I'm back in Singapore now. Sunny sunny Singapore hee. And of course currently in the process of being ridiculously pampered *grin*. Yeah I'll try to publish the post on my last few days in USA asap. Meanwhile, let me catch up on my sleep :)

Somehow, I've got a ton of frens whose birthdays fall around the same period... here goes:

Dot. Dear Dot, Air Rifle Girls' Captain, cute little Dot, the only one shorter than me in the club during our year. A very artistic person, happy birthday and stay cute!

Jyang. My dear sister. We've been through alot together, and we are alike and un-alike at the same time. I truly cherish our friendship so best wishes to you! *Muakz*

Qiao Hui. Fellow Buccanneer with a most beautiful voice. Pursue your dreams and become the next Superstar ok? I know you can do it! Happy Birthday!

Beks. You took 4 years to take my place in yang tinggi. By that time, it was already too late. We didn't need to yang tinggi anymore haha. Happy Birthday!

Pavaani. Fellow member in the Nutty family and fellow tutorial groupmate now. We, the nuts, really should try to meet up more often yar? Happy Birthday and best wishes!

I'm officially leaving Cornell in about 28 hours from now but I won't have any time from now till then to update my blog so I'm doing it a little in advance of my departure.

Yup so it has been THE experience of my lifetime (so far 20 yrs and 9 months). Met many terrific people, saw many terrific things and did many terrific things too. Well yeah stupid and crazy things too. I guess it's a bittersweet feeling in my heart now. On one hand, I'm terribly homesick. Yesh I am, although I don't really sound like it on my blog cos I'm constantly blogging about funny stuff and my weird sense of humour adds to that too. But the cold weather is really getting to me. And I'm sickeningly pale. Alamak. I really look like a Hainan Chicken. And I need to rebond my hair. It's in a mess again. Don't look me up before I've gone to the salon ok? haha :) Yeah then there's the other hand. I mean on the other hand, I've had so much fun here I really can't bear to leave either. I don't just mean the road trips and travelling, but also my lessons and the people. It's vastly different and truthfully, I prefer the difference. Oh well. All good things come to an end.

Thank you Dad and Mom for making it happen. Thank you Cornell and NTU for having this exchange agreement. Thank you to all my friends, both back in Singapore and new ones I made in Cornell, for seeing me through this experience and adding to it. Thank you to whoever's living up in the skies for letting me see snow (snowman-making tomorrow!). Thank you for reading my blog. I'll probably update it just once more (or twice) from now to wrap up my stay in Florida and New York City. Then this blog would have served its purpose.

Yeah take care y'all. The bummer is coming home.

Right my exams are over, hurray! But a little busy packing so don't have much time to rejoice. Besides it's kinda late now and I only just remembered about this...

Birthday Dedication: Shunsheng

If you remove the first 'n' from ur name, it reads 'shusheng' which means 'scholar' in Chinese. So Mr Scholar, Happy Birthday! Good luck with your scholarly pursuits and don't forget to leave the books for some fresh air once in a while yar? :)

Er busy with exams, hence the recent inactivity online. Just wanted to let you guys know that yesh, I do remember I'm an exchange student, so I'm busy fulfulling that obligation :)

It's study break now. I'm doing literally what it stands for. Studying and taking a break. And my body decided to take a break too. Well it's my immune system actually. I was down with flu for a couple of days. It started on Friday afternoon for no good reason. Honestly, I really have no idea how I caught the bug. Was feeling pretty miserable for the rest of Friday. We had dinner at Yizhuan's house that night, I hope none of them caught my bug. Special thanks to Yizhuan, Sam, Yan Kai and James for their hospitality and marvellous food! We had a lunch appointment on Saturday but I gave that one a miss. Shavonne's a Cornell student who went to Austria on exchange last year, so we got to know her early in the year during one of those gathering-thingys. She's really nice, alot of fun and a great soccer player too. Anyways, she invited us to her house for lunch, which I didn't go (end up sleeping the afternoon away haha). We went for an ice hockey match at night. Cornell's ice hockey is supposed to be the best among the Ivy League schools. Yar we won again, narrowly this time. The opposing team scored first, then during the last third of the game, Cornell scored one so the score was a draw. Then at the very last 20 seconds of the game, Cornell's ice hockey team miraculously scored another goal. It's actually a pretty rough game. The players really like to crash into each other or try and ram the opponent into the sides. On Sunday, I went to watch Harry Potter :) Quite a good show, in my opinion. The essence of the book was there, but think those who hadn't read the book before would find the movie a tee wee bit confusing. Now, Cherlyn is gaga over the guy who acted as Cedric Diggory haha. Yeah really have to thank her for putting up with all my nose-blowing and probably coughing. I'm slowly evolving into the coughing stage which means I'll be fine in a day or two. Meanwhile, I've started to pack. No problems as yet. I should have enough luggage space for my stuff. Just hope that it doesn't snow too heavily. Pulling 2 large luggages through ankle-deep snow is not fun. Looking forward to some nice warm sunshine in Florida.

The following post is going to be of epic proportions. I spent 6 days travelling between 3 states. Here goes.

