gone sailing

a combination of the dreary rain and the retardedly slow internet speeds caused a few days of abject misery where there was pretty much nothing to do. except eat. -_-

well, glad weather finally turned better on thurs and especially TODAY! bright sunny skies! =) so happy! now i noe why ang-mohs come to Singapore and are so eager to soak up the sun whilst we Singaporeans rush into shopping centers and think the ang-mohs are siao. lol

aniwez, went sailing yesterday where I lernt several things abt life(wah.. so philosophical life)..

1. sometimes its good to be patient and wait for wind instead of pointlessly tugging the rudder left and right... haha.. it was nice to just sit in the lil' sail boat and wind for wind to pick up.. look at the surroundings (besides the water) and admire the scenery singapore has to offer.

2. sometimes in life storms are the most memorable and fun part of your life. trust me, the most fun part of the expedition was when we kena caught in the storm and the torrential rain just obfuscated stuff and made sailing really tough, but the accompanying wind was.. SUPERB for sailing.. haha (shit.. gonna get scolded by my mom le)

3. to discover new lands you need to have courage to lose sight of the shore. OBS motto(?).. but haha.. i'm a scaredy cat who doesn't dare to venture too far lest I capsize or what shit, and I'm equally scared of the debris floating around the sea, ranging from corpse-looking plastic bags, to snake-like branches and twigs.. gives me a serious shudder.. lol. i'm a chicken man. now you noe eh liksin.. haha

4. sometimes, when you suck at something, just relac and give yourself an escape clause by saying you wanted to have a leisurely time doing the thing.. HAHAHA...i fully utilised this today.. cos i realised i couldnt pull my sail to the required close-haul position, so I let it hang at around beam requirements and them steered my boat in the beam directions.. haha.. oh man.. whatever lah.. I couldn't blame the weather, the cold-ness, my sailboat or what.. but it's pretty much cos I sucked that I never could catch up with the rest of the sail boats.. lol.. man

haha.. i've been too frank man.. but well.. sailing's fun =) liksin says if i think i suck i should go for more. -_-.. hehe.. let's see lor.. somehow i think i have developed a phobia for dirt and stuff.. becoming too obsessed with cleanliness.. is the army effect wearing thin? haha.. i dunno

the censored truth

some random thoughts

- on sending e-cards for Christmas.
I was chuckling when I embarked on my tradition-breaking activity of writing cards yesterday night when I was highly amused by certain features on Bluemountain cards. first, what's with the mass-christmas card sending function? i mean, what's the point if you don't personalize the card?! u might as well be sending spam sia.

then came the clincher - bluemountain has this function saying - "can't figure what to write? click here to generate random greeting messages." WTH!?!? wah. now besides mass sending, people need help!? to even come out with some sensible warm greetings or care/concern? then seriously what's the point!? oh well.

- on others breaking bond.
well.. on hindsight.. freedom of speech comes at a price. i ain't willing to pay that. =) just say i'm quite saddened by the breaking of bond of fellow scholars.. cannot comprehend why, especially at such a premature stage. has something gone wrong with our selection process and the whole scheme in its entirety?

amazing food race singapore

i think im getting obsessed with the quest for good food. good singapore food. lol.. oh well it's fun.. im like ticking off my list of stuff with chicken rice, hokkien mee, tang yuan, S11 ban lian, roti prata, nasi lemak etc.. lol

now its time to hit the malls and nice jap restaurants etc!! haha..

oh well.. i love saturdays in singapore - a super combo of k box, lan session and then walking around the curiously unappealing vivocity and finding out that i'm dead cos the toilet sensors do not register my hands. -_-

honestly i've realised that sadly, Singaporeans favourite pasttime is to throng new malls and find new ways to enjoy sipping coffee after walking around vast shopping megaplexes. which kinda explains the crowd at vivocity. oh well. -_- and i realised i'm now a REFORMED shopaholic!! no more does the mention of GAP or levi's or stuff send a tingle down my spine nor does the prior magnetism of topman and zara have any effect. i was pretty bored (gasp!) strolling down the main aisles of vivo! hahaha!

though well.. saw a lot of potential good food places to try.. hehe.. lik sin whenever you're free again k? lol.. any other good food recommendations also can! =) heheh.. i'm swapping shopaholism for foodaholism.. kinda not too good also.. but well.. im only in sg for that long..

kk.. im dead tired. dunno why also.. can't possibly still be jet-lagged.. but oh well.. gonna zzzz

NYC on a shoestring budget

back in Singapore!!! yippeee!! but actually for consolation to all those still in US, the food that we swooned about so much in US is.. hmmz.. not THAT amazing lah. but still.. yummy =)

recap abit abt the nyc trip with WY and WJ.. i went around with the mentality of spending nada on shopping and absolute minimum on eating.. and well.. i think i made it lor.. i spend a whopping $40+ dollars in my 3 days disregarding accomodation.. and that's taking into account the $21 spend on transportation for the subway. seriously.. u can die of poverty by taking the US metro.

went to Bryant Park to the Pond, intending to skate but the queue stretched round the park twice.. so nada.. -_- then i realised Bryant Park was so familiar cos it was where the Project Runway Finale was held and then went on a photo spree..


sigh.. so much ice.. no way to skate..



found some unbelievable food bargains along the way.. including 5 dumplings for a fricking 1 dollar and sesame bun for 50cents.. 50 CENTS!!! i hardly knew such prices existed.


