It has been a truly amazing time in Chicago. I love love love the city and I'm really sad to be back again. Chicago is just different from Pittsburgh.. and much more happening. I can't believe that we actually carried out our last-minute plan and left for Chicago one full day earlier, skipping 1 day of school in the process. I can't believe that 4 of us shared a hotel room at the Hilton, who would have thought of that? For me, it was my first real trip with friends and I really enjoyed it.
We mostly went sightseeing in Chicago. On Tuesday, we walked around our hotel and visited the Sears Tower. On Wednesday, we had deep dish pizza for lunch and went to the Millenium Park and to the other side of Lake Michigan to take pictures. Very very nice view from the other side of the lake. And we were there during sunset so it was even more beautiful. The other 3 CMU people came to Chicago on Wednesday night. Like us, their flight was also delayed, but theirs was delayed for 2 hours cos of snow in Pittsburgh.
Anyway, we all did something quite crazy on Thursday. Woke up at 5 to watch the sunrise, in freezing temperatures of like -10 degrees. Mingwei and Jiaqi wanted to take pictures of the sunrise at Buckingham Fountain, but it was really bad timing and unfortunately, there were too many clouds. Nevertheless, the view was still really nice and I can't wait to see the group pictures :) It was Thanksgiving day on Thursday and the 7 of us watched the Thanksgiving Day parade after having breakfast. Then, 4 of us went to Hancock Tower and went to the top floor (94th floor!!). We could see the view of the entire Chicago from there, and of 4 other states. After that, we had lunch at the grandest McDonald's I've ever seen, with escalators inside and the seats designed like a quite posh restaurant. Speaking of McDonald's, I've eaten there for 4 of the last 5 days now..but considering that I haven't eaten there before ever since I came here, well I guess it was worth it. Miss the McDonald's fries. And I think I'm now known as the girl who's crazy over fries haha. Anyway, the weather on Thursday was the worst and coldest I've ever seen. The wind was really crazy. I was wearing 3 layers of clothes and my knee-length down jacket, 2 layers of pants, winter boots, gloves, scarf and beanie to cover my ears and I was still freezing cold and shivering. Can't believe I may have to face that sort of weather day in day out. Had dinner at Penang Cafe in Chinatown with a few of the guys' friends, all Singaporeans. Finally had food that tasted something like Singaporean food. I found it really amusing when the waitress asked who wanted rice, only a few people raised up their hands, but when she asked who wanted Hainanese rice, everyone raised up their hands haha. Oh and we faked that someone was having his birthday that day so that we could get a small piece of birthday cake and get them to play the birthday song haha. But we threw the cake at Jiquan's (who had his birthday on Tuesday) face anyway, twice no less haha. By the time we finished dinner, it was about 11. And I was reminded how US is so totally different from Singapore at night when we were at the subway station and it was totally deserted. I was quite scared, even though there were quite a few of us there. No one there and it was pretty scary. By the way, the subway stations looked like they came out of The Matrix and Jiquan did a nice impersonation of Neo haha. And I think the railways and old buildings look like they come out straight from Spiderman.
Anyway, Friday (yesterday) was supposed to be shopping day cos they had post-Thanksgiving sales and sales start from 7am. Obviously, if you're up early, you'd get the best deals. We set the alarm at 6.45 but then we couldn't wake up. Really really tired I guess. We woke up at 10 haha. But still in time for shopping. I thought I'd buy more but I didn't..only got myself another down jacket (from $120 to $40!!), sweater and top. Jiamin bought a really nice black hat and I couldn't help posing in it haha. We had lunch at The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant. We had cheese and chocolate fondue, basically cheese/chocolate sauce, sometimes with wine inside (there're a few varieties) and you dip in things like apple bread broccoli (for cheese fondue) and banana brownies cheesecake strawberries (for chocolate fondue). The cheese fondue was nice, but the chocolate fondue was the one we went there for. It was really really sinful but worth it :) After that, we went to Navy Pier to catch fireworks (but we didn't in the end cos we didn't know what time it was haha), but we went up the ferris wheel. Quite nice and it started snowing!! It snowed quite heavily and there was enough snow for us to play with it. Started throwing snow at one another and I, unfortunately, got bullied :( I realized how sucky my stamina is when I had to sprint twice (one to chase after someone, one to escape) but both ended in futile and I was panting like mad (oh and I got snow thrown at me when I stopped sprinting for the second one). Took quite a lot of really funny pictures at Navy Pier too. After that, off for more shopping. And had a really late dinner.
