Leaving Bentley...Quality not Quantity!

17th December 2007




As I shade my answer for the last question on the oas, I was really excited as my audit nightmare is finally over!!!!!! (for the time being..yeah it's ironic.. i know i applied for an auditing job and i'm digging my own grave.. hahahah) wahaha. but for now...EXAMS ARE OVER!!!!! WOOHOO. can PLAY PLAY PLAY! hmmm actually, like what ron has said.. not as if I haven't been playing the past semester. wahahha.


It was such a busy day for me today...had loads of packing to do, visited my friends in their rooms and got pics from them, went to Adamian centre for farewell tea session then had a farewell dinner and party with the rest of the exchange students.



It hasn't hit me at all that i'm leaving Bentley for good when i was packing or having the farewell tea session at Adamian with Christine..until we were leaving the tea session as we bid goodbye to Christine and the rest. it felt like the first breakfast we had when we just got to Bentley, just that now everyone was much closer..much much closer. I wouldn't have imagined that the people having breakfast with me at adamian on my first day at Bentley would be gathered with me in a group, laughing at the passport photos of our fellow exchange friends. As I thought about how our pics are gonna be removed from the board and be replaced by the incoming batch of new exchange students, honestly it started to hit me that I'm leaving.


Later in the evening, all of us met up for a farewell dinner for me and adam at a mexican restaurant at Harvard square. I was really pleasantly surprised that so many people turned up.. 2 whole loooong tables of people.. a total of 18 people! :) and my secret friend Andrea passed me my christmas present.. haha it was hilarious. this amusing book full of hunks from the 70s and 80s and everyone had a good laugh over the book. he also gave me a box of mario disk-like gums, really cute! totally love the presents. really enjoyed myself a lot at the dinner. :) so thank you my friends, especially Marta and Bernd who were the main organisers!

As usual, we went to the Austrians' room to party and drink after dinner. just that this time, it felt a little different. I know it was going to be the last time all of us are gonna be drinking together.. at least not in the near future and most importantly, the same group of people from different parts of the globe.





It was really saddening to bid goodbye to my friends one by one, both at the dinner and the party. And my dear Marta and Roci had started the ball rolling when we were on the shuttle bus.. seriously, i thought i would be able to control but my heart sank when i saw the two of them.. i can't take it when people start crying especially people close to me.. cos i'll start too. especially at such occasions. It was really upsetting saying bye.. especially to this group of friends. It's not the same as saying gdbye to my friends..like after a gathering or dinner in Singapore. We'll probably arrange to meet up again and even if we don't, we'll probably bump into each other in the tiny lil Singapore.. this wouldn't happen to people i met at Bentley.



well, i was pretty good at consoling others when it was time to separate.. Quality, not Quantity! was what i told Marta and it got to the rest too.. but at the end of the day, i still cried.. haha the third and last time i cried since i got to the states. Gonna miss the times we spent together, the whole group of us.

Never regretted coming on exchange at all.. i guess nobody does! haha.



Had a wonderful experience.. so thanks guys for being part of it!

New York Trip 2

9th December 2007

I was really grateful to Martin and Henry for going to New York with me. For one, nobody wanted to go with me. haha sound so sad.. not because I was detestable or anything like that. just that it's our final exams next week. wahahaha. After skiing at Pats Peak, I returned to my room at about 9 plus at night and left to catch the shuttle bus an hour later to Harvard Square. really wanna go to New York again cos I really really wanted to watch Broadway and visit Statue of Liberty, didn't get to do them the first time i visited New York. so was really happy that i managed to do everything in a day!

We took the Greyhound bus overnight and got to New York at 4.30 in the morning. haha yeah it's really crazy. Henry and I had no idea what to do of course when we got there since it's so freaking early! Had breakfast at Macs where we ran into some freak who wanted to sell us his credit card.. lucky Henry was around with me. haha can't imagine that I wanted to come alone if nobody wanted to visit New York with me! Martin joined us when we were on the ferry to Statue of Liberty haha. it was really obvious that Henry was contacting Martin who didn't come with us initially cos of last minute karaoke. haha but my son turned up in the end, which really made me really happppy!

At Wall Street


Statue of Liberty

Museum of Sexxx


Broadway!!!!!

