Midwest Games 2008

Midwest Games is an event organized by MSD annually to allow Malaysian students from the region to participate in various sports competitions. The venue changes each year, and this year it took place in Carbondale, Illinois. Throughout my four years in the States, I have never participated in Midwest Games before, but I wasn't going to miss this one. It was my last chance to participate as an undergraduate (technically speaking).

I signed up for volleyball and badminton mixed doubles. Practice we did (lol) before the game, especially for volleyball. The Michigan gang went there in 3 cars, and I was one of the drivers. It took us 8 hours to reach our destination. Carbondale wasn't a big place, but it had everything in my opinion. For the night (and the following ones), we stayed at Motel 6.

Student Recreation Center of Southern Illinois University Carbondale

The results did not turn out well for us; we managed to win only one game in the volleyball (not counting the walkover), and we (Pei Ying and I) lost in our first mixed doubles game. Pei Ying did win 2nd place in women's double though. Despite the losses, I did have a great time there just playing sports. And I should not fail to mention that something happened while we played volleyball; let's just say that thanks to Wei Chieh (:P), I had to reset my "focus".

I seemed to be distracted by something when everybody's focusing...

The volleyball team (with our "babysitter" - RJ)

Group photo with Wichita key player - StarryNight

On the night before we departed, there was a tornado warning. The city siren went off for a few minutes, and when we turned on the television, the local channels kept repeating warnings about the impending storm. The tone they projected was grave and we were advised to head to underground shelters to take cover. As it was our first time, we took heed seriously, and was even considering hiding into the bathroom if things got really bad and debris started shooting everywhere. Well, it appeared all our worries were unnecessary; the storm when it finally reached was pretty anti-climatic. I have definitely seen far worse ones in Malaysia.

Ominous clouds

So after another 8 hours of drive (we managed to stop by in Indianapolis for lunch), we got back to AA safely. All in all, this was yet another fun trip during my post-grad pre-work period.

Stardust

Memorable line from the movie (Yvaine to Tristan, thinking that he couldn't understand her):

"Yvaine: You know when I said I knew little about love? That wasn't true. I know a lot about love. I've seen it, centuries and centuries of it, and it was the only thing that made watching your world bearable. All those wars. Pain, lies, hate... It made me want to turn away and never look down again. But when I see the way that mankind loves... You could search to the furthest reaches of the universe and never find anything more beautiful. So yes, I know that love is unconditional. But I also know that it can be unpredictable, unexpected, uncontrollable, unbearable and strangely easy to mistake for loathing, and... What I'm trying to say, Tristan is... I think I love you. Is this love, Tristan? I never imagined I'd know it for myself. My heart... It feels like my chest can barely contain it. Like it's trying to escape because it doesn't belong to me any more. It belongs to you. And if you wanted it, I'd wish for nothing in exchange - no fits. No goods. No demonstrations of devotion. Nothing but knowing you loved me too. Just your heart, in exchange for mine. "

For anyone who loves fantasy, adventure, and romance, this is a highly recommended movie....

Cedar Point

Exactly two years ago, when I went to Genting, I had already found out that I was too old for rides. Back then, even the stupid Corkscrew managed to scare me to death (I thought my seatbelt was not working), not to mention the damnable Solero Shot. And I thought I have already experienced the worst....how naive I was.

Cedar Point is a famous amusement park located in Ohio, more than one hour away from Ann Arbor. We (Ren Jie, Jason, Siew Gee, Pei Ying and I) went there in a car but came back in 2 cars, thanks to the cool Ford Focus that Siew Gee bought in Ohio (cool when you judge the cover oops ooops better stop here :P)

The weather was okay that day, a bit cold but did not really rain. From miles away, the towering tracks of the rides already gave me a sense of foreboding. The ominous clouds that composed the background did not help much either in alleviating my soul.

