A comeback post

I didn't write anything in 2017. Wow, what an achievement. Haha. After more than one year abandoned this blog, I thought I want to let it die in a slow death of abandonment. However, come 2018 and new resolution, I will revive this old blog of mine and start writing again. Writing down thoughts is a good practice, and it provides a venue for reflection and self-awareness. As you know, an effective leader is the one who has self-awareness. 

Since I have skipped 2017, I also missed the mandatory yearly review at the beginning of the year. For this, I have to review two years which are 2016 and 2017.

What happened in 2016? Big changes. Zainal completed his double Master degree from Boston University, and we moved from the northeast to the southwest. Precisely from Boston to Arizona. From frigid cold winter to scorching hot summer. Why the move? To get another Master degree, precisely MBA. We drove all the way across the country in 6 days covering more than 6,000 miles. We arrived on the hottest day of the year which was 120 degrees Fahrenheit or 49 degree Celsius, and it fell on the first day of Ramadhan. Crazy. I finished two quarters in my MBA and what I can tell you is that MBA is wayyyyyy crazier than that Master degree from Duke. I can't remember much the details between August and December because I was literally living at the campus all day and barely have any extra time to live my life.

In 2017, life is better. Or maybe I just adapted to the busy schedule of MBA. I tried to avoid staying in Phoenix during summer, but my rezqi was to be here as I interned at a company here. I felt like 2017 deserved a different post. Okay, I just lazy to remember what happened in 2017 right now and I will continue in a different post.

First Toastmaster win!

Early this year, I joined Toastmaster International. It's a club where you can practice public speaking in a safe and control environment. I always wanted to join one but didn't have the time or chance previously. So when I found out there's one just a block from Zainal's school, I checked it out to feel how the club was doing. After being a guest for 3 times, I decided to join. Coincidentally I started my membership on 1st January 2016.

Funnily, at the same as I joined, there were many new members joining the club at the same time. So now the battle to find a slot for speech has reached to 2 months waiting period. Last year when I was just a guest, it took 2-3 weeks of waiting period. So in Toastmaster, you need to complete 10 speeches for you to become Competent Communicator. Each speech will focus on a certain aspect of a public speaking, and you are being evaluated by an evaluator. For example, how to structure for speech, vocal variety, body language/movement and speech to inspire/inform/storytelling.

Besides prepared speeches, the second part of club meeting is table topics speech. Table topic speech is when you are asked to give a 1-2 minutes speech on a topic/questions that being asked at that moment. The idea is to train you to be able to think on your feet. You need to think fast and give the answer on the spot.

It so happened, last week the club held International Speech Competition. The winner will represent the club to next stage of the competition. However, only members with 6 speeches and above are qualified to join. Since I only did 3 speeches, I was not qualified. But I can join the Table Topic Contest as it doesn't have per-requisite. I didn't do any preparation as I had an interview in the morning and was preparing for that interview instead. Nevertheless, I watched a Youtube video on how to win Table Topic Contest by past winners. Yes, I am very competitive. I need to do the best even I just joined for fun.

Guess what? I won first place in the Table Topic Contest! Alhamdulillah. I was super duper happy and shock at the same time. Coz I thought I was all over the place while trying to remember what the video told me to do. But the judges were telling me that I did a good job. The question for that contest was: What fictional character you want to meet in real life and why?

Due to that, now I'm going to represent my club at the area level contest early next month. Oh wait, that is next week! Oh no... this time around I will practice and make sure I will make my club proud.

Boston Public Library

If you live in Boston or surrounding areas, and never got Boston Public Library (BPL) free membership, you better apply for one now. It's so easy to apply. All you need is proof that you are living in Massachusetts now by bringing an ID or a bill with your name and address. Within 5 minutes and you have one of the best library membership in the world (source: me).

Even if you don't like to read, you can borrow thousands of DVD from the library. The library also has a program where they give you free tickets to Boston attractions. All you need is to book which day you want to go and pick up a pass at a library near you. I have redeemed free tickets to New England Aquarium, USS Constitution Museum and Museum of Science. For each pass, you can redeem 4 tickets so that you and your friends can enjoy it together. Cool right.

But the best part of this library is the collection that they have. They have the second largest collection of books and records in the United States. Imagine how many books you can read. Whenever I saw a book someone suggest, I immediately search BPL and always find a few copies. Besides hard copy book, they also have the e-book and audio book. I love their e-book. I can just download it into my Kindle within few minutes I search for it (providing the book is available). Sometimes some books are not available in e-book format, or the e-book format is already borrowed by someone else. I can hold the hard copy book and ask them to send to the nearest library near me. At one time, I held up to 4 books and asked them to send to the Brighton library which is few minutes from my house. Within 2 days, they send an email informing that my books are available, and I can pick it up.

