ANOTHER CHUNK

Yet another block of five hours spent having a blast, instead of studying.

And then I came back in an attempt to study like a good girl.
Attempt being the operative verb, study being the put-in-the-sentence-to-make-it-sound-not-that-bad verb.
Cause I ended up sleeping with my hair wet.
When will I ever learn that "closing your eyes for a second" NEVER WORKS. hhaha.. I don't even remember fighting the wave of sleep that threatened me.

Happier Thoughts.
NOC-farewell for the seniors who'll be leaving in July at Gean's place.
Gean = the NUS-NOC co-ordinator who's been here a few years now.
So syok her place: one bed, one bath, living room, kitchen.
Ultimate bachelor's pad.

So many things I can possibly blog about:
1) Violin-diploma holder, Jia Xian treated us with a soothing Canon in D.
2) Alicia and the guys plotted to get Adrian drunk. Hurhur.
So farnee, she approaced him with two beers and invited him to drink.
Then as Adrian was bending over, Wei Ern quickly exchanged his almost-empty bottle with hers in a quick split of a second.
When he got back up again, Alicia smiled at him and took a tiny sip.
Adrian (red from previous bottles) bent over again, then Andi quickly finished her bottle off, handing it back to her just as Adrian surfaced from his almost-drunked stupor. The poor boy never suspected a thing.
3) Pizza, beer, chips, bridge.
4) NBA Playoffs, Cleveland ws Washington.
The scores were perpetually close, Washington had a 1-2 basket lead most of the time. Then at the last 10 seconds, Lebron James magnificently did his shit, and got one in. Well done, Cleveland.

Backwards S from top left: Kelley, Pacey, Me, Kai Hung, Niraj, Gean, Julia, Iris

Girls from left: Wendy, Cat, Me, Tze Ling.
Guys from left: Pacey, Jeffrey, Wei Ern

Ram, in the grey shirt. I remember studying grey with an "a" last time. Why ahh.

From Left: Lawrence, Pheobe, Me, Shamir, gentleman whose name I didn't catch before he left.

Hurhur. The Kent-Rdigeans: Pei Ling, Me, Wei Ern and Tze Ling.

The Malaysians: The Kent-Ridgeans + Jeffrey

Bizaders: Kai An, Julia, Me, Alicia

40th and Chestnut People (i.e. Wendy and housemates) : DeLiang, Me, Wendy, Pacey, Cat
(Left-Right) Lawrence, Adrian

Poison of choice: Lager Beer
Top Right: Hey. (drawls) How You doing?
Bottom Left: Come, let me help you with that.
Bottom Right: HurHur. That was supersimple can.

2 DOWN, 2 TO GO

Exams here are super.
No need to take the bus to SRC.
No need to sqeeze your way through masses of bodies,
stinky and sweaty from the afternoon heat.
No need to take the bus early to wait with the exam crowd.

Against the hundreds who buzz irritatingly around me like bees.
Not against the freaks of nature who open their notes last minute.
yeah like that's going to help.
I do that sometimes =D yes it does, sometimes.

No need to wait for redundant instructions,
that replay over and over again at the start of every examination.
and at the end of every examination.
"No opening the question booklet until you are told to do so."
"Stop writing. Anybody found writing...."

"I said, stop writing. Anybody found writing..."
Alright, like repeating yourself's going to work.
Like repeating yourself's going to work when the ratio of bored exam invigilators to desperate, stressed-out students is 1:100.

So anyways =)
Today's exam was fun, cause it was in a tutorial room, no redundant instructions that serve to waste time, no crowd, no sweat (getting there), and all the other strawberries and cream. Sho fun.

In room after that
As I was trying to juggle a full left hand and a plastic container with instant noodles and boiling water in my right, the container accidentally tipped a teeny bit to the side, and a small amount of hothot water slushed over the corner my thumb was at. It quickly penetrated through the defensive shield of the white cotton towel and scalded my thumb owwWW.

Now my right thumb has a blister =\
Smack in the middle of exams. RIGHT THUMBBB.
And I was just talking behind NUS's back.
Damn, karma works like a bi... bitter pill.