Saks 5th avenue


me being silly at the M&M's shop at times square


wall of M&Ms


the beautiful christmas tree and skating rink @ Rockefeller


Rockefeller again.

kk.. gonna go traipsing around Singapore to complete my Amazing Singapore Food Race le =)

i'm tired...

whoopee!! finally have cleared all exams and hopefully (presumably) need not write back to my scholarship place to explain dismal grades or what.. lol

which means it's time to focus on winter break. my break's simple.. HOME BOUND! =) drooling over alot of sgp food liao.. torture lor.. lol.

oh well.. i need recuperate first.. had a helluva day playing (losing) too much mahjong and doing too many irrelevant things. it's wierd ain't it? the things you crave for and waste time on doing during exams period turn out to be much less fun when you have finished all your exams.. hmmz

kk.. nitez

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

ok.. i noe my psych finals is tmr.. but honestly, when the first real snow blankets ithaca, who can help but go out, soak in some lost childhood, have some snowball fights, and envision some winter sonata scenes!?! lol.. well.. i couldn't resist. =)


outside my dorm


cars snowed in


the beauty is just.. haiz.. indescribable


battlegrounds - appel field


WY and her futile attempt to make a snowman


snow calligraphy! lol!

kk.. back to work

so sick

I'M SICK OF STUDYING. sighz.. who isnt.



first few days of snow finally coming. what a long wait. and yeah.. i took the photo from inside my dorm with the wire mesh there. there's no way im gonna brave the cold for one silly picture. lol

kinda sucks when you are (most prob) gonna study on your bday. haiz. oh well.. waiting for delicious delicious stuff at singapore and then going back NY for more skating, red lobster, wicked and cheesecake!!!

haiz.. back to work and dreary takeouts for now bah.

the present also kind sucks when you look into the future.

btw, for those interested to know:
15 - 18th dec - NYC
18 - 20th dec - NYC enroute Singapore (2.. days -_-)
16 - 16th jan - back to NYC.. to the frigid cold.

haha.. aniwez temperatures have been at consistent negatives, but my power abercrombie jacket pretty much keeps me warm. for now. lol. =)

and i din spend a bomb on it. =) yippee!

kk.. really going back to work

going horse crazy

today started off pretty chilly as compared to the past week of warm nice weather.. oh well.. haha, the yesterday i was still gleeful that I was wearing short sleeves in the winter. -_-


there's supposed to be snow flurries in the picture.. but it's too small to be seen

well aniwez went for my last horse riding lesson for the semester.. and haha.. went around taking pictures of the cute horsies, esp my favourite, CAL. the wild horse I rode for like the first 6 lessons, who refused to turn in the direction you wanted and insisted on going way to fast. lol.. Cal is a really good complaint boy besides the occasional nibble when he tries to get food from ya.


Cal looking pensive and then looking shocked as I leant back to take a shot

as compared to Ioway. -_-.. rode Ioway for the following few lessons who honestly gave me so many problems my interest in horseriding waned.. lol.. he refused to wear his bit, refused to lift his hooves, started trotting out of his stall when i momentarily unclipped him and so on.. -_-.. and it's really no use fighting a horse. you simply cannot. and when riding him, he can completely fall asleep and refuse to move despite kicking, whipping, jostling and whistling at him.


naughty horse!

haha.. so u can sorta guess which horse i rode for my final lesson. CAL! so fun.. well.. that's it for my horseriding stint i guess.. it's been fun. =)

update

it's 3.23AM here at i still haven slept. omg. and it's not due to studying.

i think some of us went slightly crazy and we basically played gq's heroscape till 3.00.. -_- and btw, heroscape IS the boardgame that was within the toys 'r' us bag. -_-

which pretty much means i screwed up my studying schedule. and with finals looming a week ahead.. haiz.. oh well.. err i'll not do anything else except mug for the next few days.. lol

which also means that.. I'M GOING HOME SOON! haha.. quite estatic cos I pretty much miss the food in Singapore.. hmmz.. not that the food here sucks lah.. but eating at Appel Commons for dinner and Oakenshields for lunch every single fricking day does not sound appealing in anyway. -_- speaking of which, went to try out Risley food today during Hogwart's Nite... basically a nite where the Risley pple dress up as characters like Malfoy, Myrtle, Hagrid and so on and the hall is supposedly decked up just like the Banquet Hall..

err.. not too impressed though. lol. but the costumes were nice. =) SSA should hold some feste like that also lor.. haha

oh rite.. that's it.. really needa sleepz.. ciao!

beautiful NY!

pictures galore! (well sort of)..

went with gq to NYC for thanksgiving (and sorta with ck.. though of course he pang-sehed us to go live with his fren and came and left NY at different times from us) it was damn damn fun! a lil' ex in terms of food, but guess that was offset by staying at justin's place in columbia.. columbia's pretty nice too, just err.. teensy-weensy small, as though u take a template of a university and shrink it by size but increase the height. (yeah.. justin's dorm was on the 10th flr.. as we ithaca-country bumpkins went.. waaah.. so high)



pretty cool and quaint..

justin said this was some library or smth.. hmmz.. dunno

so yeah.. talking abt the city/country difference thingy, gq and i quickly realised how ulu-ated we had become after staying in ithaca for 3mnths++.. like we were complaining of bein asphyxiated in the endless subway tunnels and not seeing daylight etc.. lol

---
thanksgiving day itself was pretty much a bummer cos the weather was real terrible. honestly like shit cos it rained the whole fricking day and my hood got wet and it was pretty miserably cold. the only one to summon any enthusiasm to take photos and prance around was Mr. PhotoWhore CK, who insisted on taking pictures with some non-descript bull statue along the street and insisted on going to NYSE to take photos. -_-

we actually met up with a whole plethora of rj/army pple like harry, nigel, andrew, matthew, andy and so on,, and it was great fun traipsing down the wet streets with matt, andy, ck and gq despite the really shitty weather.



rockefeller rink!! wah really dreamining of seeing it since serendipity.. but too blardy cold to skate.. aand no one else enthu.. -_- (but it was an exorbitant $12 sia.. -_-)


statues galore.. atlas @ rockefeller and liberty @ ellis island


5th avenue revisited... thou shops all closed.. SIANZ


times square amidst the crowd..


