Gabe In The USA

Bye Everyone!

2006-12-27T12:17:00.000-08:00

Yeapz..so i have touched down a day ago.....left LA on xmas eve....said goodbye to AD for the last time....reached hawaii..spent a lonely xmas eve walking around hawaii and having the whole world speak to me in japanese......took the flight to narita and again endured another round of greetings in japanese...much to my amusement...
so happy to finally touch down singapore...n to see my family again....reached back home at 2am...woke up at 8 to settlethethingineedtosettlewhichresultedinmecominghomeearly and then finally cut my damndamn long hair...and then...it was back to sheares for sepak..i was so excited even on the bus and it was really great touching the ball again...unfortunately the frenly after that didn't go too well which kinda soured the mood for most ppl...so after a 4 hour session...i finally left the mpsh wif sore muscles.....
went back to blk d to chat wif my frens...who sadly..are now my 'ex-blkmates' since i'm not staying in d anymore....lookin at the way things are going..i wonder if i would be actually staying in yr 4..since i dun haf any points and since i dun haf any desire to join anything to get the points..mebbe i'm just tired from the long flight and the jet lag but while i was back at hall..i felt so tired..and nua..and i just felt so old compared to the year ones and twos...
year 4 is going to be a shittified year for me and it's prolly going to be more sian if i hafta keep shuttling to n fro campus...after being so used to staying near campus...sighz...PGP perhaps?..or kuok foundation house?

exchange is over and it's back to the realities of life in singapore...i hope i will never forget the lessons i learn there and keep the warm memories in my heart forver.....i have come across so manymany ppl there who were extremely kind to me.....and i'm so grateful for it....hopefully i become a nicer person after this..hurhur..

so farewell everyone..and good luck to those going on exchange in sem2.. =)

i'm closing the door again..:P

on a food fiesta

2006-12-22T10:56:00.000-08:00

not doing much here in LA...except zooming down the freeways...and enjoying good food..
yesterday's dinner at the blue marlin was awesome...rice wrapped in omelette with chicken cutlet and curry...simply great...

pity i forgot to bring my camera...

i know i'm coming back to singapore when i'm using www.streetdirectory.com and www.sbstransit.com.sg again...:)

Goodbye Davis

2006-12-20T08:43:00.000-08:00

it's been about 10 days since i last blogged...in 10 days..i have
1) gotten closer to some of the msians as a result of our mugging sessions in the library..
2) started my finals
3) completed my finals
4) got the grades of 2 of my finals
5) cleared my stuff from pacifico
6) attended a farewell gathering by the msians...an ultimate paiseh n humbling event as there were 30 ppl waiting for me...to pack my stuff from pacifico..chuah n jeny had to come pick me up and drive me there..and when i was there..they had prepared the nasi lemak..waited for me to arrive...and i had to give a speech!!!!...paiseh to da max...firstly i dunno half of the ppl there...secondly even for the other half dat i sorta know..i'm not close to them at all...thirdly...i din do anything and yet i had to give a speech as if i'm some big shot...lastly..all of them were waiting for me so they could eat.... paiseh..touched n humbled all rolled into one...totally gan dong by their hospitality..
7) went to tahoe wif some of the msians n nozomi..
8) wasted one whole day (19th of dec) travellin to LA.. missed my first bus ..as i thought that amtrak meant train...so i was waiting for the train..tog wif jeny n peter (who arrived at davis at the prev train)...when i should have been waiting for the bus instead.. totally dumb and stupid of me...
9) met AD again..and he said i'm thinner...sheesh..
10) ate a late supper wif him...and yes..brought back memories of the huge servings i used to have when i was in LA a couple of months back....perhaps i would get to put on some weight before i come back to sg..

the ultimate help sheet

2006-12-10T00:29:00.000-08:00

one thing that I've learnt very well in NUS is how to make a good helpsheet. I may not be able to fill it up with the most relevent and pertinent information but I've definitely had a insight on how to squeeze and cram every single thing i think is impt onto a piece of paper...
right now..i have the challenge of converting 2 double sided helpsheets (for my 2 eng45 midterms into ONE double side helpsheet for my final) and in the process..add in one more chapter worth of information. Currently, besides the fact that I'm procrastinating and wasting alot of time away in my room, I think I'm making good progress as i have managed to cram the whole info of midterm1 into half of the first side...so well done to me...since i haven't been using my time constructively in my room..i guess i hafta push it to tmrw..at the lib ba..and sacrifice some pdc time..

i bought a packet of fried rice for dinner...and after eating some of it for dinner..and some of it for supper..i still have half the packet left..argh...all for the price of 6.50...i have food for dinner..supper and breakfast..

do horoscopes have an element of truth in them? is cancer necessarily right?
heaven forbid the day when i believe in them totally...

how strange that our schedules are almost similar in fact our schedules have almost been similar for the past 4 months...and also for the next 7 months

i run away
because i don't want to get caught
i run away
because i don't play games like others do

farewell parties

2006-12-08T23:31:00.000-08:00

it's the time to say goodbye...todae was my last day of sch.....and jeny ordered pizza at the msian meeting partly cuz it's my last day at sch..kinda gan dong and paiseh...cuz firstly i dun even go for much of their meetings..todae was only the second...so i didn't warrant such treatment....but they have been reallyreally nice all these while...and definitely made my stay in davis much better...
initially din wanna come back to pacifico...cuz even as i type ...there's a party going on right outside my door...and i'm totally against it...argh...wanted to sleep in the lib..but i tot my bed would be a better choice..and besides i din have food to sustain me...haiz..so here i am..wasting my friday nite away...chatted wif xy n jw..n jeny..for most part of the nite...(ooops..i wasn't really chatting wif xy n jw..i was like interrogated by them..hahaha...although jw came to my defence thankfully..haha..and miss lawyer-to-be posted some incriminating pics of me..hurhur..so pls don't offend any lawyers next time...they are highly dangerous..wahahaha)
.n i dunno how long the stupid music is gonna last..the party was supposed to be somesort of farewell party..since like some ppl are leaving..(mainly the singaporeans)...but somehow i doubt that that's the main reason...they just wanna party n drink for goodness sake...and cook up a damn excuse...
tmrw there's another farewell party..which i ain't really interested in goin...so..dat's dat..

the last lect for pdc(157) was todae too..dunno why no one clapped for the prof...i guess they were just dulan wif their lousy grades for the recent test...hurhur...dunno wad's their problem..kena tricked by the ezam onli den dulan...

it's so ironic..when tests are hard..ppl aren't scared of the final...instead..for 158A..where the class average is 80% for the midterm, alot of ppl are worried for it..
that's so like life back in nus.....

time flies...it's kinda hard to say goodbye...:(

congrats!..

2006-12-07T08:26:00.000-08:00

woke up dis morning n saw the good news on my dear fren kokming's blog...hahaha..actually feel happy and excited for him..haha.. wad a year it has been for the 2 of us....from the low point in the NUS SRC swimming pool exactly a year ago......to our current state now...how we came thru dat to where we are now i don't know...but we have made it..woohoo..!

sorry dude..i din add more publicity for u like ur wad "cleo eligible bachelor" crap.....have fun shopping for clothes... and set aside money for my genghis khan treat upon my return...mwahahahahahaha

jiayou! (literally)

one of the last words my ech160 prof told us at yesterday's lecture was..

As you go through life, focus on the doughnut...and not on the hole.....i,e Focus on what is..and not what isn't.....

At The Stars

2006-12-06T23:03:00.000-08:00

Maybe I should drop you at your door.
Or leave tonight and vanish up the shore.
Anywhere but here.

It's three o'clock we're driving in your car,
You're screaming out the window at the stars,
"Please don't drive me home!"

Blame us because we are who we are.
Hate us because you'll never get that far.
And who'd suppose you would go?
I've already learned enough to know.

Tell me all the places we could go.
And count the headlights passing on the road,
A long, long time ago.

Here we are.
Foreign to their world.
Straight and composed.
Your sermons I can do without
And I finally found.
That everybody loves to love you
When you're far away.

Could it be we've done something wrong
We'd make it home to your place before dawn
"Please, don't take me home."
"Please, don't take me home."

it's ending soon..

2006-12-06T21:43:00.000-08:00

suddenly it's become apparent to me that my days here are numbered...i had the impression that there's still sometime to the finals but i realised i was actually counting down to the finals to end... and in fact..it's only FIVE days to the first paper..i guess the main reason why I don't have the mood is because there's no reading week..and lessons are still ongoing..
the 158a lesson was held today...and at the end of it..there was a round of applause for dr.feerer.. it's pretty common to clap for lecturers at the last lesson...but i think he really deserved it...he's been a simply awesome lecturer...n has helped me quite a bit...really grateful to him..

the average for the horrendous 157 test was 41.7%..haha..it's sucha typical chemengin module .. where everyone dunno how to do..and everyone's results are like crap..and den the bell curve sets in...hurhur..thankfully i got above the average...and thankfully i'm used to such crap tests....so go ahead..make the final a killer...bwahaahaha...

sacrifice

2006-12-05T00:13:00.000-08:00

the last 24 hours has been an extremely trying one for me...

it had been a long time since i last felt so down and out....

some horrifying news...
hasty plans to book tics to the east coast..
saw my values obtained for my costing project was way off target..
saw ashish and he told me that a segment of the eng45 final would consist of stuff the lecturer talk in class (i haven't been going for classes due to the overlap)
went for pdc class and he still has 2 more chapters left of multivariable control and the final is next monday..
more horrifying news..

i sat on the floor with my back against the wall...totally defeated as i wait for my pdc class.
i wondered how on earth did i throw away something so valuable to me....i was questioning myself if God was playing with me....and wondering what He was trying to tell me...

with my hair messed up...and my tired face.. i must have looked a total wreck..i had spend the last 2 nites at chuah's place..cuz it was near to the lib and i din wanna walk home in the cold wif my thin trackpants..
i couldn't take it anymore after pdc and left for home...and skipped ech140 in the process..

talked to AD,WL,Jeny online n rach n shipei at pacifico..plus my family...thanx..it did help relieve the pain..

slept early at 9pm as i had totally no mood to do anything...esp studying..was tired of waiting..

and i received a fone call at 10pm...

and suddenly a new set of changes were made..
cancelled my tix to the east coast....
and booked a new flight back to singapore..

so goodbye white xmas.. goodbye new year countdown...goodbye to birthday in USA..goodbye eastcoastgoodbye 100USD just for bringing forward my flight..

hello Singapore 27th December 2006

you learn to cherish..only when u lose it....

A ChemE weekend...

2006-12-02T15:09:00.000-08:00

friday's pdc test was quite buang...everyone came out of the classroom shaking their heads with all the "wtfs" spewing from their mouths....my smart jap fren who topped the first test also said it sucked.."bad test" as he says in his jap accent...nick also din know wad he was doin....oh well...i guess these classes just suck...whereever the place is...the farniest was this gal who came out with her question paper in hand and asked "what was THAT? is it some foreign language or something?" haha..

minutes after the test..i was back in the lab...to do my individual costing project..which was due on mon...spoke to dr feerer..and he questioningly asked me.."are u just starting on ur costing proj?" i sheepishly acknowledged..and he said "u're gonna have a busy weekend"..

haa...so here i am on a saturday in the lib...been here since taking the earliest bus i could in the morning..hurhur...sux lah..this proj is worth 25% of the grade..same weightage as the final...tian ah...and the lecturer tells me the grade for the proj depends on the value...the closer your value is to the answer..the better ur grade..kao..if u cost some equipment wrongly den die la lidat..

saw a chemE clazmate walk past me juz now..n i asked if he was in the lab...apparently alot of them are in the lab too...haiz..i thought it was locked so i din go...

mebbe sunday ba..

2 weeks more....

she sells sea shells on the sea shore.....

2006-11-30T07:07:00.000-08:00

Thank God I found you
I was lost without you
My every wish and every dream
Somehow became reality
When you brought the sunlight
Completed my whole life
I'm overwhelmed with gratitude
Cause baby I'm so thankful I found you

the wait is over...:)

2006-11-30T06:34:00.000-08:00

Thank You Sheares Hall Sepak Takraw...:)

I think there's some one up there guiding me...someone up there that is deliberately planting small obstacles along my way, to shepherd me to the best path for me..someone who is planting small setbacks and disappointments for me, so that I would go to a better path which I didn't see initially....

Thank You so much.!

I should be happy..very happy in fact...but the wait which has made me excited and nervy for so long had turned into dread..at the other alternatives forgone...if not for my thickskinned question...i prolly dunno have to wait for how long more...and even worse...the chance would have gone begging..

yuan lai u alr msged me on the 27th..

moral of story : don't paiseh...just ask...

Who knows how things will turn out after this? It may not be the right one for me ultimately, but still, at least if it fails, I know I can look for other alternatives...

this is the start of something good...don't you agree?

so now there is " a reason for all that i do...."...a reason for me to brave the cold as I come back from school....a reason for me to smile....

I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is you

it's 6am when i crawled out of my sheets...shivering in the cold...and saw the news... there will be changes to be made...but i've come to realise..money shouldn't be a factor..

i'm going to the chocolate factory!

let this be a source of motivation...for me to get thru my lab report submission todae..pdc test tmrw...and hw and project submission due on monday...*prays*

Thank you once again, to the person up there guiding me, and blessing me all these while..

wo zhen de zhen de zhen de zhen de zhen de hen kai xin!

don't u just love everything beginning with SH? ;)

Happy Thanxgiving!

