Filed under: travel
I’m halfway through the MBA program!! yay!! and I’m moving to San Jose next weekend 
, for my summer internship, 10 weeks !
The plan is to leave Austin Thursday night.. and we’re going to drive about 8 hours (600 miles) to El Paso… still in TEXAS 
The state of TX is freakin huge! By the way, there’s nothing between Austin and El Paso.. literally nothing if you look at the map.. I’ve heard from people who’ve made this same trip before, that the drive between El Paso to Austin (or vice versa) is the ultimate boring drive… basically we’ll just be going straight for 500+ miles and nothing to see on the way… ugh.. i’m not looking forward to that. So we’ll spend the night there. I’ll try to get Hendrik to get off work early so we don’t get there too late.
Originally I want him to take Thursday off, but he said he has a lot of work to do these days.. and he’s been sick too.. I think it’s the flu.. multi symptoms..cough/cold/fever/headache/red eyes/runny nose.. hopefully he gets better soon!! I was sick for 2 weeks and now that I’m better, the virus moved on to Hendrik
Friday we’ll continue our journey and the goal is to reach Los Angeles.. yep, Texas all the way to California.. it’s 800 miles or about 12 hours of driving,.. since we’ll start early.. before noon, we should reach LA before midnight, and spend another night.
And finally Saturday we’ll finish the trip, only 350 miles left, so with one of two breaks, it would probably take us around 6 hours.
We’ll rest on Saturday.. enjoy Sunday and half of Monday with hubby.. he will fly back to Austin Monday afternoon :’( … Once again we’ll be a long distance couple hehe.. but honestly both of us feel indifferent about this.. after surviving 5 years of LDR.. 10-11 weeks is nothing !
We went to Houston… yes AGAIN :p for the long weekend.. we were just there last month, but last time it was so hectic because it was during the same weekend that Hendrik got a Kendo exam in Dallas.. so the only reason we still made the trip to Houston was because we didn’t want to waste our hotel reservation (.it was at JW Marriott! ) .. we got there around midnight on Friday.. woke up late on Saturday.. had lunch in Chinatown and headed to Dallas straight after lunch.. so I felt stupid about it afterwards.. So.. to make up for that, I booked us another trip to Houston for this past weekend..
This time around the weather was really bad.. lots of T-storms and rained really bad, but we still made it to Moody Garden in Galveston, stopped by at one of the beaches there.. and the Houston downtown aquarium..
We took lots of pics, but there isn’t a single picture of ME that I like, so I’m just gonna post Hendrik’s pictures
Moody Garden pyramid at the background.. wondering what’s inside it ? Well.. supposedly a Tropical Forest :p.. there’s also a 2nd pyramid with an Aquarium inside, but we didn’t go in because we planned to go to the downtown aquarium instead which at that moment I thought would be bigger and better .. after we actually went there.. it’s actually quite small , but it’s located in downtown.. so Hendrik said.."How big do u expect it to be?"
Filed under: travel
Sept 28 – Oct 1 : I’m going to Austin again. Just for the weekend. Already bought the ticket.
Oct 22-24 or 27-29 : Hendrik’s coming to Indiana ? He wants me to go there again.. well let’s see I was just there 2 weeks ago and going there again in 2 weeks, I think it’s his turn for October. Btw it’s gonna be our 7th anniversary. Seven years !!!
November 17/23-26 : 80% chance that I will spend Thanksgiving in Austin, I probably will be there for a whole week. Trying to get Lung2 to join us for the holiday weekend. and Meggie too maybe ? I’ll check with Bob too. Anybody else wants to come to Austin and meet us ?
December 16-17 : Meggie’s graduation weekend. 99.9% that Hendrik will come here.
