ooo wow

my lab came a new guy today, like now (i'm online while working =D)

he's julian!

so now we have...

a german

an italian

a portuguese

a french

an american

an asian

an african american!

WE HAVE IT ALL!

i ...

know you all cant wait for my posts before school starts...

but i'm sorry that i have to say i'm pretty occupied with the last round of activities before school starts....

i have to...

- make a trip to the career services to polish my resume

- make several calls here and there before school starts

- WRITE UP MY PAPER! i'm dead now!

- make several replicates for my experiments

- clean the apartment

- prepare for bbq this saturday

- one last call for sunday

did i miss anything? hope not...

so yea...please bear with me... :)

sometimes ...

friends come and go...

you choose who you want to be...

what type of people you want to hang out with...

i always wonder if i were to choose a uni which has less malaysians, will i survive?

i used to think that i will not be able to survive

so i ended up with the uni which has tonnes of malaysians....

no doubt, i felt at home...

speaking the same language and eating the food we used to eat back home...

it was indeed comfortable...

but

when time comes, things changes

you have to learn

so i've learned to let go...

mixing around with other people

learning other culture from other parts of the world

i felt good afterall...

i dont mean i hate the malaysians just that even though i can only communicate with the new bunch of friends in english, i felt comfortable and happy with them too!

probably they are just being protective over me....and of course i would love it, who doesnt? =D

so we spend a lot of time hanging out together, we usually hang out at bread and cup

but we also cook together!

chourico picante?

LOL

sorry, i'm no portuguese...

but this was brought back by ines all the way from portugal :)

christophe was busy preparing quiche!!! =DDD

ines was busy cleaning

sylvia was busy looking

and of cz the little one was busy taking photos

and of course not forgetting the alcohols

some red wine, some holland beer-heineken and some korean alcohol

=)

christophe, ines, sylvia

my portuguese "siblings" and the asian with no asian look (i was suspected to have some mixed blood from europe along the line, got or not worrrrr???)

since they are at my siblings age, so they are my new non-blood-related siblings!

love them to absolute bits!!!

i did not regret listening to my buddy's advice...

thanks buddy :)

didnt mean to...

fool you guys with empty posts!

hahahaha

sorry my bad...

i promise i will do it by this weekend, hopefully!

i love you guys and i know you guys love me right

so please forgive me!!!

much love....

xoxo

4th of july

since i'm in the US this summer, it will be my first and possibly last summer in the states too....and also will be the first or last 4th of july celebrating in the states!

previously i celebrated 4th of july in inti, unfortunately, i think it was lame but we had fun....

this year it was a blast!

for the reason i celebrated with an american family

=)

this is what you actually need to experience since you have the chance to be at a foreign land...

experience the lifestyle and culture the locals do!

so dr plantz was kind to invite us over for a bbq party to celebrate 4th of july....

along the streets all over in US, there were stalls selling fireworks and firecrackers!

it was so cool!!!

malaysia- BANNED FROM FIREWORKS

the amount of fireworks we played that night!!!! =)))

dr plantz in red, dr grass in yellow

then we started off with some smaller fireworks...

this was so cute...the children went chasing after the parachute across the streets in the neighborhood... and happened it was the last one that it flew really far away...

enjoyed the hotdogs and burgers, we burned even more fireworks....

it was absolutely fun...

and the other american kids also came over and join us!!!

a really worthwhile experience with the americans to celebrate an american celebration...

at 10pm, we went to another american family's place behind dr plantz house to enjoy the commercial fireworks for 15minutes...

then we went back to continue with the S.O.B and the big guys we have (those on the floor)!!

it was pure fun

the ...

high fever i had for a month...

from the whole chicago-west lafayette trip, the hell i went through, the shyt i encountered that i never thought it would happen on me in my life...i really learned a lot, walking in a place i've no clue AT ALL, i've heard much about chicago but i've never seen or even get close to it...it's like no words could ever describe that kind of feelings...it was just awesome....and yea, congrats me for losing weight from that trip, my pants were literally dropping down at THAT TIME! hahahahaha

then back to some normal lincoln life it came the WORLD CUP

for the first time in my life, i was so into soccer (football)

and world cup 2010 has pretty much keep me occupied for the whole month so that my summer wont be bored!!! :)

the fever actually started here! even the office door has a SCOREBOARD/TIMETABLE!!!!

and on the right is something interesting

which actually applies to all females and also BOSSES (especially ours) =D

and since the rules and regulations from above, rule number ONE said that "you should read the sports section of the newspaper so that you are aware of what is going on regarding the World of Soccer, and that way you will be able to join the conversations."

so...

