Happy half a year!!!

Surprise!!!

:)

A shitty weekend

Cold, exhausted.

Rocky road ahead

Courtesy of a meanie that said that my blog was boring, here's a nice song that I heard on the radio on my way back. Oddly, on 91.3FM (a channel that I really don't like listening to. In any case, here's Love Bug by Jonas Brothers.

It's going to be a crazy time this week. This is the week of firings. Cuts are coming on Wednesday and everyone is jittery and yet, anxious to get this over and done with. Mood in the office really sucks. Oh wells, wish me luck. Hopefully, I will still be able to say that I am employed come the next weekend.

Take care everyone. For those in the US / Ann Arbor, stay warm and toasty. For all the other folks in Singapore, stay warm too, the weather nowadays is just ridiculously bad. Rain, rain, and more rain. Feeling uneasy heading into the week. Hopefully things will work out fine. Else, I'm going to have to start ringing people for jobs soon.

Calming rainy nights

Only favorite song since secondary school days

Simply that, is all I wish for...

A rare early night

Home early, which is something short of a miracle. Wonder why I bothered to come home so early...

Oh wells, hope all is going well for everyone. Work has been hectic in a way but time is a little more manageable. Still getting work here and there but things are moving at a slightly slower pace compared to the madness of the last month.

Fighting battles and trying to work things out on all fronts has left me really drained, physically and mentally. And as if the Michigan football team is feeling as down as me, there has been losses after losses, the first losing season since the 1960s, and possibly, the most losses ever in a season if this goes on. Nonetheless, I will keep going, and so will they because I will believe in myself and I believe that the people who I care about, care just as much for me. At least, I hope so.

I know my buddies from Grand Canyon don't have access to this blog. But as I was sitting at Shin Kushiya the other day (Japanese restaurant in Suntec City), there was a stage set up outside and I heard this song come on.



Seems like just yesterday, when I was there with everyone in Dreyson's house, playing beer pong and playing rock band. Having the time of my life feeling at ease and comfort knowing that there I was, with an awesome bunch of people whom I have had the honor of meeting and walking through the depths of the Grand Canyon with. Mark, Dreyson, Em, Miss, Andrea, Brian, Lisa, Mich, it was definitely one of the most memorable times in Michigan. Val wasn't there since she was at dance practice or something for the senior's day thing. In any case, the nights spent playing beer pong at Dreyson's place, watching them pass out drunk and staying there all night, sitting in the chair and watching over the kids, amazing.

Miss days out in the Canyon, or out in Joshua Tree, with a backpack on my back, stars and the clear blue sky above, and just the earth beneath my feet. Miss days when it was all simple and worry-free. Those were the days. Thanks guys. Miss the times we had so much.

Going to take a shower and look through some photos before heading to bed. Day didn't work out as I tried or hoped to, but then again, it always never does. Have a good night.

Sundays in the office: some things just don't make sense

Maybe it's a sign of growing up, or growing old. Some things people do simply don't make any sense. How do you actually manage to mess up the lives of people who care so much about you? Maybe some people just don't deserve the care and concern that they receive.

I don't know how many times this has to happen. Maybe it'll just never end. Stop screwing it up.

Cold...

Damn this is not fun... Argh. =(

Count

A great day always ends with a great night. Or maybe, the night just doesn't end. Let's see how many all nighters I can pull in one go. Near all nighters for the past 3 weeks averaging... 3 hours a day? Yesterday was close to one with 1 hour of sleep. Today is another. Never fails to make the day better. Should have just stayed later in the office to work.

The Long Weekend

I should name this post "The Long Weekend That Never Was" instead. Burnt almost my entire weekend in the office thanks to some of the favorite slave drivers. Apart from that, spent a little time with my family, got to talk to Val for a bit, and had other unhappy things happen over the weekend. Drained and already knowing that the next week is going to be hell. Already keenly awaiting it. Alone next weekend too. Appointments welcome, though I'll have a 99% chance of being at work. In fact, better make that 100%, who am I trying to kid here.

Battling all fronts. I wonder, how long more. I can take it. Will think about this. Back to work.

Happy Birthday Ah Ma!

Hello, heading back to the office in a bit. Haha, don't look so incredulous. Yes I am going to work in the office on Saturday on a long weekend. It's pretty amusing (okay, not really), but at least you have got to be able to laugh at yourself right?

Hope everyone is doing well. Grandma's birthday later tonight! Yay, family dinner always rocks. Happy Birthday Ah Ma!

Thanks Val for waiting up to chat. You made my day. =)

I just want...

To spend some time with my family.
To be with Val.
To get some rest.
Everything to be fine for the people who matter to me.

Too much to ask for?

Maybe.

Saturday nights in the office helps to prevent the above-mentioned things from happening.

Happy birthday

Zero Expectations

Actions speak louder than words.

When it all changes

When the world as you know it changes, you just have to grit your teeth, deal with it, and stand up by yourself. Tired. Mentally and physically.

累

Self-explanatory. Sometimes, just wish for simplicity. Often, thats too hard to happen. Good night...

Exams, homework-free day, 不能说的秘密

Didn't get any sleep last night. Random thoughts in my mind and also just probably thinking about the exam today. In any case, the exam, hopefully, didn't go too bad. Really irritated with the vendors for setting such ambiguous exams and expecting everyone to draw the same conclusions / answers for the questions.

No homework today for the first time ever. Suddenly wishing that I had stayed later to re-work the LBO model in class now.

Mugging Sunday

Feeling quite tired out from an entire day spend studying for my valuation exam tomorrow. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the courses weren't taught as well as they could have been. Had to figure out quite a fair bit of the stuff on our own, and that took a lot longer than expected. Ran home after I managed finish up intensive work on the practice questions. Oh well, while studying, my mind wandered occasionally from time to time. Quite a jumbled mess of thoughts inside my head. I think it takes a great leap of faith to believe in people. Trust, completely.

Wilson
10 August 2008
11:40pm
London

This one's for you

Haha, don't say I never tell you okay. See, not a remotely unhappy post hor! *grins* Thanks for everything dear...

A whole new world with you. =)

Short update and a nice song 周杰伦 - 世界末日

Miss listening to songs like that and running through the arb. I think, it really takes a million tons of effort to care, and a billion not to.

I haven't updated this blog in a long time. Haven't had the time to do it, and also can't really be bothered to. In London now at the moment, ending my third week of training. Exam in a couple of hours and I'm done working through the basic valuation models in 30 minutes instead of the stipulated 2 hours. Another 10 more times of practice and I should be fine. Lets get it down to 20 minutes.

Dreams like that are really not very amusing... Sigh. Oh well, I have to ace my exam. Back to the wonderful world of Excel.

Countdown to Starting Work

Another long hiatus from blogging since I got back from Europe about 2 weeks ago. Getting rather tired of this whole blogging / facebooking / MSN-ing business, so haven't really been doing much of that recently. Guess, it's also about time to move on to the next phase in life and enter the work force for real. Another 7 days or so and the "freedom" would be over. Excited about it, but also apprehensive in a sense because of the uncertainty that lies ahead.

In any case, another 1 week to do whatever I have to / want to do. A little tired. Argh, if not for the darned stitches in my mouth (Oh, I pulled out the 2 wisdom teeth on the left, with one of them requiring surgery), I would go for a hard run now. Cool night air and a good run always works wonders. Oh well, maybe another day.

Home, For Real This Time

Hey everyone. Got back from my trip to Europe for a month with Val last Friday. It has been a really awesome trip and amazing experience. Breath-taking sights, good food, great laughs, unparalleled company. Never really thought that I would have the chance to actually go backpack Europe with the girl-of-my-dreams.

Been settling work stuff and also spending time at home, as well as sleeping off the jet lag for the past few days. As you can see, I'm still really nocturnal. Couldn't sleep and went for a run awhile ago to try to clear my head. I guess, telepathy really does work and got home to see a blinking message on my comp from Val. Glad I got to chat with her for a long time but felt really bad because she would be so exhausted on her first day of her internship tomorrow.

Anyways, still a fair bit on my mind, and sleep is eluding me. Have to be up in 2 and half hours time. Best of luck for the internship! To everyone else whom I've not kept in touch with for the past one month, my apologies; it was my last chance at abstinence from internet / facebook / chat programs for a long time (and a thankfully good break from it). I will be starting work in a couple of weeks time. Until then, buzz me or something to try to meet up ya?

I think, a little dose of Disney would help now... Had this song stuck in my head since the day we decided to visit Disneyland Paris.


Wilson
16 June 2008
4:25PM
Singapore

Short update

Been a long time since I last updated this blog. It's been more than a month since I started actually working full time and it has just been an absolute slug fest. Economies collapsing, shit piling up in inboxes, my new toy aka the blackberry, work, work and more work. Been really stretched on all fronts and it's really wearing me out, bit by bit.

Will push on. Take care and I hope all you guys are doing well. Give me a call or something if any of you, my friends, read this and want to catch up. No guarantees on times / days but I will try my best to.

Last but not least, thanks Val, my family, the gang for a really nice birthday. You guys make my day, everyday.

Final Days in Ann Arbor

And so, the day to bid my farewells is finally here. It's been a crazy last few weeks here. Some of the happiest, and saddest times here in Ann Arbor. Before I go into my rant (or hopefully before I go into my rant), I'll first pen down the events that have occurred in my last few days here...

4 May 2008, Sunday
Awoke early in the morning once again and bummed around for a little, clearing up stuff before heading to Argo Park for a kayak at 2pm. I signed up for the Barton Dam trip, the exact same one which I had done with Val barely 2 weeks ago. Being the only one on that trip, I hopped onto the minivan which took me to the kayak launch site at Barton Nature Reserve. As I paddled furiously down the river, I reflected on the past 3 years I've spent here in Michigan.

Like I've said in my previous posts, it has indeed, been a rollercoaster ride in life for me. Coming here sort of against the wishes of my parents, Pat's leaving, being sunk into a hell hole early junior year, and climbing back out, securing my job, making tons of friends, going on life-changing trips, a fair bit of partying (lately), and drinking (also lately), and lots of things Michigan. Words fail me as I try to think of how to summarize the 3 awesome years I have spent here in college. I am infinitely thankful to everyone that had made it possible, especially my parents and family. Extremely thankful for the turn of events that has brought a new someone into my life and a future to think about.

I shut my eyes as I paddled down stream, pausing occasionally to snap pictures, listening to the ducks quacking, the geese, and also little turtles sunbathing on a log. Spring is exceptionally awesome too since everything comes to life. I saw some ducks swimming across the river with baby ducklings in tow as I was kayaking past Gandy Dancer. That was so amazing... Had some wonderful times on this river, kayaking down with buddy Jianwei, and also a magical time out with Val. Going to miss it so much.

Val got back in the evening and finally got to spend a little time with her. Though much of it was spent running errands and packing up / moving stuff, still really glad to see her for a bit. As we concluded the night picking at the slice of chocolate moose cake which I had picked up at Whole Foods, I shut my eyes and counted my blessings for the moment.

5 May 2008, Monday
Went for an early morning run and had my favorite Subway for lunch. Met up with Val after to run more errands and ship stuff over to Duke, and also took a short trip to REI. Thought about some stuff while driving... Anyways, we went for a brief snack with her parents at Panera before I took my leave for the Grand Canyon final (for now) reunion. Picked up Brian and went over to Missy's new place for pizza and some beer. Cute little house, except for the lack of electricity. It was also then that I found out that the change in facebook status hadn't been as discreet as I thought it was and got quizzed somewhat by the bunch of them. Haha... Val arrived a little later and we sort of managed to avoid their intense quizzing for the most part. After Val left to go keep her parents company and to pack up, we messed around a little more at Missy's place before heading over to Dreyson's house (once again).

