Leaving~

Departure time is around the corner, and spring is coming to NH eariler this year. Yesterday was so warm and sunny, I went to my campus to enjoy the coffee and spring with my friends, suddenly I started missing my life in the graduate school a lot. Even though studying is stressful, but you could share those painful feelings with your classmates, friends. When I discuss my last days' schedule with my friends, suddenly realize that there are so many people I want to meet, and a lot places I want to go. Well, time is not enough now even by cutting short of my sleep. I think if you give me one more year to be here, I will still feel short. By using my friend in Chicago's words "It's time to go." Let this experience become the best memory in my life. I will cherish it in my heart. Thanks for all my friends, "parents" here. You make my life.

Yinster is sad today!

Back from Chicago~

Chicagian Bean. It is one of the most famous architecture in downtown Chicago, near Michigan Aveune.

I am in the beach of Lake Michigan, downtown Chicago is at my back.

Finally, I got back from Chicago. Our flight delayed last night, so I got back home around 2am this morning. I am completely exhausted after this 4-day trip, but it was splendid. Chicago isn't that cold as I was told. When we arrived at Chicago, it was nearly 60F, feels like spring. Everyone there worn only long-sleeve shirt, we were looked like from Alaska. The next couple of days were cloudy and even raining. It was a little bit chilly, but not that cold. Yesterday was completely sunny summer, we only worn T-shirt, but still felt hot. My friends were making fun of us, he said "You guys came in spring, then experienced winter, and left in summer, so you went through three seasons of Chicago within 4 days, but not in the right order."

Chicago is the 3rd largest cities in U.S. It is called "Windy City". It isn't because Chicago is windy, but because Chicagians were talkative, never shut up, so New Yorkers gave Chicago this name. I like Chicago a lot. It is totally different from NYC and Boston. It has its own Chicagian culture, accent, and pride. We went to several museums, restaurants, and shops there. Lake Michigan is quite impressive. The water in the lake looks so blue, like ocean. At the beginning, we thought it was ocean, but based on Chicago's geography, it can't be close to the ocean. Then we guess it might be a man-made swimming pool, but it is too big. The color of the water is so beautiful, even during raining day, it is still blue. I went to Erie before, which is one of the 5 biggest lakes in north America, but compared to Erie, Lake Michigan is more like an ocean, and they even brought sands near the lake and made a beach around the lake.

Chicago River went through downtown with several different style bridges above it. Chicago is famous for its architecture. If you walked around downtown, you could see all different kinds of skyscrapes. They were built in various styles, Sears Tower is the tallest one. I am not fond of buildings, especially after living in NYC for more than 6 months, but Chicago's tall buildings are impressive. Chicago's food was great too. We got Mexican, Latin American, Chinese, Italian, and Chicagian food. We also went to a blues bar to enjor typical Chicago blues, such as "Sweethome Chicago". We could strongly feel Chicagian's pride of their city. Pictures will come out soon! Thanks for my friends' guide.

Chicago!!!!!!!

I will go to Chicago tomorrow morning at 9:55am from Logan Airport. Always heard about this city, but never got chance to see it, now it is my turn. It is the last trip before I leave U.S. My friends in Chicago are quite exciting now. They already made bunch of food menu for us, as they knew how much I like food. If I am lucky enough, maybe I could meet my favorite guy Wentworth Miller in PB. Cheers~

Snow Storm, Pawtuckway State Park, Post Card, etc.

Last Friday, we got a big snow storm in the northeast of U.S. All the flights were canceled in Logan Airport, and buses delayed. Only couple of hours, the whole New England district got 7-10 inches snow, quite beautiful. I got so excited when I saw the big snow storm. I rushed outside of the house and played in the snow. I always love snowing, and dreamed that I could dance with my "boy" under the snowing, that will be quite romantic. I walked to the mailbox under the snow that night to check my mail, then I got a post card from my friend in Frankfurt, which is pretty. I like getting different post cards from different countries. You could see their nice architecture, culture, and tradition through a small piece of paper, which is pretty cool! Thanks, piggy!

I went to Pawtuckway State Park (NH) last Saturday right after the snow storm, cause I like hiking in the mountains after snowing. Sunshine was nice to me at that time, duirng the whole hiking trip, it was always smiling at me. This time, I didn't finish the whole trail, because we got there late and I was quite tired after 2 miles of hiking.

UNH hockey team lost to BC in the final match, which is quite disappointing. Maybe it is because I was not on site to support them? Well, still proud of my school team, at least, they worked hard for it. Congratulations, wildcat, you are always good! This coming Thursday, I will head to Chicago to visit my Chicagian friends. Cheers~ Chicago, Yinster is coming!!!!!!!!!

Portland, and flu~

Portland is the largest city in Maine, which is about 80 miles away from my campus. It is not as famous as Portland, Oregon, but still a nice place to travel. We took a short trip last Sunday afternoon, and fully enjoyed the warm sunshine, rocky beach, old downtown, and etc. Downtown Portland has some beautiful old shops, which is kinda like Portsmouth, NH, but larger. It is nice to walk there on the sunny day, and it is very close to the sea coast. We walked along the Atlantic Coast, and saw the dog playing with water. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time for window shopping, because daytime saving ended last Sunday, but we didn't realize until we got to Portland downtown. Couple of gorgeous architecture reminds people the history of New England district.

