Ying and Zhi Ying weren't MAD! hahahaha

I was walking between Broadway and Amsterdam avenue. it was pretty dim. The ground was wet from all the rain. I looked at some dustbins and thought... hmm... Rats normally scurry around during these kinda places- dustbins, dimly lit wet areas... my eyes were shooting at every corner. Then WHAM! I saw a huge rat scurry across the pavement to under the car with some garbage in it's mouth. In my mind: ARRRGHHHUGHGHGUGHHGHGEEUUU!!!!YYYAAAAHH!!

i stopped dead in my tracks and when my mind recovered, I quickly crossed the road! and I was still telling my friend just the other day how I haven seen a rat ever since I got back. =.=

I walked back from the train station at flushing. This black man came up and said, "Hey... do you like to talk?" In my mind: *rollin' ma eyes?

I replied blurred-ly, "你在说什么?" after that he said, "You don't speak English? very good." I dont know if he was being sarcastic but he walked on after me. Later he said, "Alright have a good day." =.= Anyway this mandarin thing seems to work pretty well huh!

oh my gosh.. I dreamt that i was pregnant! arrghh.. it was sooo freaky. and i could feel a 6 mth old-size already born baby in my stomach. yeargh!! then one fine afternoon the baby just split outta me like splitting plasticine. it kinda looked like me HELP.

had my first lesson of Schenkarian analysis
and everyone thinks the teacher is crazy
ok he's not a baadd man. at least not today at class. But my friend who's already graduated from that class said he makes u feel like u dont know anything aka ur stupid.
he speaks so fast.. and my poor taiwanese friend cant catch up.
She said she's so angry and kept saying she's going to 睡死. hahah so funny. Anyway.. I'd normally help her like for history.. But i dont know if I can help her for this subject!
we native english speakers already cant follow.
and he talks NON STOP for 2 hrs! The min he comes in it's just yakyakyakayakyak
he gives us extra time. so NOT appreciated. we need time to absorb and write down every word he says in class... class is supposed to be from 5.05 to 18.45. He let's us off at 19.05.
he expects us to be writing notes every minute from beginning of class to the end.
This guy wants us to copy down every word he says and hand it back to him! i know it sounds disgusting but it's like eating his Own VOMIT X the number of pple in class! ok.. eeeu gross.. im getting twisted and green in the face. i think i have this really weird look on my face that would make everyone run away. ok anyway.. he grades them! he grades his OWN WORDS! WOW. That's really smart.
on top of that he gives countless amt of hw
At first he says... do qn 4,5,6,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16, and 17
oh wait! let me see.. do 18, 19, as well
oh! and 20 and 21
after that my friend was like "huh! Ughargh..." and he replied "Whaaaaat...."

WHAT?!

so I had this really weird dream last night.

I went to Boston Conservatory to look for a voice teacher to have lessons with. It was very crowded and this super tall man recommended this supposedly very good Korean voice teacher. haha.. anyway, my friend TL went to audition for a degree in piano. and she came outta the audition looking really angry and upset. I read the comments from the corner of my eye and apparently they were all pretty negative comments. She passed it to this man who went "Whoaaa...(that's really bad)".

So she got even more upset.

Next scene:

We were with this bunch of pple and one of them was her bf. She started crying and yelling like she was possessed! and then she turned into a reflection in the mirror and she broke into many pieces!

and they all started blaming me.

SO WEIRD.

I went to Barnes and Nobles today. Did my counterpoint hw. OH SO GLAD IT'S DONE! and studied for SATS....=.= I know. anyway...

I decided to go watch Madama Butterfly outside the Met when i was done studying. I was a little late and the entire place was OUTRAGEOUSLY CROWDED. (Wish I had my camera.. Arghh.. Toopid SATS that made my bag so heavy.) my gosh.. and after looking on for awhile, i knew why. Cio-Cio San(Patricia Racette) was SOOO OUTRAGEOUSLY GREAT. her expressions... her sound was ravishing....and her every movement was so smooth it came together so naturally

... well.. yeah.. even though perhaps you don't always come across an American dressed as a geisha who sings Italian and then marries an American who speaks pretty perfect Italian himself!

btw, I also loved Suzuki (Maria Zifchak). Her voice was so thick and solid. Like rich, golden honey flowing right out of a bottle. Kudos to u!

Wanna watch it live.

Just a Sunday before Church at Times Square.

