mini apple 2

hello folks
i am officially back in cville. spent thanksgiving proper with laura clark and her lovely family (john, bette & jonathan). her mom, bette is an amazing cook. i had the best stuffing in my life. and broccoli salad (chopped cheese cubes, raisins, onions, bacon bits, and coleslaw dressing). oh wow. foodness.

but let me summarize my chi-town trip! i went to visit xu xu, my brilliant roommate in RIB. oh those days. i owe my math hw to her. haha. but yeah, she goes to northwestern which is north of chicago, along lake michigan (which is very pretty). but that also means that winter plagues the area for 5 months maybe. windchills. but evanston(the town) is a nice nook. we visited this restaurant called joy yee's, and my server was from malaysia (so we had some form of camaraderie going on). they served HUGE portions of pan-asian food. everything you need! i had fun!

back in chicago, i went on the El (short for elevated - think spiderman) train, which is a neat trick because the platforms are almost as high as the roofs of the surrouding townhouses. very nice. and i really like the townhouses in chicago. i don't exactly know why but i just like them. gops and i, we went to chinatown where he waited while i got a haircut (thinking asian people could handle asian hair) but yes, it made the roll of 'worst haircuts'. can i please fly my hairstylist over? but after that, we went to a restaurant called penang. where i satisfied my nasi lemak and steamed fish craving. i had cendol and kangkong belacan too! ooh la la.

mavis' boyfriend, daniel is an excellent tourguide. he technically brought us around most of the time when he wasn't working. carl stayed with his friend charles, and gops bunked at his cousin kp's place in northwestern. i lived on racine (think lake house) - 15 minutes to downtown. although so, mavis banned me from taking public transport late at night, because chicago was a sketchball town. but that's also true. i felt incredibly unsafe at some places. that's the interesting bit about chicago. every corner feels different. pretty cool huh. mom probably doesn't think so.

oh we went into jazz showcase one night to watch nicholas payton and his incredible trio. :) we also made our way to a cineplex (not CINEMA a la charlottesville) to watch borat. it was funny but i think mr cohen took his jokes a lil too far at times. catch it if you can though!

i am just going to post pictures so have great fun!

p.s. i only brought one jacket - hence the orangeness of it all
p.p.s. navy pier! the ferris wheel in all your love stories. ha. also frozen malaysian roti canai/prata found in little india. :)