Welcome to the Ivy League !

UPenn is the first US university, or so they claimed.


Founded by Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of United States. sorry bout the quality of the pic. Was rushing with the group for an excursion at city center


As an ivy league institution, it is one of UPenn's many annual traditions for the president of the university to place a brick to commemorate the IVY DAY.


and planting an ivy plant on the preliminary quadrangle....


The walkway on campus...squirrels, known as UPenn's rodents here are very widely found on campus


This is the house where 'addam's family' lived. The movie/cartoon/series was filmed using the College Hall as their eerie mansion, inspired by its cartoonist, Charles Addam who is from UPenn. This is also where the admission office is situated and admission decisions are actually made inside this building !


This is the Fisher Fine Arts library, 1 of the 15 libraries in UPenn. It's probably the oldest library on campus.

The walkway leading up Houston Hall, where the Hall of Flags are situated.


If I'm not mistaken, this should be Logan Hall. The sun is really bright during the day and Philadelphia's weather is roughly the same like Malaysia during summer.

The walkway leading up College Hall, the center point of the campus.

Moving-In Days

Some even shipped their humongous luggage in this FED EX truck....


The various newspapers in Philadelphia. Just drop a coin in and collect the papers.


The ever-helpful and friendly volunteers helping in during the moving-in days...


The walkway outside my hostel. (and the gas guzzling SUVs!)


UPS and Fed Ex drop of boxes.


The volunteer posed for this photo !!! Free water !!


The underground train station (in the middle). Can actually hop on to New York and New Jersey.


A case of exploitation....


The buggies on campus for people who are tired of walking ....


Oh yea, i forgot to include this in my previous post...this is my washroom

Happy 50th, Malaysia !

Nationalism has never ceased to bend human institutions to the service of mankind...
I love this article ever since i read it last year ....

Excerpts from the NST;
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Time to defend Malaysia for the Malaysians

Just Sayin’

Brian Yap
New Straits Times

WHEN I first read the statement by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak about the post-Merdeka generation being unappreciative of the country’s history and easily influenced by Western liberal ideology, I thought he was talking about me.

It was early in the morning, and my mind still groggy, susceptible to the influence of my ego.

By the time the coffee kicked in however, I realised that such an important person probably has better things to do with his time than read this column and comment on it. I also remembered that I’m not influenced by Western liberal ideology.

Later, it occurred to me that when he reportedly said, “These post-Independence kids do not realise that racial harmony today did not happen on its own,” he might be giving advice to members of his own political party.

My concern for this country isn’t inspired by Western-style liberalism nor Eastern-style whatever. To be honest, my political awakening, like many of my generation, was the result of the Anwar Ibrahim saga in 1998, and I take inspiration from more Malaysian leaders than Western ones.

I’ve read books concerning the history of this country, including those by Rehman Rashid, K. Das, Patrick Keith and others. They explained to me why Malaysia is the way it is today, more than anything I ever learned in school. I’m not claiming to be a historical expert, but neither am I completely unappreciative of the country’s history.

What I do know is that Malaysians, including those born before Merdeka, have been consistently calling for the repeal of certain laws for decades now. So while young people like myself like to think everything begins with us, we have to admit we were beaten by those before us. So the call for a more transparent and democratic society can hardly be the sole domain of youth influenced by Western ideology.

It is certainly timely to ponder these issues - after all, tomorrow is the 49th Merdeka. No doubt a time for celebration, but the commemoration of the fruition of a tough struggle should also be a time to remind ourselves to continue our efforts to realise the nation envisioned all those years ago. The danger is in mistaking Merdeka as simply a time to be nostalgic and wave flags.

Malaysia, after all, is a work in progress, and democracy a conversation. For better or worse, Malaysia is inevitably a multi nation, made up of many cultures, religions, ethnicity and languages. The basis for our nation is enshrined in our Constitution, which can be amended, but should only be done so consensually. Until that is the case, however, that is the document we are all bound by.

