Thursday, March 22, 2007

~Uniquely March~

After procrastinating for few weeks, eventually i have time to update my blog. Here are my latest update in March. In March, there were so many events, Birthday, Toronto Trip, Mid-term exam, and Honor Banquet, etc. Sounds like i have a lot of activities in March, but indeed i was suffering for my mid-term exam last few weeks. This semester is almost coming to close so everyone will soon start getting really busy. As it's a "law" or something that the professor will assign a lot of projects, presentations and assignments during the end of each semester. It really drives me crazy!!

Few announcements, please give it to your attention :>

Announcement 1 : On March 3rd, Darren was officially turned into 24 year old :( We celebrated it at Lee's home and blue Karaoke.

Announcement 2: Miracle happened on March 10th, as Darren received his offer of the Recognition of Excellence scholarship @ Eastern Michigan University. He was so so excited when he got the offer letter from EMU. He had never ever received any scholarship in his whole life, so you can tell how excited he was. Indeed this is his first time to apply, and he applied for two different scholarships and he received one of them. Thanks God!!

Announcement 3: On March 23rd, Darren had been invited to the Honor Banquet @ Ypsilanti Marriott at Eagle Crest. EMU's College of Business grants him a "Outstanding Academic Achievement" certificate.

Announcement 4: On March 20th, My niece --Amanda Lee-- was officially turned into 1 year old. We haven't meet each other since i came to United States.
Start from Left to Right -- HeeLing, LeeTing, My Mom, Amanda & Linda.
Announcement 5: On March 25th, Janice (Hooi Sin's sis) and Daven engagement. Congratulation to Janice & Daven, wish them happy always and Forever love.

Announcement 6: Start from June 27th until August 28th, i will be out of country to Malaysia for vacation until August 28th. So i will not be United States until August 28th. You can reach me by sending e-mail to me :0)


On March 23rd, i had been invited to the Eastern Michigan University 58th Honor banquet, which was held at Ypsilanti Marriott at Eagle Crest. Every year EMU's College of Business will hold a Honor Banquet to award those students who GPA are 3.5 or above. I'm so pleasure that i got invited to attend to the Honor Banquet. For others, they might think it's common, but for me, I was so proud of myself for the outstanding achievement. I had never ever felt so proud of myself, but this time is much different, at least i got pay back after i put so much efforts in my studies, it's worth!! I think this is my best birthday present that i had in 2007!!!

The day before the Honor banquet, i went to JCPenny and shell out USD180 to buy my first suit in my life. I never ever wear suit before, it's also my first time. All my first time happened in this March, that's why i titled this as "Uniquely March" :)

If now you ask me how was my feeling that night. My answer is" Nervous + Excited + Proud + ??, etc" I was nervous at the moment when my name was announced as a Honor Student. I felt excited and proud because of my achievement. So, my feeling at that night was assorted:)
As this Honor banquet was sponsored by many companies, such as Comerica Bank, Deloitte, etc. You might meet your future employers, so you have to dressed up like a professional or business look, that's the reason why i shell out USD180 for the suit.

Here are some pictures from Honor Banquet:

I was so uncomfortable with the suit. But i think it's look nice for me, what do you think? :) Once you dressed up, you have to behave yourself, and you got to act like professional. Especially during the dinner time, every motion will screw you up. That's why i felt uncomfortable with the suit. Since i will stick with business field in the future, so now at least i earned some experiences.
Suit + Tie + Outstanding Academic Achievement = Darren LeePicture with my banquet partner-Lydia-, she is from Taiwan. I met her through our restaurant manager. She is a student of Wayne State University. She has an excellent result too. It's my pleasure to meet her, She is really friendly, funny and nice. :0)
We took this picture before we attended the banquet:

Picture with my friend- Lianna-. She is one of the Honor students in Accounting major. We met when we took accounting class in fall semester. Both of us have a same goal, that is- - sit and pass the CPA exam-- :0) I'm glad to meet her at the Honor Banquet, we all had a nice time!Lianna & his boyfriend, Mike.
Lianna invited her family members from Canada, Windsor to the Honor Banquet. I'm glad to meet up with her family members. Lianna's boyfriend - mike-, and her dad (Stand). Her dad's girlfriend (which in the stripe suit), who came from Romania. We all were in the same table. The dinner was not that bad, it started with the salad as appetizer, and Roasted Pork Loin as main course, and after meal dessert.
After dinner, there was a program that every students have to grab one rose and give to the professor that who impact you the most. But i was no idea who am i going to give to? So, i kept my rose, eventually i gave it to my partner--Lydia--. Here i wanna thanks Lydia to be my banquet partner that night.
Crazy snapshoot @ Ypsilanti Marriott @ Eagle Crest:
Here is the pictures of my certificate:
Personally, i love to drink coffee and do my studies at cafe. Here are some pictures from sweetwatercafe:

It were taken when i was bored on my studies @ sweetwatercafe @ downtown Ann Arbor...
Crazy snapshoot....

Pictures with Lydia at Szechuan West restaurant-- Our working place --

funny snapshoot....

Happy Chinese New Year... There are a lot of "angpao"...
Funny snapshoot :
Crazy Darren...
On March 3rd, 2007, Darren was officially turned into 24 years old. This year i was so lucky because i have two birthday cakes. :0) One is from my cousin and the another is from my friends. Compared to last year i was so lonely. We celebrated it with my friends @ Blue Karaoke at downtown Ann Arbor. Here are the pictures that were taken at Blue karaoke:

My 2nd birthday cake from my friends:
Blue Karaoke is located at downtown Ann Arbor, it's own by Korean. We were there to have a birthday celebration. The owner is friendly and she allows us to bring our own DVD's player and DVD to play whatever songs we like. That's why we got Cantonese songs and Chinese songs, and the price is reasonable too. We all had a nice time.
They tried to fool me around on my birthday celebration. We taped the video but i'm unable to upload it at this moment, but i will try to do it next time.

cakefaced Darren.Here are a few pictures at home during my Birthday:

Personally, i love this cake very much. This cake-- Tiramisu-- is from my cousin. It's looked nice and tasted good.
Picture with Sophia at home during my Birthday. She dressed up and looked nice!!
Picture at home with my family:
I just concluded my 24 years old birthday, and i made a few wishes during my birthday.

Birthday Wish 1 : I wish i could graduated with a higher GPA and get a job in United States. In addition, I'm planning to sit and pass the CPA exam. To become a licensed CPA.

Birthday Wish 2: I'm still working with my communication skill, so i wish i could make a huge improvement in my English--a fluency English--.

Birthday Wish 3: The 3rd birthday wish i have to keep it as secret, otherwise it will screw up and not gonna come true. But here i can give you some hints, it's related to my future partner. I guess if you are my friends, you should know who is she.

Anyway, i hope all my wishes will come true. Work hard to hit your goals, Darren!!!


We had one week break on the end of the February. We visited again to Toronto, Canada. This is my 3rd time i visited to Toronto. The reason that i like to visit it again and again, it's because i crazy about the food at Toronto. There really got a lot of delicious foods, Japanese & Korean, Cantonese--Yum Cha--, etc. Another reason is we usually do our haircut at Toronto.

Unfortunately, this time i got a speeding ticket when we backed to United States. It's cost me USD$270. But i tried to appeal for lesser offense. It's a lesson for those who try to speeding. Please do not speeding, the fine of speeding is heavy.

In the Toronto trip, we went to the Sushi Buffet. I can't remember what is the name of that Sushi Buffet, i will try to check it out if i visit it again. I do not know start from when, i'm crazy about Japanese food. The food was really nice, especially the Sashimi was really fresh. All you need is to pay about USD20, then you can enjoy all those sushi in the menu. The price is reasonable. I love the Sashimi, Yummy!!

Pictures from the Sushi Buffet:

I was really full, i wish i could eat more at that moment! but i can't !! Because those Sushi are really good! My friend--Tat-- finished the whole Sashimi in few minutes. I think he was crazy when he saw those Sashimi. :)
Take a break!! We were waiting for another round Sashimi ;0)
Funny!! We tried to make some funny pics:
After we done for the Sashimi and Sushi, we all were enjoying the ice-cream dessert. Look!! yummy!! My Mango flavor Ice-cream... Yummmyyyyyyyyyyy..........

Last week we had a few spring days but its now back to cold again. The weather is getting warmer and spring should be coming soon!!

Simon and Maggie had decided to move to New York City with Ernst & Young. So they will be missed in Michigan.