Talking about the nearest library, BPL has 24 branches in Boston besides the famous and beautiful central library at Copley Square. They want to make sure that everyone has access to the library at their neighborhood. By having these branches, you can return books at any branches and ask them to send the book to your neighborhood library. So there is no reason for you not to read!

Yup, I can study here all day. Boston Public Library is the second largest public library in US with 23 million materials 😮 #boston #publiclibrary #bpl

A photo posted by Mun M (@chokiinheaven) on Mar 14, 2015 at 8:30pm PDT

The famous study room in Boston Public Library in Copley Square

However, if you found out that the book you want in not at BPL, you can always suggest them to buy. Last winter, I went visiting Pixar exhibition at Museum of Science (the free tickets remember), and I saw this one book that I interested in reading which is about digital painting. When I went home, I searched the library online and found it wasn't in their collection. I looked up at Amazon, and the price of that book is high, even the used version. Remembered that BPL has this option to suggest any books, I submitted that book information on the BPL website. I imagined that they received thousands of requests, and I don't think I will hear from them. Surprise, surprise, few weeks after that, I received an email saying that the book that I submit for the suggestion is available, and I can come to pick it up. I was so impressed! Wow.. I can forget about buying any books right now.

I'm so happy with BPL, and I glad that I'm able to use their service. I think they do an excellent job ensuring that the Boston communities can continuously learn by providing free materials and spaces. They also have classes at their library. I never join one, but I might try one day.

So those who haven't applied for BPL membership, you should use this wonderful service.

How it feel living in -22 degree Celsius?

Coming from a tropical country where we only have sunshine and rain throughout the year with average temperature of 28-32° Celsius, I always wonder how it feel to be in frigid temperature. I have experience with -1 to -3 °Celsius but more than -10 °C? That will be something extreme.

What a better place to experience it than in Boston, right. Temperature in Boston changes everyday or even every hour drastically like a fickle-minded person choosing an ice cream flavor. Last year the coldest day we had experience was -17 °C with windchill temperature -35°C. But I managed to avoid going out and didn't really experience it. This year was during this weekend. Instead of 1 day, we got 2 days of extreme cold. The temperature was -22 °C with windchill temperature of -33°C.

You see, during winter, you don't believe what the temperature tell you about your current temperature. You need to focus on the RealFeel. The weather can be 2°C but the RealFeel is -5°C. RealFeel is the actual temperature that you will feel outside as it takes the account of wind, humidity, cloud cover, sun intensity, and others. That is how to plan what to where before you go out. Therefore, when I said the temperature for this weekend was -22°C, the RealFeel was -33°C.

Let me share the experience. Last night, we went out to see Trevor Noah show in Downtown Boston. We parked the car just 5 minutes walking from Wilbur Theater. The moment I stepped out from the car, the wind attacked my bare skin aka my face. My nose hurt so much that I need to cup it using my gloved hand. While at average winter temperature, I just can't feel my nose, but this time, it's like my nose was being crushed and prick with thousand needles at the same time. At the front door, the security forcing people to come in quickly so that no one will stand outside. The wind was so cold even my feet was freezing though I was wearing wool socks with my wool lined boots. Double wool and still freezing.

Wow, now I know what it feel to be in this extreme temperature. Tonight I going to try throwing boil water and see if it turn to ice immediately.

 

500th and 8th

I can't believe it, but this is my 500th post on this blog. But for 10 years old blog, that is not that much. It's around 50 posts per year or 4.2 posts per month or 1 post per week. That's not bad.

Anyway, for this 500th post, I want to write something special which is my 8th wedding anniversary. I always confused the date of our anniversary. For some reason, I always think it's on 18th January and this year I made that blunder again. At 18th January, I blurted to Zainal that we forgot our anniversary. Zainal looked at me annoyingly and told me that tomorrow is our anniversary. With confidence, I insisted it was on 18th. Finally, he took out our kad kahwin and showed me the real date. Ahhh.. It's on 19th. Come on brain, please remember this important event.

This year we were in San Francisco. Not purely vacation but more to Zainal's networking trip. While he was busy meeting companies in the Bay Area, I was busy exploring SF by myself. Since we were at the SF, we took this opportunity to have the anniversary dinner there. I chose Pacific West. The restaurant was full when we got there, and because Zainal was super hungry, we chose to seat outside as no one wants to sit there. We jokingly said that since we are from Boston where winter temperature is at -2 degree Celsius when we left on Saturday, San Francisco 12 degree Celsius is just a spring time for us. Even the waiter told us to take our time as nobody wants our table. Haha.

