out of place

NIE stuff has started - this week there was registration on tuesday, briefing stuff on wednesday and something called 'teacher's prep program' yesterday and today - four days of travel to and from the school that seems to be closer to Gelang Patah and even Kukup than it is to my house equals around $20 of transport money being spent - which means i've had to consciously work at changing my usual habit of topping up my farecard with just $10 at each go, cos i've realized if i kept that up, i'd be topping up my card almost every day. That aside, the sheer act of traveling from my place all the way there and back is tortuous enough as it is (i may be a travel buff but that's strictly restricted to travel outside of S'pore, although come to think of it traveling to NIE is just about as close as one can get to doing that without leaving the S'pore mainland...).

These past two days was the aforementioned tpp - admittedly (and i mentioned as much at the end of the session during the checkout session) i was not looking forward to the thingy at the start - i believe i described it as "(moe/nie's attempt to make us) waste two otherwise perfectly free days." To my unexpected surprise it turned out hardly like i'd have expected it to, in good part because our facilitator was this cool lady who was discerning enough to do less of the program and more of the sharing of rich personal experiences (and boy does she have a lot of them), and also cos of the people met/friends made.

No secret that in any case though, at the start of the week i wasn't in a good mood - and to that end one thing i was consistently praying for during my qts in the morning was for (pleasant) surprises of any kind to come my way - and by the end of the week thankfully God delivered a lot of those my way, stuff like how the tpp turned out, bumping into someone i've not seen in four years, catching-up/bleah-ing opportunities etc - all these definitely helped to de-death-glare-ify my face as the week progressed...

A string of semi-related random things that happened to me this week:

1) Went to the Malay stall to get lunch one day - the people before and after me were both addressed and served using Mandarin, but when it was my turn, the lady took one look at me and went "abang!" in order to catch my attention. That was followed by "lagi" and other random Malay words when i was pointing to the dishes i wanted, she even told me the cost of the plate in Malay...

2) Today during class our facilitator was telling a story which somehow involved porridge (she tends to digress a lot), and she was talking about something called "um," which most of the class seemed to understand immediately - i was left clueless until my groupmate informed me that it is some chinese dialect (hokkien?) term which refers to the liquid part of porridge - she was so surprised that i had no idea what that was, and then she asked me (with a serious face btw) "are you local?"

3) Later on she somehow came to the topic of patriotism (i forget how), and she asked the class "would you stand up for S'pore?" My cynical self's immediate reaction was to cringe and roll my eyes, i thought she was jokingly asking a rhetorical question. I was thus freaked to realize that several people immediately said "yes!" rather assuredly. Not that i'm about to betray the country, but i'm not one for such strong outward displays of patriotism, just never realized that most others are quite unlike me heh... Eek who's the one who needs NE lessons now eh?

Anyways, think i've come to the conclusion that the best way to deal with the situation is avoidance, in whatever means it may take - hmm that seems to be a common theme in me life eh...

the unearthly hour

How does yours truly end up wide awake at four in the morning, and furthermore having had been so for the past twenty or so hours? How is it that from one look at his face he looks like a long-abandoned castaway on Survivor? How is it that he has not brushed his teeth in two days, nor eaten any dinner the previous night apart from five cream crackers?

It's a real long story you know, but to cut it short - it all has to do with that old bugaboo - moving house. Every new day, its annoyances unfold. Filling my mind, with more grumbles untold (well, at least until now, although i shall keep it real short since now i do feel sleepy again...)

It's been a real tiring couple of days for us all,
with Bingo not being an exception...

By the end of moving most of the stuff to the new place,
this is what greeted me when i tried to enter my room.
"How do i enter thee? Let me count the ways... Eh, none!"

Hmm maybe i'll elaborate more once this day's sleep catches up with me...

S'porean Wasp?

Last night i went for the second of three weddings i was invited for over the course of this week. This one was somewhat different since it was not a CF but rather an army affair. One of the fellow specs from my platoon in unit, to be exact. I got to see several people (including the groom, actually) for the first time since ord, which was quite cool. Apparently i look way different from a mere three years ago, since Hong Lee (the groom) gave me a weird stare and thought i was an intruder when i said hi initially, took him a couple of secs to realize who i actually was, which was quite farny...

The wedding itself was a great experience for me. For starters, it was the first non-Christian wedding i recall ever attending, so i found things quite different and unfamiliar. Furthermore, after three long years i was suddenly thrust back into a generally local mandarin/dialect speaking environment - apart from David, another spec at the table, everyone else was far more comfortable talking in the aforementioned languages. It made me recall how much people last time had to accommodate me language wise, since it was only then that i realized that the majority of Singapore does not speak English as the first language of choice, and therefore only then that i made a conscious attempt to try and better my command of Chinese languages (to little success, might i add)... Yeah so all in all it made me realize that my social circles still largely are of the Christian, English-speaking variety, which gave (and still is giving) me a lot to think about... (but then again, i'm not exactly of the elite, uncaring face variety so maybe that's a step in the right direction...)

Added to that was a simple question that Derrick, another spec, asked me while he was giving me a ride home. He asked me something to the effect of "eh Matthew, i noticed something. How come last time you never invited us to church?" Oh boy and if i could just describe the sheer impact of the figurative tonne of bricks that fell on me when he asked that... I didn't even know how to answer him.

Yup, a short three years ago i really was a totally bochap Christian who would not even consider inviting anyone to come to church. My involvement in spreading the Gospel at that time was strictly limited to the (and i hate this term) 'lifestyle' school. But then again people may have known i was a Christian then, but upon closer examination the 'Christian' nature of my lifestyle then came into serious question... A poor testimony. Something i'm definitely regretful about till today. Anyways, things may have changed somewhat since then, but still, i'm not too sure about inviting people down. The importance of sincerity, intentionality, and a Christlike love in so doing is really ringing across my mind now, three things sorely lacking in then. Yup anyways that was a very timely God-given wake-up call for me i must say...

It turns out that Bingo's little fit yesterday was not a once-off, as today the same thing happened yet again, albeit not as seriously as it did the first time. I'm starting to have serious doubts about his level of health, but as i've said previously, we'll just see what happens...

Packing has been going pretty well - today i doubled the amount i've packed. But then again, that equals to filling up the other half of the small box of files i started with like two weeks ago... At least i've more time to pack, since i just received word that we only can move in from the 15th onwards, which gives me one more week to settle stuff.

Think i've decided to forgo catching pirates 3, owing to both bad reviews and laziness... Well, i'm sure if and when pirates 4 comes out channel 5 will trot pirates 3 out as it's latest tv premiere blockbuster... So that still leaves me with only one movie caught this year... Heh.

