Back in Iowa City

Yes, I've been back in Iowa City for almost two and half weeks and I don't even know where to start to tell how these post-NYC days passed and how I soon got used to everything here again.

I moved out of the old apartment where me and my other two roommates lived for two years in Ellis Avenue, a very quiet and nice neighborhood at the west side of the river. I left there simply because Ava graduated and left for San Diego and Mona decided to live in dorm next semester. And when I flew back from New York, neither of them were there in IC, so very unfortunately, I was the one who was stuck in here cleaning messes, throwing away unwanted couches, getting carpet cleaning and finally returning keys to our landlord. It was truly a super tedious work but with the help of Li-Fu and other nice friends like Min-Tzu and Yi-Lung, I made it! I moved all my belongings and God, I can't believe that I have stocked so many useless things in just four years. Me and Min-Tzu cleaned the whole apartment and also had the carpet cleaned by professionals, but I think I still left one thing undone though:hadn't taken a picture of the apartment. I really should've taken one. Fortunately I have plenty of pictures taken during the winter when huge amount of snow covered the whole area and me and my roommates bought some snow and tasted it with chocolate syrup, which was so fun to think of now. :D


I still remember the last morning, July 29, when I still had legal access to our #12, I went upstairs to double check on everything and felt so sad. I was the first one moving in two years ago around this time in summer and now I was also the one moving out. Everything in this empty apartment looked just like it was two years ago and when I talked to Li-Fu, I could hear some echos. I spent two years, half of my college life, living here, cooking, watching TV, chatting with roomies, having birthday/lunar new year parties, doing homework, lying on my bed and doing nothing the whole day. I really had great times with my roommates and all other friends came to our sweet #12. We really had great memories of doing a lot of things together, laughing for silly jokes or crying for illegally downloaded TV dramas, helping and taking care of each other. And now, it was time to leave these behind, no matter how sweet they are, and move on to new journeys.

This kinda sucks,doesn't it?

When I was waiting in the common area of Palladium 1126 for the airport shuttle bus pick-up, I felt sad too. I lived in there for two months and I got used to it already. And that sadness wasn't just for Palladium, but more for the great city New York. I felt sad leaving New York but that feeling wasn't too strong because I always believe that one day I will go back there. Plus, I was happy to fly back to Iowa to see Li-Fu back then.

The rest of the story was pretty plain. I temporarily moved all my stuffs to Yi-Lung's apartment waiting to get keys of my new apartment. Before getting into the new place, I went to St.Louis,MO, with Li-Fu after he left his apartment at the end of July. The AC in Li-Fu's car wasn't working and we weren't able to get it fixed before the trip, so imagine warm air coming out of AC for a 4-hour (8 hours for roundtrip) trip when the temp outside was nearly 90 something. Aside from that, the trip was okay and the hotel we stayed was nice and very downtown. But after wondering around in St.Louis downtown for two days, I was further confirmed that no place in the States is even comparable to New York City, one of the greatest cities in the world.

I've been to other big cities in North America and only a couple of them are truly "big cities" like San Francisco and New York. Some others are more like urban areas full of commuters. So I'm more convinced to find a job and have my career there one day. Maybe not immediately after graduate from college but some day,some day, I'll go back to New York and have a job I like.

Now I'm settled down to my new apartment. It's totally livable now and I'm very satisfied with it. I've been watching Olympics games lately, mostly Michael Phelps' swimming shows. haha. And the opening ceremony was really spectacular.

Okay, I gotta stop here and everyone have a great August!