Monday, 21 November
The grand plan to escape Cornell was full of drama. We had booked the tickets online in hope that we would be guranteed seats on the bus. We should have known better than to trust the Ithaca bus system. First of all, the information on the website was wrong. We thought the ticket counter would be closed at the time of our departure so Cherlyn and I took a trip down to the bus station on Monday to collect our bus tickets. Next, when we got there, we couldn't collect the tickets because all 4 of us had to be present. And they tormented us more. At around 5pm (on Monday still; our classes had ended for the day and we were in our room), the person called to say that we had to collect them by 6pm that same day and we told her she was nuts. She then said we had to be at the bus station by 11 am on Tuesday (the bus departs at 12.40pm) or else. Of course we couldn't be there at that time, our classes haven't even ended. In fact, Denise and Kristal had a prelim that only ended at 12.05pm on Tuesday.

Tuesday, 22 November
We met up with Denise and Kristal after their prelims and a senior (Colin) drove us down to the bus station. On the way there, it started snowing huge flakes of snow. Whee. We arrived at 12.15pm, only to be called "bad girls" by the old crone at the ticketing counter. Whatever. This first bus was to bring us to Philadelphia. We made 2 transfers at somewhere and somewhere else (haha sorry I can't remember...) and it was snowing heavily at those places. The snowflakes were huge compared to the ones that I've seen previously. Yesh, call me a mountain turtle. Anyways, after about 7 hours on the bus, we finally arrived at Philadelphia (whoopee!), only to get ripped off by the cab to the hotel. Sheesh. Ok, the whole story goes like this. We had the directions to our hotel. According to mapquest, it's only a 4 min drive which translates to about 10 mins walk maybe. We wanted to double-check anyway so we went to ask a couple of bus drivers and even the security guard there. Those liars. They all said that it was at least a 15 min drive there. One even called a cab for us. The cab ride cost $20 and guess what? It really was a 4 min ride there. They were all in it together man, ganging up to cheat us. Yar well now we know so... Our room had a spectacular view of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. And I really do mean it. The first thing we saw when we went into the room was a breathtaking night view of the bridge. We all went "wow" at the same time haha.
*The funny things that happened in our room. Well it wasn't that funny. Just observations of one another's sleeping habits. I slept on the same bed with Cherlyn. She hogs the blanket. I woke up in the middle of the night to put on my jacket cos I couldn't tug the blanket out of her grip. Denise and Kristal were on the other bed. Apparently, Denise slowly edged her way to the centre of the bed over the course of the night i.e. Kristal was being edged out of the bed. Kristal and I decided that Denise and Cherlyn can share a bed the next night.

Wednesday, 23 November
We helped ourselves generously to the complimentary breakfast and packed a bagel each for lunch later. Part of money-saving measures hee. Our first stop was University of Pennsylvania a.k.a UPenn. Comfort Inn had a free shuttle service that can bring us to anywhere within 20 blocks of the Inn so we had the driver bring us to as close as he could to UPenn. That still wasn't close enough, so we went underground to take the subway there. Lucky for us, we actually met another Singaporean at the station. He's from NUS but I think he's doing his professional attachment at UPenn, so he's working and studying at the same time. Anyway, it's really a small world. He brought us to UPenn and gave us some rough directions as to where to go and how to get there etc. We spent about 2 hours in UPenn, before walking almost 20 blocks back to the city center. It was a very cold and windy day. We periodically took short breaks inside buildings to escape the cold. After looking around at the city center and taking pictures, we headed to Chinatown where I had roast duck noodles for lunch. Yummy! Egg tarts for dessert too. We just couldn't resist it when we walked past the bakery. Our last stop for the day was the historic area of Philadelphia, which was quite near our inn. We spent about half an hour lining up to see the Liberty Bell, which is really one of many bells that used to ring on top of the tower in the city. What set it apart from the rest were the words engraved upon it, something about liberty. Throughout America's history, various groups of people had used that phrase, and hence the bell, as a symbol of liberty and freedom. Yeah something like that. It also had a big crack down the middle. Amazingly, this big crack was actually drilled into the bell on purpose to stop the tiny hairline cracks that threaten to spoil the bell. Funny logic in my opinion but if it works, that's fine with me. We headed back to Comfort Inn to pick up our bags and had the shuttle send us to the bus station. We arrived at 5pm, about an hour before departure time (to Washington D.C.) and to our horror, there was already a long queue for the bus. At least 40 people were ahead of us in the line. Don't worry, we got on the bus. They knew it was the holiday season so had prepared additional buses already. It was 3.5 hours ride to arrive at Washington. I was surprised we arrived on time because I vaguely remembered a huge traffic jam on our way out of Philadelphia. (I was asleep for most of the ride though, hence "vaguely".) When we arrived at D.C., it was snowing. Bo pian, must take cab. We were determined not to get ripped off again so this time we bargained with the driver. $12 for a 5 min cab ride. Oh well.
*Kristal and I slept soundly. Cherlyn apparently whacked Denise's ear while they were both sleeping.