It was a fun night. The food was awesome, and it was Asian Fusion. Forgot to take any pictures of the food. The good thing about sitting outside that it was quieter and we able to have a proper conversation without having to shout compare to sitting inside which was packed and noisy. I love having dinner date where we able to talk properly.

I have a wonderful eight years with my husband. I pray that Allah unites us in goodness and grant us Jannah where we continue our marriage there. Amiin

Goodbye 2015

Here we are welcoming the new year and leaving the old year with many memories. 2015 is the worst year for my blog as I only updated 9 times! A single digit posts in one year. What happened to my new year resolution to write as much as I can.

Anyway, as a whole, 2015 wasn't as bad as my blog. Hehe. 2015 marked one full year I left full-time employment and dedicated myself to the family, my company and charity works. I started volunteering at Cradle to Crayons and Gifford Cat Shelter. I also organized the fundraising for Kelantan flood victims. I enjoyed it so much, and I will continue to do it InsyaAllah.

In terms of traveling, we went to Midwest during spring break covering Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Wisconsin. It was fun and a good week to escape Boston endless snow storm. We also drove down with few others to Washington DC for Job Fair organized by Education Malaysia during spring and enjoyed Singing Beach at Manchester-by-the-sea, MA.

In summer, we went back to Malaysia coz Zainal got an internship in Microsoft KL. So we got to fast and Raya in Malaysia. Weehooo.. And I managed to have a 1 night trip back to Kelantan with my parents after almost 15 years hasn't gone back to my hometown. I managed to put on 3kgs within than 3 months -_-

Once we were back in Boston, we moved to a different apartment (cheaper but smaller) and got a very good deal second-hand car. Alhamdulillah, now we can move easily and not depending on buses and trains to go everywhere. That also means I'm Zainal's official driver :) Since we have a car, we took this opportunity to explore Massachusetts. We went eating cheap lobster at Rockport and awed the grand Castle Hill mansion at Ipswich. We also went to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We should go to Vermont and Maine after this.

Other than that, I experienced the worst winter that Boston ever experiences and for the first time I saw that amount of snow. I do hope that we will not experience that again this year.

Last but not least, I took this opportunity to study and to get ready for another opportunity for 2016, InsyaAllah if there's rezeki. Looking forward to more productive and unpredictable 2016.

First snow of the season

After the worst winter storm that accumulated a record breaking of 7 feet and paralyzed Boston earlier this year, I would never thought I would be so happy to welcome the first snow of this season. I waited until 2am this morning too catch the glimpse of snow falling down. I love the first few hours of snow. So pure, innocent and mesmerizing.

Many people who survived last winter, talking about snow would end with, please no more snow. I don't mind the weather we are having right now (15 degrees Celcius on Christmas day!). Yes, it was that horrible. I don't want it to happen like previous winter. Just 10" for this year would be nice. Enough snow to go sledding and making snowman. Haha

In the meantime, let's enjoy this 2" snow that we received last night.

Congratulations Duke! #foreverduke

5 years ago on the same date and month, I wrote this post. And today, I want to repeat it again:

DUKE UNIVERSITY IS THE CHAMPION OF N.C.A.A. BASKETBALL 2010 2015

It's the fifth winning for Duke. The fact that I'm here again at Uncle Sam's land watching it live, made it so much sweeter. I'm so happy for Duke and Coach K. Well played game and they deserved it. 

(Source of this picture: from instagram) Tyrus Jones and Grayson Allen were awesome and helped Duke to win this game. Quite disappointing with Okafor performance last night but he was a good player in other games.

 Now that the March Madness is over, I can continue watching my favorite TV series. Hehe

Snow snow snow everywhere

Late January 2015, we heard that a winter storm is coming to Northeast. It was predicted so bad that we have travel ban and all public transportation stop working. Well, the storm never left Boston. From 26 January to 20 February, Boston has received 96 inches of snow. Every week we heard a storm is coming, and it actually came and disrupt all our plan.

The first storm was Juno and people actually quite excited about it. We went out, walked around the deserted road, jump into the fluffy snow and went sledding on the second day. Then came second, third and fourth (is there fifth storm? I lost count) snow storm and at this point people just want to stop.

Traveling has become a challenge. Bus stops have no proper place to wait. Trains are not running. Walking needs extra caution, you either walk in the snow or slippery ice. Sometimes you have to brave the wind chill. It is essential that you wear water-proof boots.

