US June '06

Thank you America for giving me such a good time. I’m glad my visa was approved and that it gave me the chance to witness this great country for myself. I truly loved and enjoyed my stay here. A big thank you too to all the wonderfull people I’ve met for being so hospitable and friendly. Please be sure that I’m not saying this for “sucking up” purposes. I really do mean what I say. You people really aren’t bad at all and you certainly don’t deserve the “infidel” label. Thanks again and peace out. I leave back to Malaysia today.

One. They’ve got some seriously weird trash shows like Maury and Jerry Springer.Two. They talk to their dogs… (WTFish?!) … and the best part is that they both seem to understand each other. Amazing but seriously weird.

Three. They chill in grave yards as if the grave yard is a place for a picnic. When I was at NYC, I visited Trinity Church and to my utter amazement people were sitting down on the benches and chilling in the grave yard. Pinktoes told me that back in the day she sometimes used to go there to chill with her friends after school. The high school she used to study in is right across the street. Isn’t it a little creepy to date and chill in a place where you’re surrounded by dead people? What about things like respect for the dead? Seriously what’s up with that? Double WTFish?!! Amazing but seriously weird.

Americans… No disrespect intended okay =p

Indeed the road trip was both physical and mental.

On Thursday night at 11.30pm, we left to LA from Chicago in our rented Ford Explorer. We were all hyped up. After 3 hours, I wasn’t anymore really. We had just left Illinois and made it across into Iowa. Nebraska, Colorado, Utah and Nevada were still ahead of us. It seemed like a never-ending journey. My mind wondered so far away as we crossed the flat plains of Iowa. You can’t help but not contemplate many things especially when both sides of the highway are all farms as far as the eyes see. In a way it felt as if I was the highway and the farms on both my sides were strangers that brought me insecurity. As far as I went they still followed me and not only on one side but on both. I felt sandwiched between two worlds. I felt sandwiched between two farms. I felt claustrophobic. Both sides could seem very similar or different depending on how a person views things. I guess I saw a bit of both. Those farms on both sides were me in a way and I was the highway sandwiched in between. Those farms were strangers but familiar in a way. Here I am, a Sudanese, a Nubian Arab, a Shaige and a Muslim traveling across the United States of America. There I was contemplating and struggling within myself. It’s a struggle I wake up to face everyday. It’s the struggle of the Westernized me VS the Sudanese Muslim deeply engrained within me. It’s the fight and the search for answers. It’s about finding a place where I belong. This place is not a physical one but a mental one. It’s a mental state, which I and only I can achieve for myself. How can I not contemplate and simply turn my back away? Sudan has been raped over and over again by a corrupt and bloody dictatorship. It still continues to be. Naturally I want to fight for it and I want to free it but I feel too weak and despaired. I need the Sudanese people to join me. I want the righteous ones to wake up and help me overthrow this disease that is sinking my country deeper into misery as everyday passes by. “Oh well” I say to myself. “I’m scared and I’m not brave enough to do it”. “Running away is the answer,” I say to myself. Running away mentally and physically to another place is the way I will find peace within but where do I run though? To America, Canada, London, or do I stay in Malaysia… Where?? I love and admire the West dearly for so many reasons but in a way I don’t think I could ever be Western mentally. There are just way too many contradictions that bring me a feeling of anxiety. On one side I see a torn and oppressive Sudan and on the other I see a prosperous West that is free and yet contradicting to many of my beliefs. On one side I see a brutal and bloody Sudan and on the other a US with a foreign policy filled with many double standards and which corporate interests heavily distort. When looking beneath the politics, most of the frustration and confusion evaporate away. I start to see kind, lovely and such wonderful people on both sides of the divide, the divide being me the highway cutting across the farmlands of Nebraska. The divide being me sandwiched between two worlds, and two farms that reap a harvest equivalent to their peoples’ efforts and their amount of fair or unfair access to water and other vital resources. Bump! Our Ford SUV shook a little and I snapped back to reality.

