OF GINGER CHICKENS AND MID-TERM REVIEWS

Hehhe, Jamie recently reminded me of the large portions of food found in the "american" food places back in Singapore eg. Carl's Junior, some high-end places at CHIMEs and whatnots..

Yeah, reminded as in I forgot.
which means I've gotten used to the food portions here.
which really means.. okay let's not go there.

But moving along now.
While you guys have yummy fried rice and noodles back in Hall,
I eat cereal with chocolate milk for breakfast.
I have sandwiches/hot dogs for lunch
and I get my dinners from the Chinese food trucks.. mainly from Yue Kee and Kim's, which are both about a 10 mins brisk walk from my place.

Food trucks are pretty common here in Pennsylvania, esp in universities and some work places.
It's like a mini restaurant that runs on wheels, and each serves a type of food eg. Chinese, American (think hotdogs, sandwiches, bagels, bacon and eggs), Mexican, Greek, fruits etc. They each have their own menus, but they serve almost the same things, at least from one Chinese food truck to another. The difference between Yue Kee + Kims, and the rest of the other chinese food trucks is that these 2 cook on the spot, like in a wok. So it has this home-cooked food taste. The rest are roughly .. put white rice in the white box, put some ready boiled/steamed white chicken meat and vege, and pour sauce over it depending on what you ask for eg. Sweet and Sour, Garlic etc.

Speaking of which, comes my main point of the blog.
I've in the past ordered a a few different ones; Sweet and sour chicken, garlic chicken, spare ribs, Ma Po tofu etc.. The underlying theme that runs in these dishes, I've realized, is that we didn't really cook alot of these back at home. Good sweet and sour chicken's really difficult to make, and we usually cook other bean curd dishes. And so today I decided to try Kim's Ginger Chicken and. omg fab.

It was sosososo good.
Maybe because it was already 7 and I usually eat way earlier than that.
Maybe because it had been a long day and I just needed to chill out with a good dinner.
And then I thought.. maybe because.. we usually eat ginger chicken at home, and I haven't had it for so long! found my comfort food =)

Hahha all the rubbish above just to say I love ginger chicken? Sorry la.. just felt like sharing =D

Here's what a food truck looks like.

Anyways, just got back from a review for Wednesday's Intro to Jap Civ mid-terms.

no.1 History/Jap majors rawk. The dates, the events, the terms!! how do you people do it.

no.2 I didn't really know what a mid-term review was before I went for it. NUS where have mid-term reviews wan. The super-nice lecturers will tell you explicitly what to study and what won't come out, and the mean lecturers teaches all the way till the class before mid-terms and reminds you that everything covered thus far will be in next week's mid-terms, leaving you with one week to grasp the new material and remember everything else.

So I imagined this review to be a brief outline of what we have been studying so far, just to jog our memory and answer whatever we're unsure off. Unsure off, meaning probably not in the notes. Wahlau, for every slide that summarizes one lecture per slide, hands kept on raising and they asked about the main event that happened - when some of the info were in the notes. Like no need to study la, the teacher can answer everything for you two days before the exams.

Slight exaggeration. It's AS IF the teacher can answer everything. Still have to study the other 90% of the materials. It was really nice of her to be so patient and answer everything.

The review was really good. It sumed up the half the syllabus in 1 1/2 hours and cleared different doubts. It also reminded me how much more stuff I needed to know.

Oh no, another round of late nights.
Bleah.
Off to work now.
Spanish quiz tml and Jap Civ exam on Wed.

Then it's Florida on Thusrday! yes aHHH! =D

I MISS YOU

It's 12.oo midnight now,
and I'm emo-ing along to to Edward McCain's "I Could Not Ask For More".
I find myself suddenly thinking about you.
I miss you.
Especially during nights like these.
If people were to ask, "What is the one thing you miss from hall/Singapore?", and
"If you could bring it to the States with you, what would it be?"
I would, only after a split second of a hesitation say, you.
Yes, I know it has only been one sem since I've gotten to know you.
who ever said time was a factor?

I admit, I thought about you a lot.
In the mornings. Sometimes in the afternoons.
Especially at nights.
You could always fill the void in me.
Did you think of me too?

I knew you were wrong for me.
I knew you were bad for me.
Still, I could never find the will in me to walk away from you.
Now that you're not here, the nights seem quiet.
Empty.
Lonely.

I doubt that you're aware of all these thoughts that exist inside of me, inside my head, inside my heart. I guess I never told you.
Now I hear you're even closer to home this semester, the semester I'm not around. How ironic.
At times like these, I wish I never left you.
Do you think of me too?
Or do you still happily go about your own business with other people?



























