pre-school days.

well, here are another set of pictures. dated from 28th dec, which was our orientation at UW and our very first visit to the campus, to 31st dec, where my roommate and i went utilities and groceries shopping at target and macy's. the only high rise buildings you can find in seattle is in downtown seattle. other than that, there're no towering buildings anywhere. seriously. on campus, other than my building, which is linked to the UW medical center, which is probably 7 or 8 stories high, everywhere else is just low buildings. very different from singapore. pictures of UW campus are sitting in my camera waiting to be uploaded. but for now, enjoy!

the entrance to UW nearest to our house. it's just a 3 minute walk from our house. the glorious sun was out the day we had our UW orientation. =)

the bendy trees are bare and they are ALL around the campus. it's a different kind of beauty, how the bare branches droop and sway ever so lightly with the cold wind.

one of the school buildings. unlike NTU which has a integrated academic complex north and south spine with the exception of SADM, UW has different buildings spread all over the huge campus. and most of them are old and majestic.

campus grounds has lots of green too. the grass patches, which i assume students will sit around and have a picnic in between lessons during spring and summer. now it's just the playing field for squirrels to run around. and there's LOTS of squirrels. =)

the entrance to the central quad aka the red square. we're greeted by 3 towers arranged in a triangle. must have some kind of significance. but i have no idea what it is.

the quad presented here. it's huge. and see how the buildings all look like ancient cathedrals.

the huge american flag is at half mast due to the passing of ex-president of US, gerald ford. it has been half mast for the entire week. i think it should be up by tomorrow, after the funeral.

ok. visibility is quite low here, but if you squint and stare at the picture, at the middle of the 2 buildings in the distance, above the dark areas. you can see the very faint outline of a snow-capped mountain which i'm not sure what the name is. but it's a common sight. seattle is surrounded by water and mountain ranges. so it's really beautiful when you stand on a high point and look into the distance. this view was breathtaking when i saw it.

ok that's me.

the next day, the sun was hiding again. we walked a good 30 minutes to university village. it's a great shopping cluster. with gap, banana republic, barnes & noble, a great supermarket, victoria's secret and many many more. it was a good shopping day.

a view of the mountains in a distance, with a great lake in between. that, i think, is union bay, and is just adjacent to the UW campus.

the amazing wide-angle lens camera of mine could fit all of us and the mountains into the frame. from left: linda my roommate; jieying behind, my neighbour who can cook some chinese dishes; su hui is also my neighbour and jieying's roommate; and me who can cook some western dishes.

here we are! university village.

that's gap! and night is falling at 4pm. and gap was having a sale.

shhh. the deer is talking to the tortoise and the sparrows are eavesdropping. sorry they were all so cute i just had to take a picture.

oh. seattle people love dogs. and they bring them everywhere they go. onto the bus. into the bookstore. sometimes they leave them tied to a bench outside the shop. like this dog here. he's the sweetest dog. we found him sitting there all lonely and went to pat him. and he allowed us to! attention seeker lah. like hugo like that. his owners finally came out and we had a short chat. his name is logan! a la wolverine in x-men. heh. it's so nice that seattle is so dog-friendly and everyone is so responsible. no dog poo anywhere.

jiejie this is for you! i miss tokyo! and i found this at macy's and can't help but be reminded of harajuku in tokyo. and the JR line and the train-is-arriving-onto-platform melodies

new year's eve utilities shopping at target. we were waiting for the bus and because it was NYE, and a sunday, buses run on a different schedule and we ended up waiting for 45 minutes. so what to do when you're bored? take bo-liao pictures.

bo-liao picture.

the sun sets for the last time in 2006.

to be continued...