FIFA

and

TV golo- for highlights...if i missed any matches i could watch the highlights from this library

these two sites kept me alive :)

during the whole world cup season, we spent our weekends at christophe's place, bars, restaurants etc...

argentina vs nigeria

it's a 9am match...so we had breakfast together :)

there's pancakes and syrup, baguette, brie, marmalade, orange juice, coffee...

my daily breakfast? cereals...

i wish world cup is forever! =))))

at times, we join the crowd...

USA vs england..

we went to the open spaced car park, with big tents and big tv's, and of course the big crowd..!!!

watching the americans play with the americans and cheering with the americans was indeed fun...

germany vs australia

this is the 130pm match...so baguette and brie with ham is lunch... =D

at times when there's crazy moments like waking up at 6am for 6am matches...

netherlands vs denmark

and then go to work at 830 since the boss knows i'm up for the match!

sighs...

but so far i've only watched 2 6am matches, the other one is of course portugal vs north korea...

and portugal trashed the hell out of north korea with 7 goals....

and obviously the small, angry portuguese was happy the whole day....

luckily it was a good game or else we would have killed him for waking up at 6am to accompany

him watch the match...

and of course there's also times when we came out from lab to watch at the bar

italy vs paraguay

after a week or so, 32 teams were down to half...

so england was trashed by germany 4-0

and we watched this at Dino's Eastside Grill for brunch...

the german was of course happy too...

and after a month,

when spain trashed netherlands 1-0...

we were at brewsky's which was the last stop we watched the world cup :)

till then...

next world cup 2014 at brazil!!!

chicago - lincoln day 4

got up at 6-ish

dragged the huge ass backpack and computer bag to the restroom, changed to clean clothes and washed up

what an experience! brushing teeth and washing face at airport restroom...never i would think myself in this situation but yea, this time i did it! =) nothing to be shy or afraid of anyway

so since my flight is at 9am, and i'm already at the airport...so i went to check in at the self check in counter...swiped my credit card for verification and then "error!"

i went to seek help from the United Airways ground crew, telling the lady that i have problems in checking in....so she taught me how to do it...swiped the card and "error!"

FML...

and the normal counters were already full of customers...it's gonna take me a long while to even reach me.... =(

so the lady asked me to go the hidden counter at the back to get help

teeheeeee...shortcut!!!

gave the ground crew my driver's license and credit card and itinerary and guess what...

THERE'S NO SEATS FOR ME!!!! whoaaaaa

i didnt know there's so many people from chicago going into LINCOLN

he printed a temporary boarding pass and asked me to collect my seat number at the counter in front of the gate...

awesome, no?

i actually got freaked out

went through screening and stuff smoothly, got the tickets...

finally, i'm safe to come back...

the cute plane at the gate...which i thought it would be the one i'm boarding!!!

but the actual one was this....like the air asia i took to chiangmai last summer!!! i have to freaking walk to the plane and climb the stairs...

epic!

hallelujah

i'm boarding back to lincoln safe and sound in one piece!

and guess what...the plane wasn't even 1/2 full!

and yea...

back to the flat land and off to ihop for brunch with the bosses... :)

the priceless experience that i will never forget...

my modernized outward bound...

west lafayette - chicago day 3

the day started off very interestingly

to my horror, the rented car was no longer at the parking spot...

