First day of classes has officially ended! Got quite confused abit halfway through cos i got enrolled in a class i was on the waiting list for, so that kinda made me rush abit. You'll see why!
So that was the old schedule above, the new schedule on the right. Used to end at 7 almost everyday! With huge breaks in between. But, now i end at 5 on Mon/Wed and 7 on Tue/Thu and i've still got huge breaks in between. WOW. Friday's a good day though, end at 12:05 (the waiting classes doesn't mean anything..unless i get them of course). Let's see, I'm takin a business presentation class, finite math, sociology, psychology and a telecommunications class which i just heard is boring. Great.
The schedule gets worse! 2nd eight weeks of the semester (ie: october to december) i'll have this accounting class that starts at 8 in the mornin!! Now, how am i gonna wake up esp when the temperature's gonna be low. Woooo probably end up hibernating and storing fat over the winter (but cannot! i wanna win money on the previously-mentioned wager). And i thought wakin up at 815 in the morning today was bad enough...
So i had finite math in the mornin. Its all bout stats and probability actually. After a brief overview for the first 10min of class, we started learnin sets and venn diagrams! Yawwnn what a great way to get the day goin. Plus on top of that, i was quite tired from my walk to the building where class was at from my dorm...and i think i covered at most half the campus walkin there. Had psychology after that, which was a 5min brisk-walk away keepin in mind that i had to fight for seats with americans who walk at twice my speed even though i had 15min after math to get to psychology. Ahhh psych was kinda dry, almost dozed off a couple of times.
So classes were done at 11! And i got back to my dorm to catch people online who were still awake. Did that for abit and realised instead of 5:45 class, i had a 4pm class! So went to meet a few singaporeans with common breaks and had lunch before hoggin the comp at the comp lab to kill time and reply emails. Headed to my first business class and wooots, it was the honors class that i just got enrolled into. Quite intimidating compared to the other classes. Math had 50-odd people, psych had easily 200 ppl...but the honors class had 20. And expectations are much higher! Plus its a business presentation class!! Grrr..cannot be shy cannot be shy.
The most irritating thing happened. Realised i had to iron a shirt..so i assembled the sit-down ironing board and whipped out a supposedly trusty Black&Decker iron (both bought over here on the cheap) to get some ironing done and prove to myself and i can live on my own.....guess how that worked out huh? No prizes for anyone who guessed that i didn't come out of it with a nicely pressed shirt. I was too used to havin a good iron at home and didn't really occur to me that not all steam-irons are as good as the one at home. So after awhile of steam ironing it got real hot and i even thought i burnt my shirt! But yeah, it started simmerin down and after awhile, i was gettin NO HEAT from the iron at all. Hmm, i think it died on me. Eh but lemme get a point across to all you doubters out there (gives a scrunched up face) i can iron! It's not my fault, blame the iron!! Heeeehhheeeee. *Insert sheepish smile*
On a more serious note, the weekend was an emotionally draining weekend. Bahhh i miss people back home.
Looking on the brightside, i've been here for a month...soon to be a month! Heh jialing hasn't even started her journey to London! But at least she's got the winter break to spend back in Singapore (by the way jia, where's that email you were talkin about...?). One month down...hmm...8 more to go? I think it's 8 anyways.
Time to get some beauty sleep to get rid of the dark rings, time to get some hugs from my body pillow.....
First of all, sorry for takin a 4-day leave from bloggin. Had a self proclaimed field trip around campus these few days. And whenever i'm online, which is at night or in the mornin, kinda get pre-occupied chattin online and checkin up on the EPL! Crap, can't believe i'm missing out on Manchester's brilliant early season start - notching up 10 goals in 3 games, conceding just 2, and grindin out wins even though they played badly!
Sooo let's see how the last couple of days went
Thursday
Wednesday night was the first night spent with the roommate. Well, not really cos he came back from a party at around 2. But then again, i wasn't too disturbed because i was still awake.
About the roommate, let's see. He listens to heavy metal music. Slightly different from my kinda music but ah, here's where the iPods come in handy. Just gotta stuff them in my ear when his comp speakers are on. But actually he could stuff his own in his ears but there's this unspoken rule that whoever's got their music on first gets to keep his music on. So in the morning, when dawn breaks, it's a mad rush to the computers! We both scramble outta the beds, arms and legs entangling, chiong-ing over to the computers! Nahhh, that doesn't happen. Usually i get to the comp first, but somehow, i feel bad turnin on the music cos he's sleepin and i'll forget to get them turned on once he wakes up...so he's the one with the music on from then on out. Ahh but's somethin we'll work out over the next few months....