Beer Pong, drinking, laughing and just regular Grand Canyon madness. Gosh, I'm going to miss all of them so so much. One by one, they took their leave and with final hugs and goodbyes (after an extremely long night of Rockband on their XBOX360). I sent Mark, Brian and Michelle home before taking a short drive around central campus. Had some important stuff which wanted to say, but I guess... oh well, never mind, just didn't work out as planned. Headed over to the b-school for a bit, took some pictures went home. I went online and chatted briefly with some friends who were online but just had way too much on my mind. Went out once again and this time, for a long drive around campus and even north. Ann Arbor is really beautiful and quiet at night. Went into Starbucks at Washtenaw (sweet memories...), and got a hot chocolate for free since the barista took an awfully long time to prepare it. Drove around for a little more, to places where I frequented, before heading home to sleep...

6 March 2008, Tuesday
Woke up pretty early this morning and messed around a little before going to Mac to grab some breakfast for Val. Drove over to Lynn's place at Willow Tree where Val was going to leave her car to pick her up. Loaded all the luggages into Lynn's car and my car before sending Val and her parents over to the airport. Said our farewells for now before they walked into the terminal as I watched from my rearview mirror.

For the last and final time, zoomed into Detroit City to take some random pictures from the road. GM buildings, the old forgotten buildings which have not-so-long-ago been the pride and joy of the booming Motor City, now stood forgotten. Went over to Gallup Park to take in the sights one more time, and to AAA to end my insurance coverage and also to the union to settle bank account stuff.

Returned to my apartment for (my second most dreaded) part, which is packing up everything into my two suitcases. Didn't take all that long since most of the stuff had been shipped back already. Headed over to Outdoor Adventures Center (OAC) to bid farewell to Jeanette and to my surprise (and delight), Dreyson and Andrea were both there. Chatted with all of them for a little while before I had to leave. =( Really hope that our paths in life would cross once again in the near future.

Dinner at Asian Legend with Lucy 姐, Jack and Ming. Haven't seen them in forever and it was nice to have dinner with them before I leave. Memories of freshman year, when Ming and I went for our fall break trip to Toronto with all the Taiwanese grad student girls, with Lucy 姐 are still so fresh in my mind. Time has really flown past.

And so, my three years of undergraduate studies in Michigan is finally coming to an end. Departure back to the real world looms ahead. Much as I love Ann Arbor and would doubtlessly love to spend more time here, I know that at the end of the day, I still have to head out into the real world, where I'm no longer sheltered and comfortable like in Ann Arbor. As we all walk on in life, into the working world, to pursue higher education, or to chase our dreams, I know that there will always be this place, halfway around the world, that I can also call home.

Thank you everyone, thank you University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Take care all, and no matter what you do, or where you are, Go Blue.

Wilson
6 May 2008
7:00PM
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Last Weekend in Ann Arbor

It almost pains me to say this but entering the final weekend here in Ann Arbor makes me wish that time would stop, so that I can linger here for a little longer, and be with my friends and get to see my gal (when she returns) a little more Ann Arbor has certainly grown on me, from the quaint shops lining Kerrytown, to the "happening" Main Street, and the regular hangouts which I walk past on a daily basis on South University, every single place holds so much memories, some happy and some, not so magnificent. But they are all the little pieces that have formed the awesome Michigan Experience which I would not trade up for anything else in the world.

Spent Friday bumming around, walking around campus a little and went to REI's store opening (darn... why did they have to open only when I am leaving Ann Arbor!) to try to get free nalgene water bottles but apparently, people had camped out there overnight for the store opening, so that didn't materialize. Ming and I went for breakfast at Benny's and I went back to REI after to browse the backpacks and interesting stuff they sold there. Ming's dad and sis came over for the weekend, so we went over to his uncle's place at Novi to hang out for a bit and had dinner at Cherry Blossom in Novi. Decent food but after the two huge salmon steaks which I had to finish, I think I'm going to stay off salmon for quite a while. After dinner, we headed back to their house to play Guitar Hero and eat some home-made "Cold-stone" style ice-cream made by Juliana, Ming's cousin. Thanks for an awesome night! Haven't been back to their place since start of sophomore (or junior or I should just call it second) year, when we crashed in their basement upon our arrival in Michigan because our apartments wasn't ready until the following day. Thanks uncle and auntie!

Later that night, headed out to meet up with Mark, Brian and Michelle at Arbor Brewing Company, and we headed over to Vinology, which brought back sweet memories when I saw the same little corner table. Had some port, which was wine with pretty high alcohol content, and it tasted pretty awesome. Smelt kind of pungent with a very strong alcoholic sting, but tasted delicious. Took an early leave around 1am and hurried home to try to squeeze in an opportunity to chat with the gal in Memphis.

Saturday was pretty uneventful. I took out Sadako (probably for the last time) and went to Gallup Park to eat it. It was a beautiful day, with the sun shining (thankfully during lunch hour), and with the ducks quacking, the birds chirping, and the huron river flowing by in front of me, it would have been perfect had I had the desired company. Nonetheless, one of my favorite eating spots in Ann Arbor. A lovely day out. In the evening, decided to grab my last burrito for awhile from Chipotle, my favorite Steak Fajita Burrito. Simply delicious!

With my laptop, trusty Nalgene, iPod and camera, I drove over to the business school as the sun was setting. Standing outside the business school building, it suddenly struck me how much I missed being here already. The executive residence, the flowers and trees blooming in the courtyard, the library where I had spent countless hours of my weekends in, my favorite study rooms in Sam Wyly hall, the classrooms E1310, E1540, E0540, the Tozzi lab and trading room, I missed every single one of them. Taking a slow walk around the building, I paused to take pictures and remember the great times that I've had in the b-school, and how lucky I was to have had the opportunity to pursue my undergraduate degree here. Without my friends around, the business school was oddly quiet and didn't seem the same anymore. It really is the people that make the difference.

After taking numerous pictures, I trudged up the spiral staircase into Sam Wyly hall, entering a study room facing out towards East University and holed myself in for possibly the last time. The feeling of burning a Saturday night in Wyly hall returned and it felt so familiar and comforting. The one place where you could be alone and not feel lonely. As I sat down, plugged in my computer and worked through our Europe travel plans, I felt completely at home and wished that time would pause for me to spend more time there. Had the chance to catch up with Jianwei who is now back home in Singapore, and realized that it has been way too long since I've had the chance to chat with a good friend. Thankfully, also chat with Val for a bit while working on the Europe hostel bookings, and am infinitely thankful for that, as always.

As everyone went offline, and people vacated the business school, I was probably the last person left there as I sat in my study room, listening to my favorite songs and looking out into the streets where drunk kids were shouting and laughing; just like how it always is when we are working on case studies and other kids are partying and getting drunk in the weekends. Finally pulled myself out of the room, turning off the lights and walking out into an empty business school. The lights had shut off automatically, and I walked out into the cold night, for the quiet drive back home.

Boy, do I miss Ann Arbor and my beloved Business School already... and of course, most of all, the girl who is on her way back here. =)

Wilson
4 May 2008
1:00PM
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Packing Up

The moving company sent an agent over to do the packing today around noon. Wrapped and boxed up most of my stuff, less the items which I would be carrying with me in my suitcases when I return to Singapore. Digging up the items in the huge storage boxes, and letters and cards sitting idle in my drawers, I reflect on the three years spent here and enter a daze of sorts.

Uncertainty awaits after I depart from Ann Arbor and enter the working world. Choices to be made, commitments to be upheld, and work which needs to be done. I wonder what awaits in the near future and start to worry about tomorrow. But also, snapping back into today and reality, I'm thankful for everything that I have. Definitely happy to count my lucky stars. Had a great time talking to Val today about stuff today. =) Thanks gal.

Going to go to bed soon (at an absurdly early hour). So, good night and take care everyone.

Wilson
2 May 2008
1:02AM
Ann Arbor, Michigan

A Penny For My Thoughts...

On second thoughts, I don't even know what to say, so forget it... Good night...

The Day Finally Arrives - Graduation

So, the day that I have (sort of) long awaited in my life has finally arrived. Graduation. 25 April 2008 for the b-school commencement ceremony at Crisler Arena, and the college-wide graduation ceremony on 26 April 2008. It is really a bitter-sweet feeling. Knowing that the efforts of the past 3 years spent burning countless midnight oils, days spent toiling in the b-school study rooms and library, anxiety, sleepless nights, laughter and tears have been worthwhile, and also have come to an end. The feeling of emptiness starts to creep in every so slightly. However, in this period of joy and also semi-loss of direction in life, a new hope also awaits. The indescribable joy of hope and opportunity for happiness once again. It has, indeed, been one hell of a roller coaster ride.

Staying true to the past few posts which have detailed my last 2 weeks in school, I shall do the same for this post for my final week in school all through to graduation. So if long narratives bore you, please skip this post. People often ask me why I write down all these mundane stuff. Well, things which appear really mundane to everyone are really the bits and pieces which make my life interesting and they mean an awful lot to me. Thus, the long-draggy posts. =)

20 April 2008, Sunday
Woke up to study like crazy for my international finance exam. Worked through the given problem sets almost 10 times and I was dead determined to ace (ace as in A+) the class. All compulsory and optional questions, and 10 times is not even an exagerration; it could very well be an understatement. Most of the day was pretty uneventful. Just endless mugging. Val came back from lunch with her thanksgiving dinner hosts and we met up after dinner (Za's for me! Chicken, red peppers and pineapple with creamy pesto sauce as always). Studied in the b-school well into the night and great company always helps.

21 April 2008, Monday
The final exam of my undergraduate education finally arrived. 7pm to 10pm, 3 hours worth of intense working through exchange rates, swaps, futures, futures puts, calls on puts, and all other fancy derivatives to hedge forex risks. Had lots of fun doing the paper and was relieved, but also a little sad to be done with my exams. Nonetheless, headed home, grabbed my laptop and met up with Val for dinner at Chili's. Awesome food and great way to celebrate the completion of my final exam in college. The burger they served was simply delicious! Headed over to the Chem Engin building up north (for the first time ever in my life), and did random stuff on my comp while Val finished up with her research which she had to complete for her mentor / prof. Interesting place.

22 April 2008, Tuesday
Val's parents arrived around noon and I spent the most part of the day sorting out stuff back home, and also went for a run / nap in the Arb. The trees were starting to bud and it was getting really beautiful out. Later in the evening, went for my section's final bar crawl. Picked up my bar crawl shirt from Joey's place and went over to Mitch's to play quarters and start the drinking for the night. We moved from Mitch's to the Brown Jug, then Charley's and BTB Cantina. Called it a night after that and didn't head over to Buffalo Wild Wings with the rest of the section because Janine was pretty wasted; called Ming to pick us up to help send Janine home. Headed home and bummed around for a bit, before calling up buddy old pal Jianwei for drinks at Habana. Great times... Will definitely miss the place and the company.