December 22 – January 14 : We’re going HOME for 3 weeks ! YAY ! Finally bought the ticket last night after 3 weeks of ticket hunting.
this past weekend was GREAT .. hmm where should i begin .. this is gonna be one long post
Saturday we drove to Houston, straight to Noodle House 88, and Indonesian-Chinese restaurant, I meant they serve the Chinese food we usually get back home -> for indo people in the US go check out their menu at the link above and prepare to drool. I could still take some dessert afterwards @ Juice Box, right next door. I tried their Mango Smoothie with Chinese Yogurt, which turns out to be Yakult-kind of drinks. It was good!
Then we went to Museum of Natural Science. I couldn’t believe how long the lines to get tickets were ! Hendrik wanted to see BodyWorlds 3, the current exhibit there. But we were puzzled to see the information showing that the next available time was 2.45 AM, so I asked somebody and found out that it wasn’t an error. The museum would be open 24 hours until Monday for this special Exhibit because Monday is its last day at Houston. It’s a travelling exhibition and the next stop is Vancouver, Canada. Hendrik really really wanted to see this, but I thought coming back at 2.45 AM was crazy !! So we were planning to buy a later ticket, like for Sunday morning or afternoon. After standing in line for 1.5 hours, we finally got to the ticket counter. Were told that they sold out on all later times. The only time they had available is from 3.15AM to 5AM. Coming back to a museum to see dead bodies at 3AM in the morning sounds crazy! I told Hendrik let’s just buy regular admission to the museum for now, without the exhibit. BUT, it was already 5pm and they were closing at 6! And then the cashier was nice enough to tell that admission for the last 30 minutes would be free. So we decided to just wait half an hour. Later we were relieved that we didn’t pay for the regular museum, because there was nothing out of the ordinary there! And I think we walked through the whole permanent exhibit area in 1/2 hour. We decided to buy the 3.15AM admission for BodyWorlds… Told Hendrik, this better be good ! But it must be good to see all these people in line, right ?
Afterwards it was still too early for dinner hehe so we went to the Galleria, one of the nicest mall in the US that I’ve been to, Window shopping lots of stuffs we can’t afford YET hehehe… By 9.30PM we were ready for another meal went back to Chinatown and this time we picked Sichuan . We were too ambitious and ordered 2 hot dishes with a hot appetizer. Couldn’t finish any of the 3 plates. Food was very good, but we should have ordered something not spicy. After that fiery dinner we needed something sweet. Stopped by a crowded Star Snow Ice. I finally got my fix of bubble tea. Hendrik tried their shaved ice bowl with 4 toppings. He chose read beans, green beans, barley, and another nutty topping.
It was late and we went to the hotel to rest. Probably got in around 11 pm and we slept right away. Set the alarm clock at 2.40AM. Remember the museum ? 
We got back to the museum just in time. I still couldn’t believe the place was so packed. We couldn’t even get a nearby parking space. And even inside we had to see the exhibit IN LINE, a slow moving line. It was good, though. Glad we went. Fascinating stuffs.. made us wonder how in the world did they make such a thing ? Worth waking up at 3AM for ? hahaha yeah maybe if we got a better parking spt. I learned 1 thing : What is the heaviest organ in a human’s body ? It’s our skin. The pic to the left shows a man holding his own skin.
Sunday we stopped by IKEA on the way home, bought some stuffs for the house, and we spent Sunday night moving and re-arranging Hendrik’s home office. We cleaned up the bedroom that all his junks were in and moved his desk, computer, books, to the 2nd floor living room area. Now he has a nice office with 2 desks, lots of books, shelves, a futon, and a stereo system. Finally had a place to put up our pictures.
Monday we checked out the new Round Rock Premium Outlets, only 15 minutes from our house. Nice outlets ! Smaller than San Marcos’ but hey it’s in Austin !
PS. IKEA is opening a store in Austin very soon !! We don’t have to go to Houston anymore, but we’ll still go to Houston for Noodle House 88 and all the yummy drinks ! Thx to Feli for the recommendation !
This story is almost "basi" now.. but I already wrote it down on notepad.. so might as well posted it.