actually i went on this trip mainly for shopping. ie. BLACK FRIDAY shopping. but the most irritating and disappointing thing obviously, after placing so much hopes, was that the sales pretty much SUCKED. went to the apple shop @ 5th at 12 midnite in hopes of catching a deal for the ipod nano.. but.. wah.. go all the way there and the price is only down by $10+? and the queue was circling the shop like 3 times? sianz..

went to jersey gardens the next day in hopes of better bargains.. but.. -_-.. the combined effect of lousy deals and insane queues left us buying stuff that probably could have been bought at Pmall.. -_-



nah.. no deal here..


two piles of shopping.. two different pple.. lol.. guess who bought which? hehe


so sadly, we embarked on our way back to ithaca.. (gq said he missed 'home' liao -_-)
but not before stopping by mrs fields and getting an absolutely delicious cookies and cream shake!!


yummy! and gq swooning over the drink in estascy.. lol

so yeah.. now back in ithaca with shitty food and cold weather.. but ah.. used to such life liao.. and love my bed and my packed up room as well! time for mugging le...

oh.. and my to-do list for next NY visit
- watch Wicked, Mary Poppins
- skate at Rockefeller and Bryant Park
- drink sake again!! lol.. Maru was a nice place

ciao!

it's snowing!

guess my childhoos dreams came true today when I awoke to a scene of snow covered tree branches and rooftops and just a general landscape slowly turning into a narnia-esque snowland.. slowly.. but surely. =)

snowed pretty much alot today.. till i got pretty irritated with the snow swirling and irritating my eyes.. but yeah.. its real cool and fun i think. =)

more snow please! i wanna snowball fight! lol

sleepy

gq and i theorized that we did badly for com s cos we didn't sleep enough. so yeah. k.. to repay the sleep debt i incurred yesterday thanks to the senior's ridiculous suggestion of playing dota at 2, i'm gonna sleep now.. cos the weather's SO NICE to sleep. (yeah, as what dan says, wintry mix.. lol)

well church today talked abt being thankful and yeah.. guess it ain't good to complain so much, cos it's being downright ungrateful about stuff.. should stop being confused about classes and the likes and just.. yeah be happy! =)

went to some host family's house for some dinner yesterday with joshie.. and wah.. i was really stunned when the host like said, here's the start of our property, then slowly drove for 2 minutes before reaching the house. 0_0.. talk about rural country life and having large pastures.. man.. first time experiencing like the countryside life. =)

yawnz.. so well.. my sleep debt is calling me.. ciao!

i wonder...

disclaimer: yet another rant

sometimes i really wonder about this whole psych schamltz. i hate this whole collectivist thinking because it kills, it destroys individuality and it unconsciously shapes your own decisions and you become convinced it is your own interests.

then when there are occasions when you honestly cannot reconcile with the group-event at hand, you feel discomfort and well.. the collectivist ideal forces you to be nice and not be like a fricking child and stalk off. is that maturity? i doubt it. sometimes i envy those who can just stalk off and indulge in their own worlds or whatever, but i can't, because I've become so enmeshed and in need of societal support that it sucks.

i want my individuality back. yet. i dare not. yet this was the precise thing I was determined to establish when i envisioned my varsity life. what happened?

sigh. it's always a case of disappointed and unfulfilment of dreams.

-confused-

computer rants

thanksgiving is coming soon! gonna go NYC and chiong stores on Black Friday. oh.. till then i better finish my homework, study for the deficit since I screwed up my com s prelim.

which i honestly think is an absolute turd.

who the heck gives 12 marks for 3 lines of writing and then 3 marks for nearly 5 lines of writing? sigh. its like an all-or-nothing scenario.

oh well. i hope i'm past this besides the occasional moans. got more to life lah =)

heck.. got nothing to blog liao.. damn tired since I stayed up till 3 trying to finish watching Full Metal Alchemist.. got 3 more episodes thou. so interesting!! hehe..

perspective

somehow, the world seems slightly gloomier than two days ago. haiz. pressure is getting to me i guess.

sometimes, i wonder what scholarship boards saw in each of us. and wanted each of us to accomplish. sometimes, i wonder whether it was actually a good thing to have gotten a scholarship. a scholarship ain't just meaning money to go overseas, though that's a large part i guess. a scholarship wasn't the 'easy' means i envisioned when I set my mind that I wanted to come over.

a scholarship carries much more baggage than that - expectations, pressure, loss of choice and more.

sometimes, i wonder if it is worth it. when you suddenly realise you only get to live uni life once, you only get one chance to live your 20th year in your life once. then, maybe your perspective will change. i think it's a tremendous struggle.

all in all, life is largely what you choose to make of it. and you only get today once. yet people, especially yours truly, can't seem to grasp this fact or internalize this fully to appreciate and direct life in the correct direction. God.. what is my path ultimately?

