Raleigh (pronounced raw-lee, rah-lee)

An introduction (my own version) to the city of Raleigh, the state capital of North Carolina and home to North Carolina State University.

Raleigh is one of the three cities in the Research Triangle Park, the other two being Durham and Chapel Hill (where UNC is located and where the AO fellowship holds their weekly Friday meetings).

It's really quite a ulu place. One chinese student described it as a 大农村. Haha. There is a downtown where there are high-rise buildings with offices (and some clubs), but the shopping mall is located at another part of the city. Basically, buildings outside downtown and campus hardly go beyond three storeys. Most people in the US have cars (owning a car in US is like owning a bicycle in China) so you actually see more cars than people on the streets. The public transportation is free for students, but they are infrequent so need to check the timings for the buses.

Still it's quite inconvenient to get around outside campus without a car. The nearest Walmart is about 20-minute drive away. Well I don't really know which one is the nearest cos i've been to 3 different Walmarts nearby and different people have different opinions on which is the nearest. The nearest place to get stuff is about 20-minute walk, where Harris Teeter (something like NTUC) is.

I guess being a small city/town, the people here have a slower pace of life and generally more relaxed. In my two weeks here I've only heard someone sound the horn like once or twice. People only sound the horn when it's death-threatening. On the streets, cars will stop for pedestrians intending to cross the road, even if they are not crossing at the designated areas (especially on campus). People will hold the door for you, it's just a natural thing to them. And when there is a central divider on the walkway or stairs, people automatically walk on the right side, even though there's no sign to tell people to do so. Yes it's left-hand drive here, but not much adjustment for me since I've been to China and Korea before.

It's still summer here, and it's been raining the past two days. On the days where there's no rain the day temperature is about Singapore's temperature or maybe slighly cooler, but it's less humid here so don't really perspire. I actually think it's dry as compared to Singapore though this part of the US is considered humid.

There are actually quite a number of Asians in this place. There's a Chinese church and a Korean church. Oh some of the ABCs speak both good English and Mandarin, I feel rather intimidated. And I think the proportion of African Americans here is higher than the average.

Obama actually came to Raleigh last Tues, but I didn't get to hear him speak cos I didn't manage to get tickets.