Home sweet home

Went home in May. In the span of the 2 weeks back, I did nothing much except enjoying home as much as possible. It was too hot to go out anyways :D Since I’ve already posted most of my photos on Facebook, I will just show some of the pictures I’ve taken at home here.

Let’s start with some priceless artworks in my house:

“Eilean Donan Castle”, oil, 2000

 

Untitled, oil, 2003

“Jardin d'Eden”, oil, 2010

…ok just kidding. That’s the yard of my house. There used to be two mango trees in the yard, now gone. The one left standing is a Rambutan tree.

Some green Rambutans…

…and red ones!!! That good looking bunch actually ended up in my stomach…

Papaya tree. Not my favorite fruit.

Tomatoes. They were really much smaller than how they look like here…

Other small things around my house…

 

Lastly, at home there’s always newspaper to look forward to in the morning…

It’s spring (commencement) again…

First of all, let me congratulate Chelsea for taking the Premier League title. No, I’m still a Liverpool fan; I just want to congratulate the deserving champions here :)

So it’s been a while since I last updated my blog. Nothing much had happened in between, just the usual routine. And boy time really does fly when you are doing routines. When someone asked about my age recently, I had to think a while before I said I’m 25. It sounds so…old, and for a second there I found it hard to believe that I was 25 already. I bet other people would feel the same too after reading my previous post.

Ok end of rambling and beginning of usual posting. So I attended the University of Michigan spring commencement, again. It still took place in the Big House, and Mary Sue Coleman still ended her speech in the same words, but one thing is special this time – President Obama was the speaker!!! And boy he was such a mega celebrity. The audience was visibly larger, and when he entered the venue, everybody cheered and applauded like they were attending a rock concert. Truly amazing star power.

His speech started ok, with some funny bits, but soon getting too long and political IMO. Once he ended his speech, people started  leaving the stadium as if Michigan is 3-33 down in a football game at half time. I resisted my urge to do the same I stuck around until the end of the ceremony before leaving for lunch.

I am not sure if I will be attending spring commencement again next year, but for now, let me say this: congrats class 2010!!!

Wei Chieh, trying to act cute as usual.

 

U of M!

Check out the crowd…

President Obama giving his speech

 

On big screen

UM Alumni

Ulquiorra Cifer…

…kicks ass!!! Officially my favorite Bleach character now.

Espada no. 4. Looks like L, anyone?

Ice hockey game in Joe Louis Arena

To me ice hockey has been an unpopular game that the media doesn’t even bother to show or talk about (maybe I didn’t watch enough TV or read enough news), so yeah, I watched most ice hockey when I was following a Japanese drama called “Pride”. Also, I was rather amused by the saying “We went to a fight and an ice hockey game broke out”. I finally had a chance to check the validity of that statement on a chilly January night.

It was a game between Michigan and Michigan State in the Joe Louis Arena. Claimed to be the fiercest rivalry (in ???), the game lived up to expectation and proved to be an extremely thrilling one, but sadly and luckily there was no fight. We were up 3-0 early in the game, but somehow managed to trail 3-4 for quite some time before finally winning the game at 5-4. All in all, a great game, and a great experience…

Freakishly big moon which we saw on our way to Detroit downtown

Joe Louis Arena

Players who couldn’t wait to get into some action…

Wolverines!!!

Final score…we won 5-4!!! gg… 

Snowboarding

I took the last week of 2009 off and chilled out at Pei Ying’s place. Since I had just finished the final assessment, I did not have to do any studying, so the entire week was just pure relaxation. And boy do I miss those days.

On the Saturday before going back to work, three of us (Siew Gee, Pei Ying and I) decided to go snowboarding. We went to the Pine Knob Ski Resort, which was half an hour drive from Dearborn. Before throwing ourselves to the snowy slopes, we made sure our stomachs were taken good care of. We had brunch at LA Cafe, which offered absolutely scrumptious omelets (in generous portions!).

We were ready for the test after the hearty meal. I skied twice, which I thought was okay as I knew how to do some basic maneuvering and minimize falling down. However, snowboarding was a whole different beast, at least for me. I cannot remember the number of times I fell hard on the snow. Still, I managed to have a lot of fun. It was fun falling down again and again, knowing that with each fall you are gaining more experience and learning something new. At least that’s what I like to think.

I spent most of my time at the beginning slope, and only ventured to the intermediate slope once to get some photos taken. Overall, it was a great experience, but would be much better if it was not an extremely chilly –10C day.

1. Get set, ready, ouch!  2. Let’s try again… 3. Weeee!!

Pei Ying being very cautious…

 

Best snowboarder of the day…low center of gravity does help a ton! :P

Pine Knob Ski Resort

Washington DC 2009

I first visited the capital of US when I was a junior. Back then, my travel buddy was none other than Abarai Renji Ren Jie (too much of Bleach), and our trip was a cheap but enjoyable one. 3 years after, I revisited this great city, this time with Pei Ying.

Our trip started off not so well, when a traffic jam almost prevented us from reaching the Detroit airport in time. Long story short, we managed to make it because a kind girl saw us and let us hop on her cab. Also, it took more time than expected for us to travel from the Baltimore airport to our Washington DC hotel, as the cab driver screwed up the directions. So it was already 2am-ish when we reached the hotel. Tired and hungry, we went to CVS downstairs and bought some ramen to feed our poor stomachs.

Fortunately, the rest of the trip was alright. Little did our stomachs know that they were about to experience the greatest treat in a while: authentic Malaysian food! We went back to the Penang in Bethesda, and luckily the food there was still great. The Kuey Teow Soup was so so, but the Wat Dan Hor and the roti canai was awesome! Too bad, as usual no photos were taken because the food was gone before we realized it.

Back to the trip - the first 2 days were cloudy, and it even rained heavily at one point that we had to take refuge in the Air and Space Museum (and have lunch at the McD in it). Still, we managed to cover most of the famous attractions in the city.

White House, the side (back? front?) which I did not go 3 years ago.

The National Christmas Tree (yeah, no joke)

Washington Monument

Chinatown Dunkin’ Donuts (funny translation)

View from Washington Monument (bad visibility that day)

Jefferson Memorial in background

Entrance of US Capitol Hill (was under construction when I was there 3 years ago)

 

The Capitol Rotunda

 

Frieze of United States History

Great Hall of Library of Congress

Exterior of Library of Congress (somehow reminded me of Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II in Rome)

East face of United States Capitol

 

West face of United States Capitol

 

Reflecting pool (without the water). People actually walk “in” the pool.

Reflecting pool (view from Lincoln Memorial)

  

Lincoln yang bergaya-nya.

And finally, various shots of my favorite monument in the city: