I'm officially an Alum now.

Abrupt, yet a welcome change.

The journey to Wisconsin was long and uneventful. We took the Amtrak from Albany to Chicago. From there we took a bus to Rockford, where Codemonkey's recently graduated brother received us, and drove us to Juda. Yeah, it was long and I slept most of the way.

I have never been on an American farm. So this was a pretty neat experience. I was in rural America, where signboards announced the town as "Monroe, 10843".. the 5 digits representing the population of the town.

I liked what I experienced. Its a different kind of lifestyle. There's electricity and stuff, but its still the countryside.. mostly farmland with homes spread out, dial-up internet at home (one of the problems of being at University is that you take Wireless Internet for granted). Codemonkey's parents were very warm and welcoming.

Since we had planned to arrive on Christmas day, we still had to unwrap our presents. I got a box full of assorted candies.. exactly what I needed. I had made up my mind that throughtout this vacation, there'd be no more self-control and I was gonna gorge on the chocolat.

My room-mate, Codemonkey's parents invited us over for Christmas and the New Year to Juda, Wisconsin. Unfortunately there was a massive snowstorm and our train was cancelled. We celebrated Christmas Eve in Troy at the United Methodist Church.

I really liked the Church choir music and the nice Christmas feel, especially the angels that adorned the place. I still get to visit Wisconsin as we rebooked our tickets for the 26th.

I celebrated last year's Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter at MiFi's parents place in Herkimer. Its just wonderful to be treated like family, and I would accept any invite from MiFi! So this year's Thanksgiving was at their place again.

I managed to finally process one of the images I took of MiFi's step-Dad, who, I think, resembles Jack Nicholson.

Yippee, I finally got to wear my Tuxedo. It had been lying untouched since I arrived here last year, and I was delighted that we were finally having a Black Tie Event.

This was the EMPAC's Inaugral Concert. And man were they strict about the dress code. Met two couples from my class, and all we did was enjoy the food and drink, especially the lovely desserts. We then headed to Daisy Bakers in downtown Troy and enjoy our beer.. of course.

Visited Boston for the Babson Forum on Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Babson College. Gorgeous campus though a little far from the rest of Boston. Caught up with KM.. she's always got terrific insight to give so its always fun discussing stuff with her.

Also caught up with Prof Yong-Chul Shin who taught me Accounting in my first year.. one of the classes I enjoyed the most. He had moved to UMass Boston, and it was lovely to see him again. Overall, getting to meet all these wonderful people again had been fabulous.

Saum's back. It had been ages since we met.

Hit the beach, got to drive his gorgeous Toyota MR2 Spyder, and catch up on life.