Am starting to narrow down possible destinations for trip. Parents are going to HK, which i've chosen to avoid like the plague, so no go for that. Phuket/Khao Lak is a big possibility, but even if i go for that i've still some expiring miles that need to be used. Maybe Manila is an option... Ah well. A positive dilemma, i call it, so can't complain...

revolving around raffles

Sat evening i went down to church for a lecture (and i wish they'd give it a different name apart from lecture - the negative connotations that it brings to this nus student are both manifold and unappealing) by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan 'no-i-am-not-mr-bean' Williams who so happened to be in our neck of the woods over the weekend. The topic was Christianity: Public Religion & the Common Good. I wasn't expecting much out of the lecture especially since it was obviously intentionally not overtly Christian in nature ("with special reference to Christianity" was how the lecture was billed) and also since my previous experience with the public speaking of archbishops-cum-theologian/academic people has not been an entirely positive one.

But anyways, since it was the Archbishop of Canterbury after all, i did a bit of advertising for the lecture so a handful of thursday people past and present came down - specifically two dinos (Kevin n Eunice) and two year ones (or as they are so upliftingly titled in the states, rising freshmen - Grace Koh and Pheobe).

And the lecture actually went far better than how i'd thought it would - he addressed many pertinent issues that immediately struck a chord with me since he basically focused upon the role of the Christian in society. At the same time however he was careful not to strike any raw nerves with regards to so-called sensitive topics such as the evolution-ID debate and homosexuality when they came up during Q&A time, and also with regards to other religions. Can't fault him on that though...

Less than twelve hours later i found myself back in the same place for service, after which went with the family over to the British Club, where my aunt had organized a Mother's Day family lunch thingy (which my mother could not attend cos of speaking engagements). Incidentally, i just so happened to bump into Jeremy from UNC who had just arrived back less than a week ago - that was really so coincidental - apparently my extended family knows his - which just about further extends the intriguingly large circle of people whom i know and who also know people in my extended family in some way or other...

Anyways it was an appetizer and dessert buffet coupled with a choice of main course. I chose the Sunday Roast Beef with au jus and Yorkshire Pudding - and by the end i felt like one of the five thousand that Jesus fed cos the three slices of beef on my plate had been supplemented from two more plus lots of veggies from my lola who could not eat any more. This coupled with the more-than-ample appetizer and dessert spreads left me really bloated by the end of it...

Some people obviously were a tad overeager at the chocolate fountain...

So what better thing to happen than Steven, my monthly buffet buddy calling me to go for dinner that night. After some delays owing to restaurant closures and Mother's Day mark-ups (and finding myself back at Raffles City for the third separate time in 24 hours) we ended up at Pariss (and what a stupid name btw) at Marina Square. I'm not usually one for eating there cos of the preponderance of seafood that is precisely what makes the buffet as expensive as it is. But well, the price was relatively reasonable and there was enough non-crustacean seafood around for me to eat (though i'm beginning to have issues with eating some kinds of fish because of overfishing of certain stocks - but i couldn't go up to the sashimi and ask it whether it came from sustainable fisheries could i?), along with lots of other food too of course, so i went ahead and proceeded to stuff myself for the second time in the same day. I'm sure all that would have been more than enough to disqualify me from the under-60 club...

Anyways, two successive heavy meals in a single day was enough to strengthen my resolve for a run today - my first in more than a month if i'm not wrong, and hence i really felt like i was troddling along at a snail's pace. Managed to make my usual route though - from Amber Road up round the cable ski lagoon and back - in 48 minutes - which is super slow i know but well it's been a month... Now i'm just wondering where i can run after i move...

partial recall

On this note of my less-than-effective guard dog, here goes a mundane recap of the past week plus or so since exams ended...

Think that everyone had a good time over at night cycling last week. I must say that i was a little intimidated at first as to how to get everyone organized and ready, but things really worked out well in the end by God's grace. Weather was great, fellowship was great, route was reasonable, food was ... erm relatively missing but still ok lah... Overall hope that the tradition will continue cos think it's more than worth it to do so...

Over the weekend i also finally got my hands on it - a little on the expensive side maybe, but worth it especially in the long run methinks... Maybe she's a bit too fat for my liking, ah but i'll get used to it...

Mon was games day - and once again we had great weather. Think i was so un-used to such perpetual sunniness that i had a bit of a headache for the rest of the day - dehydration maybe... But anyways, had a great time playing ultimate and captain's ball - a good way to destress after exams that's for sure.

After arts fg (which i've been missing for quite some time already), it was agm time. Glad that things went far more smoothly than last year's did. I definitely don't recall laughing so much at an agm of any sort before (and many thanks to people like Ade Fam, Debs and Evan for that - and guess what? Their initials spell ADE - incidentally the chief unintentional inducer of amusement - think she must have set some sort of a record for non-exco member whose name appears most often in the agm report...)

One thing i've noticed is that since i've come back, every time after i get a hair cut i see people i hadn't seen since before i left, and people still remark on how my hair has grown so long and therefore i was hard to recognize - at agm was no exception...

There also was pecop, which was a great experience i thought. All the fun that XK and i had preparing for our nonsense songs aside, the whole concept in itself was a refreshing one, and it did work well, by God's grace. Um and i thought i'd be far more verbose over here but somehow nothing comes to mind so i shall leave it at that...

Went to cycle and think some things through the other day - decided to take a route i haven't taken in maybe nine months - up ecp and the airport-hugging road to Changi Village and back. That road in particular, come to think of it, has remained remarkably free of roadkill in the ten or so times i've gone past it (save for a solitary snail at last year's night cycling), and i was just thinking that when what else should i chance upon but a squashed monitor lizard. And in fact, before i had reached Changi Beach Park, i encountered one more squashed monitor lizard and two squashed snakes. - enough to make at least one handbag methinks... Then i was lamenting to myself that i was glad that i didn't see any live snakes, so what should i encounter mere minutes later but a snake slithering away from me as i cycled past. The anti-cherry on the cake was when i was back at ecp and noticed a parrot chick that must have fallen from its nest onto the bike path just in time to swerve to the side to avoid squashing it. I then continued another twenty minutes or so before turning back and thinking of putting it to one side, when who should appear but a less keenly-eyed cyclist who must have run the chick over, since i heard a loud squeak and him breaking suddenly =( I honestly felt guilty for the next ten minutes or so, but odf course i didn't want to go back and see what actually happened to the parrot so i cycled away...

Well, the past few days i ended up at a place i originally had no intention of being at, but at the end of the day i guess i'm glad i did go in the first place, even if i haven't arrived at any decision even now. We'll see how things go lah...