I miss you, Sheares Supper.
ahahahhahaa... what were you thinking?! =)

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE

Pedro: Do you think people will vote for me (for school president)?
Napoleon: Heck, yes. I'd vote for you.
But what are my skills?
Well, you have a sweet bike. And you're really good at hooking up the chicks. Plus, you're like the only guy in school who has a mustache.
That's true.
If you need to use any of my skills, I can do whatever you want.
If I win, you can be my secretary or something.
Sweet. I could be your bodyguard too. Or Secret Service Captain or whatever.

AHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHHAA.
WHAT SHOW IS THIS?!?!!??!?!?!?!

Later Entry
They look better real life, as evidenced by my random surfing.
But still, how in the world did they sweep 3 sweet Tubs of Popcorn Awards for Best Musical Performance, Best Breakthrough performance, Best Picture of the year in The 2005 MTV Movie Awards, the Grammy awards AND the Sundance award*?! HOW?

*Source: Jamie Lim.

TGIF! I LUP FRIDAYS

Just had una cena deliciosa en el restaurante coreano.

YUM.
Can't believe Hannah quietly paid for it.
So sweet =)
But it was good, Korean food's good.

Probably going to watch a movie on my laptop later.
It's called Sabrina (1995) with Harrison Ford in it.
The Video collection at the Van Pelt library (main library) is quite sad.
but i guess cannot anyhow expect..
It is, after all a school library.
And so, it must contain all the umm.. educational shows,
the foreign language shows, and superbly many indian movies, even more old shows (30s, 40, 50s) and veryveryvery few, almost no romantic comedies/comedies of the latest decade.
SADDDD.

Why must rent/borrow and not just download?
Good question. Come, here's a good answer.
You'd think America's the no.1 anti-piracy campaigner,
with the sales of their Hollywood movies suffering in Asian markets and their IT softwares being reproduced and distributed globally at rates faster than the original producers.
And this is a campus leh. We're all connected to the network.
If they catch anyone downloading Friends or Lost or whatever illegally, then die. Or so I thought.

PEOPLE DOWNLOAD STILL LAAA.
which come to think of it, is not really such a big shocker. Their soldiers are the heroes of terrorism + the warriors of the nation.
But, the soldiers of the Islam world who protect the same identity, autonomy and independence of their own nations are labelled as barbaric and heartless terrorists.
The people here too download illegally, happily. It's all good =D
Till I'm not downloadprogramme-less anymore, rentals are the way to go.

Some pics of my room at Stouffer College House =)

Here's how my room looks when the going gets tough.
This was taken on the Saturday I got back from Atlantic City.
That week, I had one exam and 3 major papers due (Wed, Thurs + Fri).
I left straight for Atlantic city after Friday's classes.

I know =(
horrible.
I guess it's kinda messy in an organized way, like I can still find my calling card under all my papers and stuff on my table. But it's not as nice to live in as if it's clean and neat.

It's not always like that though!
Here's what it looks like after I realized how messy my room was.
And tidied it up =)

HOW TO SPEND TWO MINUTES ON YOUR ART AND GET AN A!

Hi there!

Ever dreamt of being a great painter? An reknowned artist?
Ever wondered if you could make it big?
Or.. have you, like me, always been barely-passing that darned subject?
Wanna know how to spend two minutes on your art and
convince your art teacher that it's museum-worthy?
Well, look no further!
And wipe that dubios frown of that pretty face!
Boy, have I got a deal for YOU!


I took a few photographs when I was in the MET,
aka the METropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
As in, one of the top museums in the world.
I remember being a complete flop in Art in high school.
It was seriously my least-liked 2 hours each week, for the full 5 years.
I could never draw a human face ONE tiny bit convincingly.
Painting neatly within the lines was difficult (can you imagine?),
and painting in "layers" or in "tones" always turned out a mess.

And so, when I was in the modern Art section in the MET.
Boy, was I ..
Okay.
Let you see the pictures and you can fill in the blank above.

HOW TO SPEND TWO MINUTES ON YOUR ART,
GET IT FRAMED AND PUT UP FOR THE WORLD TO SEE
IN ONE OF THE GRANDEST MUSEUMS IN THE WORLD.

Idea 1: Draw two circles and paint them black.
Potential Difficulty: You might get all excited and draw more than two ball- circles i mean.
Overcome by: Control, dude, control. Two's enough.


