See you there

Blogger is refusing to display my posts unless I resort to changing the post date to anytime before June. -__- just the perfect excuse for me to move to wordpress: izzitjustme.wordpress.com

jyaa, mata ne :)

* 1:07 AM

I have broken my record time of coming home from sch yet again - 4am, for the final written report for AguaClara.


Not that I am complaining. Now it's just one take home final and one econ final (and lots of errands and packing!) between me and the end.


I have already finished 4 episodes of "Attention Please" since Ichikawa sensei burnt it onto a dvd and gave it to me on the day of my Japanese exam. You know what this means? I need MORE japanese dramas to last me through the days of summer break! =P


Japan had better live up to what it promises.

日本に行こうよ！

お邪魔します　:)

* 11:40 PM

Stress management

I am feeling really lethargic and sluggish now, having gone through 2 consecutive exams -pchem last night, accounting this morning- and i hardly have the stamina to work on my very last lab report as a chem major which is due tomorrow, let alone getting started on revision for Japanese exam which is on Sat. Knowing that I did not do very well for the previous lab report just a while ago hardly helped to motivate me, but worse, is deactivating me.

While I really do not have any time to take any break, I am so bored and distracted now in the computer lab in Baker that I began browsing online shops for clothes and shoes again!? Yes, I actually feel something's missing in my life now and that thing is to be able to excitedly track my packages online and looking forward to try on the stuff that I bought. And after browsing through Forever21's site, I feel the urge to spend again. (fyi, i just bought $80 worth of stuff from the same site 3 weeks ago)

So as I was launching into self-reproach, I made a very interesting revelation about myself:

I realize that ever since coming here, I surprise myself with behaviors remote of me in the past. In my first semester, it was to gorge myself with sweet (and fattening) desserts. Last semester, it was to stop doing work for incorrigibly long extended periods of time. Now, it is to keep spending money without any inhibition. In all 3 instances, they are self-damaging in their own ways. I conclude they are my newly-found methods of dealing with stress.

This being said, I still want those tops from Forever21. and shoes. and bags. and dresses.

[Edit: i gave up on those tops alr. They are never going to ship from California to my place before i fly home. See,I am still rational]

* 3:52 AM

another xiong week has gone by. gosh, i wonder how many more of this i can take.

and it looks like it's only going to get worse.

i keep saying, can't believe slope day is this coming friday! the semester is ending!! i think i am gg to miss Ichikawa sensei (and her Yuki-chan!), Tom, and Ankush, who I am alr used to seeing almost everyday since last semester!

this semester is crazily fast-paced. i didn't have time to slump into depression, unlike last semester.

i'm admitted into the Kyuushu U summer program, but no scholarship/grant to attend it. Tom, who kindly wrote the recommendation for me, seemed so genuinely happy for me when i told him. But my parents want me to stay at home as long as possible. sighz. guess i have to give it a miss.

remedy to study stress: shopping. remedy to study stress in Cornell: online shopping. oh yes, i did it again, spending another $100+ at VS :P well, not all's for me though keke ;)

buying any apparel online involves taking a risk. either they fit, or they don't, then you will lose on transaction costs (shipping charges, time wasted on going to post office). even if they fit, how do you know they fit best, compared to other sizes/colors/design? it's too much money and time to order different sizes and colors then return them (unless you buy on Zappos and have both way free shipping ahaha) So although i am so into online shopping now, i am aware tt each purchasing decision i make is not necessarily a perfectly-informed one.

wait a min, doesn't that sound like dating? LOL...

in any case, i just dragged a rather unwilling yx out for a brief walk cuz the weather is just too good. haha. cuz you see, the sun has been a slacker the past week, MIA-ing since its brief honorable return last weekend. walking ard the gorges/creek and random wild flowers under the sun is pretty nice heh heh. makes me wish that ithaca has only one season.

and junch picked a good day to hold a house bbq! looking forward to the good food in 1hr's time! yums!

