15: satire is what closes on Saturday night.

okay. my sat night plans just disappeared on me thanks to the bus that came early, while i still wasn’t there. sigh. and i was about to go off and watch sweeney todd too! at cornell, cheaply. but well, it’s still showing next saturday. tomorrow’s out cause i have no way of getting there and back to IC thanks to the fact that no bus comes to IC after 5.30 on sundays. woohoo.

but now, i can get around to blogging! (: pictures of boston will be added to the previous post, and london trip and nyc up next! check back soon~

this is my only free weekend for a while so i decided i shall get my lazy ass up to blog. (: yays.

/edit: i’m a bit bummed cause i can’t find my boston pics. i’ll search hard. but. sigh. i think i’ll just get sheryl to send me them again :P

13: time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.

that quote’s given to me by xuanyou, i googled it, its apparently from groucho marx.

it already feels like the weekend is here. i never fail to feel relieved on wed nights, cause thursday classes are generally slacker, and i usually finish my work (if any is due on thursday) before that.

i’ve got like 7 journal entries to write by next week for my terrorism class though. :X

anyway, i’m gonna start on my assignment thats due on tuesday so i can go syracuse (1 hour up north) tmr happily! (:

wendy (this sg girl who is taking mba – i think – at ic) is driving up aso she asked me if i wanna go. (: there’s apparently a big mall there!

hehs. and it feels good to receive packages. i got a mail notification today, but was a bit lazy to trudge to the campus centre and back JUST for that (since it closes WAY before my night lesson) so im collecting it tmr. prob from the family. yays.

and it just feels good to know people miss you too. i tagged on erwin’s blog the other day cos i missed him (and his FANTASTIC drawing skills) immensely while drawing my rubbishy storyboard, and it was a nice, heartwarming reply (:  and i know my roomie misses me even though she insists OTHERWISE. :D

and erm. i’ll get around to the photos… someday. :P

12: the bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.

oops, the pictures still aren’t up. cos’ i’ve been drawing my storyboard all the way till half an hour before lecture started… :P and they might be up tonight, but depending on how quickly i redraw my ugly storyboard (which looks decent on page 1, but crap on other pages :X) and edit my script (and those are two diff mods. sighs)

but anyway, shannon made my day! haha. i was complaining a few weeks back that i didn’t have any cny goodies, and he (being my newfound lets-bitch-bout-life-here timezone buddy), sent me a tupperware of cny goodies! and three packets of korean noodles! (!!!!!) i was just regretting not buying the korean noodles the other day. yay to shannon. hahaha.

whee. THANKS SHANNON. the noodles were a pleasant surprise, and the goodies came (mostly) intact. postage looked ex though O.O

11: a Boston man is the east wind made flesh.

so much has happened and changed since the last blog post!

i haven’t had the time or motivation to blog properly cause i’ve been pretty caught up in all sorts of things.

the chinese new year dinner at cornell… was boring. zzz a bunch of people i didn’t know, and the few people i knew were busy catching up with other people. :P left early cause my ride – this sg girl at grad sch in IC – was leaving early. her cousin’s at cornell doing masters. he was from ntu mae. and he stayed in hall 9 blk 47. like O.O (if you don’t know, that’s my block back home)

i went boston last weekend with jianmin and sheryl. (thus the quote above, it’s by Thomas Gold Appleton. i don’t exactly know what it means.) it was quite a last min decision. stupidly left my memory stick in hall, so pictures’ll have to wait till jianmin and sheryl give them to me. it was quite fun lah, but i think there’s not THAT much to do in boston cept eat. on the first day, we 3 walked the freedom trail, it was nice seeing the stuff, but we were historically clueless – and boston’s a historical city. so it seemed like quite pointless. we were damn tired from all the walking though. :P then we had cny dinner at MIT :D cos wenxian (jianmin’s friend who sort of hosted us while we were there. and he is also the friend of many of my other friends :P) is the sing soc cochair there, so he invited us to the cny dinner. we had to pick sheryl’s friend though, so we missed the good food :P and we walked the same route there and back like 3 times. once to get there, once to pick sheryl’s friends up, and once to get back. :P (so that’s 4 times of the same hallway – although i distinctly remember 6. i can’t remember why 2 more times though).