What's up with Federer?

veto power

Just caught my brother who was surreptitiously dashing up the stairs in order to play his computer game on the family desktop which so happens to be in my room. While when he first started to do this i was more or less begrudging him the right to do this, for the simple fact that this intrudes on my privacy much more than i'd like; i've tried to be more accommodating to his requests as of late, since it is the family computer after all, and i guess he's the right to use it once in a while. So to that extent i've come home after school to find the lights on in my room and him inside using the com and largely ignored it - even though i'm the kind of person who treasures his privacy enough to be alarmed every time i see this happening - so i'll just hang around downstairs until he finishes (and bug him a bit in between).

Ah but i dunno, just now when i saw him trying to play again (for the second time in the day) i shouted a loud "NOOOOO!!!!!!!" and to his audible dismay forbade him from playing again tonight (and the folks were there to help to chase him away as well). Ah well, all i can say is that this incident only goes to show that i need my own room, and the days when i did share a room with him (which are all of just over three short years ago) must have been simpler times...

(And just for the record, my brother is five-and-a-half years older than me...)

Today's work progressed little more than locating stray notes and organizing them into more distinct groups. Hardly as much as i wanted to get done, but then again, Sundays are always i-don't-feel-like-doing-any-work days so... Hope the study week ahead will go well though - realized that especially when compared with some others i've been blessed with quite a bit of time for exam prep so think i ought to make the best use of it as i can...

Well, today's church service was more of the same old same old save for the fact that i only found out today that Pheobe goes to the same service as i do - i had no clue before this... Once again though, i nearly was late cos i woke up late and i'm still not used to not staying right next to church and hence not used to the fact that i've now to travel to church. Think that put me a little off today cos i was not able to have my qt till later, and i tend to not be very spiritually alert before qt. So guess must try and revamp my Sun schedule so that i can find ample time to do qt beforehand...

Glancing through this months National Geographic special report on overfishing - "Saving the Sea's Bounty", along with bearing in mind some of what i''ve picked up from my Global Environmental Issues class has made me even less enthusiastic about seafood - any sea creature that is not a fish is already a no-no for me, but i may add at least certain kinds of fish to that list depending on whether they are fished sustainably. Oh, and whether they stink too =p

It finally didn't rain today, but no point cos i didn't end up doing anything outdoorsy. Not enough motivation to do so. Did however have a good catching-up/sharing session instead, which was very timely for me cos i've had rather a drought of that as of late, and think am the kind of person who requires to bleah things out regularly to the relevant people. Yup so that was much needed =)

I'll miss the east...

this and that

In the mood for randomness so do bear with me...

Firstly, here's a couple of pics:


This was taken at last week's rooftop cg. We had a time of reflection on the sem past and then sharing with one another on those reflections. This is coming in very delayed, but well it took that reflection time for me to realize what a great blessing the cg has been for me not only this past sem, but ever since year one. Especially since i came back though. I guess that the fact that my sorta unique church situation has translated into a lack of any real permanence and rootedness for me with regards to church min at least up till this point has meant that the community that i've in cf and especially so in thursday cg becomes all the more important for me. Yup and if i've ever needed such a community before, i sure needed (and still need) it when i came back cos i was (and still am) rather disorientated and disjointed from S'pore and all the stuff that came along with it, and the cg has given back in ways that i never had fully appreciated (and perhaps still don't)... God's faithfulness to me through the cg has just been so wonderful - it's so humbling and tear-inducing come to think of it...


Um, ok so this is on a totally different subject - was just walking along engin bridge (btw engin bridge seems to be some kind of biodiverse hotspot by nus standards since on top of these cats i also found the giant spider - which is still there btw - over there) the other day when i came across this cat and its three kittens - and it was so cool cos although these are probably just common stray/feral cats it at that moment felt as though i was on some Serengeti expedition and before me was some rare species of small wild feline. So of course out came my camera and voila... Reminded me a bit of my UNC days when the mere sight of a squirrel would coax my camera out before i could say, erm well, "squirrel!". That of course was until i realized that there were squirrels everywhere over in the US, compared to S'pore when i spot one like once a year or so high up some tree... Not enough nuts in S'pore maybe...

As each day goes by, i've become more and more keen on staying on campus next year. It's a combination methinks of being spoilt last sem at UNC when both classes and downtown were a two-minute walk away from my room; honours year coming up which promises to be really busy, and tv mobile getting increasingly on my nerves by the second. Things should work out eventually i hope - nearly screwed up my application cos i keyed in an invalid email address - maybe it's a freudian slip that i attached my nus userid to the usual UNC email. Thankfully the relevant people got back to me so was able to rectify that...

I don't recall having started on revision proper more than a week before my first paper ever before. Somehow i ended up choosing classes that have their deadlines rather early, so actually had nothing else school-related to do but revise from as early as Wed (which i did, and am doing, but very slowly - but hey it's a start right...) That being said, as i've expressed to some random people, i'm prepared to see my grades drop somewhat this sem owing to various complicated reasons, but i know that whatever happens the Lord has been ever-faithful - and i'm thankful no matter what lah (Job 1:21 - "Blessed be Your Name" - comes to mind but i'd hardly think that in Job's situation i'd be as unflinching - was already sad when i lost my old nalgene...)

Will it stop raining here everyday already?

It seems that facebook is starting to catch on here eh - seems really different though from the good old days, so to speak, when i was still over there. And it makes me more sentimental for how things were like last time in a way - for me the primary reason why i have fb (and aim too, for that matter) when i eschew just about everything else is that it helps me to keep in touch with friends outside of S'pore, especially those back at Carolina... But, still i suppose that at the end of the day; plus ça change, c’est la même chose, n'est ce pas?

cinderella man

Nice clouds that greeted me as i was leaving school on bus 10...

No i've not got a penchant for dancing at fancy balls while looking for my Prince Charming while wearing glass slippers, nor am i even remotely interested in boxing (what kind of a wimpy nickname for a boxer is "Cinderella Man" anyways?).

What i'm alluding to rather is my sleep patterns over the past week. After week upon week of struggling to get up by 6-ish on Mon and Tue so as to make it in time for a bit of prep before morning class, only to have the lack of sleep be redeemed over the rest of the week when i end up getting up around 8-ish or later (and subsequently only reach school between 10-12)cos i can't get myself to get up any earlier; i decided to revamp my sleep sched and see how things would go.

