Spring Break and Birthday!

Sorry this is kind of late, but I am lazy and there are assignments waiting for me. =(

Anyway, some pictures of my spring break trip to Branson, Missouri. =) I had so much fun there, so relaxing, no worries about life, how wonderful. =p But, every vacation have to come to an end, so I am back in reality, which is not so enjoyable. Sigh...

On Mar 23, my dear celebrated her birthday! Yes, I did suprise her, and she was happy with the celebrations. Anyway, picture is worth a thousand words, so I will let the pictures do the talking. =D

How's that? Nice? =D Wahahaha...

Alrighty, I am done here now. Hopefully the next post is very soon instead of another month of absence! =S Ciaoz!! =)

Spring Break!!!

Yay!! Spring break officially starts for me!! Well, it will end early as well, but let's not care about it, let's care about tomorrow's trip!!

I am so happy, I finally can get some rest!! Always working and studying without much play is not fun, and tomorrow till next Tuesday I will be playing all day long!! Let's hope my boss won't call me, then I have less worries. But I am not bringing my laptop along, so I won't carry my work along to spoil my holidays!! =p

Where am I heading you say? I am heading over to Branson at Missouri with my host parents and my girl!! How fun is that?! I just can't wait to go!! Another 12 hours and I will be on my way there! So nice even just to think of it now!! I can't wait I can't wait!! =D

Oh, I am heading back to Malaysia for a homecoming trip come June 1st as well!! It's been so long since I set foot on Malaysian soil! Now just hope that I will do well this semester in studies as well as work, and I can enjoy my success when I am back in Malaysia! =p Fingers crossed babe!! I am just so happy now, even though I am tired. Wahahaha...

I really should start on making the sandwich for tomorrow's trip, but I just can't help relaxing and enjoying myself now!! =p Aight, enough of crap, let's get started on the sandwich... See ya after the break!! I will make sure there will be pictures here!! =) Have a good break everyone!! Cheers!!

Chicago -- the Windy City

It's spring break, and off I went to the windy city, Chicago. It's a 6 hours drive there from Des Moines, and it was a great relief when we reached Chicago. Stomachs were grumbling because of hunger, joints are sore due to lack of strecthing, and everyone are tired due to the long journey.

Finally, our first meal in Chicago. Comments about that restaurant was pretty convincing, but I must say that it did not live up to expectations. Even those who gave good review was disappointed. Anyway, we made our way to the hotel and recharged our batteries.

Rise early my fellows, our destination will be dim sum at Chinatown! Reluctantly we dragged ourselves up and made our way to the restaurant. The dim sum was quite okay, but if compared to those we get in New York City, it is a mile off from that standard. Anyhow, we head to our next destination -- downtown Chicago for St. Patrick's Parade.

People were everywhere when we reached the area. Every vantage point for a clear sight of the parade were taken. We compensated for it, and can only blame ourselves for not arriving earlier. Anyway, it wasn't all that important. I took pictures of the parade, but then started to get bored, and so we left.

We walked about nearby, visiting the reknown Chicago Bean (it is call some other name, but it is nicknamed Chicago Bean) and also downtown Chicago. We also managed to take some pictures of the river which was dyed green for St. Patrick's Celebration. Authorities claim that they use environmentally friendly dye, but I still can't help thinking what the fishes in the water think! Maybe something like, "Wow! Plenty of algae floating in the water today? Every fish, open your mouths and start eating!" =p

We went back to Chinatown after spending time downtown. Dinner time, which means we are hungry and food will be served soon! We filled up our grumbling stomachs at a seafood restaurant, again claimed to be very nice. It didn't live up to expectation again, and I didn't eat much. Maybe my expectation was to high, but I doubt it.

Karaoke was the next event, and the place for karaoke looks similar to red light area! They even use red lights to illuminate the area! It wasn't too bad, and the bartender aka technician aka 'one man show' was friendly and we did had some fun time there. Suprisingly, one of us was hungry after singing! So supper was up next. We had some food again and head back to the hotel, a journey where everyone except the driver started to doze off.

We slept till the sun was high up in the sky, then headed out in search for korean barbeque. We spent some time getting the address right and the name of the restaurant, but finally our GPS and friend in Des Moines got us to the place. Everyone was very hungry at that time, but there was only one waitress serving three tables! Patience is a virtue, and finally we were rewarded with food to treat our hunger. It was quite nice, but again, I like New York City's korean barbeque better.

We spend some time walking around the korean village, then head back to Chinatown for snooker and pool session. We cancelled the original plan of buffet steak for dinner due to the price and also the mood, and succumb to walking around Chinatown. We end up spliting into a few groups, and I walked with my dear brother. We had char siew and siew yok fan (barbeque pork and roast pork rice) for dinner. The serving was huge, and we had a satisfying meal. We headed back to the hotel, had just a little booze as we planned to play some games that night, but everyone was more interested with those hilarious commercial which the television was airing, and we called it a day after those commercials.

