Life Of A Scatterbrain

Happy Convocation!

2008-07-23T22:17:00.000-07:00

22nd July 2008

Yayyy!! Graduate lo!!

I was really ecstatic about graduation today! Happy that my mum was present at the ceremony to witness the conferment of my degree, to be really proud of her daughter and most importantly, see that her relentless efforts all these years had not gone
down the drain.

I'm also happy that all of us graduated together, including my dear roommate oppp! haha was especially :):):) for her. hehe I remember telling her that I wanna graduate with her when she told me she gonna cui for exams in our last semester. During my three years in uni, I was really fortunate and happy to have known so many people, especially friends who have given me fond memories of my three years in NTU.

I was lucky to have a group of friends, my tutorial classmates, who stayed with me, almost throughout my whole time in NTU. In our first semester, we were assigned to the same tutorial group for almost every module and had lessons together. As freshmen in university, trust me, that really helped immensely. Eventually, we continued to plan our lessons together, went for lectures, classes, lunches and sometimes dinner together; rushed through countless projects with which the deadlines never failed to clash haha! Besides the stress and exams, we also found a common love for kbox, our favourite post-exam activitiy! The most memorable thing we did together was having steamboat on Valentine's day at the balcony outside ah chiew's room. When all others were out, I had a group of friends who stayed with me in school. For all of that and much more unexplained, thank you kingdomites!:) -Pet hamster/twin sister

Kingdomites!

Our class grad pic...

Sophia and I at Convo!

Soph and I went on exchange in our final year second last sem. haha but we didn't go for that together, she went to hk while I was in the states. We spent most of our school time together in the very last sem and I gotta thank her for lending me her ears as the last sem wasn't easy at all! so thankss babe!

SMS a busss! that's one real unforgettable project, one real unique experience too! I have 4 other special friends who met up with me on a sunday night to prepare the props and deco we needed for our monday's presentation and guess what? we eventually turned a tutorial class into a bus! haha. yeah that's a lil what we call in NTU "spoil market", but it was damn fun too! My one and only time in NTU that I had to do such huge props! Although it's only one module which lasted one sem, marketing definitely brought the 5 of us closer and bonded us real well. For that one business idea which we had definitely put our hearts into it and could have had made us milllionaires, thank you Steven, Yangyan, Yinghan and Lawrence!

How can I forget people who have taken care of me when I fell sick, bought dinner for me when I'm too lazy to step out of my room, jogged 179 route with me at 1am in the morning, had supper at ah fang, played for IB and IH games together, studied and kept me company in MPR till as late as 4am during the exam period, celebrated birthdays by pouring buckets and buckets of water down our block at the birthday boy/girl, jumped from room to room to disturb people and played mahjong with water and liqueur... haha yeah those were some of the great memories, without our parents, just me and my friends in Hall 7. Yup, basically these friends lived with me for the two years I stayed in hall 7. so thanks OPPPP (my super teh but caring and patient ex-roomie), Yipz, Vivien, Jingqi, Cheng, Shit, Toi, Chun, Jasmine, Fiona, Qiao Qing, Ai Ling!

my teh roomie for you! haha.

Uni life was also more fun for me as I have this group of wonderful og mates who were the very first people I met in NBS. yah and they just couldn't stop calling me yipa! hahah yup that's my always-so-lame group of friends who would freeze after I try telling them a lame joke. hahaha KK's really damn good at lame jokes. maybe it's the face la.. hahaha. Allan is forever laughing at me cos I just happen to be slightly, just slightly meatier than him. And Hui shan, who's as blur as me, always never fails to go "HuiYiiiiiiiiiiiii" whenever she sees me (and her eyes will turn into tiny lil slits hahaha) oh! how can i forget my tall, dark and... sporty Naipa (it's a long story why I call him that!) who's ever so on about all the gatherings, joins in the lame-ness, has really BIG actions when he cheers and always helping us unconditionally at the expense of his own study time when we were struggling with work. For all the fun-lovingly lame and exam-piaing times we had, thank you KK, Allan, Huishan and Naipa!

Gonna miss the times we spent together in school!

Back in nanyang, I have a really great budd whom I've been keeping in contact with for ever since we left sec school. She came down all the way to NTU just to take photos with me, gave me a real bright lollipop, be my personal photographer, helped out in any way she could for me at my convo and really feel happy for me. Thanks Vennie, really appreciate that!

Well, today's convocation was particularly special, since it's not like we're moving on to another phase in our studies. This graudation marks the end of our schooling days. ya maybe we'll do our masters later, but i guess it wouldn't be in the near future and it's certainly not gonna be same I guess. Probably that's why it was especially important to me.

Now that we've gone separate ways to pursue, what we deemed as, our "dreams", and move on to the next phase in our lives, I hope everyone can realize what they have been searching for in life.

Once in a decade!

2008-07-19T21:48:00.000-07:00

19th July 2008

The last time I saw some of them was probably the last day at Moulmein Primary, when we collected our PSLE results, when we were.. 12. A decade ago. haha omg, that sounded reallyyy long ago, or rather, it was really that long ago. Although there were only 13 of us, it was nice to see everyone and hear from everybody, about what they are doing now and what they had gone through at a certain point in life, all in the last 10 years. haha I'm really a big scatterbrain, could hardly remember things! was really impressed with people like Tian Loong, who could still remember our house phone numbers, at his fingertips!

We talked about our primary school days, about how Miss Chew insisted on ball point pens and cursive writing, which had become really useful now; how we stayed back after school to paint props for National Day performance, which Miss Chew had "unwittingly" volunteered our class for; how we get so excited when we went for computer class and use the Creative Writer to type out our essays, in which lil icons would appear for certain common words (like if you type "apple", a picture of an apple will appear! haha), how we attended swimming classes in Primary 4 with Bobby(I just gotta know that I was quite a naughty kid when it comes to swimming, haha the first thing that Hoiman said was "ya lor! Hui Yi will keep splashing water!) hehe; how we painstakingly collected the different seeds, one of the many activities that you have to complete, just to earn the Young Botanist badge and how Tian Loong admitted that he, conveniently, took his neighbour's work which easily earned him a Young Mathematician badge (we were certainly proud about these badges which we would pin on our collars, the more the merrier!) There was also the Annual Speak-English Campaign, when we would go around to "catch" people who speaks other language than English but somehow end up "trading" or giving never ending last chances. haha

We also had a fun time recollecting about the people like how Yit Chun was really good at art; how Gan Zhi wei would write a 10 page long essay with his indecipherable handwriting; how Ben Woon told Mrs Tan, our Chinese teacher, that ants would become "chao ta" (charred) if you were to put them on a pan (re guo shang de ma yi). Besides classmates or schoolmates, our conversation also revolved around, mainly, the mothers, the sisters and brothers. haha. we used to visit each other's place, since we really stayed very close to one another in Whampoa, and so naturally, knew the mothers, sisters and brothers. haha. It was nice to know that the younger brothers and sisters, who used to be toddlers or lil kids, are all know in secondary school or jcs; the mothers, who used to take care of us when we visit, are all doing well and healthy.

Yup those were really the days, when we would play hopscotch and five stones during recess and buy ice cream at mama shops on our way home after school. the truly young and innocent days. All of us have grown up and moved on to different stages in life, but we all remembered that there was one long phase that we shared, one that we start to learn about people around us and memories start to etch in our minds.

All of us!

As time passes and memories fade, it was indeed sweeeet to revisit those precious moments again, especially with people who had experienced them with you:)

Byeeee!

2008-07-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

8th July 2008

It really did hit me that leaving was much harder than going over, but I definitely had no regrets flying 21, 640 miles over the pacific ocean :) I certainly had a great time with Ron, be it doing simple things like cooking dinner, grocery shopping or real exciting stuff like taking the six flags acrophobia ride! :)

Of course I didn't forget the rest like Pris, Ben, Sam and Marc who made my stay at Fort Rucker a more fun and fulfilling one. A lot of people have told me that Alabama's boring and there's really nothing to do there. Well, I can't deny that it really doesn't have much there, but these friends really made it different!

The view outside the plane

Where Dreams Come True...

2008-07-14T00:54:00.000-07:00

24th-29th June 2008

Hollywood studios, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Epcot!

We visited 4 theme parks over 4 days, 4 solid days of Disney. What more can I ask for? :)

Ron wasn't scheduled to fly for a week, totally the perfect timing. one week of no-flying.. in my 4 weeks stay! hee and he immediately planned a trip to Orlando Disneyworld. yeah I've gotta admit that I'm one lucky-lucky-lucky girl! One, for having a boyfriend who really dotes on me. Two, there are 4 Disneylands in this world and I visited 3 within a year. And three, out of the disneys I've visited, 2 were with Ron. sweeet :) That explains why I'm a lucky-lucky-lucky girl! haha. Well, my very first visit to Disney with Ron didn't turn out as planned, but the second one definitely made up for it; made it real complete and memorable :)

Being in Disney really makes you feel like a kid, like.. revisitng your childhood again. young and innnocent! haha. Oh well, I wouldn't know how it feels like to visit Disney as a kid, haha didn't have the luxury of doing so, but I am pretty certain about one thing: kids would definitely love the place! I mean even adults do too! We were all once a kid, and every kid once grew up knowing Mickey, for sure! haha.

Disneyworld Day 1: Hollywood Studios

Tower of Terror really scared me!

Snow white and a lil dwarf!

One of the must-see shows in Disney!

When the lil green soldiers come alive...

Disneyworld Day 2: Magic Kingdom

Tomorrowland

Magic Kingdom at night...

Disneyworld Day 3: Animal Kingdom

One of my fav photos taken

Goooofy!

I love this too!

Disneyworld Day 4: Epcot

waiting for bus at Downtown Disney...

One of the Disney resorts...

Chip!

Atlanta Trip

2008-07-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

21st-23rd June 2008

All of us went on a trip to Atlanta, which was organised by the International Military Student Organisation (IMSO) here and free for all the military students here. As for non military students like me, we pay a fee of USD$150 for food and accomodation, which was worth every penny! we stayed in Hyatt and had buffet for almost every meal! haha that explains the weight gain. oops.

On our way to Atlanta..

Our hotel

we visited places like the Jimmy Cater museum, Martin Luther King Jr museum and CNN, not to forget the Coca Cola Factory! it was interesting to visit the coca cola factory as we got to try soft drinks from all over the world!

Day 1
Jimmy Cater Museum

In the garden

On our way to Coca Cola Factory...

Coca Cola Factory...

The Coca Cola Bear!

Drinks from the different parts of the world!

Martin Luther King Jr.

Day 2

CNN

Hmmm...

Shopping shopping shopping!

2008-07-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

15th June 2008

Shopping shopping shopping!!! woohoo! haha we visited Destin factory outlet today.. it's pretty small as compared to that in Boston but good enough! =) was quite paiseh cos the rest of the guys gotta keep waiting for us. ron and i always take a looong time to try and decide.. hehe and partly cos it was my first visit there since i arrived. GRIN.

We had a good lunch at this Italian restaurant.

Authentic Italian food.. yummmmyy!

The service was great too!

Paintball!

2008-07-01T08:50:00.000-07:00

14th June 2008

We had a Singapore-Vs-America paintball game today at Hot Shots. haha I have always heard people complaining that paintball is "pain" but i never knew that it was that extreme! I had blue-blacks on my back, hips and legs! Pris and I suffered headshots (I had one on each side of my head!) and man, it was damn paintful and painful! hahaha. Pris and I, being the only two girls on our side, were freaking out initially when we played but it definitely got better.. just stick out the guns out and keep shooting! hahaha.

Gearing up..

Having second thoughts?

Ready for Battle!

In the Jungle..

oh! and I loved the last game! haha although our side was wiped out totally by the Americans.. haha yeah we died totally! all of us stupidly hid in one house together. how smart right. hahaha. but i was damn happy cos i whacked the guy who shot Pris on the back (really without mercy! basket. haha) a few times! hehe.