If it is true that the young take the past for granted, then it is equally tragic to take the future in the same way. This is what worries some of us . And when I say us, I don’t know if it’s a hundred, a million, or, uh, just me, but there’s a sense that the multi-cultural nature of our society is no longer as prized as it should be. Multiculturalism is being stigmatised, when racism and social inequality are the true enemies.

My disappointment with all the race talk lately lies not so much with what was said, but the fact that people still fall for that kind of talk. Someone says something, another side defends, and both end up looking like champions of their respective communities. This has happened many times in the past. It’s hard to blame politicians for committing themselves to certain communal causes when it’s what Malaysians still want. If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t work. I mean, if I wanted to move up the political ladder, I wouldn’t promise a further hike in petrol prices. That would be political suicide. Playing the race card, however, isn’t.

This Merdeka, maybe it is time to demand for leadership that will not pander to the basest of our feelings like mistrust and selfishness, but someone who will find what is great about us, and use that as the framework of our co-operation. You know, something like what the founding fathers of this nation did.

When I say it’s time for us to move beyond laws that stifle democracy and open debate, I am inspired by the talk of Malaysians having a First World mentality, something mooted by our Prime Minister himself. And when I say I long for a day when we find a new political paradigm, where pandering to narrow communal interests is frowned upon by everyone, I don’t think I’m influenced by the West. Instead, I suspect it has to do with the whole Bangsa Malaysia idea constantly being thrown about. Don’t look at me, I didn’t come up with it.

If after almost 50 years, we’re not getting any closer to that coveted goal (some might even say we’ve drifted even further apart), then we have to admit that nation building hasn’t been effective as we hoped. If so, it is time to address this. There are already too many people defending their respective races and religions. What we need are more people defending Malaysia. Selamat Hari Merdeka

M_Y__N_E_W__R_O_O_M__ STOUFFER

Hi all, sorry for the late update, the past few days have been extremely hectic. Just got back from a woo-ha-ha excursion at the Rittenhouse Square, a 'posh' city center (the bukit bintang of philadelphia la which houses those up and trendy outlets etc). Yup, i got to the states safely. The 30hours odd-journey has caused some brain-floating-syndrome but no jet lag surprisingly. The funny thing is that the Americans and some international students have some real problem pronouncing my name, thus i'm officially known as XHIAENG LEIGH. Never mind why they prefer to roll their tongues to sound 3 vowels instead of 2.

First Day : ROOM 242D STOUFFER

Checked in around 9 here...noticed that my front door has been infested by various appointments letters from so and so.......oh yea..the GA gave me the crocodile tag for my door :-)

Open sesame .......

oriental culture : no shoes/slippars allowed across the rabbit ...


messy messy room.....


Glimpse of the air-cond/heater near the window....

my blue linens with conforter.....



my closet which could fit 6 of myself in it........

my pile of snacks....got some bran raisin bran from my GA and some mugs from the service fair. The land phone in my room can't call out though it can receive calls.....

my tree-pronged-lighted study table....the light on the far left cost me USD 12....

the numerous Penn leaflets, wrist strap, SEPTA railway & bus booklet and whistle from the service fair...
View from my window : This is the Wharton, UPenn's Business school. The university security personnels congregate 24/7 with their bicycles and batons here.....

Polls closed !

Philadelphia, PA, Wednesday : With the closure of the xxx series, lXl held a reception to celebrate the winner of the poll conducted throughout the play. Pn. A overwhelmingly took precedence at the top of the echelon with 10 votes (50%). LoneRanger came close with 5 votes (25%) after some late self-campaigning done. Unfortunately, none of the contenders were present at the reception with the exception of the coordinator lXl. When asked for a statement, lXl said that this poll clearly depicts that democracy is well, alive and kicking in the land of xxx. While speaking to the journalist at a clandestine building in the most democratic country in the world, lXl conveyed his hope that the no-prize award will serve as a stimulus for Pn. A to 'realize' and act to correct ----------- . However, many voters were not convinced and many have started campaigning for her in the 2007-2006 award. At press time, Pn. A couldn't be contacted for comments.