i went to stay at layhoon’s place for the night! and it was a nice place :D

second day we had lunch at legals with wenxian and justin (sheryl’s friend). which was fantasically yummy. i ordered the same thing as jianmin and the whole table decided ours was definitely the best :D loads of good stuffs man. i was STUFFED full. so yummy!! then we toured MIT, and MIT has geek pranks. google MIT hacks for more :P

boston was fun cos of the company. when i go back during summer (no one i know will be around i think…), i’ll check the stuff out before i go so i know what the historical thingys mean. otherwise i think 2 days to explore boston was actually quite ok. we just didn’t have time for harvard – but harvard places are apparently hard/expensive to get into without harvard friends. kudos to jianmin who had to drive us all the way to boston and back (that’s 6 hours each way) cause his two driver friends backed out on him, and sheryl can’t drive. i didn’t have my license – otherwise i can drive in ny state :P oh and jianmin also got his first parking ticket – not for not paying parking fees, but for parking next to a hydrant no one saw :X

I have just returned from Boston. It is the only thing to do if you find yourself up there.
Fred Allen

then the last week was spent catching up on what i didn’t do over the fun weekend. bleah.

i went target on thursday to pick up stuff for my theatre design module, and i bought a small kettle! it’s so cute! will take pictures of it later. it’s too late now, i just wanna finish blogging :P and i also bought a whole ton of stuff that will probably make me happy for the next few weeks or so. had a hell of a problem carrying everything back. luckily the bus here (while long) stops everywhere so i hardly had to walk :P

on friday, i went for an indian buffet lunch with jianmin and dawn (who were nice enough to ask me along). jianmin got scared and paid for parking. LOLS :D the lunch was yummy. then cause dawn’s learning driving (and here you don’t have lessons, you learn from someone else who has a license :P), she drove us to wegman’s then walmart. i picked up packets of stuff i could make hot drinks with – green tea, english tea and cocoa – but i haven’t tried them yet.

then we went to the mall, and i went target again. dawn wanted a standing lamp. i wanted the $5 pillow i saw the day before but couldn’t carry back cos’ no car. :P i ended up getting a slightly more expensive pillow that was much higher so i won’t need to stack pillows up. and it IS comfy and nice. i feel happy getting it. it is a good investment lah. i’m glad i paid a bit more. was going to get 2 pillow cases for $5 so i can use the other pillow when i read or something but i decided on green sheets that were $10 instead. then i have an extra pillow case and pretty sheets! so now i have pink and green sheets, both of which i probably intend to bring home and use in hall cos plain sheets are so pretty lah. and the green’s super sweet. will post up pictures of my room tmr!

today was fairly antisocial. i think excluding thankyous and excusemes at the dining hall, i said only like 1 line to a proper person today. i hung around in my room and my roommate’s home for the weekend. thank goodness for online chatmates :D

oh and the white glue here is fantastic. i can paste like edges of cardboard to another surface. i haven’t tried in singapore – but i don’t think the white glue i had there was that good. i remember having other incidents where my white glue didn’t work. i’ll post up a picture of the funky white glue (or rather, what it can do) tmr too. i am, to say the least, impressed.

okay photos tomorrow. it’s late now!! going to sleep (:

10: if the heart is true, it doesn’t matter much if an ear drops off.

that’s erm, a bit morbid sounding – but apparently that’s what a bear teaches you. haha. yay my roomie’s parents bought me a teddy bear for v-day! so sweet! and the teddy’s cute. (:

he’s supposed to appear the right way up, but i don’t know why he isn’t. but i’ve set it so he’s appearing the right way up. i think it my be may cache. oh yayyies, he’s the right way up!

:P shannon, weishan and ziliang have reached the US too! its quite exciting, having them reach here, and bitch about them with life here – which is supposed to be exciting, but isn’t really, not yet. not till we all settle down! i guess. haha i’m settling i’m settling and i have nice friends here – made a new friend in cinema prod I and she’s nice. and my roommate’s nice. (: and cinema prod’s fun, its like making films on film which is beyond funky and the bolex camera’s cute. and unchunky. i wonder how the camera that dropped at home went though.
going to open a bank account tomorrow – hopefully everything goes well – cos i only have the photocopies with me right now…

have got an international students meeting at 7 later – which i almost forgot about, and a cornell singaporean students CNY dinner on saturday! haha i’m quite excited, can hear all the lahs and yahs and what not (:

things are definitely looking up!

