Good friends, good food, good life.

I feel bad whenever I post something personal and completely unrelated and pointless to everyone whom I don’t mention in a particular post. Like this one for example. Because (on rare occasions) when people say they like my blog, then maybe someone new decided to check it out, they’d be like, wut -,- and rush off to Neopets or Myspace or getting Rick Rolled or something.
BUT I’m just so happy for these past few days. Happy as in smiling in my room by myself remembering an old joke or looking at pictures and reminding myself to back up that memory in special hard disk in my brain so that even if I have a virus (namely Alzheimer, or something worst) so I’d remember it forever.

Sometimes I think I took my friends for granted. Here I am thinking I can survive on my own, it’s okay if I lose friends here and there, that’s life, right? But I do care about them. We may not be as close as we once were, and that's okay with me. I have long given up and the whole ~*BFF*~ thing. But it's nice when we meet up once in a while so I get to hear all their stories. I want to hear their life adventures (or lack thereof el oh el), I want to know who made their hearts skipped a beat, or their embarrassing stories and most importantly attend their weddings. I want to send cute pink dresses with tutus for their daughters or action figures of Captain America for their sons (“so back in 2012 there was a movie called The Avengers and Chris Evans was in it he was so hot omg oops sorry I’m fangirling again ha ha old habits die hard even at 30”).

I believe everything happens for a reason and thus I’ve never regretted changing schools. I attended SMK Darul Ehsan, SMT Teknik Tuanku Jaafar, and SMK Ideal Heights. I shudder at the thought of not attending either one and missing out on fantastic groups of friends. They’re all so different and I like that. I’ll never understand how life works but plans aligned so perfectly last week. I went out with my SMKIH friends on Tuesday, SMKDE friends on Wednesday, SMTTJ friends on Thursday. Then kenduri kahwin on Saturday, a formal dinner on Sunday. Then went out with my college friend as well.

Rare moments when all the stars aligned whoop dee doo.

When - TUESDAY, 22 May 2012.
Who - Abu and Alin
Where - IKEA, The Curve
What happened - Ate lunch at IKEA, then I wanted to buy these, rails for frames but they were probably sold out. Went around the whole mall searching for shops selling dresses since Alin has a, graduation dinner (or something like that) coming up. Didn't find any. Abu always has the best stories to tell. I'm just good at laughing and making faces when appropriate.



When - WEDNESDAY, 23 May 2012.
Who - Aliff, PH, Tini, Wafiy, Hafiz, Teacher Ruby, Fiqa, Ishmah.
Where - SMKDE, KFC, Fiqa's house
What happened - Arrived at SMKDE but since all of us didn't have Teacher Ruby's number, we just sat there aimlessly for probably 1 hour plus. Met other teachers as well and since I'm not the ~popular~ student almost nobody remembers my name har har. Somehow PH and Hafiz found her (by searching the entire school.. I think). Had a good chat and catching up with everybody :) Glad to see everybody's doing SO well! A lot of my classmates are taking engineering. And medic, and then dentistry, geoscience. Man I've got all the right connections in the future. Then we picked up Ishmah then separated our ways for awhile then we picked up Fiqa and ate at KFC but then all of us were suddenly hungry again and went to Fiqa's house and her mom served some rendang and pulut and the best brownies ever. The end.





When - THURSDAY, 24 May 2012.
Who - Ayu
Where - Mid Valley
What happened - Watched What to Expect When You're Expecting. Pretty hilarious movie! So cute. Ate at Pancake House (the house burger was SO GOOD - and of course, pancakes!). Went to the newly-opened Uniqlo. Wanted to buy these red pants which was on sale for RM50 but they were sold out. The shop was SO, SO CROWDED. Barely have any space to walk around. Typical Malaysians. Oh and Fahrin (the actor) was also there. I'm not a big fan but it's always weird seeing someone you're used to see on tv, in real life.
*LOL I forgot to bring my iPod and camera so no pictures taken, sobs. Nvm I met her again this week, so pictures later~

When - FRIDAY, 25 May 2012.
Who - Me, myself and I
Where - Sunway Pyramid
What happened - Went to find myself a pair of red pants (and got it). Also ended up buying this pair of high heels for RM49.50. What a bargain, man. Shopping alone was actually so much fun. I walk pretty fast and I like to enter a lot of shops to check stuff out so it's nice that I don't have to trouble anyone. Not to mention I don't have to make small talks in between, which I hate.



When - SATURDAY, 26 May 2012.
Who - James Boon (lolol), Zuhair, Daniel, Zul, Ain, Jay, Abu, Aqil.
Where - Jay's house.
What happened - It's Jay's brother's wedding! I arrived with Abu and coincidentally the bride and groom arrived at the same time and we just stood there awkwardly. The food was great. Waited for other friends to arrive and ate everything they served to kill the time. So glad Ain was there since Alin couldn't make it. Wouldn't know what to talk about with the guys har har.



