Assalamualaikum! :)
Alhamdulillah, my friends and I managed to attend the Midwest Games 2012 in Illinois University! :D As this was my last Midwest Games before heading back to Malaysia, I just really wanted to spend time with my friends and ultimately to give moral support to those who were participating :)
So we set off our 12-hour road trip on Friday evening, one of the last cars to depart because one of my friend had an exam that evening, so we just went right after :)
I only took over my friend from 12 midnight and drove up till 5am, which is already in time for our morning prayer (Subuh) :D unfortunately I am used to driving at night when we travel because I am one of those who do not have those 'glare' from car's lights during the night~ and yes that is when everyone is 'sleepy' :P but thank you sososo much to my co-drivers who tersengguk2 because trying not to fall asleep! terharu ni sob3 T^T
Alhamdulillah we arrived safely at Red Roof Inn, and also running up to our room because we thought we were going to miss the morning prayer, when we forgot that we had to turn our clocks back an hour hahaha XD
Soon after sleeping like crazy, and bathing n sambung tidur I had to go to the opening ceremony because we joined the cheer competition! :) tankiu2 to my kind friends who also registered for me prior the opening ceremony! :D
*go go PSU! XD*
We had Que
as our mascot, also the banners of PSU; we were all pumped up! But since
we didn't really have a plan so our cheer agak berterabur a bit hahahha
XD But but! We got third place anyways yayyyy Alhamdulillah! XD
*Cheering!! XD*
*Xwei Fun n Me! :)*
Soon after we started cheering on our friends!; running, squash, basketball, soccer, sepak takraw, volleyball! :D we did win quite a lot of games this year! We got second place for guy's soccer, first n second for squash! :) N when I was watching the basketball games, OMG they were playing so violently that I was feeling afraid for my friends! O_O and also I was cheering so loudly that a couple sitting in front of me find it hilarious :P *high pitch voice cheering*
*the running track! :D*
*cheering squad for soccer + 1 player! XD*
*My midwest shirt muahaha*
The design of the T-shirt this year wasn't as good as the previous years, I even laughed tergolek2 when I first got the shirt XD But then, when almost everyone wore the shirt on the first day of midwest gameswe actually looked good collectively! :)
*another cheering squad! XD*
Soon it was the second day of midwest, and we were mostly having finals on certain games like soccer, tennis, tarik tali etc etc :) I was initially cheering for the guys in soccer, but had to leave early because there was a rehearsal for the closing ceremony's performance :)
*me n friends cheering! :P*
Mind you it was SUPER HOT that afternoon! I could even see those 'heat waves' across the soccer field which you would usually see on car's engines!! O_o And yes, sun-burned I am XD
Well the rehearsal didn't go so well because there was A LOT that the technical group was working on in the hall, so we didn't really got to start the rehearsal on time. But Mei San ran us through on our performance and where to stand and all, and we also spent time fixing our borrowed lion heads and apparels; we were THIS CLOSE (imagine finger gesture :P*) to NOT performing that night because in order to bring our drum and the lion heads would need us to rent an SUV, which would cost us a fortune :( Thankfully we managed to borrow the drums and the lion heads!! :D Alhamdulillah!! :D All we needed to do was to bring the gong and cymbals, drum stand and also drum sticks and ourselves :P oh and the lion pants too!! XD
The lionheads were a little bit smaller, which was a challenge for Que and Bryan, but they managed to pull it off wonderfully! :D (with literally NOT much practice at all with the new heads!) Well we did manage to sort off 'practice' outside the hall before our performance :) Mind you we were the LAST performance of the day! :)
I did manage to catch a few early performances before heading out to have a short practice, and they were all good! :D
*Before our LAST performance! :)*
*Last performance! :D*
It was definitely fun to perform for the last time before going back, Alhamdulillah we managed to get a chance to do so :') And being the only cymbalist left, I had to play 3x more harder and loudly untill my hands hurt n caused me to kantoi2 here n there opssss sorry2!! XD but ultimately everyone still loved our performance!! Alhamdulillah XD
