BBT Chronicles Three

The BBT (reminder: Blessed Bean Trip) had come to an end! :( :( :( IS SADDER THAN CAN BE. Rara’s last day with us. We took photos at the familiar grass patch of “NATIVE VEGETATION: DO NOT MOW”, satisfied our Dunkin Donuts craving and blew bubbles outside the building.

After Rara left, we took a long walk to the cinema and caught ANGELS AND DEMONS! Which I honestly really liked. Many truths and quotable quotes in there. But there were too-gruesome moments. The girl next to me and I were BOTH cringing and had stuff over our eyes during those parts. Ahaha.

We went on the ferris wheel at the Navy Pier, and got drenched cos it started raining. But nonetheless, ferris wheel :) Cross-reference THE OC please. SARAH SPOTTISWOOD would understand me here. It poured while we were on the way back, and we totally got caught in the rain and were DRENCHED. So we found shelter in HOOTERS! Hohoho. And had CRAB for dinner. Awesome crab. We were near silent the whole of dinner and all you could hear were cracking of shells.. hahaha. This is not the last time CRABS make an appearance in this trip :)

x Extra travel info if you care:

We had to stay in the hotel lobby cos our flight was like, early morning. So we basically freeloaded off their internet connection, took their shuttle to the airport, flew to Vegas, and slept in the airport for like a few hours awaiting the arrival of Jackie and Huimin, so we could further freeload off them. YAY!

BBT Chronicles Two

And the BBT chronicles continue!

Due to Yong’s insistent repetition of WE ARE SO BIKING CHICAGO TOMORROW, we set off the next day to find bike rentals. We had to rent one tandem because um, well, I can’t bike, so we got rejected by one place saying that they ran out of tandems. And then I was crucified because I COULDNT RIDE A BIKE. Pangsais.

And God provided once more, we chanced upon this random sign that said BIKE TOURS rentals and they had ONE tandem left. Hoorah hoorah! I no longer was accused of being incompetent. HAHA.

And so we biked, to the pier. Honestly, it was the best experience EVER. The route was too beautiful for words. TOO BEAUTIFUL. FOR. WORDS.

At this point of taking the photo our bike fell over and kinda got chipped, and we were worried we were gona have to pay the damage cost cos we didn’t buy insurance.. but once again, God to the rescue! We were spared of that later on :)

More biking led us to this serene spot, where we spent a vast amount of time taking jumping photos and laughing at Sara’s ridiculous dance poses even when she jumps. HI-YA!

More of the beautiful bluegreen ocean, and yes, that is my cap flying into lost waters. GOODBYE CAL CAP :(

We chanced upon a kid’s playground! And the instant response of everyone was.. AHH! SWINGS!! *RUN*. Childhood revisited. Nice. Until it started getting weird cos parents were looking at us suspiciously like we were gona kidnap their kids.

We biked out of the city into the, well, I don’t even know what to call it, countryside? It was SO PRETTY. I ran out of vocabulary for it I just kept saying “OMGOSH LOOK!! SO NICE!! THE VIEW!! SO NICE!!” Yeah “nice” was pretty much the best I could do, but it was SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT!!!!!!! ARRRR. We biked under a pathway of big autumn trees like we were in a Korean drama (hahaha) and past a field of dandelions (IM NOT KIDDING) and I just wish that I could’ve captured it all..

Okay this was going there. When we realized we were kinda late for returning the bikes and headed back at a faster speed, it was a pretty torturous ride cos the wind was against our faces and basically, WE WERE REALLY TIRED. Poor Rara! I felt sorry for her cos I was mostly freeloading on Yong’s pedalling but she soldiered on like a real trooper bean the whole way. And towards the end, we sang the SARS rap past the pier to motivate ourselves. USE YOUR BRAIN USE YOUR BRAIN USE YOUR BRAIN AH! – was rather inspirational.

After a very long and tiring day, we came to the NAVY PIER. And treated ourselves to a good dinner. The breadsticks were tres awesome.

The walk back to the train station was decorated with colours strewn across the sky. Sunsets are always surreal and magical. (I am honestly running out of vocabulary here for positive adjectives).

This night was spent watching CHEATERS, the trashiest and most addictive show on the planet. Then again, thats all of American reality TV I guess. HAHA.

BBT Chronicles One

Alright people, I’m home!

Sadly I have this small flu, so my parents are all like, QUARANTINE. Pangsai. So while I rot at home and melt in the incredibly humid Singapore weather, I shall recap my summer with my awesome photos and be nostalgic but the best 2 months of my life. Boohoo :(

Our first day at Chicago, we chanced upon the MEMORIAL DAY PARADE! Haha funny, we had no idea it was even happening, we just randomly happened to find out about it. AWESOME much. On the bus to town Sara and I started recounting National Day songs.. and I couldn’t remember how “we will get there” went, and it haunted me for the WHOLE trip. Yong was very amused at our songs with “family and friends” and “dreams come true” being a recurring theme.