Thursday, 24 November
We had grand plans for the day. Unfortunately, we overslept. We woke up at 8.50am and rushed out to the lobby to grab the free breakfast that ended at 9am. Our first stop was to the White House. We couldn't go in, so just took pictures outside the fence. Yeah, that sounds kinda pathetic, I know. What to do... Yup so after that we walked about that area, the National Mall, and took a look at other memorials like the Lincoln memorial, Vietnam War Veteran Memorial, WWII Memorial, Washington Monument. Sorry I can't post any pictures, remember to bug me for them when I return home yar? Next, we went to the Holocaust Museum which, as the name suggests, is devoted entirely to the atrocities of the Holocaust. It is perhaps the single most depressing thing in Washington D.C.. We proceeded to a happier place, the Air and Space Museum. Ranked No. 1 on Yahoo Travel's Places to See List, we definitely didn't want to miss this. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time left cos we were due for a Thanksgiving dinner. Cherlyn, Denise and I decided to return the next day but poor Kristal had to make do with snapping photos only and skipping the exhibits totally. Just to clarify, Kristal is a fellow Singaporean sophomore, NOT exchange student i.e. normal student doing the full 4 year course in Cornell. Unlike us, she has a GPA to fulfill (we only need to pass haha) so she returned to Cornell earlier to study for a prelim. So yesh, the highlight (in my opinion) of the trip: the Thanksgiving dinner. You may be wondering where the fourth member of our group (a.k.a Jowyn) is. Well her roommate, Michelle, is from D.C. and a family friend of hers invited her family and us over for Thanksgiving dinner. Which is so so nice of them, afterall we are practically strangers and Thanksgiving is a traditionally family affair. Anyway, on that cold Thanksgiving night, we had a nice warm dinner. In fact, it was a huge feast. Not only was the food good, they were really so nice to us. Tummy felt good, heart felt good too, if u get what I mean. After dinner, we played games. It's actually really simple but damn fun. Won't tell you guys how its played here cos I wanna play it again when I return to Singapore hee. Ah I neglected to tell you about our benefactors, the Subata family. Mr. Subata is Japanese, his wife, Kate, is Caucasian and their children are gorgeous. There's Lan, Mie and their younger brother whose name I can't remember, I'm sincerely sorry. Besides their family of five, their future-in-laws were also present. Mie's fiance, his brothers and mother (I think). Mom's Japanese, Father's Caucasian (I think... again). Then there's Michelle's family, consisting of her Mom who's Japanese, and her brother's Daniel and George. Her father is a diplomat, currently in Iraq. Yup so all the 2nd generation people are Eurasian, specifically Japanese-Caucasian. Right so after the games, there was the dessert, then the (the Subata's) showed us a video of this organization their involved in. It's like a youth organization and they make use of the performing arts (singing, dancing, skits etc) to promote AIDS awareness among youths. Then the youngsters had a break dance competition, no kidding. Besides Lan and Mie, all the others break dance. I have videos as evidence. Mr Subata even showed a trick or two. They're really an amazing family. We, the Singaporean free-loaders, were also persuaded to put up a little impromptu item, so we sang a song or two, recited the pledge and sang the national anthem. The Subata's gave us a lift back to the inn but before that, they took us for a spin to see the night view of the memorials and monuments. This was my first Thanksgiving Dinner and I had such a lovely memory of it because of the Subata's. They really extended their warmth to us unconditionally and unhesitantly, I'm sincerely touched and grateful to them for their hospitality. To quote "Little Women", it's like knocking on a stranger's door on a cold winter day and opening it to find yourself at home again. What a wondrous and magical feeling.
*We all slept like logs.

Friday, 25 November
We sent Kristal to the bus station before heading for the Pentagon. It was a let-down actually, cos we couldn't enter the building. Neither could we see it's famous pentagonal shape. So we went to Pentagon City, which is a mall near Pentagon. Did some window shopping before going back to the Air and Space Museum. We spent most of the afternoon there looking at the exhibits before heading to Chinatown for dinner. On the whole, it was a pretty slack day, largely because we were all exhausted from the previous day and we didn't dare to return to our inn too late also because it's not very safe. Most of Washington D.C.s population is black. Most of the white people we see are either tourists or at the richer districts of D.C., which isn't very big. In fact, most of Philadelphia consists of Afro-Americans too, except for the UPenn area I think.
*I got a bed to myself hee. When I woke up in the morning, to my horror, Denise was sleeping on the floor. Decided she could have the bed to herself the next night.

Saturday, 26 November
We caught the 9am bus to Atlantic City, New Jersey. Atlantic City is basically a casino city. There are 3 major casinos: Trump's Taj Mahal, Bally's and Caesar's. Each has a different theme (Bally's is like wild wild west) and they all lie along the Boardwalk. Atlantic City is easy to navigate because all you need to do is to walk from one end of the Boardwalk to the other. The Boardwalk is really a wide walkway of wooden planks that run parallel to the coast. We arrived at 2pm at the northern end of the Boardwalk but alas, our inn was at the southern end. We took more than half-an-hour to carry ourselves and luggage all the way there. Exhausting. The innkeeper was very helpful though. By far the friendliest innkeeper I've met. After setting down our stuff, we headed out onto the Boardwalk, making stops at souvenier shops, peeking into the casinos here and there. We spent about 45 min in Ripley's Believe or Not Museum, which is filled with weird and bizarre artifacts. It was generally alot of walking around. When we got back, we had a nice chat with the innkeeper's son, who's actually a law grad. We were actually looking for information about this lighthouse that we wanted to visit the following day and we learnt not to rely on the mass media too much. It was at such an ulu-fied place that we abandoned our plans for going there.

*Denise got the bed to herself this time. She really hadn't had much sleep the past nights. She doesn't (or more like can't) sleep on the bus rides too so she's really running low on sleep.