Idea 2: Paint the background yellow, then paint two strips, one white, one red.
Potential Difficulty: You might just run out of yellow paint.
Overcome by: Idea! Tape a few pages from the Yellow pages together and use that instead of the usual drawing-block! Save time AND save paint.



Idea 3: Paint the whole bluhdy thing blue.
Potential Difficulty: You might get bored. If you're using the 2cm size brushes.
Overcome by: Get a bigger paintbrush, can.

Idea 4: Paint two blue strips.
Potential difficulty: You might finish that in one minute and be at loss as to what to do for the next.
Overcome by: Paint two. Sell the second one off through eBay. Confirm some kok will buy wan.

All these are hanging in the MET by the way.
"....like huh?" y-uh.
But if you can create a masterpiece (see below), then that's another story.
This one was just ... awe-some.

Okie, sneak preview. Nice, Nice?
Cannot tell what that is?
Okie, yeah, it's a potrait.
Nothing special?
Look closely.
IT'S MADE UP OF DOTS.

*pause*
Do you get it? k, see again. Close-up.






Not convinced?
Here we go..




AHHH. talented yes?
amazing.

Random collage of photos taken at the MET.
The black-&-whites are mostly the building itself, from the outside, and the inside.
Some are artefacts, such as the mummy-tomband the Buddha tiles.
The rest are paintings.. thought the colours lined along one whole wall was nice.
It was a marvellous 3 hours in there.

TO CALL MY OWN

Blooms!
To call my own.
Thank you.














Have you ever dreamt that dream?
Where you had to sit for an exam you didn't prepare for?
An exam you didn't know about, or that came up out of the blue.
I have.
I always wake up before I see the paper/sit for it.
Thank goodness.
If that happens real life,
I don't think I can take the trauma.

ATLANTIC CITY!

The Gang buffet-ing in Atlantic City (YuQing, Gau Lu, Sharon and me).
Wendy went there a few weeks ago with her NOC housemates to see Russell Peters live. syok la.

Left for a one-night getaway to Atlantic City on Friday, after class! =)
We took the Greyhound bus from Chinatown straight to the Bally's (casino + hotel), where they refunded $15 out of our $17 bus ticket.
HAHHAA. Good deal, ya thinks?
The casino still got away as the richer party in the end.
YuQing and GaoLu lost $10 each to the jackpot machines,
which I swear are the world's most horrible money extorters.
You didn't see the number of little old ladies there man.
Going at the machine like anything.
Hunched, with eager fingers and glimmers of hope in their eyes.
which slowly faded as the credits kept going down, down, down.

AND. It was so cold outside that we ate in the Casino buffet worth $20 each -_- The casino recovered their $15 arghs.
NVM LAA AT LEAST CAN SAY WE ATE A $5 BUFFET.
But the buffet was good.. they had so many different stations; pasta, steak and all the imaginable sides of mashed potatos, roasted ones, mushrooms, broccoli, long beans, gravy etc, chinese, deli, salds, cold cuts, chicken carvings, prawns+mussels+clams, breads, desserts of a million pies, cakes, their own McDs lookalike ice-cream machine with every imaginable topping, and really nearly everything else.

Virginia Buffet (apparently the best in Atlantic City, according to a review read by YuQing). My two glasses of lemonade which kept me going throughout the night. My well-done, with broccoli, long beans, mashed potato and gravy, choc fudge brownie and buttermilk biscuit. My Chinese, with white rice, pork spring roll, long beans, lemon chicken and dumpling. My healty little salad helping of lettuce, tomatoes and beetroot. My plate of bolognase pasta, chicken and vege bowties, lemon chicken, chicken meat with mushroom sauce and my chocolate fudge brownie. Not included in the pictures: dessert of jello, apple cobbler, fruits.

There was so much more food, but we couldn't stuff in anymore le. Firstly because we seriously couldn't stuff anything in anymore. I was almost bursting ahahahaa. Secondly they were closing. Apparently, we sat through the whole meal laughing and chatting whilst our neighbouring table changed occupants twice, meaning we sat through 3 sets of occupants, who by the way ate from appetizers to main courses to desserts from the buffet too.

The four of us bunked in one room (Quality Hotel) and slept soundly.
We had to be strong enough to spend the next day outside in the cold.
We came.
We saw.
Now we had to conquer.

Hello, shops.
tee-hee.





















We left for Philly on Saturday evening, laden with bags.
My favourite buys at the end of the day -
Funky tommy bag (USD$19.90!) and a pair of Reebook runners (USD$29.90!) =)
Next trip: Florida for Spring Break! =D















Entry for Sunday
Had a great morning.
reminded.
renewed.
Must work hard.