OUCH!

well, i guess the paintful pain or painful paint was worth it overall!

Grocery Shopping and Cooking!

2008-06-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

12th June 2008

Unlike the previous time I was here on exchange, I don't have the luxury of having dinner simply and easily at a cafeteria or Seasons (the dining hall back at Bentley). haha I gotta cook this time round! Well, it's something good I guess. It's either I learn cooking now or probably... never? hahaha. too lazy to do that back at home since I have my mummy who can whip up wonderful meals.

Grocery shopping at Commissary

It's something new to us, to think and discuss about what to eat for lunch/dinner, go for grocery shopping so regularly and cook together! Quite fun! well, the washing part after that is not definitely! hehe.

Meal time!

What an achievement!

2008-06-10T11:51:00.000-07:00

10th June 2008

Decided to post some pics I took during my transits in Tokyo and Detroit. haha. thought it may be a significant entry for me. haha

For this trip, I did all the check-in myself and went through the gates alone, for the first time and most importantly without anyone seeing me off! thought that's better since I can't bear to see people close to me cry. I'll join them too. haha my family wanted to go to the airport with me but all of them knocked out by 2am after playing cards for 4 whole hours. Didn't managed to stay up and send me to the airport as planned but the thought of it was good enough for me. I didn't wake all of them up, only woke my mummy up to let her know that I was leaving.

was surely amused by the toilets in Tokyo!

Well, maybe it doesn't sound like something fantastic but it's a total achievement for me! haha flying across the pacific ocean alone to the states for yet again another 26 hours! this time round, without Adam to help me of course. hee. yeah a whole day of flying indeed sounds like a torture but it turned out pretty fine. Met nice people along the way, had a full conversation in pure Chinese for as long as 11 hours on my flight from Tokyo to Detroit. Trust me, it wasn't easy! I didn't even know how to address the couple from Beijing initially, auntie uncle? hahaha. had a part time 11 hours translation job on the plane too. This couple was gonna visit their daugher in Ohio, who's gonna go into labour in probably 2-3 weeks time. Both of them were brimming with excitement and couldn't stop looking at the time whenever they were awake on the plane! haha felt happy for them since I've got a baby nephew at home as well and I guess we do have something in common: I couldn't wait to see ron at the airport too!!! hee.

Pretty huh?

At Detroit, memories of getting detained (not nice but still an experience!) and going around the airport with Adam flooded my head. It was a nice feeling, to see this place again. Fortunately, this time round, I managed to clear the US customs smoothly. hee hee. Really learnt my lesson: Forget something and get into deep shit. haha. As I've some time to spare, I waited for the couple and helped them with the collection of their luggage. I walked them to the gate leading to the arrival hall and we parted from there. Feels pretty happy with myself, like I've done something small but good.

After another 2 hours of domestic flight, I finally got to Atlanta!!! yayyyyy!! haha was simply over the moon when I saw ron! haha well, it wasn't as drama mama as I expected it to be.. was a lil lost when I got out of the airport, stared at the luggage collection screen for as long as I was out (haha by then I had totally switched off), gave up looking for the belt to collect my luggage, turned around and saw these two Chinese guys (so distinct! hee) walking towards the arrival gates. hahaha

I slept well almost the entire way back to Alabama, feeling completely safe and at ease.

Thanks for coming to fetch me with Ron Marc!

Life in the states again!

2008-06-10T05:21:00.000-07:00

10th June 2008

It has almost been a week since I got to Fort Rucker, Alabama, to visit Ronald Loh.

haha yeah some people may think that I'm silly enough to travel half the globe, alone, and suffer jet lag the past almost-one-week since I've got here, just to spend time with him, which in the eyes of some of my friends, it's total "rotting".

Well, it may not be as exciting as my previous trip here when I was on exchange in Boston and may not be the smartest thing to do. It also may not be one of those decisions that my mum will unquestioninly go ok and smile instantly to express her support for it.

BUT when will I ever have the time to do such crazy things again?

"I'm going to the states next week! wooHoo!"

(Ya probably doesn't sound like something huiyi will do.. this is so irrational. haha oh well, can't be so rational and practical all the time.)

Maybe...when I'm off from work? probably on a 3 weeks block leave after the "peak" period? ya probably, hopefully too. Even so, it wouldn't be as carefree. No deadlines? No calls from work? No reminders on my calendar? No something nagging at the back of your head? Like what my jie mei said, when are you gonna be so damn free again in your life? like really nothing to worry about!

No matter what, I'm really glad that I came to the states. Gotta know so much more. Him, his work, friends, myself and most importantly us. Was really thankful that my family became supportive of it, some of the other friends who understood me and of course loh ming yao who was really more than concerned throughout the whole time before I came here!

You better treasure it well Tan Hui Yi! haha

Family Outings!

2008-06-01T14:28:00.000-07:00

It's really exciting to have a baby in the family! Feels really different, a joy that everyone in the family shares. Everyone in the family dotes on lil botak! we all get excited about bringing him everywhere to see everything haha and thanks to the lil baby, we definitely have more family outings as my mummy (his grandmother) is more willing to step out of the house, bring him around for sightseeing! Maybe he doesn't know much for now and probably not gonna remember anything, but no matter what, it's always good to bring him around than stay at home huh! Maybe.. he may rem sth! We never know! hee.

Visit to farms, 20th May 2008
We had a family outing today, impromptu outing! it just so happened that my sis-in-law was on leave and everybody else had nothing on. haha visited two places- Qian Hu and the goat farm. It was weird visiting Qian Hu itself cos i know it as a listed company, sth we'll talk about in tutorial class..never occurred to me that it's gonna be a place where i'll actually visit. hahah. well, it turned out fun!

Guess whose feet are these? :)

we went on to the goat farm.

hahaha was really excited about drinking the goat milk!

the baby goats were really cute!

Vivocity Marche, 16th May 08
We brought our lil hamburger, also known as "Botak" in the family, to Vivo today for a swim. haha. ya he doesn't respond to Kendrick, he only responds to "botak" or "Ah B" (baBy)! Don't know if that's good or not. oh well, I grew up as "Ah mei" in the family, definitely not Hui Yi :) And I grew up normal. erm right? hahaha

Happy botak in the water

Happy grandma!

"I want moreeee!" -Doremon

In Marche..

Doremon papa and mama?

Milk for you? haha

Sentosa, 30th May 08
It's my sis-in-law's birthday today. haha! "We bring botak to go and see Merlion!" wahahhaa. Yet another excuse to get the grandmother out of the house, to go Sentosa together! hahaha. and since it was the June holidays, we also got Edness and Edgar to come along. We had lotsa fun at underwater world, Siloso beach and not to forget the luge!

haha that's what you do when you see a shark!

How's my smile?

Haha acting "dao"..

I lovvvve this pic!

And I thought i was the only one who'll do such a thing!

Like mother like daughter!

Luge!

At the snaky fountain leading to the merlion...

oops.

Even Botak was amused!

Whoooh!

Di's Graduation

2008-05-24T15:16:00.000-07:00

23rd May 08

-Pass with Merit
-Honour's List
-Best Student in Project
-4th in whole level (0.1 to 3rd!)

DAMN PROUD OF YOU DI! hee.

Dinner with Jie Mei!

2008-05-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

22nd May 2008

met "jie mei" for dinner today at buono, which apparently means "good" in italian. the owner was really friendly, always going around to ask ppl about the food; food was yummy; ambience was pretty good and man, it was really crowded too! on the whole, really satis with the place! :)

had a really good time catching up with him, glad to hear that he's happily attached! haha and that obviously was our conversation for the night. got a different perspective on relationship, don't get me wrong, it's something positive! hahaha that's what i like about talking to my jie mei, he definitely gives you his two cents' worth, his most honest opinion. i like what he said about mental milestones and also how two people can grow together to face the different stages in life, serving as a check on each other with their own benchmarks. haha was also quite amused by how he linked "self-fulfilling prophecy" to relationship as well. hahaha the only time i came across this was during OB (organisational behaviour) in year 1!

Before we left, the restaurant owner was serving grappa and this other drink (didn't really catch the name, sounds like herb haha) to a french family sitting at the table next to us. the restaurant owner was really kind to serve us each a small shot as well, just to let us have a taste of italian drinks. For a moment, i felt i was back at marta's uncle's place in Toronto, Canada, where we would drink and learn different language for "cheers". hAha that was part of the reason why I knew the family was french. oh man, i really miss those times we had.

Yet another day of.. rotting.

2008-05-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

20th May 2008

It has been a month since my exams ended.

What have I done so far? well, a wonderful trip to bangkok, a good break from school/work, catching up with friends and... to put it shortly, bum around. it definitely feels weird to really do nothing, feels funny to have so much time on hand when I used to squeeze time just to grab lunch. This break is slightly different from that of after A's since I am quite set on trying not to work since I'll be doing that pretty much for the rest of my life after August. heh. well, i know it's gonna sound insane but i'm quite tempted to work. hahaha oh well, having nothing to do certainly drives me crazy.

Whenever I'm asked about what I plan to do over the 4 months break, I... honestly have no idea. haha isn't that the whole point? like to take a break, rest and do whatever you like, whenever! -smile-

Oh well, despite having said that, there are a few things that I wanna do over this holidays:

1) Take time to read
2) Pick up tennis
3) Do voluntary work

yup, that's basically it. Sounds simple, but definitely needs time and consistency. I guess these are examples of things you'll have less time to do when work starts to drain the energy in you and takes up the bulk of your time.

Been reading quite a bit the past few weeks and have certainly found it enjoyable, when there's no pressure- no deadlines from projects or any impending quiz/exams. I'm just done with the book "The 5 people you meet in heaven" by Mitch Albom. have been wanting to read it like since like don't know when, but can never find the time to do it. even if i did have the time in the past, i'll probably be too tired to read. anyway, it's a pretty simple book to read, easy to follow and took me slightly less than a week to finish it- it definitely took me more time to think than to read. that's the amazing thing about this book i guess. I'm starting on "Kite Runner", heard very good reviews about it, hope it's really good!

Oh well, tennis is one sport that I can't seem play well. haha. but I gotta admit that it's certainly sth enjoyable, especially when I miraculously get the strokes right, occasionally. the times when you swing your racquet and it kinda feels right and also, sounds right. hahaha yeah so since i've the time now, i'll just spend more time playing that!

Doing voluntary work is sth i haven't done for some time. guess it's good to contribute, sth fulfilling I guess :)

The sun, the sand and the sea...

2008-05-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

12th May 2008

AND THE BABES! hahaa

4 of us met up today.. for sth real exciting!!! A trip to Sentosa! haha we had fun playing frisbee (which we realised we can't play! hee), sun-tanning and just chit chatting.

Come to think of it, I haven't been to Sentosa for quite some time. the last time i visited Sentosa was for a programme, which wasn't really for fun. And before the programme... i really can't remember. I guess that's pretty much almost more than a year since I last stepped into Sentosa. was pretty amused by the "new things" (apparently, some didn't turn out that new. wahahah shit.).

For the first time... we took pictures with the merlion! wahahhaa.

Bentley Gathering

2008-05-20T21:42:00.000-07:00

13th May 2008

was really happy to meet Adam and Cindy for dinner today. i do see Adam around in school and had met Cindy once for coffee. this time feels kinda different seeing them together, like you see familiar faces in a "foreign" land, since we really got to know each other in the states. we had a good time catching up with one another. Cindy had found a job while Adam is on his internship.

well, it's not sth new to know that working life is stressful and perhaps, to such extent that leads to weight loss, but it's definitely sth that's starting to hit me- that I'm going to join her soon. haha. I've always put that aside since we are not at that stage.. yet. It's a really different side of life. we were having so much fun in the states just less than a year ago, enjoying all the freedom that we've got; now, we are all starting work and pretty much complaining about how shitty it's gonna be.