Had lunch with some of the dormmates. Other than that, Thursday was pretty uneventful, save for the chaos at Target. It's a supermarket by the way. Woo, you see students and their parents scrambling with their push carts around the store, lookin for stuff to put in the dorms. Hot selling items were the fridges, microwaves, water filters and other comfort items like those. But i just got some foodstuffs while some other singaporeans got their detergents/toiletry baskets and pails (for who knows what!). Oh i did get ear buds. Don't want months worth of earcrap buildin up do i?
Met more singaporeans over dinner, some familiar faces, some faces i never seen before. Nice to meet them though, plus there's one who plays tennis too so that's an added bonus! Nothin much happened for the rest of the day, or rather i can't really recall. Oh, just that the roommate went for another party and came back at 3 this time (but i was still awake). So yep, 2 parties in 2 nights! He's on a roll!!
Friday
Friday was walkaround campus day. Lookin for ideal chillout spots. Somethin i need!! Haven't really found one but so far, starbucks' lookin as the universal chill out locale. Oh wells, that'll have to do until i find somewhere better that isn't a bar/pub. Covered quite abit of campus-ground, familiarised myself with the routes to take from my dorm to the central area of campus. Because you see, my dorm is riiighhhht at the corner of campus and all the good stuff happen in the middle of campus. By good stuff i mean, where my classes, food, student halls and ATM machines are found.
Oh yeah somethin weird did happen at night. Was online in my room when i heard crazy sirens all around my building. Looked down and saw...4 police cars, 2 ambulances and 2 firetrucks at the foot of my dorm. Wah, i figured with all the crazy frat parties down the street, some fight must have spilled over to my dorm! So me and a few guys in the dorm went down together to take a look. Stepped out of the lift on ground floor and saw firemen in their firesuits (complete with oxygen tanks, pick axes, axes, rope).
But i soon found out all that was just for some people stuck in the lift and called 911. I think as long as u dial 9-1-1, you mobilize a rescue crew about that size -.- ahh but if you think firetrucks are called upon to rescue cats stuck in trees, this isn't any biggie. But then again, thats what they say in cartoons, dunno whether firemen really do rescue cats stuck in trees. hmm.
Oh wait, roommate went out for another party friday night. Strike 3! is he out? you'll see..
Saturday
Saturday saturday..slept in! Woke up quite late and headed down to a chinese place for lunch. Ahh the food here, aside from the local food, not that good. I mean, there's thai, indian, chinese, korean, japanese and mediteranean (spell?) food but i don't think they're very good. But so far only have had thai indian and chinese but hey, cannot expect too much la. But even then, the portions are HUGE. And the taste is suited for the americans, so its kinda sweet or bland.
Went for some international picnic (which means free food and i'd do many things for free food...plus it was all you can eat!). Let's just say i came outta the picnic not so full cos everyone had the same mindset as me - pile up the food at every serving!! So by the time it was my turn, only had a few not-so-round beef patties and other kindsa salad, which i dont do very well. Like potato salad and stuff. Makes me wanna hurl!
Oooh after that was freshman initiation. Ahh, nothin much happened except the seniors offerin (forcin) shots around and one guy pukin a few times. Got home feelin bit buzzed, drank some water so i wouldn't get hungover for the next mornin!
Sunday...Today!
OH WAIT. i forgot to mention, roommate partied again last night. came back around same time as me though this time. So we drank water together so we would wake up and not be cranky with each other. So wait, he's got 4 parties in 4 nights now! Wooo! i've got a wild one. But haven't got on my nerves yet, so i'm not complanin.
So! sunday sunday sunday..sundays always a lazy day when your in the bed. So why stop now? Well...cos it's not really like my bed at home! So took a tour of the shops on campus. Mostly souvenir shops and there's this cd shop thats sells albums of bands which i can never find in singapore! and on the cheap too.
Now i'm just finishin off this supppperrr boring post cos i tried thinkin of everythin that happened that last few days and its not like i've got the best memory in the world! Anwyays roommate bowled today, didn't party.
Ahh as promised, time to put up some of the nicer tennis pics up here. Got loads from yuhui, but alot of them quite crappy leh. Tsktsk.
Miss havin you tennis guys and girls around! Come to think of it, we didn't really meet much after the a's and all. But whenever we did, we just click as usual! As if we've been seeing each other day in day out. So that's pretty cool! So we'll just see each other when i get back! which will, should, must, may, probably be around May! Unless i have 0 friends and have nowhere to crash for the winter break. Hmm...
