29 March 06

Ahh... will I make it till April. Hope so, then can go shopping.

Anyway, I rented a car yesterday! Its the Chrysler Cruiser I think. We went to the AVIS car rental outlet to get a car. They personnel passed me the keys with a number and ask me to go look if i lke it. So i went to its back to select and it looks like this :

And I liked the car and heres the pictures!



My colleagues say it is interesting but look like london cab:( I kana downgraded to london cab taxi driver. But it is good to drive a car not often seen in singapore. Forgot to take the internal picture of the car, tomorrow will do.

Then later that night, we went to a restaurent to eat called hanakawa. A jap restaurent. Not too bad, got serve tekpanyaki. Opened by a group of indonesians apparently.

Then went back to work and sleep. Was disturbed by a sms at 3am by my senior engineer and couldnt really sleep after that. And when i finally slept, I overslept. Woke at 8.15 am and eventually got to work at 9am. But got eat breakfast still. And here is how my hotel breakfast area look like :


There is a child care center in the design center. So now and then you see kids moving along the corridor. they look like this :

Got not much to do today...... so went to drink coffee with the rest. And took a picture of the nice view from the canteen:



Looks good eh. I heard from the rest that in summer, the people will brng out the food and sit at the benches to eat. So relaxing.

Thats all for tonight i guess....... sleeping early to replace yesterday night beauty sleep.

Morning of 28 March 06

Today work up early to see if my Girlfriend got log into MSN. But dont have :(

All this because the bloody international call system does not work! heres the instruction written :

I tried all possible combination and IT DOES NOT WORK!! Irritated liao.
Anyways... here the morning view from my hotel. Did you see the small sticker in the window. It writes this :


Initially, When choosing the room, I took first floor. I thought this 8 inches thingy applies for the ground floor cause scared people come in hit you. But apprently, even the 2nd floor where im staying not also the same. The receptionist say its to prevent us from suicide. (FROM THE SECOND FLOOR??) What can i say.

ok have to go prepare for breakfast liao. Today will try to cook wafer... looks real good. Muahaha.

First day in Chicago! 26/03/06

YEAH!! Arrived at Narita Airport. Took a free set of toothbrush set and poker cards :). Arrived there around 4.30 and my flight to Chicago is around 7.10pm. So went to walk walk. Quite a lot of people.Here is a picture of the Airport floor map.

Went to the gents and their hand blower is quite interesting. Installed with the basin and it blow upwards. Pretty practicl

Then I walked from the far left of the airport to the other end in search of my other 2 colleagues that came here on a earlier flight. But its in Avail, couldnt find them. BUT! I found a bookstore

But this is no ordinary bookstore i discovered. I remember my colleague telling me about some powerful bookstore that has outrageous books. And it indeed has!


After walking so long, its around 5.30pm and i decided its time for a True blue Jap food. So i went to the glass display too look at the potential candidates.


AAAANNNNNDDDD....... The chosen one is the Mushroon Udon! Considering that i am sick, I gave the nice looking eel a miss. :(

And so I paid using Amex card and took a queue number and sat down on a empty table. Its quite a wait around 10 min before the food came. The food looked like this:


I swallowed the food down(hungry) and then guai guai took me medicine out to eat. Thinking i better get well soon or else i will be getting a heck of a time in Chicago considering the temperature there.

After the meal i decided to go to the American Airlines lounge to take a rest. Luckily i went... I forgot must check in again but along the way, i had to walk past the AA check-in counter and it gave me the lead to check-in. After checking, I then went to the AA lounge. There, i found my 2 other colleagues. Seeing that the lounge got a network, i quickly went to try out in hope of internet access. But alas, it comes at 500 yen per 24hrs. Sianz.... anyway, heres how the business center with the internet connection looks like :



So i went back to my colleagues and sat down talk cock. Then when the time came, we went to board the plane. late departure.... by 30min or so.

So.... I got the first class tickets! and here is how the beds look like :


During the journey.... I sleep, and watch movie. But made sure around chicago time 10am onwards, i did not sleep in hope to beat the jetlag. Which tomorrow..... i will know. When the plane flew through the minnosota area, i was so happy. There were snow on the ground!



But when i reached, no snow. This portion has reached spring liao. From the airport, i took a cab to the hotel. The cab driver is a black man who is studying mechanical engineer in a collage in Chicago. He just came here a year ago. He did not know the way.... But luckily, he called his friend and all went smotothly to my hotel. My colleagues fall in at 6.30pm (all 7 of us) to go to a far away restaurent called wildfire to eat dinner. We booked a table but still has to wait quite a while. The food is really good and the service, fantastic. But im ill.... so coundnt eat my new york strips(steak) and baked french inion soup quite well. The mashed potatoes is rather good thought. I gave the dessert a miss.... scared it will worsen my cough. After which i cam back to the hotel and start writing this blog.... really sleepy rite now. its 10.39pm. Took me 39 min to write this.. bad record. Anyways.... Will be here a long time so better start writing blog. Tomorrow will rent a car, hopefully will be able to get a chevolet or SUV like my other colleagues.