Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Going home..

As you are reading this, I'm on my way back home now. =)
Will see everyone real soon! I'm touching down on 24th midnight / 25th morning.
Till then! =))

Monday, July 21, 2008

Leaving Bloomington..

Yet another airport day. We went again to Chicago to change flight. For united and canada airlines, they utilise the "hub" system, meaning that they have a few major airports and all other states and towns will fly only to the nearest major airport. So there is no direct flight from Detriot to Indianapolis. (that was the previous plane trip) This time, I'm travelling out of the country - to Canada. We again have to go through Chicago airport. Yes, its the 3rd time I'm at this airport. My flight here was at 10.37am and I reach Chicago at 10.48am (Chicago is 1 hour slower). Seems like minutes. Lolx.

For the 3rd lunch here, we chose to eat at a food court like place. The concept is very similar. I ate lasagna, and after that, ice cream! Then we went over to the gates and waited there for a while before getting on the next plane at 1.16pm.

Touched down in Toronto! (at 4.30pm) My dad booked tickets for the airport shuttle bus in advance but couldn't print the document out cos we din have access to a printer. So when we reached the counter, my dad gave the person at the booth the booking number and he just printed out one ticket when my dad booked two. Then my dad realised it, he went back and asked the man to check again. He said he couldn't check and that we should have printed the document. My dad insisted that he had booked two tickets and that the man should check again. The man finally clicked something to try to look for the information - which he got VERY SOON. Its really funny, as well as ironic, that the most advanced country can't convey accurate and important information between the ticket booth and the online system. And the people receiving the printings usually will doubt it first, and call to check. So wad's the point of booking and printing out documents - other than saving money (its much cheaper if u book online. They are promoting online booking yet they do not have a good system in place. Omg!). If it wasn't for the discounts, I'd rather purchase the tickets on the spot, save a lot of trouble. AND the signs here are bad, the people working at the airport are ignorant, so it took us a while to locate the booth. We touched down at 4.30, got our luggages by 4.45 but missed the 5.00pm bus. Luckily they were frequent and we caught the 5.15pm one.

So our bus came and we reached the hotel - Intercontinental Hotel, pretty fast. It was the third stop. We checked in and rested a while from our long travelling time. (made long by the lack of direct flights) We ate a quick dinner at a Greek Restaurant down the street. The food was bad. =( And the waiters were very rude, one muttered smthg in Italian ( i assume it to be a very rude comment ) when we said we wanted to share one meal. Idiot! Another thing is, I feel that people in restaurants look down on people who don't drink alcohol/wine here. Which is stupid in my opinion. But their unhappiness may be derived from the fact that they get less tips. They expect customers to give 10-15% of their bill as tips (aka gratitude), paid separately from the bill. U can either leave it in the bill they give or on the table when u leave. So since alcohol is expensive, their tips would be, too.

Time for a good night's sleep. This hotel seems to be a good hotel. But their internet system is bad - we cant access it today, its down. And we have to "charge it to the room" and then they'll deduct it in the final bill. Its free, but they end up having more accounting to do (charge then take away), imagine if it doesnt tally. OMG!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Second day (and second last) in Bloomie

Today I did more exploring than yesterday. I went to the Arts Museum in IU (indiana uni). It consists of 3 parts but I onli managed to go to half of one. Its really big, with paintings, sculptures, photographs and even some artifact and fabric on display. Some of them belonged to Pablo Picasso himself. After coming here I realised how painters paint a nice scenery - they actually HAVE it. The skies are always blue, otherwise, its misty. And especially in Northern parts of America, painters should (my guess) like to paint summer. People here have winter almost all year, so they really look forward to summer. A few impressionism paintings hung on the walls, others are portraits of army personnel - yes, they are more honored here than in somewhere. Ahem.

For lunch, I ate at the Student Union (that place is really nice!), in the tudor room, a restaurant. How I wish there's one in NUS students' union! Anw, lunch was a buffet lunch with chinese and western food. Unlike other food places, the main course isn't the "main" thing. Dessert was! There's a long list of dessert pinned on the wall above the dessert table. Cheesecake, chocolate walnut cake, apple pie, etc. (I'll upload the picture and u can judge for yourselves). It was a sweet lunch. =)

After lunch, I did a bit of shopping at target. The notebooks here are super cheap! 5 for USD 50cents. Got some other stuff like snacks and bubblegum here. And we got a toy truck for my dad's fren's son, as appreciation for them being hosts for our trip and for inviting us here. I managed to get online a while after that and it was dinner time. The days here are very long. The sun is up at 5.30am and it only sets at 8.30pm.

We ate at Denny's Restaurant today. I've been wanting to eat Denny's ever since I reached Niagara Falls. The last time I was here in US, I really loved the hash brown they make at Denny's. Its not the MacDonald kind of hash brown, its sliced potato fried slowly. (yes, i'll load the picture soon! hope i did take though. I forgot.)

We reached scholars inn early and took a rest. Tomorrow we're leaving for Toronto very early. Might not even have time for breakfast. =( Talking about eating, I think I've really been eating a lot since I've reached here!! Omg. I'm now wondering if I need to eat 3 plates of chicken rice in Singapore before I get full. Oh no.

