Flying and Settling Down

Hey peeps...

It's been almost three days since i last updated my blog. I can't get my hands to any of the computer in the lab and my internet connection was down. That’s the reason why I didn’t keep u guys informed about my wonderful journey to the States.

First Day, 08/23/2004(Monday), from KLIA:

My parents and I reached the KL International Airport at 15 minutes past 11. Most of my friends who are going to fly together were already there. After check-in my luggage, two big bags weighing slightly more than 43 kilograms (there are considerably light as compared to those of my friends’ who totaled up to 63 kilograms), Min Han and Chee Han arrived and met me. My brother, Nigel and his girlfriends, Cindy, came to meet us as well. We mingled around, took photographs, and had lunch at McD.

After the lunch, it is about time for me to leave. After catching a few memorable shots, we lifted ourselves with heavy heart and took the escalator down to the immigration counters, where only flight passengers are allowed to enter, that’s where my family, friends and I parted.

The journey to Taipei was still bearable, by watching a movie: Mean Girls featuring Lindsay Lohan, then reading the on board magazine, and had a light meal, four hours had passed and we had arrived in Taipei. The taxi-ing in the airport was delayed, and it was just a short stop, we stopped in Taipei for less than 50 minutes. But who cares, I’ve been to Taipei…hahahaha

Coming up next is the big killer... the journey from Taipei to Los Angeles International Airport(LAX) is 11 hours and + minutes. yup... u heard me rite... 11 hours... so, wat can i do for 11 hours at the congested place? I did some leg exercise, more like toes exercise, to prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis...and tried to sleep.... but just can't help waking up intermittently... and the air on the plane is really dry and my lacks started to crack...and it was really no fun to travel on the plane for so darn long... All i can do was to look at the LCD panel in front, and counting down the time to reach LA, hoping that by doing so, the flight will be over faster, but of course, i'm wrong...

i reached LA international airport at about 1830 hrs, local time, GMT -0700, (15 hours slower than Malaysia time),and the immigration checking was fine for me, there were a few unlucky guy that was randomly chosen to be questioned further... but getting the luggage is no fun, there are really heavy and bulky and we had to check them out and check them in again,for the next connecting flight to Chicago in the next morning...

By the time we checked out and checked in our luggages, it was about half past eight, some of my poor friends were not 'freed' yet...so, a bunch of us decided to go to Motel 6 (a big Motel chain in the US) nearby to get a room, to rest for the night...
the room at Motel 6 was not bad... it is quite spacious and clean... it is not any other motel... it is comparable to a 3 stars hotel in Malaysia...

Second Day, 08/24/2004(Tuesday), from LA:

The next morning, at about 4.45 am, we left our Motel to go to the airport to get our ticket and of course to catch our connecting flight to Chicago. The immigration checking here was really strict, we have to take off our shoes, open our laptop bags, this and that, and scanned by a hand-held metal detector, in order to clear the gate... after that, i got a cup of Vanilla Creme as breakfast....
at 6.30 am, we board the plane to Chicago, that's when we parted with Sui Lin, who will be taking a later 7.30am flight straight to Boston...

The journey from LA to Chicago international airport is 4 hrs, but we reached there at 1330hrs, why?? hehehe, is the timezone again... Chicago uses the Central time zone, which at GMT- 0500, 2 hrs faster than LA,... the journey is still bearable..... at least, they showed good movie aboard....

After reaching Chicago international airport, we had to walk really fast to the next gate to catch our next connecting flight to Detroit International Airport, because the time between the arrival at Chicago and departure from Chicago is only 40 minutes apart... the flight from Chicago to Detroit is only 51 minutes long, and again, change of timezone, Detroit uses the Eastern time, GMT -0400, which is 12 hours slower than Malaysia...

So, we reached Detroit at 1540 hrs, after meeting the MSD officer there and also our really really nice seniors, and getting our luggages, and stuffed it onto 5 different taxis, we went to check in at the early arrival housing, at Betsy Barbour House... Before moving into our respective rooms, we had a meeting with the MSD officers, and filled in some forms, coz of formalities, nothing much.... Boring... :-P

So, after that, we moved into our temporary room for the night, and our seniors brought us out to have dinner... We had chinese food for dinner, it is considerably nice, but the serving is really huge.... enormous....it's scary....i can hardly finish mine, and managed to eat up all the chicken, thankx to selective eating skill... after the dinner, we took a walk around the central campus, although is about 8.30pm, it was still very bright... it's like 5-6pm in Malaysia.. it's summer, and the sun will set at around 9 +....

nothing much during night.... quite tired... and basically, rested well.... prepared for moving to permanent room tmr....