Wednesday, November 23, 2005

My Break is finally here!

Either maas (my psych prof) is wrong, or there's sth wrong with my biological system: i was so alert during my LAST lab (for the course) today despite sleeping only 3hr last night! everything was smooth, no careless mistakes! fine, i was the last to finish as usual but hey, i managed to finish taking readings from last wk's experiment, redo last last wk's experiment, as well as complete today's lab in time! :) i consider this a vast improvement and i am glad my lab course ended this way ;)

the wind is howling outside, snowflakes are flying around, the ground looks like it is covered by a thin layer of white sand. it was so damn cold walking outside just now, only realised it was -5 deg celcius after i was back in my dorm checking the weather page!! gloves, beanie, and scarf are a must from now on..

thanksgiving break officially starts tmr at 1.10pm, but 2 other classes were cancelled by the profs themselves, so only left with one math lecture at noon which my sun3 you4 men2 have convinced me tt i should not bother to go! hohoho... :P yes, so i am alr in holiday mood now heez :D

plans for thanksgiving:
shopping trip to Woodbury, a premium factory outlet! (omg. this is road of no return)
writing gary's US college peer evaluation!!
mugging for finals - duh, we are singaporean nerds
pending secret operation... ;)

i have been darn worried about my hospital emergency room bill the past few weeks... was so afraid i wouldn't be entirely covered and might have to pay hundreds of dollars... today i received this envelope from the insurance company. i ripped it open anxiously, and the first line that caught my eye was:

emergency services 2,440.75

my blood froze. then my eye zoomed to another line:

cayuga medical center may bill you: $0.00

PHEW......................

but WTH, US$2400 for ambulance and 3 hr of waiting and and x-rays and less than substantial treatment?! pls dun complain abt medical bills in spore again.

there are some things which supposedly have happened some time ago just that you didn't realise it happening so by the time you realise it you feel that it happened so suddenly that you can't believe it's actually happening... i do not know how to react.

* 2:08 PM

Sunday, November 20, 2005

HARRY POTTER!

these days, at the end of every horseriding lesson on fri, i will think to myself, I am so glad to be alive!

and thank god i survived yesterday's lesson to enjoy another happening friday! lalala!

first up, harry potter dinner at risley dining hall! the dining hall was decorated, some students volunteered to dress up as harry potter characters to mingle with the crowd. a few of us won stuff in the raffle: i won a box of Every flavor Bertie Bott's Beans haha. Too bad, there was a long queue at the door and at the food counter cuz the dining hall was so small and there was no magic to make the food appear on the dishes automatically, and the fish and chips was so disappointing. (gimme fish n co!!)

following the dinner was our highly anticipated Harry Potter movie outing! my first late-night movie experience, and my first time stepping into cinema since i set foot on US! US cinemas are all free-seating la! we freaking got the second row seats!!! ahhh!! (i vividly rmb 6a's first-row experience at matrix reloaded lol!)

we all love the movie! despite the movie going too fast and many details were left out and Cho Chang was disappointing (we actually agreed the gal who dressed up as Cho at our dining hall was chio-er in comparison can u believe it!), but at least:
1) cedric was so shuai! (even guys all agree on tt ;) )
2) the scene when harry brought cedric's body back was unanimously agreed to be superb. (i confess i cried hehe)
3) The girls from the french girls' school were mostly damn chio ahaha!
4) emma watson is so pretty full stop
5) cuz it's a harry potter movie, even if it's bad we won't hate it anyway!

After the movie, we had a ben and jerry's ice cream feast back at campus. it has become a habit for me to indulge in B&J's ice cream every friday night. it's a cycle lor: friday i will sin and get fat then i will be resolute to eat less every day to lose the weight gained until fri night comes i will eat B&J ice cream and gain back all the weight again. grrr...

then, the ILC gang, yuan xiang guo jian shanon and me, played bridge and chatted from 3 plus until 7 plus before we went to slp! ahaha! we always do such 'crazy' stuff! it's not uncommon for the 3 of them to storm into my room with a pack of cards suddenly at night and start playing bridge. and it's fun to talk with them, we talked abt almost everything ranging from trivial things like yuan xiang and guojian's debate on whether king size or single size bed is more preferable in preparation for their -ahem- future, shanon and his gf, our empty love life and failed past attempts (only applicable to the remaining 3 of us), to serious issues like careers, being scholars, and goals in life. it's good that i am not the girlie sort who can't mix with guys in the 'brotherly' way ahaha...

photos taken in the past weeks:

first snow = ice kachang

us after first snow fight! (i look horribly fat.....)

me, yuan xiang and guo jian studying under a tree under the lovely sun on the field after a frisbee game!

my roommate danyun's birthday party!

our Singapore Student Association's Makanmania! too bad i was stuck behind the drinks counter the whole night i didn't even get to move ard to take fotos and feast on all the good singaporean food and i only have this pathetic foto as consolation...

group foto taken at town of Cambridge! (koped from chee wei's blog heez) nice foto right? cuz i took it! :P i want chee wei's and yx's canon ixus camera la!!! it's way superior than my pok cam!!

