My Coke Journey to Atlanata, Georgia (4/9-7/9)

It was Labor day in US, and people was swarming to different part of the states to spent their weekend....As for us, we can't wait for it to come......Cuz, we're going to ATLANTA!!! Georgia (the peach state)

Day- 1

Well, prior to our departure, we’ve been having some problem booking the nearest hotel near to Downtown Atlanta (that’s where the local attraction usually is). After hours of searching, we manage to get one from Holiday Inn, Doraville. (not really near to where we’re going)

After 5hours and 30minutes of bus ride, I had to say, Greyhound does provide a comfy leg space (but, don’t expect a 1^st class service, expect loud and inconsiderable passenger.) we’re lucky to have a bus half empty along the way from Birmingham to Atlanta, I slept the whole way…..

Arrival to Atlanta was a bit late, around (5.30Pm), things were getting late already. We hop on Atlanta MARATA subway service immediately, the public transportation here is indeed impressively convenient, it cost us 12USD to travel using an unlimited pass-card for 4 days, and it doesn’t just restricted to subway, bus was a primary transportation for us as well.

The 1st day was Dinner + City tour.

We ate at this Metro Diner that served decent western food, the crowd was huge, and we end up knowing that this will be the busiest weekend at Atlanta.

Friday (Britney spears concert)

Friday – Sunday (Dragon Con)

Saturday (UA vs. VT football game)

Sunday (Braves Baseball match)

This was certainly an unplanned event for us as well, the crowd was getting big every passing day, and know we know why isn’t there any hotels available.

Dragon Con was that one thing that attracts me most, people was wearing cosplay (Costume Play) all over the streets, Naruto, ghost buster, Batman , superman, and the list goes on and on…..How Awesome is that ????!!!!

And the best thing was seeing your favourite character walking around the streets for 3 whole days, the crowd was so huge that we look more like odd-ball rather than them.

Day - 2

One of my main aim here in Atlanta is to Visit the World ONE and ONLY World of Coca-Cola, for those that have been following up my blogs, I’m a huge fan of coke…!!!!

That was the 1^st destination of our journey, going inside the museum of Coke was really a life time experience of mine, we manage to get in around 9.30am. and you can see people lining up already at the entrance.

The place was bigger than I expected, you will expect to see some coke artifact and long lost drawings which features coke advertisement that cost millions….!!!

My favorite part was scanning through thousands style of Coke throughout the world, the design of coke can and bottles varies from one another, and This is the only museum that gives the complete set of collection.

It was unexpected to see Coke Bear during our trip, that cuddly fella was adorable...!!!!

My favorite part was scanning through thousands style of Coke throughout the world, the design of coke can and bottles varies from one another, and This is the only museum that gives the complete set of collection.

Did I tell you they gave out a section called tasting zone, where they put different beverage from different continent served to us…..the Asia was the best ! Hooray….. Africa was the worst drinks I ever tried…Yuck (trust me, people was spitting out the minute it went into their mouth)!!!

The tour took us more than 2 hours, I was hoping that it wouldn’t end so fast.

Our next destination was Georgia Aquarium (The world’s largest Aquarium), and it ain’t kidding about being big….!!!

we werre hanging around at the Centtennial Olympic Park, which is crowded as well. Less than two decades ago, Centennial Olympic Park's neighborhood was a run-down part of town. they manage to turn this area multi-block eyesore into a glorious gathering spot for visitors and residents to enjoy during the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games and for years to come.

i Manage to get a glimps of our Malaysian Athelete, Rashid Sidek glorious moment at one of the memorial block (past olympic champion).

