28 Mar 06
sick

the neon lights, $1 hotdogs, busy streets, tall buildings...
were sealed in a beautiful bubble.
the gal tried to chase it,
but it just floats further and further away.
what was left were bits and pieces of memories,
a puzzle that cant be completed.
the tap water, stuffy plane air makes her sick.
the never ending laws and cases make her feel worse.
suffocated,
but its just temporary.

photos of the journey to the east shall be posted once things get settled down over here. its a madness rush of subject registration and nonsense that you couldnt think of.

happy 21st birthday to Rina! i have never been to settlers before so count me in next time for a second round of celebration hee hee. cheers!

13 Mar 06
Food day

As the name suggests, our stomachs were happy today!

Sheila and i headed to odey to study. wasnt really efficient in the morning, coz i just simply aint a morning person! lunch at subway, yes my first subway in my entire life coz i held the impression that its very complicated to order! 12 inches for both lunch and dinner. sounds like a pretty good deal and convenient coz this means dinner is settled!

efficiency level auto went up at night. pretty enjoyed reading the entre articles, some are really interesting i would say. at about 10 plus, an annoucement caught my attention! free supper in lvl 2!!!

thought i was the only cheapo one but the queue was really damn long by the time i got down. after queueing for abt 10-15 min, we managed to get ourselves burittos and 7-up and pepsi, plus an additional plastic cup (thanks to my jacket hee). if only our lee wee nam lib have this kind of free supper service as well... haha. suddenly inspired to study in odey next quarter oops =p


everyone enjoying the free supper


grins


just look at the queue when i was still upstairs


my 12 inches long subway!

12 Mar 06

picking up from where i left for my entre project... and almost slacking the whole day through after my cores were done with... i can foresee that i will regret not studying for my entre finals now...

11 Mar 06
2 finals today

First time in my entire life to left the exam hall early. even the general electives that i took in NTU doesnt allow me to leave early coz i simply had too much crap to put into the paper haha. i guess marketing research is more of a calculation module and cheat sheet is allowed, so many students do finish early for the paper.

went to mary gates to do some last minute flipping for my accounting exam held in johnson hall later. had packed spaghetti by chef Ray. though it looked kinda gross with the sauce in pic, it actually tasted pretty nice, really.

despite entering the exam hall 10 minutes earlier, it was already filled. had to sit in the first few rows (i dont mind at all) with empty seats on both of my side. yeah! coz the flipped tables are really small, cant even fit an A4 size paper, and the distance from seat to seat is really really small. so its kind of uncomfortable if someone sits beside me with elbows banging into me every now and then, and touching his hair and fidgeting about... yes, my happiness was short-lived. someone sat beside me 5 minutes later doing all these actions to irritate me during my exam. i know i am mean to say this, coz he didnt do it on purpose, but it just affects me... all i can say is johnson hall 102 has really bad tables!


home cooked spaghetti plus left over veggies haha

10 Mar 06
Last minute preparation

Mugging in acacia for tomorrow's 2 papers, accounting and marketing. marketing was fine, but accounting as usual is a killer for me... so many topics to cover... the last minute nature is back again arrgh. regretted didnt start studying earlier, but then i was tied down with my projects as well. excuses!!!

did the marketing extra credit assignment... the extra credit is really not easy to earn! spent slightly more than an hour to use SPSS to do just 4 questions. hope its extra creditS (read the S).

my room is freezing cold! 16 degrees?

9 Mar 06
First visit to the well known heaven library

the heaven library simply took my breath away, though some say that the law lib is even better. oh my oh my... what a place to study!

ate packed lunch and changed to odey to study. there are large sofa seats for people to sleep, and one actually snored so loud that i could hear him from few meters away! talk about quiet lvl 4 zone in odey -_-"

met my marketing groupie for SPSS again in blamer lab at 7pm... worked all the way till 10pm, which is the closing time for lab. leaving UW late at night again...


hmm... am in heaven!


students doing architecture design, really professional drawings!


