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!). =)