 Now the storm has quietly receded since last weekend. We even got above zero degrees Celsius on Sunday. What a happy day! I hope the weather stays this way and slowly melting the snow. What I can say is that I have never seen so much snow in my life until this 1 month and I think I have enough of it.

 Spring, please come faster! 

How I survive Superbowl XLIX

Even though I don't agree that American football is called football, this sport is big in US and since I am here, I have to accept that is the football, and the football I knew is soccer. Fine. Once a year, two teams will compete to bring home the Superbowl trophy. This year, Superbowl XLIX (it's 49 for non-roman people) was on the 1st of February.

My feeling was neutral about Superbowl, neither too excited about the game nor despised having to hear about it all week long prior to the game. It is hard to avoid when your town team is going to the Superbowl and have a controversy about their balls. And it is also hard to ignore considering the quarterback of your town team is good looking with supermodel as a wife. Hehe

Being non-American and wasn't being exposed to this game until 6 years ago, it is hard for me to really enjoy it. But this year, I managed to enjoy it following with this few easy steps:

1) Understand the game

It is hard to enjoy something if you don't understand what is going on. You will lose interest, and before you know it, you are doing something else. For this reason, try to understand this game. Read about the players and maybe same interesting facts. It is quite hard to understand football by just reading. You need live game and someone to explain that to you to make it easier to understand. This brings us to the second point.

2) Watch it with the right people

It is important to watch it with the right crowd. You don't want to watch with a football fanatic who knew every players' stats, team history, and every single rule in the game. They will hate interruption, will look at you as if you are dumbass not knowing what the sport. You feel intimidate to ask questions and end up still clueless about the game. You also don't want to watch with people who is clueless about the game. Since they can't help you and you can't help them, you'll end up doing something else as both of you don't enjoy the game anymore. What you need is a combination of people who knew at least the basic of the game and some people who as clueless as you. So the people who are not fanatic but knew about the game will explain what happening now without you feeling like a loser since there are other people who don't know. You can ask basic questions and know at least basic rules to enjoy the game. In addition, since the crowd is not fanatic into the game, it is ok to discuss other things during the game. Like Steve Tyler's daughter is Liv Tyler who acted in Armageddon. Or Richard Sherman from Seahawks graduated from Stanford and Tom Brady from UMich and what school one of our friend is going to transfer to.

3) Have some awesome food

This is important. Having awesome food and dessert is important to ensure that we can 1) convince people to come to watch with us 2) avoid unnecessary anger due to empty stomach 3) as a topic when the game started to get boring 4) reason to stay longer until the game end aka endless trip to buffet table. 'Nuff said.

Optional

4) Your town team is playing

It is easy to get excited when you town's team is playing. You see everywhere in the supermarket, train, outside, banners hanging cheering for the team. It is easy to pick a team when watching the Superbowl because it is so obvious who you should cheer for. For me, it is of course New England Patriots. Go Pats!

5) Your team won

Well, it is easy to survive when your team won especially when the ending was so nerve breaking and unexpected.

That is how I survive and surprisingly enjoyed Sunday's game. We thought Patriots was going to lose but that interception by Butler saved the day! It was unbelievable. And to add the cherry on top of that winning, most of Boston universities closed the next day because of snow day. Yeayyy..

New England Patriots vs Seattle Seahawks. Pic from here

Changing weather

Boston has the most inconsistent weather that I ever lived. I woke up today with -6 degree Celsius and flurries. Weeyoo.. flurries and I thought maybe we can get snow tomorrow. Read the forecast and find out tomorrow the temperature will rise to 10 degree Celsius and heavy raining. What? Such a huge increase from today. Yes, that's the deal that I have to face every day. In one week the weather can be light snow on Sunday (it's already snowing in Fall!) to 14 degrees Celsius on Wednesday. I need the weather to make up her mind!

I was told that Boston's winter was the worst and the fact that it is situated next to the ocean, the wind chill from the ocean that make it unbearable. I can agree with that. If the weather is cold but no wind, I can handle. But once the wind blow, ya Allah, I can feel the chill inside my bones.

Anyway, despite all this, I can't wait to have a proper snow. You know like 5-6 inches kind of snow. Not 1 inch and gone by noon. I might like it for 1-2 days but after that I know I'll be wishing that the snow will be gone soon.

The first 4 months

It has been 4 months since we relocated to New England. It was weird to think that last year at this time, I just moved to KL from Miri. Now I am at different country. It has been a hectic few years for me that I never settled down in one place for more than a year. I have been moving from one place to another and honestly, I kinda like it.

Anyway, 4 months ago, six days after Raya, we arrived here. We were more prepared this time with expectations and preparations beforehand. However, no matter how much you prepared for something, not until you are actually being here, then only you realized that you have to adjust accordingly. That's the fun of it. That's the adventure of moving around. 