23 April 2008, Wednesday
Picked up Val from her place in the morning and went grocery shopping for the Senior's BBQ that night. Probably one of my last trips to Kroger and China Merch to get the necessary stuff, before heading to her place to settle stuff for the Europe trip. Still have lots of stuff not done yet, so had to try to clear those up as soon as we could. Also, met her parents for the first time. Hopefully that first impression didn't go down too badly.

BBQ at Gallup Park in the evening with the seniors was a pretty good event. Considering that I didn't usually mix much with the rest of the batch, it was a good chance to hang out for a little and also to meet up with my good friends for a last time informally. Food was delicious (Val's potato salad was awesome!), and it was fun to run around in the nice (relatively warm) evening, playing Frisbee and tossing the football (ala college football style). I guess, things were a little awkward initially but was really glad it all worked out fine. A great closing chapter of sorts.

24 April 2008, Thursday
Val drove over in the morning to my place to meet up before we set off for the airport to pick up my parents, Wynne and Clara. Their arrival day was finally here and it was great to see my family again. Much thanks to Val for helping out and picking up my family; wouldn't have known how it would have been possible to fit all of them and their luggages into my (delightfully selfish) coupe. Dropped off a coupled of their luggages in my apartment, thankfully getting approval from my mom on the condition of my home. Went for late lunch at Sadako, having the awesome lunch bento sets and the Sadako roll for my parents and Clara. I brought them on a tour of Central Campus, bringing them to the business school (my second home and a source of infinite pride and joy), Law Quad, the Michigan Union, the grad library, UGLi, and other LSA buildings. The walk also made me reminiscent on all the days and nights which I had spent studying (or having fun) in these places on campus. Going to miss this place so so much.

At the dead-quiet Grad Library Reference Section

In the evening, sent my parents over to Red Roof Inn and helped them to check into their rooms. Sent Clara and my mom over to the mall for them to shop and do their hair respectively. I dashed home to get changed and to pick up the other two luggages, before returning to the mall (and the hotel) to pick up everyone for dinner. First (and probably last) visit to Gandy Dancer, the famous high-end dining place in Ann Arbor, situated in an old train station, right along the railway tracks (which are still functioning to this day). Food was fabulous and the ambiance was amazing. Shared three entrees (fresh fish) between the five of us, and also had a really tasty appetizer, as well as fresh baked bread/pastry. What an awesome time.

Dad and I at Gandy Dancer

Brought my family to Whole Foods to check out the famous organic food market (clearly a favorite place for my mom), before sending them back to the hotel. A pretty chilly night by their standards, though I thought it was decently warm. Haha, welcome to Ann Arbor.

25 April 2008, Friday
Had pretty interrupted sleep for the night and went to bed really late, woken up in the morning by a phone call from my dad telling me that they were ready to set off, having taken their complimentary breakfast at the hotel. I picked everyone up, and went over to Tim Hortons nearby to pick up a breakfast sandwich, donut and hot chocolate, before bringing my family over to the Arb. Due to the rain the night before, the Arb was kinda humid and not as nice to walk around in, but still, as dazzling and beautiful as ever. Walked them down from the Geddes entrance to the river and back out through Mary Markley (my freshman dorm). Had to run to park the car at home, and also to pick up my car to ferry them, at both the entrances and exits respectively. Not so fun.

Brought my family to the b-school, with the intention of going for the dean's reception but seeing how dressed up everyone was, we skipped that. Went over to the mall, where my mom grabbed a pair of heels from Aldo at the last minute, and Clara did a little more shopping. I dropped them off at the hotel, before heading home to get changed. Grabbed my graduation attire and hurriely rushed to pick up my family, before heading to Crisler for the business school commencement.

The time had finally arrived! It was awesome to sit in the (sweltering heat) of Crisler Arena, under the spot lights and putting up with great speeches by some, and marginal speeches by others, before the "walk-on-the-stage" graduation ceremony. When my name was called out and I crossed the stage to shake hands with the Dean (Bob Dolan), the university's regent, as well as with the BBA program director (Scott Moore, also my BIT 200 professor), it was probably one of the happiest moments in my parent's lives. I was also absolutely delighted to learn that Val came for the graduation ceremony.

Val came for the Business School Graduation! =)

Post-Graduation from Business School picture with the dearest people in my life (Kendrew was enroute from the airport)


Here, I want to say my sincere, heartfelt thanks to some of the most important people in my life. Thank you mom, thanks dad, and thanks to the rest of my family and friends for everything they have done to have made it all possible. For all the love ans support, physically, emotionally, financially and just being there whenever I needed them. Through the crazy rollercoaster ride which I had to go through in my 3 years here, they have stuck by me all the time. Thank you, so so much. Thanks to Val for coming to the graduation too amidst her busy schedule. Really appreciated it and it meant a great deal to me. Lastly and really importantly, I want to thank Pat. Dar, if not for your selflessness and blessings to let me come to Michigan, and to experience all of this while you were down, I would not have achieved and become what I am today. Your timeless and selfless love, will always, always have a special place in my heart. Thank you my dear angel...

When the ceremony finally concluded and I met up with my parents, my sis, Clara and Val, my overjoyed mom gave me a big hug. Could see the happiness radiate from her and my dad. I was really happy to be able to let them be so overjoyed for me.

We adjourned to Kai Garden on Main Street, where Kendrew also arrived from the airport and we had good (in my opinion) Chinese food for dinner. It was a great joy to finally be with my entire family once again. Sent my parents and Wynne back to the hotel for the night, and headed out to Habana for drinks with Clara, Kendrew and Clara's two other friends who arrived in the day: Huimin and Peiyu. Forgot to tell the girls to bring their passports for the trip, so only three of us ended up getting some drinks. Hung out for quite awhile there until past 1am before sending them back to Red Roof Inn.

26 April 2008, Saturday
Woke up bright and early to head over to pick up my family from Red Roof Inn. They overslept and I had to wait for them to get dressed and grab breakfast. Sheesh, considering that I slept really late the night before, and I still managed to get there on time. Haha, the business school has trained me well. It was a pretty gloomy Saturday morning and I parked the car back at home.

Walked over to the Diag with my family and seated them, before gathering with the other Singaporeans for the procession onto the Diag. Sat next to Val and Jianwei, and it was a really beautiful graduation. First time ever in the history of the university that anyone is graduating on the Diag. It was a really special and momentous occasion. The keynote speaker Bob Woodruff was awesome, so was the great speech by student speaker Andres M. Ramos (link to speech). When the time finally came to sing the Victors for a final time, it was a moving moment. I was finally an alumnus of one of the greatest institutions (in my opinion) of the world, the University of Michigan. We sang the Victors at the top of our voices for the final time as students, heading out into the world, bleeding maize and blue. As we sang the Victors, the sun came out from beneath the clouds, the entire Diag lit up, and we walked out of the place, warm and proud. Took lots of photos with my family, and went over to the b-school for more pictures.

One of the most important days in my time in Michigan. We've graduated!


I brought my parents over to Za's (gasp!) for lunch, with me eating my usual creamy pesto pasta, while they ordered a variety of food. Glad to see them enjoying it. I sent my dad, sis and Wynne back to the hotel, while Ming brought my mom, Clara, Huimin and Peiyu to Birch Run for a shopping trip.

I rushed over down Washtenaw to pick up a bouquet of flowers and sped over to Crisler Arena, hoping that I wasn't too late. Sat through a (even more boring than b-school) commencement ceremony, but was still glad to be there for such an important day. And of course, seeing Val cross the stage and graduate was a great joy. Would have loved to spend more time there but duty to family calls, and I headed off.

Caught a half hour nap before going to pick up everyone for dinner at Seoul Garden. The food was alright I guess, not as fantastic as it used to be. Sent my parents back to the hotel to pack up their stuff after. Brought Huimin, Clara and Peiyu out to Cold Stone for ice-cream. Haven't had that in a long time, so it was decent. Cheesecake fantasy is good as always. Sent the girls home and headed over to Val's temporary apartment (Lynn's place at Willow Tree) to help move stuff up into her apartment from her car. We went over to Island Drive to pick up some other stuff which she wanted to ship back to Singapore and brought it all over to my place. Tired out, but happy happy times.

27 April 20008, Sunday
Sent my parents early in the morning to the airport, saying farewells for now until I return to Singapore. Kai Ming kindly helped send my parents to the airport, and the girls hopped into my car, setting off for Canada. It was a long and exhausting drive up to Niagara, stopping over only for lunch at a service center along the way. Was pretty glad when we finally arrived there and checked into Water's Edge Inn. Took the shuttle bus from the hotel over to the Casino, where we walked around the town for a bit. Walked down the hill to the falls and was once again, wowed by the grandeur of nature. Millions of cubic feet of water tumbling over the edges, timelessly carving their path through solid rock. Simply amazing.

The Majestic Niagara Falls

Had dinner at Kelsey's, which served predominantly American fare. We went back to the falls when the sky had turned dark to see the falls being illuminated. It was a pretty magical sight to see the falls getting lit up with different colors, with the water cascading over the edges in the dark.

Night view of the falls

Green lights!

Took the 10:40pm bus back to the inn, showered and went to the lobby to use the net. Relocated to inside my car, where I could get both internet connection and T-mobile coverage (since US is just separated from where I was by the gorge). Talking to someone back in Ann Arbor was just awesome.

28 April 2008, Monday
Went over to Simon's Restaurant, which was near to the falls once again for breakfast. Never thought I would have had the chance to return for another visit again. Signed the guestbook at this more-than-century-old restaurant and took my breakfast, while staring in awe at the vast "treasures" which was present. What an awesome restaurant / museum.

Drove down Niagara Parkway to the Horseshoe Falls, where we went for the "Journey Under the Falls" attraction. Took a lift down and walked down a tunnel which led to two openings behind the falls. Seeing the water from above crashing down as a huge curtain in front of my very eyes was surreal. Spotting several pennies lying on the ground, I thought, why the heck not; I took out a nickel (I surprisingly ran out of 1 cent coins) and tossed it far out into the falls after making a silent wish. We also went out to the platform where we could view the gorge and falls close up, getting thoroughly drenched by the spray despite our ponchos.

At the platform looking out into the gorge

Following which, we went for a tour at Jackson-Triggs vineyard, where we took a quick tour of the winery and also did some sampling of the red, white and ice wines. We had the opportunity to sample the most expensive (and best) ice wine they produced instead of the lowest-end one, courtesy of a very nice tour guide! It tasted simply heavenly.

Jackson-Triggs Winery

In late afternoon, we drove into the city of Toronto and checked into our hostel: Global Village Backpackers. We had a quad room for ourselves on the top floor, which was pretty sweet since it looked out into the city and CN Tower. After dinner at a sports bar, we went up CN Tower to take some breathtaking pictures and also to watch the sunset.

A trip to Toronto is always incomplete without a shot of the CN Tower

Sunset atop CN Tower

Night view of the tower


29 April 2008, Tuesday
Pancakes for breakfast in the hostel before we checked out and set off for Kensington Market. It was kinda a let down since it was just a couple of shops on a small street. We headed into Chinatown for a walk, before heading into 客满楼 (Forestview Chinese Restaurant) to have some authentic dim sum, served traditional-style with push-carts. Awesome and fulfilling lunch. Headed back to pick up the car and went over to Casa Loma, the most notable castle in Toronto, and stayed there for approximately 2 hours. It was a really elaborate and interesting place, with some pretty amazing architecture, and of course, complete with underground tunnels and "secret" passageways.