About the same time last year,I met up with Adam for the first time (which he kinda freaked me out! wahahaha) to discuss about our exchange after my first day of internship. haha a year later, we met up on his second day of internship. The same stage, just a year's difference. oh well. time really flies. The batch of people (yeah after vanessa) going to Bentley the next semester have contacted the two of us. haha 4 consecutive batch from Hall 7. Pass the parcel on to the Singaporeans! :)

My Baby Nephew!

2008-05-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

9th May 2008

My baby nephew who's turning 7 mths old!

My Birthday Treat to Bangkok!

2008-05-09T05:25:00.001-07:00

2nd - 5th may 2008

Shopping shopping and more shopping!!!! feels like this trip was more for me, since there wasn't a lot of things for ron to buy.. there weren't that many guy shops in the first place, especially around our hotel. we stayed in baiyoke boutique, it was okayy haha not that fantastic.. breakfast wasn't that good either.. hahaha we were kinda disappointed with it, but well we definitely didn't let that spoil our holiday!

haha ron was really patient to go around with me especially when we were at Pratunum, really... it's a girl's shopping paradise, probably can spend like 2 whole days shopping there? haha i guess ron had a different kind of fun, taking pictures with his new toy.. wahaha I enjoyed that too! haha it's pretty amusing. it sounds damn pro when we click and we are always snapping away when we have the chance to!

The ride on the tutut was fun! hee. was having fun more than worrying about falling off.. it can get pretty scary since it could go really near to the cars and cut lane like mad.. actually.. there were no defined lanes to begin with. haha. i guess the good thing about taking the tutut, besides it's something "new" to us, is its ability to cut into small alleys which possibly saved some time. gotta really bargain with the drivers, if not we'll really be ka-ed (taken advantage of) hahaha.

Us- in the tutut!

Along the way, we caught this thai model.. HAHAHAHA

Chatuchak is really like a mega bugis.. my goodness. it's HUGE! hahah ron and i got so confused walking around.. haha and there was actually a map for it. hee.

On our way there...

In Chatuchak...

we enjoyed our lil walk to mbk after lunch from central..haha good for digestion and getta see more things than taking cab or tutut! haha we were really like tourist, snapping everything we see!

That's a "tutut"

we also managed to catch the thai girl show too.. felt a lil insecure at first cos the place appeared a lil shady. hahah. and it was kinda really disturbing!

I really enjoyed myself a lot over the 4 days in Bangkok. well, shopping was definitely fun and we love the pad thai, yummyyyy:) ! it was a really last minute trip, ron booked everything on tuesday and we flew off on friday, like 3 days later! haha but im really glad we went on this trip, had lotsa fun.. and just the two of us! :)

thanks for the birthday treat ron!

Happy Birthday Ron!

2008-01-19T20:04:00.001-08:00

15th January 2008

Happy Birthday ron!

We had a great dinner at Cafe Iguana. had a huge macho strawberry magaritas, was really smooth and yummy!

Gave ron his "surprised" birthday present at the same Fullerton Hotel bridge where he gave me my birthday present 4 years ago. hahaha.

Enjoyed myself a lot, hope you did too ron! :)

Well...

2008-01-19T19:52:00.000-08:00

4th January 2008

hmm feels like I'm kinda lagging behind my friends, especially the ones whom I haven't been in contact for the whole of 4 months. Well, I understand that people essentially have moved on.

I guess it takes time. Just that..probably I expected more.
I miss my friends and the times at Bentley.

Po Po Lee!

2008-01-02T23:13:00.000-08:00

31st December 2007

Met up with popo today..was really happy to see her!!!! the last time i saw her was February, when we went back to Nanyang to pai nian together with sihuan during Chinese New Year. It was really nice catching up with her and i really enjoy talking and going out with po :) very understanding and always checking if i needed sth so that she can go get it with me..missed the times we danced together and of course got tortured by chlorine gas..well basically hanging out with her. just realised we have known each other for almost 9 years... since sec 1 which was like when we were 13 and now we are already 21, turning 22 soon..how fast!

1st Macs with my baby nephew Kendrick!

2008-01-01T20:15:00.000-08:00

31st December 2008

Had my first breakfast with my family since I got back...

First visit to Macs for my baby nephew too! :)

Home Sweet Home...

2008-01-01T19:37:00.000-08:00

1st January 2007

YAY I'M HOME!!!!!!!!! was back on the 29th haha was really really really really happy to see my family and ron at the airport!!! feels great to be home.. see familiar things and hear familiar voices! saw my nephew for the first time, he's really chubbyyy and cute!

i loooooove my room now, was really touched to hear that everyone in the family contributed to it. My grandma bought me new bedsheets, my mum cleaned up the whole room when i wasn't around, my younger brother redesigned the shelves, my uncle attached this panel of brushes under my door so that there will not be any chances that roaches will get into my room, my other uncle changed my window panes and ron rushed to my home from work the day before i came back to hang stars on my ceiling:)

it's really great to be home. great food, great weather too! haha yeah.

Leaving Bentley...Quality not Quantity!

2007-12-21T00:47:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-10T07:20:00.000-08:00

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~~~

2007-12-09T07:04:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-05T13:46:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-04T13:56:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-04T13:55:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-04T13:52:00.000-08:00

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! :)

Sunrise! :)

2007-12-04T13:01:00.000-08:00

18th November 2007

I woke up at a really random hour this morning.. at 6 sth! considering that i've been waking up at 11 almost everyday, except the two days i have 830 classes..actually sometimes i don't wake up in time for that too. haha. but anw, when i woke up i realised that my room was glowing.. haha seriously.. and i think that was what woke me up too. I looked out of my window and wow. it was really pretty!

yeah..and after i took these photos, i went back to bed straight away. haha. what a morning.. taking random photos.

An ok saturday..

2007-12-04T13:00:00.000-08:00

10th November 2007

Didn't do much today.. just bummed around. went to kelly's room to take a look at the "forest maze", wasn't that confusing actually. played bingo which was organised by one of the clubs. well, not much luck as usual for such games. the prizes were reall attractive though.. like an ipod nano.."how about that?!?" hahahaha. that's my auditing prof's favourite phrase.

probably u can figure out how bored i was..

After which, we went to watch a vball match at Dana Centre. After watching for one game, guess what? we realised that bentley wasn't playing. haha. well done. That afternoon itself, Bentley lost in the semi finals so later in the evening, the game that we were watching was actually the finals between two other schools, no Bentley. haha. it was hilarious.

On this special day...

2007-11-18T21:47:00.000-08:00

My younger brother turns 19.

so...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DI!!

Hope you like the card and the black forest cake I've drawn for you!

My first time...driving into Boston!

2007-11-18T16:15:00.000-08:00

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.

Global IT Law

2007-11-14T13:27:00.000-08:00

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!

Walk in Waltham

2007-11-13T08:45:00.000-08:00

Nice little walk to Waltham in the afternoon. -smile-

Time Difference

2007-11-11T21:41:00.000-08:00

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.

Happy Birthday Bernd & Daniel!

2007-11-10T20:35:00.000-08:00

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

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)

Just some simple thoughts..

2007-11-07T18:48:00.000-08:00

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.

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 :)

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.

Love from Home!

2007-11-06T08:34:00.000-08:00

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! :)

Happy Halloweeeeen!

2007-10-31T12:52:00.000-07:00

28th October 2007

Our next stop is Salem where it's well known for the Salem Witch Trials. After going for a talk on Salem Witch Trial which took place just on the previous Tuesday, I was really keen on visiting the place myself. That explains why our NY trip was so short.. haha didn't realise that the two clash!

Anyway it was definitely worth the sacrifice cos the Salem is the place to go for Halloween. Actually Salem Witch Trials is not related to Halloween at all. Just that the history of Salem fits in to the whole atmosphere of Halloween. Salem Witch Trials were basically a series of hearings conducted in the Salem Village to prosecute people, mainly women, accused of witchcraft in the 1960s. Those who "confessed" and showed redemption were spared while those who kept quiet were hanged. A total of 19 of them were hanged. The outbreak of accusations started when girls contracted peculiar diseases which were beyong explanation and "outstanding" women who didn't fit into the norm became obvious targets of such witchcraft accusations. Well, the truth was that there were no witch and these women obviously did not practise wtichcraft. Gotta say that the women who persevered were really strong. And the helpless feeling of having fingers pointed at them and yet not able to do anything about it must be really terrible.

Well well, enough of the sad stories and history.. As scary as the place may sound, it wasn't at all! Enjoyed myself at Salem.. going for haunted houses, the wax museum and the witching hour!

The kids were really adorable

The Witching Hour!

The Witching Hour was ok... turned out that the witch just walked round and round the fireplace.. chant and chant and chant. was expecting her to scream and say something totally alien..and POOF! the fireplace would burst into flames or sth.. hahah nahhh none of that happened.. too much imagination. haha

It was really funny in the haunted houses. Gotta admit that I was kinda scared..haha in the first haunted house at the Frankenstien's, Marta was walking right in front of our group but after getting frightened by frankenstiens several times, she started pushing me to the front. haha and yeah of course I was frightened when they jumped out in the dark. Reminds me of fright night. haha the haunted houses were pretty good, totally dark inside and the flashing white light throughout the whole walk just blinded us totally. haha. No need for Old Changi Hospital or Dragon Trail at Sentosa, just a house will do! Besides the Frankenstien's, we also went for the Witch Haunted House. Well I was scared, gotta admit that. haha but it was hilarious too cos Marta mistook a witch/ghost in the haunted house for me! I guess the lil witch/ghost was around the same height as me so she went to grab his/her arm and yeah the end result was of course another screaming experience. haha I think that witch enjoyed scaring Marta and he/she/it started chasing her in the haunted house.

Marta and her lil witch/ghost

We realised it's a "He"..he came out and talked to us after scaring us.. haha

Quite a friendly guy!

In the wax museum..

Woohoo.. happy halloweeeen!

The end result..!

During the trip itself, Oana, the person-in-charge of this trip, was kind enough to buy us Candy Apples! Apparently, people eat it for halloween. well, Apple coated with caramel.. hmm thought it would be really sweet but turned out not bad.. kinda balanced out with the slightly sour taste of the apple :)

haha I love Halloween..cos we got candies and chocs chocs chocs! from our Professors..Sama like Children's Day! haha This was one of them.. cute huh? At first I was still thinking if I should eat it.. wahaha

Trip to BIG APPLE!

2007-10-31T12:51:00.000-07:00

27th October 2007

We're going/went to New York at 2.30am in the morning! Whatt? that's crazy! yeah.. that's the response I've been getting when I told people about our NY trip and I can't deny that it was really crazy.. crazily fun! haha. Although it was a short short trip to NY, I enjoyed myself a lot just walking ard NY. It seriously has never crossed my mind that I'll be in NY!!!:)

We arrived at around 6 plus 7 in the morning after a 4 hours bus ride from South Station, Boston. That's one good thing I like about going to NY, we don't havta take a flight there! Really saved a lot on transportation. Just 15 USD, a 4 hours long bus ride and we'll be in the BIG APPLE! Grin. The day didn't start off well cos it was pouring really heavily. really like mad. We had to stay in the Port Authority Bus Terminal for breakfast. Luckily I brought coffee with me, had my daily dosage of it and I was all ready to go!

At South Station, waiting for the bus to NY

In the Port Authority Bus Terminal

This was how I look like brushing my teeth at 6am in the morning!

The rain kinda subsided when we got out of the bus terminal which was pretty good for us! It was still drizzling but was good enough :) Basically we visited places of interest recommended on the map and they include the New York Public Library, Grand Central Station, Chrylser Building, United nations, Rockefeller Centre and Times Square! I was really glad that the rain didn't dampen our mood and we had fun posing in the rain..Nobody grumbled or whined or..nothing. The company was simply great. so Thanks Marta, Vi, Zita and of course my son, Martin!

