Cleveland

Cleveland trip started on tuesday... Annie came to pick me up around 10AM... we unloaded the engine oil from her 4Runner and then we were off. .... On the directions, it started with "Peace bridge" cuz annie didn't write out everything and for some reason, i automatically assumed that was the bridge at Niagara falls... guess what, it's not! Niagara falls bridge = Rainbow bridge! good to know! ... anyway, i guess cuz i've driven to NYC and Washington so many times with Andrew, i know how the I90 works, so in the end, we didn't get lost at all on the way to Cleveland. ... Cleveland itself has crazy roads tho... ahhhhhhhh!!

anyway, we get to Cleveland around 3:30, find the place by about 3:50, and realized we were in the wrong place... oh well! We went on the "tour" anyway. I thought the guy's name was Dave all the way thru-out, but it was Jeff. hahahahaaa! way to go Munkeee!!! so Dave was nice... he showed us the "Payne" first (but it's actually the "Fayne"!!!)... I liked the bldg cuz i like old bldgs, but Annie didn't... This bldg was right in front of her dent bldg, so it was PERFECT! .... but then we went to check out some other places too... actually, just one place on Fairhill or smt... the brochure guide thing said it's like 10minutes away from campus... annie assumed that meant walking... but nope, that meant a 10min DRIVE! and Jeff drove us along that path that she'd hafta walk, and it was a little scary!!!! ... apparently, he says, everyone drives in Cleveland!!! gee whiz...

On the way to the fairhill or whatever it was called, we passed by a Starbucks bldg and a bldg called the Triangle, which is supposedly new and expensive, and he said they were owned by other companies, one of which was "UCI"... we were like "ok... whatever".... and moved on.

After our tours, we decided to check into the hotel, which was downtown and so not close to campus!! .... and since we didn't have a map of Cleveland, it was so much fun *sarcasm* to dissect out two different maps and look for streets in common!! hahahaa! luckily, we found one, Carnegie! yeepeee! and i hoped and prayed that the Carnegie on campus/Shaker Heights crappy map was the same as the Carnegie on downtwo b/w printout map!!! ... it was. :D ... so we didn't get lost either, despite having no maps of Cleveland and having never been in the city, EVER before....

Tuesday night, did u know there was a Cleveland baseball team game?? cuz i didn't. :P ... i didn't even know what they were called! I thought there were the Cleveland A's!! (then elly told me last night that it's the Oakland A's! hahahaa!) .... so, i checked later and the game was between Cleveland Indians, and Kansas City smts... ... dunno, dun care. :P ... anyway, Americans and their baseball!! omg! it was really crowded downtown. lots of flag waving for parking, and soooooooooooo many scalpers!! omg! every single street corner!!! and everyone was wearing Cleveland Indians merchandise! .... was this an important game even?! i dun even know if they won or lost... hahahaaaa!! I guess that's a good thing....

so, it took us about 30min to drive like what, 1km around a block?? traffic was a nightmare. We just decided to pay, park, and look for restaurants/food places downtown - no more driving!! and Annie was tired from driving too. Anyway, got to hotel, went on internet, found a place to eat online called Mallorca's. No idea what it was about other than it's Spanish/Portugese food and they have good Paella, supposedly. So, i googled it, and it was only 0.75mi away from the hotel, so we walked it. .... we walked thru Cleveland's "center" (Tower city? city tower? whatever it's called is there), and i took pictures of a monument, a phallic-y church steeple, a homeless dude picking thru the trash, city tower (whatever), and a dead bird. yeepeeee! hahahaa!

So, we walk thru the barren streets of Cleveland (literally: barren. no people!! other than homless ppl.... hahahaa! homless! ya, it was leehom-less too. unless i missed him somehow. yes, i can work leehom into EVERY conversation!!!). ... we get to Mallorca's, get seated, and i don't think Annie understood the waiters very well at the beginning. hahahaaa! they had heavy spanish accents. but i was ok with it. funny i can understand Spanish accents and NOT chinese accents! HAHAHAAA! anywho... we sit down, open menu and go "omg it's expensive"... oh well! we'll treat ourselves! :D So, we got a stuffed red pepper (stuffed with shrimp and scallops) appetizer, and i got a mojito, and annie got coke. annie ordered the paella, and i got a veal something something with mozza cheese and sausages. they were both YUM! the Paella IS DEFIENTELY the best item on the menu tho (fine, we only tried two, but whatever!!!) .... I HIGHLY recommend this place!!! long story short, we basically ate all of my veal whatever (it'd be impossible to doggy bag; very watery), and then ate about a quarter... no, a fifth, of Annie's paella.... AAAAHHH!! sooooooooo much doggy bag! soooo heavy! (but warm! it kept annie warm cuz she didn't bring enough to wear) .... OOH! i still owe u money! remind me!! :P

After being stuffed at the restaurant, we walked back to the hotel (the Radisson, they have sleep number beds!! AWESOME!!! i'm a 45 btw. there's no diff betwen 45 and 60 actually... but 100 is way hard). We passed thru city tower again, and b/c i have a cold, i wanted to go to CVS to get some Nyquil so that my nose doesn't snore (nose stuff = hard to breathe = when air goes past stuffed portions, little bits of snoring come out...) .... this was like 8:40PM, and we're all used to everything closing at 9, right? ESPECIALLY Shoppers, which close at midnight or are open 24hrs - most of 'em anyway. so... we go ask the security ppl (cuz they were the only ppl around!!!) where the closest open CVS is, and u know what they say?? "It's Cleveland. Everything closes at 7" ... and gives us this look like "aight little asian girls, wtf r u doing out in cleveland, past 7PM?!?!" ... so then we decided to run home!!!!!!

