Could not sleep well on the first day of class

From the title it is kind of self explanatory. I drank a lot of chinese tea that I brought from Malaysia. The quality of course is at top unlike the ones here in US. Last night was my first time drinking chinese tea out of few months here in Des Moines. I did not know that the effect was so strong on me that caused me not sleeping well. Coffee will have stronger effect then. I started lying down on my bed around 3 sth in the morning. I kept switching sides, tried whatever positions available (that is comfortable, not even a nasty one!). I even thought of asking someone in Malaysia to give me a call (it is dam cheap calling from Malaysia to US, but freakingly expensive when US makes a call to Malaysia). For some reasons my sms could not reach my friend and I did not bother anymore. Finally, I slept when my house mate woke up at 6 sth because I heard the sound of her footsteps when I almost went into sub-conscious state.

In my first class of Marketing Research, I did not fall asleep fortunately. I kept yawning which makes me felt annoyed. Luckily the american sitting beside me did not give me a punch in my face and say "wake up, get over with your break!". Well, no one will ever do that I guess. Having to say that, I am the only Malaysian in my class, despite the Malaysian population in Drake is so huge.

The End of Winter Break

When I post this message, it marks the end of my winter break in Des Moines. Over the break, besides going for a trip to Boston and New York, I have done nothing productive at all. Playing games the whole day makes me feel unproductive. Today I have uninstalled Dota. I was addicted to this game so much until I ignore a lot of things around me like blogging, facebook, friends, study (for upcoming semester). Well, at least I work a lot of hours for the Drake basketball events during the break.

Never mind that, it is not too late for me to catch up with everything important to my life. I need to start reading daily newspaper, the finance and marketing section. Also I need to be more attentive to my classes. Currently, I am taking 18 credit hours (including Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) online class). Also, every Friday I have an internship job in IAA, Iowa Asian Alliance, 9 am to 5 pm until the end of Spring semester. I do hope that everything will go fine here.

I think I am the first Malaysian who take a marketing major in Drake. So I really have no idea on the level of difficulty for the upcoming marketing classes. This semester I am taking:

Global Marketing 170

Marketing Research 113

Statistics for Managers 072

Economic: Money and Banking 105

Operation Management 120

History of Iowa (DMACC online class)

As for the DMACC class, all I need to do is to pass the paper, which is to get a C because the credits can be transferrable without affecting my CGPA (a lot of people do the same). But I have 3 story books to read, and they are not interesting at all. I am not used to reading story books because it is harder to catch the facts compare to reading text books. This would be my first time reading story books to finish my assignments for that particular subject.

As for statistic and economics, these 2 subjects should be not tough to handle. But of course, I could not underestimate them. I learned from my mistake when I take Calculus 1 back in Inti. Just be consistent will do.

Operation Management 120. This is a reading and mathematic subject. It should not be hard if I am able to read all before taking any exams. It should contain more than 50% of maths work in this subject which makes my life easier.

I have no clue at all for the 2 marketing subjects. Marketing research seems hard. Maybe I have to do a lot of research for every assignment? Or maybe it is just another pure reading subject? There is no doubt that both of their text books are THICK! In fact, all subjects' text books are around the same; they are all thick.

There is a new year wish, I hope that all my parents and friends will be healthy and good in whatever they are doing. Cheers!

4 Movies in Theatre, Jordan Creek Mall

Last week, we (Mary Anne, Peik Hong and Siva) had decided to go for movie hopping on Monday in Jordan Creek Mall nearby. We took 3 buses to the mall and watched "Marley and Me", "Bed Time Stories", "Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "Bride War" all in sequence. 1 catch here, we DID NOT pay 4 movie tickets for all 4 movies here. Each of us only paid ONE movie ticket. This idea of movie hopping was from other Malaysians (I could not remember who), where once we get passed the ticket counter, we will be able to stay inside for the whole day to watch what ever movie that is available on that day. One bad thing is that, there is no food available inside. After the third movie, we kinda starved to watch the fourth one. Well, it is also a record for me watching 4 movies in the cinema, the most I had was 3 movies back in Malaysia. It was the craziest day after all.

Massachusetts & New York

I have been to Boston (Massachusetts), Salem (Massachusetts), New York City (New York) and Manhattan (New York) this winter break. There are a lot of pictures available in facebook, not here. It would be crazy to upload 200 plus pictures in a post. Click the link below if you guys are interested to view =) I will upload some video and give some comments here though. Enjoy.

http://www.facebook.com/findfriends.php#/photos.php?id=507126466

It was the craziest count down ever in my life. It will be my first and last count down in Manhattan, New York in my life. But I will remember that I was once surrounded by 2 million people, shoulder to shoulder! In the video you will notice one thing: Counting down 20 secs, at the end it will display "1 hour to go". Me and my friends waited for 6.30 hours there. Imagine at the last 6 hours, it counted down and displayed "6 hours to go", what a joke. Another thing about this count down, it was FREEZINGLY cold there. New York was at the east side facing the sea, the wind was terrible. Also, we can hardly go to restroom. Most of the people there stood there for 9 hours without going to toilet *salute* (well, some of them did give up for this count down). I stood for 3 hours and I could not stand it already force my way to restroom in the crowd.