Beautiful Casa Loma

One of the many magnificent rooms within the castle

Following which, we went for our final stop at Pacific Mall, eating (once again, in my opinion), the best 豆花 in the world. Silky smooth tau huay was just pure bliss. Clara went to pick up some biscuits at a nearby supermarket before we went for dinner at 喜刷刷. Individual steamboat buffet, with awesome selection of food, resulted in 4 very stuffed people.

Best Tau Huay in the World!

The place is seriously called 喜刷刷

The drive back to Ann Arbor was a lot more bearable since everyone was pretty much awake and chatting or requesting for old boy-band songs on Clara's mp3 player. The night concluded when we got back to Ann Arbor, and the girls stayed in my room while I took the couch for the night. Of course, being back in the US / Ann Arbor was a real relief and I felt that I was "at home" once again. Actually missed being in Ann Arbor a ton, for the brief 3 days I was away.

30 April 2008, Wednesday
Early morning excursion to Kerrytown to check out the small market there, but since the fish store wasn't serving until 11am, we adjourned to Angelo's for a huge breakfast. After we got back to my apartment, the girls did some final packing before they were on their way to the airport and headed home for Singapore. I sorted out some of my stuff, packed a little, went for a run and caught up on my sleep for the most part of the day. It feels great to be back in Ann Arbor. Boy, am I going to miss this place...

Wilson
1 May 2008
1:15AM
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Final week of school and then some

Probably not the best time to be writing this blog entry, but whatever, if you're reading this, you'll probably put up with my crapping.

The final week of school has been really eventful.

14 April 2008, Monday
Last class in LHC and International Finance. Was a little dragged out but pretty awesome, especially in International Finance. Less on the stuff which was actually covered in class, but more because of the little speech which my prof gave at the end of class. Professor Banikantra gave us his little spew to remind us of how lucky we are to be in the University of Michigan and specifically in the business school, where egos get blown out of epic proportions, where kids and professors get it into their heads that they're the best of the best. He reminded us of how lucky and privileged we were to have what we have right now, and that it was really a lot more luck than anything else that we are in the position we are today. To a certain extent, what he said was very true. Also, to care for the greater good of society, and specifically underprivileged kids, as well as how warped national policy is in US and India, as well as throughout the world. Pretty interested and worth a second thought.

15 April 2008, Tuesday
Final class of my college life. Can't say it was the most interesting ever (if it wasn't one of the worst ever). Group presentations for accounting which no one really cared about anymore since most of the groups were already done. The final group that presented turned a 10 minute presentation into a half hour ridiculous presentation. I swear my eye-balls practically dropped out from rolling them in incredulity. Picked up Sadako for lunch and went into the Arb for a short run and nap in the late afternoon.

Met up with Mark, Lisa and Michelle at Conor O'Neils later in the night where the Physics department was having there bar crawl. Dreyson, Brian, Andrea and Val came along later and after stopping over briefly at Heidelberg, we adjourned to Dreyon's place (once again) for another night of beer pong and beer pong madness. I went to grab some wings from Buffalo Wild Wings since it was 30 cents Tuesdays. I'm so going to miss the wings from BWW. Had an awesome time as always, sending Michelle home at around 3am before heading home for bed.

16 April 2008, Wednesday
Met up with Val to sort out our travel plans in late afternoon and finally got to try out Old Country Buffet on West Eisenhower, which was awesome. I had a great time out for that brief period. Continued discussions in the b-school and followed it up with studying for LHC late into the night at Wyly.

17 April 2008, Thursday
Got rudely awakened by some moron real estate agent who got the wrong number and gave me a long spew on some properties before I rudely cut the idiot off and told him that he got the wrong number. Felt like crap for the most part of the morning. Dragged myself out of bed to study for LHC, and also spoke with my mom, dad and sis on MSN to cover last minute packing stuff for their trip here. After awhile, I couldn't take it anymore and took Ibuprofen before passing out for a couple of hours. Studying and sleeping and taking another Ibuprofen took up the rest of the day and night. Felt a ton better the following morning (despite the obvious lack of sleep).

18 April 2008, Friday
LHC exam at 8am. Not exactly the most fun of events, but got through that decently. Grabbed Sadako (again) for lunch and headed into the Arb for a nap. Slept in the sun for a good hour or so before I couldn't take the heat anymore and headed home. Studied for a little before meeting up with Val after she was done with her exams. Stuffed ourselves with food at Asian Legend and went to catch the opening of Forbidden Kingdom, starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li. It was an alright film, but not exactly fantastic. Drinks at Vino and Starbucks late into the night.

19 April 2008, Saturday
Okay, finally caught up on my blogging again. Woke up early for some reason this morning, and went to Kerrytown with Kai Ming for brunch at the "Fish Market", which is supposed to have the freshest fish in Ann Arbor. Superbly tasty fish and chips. We went over the Zingerman's bakehouse and creamery for Ming to grab some fresh-baked bread and cheese before heading home. Went over to Argo and hitched a ride up to Barton, to kayak all the way down to Gallup Park. It was a beautiful afternoon and had a really wonderful time out.

Got home and I guess, my sleep debt finally caught up with me. Passed out for an hour or so, before waking up to cook some porridge for dinner. Went over to Wholefoods to grab some stuff and came home to study and wait. The rest of the night was generally a forgettable one.

Feel like an idiot. Seriously.

International Finance and Miller are getting well-acquainted with each other tonight.

Wilson
20 April 2008
4:26AM
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Contemplation

Contemplating choices. Walking down the same path twice doesn't really appeal to me; especially that road is a one-way ticket on the fast-lane to hell. (For some reason, the "assets" and "choices" crap which my strategy repeated at the start of every single class last semester is suddenly playing over and over in my head. Argh...) Cryptic enough? Think Wilson, think.

A Nice Weekend

The countdown clock to graduation is ticking away, and the time draws frightfully near everyday. Coming to terms with the fact that almost 20 years of formal education is finally coming to an end is a rather overwhelming thought. Nonetheless, I think my 3 years spent here in Michigan have been one of the best experiences I've ever had. Really thankful to my parents for giving me the opportunity to pursue my dreams here despite their initial apprehension on my decision to switch out of my course at NUS. The friends I've made, the laughter, tears and countless hours I've toiled through in the b-school, the concerts, the dinners, the parties, will always be priceless memories to me. With just 2 days left in the school term and in my college life, graduation is really at the doorstep.

In a fitting end to my college experience, I made full use of my weekend (in a non-academic way) this time round. Starting Thursday morning (or rather, Wednesday night when I got out of my Entrepreneurial Finance class), I was totally in the "go-out-and-have-fun" mode. Sadly, I couldn't really find people to go out since most of the other folks were preparing for final presentations and finals. Met up with Michelle for lunch at Sadako, a long-overdue meet-up. Had a pleasant time chatting about random stuff, school and everything Michigan. Gosh, I really miss the Maize and Blue already.

Later in the evening, Val came over to the apartment and cooked a sumptuous dinner of Laksa. Super yummy! Worked on our travel plans for Europe until around midnight when she had to depart for a girls' gathering at Pizza House. I'm really excited for the trip! Lots of countries, walking, visiting amazing places, taking the slightly off-beaten path, and awesome company for an entire month. At least I can look forward to that after graduation. =)

Slept in for a bit on Friday morning and headed over to Val's place where Jing Shen and her cooked Pad Thai. (Oh, I went to Trader Joe's before that to grab two bottles of wine. The wine selection there is awesome and ridiculously cheap and looked pretty good.) Pad Thai, which Val claimed to be a complete disaster, was delicious to hungry me. I drove over to the range later in the day to shoot some golf balls into oblivion. However, with the impending storm (which I later found out, was a tornado in the making), I was blown around pretty good and didn't have such a great game. Combination of that and the fact that I picked an overly long Callaway 6 iron for my shots. Went over to IHOP (yay!) for pancakes and returned thoroughly stuffed. Hung out at Val's place to do more planning for the trip before heading over to Chin's place for the post-senior's day party. Got a little caught up with dealing with some stuff, which kind of ruined the night for me. Oh wells...

Saturday, did some real work for a change, readings and homework (probably my last homework ever). Got changed and headed out for an really nice night. Dinner of salmon (and river eel), as well as agadeshi (tofu) at Cherry Blossoms was impeccable. Rushed over to Hill Auditorium just in time for the Men's Glee Club 148th Spring Concert. The guys were simply amazing. The moment they started singing, silence fell upon the auditorium and their powerful voices resonated through the building. Watched and listened in awe at the breath-taking performance. Then came my favorite part(s) of the performance, a small segment by The Friars, and the closing performance of Michigan Songs. Michigan had amassed one of the largest collection of college songs in the US and given their powerful voices, the Men's Glee Club gave a powerful and moving rendition to these songs, amongst which were Varsity, the Victors (the greatest college fight song ever written) and the Alma Mater. The passion and fervor in these songs and their voices made my hair stand, and my heart race. I'm so going to miss Michigan and the Maize and Blue.

Here's a 2006 recording of their performance at Hill Auditorium. I'll replace this video with the performance from 12 April 2008 as and when (if) it becomes available.


Took a slow walk in the drizzle back home and watched a movie on my comp, drinking one of the bottles of red wine (Garnacha) from Spain; 2002 Abrazo Del Toro. It was an interesting wine and it was just a really wonderful night.

As graduation draws close, memories flood back, but I also shall continue to enjoy the final month here in Michigan with friends, new and old whom I hold dear, and the little college town of Ann Arbor which I called home for the last 3 years. Hail to the Victors and Go Blue!

Updates 10 April 2008

Okay, another much much delayed update. *groans* I am too lazy to write up the back-log of events that happened over the past two weeks, but then again, they've been such memorable ones that I want to write them down so that I can remember them.

Let's see, I'll just put down days and dates and pen down the highlights of the days, and go into further detail as and when I feel like it.

*Disclaimer: This post, like many others, goes into very mundane details of my life. Don't read it if you're not interested. It's (clearly) an extremely long and dragged-out entry. Proceed at your own peril.

Having said that, here we go.

27 March 2008, Thursday
Accounting midterm/final from hell; the exam was nothing like the practice exam the prof gave. Dumb class. Headed to Zola for lunch for the first time, getting crepes which were really delicious! Since we were sorta running short on time to go visiting places, drove over to Zingerman's Bakehouse and Creamery to check out the freshly baked bread and fresh-made cheese. Ended up at Panera Bread to plan for the Europe trip, until dinner time. Earl Grey Tea there is pretty good.

28 March 2008, Friday
11am group meeting for our accounting final project. We were totally not in the mood to work on it after that crappy midterm, but in any case, still did it for the entire day until dinner time. Dashed home, got changed and met up with Margaret for dinner at Zola. Haven't been there for dinner in a long time. The food was excellent and of course, great company always helps. Drinks later in the night at Habana with Val, making it the third time I was on the street (Washington) in 2 days.

29 March 2008, Saturday
1pm meeting in Kresge for Finance (National Generator LBO case), which lasted all through the day until the evening. We were pretty burnt out by then. Lunch was (once again) pasta from Za's. Don't even want to think about it right now. Popped by East Hall to check out SEA Cultural Night but since the performance room was packed, and I didn't really see any of my friends around (and of course, I was dead tired), I stumbled home and passed out for a short while. Late night dinner (or breakfast) at Denny's. Super sinful comfort food, but it was so delicious!

