Around half the world in 1.42 days


Hi Friends! How had all of you been? Greetings from the United States of America!

Phew, I know it has been a while since I last updated my blog, and you bet I had tons of stuff to share!!! And I don't even know where to start!

It's 4:06am now here in Columbia, Missouri (MO), and it's COLD out there! It's 45°F, or 7°C. Thank God for the heater! My wife and I are keeping the house temperature at 75°F, which is 24°C, and thank God too, because with this cold weather, I can exercise without sweating much :)

Oh, before I forget, I must let ya'll know that I had signed up for the half marathon in Springfield, MO, on the 3rd day of Christmas at 2:30pm. Springfield is 173 miles away from my place (about 3 hours 53 mins by car). This race is part of the 10th Annual Run For The Ranch. Yeah, I know, my wife thinks I'm crazy too, since the forecasted temperature for the run will be around 43°F! Training alone is a crazy thing, since I would have to brave cold temperatures to go running out there! Well, I have less than 2 months to go, so wish me luck and pray for me! And I really want to do this, because firstly, I had never run in cold temperatures before, it will be exciting, and I can't just stop running because of winter. So I'm reading up and spending quite a fair bit on winter running gear, but I keep reminding myself that this is a one-time investment, since I will be able to re-use the same stuffs every year's autumn or winter :) I'm targeting to run below 2 hours and 30 minutes, since in my previous half marathon, I dipped below 3 hours. Hope that I can catch up on my training, since I'm almost 3 weeks behind, due to lack of motivation and discipline. Sigh... got to buck up, since the race itself is no joke, what more running in cold temperatures!


Anyways, back to my experience traveling to the States and my first 5 days here. Let's start with the flight... gosh! Thank God I made it, because in the flight from Hong Kong to Chicago, almost 30% of the flight was affected badly by turbulence. And it's not just simple rock-a-my-baby... it's violent rock-and-roll ok! Even the flight attendant commented that she had never experienced such a bad turbulence before in her many years of service.

The best thing about the whole traveling is... no crying babies, no big-sized guy beside me, I got the aisle seat, and the service is not too bad. Food sucks, so did the movies they played on United Airlines (UA), but what the heck, that's what you get for cheap tickets. Heard that they had free flow of booze, but too bad I ain't a drinker.

At O'Hare, Chicago airport, I was starving, so I had my first ever American McDonald's burger set meal, which didn't differ greatly from the Malaysian version. But the funny thing is, they had no chairs or tables, so I joined a few others sitting on the floor at the sidewalk... LOL! I don't know, but I think I could pass for a poor old Chinese beggar!


And I can't help noticing that I was the only black-haired, Asian-looking guy on the flight from Chicago to St. Louis. Welcome to America!


And oh, did I mention that they (UA) used this 39-seater plane to fly from Chicago to St. Louis? Very interesting experience! That must be the smallest plane I had ever sat in. Ok, ok, I know, for my American friends, they might be going... duh... but it's a first for me!

For $58, a coach carried me from St. Louis to my new home sweet home's doorsteps, literally speaking. It was a shared coach, so it went around dropping others first before dropping me.


Oh oh, this post is getting too long, so I'm not going to share about my church experience last Sunday, or my first Walmart experience. Maybe another post. So I'm ending this now, by just letting you all know that I'm doing great here, and I hope the same for you too! Have a beautiful Tuesday and thanks for reading this!