Wabash Landing

Wabash Landing is located past Chauncey Hill, right before the bridge.

Wabash Landing is basically a small shopping mall. They have a Borders bookstore, cinema, a few clothing stores and food stores. I think this is a good place to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon either alone or with a few friends.

The cinema, Wabash Landing 9, is kind of small but then the population of people who go to the cinema regularly is small as well so it is of just the right size. The seats are reasonably comfortable and well spaced. It is an ideal place to go to with friends after a long hard week of studying to relax.

And the thing I like most about the place is that they have refills for popcorn for only costs 25cents, regardless of the size of the container!

Other than the cinema, girls can check out the 2 clothing stores in Wabash Landing. Collette's and Juniper's. Both of them only sell women's clothing.

I will be talking about Juniper's as the clothes there are less formal, of greater variety and they actually have a webpage with pictures of their ware. Juniper's sells women's' clothing and accessories from a great variety of brands such as Billabong and

Stylez. They have a wide range of casual and formal dresses, skirts, shirts, bags, accessories and shoes which are all pretty. However, their prices are not as pleasing. Their prices average around US$30 each. And I know this because I have been there before.

I don't know about anyone else, but personally, I enjoy hanging out in bookstores and browsing their extensive book collection. It's like a library but with more fun books to flip through. You can even take the book into the sitting area and have a cup of Starbucks while you browse through the books.

Furthermore, after a relaxing afternoon shopping, book browsing or watching a movie, you wouldn't want to return to eat at the dining courts would you? So enjoy a nice dinner at one of the many food stores there like Panera Breads, Dick's Bodacious Bar-B-Q, Moe's South West Grill, and Scotty's Brewhouse. And after a satisfying meal, you can head over to Snow Bear Frozen Custard for some dessert tio satisfy your sweet tooth.

After a relaxing day at the Wabash Landing, you can finally go home, satisfied and happy. Ready to start another week of studying.

Fair Oaks Farm

At the beginning of the semester, ISS sent out a mass email, inviting me to join a trip to Fair Oaks Dairy. I then looked it up and found that it was actually really interesting. Unfortunately, I was busy with work during that week and could not make it personally.


I am very intrigued by Fair Oaks Farm and hope to be able to visit them soon, maybe next semester when my boyfriend gets his own transportation.

They are open all days of the week. Mondays to Saturdays, they are open from 9am-5pm. On Sundays, they are open from 10am-5pm.

They also have a cheese factory which is open Mondays-Sundays from 7am-6pm.

The tickets costs US$10 for adults, but if you go in a group, it will be a lot cheaper. In a school group, tickets will only cost US$4.

A child's ticket costs US$7 while toddlers get to enter free.

Fair Oaks Farm has an educational and first hand dairy farm experience. All the reviews rated the tour quite highly with 4-5 stars out of 5.

The tour consists of 7 parts.
1)Stewards of the Land
a walk-through story of enlightened farming and milk production.

2)Dairy Fun Room
a part learning exhibit, part fun room giving a great learning-by-doing experience while still keeping things fun.

3)Theatre 4D
a hilarious 4D theathrical presentation of the cycle of the harvest of the land, to the cow, to the milk, to the manure and back to the land.

4)Cowculating Contest
a little friendly contest between friends and family with just a smidge of learning thrown in for good measure.

5)Birthing Barn
witness a calf being born in the birthing barn and later journey to the nursery to see new born calves being hand-fed
6)Cheese Factory
be invited to behold, taste, buy, and enjoy the full gallery of Fair Oaks Farms Fine Cheeses, delicious Premium Ice-Cream and of course, Fair Oaks Farms' very own Fresh Milk.

7)Dairy Barn Tour
witness the whole milking process of Fair Oak Farms' 30,000 cows.

From the reviews I found online, I noticed that everyone enjoyed the tour. Be they young or old, there seemed to be one or more aspect of the tour that they liked. However, there was a few comments about a certain large trampoline that caused ankle breakage in young children, so be wary of this if you are bringing a child.

So Fair Oaks Farm is a great way to spend your saturday if you are feeling a little adventurous. Remember to bring lots of cash or your credit card as I read from the reviews, the Cheese Factory has a great many tantalizing treats up for sale.

China Dragon

With the fast approaching finals exam, we need a form of late night sustenance other than the usual pizza. China Dragon is the answer! They have a large range of proteins and carbohydrates that come in a great range of flavors, so great that you'll have a problem deciding what you want to eat. They have an extensive menu on this website.

China Dragon is conveniently located in Purdue Village, right behind McCutcheon.

I have had China Dragon several times when I stay up late to study. I do this because I think stir-fried shrimp with vegetables has more nutrition than pizza, also because I am sick of eating pizza and because it is more cost effective.