The scenery was just beautiful. America’s skies are exceptional. I’ve never seen such pretty skies in my life. The clouds and the sunshine edging through little holes in them are truly breath taking. The journey continued and the green flat plains started getting yellowish and hilly. I was mesmerized by the views. I couldn’t help it and so my mind started drifting away again but before it took off too far, I snapped back to reality and no it wasn’t a road bump this time. It was something else, something ugly, something way different and much more disastrous than a bump. Someone in the SUV took the pleasure in starting the vicious “road trip” game of anonymous and sound proof “emergency gas releases”. I don’t know how bad it was when Saddam gassed the Kurds and I don’t care because this was by far worse. Man, I could have died from chocking. Shouts accompanied by laughter then followed after the disgustingly powerful and smelly gases assaulted our nostrils. Game on! Drima was about to turn into a fart machine. I was done cooking “it” and just as I was about to blast it into the air in a sound proof manner, sirens blasted into our ears instead. Cops! We pulled over. “Here comes the racism test,” I said to myself. Five colored men in an SUV, speeding across Nebraska must seem bad. She came and uttered the words that I’ve memorized from Hollywood movies. “License and registration please.” My brother was driving and so he provided the required documents. She looked at them, then at us, then at them and finally back at us one more time. I guess she could easily tell we weren’t high on weed or drunk on vodka. She was very nice and polite. I got no racist vibe from her whatsoever. My brother got down, went into her car and they talked for a while. He came back with a smile and a disappointed look. He just got a speeding ticket for $169! It was the first he ever received in his whole life. We agreed to split it 5 ways. I would pay $9 while the others $40 each. It’s so nice being a student. The engine roared again and the windows were closed. 5 minutes later I finally blasted it. Yes, I did it. It was perfectly sound proof and anonymous. Success! Shouts erupted again and everyone used Shaggy’s famous line “it wasn’t me”. I did too and hey it truly, honestly and most certainly wasn’t me okay! We calmed and the air freshened up again. We continued on our long journey across America. I slept and woke up only to find myself in the high and beautiful mountains of Colorado. No more yellowish hills. I was in awe. It was amazingly beautiful. However my brother and his friends who took turns driving as we made regular stops every 4 or 5 hours, didn’t enjoy it much. I was resting and chilling. Thank the Lord my driving license isn’t international. My brother and his friends found it difficult and annoying driving in Colorado as the highway wasn’t straight anymore. It was curved and had many steep uphill climbs and scary downhill descends. It was like a plate of Spaghetti. Good thing they had their GPS system. I didn’t care. I was just enjoying the scenery and day dreaming as usual. From love and relationships, to politics, religion, music and my ambitious entrepreneurial dreams. I think too much.

We made it into Utah. The mountains were still to be seen but the green and tall trees were gone. The land started becoming desert like. We continued and drove on. We were now in Nevada and were excited again. Las Vegas was right ahead. We drove on but still there was nothing but a never-ending expanse of tar and a few weak lights overwhelmed by the total darkness that surrounded us. Suddenly it appeared. It was beautiful. There it was right in front of us. Las Vegas baby! The darkness was no more. Millions of tiny twinkling lights sat there in the middle of the Nevada desert. It was an oasis in a dry valley of death. “Sin City here we come,” we all cheered. 45 minutes later we were driving right by the Luxor. The day was already Saturday and it was 3am in the morning. We’ve so far been on the road for more than 24 hours. We decided we would stop at Vegas on the way back and so we continued to LA. We made it into California after about 4 more hours of driving from Las Vegas. I was at the west coast of the US now. It was great. We arrived and checked in into our hotel, which was near Hermosa Beach. I was already in love with LA! The beach was sweet. I jumped into the Pacific Ocean after 10 minutes of hesitation since the water was really cold. The waves, the girls, the sand, the wind, the girls, the skies, the sun and everything else were absolutely great. It was crazy too because not more than 11 days ago, I was all the way on the east coast of the US at Portland, Maine and I was literally in the Atlantic Ocean. This truly is such a wonderful and amazing vacation. It’s a great experience indeed. After the beach we went back, showered and slept like pigs. We then woke up and got ready to go to a Sudanese wedding that we were invited to.

