Ann Arbor - Pittsburgh

05/27/2005

We (RenJie and I) left Ann Arbor for North Carolina on the 27th of May. My car was practically packed with all of my belongings (i left two boxes of academic stuff with voon seng. thx vs!) Before we left, we went to the plymouth Shell to do an oil change. To my dismay, the mechanic found out that my car needed some repair. There was something wrong with the axel thingy, and i was told that the wheel might fly off when i am driving. Knowing that the parts won't be available until the next day, i decided to take my chance. I had a feeling that the mechanic was exaggerating again. (coz remember that i once did a used car inspection here?)

The journey to Roanoke Rapids, a place 710 miles from Ann Arbor was pretty boring. It was estimated that we would need at least 11 hours to reach there (according to mapquest). Since i cannot listen to the radio or play any cd, i have to fight my sleepiness by chewing gum or singing. (the singing method was quite effective, it acted like some sort of shock treatment) We stopped a few times to refuel our cars, and when it was dark, we decided to find some place to park our cars and have a sleep. We stopped at a parking lot of a church near an exit of the interstate highway.

The very next day, we continued our journey after refreshing ourselves in a service station at the highway (i bought myself a hot chocolate). Since we would pass by Pittsburgh in our way, i figured it would be nice to visit my buddy, hong tuck, in the Carnagie Mellon University.

Probably due to the weather (cloudy and moody), i did not really like the atmosphere in Pittsburgh. The city was indescribably weird, somewhat possessed the aura that only a disgruntled old man will exude. Hong tuck still looked the same when we met him (haha). He brought us to the place he stayed, which was a room in his senior's dorm. After that, we walked around in the university and had lunch (chinese buffet) in the downtown. Other than CMU, there was another university in Pittsburgh - the University of Pittsburgh (of course).

(i will post the pictures later...)