~~"Se@SoN" PaRaDis3~~: January 2008

It's hard to believe that this is the first post of Year 2008! We just concluded our magnificent Year 2007 and looking forward to have a better Year 2008. Are you ready for Year 2008? I know I am!!

These past few weeks were filled with schools and works since return from holidays. The official day of school started at Jan 7, everyone backed to their routines after a long holidays. I hope year 2008 will be a prosperous year for everyone. I sincerely pray all my friends and family will be blessed with lots of health and happiness.

We had a magical countdown at home as we turned off all inside lights, turned on the outside light and watching the heavy snow come down while a neighbor across from us put on a magnificent fireworks show...

The first day of 2008 was filled with 8 inches snow... We had shoveled the snow in front the driveway. It was fun to have snow but hate to shovel, because it was tired and took lots of time.

Year 2008!! A brand new year with brand new luck!! I received a internship offer at the end of 2007 and I started to work on Jan 2, which change my daily lifestyle in 2008. I have to wake up early in the morning and drive 20mins to work everyday. Now, I work 40 hours per week 9-5pm from Mon-Fri, and have to go to school after work, I was tired like hell in the first week!! However, for me it's a good start of year 2008!! I like my job so far, I learned lots of things which I can not get it from school.

Back up to Year 2007, there are lots of things happened. In year 2007, it was filled with sadness, lost, frustrated, and of course happiness. It was an eventful Year 2007. The most wonderful time in Year 2007 was the time that I spent with HooiSin and my family members in Malaysia and Singapore. It was a sweet memories!!

I screwed up my life after return from Malaysia, cell phone broken, screwed up at interviews and exams, car broken, traffic tickets, etc. and I spent a couple thousands in the end of the year. It just never end. I was so down at that time. Overall, it was a bad year!! So, I sincerely pray all my bad luck please get away from me!!!

Happy New Year to everyone and foremost lots of health... simply because without health we got nothing!!! What is your resolution on Year 2008??!! My resolution is" Study hard!!! Work hard!!! Play hard!!" Actually, this is my motto!! How about you??!!!

One day, I asked Lydia, what are we going to do in this school break? Do you have any plan of what are we gonna do? She said "no! Staying at home!" I said "come on!! old lady!! Just do something during the break!" So, I suggested to plan a two days one night trip to Chicago. I just wanted to get away from Ann Arbor, Michigan to visit somewhere else.

We started to do our research, buying train ticket and make the hotel reservation. Unfortunately, it was the peak season when we decided to visit Chicago, and the tickets already sold out and most of the hotels were fully booked. At that time, Lydia almost decided to give up. But I said "No way!! We got to make it!!" So another place that came out on my mind, which is LAS VEGAS, Neveda. It sounds like a pretty good idea to visit LAS VEGAS, Neveda. So we started to do our research. Again, the ticket was extremely expensive during the peak season... Haiz... Lydia said "forget about the trip to anywhere, just stayed at home for Christmas and New Year!" I said " Probably, you're right!!"

After a long way discussion and argument, we finally decided to visit Chicago. I told Lydia "Just do it!! If we keep discussing we are not going to anywhere." So we finally made up our mind to visit Chicago on Dec 26, 2007. We decided to drive since we can't buy the train ticket.

On Dec 26, we woke up early in the morning and set off to Chicago. We stopped by at AAA, which is the insurance company and also the travel agent, such as maps and hotel reservation for their members. Lydia joined the AAA membership, so we went there to grab the map of Chicago. We never thought about staying at Chicago before, but ended up staying for a night, because we got membership discount from AAA if we made the hotel reservation through them.

We left from about around noon. We have to drive 4 hours long to Chicago. But we planned to stop by at Indianna, Michigan City outlet mall.

We took these pictures before we invaded to Indianna and Chicago. Are you ready?? Let's check it out the pictures below:

In front Michigan Stadium-- Ann Arbor

On the I-94 west freeway. The weather was so nice. It was the sun shine day!

Lunch time, we stopped by at McDonald!!

Both of us took turn to drive to Chicago.

Welcome to Indianna!! After 2 hours drive, we finally got Indianna!! As you can see from the pictures below, we can't even get a shot of the signboard. It was 120 km per hour. Time difference with Michigan and Indianna and Chicago is one hour, because of the time zone.
Michigan City!!