DEDICATED TO THE KR STEPPERS

After days of searching,
I finally saw the KR Steppers Video.
Thank you cy and wb for helping me to grab hold of it.

I'm still in awe.
I watched it twice.
I wanna watch it over and over again.
Maybe if I repeat the video that many times,

Perhaps I can actually imagine I was there that evening.


Didn't you wish you were in blue that evening?


No, i don't suppose you did.
You probably weren't even there for IHG closing.
You probably didn't even know IHG was closing.


Tell me.
Are you happier now in white?
Are you happier now in yellow?

What does it feel like to be part of the "winning" hall?
It felt good that night, didn't it. Winning the overall IHG.
But tell me.
What happens now, when the all the glory is over?

I bet the sea of blue felt a million times better than you did that night.
And this feeling of unity and bonded-ness will go beyond IHG.
We had our own cheerleaders.
Cheer-cheer-cheerleaders.

We didn't cheer for the Cup.
We cheered for each other.
And we will continute to do so, for the months to come.
Tell me.
Is there anything else you can cheer for, now that everything's over?
Do people even know who you are after everything's over?

You guys were fantastically fabulous!
I'm sorry I wasn't there to see the performance.
Not sorry for you, mind you.
Sorry for me =)

STEP: YOU DID IT!
You made so many dreams and wishes come true.
I wished I could have been there to shout
and tell the whole wide world I'm a Kent-ridgean.
Well done, and you deserve it =)
Jia you for school, HPB and dance night!

REFLECTIVE BEST SELF

We spent OB class debriefing the Reflective Best Self Exercise.
Today, a big part of class discussion focused on bringing all your best characteristics to whatever situation you find yourself in.

thank you everyone who so kindly wrote the three characteristics of what you think my best self is.

your names all appeared on the last page of my paper.

Some people felt that the situation has to be complementary for your best self to come out. How can you create a situation so your best self can appear? Eg, if you work well systematically, dont la go and find a super chaotic job with maximum conflicts.

Some people felt that no matter the situation, your best self is already ingrained in you. You should be able to bring that out whereever you go, and let it shine. In fact, isn't it even better if you shine in a bad situation?

We were discussing in groups about our experience in writing the paper.
We were all agreeing that writing good stuff about yourself's super awkward,
when suddenly the guy in our trio casually commented:

"Yeah, I took one hour to write the first five pages, and after that I didn't know what else to write about."

FIVE PAGES IN ONE HOUR?!?!

If this guy's the NY subway,
I'm that first rickety cart with wheels on rails that was invented in the 1800's to carried coal from mines.

If this guy's the Micheal Jordan of his school basketball team,
I'm that small scrawny kid at the far corner of the stadium, who's failing successfully to see what's going on on court, because his vision's blocked by everyone else in front of him.

i haven't been to church for so long.
I miss Your praises.
I miss Your word.
I miss You.

Later Entry
My head feels hot.
But if i turn off the heater,
my limbs will start to shiver.
My eyelids and my brain feels heavy.
I think I'm reaching the point of over-saturation soon.
I should stop typing. soon. i will. when i'm done. i promise.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

I TAKE IT BACK.

I take it back.
I love it when snow melts into sludge and mud.
Pleasepleaseplease just don't give me icy roads.
I almost lost my balance to and on my way back from Spanish class.
Yes la yes la. Laugh at that mental image =D

The aesthetic beauty of nature has been replaced.
Roads are now clear of the snow, and pathways cleared yesterday have been sprinkled with salt so that further piling of snow is refrained. I think the salt helps to melt the snow.

Just sat for my first Spanish exam.
WHY LAAA did i glance at another paper when I handed mine in?
WHY LAAA did did everyone circle C instead of D?
WHY LAAA did i change my answer last minute from C to D?
Maybe the correct answer will somehow, magically be D, and when the teacher returns our papers back, I'd be the only smart one who got it correct, and I'd flip my hair innocently and try to look demure, but inside, i'd be yes ahhh! And maybe I'd get this special status in class as the only girl who got no.5 correct and be the one people look for for inspiration in times of trouble and in times of need. hurhur.
But like that's ever going to happen, so boys and girls, if you ever take any language classes, pay very close attention to the audio cassette during the exam yeah? Just find the matching word (you hear from the radio) on the paper in front of you and circle the correct answer. It's really not that difficult.