*postscript: i am not depressed, nor suicidal or what. just musing. =)

pumpkin carving!

omg! it's been so long since i last updated.. hmmz.. poor blog sliding towards ruin liao. but aniwez i take the time now that i'm like trying to recover from a horrid flu and skipping my horseriding to recap some stuff..

last sat was pumpkin carving, went to bethel grove and had some real gross and artistic time as we dug out the pumpkin's innards (err.. i compared it to digging into.. heck) and then spending a damn long time carving the pumpkin. well damn long for me. my conclusion? it takes a helluva effort to kill someone with a carving knife. hehe =)


that's us digging the innards out. tough work man! hehe


that's my first pumpkin. i was inspired by the root beer bottle's bulldog.. hmmz


hall of fame.. our finished, lighted pumpkins! cool rite!


this was my second piece.. painstakingly carved.. can see what it is?

i'm burping chicken rice.. YUMMY!

just came back from Makanmania and ploughed through a terrible progress report to be handed in tommorow for my writing seminar. but in all counts, it was worth being at Makanmania.

i never realised how much i relished and enjoyed Singaporean food. WAH! but as each fading burp of the scrumptious chicken rice bring memories of cherised food from home, wah... just feel that immense happiness flooding through me.

haha.. we MUST have more makanmania man! it's SO DAMN GOOD!

chicken rice, pi dan zhou(joanna honestly THANK YOU), kaya toast, beancurd jelly, mee siam, laksa.. omg.. i'm gonna stop beforei start drooling on my com. wah. seriously good. nothing else to say man. i thank all you wonderful chefs that managed to bring a taste of home here.

you know speaking of which, sometimes I really dun get it when people say like "wah.. so fast want to go back Singapore, What is there in Singapore that's so good.".. ok so I might sound like some spoilt patriotic gramophone, but honestly, what's NOT in singapore that's NOT good? (i mean besides the irritating absence of AnF, Hollister, Godiva Ice Cream and the array of desserts)

i mean seriously, coming so far to USA has only made me realise how much I cherish being in Singapore. haha.. wierd rite? this was the guy saying he would go USA and like completely enjoy life there and ang-moh-nize himself. guess it's time to eat my words. hmmz. (btw i just burped again..haha)

so yeah.. i like stuff here. but at the same time, honestly, there's really nothing like home. =)

kaez.. photos... more coming up hopefully, if i can snag 'em

Class of '85 photo.. i realised Mehmeh is missing. hmmz


Freshies Unite!

survived another bout of prelims

yay!.. another round of prelims done! finally have time to just chill, play pool, talk rubbish, eat ice cream till fat. hmmz. ok..tmr go gym. haha

makanmania's gonna come soon.. gonna 'attempt' to sing 'shan hu hai'. wish me luck man. haha.. just dun too 'throw face' can le.

aniwez went to see house for next yr this wednesday.. must say I'm pretty excited at being about to decorate my own house and like just maintain a stylish personal space.. haha.. just dun feel quite 'homey' in my dorm cos still have vestiges of a army bunk feeling. yeah.. some nights when people are so damn noisy I half expect the RA to like come and turn us out. -_-

looks like its a general consensus to head for a 7 men house in Valentine Place..its quite small, but i dunno.. it just tingles to have some "house" of ur own and to be able to design it.. haha.. think i'd be like the housemate from hell le.. not too good.

kk.. gonna bathe/sleep/slack/wait for snow. -_-

helpful tips to survive the ithaca fall

finally finished a the first week of the second round of prelims.. seriously cornell is pretty insane.. there are so many tests that by now I'm honestly a bit bo chap and 'anxiety-immune' to all of them liao. dunno whether that's a good thing or not. haha.

well, honestly Ithaca weather is CRA-AZY. yesterday i was so pleased that the weather was bright and sunny and within comfortable 15-20 degrees and then today it absolutely poured and temperatures dipped to a low of 3 degrees. and err.. of course the stupid me who expected weather to remain somewhat alike to yesterday's weather, was caught unprepared and pretty much freezing my arse off as I hurried from lesson to lesson. -_-. so yeah. i realised the ithaca weather website is now my new bestfriend.

this weekend seems fun.. pool tournament coming up, which of course I wouldn't be playing since I obviously suck, then it's hunting for a house to stay next year, celebrating freshie's birthday, practicing for makanmania songs and wah.. sianz.. still got a hell load of homework. =(

hmmz.. well aniwez as I was walking along Thurston Bridge today and just staring at awe at the swollen, raging waterfall that sent mist all around the bridge, wah.. seriously I was pretty happy to be in such a beautiful place. remember last time I was choosing which schools to apply to and despite Cornell being pretty, I pretty much dismissed it cos I thought it would be no-fun-outskirts place.

well.. it sorrta is. but the beauty seriously IS beautiful. i never knew fall could be so nice, well, since this is sorrta my first fall. too bad it's so freezing I wouldn't wanna contemplate whipping my hands outta my pocket to take pictures. but yeah.. eh come over le pple.. tons of photo-ops man.

k.. that's all for now. cya!

winter tennis

today was one of the funniest exercising session where we foolishy went to the tennis courts to try to play amidst the darkening skies and howling winds.. wah. bad idea to the max man... we ended up playing with all our sweaters and jeans on and like were running around for the sake of keeping warm. haha.. damn funny.

morning was horseriding where yet again I refused to take off my jacket and went riding. really really fun today cos like finally getting control of the horses and can like get them to trot or walk pretty easily. it's like sailing without the boom but with the smell. gee.. you win some, lose some.

then was off with GQ to tackle yet another sadistic com science assignment involving bouncing balls and snowflakes and the likes. seriously. wah. spent the whole afternoon and nite settling that and finally now can concentrate on other stuff.. haha.. a bit late rite. haiz.. oh well, gonna sleep soon. tmr got church.

journey to the north - part 1

ok.. i've been bugged for a while.. reckon i better start abit. aniwez, so yeah.. if u didn't know, I went to Toronto for fall break along with other singaporeans and well, basically ate and walked more than we did for the past 2 months.. hee
so we left chilly Ithaca, where trees were fast reddening and temperatures were dipping to zeroes and further below.. onward MORE north, where we were pretty afraid it would get even colder. (thankfully it wasn't the case). then came the most irritating part of the journey - the most pathetic, incompetent greyhound buses that were so mindbogglingly inefficient I honestly wonder how they survived till today. damn the bus monopoly man.