So on almost every blog i read/came upon by chance, almost everyone in spore has/is going to watch phantom of the opera (which is extended only up till the day before i touched down on spore grrr). so has everyone in london. so has yx. I swear I will watch it at Broadway before i leave this place, even if I have to watch it alone or pay full-priced tix. grrr.

* 4:03 AM

Can you smell it?

Spring is here, AT LAST!

What a difference a few days could make - from Siberian winter to Cancun tropical weather! (c.f. previous post)

These 3 days were nothing short of beautiful. Not just the weather and blue sky, but also the lively campus. people all hanging outdoors playing frisbee, chilling at outdoor patios of cafes, playing beer pong and barbequeing outside their houses... It's hard not to smile each day i pass by Arts quad, Engine quad, collegetown and college ave on my way home, because the cheerful atmosphere is too infectious.

Too bad ellen missed this fantastic weather. She came on the day we started getting snow flurries, which was followed by snow storm, and left the day it became sunny and hot! what luck. and she missed our awesome bbq dinner right outside our house, with cheeseburgers by gj, otak by junch, and salad by christina and i!

i will miss ellen for her delicious food and desserts, random long chats on random stuff, and the life she injected into the house during this period when it is sorely lacking the most.

So, instead of going down to NYC for the inaugural Singapore Day yesterday, i decided to stay here to "catch up on my work", but by Sunday morning (now), the only worthy thing I have done is make some meaningful progress for AguaClara. And the rest of the day and night was wasted on online shopping, on the premise that 1) i need a dress for grad night; 2) i need dresses for everyday wear because i only have 2; 3) i need to buy clothes for myself because the last time i did that was in london!

but still, $130 in one day on clothes (which I have not even touched and tried on) is, well, indulging and spoiling myself to the max. Then i will justify myself with yx's words "What's the point of you coming to US to study if you don't buy clothes here?" LOL.

*** ***

Sometimes, i will imagine how different all this will be if that tragedy had happened on my college instead.

It is unlike a terrorist attack where sufficient intelligence could have pre-empted it; it is unlike say an airborne disaster where stringent maintenance and vigilance of the pilot/space shuttle crew could have prevented it; it is unlike a fire where sounding the shrieking alarm could have immediately warned people of it and immediately evacuated them. Even his teachers noticing that his writings were weird could not have served as intelligence; even sending his for counselling was not good enough a precautionary measure; even having a separate murder incident 2 hrs before in the dorm could not have served as a 'fire alarm', simply because, face it, random murders by guns are conducted every day in this country, who can ever accurately imagine and predict that the next target by the killer is not additional 1 or 2 random beings, but 30 members of the school right on the school campus? and besides, in all enormous college campuses (including mine) as far as i know, other than the fire alarm, and emails, there is NO WAY any message can be broadcast to the entire college immediately.

and it is this unpredictable nature of such tragedies which is absolutely disturbing. there is equal chance of it happening in any other US campus, and I can almost imagine it happening in mine, seriously. and i dare say, even after it had happened to VT, if there is just one guy who decides to do the same thing in my college one fine day, there is nothing that could be done that could have lessen the tragedy.

this is, sadly, a consequence of just one of the social illnesses in this country. Look, i am not trying to be biased against US, but say, in singapore, "Your drove me into a corner" will most likely translate into leaping off the 12th storey of a flat instead. Tthe only solution here, allow me to say something which is completely useless, is to completely change the crux on which this society is built on, and in particularly, correcting the method of venting one's disatisfaction towards anything.

* 11:01 PM

Yesterday was so spectacular that I just have to take photos

And so, under the impression that the probablity of encountering snow in mid april is almost 0, 3 weeks ago, I made an appointment for my driving test on this spectacular day, incidentally.

I hereby regret to inform you that the bad reputation of female drivers will continue to be tarnished by yet another bad sheep, as she joins the population of the (literally) cursed ones, legally.

* 9:23 PM

Hi again

I am so tired that when I can wake up in the morning, I lie on my bed, under my comforter, with my heavy head harboring thoughts of sleeping forever and stay isolated from the people, things, work, problems etc outside my bedroom door.