Boston is different from Durham. Boston is a big city and one of the most expensive city to stay in US. Durham is just a small city where you can rent a single bedroom apartment with free parking for a third of my current apartment rent with no parking. But, husband receives the same amount of allowance that I received when I was in Durham 5 years ago. This is where the challenge of living in Boston comes. So no car for us, even taking a public train is an optional when we can use a public bus instead (taking a bus is 50 cent cheaper than taking a train).

Though we need to change our lifestyle 180 degrees, I enjoyed living here. The only thing I miss back home is my Subang house. In this 4 months, I have polished my cooking skill since I have to cook everyday now and now I'm proud to say I have roasted 2 whole turkeys. I learned to knit. I started to learn coding again after almost failing the subject during undergraduate years. I met new people. I have times to do some volunteering work now. I have time to go to gym. I finally have time for myself. 

I will be lying if I said that the transition from full-time working woman to full-time homemaker is smooth. I was so depressed for a few weeks. Imagine waking up and realize I don't have to be anywhere. I felt like I didn't do anything productive at home and I realized I no longer earn any money. It was sucks at first. I was a horrible housewife. I'm not a good cook and I don't like doing housework. But husband was very patient with me. Despite his busy schedule and his stress with the workload, he listened to my cries and babbling. He gave me things to do and asked me to join groups so that I can meet new people. After a few weeks, I guess I started to adapt and filled my time with new hobbies.

I know this luxury of time will not last long. I need to find a job soon or maybe start another degree. Whichever that I can get. So for now, I will enjoy my time and use this opportunity to enjoy my new hobbies.

Watching Duke basketball

I know I'm lying if I said I don't miss my life back in US. I've been dreaming in my sleep about places in US these past few weeks. Like I dreamed I went shopping in Marshall's and picnic at Duke Garden. But today, the event that took place in Duke made me missed Durham even more. What else than Duke vs UNC basketball rivalry.

I missed watching Duke basketball live, whether in the stadium itself, with other Dukies around the campus TV or at my apartment. The energy was amazing. To watch live in Cameron Indoor Stadium itself, you have to queue up to 2 hours or more, no matter if it is in winter or spring. Then in the stadium, there's no seating area for the graduate students. So the whole 2 hours game, you are standing up. You are jumping, cheering and shouting all the time. It is so crazy. Crazy beautiful.

This afternoon Malaysia time, there's a match between Duke and UNC at UNC ground. I was following the live updates from tweeter. UNC was leading all the way but few minutes before the game over, Duke was catching up. But the last 10 seconds, something wonderful happened. Austin Rivers got hold the ball and threw it for 3-pointer. The ball went into the hop when the clock turned to zero. And guess what? Duke won by just 1 point. You should see the face of all UNC.. haha.

There's a tradition in Duke, when we won against UNC, we will burn the benches.. Yup, those benches was build for that. The first semester I went to Duke, no benches got burned but lately I realized Duke must been building a lot of benches nowadays. Haha. I witnessed one burning ceremony during my last semester. Again, crazy! Don't worry, we got permit to do that.

Below are the pictures took when I was there in 2010 win!

Waaaa.. I want to go back to Duke, Durham and US. Even just for visiting. Hmmm.. maybe I should ask my company to send me there someday ;)

Ps: there is a saying in Duke and it is GTHC which mean Go To Hell Carolina! 

Launching of Discovery Shuttle

Discovery Shuttle has landed yesterday, 9^th March 2011 at 11.57 am EST (12.57am Malaysia time). That would be the end of her 39^th mission (STS 133) and also the last mission before her retirement. She had racked 240 millions kilometers since she started 27 year ago and spend 365 days total in space.

Why I’m so obsessed with this space shuttle? Because I was there in Cape Canaveral, Florida to watch her 38^th mission launched. Mission Discovery STS-131 was launched on April 5 2010, at 6.21 am EST. It was a dream came true for me. Sorry Disney, NASA can make dreams come true too, you know.

I knew there were launchings and landings event in the Kennedy Space Centre (KSC) but I never thought that one day I’ll be witnessing it. We even missed visiting KSC during our Florida trip due to tight budget though it was one of my places that need to visit in US.