When - SUNDAY, 27 May 2012.
Who - Same people as above + Alin
Where - Saloma Bistro, KL.
What happened - It's Jay's brother's wedding reception. I wasn't sure I was even invited (LOL) but Jay invited me at the last minute so yay. (I honestly wouldn't mind not being invited since I know the places were limited.) The theme was 'Mafia Formal' but I didn't have anything mafia, so I just wore a black baju kurung. Had SUCH a GREAT time (though heels were killing lolol never again). LOVED Jay's speech about his brother. The projection showing tweets with hashtag #syauqannawedding was FUN. The music/live band was a bit too loud though, had to scream a little even talking to someone next to me. Arrived home around 12 a.m. and tired but would definitely do the whole thing again. Uploaded all the pictures on Facebook but I'll just upload some here.



While Waiting for others to arrive - camwhore time!
Beautiful venue. Tempat parking pun nak posing, yo.

The girls.

The guys.

Group picture! :) LOVE this. (My cover photo on Facebook hehe)

The food - rendang especially, was absolutely delicious!
Aww yea next in line to get married~~

Kanak-kanak riang. When - MONDAY, 28 May 2012.
Who - Ayu, Tom
Where - KLCC, Viva Mall
What happened - Met up with Ayu again (lulz) and Tom at KLCC . My dormmates!!!! Aaaaahhhhh love them so much. Still haven't met the other, 7 of them :( What I wouldn't give to be back at dorm 10. Anyway we met Tom for only awhile since she went to Times Square after that (lol I don't even know why they just don't go to Times Square straight..). Me and Ayu walked around a bit and drove to Viva Mall in 2 separate cars. Got lost. Found it and was like, 'LAAAAAAA KAT SINI KE.' There was a Popular warehouse sale but didn't buy any books because I was too sleepy lulz.


This cake was delicious to the core.
Fill up the bag with as many books as you want and pay only RM50! Le gasp. But I didn't bring my dad's Popular card, sobs.

When - WEDNESDAY, 30 May 2012.
Who - Shermain
Where - +Wondermilk, B.I.G at Publika
What happened - Went to +Wondermilk because Shermain has never been there. The interior design was so cute! Not to mention the cupcakes. Pretty expensive but it was very good. Ordered their sandwich - yummeeehhhh. (Sorry for the Instagram-ed photos, they looked better than the original lulz).




Getting jakun-ed over weird-looking mushrooms.


So, so blessed these past few weeks. I actually look like someone who has a life! This is groundbreaking! I'm an anti-social no more! Hahaha. I love all of my friends equally so I hope this post won't make anyone feels like, 'Ee Anis has a lot of friends I probably mean nothing to her.' Nuuuu that's not the case at all. I'm free anytime anyone wants to hang out okay just tell me when and where and I'll be there holla

I'm currently on a 3 months (2 months left now, I think) holiday. I can't complain (for now) how bored I am. Decided not to take any subject for short semester because I dread waking up in the morning and especially taking the train. Looking back, I honestly wonder how did I survive those 2 years of pure torture. Welp.

I can almost taste the boredom coming in the air for me right now but my motto is basically 'better bored than stressed'. I'd rather sit at home watching reruns of Lizzie McGuire rather than completing that assignments or studying for finals.

Oh and I don't know if I've mentioned this but I'm going to University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire to major in journalism! I find it funny how a lot of people have never heard of Wisconsin, just like how Selayang is. ("Selayang?" "Do you know where Kepong is?" "Yes." "Somewhere around there." "Oooh.."). Or even Malaysia. ("Malaysia?" "Do you know where Singapore and Thailand is?" "Yes." "We're just right in the middle between those two." "Ooohh.."). Perfect for me. (But then again I do wish I say I'm going to Chicago or LA or NY since those places Malaysians are familiar with and I don't have to explain anything.) I don't feel heavy-hearted YET about leaving. I'd be homesick, I know I will. Especially I'm gonna leave 2 or 3 days after Raya! I've been dreaming of how my friends would say and hug me goodbyes at the airport and but because of that fact, fat chance they'll be there. Crey crey.

To end this post, here's a picture of me and my boyfriend~~


The first picture was taken at Madame Tussauds, NYC. Fun fact: it was the last picture taken by my camera because right after that I carelessly dropped it and the lens stopped functioning and my heart just broke.



“In the beginning of life, when we are infants, we need others to survive, right? And at the end of life, when you get like me, you need others to survive, right?’ But here’s the secret: in between, we need others as well.”
― Mitch Albom

Y U NO READ!?

HELLO! Long time no see, huh. This blog was in a hiatus for awhile, mainly because.. I JUST FEEL LIKE IT.

No just kidding I was busy with college and university application. And you probably already know this but I got accepted into University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire! And University of Minnesota. And University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Okay everybody stop clapping and pick your jaws up from the floor it's actually not THAT hard to get into these universities. If you're taking the same course as me you'd know how it is. I'm just SO excited to go back to the States again and further my studies there. (And my semester break is from December 21 - January 21 and my birthday is on December 26 so I am sort of planning to go to NYC again!!! Fingers crossed, ey?)

Moving on.