Went to Toys 'r us and a (I think) Brazil Fest.

PS: LOVE THE VERA WANG BARBIE!

I slept at about 3 and woke up at 1406 today. Well... "that's normal", my dad and sis would say. Anyway, not the point.

The reason for this very lengthened sleep was because I had this really long dream. I can only remember parts of it.

Dream no. 1:

I sang and acted for someone's mom. And she said I should be a calafare who doesn't need to use her voice. She then went on to say her daughter does a very good job. She's a soloist. Her acting skills are also superb! Her daughter happened to be a hk celebrity, GIGI LAI. I have no idea why i dreamt of this woman.

Dream no. 2:

I was telling people about the ridiculous dream no. 1 I had. yeah i know. My conscious was really subbed. Then suddenly I was in this dark place. There were pple walking ard.. and i dreamt bits and pieces of someone in school. arhh.. anyway... it was a longg dream.

So I went to the met to watch an opera yesterday. Not in the theater though. They are screening operas every night til the 7th of Sept outside the Met at the big open space.

There were 3000 FREE! seats and it is packed(i'm very sure) every single night! I had to sit on the (oh so hard) floor for 2 hrs 10 mins watching La Boheme. It was a pretty good show though. Pretty worth it. The set was so professional and the costumes were gorgeous. Some things about some singers I didn't like though. Like how "Musetta" vibrated her whole tongue and Jaw to get that vibrato! and how "Rodolfo" cut his voice off so abruptly almost every phrase! and how "Mimi"'s hands trembled (don't know whether it was on purpose) a little when she sang. Her breath was a little high.. I always like more grounded voices. That's why I adore mezzo-sopranos. :)

That brings me to tonight's opera !!! Orfeo ed Euridice. I thought Stephanie Blythe (Orfeo) did quite a fantastic job. She was firm, and solid and grounded. Her voice was projected and crystal clear. It wasn't too thick and vibrated that sometimes u can't make out the pitch! I wished she wouldn't swallow her 2nd syllables though. But other than that, she did a great job! Acting wise (As a man. It's not easy. and her expressions were pretty fab. Even though she's got those droopy eyes so she still looks pretty sad even though she's supposed to look happy). :) Hmm.. Amor could have focused her voice a little bit more. It was abit spaced. Euridice did quite a fine job. full-stop. I actually thought the story was abit lame. ha ha.

Hours before the opera today...

I reached the Met at about 6pm, two hours before the screening. There were already a number of people there booking the seats. Wow... I seriously thought I was kiasu enough! I even wanted to walk around the area...y'know.. go into the Met shop blablabla... before coming back to find a seat. When I saw more people entering, I decided otherwise. I sat next to the aisle. Great seat. Well... great choice. :) An old couple sat next to me. Fortunately, I had a book with me. I crossed my leg and started reading it.

Then came along this lady... (Oh I'm so kind to call her lady). Anyway, she wanted to get pass me to a seat in the middle. So I politely pushed the right leg that stuck out all the way in so she could get pass. And when I did, she asked rudely, "can I pass?" What kind of a question was that? There was so much space for her and she still asked. So without looking up, I answered, "YES". So she passed.

A minute, or rather, less than a minute later, she wanted to pass me again to get out. So I did the same thing. And she couldn't help but say... rudely, "Why don't you put your leg down?" I totally gave her a black face and ignored her and continued reading my book. When she passed, the sweet old man next to me said, "you should have kicked her". I giggled a little and replied, "Yeah... I'm being very nice. " He answered, "Well... good for you! :)" That old man rubbed on ta me i tell ya!

This was that old man. haha I secretly took a pic of him. Anyway, just before the screening began, we had a nice chat about some of the other operas and the weather and how cool it was to screen operas to Whet the public's appetite for it before they start acting in the theaters! Apparently, they started this line of screening last summer.

okay. So my friend and I were taking a longer than usual stroll after a drink at the starbucks at Barnes and Nobles. I brought her to the Met and we browsed through some souvenirs and what not. They were screening an English Opera just right outside the humungous open space. The weather was really great so sitting outside for a few hours was no problem at all. They are gonna screen operas every night. Tmr's La Boheme. Think I might catch that. :) Anyway... this is not the main point of tonight's entry.