Day- 3

Our next trip, we went to The Zoo of Atlanta, lucky for us, it was the panda’s 3^rd birthday that day (which is this zoo main attraction). And not to forget the enormous bird show encounter, the 1st time I saw a bird that is half my size and comes with a 9inch beak…

CNN was one of my favourite destination. our arrival over there was overwheleme with lots of tourist (as usual), but it was the internal outlook of the building that catches my eye. they have their world's longest independent supportive escalator, directed to the exhibit hall. i always wonder how people at CNN mange to get 1st hand news here in the states, the (9/11) incident came in CNN only 5 minutes. They have their 24hr/7day operation room that are fully alert of any news coming in and out of any afffiliate news from the states. For that reason, their source was much more bigger. the funny thing during our visit, was actually seeeing the weather girl eating chicken infornt of us, without knowing one of the camera is ON. we call her chicken lady....=)

DAY - 4

This is our 4th day at Atlanta, things was getting easier to run around, thw crowd was getting smaller. we went to the ferbann Muzeum at ATL mid town. it was a very education trip for us that day. One thing that impress me most, was the life size skeleton of T-rex in front of the muzeum entrance. i only see those in TV. It reminds me of Jurassic park....creepy....

4 days 3 nights in ATL was an unforgettable journey, Ugraders from UAH like us enjoy it very much. we can't wait for the next holiday to come....!!!

here comes 15Malaysia.....

The joy of meeting up another Malaysian.....

I got call from Belinda yesterday, she's asking for some assistant in moving her new house. As a pure Malaysian, who “bantu –membantu*” (helping each other) I immediately agree on the call. I was excited as well, I never did go to any American housing area before, I sure wouldn’t want to miss this opportunity!!!

I know going there alone wouldn’t be a nice option, I have to get the rest of my U-grader to help me out this time. As usual, they agreed upon request (actually, none of us were doing anything during that time). Luka and Danilo was the 1^st to say yes, Maria overslept this morning.

Belinda came in very early that day, around 10am, I was excited to have seen Belinda driving us in her new 2009 edition Toyota Camry. (I was still confused with the left hand seating, I end up heading to the driver seat, which is where the front seat usually is). I was amazed by the neighborhood, it was a cozy and lovely area, with all-American household and lot’s of Asian too. But, i was being excited too early, it was a big diffrent from where she is moving to.

This is how her present house looks like.

This is how her future house looks like.

Most American house has a centralize ventilation and air-conditioning. Which I find it quite convenient, the use of centralize system makes the interior more comfortable and cozy. At winter time, all they need to do is switch on the heater, and the whole house will be warm at certain temperature. Besides that, I notice the design of houses here are more spacious in terms of separation of dining room and kitchen, doing that actually gives the house more of a structure and organize area.

Having said that, their house comes with a high definition glass door to prevent bad weather, and snow storm, they actually comes with an attic in the garage section for storage purpose which I find it very practical.

This is some housing area i found it very nice

We met Belinda's son and husband, they were super nice ! i really felt like at home already, Belinda was talking to me in Hokkien which i regrettably don’t understand a word of it, we end up speaking English, it was all familiar face again seeing them. Especially the unique dialect of MAN-glish !!!

The moving of items was no kidding, we get into work right after arrival, it was exhausting. but the moving was unexpectedly fun, no matter big or small it was not a problem for 3 big guys like us. Danilo was kidding about our new name "International Student of House Moving"

After an exauhsting day, we mange to get into the new house and "explore", here are some picture of showing you how an Interior of American house looks like.

The fire place was not an actual thing, it is an artificial gas stove that looks like a fire place, but it was a very nice place to hang out.

During the moving, we were Burning calories....and Burning, i really meant exercise....

The hard days work was really fullfilling, better than doing nothing at room....

after settling all the moving, Belinda told us of bring us to a nearby Chinese All-U-Can eat buffet, i was happy as usual (but, the buffet word was a bit freaky...) i know i'm gona eat a lot... (and that means gaining calories...)

It was a pure chinese restaurant with lot's of familiar faces. and don't forget about the food.....crab legs, mongolian stir fry, seafood donut, etc....

Now i'm feeling guilty as i typed......but, nevertheless, all this comes to my appreacition to belinda and her family....i can't belive i can eat my 2nd chinese food in my 2nd week....

This is the pic i took with her family, the 1st pic at the right is Belinda, and the last pic is showing Luka how happy he is with the seafood donut....he's being a bit addicted with chinese food ever since last time....

