My Survival Guide to living in MA, US

1. Greetings (verbal)
When you meet someone you know, be it the bus driver, you friends, etc... say "Hi. How are you? (pause) Good".
It's interesting to know that it's about the same as we use to say as "Hi!" or "Good morning/afternoon/evening". Believe me on this because I tried saying "Hi, I'm not okay. How about you?", and most of the time, they will reply "...good".

2. Greetings (action)
American = Firm hand shake
Mexican/South American = Kiss at the cheek on one side, your right cheek, if I'm not mistaken
French = Kiss at the cheek on both sides
Japanese = Just say hi. Remember not to do a kiss on the cheeks! especially in front of their wives!!! :D

3. Tips
15% tips. You only need to give it when you go to a restaurant, taxis, delivery, etc. You don't have to give it when you go to McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, Bookstores. Although it is sort of recommended that you do give a bit of your change to the person at the counter at the food court. Otherwise they'll just give you a weird stare.

4. Shopping for cheap designer clothings
If you like things like DKNY, Tommy Hilfinger, etc... (not that I really care about designer goods). Shop at Filene's Basement at Downtown Crossing. For shoes, the people here seem to like DSW and Aldo. They do seem to have good discoutns at times. If you really wanna get something at a discount, but not via eBay, check out www.overstock.com for nearly everything.

5. Stores equivalent to 7-Eleven
Walgreens. I can't help it. I've been doing most of my last minute/lazy 'shopping' at Walgreens. It helps when it's just downstairs from my apartment. hehehehhe

6. Stores equivalent to Watson
They don't have Watson or even Guardian here. They have CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens instead.

7. Gift cards.
Just look at Itunes, you have gift cards for iTunes music/games/video. Same thing here, they seem to have gift cards for nearly everything here. Right from TGIF, iTunes, callcards to airplane tickets. It's sort of equivalent to our angpow system just that it's catered more towards the specific store.


that's it for now...
need to sleep and study. That's all I feel like I ever do here.....

First Snow at last!

Finally, my childhood dream to see snow has come true. hahahahahhahahahh!!! i'm so happy.
It all started last saturday when my groupmates and I went to Vermont to visit the Ben & Jerry's factory for our school project.

Gaga (Yamaga from Japan), Tim (from USA), Irina (from Germany), Abhi (from New Zealand) and I went up to Vermont last weekend. On our way to Ben & Jerry's, as we were asking for directions, Tim called out to me and said "Hey, you've never seen snow before right? Come over here and look". There we were standing out in the cold at around 30 degrees (F) even though it was a bright sunny day, and I said "Where? all I can see are debris?" Tim rolled his eyes and said "It's not debris, it's snow. Look!" and he pointed to his jumper. True enough, when I looked closely, it was the tiniest small particle of snow. It was so pretty. I practically jumped up and down excitedly. Giggling all the way. Tim wanted to get in the car and I told him to wait as I wanted Gaga to take a picture of the snow on his jumper. Gaga and Irina was laughing all the way. Gaga told me that I sounded like a kid. I couldn't care less. Even when we were in the car long after that, I couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear.
Oh Joy! Oh Joy!

It snowed even heavier today in Boston (monday), but the feeling isn't the same anymore. It was a wet snow experience. There's no turning back now. It's just gonna get colder and colder from here onwards.