30 March 2008, Sunday
9am meeting in Wyly for National Generator again. Meeting lasted all the way through the day, into the evening. I swear I was going to explode. It was fun times though, crapping, cursing, swearing and making fun of everything and everyone with the group. Did lunch with Karlin at Jerusalem Garden when we took a short break from the madness in the middle of the day. After we were done with the meeting, headed back to pick up my books and went back to the b-school to burn the night away. Karlin was in the b-school studying for her GRE and so we kinda met up and I worked on my International Finance homework till the wee hours of the morning. Fun times.

31 March 2008, Monday
LHC class at 10am as usual, and met up with accounting group at 1pm to work on the presentation / write-up. Spent the entire time all the way till the evening when I finally headed to international finance class, exhausted.

1 April 2008, Tuesday
Lunch after class at Seoul Garden. The food they served during lunch was really good, and approximately the same price as Sadako. Awesome. =) Meeting for accounting at 5:30pm with my accounting group, then at 8pm till 2am with my finance group (effectively till closing time of the library) I lost my beloved green nalgene bottle with my Grand Canyon and Joshua Tree stickers on it. Really upset with that...

2 April 2008, Wednesday
Met up at 12:30pm with my finance group to work on the presentation, and then later on in the evening at 6pm, when we did our final rehearsal. Courtesy of a screw up by the course instructors, we only found out just before class that we were supposed to only show up for our presentation time slot. Since ours was at 9:30pm, we hung around, practiced a little, talked a lot of crap, and also Amy, Karlin and I went to Pizza House to grab food / dinner before the presentation. The presentation went decent, and we got some tough questions, but generally alright. After I was done with the presentation, headed over to Dreyson's house where they were having the post-Banff Film Festival Grand Canyon Trip mini-reunion/party. The guys played beer pong and all for awhile; I grabbed a cup of beer and headed home early to practice for my presentation the following day, and also to finalize the write-up.

3 April 2008, Thursday
Presentation at 8:30am in the morning and since that wasn't graded, we didn't really care all that much. Went alright I guess. A huge sigh of relief and exhaustion when that was finally over. I went to get my haircut, and then had lunch at Yotsuba with Val. Ran some errands and took a nap before meeting up with Shuying at South Quad and heading over to the b-school to board the buses for Kensington Court for the BBA Formal. Had a pretty good time hanging out with my friends, and taking photos with some of my classmates. The fun didn't last long, courtesy of some idiot who got caught bringing in alcohol. The bars were shut down and we left even before the party really got started at 10pm. Sent Shuying home and later that night, went out for drinks at Habana.

4 April 2008, Friday
Slept in for the most part (for the first time in a long long time) and went grocery shopping around noon with Val to pick up the stuff we needed for the reunion later in the day. Cooked bah kut teh and fried prata at home, while Val cooked veg curry at her place. Dinner at Andrea's place was awesome, finally getting to see everyone. Great food and good wine/beer over dinner. The party continued when we headed over to Dreyson's place, playing beer pong, kings and having just a ridiculous amount of beer. Lisa left early and Val left too for her dance practice. The rest of us stayed on, while I didn't participate in their hookah smoking and all, just sat around and sipped my beer, while everyone got really sloshed. Ended up staying the day and sat in the chair, dozing off occasionally while sitting upright in the dark. Andrea was on one of the couches and Brian was on the other. Had to lift a bed which collapsed onto Andrea in the middle of the night; and she actually didn't wake up from that.

5 April 2008, Saturday
Didn't really sleep much since I was sitting in the chair and keeping an eye on them. Em and Andrea threw up in the morning from all the alcohol and around 9am or so, I ran home to pick up my car and drove them home.

Check out the aftermath; that's not even half the alcohol we had

Slept for a bit until noon before heading to the driving range to hit some balls. Had a pretty good day at the range, so that was awesome. Got home and changed into my suit (suit up again, third time in four days) before heading to Trotter House for senior's day with Kai Ming. Senior's Day was pretty awesome and I could see that the guys from my batch put in lots of effort into planning and running the event, so props to everyone. Also came to the realization that I haven't really been out with the Singaporeans that much (okay, so it wasn't much of a realization) but then again, b-school/work calls, on top of many other factors which made my Michigan Experience vastly different from theirs.

The event ended at around 1:30am, when we packed up the place and headed over to the girl's place (Carriage House) for the post-senior's day party. Ming and I dropped off beer and some alcohol we brought over from home, and headed out again to Backroom Pizzeria to pick up 3 large cheese pizzas since we were starving. Also needed the cheese to line our stomachs before we started hitting the alcohol. Bringing the pizzas back to Carriage House, it was gone in a flash, with everyone gobbling it down promptly. It was one hell of an eventful night, with people getting drunk (Lenny and Alvin, amongst many others), and random kids making out, breaking stuff, doing things which I didn't really want to see. Oh wells, the wonders of alcohol eh?

When the party came to a sort of nasty end at around 6am in the morning, we cleaned up and I sent Margaret home, before finally driving home to shower and collapse into deep sleep.

6 April 2008, Sunday
Awoke at around 12 noon, having lunch with Ming, Chunyi and Jing Shen at IHOP (International House Of Pancakes). Pretty good food. Watched 27 Dresses (yes yes... I know...) which was really good at Briarwood. Had a really awesome time. =) Headed over to Kerrytown Concert House to catch Jen's flute recital, which was really brilliant.

Inside Kerrytown Concert House

Kerrytown Concert House

Did I mention how much I love beautiful Ann Arbor?

7 April 2008, Monday
Awesome weather for the day. Met up with my good pal Michael for lunch at the b-school cafeteria. I was really happy to get to sit down and chat with him after having not seen him for such a long time. Classes weren't too bad and I went to the driving range between my morning and evening classes. Not as stellar as Saturday, but passable.

8 April 2008, Tuesday
Since the weather was so wonderful, had lunch outside at Charley's with Val. Awesome day out! Spent the rest of the day reading up for my finance "quiz" on Wednesday, and also my Corporate Law class.

9 April 2008, Wednesday
Yes! Finally I'm caught up in my blogging. Today was rather uneventful. Weather was nice but had to spend a large part of the day reading up for the quiz, which the instructors had announced 7 hours prior to class that would not be multiple choice. I wasn't too amused. Nonetheless, it didn't go too bad, and my last Entrepreneurial Finance class ended early at 9pm. Though it wasn't exactly the most well-planned class ever, I think I learnt a ton listening to Professor Brophy share his experiences in private equity and all the deals he had seen. An enjoyable time, though, probably not that good for my GPA. Unsuccessfully tried to find people to head out for drinks, but then again, it's (only) Wednesday.

That's it for now folks. It's been a really eventful and enjoyable past two weeks. Intense school and intense play. Just the way Ann Arbor has always been. Boy, I really can't bear to leave this place. Oh and Jeff got his hands on a soft copy of the Capital One Bowl. Best bowl game ever. Watching it makes my heart race and leap for joy over and over again.

Bedtime guys. I still do need to make it to class tomorrow at 8:30am. Until then, take care!

Wilson
10 April 2008
2:55AM
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Crunch-Time and Updates

Okay, so crunch time is here (again), as is every other week. Accounting midterm coming up tomorrow, so that's not too fun. Models, case studies and final projects all due within the next week or two, and also other events prior to graduation which cannot be missed for the world. The two week outlook appears pretty grim, but oh wells, I'm going to enjoy it as much as I can.

Before I head back to studying, better do a brief recap on the highlights from the past week. Trip to Habana on Wednesday night for the much missed mojitos and cuban sangria (which wasn't as good as the mojitos), was a really enjoyable time. Following that up with an early morning drive and an 8:30am class, made the day just awesome. Had to stay awake through class and numerous meetings for my accounting group final project, and that was definitely pretty painful.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty much burnt doing accounting and finance projects and the LBO model for the entrepreneurial finance class. Fun times; 10am on Sunday, how do you actually beat that? I had the honor of being the first in the library on a freaking Sunday morning. Awesome eh?

Rest of the week wasn't too eventful, did Chili's for lunch yesterday with the bottomless salad and soup. Not mind-blowing food but still, a good break from classes. Went by to Borders for a short while to browse travel books and for Val to pick up her copy of Lonely Planet. Backpacking Europe planning coming up later this week, as well as lots of hours to burn in the library and a host of other stuff to do. Going to be a fun weekend coming up. Oh, yes and one of the best TV drama series that I've watched here in the US, Jericho, came to an end yesterday. It's definitely one of the best shows I've watched here. Watch it on CBS or anywhere on the net if you haven't. It's great!

That's all for now folks. Updates this weekend if I can and more nice photos from Ann Arbor which I've taken randomly over the last couple of weeks. Until then, take care!

Beautiful Sunset at Wholefoods / Qdoba (9 March 2008)

Snow-covered Washtenaw after Spring Break

North University Covered in Snow

South University (20 March 2008)

Shops on South University (20 March 2008)

Wilson
26 March 2008
5:15PM
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Updates (Post-Spring Break to 23 March 2008)

Here's an update on the more interesting things which happened since returning from the Grand Canyon trip. As I enter the final leg of my semester and education here in Ann Arbor, the desire of trying to hold onto the memories and every little thing here increases. The people, the buildings, the every-so-unpredictable weather, everything. I'm already missing this place even before I leave it.

The first week after returning from Grand Canyon was almost pure misery. Lots of school work, and post-GC-trip depression. A large part of the week was spent stalking the other GCers on facebook, chatting with them and looking at the pictures which they posted on facebook of the trip. Be it emails from any of them, facebook messages or new pictures posted, it was a joy to see anything related to the trip. I soon found out that I was not the only one who was doing so; everyone else who went on the trip was doing the same since I got instantaneous replies on wall posts or emails to all of them or on the facebook group. Gosh, I missed being with everyone so much.

When Thursday came, I headed down to Beansters at the Michigan League and I was totally delighted to meet up with Missy, Emily, Andrea and Val. Michelle came along later and we were totally ecstatic to see half of the group there. Food wasn't fabulous since I had salad, but who cares, I was superbly happy. The rest of that weekend was burnt in the library working on finance and accounting case studies.

The following week (last week), we started rallying for a reason to meet up,Pi day (3.14159... which was on Friday) or St Patrick's Day (St Patty's day, which was on Saturday). We finally decided on a drinking party / reunion on St Patty's day at Mark's place on Saturday night, as well as a home-made Pizza party at Andrea's place on Sunday. I was totally looking forward to the weekend!

On Friday afternoon, Ming, Val and I went to the driving range along Carpenter to shoot some golf balls. I had gotten really rusty from lack of practice and my swing was really terrible. It was the first time Ming was playing and an extremely long time since Val played, so it was an interesting first visit to the driving range here in Ann Arbor. Ming headed home after since he had a dinner appointment while we headed down to Heidelberg on Main to hit the happy hour. 5pm to 7pm, 2 drinks each minimum and free flow of wings and nachos. It was an amazing find (thanks to Lisa and Dreyson for the recommendation). Had quite a big of alcohol in me and that was pretty much my Friday.

