Random trips after my first year in IL!
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The spring semester ended on May 12, marking the end of my first year as a Ph.D. student at UIUC. To celebrate the hard work, I invited my boyfriend to come visit me in Champaign. But since Champaign has nothing much to do, we also planned a short trip to Chicago and also Florida! Poy had never been to Disney World before, so we tried so hard to make it happen despite the price of Disney world’s tickets. Poy flew from England to Chicago, so our first short trip happened in Chicago! It was my second time in Chicago, so I tried to visit different places than the last time I went to in January.
At first, we planned to go to Lincoln zoo, but because of time constraints, we decided to skip it and go straight to downtown Chicago. The main reason that we skipped the zoo was that we wanted to go shopping. I needed to choose a purse for my mom, Poy needed to buy a new pair of shoes, and we’d like to go to the Apple store near the navy pier. All of these forced us to cut off some of our plans, but it was still so much fun to walk around downtown. We started from the most famous landmark, Cloud Gate (aka the bean) in Millenium Park. We then walked along the lake to see the Buckingham fountain and Shedd aquarium (but didn’t go inside). We didn’t go all the way to Shedd aquarium for nothing, but we intended to go there to get a big cone of the original rainbow cone! It is a famous ice cream shop in Chicago, where they serve seven flavors of ice cream in one cone.
After that, we went to Sweet Bean, my favorite coffee shop. We had three pieces of pastries, a cup of latte, and a cup of London fog. We then headed to the Navy Pier; Although we didn’t expect much from the place, it turned out to be our favorite spot (on a sunny day). We ended our short trip at Happy Lamb, a hotpot place in Chinatown. It was so delicious just like the last time I went with my friends!
While Poy was in Champaign, we didn’t do much honestly. Champaign was a good town to live in due to cheap rents, decent cost of living, and green areas. However, it does not have much to offer in terms of tourism. Still, we enjoy ourselves by cooking, grocery shopping, and watching movies. We went to see “Everything, everywhere, all at once.” The film starred Michelle Yeoh, one of the best acrobatic fighting actresses. The film was one of the masterpieces I had seen: sarcastic, dramatic, and incorporated the multiverse theme so smoothly. Besides the film, we, um, ate, um, a lot. We cooked many dishes, for example, fried pork ribs with sticky rice, Thai-styled porridge, strawberry waffles, fried chicken, and mango sticky rice. We also invited our friends in Champaign to have a BBQ party! I had so much fun hosting a party.
Besides cooking, we also ate out, though not so often. I brought Poy to Yogi, a Korean restaurant (more like a food court), and Pho station noodles. We also had some frozen yogurt and boba tea. The food was great, but they were not cheap, so that was all we ate out…
Let’s talk about the other short trip we went to during Poy’s visit– Disney World! I’m a big fan of Disney theme parks and wanted to introduce theme park culture to my boyfriend. I decided to bring him to Magic Kingdom in Disney World, Fl. I know that I was there three years ago, but Magic Kingdom has such a special place in my heart. We went there on May 24 via Frontier. When we were there, I thought we had to take a bus from the parking lot in Disney World to the park, but we were told to go on the ferry! The ferry was slower than the bus, but it was classic and magical.
We went straight to hit as many popular rides as possible, but that day was very hot and humid that I almost fainted while waiting in the line, so we had to take a short break at lunch. When I got better we started our journey again, and we found out that the park closed at 11 PM in the summer!! Hence, the time lost while I was recovering was just a tiny portion. We hit almost every ride/show in the theme parks, except the two famous ones, Splash mountain and the pirate of the Caribbean, which kept closing/opening throughout the day.
Because of the extended hours in the summer, I got to go on the big thunder mountain ride, the seven dwarfs mine train, Peterpan’s flight, the speedway, and see the Bear Jamboree! I felt more accomplished than finishing my first year at UIUC. (Just kidding)
This trip fell on the 50th anniversary of Disney World, so Cinderella’s castle was decorated differently than usual and painted pink and gold. The firework at night was so magical that we almost forgot to take a breath. After the firework, we still got some time left, so we went to the mad hatter teacup, Flying Dumbo, and our classic It’s Small World.
Before we flew back to Chicago, we got a small time window to squeeze in a trip to Miami. I’d never been to Miami before, so I never thought there would be a beach people could actually go into the water. The south beach in Miami was different: the water was clear and warm enough for humans to soak in. We enjoyed this trip a lot and already planned to go back again shortly!
In this family trip, we visited several famous places in northern Vietnam, namely, Sapa, Hanoi, and Ninh Binh. For some people, the more they see the world, the less impressive some places appear to them. We also did not find this part of Vietnam outstanding from all the places we have been together, yet it was still charming and gave us vacation vibes. I’d recommend those who like natures to visit Ninh Binh; Sapa is also beautiful, but it seems have some construction going on at the top of Fansipan mountain.
After having to postpone the Visa appointment for a year due to the pandemic situation, my parents have now got their first ever US Visa! A month right after they received their passports, now with the US Visa attached to, they flew from Thailand to the US to visit me in Illinois. To be more accurate, WE flew together from Thailand to Chicago, though on different flights. Our itinerary was to visit Chicago, Washington DC, NYC, and, of course, my beloved corn field city, Champaign.
I usually don’t travel over spring breaks as they are quite short and most schools in the US have spring breaks around the same time, so everywhere is just crowded. However, this break was special because I went to visit my boyfriend in England! We hadn’t seen each other for a while (aka 8 months at least), so I didn’t hesitate to go there when I had a chance. Though I had been to many countries in Europe, I had never visited England. I went there for 5 days not including the flight time, but I felt like I got a very rich British experience thanks to Poy.
After I moved to Illinois to start my Ph.D. at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, I didn’t have go to as many places as before due to all to work I was responsible for. So, when the winter break came, my friends and I decided to have to travel somewhere together, and we chose Chicago, the city that is quite close for Emma and me (but definitely not true for Net and Bonus.) We stayed in Chicago for 9 days renting an airbnb near Western train station. Just like when we traveled to NYC, we decided to buy a city pass so we didn’t have to plan much each day.