Korean food for brunch the next day, which was the best meal of the trip in my opinion. I spent quite a lot at the korean mart as well, but it was well worth it I must say. A last stop at Chinatown to get more char siew and siew yok and roast duck and also some pastry like egg tarts and buns, we head back to Des Moines. Rainy weather and long journey isn't pleasant, and napping during the journey was the main event.

Back in Des Moines finally, and dinner was great. Kimchi and korean snacks with siew yok and stuffs is a great match. After sleeping on the floor for a few days, my bed couldn't have felt better! =p All in all, I must say Chicago is a nice city. Definitely I will visit Chicago again one day. But to compare it with New York City, I prefer New York City. And for now, back to catching up with studies for the rest of my spring break! Adioz.

NYC

New York City!! I am in New York City!! How lucky I am! =)

The first thing everyone who took the plane to NYC will experience is the cab, those yellow cab. Once you have seen that, it will create a bad impression of NYC, especially people from Des Moines. Honking and shouting and speeding is a norm for all those cabs. Slow and you get honked; traffic? Not a problem for them! They will just zig zag across the traffic as if there weren't there.

Anyway, I made it safely to my destination, Rachel's uncle's apartment. Unpack all those stuffs and then had dinner. Guess what I had for dinner? Nasi Lemak!! It is so easy to get Malaysian food here! Chinatown have every food you Malaysian will want to have after being deprieve of Malaysian food for some time! =p

We spent Christmas eve eating steamboat at a restaurant. It wasn't bad, but it could be a tad better I think. We didn't have the chance to eat dim sum during Christmas in some big @$$ restaurant which the queue spill out of their main door, so ended up having lunch during the scheduled karaoke session. Karaoke isn't my cup of tea, so I only sang a little as respect to the others. We had steamboat again in uncle's house for Christmas dinner. This time it was great! Add the home made chilli and you get some perfect steamboat dinner!

We went shopping on Boxing day, and I spent some dough on an American Eagle sweater, which is very warm. =p My dear elder brother bought me perfume as Christmas present, and my sister gave me a sweet card. She's looking for a Christmas present for me too! Gosh, I am so spoilt ain't it? But I love it and I love them! Hahaa...

We spent yesterday walking around Wall Street, took some pictures and stuff like that. Due to some complications I couldn't get a pair of shoes for my brother. Fate, that's what he said. Maybe it just wasn't meant for him, and maybe today we will get something better.

Alright, I guess that's all. Let me continue enjoying my pampered NYC trip! Adioz.

Kansas City

Thanksgiving is here! That also means that the long awaited break from studies is here! For this ever so lucky boy here, he managed to jump on a ride to Kansas City for a one day trip, on the Saturday before Thanksgiving break even started!

We first headed to Kansas City's Historic City Market. This place just give me, or rather us, the feeling that we are in Europe. There were Italian shops, Arabic shops, and many other fresh farm products stalls.

We got our tastebuds to work with a cheese burger when we reached there, mostly because the atmosphere there tempted us to try the burger. Turkey leg was also offered, but we just settled for cheese burger. It was quite normal, but I guess the 'feeling' when eating it made the difference.

We happened to spot a wine shop while eating the burger, and we got even more lucky when we actually were right on time for wine tasting! We didn't plan anything for wine, but ended up tasting different wine, ranging from French wine to champagne to dessert wine! Maybe wine tasting is a marketing strategy as it attracted many like minded people to the shop, making it quite crowded! Luckily we were early, and we get to taste the wine before the crowd came in. Call it marketing strategy, it sure works well! The four of us ended up with a bottle of wine each.

We wandered around the area, entered the Steamboat of Arabia, Chinatown which actually is similar to asian market here in Des Moines, and lastly went lunch at Bo Ling's. According to the website, lunch was supposed to be great. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out what it was expected to be. The food we ordered were too salty, or too much MSG.

Anyway, we headed over to Country Club Plaza after taking some time to find the place. It was well worth getting lost in downtown as we didn't plan anything for downtown. Lucky charm was with us again, allowing us to catch glimpse of the city, from building decorated to look like a row of books to statues and fountains to beautiful buildings.

After a little exploration and photo shooting, we found a parking spot at Country Club Plaza. This area is impressive. All sorts of shops and brands appear to be here! We found Apple, Coach, Sony, Lucky Brand Jeans, American Eagles Outfitters, etc. We spend almost 4 hours there, had dinner, and then figure out the way to head back to Des Moines.

I must say Country Club Plaza is quite a posh area. Branded fashion clothings and fine dining and branded fashionable jewellery can all be found here. If you have loads of money to splash and want an upgrade from the current lifestyle, I would say hire a fashionista and get all the stuffs from Country Club Plaza!

Time always fly when we are enjoying ourselves. When the sky gets dark and the time wandered off, it's time for us to head home. We also have to make it for a birthday bash back home. I must say this is a very nice trip for me, and I will go back to Kansas City again to visit what I've missed. Schweet!