A Comprehensible Affection: Des Moines

Showing posts with label Des Moines. Show all posts

At Last!!!

It’s been awhile since I last blogged. What exactly is holding me back?

Before my first semester in Drake ended, I had to attend to the siren songs of my life. Kind of corny for an excuse, but I really was struggling to keep myself afloat when those assignments and studies came crushing down on me like those lethal waves of tsunami. I swam, swam with all my might to the surface and gasped for air only to find more coming at me, which crushed me deeper into the sea. I was on the brink of giving up when the thought of getting into the President’s list was thrown to me like a huge life-saving float. I was finally, at the very least, afloat, despite having most of my energy drained. And that’s all that matters. I pushed on to sustain those grades and I’m glad to say that my efforts bore fruits, in fact, the sweetest fruits on earth I have to say. I got into the President’s list with a CGPA of 4.0. That wasn’t very hard, was it? Screw you. People get slashed along the way, bleed profusely, and were half dead when they got there. Some were long dead before they were even close enough to have a glimpse of the President’s list. It’s easier said than done.

When the semester ended, Whoosh. It’s like having tons of burden taken off your shoulders. The craziness unleashed, and all you can think of was to soar high up into that vast blue sky like a freed bird, gasping for fresh air like it were to be your last breath. At least that was how I felt. Most of my time were spent with my friends. We cooked dinner together, cramped up in a small room watching “Diary of A Sex Addict”, went shopping, gathered around a small dining table playing Dota. It was so much fun! I PPS-ed when I had nothing on my to-do list, and I was and am really into PPS. I’m watching so many movies, tons of it in fact, to compensate for those movie time my studies took up during the semester. Besides that, I drowned myself in activities and recreations. I say yes to all the activities Amy and Dan organized, activities I would talk about later on. Went to Bell Center with Ryan when he wanted to get some time off his FM preparation. I just did not want to get involved in words, as it would bring up those stressful moments I had a few weeks ago. Hence, I had to put blogging aside for a moment. Sorry I was on such a long hiatus. Bad habit for a blogger.

There goes my second reason for not blogging for such a long time. And here’s the third. Hey! I’m trying to give you reasonable and elaborated reasons instead of saying “I was busy, period”, which is so rude and short when I had you guys waited for so long! I’m being considerate here, so please bear with me. Here goes. When the time came to start blogging again, I hid and avoided. The thought of having to fill up such a huge blank in the story of my life scares me to hell. I didn’t know where to start and I didn’t want to leave my readers uninformed of those interesting days that I enjoyed so much either. It would be very unfair of me to blast your mind off with all the ramblings I had to make and not share with you even an ounce of sweetness I tasted in life. Being selfish defies the whole purpose of blogging and that’s just not what I’m going to do. So readers, you are now staring at the blog where pain and happiness are equally shared. Be loyal to it and regret you shall not.

So it’s time to put my fears and phobias behind me and embark on this adventurous journey of blogging, starting off from where I abandoned you, shall we? …

…Spring break finally came and my plans did go smoothly. Tuesday morning, Fang Kai, Chew, Ryan, and I were waiting eagerly at the GreyHound bus stop in downtown Des Moines for the very bus that will bring us to a place where all the fun begins… CHICAGO…

Popcorn Friday!

I know it’s Monday but this title has been moving about in my mind since Friday. Why? Last Friday, I tagged along with my friends and a few Americans after dinner at Hubbell Dining Hall (Where else even though the food is revoking) for an American board game session at Morehouse. The game is called Killer Bunnies.

Never mind the game if you’re that kind of person who doesn’t like really really slow game. But if you do, google is all yours. It’s not that I’m bad at explaining things, which unfortunately is actually quite a fact, but it’s best if you learn as you play. All I can say is that the main aim is to kill bunnies that don’t belong to you, that’s why the name killer bunnies. Make sense?

Coming back, we get to eat popcorns while we played and the smell of popcorns was really aromatic. In addition to that, there was this similar burst of aroma of popcorn blasting through the atmosphere that tingled my nose hairs when I was on my way back to my dorm room in Goodwin-Kirk (we call it GK for short). So, having popcorn smells slapped twice on my face, HARD, I pretty much think that Americans eat popcorns on Friday, and therefore, led me to the title – Popcorn Friday! Yay!

In case you’re wondering about the food in Drake, it’s awesome. Trust me. It can make someone with a huge appetite go down with diarrhoea, then make him feel like vomiting every second the thought of Hubbell food flashes through his mind and not forgetting, instilling phobia and fear into him that he never takes food in large amounts no more. That’s how AWESOME Drake’s food is.

Yes, I had diarrhoea, then fever plus a headache which lasted for 3 days? It was tormenting and in this kind of freezing weather, it was hard recuperate. For those who’re in the US currently, drink more water and don’t get sick, blizzard’s coming! It’s easy to get ill but it’s hard to get out of it.

On Saturday, the Malaysian Student Association (MASA) at Drake held a Welcome Back Party for all MASA members, and practically, you’re a member of MASA if you’re a Malaysian. So for the sake of meeting the seniors and other Malaysians to build up my network, I slept in that day just to make sure that all my illnesses were gotten rid of. It didn’t quite work but I definitely felt better than previous days.