Empire State Building

Museum of Sexxxxx

Grand Central Terminal

Lincoln Building

Rockefeller Centre

Times Square!

I love the M&M's!

And Hershey's!

We wanted so much to catch a Broadway show that evening itself but sadly the student rush tickets were all sold out! Well, the student rush tickets are really much much cheaper than usual, it's like 27 USD! Compared to the normal prices, I seriously had nothing to complain about. Well, I guess we've gotta try our luck the next time round in NY..probably a few weeks later? haha. I'm definitely gonna visit NY again, at least to see Statue of Liberty under the bright and cheery sun!

After a long 8 hours of going around NY, fatigue of walking started to kick in and it was also about time to check in to our hostel. We took the subway uptown to West Central Park, where we had already made reservations at Jazz on the Park hostel. The hostel was ok..sufficient. haha just a basic bed and the necessary facilities like bathroom and stuff. We were staying on the second level while Bernd and gang, who arrived in NY one day before us, stayed on the third.

Halloweeen!!!

Rest rest rest... that was what I was supposed to do after arriving at the hostel, which I did...for like half an hour. haha. Although my feet were kinda sore and my ankle was giving me trouble, I really wanted to get out of the hostel and go to Central Park and..basically not spend my time in the hostel. I mean I'm in NY!!! haha so I woke Martin up, the only one who had energy left to entertain me. We took a walk in Central Park and wow it's really HUGE. only managed to cover the top part, visited the North Meadow and had a great view of New York City at night. Basically that but good enough for me.

Martin and I returned to the hostel and went out for dinner at a Indian Restaurant with the rest. The food at the Indian Restaurant totally sucked! I miss Thomson Prata House and of course not to forget Jalan Seruling :) haha. the waiter was also pretty rude to me and that almost made me throw the stupid pratha (yeah that's how they spell that on the menu) at him. hahahahaha.

Prata on a chinese looking plate in an Indian restaurant.. hmm..

interesting.

Later in the eveinng, Zita, Martin and I joined Bernd, his girlfren Sabina, Pia and Marrion at a pub in Greenwich Village. It was really happening at night since it was the Halloween weekend and people were all dressed up. Scooby Doo, Snow white, Pocahontas, vampires, witches, wizards, nurses, policewomen, female referees, clowns..the list just goes on! It was just fun watching them. The pub itself was nice, great atmosphere and company.

My group of friends in the Pub

From left: Marrion from France, Sabin from Austria, Pia from Austria, Bernd from Austria,

Martin from Hongkong, Zita from Shanghai

"Are you hungry?"

That's what he said to me when the whole group of us were waiting outside the pizza shop for Bernd to get his food. He came from behind me and stuck his face right before me when I turned. haha of course I got a shock but I gave him a shock too when I touched his "tongue". I was more interested in seeing if it's real than getting scared. haha.

28th October 2007
We had breakfast which came with the hostel rooms at Jazz on the Park and left for Chinatown. Caught a quick glimpse of it before boarding the Feng Wah bus back to Boston at around 9 plus 10. Back to Boston..and Salem here we come!

Natick mall with Kristin

2007-10-27T15:37:00.000-07:00

27th October 2007

Kristin was really nice to drive me all the way to Natick Mall today as I wanted to take a look at the NorthFace jackets. yup all the way there about 30 mins drive just to let me take a look at the jackets and the sizes, shows how nice Kristin really was.. haha. Feel kinda bad too since it was her day off from work and she spent it with me at Natick mall trying to get a winter jacket bleah. Really appreciate it, really! :)

Had a good chat with her throughout the whole time there and back.. about Halloween, jobs (since she's also in her final year), New York and the association of her family's last name with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Thought it was kinda cool to have your family's last name engraved on that!

We also had fun looking for Halloween costumes! :)

ooohh.. B's nurse and D's officer! haha

Kristin wearing a lil witch hat in CVS

Falcon Fest 2007

2007-10-27T15:15:00.000-07:00

26th October 2007

Free Food, Pumpkin painting, Dunk-the-cheerleader... basically activites taking place at the GreenSpace.

Dunk-the-cheerleader.. poor girl.. she was seriously shivering in the cold.

Paint your pumpkins!

Cambridge Galleria

2007-10-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

26th October 2007

Shopping shopping shopping! The two Cindys, Roci and I went to Cambridge Galleria today to see if we can get some winter clothings. I didn't get anything in the end, didn't see anything I like..haha. So everybody else got something except me. Boo. but it was nice walking around, shopping with the rest of them :)

Besides shopping, we also had get a clue of what Cindy from Shanghai likes becos we were supposed to buy a birthday present for her. The whole group of us were gonna celebrate her birthday later at night. so Roci, Cindy from Sing/Indo and I were testing her reaction on things..accessories, clothes, shoes blah blah blah. It was funny and Roci could do it really well! Actress of the year!

Roci JLo Roci?

I'm AUNTIE!!!!

2007-10-26T05:15:00.000-07:00

26th October 2007

Arrival of my baby nephew!!!

Little Kendrick

Seems like I'm missing out on all the lil babies.. haha Seth, Ron's sister's baby boy, and Kendrick my lil nephew! haha. Can't wait to get home and play with them! They look sooo cute!!!

Pumpkin Festival in Boston

2007-10-25T23:26:00.000-07:00

20th October 2007

There was also the annual Punpkin Festival in Boston at City Hall on the same day as the Bruins match. so after the Bruins game we dropped by City Hall, which was just one or two streets away and my goodness... it was the most number of pumpkins I have ever seen in my whole life! haha.The Pumpkin Festival had like over 3000 Jack O'Lanterns, with different designs carved out by people on the spot.

The atmosphere of Halloween was great when the J O'Lanterns were lit up at night!

Pumpkins arranged in a structure.. haha kinda blurrrr oops.

People at work... with pumpkins!

Boston Bruins Vs New York Rangers

2007-10-25T22:49:00.001-07:00

20th Ocotber 2007

Watched my first ever ice hockey game today after our hike at New Hampshire. Aileen was really nice; not only did she drive us back to Boston, she sent us all the way to TD Bank North Garden, the exact destination where the Bruins had their game. This is also the place where NBA's Boston Celtics play their bball games.

View Larger Map

It's a pretty big stadium, with a ice hockey ring at the centre. Like the way the seats were arranged, very much elevated in rather steep steps. so while we were sitting quite high up away from the ring, we still had a good view of the game. :)

All of us at the game

During the interval, the little Bruins came into the ring for their little game!

Well, according to Marta whose younger brother is a professional ice hockey player (this explains why we are at the game cos Marta was really excited about it and really really wanted to watch it haha), there are a total of 3 periods for the entire game. By the time we got into the stadium, it was already into the 2nd one. so I kinda thought the game would end like really fast. In the end, the fight between the two teams got intense that they went on to sudden death. haha reminds me of touch. Phil Kessel finally scored the winning goal in the 5th period. Pretty exciting..it was funny too. could hear the crowd getting louder and louder nearer the end, booing when New York Rangers stepped into the ring and roaring when it was the Bruin's turn to shoot. haha. had this group of guys crazy over Bruins in front of us who kept going "booOoooo" right in the faces of this other group of NY Rangers supports beside them..totally blatant and unfriendly at all. was expecting them to start a fight but they didn't.. shit! hahaha

Hiking @ New Hampshire

2007-10-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

20th Ocotber 2007

Martin's sister's friend who brought us to the apple farm the previous time brought a few of us to Monadnock State Park in New Hampshire today. I was expecting hiking.. like... hiking at MacRitchie or Bukit Timah Hill. haha. But no, it was really a hike hike, like another Outward Bound Korea. There were really rocky slopes and people there were all geared up in proper hiking shoes and hiking sticks.. Well, I was wearing my converse shoes, which was totally not appropriate but what to do. haha didn't expect this at all. We also had three adorable kids (who were 4, 6 and 8 years old) with us and to be honest, I was seriously impressed with them. Not that they could climb up the rocks themselves.. but throughout the entire hike, I did not hear a single complaint from them at all. And there were times when they slipped and fell but they didn't cry when you expected them to. Really impressed.

On our way down Mount Monadnock, I slid down a huge rock which I didn't expect to be so.. steep. intended to slide down slowly by braking against the uneven surfaces but it turned out that I lost control totally cos it was too smooth. haha. luckily Marta was at the end to catch me..if not I would have seriously just slide off the slope and crashed into the rocks below.

haha thrilling experience!

Crazy Boylston Girls!

2007-10-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

19th October 2007

Marta and I were really crazy tonight. I think we must be bored or sth.. haha she dressed me up with her clothes and used her knee-length skirt as a tube dress for me. As crazy as it sounds, it turned out not bad! I think she's really innovative with clothes. haha.

And I needed a haircut, just to trim the ends but we needed up cutting more than what it should be for trimming. haha. yeah i was also surprised with myself..that i actually said yes to have my hair cut..so my hair now is shoulder length now, not loooong long but long enough. Well, it will grow back in 2 months' time when I get home so i guess it's fine!

That's the length of my hair before the haircut!

Clubbing @ Rumour

2007-10-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

13th October 2007

Let's go clubbing! That's what we have been saying for the past one month and we finally did it tonight. haha after such a long time.. went with Pia, Elizabeth, Bernd, Daniel, Roci and Marta and it was fun! haha. Great company and good music. (they played a bit of techno though.. gives me headache haha)

Marta, Roci and I were crazy enough to dance on the platform! wahaha i mean nobody knows us there.. actually there may be people we do know since we saw quite a number of familiar faces from Bentley but what the heck, we just went up! When I was on the platform, this crazy guy grabbed my leg, to be specific my calf. And Of course my first reaction was.. wth wtf what the argh!!!! I don't even know you and you touched me! basket. haha. i couldnt really see him in the dark but he looked kinda punkie to me. punkie-looking guy? that's of cos a no no..just not appealing at all. when he first offered me his hand, I was also kinda confused becos he looked as if he wanted a high~5 from me. So try to imagine, I was on the platform, he was on the dance floor and instead of offering his hand with his palm facing up (that should be the way to get a girl to dance with you! that's more gentlemanly!), he showed me his palm. haha. it's really stupid, got me so damn confused. When I realised that he wanted to dance with me, that again, of cos, is another no no no.. haha.

Bernd & Daniel

Roci, Pia & me

Our Austrian Friends!

Mid Autumn @ Bentley

2007-10-17T14:40:00.000-07:00

2nd October 2007

So..I spent my first mid autumn overseas. well mid autumn wasn't really that big an occasion to me back in Singapore but here, the significance of it just seemed to have magnified. haha. yeah for the first time i was really excited about seeing mooncakes and eating them, meeting people on campus who know what mid autumn is all about.

Just makes me miss home..hanging lanterns outside my house along the corridor and lining candles along the drain with my mum and cousins (haha yeah yeah ron I know I'm 21 but I still do that..maybe not this year but I definitely did that when I was 20! haha), spending time together with my family at Shuang Lin Shi which has really authentic chinese looking lanterns and deco. haha yeah miss chinese food, chinese stuff. this will never happen in Singapore.. like to miss chinese lanterns and tea. haha well, sometimes too much of something is bad for health (haha like too much American food) and it makes you miss the other extreme.

Well, it was definitely a nice and unique experience cos we also spent it with frens who absolutely had no idea what mid autumn is about. It was fun, having a different flavour to that.. like drinking bubble tea with mooncake? yeah and explaining to Marta why we celebrate mid autumn and the story of how Chang Er (the "moon lady") flew to the moon and how we had 10 suns in the sky. haha

Exchange students exchanging specs?

Adam, Marta, me, Vi

Spot the starts!

Nina, Marta, Cindy (from Shanghai) and me

Columbus Break-Trip to Philadelphia, Atlantic City & Washington!

