My younger brother turns 19.
so...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DI!!
Hope you like the card and the black forest cake I've drawn for you!
so...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DI!!
Hope you like the card and the black forest cake I've drawn for you!
Sunday, November 18, 2007
My first time...driving into Boston!
16th November 2007
During our discussion about our Canada trip, I realised that I've to drive for sure. haha not driving for the past few months is one issue, driving on the opposite side of the road is another. haha. so of course I started feeling a lil jittery. Moreover, I always believe in nothing else but driving my own family car. it's just the whole issue of what happens if this or that happens..how are you going to answer to your friend who owns the car? yeah. but in this case, I gotta make an exception to that since the journey to Canada is gonna be crazy, especially over thanksgiving break. the worst case scenario would be 17 hours with all the traffic jams and going through customs. SO..we couldn't possibly make Cindy drive alone. it's gonna be dead tiring and furthermore, she just got her license recently. Fortunately we have 4 ppl in the car who can drive so that's pretty good.
Having a lil hiccup with the bus tickets, we decided to drive straight to South Station (where the tour bus terminals and ticket booths are) after the discussion. Cindy suggested that I drive into Boston and Adam will drive back to give us some practice. haha. turned out pretty good, just that I was a lil disoriented driving on the left seat and confused in my turnings. haha. It was really helpful having Cindy and Adam remind me about directions while I concentrate on getting used to the road.
Honestly, planning for a trip is not easy and it's a lot more difficult when the group is big. gotta admit that it can be frustrating at times. haha. Hmm actually this doesn't only apply for trips, i guess it applies to anything.. project meeting, gathering or simply buying a... sofa. whatever. whenever there are more people, there's bound to be more opinion. definitely, it can be a good thing, since with different opinions, you can look at things from another angle:) but too much of that is unhealthy. ppl get confused. hahaha like me. as always.
Gotta praise my lil son for volunteering to take the tour bus, instead of Marta who wanted to take the tour bus initially, since there are 6 of us going together so it's not likely that we can all fit into car. Thought that was pretty thoughtful to consider that it's not safe for a girl to do that at all. Also, Marta and Cindy rushing to New York overnight to get their visas done so that the trip to Canada can finally materialise.
anyway anyway i'm really glad everything turned out fine, like the mentality and attitude of the present group and..
woOoHooo Toronto and Montreal here we come!!!
It's the attitude that matters.
During our discussion about our Canada trip, I realised that I've to drive for sure. haha not driving for the past few months is one issue, driving on the opposite side of the road is another. haha. so of course I started feeling a lil jittery. Moreover, I always believe in nothing else but driving my own family car. it's just the whole issue of what happens if this or that happens..how are you going to answer to your friend who owns the car? yeah. but in this case, I gotta make an exception to that since the journey to Canada is gonna be crazy, especially over thanksgiving break. the worst case scenario would be 17 hours with all the traffic jams and going through customs. SO..we couldn't possibly make Cindy drive alone. it's gonna be dead tiring and furthermore, she just got her license recently. Fortunately we have 4 ppl in the car who can drive so that's pretty good.
Having a lil hiccup with the bus tickets, we decided to drive straight to South Station (where the tour bus terminals and ticket booths are) after the discussion. Cindy suggested that I drive into Boston and Adam will drive back to give us some practice. haha. turned out pretty good, just that I was a lil disoriented driving on the left seat and confused in my turnings. haha. It was really helpful having Cindy and Adam remind me about directions while I concentrate on getting used to the road.
Honestly, planning for a trip is not easy and it's a lot more difficult when the group is big. gotta admit that it can be frustrating at times. haha. Hmm actually this doesn't only apply for trips, i guess it applies to anything.. project meeting, gathering or simply buying a... sofa. whatever. whenever there are more people, there's bound to be more opinion. definitely, it can be a good thing, since with different opinions, you can look at things from another angle:) but too much of that is unhealthy. ppl get confused. hahaha like me. as always.
Gotta praise my lil son for volunteering to take the tour bus, instead of Marta who wanted to take the tour bus initially, since there are 6 of us going together so it's not likely that we can all fit into car. Thought that was pretty thoughtful to consider that it's not safe for a girl to do that at all. Also, Marta and Cindy rushing to New York overnight to get their visas done so that the trip to Canada can finally materialise.
anyway anyway i'm really glad everything turned out fine, like the mentality and attitude of the present group and..
woOoHooo Toronto and Montreal here we come!!!