Oh hehe. Did i mention, I tried breaking the norm of eating (seated) during dimsum spent at least half the time eating standing up. HAHAHA. I got damn good replies la, that I can maybe use. "Did we do anything to you, steph? Please sit down" *looks around in embarassment*. I started walking around the restaurant with my taufufa (tauhuei) bowl too lol. Didn't really know how I looked but it must've been weird. I also tried refilling our pot of tea myself but a waiter halted my efforts at the entrance of the kitchen ahahhaa. Not that bad of an experience, better than expected. Not too sure if I'll write about this though, might try out a few other different things first =D

WHITE MORNING.

Do you remember watching movies and TV shows - about how someone wakes up in bed one morning, stretches her hands upwards, bounces out of bed, skips to her window, lifts up the curtains to unreveal.. *voila* a white world! Snow fell throughout the night! Everything's so pretty now, with inches of white snow covering every available surface, from the pathway to the gardens. Specks of snow lie peacefully on tree branches, creating a pretty sight. The lone gardener looks up towards the window and offers a hand gesture of acknowledgement. The girl giggles in glee and dashes out of room to the living room, straight towards the huge glittery structure in the middle of the room. She lifts the different-sized boxes to her ears, gives them a shake and tries to decipher what Chrsitmas gifts she receives this year. Perfectly-timed, mom and dad walk into the room, take their designated seats on the couch and smile at their daughter in adoration. After that, they probably head downstairs for a superb breakfast in their big, white kitchen.

If only.

160000 odd km or so from where you're probably reading this now, the situation's not quite the same. Yes, there's snow, it's all white and good and the leave-less branches of trees are prettily covered in snow. There's just a couple of things missing though.

It's not Christmas.
I have no presents.
My parents aren't here.
There is no one in sight outside my window.
I don't have a long table lined with hot food waiting for me.
I can't go to church =(


In one night, this turned into this.
Wish I went out to buy food for today yesterday.
Snow turns into sludge and mud when it melts, by the way. *grimace*

When I woke up this morning, I didn't really want to eat instant noodles for breakfast. I thought I would be able to last the day, at least the first half of the day surviving on yesterday's meal in my digestive system. It's 1 1/2 hours into the day now and I have a sinking feeling my growling stomach's trying to tell me something.
It's going to be a hungry, lonely day in my room, just the right atmosphere to do my Jap paper draft, OB paper draft and to study for my Spanish exam tomorrow.

On a brighter note, snow! =)
And the white-ness of it is very very pretty.
Everything looks so pure and clean.
It's a lovely sight to behold.
I was so excited at the first signs of snow yesterday I tried catching snowflakes in my hands and in my mouth. They melted very easily though, at the slightest contact. A streetvendor was laughing at me hahha, but he was nice about it. I must have been still high from the nicenice egg tarts and sesame chicken from Ocean Harbour yumcha-dimsum. slurps. We must go for dimsums when we're all back home. yumm.

It's so pretty, here's another view of it!
PS: It is possible to go out! I don't have the knee-length walk-in-snow boots though. Must see if I can borrow em from christianne so I can grab lunch later =)

DEI, PLAY THIS ONE!

You Are Independent Sexy

You drive men crazy with your "playing hard to get act" Except, it's really not an act at all. You're a strong, sexy woman with her own life and interests. And that makes men even more interested in you!

What Kind of Sexy Are You?

dei dei, play this one!

BYE JAE

*burpppp*

Had a great farewell dinner for Jae, Sharon's boyfriend on Thursday night. Basically, there are 3 of us from NUS (me, Wendy and Sharon) and 2 from SMU (Gao Lu and YuQing) on exchange to UPenn this sem. Jae came with Sharon.

"How long will you be staying in Penn?"

Probably 10 days or so.. to help Sharon settle down.

"One month."

ONE MONTH?! Damn sweet can?

Thanks jae for being our guardian angel at the back of our pack.

For the nights in DC, NY and for being there on Jan20th.

Us buncha girls must have looked like easy targets.

But nothing happened to us. In DC. In NY.

Well done to the KR Steppers for upholding the glory of KR.

And showing the rest we rock their socks.

STEP, you're my inspiration.

to seek, strive and excel.

Going to Chinatown later with GaoLu, Kern, and Lorraine to eat Dimsum!

fatfatfat.

Me, Sharon, Jae and Gao Lu, waiting for Wendy and YuQing to arrive.

Me and Sharon trying to look interested in something else.
The unwrapped straw gives out act away.

The cute couple.

Marathon Grill on-campus.
Reasonably priced, actually.

