Why I love Michigan or Ann Arbor or UM or...

There are many reasons why I love Ann Arbor or University of Michigan...

The most lovable thing is the squirrel and the hamster. This hamster is my housemate who is very lazy and sleep 25 hours a day.


Second reason I love being here is because of free Bus Ride. There's magic bus aka M Bus and there's AATA aka AnnArborTransportAuthority which takes me anywhere to shop for groceries. AATA is very concerned about my groceries because I hear "PLEASE REPORT ANY UNATTENDED ARTICLES TO THE BUS DRIVER" everytime I'm on the bus.

Then the other reasons are equally equal lovable. Among the rest, the most lovable is I can get money by playing computer games, fill in the blank, or simply say what I see...in paid experiments/surveys. The university is very rich they grant many researches so that those researchers can give me money. Best ones were to play econ game get $65 and another econ game get $42.

Then I can hear the bell tower singing for 5 minutes on 12pm everyday.

And here people will bless you when you sneeze, no need to "excuse me". The more you sneeze the more blessings you get. Sneeze more!

And if you walk into class after 9:59 minutes after class started you still can walk in with pride and smile to lecturer because you are still 1 second ahead of Michigan time! You are early! not late :)

And I love Michigan football bacause it's the winningest (it's the official word) college football team but this season already lost 2 and only won 1...but that was yesterday's story because today Sep 27 we win Wisconsin Badgers and from now on I bet we'll keep on winning forever...

Oh and everybody loves organic chemistry!

There are more reasons but too many I forget 99% of them...

New York

so, after Boston we went to New York. It isn't as new as New Zealand but it's not as old as Old Trafford.

As usual, we eat and sleep in New York, other than doing other stuffs. We stayed in Brooklyn's Red Carpet Inn motel where there's free breakfast every morning and and there's a television so that we watched Ben 10 and Johnny Test every morning on cartoon Network...

First day we did nothing but went to Empire State Building and did 2 things: the look-very-exciting-but-really-lame-Skyride and the observatory.

Second day we were still in New York and we went to see Statue of Liberty!

and then we took the Hop-on-Hop-off bus tour but we never hop off but we just sit properly in the bus like schoolchildren because we saw NYPD infront of United Nations HQ...duduk diam diam or else police tangkap!

In the evening we took free Sunset Cruise and wah! very nice! It made round the Manhattan Island and Statue of liberty and the wind is so New Yorkish smell...

and we see the so say biggest clock in the world - the Colgate Clock which located in Jersey City. New Jersey is actually very near New York, just swim a bit will reach.

Then at night went for another night bus tour, since included in package...

Oh suddenly 3rd day came and we went to walk walk at Wall Street to a construction site. The construction site was World Trade Center site. And we walked to Century 21 to buy nothing. And then the biggest thing. Broadway show! It was Grease! A fantastic show.

Then on 4th day we went to Madame Tussaud to see many fake people like Micahel Jackson but I think they should make Michael Phelps very soon before Michael Jackson publish another album.

After that we went to China Town and Little Italy etc etc and then walk from the very beginning of 5th Avenue until we see a fella who loves rock so therefore there's a building called Rockefeller. And not to forget Times Square and Grand Central station.


And then the 5th day...
went to a St Patrick's Cathedral and Natural History Musuem and then to Brooklyn park to watch movie!

And the last day we went to Central Park with all our bags and luggages...

Then took a subway to Newark, NJ, walked around, ate at McD and then finally took the Greyhound back to Ann Arbor...The end

Trip to Boston

Again, I went for a trip. Basically I go for trip every holiday.

+Chicago in Winter mid-semester break

+DC & Penn in Spring break

+Cedar Point in before Summer semester

 and now  Boston+ NY + NJ in Summer break

Wah am I'm so rich to travel? 

Oh I saved a lot and did a lot paid experiments/surveys so I'm rich but after I bought a lot (including laptop and camera) and ate a lot I'm poor.

We 5 ppl which names to be kept secret traveled in a group and then there were other people in other group but only met for broadway show (in NY) which was really nice which made me want to watch more.

First we went to Boston by the Greyhound bus which failed to impress us with their service. We traveled almost 24 hours by bus because we want to save money and reduce pollution by not hijacking the plane.

We did something in Boston which was travelling.

We stayed in Holiday Inn.

We ate foods including the most expensive food I ever eaten which was the $30 lobster because I ws cheated by somebody in the group into the restaurant.

We walked here and there and saw somebody and something. We went to Fanneuil Marketplace, and etc. 

