Christine & Sonny's wedding + Chelsea vs Club America game
Hi all! It's been about a month since the last post, and basically I've been kept busy in lab... with it's usual ups and downs. I've had a summer student for the past 4 weeks, and it's a new challenge trying to juggle coaching a summer student and doing my own experiments. It involves planning experiments for both me and my student, staying on top of things, and being really patient and precise (yet not overbearing) when teaching her new techniques. I appreciate now how teaching really takes some skill and practice. And I am thankful for the patience and effort my own mentors and supervisors have shown me. I guess you don't realize some things until you experience it yourself.
Anyway, I have about 4 more weeks with my student, and I think the pace of experiments will pick up once she's more comfortable with the techniques. Other than lab work, I've done a few fun things, like go to Las Vegas for my ex-labmate Christine's wedding. It was my 3rd time in Vegas, but the first time going alone (since my labmates were all going with family or significant others). But I entertained myself sufficiently well I think, not that I had much time alone (I was there Sat 7/7 to Mon 9/7).
Already one gets a taste of what to expect in Las Vegas from the slot machines that greet passengers arriving at the airport.
I caught a shuttle to the hotel I was staying at for the next 2 nights, Circus Circus. They gave me a room on the top floor of the Sky Tower, which took a bit of a trek to get to. The room's decent, and the hotel is really a circus, with lots of children, a huge indoor "Adventuredome" amusement park, more fairground games, and live circus acts every half hour. Don't go there if you hate clowns, because they have some pretty scary looking ones painted on the walls... haha.
I got myself a 24h monorail pass for $8 (cheap!), so that I could zip along the Strip without melting in the 40+ degree celcius heat. Yah, it was mad hot.
The monorail passed behind the Strip hotels, and here's the stop at the Las Vegas Hilton where the Star Trek Experience was situated. I was tempted to see it again, since I remember fondly the time I went with my brother many years ago when it came to Singapore. The photo of me in a Klingon mask and my brother in Mr Spock's mask is unforgettable.
After picking up my show tickets at MGM Grand, I monorail-ed it Bally's Hotel, which I had to walk through to get to Paris Las Vegas (walking through hotels to get to my destination was a recurring theme during this trip). I saw this amazing glass ceiling just as I entered Paris.
I met Maria and Andrey for dinner at Paris Las Vegas' Le Village Buffet. It was very kind of Maria to invite me to join them for dinner, since she knew I'd be alone. And eating at a buffet alone is a very sad experience, I should think. So after the 30min queue, we got into the buffet, which has a French village setting and foods from different regions of France (including some sushi and chocolate chip cookies... so very French, don't you think? :P). The sky you see in the photo is fake (it's actually the ceiling), but pretty real huh? Throughout dinner it felt like dusk, which is kind of sleep-inducing, given that we'd also eaten a tonne of food.
My lovely made-to-order crepe, filled with blueberries and nutella, and topped with powdered sugar and almond flakes... mmm... I didn't take photos of the rest of the food since I was too hungry.
Near the end of dinner. Notice the waitress/usher behind me who's dressed in a cute costume.
Christine (the bride) also happened to be dining at the same buffet :)
After dinner, I saw Cirque du Soleil's Ka at MGM Grand by myself (Maria and Andrey went to see Mystere). It was good, with lots of chinese/japanese-inspired fighting and crazy rotating platform and interesting props. Some parts were a little slow, but good overall. Too bad the pics I took inside after the show came out too dark.
The Circus Circus entrance greeted me after my 10min walk from the Sahara monorail stop (the north-most stop on the monorail line; MGM Grand is the southern-most station).
The view of the Stratosphere hotel from my window at night...
...and in the day.
On Sunday, I went for a lab reunion brunch at the Bellagio buffet (sponsored by the bosses... double plus!). It was good, but I think Le Village Buffet was better :) My ex-labmate Erica and I checked out the luverly roses in the Bellagio garden after that. It had a 4th of July theme.