Continued from previous post ….
Friday 26 May 2006
5.50 AM
Woke up to a beeping alarm, I probably had hit the snooze button twice. I saw the time and freaked out. I have a 7.25AM flight departing from Louisville, which is about 80 miles from. Even if I left right away, it’s impossible to make it !!!
6.02 AM
Already in my car and left my apartment. It’s probably the fastest "getting ready" ever in my life.
6.14 AM – Entered I-65 (exit 68)
7.04 AM – Passed the "Welcome to Kentucky" (exit 0) .. 68 miles in 50 minutes.. not bad, huh ?
7.15 AM
Arrived at the unfamiliar airport, parked my car in Remote Parking and walked to the terminal. There was a shuttle stop but the terminal looked like a walking distance, so I didn’t want to waste more time waiting for the bus.
7.25 AM
Check in at the Self-Serve counter and saw that my flight had been delayed until 8.12AM ! Hallelujah ! I am very very lucky.
9.40 AM
Arrived in Atlanta, logged in to VPN. Arine saw me online and asked if I’m "working" from home in Austin hahaha.. None of my friends here know that I didn’t make it last night.
11.46 AM –
Finally landed in Austin
12.40 PM
Lunch @ Hendrik’s office with his coworkers ( we stopped by @ Boston Markets to get meals to go )
01.00 PM
Log in to work. I did some real work for a few hours.. I really did ! Why is it so hard for people to believe that I can work remotely ? 
06.40 PM
Hendrik finally decided to call it a day. I had stopped working for the past couple hours 
07.20 PM
Home sweet home… after 14.5 hours since I left my apartment.
Saturday & Sunday 27-28 May 2006
The 2 days went by quickly. Watched the Da Vinci Code. Went shopping again @ San Marcos outlets. and of course Eat, Eat,and Eat. We also had a very good bubble tea @ Momoko. I make a note that each time I go to Austin I have to stop by for their bubble teas. It’s what real / original bubble teas supposed to be. They’re not the fruit juice like we usually get in Chicago’s Joy Yee’s. Oh yeah Meggie was in Austin too. She had been there for more than a week, and would stay til Wednesday. Sunday night we went to a Karaoke (a Korean place). 3 of us sang nonstop for 3 hours hehehe ..
Monday 29 May 2006
10 AM
We woke up. It’s travel day again. *sigh* Have to be at the airport by 3.40-3.50PM for my 4.50PM flight back, which means we have to be on the way to the airport around 3PM. I have about 5 hours left in Austin.
12.30 PM
We were ready to leave the house. Destination : Korean food for lunch and Gelato’s for dessert
3.40PM
Back at the airport. Checked in and my flight is DELAYED AGAIN !!!!!! well not too bad.. only a 35 minutes delay till 5.20PM. But I saw there are 2 other earlier flights to Dallas. 4.15 PM and 4.45PM (they’re both originally supposed to leave an hour earlier). I decided to go inside and try to stand by for the earlier flights
4PM
Found out that all flights in/out of Dallas are delayed by an hour because of bad weather in the morning. There’s no way I could get in the earlier flights because the standby list is already 30+ people and it’s oversold.. they’re already offering money for people who’s willing to take a later flight.
6PM
I AM STILL IN AUSTIN AIRPORT.. my flight’s delayed further till 6.25PM .. but luckily my connecting flight is also delayed, so I would be able make it home tonight.
11.40PM
Arrived in Louisville. Hmm parking was expensive $36. That plus the $7 I paid in Indy plus the fuel I wasted on the roundtrip to Indy.. This trip to Austin cost me at least $400 !