Okay after awhile it got boring so we went for lunch and exploration of the windy city!

Video of an acoustic performance at the sandwich place we had lunch. When the stars go blue. LOVE IT.

Some of the random things we came across. Bean is hot, I am Amerikan for a day, reliving our oompaloompa stance, imitating random statues, ROB RYAN, and bean is a flower girl. Haha.

Next up, MILLENIUM PARK!

We literally spent at least an hour at the water fountain place, looking at the kids run back and forth in the water. Twas hilarious. Top left blonde girl in blue shades, Bean says she’s “kinda loving it” and she wants to dress her kid like that next time. Hahaha. Middle right is our favourite kid of all, runner boy. I swear he ran a full marathon taking into account all the laps he did back and forth. And last of all, my favourite WIINIE THE POOH BOY!! Please look at him. He is the cutest.

Refer to videos for real life footage.

Runner boy crashes into winniethepooh/beery belly baby!!! TOO CUTE.

IN ACTION.

Then we found.. Buckingham fountain!! LOVE this fountain. It is so European and romantic and big and awesome and AWESOME did I say awesome? Look at Sara’s DANCER JUMP. HAHAHA.

After we went a-walking and stole bananas from a carton, we found this pretty garden place, climbed on top of a small hill, and did Beauty and the Beast-esque dandelion blowing. YEYA. Free spirits!

More exploring of Chicago led us to the famous GODBLESSAMERICA statue and the Disney store! Where Yong found Vanessa Hudgens made of plastic and I found the REAL winnie the pooh, in fond memory of the winniethepooh baby at the fountain..

Extreme walking + needing to use the bathroom led us to ATAS HOTEL DOT COM. Which had these really fly red lounge we just usurped and starting taking photos. PIMPING. Then we ran away in fear of the cleaning lady who caught us.

Cityskape of Chicago. How MAGNIFICENT! We walked from day till night, and still the city was equally beautiful to us. End of BBT day one. Well then again, not quite.. Sara and I stayed up watching slimming pants and body shaping infomercials and laughing our asses off.

Wait a minute, that was the night before.

Oh right, that was the night before when she first arrived. THIS night was spent watching Get Smart! And having the funnest experience of my life being SUPERMAN. Kinda like how your dad would do it to you when you were a kid. I miss that :(

Highlights: Chicago

Because I won’t be able to do justice to my summer and blog properly about my travels till I get back to Singapore, I’m just gona do some HIGHLIGHTS! of the trip so far. First up is Chicago, also known as the BBT (aka Blessed Bean Trip) because on retrospect we realised that God was very good to us the whole trip, in terms of perfect weather the days we were outdoors, our sekret food cravings on holidays when everything should be closed, letting us chance upon special sightings and events like the Memorial Day Parade (unplanned), providing a tandem bike rental when they were all sold out (because I cannot ride a bike :( SHAMED)

And most importantly, Bean and I had SUCH an awesome time together, catching up and bringing out our inner childs. Many quotable quotes (and jingles) along the way, including “Can you help a friend” (courtesy of homeless man in Berkeley), “It’s always pleasant in Chicago” (inspired by Its always sunny in philadelphia), “Use your brain use your brain ah!” (of course, taken from our beloved SARS rap), and many many more.

So, welcome to Chicago, the windy city, the land of revolving doors, the perfect holiday spot that we all fell in love with. CHICAGO IS AWESOME. I’m kinda loving it (Oh Rara, sounds familiar?)

x Memorial Day parade + free American flag from random black man.

x Millenium Park, and everyone’s favourite fascination, the Kapoor sculpture.

x Crown fountain, which was filled with kids frolicking around. We spent like an HOUR standing there watching them, each picking our favourites – runner boy, winniethepooh, funkyglasses girl, pink baby, and GAP boys.

x Buckingham fountain HOW MAGNIFICENT YOU ARE. (+ us being chinese fairies flying to the moon. Ew.)

x Blowing dandelions on top of a green hill. Pretending to be Belle from Beauty&thebeast and singing I WANT SO MUCH MORE THAN THIS PROVINCIAL LIFE (ok that was just me pretending..)

x Crashing an extremely ATAS hotel (everything was in gold, okay) to use their shiniy monochrome toilet and then taking embarassing pimping photos on their pimping red interior.

x The Chicago Cityskape, by day and by night. Xoxo.

x The miracle that was Bobby’s Bike Hike.

x Biking to the Pier. (BEEYOOTIFUL)

x Flexing the muscles of victory and satisfaction of biking this far. HAHA.

We spent a long time here doing an elaborate series of photos, as you can see (sneak preview haha). The first photo is MY FAVOURITE but no one will understand except the three of us. Inside joke, inside joke. Sara strikes DANCER poses in EVERY JUMPING/CARTWHEELING PHOTO. Yong and I cower in shame at our lack of flexibility. Okay, maybe thats just me again.. the two of them had lots of fun cartwheeling back and forth.

x Bike tours continue. Reach a beach. BEEYOOTIFUL again.

x Chance upon A PLAYGROUND!! We swing and swing and relive our childhood :)

x Biking back becomes an ordeal because we are kinda behind time. Bean has been coined “Trooper bean”.