Sunday, 27 November

Last day of Thanksgiving Break. None of us could believe how time just flew by but it did. We took a morning stroll along the beach and took some crazy pictures haha. We roamed around the inner part of the city until it was time to head back and pick up our bags and catch our bus. The bus at 12.30pm took us to New York City and from there, we caught the bus back to Ithaca. And that's about it. My Thanksgiving Break.

It's winter time now. Snow has accumulated on the ground, my heater is not warm and I miss home dearly. After my exams, I'll be flying to Florida (it's nice and warm there, thank goodness), then back to New York City to spend Christmas and finally Singapore. Finally.

I'm back from my Thanksgiving break, lot's of things to blog about. I do implore you to be patient because I'd like blog about it in just one post so it's taking some time to write. Meanwhile, here's a little entertainment, courtesy of dear Qihui. How come I'm the first on your list? *pout*

Seven things that scare me:
1. Losing my family.
2. Losing myself.
3. Losing my friends.
4. Any of the above getting hurt, ill or general malaise.
5. Scary movies. Yes, I'm a chicken. Cherlyn is a testament to that.
6.
7.
And there you have it. I'm a brave person. I dun have 7 things i'm scared of. I only have 5. So there.

Seven things I like the most:

I'm assuming people are not 'things'. 'Thinghood' can be degrading and I don't wanna offend anybody here so...
1. Sleeping.
2. Manga.
3. Reading. Er not just manga. I read other stuff too yar.
4. Music.
5. Singing.
6. Eating.
7. Hanging out with my friends.
And I bet you thought that tormenting people would be in the list too. Well guess again. I'm nice ok.

Seven most important things in my room:

Don't expect too much here. I'm a minimalist. My room is quite bare.
1. Bed.
2. Blanket.
3. Bathroom.
4. Bolster.
5. Curtains.
6. Fan. I figure this will be switched on 24-7 when I return.
7. Air-con. I'll try not to switch this on 24-7.

Seven random facts about me:
1. Once I killed a chicken. It took me about 2 to 3 mins though. I sincerely repent for putting the chicken through all that agony. I'll try to do it faster the next time.
2. Rebonded hair 3 times already.
3. Scaled Mt. Kinabalu.

4. Likes trees more than flowers. But generally like them both.

5. My neighbours think that I'm the older sibling. Do I really look that old? (I think I can answer that question. I've been called a housewife twice.)

6. Was History rep in Sec 3 and 4. Was also the only person (out of the 3 classes my teacher taught) to fail History prelim in Sec 4.

7. Once I walked down a field screaming my head off like a madwoman.

Seven things I plan to do before I die:
1. Bungee jump.
2. Fall in love.
3. Get married.
4. Have kids.
5. Make sure my parents have a happy, comfortable life.

6. Tour Europe.

7. Find a permanent solution to my curly hair. Shaving my head bald and rebonding are considered temporary solutions.

Seven things I can do:

Some of these things may gross you out. Be warned.
1. Blow bubbles with my saliva.
2. Raise my right eyebrow.
3. Cook Hainan Chicken Rice.
4. Pointe work with the proper shoes.
5. Annoy the hell out of anyone.
6. Lend out manga. Well it's my brother's but I'm sure he'll understand.
7. Whistle.

Seven things I can't do:

1. Slam dunk a basketball into the hoop.

2. Touch my toes without bending my knees. I'm really very inflexible, no matter how little people believe it.

3. Wear a bikini. It will fall off, I swear.

4. Speak French. Or German. Or Hindi. Or most languages for that matter.

5. Draw.

6. Repair computers.

7. Touch my nose with my tongue.

Seven words I say the most:

1. Crap.

2. Oh crap.

3. Wah lau eh.

4. Ma.

5. Lao ba (Dad in chinese).

6. Kor.

7. I'm sleepy.

Seven celeb crushes:

I dun have crushes. I just have a generally good impression of these people.
1. Brad Pitt.
2. Takeshi Kaneshiro.
3. Richard Gere.
4. Julia Roberts.
5. Celine Dion
6. David Tao.
7. Johnny Depp.

Seven people I'd love to see do this:

I was the first on Qihui's list. She holds me in great esteem I'm sure. Problem is, I dun really know 7 people who actively blog so I'm going to give this section a miss I guess.

Yup so that's it. Stay tuned for my Thanksgiving post. I'll try to get it up asap :)

I'm back from NYC and boy am I tired. Well as you know, I napped in the afternoon on Fri and stayed away through the wee hours of Sat to catch the 4am bus to NYC. It was -5 degrees celsius when we were waiting at the bus stop and that's really really damn freaking cold. It's gonna get worse, but I'll talk about that later. So the bus picked us up from our campus to fetch us to the bus station so that we could purchase our tickets. Then we hopped back onto the bus, where I promptly colonised (like bacteria do haha) the last 3 seats at the rear end of the bus. I think I mangaged about 2 plus hours of uninterrupted sleep before the bus got too crowded to allow me to take up so many seats. Btw, it's a 5.5 hour bus ride to NYC. No kidding. USA is large. Ithaca is in New York State, but it's very far north. NYC, however, is down south.
We reached Port Authority Bus Terminal and my first impression of the bus berth is that it resembles an airport. There are boarding gates for the buses and they are sort of dark and underground. Yup NYC is not a very clean-looking place. Our first stop upon arrival was the visitor's centre to pick up maps. We didn't get too lost haha.