Part 11 - Scary lXl and Part 12 - the end (code 300807)

0040 hours :

alrite, as most of you are well informed.....the *qamulail* night (not sure about the spelling) was tricky...... the boys didn't wanna sleep and couldn't stop talking...so i thought their energy could be well spent and i tire them off by walking round the hostel till they got exhausted. Then in 15-20 mins, with sheer mystery..everyone was in their beds ! ahaha....

0400 hours :

lXl got up from his 'nap' and sound the sirens for the wake up call....who in the right frame of mind would wanna do some self confession session outside the mosque at some unearthly hour....lXl couldn't really bothered and simply conducted some talking session instead......


1200 hours :

just before the misery was supposed to end, lXl was surprised by yet another spectacular spinoff by xxx, done in front of the Chairperson of the GIJoe's officer. The participant/student representative (which happened to be from my group) read a script praising xxx for their 'excellent' and 'outstanding' effort in making the camp a success..clap ..clap...clapppp......bluekkkkk.......oh, after a no-show appearance by Pn. A for the last week or so, Pn A, for some reason, appeared ! it must have been one of houdini's mastery......

1300 hours :

After the VIP were led out with splendor, another !@#$% blip came out from the blue. the facilitators were suppose to distribute the certificates, which, due to poor management...AGAIN from xxx, are not arranged accordingly....WTF !

1400 hours :

lXl just couldn't cared anymore and as lXl see the participants off..Pn. C came and told us that xxx were really proud of us, while saying that we shouldn't be bothered by the complains by the GI joe's officers who were there to monitor the performance of the organizers. Pn. C added that xxx would never given the opportunity to host the function....good riddance.....


----------------------------------The End---------------------------------------------------

AWAS : BLOGGER dah slow down

argh, sorry for the blog hiatus. been busy busy and busy.....Flying this SUNDAY !!!

Alcohol done !

I'm soooo done with this.......Katakan Tak Nak (or is it nak tak?) to Alcohol !

AlcoholEdu - Module 1

1. Light Beer has lesser calories than regular beer BUT if you are on a diet, OBVIOUSLY, don't drink BEER at all...

2. The BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration) of an individual depends on his/her alcohol concentration, the time he/she drank and his/her SEX and body weight !

3. If your BAC level is at 0.01-0.05, you will feel highly energized and its PLEASURABLE because alcohol ENHANCES nucleus accumbens (some part of the brain). So its OKAY to drink some alcohol :-)

4. It is estimated that 1 in 100 would DIE when they reach the BAC level of 0.35.

5. BAC in women increases faster than man's. This is due to the fact that women body has LESS water and tend to WEIGH less thus, allowing a higher proportion of alcohol to absorbed...hmm...interesting............

6. Cures for excessive drinking (prob temporary cure !!) - pain reliever (for headaches), replenish fluids (cos, alcohol seems to cause dehydrations) and antacid for STOMACH UPSETS !

oh heck with the alcoholedu, YOU PPL in the STATES and AUSSIE better entertain me with your stories !!How's your ISO / NSO ?!! Do they have booze there ?!! i'm soooo gonna go bonkers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PRP

I've been procrastinating on my PRP (Penn Reading Project @ Please READ, Puhlezze !). I've started the first few pages ..... and i just slept with the book smacked at my face. Oh by the way, the book is the Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Here's a few things i would like to share after finishing the first few pages (lol)

1. Americans have only 2 choices for their staple food. Its either wheat or corn. So they are either wheat-man or corn-man !

2. You could actually examine whether a person eats corn or not !! (it seems that there would be lots of Carbon 13 in his flesh which would make him a walking CORN !!)

3. Americans love corn. They get a meat and covered it with corn flour, fry in a pan using corn oil, eat the meat with corns and have a drink of fermented corns aka beer !!

4. Talking about copyrighting laws, some biotech scientists in the US can even copyright their corn seeds ! They GMed (genetically modified) those corns to produce super-duper-halo-whacko corn seeds that possessed all those super-duper-halo-whacko characteristics BUT these super-duper-halo-whacko plants can't produce seeds which have the same attributes. In that sense, farmers can only get those super-duper-halo-whacko seeds from those scientists, thus making them super-duper-halo-whacko rich.