It's the attitude that matters.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Global IT Law
Instead of the usual articles and statutes, Aresty started having mini presentations in the class. Well as acct & biz student, presentations shouldn't be that much of a problem now. Not saying that we are impressively zai in that, we still do get butterflies in our tummies, stumble over our words and get really tongue tied..BUT at least we know what to do and how to prepare for them.
hmmm what happens when you don't get to prepare at all?
Recently, Aresty's class really caught me "offguard" as he suddenly has a unfathomable love for impromptu presentations. And being the only exchange student in class, he was really nice to shower me with more TLC.. always asking for my opinion and I would never go unnoticed in class. (you know the times when you haven't prepared anything for class, plan to be a free-rider and bingo! your name is called in class) haha. seriously don't know if that's good or bad.
We had a case discussion on domain name and trademark the other day. Basically it's over a dispute between two companies that sell surfboards. The senior, which had operated for the last 30 years, had a domain name http://www.ussurfboards.com/ while the junior had http://www.ussurfboard.com/, basically omitting the "s". so the whole class was split into 3 groups, two representing each of the company and the last group as panel. I happened to be in the panel and it was obviously great! cos you just listen and present judgement. and there were like 7 or 8 of us in the panel group, so what are the chances of preparing the judgement and presenting man. yeah.. what are the chances... haha. so when I least expect it, he called the panel the "Hui group" and he identified the group with my name. Well, Marshall presented the judgement in the end but Aresty still asked me for the final opinion after the company appealed.
It was interesting to see how discussions take place in class.. they really shoot at each other. haha and you'll have the urge to talk because some of the things said don't make sense to you..like "you shouldn't base a case on intentions.."my first reaction was then on what? haha and I love my question on trademark search!
It feels great. GRIN.
Yeah gotta admit classes here really encourage pple to speak up..and some classes are really comfy cos it's so casual, ppl just throw out whatever's on their mind (sensible things of course!) In particular, I like my Negotiation classes and Global IT law. Feel v comfy in class..you simply speak your mind!
hmmm what happens when you don't get to prepare at all?
Recently, Aresty's class really caught me "offguard" as he suddenly has a unfathomable love for impromptu presentations. And being the only exchange student in class, he was really nice to shower me with more TLC.. always asking for my opinion and I would never go unnoticed in class. (you know the times when you haven't prepared anything for class, plan to be a free-rider and bingo! your name is called in class) haha. seriously don't know if that's good or bad.
We had a case discussion on domain name and trademark the other day. Basically it's over a dispute between two companies that sell surfboards. The senior, which had operated for the last 30 years, had a domain name http://www.ussurfboards.com/ while the junior had http://www.ussurfboard.com/, basically omitting the "s". so the whole class was split into 3 groups, two representing each of the company and the last group as panel. I happened to be in the panel and it was obviously great! cos you just listen and present judgement. and there were like 7 or 8 of us in the panel group, so what are the chances of preparing the judgement and presenting man. yeah.. what are the chances... haha. so when I least expect it, he called the panel the "Hui group" and he identified the group with my name. Well, Marshall presented the judgement in the end but Aresty still asked me for the final opinion after the company appealed.
It was interesting to see how discussions take place in class.. they really shoot at each other. haha and you'll have the urge to talk because some of the things said don't make sense to you..like "you shouldn't base a case on intentions.."my first reaction was then on what? haha and I love my question on trademark search!
It feels great. GRIN.
Yeah gotta admit classes here really encourage pple to speak up..and some classes are really comfy cos it's so casual, ppl just throw out whatever's on their mind (sensible things of course!) In particular, I like my Negotiation classes and Global IT law. Feel v comfy in class..you simply speak your mind!
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Time Difference
11th November 2007
It used to be 12 hours behind Singapore which wasn't too bad.
Now it's back to 13 hours difference (cos of daylight energy saving..which I still don't understand) and it is really a pain.
Seriously, I don't like the time difference at all.
It just makes me go crazy.
It used to be 12 hours behind Singapore which wasn't too bad.
Now it's back to 13 hours difference (cos of daylight energy saving..which I still don't understand) and it is really a pain.
Seriously, I don't like the time difference at all.