It so happened one of my friends in Duke told us about his experience watching the launching of space shuttle and I was hooked. He suggested why don’t we do a road trip to Orlando and watch the next launch. I immediately said yes and recruited few of my friends to join. Recruiting my friends was easy, the hard part was to convince my hubby. He wasn’t thrilled with the idea of driving 8 hours to a same place again when we just visited that place 3 months ago. I convinced him that my friend will drive and we will just pay for petrol and such. Then I excitedly explained to him why this is important to me: the fact that my childhood ambition to be an astronomer, the fact that I always wanted to have a telescope but it’s too expensive for 14 years old, the fact that I love everything about space (except Star Trek) and I can show him evidences of the number of books on astronomy at my home when we come back. Finally he gave in and I told my friend to buy us 2 tickets.

The ticket of the launching usually sold out within hours of opening. In fact in 2010, the tickets were sold out within 1 hour after it was opened to public because the announcement by Obama that the space shuttle program will be discontinued soon. NASA will have to finish up whatever missions for 2010 and they will no more space shuttle program. Besides Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour also will be retired soon. So that was another reason why I should watch this. My friend managed to get the tickets as he bought it within few minutes the online counter opened. I was so happy.

The thing about space shuttle is they really really need to emphasize on the safety of their crew. If they think the date that chose wasn’t suitable due to weather or technical problems, they will postpone. Initially the launched was planned on 18^th March 2010 but it was postponed to April 5 2010. When they postponed the date, all my friends decided they didn’t want to go. Man! I was devastated. I have two options: 1) to abandon the trip and burned my tickets or 2) just proceed with the trip with my hubby. After much deliberation (and the fact that my friends went to DC for cherry blossom also interest me at that time), we decided that we should proceed with the trip (cherry will bloom every year anyway!).

On the April 4, we drove to Orlando. Since hotel in Orlando is cheaper than Titusville (the closest town with hotel), we decided to stay there. Also the Halal food is abundant there. From Orlando to Cape Canaveral took around 30- 45 minutes only. We arrived around 6pm and after checking in, we went for dinner. Immediately after dinner, we slept for few hours coz we planned to drive there at 1 am. Crazy I know, coz the launching only at 6.21am EST. But we wanted to get a good spot & parking.

Upon arriving there, I grabbed my sweater and my orange blanket. Zainal refused to bring his sweater and even food. I forced him to bring some Gatorade, biscuits and bottled water. I know it was in Florida, The Sunshine State but this was at 1 am in the morning and the temperature can drop further. Guess who is right? Guess who has to wear my orange blanket at 3am? Huhu…

The ticket we got entitled us to enter Kennedy Space Center the next day too besides that night itself. There is another ticket, more expensive, where you actually can watch the launching nearer than anybody else. There were shuttle buses that brought these ticket bearers to a place that was closest view you can get to see the space shuttle shot up. That tickets were harder to get coz usually the agents would buy it first and sold it at higher price. Unfortunately, I didn’t buy that ticket. My ticket entitled me to watch it at KSC Visitor Center, which is the next best thing. 

At the Kennedy Space Center, you can felt the atmosphere of excitement. There was a big screen showing the current situation at the launching pad. I saw the astronauts were putting their space suits and get ready since 3am. My husband remarked when seeing that:

Husband: There’s a reason why you are not an astronaut.

Wife: why?

Husband: Coz after all the staff put you in the space suit and get you ready, suddenly you need to go to toilet.

Wife: Hahahahahah…. You are right.

Oh well, I can never be an astronaut anyway. 

We walked around the space center taking photos with the rockets, exhibitions and shopping there while waiting for the launching. The store was so cool! There’s so many stuff I wanted to buy, including the space blanket, but I ended up with a magnet and an envelope. Boring! Then we realized that more people have arrived and we need to reserve a spot for us. I was thinking of reserving a spot on the grass, but morning dew has wet the ground. So we sat at one of the picnic table. We shared that table with a Canadian family who came all the way from Canada.

At rockets garden

With one of the shuttle exhibited there

The crowd

Then the moment has come. 15 minutes before the launch, we could see International Space Station visible like a bright star over the Cape skyline. I thought it was normal practice, but it’s actually a rare occasion. Everybody was ‘oooooohhhhhh’ and ‘aaaaaahhh’ while looking up. I was thinking it was a welcome gesture by the staff in ISS to the Discovery. What a wonderful sight.

Then the countdown began.

"It's time for you to rise to orbit. Good luck and Godspeed," launch director Pete Nickolenko told the astronauts right before liftoff.

"Let's do it!" replied commander Alan Poindexter.

And off they go and the rest is history. Let’s pictures tell my story (after long introduction…hehe) :

The sky in the morning after the launching was unusual but beautiful...

We walked around to exhibitions that we missed (or too tired and sleepy) to go...

See who is wearing the orange blanket.... hehe... Inside one of the space shuttle...

