I LOVE URBANA.
Thank you Urbana for wonderful 5 years.

Good-bye to Urbana-Champaign:

It was a very productive day. Too tired. Bear with my bullet points summary of the day.

*Was able to pick up my car the first thing in the morning, thanks to Charlene.
*Had lunch with Kendall & Dome at A-Ri-Rang.
*Went to the lab to backup my stuff on lab computers.
*Had a chat with Akira in the Union.
*Loaded my stuff to my car. (80% done)
*Went to the farewell partay at Susan's, planned for Mike, PhD and me, BS & BA.
*Got a very brainy package of gifts from Susan!
Was also moved by her kindness to have frosted letters of "Congrats" & "Good-bye" in Japanese on cakes. (well, one of the 2 cakes was supposed to have English "Congratulations," but the cake store clerk screwed up)
*Enjoyed the last intimate night with Cecille. Glad to have someone like her who loves shrimp crackers and dried squid! (not many people enjoy those fishy stuff around here, you know)

*Finally checked the directions to the new house in PA.
A bit of confusion. Mapquest, Yahoo & Google map all gave me slightly different directions, but I've figured out a better route around the Philly city area based on my experience 13 days ago. One of my future housemates took me to Chinatown near Center City when I visited, and she told me the most efficient way b/w CC and the house that does not show up on any web driving direction service. hmm, this might sound like I'm gonna take a shady hidden road. Nope. I'm still going to take a major interstate, but for some reason, the web direction services don't take that highway, but choose to take more indirect & complicated steps instead.

*Sweet dreams~

EMB, smile :D

Graduation & Travel Part 2

5/16/05
It was a very hectic morning. I dropped off my car at Joe's for repair, picked up a rental car, and went to take some professional photos of my graduation.
Then we all left for O'Hare to take a flight to San Francisco.

The traffic was very smooth and we arrived there on time.
On the plane, it sucked because some kids were ill-behaved, screaming for the whole time, about which a lady next to me kept complaining (I didn't sit close to the 3 women from Japan).

The hotel Villa Florence was very nice. It's right on Powell Street, right in the heart of the city. Throughout the one-week trip the 3 women were impressed at my hotel-booking skills. ;)
Anyway, that night we ate dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. We had south Italian food, that is... gnocchi, raviolli, rissotto etc. Delicious.

5/17/05
Eric came to the city around 6am! I told him to come later, but he wanted to avoid the heavy morning traffic... We left the hotel around 7:15am. First off to the Golden Gate Bridge. Since it's a very famous bridge, I thought there was something special around that area, but it was simply a bridge. How naive I was!
After enjoying the view from the viewing point by the bridge, we drove to look for some fine wineries in Napa Valley. FYI, if you have a chance to go to Napa wineries, plan to arrive the area arond 10am because 99% of the wineries open from 10am. We fortunately found one winery open from 9:30am and went in for tasting wine.
To our surprise, there was a guy who speaks a bit of Japanese. He entertained the 3 women so well by using the minimal amount of vocab, and sold them 2 bottles of wine. Their wine was indeed very good!

Graduation & Travel Part 1

My mother, her friend & my aunt came to the US from Japan for my commencement!

5/13/05

We stayed at the fabulous Hilton on Michigan Ave in Chicago.

5/14/05

Eric's mother came to meet the 3 women from Japan. We had a good time on top of the John Hancock Observatory.
Amtrak ride to Urbana. I love taking Amtrak between Chicago and Urbana.
Unfortunately I had to ditch the Ling commencement due to the tight schedule on this date.

5/15/05

Commencement. I attended only the Psych commencement because the campus wide ceremony was too huge.
My last name was pronounced correctly. :D My superviser Susan read names of the first 1/3 of the BS graduates, so I was worried if the next faculty nam-reader would get my name right for the first time viewing. Anyway, she did, and everything went well.
Something was missing although I've felt some sort of accomplishment and detachment from school since December. It was this moment of walking the commencement ceremony that gave me sense of 100% satisfaction and concluded my life at Illinois.
Now I am officially a proud graduate of the University.

During the short stay in Urbana, the 3 women from Japan thoroughly cleaned KK's and my apartment!!! I didn't understand what motivated them so much, but I really appreciate them for cleaning and cooking. :)
Without them, KK and I could've been in so much trouble through our chaotic moving.

Congratulations to many of my friends who graduated in December 2004 and May 2005!!!

With Susan after the Psych Commencement in Krannert Center

With the girls after the Psych Commencement in Krannert Center

In front of Illini Union

In front of Alma Mater

People are leaving town...