Gao Lu, me and YuQing.

LEARNING IS A NEVER-ENDING JOURNEY

Date: 9th Feb 2006
Dear Professor Smith,
MGMT 238: Organization Behaviour

Thank you once again for taking time off your busy schedule and inviting me to grab a quick bite. Some things you mentioned left a pretty unexpected (but in a good way) impact on me - especially the question about why I care what other people might think if I voiced out my opinions in class. And the part about leaving Wharton with tools that I could never gain elsewhere, that will be nothing short of handy in the future. I've always thought about being a better student, a more confident and matured person after my attending education overseas, but I now see that my efforts thus far simply will not suffice. There's more that I can do, so much more. Thank you for offering me a different perspective as to cherishing my moments here as well as to challenging myself to reach a higher level, a level outside my comfort zone.

With Regards,
Stephanie Ng Seok Mei

RELAY FOR LIFE

Just got back from the Relay For Life Kick-off Meeting, organized by this group of young energetic seniors, passionate about saving lives. It's a nationwide fund-raising event, jointly org by the American Cancer Society to raise funds for of course, cancer research and supporting cancer patients. This is the third year UPenn's holding the relay, and its on 1st and 2nd of April, from 7pm-7am, that's 12 hours. Basically, teams (10-15 members) are formed beforehand and they fund-raise with the aim of raising $100 each team member. On the actual event day(s), each team has a little campsite on Franklin Field, and there must be at least 1 team member walking around the track at all times, to symbolize that cancer never sleeps. There are other games and fun activities, not to mentioned food planned for the evening too.

The meeting started off with a great video - showing last year's event, the amount raised nationwide ($10 million!) and the on-the-spot interviews with participants, cancer survivors and teams who came in different themes. The 2 most touching moments of the video were when the survivors walked the first lap around the track and when this girl (chairperson maybe) gave a very touching speech in the form of a poem afterwhich the participants lit candles of hope for the cancer patients who were unable to survive the disease.

Teams cheered by the sidelines as they watched the cancer survivors, wearing sashes that spelt SURVIVORS, walk the laply proudly as a contingent. This lap serves to remind the survivors of the pain and suffering they went through, and the eventual triumph of outwitting, outplaying and outlasting the fatal disease. The second moment that had me almost, just almost sniffling was when this girl gave a beautiful speech in the form of a poem that was almost reaching to past patients who could not survive cancer, telling them that as the people continue to light candles of hope to remember them by, the light symbolizes hope and with the amount of research and personnel effort dedicated to cancer, the future's looking bright. This is our warcry: No one should ever lose their life to cancer again.

People can participate by forming teams of 10-15 people, but we (exchange students from NUS and SMU) have planned a long time to go to chicago on the same weekend. sigh. I'm just so touched by this event, and so excited about Chicago that I wish I could be there for both! I suppose I can't be there physically on the 1st and 2nd, so i'll sign up to be a sub-comm member. Hopefully one of the subcomms wouldn't mind an extra helping hand! The few that looked pretty interesting were Activities, Survivalship and Accounts&Registration. It's been so long since I've joined a committee and months since I've organized anything I can truly call my own. I really love organizing stuff.. and if it's something i truly care about, there's this passion burning within me to make it the best that i possibly can.
I really hope I can firstly, get into the subcomm, and secondly contributeandcontributeandcontribute.
Yay for wendy and sharon who are both interested to join as well! =D

Okays.. enough gushing about cancer. That's just wrong.
I hope this turns out to be a fabulous extra curricular activity that I can learn alot from! =)

HI THERE, DID YOU JUST FART? BECAUSE SEEING YOU JUST BLOWS ME AWAY..

There's this irritating guy banging on the piano now.. and I can't tell him to stop.
Firstly cause it's a public piano.
Secondly, I can easily shut my door.
Thirdly, he's damn blardy good la!
He's playing the duet thing that most piano players should know.. the same chords wan. But he has his own version of it! And it's really good.. confirm is played impromtu wan, with his own pianos and fortes and allegros and andantes. And he always plays this same song and he sings with it too, I have a suspicious feeling it's his own composition. It's not too bad. Wish I could play like that. See, that's what you get when you realize you LIKE playing the piano 11 years AFTER you started playing the piano. A few months before you leave for tertiary education overseas. Sigh. Sometimes, parents really know what's best. They HAVE after all lived at least twice as long as we have. What makes us think we have the right to go above them? And plus, they've been feeding us, making sure we have roofs above our heads and educating us from Day1.