Sleepy & tired & ready to go back

And guess what happened on our way back? 2 hours of not moving traffic congestion to Orlando. ARRRRGGGHHH...

Finishing my classes

I don't know why I'm so lazy lately. Like super lazy ok especially in typing. I have so many ideas what to write here but instead I just procrastinated and finally the ideas gone. I wrote it at my Twitter and hoping with the 140 characters, it will transform to 200 words essay. Haha.. I wish.

Tonight I just realized that in 3 days, I'll be done with my Masters. Yup, jut another 3 days! I got presentations on Tuesday and Wednesday and I'm done with classes. Eh, wait, I need to submit 2 reports after that. Well, at least I'm done with classes.

I can't believe how fast the time flies. Just last week I met an International Office staff who was so nice to me when I first arrived. Yup, I went to her crying out loud saying I missed home so much. She gave me all the list that I can do to distract myself. So when I met her last week on the way to Bryan Center, I told her that I'm going to graduate in May, she was surprised that it's already 1.5 years since I cried at her office. Hahahaah..

To tell the truth, I never thought I would finish this degree. Not because I'm not competent, but I didn't think I can survive here alone. I guess over time I learned to adapt. Yes, it wasn't easy but I managed. I adapted so well until right now I don't feel like going home. I kinda comfortable here I guess. Anyway, I'm going home anyway this June. But for me, anywhere where my love is, that is my home. =)

I'm a proud Dukie

I never thought I'm going to be so happy. Yes, this happiness is too much to handle. Who wouldn't when their school win the national championship basketball game. Yes, no 1 in the US college basketball.

DUKE UNIVERSITY IS THE CHAMPIONS OF N.C.A.A. BASKETBALL 2010

I'm so proud of my school. We excel in academic and sports. Yes, we are!

I love secret rewards!

I thought Victoria's Secret (VS) is selling all the laced kind of lingerie that would not be comfortable to be worn as everyday garment. And also the kind of lingerie that is used in seduction rather than practical everyday wear. But I was wrong. I discovered this last spring when I when shopping alone at Northgate Mall (you discovered a lot of stuff if you go shopping alone). They were having the 7 panties for $25 promotion, so I took a look and discovered my new love for this brand.

Their panties are beautiful and made with comfortable cotton fabric. I love their design and style that I had a hard time choosing only 7 pairs. Furthermore, it's cheap for a brand that have Tyra Banks, Naomi Campbell and Alessandra Ambrosio as their models. If you calculated, it cost only around $3.50 per pair. Then during the checkout I was given a secret reward card. It's a coupon that has minimum value of $10, but it might has $50, $100 or even $500. The catch is that you don't know how much you got until the promotion was on which was in a month later.

I remembered berangan-angan nak beli ape if I got $100. Soon I found out I only got the minimum value which was $10. Cess.. It's ok, sape nak kasi $10 kan. So I bought something there and got discounted $10.

This year, I was waiting eagerly for the 7 for $25 promotion. I totally forgot about the secret reward things. Last weekend I found out there's a promotion that I've been waiting for. This time the panties are from the Love Pink range. Still cute as ever. So during the checkout, the cashier told me about the secret reward and I got a reward card. Now all I have to do is to wait till April to know what's my card value. I hope I'm luckier this time.

Then when I got home I realized that if I give my feedback by calling a number that stated in the receipt, they will give a $10 off for the next purchase that more than $50. Wah, excited and I already did the feedback. Now I have $20 off for my next VS purchase! Ok, time to simpan duit for this. Hehe.

Same exciting old places with additional new people

I send graduation invitation letter to 3 most important people in my life - my husband, my mother & my father last Friday. Yesterday my mom called and confirmed InsyaAllah she and my dad will come. Maybe my younger brother too.

That means we need to plan the travel schedule soon. How excited. InsyaAllah I'll be able to visit New York City again! Can't wait to go to the top of Statue Liberty, Central Park without the snow, the M&M's store and the biggest department store in the world, Macy's.

Maybe we might go Washington DC too. Second time for me. InsyaAllah. I want to have a White House tour, go inside US Capitol (after reading Dan Brown's Lost Symbol, I need to find all the rooms mentioned in the book), go inside the US Memorial and visit the museums.

I need to convince my hubby and mom that Naqib would like to go to Universal Studio in Orlando. My hubby and I skipped that place in our Florida trip last December. Boy, now I am glad we did because they are going to open The Wizarding World of Harry Potter this spring. I want to go! They have the Hogwarts Castle and all the places mentioned in the books and movies. How cool is that!