Michigan City outlet mall!! We spent an hour here for shopping!!
It called Lighthouse outlet mall!!

After that, we drove for another hour to Chicago.
We paid toll at Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge.

Chicago Skyway toll Bridge

After a few hours drive, we finally got Chicago downtown. We made the reservation at Comfort Inn, which is located at Chicago downtown area. We followed the direction on the map and found Comfort Inn. After the checking and unloading our baggages, we started exploring the night view of Chicago. First, we parked our car at garage, which cost us $34 per day!!! That's really expensive. We decided to buy a day pass for our transportation. It included bus and subway, unlimited use for 24 hours, which only costs us $5 each. We arrived at Chicago downtown around 7pm. It was the dinner time. I suggested to visit Chicago Chinatown for Malaysian food. So we decided to have our dinner at Chinatown.

Christmas tree at Comfort Inn lobby

I took a lot of pictures at Chicago downtown area. Night view of Chicago downtown:

We took subway from Grand station to Cermak-Chinatown station

I took these pictures while we were waiting for the subway to Chinatown. As you can tell from the pictures, subway has been a history in United States. Honestly, that was my first ride in United States. The feel was totally different from the subway at Singapore.

We took pictures at Grand Station

It took 10 minutes from Grand Station to Cermak- Chinatown. Here are some pictures that we took at Chinatown.

Welcome to Chicago Chinatown!!

Chicago Chinatown is considered small when you compare with New York Chinatown. We first welcome by the "tian xia wei gong" this fours words at the "city door"!!

We had our dinner at Penang, which is the Malaysian food restaurant at Chicago Chinatown. The is the place that I can find my curry and Nasi Lemak. I can't wait to visit this place, because I miss Malaysian food so much!! So I suggested Lydia to try our Malaysian food. However, Lydia can't handle the spicy food, so she did not really eat much that night. When I look at the menu, I felt like I was in Malaysia. I wish I could order all of the Malaysian dishes that I love, however, I was not able to do that, because the portion is really big and we can't even finish it. I ordered Beef Redang and one of my favorites, cendol.

Penang, Malaysian food restaurant at Chicago Chinatown

Haha!! Interesting!! I took this picture!! human need to pee!! Haha... It means restroom!!

Fried Intestine!! I love this dish so much!! Malaysian food? I'm not sure. It's appetizer, which ordered by Lydia. But It was so good!!

Another appetizer-- Fried Egg Oyster--, which ordered by Lydia as well. It supposed is Lydia's appetizer, but ended up become her main course, because she can't even finish it and we realized that we ordered too much food!!

Beef Redang!! It was not spicy enough. Although it's not the authentic Malay food, but it was so good!! I really enjoyed my dinner that night!! We realized that we ordered too much food, so we canceled our dessert, which is one of my favorites -- cendol--.

After we done our dinner at Penang, we started to walk around the Chinatown. These pictures were taken at Chicago Chinatown:

Chinese Education center at Chinatown

Dr.Sun Yat-Sen Museum. It only open at weekend. We missed that.

Chinese Church at Chinatown

Look!! The Chinese road signs at Chinatown.

Sears tower at Chicago downtown

Waiting for subway at Cermak station at Chinatown.

We stayed a night at Comfort Inn. It's a 3-star hotel. Not too bad!! We paid $130++, so what can we expect for!!

The famous Deep Dish Pizza - Pizzeria UNO- is next to the hotel that we stayed

Night view of Chicago downtown

We went to Michigan Ave., which is a street at Chicago downtown. It's pretty much same as Orchard road in Singapore. You can shop at Michigan Ave for the whole day. It was so beautiful, especially the Lights decoration in Michigan Ave for Christmas and New Year!

Carriage for tourists

The shopping heaven-- Michigan Ave-- for girls

Water Tower just right in fron of us

Tiffany & Co.

Water Tower Place.
The eight-level Water Tower Place reigns as the largest mall on Michigan Avenue. Anchored by a Lord & Taylor and a branch of Marshall Field's and Company, Water Tower includes more than 100 stores, movie theaters, and many dining options.