First and foremost, I just want to sincerely apologize as this post might be a little, not to say controversial, but might make some people feel butthurt. I just want to express my opinions here as this truly has been bugging my mind for awhile. The good ol' saying 'siapa makan cili dia yang terasa pedasnya.' He who eats the chili tastes the spiciness? Okay that sounds way better in Malay but anyway.

This will be a very short post, nothing extraordinary. I just want to talk about the free(woohoo! Can I get a high five for that) RM200 book voucher issued by the oh-so-generous government to all students currently studying at a local university/college.


Sorry for the crappy quality, forgot to take a proper picture! Just used my iPod for this.

Now to say I was ecstatic would be an understatement. I was just over the moon! FREE BOOKS? WHAA? IZ U SRS?

I went to Kinokuniya before I even receive the voucher just to check out some titles I might consider buying. Then I even went on Amazon to see the book reviews, etc. You know, to make sure I spend the vouchers very, very wisely as free things rarely come our way.

Needless to say I managed to buy 4 books, with RM200 voucher, yes, I know, pretty expensive since the average is RM50 per book. But doesn't matter.
I received the voucher and let's just say they didn't need to worry about suffocating in my wallet (..not that my wallet is full because I'm broke all the time) because I use it maybe like few days after. Definitely within a week.


The books I bought! I've read 2 of them, 2 still in wrap harhar.

(I went to Kinokuniya on Thursday evening and already picked out the books, only to find out the queue to pay for the books was VERY, VERY LONG. So I heartbrokenly put the books back on the shelves and go home :( Then Friday I went there in the morning! No line at all huzzah.)

Now, the vouchers are valid for 3 months, I think. The last date being 31 March? If I'm not mistaken. But then the government extended it to 4 months and you can still use it till end of April. In case you're not from Malaysia (hi Catherine) you should know that these vouchers are also valid for stationeries and.. other, stuff sold at bookstores? Like bookmarks, magazines, etc. I THINK. My point is you can buy anything else other than books.

That is great news, but not for a second I even consider buying a fancy schmancy pen or a scented notebook (childhood stuff!) or those tiny lights that allow you to read in the dark. I go straight for the books. I mean the reason the government gave out those vouchers are to encourage reading among youth, isn't it? Pretty logical. (Okay to be honest they probably expect students to spend it on textbooks, or something educational like 'Biochemistry 101' but I can borrow those from the library and one literally costs more than RM100 so no thank you).

I used up mine in one go. Okay I was probably a little eager. But I know a lot of my friends STILL have the vouchers after 3 months+. Why aren't you rushing to the nearest bookstore now!?

I know some of my friends actually did spend it on, non-books stuff. Everytime I found out about it I feel like screaming WHY, WOULD YOU DO THAT. It's your voucher, I know, but did you totally miss the stacks and rows and rows of wonderful books you passed by on the way to the stationery section?

And then there are some people who 'don't know what to buy' with the vouchers. I mean, the safest bet is to go to the bestseller list and just grab whatever. Ask some people what would they recommend you to read. (Or make a Goodreads account! They can suggest books you might like based on what you've read before.) I can relate if you're being really cautious and not wanting to waste it, but honestly you don't need to worry about wasting anything as a good book won't let you down anyway.

And then some people who actually TRADED IT with money (or sell it, and get caught BOO YAH). THESE, are the worst. I'm not judging, hey you might come from a poor family and I feel you. BUT, those who exchange it just because they want the MONEY instead of spending it on something that might make your brain work better (aka NEWSFLASH! : Books), I just don't get you. In fact, I loathe you. I mean, READ SOMETHING. It doesn't have to be novels, you like photography? Buy a book on photography. Everybody likes jokes, buy a book on humour and laugh your ass of and entertain everybody at the next party you go to. JUST. READ. DAMMIT. That's the purpose of this whole thing! The infamous 'Malaysians only read 2 PAGES, not books, PER YEAR' statistics. YOU. ARE. TO. BLAME.

I weep for humanity.

Okay I'm getting a little dramatic but uggghhh it just frustrates me SO MUCH! I go to bookstores all the time and gets frustrated too, but because of these wonderful books I want to read but there's so little time. Books that are just waiting to be hold and take me on an amazing adventure, teach me something about life, helps me to improve my English, widen my vocabulary, makes me laugh, makes me fall in love! Makes me cry, makes me excited about life. Gives me hope, inspires me. Helps me to figure out myself, accompanies me, and being my best friend.

Those are what a book means to me.

And if you are foolish enough to NOT like reading, I truly feel sorry for you. I really do. It's like your mind is stuck being in one place, a prison when the key is in your hands and you're free to go ANYWHERE, literally out of this world if you want to, but you decided to keep your feet locked in one spot.

That's just sad. I've always loved the quote, "If you don't like to read, you haven't found the right book yet." I don't know who said it, apparently the internet says JK Rowling but I don't find that source reliable, so let's just say the quote was said by someone very, very wise.

Please, do yourself a favor and read. I can't stress that enough. If a book takes you 3 months to finish, then so be it. Your brain will thank you for it.