2007-10-05T22:11:00.001-07:00

The long awaited columbus break finally came! yup yup trip to Philadelphia, Atlantic City and Washington! wanted to go to California so much so much but things didn't really go according to plan.. but i was really glad that I went on this 4 days road trip, made new friends and most importantly gotta know my exchange buddies better! yup yup 5 of us went together, being Adam, Bernd, Cindy, Daniel and me! ooh.. just realised it's running in alphabetical order.. except me. haha

Managed to have enough energy to blog for my first day.. here goes!

5th September 2007-Arrival at Philly

After a long 8 hours drive from Boston, we finally arrived at Philadelphia at 9pm. It was fun having lil chats and history lessons on world war in the car, blasting music, falling asleep haha and stopping wherever we want to take a break, eat sth..whatever. Nice, just did whatever we felt like doing along the journey :) And Daniel drove the entire time from Boston to Philadelphia.. he must be really tired. Thanks Daniel!

Yup did a lil reading in the car too and gotta know that Philadelphia is actually the "City of Brotherly Love". The name is kinda in greek, Philos "love"and adelphos "brother" and it's commonly known as Philly. This was also the place where many of the historical events originated and occurred like the American Revolution and American Independence. yup that explains the prominence and emphasis on the Independence National Historic Park in my Lonely Planet, especially the Liberty Bell Centre and Independence Hall. :)

At first we were kinda lost after getting off the car cos we couldn't find the exact building of loftstel, we were all looking out for signs or some sort of an indication of a hostel. It turned out to be one of the private houses, kinda converted into a hostel. The hostel was set up just a week before October 1 and so everything here is brand new! very cosy lil setting w nice ppl from all over the world.. met Carlos from California, Mat from France and lastly Vera, the RA, from Ukraine. The kitchen and living room on the first level, the common/tv room on the second, the bedrooms on the third and fourth, can house about 20-30 people i guess. It's 25 usd a night and with such a new and comfy environment it's definitely more than reasonable! There is also lil computer terminal that's shared by everyone.. yup that's where I am and what i'm using to blog now :)Well, this place is really cool and it's definite yes yes to people who are travelling around here in Philly! Strongly recommended!

After checking in, we had dinner/supper at Allegros where we ate pizza, drank and watched the Red Sox Vs LAA game. typical American restaurant, nice place to chill.

Well, gotta say that it's a pretty gd start for our Columbus trip today and hope things will go continue the nice way it is! Gonna sleep now, kinda tired..gd nite!

Some pictures of our first day:

While waiting for the car...

In the car

Brooklyn Bridge!

In Philly...

Lofstel..looks really gd huh!

Haha does the bedsheet look familiar?

yeah.. most of the things are from Ikea.

Dinner at Allegro Pizza

6th September 2007- DAY IN PHILLY

Our hostel

We took a bus down all the way to the 2nd street as instructed/cautioned again and again by Vera to not venture beyond 47th street. It was really funny the way she told us not to do that..."no no.. just this side, not the other side" and she would just keep her hands high up in the air, in such a manner that she seems as though she really revered 47th street and below. When we probe further, she'll just keep saying the same thing again.."no no..just this side, not the other side". Well, i guess she's trying to be tactful in saying that beyond 47th street, the neighbour or street gets kinda unsafe, like it's meant to be an unspoken fact but because of us, she was forced to say that. haha. I like Vera, really friendly and helpful.

yup so we hit right to the 2nd street in the morning and visited the places of interest around there, namely Independence Hall, Carpenter Hall (we didn't go in though), Liberty Bell Center and Independence National Historical Park. It was hilarious because we were expecting a park, like you know a park with trees, grass and benches with nice historical statues ..something BIG... but we ended up in a "park" that was indoor with aircon and exhibits. Totally not a park park. haha.

The Irish Memorial

In the museum with George Washington!

At the Independence Hall

My favourite quote from Liberty Bell

Bernd, Daniel, me & Cindy

Daniel, Adam, me & Cindy

Cindy, me, Bernd & Daniel

When we were at Philly, we noticed something in common with some of the people walking along the streets. They were all wearing sth pink. Well, there happened to be an ongoing 3-day walk to raise awareness in people about breast cancer. Majority of the participants in the groups were ladies and they were all wearing pinkie stuff. Pink shirt, shorts, cap, bags..some even had pink doll-liked necklaces and feathers on them. And random people along the streets were all cheering for them. It was really encouraging and nice of them and.. pretty interesting for us. :)

Us @ Logan Circle

Bernd and his sexy mermaid-liked pose

@ Philadelphia Museum of Art

EVENING IN ATLANTIC CITY

About an hour's drive from Philly, we arrived at Atlantic City which is otherwise known as Vegas of the Eastern America. Haha. Well, it was my first time going to a casino so I was pretty excited of course! Wahaha I did my part and donated 50 cents to the casino at one of the slot machines. A pretty unique experience and scenes in movies like Ocean's suddenly seemed real. haha. Felt exactly the same way when we passed New York especially in the tunnels and "desserted" car garage..Cindy and I would be like this is such a typical scene in a movie! Yup was also watching people play roulette..gotta admit that envy did strike me when I saw people winning piles of chips but it was also scary when they started losing. the change of luck was really fascinating. There were quite a few casinos like Taj Mahal, Caesars, Ballly's etc..I guess they are more or less the same, just that they have different themes that's all. We ended up at Taj Mahal as advised by Vera cos the parking was the cheapest of all! haha

Dinner @ Hardrock Cafe

7th September 2007- DOWN TO WASHINGTON DC

Our next destination was Washington DC and it took us about 3 hours plus to get there. we had lunch and started walking around since we didn't have much time to spare. We first visited the White House (that's for sure!) but we couldn't get inside, sadly. haha could only take pictures from outside. Also went to a few war memorials such as the South Vietnam war, Korean war and World War 2.

The White House, one of the buildings to be exact

The Treasury

South Vietnam War Memorial

@ the Reflection Pool directly Facing Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

All of us!

Korean War Memorial

World War 2 Memorial

Capitol

The Supreme Court

Dinner at the mexican restaurant was great.

Drank at Stoney's Bar at night and met James from Ohio and Ethan who's a local.

8th September 2007-BACK TO BENTLEY!

We woke up really at 5 plus and headed back to Boston at 6am. haha it was crazy. Enjoyed the time we spent in the car, all the lil stories! Quite amusing..haha coincidentally all 5 of us are attached so we started telling each other stories about our "partners".

I love the way we communicate and how things would just work out so smoothly.. Well, gotta say that I seriously seriously had a wonderful trip! Fun and memorable road trip ever :) Cindy and I walking really fast trying to catch up with the guys especially when they were hungry; Bernd working in the "press"; Cindy and Adam's window incidents/accidents; Daniel and his strip club and all the sacrifices (like no late nights out) he made cos he had to drive: and all the walk walk see see poke poke! haha yup the list goes on.. really thanks for the trip guys! :):):)

Trip to the Apple Farm!

2007-10-04T17:11:00.000-07:00

29th September 2007

Martin's sister's friend, Eileen, brought some of us to the apple farm today. It's a really huge farm (maybe I haven't been to one, tt's why it seems really big to me! haha sounds so sua ku..) and we went around using the tram. Yup, we could just pluck the apples off the tree and eat them on the spot. We couldn't bring them back with us though, I mean we could.. just gotta pay for them. haha so eat as much as possible inside! I tried some of the Asian Pears but they kinda taste different from what we have back at home, much softer and a lot more juicier..I still prefer the lil fragrant pears in singapore :)

My First Apple!

Eileen and her children, Bryan and Anna

Along one of the many rows of apple trees

My First Asian Pear!

The Children's Play Area, with lil animal corners and playground!

At the U Pick Center
It's both the entrance and exit of the apple farm where we buy the tickets and pay for the apples and pears if we want to bring them out of the farm. We got some apples and asian pears for Marta and Maurice, who didn't manage to come with us cos they have exams and assignments due the following week.

In the car after apple farm

We drove past a liquor store which had free wine tasting, some sort of opening specials and...so people who are 21 and above in our group (like me! WooHoo!) took the opportunity to try all the free wine! haha. Well, only Martin, Adam and I were eligible (Cindy could have gone in too, but she didn't wanna to) so we went in while the rest who are underaged (haha!) just waited outside and talked to Cindy's friend who happened to be staying nearby. It was really fun trying out the wine and acting like we know something about them wahaha. I bought this white wine after going around to taste the different wine and it cost me 10 USD. Adam bought mango malibu for about 20 USD, thought they were really worth it! grin.

In the liquor store

This shop next to the liquor store, the display's really cool huh!

My First Football Match!

2007-10-04T15:52:00.000-07:00

What do I have to say about my first football match?

It was great.

haha. It was against Assumption and I went to watch it with Marta, who is probably one of the few girls here who shares the same sports frequency as me! Anw, it was really happening, packed with supporters from the two schools and since it was a game on home ground, Bentley had obviously more people on our side of the grandstand.

Bentley also gave the students incentives to watch the game:

BRING A STAFF MEMBER ALONG AND GET A HOODY SWEATSHIRT FOR FREE!!!

Of course it's a really good deal! so Marta and I were desperately trying to find a staff around main campus after our volleyball game with Nick and gang.. yeah which was like totally impossible on a friday evening! While we were trying to figure out a way to find one, we saw the campus police. -SMILE- hahaha yeah that was how crazy the two of us were..approach the campus police to go get a free pullover with us at a football match! We thought we were the only two smarties around but we were so wrong.. they told us some Bentley students had already grabbed them there and they were already back from the distribution of pullovers at the field!!!! !!!! !!!! haha. It was really crazy. When we reached lower campus where the football field was, Marta was really funny. She was practically approaching all the professors-look-alike people to ask if they work in Bentley.

Hmmm, you must be wondering what's this whole big thing about a pullovers right? Well, if we were to buy a pull-over in the school bookshop, it would cost like at least 60USD? tt converts to be about 90 plus SGD.. and people were aware that the pull-over is expensive so they "reserved" their professors way before the match and some even got the cafeteria staff to come! haha. see kiasu-ism is not a Singapore thing, it's a global trend! ha. I was really lucky cos I managed to find a accounts office staff whom I had been bugging for my insurance...so I got a sweatshirt for FREE!!! yayyyyy!!! Although the size is really too big for me (by the time I managed to grab hold of a staff and get a pullover the sizes left were L and XL), I'm still happy cos I can always give it to Ron or Di.. whoever can fit!

Yup so that was the pre-match excitement.. to grab somebody before others to get a pull-over for free! haha. The match itself was also very exciting cos it was a really tight game. At half time, the score was 13-13 and there were also the cheerleaders as well as this cute lil blue Falcon to hype up the crowd. I was really amused by the facial expressions of the cheerleaders.. haha really exaggerated..you know the typical look with their mouths wide open and they would blink really hard as they nod their heads? The lil blue Falcon would also do its part by stamping its foot at a constant rhythm and we would follow his beat in stamping our feet against the metal floor. With a metal grandstand, the effect was really loud. Yup put it simply..spontaneous crowd, great atmosphere!

At the football match

The "Little" Blue Falcon & me!

International Cuisine

2007-10-04T12:39:00.000-07:00

27th September 2007

I have always been aware that cooking is a tiring thing to do, but I never knew that it is that tiring. Well, I have tried cooking in Singapore but most of the time, there's always my mummy to help me with it, be it with the buying of ingredients or the cooking itself or the most painful part- the washing and clearing up of the kitchen mess. I always had a share of the fun part of cooking itself but not the aftermath of it. For this international cuisine, I experienced every single bit of this process, from going to the supermarket to buy the ingredients, lugging them back to Bentley, all the cooking and washing.. Although I had frens who did the shopping, cooking and cleaning with me (that explains why the dish turned out decent haha), I must still say that cooking isn't really that easy at all and most importantly, I realised how great our mothers are becos they gotta repeat this entire tiring process, singlehandedly, almost everyday! Yup so thanks mum!