Anyways the roommate moved in today. Ahh if i haven't mentioned before, he's from Chicagobut was born in Poland. Mental picture time...he's bout 185-190cm tall? Woots. Tall and lanky cos, phew, he's not all buff and big. If not, i'm gonna feel puny everytime i step into this room and he's around. His parents helped him move stuff in and all (they were all tall as well by the way). Prob lived in Poland for a few years before movin to Chicago, cos he's still got abit of a polish/russian accent? But ahh, seems like a nice guy enough. Brought along a microwave and another fridge. So we've got 2 fridges now! Hmm, empty ones for now.
So today was move-in day! Phwah chaos i tell you. Usually from my room, you could see grass downstairs. Today, could only see people, cars and boxes fulla stuff! Would have taken a picture but the sun was too bright, phone cameras don't work well in bright sunlight that's for sure. Lifts were packed with people tryin to move in. 11 floors, with what...easily 30+ rooms on each floor? Yeah around there, and everyone's tryin to get up in 2 lifts!
Decided to do laundry today, didn't have much of a choice though, cos i ran outta undies and socks. Heh. Waitin for the lift was not somethin i wanted to do today, so i decided to take the stairs...not a good idea. Cos had to walk all the way up for many trips!
Washing took an hour, wasn't gonna sit there for an hour so i walked up. Walked down to transfer clothes from washer to dryer, didn't wanna wait for an hour..walked up Walked down to collect clothes, lift lobby was still full....so i decided to wait. Wasn't gonna walk up again!!
Anyhow, i was thinkin of gettin some speakers for my laptop! Any speaker-wizzes out there!? Bahh i'm gonna go nua on bed for abit.
Got new window fans and they're workin wonders!
Oh i think jason would be jumping in his pants right now. Man United just ran out 3-0 winners against Charlton! And woooo! Chelsea went down 2-1 to Middlesboro!
Yeah first day i'm officially alone cos my parents left last night ): Didn't expect myself to be very emo. But it was quite sad to see my parents finally leave. Heh, yeah finally. Cos you know how parents are right...they get on your nerves after awhile. But their parents after all, the ones who care bout you the most. Anyhows, lookin on the bright side its gonna be freedom from here on out..until next may at least!
FIRST NIGHT ALONE
Woo when i got back to my dorm, it was a sucky feeling. Dont like havin alot of alone time these days. Cos i just left and all. Gives you too much time to think and reflect on things ): which isn't a very good thing to do now! And i miss my brothers! Didnt expect to miss them any more than a lil but yeah, theres no place like home and nothin can replace just nuaing at home in the presence of the brothers. Dunno why la actually, but yeah, havin a place to stay in a place without my brothers isn't the same! Hoho.
SO...tried to slp! Falling aslp wasn't a problem. STAYING asleep was a problem. Woooo i was hott man. Even tho the outside temperature was hmm..in the low 20s? But no air was gettin into the room! Owells so i stripped down and slept in my sleep shorts! Roommate's not here yet, so i'm gonna occupy the bottom bed for the timebeing. Wait for him to get here then we'll prob toss a coin to see who gets which bed. But if he's like..fat n tall, he's gonna get the bottom bunk by default. Anyways got thru the night and manage to snap a pic of the sunrise, mini sunrise, when i opened my eyes for awhile at 630. Dont have a digicam with me...so hope this cellphone shot will suffice!
Its a mini sunrise cos couldnt see the sun from my room! but pretty colours, no?
Anyways one of the few pics of campus i've got in my phone. Managed to get some in my digicam! but i'll get my bro to send it to me when parents reach singapore.
Few of the green walkways on campus. Oh yeah and they're many diff coloured flowers around. Red, purple, white, yellow..hmm what else. Think theres pink. Dunno la. Jus very colorful!
FIRST DAY ALONE
Yeah..so first day alone! Started off okay..woke up feeling hungry and ended up snackin on oreos! Heh unpacked my fridge yesterday so for now, gotta eat real crap snacks. Roommates bringing the microwave down on Wednesday, so wooo! can't wait for the hot finger foods and real junk food to get a-moving-down-my-oesophagus! Imagine that, pizza at your fingertips and what not. But still have to go grocery shoppin to get them..hmm. Nvm roommate's got a car. Hahaha. Crap i'm gotta get fat when i get back. Hahaha but im gonna keep in shape! Got a 50 dollar wager on whether i will gain weight or not.
So went grocery shopping abit today. Got some food for breakfast and of course, finger food! But lizzie!! I still can't find the damn poptarts. Its irritating me! Nvm shall not stop lookin until i get one in my mouth and see if they're really to die for...hmmmm. Shall snack on some reese's bars now! Here's a shoutout to obesity..you're hard to resist!