Just a brief about NYC: The city is divided into 5 "neighbourhoods". Manhattan is the one where everything is (Times Square, Chinatown, Ground Zero, Wall Street etc...). The streets run east to west and run in numerical order from south to north, so 52nd St is 10 streets north from 42nd etc. The avenues run north to south and 1st Avenue starts on the east. 6th Av is somewhere in the middle. Yup so it's actually quite like grid lines and once you get the hang of it, it ain't too hard to navigate.

So after the visitor centre, we headed to our hostel at 106th St, which is way up north at the edge of Central Park, to check-in and dump our bags. We bought the one day subway pass which allows us unlimited rides for the day. We made good use of the pass of course, zipping in and out of subways. The subway lines aren't as straightforward as Singapore's. There are so many lines (1, 2, 3 etc... A, B, C etc...) and some miss certain stops at night, some replace another one on weekends etc. Yeah I'm using "etc" alot cos I haven't figured out the subway line. And I don't think I will so...

Our first stop was to Ground Zero. The rubble is gone. It's now replaced with the construction site of the building that's gonna replace the World Trade Centre Towers. So it looks like, well, a typical construction site I guess. Next, we went to take the free Staten Island Ferry to look at the Statue of Liberty. This ferry is actually a shuttle service to Staten Island (another of the 5 "neighbourhoods") which goes past the Statue at a distance. We still got a decent view of it so that's fine by my standards. We headed to Chinatown next. Nothing much there, unless you're interested in fake LV or Prada, Gucci and that sort. Picked up souveniers there. We proceeded to the Rockefeller Centre next to see the gigantic Xmas tree there. It's not lighted up yet, it will be on Thanksgiving. We headed for Hard Rock Cafe next, only to reach the address and find out that they've actually relocated. Argh. That was pretty frustrating. We met a really kind lady at a shop that we popped in to ask for directions. She was indeed very helpful, calling up the Yellow Pages to find out the location of Hard Rock Cafe for us. It turns out that they've moved to Times Square. *slaps forehead* Right, where else could it have been? So we happily trudged down to Times Square. It was really crowded. Think Chinatown on Chinese New Year's Eve. Yep. That crowded. Took pictures of Times Square, bought some Hard Rock merchandise, then we grabbed a hotdog from a nearby stand and proceeded to the theatre for broadway. "Rent" is really quite nice, nice catchy music, lyrics were hilarious at times. One of the male leads is so so cute. Oh my. My favourite character wasn't him though. And that was the end of one very hectic, tiring but fulfilling day.

The next day, we took a short stroll at Central Park in the morning. Unfortunately, that area was devoid of anything interesting. Just trees and leaves and people walking their dogs. So we headed back to the hostel to grab our bags, eat breakfast and check-out. We made our way down to Port Authority to catch the bus to Woodbury Premium Outlets. Then we spent the rest of the day there, but not really shopping actually. Guess we were just too tired from the previous day, what with all the walking and lack of sleep. Denise had it really bad, she hardly slept that night. Cherlyn and I just had really sore feet. Well Denise too I guess. We all had really sore feet. The bus Ithaca brought us back to Cornell at 11.25pm.

I'm off to Philadelphia, Washington DC and New Jersey tomorrow. Will be back on Sunday. Gosh, I can already feel how tiring it's gonna be if NYC was already so draining. Guess that's the difference when travelling by car (provided that you're not the driver) and taking public transport. I miss road trips.