First day in Bloomington

Breakfast in B&B is cooked by the people in charge of the place. A bit oily, but the juice made up for it. After that, I headed to Indiana University. I went for a few talks and grabbed a quick lunch of pizza from their student union.

The students' union is a huge building by itself. It has a bowling alley. YES, a bowling alley, with an arcade and pool table. There's a canteen, information centre, study room, reading room and so on. And one more thing is more exaggerated. There is an official University orientation for.. PARENTS. So i see a long line of parents at the union. What a sight. And here, parents get seriously upset when their kids leave for college (college here means university). To them its like losing their sons and daughters - cause children would leave home during this schooling period and visit them rarely after that. (they'd probably work there or at another town after they graduate and start their new life there.)

Today was a rather eventless day in terms of touring. We ate korean food for dinner! Healthy food again. =))

(I'm lazy to write too much so tt's it for today, unless u want me to write about the talks i went to.)

OH! Actually there is something interesting that I want to say about one of the talks i attended. Sidenote: the tables in the lecture hall are much smaller than those in NUS, its like somewhere less than half of ur A4 paper would fit, SO, be thankful. Anw, there was this talk about creating a vaccination for AIDs. For other viruses, they either inject weakened viruses so that our bodies can produce anti-bodies to fight it. For another group, they obtain the protein/substance that surrounds the virus and inject it as vaccine. This is so that our bodies can recognise the proteins and identify the virus. SO, there is research in this area that is trying to use the latter method to create a vaccine for AIDs, but there aren't anything conclusive yet. The reason for not using the first method should be obvious, who would want to take a vaccine for AIDs with a 2-3% chance of getting it?! For curable disease/sicknesses, its MUCH safer. But in the case of AIDs, everyone would be very cautious. One thing though, the protein obtained for the AIDs virus might cause our bodies to produce a lot of useless antibodies which aren't helpful to the situation. Thus, more research needs to be done.

Just thought u might want to know. =)

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Leaving the M den..

My plane took off early at 10.47am so I ate breakfast in the hotel again. A car picked us up from the hotel, with the same driver who sent us here from the airport, and sent us back there. On the way, she said that the US president had just sent more troops to Iraq for war. Immediately when I got to the airport I saw people in green uniforms (or number 4s) checking in their luggage. I found that the same two guys who checked their bags in at United Airlines was on my plane. [ I've skipped the part about the inefficiencies of the airport. Everyone should be tired of that now]

Before the plane took off, the flight attendant addressed the army men on board. She started with, " This might embarrass some of you, but its something I have to say..". She wished them all the best and thanked them for their service to the nation. They may not be able to make it back, so they are wishing them the best of luck and may disaster never befall on them. She asked those around them to shake their hand and give them well wishes. When she finished, the whole plane clapped in acknowledgement for their efforts. Quite sad. Especially when someone risks your life instead of you.

One hour later, we arrived in Chicago Airport. Feeling that the oily and fat food was getting to me, I ate salad for lunch. Caeser salad with chicken from Wolfgang puck. Healthily delicious. =) I felt much better after eating vegetables and healthy things for a change instead of their fat and oily meat, processed foods, etc. From Chicago Airport, we took a plane at 2.38 to Indianapolis.
We again reached in slightly over an hour, at 4.45. My dad's friend came to pick us up from the airport and bring us to our next accomodation - a bed & breakfast hotel, Scholars Inn (not the one in Shaghai, that one is Scholars' Inn - there is a difference!)

I've never been in a B&B before, so this is a first for me. Basically, its a house converted into several rooms where they'll rent out for visitors to stay in. Each has their own bathroom and facilities, like in a hotel room. Just that this one is nearer to nature and they do not limit the cups and types of tea that u drink, as well as coffee, or water for that matter. The rest of it is similar to that of a hotel.

After checking in is dinner. Chinese food! Healthy. =) Nothing much after that. Went to bed early.

Second day in Ann Arbor

One extremely good thing about shopping in America is, they have sale every week. YES, EVERY WEEK. The culture here is this, buy newspapers on Sunday and collect all the sale advertisements (many chain stores can be found almost anywhere in this country, making it highly efficient) and then go to buy the on sale items. They are really generous with their slashings. There is no 10%, 20% discounts. Only 30% and above, and it can go up to 70%. Sometimes its 40% off and a sign next to it saying, "take another 50% off offer prices". And they are true to their word. ( Dont have to worry if its a fraud like in back home )

So I got a flip flop slipper at USD 3.49. (3.49 x 1.37 = SGD 4.78) AND ITS NOT MADE OUT OF PAPER, if that's what ur thinking. Sears had many good deals and I managed to find suitable clothes. Luckily, the size problem didn't affect me that much in here. Oh! And the shoes here, especially branded ones, are real cheap. New Balance, Reebok, Adidas shoes all cost from USD29.99 to USD59.99. ( $41 to $82 ), and their genuine.