Penn Relay 27-29th May
Athletes of all ages from all over the world come together to compete in this annual competition. Shucks, have to pay though, and didn't find someone to go with in time.
http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/2006/041306/ahead.html
Completed New York post below coming up. soon.

A FEW FIRSTS

Just had my first supper in many months!
So long never eat fried chicken le…
Oily fingers but oh-so-juicy drumsticks mmm.

Also had my first walking marathon today.
The first in my entire life.
70++ crazy blocks 0_O
Super tired now shigh, but full and just showered and have to study a bit so I don’t feel too guilty for spending half my day walking like nobody’s business in New York.

Haha, before you go all huffy on me dei,
about “you studying and me touring the US”
New York only what.

=D

Hehh.
On a serious note though, no matter how many times I go to New York, the same expression will always be on my face. The “wah” drop of the jaw, the “like first time see bright lights, and moving sheets of metal”.

HALF THE WORLD IN A DAY

Started my day with a big satisfying stretch and rolled around to look up at the clock on the shelf behind my bed. 11.15am. SHIT! Class trip to the Japanese House and Garden bus was supposed to leave at 11am.

Never mind, luckily got a second trip at 12.45pm.

The Japanese House and Garden was at Fairmont Park, the world’s largest urban park. 18th century style (1700-ish) with wooden Japanese Cyprus barks for the roof, tatami mats for the flooring, rice paper-room dividers that slide open and close, wooden-planked verandahs, furniture low to the ground (won’t fall and pin anyone to the ground in the event of an earthquake). Nice nice. The garden was great too, with a koi pond, small stone bridge, spring flowers and shrubs. So pretty.



Later

Malaysians @ Penn had a farewell dinner for seniors at Estia, a fancy-schmancy Greek restaurant downtown (1409-1410 Locust St). It was a difficult decision to make, between Italian, Greek or Mexican, but the mesmerizing and magnetic aura emitted at the mention of the name of this ancient civilization swayed our decision towards it.

As usual… we hooligans made a huge buncha noise by talking and laughing the place down. Lights were flashing all over the place because we kept taking pictures of ourselves and the food. We had to use flash because this was the dim type of restaurant, only awashed with a soft yellow glow from the lamps on the wall.

When the bill arrived, (ouchouchouch), I reached painfully for my wallet and took notes out, when suddenly, the President of the Malaysians@Penn announced the breakdown of the bill, “Okay, seniors free, Steph free, everybody else $30 each. The club will be funding more than half of it.” WAHHHHH. I protested of course, “Where can, I’ve only been here for barely a semester, so many people here deserve a free meal more than me.” But they wouldn’t hear another word… blessed sia.

The toilets were great. Mediterranean-themed houses are so much fun, no? Started imagining what it could be like, yellow walls, rustic stone tiles, wrought-iron furniture, and stucco exterior design.

One second I want a Japanese-Zen theme for a place, then one second later I envision a Mediterranean-style home. Well done, Steph. Pastor was right… we want so many things that we end up keeping our eyes away from the prize.

One theme from East Asia and one from West Europe. What to do? Shigh. Get something in-between lo. South East Asia. Malaysia. Haha, back to square one.

FAREWELL PHOTOS: Part 2

Organizational Behaviour

Never seen a lecturer who cares for her students this much.

Can tell that she sincerely cares about how we will do in the future.

Spanish class. Lovely language.
The teacher's second from the right, standing.

Wheee it's Friday.
It marks the end of a week, and the beginning of a w-e-e-k-e-n-d!
This Friday is unlike any other Friday, though.
This Friday is special because it marks the last of my classes and lectures here in UPenn.

The feeling is like.. wh-o-a.
My exchange experience is going to end soon!
I always knew this day was going to come,
but I never really prepared myself for it.
Suddenly it's in my face.

Farewell gifts for the people I've come to know
and come to really like.
They've one way or another helped me adapt,
showed me around, took me places,
answered my "What is spring fling?" questions,
and many more.