New York trip 2 was really fun.. a different kind of fun from the first. haha and i was really "mean", made the two guys walk really fast! especially at the end when we visited Museum of Sex and bought souvenirs within an hour! haha then rushed to watch Broadway in the rain. Really unforgettable:) I really miss that.. and the people.

Skiiiiiiiiing... WeEeEeeee~~~

8th December 2007

After a whole night of partying in my room, I still got up to go skiiing at Pats Peak with Kelly. haha i was the only crazy one to wake up after a whole night of drinking and puking and going to bed at 4am. I guess cos i haven't tried skiing so I was real determined to go with Kelly. haha.


It was a total disaster at first. both of us didn't know how to ski at all. my legs didn't feel like they were mine.. i'll start sliding forward without having a clue as to how to control at all and most importantly, i didn't know how to brake. should have listened to adam and done some reading on that.. haha thought the two of us were pretty brave, we went down this steep slope and both of us did exactly the same thing when we realised we were going way too fast.. we sat down on our bums to brake and end up spinning before we totally come to a stop. it was hilarious but painful at the same time of course. I even crashed into the wooden fences while trying to get to the lil hut where we left our belongings and my blades got stuck in the snow, got myself in a real awkward position and also the unnecessary attention. haha finally, after some guidance from Kelly's uncle's friend, we learnt how to brake and managed get a hang of it.. was soooo happy when i came down the slope without falling and braking in time before i crash again. haha. i guess the blue blacks after that were all worth it!! :)

After skiing, Kelly's uncle invited me over to their place for dinner. tried some shanghainese home cooked food for the first time.. think i ate dried duck's tongue or sth like that.. haha it was pretty good:) kinda chewy. hee. I really missed home cooked food! Kelly's uncle and auntie were really nice and i had a gd chat with her auntie who knew quite a bit about Singapore. really looooove my saturday!

GB 401 Presentation

4th December 2007


Had my first presentation at Bentley today for GB 401 final project. yeah the thought of presentation.. it's a total turn off. cos there's so much preparation to do and on top of that, you've gotta stand in front of a crowd, with people staring at you like you're on exhibition. hahaha okok probably it's not that bad but it's... just a pain to know that you've a presentation to do. ok enough complaining..


Manalova gave the presenting groups an option to choose their presenters.. in other words, not everyone in the group has to present. haha. WooHoo! no presentation! that was of course my first reaction.. and all i have to do is to volunteer myself out of the presenting people and offer to do the slides. haha. but i was too slow. before i know it, 2 other people have already "volunteered" and people just started rattling on and on about how their tongues get tied and how they'll hyperventilate and how they'll this and how they'll that when they present. you get what i mean. haha totally changed my impression of the "outspoken" americans. well, while i very much wanted to volunteer myself out of the presenting group, i thought it'll be good if i just freaking present. since it's my one and only presentation here at Bentley and it's a good chance to experience talking in front of a class of american students. that's what exchange is for! to experience.


the presentation turned out pretty good, quite smooth.. thought our group did well :)

Marta's Birthday

29th November 2007

Before our thanksgiving trip, we had already arranged with other exchange students to celebrate Marta's birthday on the thursday after thanksgiving break. got a Bentley shotglass and a birthday card for her. hahah really like the Bentley shotglass, thought it's a nice pressie esp for my friends on exchange too since it's sth Bentley :) We were supposed to have a pre-party in our room before going to Rumour, this club at Boylston street. Butttt I receieved a call from KPMG that I've got a phone interview with them at 2am my morning (which is 3pm in Singapore) and that means... I can't go clubbing! shittts. was kinda mixed up cos I didn't know what to do.. wanna play/drink but I've got an interview after that haha. that's the best situation.. an interview after partying. haha. In the end, we stayed on and had a birthday party in our room, which turned out real fun too! most importantly, marta was happy and was dancing the whole night! And I had my interview..15 minutes after the party. wOoo.