So the sun sets at 4.45pm nowadays. I keep thinking that it's dinner time everytime the sky turns dark. Maybe I should start thinking about my expanding waistline instead. Anyway, it's cold here. It really is. Temperatures are starting to dip below ice point. The refrigerator is probably warmer. I wore my thickest jacket to school today and I'm glad it works. It'll probably keep me nice and toasty for even lower temperatures so I should be all geared up for winter in Ithaca.
Right, I think it's still autumn here.
Yeah so anyway, I'm taking (yet another) break from cheonging homework to blog. I'm actually trying to finish homework that's due in 2 weeks because I'll be away the whole of next week for Thanksgiving break. In fact, I'm waiting for one of the assignments to be posted online so I can complete it while the library is still open. It's the biostats assignment and I need to use the software in the library to complete it. Unfortunately for me, it's still not posted. Gah. The library closes early on Fri and if he still doesn't post the assignment, I'll be in for one helluva rush to complete it when I get back from my break. Sigh. I'm not hopeful. In fact I'm hungry.
There you go. I'm constantly hungry nowadays. People, when you see me again, just wanna let you know that I know I gained weight. Yup so the constant reminders ain't very necessary, if you get what I mean.
The cold weather makes me wish I was back home in Singapore. And then I think about how warm it'll be, I get second thoughts again. Think about it: I'm used to an air-con-like atmosphere here. The heat is probably going to be nearly unbearable when I return. A whole 30 degrees change in temperature. Whoa. Not to mention the household's electricity bill will shoot up due to my excessive use of air-con. Not good, not good.

~~~

Yeah well now it's night time now. That earlier portion was by me at ard 3 or 4 in the afternoon. It's now 11, I've gotta stay awake till 3am to catch the 4am bus to NYC. Going there for the weekend. Was supposed to go last wkend but there was the football game so we pushed our plans back one week. And yes, I discovered another assignment that is due after the hols (it's a lab report this time) so I really ought to be finishing it up I guess. Here I am talking about homework and I bet some of you back in Singapore have already finished your exams. Or going to. Well good luck to those who still have papers remaining. To the rest, enjoy your hols. I'm missing Singapore. The sunny weather, food, food that will stay warm for more than 5 mins in particular, daddy, mommy, kor, friends, karaoke, manga and much more hee. Yeah if you guys are planning anything, keep me updated ok? :)

10 Random things

1. I found 18 degrees celsius to be warm.

2. I had a guest lecturer on Monday for my Plagues and People class. Topic: SARS in Singapore. A very enlightening and refreshing lesson. Gained much insight into what people thought of Singapore.

3. Over the course of a week, I've watched Saw, The Grudge, How to Lose a Guy in 10 days, Pirates of Carribean, Panic Room, Two Week's Notice and Supersize Me.

4. 1 bagel = 5 slices of bread.

5. I like bagels.

6. Current favourite song is "We didn't go to Harvard" by the Cayuga Waiters, an a capella group in school.

7. Cornell's long-time rival is (of course) Harvard.

8. When it gets too cold, my ears ache. And that is really uncomfortable.

9. I no longer want to work in WHO.

10. I need rebonding.

Went to watch an American Football match yesterday (Saturday). Cornell vs Columbia. We were victorious. I would like to thank my brother for introducing me to Eyeshield 21, a Japanese manga that's about American Football in Jap high schools. I was able to make sense out of the game. Otherwise, it just looks like people piling on top of one another. Basketball is another sport that I dun watch but read about. Think most people of my generation should have at least heard of Slam Dunk right? Yeah, that is one really good manga series. I digress.
Anyway the director of the International Students Office was very kind to organise a lunch (pizza) cum info session about American Football. Then later, we all trooped down to the stadium to watch the game. It's the last game played on home ground for the season, so the turnout was pretty large. We were told that this game was particularly significant for the seniors (graduating/final year students) cos it's their last game in Cornell. It was nice and sunny too, a pleasant change from the cold of Thursday and Friday. It was actually quite an easy win for Cornell. In fact, we always had the upper hand. After the game, we went down to the field to take pictures with the football players. Finally I know where all the cute American boys are hiding. My roomie is quite gaga over them now, but it's just a phase so hopefully it'll pass haha. What about me? Haha well that's something for me to know and u to never find out *smirk*
Besides that, there's basically nothing much happening now. The week that just passed was a rather boring one. We had little homework, one or two quizzes and no major tests. Not that I'm complaining but that did help to occupy my time now that Penelope is far far away in Neverland. Cherlyn and I watched about 6 movies I think over the course of the week. Movie rental in my hall. Did I tell you I love Balch? hee.
I'm looking forward to next weekend though. We're taking a trip down to New York City for broadway and to check out THE PREMIUM OUTLET (translates to more SHOPPING) *grin* Thanksgiving Break comes right after that weekend and I'll be going to Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and New Jersey. After that, the exams are round the corner. Hopefully there'll be enough snow by then for us to take a day off to go skiing during the study break. Then after exams, I'll probably go to Florida and head back to New York City to spend Christmas. And then, I balik kampung.

Whoopee! It snowed! Actually, I first experienced snow here in Cornell a few weeks ago. One of those blistery cold nights when Cherlyn and I went over to HILC for some activities, we saw those little specks of things floating around. Today it snowed when there was still light. This time, the specks were a little bigger. It didn't last long and it wasn't heavy enough to leave a layer on the ground but the fact that it did happened is really quite exciting to a mountain turtle so do forgive me for making such a big fuss hee.