The wedding was nice but not as big as the ones back home. There were a good number of cuties there too. You see it’s a Sudanese thing. In the West men go to bars to pick up women but in Sudan we go to big wedding parties and observe. If you see something you like and you exchange “sparky” glances, then you find out who the mother is and you politely inform her of your good intention to get to know her daughter. That doesn’t happen in all weddings though but when it comes to my family, our close friends and their families that’s how it works. It’s important to inform the parents and introduce yourself before going up to the daughter, exchanging phone numbers and later going out with her. It’s just more polite that way. This approach is already considered to be kind of liberal. The vast majority of Sudanese only marry within the same family or at least same tribe. I don’t like that idea and I personally think it’s primitive and kind of racist. I don’t mind unforced arranged marriages but I don’t like the idea of them being constrained only within the same family or same tribe. Another wedding is about to take place in Virginia between a Sudanese girl and a White American guy. They fell in love while in university. The parents don’t mind at all. There is a catch however. He is Muslim. He converted way before he even met her. Thank the Lord they said yes and not rejected him simply because he’s a “white infidel”. I’m glad the mentality is changing. The wedding in LA was between a Sudanese man and a half Sudanese half Ethiopian girl. The man’s family in Sudan is not very happy because the girl is not pure Sudanese but he doesn’t care much. I guess his family is still sticking to the backward things in Sudanese culture, which I’m against. Anyways we ate, chilled and danced to the beats of Ethiopian and Sudanese music. The wedding wasn’t bad even though small by Sudanese standards. Before we left, my brother and I conversed with an old lady who turned out to be our relative. This is the amazing thing about us Sudanese people. Wherever we go, we find out we’ve got relatives there. Sweet! It makes approaching the cuties much easier since there is already an “established trust”. We left back to the hotel.

Next day we woke up, checked out and sped off to LA’s Downtown Disney’s ESPN Zone to watch the World Cup finals. The majority of people there were supporting Italy. It made sense since 90% of the place was filled with Italian Americans. However there were a few cool white non-Italian Americans there supporting Italy too. We, the road trip gang were all supporting France. I asked those surprisingly “soccer loving” non-Italian white Americans why they were supporting Italy and they gave me 2 interesting answers. Some of them bet a lot of money on Italy and others didn’t support France for political reasons. I guess the latter were the “red necks” we saw protesting and pouring French wine in the streets just before the start of the Iraq war. The match starts. Penalty! Zidane scores. Wonderful! We clapped and cheered together with the few Franch people next to us. Stares immediately followed. Italy scores. Crowd cheers and our smiles fade away. The suspense almost killed us until the worst happened. Henry took the seat but hey we were wrong. That wasn’t the worst that happened. Zidane was. One hit from his bold stone head and the rude Italian player fell down in pain. Good for that rude Italian but too bad for Zidane. He should have controlled his anger and ended his career properly. I still love the man anyways. Long live Zidane! World Cup ended in a depressing way indeed. Also something, which pissed me off, happened after that. When we all walked out of ESPN Zone some of the French people holding French flags were literally crying and wiping their tears. Out of nowhere comes this rude Italian guy and starts cheering at the top of his voice and laughing at them “Italia, Italia, Italia, wohooo, France lost, yaaay, Italia”. That was so disgustingly rude especially the fact that this rude Italian guy was in his 20’s and he had the guts to come up to this weeping French man in his 60’s and laugh at him. Where is that monkey’s sportsmanship and respect for older people? I’m glad the weeping French guys kept their cool. Anyways half an hour later I received news back from Malaysia that my mom was very happy while my sister was literally crying her eyes out. Yes I know. My family is weird when it comes to sports and my little sister is a football fanatic.