Most importantly, Harvard's president awarded me a brochure for being a smart guy and I told her Harvard is Michigan in the East.  

and this is Boston viewed across the river from MIT

Overall Boston was nice but it made me love Michigan more.

The most dissapointed event was unable to go to Prudential's Skywalk because some guy having "private function" up there...

Then the end of Boston trip. 

Let's take a commercial break and the New York and New Jersey part will be right back!

Merdeka

Not intended to write about merdeka but read about it at blog so now I'm writing and you are reading

merdeka = independence = refer to Malaysia's Independence Day 0n Aug 31

8.31
it has been 831 days since I left Msia. oh no no, it's 8 months and 31 days.

what's so special about it? to some people it just a public holiday or wake up in the morning to watch TV or it's just August 31 but when you are study abroad there's sense of patriotism. Not that I wasn't a patriot but as Michelle Obama said, for the first time I really proud of my country, for me, for the first time I really appreciate Hari Merdeka.

and no fireworks display no parade on TV, the only thing is this T shirt
A 50th Hari Merdeka shirt I bought.
The shirt that I wore on Aug 31 2007 & Aug 31 2008 and sometimes Aug 21 and sometimes July 31
and the photo was taken after I took the shirt out from laundry bag...

Doughnut

Why doughnut is so popular?

In Malaysia doughnut was once just doughnut. A ring made of flour topped with sugar. Nothing special. Then there's Dunkin' Donuts...oh now doughnut became donut.

Then suddenly J.Co Donuts suddenly became so popular in a sudden and people get a sudden shock when they see so many people lining to buy just a doughnut.

After J. CO there's BIG Apple

They must be using really big apple to make doughnuts...

And what's more?
Since Malaysians love to eat doughnuts so much finally Krispy Kreme is coming soon!

Please note: finally DOUGHNUT is back after being downgraded to DONUT :)

But...
Why they sell doughnut for such a high price...kesian the makcik at the roadside selling doughnut at 50sen each...

Real Horror Story!

Date: July 30
Time: 12.00am
Place: friend's house
People: 2 hosts (1 with us, 1 in his room); 1 unexpected guest; 1 regular guest; and me

Everyone was staring at screen, attentively watching the movie...light was off, room was dark...

suddenly, something fishy caught my attention! not the movie, not the screen. There's some dark shadow on the ceiling! surrounding the living room...and a sense of horror surged to my mind...is it ghostly ghost?

the black horrible object was flapping its wings, hovering the room and wait the chance to grab its preys!

With no further ado I asked my friends to look up (apparently they were too into the movie until never notice the danger) and I just ran out to escape! And I found myself nowhere to run as the black horrible creature are flying everywhere!

And I saw the door! The door of bathroom! Oh! rush in and bang! door closed! Phew...

Then my friends started to scream for help! And they had no place to hide but to stay...

The black creature (which then identified itself as batman) still hovering on the room and my friends were sitting on the chair motionless, clueless what to do...then me in the safe bathroom :) I saw febreeze so I sprayed Febreeze so that it smells nice.

Then my friends planned to move inside bedroom. They took the laptop, and all of sudden! Boom, all rushed to room and shut door! Oh not all, one rushed toward the door downstair and escaped from the haunted house!

Then the another host who was in his room wandering what's happening out there so he opened the door and when later IM with him, he told "then i opened door and saw it flew by"
He also mentioned "u all like gempa bumi"

As I was still in bathroom which I couldn't possible sleep in the bathroom which is not my bathroom so I opened the door and rushed down stair in just 1 second and escaped!

And for now I have no clue whether the unexpected guest staying in the host's room or they are planning to catch the batman or whatever...

what a scary moment haha. Actually it's not scary it's exciting.

When I'm hungry...

When I'm hungry, I eat.

Other than all the typical American foods [spaghetti burger ham fries steak] which can be really unhealthy and make you feel bad, I also eat [cereals apple banana carrot spinach] , which can be really healthy and make you feel good.

But in between bad and good food, there's something special. It's called exotic food. It's not exotic somewhere but it's exotic here.

First, it's chili.
Americans hate hot and spicy chili and they deny the existance of chili because their chili sauce is totally hot-less. And you see NO chili sauce in ALL (almost) restaurants because they have tomato ketchup and BBQ sauce only.
So where's the real chili sauce? It only exists in asian restaurants and the famous one is Sriracha 'rooster' chili sauce!

The hottest sauce :)
And they are really anti chili...even KFC has NO Hot & Spicy choice...