And I formally bid farewell to the nice warm weather of 15 degrees celsius and above. I don't think it will come back while I'm still here. Lately, the wind has been very strong. In fact, on Makanmania afternoon, there was a mini-whirlwind right outside my window. I was trying to nap at about 4pm that afternoon when I heard this whirring sound. When Cherlyn and I drew the curtains to take a look at what's outside, we were quite surprised to see that the sky was dark already, much like the 7.30pm sky in Singapore. The really shocking thing was to see the trees swaying in the wind and the fallen leaves on the ground being blown up really really high, higher than our window at the second floor. And of course the howling of the wind and lightning that streaked across the sky added to the general mood of cold, windy and colder. So that's the marvellous Ithaca weather for you. At least it snowed. Now let there be enough snow for a snowball fight. That would be heavenly.

"Singaporeans Host Cookoff: Diverse foods draw in crowds"--By Xiaowei Cathy Tang, The Cornell Daily Sun.

Approximately 200 people converged yesterday evening in The Straight’s Memorial Room for Makanmania, an annual food and culture dinner hosted by the Singaporean Student Association (SSA).
The night of “food-mania,” as Makanmania translates, featured 23 different entrees as well as Singaporean games and singing by SSA members.

Don't be silly, of course I didn't sing. That's besides the point.

Makanmania 2005 was plenty of fun. The 4 of us exchange students contributed almond jelly, which was also mentioned in the article.

Another popular food was almond longan, a typical dessert made with almond essence and the fruit longan. Because the weather in Singaporean is very hot, people eat this dessert to cool down, explained Denise Wong, an exchange student from Singapore, as she served bowls of the dessert to guests.

Hee. It was popular. Click here for the full article.

If you're curious to know, our almond jelly was from an ancient and secret recipe. To unearth this mysterious and elusive recipe, we had to venture into a hardly-frequented supermarket at the edge of Ithaca. The treasure was in fact hidden on the left-most aisle, 3 shelves from the bottom. Lo and Behold!

Right, that's cryptic enough yar? Whoever can guess correctly what I'm talking about, extra chocolates for you! Leave a comment if you think you know what it is :)

So when I left my last post, Cherlyn and I were actually busy reading up on research papers for our project-cum-presentation due today. It involved reading and digesting 4 articles and transforming it into a humongous poster (56 inches x 40 inches). I bet half of my classmates only understood half of what I said and the other half probably didn't know what I was saying half of the time. It's probably because of the slang. Besides that, we also spent the weekend shopping for Makanmania ingredients and going through many of the problems we might face serving almond jelly on a large-scale. But it was all resolved in the end so I'm glad. We all are.

It's my last 6 weeks at Cornell! Yikes!

If you see me popping up online on msn, there are 4 likely reasons:
1. Penelope came alive. Mind you, this is very brief, possibly only for a day or even less.
2. I'm in the computer lab which has windows messenger.
3. I'm at the laptop rental centre in my hall.
4. My roomie is sleeping so I'm using her laptop.
From observing everyone's msn nicks, I figure that the exams are drawing near for the NTU and NUS people yar? Good luck everybody, don't give up! Oh yar and SMU person (I think tt's only you, shu) too :)

So Monday was Halloween's. There were at least 10 parties taking place around the campus on Saturday but Cherlyn and I couldn't go for any cos of our prelim on Monday. Although I only need to obtain a passing grade for all my courses here due to my status as an exchange student, Fundamentals of Endocrinology is truly one course I have to mug to pass. P-A-S-S. I'm not kidding. I was this close away from failing the first prelim. *shudder* Yup so happily mugged away the time on Sunday too. Oh yeah it was daylight savings day so I had one extra hour to mug. Ugh.

I digress. So Monday was Halloween's. My prelim was the first lesson that day and we missed the bus. Well it went right by us cos it was full. Great. Brisk walking to the other end of the campus ensued. The rest of the day went by better. We rented 2 DVDs at night to watch cos... IT'S HALLOWEEN'S! hahaha :) Tuesday was uneventful, it's Wednesday now, soon to be Thursday. Oh yes, you know that already. Next comes Friday, for your information.

Oh ignore me. I'm irrational.

I think my laptop is pretty much dead. I guess Penelope came alive one last time to let me back up my data before falling into eternal slumber. Sigh.

So besides this piece of bad news, this week has been quite fun. On Tuesday, we gathered at 11.30pm to celebrate Denise's birthday. We surprised her with a yummy chocolate fudge cake at the stroke of midnight and the first thing she said when she opened the door to her room was, "What the hell?!" Denise never ceases to astound me. Earlier that night, Cherlyn and I set off the smoke detector again. We decided to bake cookies once more and we were prepared for it to go off again. Unfortunately, this time we set it off in the evening when most people were in hall, so many people actually rushed to the kitchen to help. I felt pretty embarassed about it cos it (the ringing) was really annoying everybody hence the decision that it would be our final batch of cookies made in Cornell.

Thursday I had no lessons. Normally I have one lesson in the morning. However, the instructor issued the second prelim paper, which was a take-home paper, the previous Thursday so we submitted it on Wednesday and there were no lessons on Thurs. Cherlyn and I braved the wind and the irregular TCAT buses to go all the way down to Winli oriental supermarket to get ingredients for our "feast" on Fri. We decided (a pretty long time ago in fact, just after Chinning's laksa) to treat the guys (Alvin, Yizhuan and Chinning) to a home-cooked meal to thank them for all they've done for us (which is really really alot). We (back to Cherlyn and I) detoured to Walmart where I picked up a pair of chunky light brown boots (yipee!) that promises not to leak from the soles or the sides (goodbye wet soggy feet). Then we had to hunt down some really elusive ingredients at Wegman's and wait 40 min for the bus back to school. So we were pretty damn worn out by the end of all that.

