Thursday, February 02, 2006
what's with me and waiting lists??!!
i had a horrible monday cuz cornell's outdoor education department screwed up my course registration email and i only learnt on monday i didn't get into the utah backpacking course and was put on the waiting list! and things were made more complicated by the fact that yx has a place in the class but the last day to withdraw from the course without penalty was the next day and it had to take a miracle for one person to drop the course within the next 24 hr so that i get a place! i was pissed and upset and disappointed the whole afternoon, but the miracle actually happened miraculously! i got out of the chem lab course and japanese course waiting lists too, that makes it 3 waiting lists in one week. now that i am safely enrolled in my desired courses it doesn't seem a big deal but i somehow just don't like the feeling of uncertainty while put on waiting lists.
in any case, i really shouldn't be blogging now cuz i have tonnes of homework to do. which also explains the lack of updates for the past one and a half week. grrr... i know lessons have barely started at cornell but i swear my schedule and workload are crazy. On mon i have 6 classes from 9am to 3.20pm w/o lunch break, wed and fri 9-2.15pm w/o break as well, tue and thur slightly better - end by 1.10pm but i have 2 3hr-labs starting at 8am! i have jap homework every day, and i have to do readings and pre-labs before every lab which means every mon and wed night i will be sleep deprived.
enough of my rantings. i can go on and on but what's the point?
but truth to be told, i love my courses this semester. the professors i get this sem are really superior to those i got last sem. both my chem professors are great lecturers, though they are polar opposites in their style. my math prof seemed old and frail and boring initially (which kinda explained why the classroom was packed on the first lesson then enrollment seemed to drop thereafter), but he actually teaches well too! jap lessons are fun, and the best part is i really get to know my classmates, proving the theory lindy and i came up with correct! ;) my writing seminar prof is kind of boring, but anthropology seems cool cuz it's a new subject to me so it's bearable for now.
on a lighter note, i went for my snowboarding lesson last sat! it was such fine weather on that day, sunny and warm, yet the snow at Greek Peak didn't melt! no idea why. but anw, snowboarding is so cool and fun, but i once again prove that i have zero ti3 yu4 xi4 bao1. i took some time to find my balance while sliding down, but i still could master the skill of stopping in time without falling! :P suffered from blisters on my feet due to dragging my feet (that was locked to the huge board) up the slope after every descend (which is the most tiring part of the sport, i think!), and also numerous blue-blacks on both legs! but such falls aren't a big deal to me anymore, after my spectacular fall from a horse's back! lol.. so yeah, i am game for more snowboarding!
i also went for ballroom dancing lessons on mon night, and it was damn fun too! felt good putting on my pretty dancing shoes - felt like a pro but of course i am far from that! there were some dancesports team members sorta helping out in the class, and it was great dancing with these pros!
anyway, an accident happened in my neighbouring lab yesterday. the fire alarm was set off, and while we were evacuating, we saw this guy on our corridor, holding paper towel to his face and blood was dripping from his face onto the ground. :S apparently he was just distilling alcohol and it blew up, when it really should not have. such accidents can happen anytime and on any one of us, and this thought makes me shudder.
my chinese new year was sad. zero festive mood in ithaca la. only went for a 'reunion dinner' with fellow singaporean freshmen at this chinese restaurant (not exactly restaurant either) in Collegetown on chu xi, and that's all. celebrations organised by residence hall and spore students association will only come later this weekend.
i used to think of cny as just a public holiday when i get to eat nice stuff and take a break from lessons, but i never was excited about it in recent years cuz i thought the whole reunion dinner and bai nian thing was just a mandatory routine repeated every yr until i was bored of it. it's only when i am deprived of this 'routine' that i realised this routine has already become part of my life even if i didn't realise its significance of it before. perhaps the desire to stick to this routine as best as i could made me want to wash my bedsheet on new year's eve (like how my mum always changes new bedsheet every new yr) and to eat an orange after every dinner at the dining hall (like how i used to peel and eat one whole mandarin orange after every meal during CNY period).
i want my abalone! and bak kwa! and egg rolls!
oh cornell was warm the past week. global climate is screwing up man.
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9:08 AM
