Greetings from America!

HELLO!

My trip to USA was an exhausting one. Took me 2 days to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Little Rock. My pit stops were Singapore, Hong Kong and Chicago. It was a relief that I had 4 collegemates on the same flight to Chicago, so we accompanied and looked after each other throughout the journey. The flight to Chicago was 14 hours - insanely boring and uncomfortable. Babies should be banned from long flights because there have been so many cases of how they just erupt into loud screams and wails at random hours. There was a terrifying baby on my 14-hour plane ride, unfortunately. And it wouldn't stop SCREECHING (not crying) for 20 minutes every 2 hours or so. That flight left me with a headache and a sore bum.

At least the food served on the plane wasn't too bad :) Beef rice with a bun and butter, carrot cake and salad.

I only got to sleep for 2 hours during the 2 days, so by the time I reached America, I was extremely tired. Happy, but tired. The Chicago O'Hare International Airport wasn't as big as most people claimed it to be; they just had a lot of terminals. There wasn't much that I could do since there was no free wifi. I had 6 hours there. Thankfully, I made friends with a girl on the plane and found out she had 7 hours in Chicago. So we hung out together until my last flight to Little Rock.

I brought A LOT of bags with me on this trip. I was thinking, "I'm going to be in America for 2 years, and Arkansas isn't a place to shop, so I should take as much of my wardrobe with me." Bad idea. Anyway, lesson learned, so I will try not to over pack when I go traveling the next time.

These were the bags I was carrying with me all the time. Everyone else only had one backpack.

When I reached the Little Rock airport, my bags were delayed. So I had to wait for 40 minutes before they came out onto the baggage carousel. As for my handcarry, it went missing. I had to report to the counter and they finally found it, much to my overwhelmed relief! I was so scared that I wouldn't see it again. It wasn't my fault, because the cargo got delayed.

So, I got picked up at the Little Rock airport by my cousin Dina and her husband Rob. I lived with them in Jacksonville for a couple of days before moving into campus. They have been so gracious and wonderful to me. I feel really blessed with the opportunity of studying in USA and to be able to meet Dina & Rob and to live with them in my first few days. They took me out, taught me about the American culture and helped me get settled down. They were really nice.

I went to the restaurants in Little Rock and Jacksonville a few times, and oh my gosh - their portions were pretty big. I'm a small eater, and I had to force myself to get past 3/4 of my meals each time because the servings were plentiful. But the food was good. They have lots of cool stuff here.

My first dinner in America at the Dixie Cafe. Cajun fried catfish, whole kernel corn and mashed potatoes. I had a hard time saying "Cajun". For the first 10 minutes, I was saying "Ka-hun" because I thought it was a Mexican/Spanish word or something of that sort. It's actually pronounced "Kay-Jen." Sounds pretty smooth.

I went to the Underground Pub with Dina, Rob and Dina's colleague named Karey, and I ordered a Chicken Nachos. It was basically chicken, salad and nachos with salsa and sour cream dips .

Oh, and I went to Walmart a couple of times. When I first stepped into the store, I was speechless for 5 seconds. I've seen it in movies, on TV, read about it in books, and suddenly I'm FINALLY in it! There's nothing AMAZING about Walmart, but it is one of the biggest grocery stores in America. So for 5 seconds, I was actually amazed to be there.

It's summer here. Autumn isn't starting until the middle of next month. Summer in America can get really bad. It's not the usual humid air that Malaysia has everyday. It's fiery hot with the sun scorching down on you, and it takes you a while to sweat. It's like the sun is breathing hot, heavy breaths down your back. So THAT'S WHY everyone complains about summer. And you thought Malaysian heat was bad. :)

A small part of Little Rock town

There are several things to get used to, being in the USA. Temperatures are measured in Fahrenheit, distances are measured in miles, phone credit is measured by minutes, and tons more. I'll get used to it soon, I hope.

Little Rock is the main city/capital of Arkansas. There wasn't much to see, but Rob drove me around the town one day and I saw a familiar looking majestic white structure.

Yeah, I bet you recognize it too ;)

Rob used to work in the military, so he has special access to the airforce base in Little Rock. He took me there, and I was awed at the huge fighter jets on display. The place was like a whole different land on its own.

And Arkansas is known as the "Natural State" because it is in one with nature. Okay I'm not too sure how to explain that but basically it's a scenic state. Lots of beautiful scenery.

So, what I'd been doing in my first 5 days here was going to the shops, getting whatever else I needed for campus, and finally getting a phone. Having a cell phone is rather costly over here in the USA. I just got mine yesterday, it's a prepaid phone with a side-slide keypad. Like one of those sidekick phones ;) (That's one of the reasons I bought it.) I got it mainly for emergencies...

There aren't many malls in Little Rock. The ones that I went to were pretty small. Nothing like Sunway Pyramid or Midvalley. But they are nice hangout spots for the community. There were some shops that I'm thinking of going back to in my next visit to Little Rock.

Park Plaza

Yesterday, I went to my university for the first time. It was a 40-minute drive from Jacksonville. My university is located in Conway, an interesting little town that I would explore soon. My campus is fairly big, and it's really beautiful!

I'll take more pictures of the place soon :)

I moved into Baridon Hall last night. It's a sophomore hall, and each unit consists of a living room, a bathroom and two bedrooms. There are 2 beds in each room, so I'm having a roomie but she won't be arriving til Sunday. I spent 2 hours unpacking last night; cleaning up and arranging my stuff. It felt really weird to be sleeping all alone in an empty house. Haha. It's just for another 6 days... well the place is small but cosy-ish. It just needs a bit more colors and it should look nicer.

This is my bed. I'm really thinking of getting it jacked down, so I won't have to climb on the table to get into bed.
This is the bathroom. Very simple one with a shower and a lavatory.

And this is the living room. Just 2 sofas, two desks and chairs. I'm thinking of adding a plant or something - anything to make it look cosier.

I went for dinner with Dina and Rob last night, right before moving into the dorm. We ate at a cool restaurant called Mike's Place in Conway. The servings were really big, bigger than the ones I'd had.

So, that's basically it. That's roughly about what I've been doing.. I don't have anything planned for today, because I can't do much since I don't have my student ID yet. But the library is definitely a place I'll be visiting often until I get my internet cable; I can't go online in my room and that's sad :(

People here have been really friendly. They're also pretty random too. Yesterday when I was at Walmart, two American guys came up to me grinning and muttered something in Japanese. I asked, "What?" and then one of them said, "Oh, are you Japanese?" and I was like "No, I'm not Japanese." And he said "Oh sorry."

Then 10 minutes later when I was looking at phones, unable to make a decision just yet, a guy popped out of nowhere and said, "Oh that one is SO awesome! I know because I use it. Sorry. I just.. had to say something because it's totally awesome. You should get it."

Yeah, so, randomness everywhere :) but it's cool. I'm learning to adapt to the culture and everything. Hopefully I'll learn to LOVE it here. I miss all of you back home. I really really do.