A note, a picture, a paper lantern filled with choc
and coloured cloth flower cutouts.
Not nearly enough to express my gratitude,
but it will have to do.

Did I venture out as far as I had planned to?
Did I fully live out my exchange experience?
There's only one way to find out, I guess..
Gotta get out the door and
postphone studying for the finals yet another day!

Hurhur. Going out later to plan West Coast trip with Wendy.
Then it's to the Bridge for Inside Man with Lorraine, YanMin.
Then it's dinner!
Then it's Passion of the Christ at my place for me, Wendy and DeLiang.
Wheeee it's Friday!

Oooh had one of the Microwave Dinners for lunch..
erm. 5/10. Angel hair pasta.
PS: Rie, Kelana Jaya chicken rice anyday.
Section 17 wantan mee. SeaPark kuey teow Soup.

2nd Part of random shit.
Saw the other toilet bowl today with stuff inside again.
This time like got flush, but the water didnt completely suck everything in, leaving remnants of droppings and ripper toilet paper.
Damn.. this is happening too frequently for my liking.
The fact that I keep blogging so much about it disturbs me too.

NO OTHER BLOCK COMPARES

Goodbye Olea.

Goodbye QianChen.

Goodbye ZhenBin.

Goodbye everyone else I didn't take a picture with when I had the opportunity to. I hope you had the time of your life in the last 4 years.

CURSE YOU, DRY SKIN.

".. moisture balancing foaming face wash ... without overdrying."
"This effective, yet gentle cleanser... without overdrying or irritation."
"Easily removes dirt and oil...without overdrying."
urm. Yeah. right.

The last one is the best.
"Hydrafresh: All Day Freshness Moisture Gel."

THEN WHY IS THE SKIN ON MY FACE FLAKING OFF?!


















Don't be like that leh.. ex can.
Plus I cannot be buying a fourth new cleanser when these three's barely used, and I'll be going back soon too.
Shigh.

Pecori Night is super addictive!
Pe-pe-pe-pe-pe-pe Pecori Naa-ighHT!

PECORI NIGHT!

WAhahahaha.
Going for Jap Civ lecture just rawks my ankle socks off.

One day, my Jap Civ lecterer rapped a Jap song.
Another day, she wore a kimono to class.
Yesterday was just plain amusing.
She showed this in class!

Presenting...Pecori Night!



HAHHAhaha crazy farnie can!
Puts all the cheerleaders in the world to shame.
Super synchronized la,
the chereography's not too bad,
and let's face it, the music grows on you after a while.
The ending face is so-cock AHAHHAHA..

Sigh (wipes tear)
also, this website rocks too.
Got so many other Pecori Nights!
I can't belieeve it. Pecori Nights also they have.
ahahahahhahahhahhaa cannot stop laffing. it's damn farnie.
I can just watch the rest and laugh till my freaking sides hurt.
Idea for Command 07?

My lecturer suggested that it was a mockery of the "cute-girl" image in japan. Hmm.

Other random shit
Was in the toilet just now,
and saw this blob of shit floating happily in the toilet bowl.
Like, huh.. Ivy-League student dunno how to flush nvm,
but how come no toilet paper?
Odd.

MICOWAVE DINNERS!

There are loads of microwave dinners in supermarkets here.
hurhur why i buy all the same, you ask.
cause they were selling at 5 for $5 at Fresh Grocers.
*Fresh Grocers: Supermarket on 40th and Walnut St.
Like v cheap horr come to think of it.
dunno nice or not. *gulp*

SATURDAY, SUNDAY, MONDAY AND TUESDAY

Saturday
Spent a good part of the day indoors to work on the Organizational Behavior group project. The amount of hours i was stuck on my chair was just crazy and it totally didn't match the amount of work i had to do.
The 5 pages of my share to write.
An ugly evidence of excessive waste of time and procrastination.

The highlight though, was playing tennis(!) in the afternoon with the NOC seniors, who will be returning home this July after a good long year. Met most of them finally, and even saw a familiar face, Kelly, who was the Startup@Singapore 2005/2005 chair when I was an itty-bitty freshmen in that large, dynamic committee.
He's staying for another sem, making that the third semester! Awesome.

