Chicago

Heck, I love that place. It was my first time visiting the Windy City and I couldn't have picked a better time. The whole time I was there, I lived 2 blocks from Michigan Ave, in the posh North section of the city. Imagine coming down from your apartment and there are tons of bars and restaurants at your disposal; right down the exact street where you live.

I spent most of the time shopping and eating. I cannot fully describe the experience of being able to walk 10 minutes to the best shopping district in the Midwest which happens to be along Lake Michigan. I envy your apartment! At the same time while trying not to blow my credit card on shopping, I ate the best Chinese food I had in the US and had dessert on the 96th floor of the John Hancock Tower. The view and company was amazing. :)

If you ever go down to Chicago, head down to Chinatown to Lao Sze Chuan. It serves the most delicious and authentic Szechuan cusine and I am definitely looking forward to going back there in a fortnight. I did not take any pictures this time but I will definitely take some this coming July 4th trip.

I even think that it was better than the trip I made to LA the previous summer...specifically because this trip did not feel very touristy. For many a time, I felt like a local...riding the CTA and walking around like I knew the place. I actually took the Greyhound east to Chicago and despite the numerous warnings of it being a lil dodgy, it didn't feel that way to me. It was a really long bus ride though.

My mind has already begun to formulate plans to visit the city again before the end of the summer. I am looking forward to that very much. Coming back to Des Moines however was kind of blah compared to the bustling sidewalks and glimmer of city lights in Chicago. I guess I'm a city girl at heart.

CityLights St. Louis 2008

Went down again to St. Louis for Spring Break and this time, our group was less diverse because 2/3 were Malaysian. Nevertheless, I think I made the right decision in going instead of staying back and lazing my butt off. I doubt I would've done much homework if I stayed back...though I said I would. :P We ended up staying apart from everyone else because the group was too big so Drake and Central colleges stayed at Jubilee Church.

I remembered going to that site last year before it was finished and it was amazing to see how much work was done and completed. The first Sunday that we were there, we attended church at Jubilee and it was my first time in an African-American church. It was a surprise for me to see how close everyone in the church is to each other. Everyone cares for everyone else and are so transparent about their shortcomings and failures. I think a lot of our churches pretend that everything is going okay when it's not. Sometimes, it's alright to let people know that things are not well...and that's okay.

The weather was horrible because it rained almost all week. We had the first day off because we were scheduled to do outdoor work but we ended up going to the Basilica and to the City Museum. Will post some pics when I've uploaded them (bumming at a friend's place at the moment). I spent the rest of the week painting 2 work sites - this old lady's house...Mrs. Woods and the K-Life facilities at Third Baptist Church downtown.

It's amazing how God works through the littlest things to expose prejudices in your heart that you did not even realize was there! I repented of my pride and ungratefulness. Despite the fact that we had a bunch of non-believers in our group, I believe that they enjoyed themselves and that an impression was made upon their hearts. We just got back yesterday and it's so easy to just fall back into complacency and college life when you get caught up with everything else instead of that you're supposed to do.

The work has only begun.

Blank Park Zoo

Well, it has been a while since I went out to do anything fun. The last time was when I had to go to Saylorville Dam to finish a lab and ever since then, I've been bored to death. Today was a treat! For my Ecology class, we went to the zoo to study animal behavior and it was a cold and windy day so there was hardly anyone there. I enjoyed walking around by myself and looking at the animals and stuff.

It felt good to be outdoors after spending so much time being cooped indoors and forced to study/work. I ended up studying the behaviors of flamingoes and marmosets. I wish I had my dog with me. I miss playing with animals and while I was at the zoo, there was this duck that was following me around, hoping that I would have some food on me. I think I would enjoy working at a zoo or outdoors which is precisely why I chose my major. Nothing like it! :)

Also, I'm feeling better because my tests are over! For now anyway, but I'll try and enjoy myself while that lasts. There's this really good movie "Bella", showing at the theatre near Drake and I want to to and watch it. Probably not tonight as IV is on but maybe tomorrow night if I can find someone to go with me. Or I might just go by myself.

California (Part1)

When it was finally the day before the trip, I think all of us were too tired from working to actually be excited about the trip. Of course no one was looking forward to getting up at 3.45am to catch the 6.15am flight. I used to have that problem with waking up but I'm glad to say that my current job has given me more than one occasion to practice.