This morning, we were supposed to come back to Pittsburgh. Our flight was at 9.30am and we were supposed to wake up at 6 cos we had to take the subway to the airport. But then, we overslept till 7.30!! It was a mad rush after that. Packed in 20 minutes and another 10 minutes to check out of the hotel, reached the airport at 8.45, checked in and did the security check and everything until 9.10 and reached the gate at 9.20. I still couldn't believe we made the flight but it was really mad haha. Oh well..now here I am at Pittsburgh airport, using the wireless connections here (I realized CMU people are quite geeky.. all 7 of us brought our laptops with us and utilized the wireless connections at the hotel haha). Going to go back to dorm soon :(
Oh well. It has been a really fun and crazy week and took so many pictures. Now for the week ahead..
Let my walk speaks loud and my words be true
Let my life be whole with my eyes on You
Lord I'm stepping out from the comfort zone
Letting go of me, holding onto You
Freedom comes
When I call You Lord
You are Lord my God
You are the centre of it all
The universe declares in awe
Your majesty I surrender all
I make You the centre of my life
Lord, I respond with all I am
You placed in me the song of heaven's melody
Your Majesty I live to sing Your song
I have found Your peace, it replaces any fear
You have done it all I can trust in You
So I'm stepping out from the comfort zone
Letting go of me, holding onto You
Freedom comes
When I call You Lord
You are Lord my God
You are the centre of it all
The universe declares in awe
Your majesty I surrender all
I make you the centre of my life
Lord, I respond with all I am
You placed in me the song of heaven's melody
Your Majesty I live to sing Your song
This is your song, not mine
It is your song that brings healing to this land
This is your song, not mine
It is your song that brings feedom
Freedom comes, when I call You Lord
Freedom comes, when I call You Lord
You are the centre of it all
The universe declares in awe
Your majesty I surrender all
I make you the centre of my life
Lord, I respond with all I am
You placed in me the song of heaven's melody
Your Majesty I live to sing Your song
Anyway..back to Chicago. What can I say? I love it love it love it! It feels like an old town because of the way the buildings are designed, but yet the buildings are actually quite new. The architecture is just fantastic. Couldn't stop taking pictures of the buildings. Took lots and lots of pictures. Our hotel is located in downtown Chicago, which is sort of like the CBD, so there are many high-rise buildings with beautiful designs. It is also near Sears Tower(?) - forgot the name of the place already..how could I haha. Wanted to go all the way up (it's really tall..apparently it used to be the tallest building in the world) but had to pay for it :( But it was nice to just walk around and take pictures. It was really cold though. Okay..like about 1 or 2 degrees? It's actually not that bad, but once the wind blows (and Chicago is known as a windy city for some reason), brrr..... Tomorrow and Thursday are going to be colder though. And apparently Thursday, low of -11!! I'm so glad I brought my down jacket even though it's bulky. My neck is hurting now from typing. Bleah. And I feel really sleepy. Effects of an all-nighter I guess.
Okay so much for the rambling. I'm still feeling high about yesterday actually. It was Pittsburgh's Christmas light-up last night and the whole city was lighted up (duh). And then there were also fireworks. 8 of us (me, jessica, xinghao, jiaqi, mingwei, gerentt, jeremy and aswin) went up to mt. washington to catch the fireworks. The fireworks itself were okay at first, but it got better towards the end. I think there were various shapes being displayed.. I recalled seeing a heart and an arrow through the heart and the tree at the end was really beautiful. But I think what makes going up to mt. washington in the freezing cold was the view you get up there of downtown Pittsburgh. To say it was stunning and magnificent was an understatement. It's really really really breathtaking. No wonder it was voted the second most beautiful view in the US. And then I finally got to ride the incline to get to Mt. Washington and back. I've been wanting to ride the incline ever since I came here and it was definitely worth a ride. The only downside was the weather though. It was really freezing cold up there..like -10 degrees? And I still felt cold even when wearing my down jacket; can't imagine when it goes down to -20!! Waiting in the line for the incline and fireworks to start made all of us shiver and my fingers were numb. But I guess it was worth the wait for the fireworks and the view you get up there. Plus talking rubbish and joking with the rest was really fun haha. I laughed so much because well..they're really funny people to hang out with :) And then after we got down, we went to the (musical/dancing) fountain at Station Square. And took many more pictures. The music being played was really nice and very Christmas-y and romantic (1 song is stuck in our heads now.."Believe it or not I'm walking on air.." haha) and there was a couple dancing under the moonlight to the music, which made my heart melt cos it was really sweet and romantic. I really enjoyed myself last night. Plus Station Square is also my favorite place in Pittsburgh because of the nice view, which sort of reminds me of CBD in Singapore. Oh well..