After the match we went to eat pizza in downtown LA. It was the most annoying pizza I’ve ever eaten in my life and that’s exactly the reason why it was the best and tastiest ever. You take a bite and the cheese stretches from LA all the way to London and back. Following the elastic cheesy pizza, we went to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and took pictures there. After that we left off to Las Vegas. We reached and stopped there for about 2 hours. The weather reminded me of Qatar’s and Dubai’s. Believe me people, the fact the word “palace” is part of the name “Caesar’s Palace” is not an overstatement. Downtown Las Vegas is huge and exciting. It reminded me of Times Square in New York City. On the way back to the car, we passed by a fence, which was polluted with pictures of nude women. They were promoting their “services” and the cards had phone numbers if you wanted to call and get a good “massage”. Hmmm. After Vegas I woke up only to find myself in Colorado’s Copper Mountain Resort. It was lovely. It reminded me of Genting Highlands back in Malaysia but the weather was better though. We spent an hour there and took many pictures.

During the road trip to LA and back to Chicago our diet mostly consisted of, Pringles, Subway and chocolate bars. I always asked for extra onions in my Subways to recharge my “gas leaking” abilities. On the way back here to Chicago, we agreed on a truce and the farting battle was over. Don’t ever mess with Drima when it comes to emergency “biohazardous” gas leaks. Come to think about it, why not donate all your farts to this blog so I can collect them and try releasing them on corrupt dictatorships all over the world to try and get rid of them. That would be great wouldn’t it? The road trip ruled. I’ve got 10 days left in the US and I’ll spend them all in Chicago. I’ve had so much fun traveling all over the country and I’m glad to have met many wonderful American people. Indeed you “infidels” ain’t bad at all you know. I wish others who come from where I do can start judging you guys without the political factor being involved. That will make it much easier to absorb the truth in. Every race, followers of a religion and nationality have the good and the bad in them. Never stereotype the majority based on the actions of an evil few whomever those people maybe. Always keep an open mind. Down with the corporate media!

In America each city was beautiful in its own way. In terms of fun I loved New York the best and I really enjoyed Broadway’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Walking around the city with Pinktoes was too sweet and I guess that’s why New York is now so dear to me. It’s because of her and New Yorkers. If I judge the cities without the “people” factor then LA is definitely my number one choice. I loved California and its beaches. Sometimes this vacation doesn’t seem real to me that I feel the need to pinch myself. I’ve done way too much in the last 3 weeks alone. 10 days left here in Chicago and I look forward to a whole day’s stay at Tokyo’s Ginza during my transit on the way back to Malaysia. It’s going to be depressing when I go back to my boarding 2 days after I arrive. I’ve got 2 more years to graduate from university. I’ll be 21 that time. I’ll work for a while to get some experience and after that I truly hope to do my postgraduate studies in either Canada or America. I aim to get accepted in Syracuse, Princeton, Harvard or maybe Ottawa’s Carlton. Big dreams for a small man huh? I always like to tell people something. Either I’m too small for my dreams and they’re not really that big or I really am very big but my dreams are just way bigger. Time will tell. Until then, I’ll always keep dreaming and thinking. That’s why I am Drima, The Sudanese Thinker. Blogging about Sudan to resume soon. Peace out friends!

I just arrived 5 minutes ago. We were on the road for 30 freaking hours. Ouch!! I’m dead tired. LA and Vegas were too nice. Expect a long post about the whole experience in around 12 hours. It’s good to be back in Chicago. Me gonna unpack now, take a shower and sleep coz I stink and I badly need rest. Oh ya and France lost =( … I watched the finals at ESPN Zone in Downtown Disney, LA. I’ll tell you all about it later.

Hey people, I’m back in Chicago. I just arrived today back from New York City. I spent my whole time in Manhatan. The 4 days I spent there could easily qualify as some of the best ever in my whole life. This thanks to a very special someone. She knows who she is. I was staying at her place on the 56th floor of the Corinthian. Great location and great views. I visited Ground Zero, Trinity Church, the UN, Wall Street, Broadway, Times Square and a bunch of other places too. Oh ya by the way New York rats are scaaaaary and huge man!

People I’m having the time of my life. Absolutely GREAT. I LOVE New York. It’s mad cool man!! It is SICK here you feel me. WORD!! (I’m learning some New York slang now =p) I LOVE IT!!I’m going to Broadway now (Aimster too bad, you can’t kill me now). I’ll do my best to blog later and post some pictures. I just got back from the UN’s General Assembly hall. I met a number of officials there. It was great. We dicussed many issues including Darfur and I grabbed some of the Security Council’s reports… Anyways PEACE OUT and sorry for not updating. I’ll really do my very best so please be patient. Apologies…

This is the Atlantic Ocean. Well not really. The ocean is towards the right. Did I already say it’s peacefull here? This is my 5th day in this small and wonderfull city. The people are so friendly. Maaan, you infidels ain’t so bad huh LOL. Unlike Chicago I don’t feel paranoid walking around all alone at night. Hey don’t blame me, blame Hollywood. I always imagine some drive-by will happen or someone will come up to me and be like “ey mutha****a gimme ya money biatch!” It’s pretty safe here in Portland. I don’t get worried at all. I can be walking at 2am in the morning and not give a damn. I also had a chit chat today with my aunt. She’s been in the country for about 10 years now and she wears the hijab. After all the years of being in this country and even after the time of 9/11, she tells me she’s never experienced any racism or hatefull remarks from anyone. People were and still are very friendly. Long live the infidels huh? I’m glad to be here experiencing the country and its people for myself.

Portland, Maine. It’s one lovely and tranquil place where you can recharge your batteries and find the peace of mind you’ve been seeking all along. I really like it here but in a different way though. There’s not much to do like in Chicago but it’s so peacefull and beautifull. Before I go into details though let me rewind back to Chicago where I left off before. The day before I came to Portland, I went to check out the gay parade in downtown Chicago (southern part if I’m not mistaken). Don’t get the wrong idea. It’s not like I went there simply for the parade. We actually had to go pick up a friend from the same area where the parade was going to take place. We went and… oh… okay… mmm… well you see it was… I don’t know what word to use… mmm… let’s see… how about SHOCKING!?! Lesbian action woooohoooooooo haha and hey don’t blame me but seeing super gay men in action YuCK! Hey, I’m sorry but it was just extremely yucky… Yuck eewww… I can’t believe I had to witness all that… Damn it get a room or something… Please don’t do it in public… Eeeewww!! I mean it was seriously and greatly unforunate for me that the men’s gay action overwhelmed those of the lesbians… Talk about a culture shock… Sheesh!! Anyways all jokes aside… I don’t support homosexuality and I’m against calling it normal because it’s simply not. It’s abnormal and please don’t even bother to convince me otherwise (hemophrodites are an exception). Anyways being the naughty guy that I am I cannot deny that I found the lesbian action amusing LOL… In the parade they were all carrying rainbow coloured flags. That’s apparently “their” flag. The parade was also kind of political. They carried posters calling for legalization of same sex marriages. Yup yup sure thing… I really can’t understand it. I mean there were a few lesbians in the parade who brought along their little kids. They made them carry the rainbow flags too. What??!! Those chicks are pretty weird. They go dating random guys, get pregnant, all of a sudden turn lesbian and then bring their kids along to support the “rainbow” cause. It’s those things that I don’t appreciate about Western culture. Don’t get me wrong it’s not like I’m calling such chicks whores. Some people make mistakes and I believe society shouldn’t put an extra burden on them by giving them the “dirty look”. However seriously please what happened to family values? Compare America in the 1950’s and now after the sexual revolution and all the hippie movements (what’s hippie anyways? I’m kinda blur about it)… Anyways you know… Check the divorce rates of the West and compare them to those of the Arab world (ya ya I know we’re pretty screwed in a lot of ways but hey you know what I mean right??!) And also check out the birth rates of Muslims in Europe and Europeans… Same goes with America and the Arab world… Check the number of illegitimate children and make a comparison… Also what’s up with elders here being shipped off to elderly homes?? Seriously what’s up with that man/gurl/boy/she-male/whoever you are reading this =p?? We’re very family oriented people but in my opinion the West and especially the new generation in it is increasingly becoming not… Just saying okay. So I might be wrong… Crap!! I went out of topic… Okay switch back… Damn, where was I? Yes Chicago gay parade. Ya so after that we went back home and me was still kinda shocked. I packed up and got ready for my trip to Portland. The takeoff was schedueled at 9.30 but instead we took off an hour later. The best part was the one hour wait in the small and cramped plane. Why? There were 9 planes waiting to take off infront of us. What is this a movie ticket line?? I didn’t know planes line up that long. It was a unique experience. I fell asleep and forgot to switch off my iPod. The attendant comes yelling at me just before takeoff “please switch off all electronic devices”. Me sleepy and Bob Marley music too loud “What??!”… Attendant raises his voice and repeats the same words. Me finally gets it and switches it off. Super old friendly white lady next to me laughs. Me laughs too. Plane takes off and me sleep again. BAM. Touch down. Me land. Me come out. Me see big sign “Breathe Easy, You’re in Maine”. Guess what?? It didn’t lie. The air here is so fresh I just so love it very much. It’s so easy to breath in and out. I was never a big outdoors guy but because of Portland I’m starting to change my mind. Great views of the ocean. When I arrived we immediately went to a lovely restaurant. It serves Italian style seafood. The restaraunt is DiMillo’s. If you go to Portland, Maine you must go eat there. Great food and service. Today I went to Old Country Buffet. First time. Yummy! Delicious and so many things to choose from. For the first time I tried meatloaf. Yummy! Oh ya and I ate pork (by mistake) not bad ey? Eeeeww oink oink me don’t like pigs but me support animal rights okay! 2moro we might go to Boston. Not sure though. Bad rainy weather. I gotta go check my laundry in the basement. For the first time in my life I’m using words like “basement”, “bagel” and “meatloaf”. Me go to basement. Man… Basements are coooool… Hey don’t blame me. I’ve never been in one before. Anyways me wanna say peace so PEACE!