01.10 AM Tuesday 30 May 2006
Finally home after driving about 70 minutes and my apartment was 96 degrees HOT HOT HOT !!! Why didn’t I leave the A/C on ?? I thought I learned my lesson last year.. I couldn’t sleep until 3AM because it was too hot …
…… this is not the first time my travel plan was interrupted by the weather .. and probably won’t be my last either… well this is the pain of a LDR ….. :’(
3.45 PM
Tornado warning alarm went off .. everyone has to go to shelter .. Most people go home after we got the "All Clear"
4.20 PM
Back at my desk, log in to AA.com, check-in and print my boarding passes for my 8PM flight to Austin, through Chicago. Confused about what’s going on when I see the flight time is 6.59AM Friday morning.
4.25 PM
AA called my cellphone. My flight to Chicago had been cancelled. There’s an earlier flight that’s going to Chicago at 5.25PM. I was asked if I was anywhere near the airport. Well, I am an hour away from Indy and I still have to go home and pick up my bag first, that’s like a 20-30 minutes detour. I definitely I wouldn’t make it. Plus I had not even finished packing yet. I asked about other routes through Dallas or St Louis. They’re all either sold out or delayed for hours, I just wouldn’t make the connection to Austin. I had to go the next morning. But wait.. looks like the 5.25PM is now delayed until 6.15PM. Would I take it ? YES ! I quickly rushed to go home.
4.45 PM
Reached my apartment. Turn off my A/C, stuffed several things into my bag and left.
5 PM
It’s raining. Got to I-65, but I had a feeling like I wouldn’t make it. I estimated I would get to the terminal at 6PM because I would have to park my car in the long term parking first and then had to wait for the shuttle bus, etc. Would I get pass security ? I called Hendrik and asked him to check the flight status. Found out the 5.25PM flight is now further delayed till 6.55PM. Relieved. Now I don’t have to speed. I definitely will make it.
6 PM
Didn’t rain in Indy. Entered the terminal. Checked the screens. Flight still scheduled to take off at 6.55PM. I joined the line at the AA counter. There were about 10 people in front of me.
6.15PM
Finally my turn. The agent didn’t say anything to me but it took her so long. She kept typing which I couldn’t see and also made several calls. Finally she said the 6.55PM is also cancelled !!!! oh What A Horror !!! and she couldn’t find anything else that could get to Austin tonight. Had to go tomorow morning. She’s checked other airlines too and there’s absolutely nothing available. I saw the screeen and saw a lot of "CANCELLED" signs. Suddenly the terminal is crowded because the people inside who were already at the gates were now coming back out and back in line. I kinda feel lucky because I didn’t make it to the gate.
6.30PM
I asked how early tomorrow I could get to Austin. She said 9AM leaving Indy, and arriving in Austin at 3PM. Horrible schedule. That’s wasting almost a whole day travelling. I am supposed to work tomorrow. She said I could get out of Indy using the first flight out to Dallas at 7AM, but I would have to stand by in Dallas. I asked about leaving from Louisville (80 miles) or Cincinnati (90 miles). She found something, either way it’s gonna go through Atlanta and will get to Austin at 11.45 AM. I chose Louisville. Oh… luckily I remember to ask her to change my return too. Otherwise who’s gonna pick me up later if I go to Indy ? And my car will be left in Louisville airport.
6.45PM
Left the parking lot pissed because I had to pay $7.50 for less than an hour parking. It’s counted as one day. The attendant couldn’t give me a refund. She only gave me a piece of paper with a phone number to call. She even took my parking ticket. She said she had to for all the cars going out of the lot. How am I supposed to prove that I parked for less than an hour then ? Yeah right, Like I would go to all the troubles to get $7.50 back.
7.30PM
Suddenly it rained really hard on the way home. It wasn’t raining in Indy. At one point, it was raining so bad that I couldn’t see anything in front of my car so I had to stop for a few minutes. I guess the storms were just passing by.
8PM
Home sweet home again.
Midnight
Packing again. This time I include all the things I forgot the first time ( some movies, cellphone charger ). Emailed my boss and team informing them that I wouldn’t be working until the afternoon. Just in case somebody is wondering where I am.