The party was okay. It wasn’t like any other parties where there’s ample supply of beers and alcohols for guys to down just to impress girls, who then become all drunk and wasted and start puking at every corner they swayed to. Neither was there a disco ball hanging on the ceiling, brightening the entire room with rainbow colours while sweaty people squeezed onto the dance floor and started nodding and shaking along with the rhythm of the music.

NO! Not even close. This party was way laid-back than that. We did a little bit of speed dating. Basically new students us, were arranged to be sat next to a junior or a senior and we start talking for 2 minutes, then we move to the next senior or junior, that speed dating. Then there’s the game of matching characteristics, which I will definitely bore you to death even more if I go into detail. The benefit gained from the party was that you get to know more people along the way despite the corny and lame activities implemented to achieve that objective. So yea. No comment.

I was invited by Ken Vin, one of the seniors to this Saturday Night Supper thingy, which is on Sunday (weird) at one of the American homes for some home-cook dinner after I complained to him about the food at Hubbell when we were speed dating (sounds wrong but it was what we were doing).

On Sunday, I went without any hesitation just to get away with Hubbell food for the night and of course, to gain more experience of the American culture. It was a long 20 minute journey and when I stepped into the house, there were around 20 of us cramping in that small wooden American house, eagerly waiting for dinner to be served.

Although the food was almost similar to those at Hubbell i.e. rice, chicken, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, but it tasted way better. Love it. We played a little card game called President after dinner before bidding goodbyes to them folks and heading back to Drake. It was a great night! There’ll be one every Sunday night and I sure am going to all of them if I have the time. No, I’ll find time for it. =)

It’s snowing heavily today and yes, there’ll be pictures! But not today. Hee~

Till Then.

Unfamiliar

Seeing that the number of viewers and readers have increased for the past 3 days, I decided to reward each and everyone of you enthusiast of A Comprehensible Affection with another update of my life in Des Moines. Apart from posting up words which I know most of you despise, I’m also going to upload some pictures I have taken on my trip to Des Moines and some, in Des Moines itself.

Before rummaging through the contents of my luggage for the transfer cable, allow me to talk about random facts about Des Moines and the people.

As I have mentioned, I am now staying with Hern Ee, Angus, and Pek Hong (a Malaysian girl whom I’d not mentioned) in a house, which is pretty huge from the outside but not from the inside, in 2801 Cottage Grove Avenue. This house in which we currently reside has 3/4 levels, however, due to the extremely unique design of it, all floors are not connected to each other. Meaning, there are no stairways in any of the floors which lead to the next.

In fact, each floor has its respective entrances at different sides of the house. Ridiculous as it may sound, it took Hern Ee long enough to know that Ian is staying in the same house as him but on the higher level. Speaking of Ian, I have not seen him for a little over a year now and still haven’t got a chance to see him. As the saying goes, so near yet so far, it can be very convincing at times.

After spending more than a day in this suburban, I realize everywhere could be just a stone throw away from everywhere. What also caught my attention is the design of the road, which made “getting lost” sound pretty absurd. Everywhere is a walking distance from everywhere but people don’t really walk much now because of the extreme weather condition, duh.

Since yesterday was my first night here and I was sleeping on a sofa due to insufficient beds, I didn’t sleep really well. I woke up at 7 in the morning, my earliest yet ever since God knows when, and turned on the laptop. Trust me, it was a long wait until those 2 boys got out of bed. I was so starved that at 2 in the afternoon, I barged into their room to inform them about my grumpy stomach.

Because I was planning to open an account at the US bank near Drake, we went to this place called Jimmy Jones for lunch. It was something like subway but they serve their sandwiches with French bread instead of those fancy Italian ones. It cost me less than 6 American Dollars (considered cheap if you give your head a smack and stop doing those conversions) and I really loved it. Not to mention, the portion was big unlike Malaysia’s Subway, where a supposing half foot long bread was served in less than 6 inch.

Then we got our butts to the other side of the road and went into a building which has a “US Bank” board, covered with white snow, fixed to the wall just above the entrance. It was really really a tedious process to open a bank account. I bet I took around 1 hour or more to get everything done.

It was already pass 4.30pm by the time we reached Olmsted Centre. It spoilt the plan of getting my Drake ID done when we came to a locked entrance door and a completely dark building. Since we were already out, we decided to pay Yi Yun and Lydia a visit. It was really nice to see them but their apartment was steaming hot, we ~~didn’t~~ couldn’t stay for long. It’s like the hot wind you get in Malaysia but without the wind. Someone could get suffocated in there, seriously.

We then went to McDonald’s for dinner, Woot~ The price was FUHREAKING CHEAP! They actually sell Chicken and Cheese burger for $1, FREAKING ONE AMERICAN DOLLAR. Now I know where to go when I’m starving, 5 chicken and 5 cheese burgers, please. Thank you. We stayed at McDonald’s for awhile before heading back to Yi Yun’s to deliver her her meal.

The night yesterday was a bit chilly, plus it was colder than previous nights but I can totally survive this. =)

Till then.

At KLIA