Con-feew-shears say we marst hap filli-al pie-tee.
The REAL Confucius, mind you. As in the one with a REAL chinese accent if he could actually speak English at that time. As in the one with yellow skin, not orange, not brown and especially not beige. As in the one who spends his time deep in thoughts about social relationships between man-wife, government-people, brother-sister, parents-children.

Anyways, have another Sociology assignment which seems quite fun.
It requires a paper just 250words long, which is one-page, Times New Roman Size 12, double-spaced. Sounds pretty simple, like can do within a couple of hours. There's a catch though. It's called the Breaching Assignment which means we have to breach a taken-for-granted social norm and write about people's reactions and our own feedback, our thoughts. The lecturer was pretty humorous about it in class. We're not allowed to violate any laws and/or cross serious lines. Like, not hand in this paper and say we're breaking the norm of "Students handing up their papers on time". Apparently in his 35 years of teaching, this has happened before. LOL. ANd allegedly, his student once dressed up as Santa Clause to church and stole from the money collection. HAHAHHAHA. what the..

So anyhoos, it seems fun and I got to thinking. Thinking about norms we take for granted is not that difficult. I realize now why they ARE taken for granted. For example, facing the lift doors when you step into a lift. Bet you never realized you did that. Now that you do, bet you can't think of a perfectly good reason why you never not do that in the past. No, the difficulty lies in actually BREAKING the norm. Do i really want to sit in a lecture theatre facing backwards? Isn't that.. a bit rude? Or.. do i really want to attempt picking a fight with the biggest guy on campus in front of everyone for no reason, knowing I cannot win anyways?
This is where one paper which will receive a higher grade than the other. How far are you willing to go? How creative can you get in writing about breaking the simplest norm in just 12-15 lines?

A few ideas that I've came up with include: cross-dressing. But that would be more interesting if i were a guy. Underdressing. Singlet and shorts in this weather? Err maybe not. So bounced to and fro some pretty bland ideas until i came up with this one! Speaking English in an Indian accent, coordinated with the head-shaking movements, when I'm so obviously asian.
I almost tried it! But i was afraid I couldn't keep my laughter in, so i diverted back to speaking my manglish/singlish. Maybe i'll try this with the singaporeans on Thursday at Jae's farewell dinner. If you guys have weird suggestions and want me to do funny things, let me know yah! =)

DEDICATED TO MY FAVOURITE-EST SISTER IN THE WORLD!

hie rie. Yes, i know i only have ONE sister in the world.
And this is dedicated to you! with lurveee, me.
All of em waiting to take their rightful place in your closet. =D

TOP 5 PICTURE PERFECT MOMENTS.

The proud owner of the
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX8,
my baby that took the fab pictures below.

Postcard worthy, i say.

1) Magnificent Brooklyn Bridge at night.
It's famous cause it's the world's first
steel suspension bridge. like huh?
hehhe.. it's the bridge you see in a lot of movies.

2) The grand stone entrance facade of
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
on a drizzly evening, with a just-right blurry effect
to capture the moment of people hurying to and fro.


3) The New York city skyline, taken from the pedestal
(the concrete cube) below Miss Lady Liberty.
Three layers of elements, the sky, the earth and the sea, all blue.


4) Times Square at night,
in the city that never sleeps.
The whole place was super bling!


5) The Statue of Liberty on a fine Sunday morning.
Apparently, it was foggy the day before, not good
for photo-taking. We had nice fluffy white clouds!

BACK!

and my shoulders are aching!
From carrying my sports bag the whole day today.
From an allrite-heavy bag to a almost-cannot-zip-up bag from the impromtu shopping at Century21 (no1 discount store in New York! - thanks for the timely and crucial suggestion, jamie and friend saz =D) and Steve and Barry's University Sportswear near Madison Square Garden (where they sell nearly all the American uni T-shirts and sweatshirts!)=D Yes there's a shop for it. hurhur.. I used to think in the past, if someone was wearing that Uni shirt, he/she either graduated from there or went to that uni purposely just to buy it.
I say Noooo. You can just pop into Steve and Barry's and suddenly be graduated from a billion universities. I likely-like.
Random thought: To wear the red cornell or navy yale later? =D

It's 11-ish pm now, time to shower and hit the books. Do you get the feeling, at times, the overwhelming desire to just forget about work and say "heck it, I want to sleep". Overcoming that sucks right.
Cause sometimes, that isn't an option, like it obviously isn't right now.
"Exchange leh.." I know.. but when better to see if playing reeaally hard and working reaally hard's possible, than on exchange? =)
Will be back tomorrow with NY pics!