Meeting a Malaysian here means a lot to me, now I realize how lucky it is to have a “Se-kampung” here, I have some of my international friends here who only can tell us how nice her country here without able to share it with another countryman, I really do hope that I can see more Malaysian here. At least I know now, I’m not the only one here. You will be surprise to have that feeling of meeting another Malaysian in a foreign land.

9 days to go for my country celebration of independence. I will be sitting here at my laptop waiting for that moment to yell Merdeka… =)

p.s. I hope my friends back in M’sia are doing fine. Miss our Mamak time already… and nasi lemak panas…

school starts tomorrow. . .

Well it really is a crazy week, we've been going to lot's of places to eat and spent, now is time for us to bounce back to reality....that school starts tomorrow.

Ugraders like us have been best buddies, we eventually eat + sleep (not really) + play together..... frankly, our group are very diverse , that came from a variety of continent.

down (left to right) - Sergey (Armenia) - Jaime (El Salvador) - María (Panamá)

middle (left to right)- Alan (Malaysia) - Oscar (Honduras) - Danilo (Venezuela) - Zhanat (Kazakhstan) - Huda (Iraq) - Weiwei (China)

up (left to right) - Tien (China) - Eldin (Guatemala) (Roommate) - Luka (Montenegro)

Well, for a bunch of Ugraders like us, we've been quite occupied with lot's of stuff to handle like breifing in internship and comunity service. And most importantly, registeration of clases.

my courses include:

marketing subject :

PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY

MARKETING EMERGING TECH

american study:

AMERICAN GOVERNMENT

health curiculum:

SWIMMING

RACQUETBALL (squash)

The courses in total accumulated a 12 hours credit, which i find it linear. but' i wouldnt judge to early, cuz evryone knows that marketing courses takes lot's of assigment and presentation.

The education system is quite flexible here, because student get to choose wat ever courses they want and desire. like marketing (major) + music (minor). i don't recall having major back in UM, but this system is actually giving student more space of growing, with an option to choose.

One significant diffrence that i realize here, was the responsibility given to the student organization in establishing functional program and intresting activities for student to join. the student involment in any fraternities is very flexible, as long as it attracts the intrest of student. like a foam party i went yesterday...it was cool...but not really my stuff...

the next day, we attended UAH very own convo ceremony for their freshman, it was a very happening event, it marks the arrival of new student to UAH, and their arrival marks from the speeches from the president of UAH and the greetings from all the faculty member...all of them were wearing nice looking "jubah" and "sent" the student "in" instead of out, by forming 2 lines and let the freshman to cross over them in between...quite of a privilledge.

after seeing them how they welcome their student into the university, i really felt that M'sia should have this kind of stuff. It makes the student here such an honour to have enter this very university. and i do felt the atmosphere....

In huntsville, the place are so spread out, you can't go anywhere without a means of transportation, people usually make use of thier cars and travel around here. exchange student like us, might be the only one here with our No.11 bus (walking with our feet), we did'nt manage to get a bike here, as it was all taken upon our request....we are now officially walking through out the whole semester. and for that, i hope i can loose wight....

Neverthless, people here are very friendly and helpfull. you can get automatic assistence from any strangers around you, and they are more than happy to be there for you. i find that very nice.

well....a few hours to go for my classs...by the way, my 1st classtomorow is swimming..it starts at 6am...and i have to wakeup at 5am....sigh...

this is a pic. we took from the bridge out side our campus. =) nice !

Godzilla has landed on US soil.....

This post was uploaded during my 3rd day here at UAH, seriously, i still can't belive i have landed my self at US...i was craving my Nasi lemak the the 1st day, and then i'm eating chili dogs and fries the next...

OK, guys, bear with me as i go....

My flight schedule starts at malaysia (8.15pm) local time, i have my whole family to accompany me, it was a very touching sight to see all my families and my dearest girl friend "sending" me away, my sister was in tears, my little sister couldnt make it as she's having some school that day...but she did cry the night before....i was very touched..=(

The 1st thing i notice on JAL was this very cute console here right besibe my armrest, it consist of a game controller and a phone all together, and the best thing is u get to swipe your credit card at the sides as soon as u need to phone someone on the plane...cool !