8: war becomes perpetual when it becomes a rationale for peace

i love love love this module i’m taking. i was thinking of dropping it at first, but after i went for the class, i’m so dropping hollywood and american film if i get my writing class.

because it is simply so great! it’s Cultural Production on the War on Terror. and it’s fantastically interesting. i love such modules – and they are so rare! – cause it’s relevant and very very thought-provoking. it’s what i loved about history in jc, and what i always hoped to sort of do, but well, i never got to do. we touched on it in cs102 and i wished we had more of those.

we watched “War Made Easy” in class, and it is a great film!

there was a lot of good quotes, good statements made. but there was one that struck home nearing the end of the film. it was a clip from sometime back during the vietnam war, and it was a statement senator wayne morse – one of the two senators that opposed the gulf of tonkin war – made. it was a debate about american foreign policy, and who holds the right to decide american foreign policy.

Lisagor: “Senator, the Constitution gives to the president of the United States the sole responsibility for the conduct of foreign policy,” Lisagor said.

Morse: “Couldn’t be more wrong, you couldn’t make a more unsound legal statement than the one you have just made. This is the promulgation of an old fallacy that foreign policy belongs to the president of the United States. That’s nonsense.”

Lisagor: “Then to whom does it belong then, senator?”

Morse: “It belongs to the American People. The Constitution has made it very, very clear…”

Lisagor: “Then where does the president fit in? On the responsibility scale?”

Morse: “What I’m saying is that under our Constitution all the president is the administrator of the people’s foreign policy. Those are his prerogatives and I’m pleading the American people be given the facts….”

Lisagor: “You know, senator, the American people cannot formulate and execute foreign policy…”

Morse: “Why do you say that? You’re a man of little faith in democracy if you make that kind of statement… I have complete faith in the ability of the American people to follow the facts if you’ll give them. My charge against my government is that we’re not giving the people the facts. “

or something to that effect, i googled it and came up with several different versions.

anyway, i think it’s very applicable today, not only in the US, but also Singapore today. there’s always the debate about how singaporeans are babysat by our government, and how we aren’t mature nor intelligent enough to make these decisions. but if you think about it, does more education or political training give the right to decide anything regarding the people’s lives? in the end, the prime minister, government or anyone, in a democracy, is simply the administrator of the people’s wishes, and deciding anything for them, claiming that the people are immature, just simply comes off as a little condescending to me.

that was just a little, unorganised, on the spot rant. not very well-thought out but just felt like mentioning it because of the class. it was a very, very inspiring film. and i love the class! YAY.

on a slightly more depressing note, i think i’ll only clear about 16 AUs (hopefully not LESS than that) for this whole semester. which means a lot of work the next few semesters cos i’ll have 59 to clear by year 4. and 20 go to FYP and internship. which leaves 39 more over yr 3 and yr 4. which really, isn’t too good because i want a comparatively slack year 4. but okay lah. i guess. since i’m like peering at the curriculum structure, i’m supposed to have like, 66 AUs to clear – i’m ahead thanks to my year 1 intersem – where i managed to clear a good 7 AUs. maybe, if it doesn’t clash, i can take more production workshops and clear another 2 or 4 AUs. otherwise i’ll just work hard in the first sem next year, take about 20+ AUs (we’re supposed to take a whopping 22 AUs as recommended by the curriculum structure -_-”)  and then maybe i’ll have a slack year 4 still..

7: forgiving one’s relations

edit: by the way, this blog doesn’t mean the other blog doesn’t get updated. this is just for all my exchange-related stuff. :P

title comes from an oscar wilde quote about being able to forgive anyone after a good dinner, even their own relations. he’s funny.

dining hall food isn’t as bad as i expected it to be (thank goodness, i paid like USD$2500 for a whole sem.) it’s practically like having a buffet every meal. there’s food that looks good and is bad, and there’s good food (: had pizza, a bit of macaroni (and it’s yummy, despite my dislike for pasta that isn’t noodle-y), an absolutely tasteless brownie, a yummy cookie and yummy yummy peaches.

which was, a lot. haha i’m feeling all happy and full. i shall visit the campus center dining hall more. cos’ i think the food’s nicer than the terraces’ dining hall. but then again, i’ve only been to both once each. shall not pass judgement so early. but the campus dining centre is loads nearer to where i am anyway, and and and…

my roomie’s back! and she’s very nice! phewwww. (: (:

okaeee. time to socialise :D

6: popsicles anyone?

edit: added photos! facebook has more! these are just some (:

i just nearly froze into a popsicle out there on the streets of ithaca.

taka, patricia and i decided to venture down to ithaca commons today! it’s erm, a really small area. haha. there’s a quaint little beads shop there, and a quainter 2nd hand bookshop there, where you can read on the secnd floor. i think i’ll head to the commons to look for funky charms someday to bring back to singapore. (: i like the bookshop idea too. i think it’s very nice. the cafe upstairs looks so inviting lah. it’s not like the bookstore cafes in singapore. i never feel tempted to walk into the cafe at borders or kino to sit down and read. then again, it might be because the store itself is kinda cosy and nice.

