A long drive, a near miss, and a lot of boxes...

So, last weekend was a lot of driving. First, the 520 miles from Worcester, MA to Richmond, VA. The traffic at the New Jersey Turnpike and Northern Virginia was really bad. The whole drive took me about 12 hours. And secondly, the 630 turned 700 miles from Richmond, VA to Ann Arbor, MI. In order to avoid the rush-hour traffic, I avoided the shorter route (through Washington DC) and chose the longer, but less traffic and more scenic route (through West Virginia). It took me about 11.25 hours for the drive.

So, more than 1200 miles of driving within 60 hours. That's pretty hardcore huh!

A near miss. On the way back from Richmond to Ann Arbor, at about 4pm, turning onto the Ohio Turnpike on I-77 North, when I was turning on a ramp onto the turnpike, at about 35-40miles / hour, I had an aquaplaning and lost control of steering the car, and ended up skidding and made a 180 degree turn. Fortunately, I was calm enough to not to apply brake or anything. And even more fortunate was there wasn't any car behind me, and there's a huge patch of pebble-road where I stopped after the spin. It was a close call.

And a lot of boxes. As I drove down to Richmond, VA to visit my cousin, Jessica and her family, who just moved there from Wilmington, Delaware. There were a lot of boxes. How many boxes would you consider as a lot? How about 400 boxes (furnitures not included). They had an army of movers who just started packing and moving their stuff on Monday. (It took them 2 days to pack, 1 day to load, 2 days to transfer and unload.) So, they were busy unpacking when I arrived on Saturday evening. And these professional movers did wrap all the stuff nicely, and with a lot of paper.
Look at the stack of paper. By the end of the second day, it was piled higher than 5 feet tall. After witnessing this scale of moving, I didn't dare to utter a word about my moving. I mean, I had about 10 boxes of stuff and that's it.

Also, from the meals I had around Richmond, I like the place already. For Saturday dinner, we went to a Vietnamese restaurant, and the Pho was amazing. It was really really good. For Sunday lunch, we went to an Italian restaurant, where I had Capellini with eggplant parmesan. It was great too. And for dinner, we went to another Vietnamese restaurant, where I had assortments of BBQ/grill. And, I too had quite some wine with Jessica, Tomas and their his father, Jose. We had champagne too. Great times to have with family.A lot of hard work was put into decorating this tray.

So, I unloaded all the stuff from my car, and also moved all the stuff I had in the storage into my apartment. I unpacked most of the boxes, left with the luggage bags of clothing to be put away. Tomorrow, I still need to make a trip to IKEA to get all the stuff before I can get my cooking going.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend, topping off an incredible summer, just great! And having all that, it's only normal (at least for me) to think about what's next? When will all these great things end? Whatever it is, I'm gonna be positive and have my fun.

Hard to say goodbye

You know that you like your job when you find it hard to leave it.
You know that you like your colleagues when you find it hard to leave them.
For these reasons, I know that I like my job and my colleagues.

Today is the last day of my internship, and handing over the projects I did, and doing write-ups for the reports or tools I built was like writing a will.

I'm pretty much packed-up now, just left with some stuff to be loaded into the car tomorrow, because, it will draw too much attention for me to load the car at night, and it will attract others to steal my car too, I mean, a fully loaded car, in a not so good area, just sounds wrong to me. So, I'm planning to hit the road at 7am tomorrow, and hopefully reaching Richmond, VA at 5-6pm.

This past week, I had been eating out more, because, I was too lazy to cook, and I did succumb to the convenience of fast food. I mean, drive-thru is just so easy, you don't even need to untie your seatbelt to order your food. The most troublesome part is having to turn down the volume of the radio while I order the food over the intercom. Damn, I'm getting lazy.

So, there's good news. But, I'll have to wait for awhile to make sure that it's official before making any announcement.