I got to know pianist Jie only recently. Jie is an office mate of Yukiko, the pianist. Unfortunately she is going back to Salt Lake City today where her husband is. She is a really fun person, and I wish I had more time to hang out with her!

This summer I will be one of the people who permanently leave town.
It's very exciting to move to a new place, but at the same time I'm feeling sad and will miss people at U of I so much! I might come back for a few days next year, though.

While people leave, some restaurants also leave.
Aunt Sonya's and Panera are closing!!! What a big loss for the campus town!

Yukiko's annual BBQ in Mahomet:

It was a beautiful day to have a bbq!
Yukiko's hamburger was good!

Went to see Kingdom of Heaven with KK.

The movie was okay... Orlando Bloom was cute. :)

There is a picture of Cecille. But that photo is too sexy to be publicized ;)


Anyway, we had a fun chillax at Murphy's. Too bad I became too tipsy to move onto High Dive with the girls after drinking only 2 pints of beer... I am so old...

I will miss these girls so much!!!


murphy's chillax

yoko and becky

italian mama and chicago pimp

Philadelphia from June:

YAY YAY YAY!!!
I'm sure y'all know what this means.
The research lab studies aphasic patients x attention level x brain plasticity as a function of dextroamphetamine usage, utilizing ERPs and fMRI. The lab does other stuff, but this project is becoming the major theme now. Since I wanted to expand my experience beyond basic lang processing with healthy adults, it's so awesome to have an opportunity to learn more about ERPs and fMRI and to be at a prime clinical setting!

YAY for the full benefits! I won't have to worry about not being able to go to dentists in the U.S.! It sucks that U of I doesn't even allow undergrads to buy dental and eye plans in addition to the basic health plan. So international undergrads like me are stuck with McKinley and a basic minimal health plan. What's worse, after graduating, I couldn't go to McKinley (well fortunately I've been healthy and didn't need to) since I stopped paying for the McKinley fee.

Back to the topic, my residence will be in a suburb town of Philly.

While I was on cloud nine, EMB got so upset. Then I got so upset about him being so upset. I wanted him to be happy for me and my accomplishment...

I know it will be difficult again and I am risking lots of important stuff, but they acknowledged me more than any other places I interviewed with, and this will give me a better chance to land on the West Coast in the future. This does not mean I am leaving you. It's just that I am taking a detour. Isn't it better than me going back to Japan for 2 years? Aren't you pround of me getting hired by one of the best rehab research institutions? I am pround of myself first having been selected to have interviews with several top-notch researchers and second securing a position.
You mean a lot to me - as much as I want to prove myself as a foreigner in this country. Since my childhood, I've been all about proving my ability as a product of persistent effort on a daily basis. It's hard-wired and cannot be altered. I played soccer like crazy that way. I insanely studied for TOEFL and SAT that way. I survived and got promoted to manage Susan's lab because I truly enjoyed working hard. You will be a successful Organic Chemist (although you might be thinking your road is so bumpy) as a Berkeley PhD, and I want to become a successful Cognitive Psychologist as well. You are so smart and I am pressured to be as successful as you are and get an offer at the same university in a long run.

Anyway, I will start a job in Philly. :D

Meadow in the Soprano's:

The actress came to talk about her experiences with eating disorders.
The Lincoln Hall theater was full of girls. I felt like I was in a sorority recruitment meeting or something like that.
Her talk was okay. Since I had a moderate eating disorder during my high school years, it was good to know that there was someone else who also had so much trouble controlling eating habits.
Anyway, the talk was over and she was taking questions from the audience. The first girl asked how the actress dealt with herself after asking for some help. The actress said that she re-evaluated what was important and the like. Then the second girl was about to ask her a question. All of sudden, she said "excuse me, just a second" and RAN AWAY! I thought she wanted to get some water from the back of the stage or had a bathroom emergency. But she left the audience without any appropriate reason or good-bye. What was that all about? That was so bizzare and not good as someone who was paid and invited to give a talk. Someone from the host organization told us a lame excuse that she had a family emergency, which is not very believable to me.
I think her reputation on this campus will plummet! I was impressed at her recovery and strength, but I am not any more because of her run-away ending.

I feel so lazy. That's because there isn't anything much to do in terms of the lab stuff. Thanks to my elegant sister, I haven't been bored. :)

Finally the sky brought some warmth to Urbana-Champaign today.

I just realized that I ran the final ERP subject in Illinois. Yes, FINAL!
My Illinois era is happily coming to the end.