Oohohhh...high time i get a pic of some of the singaporeans up. So far i've only got one pic of 2 of them. here it is! Yvonne on the left..Pamela on the right.
Anyways my dorm's got no aircon so i'm gonna be crashing at a room with aircon tonight! Woo! Lalaland here i comeee.
Woo it's been a long long long day. Phewww. Let's see how it went..
Day started off having to wake up at 8 and head down to sch of business for course advising and registration of courses. It was kinda gloomy weather (perhaps a sign of the season changing) and fog was in the air, quite hard to breathe! Anyhows back to the advising. Got a nice n friendly lady for my advisor who helped out alot in explainin the requirements and what not for the business courses and general education courses. Totally clueless before the advising session man, i'm tellin you.
Right after that had to head down to the Admissions Office to get check if my A level cert could transfer any sort of credits to my transcript. But they'll get back to me on Monday! But usually its fine and if all the credits are transferred correctly, would be able to skip 2 courses! WOOHOOO. Plus my SAT scores helped skip an english module, doubleWOOHOO! And got 24/26 for my Math Assessment Test so i get to skip 1 small math course, tripleWOOHOO. Ahh and while i was walkin down to the admissions office, the midwest skies over here decided to open and sprinkle water down on lil Bloomington. Argh got caught in the rain and was coldcold! Dad rented a car for the next few days and so i managed to get picked up. Ahhhh and driving's here on the opposite (driving seat on left) and dad was a lil disoriented. Ended up drivin along the opposite lane once without dad noticing it until i gave him the heads up. Aiyooo.
Moved into the dorm today, kinda. Moved my stuff in, but not physicallly moved in to crash. Got the fridge moved in, iron, hangers, lil cute drawers and stuff. Ahh will take some pics of the place soon nuff. But i always say i'll get pics but i end up not puttin them up. Nvm, when i got time......
Ahh had to register for courses today. ARGH pain in the butt. International students are the last to register (rubbish man cos the locals registered in June) so we got crappy timed classes. Like 8am in the morn or 7pm at night kinda classes. Owells.
Woots what a fitting song for the time differential here and back home, courtesy of Guster. Anyways a piece of information for those who wanna know.
My US cell number : +1-812-606-3945
And i got my dorm address! Whoever wants to know's just gotta ask me. Hoho. Soon i'll have time to sit down and start snail.mailing people. Move-in date's a few days away and registration for courses is being a shovel up my rectum!
Ahh due to popular demand (ie: Yuhui's demands -.-), here are some some group shots at the airport! Time to make this blog more VIBRANT ! hoho pink is the new uhm white? Anyways, here come the images...
here's my extended family (: cute kid huh? he's camera grumpy! oh no i got blur face. Eh..where's vern?!
ahh..there he is. he decided to run away to hang out with the dota boys. hmm why is chinaman's hand in his pocket...up to no good these chinamen. tsktsk.
ahh the group. i miss chillin with u guys. ehh got a pic with the 2 babes but for that, please refer to http://hotwatermusic-.blogspot.com for that pic! lazy to upload alrdy.
Bahhh this inserting pictures with captions is irritating my dingdings outta the dongdongs! shall just plop more pictures only in my next post. Hohoo. Intended to post some NYC pics up la.
Oh yes, baggage is back but guess what, i think dad left the camera charger back in the NewYork hotel. Damn, that = no new photos of campus! Ahhhhh. Nvm, i'll go leech photo memory space from one of the singaporeans here. Shall get some pics with them up on the blog soon 'nuff.
Ahh! An eventful start to life in Bloomington! Before i get to the bad stuff, lemme stay on the good stuff for awhile.
For starters, woots, campus is pretty! Ahh didn't really get many pictures of the campus because....you'll soon know. Bloomington's a really small town, if anyone watches Smallville..yeah picture Smallville kinda look. Streets, with 2 storey buildings on each side. That's off campus. Once ya get on campus, ah its like stepping into the past! woo everywhere's green (that's gonna change soon cos once fall's here, the green leaves turn brown/red..and that should be quite a sight to behold i guess). In between certain buildings there are lil 'parks' that look really romantic cos its kinda quiet, empty and has got lil streams flowing through. That's for some of the scenic plus points.
Hmm then there's the buildings! All campus building's got the..old english/victorian feel for the interior of some buildings. Yannoe? The high ceiling with quite alot of wooden finishes. With mosaic images on the ceilings, statues along the hallways. hahahaa. But not so drama la...i tryin to make it sound sooo nice that more ppl back home will wanna join me man.