So to that end i spontaneously decided to sleep by midnight before every school day this past week (and "spontaneously" because it just so happened that i was so tired last Sunday night anyways so slept early to begin with...). The flipside of this though is that i had to wake up at 6am each morning so as to get a ride from my father halfway and eventually reach school by 7:45 latest. But in any case, an ensured 6 hours of sleep every single night for even five days in a row has been a rare occurrence as of late so i can't complain really... Furthermore, forcing myself to sleep by midnight means that i don't waste unnecessary time online each night till 2am or later, which is what i'd previously been doing a lot of, and the early mornings at school have meant more chance to quieten down in prep for the day ahead, not to mention to get to go for morning prayer again, which is something i've not been able to do (cos either have classes or am not in school yet) since week 4 methinks... Yup so hopefully i can continue at least somewhat along those lines for the rest of the sem to come...

In other random news i had the misfortune of sitting one of those 'new-generation' sbs buses when i took bus 30 back the other day. I sat myself upstairs and was enjoying the peace of a tv mobile-free cabin (btw the new ones all seem to not have tv mobile - could this be an acknowledgement from sbs transit that it fundementally sucks so they're not installing it on any more buses?) when suddenly i heard what i thought was some toot that was sampling every single ringtone that his/her cellphone had to often. I distinctly remember hearing at least two national anthems (God Save the Queen and Das Lied der Deutschland), not to mention, bizarrely enough, Silent Night, among other tunes that are best left forgotten. After a while, however, i realized that the timbre of the 'ringtone' matched that of the stop bell, then i put two and two together and figured out that annoying music would play whenever the rear passenger door was open. Can't figure out why they'd want to do such a stupid thing, but anyway all the more reason to use earplugs from now on i guess...

We had some kind of reunion thingy for
the S'pore people who were at NUS last sem...

Corny sia...
And the freaky thing is that i was actually the
first one to spot this sign and laugh at it...

looking back on the weeks of work

Aiyah actually this is supposed to be the last pic but me and tech... well...
And i used to say that i wouldn't be caught dead in a soccer jersey -
well in my defence that was borrowed cos my short was too dirty already...

Ah you have no idea how happy i am to be able to even have time to just post this cos at the end of a week where i had to type 5500 words in 3 essays and answer 80 questions for two tests (okok mostly mcq lah...) any form of relaxation is really more than welcome. *whee* So anyways i'll try to recall things in chronological order...

Ok this is really totally irrelevant
but just to note that there's one "dollar" too many there
- talk about doubling your $...

Well the above pic was taken in school on the mon of our dear term break which really was anything but a break. Ok, i take it back, it also was not a holiday, a time of relaxation, an opportunity to finally sit down and reflect fully upon sep, a time to spend with friends and family... Hmm i guess i'll say instead that it was anything but fun...

Why was i in school on mon? Cos i needed to watch a video and only could do so on campus, but the silly library was closed so i had to be content with finding some obscure corner in the forum with a powerpoint. Super annoying ah...

That night had dinner at a family friend's place. One of the guests there was a guy from VS (not there anymore so can reveal the name of the school liao), where of course i was attached to previously and had a very interesting time in the process. Was quite funny cos we got talking about school stuff and i realized that in the future i'll be at the receiving end of such talk... Hmmm...

Ah well, moving right along...

Ha? Sure or not?

Well wed had a project meeting in Chiam territory of all places cos we've to do a survey of the area. Pretty ironic that i used to stay just across the road in Sennett Estate for like five years but almost never ventured across to the hdb area. Anyways, have never seen such a quiet hdb estate in my life - the 'lunchtime crowd', if you can call it that, at McD's consisted of a handful of people plus one group of SAJC folk and that was it. But actually come to think of it i actually do like the place. I treasure my peace and quiet and Potong Pasir is definitely a good place where one can treasure one's peace and quiet very well... Chiam actually has done a good job considering the cards he's dealt with... I just wonder how the poor folk there can cope with just one measly bus service going through the town and not having a reasonably-sized supermarket in sight within the estate...

Thu it was arts cf cny visiting day and thoughthere were only a small group of us at both Florence's and Jocelyn's places, it still was fun nevertheless. Pit is actually quite a fun game to play despite its rather simple premise. For me too it was a good break from doing my essay (though in actual fact i hadn't technically started on that essay yet - nope, i only started typing that one on sun morn, the day before it was due...). Anyways, this was definitely hands down the most fun cny visiting experience i've had this year (and i didn't even get any $ that day either, so there...)

And with regards to this week, well, i'm just glad the workload, which is as far as i can remember the most work i've had to do within a one week timeframe; was bearable by God's grace. Throughout the whole week i kept on harboring grand visions of how i'd keep sleep to a minimum and hence maximize time spent on typing essays, such that i'd be able to end sooner. Well suffice to say that after the first day when i slept for all of two hours, it went downhill all the way from there, with me constantly oversleeping in spite of alarms and also constantly deciding in the middle of typing an essay that i needed a nap, which would inevitably upgrade itself into an full-fledged snooze fest. As a result, i was late for tutorial for the first time i can remember in my university career cos i woke up late and also was left doing each essay till mere hours before the deadline came. In the midst of all that, however, i really do recognize God's hand in all of this, cos He knew that i needed sleep and grandted it to me in spite of my lofty desires to the contrary, and at the same time never let me oversleep to an extent that i did not have enough time to finish any piece of work. Well, now that my so-called hell week is all but over, the postponements to the other things that i've been delaying considering and praying about have to finally reach an end. And boy is there a lot of stuff now that i think of it... And people have been (albeit understandably) swarming around me for various reasons - sheesh... Guess it's the right moment to just take time and really just listen...

grounddog day

Well after being reminded of a similar bout of antipathy toward cny that i felt a year ago, i'm more or less convinced that you can count me as the grinch of cny, if there ever were such a thing. Today has really been the most blah of holidays that i've had in a long time. Especially since this cny was on a Sunday again, and looking back at what i wrote about last year's cny experience, it almost seemed as though i was reliving the start of the year of the dog all over again, the only difference being that this year's was more boring.

Ah well, whatever it is, i've come to realise that there really is no such thing as healthy food when it comes to cny stuff, save for maybe the mandarin oranges (which i don't really like anyways). Today i was searching the house for something to eat and found lots of stuff, but it all was unhealthy stuff like pineapple tarts, cookies with tons of butter, fatty bak kwa and the like... Yesterday's cny dinner featured a grand total of one healthy dish - a token plate of sliced cucumbers and cherry tomatoes, which i feel was palced there just to assure ourselves that we were eating our veggies. Even the yusheng, which at least without the fish is technically vegetarian, is full of unappetising and sodium-and-sugar-laden preserved thingies which i doubt are very healthy either... But i guess given that this year is the year of the pig (though of course i don't believe in such stuff), perhaps it's only apt that we pig out eh...