2pm alr! better get back to work!

* 2:10 AM

Friday, November 18, 2005

a new motivation

barely an hr after i typed the previous suicidal blog entry, i miraculously found a new motivation in life, by chance.

let's see how long the it will last :) oh well, even if i dun achieve it in the end, it's still a good motivation!

i'm feeling much better alr.. even attended salsa class just now!

i emailed 2 of the girls in my lab to appeal for help cuz i've gotten crappy/shitty lab results and both of them are so helpful! i'm really touched... it's too bad i don't have the chance to get to know them better cuz i don't talk much during labs (where got time?!) and this lab course is ending soon alr..

* 9:40 AM

sense of guilt

temperatures have officially plummeted to average of sub-zero deg and are going to stay there permanently; so has my mood.

in case u are wondering how did the previous entry suddenly appear..well, i drafted it over the weekend, but did not post it up cuz i didn't exactly finish typing it...

see, i am procrastinating over everything, including typing blog entries?! wth?!

i know i brought it upon myself: i can't blame anyone for my HUGE current homework debt.

it's getting from bad to worse... first, it was skipping class so as to finish homework on time; now, it's skipping class so as to finish overdue hw!

i never ever skipped any class in the past before! and i never had any overdue hw! (ok, i dun mean spaper hw..) wad has gone wrong with me???!!!

i dun even believe it myself. i took a damn slow walk back to dorm just now and i kept reflecting on the past few days, past few weeks... and i still dun understand what went wrong.

maybe it's because i can never balance work and play. i had a terrific weekend. watched cornell's most famous acapella grp Cayuga Waiters concert, feasted on ben & jerry's ice cream, watched desperate housewives with a bunch of frens at christina's room until we all fell asleep and i only aroused at 4am, played frisbee on a beautiful sat afternoon cuz the weather was too fantastic, studied (ok, attempted to study) on the slope at the field like the americans always do haha, sprang a surprise bday party for my room mate... and then, my week will get shitty cuz all my work piled up: lab report, org chem prelim, essay, math homework.......

i feel so tired and down... i can't find any motivation to work... i dun even feel like going for salsa class today... when i am unhappy, i show it on my face... ppl ard me have been asking why am i so sad/sian/dead? i can't cheer up... i feel like sleeping and isolate myself from ppl and work...

among my consolations:

1) finally decided to order a pair of silver dancing shoes that's on discount, after worrying abt my expenses
2) didn't screw up psych and econs prelims.
3) last prelim is over. yeshh.
3) HARRY POTTER tmr! (it'll be the first time i step into a cinema since i came to US aha) just hope i dun fall asleep
4) last (dreadful) lab session next tue!
5) one and a half more weeks of lessons only!
6) vacuuming my room just now: a cleaner room somehow makes me feel better...(??)
7) chatting with dada online cheered me up!
8) one of my classes changed their class blog's skin, and the girl who designed the skin used a class foto i took with them! oh well, they probably didn't have any other class fotos la, but it was nice to see the foto again :)
9) thanksgiving break is next week!

yes thank god thanksgiving break is here. i need a break. badly.

* 4:14 AM

Friday, November 11, 2005

IT SNOWED, BABY!

well, for just one day... :P

was walking to chem lab lect in the morning (i was 15min late cuz i insisted on finishing a practice exam for my econ prelim which was on that afternoon). suddenly there was a strong gust of wind that actually blowed me sideway (erm, i'm not implying i am light cuz i am not alr) then, i thot i saw this white speckle flew past my eye. i wasn't wearing specs so i thot i was seeing things. then another white bit flew past. and another. i stared in disbelief.

then it occured to me that i was walking through falling snow! for the first time in my entire life! omg. i couldn't believe i was seeing snow! it just felt so...surreal!