basically we were made to wait at various cities for stupidly long times whilst bus drivers basically got grouchy and irritable and whatsitnot and started rearranging passengers around. -_-. dude, NEVER AGAIN. gimme a car next time.

so we actually took like a whole afternoon and night to get to nearby NIAGARA FALLS. disgraceful man. and by then, it was FRIGID, ARCTIC COLD. my hands were like seriously frozen and it was pretty unbearable to even clutch the camera and try to take shots of the falls. I dunno why people say the view falls at US side sucks. Well, ok you don't get the complete picture and so on, but honestly, to be SO CLOSE to the falls, and like stand atop of the falls with water rushing beside you and plunging hundreds of metres down into what Sheryl called the arctic hell.. well.. I thought that was pretty cool.
oh yah.. there were fireworks as well.. dunno but really there's something about fireworks that never fails to make people happy even though it is probably the umpteenth time we have seen it.

kk.. soon the cold got pretty much too unbearable and we huddled back to the hotel and started on a slew of bridge and assorted card games.. YIPEE! haha.. kk.. more updates soon.. needa sleep

im back

alrite.. so i procrastinated abit abt blogging. getting tired and busy and most importantly lazy.

got loads of pics to upload about our singaporean trip to Toronto during Fall Break. one word that summarizes it? yummy. haha. and it's pretty sad on retrospective. we took buses. we walked like crazy up and down chinatown. we ate, and ate, and ate. we praised normal chinese food as though they were amazing delicacies even when they were pretty commonplace. we drooled over jiao-zi and guo-tie. we fought over karaoke. haha.

it's wierd. when you stay in a foreign country, you try to align yourself desparately to the things to miss most from your own country. oh well.

aniwez i wanna sleep awhile. damn tiring sia lessons.. haha.. feel like dropping more stuff.. -_-

school with a view

nuff' said!

is this weather supposed to be fall?

just came back from a trip to the observatory where I was awed by the huge array of stars and hmm.. yeah, the powderful laser pointer that could be coherent cross the skies and point out exact stars. WOW.

haha.. by i think i've seen more stars tonight than I have in Singapore but hmmz.. i do the supposed "wows" and "ahhs" when actually all I'm seeing are bright spots, fuzzy circles and faint bright lines. geez.. i think astronomers are easily excitable. =)

aniwez it's a fricking cold day today.. brrr.. I am down to my last piece-de-resistance wear already but it's still wah... i think fluttering around 4 - 0 degrees outside now. you can't take out your hand to point at stuff for long before needing to stuff them back in your pocket. =)

wonder how would it be for winter. hehe

fall is here

made a "field trip" to the commons to do some stupid writing-seminar field-work on the ithacan community.. *rolls eyes..

what i managed to do was get myself completely lost and losing all hope of me ever navigating well in Amazing Race.. =(..i walked UPHILL in the complete wrong direction for like an hour before I realised I had nearly reached back the campus, before turning back and realising the intended place was like 1 block away from my original destination an hour earlier.. =(

oh well.. at least the weather's nice and cool. imagine that in Singapore man.. hehe.. kk.. need to study le.



Fall is here!

brief respite

glances at time.. winces.. OMG.. it's 1.30AM and its 11 degrees out there..

glances back down at piles and piles of work and textbooks..

sianz. -_-

in retrospect...

wah.. time flies. so fast one week has past, and school's heading into the prelims week for most of the engineers le.. WAH. first prelims are jittery affairs cos no one knows how much to study for them and what kinda tests would come out.. and yet.. the weightage of it on yer GPA is so fricking high. it's scary..and tension is palpable..

met Jeff whilst walking back from HILC and he was saying he was gonna mug so hard he would beat all the Singaporeans and send the Com S 100J curve so high that our scores would kena badly.. -_-.. hehe.. seems like tension is leaking to the rest as well.

then again, my dormmates still pretty much go partying every single weekend and with people like Sheryl dropping more and more courses and having more and more free time.. hehe.. you really start wondering the fairness of things.. haha.. poor engineers.

am i'm pretty much quite tired but hopefully still coping well and not letting the stress get to me.. sometimes, HONESTLY, i stop in my tracks for awhile and really contemplate why the heck I came to USA to study, on scholarship, bonded, having to fulfill a disgustingly high GPA and having to complete eveything so fast that everything else seems to be a blur. I mean, I envisioned in my army days that Uni life was gonna be FUN, a blast, with me finally breaking outta my introverted, unadventurous shell and just join as many activities as possible with not much concern of studies.

and honestly, reality is hitting hard. life's not the partying and going out and so on. coming to Cornell with so much expectations placed on you and so much restrictions on what course you can take seriously drains out whatever free time you have and the choice of activities you can go for. often it really boils down to whether you wanna devote the time to study and catch up on work, or whether you wanna go out and have fun and THEN worry about work again. and with Prof Maas' consistent reminders that sleep should NOT be compromised.. you really really start running out of time.

and that's from a normal 5 subber taking pretty mild courses. I sometimes wonder how the insane 8 subbers and the Math 192,293,294 people are doing. oh well.

but there are fun times, i'd admit. for one, university fellowship is like a breath of fresh air amidst all the stress and pressures. it is one time i drop my study woes and just enjoy fellowship and yeah.. praise the Lord. and honestly, i must say, coming to US, my impression of the US churches have changed. I used to think that US churches were in a decline, where the people have lost their religion and everything is going haywire. well, in large parts it sorrta is. (americans ask me why i wake up so early on sundays when it is like a sleep-in day after a night of frivolity) but during fellowship and church, you really see the dynamism and vibrance, you see the vast array of opportunities for missions and yeah.. I feel a sense of excitement at being part of it. =)

so yeah.. lemme get through these 2 weeks of prelims before I start scampering for more fun. Fall Trip ahead!

i want my okonomiyaki!