Oh and speaking of yusheng, thought that it was pretty funny when my brother, some of my cousins and me, all proudly ACS-educated, were thinking of suitable cheng(2) yu(3) to use when preparing it, just as the waitress does in the restaurant. "wu(3) yan(2) liu(4) se(4)", "luan(4) qi(1) ba(1) zao(1)" and "feng(1) he(2) ri(4) li(4)" were some of what came to mind =p - not bad actually rite, at least the first two can apply in this context rite...

Anyways, i decided to skip visiting in the afternoon today and get some rest, cos already after the first house i was feeling extremely sian and tired. I can't imagine that i once actually looked forward to all the stuff that we'd do during cny. Nowsaday, i'm just glad for the reprieve from school (and btw let me reiterate the fact that the clash of cny with the midterm break sucks big time), even if it means being subject to horrible cny music that relentlessly attacks my eardrums. Oops i digress. Woke up and went with Mark for our fortnightly ecp run, which was great though i'm still quite unfit at least when compared to before i left... Shucks i dunno what i'm gonna do for running (or cycling, for that matter) once i move to my new place, which is somewhere up the slope of a hill in town...

What i'm rather pleased with myself about is the fact that i finally got down to doing some forum posting today - yup that's two overly-long-drawn and confusing posts down, so at least i know i won't get 0 out of 10%. Was just thinking back to the annoying formalities that i encounter on forums and i came up with a perfect new one which i was so tempted to add in just to be a pain, but i decided to refrain - instead of "here's just my two cents' worth," i wanted to say "here's just my ten percent's worth..." But anyways, tomorrow i've to head back to school to catch a video on my laptop that is only accessible on campus. Too bad the lib is closed, so have to find some good secret place with a powerpoint where i can watch it - dang...

tiredness and opportunities

Fwah just now's captain's ball/ultimate was uber tiring can - after we were finished i had to go over to the library to get some readings for monday's test zapped, and so i had to get the books from rbr. After i zapped and returned the first book, i put in my next request slip and waited for the next book. After i got it i went over to the photocopying room and put my cashcard in, all ready to zap the necessary pages, when i took a closer look and realized that i had the same book that was in my hands just minutes before - in my saaa-ness (sp?) i had submitted the same rbr request slip for a second time in a row! Diao - well at least at the end of the day i got that settled. Two side notes: 1) after two-and-a-half years at nus i finally realized that there was a monitor located right next to the rbr bookdrop that listed whether your book had successfully been accepted by the machine; and 2) there was a certain nice photocopy room staff that was kind enough to instruct me in some of the ways to make my zapping jobs easier - never knew there was such a thing as a landscape function - always thought that the paper select tray labelled "A4 R" was simply for recycled paper heh...

But anyways, back to the captain's ball/ultimate we had just now - had a great time even if now i'm feeling really without much energy left in me. Haven't played games like that since UNC - where i was so bad in comparison to all the Americans that they sort of gave me face and applauded whenever i made a block or caught the frisbee successfully - so paiseh can. Anyways my 'American training' didn't have much positive impact on my skill level cos my standard was just about the same as ever but in any case the important thing is good fun and fellowship rite...

Was quite cool today cos i had originally planned to get to school by ten am so as to get some work done before class at two. But as i was in the bus i got a text from a friend from esc last sem, he was asking for language help for an essay that he had to write. Well to cut a long story short my original plan to get some work done from ten to two was aborted in favor of spending time suggesting improvements in the essay and also to catch up and talk about lots of stuff. What was particularly cool was that the topic of the essay that he had to write was on Christianity, so he was asking me some questions about that, and when he did ask questions about that i was like "ok if this isn't an opportunity provided by God i also dunno what is..." so by God's grace He gave me the words to say in sharing more about my faith with him - aiyah long story lah, and don't want to say so much as well, but basically i thank God again for this opportunity and all that has come out of it...

This being said however, i'm still sticking to my initiative to take all the work that i've to do more seriously, so along this line as i've mentioned earlier do ask me what i'm up to if you see me around and i appear to be wasting the hours away instead of doing more constructive things...

Countdown begins...

In exactly a month's time i'll already be back in sweaty S'pore preparing for the new school term - thirty days - that's just about as long as the MEET Thailand trip earlier this year - but somehow at the start of that one i was like "gosh a whole month - that's soooooo long", and now i'm like "ahhh only a month left till i go back - so short =(" Granted, of course that the activities involved in each month are totally different, but in any case think it's fascinating when you come to think of it...

Well, things are definitely beginning to wind down over here - today was the last day of lessons proper, and tomorrow is reading day (yes you heard it right - reading day - one day, that's it) and then finals start on Friday. I myself have four papers to do, one of them being a take home, and the other three being non cumulative (i.e. they only cover what's not been tested so far this sem, so i'm hardly skipping a beat over them (hence my typing of this post). Should get down to more prep soon though...

I originally had five papers in all, the other was for the really killer gender of welfare course that i'm taking, but somewhere down the line my prof also concluded that this was a really killer course, and to that end during our last class this past Monday she announced that, with our approval, she'd scrap having a final altogether - and you can imagine it didn't take much persuasion for us to approve that... Anyways, as much as i initially was dreading every moment of this class, i'm glad in the end that i took it (and not just because it turned out to be non-examinable) - really broadened my horizons a lot... To celebrate the end of the very gruelling course we all had dinner at Los Potrillos - a very nice but still quite affordable Mexican place here - good food - have already been there a couple of times in fact - had enchiladas done three ways, one of them in mole (moh-lay, not as in the animal) sauce, which in fact contains lots of chocolate - and it tasted really good in fact - first real taste of chocolate in an entree - too bad though, it's got no nuts =p

Some of my gender of welfare class with our prof at dinner
- and speaking of gender, apart from me only one guy and like five girls are missing...

Yesterday had another farewell event - this time dinner with IV international small group folks at Jim's (our staffworker). [I wanted to post a picture here but too leche (sp?) lah - so once again you'll have to look there =======> once i post it] We had really good food cooked by Jim's wife Beth, and good fellowship too - fun - looking back, i'm really thankful for how the Lord has provided a group such as this for us international folk =)

Just now it was yet another farewell-ish event - the bunch of us from nus met for dinner with the unc people who were at nus last sem and the unc people who'll be in nus next sem - probably the last time i'll get to see some of the middle group, but it also was good to meet up with the next batch - got me a biiit excited about next sem when they'll be in S'pore. We ate at this place called "35 Chinese" though, and if you know me, judging from the name of the place you'll know how much i enjoyed the meal...