I’ve been here only for 3 days and I already love it. Chicago is da bomb! Maaaan I went downtown today and they had this really cool live band at Millenium Park. I love Latin music. I danced with like what??… More than 10 girls and the best part??! Each one was hotter than other one. It’s so easy to converse with people here. No need for all the boring and formal introductions. You just go up and talk. That’s it. What’s so cool is that I realized America is like a bowl of fruit salad. You’ve got people from everywhere all in one place. It’s such a rich culture and each race and nationality contributes something to it. Homeless people are annoying though especially when you start being nice and sypmathetic towards them. Oh ya and for the first time in my life I saw a Jewish Synagogue. It’s only 5 minutes drive from my brother’s place. His area is very diverse. I don’t get it though everyone in that area was wearing uniformed clothes. The men wore black pants and white long sleeve shirts. So did the boys too. The men wore cowboy style black hats while the kids wore the tiny Jewish hats. They had the same typical Jewish braids. The girls same but no hats and braids. Instead of pants they wore black long skirts. I guess it’s a conservative Jewish neighbourhood. I also went for Friday prayers today (that was before all the dancing LOL). Surprisingly, the sermon the Imam gave was by far the best I’ve heard in a long time. It was so spiritual rather than the same sociopolitical ones you always hear in other countries. I also noticed a large number of white Americans there. Many were converts and others weren’t Muslim but were just curiously sitting at the back listening to the sermon. Donwtown Chicago is really cool but when you go to the suburbs you get a different feel. The fruit salad is no more. The neighbourhoods become clearly segregated. Hispanics, blacks, Arabs, Koreans, Whites (Italian, Polish) etc. are all seperated. We were driving along one of the roads and you can tell the difference just by looking at the sides. First it was English signs and then Korean, then Arabic and then Spanish. DAMN… All that just along one road. I guess race is still an issue here. However downtown is different. Racial barriers disappear. When the live band was playing everyone was dancing with everyone. No race crap no nothing. It was wonderfull. People were just having a good time. By the way people, I’ve been added as a contributer on Hyscience yaaaay. I’ll be joining the big boys soon I guess… Anyways me off to sleep now. I’ve got to get my rest cause I’ve got 2 big private parties to go to 2moro… Muahaha talk about usefull connections huh? I’m kinda worried though. I don’t wanna have too much fun cause once I get back to Malaysia it will be BAAAM… University and classes all over again… =( … Ah whatever… Me go grab bagel and then sleep… Goodnight!