Anyways, it was the four of us at the airport, all of us looking half asleep that we flew off to Minneapolis/St. Paul to catch our connecting flight to LAX. The previous day, Northwest Airlines were having terrible delays and we were afraid that we would not be able to catch our connecting flight in time but thankfully, there were no delays whatsoever going there and coming back.

In comparison to the midwest, California looked dead and brown from the air which came as a surprise to me because I expected it to be greener at least. The midwest from the air is lush with greenery which is a pretty sight. We landed at LAX and had to take a shuttle to the hotel to get to the rental car company.

Not knowing what car to expect, we sorta went with the flow and requested for an intermediate car. We did the right thing because if the car were any smaller, our bags would not have fit into the boot space...and we had only 1 bag apiece. The car turned out to be a brand spanking new Toyota Corolla. Needless to say, our driver for the trip was delighted. It is always good to keep your driver happy.

I got assigned the job of being the navigator which stuck for the rest of the trip. However, after we got the car, we decided to check into our little motel which was quite a drive away. I have been rather deprived in Des Moines of good asian food so when we saw a Yoshinoya, I think all of us the the car screeched and there was no further negotiation. We all had lunch at Yoshinoya. However, I think the Yoshinoya in Malaysia tastes better than the ones here.

Our little motel was situated in the county of Bellflower which turned out to be where a lot of Asians and Hispanics live which was nice for a change after seeing and living with WASPs all the time here in Des Moines. I was surprised to see the number of Koreans, Filipinos and Spanish people all in the same community. They even had a Filipino bakery where they sold authentic Filipino goodies. For a while, I felt as if I was in the Philippines.

After checking into the hotel, we decided that it was time to check out Los Angeles. Our first destination was Sunset Boulevard. However, we didn't get a proper map and therefore, we got lost for about an hour. After numerous attempts to get directions from gas stations, we finally reached Sunset Boulevard along historic Route 66.

To get to Sunset, we passed by the heart of Los Angeles City and Koreantown and a little Hispanic area that reminded me of Petaling Street. I kid you not. It was that similar!

We drove down Sunset and stopped by at the infamous Hollywood Forever Cemetary. There were way to many graves so much so that we didn't see any famous graves except for Johnny Ramone from the Ramones. I guess his headstone gave it away. After bumming around in the cemetary (sounds really morbid), we drove down to Beverly Hills to look at all the nice houses and then back up Santa Monica Boulevard and as we were about to head to Chinatown, we found ourselves at Hollywood Boulevard (ie. Mann's Chinese Theatre, The Walk of Fame, etc etc) and decided to take a stroll down.

We spent a couple of hours there and boy did I love the Virgin Megastore. It was precisely how a music store should be. There were some awesome stuff in there but I didn't buy anything. After a while, all of us were running on pure mental strength alone. We were oh so tired from all that travelling and lack of sleep. We decided that it was time to have dinner and dinner it was at Micelli's. Micelli's is the oldest Italian restaurant in LA and it was just along Hollywood Boulevard. The food was alright but I think Italiannies still has better food. After dinner, we walked a bit more and hit the souvenir shops and finally went home completely zonked.

Catalyst

I went down to the Lake of The Ozarks, Missouri from Monday to Friday to attend Catalyst which is a leadership conference for all Intervarsity CF Leaders. In the beginning, I treated the conference as a short vacation away from the cramped house that I was going to be living at. However, I was totally blown away by the conference. It was awesome to see how many students have committed their life in serving others through leadership. Initially, I was hesitant about taking up the position because I felt so inadequate because of my weakness and brokenness. In the end, I realized that God wants us, despite of our brokenness; He wants us to be obedient to His calling. He can use us despite of our weaknesses because He makes us strong in Him when we are weak.

Other than the meetings, we had fun going about the whole area that we were at; Windermere. The facilities were awesome, they had almost everything! One night, we walked all the way up this hill to the Chapel on top of the hill at midnight. It was fun but kinda creepy as well because it was so dark. We spent time in prayer for our fellowship at Drake at the chapel before heading back down. I went for a high rope adventure and boy, it was a good adrenaline rush but at the same time, freaky! There was this obstacle which consisted of a single wooden pole about 25 feet from the ground called "The Leap of Faith". The objective of the obstacle course is to climb to the top of the pole and leap about 4 feet across and grab the rungs that hang from a wire about 30 feet high; all the while strapped into a harness. Climbing to the top of the pole was easy but when I had to balance myself and stand up on the pole, I was freaking out. I had to manipulate my both feet onto the end of the pole which has a circumference about the size of a dinner plate. Not only that, you had to stand up and all the while you're doing this, the pole is wobbling. I finally stood up but then, I had no guts to jump across. When I finally did, I was so terrified because you feel yourself falling momentarily into empty space before the harness jerks you to safety.