I'll post again on Monday, when I'm back at Ann Arbor, in my new apartment. Hopefully, I'm not too tired from all the driving and will be able to do some unpacking, as I have to attend the coordinator training the very next day, (a whole day event), and then, IAPA training starts on Wednesday, and the training is going to be intensive too.

And, I need to furnish my apartment... things to get:
1) 32 - 37 '' LCD/Plasma tv
2) Nintendo Wii
3) Futon/Sofa
4) Coffee Table
5) Rugs
6) ...

so, i'll be going to Ikea and CircuitCity/Bestbuy next week too.

Fun! Fun! Fun!

One week down, one week left

If you haven't already notice, I'm kinda obsessed with numbers. Counting this, tracking that. So, one week down (my 8th), and one last week left. :(

Last Wed, I met up with Ray & Grace at Minado - a Japanese buffet restaurant. For those familiar with Japanese buffet in Klang Valley, I would say that it's not as good as Jogoya (check out CrushedGuava's post on Jogoya link , but it's definitely better than Oishi!, I had quite a lot of sushi because I love sushi, and the quality was pretty good, and I was really hungry. :) Say, I had ~20 pieces of sushi, some sashimi, some steam dumplings, an unagi handroll, some crab cake, ice cream, fruits and some dessert. Good food + great company = Amazing night.

Friday, I started liking Access, and writing macros for that matter. It's great to be able to work on a report, and then, maintaining it, and kinda make it automated so that the next person can update it easily. Putting pieces of data and pressing buttons here, and scripting there, and tada ---> a report is generated. Understanding the processes behind the whole project and seeing the outcome and knowing how useful it will be is really rewarding. Knowing the hours that I put in is for something good and helpful to others really makes me happy. :-)

As this will be my last weekend here in Worcester, MA, I ran some errands yesterday. After a rather long phone conversation with my parents, I went to the gym, and after the gym, I went to service my car, and next, a car wash. I watched 2 episodes of America's Got Talent for the night. Also, had a 6-pack of Stella to celebrate something good. Still under speculations, need some confirmation.

Today, did laundry, and been thinking about packing and all.

Next week, at work, it will be mostly wrapping things up, and also, to do some write-ups about the work I did, so that the next person will know what I did and how to update it and all. I know I have said this a thousand times, but really, time flies.

More thoughts...

Quite awhile ago, some time in late May or early June this year, while I was killing one of those nothing-much-going-on nights, I was flipping through tv channels, I saw this reality show, where it's about dumber than reality people running a tanning salon. So, the show showed how ridiculous some people in today's world is.

Well, I'll let you decide how ridiculous they are:
Scene I: A parent brought her 11 year old daughter into the tanning salon, to get a Lindsay Lohan package, ~$200-$300..., because her daughter was going to take class photo the next day.
"Do you want to look like Lindsay Lohan?" quoting the employee of the salon.

Ridiculous enough? Maybe not?! Try this:

Scene II: Two of the employees from the salon were seen scared and all, because... they were going to spray-tan a corpse to get it ready for an open-casket ceremony.

After watching that, I completely lost it. I said to my roommate, what's wrong with our world? He said: There's nothing wrong with the world, it's just America.
I replied: Well, it's not before long, the world will catch up with America.
He said: True.

I sat back and imagined what else are ridiculously stupid but the world caught it like a flu, and spread it like a disease. Some songs: like mis-spelled, mis-pronounced, chipmunk-like voice songs... buy you a drank? what is a drank? Don't get me wrong, I listen to all kind of musics (other than too heavy ones - like metal). But, really, is this where we are heading?

just some random thoughts...

My cap...

If you look at my traveling photos, you should be able to see that I wear the bright yellow/maize Michigan cap. And yes, for the past 3 years, wherever I go, I'll definitely bring along that cap because I like it, and it's a good way to connect with people.

When I was traveling, wearing that cap, there'll always be the occasional friendly 'Go Blue!' from somewhere. Sweet. Also, it's a good way to identify yourself as a proud wolverine. 3 years ago, while I was first in NYC, while on the bus trip to Washington DC, I was identified by the cap by two other people who were on the trip, and they went to Michigan too. So, linked!!! And we chatted awhile on the trip.

