Glenn's birthday(25/9/09)

It was Glenn's birthday on Friday and Kaori, Maria and I were invited for a dinner party at a pizzaria downtown. We Had 3 14' pizzas-4 cheese, Pepperoni and Deli. The 4 cheese was the best=) kaori and I gave Glenn a card and a pack of snikers. Maria gave him a card. We all ate till we were full.

After dinner they drovw us to their house and MAN was their house HUGE!!! It has a backyard of a football field and it was behind a soy bean field. Aaron showed me the brick circle he was building. IT WAS A HUGE HOUSE and they only go it for $250000!!! cheap rite.

We went into the house and played ping pong at the basement. They even have a drum set in the basement. SO COOL. While waiting for Glenn to come back from getting ice cream, Aaron and I played WII while the girls played with the cat. Ann brought in the cake which she baked by herself and it was spelled DAD hahaha

We sang happy birthday to Glenn when he came back. Later we played a game called Apples to Apples. It was great fun=) We had a little family time in the living room later and we just chilled. Bullied Aaron for a while=) and then we called it a night at 10pm. Glenn drove us home.

On my way to my room, I realised that I left my keys at their house so i had to call Glenn at their home and they helped me find it. It was at the basement by the ping pong table. Glenn drove all the way back to Crawford to give it back to me. So touched and paiseh...

And that was basically my weekend. Wasn't a very exciting one this week. Hopefully it will pick up the next.

Till then...ciao!

I WON!!! I WON!!!!

Today was such an AWESOME day taht I have to blog about it!!!! I went to St Peter Regional Treatment Centre for community service and ended up with so much more. There was a Diversity Event held by the St Peter Regional Treatment Centre and Sully, Isabel and I went for it. We had to bring things from our home country to promote our country to the inmates. We were there since 10am and Karla and Bert, the representatives from the Centre brought us to St Peter. I was excited as it was my first trip out of Mankato. We reached the Centre and set up our tables and started sharing with everybody that came by. It was fun. We talked for hours. Although the inmates were all classified as mentally ill and dangerous, the people that came were quite fun to be with. They were very engaging and asked a lot of interesting questions. Now I know how the Tourism board people feel when they go around the world promoting Malaysia in exhibitions. After the event, Bert took us around St Peter and when she heard that we have not seen an apple tree before, she drove us to a staff member’s house name Catherine who had an apple tree in her yard. We had fun and I got to pick my first apple from an apple tree=) After that Bert drove us back to Mankato. It was a short but fun trip and I was so thankful that Bert brought us around without us asking. That was so hospitable of them.

later after dinner, there was Fire Dance in the field in front of the Performance Art Theatre. It started at 8pm. Went there with Nanayah, Nargiza, Lennard and Sully. We saw the performance and it was GOOD! The girls were hot but the guys were not...LOL...love the performance though. Had so much fun with the stuff that they laid out for us to play with and we even got to play the drums for the event=) came back to the dorm at 9.30 and met Mike and the gang in the lounge and they told me that the Study Buck draw was at 10pm later. Went to my room and took my bucks and went down to the lobby to see what was there. Prize 1 was a free T-shirt and some candies. Prize 2 (which was what Mike and the rest was aiming for) was a box of PopCorn and some chick flick and Prize 3 was DVD of season 4 of Entourage. I wanted a free T shirt and so I put my bucks into the 1st jar. When the draw started, low and behold, I WON!!!! so now I have a free T-shirt and a lot of candy. Gave Mike and the rest some but i took the sniker bars and 100 grand chocolates=)So happy!!!

So that in short concludes my day today. So happy! It was a GOOD DAY!!!=)

Till then...CIAO=)

Pow Wow and more!

This weekend was fun filled! The weekend is finally picking up!!! Yeah man!

Weekdays are always boring. Always eat, sleep, study. Now have to do annotated Bib somemore. So kelian wei. So much work to do. That y weekends are always welcome.

It started on Friday that I did all my studies and went shopping during the night. Went to Old Navy but nothing much are cheap. So decided to ask Sully to ask Jimmy 2 drive us downtown on saturday.