The flight was short, it took me less than an hour to reach singapore, from there. i'm supposed to stay one night at their transit hotel, and get up the next morning.

Terminal 3 singapore was awesome, it was spacious and u get to do lot's of stuff here ! like watching movie free (24-7), a butterfly gardemn (indoor) and free internet usage ! i manage to run around and explore and found out some very intresting things to do. The free movies was my favourite, you can go in and out wenever you like !

Then after the cozy night, comes my big flight ! the flight from singapore - japan was 7hrs ++, frankly, it was tiring, the leg space was super small and during the flight was a repeating:

sleep > wake up > eat > toilet > sleep > wake up > eat > toilet > sleep > wake up > eat > toilet >

During the flight, i talk with this girl who was a singaporean, and she's doing pharmacy over there, and she treat me one of those japanese chocalate...frankly....yummy !!!

the united airline over there took me long hours and i manage to finish all tehir movies already, seriously 80% of the movies i seen it before, so, i was kinda bored out in the middle. My back was in pain, as my buttock never move a muscle.

Then comes the cuper long hours of flight, tokyo to USA (direct) 12hrs++

i thought the 7hrs flight was terible, but the 12hrs was torchering, i was "downgraded" from (economy + ) to (economy) means less leg space, and less moving space.

well, this time i manage to sit with a Korean girl, she's studying PHd at US, so, we talk a lot and manage to sit through the flight, a note for all long distance traveller, always make sure you bring your neck supporter, it helped me so so much during the flight, and don't forget to bring some books...or else you will end up having a butt cramp !!!

FINnaly hours of sleeping and eating and toilet-ing, i manage to wake up to the sunny light of Washington Dulles airport, the airport was super crowded, and i manage to get out of the plane as fast as posible, cuz i know my next plane is coming in 50minutes. but i end up waiting in long Q's at the immigration department, it was devastating to see so many people, and most of us end up mising our flight !

can u imagine watching people from all over the world yelling and screaming in diffrent language !!! it was horror !! but even with my NIKE shoes, i failed to take on my next flight to huntsville, and i had to stay overnight there to wait for my flight the next morning, but THANKS to world learning, i manage to stayed at Holiday Inn, it was a superb hotel with very very big and cozy bed....=)

the next day, i manage to get on the plane and get myself some very nice muffin for breakfast, i purposely skip my FREE breakfast buffet at Holiday Inn just to came here early, but i end up waiting till 11am due to plane maintenence problem. not really a nice experience as a 1st timer to US though...BUT i had to admit ! it's super exciting !

i'm finnaly here at Huntsville University, and it's super hugh....i manage to meet the other 2 Ugraders, there's the girl Zhanat from Kazhakstan and Sergey from Armenia.

Dr. Pottenger helped us a lot on the stuff and enrollment ! and he was the one who came to the airport to fetch me, he was very helpfull !

Anita was also the one over there waiting for me at the flight, i feel so bad when i was unable to tell them my flight was delyed, and they had to wait there for a couple of hours....

Right after my arrival to Huntsville, we were told to go for a ball game at the nearest stadium. This is the 1st baseball game of my life, it was really enjoyable. But i was too exhausted to reaaly get into the game...people were shouting and screaming, and there was some heart lighten scene during every break of the game...nice !

i manage to head back to my dorm and make sure everything is in place, it was very tired, and my eye's were half shut during that afternoon...but did make my room cozy though....

the next day was full of schedule for us as well....but we manage to sneak out of the dorm and get ourselves some fast foods....it was the 1st for us to eat at Taco bells, a kind of mexican food, and very very nice tortilos...like "poh piah" but bigger ...

After attending our orientation that afternoon, we manage to grab a very very nice buffet dinner at one of the Huntsville chinese all-you-can-eat restaurant, i still can't belive that i can eat chinese food the next day !

2009/2010 Global U-gard USA, UAH

All this thanks to World learning and the International office of UAH, they've been very nice and helpfull....Thanks !!!

Here's some nice pic of UAH, got it with my roomates...jog at 5am.....he he, i'm still at M'sia time.

p.s. i miss my frinds and family from M'sia already.....espeacially my girl, hope she's doing alright....=(