So anyway, Fri was one busy day. The guys actually forgot about the dinner. Wouldn't say I was mad cos we did send out invitations a very very long time ago and I guess it's no wonder they'd forget so... Cherlyn and Denise had a wild time reminding them about it. Things like Alvin nuggets, Ning minced meat and Yizhuan Kongba bao were frequently mentioned. Think they got the idea about what would happen to them if they couldn't guess correctly haha. Our lessons normally end at 1.10pm but we had a review lesson at 4pm, so as soon as that ended, we headed over to HILC to commence Project Iron Chef!! *insert dramatic music* The dishes were: Tom Yam Fish Soup, Chawanmushi, Stir-fry Kangkong with Sambal (yes there is kangkong here, albeit imported...) and Fried Chicken (which deserves special mention). Desserts courtesy of Denise were Blueberry Cheesecake and Agar-agar. The fried chicken, oh my... think we will all avoid chicken for the next couple of days. In short, the chicken totally did not turn out the way we wanted. Thank goodness for ketchup.

Today, I went to do community service. It's a Cornell thingy organised annually, entirely voluntary with no strings attached but we decided it'd be a good experience so we decided to participate. We picked rubbish at the local YMCA, cleaned windows (well not me but some members of our group), broke our backs trying to move an outdoor basketball hoop thingy indoors (up a slope no less!) and painted the pavilion the wrong colour (oops!). So now, I'm taking yet another brief respite from mugging for my prelim on Monday to blog. Gosh, who am I kidding man...

As a closing note, I do feel that love is in the air. It's so contagious that all my best buddies have fallen into its clutches. I'm still immune though, should go do a blood test to check for the antibodies that give me the resistance. Perhaps I can make some money out of it.

I'm kidding.

Aiyoh, my dahling Penelope is going bonkers again... yep my laptop has refused to be switched on yet again. In fact, it's exactly one week ago that I had the same problem. How suspicious. Anyways, judging by the previous time, I probably can't use her until Thursday or so... and that's if she still works. Amitahba man...

Mood=(quote Jyang) sian-half.

I just did the craziest thing ever: Riding a rollercoaster at near zero degrees celsius in the rain!! Well make that 3 rollercoaster rides actually... Siao boh...
Another trip organised by HILC, Cherlyn and I happily chup in haha. We went to Six Flags Theme Park at Darien Lake, Buffalo. The bus left at 10, we reached at 12.45pm or so, where we met up with Jowyn. Jowyn spent the weekend at Rochester with a friend and judging by the interesting stories we heard, she had a rather wild time there. *cough, frat party, cough cough* Yeah anyway, it was the worst day to be at an amusement park because it was cold and wet. It rained almost perpetually and temperatures were definitely sub-10. I'm pretty certain that as the afternoon progressed, it hit sub-5 at some time cos we could see the mist from our breath. But did that deter us? Of course not!
The first ride we took was the Viper. That one was pretty cool, turned us upside down once or twice with the loops. Then we headed for the Boomerang. The Boomerang was pretty interesting. We were first carried up a slope backwards so we were looking down on the slope. Then suddenly, without any warning, the brakes were released and we zoomed down the same slope we climbed up, up and down, sideways, a couple of loops and then a slow climb up another slope, this time facing forward. Then the entire ride repeats backwards. Wicked eh? We did the bumper cars too but I was quite unlucky cos my car wouldn't move. If my estimation is correct, I was displaced a grand total of 5 metres from my original position, thanks to the other cars bumping me along. Shucks.
By then, it was really unbearably cold so we hid in the theatre for awhile. Halloween's around the corner so the performance was entitled "Dead Man's Party". A mix of song and dance, it wasn't too bad plus it kept us out of the rain for quite awhile. After that brief respite (I admit I really needed it cos I dun have a high threshold for fast rides, even though I like the thrill...), we went for THE ride. Ride of Steel a.k.a the Superman ride is one helluva ride. The start of the ride is the worst. Here are the Ride Facts:
1. First Drop: 205 Feet (about 62m!!!)
2. Angle of First Drop: 70 degrees (argh!)
and there are some more but not that important. I really really hate the feeling of free fall after that ride, cos after the first drop, there were at least two more not-so-high-but-bad-enough drops so the feeling really really sucked. *shiver* But the rides are damn fun la. See how contradictory I am? Sigh.

So that concludes my weekend. Some highlights next week include having Thursday off cos the only lesson that day is a take-home prelim, hopefully getting a pair of chunky boots cos my track shoes are leaking from the soles and my cheap boots are slippery, a big cooking event and comm service at YMCA. Yeah man.

Alrighty, finally found the mood to blog. Mood = crappy.

Guess most people know about the scare my laptop gave me. I bought this second-hand Dell to bring to Cornell so it's only 3 months old. Wait, I should correct that. It has been in my possession for 3 months. It's actual age is *gasp* 4 years. Of course the guy I bought it from didn't tell me its age. I found out when I was surfing the Dell website looking for the technical support hotline. I keyed in the service tag number and this window pops up, telling me how ancient my laptop is. Maybe I shouldn't call it an it anymore. She's (my laptop) very much a woman, concealing her real age from me. See how crappy I am?

Anyway, there is more. Apparently I overworked her on Sunday cos Monday morning when I tried to switch her on (to check the weather so I know how much to wear, and yesh I'm serious), she didn't. Then on Tuesday, she still didn't. And Wednesday. By then, she was placed at the corner of my desk already, instead of the centre position she previously occupied. On Thursday, I was packing my bag and ready to retire to my bed with a book (not textbook I assure you), I decided to try her one last time and voila! She decided to grace me with her kind attention. So now I'm happily blogging and I promise to treat her well lest she throws another tantrum. Yup, guess that's enough of my laptop (should I call her Penelope? hmm....)

I had 2 mid-term exams this week. Relatively manageable. The daily temperature is low and still lowering. It's just below freezing point at night and the highest daily is around 15 degrees celsius. According to the forecast, snow is expected on Monday but I'm not counting on it. I bought a bottle of marinade-cum-stir-fry sauce and suddenly, fresh meat is so much more palatable. I've lost my tan from FOC so my skin colour looks much like the Hainan chicken skin colour. Ugh. But my hair is straight *grin*. It's still straight. And I'll repeat that again. It's still straight.

I've got about 2 more months left here. Gosh time really flies. I wish it wouldn't. Mood = subdued.

My laptop is working again. Phew. I promise to be good from now on. *nods head fervently*