It just makes me go crazy.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Happy Birthday Bernd & Daniel!
9th November 2007
Bernd's birthday's on the 7th November while Danie's falls on 9th November. haha just two days difference. So we all gathered and had a mini celebration for them tonight.
We met at an Irish pub to drink but stupid me didn't bring my passport so I didn't get to go in the end. yeah it's really strict here with drinking. was so irritated with myself. stupid girl. haha. felt exactly like the time when I went clubbing with Pyrite and I forgot to bring my IC as well. feel bad too as Marta came back to Bentley with me and we waited for the rest to be back from the pub so that we would continue the celebration in their room.
When we were on the bus, I was still very irritated with myself. haha and I wanna do something about it. so on our way back, I thought of getting a cake so that we can sing them a bday song. but obviously the shops were closed by then. it was already like almost midnight! we managed to buy brownies and searched everywhere for birthday candles. asked loads of pple like Ness and Wei when we met them at the student centre but no luck at all. thought of alternatives like light sticks and all but can't find them as well. Even thought of putting a straw on the cake instead and ask them to blow it. haha. it's a joke we had when we went on the Philadelphia trip together. we ended up knocking on doors in Boylston and finally managed to find tealight candles in Henry's room! haha really made my night!
We managed to give Bernd and Daniel a surprise and we had a nice & cosy celebration in their room.
Glad to see that they enjoyed themselves and were happy! :)
Outside the bar while waiting for Bernd and Daniel
Birthday presents..Bentley shot glasses!
Bernd's birthday's on the 7th November while Danie's falls on 9th November. haha just two days difference. So we all gathered and had a mini celebration for them tonight.
We met at an Irish pub to drink but stupid me didn't bring my passport so I didn't get to go in the end. yeah it's really strict here with drinking. was so irritated with myself. stupid girl. haha. felt exactly like the time when I went clubbing with Pyrite and I forgot to bring my IC as well. feel bad too as Marta came back to Bentley with me and we waited for the rest to be back from the pub so that we would continue the celebration in their room.
When we were on the bus, I was still very irritated with myself. haha and I wanna do something about it. so on our way back, I thought of getting a cake so that we can sing them a bday song. but obviously the shops were closed by then. it was already like almost midnight! we managed to buy brownies and searched everywhere for birthday candles. asked loads of pple like Ness and Wei when we met them at the student centre but no luck at all. thought of alternatives like light sticks and all but can't find them as well. Even thought of putting a straw on the cake instead and ask them to blow it. haha. it's a joke we had when we went on the Philadelphia trip together. we ended up knocking on doors in Boylston and finally managed to find tealight candles in Henry's room! haha really made my night!
We managed to give Bernd and Daniel a surprise and we had a nice & cosy celebration in their room.
Glad to see that they enjoyed themselves and were happy! :)
Outside the bar while waiting for Bernd and Daniel
The group of them in the pub.. without me. boo. haha stupid me.
When Marta and I came in with the birthday brownies
Birthday presents..Bentley shot glasses!
Sacher Cake from Hotel Sacher, Vienna.
Daniel's parents sent the cake all the way from Austria. Tasted really good!
All of us!
From left: Bernd, Sabina, Cindy (Indo/Singapore), Rocio, me, Daniel, Antonio, Martin, Adam, Cindy (Shanghai)
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Just some simple thoughts..
7th November 2007
I was just talking to Bernd about posting a "Half Time" entry on the blog just a few weeks ago. Before I knew it, it's so much more than half time now cos it's already November. Well, if someone asks me if I would like to go home a month ago, I would honestly and probably say maybe not.. cos I haven't had enough fun and experience. If I were to be asked the same question now, I would be more inclined towards saying a yes...not that I have had enough fun or I have experienced US totally becos there will never be such a thing as "enough fun", just that you start to miss getting pissed off when your mom nags at you or simply having rice on the dining table.
My day definitely brightens up more whenever I talked to my mom over the phone or I get a missed call or a message from a familiar number that starts with +65 :) Especially with the arrival of my baby nephew, the more I thought I should be at home. I know I know.. I should be making the best out of my exchange here, which I am still doing definitely! just felt like putting down some thought here. In case, people who have been reading my blog think that I'm having soooo much fun that I'm not missing home, the fact is.. I do! haha.
