Virginia is for LOVERS...

some outdated photos from my off days every week...

2nd Jun 07 - Carytown/Willowlawn

off day with ching and les... richmond only has a few places tat are accessible by public transport, any other places that are nice for sightseeing or shopping requires a car and abt at least 2 hrs worth of travelling.

cars are necessities here, not luxuries...

we walked abt 30mins to carytown. some of the things we saw on the way there...

in memory of the V-Tech incident :: Pizza Hut delivery car

carytown is basically this area with little shophouses lined up against the two sides of the road.

took a bus to willowlawn after tat for more shopping and sightseeing. not much things to sightsee tho, juz taking a walk down the american kind of lifestyle.

and the best thing here in Richmond!

Krispy Kreme!!!!

the doughnuts are the best i've ever eaten, and i'm not even exaggerating... when you eat the doughnuts straight out of the oven, they seriously melt in your mouth. it's tat good!

my fav is the one with chocolate sauce on top, and egg custard inside. mmmmmm... (i'm goin tml again to buy them! waahhaha)

and silly lester's idea...

yes, we bought crayons of all 6 colours, dun even ask me why i agreed to spending money on tat. but it was $1 per crayon...

9th Jun 07 - Qiyan's birthday celebration Part I

being the alcohol-lover she is, it's no surprise that all of us went down to Village Cafe for some late nite drinks.

Village Cafe with a really nice ambience

toasting to the US of A! :: me and les

the birthday girl! :: COLDSTONE ice cream cake

the cake was supadupawupa delicious! coldstone is this really good ice-cream juz at the doorsteps of our dorm, and oso located everywhere else in US of A. they mix icecream with all the nicest things in the world, like cheesecake, REESE peanut butter cup etc...

during the drinking session

and after... (notice the difference in face colour haha)

10th Jun 07 - Qiyan's birthday celebration Part II

we went downtown Richmond just to take a look at how it's like. dun get fooled by its name tho, it actually has nothing much... -_-'''

we juz walked ard looking at all their historic buildings and weird monuments. and photowhored alot!

the infamous Zidane head-butt

the basketball player :: the cross country runner

soccer, volleyball, tennis, archery, bodybuilding, basketball :: the girls (spot me!)

the whole grp

went to take this $5 boat tour aft tat, tat claims to take us ard Richmond's famous canal, and its sights. there is NO famous canal. there is only CANAL.

most valuable buy on the trip

the boat trip

some of the things we saw on the boat trip... the boat trip, is by far the most boring thing i've ever done on this trip. haha... luckily it cost only $5, or i'll jump into the river and kill myself.

i have no idea what this is...

went to Brown's Island for their beer and seafood festival!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this is one festival spore should haf!!!! seafood and beer, wat other lethal combination could there be?

the bridge to Brown's Island

seafood and beer festival

i love the ambience there, it's the perfect place for friends to go and chill out with seafood and beer by the riverside...

bloated up lester (haha... if u become liddat, i'll still love u k wahahahha)

some of the stalls there

the food there all looked superb and really appetizing, coz i'm a sucker for oily fried food... but it's really ex. it's like a philly cheese steak will cost abt USD6, when usually at other shops outside this festival it costs half the price...

seafood platter that cost USD16 -_-'''

me, janet and ching with the beer glasses :: all of us and many VS bags!

walked over to Shockoe Bottom after tat where all the clubs and restaurants are located. someone's birthday is a damn good reason for u to splurge incessantly on good food and not feel guilty aft tat haha...

we ended up at this Irish Pub which served relatively cheap steaks...

somehow aft i came to USA, i'm constantly craving for steaks, and their steaks here are cheap and supa tasty... oh and everywhere here sells beef, so if u dun eat beef, u're missing out on alot of good food...

Irish Pub :: us with the menus

calamari :: steak

crabcake :: fish and chips

the photos prob dun do justice to how good they actually taste.

and white wine to go with the ambience!

aft dinner, there was this irish band playing really pop-py and hippish music on the dance floor some dist away from our table. when the rest werent looking, me and ching sneaked out to the dance floor and joined the americans...

it was supa fun can! and the funniest thing is, everyone's holding a glass of alcohol and wriggling their bodies on the dance floor... so we were trying to blend in, we took our glass of iced water and did the same... wahahha...

this is so hilarious! i dunno how it came abt...