2006-11-27T20:24:00.000-08:00

day 99 thur 23rd nov
woke up bright and early to get ready....after doin pdc hw the prev nite...packed in some ech158a hw..and grabbed a quaker chewy bar...and met christie n roji..who had kindly agreed to drive us to sacramento airport...
arrived almost3 hours before my scheduled departure time since christie was leaving for seattle on an earlier flight...so i plopped myself at a cafe...and..
took out my hw..and calculator...and did hw...

after a pretty smooth flight on southwest....reached seattle...and den i realised to my horror..my phone had no more talktime left!..i though i had about 45 mins!..but apparently i accidentally pressed some button and called to someone in singapore instead...was in deep shit then since i din know the flight arrival time of the others..and i dun even know wad airline mark was on..luckily met weijie after i borrowed a phone from the counter...
so met the noc peeps...and 2 other girls who were also 83 born...they were on the edb tap prog...
so we haohaodangdang drove to down to seattle pike's place market...pretty rainy day...and since it was thanxgiving..everything was closed...SIAN..
drove up to vancouver after dat...and it was snowing at our lodge!..so pretty..:)

day 100 fri 24th nov
woke up bright n early to ski at whistler mountain!..apparently it's the most famous ski resort in north america...so i was really fortunate...skiing wasn't cheap though..but it was so fuN!...though i almost killed ppl by crashing into them when i flew down the slopes since i din really master the art of stopping...but all in all..it was great fun...!..snow is so beautiful!
our hotel dat night was at vancouver...best western...encountered a veri lao gan hotel manager..we tried to sneak in all 11 of us into 2 rooms of 2 ppl each..but swaysway dat motel got cctv's all around....and he was actually smirking at us when the first advance party went in...
when i heard xinen telling us how they posed and took sneaky pics of themselves while the advance party when in..i couldn't help laffing..
when around the vancouver streets at nite..pretty happening place..

day 101 sat 25th nov
toured around vancouver..
stanley park...capilano suspension bridge...and we went to grouse mountain to take pics.of the sign..haha..funfun..

day 102 sun 26th nov
back to seattle...pike's place market...went to try to see salmon upstream but apperently it wasn't the season...before rushing to the airport..i was sooooo nearly late...but thank god i made it in time...(after cutting 2 queues)..and even going into the handicapped lane..
haha..by a stroke of luck..i sat in the middle of two guys..and who happened to be skiiers too..so i told them i went skiing too...and voila..suddenly i was in the group of SKIIERS...by virtue of one introductory day of skiing..haha..
and hengheng..i took of my big jacket..and wore my UCdavis sweatshirt..and the guy next to me was a grad student in UCD majoring in chem!...and he offered me a ride back to pacifico...sibeisibei heng...and he's called mark too..it's like i took rode in a car driven by mark to the airport..and came back driven by another mark...so qiao..

day103 mon 27th nov
suffered from the after effects of the hols...totally no mood to study...submitted my hws..and just stoned my way thru the day's lectures...
haiz...
i need to wake up my idea to get thru this hell week of assignments/midterms/projects...after next monday..everything shld be fine..and it would be prep for the finals..
was tokin to liling n she said she barely passed all her classes on exchange to stockholm..suddenly i felt guilty for studying too much here in ucdavis...but i guess it's a necessary thing to do...so lemme get back my mugging mood!..and don't let me day dream any more about the beautiful snowy moments!

anyway here's a pic of how i look like now...haha..my hair is so long and messy ..argh..haha

somebody tell me whether offer means real...

recapping..

2006-11-27T18:57:00.000-08:00

it's been ages since i last blogged...so i shall try to recap..hurhur..as i eat my ice cream after dinner..

day 92 thur 16th nov
can't rem wad i was doin...haha..prolly hw bah..since got pdc proj n hw due..

day 93 fri 17th nov
took a chance to relax after sch...met chuah after lessons..ate at dis cheap place near sch...the fried chicken was so tasty..the cubes of potatoes were crispy on the outside and soft in the inside..and there was alot of rice!..and a glass of OVALTINE..wahaha...superb!..i absolutely love rice..
joined him at the msian's society meeting after dat..and den watched a shakespeare play after that...so coincidental, one of my chem eng clazmates erin happened to be there too....and obviously i wasn't really able to understand the play much..haha.i'm so uncultured..:(
walked wif chuah to his new place...and den went to the grad after dat...quite surprised to see some of my pacifico housemates there too..
went back to his place at russel after that and stayed overnite..

day94 sat 18th nov.
woke up...wanted to do my ech140 then..since chuah is currently taking fluid mech...but he just gave me his notes..and sample questions..which i was too lazy to read..so i did the problems by myself..(tried to do dat is)..haha...wanted to go to fuji's sushi after dat..but the queue was ridiculously long..so settled for another sushi place instead...got my third tee too at the stadium..haha..
came back to pacifico...washed clothes...and nuaed/did work the rest of the nite..

day 95 sun 19th nov.
went to ashish's place to study for the eng45 midterm on monday..dunno why but i was pretty unfocused...skipped the pacifico bbq...and hide in my room to study at nite...haha..so sad hur...

day 96 mon 20th nov.
had to miss one hour of ech158a for the eng45 test...and wad an impt lesson i missed as it was for my costing project worth a hefty 25% of the grade...argh..luckily my eng45 test turned out ok...(i hope) there was some sort of thanxgiving dinner at pacifico...met some ex residents...and the food was decent..(at least there was fried rice to satisfy my rice craving)...

day97 tues 21st nov.
pia hw day! since i was going away for the thanxgiving hols..had my last lab session.....luckily it was pretty slack and i got to chat with my lab mates.. waited for rach in the lib as i was piaing my ech158a hw.....

day98 wed 22nd nov
completed a couple of my hws todae....packed my bags for my thanxgiving trip..so totally unprepared..and no mood..due to the hectic schedule..

how to act blur if it's so obvious?....

i need directions...

2006-11-19T19:35:00.000-08:00

i think i'm pretty good at reading maps and giving road directions based on road guides...

but i think i need directions..

I don't want to wait for our lives to be over,
I want to know right now what will it be
I don't want to wait for our lives to be over,
Will it be yes or will it be...sorry?

competition..

2006-11-15T22:42:00.000-08:00

and i found out that i'm not the only one who wants to go to the chocolate factory...:(...this guy has a good chance of going to the chocolate factory because he eats alot of chocolate bars and thus has a great chance of finding the golden ticket...

willy wonka ah willy wonka...plsplspls

breather..

2006-11-15T19:04:00.000-08:00

phew..finally a breather after a veri hectic week...i guess there's a cycle to my life here..by the end of wed..it's pretty much less xiong..since most of the deadlines are due in the early part of the week...so for the rest of this week..i'm left with just process control assignment...due on friday....
my hair is so long now dat when i went to the toilet just now..i was reminded of my sec sch days when i had a nice long fringe and floppy hair..wahaha..but the shitty thing is i don't have a comb!..although i have my hairband with me...so negligent..

day 86 fri 10th nov
start of our road trip...it was veteran's day..so there was a long weekend..joined 3 taiwanese (peter, n 2 gals..) at the invitation of chuah...
went to muir woods first...before heading down to point reyes...and then subsequently driving back to peter's sis place in san fran...which is right by pier 38...and near the AT &T park..tink the san fran baseball team plays there
had dinner at his sis place..luckily we bought some food back cuz his sis cooked beef..haiz..
played some cards after dat before sleeping...

day 87 sat 11th nov
went to monterey bay...pretty long drive...but it was worth it i guess..nice view...aiya..actually everything is the same come to think of it...a coast is a coast..the pacific ocean is the pacific ocean...see here see there all the same..
drove back and we met his sis at ranch99..dis asian supermarket..and we bought food for steamboat!..yay..and i bought some taiwan instant noodles and meegoreng..ahaha..miss those stuff..
had a nice dinner..n we played this snatch the spoon game which was similar to heartattack..haha..pretty lame..

day 88 sun 12th nov
took a walk along the pier wif chuah..n took pics of the at n t park...actually for the past 2 days i've been waking up early before the rest and doing my process control work..hurhur...quite spoiler..but ya..had to do it..cuz the prof initially wanted it due on monday...but yea..luckily i made some headway on it..
we went to eat dimsum at yank sing..tink it's the equivalent of yam char in singapore..and it was frikking frikking expensive...pui..and they din even show the prices of their dishes so we just ordered...and the thing was it wasn't even filling!...lousy lousy.. but of cuz the xiao long pao was nice...yummy..
took pics of the golden gate bridge after dat..and we went to sausalito....something like a seaside town...before driving back to davis...reached back close to nine plus...totally shagged out and still had 158a hw..

day 89 mon 13th nov
woke up bright and early and immed headed to my lab to finish up my homeworks...saw pdc prof n he told me dat it was postponed to fri...phew...den hurriedly wrote some crap on my 158a hw and just submitted it..

talked on the phone for an hour after that....really grateful to yeanna for lending the phone to me...
slept after dat..neglecting my undone lab report due tues..

haiz it din go well...:(

day 90 tues 14th nov
met my pdc proj group to discuss proj....anyhow whacked my lab report and submitted it...started my eng45 hw..n started my ech140 hw..both due on wed...luckily both were qed..

day 91 wed 15th nov
day started wif 2 guest lectures for 160 n 158a...and yay!..there's no hw due next mon for 158a...but there's going to be a proj..haiz...i hate projs!
carried on my pdc discussion...i've a really siao on group mate..who has dunno how many textbooks just for pdc....and they really think thru the problem so thouroughly..
finished up my 140 hw n my proj calculations before the start of 140...and dat was the point i heaved a sigh of relief...finallyyyyyyyy....i have time to slack abit..
got back my 140 grades...the class dat i feared most...and yay..i did veri well..wahahaha..n i tink even if i don't take the final i would get at least a C-..yay yay yay...
so i decided to join cory for dinner...at the dining commons...he veri kindly swiped me in...their comm hall is like a food court..and it's eat all u want...damn shiok...i had like 2 big drumsticks and kung pao chicken rice and 2 cups of hot chocolate..really shiok.and i even made it in time for the 1835 bus!..

good luck to my friends in nus taking their exams...and to my family..pls take care of yourselves...

and so i still pray...
that i would be given a chance to go to that chocolate factory...
pls..

November

2006-11-09T22:24:00.000-08:00

So I'm waiting for this test to end,
so that lighter days can soon begin;
I'll be alone, but maybe more carefree,
Like a kite that floats so effortlessly;
I was afraid to be alone,
but now I'm scared that's how I like to be;
All these faces none the same,
how can there be so many personalities?
So many lifeless, empty hands,
so many hearts in great demand;
and now my sorrow seems so far away,
until I'm taken by these bolts of pain;
But I turn them off, and tuck them away,
until those rainy days that make them stay;
And then I'll cry so hard to these sad songs,
and the words still ring, once here, now gone;
And they echo through my head everyday,
and I don't think they'll ever go away;
Just like thinking of your childhood home,
but we can't go back, we're on our own

longweekend...

2006-11-09T21:23:00.000-08:00

yay..a breather...no sch on friday due to veteran's day...and i always have my thursdays free..so this is a really well-deserved break for me...

day 82 mon 6th nov.
got back my ech 160 and ech 158a midterms..i got about 80% for those two midterms..sadly, i was only within 1 std deviation above the average for 160...and only slightly above the average for 158a. why is this worrying?..becuz i asked the 157 prof and he said that if i got the average mark i will get a B- or C+. ...i guess that's why most of the chemEs here typically have a B or C average. so will NUS consider me to have passed the class if i get a D here?..if i fall below average?..man..i dunno..sighz..and i thought i could slack off abit in my hw..

day 83 tues 7th nov
studied for the last of my first round of midterms..140...got back my lab report..wow..got an even better grade then the first one..really happy abt it considering that report was done in the midst of many tests and halloween..

da7 84 wed 8th nov
took the most dreaded midterm...didn't turn out that bad..though it wasn't as flawless as i would have hoped for.. since this tough class has a fixed grading scale..hopefully i can do well enuff to secure a pass...

jumping for joy!

day 85 thur 9th nov
start of a longlong weekend!..thur, fri, sat n sun..
sadly..i spent the entire day in the chem eng comp lab...having 'fun' with aspen,matlab n simulink....was hoping to clear my 157 n 158a hw due on mon....and i still got lab report due on tues...

manki said i had been a ninja these few days...i din know wad he meant... later i understood that his version of ninja..is our hall version of phantom..... well..i won't deny it...i really have no choice..
dan asked me at dinner how i was doin...i said nothing has changed...n he said it was a pity cuz we had so much fun before sch started....

oh well...guess i can't have everything..

ireallyreallyreallyreallyhopesomethinggoodcomesoutofitthistimeround

willy wonka

2006-11-05T19:30:00.000-08:00

felt really down the whole morning...and it din really help that the meals i prepared for myself weren't appetizing at all....or rather..i'm sick of it...
breakfast was dry biscuits soaked in milk...and lunch was instant noodles with bacon,sausages and fish fingers...

afternoon was great though..watched the willy wonka play wif chuah and the other msians..went to the arboratum wif chuah,nozomi n kanae...n dinner at a jap restaurant leaving us totally satisfied..so that we can individually study well into the nite..hurhur

can i be like charlie bucket and get a golden ticket? there's a chocolate factory which i really really wanna go to....

fooling around

2006-11-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

day 80 saturday 4th nov

woke up with a splitting headache for unknown reasons..not as if i was mugging my ass off on fri nite...not as if i din sleep...but still kena it...
i tink one of the benefits of being16 hours behind singapore is that i wake up to EPL news on a saturday morning..haha..definitely something to make me get out of bed...n yay..liverpool are winning again..

met nozomi for lunch n we had chinese buffet for only 7 bucks..haha..really quite cheap..though the food wasn't spectacular...headed to the lib after dat to mug for my mathematical methods test..totally sian....chuah n kanae den met us for dinner...n we went to the thai bistro....subsequently went wif chuah to safeway..for me to get my milk n cereal..and for him to get his beer since he just turned 21 and he wanted to finally be able to buy alcohol on his own..haha..went to his room after that to watch movie n drink..his taiwanese fren soon joined us and we then played big 2..haha..taiwanese rules...pretty diff from our own dai di....and yay ..we are goin on a trip durin veteran's day holiday..

so when shld i go back singapore?

i would probably be able to go back to hall becuz of sepak...but if i reach singapore on the sixth of jan and sepak starts in mid jan...i don't see myself being able to play in the comp....which thus makes no sense in lawrence getting me back to hall becuz of sepak..since i'm useless anyway.. would the hall let me stay if i dun play sepak?..haha..i seriously dunno..
for some reason expectations are really high of the sepak team this year...n it would be so xia sway if i go back and play and screw everything up...

wad are the pros and cons of me going back early?
cons
first i must pay 32 USD to bring forward my flight...second i miss the chance of going to east coast ...third i miss the chance of spending xmas,bday and new year in US...

pros
first i don't have to pay over 300 bucks to change my flight from LA to philly...second i don't have to pay money to go to philly...third i MAY get a chance to play sepak..fourth i get to settle down in singapore before a new term kicks in...

deep down i know what my preferred choice is...i just wish something materialises in the coming week to make my decision worthwhile

day 75 till todae..