We started our day with Raptor, a ride which was considered a medium-level in Cedar Point. Then we proceeded with the Top Thrill Dragster, the pride of the park. To get an idea of how thrilling it is, check this out:

Top Thrill Dragster

Quoting Wikipedia:

"When Top Thrill Dragster opened, it set five new records:

• First continuous-circuit roller coaster to top 400 feet
• First roller coaster to reach 120 mph
• Highest drop of any coaster
• Fastest roller coaster in the world
• Tallest roller Coaster in the world "

After that, we basically did most of the insane-est rides, including Mean Streak, Maverick, Millennium Force, Skyhawk, and Magnum XL-200. Here's an idea of how intense the Millennium Force is:

 

Again, I could not stress enough on how crazy the rides were. Take Millennium Force for example: it slowly hauled us to a height of 310 feet, and the ascend seemed forever. When the climb was over and the train started moving over the curve, there was this almost-still moment which we could see how damn we were, before dipping 300 feet to hell. The horror was simply indescribable. I still could not believe I have done all of those things....That made me think that I should do such things when I still have the ability to do so, because I realized the older you grow, the more "kia si" you would become...

We certainly did...

Post graduation (Cars)

After sending my parents off, I stayed in LA for another night before flying back to AA. For the month following that, I would call 536 South Forest Ave, Apt 1603 my new home. Staying in U-Towers was fun; its location was perfect, there was free air-con (included in rent), I had another 2 "pig friend dog buddy" as my roommates, and most importantly Pei Ying and I were just 2 floors apart. 

Life was easy, but deep inside me there was this uneasiness due to the fact that I was about to start working soon, very soon. So there were quite a few things that I needed to settle first before I could actually slack, for example arranging for a place to stay when I work and getting a car.

My car search actually started since before graduation, but did not bear any fruits. That was probably because I had plenty of time. It was amazing how pressure worked wonders (or I should say how money bought "wonders"). Once I felt the heat, I got a car and decided where to live all in just one weekend.

So my new baby is a 2000 Toyota Corolla. It is rather ironic because my first car (a 2001 Mitsubishi Mirage) was newer than my 2nd car. I did not like the Toyota very much initially, because it was manual, and it did not look cool. I had to convince myself to buy it (ask Wei Chieh about that). But I have grown to like it the more I drive it. It is spacious (had enough room for a computer desk, a set of dining table complete with 4 chairs, kitchen set, plates set, and bags of groceries - the guys who helped us loading the stuff had a look of utter disbelief) yet petite in size. Most importantly, it has good gas mileage.

Look at these pictures:

My first car (gosh, look at me!! ......)    -Summer 2005

                                  

                                   Wasn't it nice and new?

 

I was bored and wuliao enough to take a picture of mileage reaching 88888. (Remind me to do so for my current car...it's now at 82k + :P)

VS my current car:

Toyota Corolla 2000 (I don't like the GANLEY thing, but lazy to take it down)

Parked across the road from my apartment

Yup so that's the very short story about my car. Will blog more on post-grad activities....

Los Angeles

Los Angeles has never been my favorite city. To think of LAX and all the unpleasant memories associated with it simply makes me reject the idea that LA could be a nice place. Indeed, I still do not like the place although my visit to Los Angeles was not a comprehensive one.

I always thought that the highlight of my graduation trip was the Grand Canyon - Las Vegas portion, even before the trip. Hence, when we reached LA I was already not quite enthusiastic in visiting around, which was bad for my traveling companions - my parents and RJ's family. We stayed in Westin near the LAX for the remaining of our trip.

Throughout our stay, we have visited Hollywood (nothing much there, really), Disneyland (yeah yeah where your dreams (dry) come true) and Universal Studios. Here are the pictures:

 

Walk of fame

Showing enthusiasm posing beside Goofy's statue which I have already posed with in Florida.

Group photo in front of the Universal Studios globe

Any resemblance to Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator? 

So our trip officially ended on the 8th of May when our parents bade us goodbye in the LAX airport. Again, I want to thank my parents for bearing with me for the whole period, and hopefully I can organize something better for them in the future.

Sin City

For our stay in Las Vegas, we chose Stratosphere, a unique hotel off the strip. It has the most visible structure in the skyline of the glamorous city, an observation tower standing at 350m, making it the tallest free standing structure in Nevada (2nd in US).

Stratosphere (technically speaking it is still in troposphere)

For dinner on the first day, we went to MGM Grand for the Grand Buffet. It was costly, but worth your penny (if you don't eat too little). I took in quite some calories, eating stuff ranging from seafood (king crab, crab, shrimp, various kinds of fish) to mutton, beef, chicken and pork. After the sumptuous meal, we went to the Venetian to watch Phantom of the Opera (Las Vegas version). It was shorter than the Broadway version, but since there wasn't any intermission the show actually felt longer. The effects were more suited to the Las Vegas feel with more lights and fireworks. Overall, I still feel that the New York's show was better.