flooding of posts.. hee (no.. it doesn't indicate i'm free.. but honestly I really tired after today's events and looks like studying now probably wun help much. so yeah.. gonna try to do math and read a book then sleep le.. =))

went for the einnichi, some japan festival held @ Ho Plaza today.. apparently there was takoyaki, okonomiyaki, crepes and the likes @ the festival for only 1 buck! that's so like natsu-masturi held in Singapore!!

wah.. but i think it was a mistake to go.. cos i REALLY miss the japanese food now!!! arrggh! memories of sakae sushi, takashimaya's okonomiyaki and beard papa, the delicious crepes I had in Japan with tons of toppings.. sobz... OiShii!!

haiz.. so this is a not-so-subtle plea to my sis.. can please send over like some quick-fix packet okonomiyaki or takoyaki for me to like salivate and swoon over?? haha...

hmmz... i better start mugging

back to chiong sua days

my hand now looks like some vicious cat sprang onto me and scratched me multiple times.. -__ and thankfully i only have two welts on my hands after the ventures in paintball today.

hee.. pretty fun lor.. really feel the army tactics amidst the jungle and automatically the chiong sua techniques kick in with the wide arc flanks, the proning upon being shot at and just the insane bashing through pricy bushes and shrubs.. haha. problem was that

a) i was wearing short sleeves. (OUCH)
b) i was wearing fricking WHITE. i dun think ANYTHING in the forest could pretty much could hide me or camouflage me, which explains the mutiple bullets whizzing by me. man.. i fail my cover and concealment le.. choose too thin a tree

haha.. but i realise i really quite hum somtimes.. hide one corner, prone and just whack the bullets. and when i mean prone i really mean the heck care, really obey 4 second rule type of smash-to-the ground prone.. gee.. i wonder what was I thinking.. my shirt was SOILED. yeah... white remember? -_-

before paintball was horse-riding! i'm starting to really like it especially my more hyperactive horsey called Cal who overtook most of the other lethargic horses.. hee.. then i tried to go trotting by my own accord and kena scolded.. haha.. but it's fun. oh.. and there was a cat in the barn that i was stroking and then it tried to BITE me.. wah.. really wierd lor.. since when do cats bite? hmmz

aniwez time is passing fast here @ cornell and hmmz.. prelims gonna come soon le.. haiz.. but well.. pace myself bah.. (HAHA) going for Jap nite later to eat the takoyaki and so on. =)

the unfinished prayer..

i din manage to complete my part, but here goes.

"Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for bringing me to Ithaca, NY, even when my initial intentions of coming overseas were probably not seeking your will.. Thanks for showing me all along the way how you are taking care of me and careful nurturing me...

I see many paths lying ahead of me but I know there's one path I hold steadfast to - which is the path towards You and to worship and praise You. You brought me into a college and community that has such an inspired and networked christian community, which plentiful of opportunities i would never have imagined..

so i thank you God.. may the every decisions I make be following your will and the every thing I do be pleasing in your eyes.. bcos you truly love me and care for me."

----

random shots of life

i cleaned my room up again! haha.. i dunno.. just felt after the singapore party that my life was sorta unravelling due to lack of discipline so hmmz.. my room is back to the neat, orderly shape it was in! =)

oh yah.. and i took a quick snap of my favourite library!

wah.. this is the Harry Potter room and hmmz.. this library is really pin-drop-can-hear type of silent one.. quite embarrased when my laptop running sounds was the loudest thing there.. hehe


yay! it's still summer weather! or maybe i'm finally acclimatizing le.. actually sometimes it feels damn shiok to run 2 rounds round north campus and not break much of a sweat at all.. haha.. sure saves up on laundry man!

frank wants his apple pie!

poor frank simply cannot get into the mood to study.. how?!

sianz.. finally when i rationalize with myself that it is inevitable that mugging must be done daily, events and stuff start flooding in le.. and no.. i'm not joining any clubs or what YET.. it's just the various outings, ultimate frisbee sessions, tennis matches with joshie, scurrying around to get homework questions checked, watching loads and loads of anime just completely drains time away. haha.. maybe that's the inevitable fact of uni life. *wry grinz

went to celebrate ck's bday yesterday @ some bar in collegetown(more time wasted.. haha) and well I just cannot comprehend the insane rule of not being able to drink until you are 21(following the date).. gee. u let people drive at the age of 15 and yet people cannot drink till 21? the end-result is just that people purposely drink to feel mature.. -_-

i'm starting to itch not having my trusted cam-phone around me le.. ithaca/cornell in general is gorgeous.. the buildings are archaic, the libraries and quaint, my favourite being Uris Hall which has a beautiful room nicknamed "Harry Potter" room by all of us.. (hmm.. i'll be grabbing the pics soon) the outside scenery is just AMAZING.. honestly, which other school has a gorge that criss-crosses through the campus and which other school has a lake, forested area, plantations and whats it not.. it's just wah.. beautiful and I've really come to appreciate the beauty of things as I make the sian walk to and fro between north and central campus. -_-

so as we were walking back from collegetown yesterday night mist was surrounding the balch residences as we crossed thurston bridge and the whole atmosphere was just.. WOW.. for lit students, it reminded me of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca, the scene where Rebecca leaves the house plagued with all the bad memories. haha.

then today finally the weather turns to a magnificent 25 degrees and above and the sun finally decides to show up. now i finally understand why last time ang-mohs come to singapore and practically swoon over the hot weather and sun whilst we singaporeans are practically wilting and dashing into cool shopping centers.. but trust me, after days of gloomy cold and rain, today was positive smashing with the bright sun and cool weather.

