Recently, I was cleaning a few boxes in my room. Boxes filled with things I brought back from Ann Arbor Michigan. That was where I did my undergraduate degree as a JPA loan student. Opening that box brought back memories,and the urge to write this entry.
Life in Ann Arbor started on the 25th of October 1994. Me and for three other girls arrived at Detroit International Airport looking very brave and studentish with our blazers (I've been trying to recall why everyone who furthered studies overseas back then had blazers on for the flight).
1929, Plymouth Road, Apartment 2012. That was home for 2 years.
Many things happened in Ann Arbor. Wonderful and painful. I met good people, kind people, caring people, and crazy funky people as well. They colored my life there, and to a certain extent made me crave for home, and also made me want to stay longer in AA (acronym for Ann Arbor). Loving people like Susan Pollay and Bruce Watkins who unselfishedly helped us make AA our home, and allowed me to drive their Nissan AD Resort "10SMAN" around as I was homesitting and catsitting their cat, Bob. Crazy funky people like the girls in Apt 4035 who made life tolerable during the last few months in AA, and caring people like Kak Azu and Tasneem who were wonderful housemates.
The thing about being away so far from home is that, it made me even more Malaysian. Everyday, the housemates and I must cook and eat Malaysian dishes - chicken curry, sambal ikan bilis, ayam masak kicap..and the likes. Looking back, we also made a lot of effort to find the ingredients needed to cook these dishes. Apart from the shipments of curry packets and ikan bilis from home, we also searched high and low for an Asian grocery shop. The nearest one from where home was for us, was about 1.5 km away. So, that was the distance (3 km in total) we covered whenever we needed soya sauce, dried chillies and other stuff. Not exactly what we get from home, but close enough. I mean, we couldnt get Kicap Tamin or Kicap Kipas Udang, but there was Kecap ABC. Still made a mean ayam masak kicap dish...
Life in Ann Arbor also helped me to get to know me even more. I got to know my strengths and weaknesses, and try to careless of what other people thought of me- especially those who didn't really know me well enough. I had always been someone who was very concerned about what others thought of me. So, the lessons learnt in AA really helped me realize you can never please everyone. What they think of you should not affect you too much as long you know who you really are.
Ann Arbor was home for 2 wonderful years. It changed me a little, and it changed the way I lived my life.
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