St. Louis - City Lights 2007

Jewish graveyard. Apparently, there were a lot of Polish immigrants that came to St. Louis.


Washington University in St. Louis. One of the top 20 universities in the US.


The St. Louis Art Museum. I didn't get the chance to go visit though.


St. Louis Basilica. Gothic looking on the outside but...


Oh so gorgeous inside!


The most part of the ceilings and walls are covered in mosiacs that glitter in the dim light.


The place is huge on the inside. Plenty of little nooks and corners that you can go and pray and light candles.


I could've spent a few hours inside just looking at the mosiacs. They were so beautiful...an absolute work of art!


Most of the mosiacs depict stories in the Bible and the life of Jesus.


When we were about to leave, the choir started practicing and the acoustics were unbelievable! The singing actually brought tears to my eyes.


The back of the building which is as interesting as the front.


The Cardinals stadium at St. Louis. Smack in the middle of downtown St. Louis.


The city actually commissioned graffitti artists to paint the flood walls by the river.


Bridge across the Missisippi River. St. Louis is in Missouri, Illinois is just across the bridge.


A riverboat cruise. We didn't go on it though. Saw it from the bus!


Another bridge...they seem to have a lot of those...


The famous arch of St. Louis - The gateway into the west. Its just an arch...

Information Relay

The crappy thing about being overseas is that you're so disconnected from everyone and from events that happened back home. I was having a rough day yesterday and it was already late into the night. My roommate was already in bed but I was feeling as if I was going to explode from all my pent up frustrations. A miracle happened.

My best bud came online and let me tell you that it doesn't happen very often. I nearly cried for relief as it was when I needed her as a friend most. I had a very satisfying heart to heart talk with her and boy did I feel better after that. I miss you loads Von! Friends are something I can never live without.

Then she told me something. We were both working for PenDrive back in Malaysia and knew most of the staff there. One of them, Kenny, passed away 2 weeks ago from an asthma attack. He couldn't reach the hospital in time. It was shocking and saddening because although I don't know Kenny very well, I could tell he was a nice guy. He was always nice to me. He was only in his early thirties. Goodbye Kenny, hope you're better off on the other side.

Facebook

I'm addicted. Seriously.

I've always wondered what the Americans were hyping about Facebook but boy, I've gotten hooked. It's better than Friendster! You join networks and are usually linked by the college or school you attended (works well in the US). You post all the classes that you attend and it's really easy to find someone on your network. I know what I'm talking about.

Other than that, I'm looking forward to Spring Break! I'll be heading down to St. Louis, Missouri and will be spending a week helping people build houses. The weather has been co-operative the past few days. It hit a high of 19 degrees celcius today and that was warm. Too warm for me! I can only imagine what it will be like in the summer -.-'

Salsa Y El Bailar Sucio

Literally translates into "Salsa and Dirty Dancing". *whistles* I attended Salsa night at Drake with a couple of friends and oh my goodness, was it fun! I learnt how to dance salsa and merengue; it was not easy! It takes a lot of practice and a natural talent of getting the beat to the music. You can't afford to dance out of beat when you Latin dance or else you'll end up looking like some waggling donkey on the dance floor. It was organized by La Fuerza Latina and Grace was my dance partner for the night. I had sore legs from knee downwards after that but it was fun watching some people dance. They were good! Especially the hispanics and blacks.

Another friend who came with us ended up partnering two older guys and when I say older...I mean 30++. One of them taught her some moves and dirty danced with her for a bit. I was sitting at the tables on the side and for a moment, I was speechless watching them. Lol! I was horrified but then again, nothing came out of it so it was a good thing. I was keeping a close eye on them. All of us had a good laugh talking about it afterwards. I actually still want to dance...but not latin dance, just good ol' club dancing.

Gigs and Legs

I think I've not gotten out enough. There's so many places to see, so many things to do in Iowa but I'm stuck at Drake because I don't have a car! Neither do I have a friend close enough to drive us around. I guess the only way is to get a guy...LOL...that was a joke. Anyway, I've been checking out the music scene and oh my goodness....there are so many concerts that I want to attend. Why? Because I'll most probably never get to catch them in Malaysia! The Red Hot Chili Peppers had a concert nearby a couple of nights ago...so did Nickelback. A gig from Jars of Clay is coming up and I want to go for that but unfortunately, I'll be in St. Louis for Spring Break. Quietdrive is also performing...and they are my new favourite band! Darn it! Not to mention the fact that Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake is also on tour in a neighbouring state. Sigh~ I miss having friends with valid driving licenses, a car and guts!

There is warmer weather expected from today onwards. I was getting sick and tired of not being able to expose my legs. Haha! It's not what it sounds like. I'm tired of wearing jeans or long pants and thermal leggings all the time! My legs are craving for fresh air and sunshine; I need to go out in my capris. I'm doing that today...finally!! It's a nice and cool 8 degrees outside and I'm going to walk to Hubbell Dining Hall in a decent outfit after being covered from head to toe for the past 2 months. This warm weather is going to continue until Monday at the moment and I certainly hope it lasts.

Blizzard!

And it's not the ice-cream from DQ. Today as I'm writing this, it is Saturday morning. The windspeed outside is 47kmph, windchill -18 degrees which is really crazy. I'm deciding if I should go outside today and I just heard the tornado warning alarm as I'm tryping this. But it's always sounded on the first Saturday of the month. Since Thursday afternoon, a blizzard warning was issued for my area. They were not wrong. From Thursday until early this morning, it's been snowing non-stop with the wind blowing in your face; whipping the snow that's been lying on the ground. It was so serious that they closed the main interstate highways to Chicago and Minnesota. I had classes cancelled for Thursday and Friday so it was nice to be able to take a break for a few days. I've not been feeling very well lately; been plagued with runny and clogged nose...it alternates and a sore throat. I think I'll have to go to the pharmacy to pick up supplies.


To take a break from the boredom of staying on campus the whole time, my host family invited me to their home for dinner. My host parent, Doug came to pick me up in his huge white 4WD yesterday. I was surprised to see quite a number of cars on the road but it was a slow moving lot. On the way to their house, I saw a number of cars in the ditch at the side of the road. They apparently slid of the road and the police had a no-tow rule enforced at the moment because towing would back up the traffic and inevitably, cause traffic jams.


They have a nice home, rich people...LOL...I can tell. They have 2 cats, one nice and one naughty. It was nice to be able to play with some animals after being away from my dog so long. Dinner was good, the chicken was delicious but the portions were too small for me. I came back and made myself a serving of instant noodles! We played some Uno and another new game called Farkle. I like Farkle. I will have to get a set for myself. It's time for me to go out for lunch so this will be all for now.