Spring finally comes to NH, although it is a little bit earlier this year. Well, spring does not always bring good things to people's life, flu comes to NH too. Most of my friends were sick at home recently, except myself, amazing~ They were all lying in bed and sleeping the whole day, which is quite boring for me. Hope they could all get better soon! Yinster wants to play!!!!!!!

Come on, Wildcat!

My team celebrated their victory in Quarter-Final.

Wildcat is in white, and Providence is in dark blue.

I went to see hockey game last Friday night at Whittemore Center, UNH Wildcat vs. Providence at Quarter-final. I knew UNH Men Hockey Team is good, but never got chance to see their performance on site. We finally got tickets for this match, which started at 7pm. The whole match was great, and Wildcat had large advantages over Providence. Wildcat's strikers seemed weak at the beginning, but its defenders were quite good. Providence continued attacking, but still scoreless. Wildcat strikers were efficient, once they started attacking, they were dangerous. After 3 periods, Wildcat won over Providence at 6:0, and will go into Semi-final vs. Mass.

I am not a big hockey fan, but it is more enjoyable than I thought, especially when you come on site to see the game. It isn't that much fun if we see it on TV. I am very proud of my school team, they did a superb job last Friday. I shouted for them through the whole match together with other faithful fans. "Sieve, sieve, sieve" , "UNH, UNH, UNH", "Come on, cats".

Last Saturday night, I went to ice-skating in Dover. I was good at Roller-Skating when I was in high school, so I thought I might be good at ice-skating too. Well, I tried last winter with my friend, and I did ok, but this time, I did really bad, falling down 3 times, and couldn't find my balance. Now I realize I am incapable to do many things, sighing~

Campus visiting and freezing cold!

I went to visit my campus yesterday. Having been in NH for nearly couple of weeks, I didn't get any chance to get back to my campus at all, so finally I decided to go there for a short visit yesterday. The weather was so pretty, but freezing cold. I couldn't stay outside longer than 5 minutes.

I went to the coffee shop Breaking New Ground (which my friends always called Breaking New England) to have some coffee, then went to my favorite grocery store DUMP for some cookies. Campus is still the same after a year, but you could see a lot of new faces. I had lunch with couple of friends in MUB, and during the lunch, we talked about different culture, people, movies, and etc, which is quite enjoyable.

There will be some hockey games in my campus this weekend, hopefully, I could get some tickets. UNH has strong hockey team, but I never got chance to see their performance, hopefully, this time I could see it.

Busy weekend~

This is the Light House in York Beach. It is so pretty, like the view in the fairytale.

I was standing on the summit of Mt.Major, see the big frozen lake in front of me, it is frozen Lake Winnepesaukee. My hand was freezing when I held my camera.

The whole last week was quite busy for me, especially weekend. Excited for being back to NH, I wanted to hang around everywhere; making plans for Boston, Chicago, Portland; watching movies; going to concert at Rochester Opera House; and etc.

I went to Lake Winnepesaukee (NH) with my friend last Saturday, it was so pretty cause the lake was completely frozen. We could walk there and see the holes digged for fishing. Fish houses were built on the surface of the lake, and some people tried to land private helicopter on the lake. It is so pretty. Imagine the whole big lake become frozen, cool~ Then we drove to Mt. Major for hiking. According to the weather forecast, it should be partly cloudy that day, and when we left the lake, it was still sunny, so we thought it would be a nice day for hiking. We parked the car, and followed the trail to the top of the mountain. Mt. Major: 1124 ft. and the trail: 4 miles. At the beginning, everything was nice: weather was sunny, trail was quite flat covered with thick snow, we were energetic. Well, life wasn't always easy. When we got close to the top, it started snowing with huge wind, until we got to the summit, it was actually snow storm. However, the view was so pretty on the top, we could see the whole view of Lake Winnepesaukee. If it was sunny, I wouldn't want to leave the summit: mountains covered with snow, and a whole frozen big lake under you. Amazing~

It took us nearly 4 hours to finish the whole trail, and after we went back to the parking lot, we were totally wet and exhausted. I like hiking, but I never go hiking during the snow. It was a nice experience, but you need courage to do that, cause on our way back to the bottom, the trail became so steep and slippery. I fell down several times, but it was fun.

Yesterday, the weather was so pretty, so I went to York Beach to see the Light House. It wasn't that cold, but when you got close to the ocean, it was quite windy. Walking in the beach was one of my favorite activities. I always feel I am close to my friend on the other side of Atlantic Ocean when I walk in the beach here, imagine her Piggy Zoo. Light House was so pretty under the sunshine. As the tide wasn't high at this time of the year, some people climbed up to the Light House. I wanted to try that too, but I haven't recovered from Saturday's exhausting hiking, and my legs were still pain. I tried to climb a little bit, but finally gave up.

It was a great weekend, but now my whole body pains, especially my legs. Without doing excises for quite a while, I did too much last whole week. I shouldn't be that excited. Maybe I don't have much time to be in this country, I want to do everything within a very short period of time, and bring the whole NH back with me. The weather here was always changing recently. Before I wrote this post, it was sunny, now it is snowing heavily. Funny weather, and exhausted Yinster.

Drive safe!

Alas, just got a sad news from my friend in NYC. One of my friends had a horrible car accident in Rochester, NY last weekend. She went there to attend her friend's wedding. On their way to the wedding ceremony, they got a car accident. My friend's neck was seriously hurt, not sure how others were. Although nobody was dead, most people were seriously injured. To all my friends, please drive safe, it is really dangerous to drive. Pray, God bless her!