Then, it's roti canai
I miss roti canai so much until I buy this onion roti paratha from Jolin Tsai's Grocery shop.
roti paratha = roti prata = roti canai
Just pan fry it and a simple roti bawang is done :) at least it's not that expensive.
"Roti bawang + 1 teh tarik!" So mamak
Yeah, and this is the teh tarik...


Next, instant noodle
I rarely eat instant noodle here because those 20cents Nissin ramen is just like Maggi mee, the more I eat, the worse it tastes. But there's one instant noodle that I love: Nong Shum Shin Ramyum

hot and spicy Korean noodle...but it costs 89cents...oh never mind, satisfaction is more important

Last and not least
bun or pau. char siew pau, kaya pau, whatever pau, there's no people selling steamed fresh pau here but there's frozen pau here.

tried so many yet none is good...

oh there's much more exotic foods I want!!! but I'm in an exotic land...

last and very last...and the best
3in1 Aik Cheong Coffee, available $5.79 @ China market

the aroma of home...
the coffee that I smell everytime I going back home...
the coffee that made just 2km off my home...
the coffee of my cup...

A day in AA

Date: July 19.

Wake up not very early in the morning. brush and wash and shower and eat.
Want to online but the stupid Wifi has no signal again...

[10:50am]I have to post a mail so I go to United States Postal Service office but to find out they have removed the stamp machine! The counter is closed and there's no stamp machine, a great service. Then I walk 15mins to Michigan Union to buy the stamp. But again, the stamp machine is removed!!! Coincident? Who steals the stamp machine? Now I have an envelope that can t be mailed.

[11:30am] Then go meet with MC because we are going to Jolin Tsai's grocery to buy some stuffs. Never been there before so just go see what it offers. Since Ann Arbor Art Fairs is blocking all the streets there's a detour of bus route. So we wait at a bus stop thinking it's the right bus stop but just to see the #16 bus turn other way right in front of us! Oh it's raining also...and then another bus come and it's raining so we just board the bus but I don't know why we board it but the rain seduces us to board the bus and then we tour from Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti and back to Ann Arbor...a long journey...
And I see White Castle! There's actually White Castle in Ann Arbor!


[1:12pm] back at Ann Arbor Transit Center and the next #16 bus is 1:48pm so we walk around AA Art Fairs and MC suddenly sees a USPS big post office hidden behind the art booths! Oh this big post office also has no stamp machine!! Haha but it has "Stamp ATM" Finally I can dispose my big envelope.

[1:35pm] Waiting for bus. [1:48pm] Board the bus yay!

[2:10pm] See Tsai but to find actually it got not many stuffs but at least it's the tidiest & cleanest asian market.
[3:00pm] Since Jolin Tsai actually got nothing much we go to Meijer which is just opposite.
[4:00pm] Shopping done

[4:30pm] Back to home! Still no Wifi...go sleep la

[6:00pm] Go to KsSw's house to cook dinner. MC says all guys friends cooking is weird. Oh is it?
[7:20pm] Dinner

[8:00pm] Weekend Movie Time! The Pianist 2 hours 30 mins + Saving Private Ryan 2 hours 49 mins both are really best movies.

Then the end of day!
The end of a day is the start of another day :)

M&M or chocolate chips?

Research Paper

M&M cookies and Chocolate Chips cookies
Phd candidate: waikhong
Concentration: Cookies Study
University of Michigan

Today I observed one very significant phenomenon. United States high school students prefer M&M cookies than chocolate chip cookies.

Detailed finding:
Today I'm working in UofM dining hall while doing research on high school students' preference of cookies.

Methodology:
I put 2 types of cookies on table. I wait the target (now dining hall serving high school students from summer camps) to grab the cookies. Then I see which cookies finish first.

Fixed variable: Number of cookies. Both same. But quantity unknown. Roughly same la

Finding:
M&M cookies grabbing rate is twice faster than chocolate chips cookies.

Conclusion:

Oh exam!

If you don't know, I'm a lazy person who always wasting time with my beloved laptop and never bother about academic stuffs until the very last minute. After high school I never do any extra exercises/ practices other than the required/credited assignments. And whatever exams, I never study 2 days ahead. So far, I never be the top student, but luckily not the bottom also :)

Oh exam...last Wednesday I just had another Econ 101 test but then something weird happened. Right from the beginning, I was shivering and trembling when writing down my answers. Was I fear? No, exam is just exam... Was I nervous? It's just a small test... weird I felt cold during the exam and tried to calm down. But it didn't work, my hand was trembling and my mind wasn't concentrated. Then worse, the substitute GSI (Graduate student instructor) allocated less than 40 minutes for a supposedly 45 minutes test.