China Dragon's foods range from US$4-12, rice included. Which is the same price as a large pizza but more satisfying and filling.

Also, when you're drunk and craving salt and oil, Egg Foo Yoong will be the ideal dish. It is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside with soft pieces of meat and sweet onions in every bite. The Egg Foo Yoong also comes with a special sauce that when eaten with the rice really brings out and ties the dish together.

When I sleep over at my boyfriend's place, I also enjoy their Spicy Chicken which is, as the name suggests, sweet and a little spicy. I like eating the small bits of Spicy Chicken as it has more of a crunch to it. Most of the dishes I've tried there are decent and value for your money, but the above mentioned few are the top favorties.

However, I advice you against ordering both the Egg Drop soup and the Hot and Spicy Soup, they are severely lacking in taste and uses a lot of food coloring.
The House soup is quite satisfying though with chicken, beef, pork, leek, carrots and many other vegetables.

Also, if you're looking for a convenient Sunday dinner when all the dining halls are closed, they also serve buffets then. There will be 2 kinds of rice dishes, beef noodles, 2 kinds of chicken dish, a seafood dish, 2 beef dish and an assortment of other side dishes with a minimalist dessert bar. It costs US$10 to eat at the buffet, which is quite a reasonable deal as the average cost of a dish is also US$10. You will also get a free flow of soft drinks.




They usually open till 3am and provide delivery service if you are lazy.

PSUB activites

Purdue has a very active Student Union Board which organizes a great range of activities every week such as "Movie @ Fowler", "Poetry Slams", cultural educations, "Open Mic Nite" and much more. You can check out their events at their website.

This semester, I have went to a Movie @ Fowler session to watch The Blind Side and at an International Dance Competition.

Admission to Movie @ Fowler, which happens about once a month, is a movie screening at Fowler Hall in Stewart Center. Attending the movie costs Purdue students nothing. Just show your PUID and you can enter for free. but for those without PUIDs, you have to pay US$4. The movies are often well recieved and fairly recent.
The seats are wide and reasonably comfortable. And they are also arranged in such a way that no one will be able to comfortably put their feet up on the seats in front of them. Which is gross. However, we are not allowed to eat in Fowler Hall, which can also translate to no noisy potato chip munching distractions.

The movie is free sitting, so go early to get the good seats. I went to Movie @ Fowler with my boyfriend and because he arrived late, we had to seat all the way to the side of the row. But the view was still good and did nothing against our enjoyment of the movie.

The International Dance Competition which occured on 25th March, 2010 was very entertaining (and FREE!!). They had people from RAS, SASA, Boiler Breakers, Mirage Belly-dancing, and the Tango club performing and a hip-hop group.

RAAS and SASA performed a very lively and cheerful form of traditional dance with a twist. Both of them got the room clapping along to their upbeat music and uplifting dance moves.

The difference between these two similar groups was that RAAS had people twirling shiny colorful sticks which was very visually pleasing and SASA had two male youths standing one on top of the other which was very cool.

The Boiler Breakers dished out their usual hot moves and got the crowd thirsting for more.


Mirage Belly-dancers put on a spectacular hypnotizing performance. Especially the solo by a Ms Wendy Wampler who moved precisely to every single beat of the music.

The Latin and Ballroom dance team was sadly disappointing, with a huge lack emotion as the dancers seemed very distant. Some of the dancers were also very rigid, often looking down at their feet as though trying to recall the next step.

The best dance of all was by Dance2XS which perform extremely well with highly coordinated dance moves and constantly changing beat to keep the audience entranced.

In the end, Dance2XS got the most coordinated dance team award while SASA got the best overall dance team award. You can keep up with the PSUB activities by either looking out for the posters posted throughout campus or go to their website's calendarI strongly recommend going to PSUB events as it is a great way to be invlolved with the school body.

Blue Fin Bistro

Whenever I head over to the clubs across the bridge in Lafayette, I always pass by Blue Fin Bistro, a swanky looking restaurant with large windows looking out onto south 4th street. I can always see the neatly arranged tables with the well arranged cutlery and good looking waiters through them.

I was always curious what they served there.

One day, lucky me! My friend's parents came into town and wanted to treat us to a meal. At Blue Fin!! Oh Happy Day!!

The decor inside was classy without being overwhelming or intimidating. It was one of those places that had mulitple forks and spoons. I had no idea which utensil was for which dish, neither did the anyone else at the table. So we winged it (and asked for chopsticks).

We ordered calamari, scallops, sushi and steak. Everything was AWESOME!!! Easily the best meal I have ever had in Purdue. In addition to that, the service was impeccable and the waiter was extremely attentive.