21st Jun 07 - Day out with Les

we took the same day off, without anyone else, i.e. us and only us alone... =)

spending some quality time tgt...

the night before, we went to a supervisor's apartment for a house drinking party... wasnt exactly very wild, it's a really small scale party among friends with alot of booze and nachos with salsa...

we played Beer Pong! which was surprisingly more fun den it sounds... basically u've 2 teams standing at the 2 ends of the table, with several cups of alcohol lined up in front. and u juz used a ping pong ball to try to shoot into the opponent's cups, the opponent will den haf to drink the cup with the ball inside...

it's really kinda addictive... we shd bring this game back to spore, definitely...

les and his supervisor Eddy in a battle against the girls

went with Kings Dominion chartered free bus to Short Pump Mall, which is by far my fav shopping area in Richmond... we nearly missed the bus coz we were too hangover-ed to wake up early...

Short Pump Mall

and one of the main reason why i love Short Pump so much...

Cheesecake Factory

we finally managed to eat a whole satisfying meal here! and it wasnt even as expensive as we tot it will be...

the menu

our main courses and CHEESECAKE

22nd Jun 07 - Holocaust/Big Daddy's

we initally went out in a damn huge grp, but somehow ended up with only ching and yew lee haha... lightbulb of the day... ding!

anyway we stumbled upon this really cosy looking Dominican restaurant. i love their decor, it's so colourful and welcoming u juz cant help but step in to take a look.

we ended up eating a really heavy meal there...

acting cool outside PAPA NING :: nice nice niceeeeeeee decor!

the menu :: their specialty smoothie

wah lao, blogging abt their food makes me wanna go there again!!! look at the shrimps, it's like how goooood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we went to Virginia Holocaust Museum, which was free... and we really wanted to go coz we're all History students, and rem the Nazis period? i think tat was the most interesting part of the boring subject i've ever read.

Virginia Holocaust Museum

we were each given an audio guide which was really cool, coz it's narrated by a Holocaust survivor, and in the midst of guiding us thru the museum, he'll insert his own personal stories in... and i love how the museum works, each section is in pitch black until u step in and activate the sensor to turn on the lights... so basically the whole museum is in darkness, except for the section u're in...

which makes the whole museum really intriguing, but at the same time, u can feel really depressed inside...

the camp where the Jews are captured in

they're all cramped up in that tiny little space that isnt even enuff for them to curl up their legs...

with the Nazi :: with the richest Jew during the Holocaust period

the gas chamber :: the culprit with the toxic gas

much emotions were stirred up, there and then you feel real anger towards the Nazis... even under the command of someone with higher authority than you, how can any human being even bring himself to lift tat can and pour the gas in? unless u lack something really important called COMPASSION.

disposal of bodies from the gas chamber

i think the saddest part of this, is the workers who are made to dispose the bodies are Jews too, and sometimes they'll just see the bodies of their own family members or relatives lying there, waiting for them to dispose of.

their WEEKLY ration

weekly okay, not daily... it's not even enuff for a meal.

this is supadupa cool... it's like halfway thru the audio guide, we didnt see any doors to another section, so we were wondering where we'll be goin next... it seriously didnt occur to us tat we're supposed to crawl thru tat little dark hole...

the tunnel we're supposed to crawl thru

somehow u get a feel of wat they went thru while they're in hiding in this dark and narrow tunnel. not exactly, but close.

the lovebirds

the house tat bedded the narrator and his family of 5 :: Jews in hiding in the tunnel

the boy who was hanged becoz he smuggled food into the concentration camps

scrolls of the names of the victims :: in memory of them

i hate seeing this. u noe, names aft names displayed in front of you, the people who was unable to survive the holocaust. it made everything so real... coz before tat u noe there's this 1.6 million ppl who died, but they're all nameless and faceless so it's easier to detach urself away fr it.

now they're no longer nameless...