#Throwback: Weekend in Illinois.

Assalamualaikum,

As promised, I wanted to write a little bit on my trip to Urbana-Champaign & Chicago on October 17th-19th. It wouldn’t be a long post, I promise. It’s mostly going to be full of pictures and short notes here and there.

This (^) is Aiman Ardani, by the way, in case you’re not aware of his presence in my life. I owe it to him for accompanying me through the actuarial student conference, and for allowing me to crash at his place (and played Call of Duty: Ghosts on his PS4 and all). He was also the one who brought me around the UIUC campus (well, with some ‘directions’ from our other friends), as well as accompanying me on my day-trip in Chicago on October 19th. Basically, he’s the reason I was in Illinois that weekend 🙂

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Meet some of my other friends in UIUC. I feel sooooo jealous that there’s a bunch of them there, and only a little of us here in Madison. But it feels nice to see them once in a while to hang out and talk and all, since we haven’t met since I sent them off a little over two months ago. (Clockwise from top left: Farah, Ayie, Aiman, Nad, Atika, Nazu)

2014-10-18 12.28.39And yes, him again. 🙂

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We spent some time on Saturday evening (after the conference) to walk around the campus, and headed to the arboretum for some time. It was a nice place to walk and take pictures at, since there were flowers and small lakes (ponds?) around. (note: I didn’t take much pictures of the place itself lol, was too busy talking / walking / catching up with him).

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Saturday night was spent at one of their friends’ house, since they were having a surprise birthday party for two different people. It was nice getting to know some other Malaysians studying in UIUC, and the food was good too. We were the first to leave since I was so tired (well, naturally, considering how it was a long bus ride from Madison on Friday and that I slept at about 3am-ish on Friday night, and woke up early to attend the conference and all), and I ‘accidentally’ fell asleep early that night (was planning on taking a nap until the others return but somehow slept through everything).

Our bus to Chicago on Sunday departed from Champaign at 7:35am. Since there was no Metro bus services until around 9am on weekends, we left his house at about 6:40am (I miraculously woke up at 5am for some reasons) and walked for 30 minutes or so to Illini Terminal. Boarded the bus and fell asleep on the way to Chicago.

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First thing we visited was the Bean, or the Cloud Gate.

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We then went up John Hancock Center to the Observatory (and experienced the Tilt!)

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Here’s the view of Lake Michigan and Chicago from the top of the Observatory.

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The sun and all didn’t really help with pictures though =.=

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Then there was the Chicago Carriage Ride by the lake. We also went shopping at the Burlington Coat Factory and TJMaxx for his winter coat & boots, since he doesn’t have one yet (and considering how he sucks at shopping on his own and would probably not have one unless I help him shop for one).

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Oh, and I decided to bring him up Willis Tower during sunset so we can see the sunset from the top of the tower. Subhanallah, it was sooooo pretty! The view was superbly amazing and I really enjoyed it.

So, yeah, that’s pretty much how I spent my weekend in Urbana-Champaign & Chicago.

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Alright, until next time, stay awesome 🙂

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