Yup, the time for farewells and goodbyes has come - quite sad i must say - time here has really gone by so fast, have only just over a week left here on the Hill before i go travelling. Well, i'll be back here early in the new year, but don't think will get to see too many, if any people at all in those few days. Though i haven't met as many people here as some of the others have, i'm definitely very thankful for those whom i've met - they've all really been a great blessing to me during my time here - again it makes me realise how important it is to not ignore foreign students back home, which i sometimes tend to do - a little bit can definitely go a long way...

Oh and did i mention the weather these past few days has been wonderful? (Well at least to me, most others are complaining about the freezing cold). Great weather to just take a nice walk in and enjoy the cool, fresh air. No snow though - whenever the temperature is well below freezing the forecast always seems to be for 0% chance of precipitation of any kind *bleah*. And i know when i get back, i'll suffer all the more...

Hope none of my flights kena this sorta thing - talk about a story to tell the grandchildren eh ;p...

G is for Gone

Well, Jon my roommate's out for the weekend, it's his turn to go to Charleston, which means that i've the room to myself and my nonsense till Sunday. Was intending to spend a good portion of this time relaxing, since i don't have much work to do. A good portion of that relaxing would have been spent on the guitar - as you know a friend David from IV here loaned me his guitar till i leave the Hill - during my time-wasting yesterday i managed to learn how to play 關懷方式 [btw i just cut-n-pasted that from the page i learnt how to play it from - you think i actually know how to use special software to type that - some more it's in whatchacallit - fan(2) ti(3) zi(4) rite...] [and for those who like me would otherwise be unable to read that it's guan(1) huai(2) fang(1) shi(4), the Chen Hanwei/Cai Lilian getai show song] [and just as a disclaimer - i learnt how to play it, full stop. Not how to play it well...] [just to note that this is the first time that chinese characters have appeared here - go buy 4D!] [and this is just plain boliao, but i've never used so many square brackets in quick succession before either] - well, as i was saying, i was playing something just now - ironically think it was supposed to be a quiet worship song, the exact song i've forgotten - when the G string snapped *boing*. Hmm so well that was the end of that - feel bad about snapping it especially when it wasn't mine (and i don't know how to restring a guitar), but David said it wasn't a problem. Sigh...

Well, maybe that was God's way of telling me that i should be finishing my work and starting on revision for finals which begin in exactly eight days' time instead - so i'll try and garner enough motivation to do that really soon - and if i'm really hard up to play - can still do so without the wayward string... And in any case, it's great that God has provided me with the guit in the first place - yeah thankfulness in all circumstances...

I thought that birthday surprises had come to an end for me but yesterday night Clement, Jeremy, SJ and Weichang got a cake for me from Cold Stone - a whole bunch of us were there to say farewells to one another - yeah that was really nice of them, and the fact that my throat was then still somewhat not 100% yet did not deter me from finishing a big slice of Chocolate Mint Ice-Cream Cake...

And speaking of farewells, yuppers it's not long before i'll be gone from here and probably won't see many of the people i've encountered here again - but well, at least there's other ways to keep in touch rite... And that also provides a perfect excuse for a return visit sometime soon as well =p

Tomorrow i'm going for my first UNC basketball game - it's the Tar Heels v. UK (U of Kentucky, not United Kingdom) - should be a good game, which we should win =) - this year's the first year they're trying out a lottery system for bball tickets - people register online and then they either get tickets or they don't based on the tickets available and how many people register. Demand eternally outstrips supply, btw. And for once i've been rather successful in these sort of things - of the four games i've bidded for so far, i got tickets to three of them - while there are others who haven't gotten a single one... Normally i never win anything... But anyways, previously they had some kind of bracelet/first-come-first-served system where people would line up outside the Dean Dome (the bball arena here) from 6am in the morning - kinda like how S'poreans like it best methinks - but they've done away with that - and a lot of die hards have protested - reminds me a bit of what they did with ndp tickets a couple of years back - well i must say that at least for me the draw of UNC bball is greater for me than is the draw for ndp by far...

Btw pics from b'day/Thanksgiving/Charleston are all up over there =======>

Looks like i ought to get started on work then,,,

What not to do when your throat's itchy...

I came back from Charlotte with a bit of a tickle in my throat, and i brushed it off as just a little thingy probably a result of the dry air. So i thought nothing of downing a couple of cookies that night and went to bed with a slight cough.

Coughing got somewhat worse the next day, and throat was starting to feel sore - but somehow i didn't really care much, so for dinner that night it was two big slices of pizza for me.

After that when i got back to the room i felt thirsty, but alas, the water cooler on my floor was not working, so i decided to buy a drink from the vending machine in the basement. There i bumped into Brett from my floor who was helping himself to some ice from the ice machine (btw, it was at that moment, three and a half months after moving in, that i realized that there was an ice machine down there). So somehow, the bright idea to just fill my nalgene to the brim with ice and top it off with a drink from the vending machine came to mind - and so i got a bottle of Sierra Mist and poured it into my ice-filled nalgene, occasionally thinking of its potential consequences, but largely not bothering about it - finished the whole ice-cold bottle that night, quenched my thirst, went to bed.

Next morning - throat felt really bad - and had a lot of phlegm in it - coughed into the basin - saw lots of red in what i coughed out - panicked for two seconds or so - then got hold of senses and figured it must be some mild laceration in the throat, and not anything in the lungs, which would be quite worrying, yeah so i figured the best thing to do would be to just eat more throat-friendly food and to buy some throat lozenges (btw why is almost every sore throat medication cherry flavored? For me that's worse than the ailment itself - bad memories of children's panadol). Felt feverish around that time too, but temperature wasn't too high - 98.9 degrees F (37ish C)...

So by the end of the day, things were better, throat less of a bother and fever more or less gone - i musn't have been too sick judging from my appetite at dinner at Lenoir - five plates of main courses and one plate of dessert isn't what a sick man would normally eat - now throat still a little wonky, but more or less ok...

Anyways, thanks again for the b'day video thingy - watching that certainly helped me to forget that i was sick for a while =)

Leave it to beaver

Got back to the Hill from Charlotte a couple of hours ago, and just managed to finish the work that's due for tomorrow (unless i forgot something, which is definitely possible) - after the past few days of relaxation it's back to classes again and it's certainly not the best of feelings (also cos ate oily and greasy chinese food for dinner before leaving Charlotte which did not sit well in my stomach) but ah well better than not having a break rite...