Did dim sum lunch at Great Lakes with John, Aaron and Lenny on Saturday and I went over to the driving range, which was just slightly further down the road, to smash another 100 balls off the tee and mat. Slightly better, but still a ton of work to do to get rid of my bad swing habits. Later that night, I picked up Em, Missy, Andrea and Andrea's friend (Emily), and finally a totally drunk Dreyson from Scorekeepers, before going to Mark's house. He had a nice apartment and it was totally hilarious, especially when everyone got drunk (if they weren't already) or got more drunk from the awesome wine which Mark stocked at his home, as well as Heineken and Guinness Stout. From Em's mock giving birth, to the "fast" group dancing and hopping to Britney Spear's teeny-bopper songs, and Dreyson's refusal to shut the door when he was using the toilet, it was a hilarious night and another awesome time with the GCers. At almost 2:30am, I sent Em, Missy, Drey and Andrea to Drey's place, where they went to smoke hookah and camp out, and dropped Michelle off back at her home.

Sunday's reunion at Andrea's house was great, with everyone showing up this time (Brian and Lisa didn't make it for the St Patty's day party). Homemade pizza was delicious and we had lots of good laughs since most of them couldn't remember the stuff that happened the night before. The only sober people who could remember everything clearly were Mark, Val and myself. Another night full of laughter and great company. Andrea's apartment was also a really lovely apartment at the "attic", reached by climbing stairs outside the house to reach the third level. A quaint, little apartment with large windows that looked out into Main Street, conveniently located on South Division. Really liked her place.

That's about all of the fun stuff that happened the past 2 plus weeks. Hopefully I'll find some time to put up and edit the GC trip entry soon. In the meanwhile, there's a ton of snow outside because Ann Arbor decided that it wasn't ready for spring and dumped 10 to 12 inches of snow out last night. Unpredictable weather rocks. I thought I won't see snow ever again, so it was a nice surprise for me.

Alright, that's it for now. Good night and enjoy what's left of the weekend guys. I burnt (and will continue to burn) my weekend in the library tomorrow (Sunday).

Best regards,
Wilson
23 March 2008
2:57AM
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Spring Break 2008: Grand Canyon with Outdoor Adventures

Disclaimer: This is going to be really long and dragged out post, with immense details of my trip. You are not obliged to read it and this level of detail is just for my own memory of an amazing trip. You have been warned.

Note: I finally finished writing up this blog and will split it up subsequently into a few posts, and also to insert pictures and make corrections if necessary. In the meanwhile, you can access the pictures on facebook or at Grand Canyon 2008.

Hey guys, it has been another pretty long hiatus from blogging. Got lazy (and busy with school work) after spring break so never really got down to blogging. In any case, I'm finally dragging my ass into blogger to pen down everything about my trip before details slip away and I lose memories of the fabulous trip through one of the natural wonders of the world: the Grand Canyon. I was initially going on the trip with Ming and later Val, who decided to go on it too; but since Ming had to work in his co-op, he couldn't go and it was just me, Val and 8 strangers. Considering that I was never really close to Val in the first place, that makes me and 9 strangers. Exciting!

The trip started on 22 February 2008. I changed my flight the night before to be on the same out-bound flight as Val for 6:30am. Ming kindly offered Val and me a ride to the airport on Friday morning and we got there at around 5:40am amidst the crazy snow storm. Imagine our horror when we stepped into the Detroit Metropolitan Airport McNamara Terminal to see a long (and I mean LONG) line snaking past the entire hallway. At that moment, we realized that we were going to miss our flight. Hoping against hope, we got in line and waited impatiently. By the time we got to the front of the check-in line, it was 20 minutes before departure and we had our flight rescheduled for later in the day to around 8:50am. Finally getting some time to catch a breather, we strolled slowly in through the security check-point and went for breakfast at McDonald's inside the airport. First time I actually got a chance to sit down and not be worrying about homework and jobs for awhile, and also to get to chat with Val about random stuff.

Slept through most of my flight to Phoenix, Arizona and when we got there and collected our luggage, we bumped into another guy from the trip, Brian (soon to be my tent-mate), who had also missed the same flight. We grabbed a filling lunch of pizza at the airport and slowly, the other trip members started streaming in. Playing weird card games (which were way too mentally taxing at the airport) until 3pm, when we finally set off for Flagstaff, Arizona. Michael from the hostel came to pick us up and we took a superbly long time to get to Flagstaff because of a freak snow storm, which practically made the roads disappear from sight. By the time we got to the beautiful little town of Flagstaff and dumped our stuff in the hostel, we quickly unloaded our stuff and the food, before heading out to a nearby place for Mexican dinner. Most of us got chimichangas, which is essentially a fried burrito, for dinner. Extremely filling and the meal also came with a superb "prata-like" dessert to be eaten with honey and butter. Yummy!

Mexican Dinner

Snow-covered town of Flagstaff, Arizona

Trudging through the snow, and smashing huge snowballs and snow bombs at each other, or creating a mini "avalanche from the trees" by smacking the tree branches and causing all the snow to come crashing down, we got back to the hostel. Played card games for 3 hours or so and took turns playing different "puzzle/connection" type of games. The girls also separated the food into bags and put the fuel into the "fuel nalgene bottles" to be carried out into the field. In the freezing cold night, we (the guys) went back to our room, unrolled our sleeping bags on our beds, and had a good night's rest.

The next morning, we got up bright and decently early, walking over to the main section of the Grand Canyon International Hostel for breakfast. It was a really nice place and we grabbed any amount of toast, oatmeal and coffee / tea we wanted, and sat around a table, spreading margarine and jam over our toast as we met new people and chit-chatted with our fellow trip members over breakfast. We went back to our section of the hostel and were told of our cook groups for the trip. I was put together with Andrea and Michelle in a cook group. Happy! Though I would have been happy with anyone else, but still, yay! The other two cook groups are: Missy, Dreyson, Mark and Val in the 4 person cook group, and Lisa, Emily (Em) and Brian in another 3 person cook group. We split up the load and headed into our rooms to pack up our backpacks. Soon after we were done, we left our non-hiking gear at the hostel office, and off we went to the canyon! The adventure begins!

Our first stop was the IMAX movie theater run by National Geographic. We hung around the shop area for a short while, checking out merchandise and other interesting stuff (Dresyon bought this herbal tea that "makes you go like a wild horse" and we actually drank that in the Canyon), before heading into the theater to watch the amazing production. We got all psyched up and were extremely excited for the trip to the canyon itself. One of the phrases kind of lingered in my head after that show; in a direct quote (the wonders of Google): "There is no time here. Only the endless cycles of life chronicle the passing millennia. Man passes... in a whisper, a mere breath at the edge of eternity. Some live. Some die. Some... just disappear. Some will live forever, and speak in muted silence from the dust."

We headed into the Grand Canyon National Park and got totally hysterical when we first caught sight of the canyon. It was absolutely gorgeous! The mini-van dropped us off at the back-country registration office and we officially started our trip! Lisa and Andrea registered with the park rangers and got our permits and itinerary ironed out, while the rest of us amused (or un-amused) ourselves with the backpack weighing scale. Most of our packs checked in at about 55 to 60+ pounds a piece (without the hydrometers filled, which would add an additional 8 pounds as they held one gallon of water each).

Taking the bus, we were going to head to the visitor center to pick up last minute groceries when someone (Lisa maybe?) decided that it would be a swell idea to get "warmed up" for the trip and we hopped off the bus, hiking the approximately one mile through the slush / snow to get to the visitor center. It was the first time since I left the army that I had to shoulder a huge, heavy pack and walk, and I actually felt really happy doing it again. Felt awesome! Bouncing (literally) along the snow-covered path, I felt so warm that I wanted to take off my fleece top and wear just my t-shirt. On hind-sight, the "warm-up hike" was probably a good idea since people got a chance to see how their pack fitted or failed to fit, and to make the necessary adjustments going forward.

We got to the “market place” and did some last minute purchases at the last chance of “civilization” for the next few days. Once ready, we put on our packs and hiked down the road to get to Mather Campgrounds, our campsite on the rim of the canyon. Walking in past the barrier, we stepped into 2 feet of snow (or more). We dropped our packs into the snow and trudged around, trying to find a place where we could see traces of a fire-pit or a camp site. No luck. Andrea stepped into a mini ditch, with snow coming all the way up to her waist. While Lisa and Missy headed out the other way to scout for campsites, we hung around the packs, with Drey, Em and Mark trying to roll out huge snowballs down the slightly sloping snow-covered road. Mark made a pretty huge snowball that he wanted to dump on Dreyson, with the only problem being that he couldn’t lift it.

Upon Lisa and Missy’s return, we headed further down the road to another campsite. Locating a restroom nearby (yes, there were actual restrooms on the first night), we dropped our packs and quickly chose sites for our tents. We stomped down on each of our chosen sites in a variety of ways; from walking up and down in zigzags, to bunny-hops on the spot. It was quite a sight to behold. After we were done with tents sitting atop 2 feet of snow, we went about getting the fire started. With the help of “sure-fire” charcoal, we started our dinner preparations. Dinner was an awesome meal of burgers (beef and veggie patties), with cut fresh fruit, macaroni salad and potato salad. Once we were done with that, we piled on the logs and started a nice fire to warm us up. The snow on the trees above the fire started melting and rained icicles / ice / water on us, which made us jump around to avoid getting hit. We stood around the fire, enjoying the moment and thinking of the goals we wanted to achieve, while watching the sky fill up with countless stars. An amazing night to start the trip. Two park rangers on patrol came by, and chat with us, giving us advice and also making some pretty cold jokes before heading off. We crept into our tents, crawling into our sleeping bags, with only the sleeping bags and thin foam pads (or therma-rests) separating us from the snow beneath. It was a freezing cold night; but then again, how many people can boast of literally camping in the snow?

I wasn't kidding, I meant literally in the snow

Waking up early next morning, we packed up and had breakfast while fending off “dive bombing” birds from getting at our food, as well as ravens who were circling our campsite. Lisa and each of us took turns intimidating the ravens, with limited success. Finally, we took the bus out to the start of Kaibab Trail, where we officially started our trip into one of the natural wonders of the world. Taking a shot before we departed, we started the slow, snowy and slippery descent into the canyon. The view was gorgeous. While it was treacherous walking down the narrow paths on our descent, I constantly looked up to look into the canyon. Every single time I looked up, I was just totally blown away. It was simply an amazing sight to behold.

Treacherous descent down the snow-covered canyon ledges

Order of movement on the first day

The vast canyon looms ahead

The beautiful descent into the canyon

As snow slowly turned to slush and mud, we stopped for lunch at a spot where we had some protection from the insane winds gushing down the canyon. Humus (made from powdered humus and water), crackers and cheese was our lunch for the day. Almost certainly one of the best views I’ve ever had with a meal in my life. We continued our descent into the canyon, shedding our fleece when it finally got warm enough below the snowline, and also taking off our tiny crampons which we had fixed onto our boots earlier in the morning. At times, we had to hold onto one another’s hands to avoid getting blown off (literally) the canyon. The sight, I must say again, was simply amazing.

Winding paths down the canyon

After getting to around 3500 feet or so, we contoured (walked on the ledge of a contour) for another 3 miles or so, before coming to our campsite for the night. When we hit a spot that looked like a suitable campsite, we did not see the water source which we were supposed to be close to, which was named Cremation Creek. Lisa asked who would be willing to follow her out to go check out for possible campsites, look for water, and to see if we were at the right location. Since everyone looked totally exhausted, I volunteered, and so did Dreyson. Without our packs, we flew up and down a “valley”. After a “short” foray forward, we realized that the recee would take more than the pre-arranged 30 minutes. Drey returned to camp to let them know that we would need more time. So, it was just Lisa and I, running up and down another 2 painful valleys, before turning back and informing them that we will be camping at the spot we were at for the night.