It was a mixed weird feeling...I couldn't concentrate, my hand didn't write as fast as I wanted, and time was tickling away...and time's up!! "No more writing!" Oh No! I couldn't finished the paper and simply wrote something in the blank space...and then said bye bye to my test paper...

Oh wonder why but anyway don't care lah, maybe I'm allergic to the GSI, and I won't see him next time :)

All the best in next exam!

I eat apple, you eat apple, we eat apple

Apple: the most common fruit.

Even if you don't eat apple you still know how an apple looks like because we all know A for Apple B for Apple C for Apple...

Such an adorable appetizing edible apple...

When I'm short, I only know there's red apple and green apple; then when taller, I know there's big red apple, small red apple, not so red red apple,, very red red apple; when I'm tallest, I know they have different tastes and different names.

Green apple is always my favorite because of its sour sensational taste~~~Its name is Granny Smith, a nice name.

This is Gala apple, the most common apple in Malaysia. Good taste.

This is the apple that I don't like to eat. Although it has a nice name Red Delicious, it's just plain sweet and not crispy and just not nice...the last time I had this was when I was short.

And this is the big big Fuji apple. It's big and sweet :) quite nice

A nice sweet crispy apple that I recently tasted. Unlike Red delicious that is not delicious, this Golden delicious is much more better.

Finally, another favorite of mine! McIntosh. It's the most delicious red apple!

Eat more apple :)
I'm tall because I eat apple

Wah! Firefly in Ann Arbor

It's a bird....It's a plane....It's a Superman!!!

No No No It's a FIREFLY!!!

Ann Arbor has firefly! Yes, there are many of them...flickering in the night

Hehe no need to waste money to go Kuala Selangor next time...call me and I'll give you a discounted rate for an 1 hour trip. Terms & conditions: don't blame me if you can't see any because they hate you.

Don't believe me? Really, there's firefly in Ann Arbor, not superman!

I managed to get a photo of a firefly

Let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time, there's a boy. His name is Johnny English. One day, he wakes up in the morning and see a mouse cooking in his house! Not everyone can cook!

He was so surprised he uses a durian and hit the mouse. The mouse then follows the Pied Piper of Hamelin and falls into a longkang...

Then Johnny suddenly sleepy again...
so he go back to bed to discover his bed is occupied by Little Red Riding Hood's grandma!?
=.=

So he has no choice but to listen to his iPod and eat a pod of peas

Suddenly he realizes he has to get to work!
Johnny hates to work but he has to work so he can eat Putu Mayam.

Then he rides the Aladdin magic carpet and arrives at Donald Trump's Tower.
He was the winner of 100th season Apprentice. He is supposed to be the 1st winner of American Idol but he loves Kelly Clarkson so much he gives up in the grand final. Give up is the right attitude. Correct correct correct...

Every time at work, he knocks his head at the table. Everyone thinks he is a small incredible hulk because his head never broken! Sometimes he just click to fast forward his time and sometimes he takes out his Teddy bear not Pooh to play. He thinks Pooh is dumb but Teddy is steady.

Finally it's 4:59pm
Now it's his happy hours! he's going to search for his beauty (he's the beast). After 1000 years of searching he hasn't found any...Snow White is too white, Rapunzel's hair is too long, Cinderella is too Cinderella, Mary is married, Angelina Jolie is too sexy...

And today he meets Kung Fu Panda Po who then introduces him to Master Oogway who says: there are no accidents. You cannot get a loved one because you are not smart, better Get Smart.
he pauses a while, continue: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present. and then he intoduces the Love Guru to Johnny...

And the guru introduces Jessica Alba to Johnny but in the end Johnny was so sad Jessica Alba is already pregnant

So he turns crazy and finally become Mr Bean ...

After all, he goes to sleep and forget everything....

Good Bye Bill Gates

Bill Gates is finally saying good bye to all of us...not dead...but retired

[who is Bill Gates? Oh, he hate to eat Apple; and although he is rich, his house has Micro-size Windows which is very Soft...]

This post is meant for my appreciation for him and his products, which has changed my life forever.

And thanks his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for sponsoring BBC World Service Radio in Ann Arbor so that I can listen to news to make me sleepy if I'm still not sleepy at 2am...

A crazy trip to Sandusky!

June 19 7:30pm, the crazy journey began...

Our destination: Sandusky...huh? what a dusty sandy small town...
5 persons: DK KS SW YL + me
Transportation: my beloved Amtrak + our legs + cabs

First, we took Amtrak thruway bus from Ann Arbor to Toledo. And the bus has many nice LCD screen playing the 1930's black and white movie...can you guess the movie? It's called "Nothing"...