I gotta say that coming for an exchange programme really gave me time and I learnt to take time.. take time to think more and notice things or people around me.
I have to admit that I lead a really busy life back in Singapore. Come to think about it now, I was really a workahlic.. probably a very serious case. haha. Always always rushing for time.. Going for classes, trying to do tutorials, meeting up for projects, doing up reports, shuttling all over singapore for tuition (probably this is exaggerated but I admit that I did have like too many tuition kids. haha), taking part in school or hall activities, gathering with friends (and they never fail to clash!)..and most importantly, I gotta make sure that my family and boyfriend do not feel neglected. haha. Well, I wouldn't say that I was that successful in giving a balance in of the above and..I guess that's not the point I'm trying to make here.
Especially the last few days, I took time off.. to think about what I have been missing out amidst all those commitments and attempts to meet a certain deadline or time frame so that none of my commitments was left out. I didn't have time to really think of myself and do things that I would like to do when I'm free. Here, I do "time-outs".. Back in Singapore, I'll probably be trying to squeeze every single free "slots" that I have in my organizer. I seldom take the chance to stop, look and think more about people around me. I mean I do... but definitely less of what I'm doing now.
I was just talking to Bernd about posting a "Half Time" entry on the blog just a few weeks ago. Before I knew it, it's so much more than half time now cos it's already November. Well, if someone asks me if I would like to go home a month ago, I would honestly and probably say maybe not.. cos I haven't had enough fun and experience. If I were to be asked the same question now, I would be more inclined towards saying a yes...not that I have had enough fun or I have experienced US totally becos there will never be such a thing as "enough fun", just that you start to miss getting pissed off when your mom nags at you or simply having rice on the dining table.
My day definitely brightens up more whenever I talked to my mom over the phone or I get a missed call or a message from a familiar number that starts with +65 :) Especially with the arrival of my baby nephew, the more I thought I should be at home. I know I know.. I should be making the best out of my exchange here, which I am still doing definitely! just felt like putting down some thought here. In case, people who have been reading my blog think that I'm having soooo much fun that I'm not missing home, the fact is.. I do! haha.
I gotta say that coming for an exchange programme really gave me time and I learnt to take time.. take time to think more and notice things or people around me.
I have to admit that I lead a really busy life back in Singapore. Come to think about it now, I was really a workahlic.. probably a very serious case. haha. Always always rushing for time.. Going for classes, trying to do tutorials, meeting up for projects, doing up reports, shuttling all over singapore for tuition (probably this is exaggerated but I admit that I did have like too many tuition kids. haha), taking part in school or hall activities, gathering with friends (and they never fail to clash!)..and most importantly, I gotta make sure that my family and boyfriend do not feel neglected. haha. Well, I wouldn't say that I was that successful in giving a balance in of the above and..I guess that's not the point I'm trying to make here.
Especially the last few days, I took time off.. to think about what I have been missing out amidst all those commitments and attempts to meet a certain deadline or time frame so that none of my commitments was left out. I didn't have time to really think of myself and do things that I would like to do when I'm free. Here, I do "time-outs".. Back in Singapore, I'll probably be trying to squeeze every single free "slots" that I have in my organizer. I seldom take the chance to stop, look and think more about people around me. I mean I do... but definitely less of what I'm doing now.
One good example would be my roommates. There is a chinese saying that going out with a person is definitely easy but living with that same person can be a different story. And that's when you learn to give and take. I gotta say that I've been a really lucky girl so far cos Im blessed to have very accomodating and understanding roommates. Back in singapore, it was OP! (Op p p p!) haha. and here it was Marta.