hmm.. crapped alot le.. but finally lemme talk about the apple pie incident at Appel today during dinner. I had finished like my main course of yummy pretty-much authentic chinese food and was waiting for my favourite dessert liao - the apple pie with ice cream then sianz.. i went to the dessert counter and there was like no more apple pie. so i wait.. and wait.. and got so sian of waiting, and upon advice from others that there would most likely be no apple pie today, i went to make myself a quarter of the belgian waffle and ice cream. then as I was starting to chomp down my waffle happily there comes along Desmond with a plate of glorious apple pie. then Guanqing as well. then Caroline, whom all proceed to seat around me and send me into pure sian-ness. WAAAH! HOW CRUEL man! and then when i went back to grab one slice, it ran out again!! -_-

apple pie is against me today. bleak.

pooh

i'm pretty upset.. my room is starting to STINK thanks to the icky shoes filled with mud and grass after yesterday's frisbee, and there's no like place outside for me to place it.. =( very very sad. i cannot stand such things one =(.. trying my best to cover the smells by using softener papers(some fragrance thing for drying clothes), as well as washing the filth off my shoes.. sian.. the smell is so vile I feel like throwing my shoes away. =(

aniwez i reckon i better set myself some reminders le.
1. an alarm clock is not for snoozing. it is to wake up. today is the 2nd day in a row I have either accidentally switched off my alarm or completely ignored it. yesterday i was hauled outta my bed by my dorm phone, only to realize i was 15minutes late for church -_-. then today i woke at 8.56am in shock when I realized my class was at 9.05am.. and it was pretty far. -_-

2. emails need to be responded. yeah yeah.. if i neglected your emails.. dun worry.. i'm working through it. haha. and yeah i better start studying le... arrgh

rain check

the end of summer is turning into a complete bummeration here with the incessant drizzle and the bone-chilling wind.. BLEAH. and sherry goes on saying "oh.. it's Not cold!"

bummer. and she tells me to wait till winter. gee. why ain't I excited. -_-

well aniwez, we managed to scrape some time out to play ultimate frisbee.. which is damn fun besides the fact that the rain made the field like some green ice skating rink and running around was fraught with slips and tumbles.. yeah.. esp those where you fall flat on your butt. haha. one thing i like about ithaca is that the fields are really nice lolling teletubby fields and not like singapore's lallang infested fields. and there are enough decent fields to accomodate soccer, football and what have you. now if they could do something about tennis I'd be really please. haha.

and oh.. was checking the price for tix to US Open finals since well flushing meadows is like for once MUCH nearer than in the past, and it would be nice to see Federer and XX play out a final but.. gee. 400USD up for ticket!?! either that or pay a 30bucks more a miserly parking lot view?! wow. i'm torn between wanting to catch some tennis action and having to fork out an insane amount. sigh..

determined NOT to mug

i have had just about enough. I don't think its sane to even have to spend so much time mugging at the start of a semester.. my whatever outstanding homework is done, a test beckons on tues but I'd read through in the weekends and yeah.. what's there more to mug?

i dun understand this whole gloom descending upon some singaporean students like they are trapped in this cycle of mugging and cannot do anything else besides that. puh-lease!! it's like 5 days into the semester!? whatever man. i was freaked out by the frenetic studying and did likewise, but i ain't gonna kid myself any further... this ain't my type of life.. I am the do-homework-on-time, studiously-study-before-exams type of person and not the nothing-better-to-do-let's-mug type of person. geez. enough is enough.

and yeah. frank procrastinated today. he watched Hantuchova get knocked out of US Open by Serena Williams, then watched Angela get kicked out of Project Runway on his laptop and now he's gonna sleep.

wish me luck guys. haha

cold running

weather is progressively getting colder and with each decreasing celsius i really start wondering why the heck I chose to come to US.. =( but well, i guess it takes awhile to acclimatize lah.. i did the crazy thing of running at 10.00pm yesterday nite following advice(eh-hm) that running in the cold doesn't sweat mah, so good.

bullshit man. running at 14 degrees aint easy man! you suck in cold air as you start panting and the cold just numbs every muscle in your body.. lungs hurt as the cold air gets forced in whilst you try to heat up your system. -_- furthermore hmmz.. i dunno how effective it is if I don't actually sweat but well.. haiz.. i wun be able to do this much longer soon. =)

lessons ended early today and here I am sipping hershey's milkshake and eating some wrap from Statler hotel cafe.. yummy! haha.. (it's post-lunch.. oops)


im getting inundated by homework and all the pre-reading and tests that seem to be gaining momentum of sorts.. hehe.. and yeah, wondering what activities to join as well.. ballroom dancing?(hehe) badminton? sailing? i dunno.. all got pros and cons and the biggest con? that you end up not having enough time to mug and catch up with your freaky fellow singaporeans. -_-

oh well.. better get back to mugging. my sis brightened up my day today went she sent me cute cute pictures of a dog in japan.. i WANT a dog!!! grrr..

retail therapy

im happily munching cookies i got from the church i attended this morning as I type this.. haha.. cookies are GOOD in US man... yumz!

aniwez i must make a mental note to keep myself away from shopping malls yet again cos the SHOPPING BUG had gotten into me again! yikes!

i bought:-
1. one aeropostale berms 19.99
2. one pair of exercise shorts 12.99
3. one damn cool old navy tee 10.00
4. one timberland boots for horseriding 69.99 =(
5. one element school bag 45.00 (25% off le!)

which means i spent 180++ just today!! and all i wanted to get was a fridge, the shoes and a laptop sleeve. -_-

oh well.. i DID save money on like textbooks and so on so yeah.. heck it. -_-

decisions

i was actually pretty conflicted the past few days over what courses to take and so on. yeah, it's actually pretty true that when you are handed too much freedom sometimes you just go crazy and become overambitious and just take as many courses as you want.

but stuff from church today reminded me of something somehow...