2006-11-03T20:42:00.000-08:00

day 75 mon oct 30th
ech 158a test...200 marks in less than 2 hours...quite a nice test to take..except that the first qns asked for a diagram which was worth 40 marks and i drew a ridiciculously simple diagram prolly not even worth 10 marks..haiz..
i loved his last qns...where is a condenser found in a distillation plant? 5marks..haha..obviously a bonus qns to see who has been coming for his classes...i'm sure everyone got it...he's such an interesting lecturer that i'm sure no one skips his class..

got back my eng45 test (which i took on fri)..the TA marked it really quickly...did superbly well..haha..so dat's 50/300 marks in the bag...

had a pretty ridiculous conversation

day 76 tuesday
lab discussion day...me n rach had a really interesting convo abt our sec sch lives..haha..brought back much fond memories..
received some devastating news over the email...:(

day 77 wed
got back my pdc test...brought crashing down to earth...quite disappointed wif my marks..but aiya..since it's only 20 percent..and since my mark is still slightly above average..i tink shld be can la hur..
the ivle system here is quite cool...for every homework or test..they show the statistics!..like the bar charts...pie charts..to show average scores..std deviation..blabla..

day 78 thur
rained todae..and i walked in the rain to go to BOA....the rain reminds me of singapore...
was cook 2 for dinner todae..assisting gwen in preparing some dutch meal...thank god it turned out ok..next week would be my last chore here in pacifico!

day 79 fri
took my ech 160 test....lecturer gave only 15 mcqs...*rolls eyes* the final exam is prolly like 20 mcqs?..25?..c'mon..u can do better than that..

went to the lab after class to use the Aspen software...spent abt close to 3 hours completing 4 out of 6 Aspen tutorials....as it was getting dark earlier these days, it felt like it was 1930 when i left the lab at 1730...hurhur..
felt really guilty for not contributing much to my pdc group....luckily todae the lect touched on simulink...so i offerred to lend them my meagre simulink notes..haha..yay..finally i can be a lil bit useful..

what am i going to do this weekend?..mug my ass off for ech 140? go out with the msians?. sounds fun hur..
sometimes i question myself whether i'm actually enjoying myself enough here on exchange..or am i being paranoid and studying too much...the thing is i'm not like revising ahead of time or wadeva..i'm just trying to complete my hw..and study for my tests..n it doesn't help dat the prof for 140 has a reputation for being a tough prof...who makes every class thrice as hard as it shld be..:( i do envy my friends who get to travel around ...but i tink given the time table i have..and the location i'm in...it really isn't worth it/possible to travel around over the weekend..oh well..i will end my exams in about 40 more days so things may be brighter after that..

a big part of me wanna go back to singapore early...like RIGHT after my exams...and honestly...i would really wanna book the earliest possible flight back...(if the reason arises)...
but i guess we''ll have to see how things go...
this week has been a disapppointment... maybe next week will provide some answers...

i'm so glad the weekend is here!..though i have nothing fun to do..at least i got some breathing space..

BOO!

2006-10-29T22:16:00.000-08:00

halloween weekend was pretty fun...

day 72 fri oct 27th
the party at pacifico was not bad..almost everyone came decked in some costume....definitely more fun than the black-out-bash...

day 73 sat oct 28th
slept for abt 5 hrs onli but woke up thinkin i would do some parts of my lab report..(which i din in the end)...read soccernet to find that liverpool are winning again..yay...skipped on offer to go to the arc n lunch with the girls cuz i was nua...went to find chuah then n found he had overslept..haha..farnie guy...and after some debates..we found ourselves at the msian students gathering...they were celebrating deepavali and hari raya...and i got a chance to eat lontong!..i miss it soo much! one of them actually resembles someone in chemeng..
anyway the msians in ucdavis are mainly scholars sia...tink msia send them to ucd to study biotech...n according to chuah..the chinese malaysians are really zai...
went wif them to the woodland cornmaze too at nite...which was supposed to be scary..but..err..din really turn out to be..basically it's just a maze made from corn fields..and they had another scary trail where ppl dressed in masks and outfits will scare u as u walk along the trail..but since it was a big group..and i was at the back..it wasn't dat scary..
felt so paiseh at the end of the day cuz i've been ferried around by the msians...

day 74 sun oct 29th
daylight saving kicks in..so i get to push back my clock one hour...and i'm now like an additional hour behind singapore...pretty sian day where i spent an unproductive day at the lib wif chuah..

i tink i'm jaded..
i'm sick and tired of turning in good quality work week in and week out..though it's only been 4 weeks..
the work doesn't seem to end n tests and projects are coming in...
i totally slacked my weekend away even though i have ech 158a test on monday which i din really study for..i din do my ech 140 hw due tmrw..and my lab report due on tuesday is undone..and it's 2230 now on a sunday..

for goodness sake...i dun need additional problems which shldn't even bother me in the first place..

day 68 till todae

2006-10-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

juz finished two midterms todae so i'm feeling pretty happy......though there are a couple more midterms next week n after but i guess i can take a breather for a lil while..

day 68 mon oct 23rd
besides the submission of hws n the long day...the highlight of the day was the pumpkin carving session...haha..i carved my own halloween pumpkin...it was pretty ugly of course..haha..but still..haha..i did it on my own..haha..

some chi characters

day 69 tues oct 24th
met chuah by coincidence and we went to the lib...den we both headed for bainer for our own office hours..it was a do math hw day and lab....got back my first lab report...phew..did ok..the TA failed a couple of ppl! and the average was C..tsktsk...dunno wad i was doin in my report also but thankfully it turned out well..

oops..i did it again...

day 70 wed oct 25th
long day again...did my kitchen cleaning chores...and despite having 2 midterms on fri..played a few games of uno with rachel n daniel...

day 71 thur oct 26th
full time mugging for ech 157 pdc and eng 45...actually i spent most of my time on pdc...since it's a typical chemeng mod...:(

day 72 fri oct 27th
my first tests at ucdavis...tink eng45 was pretty ok...as for ech 157..i duno man...there were only 20 marks!..and the weightage is 20% of the final grade..so every mark is one percent of the final grade!..it will be well and good if i do well for it...but if not..i'm screwed man..cuz actually i tink alot of ppl will score well for it.. discussed our pdc proj right after the exam....things should progress well...
talked to another guy (tink he's from china) in class todae...i guess goin to my chemE classes should get better..since i got one jap guy in front..and one china guy behind and ann n kevin in my project group..

supposed to go halloween shopping wif chuah after dat..but he dragged me to play soccer wif some of his new frens he made at the arc..a mixture of guys and gals as his frens were planning to compete in the inter-mural comp....had quite alot of fun...though i was barefooted n they were all decked in their gear..

went to the halloween shop after that to buy some stuff...the costumes ain't cheap man...and the thought of lugging it back to s'pore turned me off...so i bought a hideous mask..haha..and thought of using my lab coat as a costume!..yay..finally my lab coat has come into use....got stuck with chuah and his 2 other msian frens in a stupid traffic jam cuz the railway barrier refused to go up even though there was no train passing.....it was a great pleasure listenin to them talk...the familiar accent which i haven't really heard for a longgg time...

hope the halloween party later would be fun...abit like the black-out-bash perhaps?..lol

i guess it started from the time i was sick....

day 62 till todae...

2006-10-22T22:50:00.000-07:00

day 62 tues oct 17th
mug in lib n do hw...(as usual)

day 63 wed oct 18th
long day again..pdc lect announced proj briefing on fri..haiz..how to form group members?

day 64 thur oct 19th
trytoclearhwsothatmyweekendsarealilbitfree day..met ashish to clear eng45 hw due on fri..

day 65 fri oct 20th
got myself a pretty decent group for pdc...spoke to this jap guy whom i thought was an exchange student since he still toked english farnily and had a strong jap aaccent..turns out he has been here for quite a couple of years and he's 35!...told me he came here to surf..haha..and he was a bad guy in japan...and that his parents will be proud of him if he graduate..haha..

why did i do proj wif him? main reason was i collected my hw 2 from the shelves before the lesson...and to my dismay..i got one big fat zero for one of my questions..(which i kinda expected since i anyhow whack some dumb equations)...so i kpo looked at the jap guy's one ..since i thought he was an exchange student....and to my amazement he got ten!..(full marks)...i was shocked cuz i thought since he was on "exchange" and since he can't speak jap well..he must have some probs with the lang...well apparently not..
so i talked to him before class...ask him to be my groupmate...and apparently he has his own discussion group wif a guy..who has a gf in the class...so juz nice i got a group of 4... and josh told me that the other guy is really smart!...woohoo..looks like my pdc project is 'saved'....

and junichi (the jap guy) told me he is taking only 3 classes..diao...

went to some homecoming bonfire at night...missed out on the free pizza at the amtrak station..haiz..everytime there's free food..i'm always in pacifico eating some junk..

day 66 sat oct 21st
went to applehilL!...yay..thought i missed my chance..got my hand at some nice apple daughnuts..apple cheesecake..apple juice..blablabla...

day 67 sun oct 22nd
mugging session with ashish my american-born-indian friend....went to his place and did eng-45...plus got his matlab...while he copied a few folders of my songs..i'm really thankful i met him..
because of him...i sit RIGHT IN FRONT of the lecture theatre...listening attentively to class... submitting homeworks of high standards..haha..at least i got someone i can check answer with la..when i do my homework...
if i were to rank my favourite classes...the first would be ENG45 (since it's the easiest)...second would be ECH 158A (since the lecturer is the nicest and most interesting)...third would be ECH 160 (since the content is kinda interesting but i dunno how to study for it)..fourth would be ECH 140 (since i keep doing hw...:( ) last would be ECH 157 PROCESS DYNAMICS AND CONTROL (cuz the homework is so difficult........argghh..and i don't understand anything...and the book COST A BOMB)

only a couple of things can make me happy now...

1) all my profs telling me that i dun hafta study anymore and they will just let me pass..
2) some emails from a certain person...

one of my keyboard keys is dead..:( so difficult to type question marks now...argghhhhhh

OMG! emails make me happy!

2006-10-22T22:21:00.000-07:00

the title says it all...:))))))))))))))))))

still waiting for follow-ups though..................lalalaala

ever the same..

2006-10-17T16:16:00.000-07:00

the best place to meet people is in the chem eng building...
the best way to start a convo is "hey are u in my ech 140 class?"
the best method to make friends is "i've done my homework..u wanna take a look at it?

slowly i'm settling into life here... mon, wed n fridays are the xiong days....n tuesdays and thursdays give me some time to take a breather..though it's often used for doing homeworks..sat and sundays i can perhaps take things slow...have some fun with frens...or catch up on homeworks n lessons...since its a norm to have 3 hws due on mondays..
so a normal schedule would be to spend sat n sun doing homeworks/mugging with a lil bit of fun..mon is a xiong day till 6 when i go back to pacifico exhausted....can prepare for lab on tuesday or finish up the report/assignment due on tuesday... on tuesday stay in sch till late due to lab...and finish maths hw due on wed... wed is a xiong day till 6...thursday can slack abit..or do up other hw or wad nought...n friday is a pretty xiong day till 3...and dats dat...

oh and there's an avalanche of tests coming up......

Fall on me tell me everything you want me to be
Forever with you
Forever in me
Ever the same
Call on me
I'll be there for you and you'll be there for me
Forever it's you
Forever in me
Ever the same

everything's going to be alrite..

2006-10-16T19:00:00.000-07:00

day 58 fri oct 13th..
wanted to stay back in the lib as long as possible to finish up my homework as i had 3 due on monday..but i was really quite sick so decided to come back to pacifico....
since it was fri the 13th..there was a black-out bash...which turned out to be quite memorable despite my illness.

day 59 sat oct 14th..
went to boa early to settle some cockup....watched my first live football game..and got my 2nd tee..haha..late lunch wif chuah,nozomi n kanae...with some interesting topics...

day 60 sun oct 15th..
lab report day..at the lib with zen..

day 61 mon oct 16th
submitted my 3 hw...all not done up to standard...prolly abt 60% accurate onli..haiz...oh well..submit jiu suan le..
some guy promised to send me some lab reports...hope it comesssss....
maths suxed todae....haiz..

and i tink i'm at the end stage of my flu recovery!..it's been a torturous week...sux being sick with tons of work to be done..haiz..

games are fun to play but i don't have the time to play them...