The courts were full,
cause there are only 6 courts,
and the seniors did not book.
Wonderful NUS, which has like 17 courts.
Finally one court was empty and the 10 of us took turns to play.
haha, 10! Fun Fun.

Sunday
Easter service was superb,
cause 4 people gave their testimonies on how they accepted Christ.
Each had their own story to share,
and every single one of the 4 teared as they relayed to us their journey.

If there's one thing I learnt this Easter,
it's that prayers really work.
"Easter weekend is miraculous," Pastor Young testified.
Yeah I know that now.
I experienced this firsthand.

After that, it was lunch at the Chesunut House*.
*Chestnut House - Wendy and the 5 NOC-ians place on 40th and Chestnut.
Adrian prepared fried fish fillets and a potful of mee-pok looking noodles with pepper, loadsa salt, sausages, luncheon meat and lettuces. mmm.

I returned again during dinnertime, because Pacey was cooking Viet!

-Fresh seafood spring rolls,
-Glass noodles,
-Mushroom-pork-and-shrimp deep fried spring rolls,
-Fried sugar-cane cuts wrapped with minced pork-and-shrimp,
-White fungus and chicken soup,
-Fisherman's fish with a sweet, slightly spicy congealed gravy.
-He tied it all with this authentic
sweet-garlicky sauce for the fried foods and the glass noodles.

Heaven on earth...SLUuuuRP.
Ended everything off with Adrian's delectable Tiramisu.


Monday
A typical day of classes,
curry chicken with potatoes dinner from the Indian food truck.

Oh, went to see the NOC seniors present their Business Plans,
as part of one their module 446.
The panel of judges were really sharp and smart.
It must have took a lot of guts and poise to stand up there and present to these industry experts, who pretended to be potential investors. Jeffrey, Estee, Kai Hong and Niraj who made up ETOIMS did well in the Q&A. Apparently, according to Jeffrey after that, they used all their backup-q&a-slides to answer the questions.
Their work was not in vain.

Tuesday
OB presentation day!
Ayeesha, Preethi and I wrote the paper,
Ada and Brett edited it and took responsibility for the presentation slides and for the repsentation itself.
An effecient and effective system, I say,
but that's another topic for another time.

Me, ada, Professor Wendy Smith, Brett and Preethi.
(Ayeesha was sick and she couldn't attend)
In our OB class in the Hunstman Hall, Wharton School.
Nice, spacious, high-tech, professional-looking.
Hahha.. I remember my first day in one of these rooms.
Freaking intimidating, can =)

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
2nd Soci paper due tomorrow.
This time around, we're supposed to assume the role of a 19-year high school-dropout, with a 2-year old child. We're then have to find a job in the classifieds that only requires a high-school and/or lower education and get the salary figure, find a place to live here in Philly, and submit a one-page typical-month budget.
Haha, creative, yes.

Then it's Spanish Exams for three days in a row:
Wednesday: Oral. I swear it's going to be a nightmare.
Thursday: Listening, Questions and Composition
Friday: Grammar and Vocab

Note to self : stop skyping and watching cooking shows!
Exams are in two weeks, you crazy girl.

GOOD FRIDAY

T'was a great friday =)

My Spanish teacher forgot that our Composition writing was today.
It'll be on Monday instead, giving us more time for prep =D

Jap civ paper on the Nanjing Massacre was due today.
Or so I thought, but it's actually due next Friday instead!
A safer mistake to make, than the reverse of it.
Hooray! no last minute rush next week.

Gau Lu invited us over to his place in IHouse (International House) for dinner and he cooked a delectable feast of chickenrice-rice (the yellow-coloured rice), curry chicken and potatoes, pakchoi, pork chops, BBQ wings, beef with onions, brinjal with chicken fillet and strawberries with Hershey's chocolate for dessert =D

(clockwise) Pakchoi, pork chops, beef with onions, brinjal
with chicken fillet, strawberries chocolate fondue, curry chicken
(Missing) Rice, BBQ chicken, and BnJ's Half Baked ice-cream.