This is my first time seeing people protest against war crime. It was quite cold that day yet they volunteered to stand there to protest the act of Israel. Americans are really into community work, unlike Malaysians.

The Lobster!! People say that when we go to Boston, we have to eat Lobster. Well at first we really did not have the intention to try that. Then all of a sudden we are motivated to try lobster. We bumped into "Legal Sea Food". Their service was great. The lobster was nice too. After eating, we kinda take the shell of the lobster back home. It was my suggestion, since my place in Des Moines needs some decoration =P

This is a SHOCKING video clip, taken by myself. Check it out.

Yoon's Potluck

A cool place to chill and relax. Especially with the presence of Kee Shen from Purdue. We had great time talking. Also, we played pictionary after dinner. It was fun because I was teamed with all girls includes 1 American. I could not believe we lost!

This is known as the korean dessert. The situation was kinda funny because Kelvin and friends all made fun of her dessert. They were asking her "how to eat these stuff?" Honestly I didnt eat those because those are full of butter, which is something that I do not like, I am sorry =P.

Yoon, a korean friend of mine had her potluck somewhere after finals. I was really happy that I was invited because we are not that close. I had a chance to taste home made korean food =).

Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival. Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general. Someone hosted a dinner for the students in Drake (including International students). We had a lot of different kinds of foods because most of us brought some food there for sharing. The main dish is of course, a turkey. It is said that every thanksgiving we had to have a turkey, well I mean not the whole turkey itself.

Well, the obvious reason that I am not in the picture is because I was the photographer! Sad...

Peik Hong's Birthday

Peik Hong is my house mate. Her church friends gave her a surprised party as the picture shown above. After that, we went for dinner in China Place.

My Potluck

Prepared by Mary Anne and I. We have decided to have this potluck right after our finals. Well, all the while we wanted to invite people to our house for dinner, but the condition of the house was not allowed. This house that we are staying might collapse anytime. But after finals I could not care much and invite 10+ people to our house and surprisingly, my house is still here till today. It was our first potluck.

My house has became the "Red Alert 3" and "Counter Strike" multi player spot.

All the food were gone within minutes (in fact, there were not enough).

Due to the condition of the house, we always help cooking whenever we were invited for potluck. This is the most we can do.

Chicago Trip

Chicago trip was a short and fun trip. It was during Thanksgiving break. Together with Mary Anne, Joanne, Chin Hou, Voon, Cheng Khang and Khe Kong, we made it a very successful trip. It was really tiring because most of the time we will be out there travelling and trying new food.

We have been to all the 4 out of 5 main attractions in Chicago, paying $60 for each person (that's crazily expensive) for all city passes. The Adler Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum and The Hancock Observatory. We have missed the Museum of Science and Industry because there was nothing special and we had a very tight schedule. Those places are fantastic; there were so many things to learn and see. Below are the example of my favourite pictures in Chicago. For more pictures, you could check it at http://www.facebook.com/findfriends.php#/photos.php?&id=507126466&s=6&hash=ecd8aa530c7bdc0eff55e2cfff96763e

1 thing that I would like to comment is about the attitude of Chinese people in China Town. They are not friendly at all. We went to a Chinese restaurant on our first day for lunch. We were not being treated well, I think it was because we are all students, which indirectly means that we might not give much tips. After the lunch, we decided not to give much of tips. Then the waitress said that the tips is not enough, it must be minimum of 15%. Well, then we used calculator to calculate the exact 15% and nothing more for her. On the other hand, there was another bigger group of adults sitting beside our table. They were bring treated differently, much nicer than how we were being treated. Oh well... They are all tips-oriented.

We had also been to the famous "Bean". It was very unique. All of us became cam-whore all of a sudden.

We also went for shopping in Aurora for Black Friday where all things became much cheaper. I bought myself a pair of Nike Shoes (40 USD), sweat shirt and a long sleeve shirt.

These girls...... crazily rich. (Actually not all the items are theirs.)

Typical Chinese in China Hair Style

This hair style I got from China Town in New York City. Sigh... It costs me 11 USD. Does not look nice at all... My hair was quite long and I had no choice but to cut it there.