"yesterday once more"

2006-10-12T23:42:00.000-07:00

yesterday once more is chuah's nick...my msian fren..he stays in D house in pacifico..and i went to find him to print my pdc notes...ended up lounging around his room n tokin cock....it felt like i was back in hall...

i tink he's a really good guy....simple and with a good heart..although he talks kinda farnie..which makes tokin to him fun itself....he gives me the kampung ..countryside feeling..where ppl aren't shrewd..aren't cunning..ain't evil..ain't cogniving..won't be out to cheat u..won't be out to backstab u... he was complaining that his stuff gets stolen in the fridge..den i ask him if he got label his stuff..and he said no...becuz "if it's not your stuff..would u go and take?" den i said..aiya..if u dun label den ppl may tink it's for everyone to eat wad.. and he was like " oh ya hor..i neva thought of it dat way.."

so dat's my fren chuah..simple minded...but definitely not stupid ....as he has a GPA of 3.8 out of 4.0 from community college....it's hard to find ppl like this as we get older...ppl whom u tink u can trust.....n sadly..i prolly won't see him anymore after dec.....

bernard msned me enquiring abt ivp sepak and we ended up chatting for almost an hour..

it brought back memories of last year...

zhen de shi yesterday once more...

haizzzz...now i can't finish my pdc assignment by tonite..:(

Recollection...

2006-10-12T18:23:00.000-07:00

lemme try to recollect wad happened for the past one and a half weeks

Day 46 -Sunday Oct 1st
watched UC Davis women's soccer vs UC Santa Barbara...and i got my free aggie tee..the band playing..good crowd..farnie and crappy cheers..and an audience who actually cheers.. me n chuah cycled there..had korean food after dat..and cycled back..

Day 47- Monday Oct 2nd
first monday of sch...ech 160..followed by eci149...which was full...and had a pretty long waitlist...class sizes are small here....and limited by chairs...and some fire safety regulation...duhhh....ech 157...and then ech 140..met this american guy cory..all becuz i made the first move to sit next to him n tok to him...at least i made a fren in this class..classes ended at 1800..:(

Day 48-Tuesday Oct 3rd
free day except for a stupid eng45 lab..lab discussion....and i borrowed notes from some random asian gal cuz i needed to copy notes for the eng45 lect i miss..(overlap with eci149).. waited for rach at the 24hr lib cuz she ends lessons at 10pm..(there were ppl inside and it's only like the 4th official day of lessons).. alot of action done also as i was worried i couldn't take eci149..so alot of emailing and shit..

Day 49-Wed Oct 4th
everything same as monday..same lessons..same timings..except sub eci 149 with ech 158a...interesting class...nice lecturer juz dat i'm still stuck with the rest of the chem eng seniors...blardey unfrenly and ignorant ppl save for a few...submitted my first hw for ech140.(partial diff eqns)..did it all by myself man..din copy anything..(it's been awhile since i did hw)..i even did my eci149 hw but that's of no importance now... 157 and 158a issued hw..:(

day 50-thur
free day!...n time to do hw day..went for the chem eng bbq...quite sucky..had a vege burger..(i've been religiously (literally) abstaining from beef...

day 51- fri
one of the few days when i can actually go for eng 45 lect after my 160...n topped off with 2 hours of pdc with my lovely cheme classmates..went to safeway to buy groceries...dunno why but i was feeling like shit..and rach too...so the dinner was like crap...(the rice i cooked was too hard)...apparently your mood affects the way u cook...since the past few times we cooked wasn't too bad...or mebbe it's juz dat sch sux..

day52-sat oct 7th
missed the chance to go applehill as it was nozomi's bdae and they were planning to meet for lunch...missed the chance to go camping at yosemite as i have hw to do...sighz...honestly i never thought i would work so hard here....no one will believe me....but i'm really spending even more time on my studies then in nus..
lunch at a jap restaurant.....before a couple of us went to the arc to play badminton...as i was walking back i was kickin myself at the thought of passing up the applehill trip...haiz...but oh well...nozomi's can be considered a nice fren ba..
came back n happen to catch diana walking by....din know she was the house rep for blk d..aka blk head...haha..muz take pic wif her one day...and of cuz since we were both muggers..we arranged for another mugging session that nite!....
rach,sp n i cooked dinner again..which was much better this time round..
diana came by as i was clearing the dishes n i suggested goin over to the residences across the road as i thought i saw some study area there near the jacuzzi..and tada...we found it to be open and empty!..finally found a secret hideout to mug away from pacifico....which can be kinda noisy at times as some of the ppl here like to play comp games and blast their music and the walls are super thin...(can poke pin onto the wall and stick paper).....so diana,alice n i went to that place to mug...n to the jacuzzi after dat..pretty fun..cuz get to meet other ppl who actually live in that compound..haha.

day 53 - sunday oct 8th
woke up..n suaysuay heard that todae the whole pacifico is supposed to help in mowing the lawn..biangeh...it's like been left to grown wild for dunno how long...weeds..long grass...argh.. so we spent abt 2 hours in the hot sun helping out...i even tried my hand at using the lawn mower..quite cool...but it was tiring..
n i had to finish up my pre-lab..

day 54-monday oct 9th
submission of 3 homeworks..sian..

day 55-tuesday oct 10th.
went to see prof higgins as i couldn't do my maths....after i met him i set outside his office trying to solve it...and soon 2 guys came along..one after the other...the 3 of us eventually lined outside his office trying to solve the problems.. and tada...new friendships are formed..heng i finished the first 2 sums..so i was able to help them..which i guess assisted the frenship forming process.

first lab session...i actually prepared for the lab before i went in...and i even reach it like half an hour earlier...the lab was about using excel to get some data and compare some crap...so i was quite prepared when i went in..and me n my fellow lab partner finished doing 2 cmpds dat night..when others only barely finished one...yay....also lucky to get a nice partner..this indian guy (born in america) who was like me half an hour early so we were part of the group of 4 who came early...paired up with him..and he's so helpful and nice..offered to scan his notes for the lects which i missed (n will miss)...and he always sits in front for the lect...sibei siao on..
after the lab he was supposed to cycle home and he actually walked me to the lib despite my attempts to shoo him off to cycle back..and he said "nah...i will walk with u till the lib to make sure u are safe"...i was damn touched man..haha..if the stupid ChemE snrs could be as nice as this aeronatical junior..den maybe my life in ucdavis won't be dat bad..
rach came by at abt 2200..and we rushed to the MU to take the bus back...and had pasta for dinner...4 US dollars a day for the meal plan and i got pasta nia...haiz..

day 56 wed oct 11th
got back my hw assignments for 158a and 140..and i did well!..yay.

day 57 thur oct 12th
the fair...it's all over.... but a good experience nonetheless..

and it's time for dinnerrr.........till next time...
oh n my hair is super long..i wonder when i will cut..haha..

as a matter of fact...

2006-10-09T23:11:00.000-07:00

i rose my hand to answer a question todae and i got a mini choc..

i saw a guy wearing a ChemE tshirt which said "Ten Reasons Why I Became a Chemical Engineer" The fourth reason was "Because hell was full"

i found that quite amusing.

i want to update my blog and at least try to recollect what i did for the past dunnohowmany days..but i'm procrastinating

i'm in a highly irritable mood currently.....

(maybe it's just the monday blues)

declaration of war..

2006-10-05T00:27:00.000-07:00

ok man..this is it.... i'm all stocked up...and ready to fight it out with all the things that are making me miserable here.. it sux to mug so much on exchange and to always turn down invitations to go out and have fun....

anyway..i feel like i'm in pri sch...(no the courses ain't that easy)...it's just that..i'm copying notes in my exercise book like nobody's business...for maths the prof writes on the black board and everyone is just busy scribbling wad he writes...cuz there's no notes....same goes for most of the other classes.. and there's this "teacher ask question...students raise hands to answer" thingie..guess there's more class participation..
and i even raised my hands up to volunteer to answer on a couple of occasions!..

anyway here are some pics of my war-torn room....yea i know i'm not exactly the neatest guy in the world...but hey..i only got a teeny weeny table...and i got no shelves!..so all my stuff must be on the floor rite? :P

I miss NUS..and i miss Singapore

2006-10-03T15:08:00.000-07:00

life sux here..everyone mugs like hell...and i'm not exagerrating..the lecturers give a shitload of work....and it's even worse than NUS.....i thought life in nus sucked...i guess i was wrong..

i can't believe on the 4th day of the term, i'm already counting down to the end of school...
there ARE homeworkS due every week...and for my maths class i have hw due every time i see the lecturer which is twice a week..
i have lab reports to be done for a module which isn't supposed to be lab based at all...

i have testS every 3 weeks..many of which overlap.
i have no one to discuss tutorial problems with...even though i have tried them all..(unlike back in nus when most of the time i din even try)

i see the exchange students from other countries trying to drop classes as they say that the workload is too much while i'm clinging on to my dear life...trying to take 5 engine classes when ppl here typically take only THREE engine classes per quarter..

and i met 2 ppl in my pdc class who tabaoed the maths class...so unlike NUS ppl actually tabao here....

sometimes i just can't wait to graduate

Day 45 - Saturday Sept 30

2006-10-01T07:44:00.000-07:00

woke up pretty early at about 7 plus as the sun was shining in..ate some lasagne before amandae,shipei n i left la rue to head for the farmer's market.....some ppl are up already playing sports.. life here is pretty simple i tink...since there are no big shopping centres...i guess ppl just eat,sleep,play sports, study n party....i tink such a simple life suits me just fine..

the farmer's market wasn't as big i thought it would be..but nonetheless there were lotsa fruits n vegetables and other interesting stuff there....went to a vietnamese place for lunch..before walkin back to pacifico...

slept for about 3 hours before i headed out again..to play soccer with the intl students...and i rode a bike down the bike trail to sch...not as easy as i initially thought as there were some upslopes...and the seat was hard and uncomfortable.....but it's definitely faster then walking....
cycled back after the soccer game...n by then i was really tired..cold n hungry...luckily there was still a lil food back in pacifico...

met this american-thai girl from d house n we chatted quite abit while washing the dishes..some of the americans were planning to gou out dat nite n when they asked her...guess wad her answer was..

"err sorry but i need to catch up on my readings"...

wah lau..i couldn't believe my ears....only 2 days of sch has started...it's the first saturday night of the new sch term...and she got readings to catch up on...and she doesn't look the slightest bit like a mugger/nerd! .. she invited me to study with her since we were both taking 18 units this quarter..(apparently taking 18 units is a crazy workload here)...so we had a blardey serious and disciplined mugging session in my blk's tv room...

i came back to my room n chuah msned me...so i asked him wad was he gonna do on sunday...and he said

"Study man...whole day never do anything"

second stunner of the night...chuah has been studying in the US for quite abit now..so he's prolly used to the education system here...and he also studies on the first weekend of the term??!?!?..when lecturers are prolly not done with introductions yet?

grrr...i'm still going to watch my soccer game tmrw at noon and get my tee shirt..

mugging can wait...for the time being at least..

Day 44 - Friday Sept 29

2006-09-30T16:22:00.000-07:00

well after i posted my thursday entry...david (my house rep) invited me to go out...him, me n ryan from korea tog with another 3 gals from B blk..2 americans and a poland exchange student alex....had a pretty fun time....went to sophias and cafe bernado.... the wiki wacky was really good..especially the cherry...and i had half an adios too....
thankfully i had quite a good rest and woke up in time for classes..but the stupid unitrans bus is so crowded...it barely got me to class on time...had a hard time finding my first classroom but thankfully i made it.. for a lecture...the class size is frikking small..like less than 30 ppl...for a Chemical Engineering module...and mind u the stupid dept doesn't offer much classes per quarter. wonder wad do the chem eng majors here study..and how many ppl actually take chem eng here..prolly less than a hundred.
anyway the biomanufacturing class was pretty boring..as the lecturer spoke softly and sounds boring..but at least it's doing a case study on the wine industry..so it shld be pretty fun..and thank god i don't need to get a text book for this....
next up was my materials class after an hour's break....and for a module which all engineering majors HAVE to take..it was another small lecture class too..this time about a hundred...quite a nice lecturer..and yes i got a textbook...but the sucky thing is this guy writes on the blackboard..and doesn't have powerpoint slides......hopefully the subject matter is eazy enuff to understand..
after my lunch break, i headed to the temp classrooms for my pdc class....finally i see the chemical engineering students...and there were about 40 of them in the class...the american students weren't exactly very friendly...not hostile of course...but just not frenly...
although one guy was kind enuff to talk to me n intro me to another guy..who blatently bohieu me... $#$&^....yeah..and the sucky thing is i need to do a project for this stupid mod...hopefully i get a decent group...
i was quite sian and demoralised after the pdc class....it was that moment when i recalled an email that some of the UCD advisers had said when i told them of the number of classes i intended to take..."EAP students do face challenges that others never will have to face, but taking 5-6 ChemE is universally challenging for both EAP and native students"

i realised that i was on my own now....in the past i could go to class/lectures and see frendly faces....i could ask ppl if i had doubts/queries...i could get tutorial solutions...i could whine n complain whenever i faced chem eng problems...but now...sadly i have none of that..i simply don't have the support network i used to have in the past..

i guess US college life isn't at slack as it seems.... but I tink shld be still manageable la hur...juz dat now gotta put in more effort..and put the "SEP is meant to slack" mentality out of my head..

i missed out on going to the buzz...shucks..met chuah n kanei when they were walking back...they said it was so much fun..haiz..n i was eating a sucky dinner..n had to walk all the way to amandae's place...and i saw soooooooooo many ppl dressed in white and other nice clothes heading for the frat parties..haha..
the walk was worth it though..had alot of fun that nite...the supposed house party at her place soon moved to another house party in downtown..the red jello was good...and after that we went to froggy's had the Buttery Nxxxxxx n a sierra nevada and a kamikaze at cantina...great fun that night with amandae's house mates and weijin n jacelyn who are both from singapore...and it was also the night when i talked more to them...i guess for alot of ppl we gotta break the ice first before we can really get to know ppl better (not that i know them damn well now)...and yea..we shouldn't judge ppl on first impression....
back to the house where shipei n amandae were watchin wedding catchers...talked abit before sleepin....a good nite spent in my opinion.....