Chef GauLu and assistant chef Wei Jiao with the raw ingredients.

Delicious, I say.

Thank you for the nice gesture, and I'm sorry I had to leave so quick!

As a result of the rush, I forgot to take a picture of myself, Sharon and YuQing. Kudos to gL's friend who mailed over the curry chicken powder and the chicken rice packet-seasoning all the way from the tiny red dot on the map, Singapore.

We started eating at around 7.10pm.
Gobbled down my food as quickly as I could in 13 minutes,
and was out the door by 7.23pm.
Dashed madly past 2 blocks to meet Wendy.
We headed down another one block to attend the Good Friday service in Grace Covenant Church (GCC).

My first Good Friday service.
At one point, whilst our heads were bowed and the band was playing, Pastor Young played the scene of Jesus being whipped and nailed to the cross from the Passion of the Christ.

As I painfully watched the nails pierce through the flesh and blood and the merciless whipping, the realization of Christ dying on the cross hit me.
Hard.

Because Christ was forsaken, I was forgiven.

The realization must have hit everyone else,

becauseall around the room, tears started to fall too.

My God, why would you shed Your blood,

So pure and undefiled.

Why would You make someone like me,

Your chosen precious child.

Heads bowed and knees bent in prayer.

sinned.
forgiven.
repented.
renewed.

A clearer picture of the LT-church at the end of the serive.

No time for mourning and tears now though,
Because with death comes the resurrection
and with forgiveness comes new life! =)
Also, easter or no easter,
with tertiary education come papers to write, sigh.

In Christ alone, I place my trust.
And find my glory in the power of the cross.
In every victory, let it be said of me.
My source of strength, my source of hope,
Is Christ alone.

FAREWELL PHOTOS: PART 1

Japanese Civilization

TA (Teaching Assistant's) the standing blond guy, 2nd from the right.
Yes, he looks young. He's still a student.

Post-grad I think.

Sociology

TA's the guy with the blazer and jeans.
One of the nicest TAs I know.

And never thought I'd feel this way,

And as far as I'm concerned,

I'm glad I got this chance to stay..

Farewell Pictures Part 1

Ibrought my camera to recitation today to take class pictures.
"Hie, my name is Stephanie, and I'm an exchange student from Singapore. It has been a great semester, and I'll be leaving this May. I was wondering if we could all take a class photo together." .silence.
(how in the world will they react?!)

Then, unexpectedly, smiles appeared on faces.
"Sure", "Oh I didn't know you were an exchange student!", "How cute.."
ahahhahaa. thank you for the great pictures.

Studying here in Penn has been a great exprience.
And as much as this phrase has been used time and time again,
Time really flies.
Soon, I'll be making my reverse trip across the Atlantic,
with a heavier bagful of memories, experiences
and of course, a heavier self.

BAD HABIT

There are some poor souls who have to sleep terribly late, like at dawn or after breakfast, and wake up in the middle of the afternoon, when it's blistering hot cause the sun shines into the room.

And then,
there are souls like me who have the priviledge to sleep at nights
and wake up in the mornings.
Partly because I have classes at 9.
Also, I suspect that Stouffer College House hasn't heard of the alien concept of "supper", and thus the general atmosphere here, esp at night is quieter than that of B-Block's first floorers.

Instead of cherishing the sweet process of "getting ready for bed" i.e. stretching, reading that last sentence, closing your books for the night, slowly ambling to the lights switch and offing it with satisfaction, crawling into bed and under the covers, closing your eyes and finally sleeping...

I fell asleep with the lights on.
AGAIN.
The sad thing this time, is that I never woke up in the middle of the night to off the lights and sleep properly.

So I wake up numb on one side, still tired cause "I" didn't know it was sleeping time and thus took it as a nap, with bad hair, with bloodshot eyes and with just an ounce of not-again! annoyance.

Hahha.. making myself sound so attractive.

