Finally, i could say out loud that i've arrived at Midwest Games in the USA! last year was a terrible tragedy due to H1N1 flu phenomenon, it's tragically cancelled by MSD. this year's was held at Purdue University, from may 28 - 31. RIT sent quite a number of people, but only 70% of us were actually participating in sport events. I, myself, were in bowling team. my skill is not that good, but at least i can bowl pretty well... ha ha ha!

i left in a car with muni, akmal, dila, and taufik at about 9 am. other cars and vans had left earlier. the journey was quite fun; i played UNO cards and Hangman with dila and taufik, muni and akmal couldn't stop quarreling and nagging each other. i wonder what will happen when they get married... LOL. by the way, we arrived at around 8pm, and we didn't get any proper dinner that night. dila, muni, hawa and me stayed at knights inn, where hundreds of other Malaysians were as well, while the boys stayed with friends on campus. i met my long-lost best friend, ZANA, at the inn. oh, so happy!!

on saturday, the tournament started. i watched UC Davis played in volleyball before going for my bowling match. hmmpph, my game was not that bad, but not the best i've had. joe suddenly got the strength and powerful skill to get strikes and spares! awww come on! seriously joe, you made me looked like an idiot out there. later in the evening, it's RIT's turn to play against nebraska and free agents. we won for 1st game, but not that lucky for the 2nd one although they managed to catch up by continuously 10 points! by night, we found out that we got into quarterfinal! on sunday, the intense games resumed. RIT vs. MSU and UMich. we won both games, and proceeded to semifinal. and there we were, playing against free agents once again. it's now or never. the boys played really cool, and i really thought we could win this shot. i almost lost my voice shouting and cheering for them. but lady luck was not on our side, we lost by 2 points. sigh~ it was a good game, though... the final was between free agents and purdue teams. and guess who won? of course lah, purdue!

the dinner was awesome with midah as my company. i really missed her cute jokes. the midwest night, what could i say? it wasn't free from flaws...many mistakes happened. i don't want to elaborate on that, though. hope next responsible university will learn from this event. oh my, i forgot to mention that RIT performed zapin tari tualang tiga! it was great! apa really stole the spotlight when he made an obvious mistake (haha!) but it was cute. i meant it. xD

in overall, my decision to go to this midwest was a correct one. i really wanted to meet all my friends, including the 'long-lost' ones (like zana =P). i met all jenan friends but we didn't manage to take pictures all together. i might crop and paste their faces into 1 pic. in terms of meeting friends, it was a big success! thanks to those who made my days in purdue =)

my car left for chicago on monday morning, and we got kfc halal! um ummm so goooodd! then, we headed to rochester, and stopped by at a random shopping outlet on the way (thanks to muni who saw the signboard). it was a difficult journey, i told you. it was raining like crazy, we couldn't see what's outside. but alhamdulillah, all 5 of us made it. i love it, really...and i'll miss the moments after i depart for japan later~ sayounara my friends =D