(I'd also want to make a shout out to my dad because he's the one who sorta got me into reading. AND also paid for 99.9% of the books on my shelves teeheheehehehe)




ps; This is beside the point but I honestly can't see myself with a guy who doesn't read. Just saying.

pps; Again, I just want to apologize if anybody felt butthurt by this post. Hope we can still be friends xoxo~*~*
If you have anything to say do leave a comment! ...Okay nobody will who am I kidding lol.

I'm not lucky, I'm blessed.

This is just a quick post letting everyone know I'm still alive. And happy belated new year, I realized I didn't even tell you guys that. No I did not make any New Year's resolution. And happy Chinese New Year. And.. what other celebration did I miss? Happy Valentine's Day. Wait, no, that's next month.

I'm SO SORRY I haven't updated in a while! I'd say I'm really busy with college and my TOEFL exam (which is true) but the fact of the matter is, I'm just lazy. There I said it. (Also, I got 101/120 for my TOEFL, which is more than enough to meet the minimum requirement of most US universities, which is 79! Alhamdulillah.)

This is the first post I've made in 2012 and I can't even make it an epic one. But I do want to say 2011 has been an incredible, amazing year for me, as all of you probably know.

I was listening to a Nicki Minaj song and the lyrics goes, "I'm not lucky, I'm blessed." THAT'S IT! That's what I am; blessed. A lot of people, left and right told me how lucky I am to win these contests and going to New York etc. And oftentimes I just don't know what to reply other than an awkward thank you. Okay luck definitely played some role here but 'blessed' is the,.. concrete definition of the things I've had the opportunity to experience.

Of course I've shed a few (or maybe a lot) of tears in 2011. But that doesn't matter. The good things that came my way have totally, totally eclipsed the bad things that happened.

If anything, I'm looking forward to 2012. (Now I realized these things were supposed to be said on maybe the first week of January, not the END of it. But oh well.) If everything goes right, I might just go to the USA again, this time to study. A LOT of people assumed I'm going to pick New York. Don't get me wrong I'm in LOVE with New York and forever will be; I'll always look at the pictures taken there with these, longing in my eyes and heartache because I just want to be able to teleport there whenever I want.

But I just, don't want to go there to study. I don't even know why! Honestly. I've asked myself the same question over and over. Maybe I don't want to, over familiarize myself with it, so that it'll always stay as this magical, faraway city where dreams come true. So.. yeah.

I actually thought of doing a vlog to make the first post of 2012 extra special but I hate hearing my voice on video and what more seeing my face and it's just a total weirdsauce so I didn't.


Here's to an awesome leap year! I would know all about leaping, because I was born on 1992 which was the year of the monkey according to the Chinese calendar. Holla.



ps; I still haven't even written part 4 and 5 of my New York post (though at this point not like anybody cares).

pss; And YES I'd never stop bragging about the fact that I went to New York. Ever. If you talk to me in real life I WILL bring it up in a conversation. (Okay not really. Not all the time but if I feel like talking about it, I probably will..)

New York! [part 3/5] ; Taylor Swift live in NYC!

*There's a LOT of pictures in this post, and it might take a while to load, so you might want to get your daily dose of cuteness and watch this cat named Maru on another tab and come back after you've finished watching it, and hopefully all of the pictures are done loading :) :)


The hotel was located about 5 minutes walk from Madison Square Garden, which was very convenient. Our hotel was at 31st Street, MSG at 34th Street.

Around 5.30 p.m. we walked to Hotel Pennsylvania, which was right in front of Madison Square Garden to .. meet up with these 2 girls I managed to sell the tickets to. Online. Through tumblr, not ebay.

My dad and brother aren't big fans of Taylor Swift (neither does Abu lol) so instead of wasting the tickets I might as well just sell it! Not like they didn't want to go, but I'd rather give it to someone who's a big fan of Taylor Swift, ya know? Sorry, dad!

The actual price of the ticket was around $94 (USD, not RM), and when I checked online people were selling it for like, $250 and above! For seats about the same value as mine. Crazy, man. But I decided to sell it for $100 each :P I'm not trying to choke anybody here, so I thought that was pretty reasonable.

We communicate through emails and iMessage on my iPod since I can't sms anyone while I was there.

It was so funny though because we obviously have never met each other and were trying to like, describe what you wear, what I wear or look like etc. She described herself and her friend being blonde etc. I guess to make it easier I could've just say 'I wear hijab' and a Muslim blah blah blah but I don't want to like, freak her out :P SILLY, I know. But you know how some people are.. terrorist and all. So I just said I'm wearing this red coat and plaid green umbrella. I thought that was pretty narrow-minded of me to think that she'll think badly of me but.. yeah.

She arrived at the hotel earlier than me so I texted her back saying that we 'Got lost ugh' but then thought that sounded way too close to 'get lost' ... :x Oops.

Anyway she turned out to be nice :) And pretty too! Her name's Ashley.
It was just a quick transaction, we said hi and I took out the tickets from my bag and they gave the money, I asked them are they going straight to the concert, they said no they're gonna find something to eat first. Then we separated.

