GO BLUE!

Day 1: It’s been 9yrs

A redeye flight to AA arrived shortly after 6am, wide awake although I wasn’t able to sleep much on a plane. Still dark outside, the sun was just about to start to come out. On the way to AA, there were familiar names of freeway exits but completely lost - disappointing. It’s been a long time. But once I got to State x South U, it all came back to me Started to see places that I used to go to and I was in business.

By far, the most appropriate place to kick off the trip - Espresso Royale. Same ol’ lemon poppyseed muffin. Sat there for a bit, looking into North U, totally overwhelmed with low-budget-movie moments - swirl of nostalgia and self-reflection.

Alright, enough. Although there was cloud, sun came out here and there. I walked around central campus via Palmer field, back through Wilmot & South U. Before noon, met up with Seachol at the new $100million B-school. Per my request, we went for Chipati at Pizza House! Since Pizza house went under major upgrade, I wasn’t sure if they’d still have Chipati. But not only did they have the original size but also mini lunch size…upgrade, nice . It used to be one of the weekend treats. It’s just ginormous pita bread stuffed with salad but there is something about that whole wheat pita bread and slightly melted shredded cheddar cheese that creates match like no other.

We walked around a bit more around east side until we sat down for Seachol to do some work at the B-school library. There, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I was able to log into the school account using my old login - impressive! I was dosing off soon after as it had been a long day already. At ~2pm, Mingji joined and we went to the north campus. We took the bus from CC Little. North campus is where I spent the latter half of my time there. School of engineering, architecture and music are tucked away in the woods 10min away from the action. And there was absolutely nothing, except for library catered to engineers (Sun workstation etc.) and slapped-on eatery. Now, there were cafes everywhere. In the middle of EECS bldg…?! I would have never imagined. So jealous.

From north campus, we walked back to the central campus for a retail therapy a la M Den. It’s been a few years since the sponsor changed from swoosh to three stripes, it was time to upgrade my M gear. We swung by the new café phenomena, Beanster, at the League (great place to study and used to have Tim Hortons). After much damage, we headed out to Main St where there are shops and restaurants. Not much had changed. Stopped by Schokolat, AA’s chocolatier. It was a new attempt but good choco .

In the evening, we all went to Zingermann’s in Kerrytown. It is the AA thing to do - a nationally-known deli. They even have “as seen on TV” item in honor of Oprah’s rave. My take - a fresh western European fare with rustic bread, endless choice of cheese and charcuterie. I thought that the portion has become manageable. I remember being able to eat only like a quarter of their sandwich. This time, I dowsed it no problem . Kerrytown is definitely nostalgic because I subletted a place one summer there.

Day 2: The Big House

Since I passed out so early last night, we had an early start on Sat. Early, I mean no joke, we headed out to the campus ~7:30am! But sure enough, there were people outside of Angelo’s, a breakfast legacy in AA, right by the med school. Personally, I never understood the phenomena… We went to my coffee shop attack part trois (after ER & Beanster) at Amer’s. As it was a homecoming game day, visitors started to pop up on State St. Walked around campus and the neighborhood pre-game parties.

~11am, dropped off my bag at the Oak’s. Apparently, there was a security threat that prevented us from bringing any bag into the stadium…wtf. That aside, there’s nothing, absolutely nothing like going to the big house. Loads and loads of people wrapped up in M gear. It’s a sight and then some. We saw first half from the 2nd row at the end zone. It was really nice especially when Brown rushed straight at us twice for touchdown Also, Jimmy King of Fab5 was in attendance on the field for homecoming. It was a stressful game but win is a win . The big house was totally loud and awesome!!! There was a brief drizzle but cleared up quickly. Relieved and satisfied, retreated to the Oak’s and hung out.

In the evening, we headed to Novi because I had to have Ajishin. I know, I know, it sounds weird...why on earth must I go eat udon/sushi in Novi, 30min drive from AA?!?! Ajishin serves Kyoto-style udon and good sushi. Perhaps getting authentic Japanese food in smack in the middle of Michigan adds to the experience ...? Ajishin didn’t disappoint though. Absolutely nothing changed - a long wait, great udon, good but rule-breakingly ginormous sushi all at same price! It’s like I was here yesterday.

Went back to AA via Brighton, stopped by the Wu’s but missed yum yum tree, too bad . Again, another walk-a-thon day and I was sooo wiped out.

Day3: Tasting AA

Sun, the last day here already . Today was going to be a relaxing & eating day . First thing, Mingji took me to Shatila in Dearborn. Apparently, Dearborn has the largest Middle Eastern population outside of Middle East, ha, who would have thought. Shatila even gets out-of-state customers. It is a huge clean café where you can find all sorts of Middle Eastern sweets. Again, we had an early start but this place was open since 7:30am on Sun. Café wasn’t full but there were constantly people taking out big boxes of goodies. We too went all out with buttery honey goodness and wrapped it up with rosewater ice cream…yum, love that stuff! By the time we went back to AA, it was already lunch time. How did that happen? Dunno. The only thing we knew was it was time to eat again . Lunch was Jimmy John’s sub - Midwest’s upscale Subway. J.J. Gargantuan, good stuff!

Stuffed, we headed to the art museum. It just went under multi-million dollar expansion. Very good modern art collection, in addition to the original collection. Totally recommend it. Next food attack: Stucci’s ice cream. I mean I wasn’t gonna leave AA without it. It’s another one of those weekend treats. One scoop at Stucci’s is like scraping that batch of ice cream many many many times! They have “junior” size below “small” but that had always been so huge for me . Good times, mmmmmmm.

Alright, time to think about what to eat for dinner he he. I wanted to go to Arbor Brewing and we made that a pre-SNF munch . Bitter beer was nice. We took the SNF to BWW (Buffalo wild wings) - I’ve been curious about this place. I admit I have weakness for wings and this place is like wingnuts in the south! So excited!! You can choose from over 10 sauces from mild to painfully hot. We did 3 sauces - medium, spicy garlic & Caribbean jerk. SNF was painful but enjoyed the wings nonetheless .

It was nice being back in AA, seeing my comrades with whom I went through rough projects. As soon as I got there, I knew why I went there. If I had to choose school again, I would definitely have gone there. But at the same time, when the cold air hit me, I knew why I couldn’t stay there…Mmmmwa AA xoxo!

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