Day 43 - Thursday

2006-09-28T22:17:00.000-07:00

no lessons todae but i still went to sch pretty early to use the net in the lib..which was pretty crowded considering it's the first day of sch...had lunch at the MU before heading to the arc for racket ball n badminton with rachel n nozomi saw this guy with a soccer ball while we were playing badminton n i approached him n we soon started juggling the ball..turned out he's a mexican named raul and he has been coaching boys for some little league in mexico!..whoa..n he played for his high sch before
saw some ppl playing bball...and the girls here are reallyreally fit n sporty..they can match the guys in bball too (and the guys are pretty decent bballers too)
took a dip at the recre pool....and came back to pacifico all sore n aching....haven't exercised this much in a long time....

cooking again for the 3rd nite..n it was the slackest nite..since we had left over spaghetti..we just cooked cabbage.....well the drill is shipei cuts garlic/onion , rach prepares the food..n i do the frying/cooking n washing..which is pretty fun n easy in my opinion..

tmrw is the first day of school...and i'm feeling like a freshman/jc 1 kid/sec1 kid/p1 kid...

i feel apprehensive...dunno wad to expect....i have to find my way to the lecture hall..i have to try to understand wad da hell they are tokin abt..some lecturers don't upload notes...unfamiliar faces...strange accents...no textbooks..

well all along i thought i came for sep to slack...but can i really slack?

this place is a mugger place....todae was the first day of sch for many ppl..but i have free days on thursdays..so i went to the lib to borrow some books...and i saw the studying cubicles almost half filled with ppl..busy highlighting textbooks..making notes....oh man...it's like only the FIRST day..i can't believe it..and the ridiciculous workload for the quarter...an average of 3 tests/exams per module in ten weeks....

i can't wait to see how the chem eng ppl here are...

Day 42 - Wednesday

2006-09-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

second day of cooking...badminton n racquetball at the arc..

Day 41 - Tuesday

2006-09-28T22:10:00.000-07:00

badminton at the arc!

Day 40 - Monday

2006-09-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

nuaing day...went to the lib for awhile..met kohei..n we had a impromptu table tennis session at the arc....little did we expect a noisy crowd of sonority girls in the pavillion hall...i think they were having an openhouse kinda thing, where the new gals would just walk around their booths and talk to them....it was a sight to behold indeed..haha..dinner at the moshimoshi jap restaurant with chuah n kohei..

Day 39 - Back to Pacifico

2006-09-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

drove back to pacifico...more people on campus now since school is starting...

Day 38 - Shopping n Cooking Day..

2006-09-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

spent the satuday like a typical female....

Day 37 - Travelling back to fremont

2006-09-24T11:53:00.000-07:00

After travelling over 2000 miles over the past few days..spent the entire day on the bus travelling back from vegas to fremont....

Day 36 - Grand Canyon

2006-09-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

simply breathtaking...

Day 35 - Bus trip to Las Vegas

2006-09-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

Sin City....

Day 34 - Start of our 4D-3N adventure

2006-09-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

First day to Yosemite, stop over at Fresno

Day 33 - The Great San Francisco Hike

2006-09-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

Monday Morning 18th Sept

Day 32 - Walnut Creek

2006-09-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

rachel's aunt, aunt katherine picked the three of us up at pacifico...rach,amandae n i...to bring us back to walnut creek..this really nice city near san francisco...walked around downtown walnut creek for awhile and tried some special candies......we had sushi for dinner..and we even made our owN! with unagi, softshell crap, hamachi n crunchies..haha..nice n filling dinner...something that i've been pretty much deprived of after i parted ways with AD..haha

make a guess who did the SHiok..

back to walnut creek and we rested for the night..it's a nice big home filled with warmth..i was kindly allocated to a big room with an air bed an even a tv...really grateful to aunt katherine's hospitality..

Day 31 - Sacramento

2006-09-18T09:00:00.001-07:00

rachel and I met amandae at the MU busstop to take the yolobus to sacramento...I wasn't really prepared to meet so many quirky characters today...i had pretty pleasant experiences in LA and on the unitrans in davis but the yolobus was different..(i guess we shouldn't have sat at the back).....first up...this big dark girl boarded the bus clad in only a bikini and some netting... and she sat opposite me...seriously it wasn't a pretty sight at all.... then guy who was a little eccentric boarded the bus and sat next to amanda.. he claimed he couldn't speak english but after that started spouting tons of english and for some reason kept adjusting his position..closer to the gals....thank god there were vacant seats closer to the driver after a while and we hurriedly shifted...
we looked much happier there..(justified by this pic)

the day was mainly spent at the westfield shopping plaza in downtown sacramento...i merely did some window shopping n walked around....there was one store wif xmas decorations and gifts up!....

walked around old sacramento after that...and went to this candy store which has barrels of candies!..and you can just take as many free samples as u want as long as u eat it in the store..so shiok man...din really kope alot..haha..next time i will be back..

rach n i then went to the capitol building...(cuz ulu sacramento is the capital of california...not los angeles)..pity we didn't see arnold there..

took the yolobus back to davis..sat near the driver this time.....there were still colourful characters on board...but i guess this time they didn't seem so dangerous..

Day 30 - Lib Orientation, Ice Cream, Woodland

2006-09-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

okay..so there was a lib orientation todae..and guess wad..i went for it... why did i go for the lib orientation?..when i'm like the lib king already?..since i was there for my first 3 days in davis..and i was so familiar wif the place alr?

met up wif my dear msian fren chuah...and we went for the ultra boring lib talk.....there were a couple of china grad students at the talk too..and they looked so young....at most my age..perhaps even younger...haiz...
saw kohei, nozumi n selvinna who were at another session and we den had lunch at the MU before heading to the siss to wait for the baskin robbins ice-cream outing..hurhur..finally got to meet Alvin...probably the ONLY singaporean who has been studying full-time in UCDavis ...but sadly..he's leaving davis for the quarter to take a break in singapore..(?!?!) ..
had a scoop of mint chip and a scoop of cookies n cream ...for a ridiculous 3.75...when a tub of haagan daaz can actually cost abt 2.75....

the 5 of us took the yolobus to woodland after dat...(a nearby city) ...n met up wif amandae n rachel who were having the time of their lives shopping at target...(something like carrefour)..after being deprived of shopping in Davis....i bought a winter jacket at JCpenney though...finally got something to keep me warm should the weather get chillier..

came back to davis for dinner...at plutos....pretty slack day..could have gone for the Solphia's event...but i guess i need time to nua.....

Day 29 - Orientation Day 2 aka last day of orientation

2006-09-15T08:38:00.000-07:00

Another boring set of talks was in store....the only interesting thing for the official orientation prog was the bbq lunch hosted by the intl house..so i tot it would be like free flow..of good food...but the crowd was overwhelming....and they din even have enuff food...and we had to queue so long for them to get the burger patties up... .but nonetheless..the turkey burger i ate was pretty decent...and as always...meeting new ppl is fun...there's a jap gal learning chi...so i got the chance to practice jap wif her..and she could learn chi from me...so cool... (dat's noizumi in purple nxt to me) ..haha..n noizumi's jap fren tot i was jap before she knew me..bwahahaha..so fun so fun..

and after another set of talks after lunch.. me..chuah (misan guy) and kohei (jap guy) found some where to use the net and nua...haha..n the 3 of us can speak jap too..haha..so fun....we waited till 6 at the memorial union...for the soccer game for the intl students...was a tad disappointed when we saw like only 3 ppl there..of which not all were going to play...but we were soon joined by italians piero n cristian..and others...rachel (from uk) came decked in her shinpads and soccer socks..haha..seriously pro..

it was a six a side game...wif cones as goal posts...and it was really really really fun..and tiring...haven't been running for a while...and it was kinda cold..so i was pretty breathless after a while..haha...but it was a really good game nonetheless...and the skills from the spaniards/italians were really impressive...there was this guy danny from spain (pursuing a phd in econs) who had the bald head of zidane...AND the skills of zidane...the europeans were so tall..wif long legs..and awesome ball control n fitness.....haha..but i did singapore proud too k..haha..wif a few tricks n flicks of my own..yay..

presenting the guys & gals who took part in this amazing international frenly..

clockwise from the bottom left corner : anna from USA (sanjose), kohei from japan, hannah from england,me from singapore,rachel from england,orange shirt guy from peru,grey guy from spain(i tink), another grey guy from switzerland pursuing his phd, yellow guy danny from spain, chuah from malaysia, abhi from india, cristian(holding the ball) from italy and piero in blue from italy...

was really tired after the game...so plans to go for this salsa nite event were shelved as it was really far from our place..and the buses stop pretty early..so i ended up at pacifico..cookin dinner wif the 2 other hongkong students...

that was me trying to make mashed potato which zen taught..

and this is the fish fingers and chicken nuggets i fried..(skills that every d blkcommer 0405 possessed...DEEPFRYING)

our dinner and the chefs! (zen, kristy n me)

Day 28 - Orientation Day 1

2006-09-14T23:00:00.000-07:00

woke up bright and early at the ridiculous time of eight am to get ready to go for orientation...
well it wasn't like jc/hall/uni orientation...it was just a day filled wif talks...n talks...n talks....how more boring could it be....the day started off wif some sorta buffet breakfast of merely simple cakes and drinks..argh...(when i was expecting some sorta continental breakfast wif eggs and ham and bacon...

and we then went to the LT...which was prettty huge...and listened to 3 diff speakers expressing how happy they were to see us.....there were almost 80 nations represented among the intl students...wif a significant percentage graduate students....and it was so cool when the speaker called out each country one by one...of cuz when china was called , almost a third of the LT stood up..as it included hongkong.....and we had a pretty sizable contingent from singapore too..yay....
actually when the announcer called out the names..i had the feeling like i was watching a miss universe contest...he was like...australia (applause)..austria...(applause.)...brazil (applause)..yadayadayada...
it was really fun tokin to ppl from diff countries and associating ppl's looks wif the country they are from...and i actually met a gabriel from brazil..and took a pic wif him...

wanted to go to the farmers market after the entire thing..but ended up not goin as there was some outin to sudwerks at abt 2130...and due to lousy organising as usual..the place was closed... me n shakeh (from iran) had walked for almost 20 mins from our bustop and we were pretty tired after the day's activites..felt kinda sian when we saw no one..and the organiser wasn't even there at 2130 .. ..so when about a grp of 10 intl students arrived,... we made our way to another place called cantina...and lo n behold..the organiser was there drinkin and chatting wif some other ppl..(he juz told some of the ppl who foned him to make their way to cantina..without even coming to fetch us..hello we're like intl students can).... we had some beers and chatted..but it wasn't really the place for me..as most of the ppl there were grad students...man..i've met more grad students in the past one day den in my entire life....grad students from greece...spain..germany..china..blabla...

really felt frikkin cold as i walked back after the event...but it was really a good feeling getting to talk to so many ppl from diff countries..=) i guess as intl students everyone is pretty harmless and frenly..so everyone is pretty nice to tok to...

Day 27 - finally some sort of orientation..

2006-09-12T23:26:00.000-07:00

was busy online in the morning using my laptop...but afternoon wasn't too bad...as i brought rachel n shipei to campus to get their student id...and we settled some stupid immigration crap...and there was some tour to downtown davis...which is actually..err..nothing much...so i spent my time talkin to the other intl students...pretty fun..there was an italian guy called piero..and he plays soccer too..haha..told me abt some soccer game on thursday..haha...sounds fun...
and there are actually two ex hwachong gals who are here in UCdavis to pursue their bacherlor's degree.....i tink it's so fun to pick out singaporeans from a crowd...
we just seem to talk differently..haha

but i guess most ppl dun know much abt asia..even asians themselves...like non-singaporeans won't ever guess like i'm from singapore..(prolly they seldom hear abt this place or they just think asians are from china, japan and korea)..haha..interestingly enuff...some ppl tot i was from japan..haha..sheesh..i tink if i din come exchange wif so many singaporeans i could actually smoke them and tell them i'm some takahara from japan or some shit...majoring in..err..chinese studies or something lidat..haha...but at the end of the day...after meeting so many new ppl...i muz say i'm actually quite proud to be singaporean....for one our english is much better than most intl students...and secondly..ppl who visit singapore happen to be really impressed wif the cleanliness...and say it's really beautiful...hmm..

oh and kena some stupid racist shit todae..cuz while we were walking past downtown...the group was kinda segmented into two..and the back group were mainly asian ppl....so one car of whites juz drove past and shouted "ASIAN INVASION"...like wad da hell..haha..and rachel was super farnie...she said "actually they are quite stupid to say such stuff after sept 11"..hahaha...mebbe we could just hide parcels here and there in davis or something...and label it as "DANGEROUS"..or some crap lidat.. scare the shit of those racist idiots..

sat around at the bowling activity wif rachel (there are bowling alleys, arcades, pool tables in campus!)...and had dinner wif a couple of them before heading back to pacifico...

and i tink the orientation prog here sux...i mean there are activities planned out..but there's really no organisation or anything...there are just like student volounteers who volunteer to bring ppl around...but they don't even have an idea of how many ppl to expect for the activity..they don't tell ppl where to meet..etccetcc...super poorly organised..and really not interactive...

went wif daniel to the jacuzzi again....i'm really impressed by him...he's a white american..27 years old...working in the coop in the produce dept and taking chinese classes twice a week. and he studies chinese so he can one day go china to practice kungfu...really admire his passion for kungfu...and the fact that he is willing to go pursue his dreams... and the fact that he recovered from a major brain tumour op at 18....and a totally humble, nice n helpful american...

the wireless in lvl3 is up!..hiphip hurray!