I had wobbly knees for a while after that. There was an important lesson I learnt about the obstacle course. Climbing up the pole is like going up the ladder in your walk with God. It is easy as you start to grow, but eventually, things get harder the higher you reach the top. Then, when you get the courage to stand up, God asks you to trust in Him and take that step forward in obedience to him. You are hesitant, because it is scary as you're afraid of missing the mark or falling down. But you do it anyway. If you miss, it is alright because the safety harness is there, catching you if you fall. The safety harness is like God's mercy and grace, He'll catch you if you fall. Kinda interesting insight from going through an obstacle course I think...

Other than that, there was a lot of crazy fun things going on with the other leaders from my chapter at Drake which is to be expected. All in all, it was an awesome experience, I came back boosted spiritually but physically tired. I am looking forward to a slow week ahead before my trial Capoeira lesson next week. Am definitely looking forward to that!

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...

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.

The Journey (Part 2)

I called Drake U when our flight got cancelled just to inform them that we would be arriving on the later flight. The woman in charge told me that she would try and send someone to get us but if there was no one, we could always take the taxi. Since our flight was delayed twice, I already prepared myself to go and get a cab after we arrive. When I was walking to the baggage claim carousel, my friend was like "Hey! There's someone here to get us!". I quickly turned in his direction and whoa...someone was there to pick us up alright. Standing there holding up a folder with my name and my friend's name printed on it was this hunky looking Asian dude.

Yes, you heard me correctly...a hunky looking Asian dude! He introduced himself as Ali/Eli and after talking to him, I found out that he was a MS student, studying Business Administration. "Hmm....older guy....I like!", I thought. At first, I thought he was Filipino but I was wrong. He's from Kazhakstan, speaks 5 languages, is tall, dark and handsome and lastly, studying at Drake. He was very nice, taking us to the hotel in his car and helping us with our bags. At the hotel, I found out that I was staying at the second floor. There are only 2 storeys in the Holiday Inn Express and no elevator. If you recall my giant bags, think about how much it would weigh...He helped me carry all my bags up to my room in addition from carrying them out of the airport, into the car and out of the car into the hotel.


When I opened my room door, I got a shock. There was someone sleeping in one of the 2 beds and there were bags on the floor. Uh oh..there is someone in my room which I have to share it with. After thanking Ali/Eli and saying goodbye to him, I took a closer look at the bags of this sleeping person; then I looked as hard as I could at the person but she (apparently!) was asleep in bed with a sheet over her face. She looked awfully familiar. It was no one other than Grace! Haha...apparently, she asked the front desk lady to put us in the same room.


It was really cold when I arrived, -2 degrees. It was so cold that my lips went numb in the wind so much so that I couldn't speak properly. It was a good experience, to see how winter is really like. It is beautiful but bare. The trees look naked but grass grows. I woke up this morning and went down for breakfast. Grace's friend came over at 10 to take us out. He is a former INTI student and I do mean it when I say people look better over here. He is good looking and for a Chinese guy, actually looks good in a beard/stubble. Unfortunately, he is a little on the short side and younger than I am.


Anyhow, he was really nice. He took us around to get things done and on a tour of Drake U. According to him, it is small in comparison to other campuses but to me, it is big! He took us to get our ID done, to see my advisor, to hand in our health form, to the store and out for lunch. I had a little trouble locating my advisor but the moment I met him, I knew I'd like him. He dresses like a biology researcher on a field trip. Flannel shirt and jeans. He spent almost an hour talking to me and discussing what would be the best option for me, to stay in Bio 001 or to start a different class. Apparently, they don't really know anything about A-Levels. I could see that he was really concerned about me, in case I couldn't cope with the classes if he put me into a higher level class. He took me to meet some of the faculty members who happened to be some of my lecturers and yeah, they come in checked flannel shirts, jeans and hiking boots. :)

The good news is, I don't have to take Bio 001 but am going to take Iowa Environment instead. The bad news is, I would be having classes everyday! Gah...hate that. But, I have a feeling that I am going to enjoy myself very much. After getting everything done, Eng Tai (Grace's friend) took us for lunch at an authentic African restaurant. The food is not bad and service was really good. It was also a lesson for me in tipping. It feels quite weird to tip because back home, everything is included so I don't tip. Here, it's something that I'd have to get used to.