*Note about biking. BIKING CHICAGO IS THE MOST AMAZING EXPERIENCE IN THE WORLD. It was breathtaking. (even though I didn’t bike most of it cos it was tandem..)

The Chicago sun sets, and we sigh. Its always pleasant in Chicago..

x Satisfied our dunkin donuts craving!!!

x Having a fun and bubbly time (hurhur) before Bean had to go :(

x CRABS. Thats all I’m going to say. CRABS.

x Ferris Wheel :)

Next up, VEGAS HIGHLIGHTS!

Thrifting #2!

Mae and I went on a two-day thrifting excursion (because we realised the first day that on the second they were having AN ANNIVERSARY SALE hurhur) and aside from our own personal delights, guess what we found!

Box-me-up-silly spacebag for $10 – of which Mae immediately went, THIS IS SO SARA. Flashback to 2006 when Bean came to school with her awesome pink box bag and Luke’s green one.. fashion forward indeed. We were contemplating getting it and sending it to Bean but we couldn’t find it the next day :( Oh well, an excitingggg find nonetheless!

FBBs

Goodbye Rara my favouritest bean :) May we reunite soon in the land of the free and the home of the brave! Hearts and let us spread far and wide THE GIBA SPIRIT!!

The First Bean Sleepover

This is Sal, in all his blackfaced pudgy goodness. He is a solid creature of cuteness! Please listen to his Old Man Snore. It is truly classic (and not to mention, truly hilarious.)

This was on the night of the first Bean sleepover in history! (dumdumdum music please) Of which Rara and I spent the entire night up. First the Olympics. Volleyball – GEEEEBA! FEI! ANGEL-CHISELLED FACE! MODEL FACE! BORAT! ANGEL GABRIEL HAIR! And our scrutiny of Italian and Brazillian faces, and then handball – AKA modern day gladiators. Ouch. Hahaha. After that, we watched Kite Runner, Step Up 2 and then a documentary on EVIL PEOPLE – of which we both fell asleep somewhere along the way. Of course all these shows were interspersed with much laughter and conversation (much to the disapproval of Salpal who was trying to sleep) and quality Bean time. Kite Runner was the BOMBS. The casting was uber awesome and we were like omygidding through the whole show! So much raw emotion, so much to take in. A disturbing, but painfully necessary show to watch :(

For you, a thousand times over.

How Many Special People Change?

The beans reunite! :) I am the happiest when I get to meet up with the bean again. Everytime she comes back, we meet at her place – so this time Rara has knighted it THE BEAN HQ. Hahaha I love it. The last time Rara came back we had our catch-up sitting along the edge of the pool, wading in the water, with Vodka running back and forth behind us. This time, the rain ruined our getting in touch with nature (HAHA) and so we had our conversation in the living room. Too bad this time we didn’t manage to play with Vodka and Sal pal! My favourite canine friends. Aside from dinner, driving through ice cream at Macs and watching one of bean’s modern dance performances on dvd (the first time I had seen her dance, believe it or not!), we had solid conversation from 4pm -11pm.

We talked about everything that there was possibly to talk about. Changes in church, life abroad, life in Singapore, studies, friends, our favourite canine pals, the future, our past, relationships, siblings, God, faith, family.. so many, so many things. I suppose the thing that stuck out the most was how people around us had changed for the worse despite things around us changing for the better. We hope for happy endings, but alas, in the bean’s favourite words, c’est la vie.

Hoho the hilarious part of our conversation revolved around our wonderful memories of sunday school when we were still in our tweens. Uncle Sai Choong walking out on our class, David Ho our fearless leader, Dora always exasparated.. The funniest memory was how we really tried very hard to bond our class but it never happened, because the only people that would turn up for our outings would be David Ho aka Uncle Muthu, Noah, Rara, Mae and I. HAHAHA gosh. We were reminiscing the time we went to town and took FIVE SETS of neoprints (goodness knows why, and goodness knows why the guys went along with it), and the time we went to Suntec to watch James Bond: Die Another Day (which turned out to be absolutely boring). Recounting these incidents (and ++) made us go into hysterics HURHUR. Those were our silly, carefree days of youth. Sigh.

What is there not to love about how far we have come, us beans. How many friends can sit down with you and do nothing but talk and laugh and pour your heart out for five straight hours? From the fateful day in 2002 when we were all forced to go to Em’s to bake for Youth Camp fundraising; the day that Veggie Tales was playing and the day that the banana frenchbeans were born. I really don’t think anyone will fully understand our relationship and how close and comfortable we are with each other even without talking for months – no one can appreciate this but us :) Sekret bean connection. But now I must update Rara regularly because I have THE INSIDE SCOOP. Haha. Next year God-willing we must fulfill all our exciting plans together! And of course, make our bucket lists.

You will always be one of my first loves. I lupchew bean :)