My summer is almost over. It makes me sad like a mug. I came back to Minneapolis yesterday, and I am still exhausted from the driving. I did go to the lab in this morning, but I wasn't productive at all!! At least, I did clean up my office space and worked on some stuff. My vacation was good one, but it was too short!!

Lollapalooza (Aug 4 – Aug 6)
Lollapalooza was one of the main reasons I went back to Chicago after my summer session was over. Well, my class ended on Aug 3rd, so I had to rush to drive down to Chicago. This year, Lollapalooza was three days of music spectacular (last year was two days). Sounds fun, and I thought three days were awesome, but well, it wasn’t!! Marc and I were exhausted from going out to Grand Park three days in a row and watching all those kids. Eh. I think show’s lineups were alright, but it was just so many people! Since we couldn't bring any foods or beverages except 2 unopened bottle of water, we had to pay super rip off price of those items!! Okay, I do not mind paying $5 for beer, but not Budweiser shit!! Selections of alcoholic beverages were so limited, and that almost made me vomit!! But, it was fun for sure! I am pretty sure I would do it again.

Arizona (Aug 10 – Aug 15)
I went to Tucson to see Andrew. Because my flight was 6:45am in the morning, I did not know all liquid bomb stuff in England. Well, I heard on the radio on the way to the airport, but I wasn't sure how serious the restriction was. When I go to the airport (midway...ah!), first thing I saw was huuuuuge line on check-in counter. I was like “eh, don’t people know they can check in online or what!!!” But, I guess I was the fool one because they were trying to check in their luggage because all liquid stuff were banned in carryon. Of course, there was long and painful line at security check, and I had to throw away lots of stuff!!! My flight was super delayed, and I almost missed connection flight at Kansas City. When I got on the airplane, I was pretty sure I was the last one to get on because everyone was sitting and gave me a “where the fuck have you been!!” look. Despite of tough start, my trip to Arizona was great. I hadn’t seen Andrew for a while, so we had lots of catch up to do. Well, it was more of drinking to do. I even do not want to think about how much damage I did to my liver while I was staying there!! But, it was so worth it! It was very cool that there were so many Mexican restaurants!! One of the restaurants Andrew took me was sooooooo good, especially margarita. Mmmmmmm!!

After I came back from Arizona, I stayed in Chicago for several days. I was still Arizona time, and I assumed that annoyed Marc hell a lot. Also, craving for Mexican foods just didn't go away, and I think that kinda annoyed Marc hell a lot too. I really think I can eat fajitas every single day. Indeed, I made one for dinner today. I used Griddler to make one, and it was kinda awesome. I think I like Mexican foods better than pizza. Oooooh!!!!

I will have productive day tomorrow for sure!!

Last month, I bought several video games at Japanese Amazon website. I wanted to play Final Fantasy XII for a while, but the game was kinda expensive (about $60). So, I kinda waited until the price went down, and now, it only costs about $25 (new copy!). It is really interesting that Japanese people love buying the games right away, then sell them right away too! I think two or three million copies of FFXII were sold within two months, and then after that, no one buys the game anymore! Anyway, since I couldn’t ship games to the U.S., I actually used my parents’ address and asked my mom to send games to me. I was out of town for almost a month, so I also asked my mom to send games after I got back. I really wanted to get them before Fall semester starts because I know I won’t have time to play games once school starts! Now, I have games, and I am playing like a mug. Well, actually, this week has been kinda sucky because there were so many workshops, meetings, and orientations! I am really exhausted from things I had to attend. Eh.

Although I only played about 10 hours, I am not sure if I like FFXII. Graphic is really awesome, I think it’s the best looking game on PS2. But, I really really really do not like License System. It’s like sphere grid in FFX. In the game, you need to earn points (they call license point, LP...) to unlock abilities, magic, etc etc. Sounds cool eh? But, well, problem is that this system includes weapons too. It totally depends on how much you earn LP in order to equip weapons! It’s kinda fun, but it’s kinda annoying too. Also, the city is too fucking big! You can easily spend hours to just talking to town people! I guess story is alright so far. But, I haven’t cried yet, so it’s not that great (yet)!

I bought some other games too, but there is no way I will play before I beat FFXII!