Heehee, and I get a pic in front of the windmill.
Then it time to get back to the hotel and prepare for the wedding. I met Jenny back in the hotel room. She was also a Stanford PhD student and Christine's friend who happened to be traveling alone (we shared the room for Sunday night). She had attended another wedding the day before, so could only get to Vegas on Sunday. My lab manager Karine kindly gave us a ride to the wedding at Wynn, since she and her family were staying at the same hotel as us. If not for the ride, we'd have walked 15-20min to the Wynn in our heels and dresses. Not fun.
Jenny (left) my room mate for Sunday night, Denise and Trent
Waiting for the ceremony to begin.
Still waiting...
The bride enters!
The bride and groom say their vows... so touching :)
The lovely table settings... pretty!
Maria, me and Erica
The pretty wedding cake.
The couple's first dance (I really like this photo of them :D)
Stacie and Mike
Maria and Andrey
Karine, Erica and me
Jean-Pierre, Audrey and Karine.
The prawn appetizer (I could only eat half of one big prawn... stupid allergies :P)
The happy couple, Christine and Sonny.
Salad
Past and present TIL lab members with the couple!
My main dish - roast chicken leg with truffles stuffed under the skin.
Karine's daughter, Sheri's daughter and Sonny's niece play the air guitar game (really air guitar... blowup guitar lah). Very kid-friendly, this wedding.
Sweet dessert - peanut icecream with toffee wafers (?)
The couple dance with their parents.
My labmates (and kids) hit the dancefloor...
Cake cutting!
Cake feeding! Luckily there were no cake-in-face moments or any of those "egg-rolling-in-pants", "bride and groom quiz" kind of games. There was still the obligatory bouquet toss though.
The wedding was good, sweet and enjoyable. It's a nice change from the long and sometimes tacky traditional chinese weddings. I guess the chill and simple couple wanted something chill and simple too, but sufficient enough to please both the bride's Taiwanese parents and the groom's Persian parents.
Me and Jenny got a ride back to the hotel with Karine after the reception ended at 10pm, and the temperature hadn't cooled at all. Anyway, with the night still young and with free $25 slot play at our hotel, me and Jenny hit the $1 slots. I walked away with $10 and Jenny $7... hey, not too bad since it's free money. But no way I'd pay good money to play slots.
The next day, my morning flight got canceled, so I had to take the afternoon flight. I ended up killing time by strolling around the hotel, shopping, buying souvenirs, having brunch and watching TV in my room (I got a free late checkout).
Even the Las Vegas departure lounge has slot machines!
Wedding favours with a bilingual and bicultural twist :)
Closeup of the chocolates... cute :)
The Saturday after the wedding, I caught the Chelsea vs Club America Disney Friendship Cup at the new Stanford Stadium. We got the $30 tickets, not too bad :)
The teams warm up on the pitch and the fans roll into the stadium.
More stretching before the game.
Me (in my England jersey) and Nana :)
In my seat before the game in the new Stanford Stadium's southwest corner (near the Chelsea fans).
The crazy Club America fans on the other end of the stadium. The 2 groups of die-hard fans in the upper level were waving blue and yellow balloons and banners, drumming, whistling and cheering throughout the whole match. With the occasional fireworks and confetti too... I'm sure that was illegal... haha.
Yay, the players line up before the match starts.
Chelsea's goalie Petr Cech does a goalkick in the first half of the game (this is probably some time after the first goal was scored by Club America within the first 4min).
My labmates (and/or affiliates): Maria's Ukrainian bf Andrey (with binoculars), Karine's French husband Jean-Pierre, Masato's wife Masako (it's cute how their names match), Masato, Joey (looking intense here), and Joey's friend.
Chelsea fans stand up and cheer for the Blues.
Photo-taking during a lull just before the second half.
Some action in the 2nd half.