It's already 6 p.m. and I guess we could go back to the hotel and come back later at around 6.30 p.m. since both of us were SO. SLEEPY. SO, SO VERY SLEEPY. Even in the cold. But it'll probably be just waste of time so we went to KMart instead. It's sort of like, Target or Walmart, I guess? But smaller.

It's just right beside the stadium and we saw this!


There were probably about 5 or 6 of this trucks around MSG.



Stopped by the merch booth. IT WAS AMAZING. These stuff aren't sold in Malaysia and you can buy it without the freaking expensive shipping cost. WOOOOHHH!! SO EXCITED AT THE TIME.

Anyway I bought a T-shirt (I already have 3 back home lulz), the Speak Now World Tour Live CD/DVD, a 2012 calendar.. yeah I think that's it.

Then queued a little bit just to take a picture with this background lulz. They took the picture for you (which turned out blurry wtf) then asked for your email.
Also, I looked like a creepy Teletubbies.

They only scanned our code like it was at a Tesco cashier counter and we hurried off to the entrance we're supposed to go in. It was around 7 p.m.


We could hear the SCREAMING from the crowd in the stadium and the feeling was just, indescribable. The best way to explain it is by my expression above ^

Seriously that was my face before going in like I didn't pose for the camera or anything.

Then, once we enter the venue


IT WAS MASSIVE. ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE. I've never been in a stadium that huge!
Me and Abu stood there in awe for a few seconds before we could move. Then once it sets in we fangirled and screaming along too :')


The opening band, Needtobreathe. They were awesome!! Totally rocked down the house.
After this picture was taken I had a little bit of tears in my eyes. I was just in total disbelief.





This time I wasn't even trying to get into T-Party because there were hardcore fans who's all light up like a Christmas tree trying to get noticed.





And then there's me :


I called it 'Statue of Liberty gone wrong'.
DID WE LOOK AWESOME OR WHAT!? :D :D

HAHAHAHHA the 'headpiece' I was wearing was made by Abu, because we were bored. I brought like 100 glowsticks, and Abu bought another 50. We were busy bending it and 'breaking' it to make it glow while waiting for the concert to start. I had an idea to like, wear it all over my body but that would take a lot of glow sticks and after a while both of us were tired already hahah. Not to mention VERY sleepy!


I was taking a picture of Abu and Ryan when Ashley, who sat beside me asked, "Do you want to be in the picture?" So she took the picture for us :)
And btw Ryan only stayed for 2 songs, then he went out and said to us, enjoy the concert okay? WTF. Could've given that ticket to someone else! TWO SONGS only. Probably gone clubbing to some random pub lol jk.


The lights were dimmed when needtobreathe performed, then it was back on, then it was dimmed again which sent the crowd into a frenzy because they thought the concert is about to start but then it was on again -_- It's always like that at concerts! False alarm. Ugh.

Oh yeah, Abu gave a few glow sticks to Ashley as well because she didn't bring anything sparkly (though I did notice she wore a shirt she made herself, with something... Fearless written on it or something like that). And he also gave it to this couple in front of us who brought their 2 cute little kids, about 5 or 6 years old with them. One boy and one girl. 1) Because we had too many and 2) I was too shy to say anything hur hur. But they were very thankful and the kids liked the glowsticks so yay. The dad, probably in early 30s, stood up and 'swaying' to the songs a lot compared to his kids who just sat and only sometimes stand up.

Which I THINK might be because he overheard me explaining to Ryan about T-Party because he said something like a lot of people with signs. So I said whoever stood out most or go crazy throughout the whole concert will get sort of like a meet & greet.

If he overheard that, he was probably trying to score some for his kids. MAYBE. Or maybe he was a really big fan of Taylor Swift, which is awesome as well lolol.


Ohey here's Ashley (the brunette one) and her friend, whose name I don't know heh :)


People were going BATSHIT CRAZY when this was onscreen.


THE CONCERT.

Once the concert starts every ounce of sleepiness - gone. I was jumping up and down and singing along to every word I know by heart. I asked Abu to take most of the pictures because I just want to enjoy the concert fully. I did record some of the performances but then again, there's already a CD/DVD of the full concert so I don't see the point of trying. What I do try to remember was that feeling, saying to myself this is the moment I'll never forget. Taylor Swift, in New York. Out of all states in the US I could've gone, (which I wouldn't mind going, at all) - it's The One.

By the 4th or 5th song I was pancit already LOL. Tired and sat down for a couple of songs, especially the slow ones.

SORRY FOR THE BLURRY PICTURES! Don't know what setting to put the camera in and was too excited and everything.

I guess I'll just write the setlist here. (Yes I Googled these because I was enjoying the concert too much to count/take note how many song she performed :P)

1) "Sparks Fly"
One of my favorite songs in the album! She was wearing this gold, sparkly dress - so Taylor. She started the concert for her Asia tour with Sparks Fly too, but this one she just rised slowly from below the stage, with the curtain parted out from the center. The one in Singapore was like, "DROP EVERYTHING NOW" with the curtain fell down at once with her already on the stage. Which I thought was way cooler but I guess the curtain in NY was too heavy to be 'dropped down' just like that.

