blow wind blow...

everywhere i've been so far seems to have been windy.
in quebec city, it was so cold i made 3 aborted attempts before finally exploring the old city.
in new york, it was raining when i left shan's apt and the wind was so strong that i could hardly walk and Mr Ying had to push me.

now i've flown all the way to the midwest and you'd think i'd have escaped from the winds of the east coast, but no, Chicago's also known as the 'Windy City' and i'm currently nestled in Evanston, a small suburb to the north of Chicago right on the shore of Lake Michigan! Meaning? Wind!

i'm currently sitting on the rocks (or at least i was when i was writing my journal but now i'm safely indoors) by the lake watching the seagulls and trying to increase my wind tolerance.

the rocks around the lake have all been painted on by generations of northwestern students. across you can see the chicago sky line. some part of chicago anyway.

i love evanston! it's so small and quiet and peaceful. reminds me of St. Gallen, albeit an american version. it's perfect for me to rest in in between my weeks of hectic travelling. i'm gonna stay put here this whole week. i almost couldn't be bothered to check out the main chicago city but i still did yesterday anyway cos i'd already bought a day pass.

another reason why i love chicago and evanston is because they have a tea place called Argo Tea! It's a lifesaver after all the millions of coffee joints around america with lousy tea. The branch here is hiring and i wish i could work there these few days! i doubt they'd find it worth their time training me though. I guess I'll just hang out there every day instead.

it didn't even occur to me chicago was so far to the west until i was flying here. it was like flying from singapore to china except the flight was all over land, not sea. The USA sure is HUGE! I'm glad i'm seeing more than just the east coast though.

But doing all that has made my money disappear as fast as the ozone layer. I'm still trying my darnest to save money but it's not working cos i keep getting tempted by some dessert.

But as I learnt from Sophie Kinsella's 'Shopaholic in Manhattan' (which i was browsing in one of the many many darling bookshops they have here):

"Foreign money doesn't count, so you can spend as much as you like."

Then again, she was converting from pounds and everything is cheap that way. If I was back in China, maybe i'd buy in.

Highlights over the past 2 weeks:
1. Couchsurfing in Toronto and Montreal, i had lovely hosts in both places! Met my first genuine 25%-cannot-bluff North American Indian ;)
2. Frenchified Montreal and Quebec, both sooo pretty!
3. Cycling and adorable cupcakes in Montreal

4. Quebec and its green-roofed 'Shrek castle' :P
5. Driving from Montreal to Quebec, and down from Quebec City to New York City - my first real road trip! (malaysia and road trips with parents don't count.)
loved the road stops too - A&W root beer floats, and still $1 BK dutch apple pies (why oh why did they stop serving them in sg?!)

it was a huge car but i could raise the driver's seat!

6. Getting fined for speeding :P my friend was going 92mph in a 65mph zone. i didn't realise at all. we're not paying the fine i think. i wonder if my friend will get arrested the next time he tries to go back to the states heheh

getting stopped hollywood-movie style with the cop car chasing us down with his red lights whirling. and we were like "huh is he after us?"

7. Finally reaching michele's apt. it felt like HOME after all the wandering. altho i was only there a day before i went off again. but here i could just slump on the sofa, drink HK milk tea and eat egg tarts (cos she lives in chinatown, whee!!!) and watch TV all afternoon and then at night we went on a food hunt through NY hahaha
8. Shopping with debbie! In NY and Philly. at one point, when she realised she liked all the stuff i picked out, she actually squealed "wow you have such good taste!!" haha
9. Eating desserts with debbie! warm melted chocolate, oreo tarts, cookies, waffles, yoghurt-gelato, chocolate cookie dough pancakes... put anything sweet in front of us and we cannot resist!

oreo cookie tart and hot chocolate. i dunno why the photo is flipped, it's the right way up in my camera

10. Beavers in Quebec, squirrels everywhere, skunks in evanston, flying ducks along lake michigan Let's play "Spot the Beaver!" Double-click for larger version.

Photos soon once i borrow something from rae to transfer them with. although all this me-time i've been having makes me lazy to blog. i feel like just keeping everything to myself heh. but just so you guys know, i'm still alive.

Ok i'm gonna go skunk-hunting now, wanna bring one back home. or at least catch one... on camera.

Kidding. i hunted down some northwestern uni frisbee players and so i'm gonna join the women's training tonight. hope i don't freeze my legs off. toodles.




*saw a wild rabbit on my way to frisbee! nowhere near as cute as Nasi though.