Gabe, Ambrose, Yongchang, Carol & I took a day trip to Chicago to see the sights! This was about 2-3 weeks ago heh. Sorry for the slow updates...oh yeah, a DAY before Gabe got fired =P But he's home now, all safe and sound and happy. There's lots of pics, so I'll just put up a few. We set off at about 2am, with Carol driving and I navigating and keeping her company. After that it was Ambrose and then Gabe...it took about 5hours or so, so we were there by 8:30am, thankfully we didn't get caught in the traffic jam. What I didn't realise was that Chicago was 1hour behind from Sandusky, so we gained time going there, but lost time in coming back.

The interesting infrastructure of Chicago


An open lawn (Grant Park) in the Millenium Park where they hold concerts and functions, it's big! We parked here for the day, and spent the day walking around.


The Bean. Yes, that's what it's called. You'd think they'd come up with a more stylo-milo name...go figure.






One of my favourite photos! Haha we look like kids here, and we're so colour co-ordinated...


Monkey-ing around for a bit. We asked this guy on his way to work to help us take this picture, and he was really nice about it, and even started to make conversation. I was thinking wah, he's so late for work and he still want to stay and chat with us, cos it was already 9:30am by then. Then I realised that in Chicago was 1 hour behind heh.


We popped by Dunkin Donuts for a quick breakfast...it was really good timing, as soon as we stepped in, no more than 5minutes later, it started POURING! It was pretty heavy rain...and when we finished up our breakfast, it stopped raining. Like magic =) It was a really clear day for the whole time after that, thank God.


Lemon Juice in a packet...?!?!


Chicago Theatre! They were showing Wicked, but didn't have time to watch it...


NBC in Chicago, where Oprah Winfrey does her shows...


Yongchang climbing the Sears Tower heh. It is one of the most famous buildings in Chicago. It was actually the highest skyscraper in the world at one point of time, until the Petronas Towers in KL took over, by just a few more feet - by longer antennas. Haha.


The view from atop the Sears Tower...many famous people have come for chicago, many blues artistes, charlie chaplin, dan akroyd, ernest hemmingway...




Chicago Tribune! Kinda reminds me of Spiderman hehe.


Here at Navy Pier! Where all the shops and attractions are at, mostly touristy stuff =)


Gabe & Ambrose are sitting on some person that was famous or important to this city...poor guy.


The dock of Navy Pier...it may look like some Chinatown place because of the red and the lanterns, but that's because the Shanghainese version of Cirque de Soleil was in town.


Ok have a lot more pictures to load up, but will do it next time, am very sleepy and have to wake up early to go to Philedephia tomorrow! Must jian fei, been eating so much sigh...

2 more days and no more Cedarpoint ever again! It's actually bittersweet leaving this place...I foresee that when I return home on national day, and when I'm over my jetlag, that this past 3 months has been a dream. Work had been pretty crazy, overworked & underpaid...severely. But the people and the experience here has been priceless and absolutely wonderful. Never again will I experience the kind of freedom that they have here, in speech, thoughts, anything! People will just start talking to you out of the blue and making comments...and if you do that in Singapore, people will just look at you like you've gone crazy.

BUT BUT BUT. I MISS THE FOOD AT HOME SO BAD. Gosh. During lunch break today (at 5:30pm ironically), was sitting with Nick, Isaac, Karen & Reina, and they wouldn't stop talking about food. Chicken rice, ou-luak (the oyster omelette), curry fish head, baku-luat, hokkien mee, ba chor mee, ban mian, duck rice...ARGH the list goes on! We plan to have a makansutra-like food trail when we go back, just hop into someone's car and go around the whole of singapore to eat. Just when I thought I was fat, I think I'll go back even fatter after a week home in singapore =P

On Tuesday, we (Ambrose, Carol & I) are driving to Pennsylvania for 3 nights, then driving to New Jersey and staying there for 3 nights (hopefully to see Princeton & Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum), and then driving to Boston for 3 nights (to see Harvard, MIT among other things...also to either sell or dump our car there hehe) and then a Chinatown bus to New York where we'll spend our last 3 nights in the States, before taking a plane on August 7th back hooooooome!!

Taste of Singapura

My mom sent over foodstuff in the mail, like curry powder, tom yum paste...oooh. Was SO happy to receive something from home...I love you Mom! =D


Sharing the wondering chicken curry I cooked with my apartment mates! Nobody had stomach ache from my cooking so that was a good sign.
Left to right: Babora from Slovakia, me, Lenka & her boyfriend Dominque from Czech Republic


Enjoying the local flavour with Danny while waiting for poor Carol to come back from work =P


The guys are crazy, it was like 2 smtg in the morning, and they suddenly decide to have steamboat! This is Britmand and Thomas preparing the 'liao'.


The pre-steamboat stage.


I didn't stay for the steamboat party so I didn't manage to take photos of the cooked food heh.


A yummy chinese dinner cooked bby Carol...yummmy. And yes we use containers cos we're too cheapo to buy proper plates haha.


The chef!

OUR PAYCHECK FROM THE INSURANCE COMPANY!! The accident was really a blessing in disguise (thankfully none of them got hurt of course)...we paid 1,000usd for the car, and got back 931usd! so in total we paid...69usd, which is around S$140 for a vehicle with 4wheels that works that can take us places. Woot!


Now that Gabe is on his way back to Singapore (take care Gabe! Praying for you and Charles.), it's just me, Ambrose and Carol left on our after-Cedarpoint travels. We sent the car for a full check-up and the engine belt was replaced among other things, but thankfully the mechanic said the car is in a much better shape that he expected! So Pennslyvania, here we come! We're leaving on the 25th of July for Penn (last day of work is 24th July, only 12 days more! Wow the weeks go by so fast), so your prayers for a safe drive is much appreciated. It takes about 6 hours to get to Penn, and hopefully we'll be seeing nice sights and scenery on the way there!

Close-ups haha.

The first person I met when I first came to Cedarpoint was Crystal. But she's left due to some things she has to settle, so we had a dinner gathering in her honour to send her off. The employment turnover rate here is really high, people come and go all the time...like Gabe! -_- It's a good thing we'll see you again in Singapore haha.

Dinner at Diana's Deli - Me, Crystal & Danny


The people I'ved worked with - Julie, Jackie, Jason, Crystal & Danny


This was at the curb of our accomodation at the Commons, when we got back from Diana's. To be honest I don't even know some of the people in this picture...haha.
Left to right: Yongchang, Carol, Auburn, dunno-who & Julz. The people behind them are Crystal, Jackie, Danny, Nick, Will (with the red cheeks) and dunno-who.


My two favourite supervisors - Carol & Danny!
For a while they were both my supervisors in my area (called Millenium Force camp) and it was sweet. Until sadly, they moved Carol to Power Tower camp where they are not as nice and much more strict. Sigh.
And yes, in case you're wondering, the camps are named after which ride you're closest to =)

Carol driving us to watch a Cleveland Indians game! =)


The names of baseball players on the sidewalk outside Jacobs Field (the home of the Indians)


The HUGE screen! WOOHOOO! The atmosphere is awesome! We got cheapo $7 seats so we were sitting way WAY WAYYY up at the top of the stadium. It was pretty scary, about 5 storeys high!


The pitch!


A marriage proposal on the BIG screen!


The floodlights surrounding the stadium. The sky was really nice and pretty...until 2 hours later, there were ominous clouds practically racing towards us and there was lightning every few seconds...it was pretty scary. We concluded that we got to see a baseball game AND a lightshow heh.


Part of the stadium at night...beautiful.


The entrance gate of our seats.


Sweet! I love baseball!!