Guess what. We continued walking downtown and suddenly I noticed a bunch of wires. My eyes followed the trail of wires and I looked up to see a whole load of what looked like filming equipment. ooOOoo.. I got really excited. I told my friend excitedly that they might be shooting some movie! There were some pretty guys and gals all dolled up. I thought one of them were the main actors. So we hung ard for awhile... and then... who but BLAKE LIVELY (Serena Van der woodsen) herself walked outta Empire Hotel all made up and looking gorgeous. (She came out about an hour later wearing a silver shiny short dress with a plunging neckline). Someone as hot caught my other eye- CHACE CRAWFORD (Nate Archibald). (He came outta the black limosine ina tux and a hat) and another Bonus! -TAYLOR MOMSEN (Jenny Humphrey) (She came out in a black sleeveless dress with... hmm I think a chunky shiny bracelet?) anyway... ur right! they were filming the next season of Gossip Girls!!! gorgeousNESS!

AHhahaHA! couldn't believe my friend and I went after Taylor Momsen just to take a close up pic of her BACK. aargghh.. dumb. We tried to take a few pics here and there. Mine were real blur. Have to use hers. Hope she sends 'em over soon.

Couldn't believe my luck!

PS: The girl in the black tube dress??? That's Taylor Momsen's Back! AHAHHA!!

First German IPA lesson:

my german diction teacher is so funny. he's inexperienced in teaching and is like "uh, uh... oh oh" and he made a few mistakes today in class. and the class was so noisy asking him so many questions almost at the same time.. arghh.. i almost got a headache because the door was closed(due to some loud singing from somewhere in another classroom) and there were no windows.. and no fan or aircon whatsoever and the classroom was tiny..... and he was using chalk to write. Imagine all that chalkdust flying everywhere..!!! yearghh..

hmm.. my classmate's first language is like... German. I wonder what he's doing in this class.

Saw this at a flea market in Times Square. Yes.

"REAL IMPOSTERS"

uhhuh.

I went to Ruby Foo's (an Asian restaurant@Times Square) on Sunday before church. I kinda knew what I wanted but they somehow changed the menu and everything on it was sooo expensive! Think they jacked up the price while I was gone. One or who knows, more of their branches closed down before the summer and now the more expensive food? Pad Thai for $19.37 or sth? how odd.. I ordered a side dish- Chicken pineapple fried rice for about 10.sth (another odd amount) bucks. The waiter said it was enough for one person.

The food came and I was like... yeah.. it's enough for one person alright..... one GIANT that is! the portion was gigantic! and so was the spoon! I could hardly put that thing in my mouth. I could only finish like about 1/3 of it and I had to takeaway the rest. well.. money worth spent! it was my lunch the next day. :)

The pic with the spoon:

It's not that the portion is small, the spoon is big. ahahha.

2 days ago:

I was looking down about 45 degrees on the road walking and talking to Bud (My Israeli friend) when I saw this black man coming towards me from the corner of my eye.. He not-so-obviously purposely bumped into me and said sth like, "what are you doing? Blocking the way blablabla.." and all the while, he was grabbing my arm lightly. I was still on the phone.. and i wanted to move to the other side but he continued grabbing my arm.. so i pulled away quickly and continued chatting with my friend. Because I thought it was by accident, I did not scream at him. But as I thought about it more and more, I realised that the man was... ARGGHGHGHG.. I wanted to kick him.

I was feeling really upset thinking what could have happened if it happened all over again and this is what would have happened.

Option 1: Scream as loud as I can (Never mess with a singer aka soprano... SERIOUSLY)

Option 2: speak in my fiercest most Ah lian tone "DON'T TOUCH ME LAH. LIKE THAT ALSO SHIOK AR?! SO DESPERATE SIAAAA." and then if he doesn't let go, Scream and even better, squeeze a few tears. It always works in a crowded place.

Several hours later:

I was walking down the stairs at the subway station. I would just like to say that I always always say sorry when I know I have touched, accidentally hit or nudge someone.

I just merely.. I am serious.. MERELY touched the clothing of that woman while walking down the stairs, when she started yelling and hitting and nudging me. she yelled "what's happening??!!" (wow.. yeah i would like to know too. This day has been so happening.) and she was like blablablaing all the way..

and my taiwan friend was in front and she had no idea what was going on. I told my taiwan friend what happened in mandarin and the woman just turned ard and stared at me like I WAS THE CRIMINAL. i tell u i gave her my fiercest glare EVER it could even turn my fair face Black. and after that and she didn't even dare to fight it.