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..