I don't think I even made sense but anyway I remember singing this WAY off pitch but not like anybody cares :) :)




And at the end of the show there were some fireworks, which I thought was, automatic from the stage but it was actually people, hang high above the stage, holding sort of like a torch with fireworks emitting out from it :0





2) "Mine"
She continued to the second song without saying anything, and to be honest 'Mine' is one of my least favorite songs in the album. I LOVED it at first, but after a while, meh. But it was still awesome to sing along live!





She paused before singing the bridge and made this heart sign with her hands :')

Then after she ended the song, she just stood there, looking out into the crowds, smiling and sometimes with a shocked expression on her face. I think she did this at every concert and sometimes people say she just faked it, but I don't think so. Knowing how far she has come, from a small-town girl who was bullied at school because of her passion for music, to singing to a sold-out crowd in New York City. I'm a nobody but sometimes I feel so proud of how far she has come :')





She then said, "Welcome, to the last show, of the Speak Now World Tour!" which was greeted with deafening screaming and cheering from the crowd. She said the same thing, at the Singapore concert, replacing the 'last' in the sentence to 'first'. Which means I went to the first AND last show on the tour - and I'm not even from Singapore or the US. MWAH HAH HA.

Then she said something like choosing Madison Square Garden as the last stop on her tour, because of the awesome crowd etc etc. And also that there are millions of things you can do in New York, and that she's "glad every one of you chose to hang out with me tonight!" :) DUH, TAYLOR. AS IF THERE'S ANYTHING BETTER THAN BEING AT YOUR CONCERT, FOR FREE. TEEHEE.

Then she said, "All I wanna know is, are you ready?"
YES OF COURSE I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MY WHOLE LIFE I WAS BORN READY!!!

3) "The Story of Us"
Half-way through the song she said something like, "I want to see all of you JUMP!"
Which of course, I jumped up and down eventhough my feet was hurting REALLY bad after walking around all day.

Oh Taylor, the things I do for you. HAHAHAH. But without you I don't know what state I'd be in, so.. Oh Taylor, thank you.







~*~*~ wardrobe change~*~*

4) "Our Song"
She changed into a white dress similar to the one she wore in the 'Mean' music video and had a side braid as well. The way she came onstage was SO CUTE! One of the dancers sort of 'turned up' this switch, and then she POPPED OUT FROM UNDER THE STAGE. Sort of like a rabbit! It was just so, CUTE. And awesome.




The only song from her first album that she performed :( I was secretly rooting for her to perform Tim McGraw because that's in my top 5 favorite songs by her but, oh well. It was an upbeat song so everybody was dancing along and it was just fun :)

5) "Mean"
I remember her introducing the song by saying something like how nice every one of her fans are, to buy her album, to vote for her at award shows etc etc. Then of course, the opposite of nice is Mean.





There were a few dancers for this song, but not like I was paying attention to them :p


Nothing like being photobombed by a stranger at a Taylor Swift concert.

~*~*~wardrobe change~*~*~

6) "Back to December" (contains elements of "Apologize" and "You're Not Sorry")
I love everything that was happening when she performed this song! First there was some sort of, 'snow' - which was idk, bubbles? coming down to everyone on floor seats. Then there's this curved bridge slowly came down, perched on top of the stage, with about 4 or 5 violinists stand on later. The lights were a soft cue of white, very romantic and all. Then Taylor, with a piano, rised above from the stage (yeah she came from below the stage often lol where else).




The dress she wore was so beautiful! LOVE IT. My favorite part was of course when she mixed 'Apologize' by One Republic and her song 'You're Not Sorry' into it. Especially when the lights changed to deep, blood red when the latter song was performed. AWESOME.



~*~*~wardrobe change~*~*~*

7) "Better Than Revenge"
Same like Singapore, it started with the girl who 'supposedly' stole Taylor's boyfriend leaving a voicemail saying "Hey, it's me. Leave a message. Make it hot."

Uhm,.. yeah I don't know what to say about this. It was just a great song to sing along to! Not that I can relate because so far no bitch has stolen my boyfriend before..



HAHAHA this is me jumping up and down and singing along :'D

Then the song ended with her 2 guitar players sort of battle it out (with their guitar skills, not as in punching each other l o l) with Taylor of course going through another ;

~*~*~wardrobe change~*~*~*

8) "Speak Now"
This song is not one of my favorites either but it's just a cute song c: Started with a 'bitchy' bride emerged from the center of the T stage, with her big puffy white wedding dress, then kinda like walked down the aisle towards the stairs where the groom and the priest await.






Then the song starts with Taylor singing how the groom should not be 'marrying the wrong girl.' The little dance Taylor and her 2 back-up dancers did was SO adorable!

The song ended with 'Let's runaway now....' and that's when she walked down to the crowds. It must be so fun for everyone on the floor seats where she passed by but for everyone else, idk it was just awkward -..- "Great those people get to touch her and see her upclose let's just wait here.." It wasn't a total silence though, like the song Speak Now was still playing in the background.

Eventually, she arrived at the back of the stadium, sitting beneath this huge, sparkly tree. Any song performed on this little stage was pretty much acoustic.