at red square where the gal on the step is giving speech

8 Mar 06
Presentations!!!

Entre presentation went on pretty smooth, though my voice shakes abit towards the end. stayed in balmer commons to finish up the slides, yeah its kinda last minute coz i was too tired yest to finish it, and i didnt prepare any speech coz its not graded heehee =p

though we made mistakes in our SPSS analysis, was glad that we went to approach our prof to learn more about it so that when we write up our final report, we wont faced the same problems again.


my marketing groupies tog with prof nara

7 March 06
First time staying in UW till so late

Had my last accounting quiz for this quarter before i head for my marketing project discussion. although i managed to escape from learning SPSS in NTU during stats class, i havta learn it over here coz my project requires this software. so after spending hours in the lab figuring out this SPSS thingie, i head to Ordegaard to work on my another project, entrepreneurship!

it first started with the 3 of us working on the project. jenna left first to work on her another project, followed by chris to go home and change his contacts. felt so alone when all have left, with me struggling with the income and cash flow statements when i have long return my accounting knowledge back to the prof. several incidents happened later which really touched me.

with my msn online, tiran told me that our dining group had left honeydew and dinner for me. my first honeydew in seattle, and we only had fruits once in a while coz they are really expensive over in seattle. ray informed me that i could take a free ride from UW straight back to acacia court, safer that way. Ling has asked me to msn her before i head back so that she know my whereabouts. A short chat with Jiehua. Haana, my marketing groupie who was in odey as well, offered to come and find me for a chat, but didnt coz she just couldnt find me. a surprise visit by Jiahui and Feng coz they were looking for Huishan, who was thought to be missing.

all these little gestures melts my heart, giving way for a tear or two. luckily i was facing the wall else it would be too much of an embarrassment to cry in odey. was hungry, and battling with the statements, and knowing that after heading home i still have to work on my marketing project really saddens me.

chris was back an hour later, and i was telling him how much i will miss our groupie when i returned back to spore... and i just cried in front of him which gave him a shock. ah... embarrassed! somehow, i wish that this quarter can pass slower, so that we can spend more time together. we made a deal that if he did come to spore some day, i'll show him around, all the good food and everything =)

Stayed in odey all the way till about 1215am... half dead half alive, we managed to get the slides done. surprisingly, the lib is still very much packed and alive with students mugging for exams. had a body guard with me, and each step nearer to acacia made me feel sad, coz i know i have to continue with my marketing project coz i had 2 presentations tomorrow. so guess what? i ended up sleeping at 5am and wakie at 7am the next day...


odey lvl 1 at 1215am


me and chris, one of my entre groupie

6 Mar 06
'skipos' makes me laugh

Posted this entry using the wireless network in UW. its really super fast!!! no disconnection at all compared to the one back in acacia (i get disconnected once every 15min -_-")

Just finished my entrepreneurial discussion and thought of blogging some interesting stuff that has happened in the morning. guess people over here enjoy oranges. my group mate, Jenna was busy eating an orange away in class, and now in balmer commons, a gal is also eating an orange away while talking to friends. kinda remind me of the guy sitting behind me in the lecture theatre during my JC days where i smelt oranges coming from behind. turned back and had a shock that he was busy peeling the skin while the lecturer was in action. to friends who know me, i hate orange (but i like orange juice hee), and i can smell somebody eating orange from afar. the sight of him peeling the skin definitely left a deep impression in my mind haha.

in the midst of the entrepreneurial discussion, Chris was saying something about 'skipos'. i was like, what's that? skipos? stunned for a moment, he said its ok, but i insisted on knowing what exactly is skipos. is it something new over in seattle that spore dont have or??

his explanation goes like this: you know people ski in winter, and they need to use the poles to ski?