5. The human brain evolved because we had to make so many decisions on what to eat due to the fact that the homo sapiens are omnivorous !! Though, it was not implied whether this applies for the herbivores-humans ....

6. It takes 1 farmer to feed 239 humans !! be a farmer, everybody!!! and do some good for the country !!


ps : I'm just starting alcoholedu..dangggggggggg....................why did they even create and market alcohol in the first place when drinking is NO GOOD ?

OMG !!!

OMG !!!! its officially 2 weeks (14 days) before i fly !!! GAWD !!!! and i don't even know what i'm gonna do in LA or phili or the luggage limit !!! GAWD !!!!!!!!! oh besides that...i haven't even finish packing....OMG !!!!!!!!!!!

ps : oh yea...thanks ero_ezi for freaking me out ! lol

Part 10 – The breaking point (Code130807)

Third Day :

0700 hours :

As usual, lXl got up late again….. but this time, lXl team had to play some !@#$%% game called anagram? (or was it something-gram???…sorry, I can’t remember J) Anyway, this game required the members to do some memory work ie, remember a picture and rebuild the object in the picture using some jigsaw puzzles. Anyway, after sometime, and seeing that his team was losing terribly, lXl decided to give a hand but somehow the team besides lXl’s figured out faster..Dang…what a waste of effort..oh well…..

1000 hours :

The facilitators had a meeting. Goddamnit. We were suppose to guide those kids to build a lantern. !@#$%^. WTF…how could you expect those kids to build a BIG lantern from scratch. #%^*(&( . Aih..lXl decided to book the room quickly and the rest follow suit. As usual, the organizers failed to plan yet again ! WTFFFFFFFFFF…………..

1200 hours :

The lantern-making session officially started. As expected, none of the team members could come out with a way to make a lantern (and 1 of my team members was actually picked to represent the students in giving the closing speech….oh puhleeze, the organizers are dumb or wat ?!). They played around for an hour plus (or was it until I was pissed off, not really sure though). By 1300 hours, they got freaked out and as expected, I was coerced to build the whole lantern! @#$%%^ so there I was in the freaking cold room, busy building the !@$% lantern while those !@$% naïve kids played hide and seek etc. WTF, grow up please !!!

1400 hours :

lXl was lucky that his team was not that terrible and could listen to his ‘orders’ (or were they afraid of me…I don’t know for sure). Student S had a very different team altogether. Probably none of you would have realized, the team was really F------ up…Not even one could cooperate to come out with the team name! It was hard on him and I wasn’t surprise when Student S walked out of the freaking camp after lunch. Mat Skodeng 1 who happened to realize this quickly (and also is Student S apartment mate) stepped up to take his place temporarily to avoid further embarrassment on the organizers’ part. By evening, student S came back and resumed his duties (the organizers should have thanked him for that) and help pull the team together. Anyway, lXl got to miss dinner to put in some finishing touches of that !$%^ lantern.

2000 hours :

The procession started towards the mini stadium. And as if things were never right…glitches started before the event proper has started. The organizers didn’t brief the members of what is expected of them. Some even lose their ways during the march (or was it a walk? Ah whatever u can call it). And the whole field was WET and the students were expected to sit on the drenched field. WTF ?!

2200 hours :

We had some entertainment by the teams (though nobody was motivated enough to give an inspiring performance). At around 12, the Muslims participants had to embark to the mosque to rest for the night while the nons were expected to go back to their rooms to sleep. Interestingly, the guys (I don’t know bout the girls, got to ask m@nda for that) wanted to sleep together in a single apartment. The reason they gave was that they were afraid to sleep alone. WTF ?! Ok, I was fine with that…… at first. Aha, but then, boys will be always boys, won’t they? When I asked what room they wanted to go to, nobody could decide with a coherent answer. It was clear that there were 2 factions within the group of 10 guys…Hmmmm…..ok, it was fine with me again, if they wanna play some games, I wanna play too…..

0015 hours :

We started our looooonnnngg journey back to the hostel.

To be continued : Part 11 : Scary lXl

See you in the States !