Anyway, International Cuisine is this event organised by Andrew Innocent who is one of the IBNs (IBN=International Buddy Network; basically for all the exchange students here we each have a buddy to take care of us, especially the first few weeks) and all of us gotta cook a dish representative of our country. well... Ks, Cindy and I totally had no idea what to cook at first! Rojak? Hokkien mee? Carrot Cake? hahaha yeah probably we'll screw up if we attempt any of those and will most likely end up buying something from the cafe..haha. Well...luckily for us, kiasu me brought pastes from Singapore! hee. Thought it'll be good to bring them so that my frens and I, be it whether they've tried before, will getta taste some Asian Food! so... i brought exactly 4 packets! must ration..one for each month! haha yup yup we ended up using one of the curry pastes and we cooked Indian curry! It turned out to be quite good and our frens, especially those who have yet to try curry before liked them! (maybe cos they haven't tried real curry before.. haha just kiddin! I trust our cooking skills! -smile-)

Andrew Innocent & Me!!!

CollegeFest '07

2007-10-02T13:20:00.000-07:00

23rd September 2007

Andrew brought us to CollegeFest 07 today and basically it's this annual event which the college students here go for to get free stuff. Tickets are priced at $10 but if you buy them online (yeah everything's kinda online here and you really need a credit/debit card), it's $7.50. so all you need to pay is $7.50 for the event, which gives you entry for both sat and sun.

We didn't go on sat cos of the trip to Martha's Vineyard.. so we missed out all the freebies on sat. Some of the freebies you get actually depend on your luck cos you gotta spin the wheel. I definitely had no luck that day cos I kept getting sweets instead of t-shirts and vouchers which were the prizes more in demand! Well, it also wasn't too bad la.. although I totally had no luck and we kinda missed microsoft (heard it was giving out free thumbdrive or sth), I've got 3 t-shirts, a jockey jug, 7-8 cups, cup cushions, a few draw-string bags, a huge pencil, frisbie, free shampoo and conditioner samples, carabina, energy drinks, a toy, condoms, lots of posters, pens and sweets. I thought these were good enough, definitely worth $7.50!

At the registration

Trip to Martha's Vineyard

2007-10-02T08:20:00.000-07:00

22th September 2007

We woke up really early today cos we gotta catch the bus at 7. As usual, Marta and I were the few of those who reached later. not late. we were on time! hahah. it's really an achievement cos we woke up at 6.30! (or rather Marta got out of bed at 6.45 to be specific. haha) Anw the trip to Martha's Vineyard was a really long one, gotta take the bus then the ferry. we left Bentley at abt 7.15am and finally got to Martha's Vineyard, specifically Vineyard Haven, at 11 plus.

At the harbour...

yAy we are taking the ferry!!!

The view on board before setting off

The group of us

Cruising...

Me!

Alix and I trying to take pictures of the riders behind her.. hahaha

After about an hour on the ferry, we finally got to Oaks Bluff!!! At first I thought the travelling part had come to an end but no.. we still gotta take a bus to Vineyard Haven which was our destination for the trip. omg. haha

Adam & I at Oaks Bluff Terminal

Pictures of Oaks Bluff

Vi!

Me!

Vi & I @ the Memorial Stone

While waiting for the bus to Vineyard Haven...

Down the rocks behind the bus stop and onto the beach!

Lunch @ Vineyard Haven Marina

At the back of the restaurant...

Going around Vineyard Haven...

Stone Church

Vineyard Playhouse

Before we got on the ferry back to Bentley, the group of riders Alix and I saw on the ferry earlier in the day our way to Martha's Vineyard was hanging around the harbour. We took our chance to take a proper picture with them and the guy in the picture even offered to let us ride on his Harley Davidson! I didn't manage to go on it though cos there was no time.. boo. But glad that we took a pic with him! :)

haha as usual the focus wasn't on us in this pic..

After a tiring day... :)

Our lil chat

2007-10-01T13:14:00.000-07:00

There was an optional lesson on the Legal Systems and Jurisdiction as well as a consultation session for our essay topic for Global IT law mid-term paper today, so instead of the usual 3.35-4.50 pm class, J. Aresty, our Prof for the course, conducted classes earlier at 2.15pm. Basically, it was meant for people who were interested in consulting him for the course, about their law paper topic. Well, honestly, I didn't prepare anything for the optional session and having the usual singaporean mentality, I just wanted to go there, listen and hopefully pick something up.

I was slightly late for class and I reached about 2.25pm. ya and guess what? My prof was the only one in class and it was so awkward becos he saw me outside class before I could run away. So.. I ended up being the only student in class. ya and i was trying really hard to walk slowly into class and at the same time, come up with something. just like...something to ask him. haha.

Well, the moment I sat down and before I could say anything, J started asking me questions. "what paper topic are you thinking about? what have you prepared? What do you have to consult me?" Nope, these are not the questions he posted me. Instead, he asked about me. Like whether I'm adapting cos he knows that I'm an exchange student and yup we had a really nice chat about family, studies, work and he even went to the extent of explaining the different US law to me. yup, it was a really nice chat which lasted about half an hour before this girl from my class came in. But I was glad we had that lil chatting session tog and I kinda like his classes now. :)

MJ @ North Campus and Jarrod's party!

2007-10-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

15th September 2007

After the traumatizing experience at Shaw's, I was really hoping that my night would be better and.. indeed it was! we played mj!!!!! haven't touched mj tiles for ages and I really miss playing that! As usual there were poker and frisbie..ya we throw frisbie in the room! haha

All of us!

Cindy, Marta and I were also invited to Jarrod's ABC party that night. Nope it's not american born chinese.. it's Anything But Clothes! WHAT???!!! yeah that was my first reaction too! yup we were told that clothes were not allowed in his party and we gotta wear something. yarh bedsheet, trashbag, nothing.. whatever. haha well..the three of us, while we would very much like to play according to the theme, decided to stick to our shirt and jeans. I know it's boring and I know it's fun to be adventurous... but I need my clothes on!!!!! haha anyway when we went there, not everyone was "dressed" according to Jarrod's theme. so it wasn't so bad! haha yeah but it was really fun, my first ever ABC party!

The ABC Party!

The Birthday Boys!

Jarrod (on the left) & his brother

yeah they are twin brothers!

Jarrod & me!

Cind & Jarrod!

Cindy, me, Marta

Marta & me!

ARgH

2007-09-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

15th September 2007

ArgHhh..what is the worst that can happen to you at a bus stop? No bus stops by. What can make the worst worse? No bus stops by and you freeze yr ass off. haha when things are really bad, you thought it'll definitely get better cos it can't get worse..that's so wrong!!! or rather, it certainly didn't apply for today. I wanted to go to waverly sq partly cos i haven't been there before and i wanna see how it's like.. but turned out to be nth much, just a lil small town and the only building that takes up a reasonably significant area of the town is..a supermarket.

we went to shaw's to grab some groceries and ingredient that adam needed for his daily routine- cooking. I'm kinda spared from that cos i'm on a meal plan, but i really wished for a kitchen! should have included that in my 21st birthday wish and probably it may have come true by now :)

Shaw's

Limousine!

Yum yum..ice cream cake!

They look really good.. and maybe really sweet. haha

Anw, after that we went to the shuttle bus bus stop and waited.. and waited.. and waited.. and waited.. ya you get what i mean. the bus never came. At first it wasn't too bad becos Adam and I were busy taking pictures of the place while Nina and Andrew were playing with each other as usual. haha but it really got into us after an hr..then it was almost 2 hrs! Adam tried calling Christina (his buddy who has a car) but couldn't get her. In the end, I really couldn't take it and being my impatient self, I called kevin to pick us up from watertown,which was where waverly sq was located. When kevin finally came and I got into the car, I seriously couldn't feel my nose!

The pictures we took during our unexpectedly long wait..

And gradually it started to turn dark...

And darker...

And darker...

Colder too!

Factory Outlets!!!

2007-09-26T17:23:00.000-07:00

14th September 2007

Kevin drove us to Wrentham factory outlets for shopping!!! hahah so happy. There so many outlets but so little time!! haha but i'm happy with what i've got.. a pair of levis jeans for 26.99 usd, a bananrepublic shirt for 12 usd, 2 gap long sleeved tops for 7 usd each, and another gap shirt for me brother for 7 usd! it's really crazy, tommy hilfiger polos were going for 20 usd, polo ralph polo-tee for 30 usd! haha couldn't figure out the sizes I wanna get so didnt manage to buy any in the end.. but i'll be back Wrentham!!!

In the car...

Marta at one of the signboards

In the toy store

This place is really BIG!

10cents Chicken Wings???

2007-09-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

9th September 2007

we finally met kevin after hearing about him from yy and tanny before coming to Bentley. nice guy who has a complicated identity. born in the states, went to hk for pri sch then to spore for sec sch, back to the states for high sch and college. also met Julie, who's an international student from hk, really friendly! they brought us to John's Brewers for 10cents chicken wings.. haha sounds unbelievable? tt's what i thought too. haha but it's really 10cents each!

All our chicken wings!

New Zaland? New Zeland? New Zaland? -_-

2007-09-20T13:40:00.001-07:00

7th September 2007

went back to the mailroom to correct the addresses of mails i sent to ron, wen and viv today. it was kinda stupid cos the guy at the mailroom somehow destroyed the nice envelope i got for viv by spelling new zealand like 3 times before he gave up (ya he still didn't get it right) and i wrote it myself. haha viv should know what i'm saying.. haha it was sucha disaster. sorry babe! anw hope you like the moo-moo card and happy birthday once again!

Student Activities Fair

2007-09-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

7th September 2007

Marta and i played volleyball with a group of local and exchange students specifically from Denmark and Australia at the sandy court today. we were supposed to be going to Target with the gang but we jumped off the shuttle bus to Harvard Square the very last minute cos Marta and i really felt like playing vball. felt really bad abt it. bleah. but i really really really wanna do something today like run around and play sth. wasn't even as enthu abt vball back in spore..haha (chun should know best) anw vball was fun! haha was a lil initimidated initially cos Marta and i were the only girls there throughout the whole game (there were two more initially but they left like 20 mins later) and i was literally the smallest in the group. Things turned out fine cos Nick, this international student from Russia, was really reassuring.

There was also the Student Activities Fair today, where the ccas set up booths to promote the various ccas. Marta and i were crazy enough to sign up for women's rugby here. haha just for the fun of signing up for sth! most probably i'll fly out of the field or sth. grin. but we didn't go for any trg in the end. like i was saying, it's just for the fun of it!

The Activities Fair at the greenspace

Second from the left: Rocio from Ecuador studying in Spain; Third from left: Cindy from Indonesia studying in SIM

From the left: Kristal(Hannah&Christina's housemate), Me, Hannah (My buddy), Christina(Ks's buddy)

Free ice cream for you?

we had dinner at Martin's place when they came back from Target. felt so bad again haha cos they kinda went to Target just for my coffeemaker. wahahaha. i really didn't know that they went just becos of that! bleah. my apolagies guys!

It's alr my second week here and i had yet to recover from jet lag. haha yup as usual, i'll start falling aslp at 9+ 10 and this time round, the guys (Andrew's idea and Ks the accomplice again!) took a really unglam picture of me sleeping. haha

First Visit to Lower Campus!

2007-09-19T15:30:00.000-07:00

6th September 2007

@ the rugby/football field

Back row: Gao from China studying in Hungary, Andrew, Martin
Front row: Vi from Vietname studying in Hungary, Nina and Me

hmmm...

My favourite couch!

