Day 15th- A maple leaf from Chicago

Alhamdulillah got up quite early. Tak mandi terus buat layers (pakai losyen, thermal underwear the 2 lapis baju biasa and of course winter coat). Yesterday it wa s snowing quite heavy. Hari ini nak ke Chicago lagi, lawat Backstory Cafe and Social Center plus volunteer work at Washington Park.
We grabbed leftover nasi from last night, and then here we went. Singgah rumah HJ-Sheikh, antar nasi himpit and bahan untuk lontong for Rahman jamuan petang nanti. Kami tiba just nice for the bus to leave, 7.10 a.m. On the way I was hungry, amakn bekal nasi. As usual ramai tidur except few ones like me, Mun'im and Amirah (from S'pore).
We arrived there at 9. Got off the bus and went into the building.

Ice-breaking session lead by Keri and Heather. then 2 girls from nearby arrived. COMEDY< ROMANCE, THRILLER, dRAMA, and ACTION are the words to describe what u think about certain things mention and give reason why.

(Ngantuk tapi kena masuk gak sebab geram)
Then the owner of project gave talk about the place. Tak dengar dah , sebab terlena. Then turun workshop basikal, where mereka kumpul budak sekolah and ajar baiki basikal after school, basikal siap baiki boleh di miliki. THEN WE MOVED to open market. LAPAR!! We went to gerai UNIVERSAL CREPE. Stall lempeng lah! I ordered lELVIS SPECIAL - lempeng sapu peanut butter and letak pisang, USD 5. RAhman ordere one with nutella without banana, USD 4.
Lunch dengan pelbagai asndwich and salad.

Boleh eddit lain kali?
Lepas lunch pi jalan2 .Jauh juga, ahmpir satu jam roundtrip, pergi University of Chicago Hospital University. SSejuk dan berangin. Kemudian depa tu berhenti depan church and ajak masuk. Untuk apa? aku tanya. To get urself warm up. MAsuk je lah, dah nak beku kita ni. 10 minit kemdian dia ajak keluar and gues what? BAlik semula ke tempat lunch tadi, bodoh betul punya kerja.

Sampai kat building tu bus NIU dah ada Jump in and bas bgerak. Tahu tak di gi balik tempat kamii jalan2 tadi, ahai SEORANG GURU TUA KENA KELENTONG DI CHICAGO, marah betul I. Then we wwent straight to Washington Park. KAmi dok situ 1 1/2 jam. NAk wat apa open air suhu beku. DEPA nak bunuh kita ke? tanya Cgu Khoja. mOst of us keketaran minta d selamatkan, so Median lady in charge bagi gloves sapare dalam car boot dia.

Apa d buat? Kena kutip biji bunga sunflower simpan dalam paper bag bagi kat dia orang supaya biji bole di pindah kebhgn lain park musim bunga nanti. Sejuk sangat kami d arah warming up activity 30 saat, tak panas gak, sambung lagi 30s.

Then ramai aku lihat student ke tepi lagoon . Atasnya dah beku tiap orang sibuk membaling batu nak tengok apa jadi. TIba2 Cgu Hazimin dtg report, budak Mun,im dah basah, I dah pesan jgn pijak ais tu kalu pecah basah kasut. Malu aku di buatnya.

Akhirnya dalam kesejukan yang amat bangat, kami nampak bas. ME and Koja ran towards the bus, on the way picking up a maple leaf each as a rememberance. itulah kisahnya yang berakhir d WAshingto PArk dengan A Maple Leaf as rememberance from CHicago, guess why it was so?
KAmi terlalu beku untuk klik kamera so not much picture taken.

BAlik umah Paul tanya about today. kami relate the story dia ketaw besar dan dia rasa perkara paling bodoh was done to orang Khattulistiwa ini.

Now bole tidur, nak kena packing malam ni malam akhir d rumah besar ini.

Day 10th in NIU

The day began at 9 a.m. cotinued from yesterday's session.

We had a very guest with us today, a lady from State Department, lupa nama dia. She came over to see how tha participants are doing.

We had Public Speaking today. I was in the same group with Rahman and Muaz. at the end of the session the group had to come up with three speeches, highlighting the shy ones. Rahman was chosen to give a speech to introduce a speaker, yes quite an easy one. Muaz had to do speech on giving information, quite unlucky. But every member of the group was responsible for coaching them.

The audience said that Rahman was brave enough, Shanna said that he did it beautifully. Congratulations. Muaz needed to repeat his speech, anyway he'getting more and confident with himself.

After Maghrib prayer we went on the NIU bus to Jim Collins' house for dinner. It was very kind of him to get Brett went 50 miles away to get halal meat for the Muslims. The students were really enjoying themselves especially the Singaporeans. We teachers felt youngr, too. We had nasi, kari daging , masak lemak daging sayur goreng campur and ayam masak kicap ( cooked by Sri Ramli, an Indonesian student here).





The house was full of noise, well it was just like Hari Raya here. It was a brthday for Threanth from Cambodia, too.







I had quite along talk with that that lady fro State Department. We were picked up by our host families at 6.45p.m. Semua orang balik dengan perut kenyang dan letih. well, esok 6.45 a.m. we ahve to be on the bus again for a visit to a nearby High School here.

Day 9th

Day 9th

We had free morning with host family. Very good since we were so tired coming back from a day in Chicago. Today's session began at12 p.m.

It was about art and Theatre Performance, facilitated by Padma (mom), Shanna (daughter) and Lakhi (son). It was a six hour session, but everyone was overjoyed and tired. We really enjoyed all activities including the voice projection, articulation, body language, plus the expansion and contraction of facial muscle.

Adult leaders were asked to get involved too. I hope we could bring this activity home so that our students will enjoy art as a way to get connectd with other people.

A Day In Chicago

We left Northern Illinois University (NIU) at 8.00 a.m. and arrived at Chicago an hour later. It was windy and very chilly. Soon we got into Willis Tower building. Very strict security check-up, our photos were taken and they scan our bags, coats us.We went up the skydeck and took photographs. We did a little in- sky shopping too.


Then we went over to the other side of the lake to get the view of Chicago skyline, very beautiful, Insy Allah one day Kota Bharu will have that kind of skyline. Then we went o Cutural center of Chicago. Next was the Millenium Park, sangat cantik viewnya, subhanallah! Dia orang boleh maintain tempat begitu cantik why not us?






Kemudian kami ke Art Museum. Then jam 12 (Zuhur, 11.30 a.m. , Asar 2.30 pm, Maghrib 4.30pm) others sibuk cari tempat lunch kami cari tempat sembahyang. Alhamdulillah chaperone kami ( Mat Salleh), gi tanya kat info desk, dan kami dapat good place to pray.


Then he took us to an Arab Restaurant for halal food. First time in 8 days we got a taste chicken. Kami balik ke Millenium Park, ingat nak try ice-skating tapi queue too long, terus jalan-jalan .





We had dinner at Noodles & Company (after solat Maghrib), so we went for buttered noodles and Pad Thai, semuanya vegetarian. Then we had a stroll along Chicago River, enjoying the scenic night view. I guess other people from other countries were busy shopping, we didn' have much to spend tambah lagi Muaz left his money at home.



We left Chicago around 6.45pm (already Isyak), and arrived at NIU at 8 p.m.

on the day briefing session

Us with exchange student participant from US.