Day 26 - Sept 11...5 yrs on..

2006-09-12T23:03:00.000-07:00

it was sept 11 on monday todae...and there many channels on tv all showing a recap of the events which happened in 2001...still rem it was the eve of my maths C prelim paper back in jc....and i spent quite some time glued to the tv instead of revising my maths..
n todae finally the other 2 singaporean gals moved in...rachel's aunt came wif her...and shipei's mum came too....i guess it's different when there are gals around...and parents...cuz they are like so particular abt cleaniness...and i'm like...bochup..haha..
so i brought them to safeway...and they got groceries..and for the first time in pacifico..i had rice...oh man i miss rice so mucH!...haha
best meal in ages...haha..after eating all the burgers and stuff...argh...

it's nice to finally see more ppl around...

if place is space wif meaning, then i guess ppl gives a space it's meaning...

Day 25 - long day...

2006-09-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

left the coop at abt 1130 again....on my foot navigation exercise...this time my objective was to find the aggie stadium...to watch the girl's soccer match...haiz...all the sports facilities are like on the northwest side of uc davis..while i reside on the south east...argh..sux....was pretty impressed by the std of gals soccer here...their passing...movement as a team..fitness...is definitely not far off from the guys in singapore..haha..and of cuz some of the players are super big and tall too...scary...

continued walkin around after that in the hot afternoon sun....and found the biomedical and genome center...and the cattle ranch..haha..which stinks....and i found an abandoned bike while i was taking pics of the cattle..hahaha..but it's veri difficult to ride it cuz the front tyre is flat...and even after pumping air...it goes flat in like 7 mins...so i was actually sweating when i cycled wif daniel to the coop supermarket in the evening...co-opts here have really good deals...like workers there get 16% off when they purchase stuff there..and they only need to work like 4 hours per week?...quite a good deal..
had some brandy when i got back to pacifico wif daniel....and den this dutch gal came up..n the 3 of us started chatting.... daniel was preparing for his chinese test and for some reason or another we started talkin abt languages, cultures of diff country etc....i tink the dutch gal thinks all chinese are from china or something...she mentioned something abt communist china den she looked at me and said "oops sorry..am i insulting u?"..hahaha....the most hilarious thing i heard from her was when daniel said he read eastern philosophy before..abt all the "sister must respect brother...younger generation muz respect senior stuff"...den she say.."how come chinese have brothers and sisters? what about the one-child policy?"...haha..i nearly flip la....

close to midnite when it was getting really cold..suddenly they say..it would be great if there's a jacuzzi nearby..den we just walked out in search for one...i always tot jacuzzis were indoor....never expected there was really one outdoor one...and it was nice n warm man..there were another 3 gals there..all around my age..and so the 5 of them started chit-chatting while i juz enjoyed the warmth..haha..the dutch gal left after awhile and the 5 of us went back to their apt...n carried on chit chatting there..they are pretty lame n crappy ppl....like suddenly one would say..hey let's go spy on our neighbours...i tot that there would be something interesting..but duh..there was nothing at all...except in one house there was a guy opening fridge...den in another house a guy was playing with cat...so duh...hahaha....

Day 24 -All by myself..

2006-09-10T08:41:00.000-07:00

met yee nah when she came back from her morning run and she had a bunch of figs with her..which she said she plucked from a tree near our coop...and it tasted good!..first time i tried figs..and it was pretty delicious..haha..i muz find out where the tree is....
it's super boring to be in davis over the weekends...there's nothing to do (at least dats wad i tink)...the library is closed...argh...so i spent my morning watching tv!..college football was on tv...and of cuz the US open...so i spent some time watching it...before deciding dat i would prolly die if i stay alone in the damn coop all day....so i decided to wear my shoes..and explore the area..on fOOT!...so i walked..n walked n walked...for about 4 hours! in total..haha..well...this place is no where near LA...if i walked around westwood, i prolly take pics of alot of shops...nice restaurants...and see alot of ppl...
when i walk in davis....i take pics of.....*drumroll*

haha..how interesting rite...

anyway..making travel plans sux....esp if u're on a budget....cheapest airline..cheapest accomd...muz be accessible....muz get to airport on time...there are so many aspects to consider...n i realise it's not easy to get the best of both worlds...u prolly need to do ur research and planning super early...and analyse all the permutations and combinations..before u reach the best deal...and dat's a real pain...so for me..since i hate to think...i realise the best is just quickly decide..and whack..rather than worry about all the "wad ifs"...
haha...when reach destination den adapt accordingly! =)

anyway i'm proud to say i've finished one gallon of milk!..i bought 2 gallons on tues evening..haha..and now after about 4 days i've started on my second gallon..
i dunno how to spend my sunday man...shld i watch US open finals on tv?..or go to the stadium and watch Aggies soccer...mebbe i shld watch the soccer..since i dunno when the other ppl come they will wanna watch sports..

Day 23 - 3rd Day in the lib

2006-09-08T20:57:00.000-07:00

okay i tink i have the dubious honour of being the most siao on libary goer for the past 3 days..i tink my commitment for the past 3 days to the Shields lib is not far off from the commitment i show to the central lib/hss lib during the exam periods..

wad am i doing in the lib?

i'm chatting..doin admin stuff..and making plans.

yeah..i'm not wasting time...at least i hope so...dat is if everything goes according to plan..else..it's all a waste of time...but anyway..the thought process is always enriching..

it's starting to get cold here...and i'm glad the sweater i bought at the spur of the moment has come in handy...as the winds are getting more chilly..
i'm currently in the ground floor of the coop..near the kitchen...the wireless here is so much better than the one in my room....but it sux cuz there's no one around..and it's really dark...and to get up stairs to my room on the 3rd floor, i must take the outdoor staircases (there are no indoor stairs) and thus face the cold winds...brrr..and it's only 9pm now..haiz.

met up wif sylvinna todae..this indon gal whois goin on sep wif us...yea..she has separate travel plans..and she has relatives nearby too..and she doesn't stay at pacifico..so guess i prolly won't see much of her..
anyway while we were at the amtrak station slacking while waiting for the bus to bring us back to ucdavis...this gal sat at our table and started talkin to us after awhile...she heard us talking and was impressed that the 2 of us being exchange students can actually speak english so well..
bwahaha..

actually i tink my english sux...it's really demoralising when the cashier gives me the blank look whenever i place my orders..argh

i wonder how long i can sustain doing a daily blog...as it is..i'm lagging by a few entries..and on many occasions i don't post immediately at the end of the day...i wonder wad's gonna become of it when sch starts..hahaha..mebbe while i wait for rachel to come to pacifico i shld actually update it more and post more pics..hmm..

Day 22 - 2nd Day in UC Davis LIBRARY..argh..

2006-09-07T19:25:00.000-07:00

it's my second day here in the lib...call me stupid...but i tink i'm doing something useful here..and not entirely wasting my time/money away...anyway sylvinna is coming tmrw so at least there's someone from singapore in davis..and rachel is coming next monday!..yay..
haha..she's not doing any better in san fran...volunteering to vacuum the house..and wash the dishes ..and cook dinner..cuz she got nothing better to do there!..hahahaha

i will update my blog soon..wif pics and stuff..meanwhile..i gotta catch the bus back to pacifico!..tata!

Day 21 - In UC Davis!

2006-09-06T11:33:00.000-07:00

here i'm in the UC Davis lib!...the internet connection here is so fast..... way better than the one in my pacifico room...which sux...(until my cable gets send over..which i carelessly left in kelton)..argh... and the only reason why i'm forced to be here is cuz i need to check for some number..grr..stupid admin ppl...

i love the library...i swear i'm going to camp here when sch starts...

Day 20 - Byebye san jose..hello pacifico..:(

2006-09-06T11:31:00.000-07:00

sighz..pacifico is no where near sheares hall...it's more of like sungei gedong camp..(not even pulau tekong can)...mebbe can compare to lakiun camp in bruni....:((((((((((

Day 19 - Napa

2006-09-06T11:25:00.001-07:00

Headed to cupertino for brunch...which was a sumptuous and economical taiwanese porridge meal...by now..i've come to accept the fact that a meal which costs 10 US dollars and is filling is cheap...
a visit to one of the famous vineyards in napa valley was on the cards...and after a 2 hour drive...we reached our destination..domaine chandon...n we had a chance to do some wine-tasting..

.learnt abit about the manufacturing of their sparkling wines on their tour...which we stupidly paid 7 bucks for..and no one actually bothered to check the tickets!..haha..so if anyone happens to go to visit the domain chandon, pls don't bother to pay for the tour tix..haha..juz tag along with the group..but if u get caught and thrown to jail..don't quote me...:P
haha..but i did a criminal act too!..i stole grapes from the vineyard..and ate them.hahaha...ssshh

and we spitted the seeds after eating..hahaha

dinner at the stinking rose in san fran...this restaurant which is everything garlic...both AD n bonnie enthused that in this place..the garlic is the main dish...with the meat ur sides..i initially din understand..till i went to that place.....it's true that they probably exaggerated a little..but nonetheless, it was my most 'garlicky' meal ever...

garlic bread wif raw garlic..and olive oil wif garlic flavour...

this is lamb shank wif garlic mash potato...

since we shared 2 meals amongst the 3 of us (which was actually pretty filling)...we headed to the fisherman's wharf to get their clam chowder!..really really nice clam chowder they had there...and it tastes extra good eating the warm chowder while in the midst of cold weather..(it's damn chilly near the bay!)

Day 18 - San Fran Chinatown

2006-09-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

cupertino in the morning....a place which is almost like a mini taiwan...alot of taiwanese/chinese eateries, chinese medicine shops, sweets, accessories...etc....bonnie n ad had been raving abt some salt baked chicken thingie...and i was expecting eating a whole spring chicken or something..end up..it was none other than...something like xiang ji pa...haha..which was food i craved when i was in ROC durin NS days...and which i actually ate alot when i went to Hukou Base in 2004...

the roads in san fran can get pretty steep.(both uphill n downhill of cuz)..and hence u can actually get the roller coaster feeling when u sit in a car and reach the top and see nothing ahead of u
the palace of fine arts was next on the list...we didn't enter the 'palace' per se (cuz gotta pay)..but there were numerous structures which were really beautiful...soo..we took pictures!..

lombard street was up next..and this road is a tourist attraction in itself...AD says it's the road with the most bends in the world.!.
after navigating thru all those bends...we found ourelves in san fran's chinatowN! largest chinatown in the world....i dunno why but when i looked around, i felt like i was in a movie scene..the scenes of chinese ppl wif small eyes..smoking...speakin cantonese quickly..listening to the sounds of the erhu...i dunno whether this whole area is designed as such (to be a tourist attraction)...or whether movie scenes are shot here...but yeah..it feels kinda ancient, when i hear the 'local' chinese speak in their dialects...they was a group of them in an open area playing chinese chess and cards...haha.. (there's an old lady on the right waving me away as i tried to take a pic of them gambling..tsktsk)

we wanted to eat the famous egg tarts there..which were supposed to be super famous...but sadly..it was closed..haiz

our breakfast/lunch/dinner was at the R&G chinese restaurant..and we had crab!...was frikkin huge ...n of cuz it din come cheap..but still..it was a good n hearty meal...considering dat we were pretty cold from walking outside...(n i i din wear jeans so my legs were kinda freezing)...

we walked around after that...n i took a pic of one guy who was protesting...

and took many other crap pics...

i luv san fraN!

Day 17 - yummy food..

2006-09-03T09:55:00.000-07:00

went to the city of berkeley today and paid a visit to one of their famous restaurants...berkeley has alot of superb and unique restaurants which do not have any branches/franchises....and their food really taste delicious..!.....went to crepevine where they sold a vast range of crepes...had the santa fe crepe..which mainly comprised of chicken sausage in apple sauce and scrambled eggs....really nice!

next went on a tour to UC berkeley...their buidings all had veri unique designs....totally not homogeneous at all...went up their clocktower..which is the 3rd highest clock tour in the world...view was great..and i even waited for the clock to strike 4pm..haha...

we went to pick up bonnie at emerryville....then proceeded to alameda for dinneR!.. and this is wad we had!.. http://www.e-sushihouse.com/sushi.html#special_rolls ..we had the bay scallop roll, island roll, lion king, rock'n roll and spider roll...which came up to abt 46 bucks...but it was reallyreally good food...absolutely loved the bay scallop roll....*droOL* as expected..the queue for this place was super long..and even when we finished eating at 9plus..there were still queues for the food...

2 more days before i bid AD n BC farewell and go to pacifico! and dat would probably mean the end of good food...:(

ARGH I DUNNO WHERE MY CABLE ISSSSSSS.....it's not at kelton..and it's not in my bags..so where in the world iziT?!??!