2007-09-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

5th September 2007

It was a crazy night cos we did the craziest thing. haha we carried a 3-seater couch from the common room at the basement of Boylston up to our room, which was on the 5th level. it was really crazy cos 1) it's a common room couch (so we're not supposed to take it.. i mean we're just "borrowing" it for 4 months! we'll return it, promise! haha) 2) it's a 3-seater couch so it could hardly fit the stairs 3)we were laughing so loudly when it was meant to be really sneaky and people did saw us carrying it up. haha one girl, who had a beer in her hand, even went, "hey, it's bentley property! why are you guys carrying it?" (anw i guess she was too drunk to do anything abt it) poor Andrew, who was strongly against the idea initially, had to be the one carrying the couch at that time (the guys kinda rotated to help us carry it) and ya he became our spokesperson. so he replied, "err we have our reason!" we ignored her and continued moving it up to the 5th level. it was really funny.

Marta and I are really happy to have a couch in our room now, thanks a lot guys!!! appreciate it!!!

Visit to MIT & Charles River

2007-09-18T14:19:00.000-07:00

5th September 2007

I was supposed to have a double evening class today until 7.20pm. At the same time, there was a outdoor concert @ the Dome along Charles River. As usual, the indecisive me took ages to choose between following my heart or my head. haha ya i guess it's pretty obvious cos I started my entry by saying "I was supposed to.." haha yup so eventually I found myself watching sunset at Charles River, which I totally nv regretted skipping class at all. GRIN.

Bill and Judy were very kind to pick us up from Bently again and brought us around MIT. was very amused with some of the MIT buildings cos they really looked distorted, but kinda artistic as well. According to Judy, these buildings are apparently visitor's attraction in Massachusetts. Subsequently, we went into these buildings and my goodness, i was so dizzy after that. hahah the interior designs of these MIT buildings were pretty unique, it felt more like a art media design school than a computer-science faculty!

MIT Buildings

Seminar rooms

Lecture theatre

Open concept work environment!

Cool~

The drive to the Dome was less than 15 mins from MIT. The green space in front of the Dome (which I then realised was the stage) was really crowded with people having picnics and getting ready for the concert. Bill and Judy were once again really thoughtful as they brought lil chairs, lots of jackets and food for all of us. The whole group of us took a walk along Charles River and the sunset was beautiful. Looking across Charles River, the red hues of the sky had an orange glow to it as the sun gradually disappeared below the horizon and there were lil sailboats dotting the river at a distance. omg. this sounds like what i would write in my sec sch essay.. but it really looks like that. haha. well, a picture speaks a thousand words so just see the picture below yrself! Anw it was nice standing along the river, serene and calm.. and i felt so at ease. haha was kinda hoping that loh ming yao was ard to watch it with me. haha not that i wasn't enjoying the company I had at that time, our O.L.D group was great! but it's really so pretty that you wanna do it with someone really special? :)

The concert @ the Dome was a classical music performance and it was the last outdoor concert @ the Dome for the summer, which kinda marked the end of season since it's gonna get too cold to do that anymore. ya classical music.. boring? lullaby? you'll be surprised by the spontaneity of the audience especially at the end. it was overwhelming..like a pop music concert. haha well, i really enjoyed my evening and yup.. definitely worth pon-ing class! grin.

My First Day In School!

2007-09-16T21:37:00.001-07:00

4th September 2007

My first day in school was pretty good, not too bad a start :) The classes at Bentley last for an hour 15 mins which compared to NTU, is damn slack. good for me! haha. but it's quite surprising how much the professors can cover in class, definitely comparable to classes back in NTU. ya maybe NTU can change the periods to an hour or sth. lol.

The first professor I met in my 8.30 Financial Statement Auditing class was Thibodeau. I think I'm really lucky cos apparently the seniors taking this class fought really hard to be in his class and all I have to do was to email Christine that I wanted this slot when I was back in Singapore. totally had no idea that he's a good professor and even wrote the textbook for Financial Statement Auditing. yup something like NEJ. haha. Thibodeau's really enthusiastic and passionate about teaching and he coaches a football team. ya he's kinda big and looks quite fit. talks abt his family in class, esp his wife whom he dedicated the auditing book to since they met each other in class back in college. I think the most important reason why I like him is the fact that he's one of the only two professors who bothered to pronounce my name properly and made the extra effort to check if he did it correctly so that it sounds the way it's supposed to be. haha anyway i'm known as Hui (Hwee) here, no Huiyi for 4 months.

The other professor who bothered abt my name was Hayward, this funny guy who talks at a super high pitch in class and wears like those lil artist hat to class. He's my Alternative Dispute Resolution professor, who gets really dramatic especially when we come to cases. Whenever he mentions injury/death (since we mention that quite a bit in law classes plus all the remedies and crap), his facial expression changes immediately. he'll open his mouth and eyes suddenly to give the i'm-so-freaking-shocked-look. ya and he'll keep it there for at least 2 seconds (occasionally he'll cover his mouth with his hand) before continuing the case. hahaha he's really comical and i look at him more than i listen to him in class.

The third class I had today.. i fell asleep. hahah on the first day of school. I think Manalova must be really mad at me since i was sitting in the first row and i fell asleep right in front of her. probably not a very good start for Strategic Management class but well, i really couldn't control it.. it was kinda boring and i just had lunch. Siesta!!! haha learnt that from Antonio and Marta. It means afternoon nap in Spanish. and when Manalova asked the class to write 3 things that I wanna achieve for this module, I wrote "Make friends, do well and try not to fall asleep in class" I think she's gonna be really mad at me. lol.

Courses for Fall Semester:
1. Financial Statement Auditing
2. Strategic Mangement
3. Alternative Dispute Resolution in Business
4. Global Cyber Law
5. Marketing Law for the Cyberage

Dinner with Bill & Judy

2007-09-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

3rd September 2007

Marta, Martin, Nina, Andrew and I played tennis today. The tennis court is about 5 mins walk from Boylston and we can see the courts from our room. so it's really convenient. yup and it was cool and sunny as usual. my first time playing tennis in this kinda weather. It was nice, getta work out but don't feel that sticky. And Marta taught me how to serve! haha.

After tennis, the whole group of us were invited for dinner at Bill and Judy's place. We were kinda skeptical at first since we really have no idea who Judy was, except the fact that Martin met her randomly along the streets and we ended up having dinner at her place on a Labour Day evening. Bill is her husband, who is a MIT research scientist. One of their family friends, Angela, was also over at their place.

Perhaps it's the nature of their jobs (Bill is a MIT research scientist/professor and Judy used to teach i think), we first had an introduction session, somewhat like an interactive group, at the balcony. we even had with our names written on stickers and pasted on our shirts for easy identification. haha. Dinner itself was good, really sumptuous. Bill even took out at least 8 different types of tea, both Chinese and English, so that we had a range to choose from.

Us @ Dinner
From my left in the picture: Martin, Andrew, Nina, Marta, Adam, Cindy, Maurice, Judy & Bill

Before we left, the couple gave us an A4-szed photo each, which we selected from 3 of their albums. They are mainly pictures of sceneries, of the different places where they have travelled to. I picked a picture of Norway, since that's Judy's hometown. I thought that would be a nice souvenir to bring home with me. :)

Drinking @ North campus

2007-09-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

2nd September 2007

After shopping at Marshalls and H&M, we went over to ks's place to drink. haha Budweiser was alright.. i prefer Samuel Adams, thought it was smoother and wasn't as bitter!

As requested by yipz, i'll take pics of what i've bought!

Nike jacket from Marshalls, USD19.99 (SGD30)

Boston- Downtown Crossing and Chinatown!

2007-09-13T17:58:00.000-07:00

1st September 2007

We took the "T", which is the subway, to Downtown Crossing and visited Filene's Basement which was apparently having up to 90% sales. Well, it was kinda disappointing cos the place was really messy, i guess it had been a while since the sales started.. and the clothes remaining in the store were way too big for me! haha at least that's something comforting.. if they can fit me perfectly, I should really start doing something about it. Like going to the gym. haha

Street performance @ Downtown Crossing

Us @ Downtown Crossing..

At the back: Adam & Martin
In the front: Me, Nina & Maurice

At the back: Adam, Andrew & Martin
In the front: Nina & Maurice

So Wicked!

We then walked down to the Chinatown supermart to get ingredients for the guys to cook... ya it's kinda weird, they all have a kitchen!

Penang in Chinatown?

Surprise surprise!

In the mart

Oh no, we need mummy..

hmmm actually we don't..we are good!

Took a shuttle back to school from Harvard Square, spent the rest of the night in the student services centre, where there is the pub, the pool/billard room, Seasons etc etc.. haha ya it's our favourite hang out place now!

The girls from the left: Kristein, me, Marta & Nina
The guys from the left: Martin, Andrew & Adam

Boylston Roommates!

Where's the soccer ball??

Mini golf!

-GROWL-

And..we had waffles after golf! ya before we went to bed.. haha so sinful. again.

Drive-In Movie!

2007-09-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

31st August 2007
After BOBA tea at Boston, we went for the drive-movie at night which was at the Greenspace opposite Boylston (ya that's where I'm staying right now!). There was this huge screen set up in the middle of the field, something like movie under the stars, with a few mobile stalls parked at the sides. There was also this monster-looking station set up for laser tag but we were kinda lazy to queue for it..or rather we were more interested in the food! haha we had the fried dough with icing sugar, it's super sinful but it tastes quite gd! After that we went to queue for dipping dots which are like little ice cream balls :) I had chocolate chips cookie dough and it's really yummy!

http://www.dippindots.com/ice-cream-cups/

Fried dough with icing sugar

In front of the fried-dough van

Dipping dots in the drizzle!

Boston Tea Stop

2007-09-11T17:55:00.000-07:00

31st August 2007

Nai cha hai shi cha nai? haha gotta try Boston Pao Pao Cha today at Harvard Square. Had it at Boston Tea stop, wasn't too bad, just a lil sweet...but I still prefer Singapore's! miss dropping by those bubble tea shops in toa payoh to get bubble tea with loh ming yao haha. original? peach? peach or original? :)

Pearl=BOBA!

International Relations Office @ Bentley

2007-09-11T17:38:00.000-07:00

31st August 2007

Ks and I went to Christine's office to consult her about our insurance since we didn't feel like going back to the accounts office. ya we went there quite a few times before this and things weren't going the way we want it to. Christine was really patient as usual in helping us with it and even printed a whole list of AIG branches contact details for us! haha we found this board in the international relations office which was really cool! Had the pictures of all the exchange students here at Bentley on this map.

Spot me!

The Late Night Players

2007-09-04T22:56:00.000-07:00

30th August 2007

As the freshmen moved into their dorms and international/exchange students arrived on campus, there were programmes linked up for almost the entire we

ek. We watched a sketch comedy by the Late Night Players at BackBay. Maybe becos the jokes were kinda customised to Bentley student, there's why we were kinda lost at some point in time during the play. ya it was only our third day at Bentley. Had free flow icecream outside the student services centre before the show, with a DJ playing music in the background. haha the amount of ice cream was actually quite scary.. it's really huge tubs of ice cream lined down a long table, with hot chocolate, strawberry and a few more toppings laid out at the sides. haha it's kinda crazy.

Are you above 21?

2007-09-04T14:23:00.000-07:00

29th August 2007

Christina, as usual, was really nice to drive us out to Target to buy stuff. After which, somehow we ended up going to a package store to buy beer. didn't know that the legal age here is 21, i always thought it's 18! haha and there is also a legal age of 21 to transport alcohol too! so ks and i being eligible to buy beer, went down to the package store to buy the beer. before this Hannah, my buddy, was still rehearsing with us about what to say to the storekeeper in case he asks about why we are buying so much, at least in excess of what the two of us are able to drink. when we brought the beer into the car, i even saw the storekeeper peeking through the door to check on us and when I told Christina that, her whole face kinda turned slightly pale. haha oh well, everything worked out fine in the end. our buddies are really cute!

What an eventful day!

