Many many updates to update!
CampI was at my hostel camp last week. The people there were really nice but I hate camps, so I joined late and left early. It was originally 7 days and 6 nights, but I only stayed for 3 nights.
The first day was spent playing games that required you to get literally down and dirty. They were quite fun though...but I really didn't like the dirty part.
The second day was the worst. We had this Amazing Race (it was amazing in that I survived it) thing in which we were required to WALK from station to station. The last two groups (out of four) to reach the finish point would stay in tents while the first two would get to stay in chalets. We finished top. We started in NTU and ended in EAST COAST PARK chalet. We were only allowed to take buses like 2 or 3 times. And since it was a race, we had to run from time to time. A particularly memorable part of the race was when we ran UPHILL to a station in NUS. Oh my god. It's murder for someone who didn't even pass her 2.4 km run/walk for NAPFA. I laugh when I look back at that teeny-weeny failure. Look at me now...going on 9 hour-walks. I was honestly cursing inwardly the whole way as my group members cheered each other on ("Close the gap!", "Come on, just a bit faster! We must stay in chalet tonight!", and the worst one: "We're reaching!" when we obviously were not) but didn't say anything because I knew it was necessary for us to finish the race. But if I have any say in next year's camp I would take away the stupid you-can-only-walk rule. No fun, you say? It's more important to survive it without injuries or muscle cramps, I say.
We played Shi Zi Lu Kou (a game in which you go from place to place in search of certain types of food. It's adapted from a Taiwanese game show starring Jacky Wu and other hosts) on the third day. It was fun, and luckily we didn't really have to run. Everyone was too tired to anyway. I got muscle aches so bad that my muscles were all stiff and it was really really difficult and painful to even walk. But I'm all better now so I'm prepared to put the horror that was the Amazing Race behind me. Wen Fang wasn't so lucky, though...she injured her knee.
Hostel LifeNow I stay in an NTU hostel with a very close secondary school friend. Moving in was such a hassle that I felt it was more trouble than it's worth. My mum fussed over everything and got me really stressed and pissy. But I also felt very guilty because she really planned and did almost everything for me and I wouldn't have moved in successfully without her. Sigh. And now I really look forward to going home every weekend.
I'm slowly adapting to hostel life. The biggest problem is the lack of aircon. I haven't gotten used to it yet. On Monday night it was humid and I couldn't sleep cos the ceiling fan was blowing hot air. I hope there won't be many more of such nights. My roomie says I am spoilt and that she lived for 20 years without aircon...haha. The second biggest problem is that I'm anti-social. I haven't gone for a single hall outing so far and I feel guilty, but I don't know how to get over my shyness. Sigh. Will try though. And it's really quite boring staying in the hostel if you don't have many friends. I mean, I'm very lucky with Jesslin staying a block away and being friends with the neighbours and Jia Hui staying quite far away but still accessible for meals together, but it's still not what I thought - that I wouldn't be bored as long as I had my precious laptop and its magic bag of entertaining tricks.
Oh well. I'm sure I'll get used to it very soon! =)
Uni LifeSchool started on Monday. Lectures are still boring in university...but some lecturers try, so it's not so bad. Plus, most of the stuff in the core modules are familiar to me. The level of kiasu-ness my fellow coursemates are showing is kind of eyebrow-raising. I now believe all the stories of how chiong and kiasu uni students can be.
We selected our electives on Tuesday. I do believe the system is worse than the GEMs one (as unbelievable as that may sound). I wound up with 2 okay electives and 1 sucky elective. I got into Genes R Us, French and Systems for Everyone. The third elective is from the Mechanical Engineering Course and the module description made me think "Huh?", which is very bad news. But there was not much choice cos I didn't want to put any lessons on Friday and all other modules were filled to capacity. I'm praying that it is not too technical or difficult. I seriously don't wanna fail any elective. And just now Becky called me to say that the electives lessons actually started today (we'd thought it would only start next week, seeing as registration was till Sunday), so yay we've missed our first Genes R Us lesson! Crapola.
Other than the elective problem, I'm quite ok with uni life so far. But then again, it's only the first week and it's tutorial-less, so we shall see. I'm currently looking forward to the studying part cos I kinda miss it, but I have a suspicion that I won't be missing it for long.
SecretI went to watch Jay Chou's directorial debut, Secret, with JY and Flora just now. I liked it very much, but I know some others will not because of the plot twist and hmm maybe various other reasons related to Jay himself. Jay may be a colossal show-off and act-cool guy who mumbles his way through beautiful lyrics (and even forgets them on a regular basis), but he really is very creative and good at what he does. As a first try, it satisfies and even impresses at some parts. I am definitely getting the soundtrack for the movie. Music is still what he does best so you can expect an excellent soundtrack. Love the theme song! I will also get the DVD if my love for this movie can wait long enough.
If you're going to watch it, ignore my glowing review or your expectations will escalate so high you won't be impressed with it like I was. (I read a bad review before watching it.)
Jay Chou rocks! =D =D =D