Day 16 - First Day in San Jose

2006-09-01T19:20:00.000-07:00

left the house at abt 230am....n we AD took the wheel for the first segment of our journey up north..with bonnie taking over at the midway pt...really blessed to have two veri alert n capable drivers....and we were soon in san jose in no time...though the heavy morning traffic hindered us a lil...anyway the main reason for the journey up north is cuz bonnie is suposed to be the bridesmaid for her fren's wedding..n cuz of dat..i got my chance to exp my first road trip in america...and it was a pretty nice exp.....i saw a prelude of wad is to come in davis....with lots of fields...some horses grazing around as we zoomed down the freeeway....the hills and fields have all turn brown....fall has arrived....

anyway san jose is pretty much an industrial city..when i went for lunch and looked at the surrounding area..it reminded me of the international bizness park in jurong..hurhur..

dinner was at this popeye chicken fast food rest...i vaguely remember ppl telling me that there's one outlet in changi airport but i've never been there before...anyway the one here definitely wasn't impressive at all..

no pics..cuz i can't find my cable!...i dunno whether i left it in kelton ave..sighz...but i rem checking my area so many times!

anyway after dinner i was channel surfing aimlessly on the tv..and AD msning on my laptop..and lo n behold..i found serendipity on tv!...pretty amazing cuz it was five years ago...in jc2..when me n AD watched the same movie tog!...haha..sadly i was too tired to watch the entire show on tv..cuz i was super tired...i simply love the show...

as much as i love serendipity...it shall juz remain a movie to me...for unlike the characters in the show..i've lost faith in destiny...

oh n kate beckingsale is sooo prettY! =)

Day 15 - Last Day in LA

2006-09-01T19:18:00.000-07:00

packing up..prep for the long drive..
after almost 2 weeks in LA...it's time to finally say gdbye!....the last day was spent packing...n helpin AD help bonnie shift out of her room....it's 31st aug here and it's a mad day to be in apartments close to campus (UCLA)..cuz everyone is shifting out/in....with big mover trucks around the nieghbourhood.....
we took the van to this storage company at abt 4pm...n by the time we finished dinner n all..it was abt 9 plus...went back...helped bonnie with the final packin while Ad took a nap to prepare for the long drive later...bonnie kindly gave me a few stuff which would be useful for my stay in davis...so nice of her..
finally with everything set...we left kelton at 230am...and made the long drive down to northcal..

was really impressed with bonnie though...shifting out of her room..arranging n plannin the route to go up to northcal...plus all her bride's maid prep...doing all these stuff while nursing a flu...

Day 14 - Downtown LA

2006-09-01T19:16:00.000-07:00

went to downtown LA todae...AD has always been reluctant to bring me there and i finally saw why...though it's often highlighted as a tourist attraction...there's really nothing much there..besides flea markets......
so we went to the little tokyo in downtown LA...there's this shabu shabu place where u can dip strips of beef and eat...but since i can't eat beef..we couldn't go there and we made our way to this ramen place...which was nice!.

we then proceeded for dessert at fiore's yoghurt..

AD wasn't feelin too well so we headed back to kelton after dat...but not before driving around downtown LA....

their financial district looks decent ...but just around the corner...

flea markets....imagine having pasar malams near shenton way.....plus beggers and homeless ppl....

AD rested awhile at home and for some reason or another..decided to go out again for some fresh air...and we went to beverly center....walked around the place...and i had dinner there...where i had my first taste of panda express at the food court...this chinese food chain all around USA.....2 meat and noodles cost abt 6 US bucks...haiz...it's time like this where i miss singapore's mixed vege rice!!

Day 13 - PhillyCheeseSteak

2006-09-01T19:15:00.000-07:00

didn't do anything much today save for eating this really nice philly cheese steak...the cheese just melts in ur mouth...yummy..and registering for my mods...and helpin bonnie wif her packin..

Day 12 - Shopping Madness

2006-08-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

went to the factory outlets today with AD, xiaoxiao,mandy and catherine...and it was my craziest shopping trip ever....i'm totally not into shopping...and i vaguely remember my craziest shopping frenzy was in jc2 when i went to buy my cny clothes all in one day...and dat was only like 4 pieces of clothes?... this time round..i bought enuff clothes to last me for..err..i dunno..but definitely no shopping for me in singapore...

my only regret of the day was not purchasing this pair of op shades...due to a small scratch..and due to the shop assistant's f-uped attitude....on hindsight..the small scratch wasn't really visible..and i'm sure it will get scratched too in the future...so why da hell din i buy it?

will a better pair of shades turn up again?...at a competitive price too?

Day 11 - Rest n Recreation

2006-08-29T08:05:00.000-07:00

slack day todae to recover from the past few days...made our way to some thai temple which had some open-air foodstalls

....i had their duck noodles which was really good!.(i miss ducK!).
and we ate this mango rice thingie..

...went to a shopping centre after dat...(tink it's called westside)...cuz there was a whole bunch of us..and bonnie needed us to get her stuff..hurhur...and i bought 2 american eagle tees....
played tennis with ad at the courts at veteran's park...and bball with ad,xiaoxiao,catherine n mandy.....great fun...cold and hungry at the end of it all..but luckily there was good food waiting!..in the form of jap curry rice..yummy..a nice big pot of steaming hot rice n chicken...=)

Day 10 - Disney Land

2006-08-27T00:21:00.000-07:00

slept late...cuz i was watching some interesting tv shows at amandae's host's (jenny) house.....she got cable tv la..unlike ad who doesn't even have a tv set..hahaha...(but kelton still rawks la hur ad)..yeap..anyway there was this show titled "cheaters"..where woman/guys who suspect that their other half is cheating on them can call the crew and they will televise their investigation procedure..like they will go and check on the cheating half...and video their actions and stuff...and broadcast to the whole world...interesting eh?
another show i watched quite late at nite was this thrashy show called elimidate...it's like an eye for a guy/the bachelor....the lucky guy just gets to choose one out of 4 gals for a date...shiok rite? and it's like a weekly thing i tink..so every week one lucky guy gets to do dat..

anyway..it's disney day todae...and jenny could get me n amandae in for free!....apparently it's located in anaheim which is located in orange county!...wish i could go there and take some pics or see where they shoot the series....mebbe next time la hur..
amandae n i went around disneyland and the adjacent california adventure centre (both for free! when by rite it shld cost abt close to 100 bucks?) yeah..sun was darn blardey hot..i'm like having a golden tan now...alot of ppl around cuz it was a weekday...and thus had to wait super long for the rides...at least we got some pics...but it was a super tiring day...
really grateful to jenny for allowing me to put up at her place...and sending us to disneyland and driving me back to westwood when it was so out of the way....haiz..it was a really long drive...

glad to see AD and the rest though..haha..i was so lucky dat the moment i stopped out of the car and said my thankyews, AD drove out from his garage...and we went to k-town for dinner...some cheap and good korean food..yummy..

a great end to a great day..

super super tired...will upload pics and blog abt my past few days....but for now..i shld get to bed cuz i suspect i've finally tuned my bio clocK!...yay

Day 9 - Burbank

2006-08-27T00:20:00.000-07:00

woke up late todae after having a superb sleep on the sofa of jenny's living room...i tink i almost slept for 10 hours...pretty slack day in store..as we had nothing much to do....made our way to the bus stop to go to the mall in burbank...and along the way stopped to top up the pre-paid card....130 mins gone juz like dat as a result of a few mins of fone call to someone who used a singapore line in america...haha....and i made a stupid miscalculation and got a new line..haiz...super duper big cock up...tsktsk..cock up engineering student..
yeapz...and i had my first macs meal..2 mcchickens sandwich..and a hot fudge sundae...all for the price of 3 US dollars!...but haven't include a few cents worth of tax la..but still..quite satisfying...
and i did my first round of shopping!..purchasing one reebok drifit tee...one levis tee..and one levis shirt...it's hard to resist shopping when amandae keeps going into shops and coming out wif big bags...of expensive stuff...

dinner at some chinese restaurant..pf chang...pretty nice..cuz it was the birthday of a member of amandae's host family....really really nice food...i got high juz by eating the fried rice...yummy..

Day 8 - Getty

2006-08-27T00:17:00.001-07:00

woke up bright n early to call amandae to inform her abt the change of plans...proceeded to San Gabriel for taiwanese breakfast and to collect AD's clothes...once again....big servings of food awaited me...2 you tiao...one dan bing...one bowl of soya been..and one bowl of vermicelli ( mee sua)...shared betwn the 2 of us..and i couldn't finish my share!..argh...the you tiao is like 2 times AD hands..and it's super thick....

AD drove to pick up amandae at Glendale...and we then proceeded to the Getty museum....and since i couldn't really appreciate art pieces...i juz walk around and look see..and took pics of nice stuff whereever i could....

AD picked us up again..and dropped us at Century City Plaza...where we met Michelle for dinner and movie..(material girls)...don't ask me how the movie went..cuz i was half asleep most of the time...but for the time i was awake..i err..wasn't really fascinated/interested in the movie...haha..waste of my 9 US bucks man..haha..but i guess the other 2 girls didn't mind it..haha..at least michelle seemed really pleased with it..haha

michelle drove us back to AD's house where i grabbed my stuff to stay over at amandae's place...pretty nice place...with cable tv!...my sleeping area would be the living room...which wasn't too bad at all...:)

Day 7 - Hollywood

2006-08-24T07:23:00.000-07:00

Rudely awakened by the air-con repairmen at about 10am in the morning...was still sleeping in the living room when they barged in the main door....read magazines, used the comp till abt noon...and AD was still planning abt having an interview at LAX...den it was cancelled so we had lunch at this Damnon & Pythias place....quite near his apt....quite shiok eating near the sidewalk and watchin ppl go by......went to veteran's park again as AD had another fone interview scheduled...unfortunately for him...there was to be none as he couldn't contact the interviewer....
proceeded to hollywood after dat where i took a couple of pics...

came back for dinner at the apt...bonnie had kindly bought middle eastern food..and an argentinian hunk/model came by to visit....he's hongling's clazmate in ucla extension and whoa..he's really good lookin.....he says he's a movie buff n i was quite amazed at the amount of movies he seemed to know.....

i spent some time thinking as i tried once again (in vain) to sleep at a decent time..
it might sound ridiculously stupid but i actually can't wait for sch to start....
at least i have some sort of fixed schedule?

n i tink i'm starting to miss singapore...

Day 6 - Universal City

2006-08-23T03:32:00.000-07:00

alrite..my timings are screwed again...i slept at around eleven plus and now it's 3 plus cuz i juz woke up from my slumber...haiz..i wonder how long i would take to sleep and wake up properly..
went for brunch at this noodle planet place near UCLA...serves asian food..n i got some thing called pad thai...some noodles thing..wif chicken.peanuts...and bean sprouts...it din look appetizing at first (to me)..but in the end it tasted pretty all rite.....i always can't seem to finish my food..no matter how hard i try....but AD's stomach is always on hand to finish my leftovers..hurhur...
headed to Universal Studios next.....where the carpark costs 10 US dollars and the normal entrance fee is like 60 US dollars...wtf sia...sum it up...=70 bucks...convert to SGD..= abt 110 bucks...biangz..if u ask me whether it's worth paying 100 over bucks for this thing..i would say..errr...not really...but juz for the experience la hur....it's pretty lah..and u get to take a few rides..(not superb)...and get a glimpse at how they shoot films and their special effects.....but other than that...not really worth 100 over singapore bucks for.....i guess the phrase "pretty can already" really applies here....cuz i guess most ppl take alot of nice pics here..and other ppl back home see...and also become tempted to come.....they are big ...colourful....but they are just...pics...

saw someone juggling this object while i was waiting for AD to get his soda...and i asked him wad dat was...it was some bag like thingie...and he said he just juggle for fun..cool...but den again it's easier juggling a small bean bag den a ball...since it doesn't really bounce away from u..

oh..and i nearly lost my camera!...damn..i was seating down at some dark auditorium and i tink my camera slipped out of my pocket...and the staff were so unhelpful...they din allow me to go back until the next show was over..din assisted in making announcements or wadeva...luckily someone who was clearing the rubbish picked it up...and returned it back to us when we hurriedly went back to search for it....my camera and laptop is now my most impt items to me now!...it contains all my pics!...stuff which i can never replace ...i was so relieved when i got it back!

dinner at some jap restaurant named taiko....i get a chicken don and udon noodles and salad for 12 bucks....and i finished my fooD!..for the first time......actually in singapore....u can just eat one chicken don...and be full already...or just one udon noodles... but here..they put it together..for one meal...so i guess that's why food is ex here...soo..dat also explains why i haven't had breakfast/supper....(besides the fact that i wake up late)..haha

got my first experience of suspected racism when AD collected his car after the meal...the first car that the valet drove out was similar in make and colour to his own.and as we approached it, the farking owners just exclaimed "hey that's our car" and started laffing sarcastically at us......their immature attitude could be understandable if they were young punks but no...they already had a family!..(a baby).....guess they would pass on such an attitude to their kid in future....haha..but i guess such an exp it's already damn mild.....at least it's not physical in nature.. but still...grr..

Day 5 - living the life of a local..

2006-08-22T02:39:00.000-07:00

my timing here is like a hostelite....i sleep late..and i wake up late...and i nua the rest of the day away...slept at 0730am due to watching the sepak webcast...woke up at abt noon time...accompanied ad to veteran park so dat he could have his phone interview as he found it more conducive....pretty impressed wif him with his professionalism though...it's remarkable how each of us has grown up since our hc days...oh speaking of hc...i dunno why but apparently alot of ppl esp gals have a negative opinion of hc guys...hahaha...and from wad i observe..alot of ppl who have such an opinion attribute it to the..err..chinese high guys....haha..BUT..i muz say that the chinese high guys in hc are actually the nicer ones..hahaha...
went to help hellen shift stuff from her apt to ad's one....cuz she had too many stuff to shift out..and went to in n out to take away lunch....damnit..i'm missing out alot by abstaining from beef...damndamndamn....i so wanna eat the beef burgers but i have to abstain from it..due to err...religion..haiz..
concussed on the bed for awhile den Ad brought me and his two other ucla china frens to check out volkswagen cars since one of them was interested in purchasing one......the cars are really fast n chio....how i wish i can afford one of them in singapore...

went to the santa monica pier after that... ppl watching...taking fotos..yeah.. pretty satisfied wif going there..although i wish i could walk along the beach or just play in the water/sand..blahblah..

dinner at ad's apt was katherine/hongling's cooking...and nuaed the rest of the nite away..

i tink all i wanna do here is to eat/sleep/ppl watch/tok to ppl/and take fotos...

i tink i would be very happy that way..