It's just so annoying cause sleeping with the lights on is like sleeping in the day. And that arguement isn't even supposed to make sense, cause in the day, you can actually pull down the blinds and simulate a dark room.

Anyhoos, I wonder how each individual block commands went.
Last year's block command was a tad bit teary sigh.
The sucky time of the year where the final years say their goodbyes, and leave current seniors to take their honourable places as final years.

Random Fact #2:
1000 high school valedictorians (the top-ranked student of the year) applied for entry into Penn next year.
Only a shocking 350 were accepted.
(If I knew how to put the cute little emoticons we can find in MSN here, there would be one emoticon here with a dropped jaw and wide eyes)
Some students with perfect SATs were too, rejected.
(Same emoticon with dropped jaw and wide eyes)

The scary smart machines who make it each of which want that last place in the bell curve.
*breathe breathe*
Exchange, exchange.

SPRING FLING WEEKEND: SUNDAY IN STOUFFER

SPRING FLING WEEKEND: SATURDAY IN DC

SPRING FLING WEEKEND: FRIDAY IN THE QUAD

I contemplate.
To resume working on my homework and my assignments and projects, which in the end will be reflected as a S or U in my final transcripts.
Or to spend my whole entire night blogging about everything I haven't blogged about, the New York trip, the Florida trip, the Chicago trip, the Washington DC trip. After all, what is an exchange experience but stories of a weary world-traveller who've been places and seen things.

Okay that was simple.
Whalau,ofcoursestudyla,cometoagoodschool,paysomuchforon-campusaccomodation,textbooksandlivingexpenses.
SomemorenotlikeI'mdeprivinganyoneofthebrilliantstoriesofmyexchange,
notlikeanyonereadsthisblog. Blogwhatblog.


okay, so anyways, Penn celebrated its annual Spring Fling this weekend, in the Quad!










*Quad: Large fenced plot of land, where a few college houses (equivalent of halls) stand together. The Quad encompasses 38 interlocking buildings surrounding 5 interior courtyards (vast open spaces of both concrete and grass).

Spring Fling has a carnival-like atmosphere about it, and the Quad's the place to be during the three days of Fling. Food booths and games booths are set up in the courtyards, and live bands jam and rock on temporary stages. Thi's not what Fling's all about though. Oh, it's not.

(whisper) Spring Fling's everybody's excuse to get drunk collectively in the academic year. Students smuggle in booze into the Quad 1-2 weeks before the weekend because the school tightens security checks into the Quad the days leading to Spring Fling. No, drinking's not disallowed on campus, and on a normal basis, students drink. It's just that during Fling, manymany students get drunk. Many.

Last years statistics is a testimony to the "festiveness" of this time of the year. There were:

1. 19 hospitalizations due to alcohol poisoning
2. 19 party disturbances
3. 16 something
4. and 1 arrest

These numbers may not seem that big, but the number of students hospitalized does not encompass the number of drunk students. Imagine 1 hospitalization due to alcohol poisoning back home.
Authorities will freak can.

So in anticipation of seeing drunk students mess around in broad daylight, I delightedly accepted Yan Min's (Malaysians at Penn's President) invitation to check out the Quad. There were like 5-6 buff, fierce security guards at the main entrance, who forcefully checked and double checked everyone's Penn ID (i.e. matric card) and bags, for fear of students bringing in MORE booze into the Quad. The admin already knew of the staggering amount of alcohol in students dorm rooms, but there was nothing wrong with increasing security. There were even more guards INSIDE the courtyards. Wherever you turned, there was sure to be a blue-uniform cladded personnel in your line of vision.

Games people play.

I didn't get to see what i want to: masses of bodies overdosed with booze, but experiencing this campus tradition was still somewhat memorable: Had my first Fried Oreos! Super sweet on the outside due to the healthy sprinkle of powdered suger, super oily and heaty due to the thick layer of golden-fried batter, and super-delicioucly-yummy due to the crumbly, soft Oreo cookie inside.

Kern, Lorraine, Yan Min and Ek Kia

But as nightfall drew closer,
signs of consumption of the smooth brown liquer emerged.
=D

Down, boys.