I am so unhappy with everyone and everything that I don't feel like talking to anyone or look at anyone, and my equilibrium face is a smileless face, because there's nothing for me to smile at, and it takes too much energy to smile.

I am so sick of doing anything that I really, literally just do nothing and stare into blank space for extended periods of time, even on the eve of my pchem prelim.

So, it is "hi" again to the devil who tortured me last semester and has tracked me down again.

* 6:22 AM

I need a second spring break

* 8:08 AM

spring break beckons

* 9:23 AM

In the spirit of Lunar New Year...

... I finally changed my blog skin - qu4 jiu4 ying2 xin1 :)

...I am eating lotsa good food here! last night's yummy yusheng at SSA's CNY reunion dinner, this morning's homemade kueh lapis and walnut cookies thanks to Christina and Junch, lunch's yam rice, ba1 bao3 cai4, stew duck, kong bak pao by the Great Chef Junch of course, and now i need to find space in my stomach for steamboat and Zee's highly anticipated dishes whee~ I love this substitute 'family' away from home! :)

...I am giving myself a holiday and i haven't done work the whole weekend. not good... but WTH, it's CNY!

GONG HEI FATT CHOI to all!

* 7:12 AM

IT'S OFFICIAL

CORNELL UNIVERSITY IS CLOSED

We are snowed in! ~WHEE

You think our school is so kind? fyi, it was only closed from 12pm onwards, ie we walked to, then back from school THROUGH 2 feet of snow!

* 3:54 AM

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow... HUR HUR

Even the most beautiful thing on Earth has a threshold point whereby you just want to yell, "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!"



*all temps in farenheit unless otherwise stated (brrr....)

* 8:32 PM

High and low

Yesterday was a low, today is a new high!

Kickboxing class is awesome! I love the upbeat music, I feel like i am dancing as i do the routine hehe. just that it's a damn xiong dance la! my thighs are aching alr!

This sounds absolutely geeky, but chem lab is cool today! After studying NMR for so long, i finally saw what it exactly looks like and i learnt how to operate it hahaha. i also had to hold this propane/oxygen fire gun that shoots out a 3000K flame to literally melt the glass of the nmr tube at its end, then i twisted and yanked the tube out and let the melted glass seal up its end - auto-seal! hahaha. luckily nobody in the lab felt particularly murderous today hur hur =P

and my chem prof is thinking of bringing our class to rockclimb or go to the Hoffman challenge course (= mini-obs) when spring comes! :)

my water supply project is getting really exciting! i met up with my team mate today and had an absolutely productive discussion-cum-brainstorm session and so many ideas were thrown in and we already have our design of our testing device all planned out! the next step is to buy the parts and build it! whee~

I have stopped complaining about the permanently -15deg cel weather, because the permanent snow/ice/slush on the ground has given me a perfect excuse to buy yet another pair of new boots! They came within 2 days after i ordered them online - Zappos rocks!! Not very cheap or extremely gorgeous, but for a pair of waterproof boots that have good traction, i think they are considered pretty already!

* 11:35 AM

welcome back...

to snowy ithaca and my warm little house at 909!

(british accent) Lovely.

and so, upon alighting, i was greeted by:

-10 deg celcius temperature
powdery snowfall! whee!
and right in the heart of Collegetown [i (literally) gasped aloud, "WASSUP!!??"] a half-renovated STARBUCKS

it's 4am now but i am still wide awake... am i jetlagging??? WTH?!