The near completion of the extended Universal Studio park. Pics from: Telegraph

Because of this new plan, now our plan for spring break needs to be modified. Still couldn't afford to go to east coast, so the plan maybe still be around west coast. We'll see what we can come out with soon.

Playing badminton with a pair of boots

After hibernating in my apartment for few weeks due to arctic wind that came for a vacation in US, finally the temperature has risen again. Maybe En Arctic Wind decided to go home and let the sunshine warmth be our friend now. It feel so good to be able to not wearing my bomber jacket and wear my Nike shoes back again.

That day I had a conversation with my mom and she still has this hope that I would do PhD in US after my Master's. Sabar ye mak, satu-satu. Last night kena ceramah lagi on the procedure of PhD in US for the hundredth of time. Ok, InsyaAllah one day. Anyway, in the conversation she said that maybe after this can go to university in the Northeast or Mid West. I was like noooo.. it's freezing cold there! Then she laughed at me saying, Ha! Dulu sibuk sangat nak pergi tempat ada snow la konon, nak pakai baju tebal-tebal, sekarang baru tahu.... hihi.

So yesterday, finally we were able to use our badminton racket that was bought during the coldest day of winter. It was fun to play in front of our house again. I used to play badminton with my dad and my brother when I was small. Then I married with someone who played badminton a lot and actually very good at it. However, since we lived in apartment at level 13, we never played any badminton except at Cyberjaya's court.

I bet my neighbours never saw people play badminton at the parking lot. Hehe... It was so much fun but at the same time tiring as I was against a good player. He didn't sweat at all and I was running and jumping all over the place. And laughing while playing is not advisable at all!

The sad thing is it's going to be raining for the whole week. Baru nak semangat...

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

I haven't updated this blog for ages and the last post wasn't a real post. Anyway, just want to share my first Thanksgiving and Black Friday experience.

My friend Yusy suggested that we should have a potluck on Thanksgiving day. So the 9 of us representing ourselves from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Korea got together at her house ate like crazy. Yusy cooked soto betawi that tasted so good, she purposely bought halal beef so that me and Zainal can eat too. How thoughtful. I brought rotisserie chicken that I bought from Al Madina. I didn't have time to cook so I just bought something. Hehe. Then that night William baked S'mores which we ate with Ben & Jerry's. Delicious!

After the dinner, two of the our friends left early as they were so concerned about exams, we started to strategise our Black Friday target. Then this Korean guy who definitely knew more outlets and brands that I do started to give crazy idea that we should go to Delaware for tax free sales. Yusy got so excited that I almost believe that they would drove there for 5 hours just for that sales. Hehe.

We went home and tried to sleep early so that we can wake up at 4 am. We woke up at 4.30am, drove to Walmart and found out it's already opened. The line at Best Buy which was opposite Walmart still long. Found Yusy and she told me that William and her boyfriend already in the store and she couldn't got in. Pity her. I brainwashed her to get herself Corelle and she bought 2 set of it. Hehe.

Walmart was crazy full of people. Since I already knew what I wanted, we proceed directly to all the items that we need. We got ourselves winter boots, which going to be perfect for skiing trip next January for only $7.

After that we went to the REI shop to be the first 200 people to get free gift card ($5, $50 or $100). We saw few people in front the store at 6.30 am and the store opened at 8 pm. We decided that we still have time to go elsewhere and find ourselves jamming Rock Band at Best Buy instead. All the blockbuster items at Best Buy was sold out and I don't find any deals that really really cheap. So we just walked around and decided that we should start lining up at REI.

There weren't a lot of people at REI so we started to line up 30 minutes before that. In all the days, this was the coldest fall morning. At last the door opened and when I looked inside the bag, I only got $5. So do Zainal and the rest of the crowd. Cisssssss. Warmed ourselves up and left the shop dissapointed.

Next stop was Southpoints. Initially we went there to get our breakfast and ended up walking around. At Macy's we found $9.99 extra large electric grill. After I cooked teriyaki roast chicken yesterday, Zainal said we should buy this. And we did. Anddd..... Zainal found a Tommy Hilfiger leather jacket for only $99, discounted from $450. There's only 2 piece left, S and XXL. He tried the S size and it was perfect! I said that he should buy this, as it was so cheap and he did. OMG, that's the best deal for today and I'm so happy coz I know he's been eyeing a leather jacket before this. This was Tommy and genuine leather at an affordable price. No wonder the whole rail was empty. Hehe.

Then, we were too tired to walk around and I felt everything didn't look good anymore. We decided to go home and sleep.

Now, wide awake, I was thinking of hitting Old Navy next. Haha.

But did you know that today is also Hari Raya Haji? I felt bad not feeling like a Raya day at all. =(