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!

ISA Night

Alright, I know this post is a little late, but better late than never I guess.

We had International Student Association (ISA) Night on Friday, and it was a big hit. Guess what, this lazy boy here actually took the effort to train and rehearse to put together a performance! The best part, we only use 2 days to choreograph and think of what moves to use! In the end, we put together a piece of martial art show, titled don't cry over spilled milk.



Anyway, let that be the last of this post. I shall introduce and give my comments to every performance of the night. Pictures, here they come!



First up, the opening show -- lion dance performance!! Quite nice and simple, though it would be great if there were poles and strings for higher altitude performance. But it was great anyhow.







Next, indian dance. She really know how to dance, but, yes, a big huge BUT, she danced too long. It got boring in the end, maybe it is because I don't know how to appreciate it. But 5 minutes of solo dance? Hmm...




Next, a Malaysian in Malay suit singing a Swedish song in English using a Hawaiian guitar, ukulele. His name, Gan Jia Hao. I must say, he is a talent! Great job!




Sleeping already? Come over here, let me slap you with my thousand hands! The next performance is Qian Shou Guan Yin, or thousand hands goddess of mercy. Not too bad, but I heard complains that they were actually counting the moves till it was audible to the spectators. I guess it was way too hard to perfectly choreograph it without counting!


Anyway, this performance reminds me of my religion class I took in INTI. My group did a presentation about the Goddess of Mercy as well, and we finished off the presentation with a similiar show -- the thousand hands. Aaron was the front man, and he finished it off with a power line -- what are you laughing at? You want me to slap you with my thousand hands? Ahh... Those good old times.




Since you are awake, I present you an Indonesian dance. The organizers try to make the shows consistent in time, so most performance is around 5 minutes, which, I must say, doesn't work well for dances! Same as the first dance, this is way too long even though she can dance really well.



Ah, I see your head drooping. Let me set you to dreamland by playing my flute. There you go, off to see zhou gong.






Oh you naughty kid, sleep and dream of girls dancing?! The power of subconscious mind, naughty you!





Oh, feeling shy? Off to Bollywood? Hold on a minute, you are thinking of stripping a girl while she's dancing?! OMG! It's a guy?! My my, that was freakey!

Come here and allow me to wake you up buy spilling milk on you! Let's fight!

It's kinda troublesome to upload the video, so I guess if you want the video then come and get it from me. =)

lright, peace out. Time for dancing again. Not bad, quite nicely choreographed.

Since there's a good dance, let's keep the ball rolling with another dancing performance!

Alright, enough of dancing. Let's get some martial art again. This time, wushu by Jeremy! Have you seen someone actually performing wushu live? Well, I have! It was great!

Same thing, get the video from me if you want.

Hey hey, all fighting and dancing? Don't you guys know how to read? Let me present you with a poem... Too bad, all I heard really was just some mumbling from a piece of paper, not convincing enough. Good try though.





Alright, enough of literacy, after all, we are here to escape from studies, right? Let the locals strutt their stuffs! Same thing, too long. This time, the girl was a little tired in the end as well. Not bad though.





Ok, let's take a breather and listen to some soothing music. Performed by Sam from Thailand, I must say it was really soothing, and it does sound like Buddhist temple music! Great, but too long as well. =(





Alright, let's see some dancing again. Enjoyed?


Didn't? No no, you are lying. These emcees are doing a great job!! Don't you think so?





Alright, time to end. Let's close the night and head for dinner with a fashion show! Hip hip hoorah!

Sorry, a little potong stim, but get the video from me if you want. =)

Oh Crap!

Finally I have sat for my first ever professional paper, the first step to embark on a journey, to set sail my career. Unfortunately, it was way tougher than I have expected. I don't think anyone expect it to be this tough as well. Anyway, there's no turning back, so let's just wait for the result and see how it goes from there.

The word busy seems to hang on me these days! I guess that explains my absence here. I am supposed to study for my finance test tomorrow, yes yes, the day right after my professional paper, how unfortunate. Still, I am too drained out and lazy to study for it now, that's why I am here ranting.

You think one test is not enough? Add my IS44 assignment due tomorrow to the equation! Gosh! I really should start on all those procrastinated work! But but, can't I just relax a little after draining my brain juice?

Fall is here, and I have yet to take any pictures of mother nature's beauty. Yes, blame it on the paper and the work. Sigh.

Alright, time to rest and replenish my brain juice now. Ciaoz...