Summer Roadtrip

I am back from a roadtrip down south covering 3 states, 4 cities.

I firstly went to my high school friend's city, Carbondale, 3 hours train ride from Champaign. Took Amtrak on the 13th May and finally got to meet Yee Pin! Though we just met when she was back to penang during her winter break in December 2011. We are officially graduates now! 

4 of us in total went for the trip, with Yee Pin's friends.

#1 Memphis, Tennessee - City of Blues Music 

 We had a tour in Elvis Presley Mansion. Then we went to downtown Memphis which is Beale Street. Since the city is famous for music, most of the dining places have bands entertaining the guests. This city is also famous for its BBQ ribs and pork along with fried pickles.

Elvis Presley Disc Collection inside his mansion

Beale St in the evening

Band @ BB King Restaurant

#2 New Orleans, Louisiana - City of Jazz

Another music town with french history. The major attraction is the French Quarter, Jackson Square and the French Market. We also went to Louisiana State Museum, Mardi Gras exhibition and Hurricane Katrina's museum. Pretty educational eh? This city is known for its red beans and rice somehow.

French Quarter

St Louis Cathedral

French Beignets and Cafe au lait

French Market

#3 Miami, Florida

Way down south with beaches. Unfortunately the rain decided to pour down. I had little time spent in Miami Beaches. :( Nevertheless, I had a 'special' experience in a certain beach there. haha. At night, we went to a cafe/bar place at Ocean Drive for dinner. I tried margarita for the first time too. 

Red velvet cheese and traditional cheese cake topped with strawberries!

@ The Cheesecake Factory, Aventura Mall

#4 Orlando, Florida

It is a place to relive your childhood! We went to Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and Disney World, Magic Kingdom Park. It was a rather express visit as there are 2 parks for Universal and 4 parks for Disney. Toooo expensive! One ticket to each park cost us $96! I enjoyed a few rides, Harry Potter ones, Spider man simulation ride etc. Water rides as well in which we were all soaking wet! I also tried butter beer which was kinda nice and sweet.

Disney is a cuter place, meant for younger children, hence lesser rides but it has its own fun. I enjoyed some 3d shows, space mountain coaster, teacup etc! We went on Monday thinking it would be lesser people. We were absolutely wrong! It's jam packed, seriously crazy human jam.

  

Harry Potter park

The crowd

I love disney world's fireworks, too awesome! No photos though.

I got back to Carbondale this morning after a 15 hour journey as we had rest and pit stops in between for meals.

Overall, I am really glad that I was able to visit those dream places that I had in mind. 

Next stop - New York, Washington DC, Niagara Falls, Boston, Atlanta. Solo travelling for both Boston and Atlanta. Fingers crossed. It will be another adventure before I leave the US for good on June 12!

Undergrad degree? Checked.

Hi blog. It's been mega longggg!

My exchange in University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has come to an end. This also implies that I am done forever with my degree! No more classes and exams.

All my friends left. I'm saddd, so gonna miss them!

They are the ones I eat with almost everyday.
We went around campus to take photos.
We went travelling together.
We attended exchange students' events, basketball tournament, musical..
We took a midnight cab to Savoy to catch Avengers, random decision.
We had deep and fun conversations at times.

It's a short 4 months, but it seems we knew each other much longer than that.

Sara, Mexico - pretty sweet girl whom is always very understanding, she is also very diligent.

Gabriel, Mexico - funny guy who always like to say: immediately! 'In theory, this must be...', SURE. Gentleman too!

Tong, Thailand - from ANU! The intellectual and Sara's walking dictionary and wikipedia. haha!

Henry, Hong Kong - from CUHK. Outgoing and THIN(he prefers slim, hah!) guy who likes to make fun of people but really nice too.

I will miss all of them much especially mexico, so far away, not sure when could we meet again. But we said the reunion in either Asia or Hawaii when we work and earn money. Waiting for it to come true!