September 1, 2009
photo dump + what I’ve been up to for the last 2 weeks
Went peach picking in Michigan with Matthew. His chubby cheeks are so pinch-able, I just want to hug him all the time.
Then Alan came to Chicago and started off the “let’s jet around the country and see all our friends before school starts” marathon. We met up with Joung and Janice in the city. It was nice to see these people again, especially the alum 
. It’s always kind of weird to think that they’re in the “real world” now, and in one year, we’re going to join them.
We went to Millennium Park, where the big reflecting bean is. Can you find us?
We also went to Shedd Aquarium, a place I hadn’t been to since elementary school field trips. I found a fat ugly frog stuck against one of the display glasses. I think it was dead. Poor froggie.
Then the Tays came to the Midwest!
We HAD to do something farm-ish, so I took them peach picking again. Luckily, raspberries were also ripe so my brother had a blast eating those. Isn’t he cute, hehe.
We took a mini-road trip to UIUC to visit their classmates from Singapore. That also happened to be where my family lived while my dad was going to grad school. It was another weird experience of revisiting the past. This is one of the buildings on campus and there’s a picture of me when I was ~6 (?) sitting on the steps of this same building.
I also got to revisit the old apartment where we used to live. Not much has changed in the past 1.5 decades, although the playground equipment has been updated. I could still point out where the school bus would pick me up every morning and the vegetable patches in the distance where we had our own garden.
It was a good trip Got to meet lots more Singaporeans (I feel like I know half the country by now, haha), and Karen and I practiced our cooking skills the last night we were there.
It’s been a nice week of relaxation and shirking on my applications. I have one left to do (JHU) = 2 more essays + $75. Sigh…applying to med school is so expensive. Maybe I can milk one more day out of my pseudo vacation-from-work, and then I’ll get back to writing again…
August 6, 2009
home sweet home
I’m back! But not without another ridiculous airport experience. My flight out of Honduras was no problem, on time and everything. Miami was another story. I was supposed to have only a two hour layover between flights, so I rushed through saying goodbye to my friends, customs and security to try to make it to my next flight on time. I got there with half an hour to spare, so I thought everything was fine. And then the delays started. At first 9:10 got pushed back to 10, because the crew hadn’t arrived yet. So we boarded the plane at 10 and then sat on the plane for another hour because the crew was “on their way”. After an hour, the captain announces that due to a mix-up, the current crew actually aren’t legally able to fly this plane, so we all have to get off again and wait for another crew. Departure’s been pushed back to 12 am. So finally, three hours after I was supposed to leave Miami, and exactly when I should have been touching down in Chicago, we finally leave. Which, added to the 2 hour drive back home meant I didn’t get home until 6 am. The sun was already coming up by the time I went to sleep. What a loooong travel day (24 hrs to be exact).
I guess it shouldn’t be surprising, but things don’t feel any different now that I’m home. Even though I’ve only been back for a day, Honduras seems like it happened ages ago and worlds away. The first hot shower was amazing, but other than that, I don’t find myself stuffing my face with every imaginable food or indulging in other luxuries like I thought I would a few weeks ago. I’ve settled quite quickly and comfortably back into the hum drum existence that is called summertime, life the exact shape and mold as when I left it. Maybe I’ve come back with more insights and knowledge, but old habits are easy to slip back into and I find myself once again lounging all day on the couch doing not much of anything. (Although I’m giving myself some credit because I did work on some secondaries today. 3 done, 9 more to go!) I guess the next step is to load pictures on Facebook and here, so watch out for those soon!