The game is over and Chelsea won 2-1, after scoring 2 goals late in the 2nd half.
Me and Nana after the game.
John Terry, Chelsea captain, is the man of the match.
Yay, my 2nd live football (yes, "football" not "soccer") game... it was good :)
Ok, time for bed... till next time!
Anyway, I have about 4 more weeks with my student, and I think the pace of experiments will pick up once she's more comfortable with the techniques. Other than lab work, I've done a few fun things, like go to Las Vegas for my ex-labmate Christine's wedding. It was my 3rd time in Vegas, but the first time going alone (since my labmates were all going with family or significant others). But I entertained myself sufficiently well I think, not that I had much time alone (I was there Sat 7/7 to Mon 9/7).
Already one gets a taste of what to expect in Las Vegas from the slot machines that greet passengers arriving at the airport.
I caught a shuttle to the hotel I was staying at for the next 2 nights, Circus Circus. They gave me a room on the top floor of the Sky Tower, which took a bit of a trek to get to. The room's decent, and the hotel is really a circus, with lots of children, a huge indoor "Adventuredome" amusement park, more fairground games, and live circus acts every half hour. Don't go there if you hate clowns, because they have some pretty scary looking ones painted on the walls... haha.
I got myself a 24h monorail pass for $8 (cheap!), so that I could zip along the Strip without melting in the 40+ degree celcius heat. Yah, it was mad hot.
The monorail passed behind the Strip hotels, and here's the stop at the Las Vegas Hilton where the Star Trek Experience was situated. I was tempted to see it again, since I remember fondly the time I went with my brother many years ago when it came to Singapore. The photo of me in a Klingon mask and my brother in Mr Spock's mask is unforgettable.
After picking up my show tickets at MGM Grand, I monorail-ed it Bally's Hotel, which I had to walk through to get to Paris Las Vegas (walking through hotels to get to my destination was a recurring theme during this trip). I saw this amazing glass ceiling just as I entered Paris.
I met Maria and Andrey for dinner at Paris Las Vegas' Le Village Buffet. It was very kind of Maria to invite me to join them for dinner, since she knew I'd be alone. And eating at a buffet alone is a very sad experience, I should think. So after the 30min queue, we got into the buffet, which has a French village setting and foods from different regions of France (including some sushi and chocolate chip cookies... so very French, don't you think? :P). The sky you see in the photo is fake (it's actually the ceiling), but pretty real huh? Throughout dinner it felt like dusk, which is kind of sleep-inducing, given that we'd also eaten a tonne of food.
My lovely made-to-order crepe, filled with blueberries and nutella, and topped with powdered sugar and almond flakes... mmm... I didn't take photos of the rest of the food since I was too hungry.
Near the end of dinner. Notice the waitress/usher behind me who's dressed in a cute costume.
Christine (the bride) also happened to be dining at the same buffet :)
After dinner, I saw Cirque du Soleil's Ka at MGM Grand by myself (Maria and Andrey went to see Mystere). It was good, with lots of chinese/japanese-inspired fighting and crazy rotating platform and interesting props. Some parts were a little slow, but good overall. Too bad the pics I took inside after the show came out too dark.
The Circus Circus entrance greeted me after my 10min walk from the Sahara monorail stop (the north-most stop on the monorail line; MGM Grand is the southern-most station).
The view of the Stratosphere hotel from my window at night...
...and in the day.
On Sunday, I went for a lab reunion brunch at the Bellagio buffet (sponsored by the bosses... double plus!). It was good, but I think Le Village Buffet was better :) My ex-labmate Erica and I checked out the luverly roses in the Bellagio garden after that. It had a 4th of July theme.
Heehee, and I get a pic in front of the windmill.