There's also that time on the train to Pittsburgh, but well, that's kinda unfair to attribute meeting others on the train to the cap as the train set off from Ann Arbor.

On Spring Break, 5 months ago, I went to Dublin, Ireland for 3 days, and at the hostel in Temple Bar, I met a pair of siblings from Michigan who were traveling there too. Even though they didn't go to University of Michigan, they are from Michigan, and that our link too. So, we ended up going to bars together and also, took the bus tour together. Fun time.

Also, last month, on the way down to NYC, in the bus station in Boston, there's also the 'Go Blue!'

Last weekend, as I mentioned in my previous post, I met a guy who went to Michigan for his undergraduate degree while staying in the youth hostel at Truro, MA (the outer cape).

So you see, it's not just an ordinary cap. It's more than just a cap. More than an extraordinary cap. It's a symbol, it's a connector between people. It's a reputation. It's an identity.

I was once asked why am I so proud of Michigan? Well, because it's something to be proud of. I'm pretty sure it's a combination of my experiences, my take-away, the people I met, the parties I attended, the classes I took, and much much more. What's better than a home game football Saturday?

School pride? I bet.

Trip to Cape Cod...

So, my trip to Cape Cod started not-so-well. On Friday night, there was a thunderstorm going on, and at about 10.30pm, I heard a crashing noise, so, I went to the window of my room (on the second floor) to check out where did that noise come from. And to my surprise, I saw two kids with baseball bats beating the shit out of a truck. The wind-shield, the side-windows, the doors... It scared the crap out of me. I wanted to take a picture of it, but I was charging my batteries for the trip, and also, I couldn't really take a picture of them without letting them know about it because it was dark and I definitely needed the flash to take that picture. So, I just watched from my room, hiding, while fearing that they were high on something, and will go to the next car (mine or someone else's) when they were done on the first one. But, fortunately, they targeted that truck and ran away after they were satisfied. I took a picture of the truck the next morning, at 7.05am, just before I hit the road for the Cape.

I started my journey at 7am because the traffic to the cape is normally really bad on weekends, unless you leave early. I had no problem following the driving directions I printed from Mapquest(R) and reached Provincetown, MA at 10.15am (~160 miles). I was way too early for my 12.45pm whale watching trip. At first, I wanted to try my luck, asking if I could join the 10.30am tour instead, but unfortunately, that trip got canceled. So, I walked around Provincetown downtown and had a decent lunch before the trip.

Provincetown, link, is known for its reputation as a gay resort. So, if you are not comfortable with gay couples, it might not be a good idea to visit here.

The whale watching trip was amazing, and I was burned by the sun, (I left my sunscreen in the car, so, didn't re-apply while I was baking under the hot sun for 3.5 hours). Other than the videos below, I took many pictures of whales of different behaviors. It was definitely a must-do activity. It's like watching national geographic/discovery channel's documentary live. Two out of the more than 200 photos I took on the whale-watching trip.
The humpback whale was lobtailing in this one.Flippering in this one (the whale was actually on its back, and was flapping both of its flipper. Imagine lying on your back, and raise your hands... that's the position the whale was in).
After that trip, the heat started to get to me. (I'm not good with too much sun, and that's why I only run indoors in the Summer, or else, I will spend the entire day 'in heat'... where I can feel my body 10 degrees warmer than it should be...) I decided to push my plan of visiting the Highland Light House to the next day. So, I drove to Truro, link, about 10 miles away from Provincetown, for the hostel to rest and called it a day. (yeah right, I went for a short trail after a quick frozen dinner, but missed the sunset). It was Hostelling International (HI) again, (the same hostel chain that I stayed in about 3 years ago when I first visited New York city during my 2004 Winter break trip).
A google-map, which I added the red line and the blue dot. The blue dot was the place where we spent the night. And that's the Atlantic Ocean...
View of HI-Truro from the beach with 1X magnification.
View of HI-Truro with 12X magnification.
HI-Truro is a mansion, 5-minute walk from a private beach, in the Cape Cod National Sea Shore Park... amazingly quiet and perfect for a great-escape vacation. Serene, tranquil...
After a short trail, up the hill, but missing the sunset. But, the view from above was really breathtaking.