Dreyson sitting on a "bench" made of rocks at camp

A couple of us set up tents while several others opted to sleep in the small cave / overhang, but that plan was scrapped when rain clouds gathered and a slight drizzle fell. Setting up our gas stoves, we started preparing pasta for dinner. Still in the Joshua Tree trip mode, I swirled the water from boiling noodles in my container and drank it all up (I learnt also, that any form of pasta is called noodles, macaroni included). Leave no trace! My cook group had lots of fun cooking and dinner was fabulous. Andrea ate up the remaining tomato sauce for the pasta and that definitely was less-than-enjoyable. Coupled with tea which she forgot to drink in the morning (with a burst tea-bag that resulted in her ingesting tea-leaves), that was definitely her low for the day.

Our cook group prepared peanut butter balls coated with chocolate and coconut (sounds super yummy right?) for dessert. It was a smash hit and tasted ridiculously good. We did our highs and lows for the day. It was also the first night out in the back-country that I started my series of “low of the day being associated with me being cold” trend. I sat in the cave for a little while, reading the book that I brought along, “The Glass Castle”. Oh, I should also mention that all the guys went for their first poop in the backcountry that night. Haha, for them, it was a completely different experience. For me? Well, done it a zillion times in the army, so just getting back to the old practice. Anyways, the skies cleared and the stars were once again, breath-taking.

Peanut butter balls coated with chocolate and coconut!

We woke up bright and early in the morning, packing up and doing a quick breakfast of oatmeal before heading off. Sheesh, I still have a phobia of oatmeal until now. Andrea decided to empty the packet of oatmeal which filled up my Tupperware container. “Here Wilson, have some oatmeal!” Splat, one whole Tupperware full. I swear I can’t look oatmeal in the face for a good while. For the day, we also split up into the “fast” and “slow” groups. Dividing ourselves up into the pace at which we wanted to move at, the groups were as follows:

“Fast” group: Andrea, Emily, Missy, Dreyson, myself
“Slow / Leisure” group: Lisa, Valerie, Michelle, Mark, Brian

Earlier in the day, we raced ahead and took pretty longish breaks, and the “slow” group caught up and actually overtook us after lunch. Haha, so much for the fast group. Lunch was bagels with tuna with mayo, cheese, or peanut butter and jelly (henceforth, abbreviated by PB&J), and most importantly, sausage! Yummy meal. As we continued on the hike for the day, the walk wore on. Spur after spur, contour after contour, our bodies wore on and legs got gradually more tired.

I have a personal feud with that peak / "temple"

Andrea and Emily washing their hair, with Em almost tumbling into the pool

First sight of the Colorado River

On the first day, I stuck to being the second last person (Andrea/Lisa was the first/last person in the group on the first day since they were trip leaders) and from the second day onwards, I pretty much stuck to being the last person (when I could help it). After lunch on the second day, no one wanted to take the lead in my group, so I set off at the front. Something which I really did not want to do for several reasons. Walking in front, is a job. Since I was always at the forefront of my company as the company reconnaissance team, it was always my team and I leading up front, racing forward and finding the path. I guess, I could really do it easily but I felt that such a chance should be offered to someone else. So, I stuck to covering as the last guy when possible. Only when we got lost or wandered off the track, did I step forward to hunt for and locate the path which we had to get back on. Staying at the rear was also some sort of patience training for me. I had to control my steps a lot more, possibly doubling the amount of energy which I needed for each day on the hike, and also to look out for everyone in front of me. I felt that I benefited a lot from that decision though, so that worked out great.

Blue skies and the amazing canyon

Back to the second day, it was a total killer by the end of the day. We had hiked a total of 12.2 miles on the map, which was definitely more considering the inclines, zig-zagging trails, as well as occasional forays off the main path. The sky was getting dark and still, we had not sighted the campsite. Almost 6pm, we finally saw the “slow” group at camp and stumbled the final few hundred feet to the campsite located beside a beautiful creek. Collapsing in a heap, we lay for a few minutes, exhausted from the day’s hike, before we got around to setting up tents and getting ready for dinner. By then, everyone was so sore we waddled around camp like ducks, eliciting groans of pain and agony at almost every movement we made. Dinner was instant rice, tortillas, black beans, and luncheon meat (more commonly known as SPAM in the US). Dinner was great. It got cold at night and we did our highs and lows for the day, and also gave each other back massages by forming a “massage circle”. Rice pudding was kind of interesting and gritty, but great effort by Missy and Val and their cook-group for preparing it. After we were done with massages, we all lay flat on the cold group, gazing up at the constellations in the sky and marveling once again at the beauty of the clear night sky. Another amazing night in the canyon. After deciding that we have enough of freezing off laying on the cold “tile-like” rock surface, we packed up and headed into our tents, passing out quickly. Oh, and someone accidentally killed a tiny mouse by stepping on it in the dark; I had the honors of being the “most hard-core” person around, so I dug a hole and “disposed of” the little mouse.

"Fast" group approaching camp near dusk

See? Collapsed.

Waking up slightly later the following morning, we took a longer time to pack up since everyone was pretty much stumbling around with jelly legs. One of the ravens, our perennial favorite creatures, swooped down onto one of the backpacks and snatched a hand-warmer. Good luck choking on the plastic dude. Much as I don’t like the ravens, I didn’t really fancy them being choked to death by trash. Maybe the smartest birds in the world, but clearly not smart enough to read the toxic label.

The stream next to our campsite

Some of my favorite people around

Works of nature

We stuck to our “fast’ and “leisure” groups, continuing on another day of hiking, with a “short” 7.7 mile day. Throughout the day, we pretty much still could not avoid seeing that “Temple”, which refused to disappear from our sights and from the map. It’s a personal feud between me and that peak. We came to a small platform next to a mini stream for lunch, where our group did our ritual of washing our hair in the stream and cleaned up our faces as best as we could. Lunch was tuna with mayo, tortillas and sausage, as well as PB&J for the vegetarian girls. Bumped into this guy who works for the National Parks; he was walking along the path alone, collecting and testing water samples at all the streams. Interesting but lonely job.

After lunch, we trudged along and came to a stream where we had to fill up all our hydrometers and water bottles because our campsite for the night would not have any water sources. This is where I put on the additional 8 pound hydrometer, being one of the 3 guys who was carrying it. The best is yet to be. So, shouldering the new weight, we continued on the last 1.5 miles or so left of the hike. Fixing up Em’s shin, we continued on our way quite a long time after the “leisure” group had departed. It was getting scorching hot and we were perspiring like crazy.

When we came close to the “ascent’ which we had to make, our jaws dropped. It was almost a 1000 feet climb up Horseshoe Mesa. As we took a water break at the bottom of the Mesa, we looked up and saw the “leisure” group halfway up the thing. That was a pretty horrifying sight. Climb that? With an additional 8 pounds? Are you kidding me?

3/4 our way up Horseshoe Mesa

Finally... the view that takes your breath away

Michelle and Valerie

Missy and Emily

Mark and Andrea

Post-card worthy view of campsite and the sunset atop the mesa

Priceless sunsets

And so, we did. It was hard, and intense, and at some point in time, one of our group members was almost at the point of breaking due to the steep and almost “scrambling” level of climb. As we took a rest at a spot two-thirds of way up, we spotted Mark, a tiny figure in the distance, hollering out to us. The “leisure” group had reached the top. After “icing” or rather, “cooling” Em’s shin with the hydrometer for a couple of minutes, we made our final ascent for the day up the Mesa. The ecstatic feeling of reaching the top can hardly be described with words. We collapsed in a heap beside the stone “ruins” on top of the Mesa, catching our breaths for a couple of minutes before getting up to set up our tents. The view and sunset was beautiful. The Mesa even came with a “toilet”, one of those National Parks toilets which (infamously) stink.

As we finally got done settling into what Mark called the “5 star campsite”, we huddled over at the cooking spot, setting up stoves and preparing dinner while enjoying the sunset. Mixing flour, butter, water, some salt and baking soda, we prepared home-made tortillas! It tasted heavenly. Pan-fried (or rather, deep-fried) tortillas, which we smeared with peanut butter, makes my mouth water even right now. We couldn’t wait for the falafel to be done, so we ate half of our tortillas with peanut butter, and the other half with the semi-successful but tasty falafel. Pure bliss. We didn’t do dessert on that night since everyone was stuffed with the tortillas and falafel (especially me since champion Brian dumped an extra huge serving of falafel on me when I asked for a second serving).

We got up rather early the next day, as we were supposed to have a 9.9 mile hike for the day. Early in the morning, just when we were starting to pack up our stuff, Andrea and Lisa called us together for a team meeting. They announced that Andrea would be accompanying Em in evacuating from the canyon, and asked for one other person to leave with them as Em’s shin (and which we found out later, ankle), would have made it impossible for her to continue. Missy volunteered to head out with them. That was really the low of the day and I was really upset that Andrea, Miss and Em wouldn’t be with us for the rest of the time in the canyon. The “fast” and “leisure” groups were then merged, and the cook groups were merged into one big group instead. After a final round of hugs and goodbyes, we headed down the Mesa, while the three of them stayed on the Mesa for an additional day before a 3 mile hike out.

We started our hike for the day with a steep descent down the Mesa, and took a small detour to get to Page Spring, where we refilled our water bottles from water trickling down a moss curtain, into a clear cold pool by the side of the rock face. The rest of the day, I took the last or second last person on the now 7-person team. The movement pace was a lot different from the “fast” group, going at a consistent pace instead of racing ahead as fast as we can. Since I was at the back with Drey and Lisa, we chose to hang back while the group moved forward, and when there was a significant distance between us and the group, we would run (literally) to catch up, so that it would be easier on the knees. I know that sounds like a pretty ridiculous theory, especially when you’re running on the ledge where a misstep would mean a few thousand feet fall into the canyon, but it really was a lot easier on the knee joints than taking controlled steps.

Trecherous descent down the mesa

View during the descent

The day passed pretty quickly and since we were contouring for the most part of the day, it wasn’t too rough compared to the first few days. Either that or we had gotten used to the abuse which the canyon heaped on us, and just didn’t feel the pain anymore. It was a little different on this 9.9 mile day. I spent a large part of the day chit-chatting with Mark, Dreyson and Lisa while walking. Time seemed to fly, while we hiked through amazing terrain, from rocky ground, to red-flat layered rocks which appear like smooth tiled floors. Simply amazing. Lunch was at some random spot, where we had tortillas with Nutella, and also sausage and cheese, which tastes as awesome as ever.

At one point in time, everyone was running pretty low on water, and we came across this semi-dry stream where there were little pools of water. There was probably a tiny trickle of water flowing through, but not enough to form a stream in the dry season. Most of the team filled up their water bottled with the stagnant water, dumping double doses of water purification into their bottles.

The final one mile was a rocky descent down the final steep ledges into the depths of the canyon. When we finally got to the bottom, we spotted our campsite, a lovely sandy spot right next to the roaring Colorado River. It was unbelievable. We were at a spot which was virtually inaccessible by anyone on any vehicle. In the depths of the canyon, where millions of years of erosion had created this wonder; I felt dwarfed. We set up our tents, and sat down, in the semi-darkness to prepare our dinner.

