Winter Trip - Ann Arbor: Part 1

I finally made use of the last two days of the break (Gosh, I hate the countdown), writing and posting stories and pictures from my recent trip. My trip started out on December 15, 2013. Since I spent two weeks out of town, I'm just going to share some highlights instead covering each day. I was originally going to leave on the 16^th but the flight on that day was much more expensive. I assume because the closer the date was to Christmas, the more expensive the flight got. I left on Sunday night to the airport and had a chat with my school mates on Facebook before I got on to the plane.

After an overnight flight, I landed in Detroit feeling psyched, not only that I got to feel a completely different temperature and vibe from California, but also because I finally got to see snowcapped buildings and snow-covered roads, something you wouldn't be able to spot in California unless you go to Big Bear or drive a bit to the border where Lake Tahoe is. The bus Elda booked for me took off on time and I reached Ann Arbor shortly. Elda was there and we had a reunion, although we just met a couple of months before. Without further ado, Elda took me to this noodle bar – Tomukun – just a few blocks away from where my bus arrived.

Apparently, snow wasn't all pretty and fun. Reality hit me that snow is merely just another form of water. Whatever the snow touches will be just as wet as water does. The sidewalk on the way to the noodle bar was completely soaked and some frozen snow that formed rough surface just made it even worse. Elda and I struggled to roll my big-ass suitcase through the rough surface. Glad we made it safely to the noodle bar.

I basically spent the first four days sticking around with Aymee, who arrived a day later after me from Sacramento, and her sister who studies in Washtenaw College, while Elda herself was still finishing up her final exams. Aymee and I stayed in a motel located between Washtenaw College and University of Michigan, to make the access between two campuses easier, since we'd get to meet folks from each of the institution. On the second day of our stay in Ann Arbor, Aymee, her sister – Ashley – and I walked for miles to get a boba in Downtown Ann Arbor. Actually, our journey would have been easier if we took a bus, but since we didn't know how to get around, relying ourselves on our feet were probably the best idea.

We walked for nearly an hour and a half under a below-zero degree temperature, with our boots drowned in nearly knee-depth snow and heaven knows how soaked my UGGS got that time. The road was absolutely ugly.

I was so glad that the places we had to go through on foot on the way to Boba Island weren't so ghetto. We got to take a glimpse of Downtown Ann Arbor as well as some outer parts of University of Michigan campus. Apparently the main campus itself is located near the Downtown, which pretty much has everything Ann Arbor needs.

This building has a Hogwarts-ish feeling

Just because...

Found Kevin's house!

At one point, Aymee and I got so hyped when we saw thick snow at someone's front yard. We decided to rest a bit and not to mention, rest our butts and aching, soaked feet into the depth of the soft snow. It was insanely soft. Anna from Frozen doesn't lie when she mentioned that landing on snow would be like landing on a pillow, at one point in the movie.

Oh, and soft wasn't the only thing...it was crazily cold too. Again, at least it's soft.

Anyway, we managed to get to Boba Island, the so-called boba place that we'd been so dying to get. Later on, I learned from Elda that Boba Island is located in University of Michigan campus complex and we could easily get there within minutes by bus. The three of us chatted and played scrabble in Boba Island while munching on our curly fries that we shared. We spent like around an hour there, just to get ourselves warm and wait a bit until the insides of our shoes got dry. We'd stepped on snow too much that not only the outside of our shoes but the water had managed to leak in, which later I learned that UGGS fabric isn't water repellent...

...dang it I should've known.

Then we went to the arcade next to the boba place, where we got instantly hooked by Deal or no Deal game, which promised us up to 200 tickets if we were lucky. I ended up getting 80 max. The arcade was seriously more generous than arcades back in Indonesia (I barely go to arcades in LA too), in context of giving out tickets. For example, you'd get around like 5 tickets if you score 24 in a basketball game, but in this arcade, I got more than 10 tickets when I scored 24. But in the end, all I got was a puny ball that I'd no idea what to make use of.

Anyway, the Deal or no Deal part was absolutely intense. I regret why I always skipped that show when I was in Indonesia.

Also, back in the hotel, Aymee and I were so psyched to see that the snow in the hotel parking lot had got so clean and flat, that we decided to do something with it. It's a little something for Elda who would be having her last final exam the next day.

We went to Frankenmuth the day after, which I'm going to tell you guys later.

Basically, we spent our days in Ann Arbor just hanging around, doing common stuff like going to the Barnes and Noble. I got myself a decent book to read for the rest of the trip, which I might cover later on. It was seriously engaging I thought I'd share to you later. But yeah, it's not like Ann Arbor is LA, where you have to arrange itineraries of your trip, going to one place to another. Ann Arbor is a small city, less vibrant and bustling unlike where I come from, but that's the vibe that I was looking for.

Here are a couple of snapshots I took while walking to Barnes and Noble from the hotel.

I went to Tomukun for the second time just a day after I arrived, but this time, with Aymee and Ashley

Also, since we all highly depend on public transportation, and since its operational schedule is as unpredictable as it is in other cities, we couldn't go back late. We weren't so familiar with the area too. So thanks to the Trader Joe's adjacent to the hotel and the microwave at our hotel room, Aymee and I started buying bunch of frozen (Asian) food to eat at the hotel room, for lunch and dinner. There are no restaurants nearby. The closest one would be accessible only by bus, so Trader Joe's frozen packaged food is the only way to survive.

My meal pretty much for four days.