The first dish was the calamri. It was good, lightly fried, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside with none of that bad, overcooked, rubbery stuff. It came with a few dipping sauce too. This was finished within minutes of landing on the table.

The next dish, scallops, came in a set of 8 per plate, nestled on a thick and firm slice of tomato floating in a sea of creamy sauce. The scallops were very well prepared considering that we were in the midwest and that the seafood tend to be of the frozen variety. The scallops did not have that fishy taste the scallops in the dinid halls have. The creamy sauce also complimented the soft scallop very well.

Then came the sushi. They were all EXCELLENT. The proportion of the rice and ingredients were perfect and the sushi was of a reasonable size. Way better than Maru and Ah Z. There was a perfect amount of sauce on the sushi and each different roll was like a whole different experience for the tongue. We ordered the Volcano Roll, Red Spider Roll, Dragon Roll, Diablo Roll, Las Vegas Roll and the Caterpillar Roll.

Last but not least, the steak. Oh... that was so good. The steak at Wiley Hall is not anywhere near that level. We had it at medium rare. It was cooked just right and when you eat it with the fat of the steak, gosh, words escape me.

The meal being excellent, also comes with an excellent price. The sushi costs a slight bit more than the average restaurant around Purdue University. It is an ideal place to bring your next date to.

p.s. They have a sushi buffet. US$25. =DD

which includes a pound of delicious snow crabs per customer

Kibu

After returning from our spring break trip in San Francisco, my friends and I were feeling fat and lazy as we had gorged ourselves during the 3 day 2 night visit. We had excellent japanese sushi, ramen, In&Out Burgers and cheese cake factory.

So we decided to walk down to Kibu Cafe (as exercise), a Korean/Japanese restaurant past Chauncey Hill, next to the River Side appartements at 111. South River Road. It is right at at the end of the decline of the slope past chauncey hill.

Kibu has a very clean, homely feel to it and has a wide range of korean and japanese staples available. On the wall next to the counter, there is a sort of mural of the most popular foods they serve.

We had the Soon Tofu Soup (hot soup with tofu, seafood and vegetables)

Bulgoki Don (marinated beef stir-fried with vegetables on rice)

Dol Sot Bi Bim Bop (seasoned beef stir-fried with vegetables and egg on rice in hot stone ware).

All the dishes come with a free bowl of soup and the dishes without rice comes with a bowl of rice as a side. The soup is always egg drop soup with tofu and vegetable. It is delicious but be forewarned, it contains a lot of monosodium glutamate. The dishes usually take a while to come out, so try not to drink to much soup or you won't be able to finish your main dish.

Out of all the dishes, Soon Tofu Soup was the best. I liked it so much I ordered one extra for myself. However, when the dish came, I was serverely disappointed. They had watered the soup down. It was obvious as the taste of the soup was much weaker than the first one my friend ordered. I think they did so because they ran out of soup and didn't have enough time to cook more.

The overall experience was alright and despite the bad service, I will still go there as the food they serve is way better than what is serve at Maru's.

p.s. Kibu does not serve sushi.

Laser Tag in Lafayette

I first heard about this place in my COM 114 class. A member of my class was picked to do the presentation for that topic. I was busy day dreaming so the information did not fully register in my mind. Only when I walked past it on my way to Lafayette's Jo-ann Fabrics' did I remember.

I thought it would be a great alternative to partying and organized a group outing on Facebook on the Friday before Spring Break to have some fun.

We organized a car pool with 3 cars bringing 12 of us to the game.

The place looked like a shady militaty operation base from the outside. It was dimly lit and had had no windows. But on the inside, the place had a 90's feel.

The place was mainly a roller skating ring. We had a large group of 12 people at that time so after some negotiation, we managed to get 4 games for only US$10, EACH! which was a steal as compared to their previous US$15 for 4 games stated on their website.

There were 8 jackets, so we decided to play it tournament style, 4-on-4-on-4. The place was like any other lazer tag arena, dark and with a whole lot of obstacles. The maze was not well-designed though, as one team's home base was right smack in the middle of the maze, making them an easy target for others and one team (yellow) had no base, so they were at a huge advantage. Meaning that the base was not well designed.

After a few rounds, some of us got really tired so we changed from a 4-on-4 play to a 1-on-1-on-1 play which was even more intense because you have to constantly watch your back.

The group had a whole lot of fun and was pleased with the experience. After the game, we hung out a little longer, playing with the arcade games (the ones that will regurgitate tickets you can exchange for a prize) and eating ice-cream. That night, we all felt like a kid again.

If you are planning on going to play lazer tag, remember to bring
-at least US$15 cash
-running shoes
-dark clothing
-friends

ENJOY!