Trees and house

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

Last pic for now, it's my favourite in Madison. Taken at Lake Monona on our way to the asian food market.

Mr. Snowman, bring me a dream

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

Ain't he merry? :D

Mr. Snowman, bring me a dream
Make her the cutest that I've ever seen
Give her two lips like roses and clover
Then tell her that her lonesome nights are over

Snowman, I'm so alone
Don't have nobody to call my own
Please turn on your magic beams
Mr. Snowman, bring me a dream

~Don't know if anyone still knows this lovely song, children of the 80s!!~

Zee Guzzlers

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

Left to right:

Yx
Gisselle
Glenda
Paul (Glenda's friend)

What came of it ..

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

Now tell me this ain't a feast!!

Food beauties

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3 ladies cooking for moi!! Gisselle did stuffed peppers and fried plaintans; Glenda was doing Spring Rice; yx was making bak kut teh.

The Apprentice

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

Yx starting to be most expert at grilling honeyed salmon! Look at the shine on that fish! It went with japanese sushi rice, cold chasoba and miso soup that night.

Diving anyone?!?

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

It says, "No Diving - shallow rocks". The Onion carving, I suppose, meant that this was a contribution from The Onion? That's a spoof newspaper by the students that's rather alarming, since I thought it was a real paper and totally freaked out when the headlines went:

"Corpse of Real Michael Jackson Found"

I was like, "OMFG - How long have I been away for?!?"

Walking

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

on lake Monona, it really was scary since the snow/ice made crunching noises when you step on it.

Lake Monona

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

The 2nd largest lake nearby, loads of pretty wild ducks waddling around!

Diving anyone?!?

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

It says, "No Diving - shallow rocks". The Onion carving, I suppose, meant that this was a contribution from The Onion? That's a spoof newspaper by the students that's rather alarming, since I thought it was a real paper and totally freaked out when the headlines went:

"Corpse of Real Michael Jackson Found"

I was like, "OMFG - How long have I been away for?!?"

Lake Mendota

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

The largest lake surrounding UW-Madison, there are 2 other large ones and a multitude of small ones. This was where I fell in and landed butt-deep in snow.

Memorial Union

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

The Student's Union area, it has lovely eats inside, with a nice german pub and eatery. Sad that I didn't take a pic of the pub, shall ask yx to do it. They have lovely wall boards with german and latin quotes! The coach to and fro Chicago also comes here, so I started and ended my stint in Wisconsin here.

The Red Gym

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

One of my favourite buildings in Madison! The historical site overlooks lake Mendota.

UW-Madison

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

Throngs of students swarming the streets on their way to classes at about 10.30am

Houses

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

The type of houses you get in Wisconsin, while in Chicago they lived in apartments. They don't have fences, they're huge and really lovely.

State Street

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

The shopping district in Madison, Wisconsin! See the difference from Chicago ... but the shops are really really interesting, I actually came to this area about 4 times and still love it! "Quaint" was the description by yx.

Sunset

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

Magnificent sunset over Janesville, Wisconsin. Taken on our way from Chicago to Wis while on the coach, so pic quality is not superb.

Tiles

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

One of the tile mosaics, extremely pretty in real life. This one shows a representation of "Government", huge muscular man with a sword. I like the "Liberty" one - a woman wearing laurels, guarding the ballot box.

Entrance to the Senate

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

Each of the 4 govt. rooms are placed in 4 wings, north south east and west. and the Wisconsin badger sits atop the entrance of each.

Marble galore

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

Top-down view, look at all the marbles!!!

Senate

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

This is the senate room, we were allowed in but not supposed to use the seats. Anyway the pic has an alarming story.

It was transported to Madison from somewhere else, and they wanted to add the Wisconsin badger into the pic but there was no space. So, they washed out one of the sailors in the pic and added the badger.

At first it was fine, then through the years, the erased sailor gradually started getting more visible again. It's now known as the Ghost of the Pic or something.

Capitol

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

The dome of the capitol building, the centre is actually a very large mural.

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Snow on branches, most alluring. Looks like the classical white xmas.

More snow

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

Just ouside the department store. I like the depth of the photo.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

Taken from yx's window, after a fresh bout of snow last evening. We were thinking bout xmas songs while walking up the hill to slide down it, when this man walked past us singing the Let It Snow thingy.

Ice Scream

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

The humongous ice cream. It might not look very big in the pic, but notice how my fingers couldn't wrap round the thing. Anyway it's candycane flavoured! Lovely green and pink hues on a base of white. Yx ate an irish creme ice cream.

Greenhouse!