PS: The magic word in America is “tourist”.

BAGEL! I just woke up and my brother asked me if I wanted a bagel. I was like “what the hell is a bagel?” His housemates and him all started laughing. NOT FUNNY! How the hell am I supposed to know what a damn bagel is? Anyways I tried one with cheese and eggs. Kinda nice ey! It feels like a donnut that has been left to dry for days. Also for the first time I tried raw fish with lemon juice on board the flight on my way here. It was so good. Seriously! I can’t wait to try Suishi now. I was always afraid of eating raw fish but not anymore. Oh ya and I just got a taste of the real America “average Joes” experience everyday. My brother’s housemate’s car got stolen today LOL. Someone smashed the window and drove it away. It happened when we were sleeping. This is the fourth time the same guy’s car gets stolen. Nice huh! Hurray to America yaaay! By the way my trip to California has been confirmed and here’s the best part. It’s gonna be a road trip from Chicago all the way to LA and we’re gonna stop at many places along the way including Laaaaas Vegaaaaas baby wohooooo! I’ll experience the “negativity” of secularism first hand so maybe I’ll start to like it huh? LOL Strip clubs wooohoooooo… ZIP… Damn it, I ain’t even 21 yet. Fake ID anyone?? My friend in the US Marines offered to get me one but I don’t know guys… Should I?? LOL… Naaa, I don’t wanna risk it… Laterz… I’ve got to go grab more bagels… Muahahah bagels bagels bagels… I’m gonna write a song about bagels one of these days… Hey, I hope I spelt bagels correctly. I did right? BAGELS! Wohooo! Bagels bagels! Muahaha! Laterz… LOL

My ass hurts and no they didn’t strip search me and stick a light bulb up my beep. It’s just I’ve been sitting on it for so many hours already. O’Hare was a headache. I was so tired from the flight and I could barely even focus, so in order to stay awake I started blasting some Linkin Park and Metallica into my ears. I approached the passport counter after nearly being in line for 15 minutes. I got my fingers scanned and face photographed. The inspector was polite but so rigidly formal. He escorted me into the main office where I was supposed to carry out a further registration procedure. The reason for that is because ehm ehm… I’m a citizen of a country enlisted in the Axis of Evil. The officer in the office was also strict but polite. He gave me some papers to fill and I did that. He then called me again to scan my finger and get photographed one more time. I stood there as he struggled to stroke some commands into the computer. “I hate computers” said the officer. At that moment I couldn’t take it anymore and I had to break the ice so I said “hey let me give it a try”. He laughed and said “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that. Oh there we go. It’s working now. I’m sorry for the delay but it’s just requirements.” So I was like “yeah I know, thanks to Uncle Sam huh?”. At that moment the whole wall of formality just collapsed and he laughed loudly. From that moment onwards we just had a normal converstation. After about an hour, everything was done. I then went to the customs officer who was a very wonderfull guy. He didn’t even search my small bag. I went out to meet my brother who was already drained out of patience. I finally made it. I was in America. Throughout the long and boring process, the officers maintained the highest degree of professionalism. I am thankfull. When I reached my brother’s place, I realized they had broken the lock on my big bag and searched it. They even tore some of the gifts’ wrapping =( … Ah it’s all good. We left the apartment and went to K-mart which was the first time and most probably last time for me to go inside one. The customer service was HORRIBLE! It sucked big time. Oh ya and I now finally know you why Americans call fast food junk food. Fast food in Malaysia and Emirates tastes so good. I love McDonald’s back there. I thought it was going to be the same here but the burgers were like cardboard sprayed with burger flavour. Why is the fast food so bad here? It’s so strange. Thank God however for Starbucks. I swear Starbucks rules. Indeed it’s great whenever and most importantly wherever you order it. I love Starbucks here. Anyways, I’m really tired now. I should get some sleep. I haven’t slept yet since I arrived. Oh ya and I bought an accoustic guitar and guitar effects on my first day here. The salespersons are very helpfull at Guitar Center. And ya Raccoon, I’m going to spend a whole day in Tokyo on the way back. They gave me a room in Nikko hotel in the middle of the city so it should be lots of fun. Bubyeee ZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZzzzz

Hello cyber buddies. I’m in Narita International Airport right now, Tokyo. The freaking internet here is so bloody expensive. It’s one damn US dollar for a bloody short 10 minutes. Damn it! For an American buck I can use the internet back in Malaysia for almost 2 hours. Sweeet! Once I reach Chicago, I’ll blog about the trip. I hope they don’t bug me with a million questions when I arrive at Chicago’s O’Hare. Anyways, I’ll update this post later. Peace!

UPDATE: Wohooooo finally I reached Chicago. Now.. time to talk about the flight and the airport. Before I boarded from Malaysia, I requested the airlines to provide me with a halal Muslim meal. I got on board and all the stewardesses were like “oni gaishimas” and bowing. They were hot but unfortunately old. Talk about MILFs LOL. During the flight a stewardess came to my seat and she had to talk a little loud since the engine was roaring… “sir, you requested for a (and then in whispers) Muslim meal”. It’s as if she didn’t want to say the word “Muslim” loudly. I found it a little funny but it didn’t bother me. Surprisingly the stewardesses spoke English with a very clear American accent. It was easy to communicate with them. At the airport I had to wait a long 5 hours on transit. At Narita airport I saw sign boards that had funny broken English. One of them said “Down with Narita Airport”. Sounds like one of those anti American “down with America” slogans you hear being shouted in demonstrations in the Middle East. Anyways, I got on board my long boring and excrutiating flight to Chicago. Arrghhh… it was bad man. Don’t get me wrong… the service was excellent but the chairs were so small and didn’t fit my long legs. Plus there was Japanese woman next to me and she was snoring so loudly. I changed my seat after that and sat next to this American dude from Iowa. He was extremely friendly and I really enjoyed talking to him. He also warned me of carrying too many pirated discs. Too late. I had about 8 in my bag and so I started to worry since me gets very paranoid when it comes to these kinda situations. To be continued in about 12 hours.

Wazaaaap people!! In about 17 hours I’m going to be on my plane heading to Chicago via transit in Tokyo. Muahaha I can’t wait. I’ve been waiting for quite a long time now for this day. This is going to be my first visit to the US and I’m really excited. It’s hopefully going to be a very nice 5 weeks vacation. Destinations in the US will include Portland, Maine… NYC… Chicago and maybe California. I’m not really going there for the purpose of doing “touristy” things but rather to visit friends and family. I’m very excited however because I finally get to experience America for myself rather than through Hollywood, peoples’ stories or MTV. I take pride in having being able to mix and meet various people from different cultures and backgrounds in my life. I believe it makes you a richer and more open minded person. Stick around as during this 5 weeks, I’ll give you my perspective of America through my own eyes and experiences. I hope my holiday will make me richer and give me “that missing thing”. I won’t be able to blog as often as I do now but I will do my best to at least post something twice or three times each week. Thank you all for being supportive readers and for helping me in my quest towards better understanding. I’ve been able to learn so much from you all through our discussions.PS: For the latest happenings and updates on Sudan check out Sudan Watch and Sudan Tribune.

Peace out brothers and sisters!