Gado-gado, which in the American NOLS cookbook, was some sort of peanut-y pasta. Using water from the murky Colorado River, Val and I boiled the noodles, and while the others prepared the sauce using peanut butter, dark soy sauce, a TON of salt (courtesy of Brian), amongst other ingredients. I also fried SPAM with a ton of butter, and dinner was actually really heavenly. The taste and texture of the peanut gravy helped to conceal the large amounts of grit and sand which was in the pasta. It was an awesome meal. While we were dead exhausted and cold, we cleaned up the pots and pans, and Dreyson and I headed down to the river to rinse and scrub them clean. We were dead cold. Dessert was a less lively affair, where the mashed brownies turned up less than edible. Each of us took some, which tasted between burnt chocolate and uncooked brownie mix. We probably should have skipped that and went to bed since we were really dead tired by the time dessert got started. Once again, washed pots at the cold river. Not a terribly enjoyable affair.

The next day was our mandated rest day, which meant that we slept in and refused to get out of the tents until it was late. No packing up, no long hikes; finally a day where we could rest, eat and hang out with the group. Pity Andrea, Em and Missy weren’t there with us, or it would have been an even better day. We made home-made tortillas for breakfast with Nutella and honey, and ate a ton of other stuff in our attempt to clear up all the food before our climb out of the canyon the following day. About an hour or so after breakfast, we started preparing lunch. Val and I prepared potato and cheddar soup, which was really yummy.

Everyone wanted to take a short nap and break before the short “day hike” which Lisa proposed. When the time came to head out, only Lisa and Michelle wanted to move, while the rest of us chose to stay in camp, either to read (Val and myself), to sleep (Brian and Mark), or to write and do yoga (yes, Yoga, and that was Dresyon). It was a very enjoyable afternoon, leaning onto a rock, reading for a bit, facing the steep canyon walls in front of us, and chatting about random stuff with Val for the most part. I was really glad for that day, to hang out and chat with Val and the other guys, and also just to rest and really come to grips with how amazing it was to be in the middle of the amazing Grand Canyon.

Dinner was pizza / calzones, whichever we elected to have and that turned out not as great as it was supposed to be. For several of us, plans to have a calzone turned into pizzas, which didn’t cook all too well, and we ended up having a combination of raw red peppers, mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, pizza sauce, and half cooked flour/yeast/pizza-dough. On a brighter note, the no-bake cookies which Val and I prepared were smashers. Totally fantastic. On the final night out in the canyon, we chat a little and a couple of us went down to the river individually, to sit there and stare at the stars and the canyon. To hear the river gushing by, the timelessness of the rocks, the rushing winds blowing down the canyon, we felt small, and insignificant. It was a truly humbling experience. I read a little more as I snuggled into my sleeping bag with my hot water bottle, enjoying the last night camping out in the canyon for the last time before falling into a deep blissful sleep.

We woke up before dawn the following day at 5am, packing up quickly and having cold breakfast, setting out once day broke. It was going to be a tough, long hike, and crazy climb out of the canyon. The first part of the day was an enjoyable climb, tough and painful, but really beautiful. The trail we were heading up was marked as “primitive” on the map, which meant that cairns were few and difficult to spot. Made the hike out interesting, and poorly maintained trails or lack of trails made the hike out really exciting. With rock falls and landslides which have covered or obstructed some parts of the path, we had to scramble over and around quite a little. Stopping for a quick lunch on a ledge at around 11:30pm, we had crackers, tuna with mayo, and cheese, and headed off quickly.

The target was to get out of the canyon by 2pm, and latest by 4pm, when Andrea would start to worry and call the park rangers if we weren’t out by 6pm. The final part of the climb after 2pm was pretty treacherous, when we started seeing ice in the shaded parts of the canyon walls, and a ridiculously sharp climb / scramble up. At around 3pm, when we were still not at the top, Lisa asked Dreyson, Brian and myself to move ahead and break off from the group, to try to make it to the top and link up with Andrea and the rest. After about 20 minutes or so of climbing, we heard a shout from Andrea and our driver, Michael. That was probably one of the happiest moments we had for the day, and definitely the people whom we wanted to see the most at that point in time. After we met up with Andrea, we thought we were near the top. Well, we assumed wrong. It was still a long climb out to the top, turning every corner and trudging through snow and ice, where the top just never seemed to come into sight. I was in a pretty bad shape nearing the top, as body ran low on food and energy after the tiny lunch, and since I didn’t eat much gorb post lunch.

I cannot describe how glad we were when we came to the top and heard a shout from Missy and Emily. It was… indescribable. The journey had come to an end and we had hiked the canyon. From 2000 feet, at the bottom of the canyon, to the top, at 7500 feet, all in one day, in 10 hours. Like Dreyson would say, it was “absolutely phenomenal”. Miss and Em had prepared lots of food in the form of doggie-poo (chocolate and sugar coated cereal, which tastes heavenly), as well as Gatorade. Apparently, when I got to the top, I was so out of food that my lips were absolutely white. Lesson learnt: don’t ever hike low on food, it’s murderous. With a final parting picture at the top of the canyon, we headed out towards the road. As we were hanging around, having snacks and catching our breaths, Missy, Em and Andrea came up and told me that they had been talking about me after the group parted on the Mesa and they missed me so much so they wouldn’t allow me to go back to Singapore. Awfully sweet! Totally missed having them with the group since they were always the ones who brought the laughter and were always unimaginably nice.

The road, tarmac, never looked more unnatural, and getting into a car never seemed so weird before. It was almost unnerving to be sitting in car and be moving at such great speed; I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. We went over to the medical center to get Valerie’s toe and Michelle’s foot looked at. That’s also when I realized how burnt I was, or rather, how blackened I was. Soon after, we bade our final farewell to the canyon, leaving the national park in the mini-van and headed for Flagstaff. Looking out of the rear-view window of the mini-van, I caught the stunning sunset over the Arizona desert, already missing the times in the canyon. Val, Mark and I sat in the back row of the mini-van, and we chatted about random stuff, mostly about “exotic” food, and also alcohol, which turned Missy off completely. Pretty hilarious. I should also probably note that we stunk like hell in the vehicle. Completely, totally, stunk.

Reaching the hostel, we dumped our bags, didn’t take any time to shower, and headed out to Beaver Street Brewery for dinner. It was a pub/bar/restaurant and as we waited outside for our table for 10, we absolutely scared and turned off everyone heading into the restaurant by standing at the entrance. It was really obvious on the faces of the kids who went in for dinner with their parents when they turned their noses up at the smell of us when they were walking in. When we sat down, we each ordered a ton of food. I had Caesar salad, Beaver Street burger with fries, and Pepsi. I swear I was in heaven. Fresh vegetables, real meat, deep-fried fries, and ice-cold fizzy Pepsi. Heaven.

Satisfied, we walked back to the hostel and showered for the first time in 6 days. After getting back from the bathroom, I swear the smell of our hostel room almost knocked me (and the rest of us) out. Totally unbearable. I cleaned out some of my stuff and Dreyson kindly offered to wash some stuff for us since he was doing laundry for himself due to the lack of clothes. First time in 6 days sleeping in a soft bed with clean linen; I missed my sleeping bag and tent.

We got up the next day and had breakfast at the hostel. I stuck to toast and avoided the oatmeal, which I still had a phobia of. We cleaned out our equipment, scrubbed the pots clean, and packed up the stuff to send back to Ann Arbor. Once we were done with stuff, we set out into town. Drey, Val, Mark, Michelle and I headed straight into town in search for a coffee-shop. We came to Flagstaff Coffee Company and each ordered our dose of caffeine. Michelle was probably the happiest of the lot, promptly downing her triple Mocha and getting her much needed caffeine fix. The rest of them came by after that and we hung out in the outdoor seating area, chilling out and enjoying the glorious weather. All the snow had melted at Flagstaff while we were at the canyon, and Flagstaff was already snow-free by the time we were there.

After we were done with coffee, Dreyson got some information from the locals and we decided to head to Mount Oasis café for lunch. It was a beautiful café, and we split up into three tables to have our lunch. Prime rib burger with chips and salsa was awesome for me. Since I was at a table with Mark and Val, I took the chance to find out more about Israel and the history of the Palestine conflict from him. It was enlightening and really interesting. We headed back to the hostel for Missy to pick up some food for lunch, and then went the other way out of town to a thrift store, where some of the guys picked up cheap second hand clothes. It was also then that we realized Flagstaff was a college town next to Northern Arizona University.

When we were done with the thrift store visit, we split up and Michelle went to get her ear pierced and most of them followed her to see it being done. I headed into town with Val to go check out the outdoor gear shops, marveling at the nice (and expensive) hiking and camping gear. We wandered around town a little, enjoying the small town feel and checking out the little shops around. There were also a couple of photo galleries near the town square, with one of them having amazing pictures of Mongolia and parts of China. The pictures were stunning, and I think quite a few of them have been published in the National Geographic magazine before.

As I had been craving for pastry the entire day, we went to this little European café, Macys, which was near to the hostel. It was an old bakery which sold delicious pastries and coffee. I got a raspberry and white chocolate scone, and we went back to the hostel, munching on our pastry while waiting for the whole group to gather for dinner. We did dinner at a local pizza place, and had to stuff ourselves to finish the huge pizzas. Most of us could barely walk after we were done. We grabbed post dinner coffee at Macys and went back to the hostel. Some of the guys hung around the front desk couch area and chatted, while Mark, Val and I caught The Matrix, a cheesy parody classic which Mark loved, and Dumb and Dumber. Plans for the rest to go dancing didn’t work out and we all went to bed around 1am or so; our final night in Flagstaff. Learning my lesson from the previous night, I put on my ear plugs before passing out.

Grabbing a quick breakfast the following morning, we put on our bags and took the mini-van to Phoenix, Arizona. It marked the conclusion of our trip when we started dropping people off at the various terminals. Although we would be seeing each other subsequently in Ann Arbor, we really couldn’t bear to part and put an end to the trip then.

Reaching Terminal 3, the last of us dropped off and checked in. I was on the same flight as Andrea and Lisa, so we checked in at the Northwest counter, before we all headed up to the bar/restaurant for breakfast. The time was 10am, the official end time for the outdoor adventures trip. Mark, Brian, Dreyson, Val, Andrea, Lisa, Michelle and I went in, and the 4 guys promptly placed our orders for Samuel Adams. The no alcohol policy for OA trips ended when the clock struck 10, and we had our first (heavenly) sip of beer, while we ate breakfast. Odd combination of food and drink, but hell, we didn’t care.

Bidding out final farewells, Andrea, Lisa and I went to board our plane, reaching back in Ann Arbor around 6:30pm or so. As we stood at the carousel to pick up our bags, we chatted and thought about days in the canyon, dreading the cold and being back in Michigan once again, while missing everyone terribly. It was going to be really tough knowing that spring break had come to an end. With parting hugs to Andrea and Lisa, I hopped onto Ming’s car for the ride home.

It was an inspiring and humbling experience to one of the natural wonders of the world, the Grand Canyon. I made lots of good friends and had lots of memories which I’ll never forget. It was definitely one of the most phenomenal experiences of my life. Thank you everyone for the great trip and I sincerely hope that I’ll be able to keep in touch with the group even after I graduate and return to Singapore. GCers 2008 forever!

Dreaming of days in the canyon,
Wilson
23 March 2008
2:38AM
Ann Arbor, Michigan