Just the other day, Marta was taking a nap at night and asked me to wake her up an hour later like at 2am. This reminded me of how I would ask OP to wake me up at night too so that I can get up and continue my "workaholism" and it kinda made me miss her. haha. OP is definitely not the best at housekeeping but I do appreciate the little things she has done for me.. like coming back to hall the next day when she finished her exams just to buy lunch for me cos I was still having mine. It just makes you forget totally how she doesn't sweep the floor. haha. And how she emails and messages me especially at the beginning of my exchange here to make sure that things are going smoothly for me and I have enough clothes on cos the weather here can get quite cold. While I'm certainly not a person who tehs or want people to teh me, I kinda miss her tehing and tehing voice for once! haha. And the times that we would close our room door to have lil chats and realise that we share the same sentiments about certains things that we saw or heard in the day. so.. I really hope I can be back in time to watch her first performance at Tao restaurant :)
Just the other day, Marta was taking a nap at night and asked me to wake her up an hour later like at 2am. This reminded me of how I would ask OP to wake me up at night too so that I can get up and continue my "workaholism" and it kinda made me miss her. haha. OP is definitely not the best at housekeeping but I do appreciate the little things she has done for me.. like coming back to hall the next day when she finished her exams just to buy lunch for me cos I was still having mine. It just makes you forget totally how she doesn't sweep the floor. haha. And how she emails and messages me especially at the beginning of my exchange here to make sure that things are going smoothly for me and I have enough clothes on cos the weather here can get quite cold. While I'm certainly not a person who tehs or want people to teh me, I kinda miss her tehing and tehing voice for once! haha. And the times that we would close our room door to have lil chats and realise that we share the same sentiments about certains things that we saw or heard in the day. so.. I really hope I can be back in time to watch her first performance at Tao restaurant :)
Here, I met Marta. (haha sounds like I met my husband or sth...) I gotta say that we have the same frequency in the way we think and react to things and I truly enjoy talking to her. I could talk to Marta about anything and everything under the sun, knowing that she will understand where I'm coming from. If I'm doing sth that she doesn't like or deem is wrong, she's always so honest to tell me "Huiiii, stop it.. it's not good for you!" haha. yeah like popping my knuckles. I always get it from her. I guess only friends who care would truthfully point out your flaws and tell you what you should not be doing. Not going for halloween party was definitely disappointing, but I was glad cos I gotta know two of my friends better. Marta was one of them, the other was my son. Yeah most importantly, we love playing sports and most of the time we are jioing people, mostly the exchange students, to play bball on thursday. It's great fun. The thought of having people from all over the world on the same court is just.. lovable.
So think. when was the last time you took stop and took time off to simply.. think.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Love from Home!
6th November 2007
Sigh..it's so dark and gloomy today, with the incessant showers all day long. just wont stop raining. And the day turns dark so early cos of winter.
haha I sound so grumpy now. But I was happy too cos one thing really made my day today. I received a letter and got really excited over it and showed Marta the pictures and was busy adding them to the collection on my wall and here I am now blogging about it. haha.
Welllll.. I really appreciate the fact that he puts in the effort to write letters and print out the photos for me. Now I fully understand what Yipz meant when she blogged about how excited she got when she received letters back in Gao Xiong.. cos I'm experiencing that too now. Not that I didn't experience it when I recieved the previous letter.. just that I felt it more this time round. haha I know we have things called skype, msn and hotmail but there's definitely something more that comes with writing a letter- it has a personal touch and a unique font, certainly not Times New Roman or Arial.. haha it's a handwriting I recognise since almost 4 years ago when we were in JC. And yeah probably we would have talked about the things mentioned in the letter over the phone, way before it reaches me.. but it's just nice. Nice to see something in my letter box, something that surprises me, something to read, knowing that he has written on it and something that I find familiar and don't get to see everyday in this foreign place.
so..Thank you loh ming yao! :)
Sigh..it's so dark and gloomy today, with the incessant showers all day long. just wont stop raining. And the day turns dark so early cos of winter.
haha I sound so grumpy now. But I was happy too cos one thing really made my day today. I received a letter and got really excited over it and showed Marta the pictures and was busy adding them to the collection on my wall and here I am now blogging about it. haha.
Welllll.. I really appreciate the fact that he puts in the effort to write letters and print out the photos for me. Now I fully understand what Yipz meant when she blogged about how excited she got when she received letters back in Gao Xiong.. cos I'm experiencing that too now. Not that I didn't experience it when I recieved the previous letter.. just that I felt it more this time round. haha I know we have things called skype, msn and hotmail but there's definitely something more that comes with writing a letter- it has a personal touch and a unique font, certainly not Times New Roman or Arial.. haha it's a handwriting I recognise since almost 4 years ago when we were in JC. And yeah probably we would have talked about the things mentioned in the letter over the phone, way before it reaches me.. but it's just nice. Nice to see something in my letter box, something that surprises me, something to read, knowing that he has written on it and something that I find familiar and don't get to see everyday in this foreign place.
so..Thank you loh ming yao! :)
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