9) "Fearless" (contains elements of "Hey, Soul Sister" and "I'm Yours")
I love what she said before she performed this song, like 'being in love is fearless' or something like that. The song sounded awesome with just ukulele!




10) "Last Kiss"
ONE OF MY FAVORITE SONGS. She didn't perform this in Singapore so I was pretty stoked to hear this one live! I've seen the performance on Youtube where she just looked so, heartbroken when she performs this :( Damn you, Joe _|_




Everything about the performance was FLAWLESS.

11) "You Belong with Me"
I'd rather hear Tim McGraw than this one but I guess this is one of the songs that skyrockets her popularity and increased her fanbase, so. There were definitely more people singing along to this song than Last Kiss -..-



Then halfway through the song she went back to the main stage, also going through the crowds on the other side. As in she went to the right side of the stage when she came down, but then went to left side to go back to the mainstage. So it's fair, I guess.




12) "Dear John"
I have a love/hate relationship with this song. If you read my Singapore post - it was during that song that the girls behind me got chosen for T-Party, and I didn't. I was THISCLOSE. SO, SO CLOSE :(
But for this concert, the people in my area weren't singing along as loud to Dear John, mostly just standing up and swaying. So I, in the silence, just SCREAMED THE LYRICS to the song. Like OBNOXIOUSLY LOUD screaming, not in the correct tempo or pitch for the song. All of the people 2 rows in front me all turned their heads and looked at me HAHAHAH. And even then, I just continue SCREAMING "DEEEEEEEAAAAR JOOOOOOOOHHHN, I SEEEEEEEE IT ALL NOW THAT YOU'RE GONNNNNNNEEEEE"

Then me and Abu laughed so hard. Fun times, fun times :)
So I hated the song in Singapore, but loved it in New York. Wooot. And the background is still SO pretty!



JYEAAAHH GO TAYLOR!

Not to mention the fireworks after 'I'm shining like fireworks over your sad empty town' was literally A BLAST. The fireworks lasted for probably like 30 seconds.



13) "Who Says"
Taylor said something like, the tour won't be complete without performing with her best friend, who she has never performed with before. In my mind I thought OMG COLBIE CAILLAT!?!?!!! Because they wrote a song called Breathe together, and it's one of my favorites as well! But then "It just so happens, it just so happens.. that Selena is here!"




Selena to the Gomez. Well.. I'm not a big fan but they sang Who Says together, which is pretty much MY JAM. So the crowd was cheering so, so loud! Luckily it wasn't Justin Bieber. I would need my earplugs for that. But yep according to my friend Melinda, whose seat was way in front of me and can see the side of the stage, everyone in her section could see Justin Bieber was backstage.

PHEW LUCKY HE DIDN'T COME OUT. Well actually because Justin did perform at one of Taylor's concert before.

I may not love Selena as much but I totally adore their friendship!




~*~*~wardrobe change~*~*~*

14) "Enchanted"
So the 'bitchy bride' earlier is now a beautiful ballerina twirling around and dancing onstage with other dancers, accompanied by a violin solo by Caitlin Evanson, who's in Taylor's band and also her best friend. It sounded so, so, so beautiful. I'd love to be able to play the violin but.. yeah dream on.




Taylor wore this beautiful long, sparkly dress and sounded exactly like in the album.




Also, right after this, my camera battery ran out. Oh well. The only thing left to do was taking mental pictures and enjoy the concert. Sometimes we try to turn it on and manage to take one or two pictures, then it died.

~*~*~wardrobe change~*~*~*

15) "Haunted"
Just like Last Kiss, one of my favorite songs and she didn't perform this in Singapore. She had this huge bell and she supposedly hit it, gong style, but it was all just sound effect because there's someone inside. Again, she wore a red dress though different from the one she wore in Better Than Revenge. Prolly coz red represents anger.



~*~*~wardrobe change~*~*~*

16) "Long Live"
She wore the dress for this song underneath the red dress, so it was just a quick change. This is THE song I couldn't listen to without feeling like crying. Because it just means so much to me. Plus it applies to Harry Potter as well. But surprisingly I didn't cry when she performed this. I also love when she sang "the crowds in stands went wild" and the crowd's screaming just got few decibels higher :)

Then the show sort of ended, because Long Live IS a perfect closing song but of course, she had an encore.

~*~*~wardrobe change~*~*~*

17) "Ours"
MY FAVORITE SONG OF ALL TIME. Sort of. Okay I admit I cried when this was performed. I can't even technically relate to it but the lyrics

Seems like there's always someone who disapproves
They'll judge it like they know about me and you
And the verdict comes from those with nothing else to do
The jury's out, my choice is you.

for some reason, just hit me. To me it's about how I feel about Taylor, like whenever I tell someone that I love Taylor Swift, some people snickers and be like, 'lol ew she always whine about love and boys and not a good singer blah blah blah'. But what they don't know is because of Taylor Swift, I don't feel so alone, ya know? She's always there for me, more than anyone I know has ever been. I could have a debate about how she doesn't just write songs about love and boys, and that she's fantastic live, but I don't care. I don't need to explain anything to anyone.