12.30AM
Set my alarm clock to 5AM. Plan to leave at 5.30AM. My flight out of Louisville is at 7.25AM.
.. my last weekend’s story ..
I left Columbus Friday early morning around 5AM and reached Seattle before noon. Got a Toyota Camry with a portable GPS, not the built-in kind, from Hertz. I upgraded from a Ford Taurus :p When they offered me the upgrade, $10/day for GPS, and $11/day for a better car, it didn’t seem that much. But add the tax and multiply it by 3 days.. it cost me almost double the original price I already paid Priceline. Oh well..
I picked Lung-Lung up at his apartment and went straight to the nearest License Branch. He was told to wait until he was 18 to apply for a driver’s license. Unless we could provide a notarized written statement from our parents. Ah too much hassle! He should just wait 6 more months..
Next was lunch at Pho Than Brothers. Very good pho and what a cheap lunch . We also got free cream puffs for appetizers. Lung2 said there’s a better place for pho, so maybe I’ll try that next time.
Next stop was IKEA. Didn’t really spent much time inside since we didn’t really need anything. Lung2 had been asking me to let him drive since the minute I arrived but of course there’s no way I’d let him drive on the real roads. I did declined all insurance coverage with the car rental :p I finally let Lung2 drive around the parking lot for a few circles hehehehe.
Hendrik arrived very late – almost 11PM, we had to kill at least 2-3 hours of time before we could fetch him up. After we picked him up, we went straight to Chinatown for a late supper We picked Honey Court since it looked like it had a lot of people, even that late. The food was good, but not extraordinary. We probably ordered the wrong things.
We finally could rest around 12.30AM Seattle time. That’s 3.30AM in Indiana. I had been awake for almost 24 hours. Imagine how exhausted and sleepy I was. I probably fell asleep within a minute after my head hit the pillow.
So Saturday we started the day a little bit late. Just in time for a dim-sum Lunch at Jade Garden in Chinatown again. Very long wait, very long lines, but it’s all worth it
and so the sightseeing tour began ..
First stop was the Pike Market, Seattle’s #1 attraction .. what a great market. How I wish we have something like that where I live. Wishful thinking If ony I live in Seattle ……and we walked to the Waterfront area.. but there wasn’t really any great photo-op there
then a short drive to Kerry Park on Queen Anne Blvd. Great view of Seattle ..
and finally the Space Needle. We also went to the observation deck, but there’s really nothing special up there.
We checked out the rotating restaurant at the Space Needle, but there’s a 45 minute wait and we were already so hungry. Not to mention the price of the dinner menu there :p If we did stayed there for dinner, we’d probably ended up with a $150 check
We ended up having Chinese again for dinner hehehe, but this time not in Chinatown. The name was Yea’s Wok. I read excellent reviews about this place online. This was also the 1st name that Lung2 mentioned when I asked him about good Chinese food. So probably my expectation was too high The food was good, but didn’t meet my expectation hehe
Sunday was a more relaxed day. We’re done with sightseeing. Seattle really didn’t have many tourist attractions. We were more looking forward to lunch time and dinner time than visiting an attraction anyway :p
We went to Shoreline Community College, Lung’s school. It’s pretty big. According to Lung2, it has around 200 Indo students. I don’t know how accurate that is. Just in his church (IFGF), they have 9 caregroups for Shoreline students! That’s just 1 college and 1 church. How many Indonesians are there in Seattle ??
Lunch time we headed to Chinatown again hahaha This time we went to Kau Kau, it’s a Chinese BBQ place (bbq pork, roast pork, soy sauce chicken, roast duck etc) – Lung2 thinks they have the best char-siew that he’s ever tasted. He said even in Singapore he didn’t find a place with better char-siew than this place .. .. Hendrik and I agreed with him !!! Definitely the best char-siew we’ve ever had too !