Was suppose to meet at the Cafeteria at 11.30am. Dah sampai 12 only they rayau masuk. So by the time they we ready, it was 1.30pm. Walk 2 the carpark was 1.45pm and guess what, Jimmy can't drive a stick!!! To cut the long story short, we somehow manages 2 get there(wanna know how? PM me) and we went shopping at the thrift stores. Things were cheaper there. went back at 5.15pm. Had to go for fesyen show at 5.30 so ran back to dorm, bath, change and ran out to find Kaori in her Yukata. so PRETTY. Took a picture and went to the venue together. Had fun at the fesyen show it was 2 CH so i think it was worth it. Later at 9pm, we went downtown to party and that when the real shit happens. Went to The Haze at 10 and it was deserted, stayed on till 11.30pm and left for the Shisa Bar. Smoked Shisa for my 1st time but tak jadi. Tried 10 over times but STILL tak jadi. Ended up swallowing everything. I take it as God's sign of saying no smoking for u! LOL. Went back 2 The Haze at 1am and this time it was happening! Went dancing and 2 guys came hitting on Kaori. She was not putting up a struggle so i guess it was fine. When the guys tried pulling her off the group then only she wiggled her way out and in the end we left cause we were hungry and the place was HOT!!! Saw all sorts of crazy stuff in there!!! Had some fries and then balik at 2 something!!! This was the only day since I was here that I did not do any work or reading and I had FUN!!!

Sunday came, went to church then hurried back for Pow Wow. Mana tau the bus did not come. How 2 go? Luckily Chikara had a car, convinced him 2 go so i paid him 4 gas. It was cool!!! The dancers and the colours were magnificant!. First Native indian culture experience=) Pics are at FB so go check it out there!=)

So that was my weekend. Things are starting 2 pick up so hopefully it will be better next week.

Till then...Ciao=)

beat last week...

last weekend was FUN filled. It was way better than the week b4.

Class started as usual with all the work load piling but what to do. here 2 study ma so mah hv 2 study lo. Started with the muti genre research paper and spend my whole 2 hrs in the library with Nhon(vietnamese graduate dude) and Xu (chinese Graduate). he is working me and I hate it but i think he gets it when im irritated as I apparently I give ppl a kind of look when they push the wronfg buttons sa i think he is a little afraid of me now and knows that i do not work well when im hungry. LOL Borrrowed 2 books 2 read just for the sake of this assignments. Stupid! back home where got do so much work 1. Tipu tipu pass can d la. Nhon is so straight that he must work according 2 schema. HELLO!!! rules are dead, ppl r alive. work around it, find lubang la. sigh....

Friday nite was the best as I finally manage 2 hv fun. As i'm joining a friendship family program and they were having a dinner that night 2 intro the family to the students, i did all my work in the morning till afternoon(6 hours in the library sucked!!!BIG TIME) Dinner came and I met mine. Low and behold, my family is the Worship pastor of the church that im attending here and the wife is teh church administrator. they both work only 10 minutes away from my campus so i can go find them anytime. LOL. They hv 2 daughters and a son and I was invited to the daughters 16th birthday this coming Oct 3. YEAH~~~~

Saturday came and I got 2 go out wif Mumfe, Rabya, Oona and Kaori to the mall in a car! Mumfe has a car so now I finally hv a friend with a car! We made plans 2 got to Chicago so hopefully that turns out well. We had dinner later that night at a Chinese restaurant!!! China Buffet. It was GOOD!!! I finally had some chinese food that I had been craving 4 so long!!! Althought it was 11 bucks but it was satisfying. Had my 1st fortune cookie and its was fun=)Spent the whole night hanging out later and it was great.

Sunday came and sunday school started. I'm helping out 2nd Grade whore are 7 yrs old. I'm helping Mr&Mrs P and so far i hv 2 kids. Medaline, Jamie, Aaron and Anthony. I heard they hv more coming so let see how it goes. They are fun kids! Medaline and Anthony are 'happy' kids so need more strength=) LOL

Had my first tutoring session with George and found out some interesting stuff about him. We will do just fine i hope as we learn from each other=) so interesting when we shared with each other.

So far life has been fun! Hope things will begin to pick up. Going 4 an native American Pow Wow this weekend so stay tuned for that. I hope it will be interesting=)

Till then...ciao=)

A take at Mankato on Labour Day

As I was stuck in my room for 2 days straight as there was nothing to do in Mankato but eat, sleep and study in mr room, I decided not to make Labor Day another day in my room. I was not as lucky to be invited to anyones house like Zully nor was my plan of travelling to Milwaukee to see Chin Chin Che Che came to past as because of the stupid bus schedule. Can u believe that there is only 1 bus that leaves from campus at 7.30pm daily!!! then the landtoair express only leaves from campus at 3&6pm. WTH!!! people wants to leave in the morning has to go all the way downtown which is a 20 minutes walk(as u will find out later) at 4.30am as the bus leaves at 5am. STUPID!!!!