QUICK UPDATE

Just showered - it's nearly 2am now. In the middle on winter.
Hahha.. it's not that bad. Nice hot gushing water from the showerhead, quick dry-up and changed, came back to room, where I am now engulfed in the familiarity i have become accustomed to these 3 weeks. Shall show you pictures of it one day.
It's not as personalised at B513, but it's not too bad.
It's about twice the size of B513 though. Which is NOT bad at all =D

Its great with my prized white down comforter! from Martha Stewart bed and linens range. Tee-hee. Fake like I can afford to drop brand-names all over the place. It's DAMN comfy la =D Like the soft fluffy white comforters used in hotels. Ahhh.. heaven-ly. Like sleeping on the clouds. It's a wonder how come I've never been late to Spanish every morning at 9am.
thanks for the wake-up calls =)

So quick update yes. It's 2.04am now, and work to be done includes my Jap response paper for the week, some admin filing of the week's notes, some cards-writing and.. PACKING! =D Going to New York tomorrow! Or technically later today =D Wall St, Statue of Liberty, SoHo, ChinaTown, Times Square, see J-Lo working out, maybe a drop by with a quick hello to Brad Pitt, before meeting up the friends gang at Central Perk. Okay maybe not the last three but still..
THE REST SOUND INTERESTING too! Can't wait to see everything i've only known exist watching the idiot box - streetfuls of cabs, sidewalk-fuls of rushing, important-looking business people in their black trenchcoats.. maybe an odd car chase or bank robbery.
Ok, then again maybe not the last two.

Didn't do much from 11pm just now till 1 plus. (Besides accomplishing a breellleeant IT-ish something in the blog world). Don't stay up late yeah everyone? It's not healthy. Besides the International students discussion group reg. culture shock, nothing TOO much has happened in these few days, except that i've been studying for my Intro to Sociology exam, for next Monday.

Oh, and I discovered a GREAT new chinese food truck today! near the wharton business building, at 38th and walnut. It's great la - food is cooked on the spot! She'll be seeing more of me man! And it (called Yue Kee) closes at 9pm too. Which is superbly fantastic. Had spareribs in blackbean sauce with rice. Ahhh. As opposed to the Sweet and sour chicken (so-so only) from Beijing, the Chinese restaurant right underneath my hall, I had the other day, which cost twice the price. Which 50% of each piece of "meat" was just flour and skin. You decide =)

OH MAN.. I THINK I'M ADDICTED

You are a Brainy Girl!

Whether you're an official student or a casual learner, you enjoy hitting the books. You know a little bit about everything, and you're always dying to know more. For a guy to win your heart, he's got to share some of your intellectual interests. A awesome book collection of his own doesn't hurt either!

What Kind of Girl Are You?

Your Reputation Is: Sweet Girl

While you're well known, there's nothing to worry about. You're reputation is mostly good - as good as any rep can be.

What's Your Reputation?

You are White Chocolate

You have a strong feminine side with a good bit of innocence thrown in. Whether your girlish ways are an act or not, men like to take care of you. You are an understated beauty, and your power is often underestimated!

What Kind of Chocolate Are You?

LIKE I HAVE NO SPANISH HW TO DO..

Guys Like That You're Sensitive

And not in that "cry at a drop of a hat" sort of way You just get most guys - even if you're not trying to Guys find it is easy to confide in you and tell you their secrets No wonder you tend to get close quickly in relationships!

What Do Guys Like About You?

You Are a Skin Deep Sweetheart

You may be supermodel gorgeous or a plain Jane. It really doesn't matter, because you're confident and secure. You don't go out looking like a slob, but you are low maintenance. You have better things to worry about than whether your nails are the right shade!

Are You Obsessed With Your Looks?

Your Fashion Style is Sporty

You're a natural beauty who doesn't need fancy clothes to look good You prefer your clothes to be comfortable, so you can stay on the go For you, femininity is not how you wear - but how you wear it. Still, don't be afraid to show off that great body in a dress or skirt!

What's Your Fashion Style?

Your Element is Earth

Your power color: yellow Your energy: balancing Your season: changing of seasons Dedicated and responsible, you are a rock to your friends. You are skilled at working out even the most difficult problems. Low key and calm, you are happiest when you are around loved ones. Ambitious and goal oriented, you have long term plans to be successful.

What Element Are You?

Your Ideal Hairstyle:

Long and Framed

What Hairstyle Is Right For You?

Wow, Really? Long and Framed?