For lunch, I just ate a quick hot-dog as I was catching a bus. I don't want to have to wait half an hour for the next one. Bus fares are relatively cheap. USD 1 per trip. If you had to change a bus, just ask for a transfer ticket when u board the first bus. So from any place point A to point B, it costs USD 1, instead of charging you every single time you get onto a bus.

Next stop is K-Mart. Its a one stop place for everything, like Giant. Just bigger. [ quite ironic ] The prices here are good as well. Its similar to K-mart and JCPenny, but the items on sale are not, so there is a point in visiting all of 'em.

Dinner was settled at an Italian restaurant, Zola. Food was very good. They gave bread as starters and I felt it was big enough to be my meal. For my entree, I had mignon steak with some sauce that had a little red wine in it. I took my father's advice that the steak wouldn't taste as good without the wine and turns out he was right. It did taste better with wine. Being quite exhausted from shopping, I went back to the hotel earlier than the few days before. I had to PACK all my shopping stuff into my luggage before I turn in as I'm leaving for Bloomington, Indianapolis.

Ann Abor, Michigan!

As usual, we had breakfast in the Hotel restaurant again. Food's not bad, just too big and too oily. The tea was nice though. As it was a Sunday, many shops weren't due to open till 11am or 12 noon. So we ate a very long breakfast. From 7.30 to 9.30. The reason we woke up so early was to catch the sunrise. But sadly, there were too many clouds AGAIN that blocked our view.

After breakfast, we sat by the outside of the hotel ( an area with seats and a mini-pond ) to do some reading. Oh, talking about reading. There is a variety of newspaperes available in the US. First there's the national paper, USA Today, then there'd be the local papers. Another commonly found newspaper would be The Wall Street Journal. The papers here are much easier to read given their convenient size. I have never understood why Singapore newspapers have to be so HUGE! We have to open up the paper to its full size, flip the paper ( while trying VERY HARD to keep from hitting the next person ), find the page, fold it MULTIPLE times and then start reading. By the time I get to this stage, I don't want to read it anymore. So I choose to read Today most of the time. Yes, SIZE DOES MATTER.

We'd figured some exercise would be good while our room was being made. So we headed down to the Farmers' Market in town. Ann Arbor is a campus town, meaning that the university makes up most of the life and events happening in the area. Their school merchandise (as I've mentioned) is very exaggerated. They have school earrings, adidas cap (which someone gave to me), mugs, pens, pencils, bubble gum (yes, their very own M bubblegums), guitar picks, tennis ball, blanket, chair, license plate, teddy bears, bag, crumpler bag, hair tie, staple, mouse, etc. You get the picture.

Anyway, the farmers' market was supposed to sell fresh fruits and vegetables but when we arrived, they were displaying jewellery, soap, scents, postcards and some framed art. Weird. We later found out that we chose the wrong day to come to the famers' market. They only sold farm goods on Saturdays and Wednesdays. So we went to the supermarket, called Sparrows market, to buy fruits and water. The tap water in America is claimed to be drinkable but no one drinks it. And it has a certain smell. So everyone drinks bottled water.

For lunch, we ate at a Mongolian Cafe. It sounds Chinese or at least Mongolian, but its western food. Its a bit of buffet style and the jap ala carte style mixed together. U first go along the line to get vegetables, then meat, then sauces. At this point, everything is raw. After that u hand it to a chef who will cook the food in front of u and add in the sauce. And there comes ur meal. Delicious.

After lunch is shopping! We went to briarwood mall by means of their public transport. Bus! The buses here are really on time. Never late. That is one good thing. However, they have a low frequency of 30 minutes. =( Anyway, shopping wasnt too bad. There were many shops in one mall (much bigger than those in Singapore) but the sizes there varied a lot. In shops like Aerospace and H&M, the sizes would fit asians better (at least more reasonably), whereas hypermarts like JCPenny, Sears, Von Maur and Macy's had sizes that seemed to me as ridiculous. Sometimes I had to go to the kid's section to shop.

I bought a few things from Aerospace, cheap collar shirts for USD 5.99 (SGD 8.20), which was quite a good deal, given its material. Shopping in America is not as taxing as it is in Singapore. When we do it back home, we worry about price, quality, material, whether it'll shrink when washed, blah blah, etc. Here, the standard of the items are higher and more or less guaranteed. The only thing you have to worry about is size, design, whether it fits, colour and price. Size can be a big headache I admit, but that's still better when compared to worrying about quality. I browsed through a few other shops and got a few more things. Not a bad shopping trip.

For dinner we ate chinese food. And for some weird reason Americans always think that Chinese eat fortune cookies. At the end of each Chinese meal we are given one each. Of course, all of you know this doesnt happen anywhere with any Chinese restaurant in Asia. Actually, reports said that the Japanese were the ones who invented fortune cookies. But, oh well. The portions of Chinese food here is like American food. HUGE! And not to mention oily. I think I've been eating quite a lot of unhealthy food in this trip! =((((

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. We managed to get our hands on the Sunday paper, where all the Sale Advertisements are in. I'll talk more about that tml. But today's not a bad day too. BUT tomorrow's even better (more shopping!). =)