And well to follow up on yesterday, did end up going to the dam after all - located in the muddy woods behind Greg's house - it was great fun, certainly haven't seen anything like that before. The trek was quite a challenge too - we had to walk in ankle-deep mud at times, with the cold swampy water seeping into my borrowed boots that had convenient slits on each one to allow for maximal seepage. I dunno why i always seem to kena water getting into my footwear - it seems to happen whenever i'm outside when it's raining heavily, and my feet are left a wrinkly mess. Army lagi worse - my training basically had me in at least waist-deep gross water half the time. In fact, the trek reminded me a bit of the time during training when my group and i got stranded in knee-deep water at Tekong Reservoir from sunset till around one/two-ish in the morning - that sure wasn't pretty...

The shadows of myself, Greg's neighbor Peyton, and Greg
standing on top of the beaver lodge at the dam

That one beaver dam caused this much flooding - amazing eh...

More pictures of Thanksgiving break (ooh, and Charleston too) will come once i've time to post them over there =======>

Btw, came back from the break only to have Carol say that i lost weight and SJ saying that i gained weight - dunno what to make of that - i guess i can just average it out and conclude that things are pretty much at status quo =p

Happy exam-doing y'all =)

Thanks has been given

Well, am almost at the end of the Thanksgiving break, and it was definitely a good one - got to experience warm hospitality, good food, funny stories, bowling, more football and basketball-watching in just four days than i've ever done in the rest of my life - that sorta thing and it was a refreshing change from school for sure. Even though it was like just under 20 people from the same extended family and one of me and no one else, still felt very much at home and i'm really thankful for that...

Of course there still was (and is, and is to come) schoolwork to do - whenever any break, be it even for just a weekend, comes my way, schoolwork reminds me of that annoying little mosquito that will just not be killed, and admittedly my work ethic is definitely at its lowest during such periods. There's of course the safety net of pass/fail, but it doesn't feel good nevertheless.

So later this afternoon after church it's back to the Hill and to the reality of a book report due tomorrow and another test on wednesday (and there probably is other stuff which i've probably conveniently forgotten about at this moment). Might squeeze in a short trek to the beaver dam behind Greg's house before that too - that would be fun...

Also realizing that the time has come to start saying final goodbyes to people, don't have more than three weeks left on the hill before winter break starts and i start to go gallavanting around the East Coast (haha seems like i can never get away from the east eh?). Sad - so many people who've made a difference to my time here, and goodness knows if and when i might be back to meet them again of if and when they might pop up in S'pore one of these days...

Later...

J'ai vingt-trois ans...

Ok firstly, just to say thanks to all the well-wishes for my turning the big two-three - know that in the previous post i was saying that i wasn't all that enthusiastic about it and was glad to get away from it all, but well i really appreciated and treasured every one that came my way, so thanks - now i think i know why i'm not too keen on birthdays - cos when i think to a year from now, i realise i'll be an age which previously had seemed so far away - i mean, can you believe that i'll be 24 next year at this time? Eek...

And somewhere on that note, promise to reply emails and what-have-yous really soon, once i finish a significant-enough portion of the annoying book report that i've to do by Mon - currently am really skimming through the copied pages of the book in question - had to zap the second half of it (at a ridiculously high price of US 14 cents per page) cos the library only had it on two-hour (read: RBR) reserve and i only managed to get half of the book covered before i left for Charlotte.

Which is where i am now - one random point of interest/annoyance: left the Hill at around one-ish, then later after i'd reached here got a happy birthday message on facebook saying that it snowed a bit on the hill just for me - and i was like "WHAT? YOU MEAN IT SNOWED ONCE I LEFT???!!!" Ok, of course i didn't reply in that brusque a manner but the general gist was there - yes - first snow of the year and it had to come mere hours after i left the Hill... Nice...

And speaking of annoyances, have been catching a lot of college basketball here at Greg's house (nothing like a good time in the States to make you do things you'd never ever think of doing previously) and just caught my first-ever Tar Heels game - we were 3-0 up to this point, but of course the first game that i caught had to be a tame loss to Gonzaga - our first loss of the season.

So a quick recap: First snowfall of the season - missed; first Tar Heels loss of the season - caught. Bummer...

Heh, well anyways, so far i've been having a really good time over here at Greg's - a lot of his relatives arrived today - it kinda reminded me of CNY minus the annoying music and stilted chatter, plus good food and lots of tv... His neighbor's children even somehow got wind of my birthday and gave Greg and i three bags of candy each, and also posted a couple of 'happy birthday' signs outside the house - really sweet of them - also there was a little cake awaiting us at home too; and his relatives area a really nice bunch too. Anyways, am trying to finish my book report asap so that can spend more time just enjoying things over here...

Gosh i'm old - but in the spirit of Thanksgiving tomorrow - guess that's also something to give thanks for =)...

Groundhog Hour

I was sorta bummed about the fact that i've yet to finish my work yet (though i'm getting close!) and then i got an IM from Brooke, my ride to church tomorrow reminding me that daylight saving time expires about two hours from now, which basically means that i've an extra hour of sleep tonight and less worries about waking up early enough tomorrow to avoid a rush of activity...

Now to wait for the cheap thrill of setting my watch back an hour and auto-repeat one hour of my life...

One tiny thing though is that i'm no longer exactly twelve hours behind S'pore which means that calculating timing is now gonna be a little tricky, with my bad math and all...

So for the tentatively scheduled skype teleconference that i have with you guys who know who you are, do remind me again when exactly we're supposed to be online (and preferably subtract thirteen hours from your time and let me know when's that) cos chances are left to my own devices i may screw something up...

It's not for a few days yet, but i saw some pretty interesting Halloween costumes on Franklin Street today - one really smart one that i saw was two ladies dressed entirely in white with a big yellow circle on each of their tops, and carrying red pitchforks, and also adorned with pointed ears and a long pointy tail - both red as well. They were Deviled Eggs - that really cracked me up - pun fully intended =p...

Surprise surprise, we lost football again... Sigh...

Football's fine, soccer stinks

Finally since i've come back from the weekend i'm able to relax somewhat - with the two assignments (which turned out to be much less of a hassle than i had imagined it to be at the beginning of the weekend) all done and submitted, and only one small thingy left to do for friday - after which that's it for the week =) Of course, the work never ends and i've lots of stuff to prepare for my toughest class, which is a weekly three-hour-straight seminar on gender and welfare every monday, but still the immediate horizon is clear and that's all i care about for now, though thankfully the procrastinator mode that perennially plagues me in S'pore seems to have taken a vacation of its own, so thing will be able to get myself to get started on the monday work (fairly) early...

Speaking of my weekend assignments, one of them was to read (or more accurately in my case, re-read the first half and finally get down to reading the second half) Orwell's 1984 and then write a character-based response to it. I guess i'll soon enjoy the fact that here a lot of the readings are unconventional by the standards that i've been used to, in that there's a lot of fiction to read too, rather than just sleep-inducing academic stuff. For now, though, i'm still far more used to reading sleep-inducing academic stuff than fiction (i almost never read fiction), but i'm sure i'll enjoy the fiction stuff too eventually...