and i was like, oh ski poles! =p

i dont think he spoke too fast coz Jenna gets what he said. i guess its just me... still not used to the way people speaks over here... which explains why when somebody ask a opinion in class where you need to raise your hand to agree or disagree, my hand will always remain down coz i dont even get the question in the first place! i can only catch the beginning and ending of the question... and the middle was like disappearing into thin air! amazing it may sound, but i dont know why this only happens in my entrepreneurial class. my accounting and marketing class is ok... asked Jenna whether people over here speaks differently but she said they speak all the same... well, its just me i guess =)

my schedule for the next week or so (seattle time):
tuesday: accounting quiz 5 (yeah its the last quiz!)
wednesday: marketing research presentation. entrepreneurship presentation. (i hope i wont get all too nervous!)
saturday: marketing research final exam. managerial accounting final exam. marketing research extra credit assignment due. marketing research group project report due.
next tuesday: entrepreneurship final exam.
next thursday: entrepreneurship group project report due.... and...

i am flying off to nyc on next thursday! cant wait to finish all my exams and embrace the statue of liberty! cool huh?

but before that, i have to mug mug mug....

so its a good sign if i didnt update this blog till thursday (means i am mugging away)... to all peeps who are mugging away (be it UW students or ntu peeps), all the best in finishing this race! =)

5 Mar 06
Mugging day

Sunday is a day spent at home mugging away... done intensive research for my entrepreneurial project but cant seem to find the data that i want. its so hard to do research and it really frustrates me that i have to spent hours staring at the screen with a bunch of useless information presented in front of me. i guess its just that i havent reached the advance skills of researching haha. too much information is junk!

Managed to do quite a bit of reading for my accounting since quiz is on tuesday. yes finally its the last accounting quiz after survivng 4 quizzes so far. hooray! cant wait to be done with accounting for this quarter. it really irritates me with all the numbers and formats!

with all the stuff to do (partly cos i did it last minute), i slept at 5am and wakie at 730am... yawnz

4 Mar 06
McGriddles in Seattle!!!

those GIP peeps who went vancouver and savoured McGriddles will remember how maple sweet the burger is, how salty the bacon can get, the half melted cheese, and what a bite off the thick layer of egg! put them all together and what do you get? a yummy-licious McGriddles that will leave you begging for more!

the coupon in our mail box came at the right time - buy one mcgriddles and get the second one free! wee! it tasted just as good as before, and its really a must try for peeps who have a chance to lay their hands on it.

weather is especially good with the sunshine and great company... not to mention the cherry blossoms along a street. everything just felt like a reward for me of being able to wakie early today haha.


the big M caught our attention from afar


salad


pls make way for Mcgriddles!!!


advertising for Seattle's Best Coffee


oh my...


felt like spring is arriving!!!

3 Mar 06
Chatting Night

yes its friday, but i stayed in acacia court trying to study. yes trying is the word. probably i didnt try hard enough, so i ended up talking to my peeps again hee. this is just one of the daily entertainments that we have over in Seattle since we have no tv, no nothing.

2 Feb 06
IMA day

Every thursday is supposed to be my IMA day, and after resting for so many thursdays, i'm finally back to action heeha!

Remembered the last time i walked to IMA, i didnt saw so many cherry blossoms along the way! guess that must be ages ago since i last walked that stretch of road haha. anyway, its really beautiful and i cant wait for spring to arrive! =D

As time was tight, i only stayed in the sauna for 15 minutes where the shiok feeling didnt come =( must stay in longer for the next visit hee.

its time to reward myself after exercising, so we dined in a korean eatery... and all the effort were wasted haha. nonetheless it was a great workout... to be able to sweat on every thursday is something that i always look forward to =)


cherry blossoms in UW


feeling fresh and energetic after a workout!


students in UW appreciate the sunshine!


i love this tree!

1 Mar 06

If you have noticed, the trends for monday and wednesday are pretty much similar. boring entries of how i struggled to keep myself awake in UW are posted on these days. so, you can roughly guess what's going on in class as usual haha.