The stakes are high, the water's rough
But this love is ours.

This sort of applies to what I went through to win this contest. I fought to win the contest and shove the other bitch aside to be here. That moment, me being at the concert, is mine. Ours. Like I don't care what happens after this, I'll always have this moment to look back and be happy. Nobody can take this away from me, ya know?

WELP THERE GOES MY EMO RANT.


18) "Fire and Rain"
She had another 'guest', James Taylor. She told a story about how when she was small and in the choir or something like that, she hated all of the songs they had to perform except one, James Taylor - Fire and Rain. And that her mom said, "That's funny, because you were named after him." Then Taylor said "The thing about playing at magical Madison Square Garden is, anything can happen." SOMETHING LIKE THAT. I can't remember.

But of course, James Taylor walked out and the crowd went absolutely nuts. Me, being from Malaysia where country music is pretty much non-existent, has never heard of James Taylor just clapped awkwardly.


Sorry, iPod camera = crappy quality!

19) "Fifteen"
Then James Taylor still stay there on the couch with Taylor singing Fifteen. AGAIN, I cried. I don't even know what's gotten into me!

'Cause when you're 15, somebody tells you they love you
You're gonna believe them.

Nobody even told me that they love me and I believed them when I was 15 HAHAHAHA.
But it's probably because of these;

And when you're fifteen
Feeling like there nothing to figure out
Well count to ten, take it in
This is life before you know who you're gonna be

When all you wanted was to be wanted
Wish you could go back and tell yourself what you know now

And when you're fifteen, don't forget to look before you fall
Ive found that time can heal most anything
And you just might find who you're supposed to be.

I'm in that point of my life, trying to decide what I want to be, who I'm supposed to be. I'm always worried about making the wrong choices, but hey that's part of life. I can try living with that.

BUT YES, I BAWLED MY EYES OUT whens she sang that song. Seriously. Tears were literally streaming down my face. But the thing is Abu didn't even notice it hahaha. See how good I am at pretending I'm okay and faking a smile!?!! Lol jk.

20) "Love Story"

In the beginning of the song she got on this, floating platform? I don't even know what to call it but yesh she got on it and it was so cool! My seat was too far at the back but when she was right in front of me I was jumping up and down and screaming like a mad person so she would see me. I think she did. I hope. HEH.






And then comes the confetti, signaling the concert is coming to an end.
All of the dancers came out first, formed a line and waved, and bowed to the crowd. Then the band/musicians, and then came Taylor, Selena and James Taylor. All of them in a long line, and bowed together.

Then the curtains closed.



It took me a moment to digest everything in, I just saw Taylor Swift, live in concert. At Madison Square Garden.

Mind = blown.
Life = complete.


We then tried to get as near to the stage as possible to take a few pictures :P




On the way out they opened a merch stand nearby and I actually queued to buy another tshirt for my friend, but they ran out of stock so I just bought this magazine about her.

It was raining and SO, SO cold outside! Me and Melinda tried to meet up after the concert, but it was hard considering I don't have a phone with me and my iPod needs WiFi to send any message. So I was hopping from one public phone to another because some doesn't work. Ended up just going back to the hotel and received a message from Melinda, saying she doesn't have anywhere to go but then everything's solved so.. yeah.

All the sleepiness came back at once and I slept like a baby.

I didn't suffer from post-concert depression few days after that, but blogging about this just makes me HEARTBROKEN T___T


COMPARISON:


Taylor Swift Speak Now tour in SINGAPORE :



Taylor Swift Speak Now tour in NEW YORK CITY :





SINGAPORE :



NEW YORK :



You can see there were more stuff going on and the stage was prettier and grand-er than the simple one in Singapore. Probably because of budget and practicality issue, they couldn't flew everything like the bridge, the bells etc halfway across the world!




And yes, I am nothing but really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really

thankful and grateful and blessed to be able to see Taylor Swift twice, in the same year, both for free :) I am the luckiest girl in the world! Well, in Malaysia at least. I went for both the opening and closing show for the Speak Now tour, and I'm pretty sure I'm the only person in the world who did that eheh.

OKAY LASTLY; somebody on formspring asked for me what Taylor Swift merchandises I own, so here they are. I'M NOT trying to show off :(



Err, yeah. Whatever everybody has an obsession!! :P :P And yep the picture on the left, near to the perfume box was signed by Taylor herself :')
I don't even care if I get make fun of because of these, at least my love for Taylor Swift got me somewhere in life - namely New York. If I wasn't such a big fan I wouldn't bother entering the contest and definitely won't get this once in a lifetime chance.
So make fun of me, make fun of Taylor Swift all you want because ~*~*someday I'll be living in a big ol' city New York City and all you're ever gonna be is Mean~*~*~

Any question, hit up my formspring!



HUZZAH THANK YOU TO WHOEVER READ THE WHOLE THING
THIS TOOK ME HOURS TO WRITE SOMEBODY HUG ME
LET ME TAKE A BREAK AND GO EAT SOME CHOCOLATE NOW BYE.