Watertown & Basketball Match

28th Nov 2007

I skipped lessons again.. yeah again today. hahah that's the good thing about exchange. you dont have to care.. much. wahahaha. I wouldn't say I don't care at all about classes here... it's just not me to not care about things in general totally, but it's definitely a lot less than what I do back at ntu. Anw I missed classes to go to Watertown with Adam and Cindy, partly cos I'm lazy to go for classes and partly cos I wanted to find materials to make a photo frame for Marta. Thought it'll be nice to give her sth in addition to her birthday present, to thank her for inviting us over to her uncle's place over thanksgiving. As usual, I get really excited about buying these materials and started thinking about what to do with me. Made the present with Cindy the next day and i really like it a lot! :)

After coming back from Target, I joined Marta and Ida (from Denmark) to catch a bball match- Bentley vs AIC at Dana centre in the evening today. haha and oh man, some of the guys are huggge. wanted to take some pics but forgot my camera. damn it. haha. really really really wanted to catch a NBA match and take some pics for Wilsen (I remember lor!), almost got the tickets for Boston Celtics when they sold them at Bentley. it's pretty good cos these tickets are subsidized by the school, like the ones I got for Boston Bruins match. shitts. Anw, back to the Bentley match... it was a good game with a pretty tight margin and Bentley won in the end. All of us got a free bball blizzard shirt which was pretty good :) but as usual, the shirt is too big for me! lol.

Thanksgiving break in Canada

25th November 2007

Our trip to Canada over thanksgiving break was really enjoyable. At the end, everyone felt great and happy about the trip, which I felt is the most important. The group of us went to Toronto first then to Montreal. and well, a lot of people have asked me the same question.. where is nicer? Toronto or Montreal? I would say the people at Toronto is much nicer and probably this is biased since we stayed over at Marta's uncle's place.

It was a really hospitable family and uncle & auntie really took care of us, like cooking rice on the first day we arrive (knowing that we'll prefer that), subsequently coming up with difference menu in order to let us try different Polish food, arranging spaces within the house so that we have a proper bed to sleep on, bringing us to Niagara Falls and waitied for us for like 4 hours???, warming up our car, getting all the snow off it and making sure that we have enough petrol before we leave for Montreal on the last day. and that's just some of the things they did for us..

so thanks Uncle and Auntie and also Marta for inviting us to yr uncl'es place! really appreciate it!

As for Montreal, I would say the place is nicer..the buildings and the whole atmosphere. it's like a mini france there, everything was in french. I guess probably cos it was all in french, it was slightly harder for us to figure things out and go around at the beginning. but things turned out fine in the end...like after i made a fool of myself several times. haha. we were buying tickets for Biodome and the Olympic Tower and i asked a real silly question "what's the difference between the Olympic tour and Olympic tower?" haha. the lady at the counter looked at me and smile.. really awkwardly.. and said "tour is tower in french.." haha. yeah. oops. but at least now i know tour is tower! hahaha.

The hotel we stayed at in Montreal was also real cosy. price is more or less equivalent to hostel but the facilities are so much better! we had our own bathroom, tv (Canada has really "interesting" progs at night that got the guys really excited hahaha) and two double beds. the ppl there were nice too, very approachable and willing to help. it was a really good deal! so thanks Pia and Daniel for recommending that to us!

IN TORONTOOO...

First night @ Uncle's place

21th Nov

Subsequently, dinner always lasted for at least 4 hours every night..

we always end up drinking and some of our guys never failed to get tipsy..haha

22nd Nov

My first snowfight!!!!

Downtown!

@ the CN Tower...

yeah the date on my camera somehow srewed up..think it was too cold. haha was kinda upset about the stupid date cos it totally spoiled the picture but I learnt to get over small things like that especially after Hong Kong and move on! :)

Downtown @ night...


My first snowflake!

23rd Nov

Before leaving for Niagara Falls..WooHoo!

In the car..

Niagara Falls!!!!! yAyyyyy!!!

We celebrated Marta's birthday at night, which was also the last night before leaving for Montreal. so we bought some gifts for Uncle and Auntie...had two surprises in a row, thought our lil plans worked pretty well! :)

haha. yup that's Uncle!



oops.

IN MONTREALLLL....

24th November

@ Biodome & Olympics Tour

In Biodome which is an indoor zoo with four ecosystems. The temperature changes as we move from one ecosystem to another. haha not funny when we were wearing so many layers!

Maurice and I in the lil kids tunnel

Montreal @ night...

Downtown Montreal

25th Nov

@ Mont Royal.. apparently it's a really popular makeout spot in Montreal!

@ the BioSphere

I enjoyed myself a lot over thanksgiving..a really great trip. so jengkuyang guys.. for being part of that! :)