Yeah for the exterior, let's see...its got the Greek/Roman era kinda feel. Tan-coloured sandstone finishes like the colliseum and/or those greek buildings u see in the movies. dunno whether can picture not..but aiyah just know that it's real pretty. Woots ya'll gotta come visit me asap then u can see everythin for urself. Then you'll know why the college is voted Top 5 most beautiful campuses in the USofA!
Got to meet fellow Singaporeans studyin here with me. Not so surprisingly, almost all of them are doin business, cos the Kelley School of Business is top 10 in the US. Music here's pretty good too..school of music's top 2 in the US too. (woots boast abit! advertising time). So at least now i'm quite settled in and i don't have to go walking around campus like some blur toot alone and weee, i've got friends now. But i still miss everyone back home!
ok down to the bad stuff. Lemme get to not-so-bad things first. ahhhh it's down to the gnitty gritty already, choosing courses and stuff. Pain in my small ass. Owells it's supposed to be bad as it gets here, according to the lecturer. Soo..always remember -- PAIN IS ONLY FOR AWHILE.
okay down to the really really really bad stuff. I haven't mentioned it but ahhh security & check in at JFK was a BITCH. Messy, hectic, chaotic & disorganized is the few words that come to mind when i look back at what happened man. Seriously..now i know why the terrorists target the airline industry in US. Ok firstly, there was no proper check-in counter. All domestic passengers had to self check-in.
Self check in = Swiping your boarding pass at some machine and then, u'll get checked in -.-
For baggage, there was this baggage lady goin around asking for flight number and what not, then she just tags your bag on the spot! (*Note: No weighing, no checking baggage onto conveyor belts) So cos of the recent terror plot thing, many gancheong spiders decided to come early to check in so it was a madhouse at the airport.
Cos of this, different bags for different flights were just chucked together in one corner. had a super bad feeling bout it. And yuppppp when we touched down in Indianapolis, my n mom were right. Almost half of the passengers on my flight stood at the baggage claim, blur...no baggage! Wah best..so yeah all of us didn't get our baggages. So we were told the baggages would be coming in soon, but they didn't. Its been 2 days and still no word. Other uni students i recognized on the plane said they haven't got theirs either. Wahhhh best.
All my clothes, TENNIS RACKET, shoes, winter clothes and shoes, tennis shoes, jeans all gone. My main baggage for my stay here in Bloomington gone. HAIS.
But fret not, i managed to keep most of the cards/gifts with me on my carry on bag. Had some new clothes n dirty clothes in the carry on..but not too much. Just keeping my fingers crossed that they find the baggage eventually. Oh and my dad lost his too. Mom got hers. Oh yeah! no pictures cos camera no batt..and charger in dad's baggage.
Eh sorry for long post, thought i'd be lazy to type but aiyah..too angry with DeltaAir. But lookin on the bright side...
Woots! Finally got some free time on my hands. Ahhh but all of a sudden, feeling lazy to type anything and/or don't know where to starts! It's been a whirlwind 5/6 days of up&down emotions, energy levels and what not. Just arrived in Bloomington today and i must say everything's kinda good here so far.
Compared to NewYork, this place is muchmuchmuch less hectic and chaotic. Less people, definitely less high-rise buildings and less cars. Hmm there're tons to say bout US so far but ahh, lazy fingers lazy brain. In a nutshell, things are looking up over here in the US, halfway across the world from home.
And yeah, i do miss everyone back home! Wanna take this short post to thank everyone who came down to the airport to send me off. Much appreciatedd definitely. And all those nice words & gifts really do mean alot! Wooooo! But ahhh tina tan!! got some bad news for ya babe...
Security at JFK Airport couldn't let me get into the airport with your flag with the stick. But i ripped the flag off and threw the stick away..aww.. hoho..
oh yeah as an emo sidenote, i need new songs man. The songs on my playlist are all tear jerkers! It sucked listening to them during the first few days. Especially a certain song titled bearsong -.- hoho. time to catch my afternoon nap, proper post soon if i got the mood! nua-ing time doesn't change wherever I am in the world.
hi one and all! ahhh first post so, it's kinda weird talkin to the world wide web! anyhows, its doodle time!
been messing around with the gadget(s) i bought to get ready for life in the USofA. Said gadget(s) cos i bought a webcam and a mic, but the dang mic broke down on me! ah but wait..the webcam has an inbuilt-mic, so i wasted money on buying the separate mic. owells. everythings fine and dandy for now.
ahh i'll come back with a proper post soon 'nuff. so, check this space!