EPIC fail!!!

our car got towed!

apparently the parking spot jay said it's ok to park was somebody else's parking spot...and the somebody went to lodge a complain to the management and there goes the car...

in other words, PARKING VIOLATION

FML!!!

quickly called kok hong to save us...lolzzz

drove us there to the office and wait for the man to do the paper work...

sighs...

not a very good day to start off huh!

got everything settled, paid the money sucker towing company to get back the car, got back the car and off we went for some campus tour

the engineering mall

and very obvious, michelle lam couldnt smile from ear to ear after the shock from the morning's highlight...

their mascot is actually the train...

jay, tm, yours truly and wan yi near the stadium with the BOILERMAKER

then i went back to suiwan's dorm to get the commencement tickets from him =)

the commencement was so so so freaking grand....how i wish UNL can adopt the idea of theirs, maybe 10%!

then i found him!!! =)

congrats buddy!

group picture of his friends...

congrats upon done with school!

at around 6, we left purdue...

returned the car at the after-hours drop off parking garage

everything went back to square one, back to walking...

and we managed to get to the pizza place on time so that wan yi wont be late for her bus ride back to mankato...

while waiting...

the chicago style deep dish pizza...

wasn't that yummylicious though...was ok only...did not get wow-ed by it...

then we parted after getting the pizza...

=(

i walked back to the train station without map again but this time i knew the direction by the correct feel!!!

hahahaha

and that is how i spend the night...

i camped at the airport....

the huge ass backpack as my pillow and my computer bag as my bolster

i made myself so comfortable! hahahaha

and i slept near the TSA security guards...i know i would be in safe hands near them...

so yea i managed to catch some sleep before heading back to lincoln

i actually could have spend more time in chicago if i didnt go to purdue...but since it was my buddy's commencement and it was just 2+ hours drive from chicago, i decided to attend his commencement...

if he wasn't my buddy, i really wouldn't care much but i really do appreciate what he has done to me, being there for me when i needed someone to talk to, he's just an awesome friend....

he's just one good friend that i would value a lot

and hey, he's just a very good buddy of mine...

=)

chicago - west lafayette day 2

before we hit the sack, we planned for the places we try to visit since the time we have was way too short, thanks to my flight cancellation... gahhhhh

hopefully day 2 tour in chicago wont turn out bad...

it wasnt that bad but just.... (check out the faces at the end)

my huge backpack for another day

yes, i am a tourist

backpack- checked

bag for personal belongings- checked

map- checked!

so yea, we planned to get on public transport to save time and to save our legs but we couldnt catch the right timing, the only transportation we could catch was bus #11- WALK

the view of navy pier from the field musuem

1st stop: field museum to see sue the dinosaur skeleton!

LOL

2nd stop: shedd aquarium

then i found out that my battery was dying on me!

FML! on the day i needed to take tonnes of photos, i forgot to recharge the battery the night before...

=(

left the aquarium, strolling along lake michigan =)

when there's no kind "taiwanese dude", we have to take self shots...

taiwanese dude = a kind taiwanese helped us to take photos at skydeck and vice versa

after a long walk, we still could not find the freaking bean! and with the huge backpack on our shoulders, it wasn't all that fun, seriously...

then we saw a map with point of interests and some photos...looking at the bean, i saw some white building behind it, i marked that building as the direction we need to head to...

OF COURSE IT WORKS =)

so at millennium park, i had limited photos from my camera cz my camera decided to die after a few shots...just as well it lasted quite a while so we could get some nice pictures...

the tourists from nebraska and minnesota =)

fooling around at the bean =)

i'm so proud that we actually made it there!!!

walking since 10am till 5pm...

rented a car and off we head to west lafayette!!!

after meeting up with jay, my kind host, we went for dinner

at triple xxx for burgers

met up with some inti friends, tm and his gf, anbin, kok hong, pooi kiat

thanks boss for the dinner too!!! =)

the only word that can describe us- TIRED

the hours of walking and the 2hours+ of driving... WOW...

but i still did not sleep early cz i went back to the campus to visit my buddy!!!!!

met up with suiwan, talked for a while, met his friend...

it was all good even though i was almost crashed out...