On the next day, we went up the Stratosphere tower to get a better view of the city. The most interesting thing about the tower was that there were rides on top of the tower. The sheer height of those rides make them the worst nightmare of people with acrophobia. Of course, I did not take those rides (as I knew I would be taking more insane rides later - another story).

 

On the outdoor observation deck of Stratosphere

Errr....no thanks.

For lunch, we went to the highly recommended Todai, a Japanese seafood buffet. The food was good, but wasn't quite up to my high expectations (boosted by praises from VS).

On that night, we went sightseeing along the strip, and I finally got  to see the famous fountain performance of the Bellagio. Bellagio was indeed the  ultimate luxurious hotel; the interior was just palatial, embellished with seas of fresh flowers which I wondered cost how much to daily maintain them.

Eiffel Tower (in Paris (in Las Vegas) )

After the sightseeing, we rushed back to Stratosphere to make sure we were not late for the adult show - Bite that we planned to watch. The show was not that much erotic. It combined elements like magic, singing, dancing, acrobat, and lights and sound to make it an entertaining package. Yeap, another show not quite up to my expectations :)

Of course, any Las Vegas experience won't be complete without any gambling. I did play some slot machines, and learned first hand why casinos exist.  

Arizona

Upon reaching Las Vegas, we picked up the rental car (a minivan) that we have reserved earlier and officially kicked off our road trip. We dropped by IHOP for lunch before driving to the meteor crater, located not far from Flagstaff. To our dismay, the crater was already closed (yes, it has hours) when we reached there. Hence, we decided to visit the site again early in the morning the next day. We spent our night in Amerisuites Flagstaff, a hotel which we found to be not bad due to the spaciousness of the rooms.

We finally got to see the meteor crater the next day, not without first paying an admission fee. I was surprised to know that the site was not owned by a government entity. It was, and still is, managed by some private organization, hence the "premium" charged on every entrance. The crater was gigantic in size, and we already got the idea when we were driving towards it. The rim that was forced up spanned a good 1200 meters in diameter, and it was visible from miles away. To imagine oneself standing in the center of a massive impact 50000 years ago was simply mind-boggling.

Meteor crater (there's an old mine shaft at the bottom of the crater)

After visiting the crater, we wasted no time and drove straight to Grand Canyon. It was my second time there, therefore I was not as awed as I did 2 months back. Well, even back then I got a bit bored after seeing the same thing a couple times. I guess to really appreciate the view you have to either hike or join a helicopter tour ride.

Grand Canyon..

Sunset in Grand Canyon as backdrop

We slept at Holiday Inn Grand Canyon that night, and bid farewell to the famous national park the next day. On our way back to Las Vegas, we managed to spend some time at Hoover Dam, used to be crowned with superlatives but now the world's 34th largest hydroelectric generating station.

The intake towers on the Arizona side (the dam is on the Nevada-Arizona border)

Contemplating on life (LOL)

Graduation trip (San Francisco)

After the graduation day (4/27), I had to move all my stuff to where I would be calling home for the next one and a half month - U-Towers. I have to thank a bunch of friends who helped me out in the process: Pei Ying, Siew Gee, Ren Jie, Wei Chieh, Mei Chen, Jason, Masz, and Wei Hsien (hope I did not forget anyone). Everything had to be done on that day because on the very next day, Ren Jie's family and my family would have to catch a flight to San Francisco. Our full itinerary for the next 10 days would be San Francisco - Las Vegas - Grand Canyon - Las Vegas - Los Angeles.

Since I have already witnessed the insaneness of the roads in San Francisco (steep slopes, existence of relatively reckless drivers, difficult parking), we decided against renting a car during our trip in the city. Hence, a lot of walking + taking public transportation had to take place. Luckily the weather was okay, as in it didn't rain although it was quite cold. I would say that we were pretty productive in San Fran, covering most of the attractions including the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf, Chinatown and a couple more places.

Sea lions lazing at Pier 39

Finally got to sea GG bridge up close

"Crookedest" street in San Francisco - Lombard street

Alcatraz (remember the Rock? I don't frankly)

Inside the prison

One of the cells

Skyline of San Francisco viewed from Alcatraz

Group picture "inside" an artwork in San Francisco MOMA (Museum of Modern Art)

Taking limo (a short and ugly one though) back to the airport