* 5:14 PM

Shop, Eat, Shop, Eat

Nah I am not in Hong Kong now, but that's basically what i have doing for the past few days in London! Thanks to jiaying, i have been eating the best stuff she has eaten in london and chionging all the fabulous sales and buying items on my wish list, including trenchcoat! whee!

as you can see, i have gotten over the dollar-is-weaker-than-pound-hence-i-shall-not-spend syndrome and these days i just swipe my card like nobody's business. My bank balance is dwindling steadily, but the only consolation is the credit card exchange rate is more than reasonable so i can swipe with a peace of mind!

also not forgetting, flo and the rest of 6a are great hosts too, bringing me ard london and LSE! as if class dinner is not enough, we even have class outing to LSE finance lecture! hohoho! been seeing familiar rj faces ard LSE! and i met my ogl today! haven't seen him since the og outing in j2!

so wassup with the New Year? nothing much. seriously, i don't feel much about the start of a new year. the only difference is to write a "7" instead of of "6" right? i feel that my life is no longer 'segmented' by the turning points in the calendar but rather by milestones (events) - nominal vs real issue HAHA. thus i forsee i probably won't feel much about turning 21 in two months' time, hur hur. we shall see...

but anyway, Happy New Year to all! (not too late right? :P)

* 9:40 AM

Photo Catch-up II

Photos which explain why 909 East State Street is the most desirable house in Ithaca:

because we have a BIG GASTRONOMICAL FEAST every 2 weeks, thanks to Chief Chef Junch!


Housewarming dinner, Western style - steaks and scallops etc

Oriental dinner! siew mai, quasi shark fin's soup, braised ducklings, miso fish, KONG BA PAO etc

Dim sum brunch - LOR MAI KAI, curry puffs,CHAR SIEW SOU, chi jeong fan!

Now, will you still not believe me when i say i cannot lose weight at all?

Photos which show that it's fun to be domesticated:

Our first attempt at baking oreo cheesecake!

2nd attempt - brownie cheesecake for yx's birthday :)

Photos which show that I don't deserve any sympathy for being broke:

My snowboard! Spent $500 in all for all the board, bindings, boots and season pass

Cornell's Men's ice hockey season pass - $265

Photos which explain why my money is well-spent:

My first Ice Hockey game, our Lynah Rink! Never felt such stirring school spirit in a long time (since jc)! The American way of cheering/jeering is so arrogant that it's hilarious! and we THRASHED York haha.


But the SINGLE REASON that is sufficient to justify the $265-seasonpass is...
CORNELL

WON

HARVARD

(right before my own eyes!) YAY!!!!

Well, Harvard is supposedly the No.1 Rival of Cornell in Men's ice hockey and the feud dated very very long back. So everytime Harvard comes to Cornell for a game, the tradition is to greet them with FISH:

Yes, those are FISH on the rink - the Cornell Students REALLY threw fish at the harvard players when they stepped onto the rink! I was amazed and amused HAHA! And I know they really werent lying abt this tradition when I saw so many of the staff so well-prepared with those thrash bag and entered immediately to clean up the fish hahaha.


The Cornell-Harvard face-off

The atmosphere was electrifying! Cornell had an early lead 1-0 in the 2nd minute, then down 1-2 until 5 minutes left, then scored 2 more goals in the last 4 minutes!!! The entire crowd went CRAZY!!!


Victory huddle and victory cheer!

Photos which show it is COOL to live the American way in America:

cuz we get to carve pumpkins! (mine is the smiley face hehe)

dressing up for halloween frat party and laugh at the hilarious costumes donned by americans

but the party on the weekend before Thanksgiving turned out to be way more fabulous, partly due to the great company! yeah! side note: all of us in this picture made our way to the frat house in yingyi's SUV -- that's 14 persons in one car(before you start counting)



of course the best part of celebrating Thanksgiving is the big feast, inclusive of the Turkey! which also gives us one more occasion to taste Junchen's cuisine! 909 -hearts- master chef!

Photos which show why it is COOLER to live the Singaporean way in America:

MAKANMANIA - the single most important contribution of Singaporeans to Cornell (other than the number of honors engineering students we contribute)

Everyone in our house worked hard from morning, under the command of Chief Chef, to mass-produce Chicken rice, Satays and Laksa. our wage? those yummy food for lunch!

the hustle and bustle on the actual event! (which was a sell-out!)