2007-09-04T13:48:00.000-07:00

28th August 2007

I went for a morning walk with Maurice, my friend from HKU, at around 7. The weather was sunny but cool, unlike the hot and humid weather all year round in singapore. Had a gd chat with Maurice as we walked around North campus. He's a guy with his own thoughts and opinions. haha

Later in the morning, we took a slow walk back to the main campus for breakfast. we gotta walk for about 5 minutes before we hit the main road where trees and houses line the sides of the road. The leaves were starting to turn red, marking the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.

Picture with Maurice

Sheesh. We've got quite a few adminstrative matters to attend to today. argh. and it's mostly mine. vaccination, insurance, my accomodation, laptop configuration.

so after breakfast at Seasons, we went to take our MMR vaccination. Outside the vaccination room, kevin, probably in his 70s, got us to fill in the necessary forms and made payment with him. ya.. and his first question was whether we are from china. haha. i think it's hard for them to differentiate.. well.. but after we intorducted ourselves and said that we are from singapore, he told us about his son who is a captain of a ship which sails to Singapore and that he and his wife will be going to singapore next year in October.. so that was kind of a common topic for us!
we then proceeded into the vaccination room..and the same thing happened again. the nurse who was attending to me thought i was from china and asked if i speak english. ya. haha BUT... when i said i'm from singapore, she told me she has a son who is a captain of a ship which sails to singapore! haha. ya she's kevin's wife...of the few nurses in the room, i met kevin's wife..haha so coincidental. she went on to tell me about their marriage and that singapore will be their second honeymoon! so sweet. it was really nice meeting them.

we then went up the library to get our laptops configured. met scott who was really patient with my laptop cos it is really slooowwwww. haha. i was so embarrassed when everyone was done and mine was still running and the next batch of people were already streaming into the room for the configuration.

Andrew then showed us around the library and the facilities are really good! it's 3 storeys with lots of computer terminals, reading and study area with ample power points, a very nice cafeteria and most importantly, printing is FREE!!! can you believe that.. yarh we can print whatever we want!(haha don't be jealous!) oh! they have this really cool stock trading room for students!!! yarh real money transactions. not POEMS stock challenge in which we use virtual money.(that reminds me.. i haven't started on it! shit. haha)

Outside the library, there was a freshmen convocation as it was their first day on campus. didn't know that there is such a thing as freshmen convocation..i always thought it's for graduating students. There was also an outdoor grill where we had our lunch!

The Freshmen Convocation

Andrew and I at the outdoor grill

The ice cream truck!

After all that administrative work, Ks, Andrew and I went to Harvard Square and Central Boston. supposed to meet Mauris and some other hong kong and hungarian students to go together but they got delayed at their laptop configuration session.. lucky NTU was scheduled under the first slot and we got MS 2007 updated for us! haha.

We took a shuttle bus from Miller Hall to Harvard Square where we visited Harvard Law School. haha took picture with John Harvard and his shoe which everyone who visits him will definitely touch. apparently you'll become smarter when you touch it. haha so it's a must do at Harvard!

Waiting for the shuttle at Miller

Ks and I trying to steal some of his wisdom

My intellectual look at Harvard :)

Harvard Library

After which we took a train down to Park Street and did a switch to Copley. The buildings in Boston are really gorgeous. With its rich history, Boston is very much a cultural centre of New England, one the most historically significant cities in the states.

At Newbury Street

Ks and Andrew in Boston Common

Ks and I at in the Boston Common

Andrew also brought us to both Copley Place and Prudential Centre which are like our Paragon and Takashimaya. hahaha more like Paragon.

We took a walk down Boylston Street where we arrived at Chinatown. went to buy chinese groceries at this china supermarket and had a nice shabu dinner at this japanese restaurant. haha ks and i were saying that it appears more like a steamboat to us cos it very much works like one. basically we dipped the raw meat into the boiling soup, which we had two choices-kim chi and original i think, in two separate compartments.. (all of us preferred the kim chi one so didn't really take notice of the other one) haha. yup it was a happy meal!

Culture shock?

2007-09-04T13:29:00.000-07:00

28th August 2007

Went to look for Barbara, the lady in-charge of immigration, for a new DS today. At first I was still kinda worried that Barbara will be unhappy about how I forgot to bring my original DS and how I have to trouble her write one for me again, like what we'll experience in singapore sometimes. but things turn out a lot better than I've expected. Barbara is this lady in her 50s really nice, very motherly and encouraging. She processed my DS on the spot and sent it to the immigration authority immediately for me while i sat in her office doing nth. she even made a copy for me which bears her signature, in case I need it for anything else related to immigration again since she was sending the original one she just processed to the authority.

After the DS was done, i had a gd time chatting with Barbara who was telling me that the school is planning a trip to new york united nations which is like a really rare opportunity! haha kinda excited about it, hopefully it materialises. Gotta say that she's really concerned about students, especially the ones on exchange. haha and before i left, she pulled me towards her and kissed me on both my cheeks! haha I was really stunned. didn't know how to react, what to say but felt really touched. haha not bcos she kissed me but the way she deal with things.. esp my DS ;)

Welcome to Bentley!

2007-09-04T12:31:00.000-07:00

27th August 2007

The first activity for the day was breakfast at Cronin International Centre where we met the rest of the exchange students and international relations staff. On the way to Cronin, we gotta know the people from Denmark as they took a lift at North Campus from Christina, who was really nice to pick us up and drive us to Cronin. At Cronin, we met the HKU students and also a fellow Singaporean, Michael, who is taking the undergrduate programme in Bentley! haha but he hasn't gone back to spore for the last 7 years if I remember correctly, i think he stayed in shanghai instead. Still..we met another singaporean!! hahaha it's really nice to know that there's another person around to lah, lor and leh with you. haha and we also finally saw Christine in person. We have been emailing each other ever since we know we were coming to Bentley about adminstrative matters. She's one approachable and helpful lady :)

The view of North campus from ks's room

After breakfast, we spent the whole morning listening to the administrative talks. yup basically the supposedly helpful but boring stuff. haha the only exciting part was to stand up in front of everybody in the entire auditorium and introduce yrself! haha which was when I realised that people now see you as a Singaporean and not only huiyi as an identity. it's not like in singapore where you can do or say whatever you want.. I mean we can here.. but no matter what, others' impression of Singapore does depend on us in a way cos, we are the only two exchange students representing Singapore here.

In the afternoon, Christina drove us to Target, which is this huge mall that sells everything. haha didn't really know what to get there bcos i wanted a switch, outta my lok kok room. haha managed to get my cell phone done at T-Mobile, this service provider which yy told us about. haha. yup the people here rarely msg each other, they call most of the time. Oh! and i saw the gap outlet near T-mobile but didn't getta go in cos we were in a big group so wasn't really nice to hold up everyone cos of me. haha but i'll make sure i'll go there again!

Dinner was at Adamian Centre and the portions were really huge. Ks and I didn't wanna trouble Christina to send us back to north campus again after dinner so we suggested that we go back there ourselves. ks and i visited the library but it was closed. took pictures with the falcon which is the Bentley symbol. Apparently it is a new falcon cos the old one was saw off by other college students after losing a basketball match. what idiots.

Me with the falcon!

The walk back to North Campus takes about 20-25 minutes from the main campus but we took almost an hour to get back cos we lost our way and ended up at this really secluded car park. It was like 9 plus 10 and only being in the states for like a day, we really didn't know what to do at that time especially for me after hearing all the stories about how we shouldnt go out at night..let alone getting lost! hahah so....we called the campus police! haha come to think of it now it's really a joke. In Bentley, there are these little stations with blue light at the top for students to call for help.. when they feel unsafe..like us. haha yeah but the police officer thought we were driving (since we were lost at the car park) and started giving us directions on how to drive there and told us how it's really impossible to get lost since Bentley is not very big or complicated. haha he sounds kinda impatient so we didn't ask further and started walking again. we walked along this road leading to north campus with occasional road lamps lighted at the sides. the cars zoomed past us from the back as we were walking with the traffic flow and stories on how a van will stop by the road side and drag you in started to run in my mind. haha see la hs! tell me this kinda story.. haha yarh but in the end it was perfectly fine we got back safe and sound.

Leaving Singapore

2007-09-01T06:16:00.000-07:00

26th August 2007

The moment I was back from hk, the fact that I'll be leaving for the states in a few days time kinda hit me. It was really a mad rush buying all the last minute stuff, settling my insurance with kk, meeting up with friends and also staying at home! Haha. Well...but i nv regretted going to hongkong w loh ming yao ;) Really thankful to my family (esp my mum) who helped me get things done esp when I was in hk, my friends who compromised with my tight schedule and the lil gifts which I brought along for this trip..lastly, not to forget loh ming yao who practically helped me pack my whole luggage haha.

I kinda gave another round of heart attack to my family and ron at the airport when I forgot to bring with me the original DS-2019, i only had the photocopied one with me, somehow. It's this really important immigration document (which I was totally not aware of at first) that got me stuck at both the spore and us immigration. The singapore side wasn't that much of a problem, the officer was really helpful and I was lucky cos the airline was willing to let me through.

My first stop was Tokyo-Narita, Japan after a 7 hours flight. It was a pretty quick transit, thought could go walk around more and try the ramen or sth.wahah. oh! and i met Mabel whom I haven't met since we graduated from Nanyang girls. oh man the world's really small, she was all along on the same flight as me! yup Mabel's going to canada for a law exchange programme which is over two semesters. that's a year away from home. sob.

Continuing to eat and sleep on the plane, I arrived at Detroit after 11 hours with a semi-conscious head. At Detroit, I wasn't as lucky with my photocopied DS. The officer was really pissed off that I didn't bring my original DS and brought me into the detention room where I waited for at least an hour. was pretty scary at first but got better cos i met someone from singapore! haha this indo guy called beer from nus going to canada for exchange..he's really funny cos he has no idea why he was called into the detention room for questioning. Yup and after a long wait the officer finally talked to me again. he turned out to be quite nice..explained to me rather patiently and made me fill in more forms. Didn't know it was gonna be so troublesome..bleah should have checked my documents..but there were so many of them!!! Anw, was really tempted to take a picture with him before i leave but i guessed better not..in case he detains me for another hour. haha

In the airport express tram, Detroit.

yup managed to open my eyes big and found my way to the gate where ks was waiting for me. hahah he told me he had the time to go around and look for me, take the tram and went back to sit at the waiting gate again. yup that was how long i was stuck in the detention room. haha but then again, if i hadn't forgotten my DS, I wouldn't have had such an exciting immigration experience. hahaha. what a way to put it.

At the airport, Detroit.

oh no i'm still on my first day blogging about all the flights and transits. haha. imagine how long the entire journey was for me to have so much to say abt it! ya after a domestic flight from detroit to boston, i finally got to logon airport after 26 hours! haha i survived the crazy flights!!!

Christina, Ks's buddy, came to fetch us at the airport. Really glad she came cos the airport is really farrrr from school! She's a really helpful girl, had a nice chat with her on our way to Bentley. We kinda got lost for quite some time cos it's Christina's second time driving to the airport and she only just started driving ard Massachusetts. yah she got a car think long ago but there's this really stupid rule in school, that freshment can't drive on campus so she didn't get to use her car when she was in first year. now that she's a sophomore, she's able to drive ard but gotta familarize with the roads.

We went to the campus police to collect our temporary ID cards which will give us access to our dorms. Hannah, my buddy, joines us shortly after we got onto the campus. went to ks's apartment first and it's really nice!!! he has his own bathroom with a huge bath tub! so jealous. haha my room is so much more lok kok than his, really really lok kok. oh man i can't wait to change my room. sigh. looking at the conditions of my room, Christina and Hannah offered to let me crash their room for the night. so paiseh gotta trouble them again. their apartment is very cosy, i guess cos they've moved in quite a bit of their things and their housemates were friendly people. haha drank a bit with them and they were explaining all the drinking games to me. haha and this was only my first night.