He also taught us how to save money and get the most out of things. But I'd have to tell you that another day as it's getting late...almost 3am and I need to get to bed.

The Journey (Part 1)

Let me start from the very beginning. After hugging and waving everyone goodbye in KLIA, I took a flight to Changi Airport. It was about 12am when we arrived. Our next flight would be at 7.30am to Tokyo. We spent the night trying to sleep at the airport lounge. I slept for about 2 hours only because I was worried about the bags that were with me. The adrenaline was pumping so the lack of sleep didn't really bother me at first.

I realized how tired I was on the flight to Tokyo. Flying economy class didn't help either. The headrests were at an awkward position and the chair had very little recline to it. Plus, the noodles they served for breakfast didn't help my appetite; I felt a little sick. It felt like the longest flight I ever took! I was waiting for the plane to land because I wanted to get out of the almost cattle-like conditions of economy class travel. I slept a little on the way but woke up to a crick in my neck due to the awkward position of my head when I fell asleep.

When I got to Tokyo, it was like "Yay! I can say that I've been to Japan". I was hungry and wanted to get something to eat. Unfortunately, I didn't have any Yen on me. I was looking around and found a shop selling sushi. As I approached the shop, it was like whoa! No way I'm paying that much for a box of sushi! It was 1600++ yen for a box and if I'm not mistaken 1000 yen is RM32. I'd rather starve than spend 50 bucks on sushi! So anyways, we were waiting for our flight to Chicago and after a while, there was an announcement that it was delayed. But thank goodness by only an hour or so.

At the gate, we were hanging around with the other passengers who were on the same flight with us. The Tokyo-Chicago flight would be the longest one that we had to endure; 11 hours. I could hear the flight attendents calling names of passengers on the intercom and usually, I don't pay attention. But this time I did and I thought I heard my friend's name mentioned. I told him so and he didn't want to believe me. Then I heard my other friend's name announced and then mine. I started to have this sinking feeling in my gut and wondered if anything bad happened. Lost baggage, overweight bags or maybe, they couldn't connect us to the flight.

I approached the counter and the Japanese women behind the counter asked for my boarding pass. The looked at it, typed something on the computer and printed a new boarding pass for me/us. Oh, okay...they were just issuing us a new boarding pass because the flight details were slightly changed due to the delay I thought. I allowed myself to heave a sigh of relief. She handed the pass back to me and smiled, "We've upgraded you to Business Class".

Still feeling rather dazed due to the lack of sleep. It took a while for the news to sink in. I looked at my boarding pass, it was a different color...with Business Class printed on it. "Hmm...what is this?", I thought. I looked at my friends and they looked back at me. "Business class...". Slowly, we started to smile stupidly and then started to make Business Class jokes. We were going to fly Business Class!!!! It was the best flight I ever took in my history of air travel. They give and give and give you stuff in Business Class.

When I was flying from Singapore to Tokyo, I asked the flight attendant for a toothbrush as I had not brushed my teeth since I left my house. She politely told me that they didn't provide that amenity for Economy Class. This time, I got a bagful of goodies; eye shade, socks, slippers, lotion and yes a toothbrush. I selected my food from a Menu and what I wanted to drink from a list. The food was delicious!! I had two starters; a salad and a japanese starter. My main course was Basil Baked Chicken with rice and a glass of Chablis. Come to think of it, I actually had 4 glasses on my table...water, wine, orange juice and tea. I said glass didn't I? The proper utensils were a nice change from the plastic that is so commonly used in Economy Class. Dessert was either Eli's Cheesecake (famous Chicago dessert) or fruit with cheese. I choose the latter; the cheesecake slice looked too big to finish.

I slept on most of the flight as there was more legroom then I could ever dream of and the seats reclined to an almost 180 degree postion. When I got to Drake, my friend asked the other Malaysian students that were on the same flight with us if they got upgraded. No one got it except for us 3 monkeys. However, the flight from Chicago to Des Moines is a totally different story. Our initial flight got cancelled and then we were rebooked onto another flight which was delayed twice! We were supposed to leave at 6.45pm but ended up leaving at 10.20pm!

I really liked the population at Chicago, a mix of blacks, whites and asians. Thankfully, there was no problem at Immigration and Customs. They didn't even bother to check my bag. TSA security was okay, had to take my shoes off and one of the locks on my bag was taken and the zipper damaged. But, nothing went missing from my bag which is more than I could hope for. Americans are generally okay but then again, there would be a few who might not be as nice as they seem.