Then it time to get back to the hotel and prepare for the wedding. I met Jenny back in the hotel room. She was also a Stanford PhD student and Christine's friend who happened to be traveling alone (we shared the room for Sunday night). She had attended another wedding the day before, so could only get to Vegas on Sunday. My lab manager Karine kindly gave us a ride to the wedding at Wynn, since she and her family were staying at the same hotel as us. If not for the ride, we'd have walked 15-20min to the Wynn in our heels and dresses. Not fun.
Jenny (left) my room mate for Sunday night, Denise and Trent
Waiting for the ceremony to begin.
Still waiting...
The bride enters!
The bride and groom say their vows... so touching :)
The lovely table settings... pretty!
Maria, me and Erica
The pretty wedding cake.
The couple's first dance (I really like this photo of them :D)
Stacie and Mike
Maria and Andrey
Karine, Erica and me
Jean-Pierre, Audrey and Karine.
The prawn appetizer (I could only eat half of one big prawn... stupid allergies :P)
The happy couple, Christine and Sonny.
Salad
Past and present TIL lab members with the couple!
My main dish - roast chicken leg with truffles stuffed under the skin.
Karine's daughter, Sheri's daughter and Sonny's niece play the air guitar game (really air guitar... blowup guitar lah). Very kid-friendly, this wedding.
Sweet dessert - peanut icecream with toffee wafers (?)
The couple dance with their parents.
My labmates (and kids) hit the dancefloor...
Cake cutting!
Cake feeding! Luckily there were no cake-in-face moments or any of those "egg-rolling-in-pants", "bride and groom quiz" kind of games. There was still the obligatory bouquet toss though.
The wedding was good, sweet and enjoyable. It's a nice change from the long and sometimes tacky traditional chinese weddings. I guess the chill and simple couple wanted something chill and simple too, but sufficient enough to please both the bride's Taiwanese parents and the groom's Persian parents.
Me and Jenny got a ride back to the hotel with Karine after the reception ended at 10pm, and the temperature hadn't cooled at all. Anyway, with the night still young and with free $25 slot play at our hotel, me and Jenny hit the $1 slots. I walked away with $10 and Jenny $7... hey, not too bad since it's free money. But no way I'd pay good money to play slots.
The next day, my morning flight got canceled, so I had to take the afternoon flight. I ended up killing time by strolling around the hotel, shopping, buying souvenirs, having brunch and watching TV in my room (I got a free late checkout).
Even the Las Vegas departure lounge has slot machines!
Wedding favours with a bilingual and bicultural twist :)
Closeup of the chocolates... cute :)
The Saturday after the wedding, I caught the Chelsea vs Club America Disney Friendship Cup at the new Stanford Stadium. We got the $30 tickets, not too bad :)
The teams warm up on the pitch and the fans roll into the stadium.
More stretching before the game.
Me (in my England jersey) and Nana :)
In my seat before the game in the new Stanford Stadium's southwest corner (near the Chelsea fans).
The crazy Club America fans on the other end of the stadium. The 2 groups of die-hard fans in the upper level were waving blue and yellow balloons and banners, drumming, whistling and cheering throughout the whole match. With the occasional fireworks and confetti too... I'm sure that was illegal... haha.
Yay, the players line up before the match starts.
Chelsea's goalie Petr Cech does a goalkick in the first half of the game (this is probably some time after the first goal was scored by Club America within the first 4min).
My labmates (and/or affiliates): Maria's Ukrainian bf Andrey (with binoculars), Karine's French husband Jean-Pierre, Masato's wife Masako (it's cute how their names match), Masato, Joey (looking intense here), and Joey's friend.
Chelsea fans stand up and cheer for the Blues.
Photo-taking during a lull just before the second half.
Some action in the 2nd half.
The game is over and Chelsea won 2-1, after scoring 2 goals late in the 2nd half.
Me and Nana after the game.
John Terry, Chelsea captain, is the man of the match.
Yay, my 2nd live football (yes, "football" not "soccer") game... it was good :)
Ok, time for bed... till next time!
posted by luen at
1:40 AM
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