I heard Russell Peters (I think that's how his name is spelt) is pretty big in Singapore too. Well, here, it's pretty big too. Just cos the 4 of them (xinghao, mingwei, jiaqi and aaron) know the lines inside out and keep repeating them. It's really really funny. "Your mother is so fat that when she jumped for joy..she got stuck". Hahaha.
Hmm..I sound really distracted now..I probably am. Should get back to doing the outline again. Looking forward to Thanksgiving break next week (Chicago!!) but not after that. Homework and mid-terms ugh..bummer!
Tomorrow - low of -7 degrees, few snow showers(!!) snow with rain eww..
Friday - about -4 degrees, high of 2 degrees
Saturday - low of 0 degrees, high of 9 degrees
Sigh..weather getting so much colder. And it's only mid-November. I just hope that there's not much wind. When the wind blows, whoa..
Anyway, tomorrow morning I'll have to register for my spring courses. So fast! Almost a full sem gone by. By luck of the draw, I have quite an early online registration time, but two of the courses I want are already on waitlist. Ugh.. lowest priority for being a freshman. Hopefully I can still get those courses.
Hmm.. I've less work to do this week..partly cos I have an extension for my interp paper. But I better get started on that soon. Don't know if I should change my thesis. We have to do something on food, so my original thesis was about nutrition and taste (which my TA thinks is quite good), but I'm thinking of changing it to Singapore food. Haha. But don't know how to form a proper thesis and relate it to what we have done and find related authors. Bleah. Maybe the extension wasn't such a good idea after all.
On a positive note, something to look forward to next week: Thanksgiving break from Wednesday to Sunday!! :) We're going to Chicago, from Tuesday (haha skipping 1 day of class cos couldn't get air tickets) to Saturday. Hope the weather in Chicago won't be that bad, but I think it's gonna be worse. Should be a fun trip. On the other hand, the 2 weeks after Thanksgiving break are gonna be crazy for me. I have 3 mid-terms (wed, thurs, fri) the week after thanksgiving and a presentation. And the following monday I'll have another exam. Wonderful. But I won't think about that so early now.
Hmm.. it'll only be 1.5 months more before I go back. Can't wait to go back! Just thinking of home sometimes makes me want to cry. That's just how much I miss home. Oh well. I guess it's natural to feel that way?
Anyway, today marks the beginning of November and I've been here for 2.5 months now. But it feels much longer. There are so many things that have happened which makes me think that I've been here much longer. All the many little things that have happened, plus the never-ending homework. I feel that I've done so much work here, but it's only just a half-sem gone by. Well, I can't wait to be back though. I guess I thought that I won't miss home so much, having studied (overseas technically) in Singapore for 7 years, but I really do miss home. Sometimes, just thinking of home makes me tear (like right now). I miss my family most, which is unexpected really since I don't think my family is never that close, but yeah I miss my parents and my brothers. Don't get me wrong though, I like studying here. It's been a really eye-opening, unique, if not valuable, experience. One of the things that I regret though is that I haven't really mixed around more with Americans. Mostly I just hang out with the Singaporeans. Not that it's bad, but I guess being in US, you should really try to mix around with other people more. But hanging out with the Singaporeans really gives me a comforting feeling. I can't really describe it, but it just feels right to be with them. We can talk freely in our Singaporean accent, and to me, it feels liberating. I don't know, but I find that whenever I talk with Americans, I always adopt a weird accent that I find so unnatural. I can't help it; it doesn't even sound remotely like American accent. I've a few close Asian American and even fewer Caucasian friends though, people that I can really talk to. Most of the Americans I know are just acquaintances, people you say 'hi' to but nothing else besides that. But hanging out with the 4 of them (Jessica, Xinghao, Jiaqi and Mingwei) can really make me feel better. We can have the most lame, corny, random and out-of-point conversations ever, which can really make me laugh till my stomach hurts. And I'd feel so much better after that. I guess they're mostly the reason why I'm enjoying myself here.
Oh well..rushing off now. Gotta start doing my interp reading and study for calculus test tmr. Ugh.