"do not gauge/build your life on what other's perceive as success"..

and yeah, I realised two things regarding the whole process of course selection - 1. that I "conveniently" forgot to consult God regarding such important decisions 2. that I was being "kiasu" and just following the general Singapore crowd to cram as many courses as possible and try to look damn good if I manage to ace everything. yeah, that and leaving myself with a slight excuse if I *touch wood screwed up in a way or another.

so yeah, after the sermon, I was pretty sure I wanted to drop asian studies. but then, kept feeling a sense of pity since i had spent like 3 fricking hours deciphering one japanese text and actually was quite interested in it.. but then, something also struck me..

"everything has its place and time"

and yeah.. with that renewed resolve, i logged on the JTF and dropped asian studies.

yay! no more homework for the week! =) hahaha...

cravings

I ATE GODIVA CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM!

*swoonz.. now i'm SO getting a fridge to hoard up on ben&jerry's and godiva man!! it costs like 3USD per tub which is pretty much like 5SGD which is practically measly..

and aniwez I think come saturday(ok today) i'm gonna switch on my mugging gears and really start going through my notes and so on le.. I've procrastinated enough, like playing tennis(exercise mah!), going Pmall(shopping for essentials), going fellowship(need what) and then... yeah. it's um 1+ le.. -_-

so yeah.. i chose courses i like irregardless of how tough they were.. so now i must put in the effort le and make my choices justified.

the madness begins

first day of school

had asian studies followed by lasers followed by com science lectures back-to-back from the morning and I was frantically struggling to keep awake. oh my.. i'm startin' to feel a lil' screwed man..

well i(or should i say the insane singaporeans) kinda deserve considering things have somehow evolved into a credit hoarding mad-fest where everyone is taking 20up credits and just like expecting to survive it. i dunno man. i was pretty optmistic till i was slammed a writing assignment within minutes of the first lecture which asked for a SHORT essay. and dude, SHORT ain't supposed to mean 3 - 7 pages long!!

sadistic man. i even thought i was like some pre-class joke until I really saw the assignment. -_-

well, all the homework and crap prompted me to scurry down to cornell store and pyramid mall to grab textbooks and other stationery supplies.. and hey! i packed my room clean!


Voila~!

and of course.. along the way, I couldn't resist but get another self-gratificating item.. viz,


and honestly i think i need a proper camera from now on.. grrr

gorges ithaca

ithaca's actually pretty cool. today as I bade farewell to my parents after dinner we bypassed like a beautiful waterfall that emptied into a magnificent gorge and a arch-bridge was built across the waterfall... was quite captivated by it, too bad i din bring my camera.. but well, i daresay few schools can boast they have a waterfall underneath one of the busiest bridges across campus.. =)

met up with mehmeh today for the first time in like 2yrs since class reunion and she basically said a)i grew fat b)i haven't changed from my bitchy, caustic self since JC. -_-... how nice rite? oh yeah, and she feels more senior.

but geez. i BEG to DIFFER. i mean, besides the fat part. but honestly, i dunno, i think it's the people around me that err, slightly shape what kinda personality/image i exude .. like if that girl/guy's like saying very qianbian things and like is the easy to tease type then i mean, who wouldn't jump @ the chance rite? haha.. which kinda explained the dsta thing i guess.. -_-

but it was fun.. going to collegetown, rehashing the past and just hearing more horror stories about the no-life-ness that's awaiting once school life starts.. hmmz. oh and i dun get why someone's so interested in selling me her car.. haha.

freshmen 15

there's this schting called the "freshmen-15" syndrome whereby u at least gain 15kg of weight when you study in US cos of the gigantic portions of food and the horrid muggin schedules...

at first I was pretty adamant about such a thing but now I'm wondering whether its just gonna be inevitable and inescapable liao. diaoz. food @ cornell so far is good. it's so good we pile our plates up high and go for seconds of desserts and so on. well at least guanqing and wanjing did.(i opted for bananas instead after before thoroughly scared by the amount of food crap I was digesting)

the exercise is difficult and we are all cheating ourselves if we taking walking to and fro from North Campus to Engineering Quad is gonna make us lose weight. and like honestly weather's freaky here. i was like SO determined to go run today in the afternoon. SO determined i jio-ed like 4 diff people to go run... then it had to rain. AND rain. and it's still fricking raining now after I have patiently waited in my room for 3 hours planning my schedules and so on. and oh, as I'm typing this, the rain is seemingly giving me the nod of approval by raining even heavier. -_-

sigh. so sad. when can i go run man?! =(

guilty pleasure

a bit of an update since today's been relatively slack.. and yeah, since I have no roomie, I'm kinda not having much socializing to do.(do i sound disappointed? haha.. ignore me)

made my first ultimate-guilt buy today @ Pyramid Mall..



hee.. got my first berms @ Abecrombie and Fitch despite the exorbitant prices, where in the process I kept justifying the buy to myself and guanqing that it was like the first piece of clothing for months and yeah, it was useful in the summer and yeah.. it was purely once-off.

ah.. heck with the justifying. i'll scrimp a bit and live with it. -_-

aniwez, that's my bed in view. here's the other views of my room.

depressing? nah.. it's like pretty cosy and nice actually. my photog skills suck. haha.. and i'm probably pretty messy. =)

just came back from my swimming test actually which was pretty pointless. but yeah, no point talking abt it. the other swimming i did this week was @ a waterfall during a the finale picnic for PREPARE. and dude, it was FRIGID. after jumping in from the dive board I was literally enveloped in icy darkness and was swimming for my dear life. no fun. and yeah, i kinda sucked at diving, so my attempts at being graceful fell as flat as my jumps. gosh.. landing completely flat on your back HURTS LIKE HELL.



kk.. i think im gonna nap. ciao! =)