Sepak Webcast

2006-08-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

it's 730am here...and prolly err..2230 back in sg...juz watched finish my first ever live sepak webcast here...n it was really great...more exciting then the world cup can...i always sleep while watching world cup matches...but just following the blk d sepak guys route to the ibg finals was totally exciting to da max...when i was the first match my heart was pumping so hard lah...i can hear the crowd man..i dunno whether it's due to the speakers or wad..but it was as if 200 hundred ppl were in the mpsh cheering their lungs out lah....so blk a wins blk d in the final to win the sepak gold...haiz...and to think that the last ihg featured zero blk a players in the team at all..

so happy to see so many familiar faces..so happy to see my fave sport being played...and so happy to see so many freshies playing the game so well..

thankyew jeannie for making it possiblE!...(though i tink chio came prepared too!)..thanx a mil!

n now i really need to sleep..:(

give me a reason to forget..

Day 4 - sundaysoccer!

2006-08-21T02:06:00.000-07:00

woke up late again...due to prev nite sleeping late....and thus missed the chance to play tennis wif hellen...woke up for some dan bing breakfast (there are quite a few taiwanese around)..and since i din help with the prep..i made up for it wif cleaning up..haha..nuaaed for quite abit..before gallun picked me up for soccer at USC!! (uni of southern california).....had a fun late afternoon session of soccer....all singaporean guys ..haha..mainly ppl who studied/studies/going to study at USC...apparently there alot of singaporeans studying in usc....and after 4 days..i conclude that..southern california..which is this area i'm in...and where UCLA and USC is.... has alot of good lookin ppl indeed...

dinner wif some 2 other guys who played soccer..and another 3 more ppl..among them ian's gf amanda..and gallun's gf jasmine..at some burmese place which i actually think it's indian..since it's basically indian food...tandoori chicken..kambing soup..blabla...it's hard to believen ian n his gf are born in 1978...i tot they were my age!...went to drink bubble tea after that...they are really nice ppl...and i tink becuz of the phrase "animal style" i managed to connect wif ian on a few occasions..haha..eh..and pls..animal style is a flavour of some fries okay..
back in ad's house....2.16am..and i'm tired..dunno whether i shld go to sleep..or wait online hoping dat chio/jeannie would really bring a webcam later for sepak ibg....jiayou blk d!..make it a third win in a row!

Day 3 - happyhappyhappy..

2006-08-20T03:51:00.000-07:00

I wish todae was the worst day of my life...

din really sleep well from the prev nite...slept at like 2am..and woke up like at 4...i dunno why but i having trouble sleeping from 4am to 7am...and after dat i will just concus all the way...woke up late..saw the amandae's sms..and rushed to wake AD up to ask him whether i would need to take a diff route to meet them...thankfully it's the same bus route..so he walked me to the bus stop...and tada..took my first US bus trip on my own!....thank god i din get lost..haha..did AD proud i reckon...cuz i had to transfer bus can...and reach this place called the Grove on my own..which is not just at the bus stop...haha...

so i met amandae and her fren michelle at the Grove..which is super beautiful....prolly "adjusted to suit tourist tastes"...geographical imagination...yadayada...and we went to the cheesecake factory for lunch....which is also super beautiful....the food portions here are super huge...like in the menu if they say it's small portion...it's actually like upsize in singapore...i couldn't even finish my lunch...*pengz*..and i din even eat breakfast!...the cheesecake rocks too...it's really shiok...cool weather...good food...nice to sleep...all the ingredients to get fat...i'm rubbing my hands in glee at the prospect of me putting on weight here..bwahaha..

michelle den drove us to beverly centre to shop..which i din..and the other 2 gals juz carried on shopping...most of our time being spent at the forever 21 shop...which only like had a teeny weeny section for guys...with the rest for girls...i guess the 2 of them tot i was bored watching them shop...but believe me...i wasn't bored at all....hurhurhur....if any guys need any incentive to accompany their gfs to shop..just ask me....

michelle drove down to rodeo drive after dat...in a bid to catch the sprinkles cupcake shop before it closed...too bad they were only selling 4 kinds of cupcakes at that time..cuz it was too late..and i had alr tried them the prev dae..so i din buy..and instead bought jamba juice..which i heard was pretty good...and it is!..apparently it's super healthy...haha..

drove back to the grove again for dinner...at the brazilian shop which was recommended by ad n bonnie...n which mich recommended too.....n it was good...!..i had rice!..i tink i really miss rice..without rice..i tink i will never feel satisfied after a meal...the meat there was good too...yummy...oh and mich bumped into some usc ppl...and so happened dat one cat high jnr of mine was there...exchange greetings for awhile...remembered dat i got kick soccer in cathigh before..and den jioed me to play soccer on sunday!..which was like the next dae..at USC...wah lau..how cool sia...it's like not doing any planning..and just walking aimlessly along the street and suddenly u get fun things to occupy your time....yay..and got another guy in that group happened to be cathigh too..my batch..and some chairperson of the singapore students society there..cool man...

slacked around at mich's lobby for awhile while me and amandae waited for our frens to pick us up...and had quite an interesting conversation..hahaha...and the seats were super comfy too....a great end to a great outing wif them...hope it won't be the last..=)

AD arrived soon enuff...and i boarded the car..with 3 crazy girls behind...i dunno wad was wrong with them but they were like super high and crazy..even though they din drink at all....and that AD did some reckless turns closer to the apt which in my opinion was super dangerous but to the girls was like super fun.....
and AD,bonnie,helen and I played hearts after dat...haha..super fun...and yeah..at the request of AD ...he WON the game..and I lost......hurhurhur....spent the rest of the nite crapping wif them...

actually i tink words here can't adequately describe wad a great dae it has been....1)sitting in michelle's car is quite a hilarious/nerve wrecking experience....she's not a bad driver..but just quite kancheong...which actually makes her super dangerous...and coupled wif the fact that american drivers are mad.....2) her car is super nice n chio 3) her apartment is SUPER nice n chio...wah lau....supersupersuperchio......me and amandae were like suaku tourists taking pics at her apartment...and it's not even supposed to be some tourist attraction...it's juz like a hotel lah..some high class resort...4) making my first bus trip...and alone somemore...5) eating superb food....6) meeting singaporeans and getting invited to kick soccer at USC...7)playing cards in the apartment and tokin lots of crap wif new frens 8) great day spent wif amandae and michelle 9) possibly goin to play tennis wif helen at UCLA tmrw...10)taking nice pics!

i wish today was the worst day of my life...

i tink in the midst of all the unfamiliar....it's nice to sit in the car and listen to the radio and listen to familiar songs being played...there are stations which are actually really similar to perfect 10, power 98 and class 95...

i tink the rag dancers have the ps performance tonite...wish i could've been part of the fun toO!..

shucks it's 5.03AM now..and i'm still not tired..arggh..when will my timing be completely readjusted?

Day 2 - All settled!

2006-08-19T02:19:00.000-07:00

yay..finally i'm all settled..firstly my laptop can finally connect to the net.in the middle of the nite at abt 10pm....although i dunno how in the world it managed to happen..bonnie (ad's fren) was fiddling with it..and the modem..and i was fiddling with it..mebbe we clicked on something..mebbe we just resetted the modem..but wadeva the case..when my laptop msn suddenly clicked to life...woohoo..i was how happy la...finally i can check mails properly..finally can use my laptop properly...and in the midst of it all..suddenly my parents msned me..fwahlau..damn heng la..and we had a webcam convo...sososo cool...dat was like 2am for me..and 5pm for them..
and i got my sim card...yay..so all my comms is up...yay..no comms no rest man...

anyway..i woke up damn late todae lah..as in i initially woke up like 7am (L.A time)..but no one was awake so i went back to sleep..until like 1330 when the whole world was like waking me up..slacked for awhile before we went to..beverly hills!..ok..beverly hills is a big place..so we just went a small part of it...quite a shopper's paradise i would say..wif all the big label outlets..tiffany..d&g..armani...boss...wadeva..but i din go in at all la hur..since i'm not like into shopping at all...so for me..the most notable thing we did there was i had a cupcake! we had to wait quite long for it lo..and one cupcake is like 3.25 USD not cheap at all..but it was so damn sweet....

so we spent some time there..and after dat me and AD headed to K-town for korean bbq..to meet his 2 other frens..bonnie and mason..(oops..i can't rem clearly)... yeah..no breakfast..no lunch..so i ate quite a bit of meat...it was just pure meat la..no seafood at all...but the downside of it is..i'm hungry now..haiz....so after dat dinner..came back...tok some cock wif bonnie and ad...and settled internet n hp stuff....

time to sleep...for tmrw i gotta meet amandae..and i've to take the bus here for the veriveri first time...argh..hope i dun get lost...

Here in LA!

2006-08-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

hellohellO!..i've finally reached LA.....it's been 24 hours since i touched down....and still i can't get my laptop to connect to the net..so using AD's comp......touched down in LA at about 1030 LA time...cleared customs by about 11...cleared the gates..expecting to find a familiar face...but no...AD wasn't around..i din had his number..i wasn't prepared to use my hp...i had no american coins so dunno how to use the public fone...so i found a seat and opened my laptop..hoping for free wireless..but no...no free wireless..heng i sent an email out to my family previously abt AD's adddress..wif number...juz as i found his number...and pondering abt a way to contact him..tada..he arrived!...approximately 2 hours after my estimated touchdown time of 0945...heng ah..haha..let's juz say in all my years of knowing him since hcjc...I'VE NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY TO SEE HIM....haha..he came to fetch me in his relatively new car...wooo...fast n powerful..n spacious...had taiwan bubble tea on the way to his place...which is called boba tea...yeah..boba as in "bo1" "ba4"...and it's kinda ex there la...like almost 6 bucks for 2 cups...convert to sgd would be almost 3 x a normal singapore price...prolly such stuff are exotic there la hur...so we reached ad's place...and yay..i've got my own bed!..cuz initially AD told me i would be sharing his bed wif him..so this is an added bonus..yay...dumped my stuff..slack a while..before walking to bankofamerica to settle bank acct..haha..i asked AD whether it was near..den he said....pretty nice ppl there...after which AD took me around westwood..his neighbourhood so to speak.....had lunch at some outlet by the road selling mexican buerritos..which i tink wasn't nice at alL!....after lunch went to ralph's (some dept shop)..and some big electrnoics shop..before heading to UCLA....fwah lau..frikking chio la....and i mean everythin abt the university...building...PPL...took some pics of the LT..the blackboard is segmented into like 8 smaller boards...even the lifts of the physics building has formulas and wadeva...nicenice...so we walk walk n walk...before reachin back to the apt in the late aft...where i slacked abit...tried but failed to connect to internet using my laptop...and concussed for abt 30mins ..before AD's aptmate hong ling came back...some taiwanese gal...den we drove out for dinner...at santa monica..."santa monica..in the winter..the lazy streets so undemanding...i walk into the crowd"....lalala...aiya..so hongling wanted to shop...i juz look ard n see n try to take pics...wif my camera..(of which i still can't really figure out how to use properly hurhur)...and finally..after going to a few shops...we settled for dinner!...burgers..fries..and milkshake......reallyreallyreally good...if i keep eating like that..i'm sure i will get fat..haha..but it's good fooD!.....so came back after dat..really tired..and spent like from 10pm onwards trying in vain to connect to net again...tokin cock to AD...went down wif him to help him wif his laundry...and concussed...from like 130am ..to NOW!..which is like 1330pm..gosh..12 hours..

prolly heading out soon....

anywayz..i guess after one day in LA...everything is pretty ok ..mainly becuz AD is around..nonetheless..i'm still kinda paranoid in the sense dat i'm like always wary of ppl around me...esp when i see big white guys or black guys in groups...always awaiting some racist attack...AD has been telling me not to worry as in southern california...racism prolly doesn't exist but nonetheless..i'm always like super alert....i wonder how it's gonna be like when i head to sacremento...where AD says it's gonna be worse.....
the thing is in america everything is so huge...the people are so huge..the things in the supermarket are so huge....AD for one HAS became huge...even the damn laundry here in his apt block can be like 2 times the size in sheares....the guys here are prolly 1.5 x my height and twice my build...the gals are prolly almost all my height...and there are homeless ppl out on the streets who sometimes talk loudly to themselves...hurhur...
it's totally not like in singapore...where u feel at home wherever u go...here...i'm asian...all the faces around me look strange...i dun underestand wad ppl say...they prolly dun understand wad i say too..haha..but oh well...

going out...mebbbe post pics when i've time..and get connected to the damn internet...tata!

anyway i would really like to thank all my family and frens who took time to send me off at that unearthly hour of 4am on 17th August....i'm reallyreallyreally humbled n gan dong...=)..my flightmate from singapore to japan recognized me...cuz she saw the bunch of blk d ppl sending me off...u guyz rocK!

testing out how to put up pic

2006-08-16T10:20:00.000-07:00

oh well..i haven't been putting up pics on my blog for a damn frikking long time..so i'm testing this out..so lkm u must be damn honoured ya..

Day -1 16 Aug 06 Singapore

2006-08-15T18:48:00.000-07:00

ok...here's a test post...i still got alot of things to do....need to buy some stuff..need to pack stuff...everything shld be fine.....hopefully i can pack finish by dinner time..den after dinner it's just spending some quiet time to think thru everything..see whether forgot anything....and tada..i will be all set to go....

and i still need to put in a tagbox..a counter...and try to remember how to upload pics..hurhur..it's been over a year since i last started a blog..and yeah..i've been blogging since year one..although i sorta din tell others about my second blog which commenced from year one sem2 hols..till NOW...haha.. but oh well...that was an eventful year indeed..
after so long of shutting myself out from the world...it's kinda wierd blogging again....i still feel restricted in the sense dat i won't be able to blog freely...but oh well....for pure CLEAN entertainment value..and memories...here's the blog...hurhur