Land of the Free

Right. So this is a bit late.

(A little warning, this post will jump all over the place and will not follow any set chronological order)

The excuse first. The Inn that I’m staying in for now doesn’t have an internet connection for one reason or the other. So even though I typed this in the morning here, I’m only uploading it from a nearby Starbucks. But this problem will be remedied from Monday evening (local time, erm Tuesday morning for you guys) when I move into Days Inn. Ok, excuse done.

So I’m here. Believe it or not, it still hasn’t really sunk in that I’m in America yet, and this is where I’m going to be for the next 4 months at a minimum. It still feels like it’s a momentary break, like I’ll wake up one morning back in Singapore. I’m pretty sure the loneliness will really bite down when my dad leaves 2 weeks from now.

A little add on to the last post. I realized that I didn’t really explain anything in detail or properly when I was sitting at Narita. It’s simple saying that you only realize what you’ve got when it’s gone. Or in this case, when you’re gone. My last few days in Singapore led me to the realization that I have fantastic friends. And the surprise at the airport really affirms that and makes me want to say that again but in caps.

I HAVE FANTASTIC FRIENDS.

Yea, there. That’s done. Let me be honest. I was pretty bummed about the fact that my flight was at some ungodly hour that would make any expectation of people to show up almost inhumane. But the fact that 9 guys stayed over in the airport from 11pm the previous night was just so amazing. The cheesecake, the photo album, the letter, and the gay passport pouch (I love you Gavin :D) was even more astonishing. And everything just added up to making leaving so much harder. But seriously and sincerely, thanks one and all.

Now for my experiences once I landed here. First, I realized that they’re really serious about immigration and security. But thankfully everything went along without a hitch. Met Rajkumar uncle who was going to drive us up to Ann Arbor for Detroit. Here’s a little back story. Rajkumar uncle is my Dad’s college mate from about 25 years back. They haven’t been in touch for almost the same period of time. Imagine my surprise when I find out that he, despite all his other commitments that day (which were quite substantial trust me), came all the way down to pick us up. Awesome eh? Right back to the original story. So we reached the Library Inn at about 6pm and we met the most awesome inn keeper around. The inn is great too. Pictures will be up on FB at about the same time this blog post goes up. Went for a walk with my dad to explore Ann Arbor, ate at a vegetarian restaurant called Seva where the food was great and I was introduced to a very important lesson. AMERICAN SERVING SIZES ARE VASTLY DIFFERENT. Actually, that’s something I realized for many things. Everything here is bigger. The Roads. The concept of size and distance is radically different in comparison to Singapore. Heh. I stop myself from typing “back home” and I type Singapore instead. I shall start using “back home” from now on. Haha. Walked back and fell asleep.

Woke up today (23rd for me, 24th for you guys) got breakfast and went down to Meijers, the local 24hr supermarket. And when Americans say super, they mean super. The ones back in Singapore are just trusty sidekicks in comparison. Walked around, bought some stuff. Haven’t done much after that today though. Rajkumar uncle took us to a BestBuy to get my dad a prepaid phone for him to get some office work done. Will be walking down to the North Campus where my dorm is later.

Right then. That’s it for now. Photos on FB!


Cheers people.