Goodbye Ithaca

With Assoc. Prof. Dr Andrew Willford and family. Andrew was my Cornell host.Thanks, Andrew!

This was where I spent most of my time at Cornell.Will miss walking down the corridor to Kroch lib

My Maplewood bed which was not warm enough in winter but thanks to the effective but noisy heater, I slept well

My study desk where you heard from me

my Maplewood room wardrobe

Z likes Cornell


Nik and Z on Cornell University tour

So this is it.My journey closing down...mahu tak sedih!

Andrew tukar plan dinner (which worked well cos' we didn't get back from Waterloo till late). Mula2 letak some items at Saiful's garage sale.My album free tu I dapat jual at USD2.Yang lain2 tu tak laku so I just gave them away cos' bag dah tak muat.

Lepas tu showed Cornell Uni to Nik and Z. It's bigger, more beautiful than Harvard or Columbia so Z said she would not mind studying here. :)

Lepas tu kita pi Premium Factory Outlet.I dah tak kuasa nak shop.We took the scenic way so we came so close to Cayuga Lake.Rumah2 along the lake very2 nice.The wineries and berry farms pun cantik dan hijau.Pulang agak lewat juga and luckily Saiful picked us up at the airport after we returned the car there.Rushed back to our hotel, rang Andrew cakap pukul 8.30 baru ready.Agak lewat for him but what to do.

Vasantha cooked nice meal for us (and desserts!)Lama juga kita sembang2.Balik buat last touch up on our packing.By 12 midnite tidur.Pukul 4 am dah kena siap.

When Saiful rang 4 something, kita masih tidur! Imagine sempat brushed our teeth and sembahyang Subuh je! Yuks! Tak pernah I macam ni.In Detroit..I was hoping we could check into a hotel in Detroit, mandi, tukar baju, etc.But tak sempat juga.Sigh.

This is it.This is goodbye Ithaca and goodbye USA.

Unprepared, almost unwilling.Ha ha.

How would I summarise my 4 months' stay here? Am I wiser after the Fulbright experience? Would I contribute anything when I go home? Can I change anything? Have I changed?

Eh, susah nak jawab.Like my many years abroad, alone, I hate being on my own.In terms of my academic work, I think I had done what I set out to do (alhamdulillah) although I could have done more if I were not too busy coping with winter or if I had longer time.In terms of networking, I think it had been a fabulous time out, meeting people of different walks of life, race and colour.I have many joint venture projects lined up and I hope dgn izin Allah, akan berjaya dilangsungkan.