This time we also checked out Kinokuniya Bookstore, wow looking at their manga collections.. I know somebody who would spend a lot of time and money here .. and it’s bubbletea time ! I had my first taste of bubbletea in Seattle almost 8 years ago. That time I believe Seattle only had that one place that sells bubbleteas. Now of course I see one in every corner of Chinatown. We picked Honeymoon Milk Tea inside Uwajimaya’s foodcourt. It’s so cheap! Tall big glasses for less than $3! Each of us tried the honeymoon milk tea, mango millk tea, and taro milk tea. The honeymoon milk tea tasted like Kirin’s Gogonokocha. Why can’t we have a good bubbletea store in Indiana ??
Then we visited University of Washington, of U-dub, one of Lung’s target university. Huge campus .. lots of trees .. must be beautiful in Spring time. Unlike the red bricks buildings in Purdue :p
Last stop was Bellevue Square mall. Lung2 wanted to get a wool coat, but no luck. Probably because Spring is coming very soon ..
and that’s it .. what a long post all of these happened in 2 days .. we took a red-eye flight back .. I separated with Hendrik in Dallas.. I arrived in Indy Monday morning around 10.30AM because of the 3 hours time difference.. got home an hour later and back at work the next hour .. not a good idea to take a weekend trip that far away ..
Hmm next time I visit Seattle would probably sometime in the Fall .. Meggie said she would come ..next time I will take at least 2 days off.. and we should make a trip to Vancouver too… for more good food, of course
So it’s been almost a week since I came back from Indo .. I wrote something intended for this blog the next day after I came back detailing my 2+ weeks in Indo.. but never got to finish it.. I guess now it’s already stale news :p
Anyways.. in short, I pretty much just stayed at home for the 2 weeks in Bandung sleep, eat out, read comics, hanging out with my family, especially the little ones :p I checked out the newest mall : Cimall.. pretty cool ! got a haircut .. had facials (3 times .. that means around 9 hours ) and it’s still cheaper than a 45 mins facial here :p ..
The only friend I saw was Yeni, my desk-mate in high school :p Had dinner with her & bf. She also accompanied me shopping some last minute items the day before I left. Thanks Yen !
I didn’t contact any other friends.. Sorry if any of you in Bandung or Jakarta read this blog I didn’t even get to see some of my relatives .. 2 weeks seem so short..
Here’s a picture of a family gathering .. the night before I left again .. on the picture are less than half of my cousins (with their children) from my dad’s side.
The highlight of my trip this time is of course my best friend’s wedding Acis & Lia’s wedding was grand, really nicely done. For me personally it was definitely the best wedding decoration I’ve ever seen Lia was gorgeous, she was glowing the whole time, and also always ready for the camera :p I also really love her wedding gown, especially the veil. I met lots of friends from college in the wedding. At first all of the couple’s friends from the different schools were called together for a picture, but because there were so many of us from Purdue, we requested to have our own group picture. I wish I could have spent more time with Lia & Lusi in Jakarta .. but I only had a couple of days after the wedding before I had to come back here. I barely contacted them prior to the wedding because I could imagine how busy they could be .. plus the fact that I was just too lazy to get out of my house :p
hmm for next time, probably around Christmas time when I go home again, I definitely will make more effort to spend more time with my dear friends and also contact those who I haven’t seen in a long time.. hahaha …
Friday night – dinner @ Saigon, Lafayette with Nicky & Budi .. it was unplanned.. until around 8pm when I got a call from them.
Saturday morning – a couple hours @ Chicago Botanic Garden
Lunch @ House of Sushi & Noodles – very average sushi. Not recommended.
afternoon – Downtown Chicago
- Lincoln Park Zoo
- Michigan Ave.
- Buckingham Fountain
- Grant Park Orchestra & Chorus @ Millenium Park
Dinner @ Noodles in the Pot – good food, but I’ve had better Thai food
Sunday morning – Dimsum @ Phoenix, expensive… maybe we ordered too much :p
now I can’t wait till Labor Day ..