Right after we finished performing, we had to quickly carry the drums out of the stage and the lions also exit the stage through the back. Unfortunately, since the backstage was super dark and somehow the lions were heading my way without realizing it and I was still carrying the drum (or baru nak put it down rather) I slipped and tergolek back stage wahahaha XD thankfully I wasn't hurt no worries! :)
After the ceremony ended we headed out and met with other old old friends to say our goodbyes, and took a few pictures :)
*Pennstaters+medals! XD*
Unfortunately me tak dpt spend much time with friends from other universities sob3 :'( insya-Allah we'll meet again sometime in Malaysia ya! :)
*Car members XD*
We headed home on Monday, but dropped by Chicago for a while to have lunch at KFC (which has halal chicken!!! XD) and then went to Aurora outlet before going back to State College :) I managed to get a WEARABLE high heels and also a handbag! :)
I almost NEVER wear any high heels because my mama wouldn't let me; she said I will have a hard time getting a boyfriend because then I would be too tall :P Well I think that is not relevant anymore! XD I got the heels from Naturalizer, which is known for it's comfortable shoes, which is TRUE! And I got my heels for like 20 something after discount; it was originall 79.99!! :D
I also managed to get a Kate Spade handbag below 200!! :D and it is super big too, can fit my laptop in it!! XD so it'll be very useful for me to bring lots n lots of stuff!! XD
Well after the accidental purchases, (:P) we headed back home and was expecting to arrive in State College at about 7am. Since I was going to drive the last few hours, so I slept first while my friends drove the car. Then around 11pm, our car suddenly hit something with a huge THUD and I woke up immediately from my sleep and asked what did we hit?? They said a small animal suddenly jumped into the middle of the road, and my friend who was driving wasn't able to avoid it in time. Soon after that we heard that something was being dragged under the car (okay starting to imagining horrifying scenes) then we decided we had to stop and checked the car.
Thankfully we were very close to a gas station and stopped there. I was actually expecting blood or some sort in front and at the bottom of the car. Turns out the bottom front of the car was dented!! And when we looked nervously under the car, ALHAMDULILLAH we didn't see any dead animal :P but we did saw something from the bottom of the car hanging out of place; causing the dragging-sound. We knew we couldn't drive with that thing sticking out at the bottom of the car so my friend started calling the rental car to try to ask for help or solution.
While waiting, a guy suddenly came up to us and said "Assalamualaikum" :D he then asked us if there was any problem (because we were all sitting by the car, looking at the car n sort of looked troubled I guess :P) and then we told him what happened, then he checked out the car and called another friend of his to help out.
*The guy who helped us out huuu tankiu so muchh!! T^T*
Turns out that the piece that was hanging from the bottom of the car was just the cover, and we could still drive the car without any worries. He and his friend also checked our engine and he said we are good Alhamdulillah! :) I was very skeptical at first, and asked him several times like 'R U SURE??' XD n then he said he is from Ohio, and they always hit animals there hahahhaa XD He said as long as we did not hit a dear, we are good XD
And lo and behold, the guy also FIXED THE DENTED part of the car just by using his hands!!! OKayyy that was super impressive and awesome!! XD XD well we were pretty helpless being an all-girls car trip :P Tankiu tankiu so muchh!! May Allah bless u kind kind sir :) :)
Alhamdulillah, we managed to arrive safely to State College a little before 9am :) Note that I was SUPER sleepy the last two hours of driving (I drove from 3am to 9am =_='') but thankfully Auni was there to help me and talked to me huuuu tankiuuuu T^T
And the insurance also covered everything since it was indeed an accident, and we were good! :)
*The evening during midwest Games :)*
Thank you for everything oh Allah! :) Thank you for giving me strength, and also setting me free after so much :') :') Alhamdulillah :)
Till next time! ;)
Assalamualaikum :D