One thing to expect if you are traveling alone and staying in a youth hostel is to meet people. (you gotta be alone, or maybe a couple, if you are in a group, it's hard for you to meet other people in the hostel). People from all over the world, well, at least from other parts of the country. And, I think all my staying in hostel experience had been great, and maybe I'm lucky thus far? Can't believe that I met a guy, an attorney, who went to University of Michigan, class of 86, and he was traveling with his son, and we struck up a conversation easily, and got well-acquainted. No way! And then, I met with other people, an air-stewardess/court-reporter, 2 ladies from Ireland, another from Germany and a guy from England. 7 of us spent the night at the beach, just chatting, and enjoying the sight, sound and the feel of the ocean. Also, the sky was clear, and I could see more than a thousand starts just with my naked eyes. Not to mention the milky way could be seen clearly too. And shooting stars(I did make a wish), and I got to see the moon-rise. And yes, it was amazing. But, all these amazing sights were not captured because I left my camera in the hostel. And another bad thing from the night was, I got bitten by bugs pretty badly, I counted more than 10 marks the next morning. Oh wait, did I mention the 7 of us finished 6 bottles of wine... It was a great night. It was just plain relaxing, and relaxing.

The next morning, damn body clock, I woke up at 6 again. But, I decided to go back to bed (just to wake up at 7 again, and gave up). Another thing to expect while staying in a youth-hostel is, not-youth-male (in the 60s) snoring!!! The most ironic thing was, the snorer (he was the only one that snored loudly) was wearing earplugs.

So, I had oatmeal (breakfast provided by the hostel), and after packing up and all, I went to the beach to get some color. :P. It's morning sun, and I can handle it better. I strolled down the long beach, and the weather was perfect.
Cooling sea breeze, with perfect morning sunshine. Couldn't get any better than that... and it's the Atlantic Ocean...

After that, I checked out from the hostel at about 9.45am, and drove to the Highland Lighthouse aka Cape Cod Light. This lighthouse was famous not only because it is one of the brightest, but because it was moved back 90ft from it's original position in 1996 because of the sliding cliff.
The lighthouse current position, and the previous position (marked by the rock).

The view from the lighthouse was wonderful, and the wind up there was really strong.
The wind carries dust/sand and was constantly blowing at me during my entire 1.5 hours there. (I was there for quite a long time because my next destination was the Truro Vineyard, but it only opened at 12 noon on Sunday.) I went to the Vineyard, couldn't participate in the wine-tasting because of pressing time, and I needed to drive for 3-hours back later. I just stopped by, took pictures of the vineyard, and bought 2 bottles of wine, 1 for my keeping, another as a gift (didn't take the picture of the bottle, but the vineyard is famous for its lighthouse-shaped bottle).

The scenic highway...just a quick pit-stop...

The drive back to Worcester, MA was pretty uneventful. Forgot to mention that on my way to Cape Cod, a tiny pebble stone chipped my wind-shield. And there's a tiny crack on my window now...The crack...

In all, the trip to Cape Cod was really an amazing one. Being able to appreciate nature, and also, to meet up with a fellow wolverine and meet people from other countries and all... not to mention the thoughts that went-through my mine from my conversations with the fellow Wolverine were well, left me with a lot more to think about.

Whale Watching... it's not a trip, it's an adventure...

Hey guys, so, I'm back from a short trip to Cape Cod. It was an amazing trip and I'm still taking it in and still loving the experience I had. Anyway, I'll dedicate this post to videos I took on the trip, and few other posts to pictures and write up. :)