Photo which shows that joining a nerdy fraternity is still cool:

Presenting to you, the new distinguished members of national engineer honors fraternity Tau Beta Pi -- "We mug hard, but we are proud of it" =P

Photos which show that violence is not necessarily an expression of hate:

At least i believe so, so i still love you! hahaha :P

Photos which show why I still love Cornell and Ithaca despite all the misery I suffer during semester:



Because cornell + sun + blue sky + red/orange/yellow leaves = gorgeous ithaca! but this is rare, that's why I snap like crazy as though i am a tourist whenever this occurs. blue sky and the sun are therapeutic, i swear!

And this sums up my Fall 06 semester, minus the travelling and burnt-out episodes! BYE BYE to the old sem!

* 9:54 AM

Getting out of ithaca, off to europe!

Merry Xmas to all, in advance!

* 9:09 PM

an irrational economist

After screwing up the freaking easy microecon finals, i really really wanted to come home and just wallow in self-pity -- "why is it only me who have 2 major exams on the same day?"/"Why on earth have i become stupider ever since i come here???!!!"-- BUT london/europe is just tooooooo close and my dear is just toooooo sweet that i could not remain in the depressed state. =P

Girls will never ever understand guys' obsession for DOTA (my house has become a DOTA den officially since the start of study break), just like guys will never understand girls' fetish for boots! I love boots! i love them so much i can browse through Zappos for ALL their boots (abt 99x 11pages) again and again and not get sick looking at them -- the utility i get from looking at boots is monotonic!

hot boots i look to ogle at but don't have what it takes to wear/try them:


among the many pairs that i have shortlisted to buy:


i swear i will buy one pair of high boots with shaft length of no less than 14 inches before i leave america or i will not forgive myself for the rest of my life!!! i am just trying to convince myself that i still have a shred of rationality left by making myself buy in spring instead of now when the snow would have melted and the temperature warrants a pair of boots but not the thick and warm kind hahaha. (well actually the snow in ithaca has melted AGAIN. WTH wadeva man...) i really wish i can own more than one pair but considering where i am living now and where i will be living after college, ahem, i should not be irrational.

oh today, i finally bought my Northface fleece jacket, something which i used to be too stingy to buy but i finally decided to buy one and i feel happy to know that i am gg to be warm while touring those Scandivanian countries! yay~

* 11:27 AM

I confess

that I actually feel delightful that it's finally snowing like shit outside and the temperature has finally dropped to the 'correct' temperature of -10 deg celcius in the day

Because it makes me feel like everything is back to normal

* 11:48 AM

Stuck in a trench

i can't see any light infiltrating from the opening at the top; neither can i see the bottom.

just clinging on with one bare hand, and sliding down steadily. neither am i using my other hand to stop me from sliding, nor am i releasing the hand holding on, completely.

have i given up or have i not? both my hands are reacting differently, and i have conceded control of them.

tell me what i should do, before i slid all the way to the bottom...

* 11:37 AM

Sarah
+Currently at Ithaca, NY
+Typical Piscean
+A self-oriented perfectionist
+Loves to dream and over-plan
+Can't get enough of travelling
+Has many sweet teeth
+Can't stop gaining weight
+Still a fan of Faye Wong



>>Friends'
S06A!
Adeline
Anuja
Chee Wei
Christina
Clara
Danxu
Diane
Ellen
Flo
Gary
Hui-lin
Jacinth
Jaclyn
Jiaying
Joel
Joshua
Michelle
Pei Qin
Xin Wei
Zhang Er
Zhi'en
Zirong


>>Digital filmrolls
Utah backpacking
Las Vegas
San Francisco&Palo Alto
NYC
Fall 05 @ Cornell
Massachusetts&Vermont
UN/NYC
Niagara falls&Toronto
Cornell orientation
Pre-departure
Rjc 2005
S06A 05
Grad Nite
S06A 03-04
IBN attachment


>>Consumerism pleasures
Zappos
Ebags
Victoria Secrets
GoJane
Urban Outfitters
Eve's Addiction
Aeropostale



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