From Toledo we took the Shore Line Limited toward Sandusky! Yay! And we arrived at around 5am!

With no maps in hand, we start our walking in the quiet little town...and suddenly we saw a 7-11 and then just went in to sight-seeing :) then we kept on moving...and we saw lots of churches...and then Merry Go Round Museum! weird museum...

and we keep on moving and finally we reached the lake side! The great Erie Lake and we found a weird creature...After we (forget to mention we're Fantastic 4 and an Incredible big Hulk) defeated the weird creature , we saw the beautiful sunrise...

And we walked again...until the Incredible Hulk feel so hungry he was busy looking for food...and he finally smelled a McDonald's 100 miles away and yay! We had our breakfast!After having breakfast, everyone just pengsan... except me...

Then after I rescued them we continued our journey...now already 9am...we walked from 5am to 9am!!! without any map.

Then we called a cab to cross the causeway to reach a place where the diet Cheddar cheese is made...and do you know diet cheddar has a shortened name? It's called Cedar! Imagine diet Coca-Cola being called Oca-Ola... [rubbish]

Actually we were heading to Cedar Point! the best amusement park in the planet!

Oh please don't think the Snoopy themed amusement park is just childish...the rides in the park are the best in the world!

So, among the 5 persons, we are divided into 3 categories: DK & I am the true fanatics, SW & KS are "this one ok, this one cannot" category, and YL is our professional back pack guard who safeguarding our back packs because he just had 1 or 2 rides throughout the day...

Oh I never imagined there are so many thrill rides in Cedar Point and I just can't describe how satisfied, how exciting, how crazy the rides were...just simply the best experience in my life!

We (which mean DK & I) started with Demon Drop where we dropped from 131 feet in 6 secs .. and then the thrill never end until the last minute! Ok let me describe some of the best:

Wicked Twister:
the tallest and fastest double-twisting impulse roller coaster in the world

3..2...1...and sprinted toward the sky! WAH!









Sky Hawk:
You kick the sky at 125 feet high in the sky!
And just superb when you being brought down from the highest point!










Maverick:
a new ride built in 2007 that has double launch!
With a drop at 95 degree angle it was just WAH!











Millennium Force:
"Standing a breathtaking 310 feet into the air, this "giga-coaster" will take thrill-seekers on an incredible 92-mph journey along 6,595 feet of track that winds its way through the center of the park, crosses a lagoon and dives onto an island."

We rode this during the night and it was really exciting to drop from that height!!!

And many more thrilling rides such as MaxAir, Magnum. Raptor etc etc...I finally had my dream come true! there was nothing else I want to do in US except trying all these crazy rides!

And we kept the best part to our final minutes in the park! It's the Top Thrill Dragster!!!

The tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world!!

"Riders begin their epic journey aboard this whopping 42-story screamer by securing themselves into ultra-cool trains that resemble top fuel dragsters. The train then moves into a "starting line" position, where it is launched forward, reaching 120 mph in approximately four seconds. The train then zooms straight up the 420-foot-tall hill on track that rotates 90 degrees, crests the coaster's apex and then free falls back to Earth. But hold on, this isn't your father's roller coaster. As the train races 400 feet to the ground, the track twists an unbelievable 270 degrees – what a rush! Riders then return to the station to begin regaling their friends with stories of the greatest ride of their lives"

Imagine 120mph (200km/h) in 4 seconds! and we did it twice consecutively! and WAHHH!

Now get the feeling!

That ended our day in Cedar Point and it was already 10:45pm

But the journey has not ended! We called a cab back to Amtrak train station...and called sandusky Police to open the Amtrak waiting room for us. Yes, it's the police who has the key for the station...Before the police came, there were 4 kids who strayed in the midnight coming to us say we are from Tokyo, Japan... and I told them my name is Michael...

Then the kids went away to search for some other new friend to chat...and the police came and we got into the waiting room to wait for our Amtrak train which was scheduled at 4:55am...

While asleep, 2 African American females came in and chatted loudly and loudly and just disturbing my sleep...they were not waiting for trains and I have no idea who they are...and they left not long after...weird

And at 4:55am we were wide awake waiting the train to arrive but yet again...delay! OH I have experienced so many times in my previous trip [link]...it's a norm...so ok...and finally it came after 1 hour and 40 minutes behind schedule...

And finally we arrived Ann Arbor at 10am.

Wah...what a trip!