Anyway I decided to do some exploration. Low and behold, the bus does not operate on Labor Day. Great!!!! Determined not to spend another day of Fall confind in my room, I decided to WALK to downtown of North Mankato. Armed with my map, my water bottle and my camera, i set foot and WALKED!!!!

I went down the hill(MSU is built on a hill) and saw a park. I went and explored the park for a while and then found a Vietnam War Memorial. It was so cool!!! and opposite it are houses. I left and continued my journey of trees and fields and about 20 minutes later, I reach town. It was a different feel there. There were Cherry trees along the road on Cherry Street. People having family barbeques, family outing, neighbours sharing life stories. Then I stumbled upon the Mankato riverfront trail which saw the Minnesota River=) Next to it was the train station and learnt that that was where Mankato was founded, along the rivier. Opposite it was the North Mankato Memorial Library. It had a plaque outside stating that it was in Mankato that 33 Dakota Indians were executed while 303 were pardoned by the then President Abraham Lincoln here. It was apperently a dark chapter of the Native American History. So cool to be in such a hsitoric city=)

When I reached MSU, It was only 1.30pm. I heard that there was a sale at River Hills Mall so I decided to check it out. Man was it a mistake! It looked so near on the map but in reality, it was actually a 7KM walk!!! Determined not to give up half way, i soldiered on with my map, almost getting lost, and reached the mall within 2 hours. I enjoyed my accomplishment for an hour and started my journey back so not to miss dinner at 6pm. The journey was long and I was praying all along the way that someone would see me and offer me a ride but too bad I'm not attractive enough nor lucky to enjoy the Northern Hospitality. Everybody just zoom by, pointing, laughing and drovw off. SUcky!!!

Throughtout my journey today, I saw another side of America that I did not see when I'm on the bus. For one, the ecomony has really hit hard on Americans. Many shops are closed and rented out because of it. People use bicycles more too to save on gas and at the Salvation Army, there were a number of people lining up for free lunch. Everybody is trying to safe a buck and make their lives a little better. People shop more on the clearance section, Parents refusing to give in to their children's whims and fancies and only buying things that needed. It was an eye opening sight compared to what was shown on TV.

Another thing is that Minnesotans really appreaciate the sun a lot. They would air their garage, play catch in the sun, biking along the trails and have barbeque just outside the lawn with the family. Anything just to be in the sun. This is so much different then back home where everybody runs away because its too hot. We take sunshine for granted as its always there, 24/7 whole year round. Here, they are doing all they can when the sun is around especially when winter is arriving soon. They are planning and doing things that require the sun soonest before winter arrives. The sight of this makes me nervous sometimes as I do not know the extend of what winter has to hold in Minnesota.

It was so tiring after the long walking of 22KM!!! I wish I have a car here or I was in Minneapolis where everything is within reach. where even though stupid bus would stop on holidays, there is still the LRT or walking to a great new place. Even to catch a bus is easier there as all buses stop at the University of Minneapolis. Mankato just sucks wei when I wanna go out of this place to see more of US. Everything is so inconvinient.

The International Student Office also same. They should make la a trip out of Mankato for exchange students. NNNNNOOOOO!!!!! Instead we are all stuck in Campus and seeing each other everyday.

and that was how I spent my Labor Day...Caio

I'm an exchange student...GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!

I feel so trapped here. I wanna get out but buses here are so in convinient. They only leave for the cities 2 a day. 3pm and 6pm. What abt the ppl who wanna leave in the morning? This is shitty wei. I wanna get out 2 Milwaukee on Labor Day also cannot. If i leave i will hv 2 skip class but when i come back on manday, i can only reach at 11.30pm, and thats in Downtown. hv 2 find way 2 my dorm somemore and it cost USD$150 This sucks!!!

I need 2 find ppl who has a car. It is so much more convienient! here without a car is like cutting of ur legs,literally. U can't walk at night cause it would be freaking cold. Temps at nite can go as low as 5/6'C here.

I need friends who can make me around!!! or at least hv an interest going out and not just staying in campus. Im getting bored of campus!!! these 4 walls are KILLING ME!!!

ARGH!!!!