Oh, but i digress. My point was that right after completing the book [just in time to meet the deadline to return the book to the used book store on Franklin for a full refund (i already have one at home - remember, this is a poor international student typing this here)] and typing out the assignment, i logged on to facebook to find out that they've installed this new feature which is really freaky and weird, in that basically all your contacts' actions on facebook are now neatly listed in front of you when you log in, even all the stuff that does not concern you in the slightest, like "so-and-so is now friends with so-and-so-whom-you-do-not-know" or "so-and-so no longer likes to listen to Michael Jackson (who can blame him)" or other trivial stuff like that. Well, i have not encountered a single person who's for this new invasion-of-privacy program, which to me is really freakily Orwellian in nature, especially after just having read the book. It's such a big issue here (since practically every college student here uses it) that it's made the news, both on the paper as well as online, and is also a hot topic of pre-class discussion now.

So anyway, saturday saw me going for my first-ever football game. It was a very interesting experience - not just the game itself, but the whole atmosphere of the game was just great. Where the game was concerned, i underwent a crash course in how the game works, so that by the end of the game i became really bummed when Rutgers intercepted the ball for the second time - thus ending any chance of a UNC victory. At least when i go for my next game (more on that later) i won't be like clueless anymore, so that's a start i guess...

But it was not just the game per se - the whole atmosphere was just great. One thing i really dig about UNC is the degree of school spirit that they have - it kind of reminds me of AC days - particularly the annual rugby final which used to always be AC vs RJ (kinda like UNC vs Duke) - the enthusiastic spectators with their often too-colourful language, the cheering, the colour-coordination and the like. I genuinely felt involved in the whole thingy, though i've only been here for like less than three weeks - now this would NEVER EVER happen in nus (i wouldn't even go and buy an nus shirt), that i'm absolutely sure of...

The only sad part of the match was that i left my nalgene in the stadium after the match, and when i remembered it and went back in to get it all of five minutes later, someone else had already taken it. So sad... Ah well, the silver lining is that this provides me with the perfect excuse to buy a new nalgene with the UNC logo emblazoned on it...

After the match, had a quick dinner before heading off to Charlotte for the rest of the weekend. Went with Jon and Alex, and Greg drove us there and lodged us at his house. Now, the first time i ever heard of Charlotte was a looong time ago when i watched wrestling and they would introduce Ric Flair as hailing from Charlotte, North Carolina. Then after that i heard about the Hornets, and then the Bobcats. Yup that's basically all i knew about this city.

Although it is hardly the most interesting of places, we all still had a really great time there, to just relax, explore uptown Charlotte, visit the Discovery Place, and take in the sights and sounds of Matthews Alive, an annual Labor Day fair held at Matthews, a town right outside Charlotte near where Greg lives. Of course with your truly being a namesake of the town, it was inevitable that i'd have a field day taking snapshots of myself at strategic places with my name proudly etched on them. Talk about a cheap thrill heh... But anyway it definitely was a weekend well spent - and i'm very thankful for the hospitality of Greg and his family =)

Came back to school again - which is pretty uneventful as usual, maybe the only noteworthy thing that happened was that i went for my first-ever soccer match just now (as you'll probably know, i hate the sport) between UNC and NC State. I was willing to give soccer a chance since it was a UNC game after all... Admittedly however, i just could not tahan watching the full match and left at half time. It's just not my thing - though how i could last through three hours worth of football but can't even last through 45 minutes of soccer is beyond me.

Oh, and this morning woke up really early to head down to the Dean Dome (where the basketball team plays) to get into the line for the remainder of the UNC-Virginia Tech football game tickets. Went together with Clement, Jon and Sarah-Jane - we got to the place just before 7am (tickets were released only at eight) - needless to say we got the tickets, so i'll be off to football again this upcoming saturday... Should be great fun again, though from what i hear, i don't fancy our prospects...

I'm feeling too lazy to post the pictures here as well, but you can easily see them on the pics link there =======> Captions and descriptions coming soon...

My dealings on the first day

The above is just a little indication of how chaotic things were today on the first day of school (btw i felt like soooo touristy standing at the edge of the pit taking this picture - if i were to see someone taking random people pics at say the forum in NUS i'd give a puzzled look, wondering why in the world this person may be wanting to do something like that...). Well today's classes went quite well, at least am more in tune with the system here now, and potentially what's in store for the next couple of months.

Am kind of dreading how at least for the history courses there's so much writing involved - like in handing in weekly written assignments on top of all the readings and all that - think i may be getting in way over my head here, especially since of the courses i have at hand (or at least hope to get), three are higher-level history courses which will definitely require a lot of writing and reading, while my intro to American government class is full of, well, Americans, who obviously would know more about their government than i do so that means i'll have to do a lot of reading up. The saving grace of my courses is the linguistics class mandated by the people upstairs in the national potters' ministry (geddit?) cos it appears that though i mapped it to a course that i've never done in nus, the content overlaps somewhat with another course i did last sem, so it shouldn't be too bad methinks (the prof brought his young daughter into the class to play btw - a perfect indication of the more relaxed teaching atmosphere that is prevalent here...) And of course i am really interested in what's to be covered in all of the classes so far, so i guess that's a step in the right direction =)

And of course there's also the issue of buying of the necessary books - which in case you haven't heard are beepingly expensive - did a rough estimation and in the student store (which does have higher prices) the total cost of the books that are part of the reading lists of all my courses adds up to almost US$200 (though think that it's actually more, owing to my bad math) - i'll have to start scouting Amazon and the off-campus stores really soon...

Anyway, today was a good day overall - after classes ended i went to meet up with Greg and his friend for dinner - haven't seen him since he left S'pore - went to eat at another great Mexican place on Franklin [btw think i've eaten more avocado since arriving in the US (by means of guacamole) than in the rest of my life combined] and once again stuffed myself silly. After i said goodbye, i was walking along Franklin on the way home when i bumped into Jon and Clement and SJ and Stephanie and Carol and ended up following them to - yup you guessed it - dinner - though i was way to stuffed to eat anything else. Met up with SJ's roomie, her brother and her friend - was great to meet them too. For dessert i had what basically is the frozen yogurt equivalent of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups - no complaints there =)

Well, tomorrow i have to approach the prof of the final class that i really want to add - hopefully there'll be no problem with doing that - or i may have to do a last-minute search for another available class, and then after securing it, take on the daunting task of attempting to map it with an nus module solely through online communication with the other side, and then forwarding all this to the national potter's ministry for their reference...