Gosh, there has been a massive relocation of the BNM scholars for the last few days.
Aiman, Din, Elmer, Mar, Faruq and Aidil,
G'd luck and all the best.
Belajar kuat-kuat dan selamat maju jaya !!!

ps : feel free to bunk in at my place when you ppl plan to visit Penn..

Ride On, LoneRanger !!

It's been a great honor and joy getting to know you and serving under your command, sir ! All the best for your future endeavors and thanks for everything ! Take care, don't drift too much and of course, jangan kahwin.!.banyak masalah nanti...ahahaha...Alrite! Ride On, Lone Ranger (@ Forest Ranger) !!!!
Wafffff......

Part 9 - The beginning of the end Code040807

Function Y was a total disaster and truly the most poorly organized event I’ve ever witnessed my whole life.

First Day :

1630 hours :

WTF, one of my team members went missing and later I realized that this !@#% fella actually switched group. !@#$%^. One even had 2 tags on (PMR and SPM) and when I queried, he said the organizers gave him ….WT EFFFFF

1830 hours :

Officers from GI Joe’s conducted a spot check at the boy’s dorm to ensure they are free from any barang larangans. It was so damn bloody cold as it was drizzling and the officers told lXl that this got to be done as he supposedly chased a student whom he thought was smoking in the room earlier. The worst was that lXl and Student S were forced to do the donkey job …….

There was this kid who approached me and asked :

Bang, boleh simpan handset I tak ?

!@$%

I acted as if I didn’t listen and guess what, he went through easily (the officers did not check thoroughly…GOSH!)

For Goodness sake, I don’t understand why they want to do a stupid spot check in the rain ! And since it was raining, they even had to ‘sembahyang jemaah’ under a tent, which was drenched with water. Poor kids……

2230 hours :

A stupid post mortem was done and like I wrote earlier….nothing really constructive were said…what a waste of time……. and resources

Second Day :

0700 hours :

lXl didn’t bother to get up early. I mean, what’s the use getting up at 6 when lXl could easily get up at 7 and join the rest of the participants without anyone noticing. Walked to the main campus and somehow got things arranged so that the participants could actually sit in a group for breakfast. The day was much more relaxed as the participants were attending classes most of the time.

1800 hours

While walking back with my group members, I noticed Student S pondering at the bus stop. I sat with him and had a little chat. I pitied his team, as the members could not cooperate and felt restless which were clearly shown by the Team characters and their result of their team discussion. It was raining heavily but as usual, there wasn’t any Plan B. So everybody got wet…AGAIN !

When lXl went back to his room and was surfing the net, another facilitator, Bill came in and asked whether I know of any facilitator who ‘mengamuk’

Bill : Eh, lXl, engkau tau tak ada faci yang mengamuk. En. A kata tadi, dia tengok seorang faci mengamuk.

lXl wasn’t concentrating at that time (the net was more intriguing!lol) and simply brush it off ….oh well….

2000 hours,

Practice singing…OMG…WTH has this got to do with team building. Probably some xxx researchers have came out with the theory that singing challenges the mind and stimulates your intellectual capabilities. Hmmmm …….

2350 hours.

Went to talk with the Mat Skodengs and Student F. lXl was hoping for another post mortem to do some whacking, but unfortunately, there was none. Student F attended some de-briefing with the officers and organizers and came back with another interesting story. It seems that the organizers claim that the participants would sedar bahawa dia orang kenalah sembahyang walaupun hujan, basah etc when they were asked why those participants were forced to pray and get their feet wet under a drenched tent. Oh..What a day…!

To be continued : Part 10 – The Breaking Point

Camp....sort of......lol

I apologize (esp to Abu, lol) for not updating my blog as i was called up for BNM to attend a course in their HRDC training center. Anyway, what i like bout BNM is that they have some freaking cool 'camp' with no brainwashing methods employed by BTN etc for their scholars......


The view from the lobby........


Corridors leading to the 'camps'


A8 .... my room for 3 days


The swimming pool behind my room

The main lobby .....................

ps : i won't be around next week. Will be in kuching, so please bare with the blog hiatus...to LoneRanger, have a good flight and hope to see you in Purdue one day !