28 Feb 06
Free pancakes!

As IHOP (International House of Pancakes) (i hope i get this right) were giving away three free pancakes to every customers from 7am-7pm today, we settled our lunch over there. ling and i shared a fish and chips dish, and the fish was really disappointing. guess their pancakes are the chef's specialty (as the name of the shop suggests duh). each of us had three free pancakes of course, since thats our main motive of dining over here today haha. but we made a small donation to help get books for the children to study. so you get to eat free pancakes, yet at the same time able to help the needy... if only they are able to distribute the pancakes to the wandering peeps on the streets as well...


these two papers ended up as folded hearts


soft and fluffy


group shot from the reflection

27 Feb 06

tired monday, coz as usual its a long day for me from 830am - 520pm. the 3.5h break in between doesnt help, seriously! would rather trade my break hours for a later wakie time hee hee.

one of my peeps, Kallis turned 21 today. to have some surprise elements, i give her a call yesterday (which is spore time today) to wish her a happy sweet 21st! hee. luckily after a few attempts she finally picked up my call and we chatted for a short while. hope my gang were having lotsa fun with her. cheerios!

26 Feb 06

My entrepreneurial groupies and i headed to Green Lake to conduct a survey for our venture idea. First time to conduct a survey outside of UW - meaning must be even more thick skin to approach strangers!

Jenna headed to the playground while Chris went to the other side of the park. i wasnt left with much of a choice, so i headed to the running track. people were jogging past me and i had no opportunity to get them to do a survey. you cant expect me to jog together with them and yelling, "hey sir, wana ask you a couple of quick questions! do you think that..." that will be madness! thus, i ended up approaching people who were resting on the benches, and i felt so bad to interupt their peaceful moments. most of the people were either moving about, or they were engaging in a deep conversation with their friends.

Approached the first lady and i got an auto rejection from her. kinda dishearted, since its my first attempt outside of UW, but the rest of it managed to go on smoothly. had it been in spore, i think it will took me the whole day to finish my survey! so i would say peeps in seattle are generally more approachable!

Since its a work-day, we hadnt had the chance to stroll and take photos. Chris sent me home and i invited him up to my room. his first reaction was: "how have you been living here for the past two months??!! where's your tv? your couch? your stereo?? where are they??!!!!"

i burst out laughing, and began to feel very exploited by this contract. my room is small, and to pay such a high price for it is definitely not worth it since other accomodations within the vicinity cost lesser. but i guess its the best accomodation that the GIP office managed to get for us, so yeah, i do appreciate that i have a roof over my head =) i reassured chris that i'm ok living in this small room with my lappy as the only form of entertainment. i mean, back in spore i dont have a crave for watching tv so its pretty ok for me over here as well. still, he insisted that i should go get more furniture some days haha.


the playground


inner lane is for joggers, while i'm definitely on the outer lane hee


Green Lake is much more charming than this, really

25 Feb 06

Stayed home... nothing interesting.

24 Feb 06

A group of us went to the ICF (International Christian Fellowship) night for a great dinner and interaction. over there, i engaged in a pretty long conversation with Shu Wen who is from China, and Michael who moved from China to Vancouver, and worked as a researcher in Seattle. it happened that they were having an Olympics game night after dinner, where we played many familiar games in an interesting manner.

We played 'musical cups' where we were required to clap a rhythm and passed the cups to the person sitting on our right. the whole bunch of us ended up laughing at our entangled hands and cups were all over the place. had a geography game where we were required to spot some countries on the world map. my geography knowledge is pretty limited to asian countries so... heehee =p

next up was a table tennis game where we could only serve once and rotate the players. either i couldnt serve the ping pong ball or the ball went hitting the ceiling... this proves that there just isnt any sports genes in me haha. luckily, the ball didnt hit anyone!

gave my first try on pool and as expected, none of the balls went in haha. but my partner from Japan was good despite being a newbie in this. we came in first within our team, all thanks to him of course! i only contributed in complimenting him for his superb skills hee hee.

had my hands on table soccer and it was real funny watching my peeps pitting against one another. a game of charade as well as 'balloon volleyball' were played before we had prize presentations and desserts.

all in all, it was a fabulous night with whole loads of amazing people, great food and interesting games. thanks to uncle tim for jio-ing us over! =)

happy 21st birthday to twins (yuping and yuting)!

we are all great winners!