Get back to the hotel, put food in fridge, Munkee takes a shower, Annie watches lots and lots of TV. Then Munkee finds a coffee shop we could go to, but then around like 10:30, munkee goes "do u wanna go to coffee shop?" ... no response.... haahahaaa! we were too tired to pull ourselves out of bed, change, and then go to the highly recommended (internet told me that) coffee shop that was literally 735ft away. i googled it. :P

Off to sleep we go.

I wake up with the sun. so, i went online early in the morning, and then annie woke up at 8AM, called the place we went to yesterday cuz that's when they open, and tried to put a hold on the 3rd floor apt in the Pain. but they wouldn't hold it for us... they needed a deposit (cash or cheque) of one mth's rent to "hold" it... and since we didn't have that much money combined, we had to ask where the bank was, go to the bank, and get money. but before that, coffee place across the street!! i got a caramel latte for $2 (normal price = $3.80, dunno why it was cheaper... but the dude said "and yours is $2 today *smile*) ... annie got coffee (AJ Rocco's). and after getting money, we had to go check out and drive to the dang place. We finally get there around 11 or 11:30 or smt, and low and behold, BOTH units in the Pain-in-the-butt were taken already!! ... so, basically, we were screwed!!! .... We asked Jeff about the UCI that he mentioned yesterday, and I think Jeff felt bad for us, so he Mapquested it for us, and found their number for us... we quickly went on our way to find the place! I called them while annie drove there, and apparently, only one person is responsible for the renting thing, and she wasn't in the office. we were told to park and wait for her outside her bldg... cuz we can't get into the bldg... yeepeee.... (they were REALLY nice about it tho)

When we got there (5min later), we were so lucky, cuz the lady (Sandra) that was responsible for it, she just got out of her car!! yay!!! .... so, she took us around to a couple of places, and then suddenly remembered that she has two units available in a bldg that's like literally about 3 houses down from the Pain-in-the-arse!! so, we went to chek out this place, and it was A LOT nicer than the Pain. it was cleaner, and newer, and the room we got was nice! AND it wasn't on the big street, so no noisy ambulances!!! [LOTS of hospitals in that region, so ambulances come often and the Pain-ful apt was right on the road]... anyway, a decision was pretty much made right away, and we followed her back to her office, and did the paperwork. done and done! good job! *pats backs* i keep saying we, but we = annie. :P

After it was done, we decided to go to the Princess Diana exhibit - i wanted to see her wedding dress cuz it has a looooong train. .... we go to go the exhibit hall (it was across the street from the UCI office), and took pictures... then we went in and were shocked at the admission fee - $25!!! so we left! hahahaaa! we're so touristy! yeepeee! but whatever. $25 doesn't warrant a good time, so we drove off for ice cream instead!! it was on our way home (i didn't actually know that 'til we were on our way there, but it worked out great regardless!!!)... Man, coldstone icecream is good, but soooooooooooo fattening and heavy!!! i ended up eating just the pecans and the brownies in my ice cream. but it's really cool how they make it!! we should have cold stone creameries in canada too!!!! or some variation of it.... :D (and i'll go with andrew and make him eat my leftovers, cuz there WILL be leftovers!!!)

anyway, then we walked around Macy's, saw nothing we liked, and then went home. Didn't get lost!! (still... no map!! well, kinda... a tourist-y book full of ads had a little map in it with the major highways and roads on it, so we were ok. and luckily ice cream place was on a major road!!!).... so off we go, home time. We stopped in Niagara Falls, walked out halfway to the Rainbow Bridge, and took pictures. then tried to go down to beside the American falls, but it was dumb cuz it was closed - wtf?!?!? still dunno why. annie's scared shitless of the rail!!! surprisingly, i wasn't.... :P

anyway, then there was a short run to the duty free, where i bought nothing cuz u know what? u hafta be gone for 48hrs at least to bring back alcohol duty free!! gee whiz!!!!!!! .... then it was off thru customs, and into niagara falls, where we had tim's for dinner, and then switched. so i drove home. .... didn't get lost. yay! ... i got home, we unpacked my stuff, then packed engine oil back in, and then annie went on her way. Then i had cucumbers for "dinner", and milk. weird eh? ya, i thought so too. hahahaa!!!

End of Cleveland trip summary. :P

Oh, so the discovery i made on the way home was this:
I remember stupid dude from the US (family friends... well, we're friends with his wife, he's just an accessory... a very stupid accessory...), he was a HORRIBLE driver. Like, THE worst male driver i've ever sat in the car of!! ... so, i drove his Lexus RX330 from Niagara falls back home, even tho it was the most stressful drive ever... still, i'd rather me be scared out of my wits of crashing someone else's luxury SUV, then sit in car when he was driving and fear for my life - i trust me and my fear waaay more than i trust his non-fear. and the WHOLE TIME, he was like "you're too close on the right" (he sat in the passenger seat)... so i was like "ooh... oops"... cuz i had problems with being too close on the right when i first started driving... so i thought that it was my fault, cuz the Lexus SUV is wider than my corolla, etc... so, i stayed REALLY close to the left, all the time!!!! but on the way back from Cleveland, I drove Annie's 4Runner, which i'm sure is wider than the Lexus SUV cuz the 4runner is a HUUUUUGE SUV. and i asked Annie if i was too close, and she said i was fine!!!
so, my discovery is this: I'm a fine driver, and that idiot is, well, a total idiot!

PS. i have pics of Cleveland trip posted, but they're not for the world to see, so if u wanna see 'em, email or smt and i'll "invite" u. :D