anw, the snow stopped falling by the end of my class... but then, at ard 12.30 am that night, while i was still doing my math hw which was due the next day, guo jian suddenly knocked on my door and told me excitedly, "there is snow outside! let's go out!" and then soon, about 10 of us are called out for snowfighting at the car park behind my dorm! ahaha!

the snow was, honestly, kinda pathetic... just a thin layer covering the grass lor... but we played with 'cleaner' snow by collecting them from the car roofs! ahaha... i was more of a spectator in the snow fight, gasping at the loud thuds of snow slamming into their backs and faces, cuz i wasn't wearing gloves and my hands alr were 'burnt' from touching snow for 10 sec! but it was still damn fun, making a din with a whole bunch of mountain turtles who haven't seen snow before at 1am at night!

i can't wait for a second snow-fight when real snow has accumulated! (the 'snow' we saw tt night looked a lot like ICE KACHANG ice to me!!) i will be properly geared up with my ski gloves and scarf and beanie and my thickest jacket to join in the fight! yeah!

* 4:58 AM

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Summing up my two and a half months here...

First, it was just exploring Cornell campus itself...

Then we went a little beyond Cornell to the pretty Cayuga Lake (at ithaca)...

in fact, i have been to the same lake on 3 different occasions at 3 different parks alr...

It's a must to see new things and places since we are all the way here... so far, i've seen the Tanaganough Falls, the tallest waterfall in North-Eastern US (which had sadly dried up so we could walk on the river bed la haha!)...

... and watched American football at our own Schoellkopf field... (i promise to learn how to pronounce the name of this field before i graduate)

Also went up north to visit Niagara Falls...

and saw a bit of Toronto...

Then we visited the UN headquarters at NYC on a day trip...

and of course took the opportunity to soak in the colorful city life at NYC...

Then we drove all the way to Boston during Fall break... The first day, we contributed to the US economy (US dollar rose after tt day apparently!) by going on a CRAZY shopping spree at the factory outlet at Wrentham...

We visited MIT campus and all of us congratulated ourselves for not going to MIT because... (see pic of campus yourself)

Wish we could say the same thing for Harvard...

But the town Harvard is located in, Cambridge, is too lovely to resist!!

Besides, in the town of Cambridge, there is this restaurant Penang which serves the best chinese food we have eaten since we left home!!!!!!!! char kway teow! nasi lemak!

kang kong! chicken rice! walau! WE MISS SINGAPOREAN FOOD!! :(

Then we 'horland' all the way to Salem to see witches....

But the witch museum is well erm... disappointing...

We appreciate food better! Fresh lobster and oysters at Legal'sat Boston!! Whee! Extravagant meal (guess the price)... :P

As if we didn't horland enuff on the road, we paid to get totally lost in the corn maize at Vermont! After walking among corns for FOUR HOURS my team finally reached the bell tower, the check point, and were estatic!! What beats the beautiful scenery of Vermont that welcomed us at the end of the maze? Perseverance pays!

We also visited the famous Ben & Jerry's factory at Vermont and saw and ate lots of yummy ice cream (you've got to try Ben &Jerry's ice cream yourself one day!!)...

The Vermont teddy bear factory was our last stop before we returned to Cornell... I bought a white teddy bear that was stuffed and sewn up on the spot!

Among the thrilling things i have tried: Hoffman Challenge Course - Cornell's mini OBS! The pic here shows a path that has 2 ziplines hanging above for flying fox! The fake clock tower is where i did King's Swing (=BIG swing) as well!

ALso went to Six Flags at Darien Lake, Buffalo! Tried all the roller coasters that operated on that rainy day whee!

Within our (huge singaporean) clique, we did crazy stuff like holding WILD 21st birthday celebration...

and also nice stuff like milder 21st birthday celebration... haha...

We are indeed a quite a closely-knit bunch... in fact, 14 of us (mostly in this pic) are going to stay together in one house next year!

but err well... sometimes the guys get a bit too close though... (must be the severe shortage of girls within our clique la ahaha)

ok sorry, that was graphic-intensive... i hope i didn't paralyse your computer system... hehe... dada should be satisfied ("more pics, less words") now huh? :)

Aftermath of two and half months here:
1) Severely broke (spent 3 mths allowance in 2 mths)! :S
2) Gained a lot of weight!! (i weighed myself, it's for real!)
3) Lagging in all 6 courses.... grrr....
4) Having a lot of static from wearing fleece! I get shocks whenever i touch metal objects!
5) A freak accident to add to my overseas experience. well done...