Detroit Day 1

We woke up at 7 am today as we had to pack for our trip to Detoirt today. We were supppose to meet today at 9.30am. As we prepare our breakfast Daniel GB our 3 crew member to Detroit arrive complaining that we are meeting too early and he miss 1/2 hours of sleep because of us. At this point while me celso, mari and daniel is having our moring breakfast chat, Em are "bithching" form the kitchen bugging me and daniel to remind our 4th crew member Mr Emir Sassi to be ready. Celso had offer to send us to the airport this morning so we had to call Cezara who had offer us a ride to the airport. We arrive at the airport and check in and got our ticket. As usual we have to go through the crazy security check required at the airport by TSA (transportation security agency) and then we waited for nearly an hour at gate A4. Delta flight number DL1063 will take us an hour to city of Cincinnati and from there we will wait about an hour again and this time we will take Delta flight DL4103 from Cincinnati to Detroit for another one hour flight. We arrive at the Detroit airport for domestic flight. We went straight to to the rental car bus stop and board the Hertz bus to the office to pickup our car. After getting our direction and paid extra USD111.49 for stupid under age rulez and also the insurance we had towards our hotel. Fairfield Inn by the Marriott group. Left our bags in the room we head towards downtown to check out the city. We got lost on the way to the city while the drive to the city, its looks like the city really polluted from a far. It filled with all the chimney and smoke are coming out all over the place. We drove around the city and somehow we found our way to the Motown Winter Blast. Awesome celebration. They had snow slide, dog sled, laser show,marshmallow toasting, indoor concert, ice carving, snow carving and they even built a ice rink and the middle for free ice skating and skating performance. But the bad thing we the temp was sooooooo cold. At one point we had to hide in one of the building nearby to get warm. The organiser was smart enough to set up like a warming tent to warm down and also free hot choco. When we got hungry we went aroung looking for food. Sadly in downtown Detroit there were not even a McD or Subway nearby but i see it as a blessing in disguise and we decide to try a Greek restaurant in the Greektown area.
I was really a nice restaurant really small and family like kinda restaurant and they had a culture of shouting OPA!!!! when the fire is lighted on the cheese with some liquor. We walk around the Greektown casino before we decided to head to our hotel.

Near accident and ice skating with AIESEC trainee

Its been snowing for the past few days. Really great and fun experience so far. Everything is white from the moment we leave our front door. Everything is covered with snow. Our car is always covered with snow and we have problems with your car doors and engine. Roads slippery. This morning after work, me em mauricio and maricel nearly had a fatal accident. As we were at the junction outside MC there was a car beside ours. We were both turning at the lights and because the car was on the left side we had to take the outer lane of the road. As we approach the next road, we found that our side of the road was covered with snow while the left lane was not. Well being a "pemandu berhemat" i decided to take the right lane that was filled with snow. Well, that decision prove to be a wrong one. Just as we enter the junction and we were in the snowy road, i found out that we could not turn the direction of the car and it was heading straight out of the road. The bad thing was the side of the road was like valley and was really deep and its not covered. Emily who was sitting in front was screaming franticly while Mauricio and Maricel was either thinking that i was joking or they were so shock that there were no words coming out of their mouth. But somehow we manage stop the car right before the car drop into the deep "hole". As we back up we could see how close we were and it would be horrible if we actually drop in there..... After that we decided to be safe and took highway 40 and Olive Blvd home as the usual way home on Page extention was filled with snow. When we arrive home we receive the news that our good American friend Mr Justin Noodle was coming home after only four months in Brazil for his traineeship. Apperently his mom has talk to him into coming back since he didn't really enjoy himself in Brazil. Well its would be fun to see him again. In the evening we woke up about 5.30pm after Mr Daniel GB called and woke us up for ice skating. Maricel pull out in the very last minute stating the reason the tempreture was too cold for ice skating. Anyway we went ahead after meeting Daniel at Em's place and went to Stainberg Ice Skating Rink at Forrest Park. Daniel, Ana Karr, Sofiene, Elma Sara Rmich a, Zuzana, Amine, Emir, Chaker, David Uy and Jessica were all there. Its was really cold when we got there. The price was USD6 per entry and USD2 for rental. Its was a open air skating rink located in forest park right next to Barn Jewish hospital. I think the tempreture was like -15C when we got there. The surface of the ice was really bad cause there was lots of people skating at that time. Out of so many trainee only Zuzana Daniel and Sofiene was really skating. The rest of us was just either try to balance, walking or falling down all over the place. http://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/parks/forestpark/ice.html After some nachos and a hot cup of hot chocolate, we left about 8.45pm as we had to work tonite....Scary driving with some really cold ice skating......

How time flies....

Had a small chat today with Amine. Its amazing that we discover how time flies and its been 9 months now that we are here. Its half way through our traineeship...hmmm...amazing. Remind me of the day we first arrive here. I was the 4th to arrive in my group. On the day that i arrive also i was sent to pickup my team mate Mr Emir Sassi from the airport. Imagine, Hi my name is Jack i just arrive today, Welcome to St Louis.......?...hehehehehe,,,anyway then Jorge arrive and Emine arrive afew days later and Franqui too.....So for the Class of April 4th 2004 would be Me, Amine Ben, Emir Sassi, Jorge Bento, Ye Cheng or Orange, Alfian and Catalin Roman and also the one and only Man Power employee, Lisianne Buhler. Well so far, Alfian was the first one to leave when he was sack and send home after only one month then it was Jorge Bento and until now he is still looking for a job in London/Lisbon while Catalin Roman who had a offer to go to Germany and left with his wife Andrea Raluca. So only left me, amine, frannqui, emir and orange and i think orange will be the first one to leave and by OCT 04 2005 and we will all be history.....
9 months and time flies..............

Korean Restaurant OUting....

We had a agreement from last week outing to meet up this week for out weekly "makan" outing.... So this week plan is to go for Korean food. We all plan to gather around 6.30 pm at Em's place to meet up and go together to Hang Gok Kwan, the Korean restaurant nect to Pink Gallion. After all the invitation and all the emails, finally the day has come. We slept the whole morning and woke up like 6.30pm. Had our shower and went over to Em's place and it was rain outside. When we went over to Em's place everyone was there waiting. Mauricio, Sara Rmich, Daniel G, Ana Kar, Jessica (Ana's daughter) and Lena was waiting. We went in 2 cars and the rain was really heavy when we arrive at the restaurant. We were kinda unlucky because the dish we wanted to oder Goup Cheng Jeun Geol (spicy pig intestine) was not available. We were introduce to this awesome dish just 2 weeks ago when we had a small gathering for our beloved friend Chu Allen who left Mastercard. Anyway we went ahead and order Bul Go Gi, BBQ pork and octupus. Amazingly Mr Mauricio love Bul Go Gi. While Jessica is really a handful i think she is just a evergetic young kid like me...
Korean meal with wonderful friends..............