WWDC trip to SF

Okay so I know I've not been blogging yet about my trip to San Francisco for the WWDC, but things have been just happening one after another so I've been pretty zonked out! But I'll just mention some of the main stuff we've been up to so far=D

Flight: (SIN - HK, 14 hours in transit, HK - LAX, LAX - SF)
SIN-HK was fine so I shan't go any further on that. As for the transit, let's just say we seriously seriously doubted ours was a good deal(as compared to the more expensive airlines e.g. SQ). Klaw went back home with his dad in HK, so it was down to jy and myself to while the time away. In short, we practically walked the whole of Kowloon and HK Island (yes I am exaggerating but it didnt feel too far from that) - with the shops all closed. How perfectly entertaining huh?

But that in any case managed to kill 4 hours of our time, and with help from a very helpful staff member in Crawford Lane, we found our way to the bus stop and took a bus back all the way to the airport.

The rest of the painfully long flight to LAX and the domestic flight is just that - painful. I did manage to sleep, which made it a little more bearable.

Went straight to the hostel after touching down, and the guys all slept once we got the room. Took the chance to arrange some of my stuff and settle down a little. Nothing much after that except for a quick fast food dinner at Jack-in-the-Box (our soon-to-be regular) nearby.

Pre-WWDC 1st Day
Fisherman's wharf in the morning!=)) Despite having gone there 3 times, I still love the place! Only thing was I didn't manage to get my ben and jerry's cookie dough ice-cream this time=x We basically walked around, took a look at the shops (again=p), and for the 2 photographers, took photos. I did take some photos, but not many since most of them would simply be repeats of what I'd taken before.

Saw one thing I didn't see previously though - fruits! For some reason, Walgreens, while plentiful, doesn't seem to sell any fruits at all, so seeing a wide variety here was definitely a welcome change!=D Plus the strawberries looked huge and sweet, not to mention the cherries, apples and all.

Lunch was at the Fisherman's Grotto (or something like that, can't really remember the exact name) and tried the crab chowder in a bread bowl! whee. Klaw and I bought the calamari and chips as well - bad choice! Despite sharing that one serving between the four of us, we still couldn't finish it.=x

Anyway went back to the hostel for a recharge (they slept again), then went down to Union Square. Didn't do much shopping though, just quickly browsed through stuff. (Never mind, there's the whole of next week to shop=DD)

Rest of the evening passed by without anything much happening.

Pre-WWDC 2nd Day
Woke up at 6.30am for the Asian Student's Bus Tour! Met some of the NUS, NTU students plus the HongKongers, Koreans, etc.

First stop was Stanford University!!! Totally blew us away! Campus was simply beautiful - we were like, just a whiff of the air there would somehow magically increase our IQ (and so our GPA=p) But it was seriously amazingly beautiful. I've seen campuses on TV and everything, but it never struck me as particularly outstanding nor beautiful. Seriously wish I could study there man=x Unfortunately it's only for the cream of the crop plus I've got no money so yep.

Next was lunch enroute to Twin Peaks. Since I'd never been to Twin Peaks as well, I took some photos then walked around and enjoyed the scenery. Wind was howling though, could actually hear it whistling past my ears lol.

Third stop: Golden Gate Bridge. Well..... my third time there and seriously, it's just that - a bridge. Yeah it's windy and nice and everything. But I'm no pro photographer and any photos I've taken over the last two times is probably going to be the same this time. So I happily kept my camera and just walked along with the two photographers along the bridge. Oh and I'm not sure I noticed this before, but there's this sign in the middle of the bridge that provides the suicide hotline and says "There is hope. Make the call." Guess too many suicides take place there, which really isn't that bad a choice. Pretty scenic actually. Hmm.

Last stop of the bus tour was the Palace of Fine Arts. Apparently it's some kind of science museum, but we didn't go in since it wasn't free. Lol. In any case, the exterior was pretty nice (though I still very much love Stanford University lots lots more).

After that, the bus brought us back to San Francisco, Moscone Center, to register for WWDC!!! So yup, we got our WWDC bags, pass and lanyard, and tshirt!=D After which, something pretty interesting but somewhat.. um unorthodox.. happened. Heh.

WWDC
Well, actually I'd planned to write a lot more here.. but I'm writing an article for our school publication PRISM Sept issue, so that'll be a repetition already=p So just stay tuned for a future post of my article in PRISM once the hardcopy's out! Don't want any leaks here! hahahaha.

Post-conference Roadtrip!
Don't mean to be a wet blanket here, but I'm just much too lazy to type out all the fun stuff we did during our roadtrip! We basically rented a car and roadtripped all around California!!! wheeee. In short, we went: SF > Sacramento / Davis > Lake Tahoe > Mariposa / Yosemite > Los Angeles > San Luis Obispo (Pismo Beach) > Big Sur > Monterey > San Jose (Silicon Valley) > Back to SF!

I've over a thousand photos, which really is very few compared jy/kelv, but that plus my live running commentary of what happened, most ppl took around an hour or so to complete the entire slideshow=pp So I won't be recounting the various incidents that happened here on my blog this time (*sighs of relief all round..?*) But I'd be happy to repeat my live commentary + photo slideshow for you anytime - just look for me in person!=pp

I'm really really glad I've had the chance to go for this trip! Firstly, of course to be able to attend the ultimate Apple evangelism event of the year=D Despite having little technical knowledge compared to the gurus present there, it was definitely a whole new experience for me. Secondly, spending 3 weeks with just 3 guys sounding kinda daunting to me before the trip, but after the first few days of the conference, I was totally used (well, almost!) to it and it was super fun!!!=DD

Possibly one of the more interesting hostel experiences was at Monterey -
1) Due to the summer drought, we were each allocated 2 bath tokens, with one bath token equivalent to 4 min of water! It is with great satisfaction that I now say this: I completed my bath using just 1 token!!!
2) Kelv and I bought a budweiser each earlier at San Luis Obispo, but didn't have a chance to drink it then. Unfortunately, we didn't have a fridge in the hostel room of course, but.. we had ice and salt in the hostel common kitchen. Heh. Think ice + salt + budweiser. mmmm=) Ice cold B's! LOL
3) The hostel provides all-you-can-make pancakes for breakfast, so basically they provide the pan and pancake mix, and you do the rest of the work (making the pancakes + washing up!). JY and I did come up with the pancakes of course.. though they somehow weren't as nice as that on the box. Ok maybe that was a tiny understatement. Anyhow, they were good enough to eat and I really had lots of fun making them despite the less-than-satisfactory results! =DD

So yep, sharing a room with those 3 other guys was actually lots of fun (not to mention they were really nice as well! Well, minus the constant teasing I guess lol) and as I've mentioned to all those I talked to about my trip, waking up in my own room back in Singapore was simply weird at first without them!

Conclusion: WWDC + Roadtrip was such an exhilarating experience - I wanna go overseas again!!!

Last updated: 26 Jul 08