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

Passed by this greenhouse (or rather - chanced upon) on the way to buying ice cream from the university creamery. Nice plants in there! It's actually a holding place for experiments by various profs, so we got to see GM stuff and things like cranberries, strawberries, and tropical Brassica. Pretty sure we weren't allowed in, but yx just barged in anyway. Oh, and saw a nice lemon tree in there with 2 lemons! I look like a dumpling.

Wisconsin

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

After a fresh shower of snow last night.

U. of Chicago

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

Final photo before turning in early. Still unused to the local time, SHIT. I fell asleep at 3pm this afternoon, woke at 7, and am now WIDE awake. More photos of Madison, Wisconsin tomorrow.

This shot is of Ida Noyes Hall in the University of Chicago, where we joined the Chicago Swing Society for a lesson and a night of social dancing. Really beautiful interiors add to the mood, and I felt transported 60 years back when black big-bands jammed in the Harlem dance hall in NY, while Frankie Manning, "Shortie" George Snowden, and other Swing dance greats came up with the Lindy Hop, which eventually evolved into Swing, Jive, Jitterbug and Rock n' Roll among others today.

Fire station

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

Right in front of the fire station, we went in actually and yx even dared to peek into this dark-looking, locked door. EWWWW.A gust of cold draft blew from the crack towards us; she subsequently screamed, turned white, stood trembly all over and did not respond to calling for 20 whole minutes, and me and the security guard had to half-hoist her into the guard room for recovery. After the episode, she REFUSED to tell me what she saw in there.

OK, I was talking rot. None of that happened.

Chicago Fire Station

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

Historic site, the only remnant from the Great Chicago Fire. Back then this way the only building that stood in the whole area, and people found their charred homes by gauging the distance from the Fire Station.

Stories has it that one of the men stayed behind to help others and died in there, and there had been reports of apparitions appearing in the tower. Creepy ...

Meercat

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

"Hello?!? WTF do you think you're doing?"

2 bald eagles

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I shall say no more.

P. terribilis

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

One of those poison arrow frogs in the exhibits, P. terribilis produces one of the most potent poisons in the world, with an LD50 in the decimals.

Green river again

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A more picturesque shot taken by yours truly.

More tulips

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See the cheesy-looking windmill on the left?

T.usanoides

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Another Tillandsia winning 1st prize - once again, nothing spectacular, the one I grow is almost this size too. But we have different varieties - mine is the fine-leaved version, this one has thicker leaves.

THE SHAME

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

CRAP. I was looking forward to seeing carnivorous plants (CPs), I was told there was a CP competition and got all excited, and all I saw was an area of junk. And guess who won the 1st prize? A leggy-looking Nepenthes alata. Not to brag ... but any of my Neps would have won 1st. =\ Sigh ... and the Sarracenia on the top left is awul. I really expected better.

Chicago Bromeliad Society

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Originally uploaded by chillamee1.

GOSH!!! I loved this booth!! Anyone spotted the gigantic Tillandsia xerographic near the fat man's belly?? I was SO tempted to buy several - at USD17 they are cheeeeaaaaap. Shit shit shit. Voted 2nd favourite booth for me - 1st goes to the bulbs store.

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Booth selling succulents.

Bulbs galore

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Where I bought all my bulbs from! Delicious. Should have bought more.

Aliens or whatever

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Whatever these were, I went away from the Flower Show with lovely gardening ideas. These are scrap metal artwork allowed to rust, and honestly - they looked great.

Potbelly Sandwiches

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Dinner at Potbelly's - omg!!! Everything in Chicago's so vintage. =D It reminds me of the lovely swing era in the 1920s-40s.

Giant mushrooms

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A water landscape featuring a pond, daffodils and ferns. Lovely! The shrooms are fake, by the way.

Tulips, anyone?

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A shot from one of the hundred + exhibits in the Chicago Flower and Garden Show. The tulips were amazing, and even I (no interest in tulips) was amazed.

SOS!

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Save Our Seals!!

OK, I made that up. A row of mad people protesting against Canadian seal-killing, on St. Patric's week.

Downtown Sunset

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Sunset over downtown Chicago, shot from the Shedd Aquarium.

Adler Planetarium

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View of the Adler Planetarium in the distance, it's the dome-shaped thingy. We didn't visit it - figured that there'd be no stars to see in the day?

Giant Geckos

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Mr. Ye, beware. =D

The reptiles section of the Zoo... the day lizards get this large is the day I start to dislike them.

Lincoln Park Zoo

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View of Lincoln Park Zoo. Poor trees ..