1: ithaca commons!

2: dog in that quaint little beads store. he was really cute and sweet!

3: the nice, quaint bookstore and the cafe on the 2nd floor!

so after walking around for a while, we got bored and wanted to head over to the pyramid mall! but we realised that the last bus to ithaca college seemed to be at 4.25. and it was already three plus, so we decided to hang around the commons for a while longer and then head back to college. after walking a little more (there really wasn’t much more :X), we headed back to the bus stop and waited. and waited. and waited! according to the bus guide taka had, the bus was supposed to come at 4, but the one at the bus stop said 4.25.

4: when it was 4.20…

4.25 came, and went, and there was still no bus lah. we saw a 15 go by, however. the 15 is a bus that changes into 11 (don’t ask me, their buses kinda evolve into each other :X) but we didn’t hop on it cos it’d take us over an hour to reach IC. after waiting till 4.35, we saw another 15, and we asked the lady about the 11, and she told us that the last 11 to catch would be at green street (2 streets down, not very far) at 5! by that time, all we wanted to do was to cuddle up in our warm rooms. it was damn depressing man. we reached green street at 4.43 or so and waited till 5 for the bus. meanwhile, my toes and fingers felt like they weren’t mine :X :X :X

so yes. jessie nearly became a popsicle. sigh.

isn’t a good day today. had a lot of internet problems when i got back too! after much troubleshooting (or rather, just doing random stuff, to hopefully determine the problem :P), i figured it was probably the isp not being able to deal with the sudden influx of students today. most of the IC students are back today or tomorrow and it’s getting noisy around here. i’ve been rather antisocial though.

i’ve found my roommate on facebook! so i sent her a mail and asked her if i could move her stuff out of the cupboards! she sounds super nice :D phewwwws. she’s coming tomorrow! i hope we get along! (: that’s probably the only decent thing that happened today :P

freezing into a popsicle. is. no. fun. at. all.

it’s around -12 here, i think. and i’ll edit the post and add pictures later. meanwhile, i shall post the post while i can (while my internet is still going on strong.. :X)

5: blue and orange sunsets

the sunsets here are absolutely beautiful. happened to walk out when the sun was setting. the sky was mostly blue with a line of orange at the bottom. pretty. my camera really sucks though. its hard to take good photos without a flash :X it’s a nice photo but it’s a bit blur and it’s really irritating me. argh.

had dinner with patricia and taka! haha this is what i had for dinner:

the academic advisor is the assoc dean of the roy h park sch of comm. woah. anyway, my schedule now – not what i wanted – looks like a full monday and wednesday. and that’s pretty much ALL there is. i’m serious. but i think i’ll change it. which makes it like half days from monday to thursday. which means i still can travel over weekend. i’m half tempted to keep it the way it is. but i guess not. heh.

while i was at the park sch of comm waiting for the assoc dean to bring us into a meeting room, this rather old prof came along and asked “anyone here from singapore?” and so i was like “yeah!” and he was like “ntu? sci?” and i was super happy cause like yay SINGAPORE! SCI! haha. he’s dr. keshishoglou – the guy who wrote the cs103 textbook with dr. aquila. he taught at SCI for like 6 years a few years back, so he always brings the sci students around. yayness. he gave me his name card and told me to call him – which i did. so now he’s bringing me to tour ithaca tomorrow! damn cool! haha.

oh and i forgot to say – the other day on my tour of cornell with jianmin, dawn and jo. we went on a suspension bridge at cornell cos it apparently shakes when you jump. so we went to the middle of the bridge, and attempted to jump together. 4 20-year-olds trying to jump in sync, while trying not to do anything retarded like saying “1, 2, 3 jump!” is freaking retarded. +_+ then later jianmin said if we walk in sync it’ll also shake. so we did that a bit. also went to dawn’s house for a short while. it’s a bit strange how they don’t take off their shoes at home :X but dawn’s house is prettyyyy.

yup, quite excited! gonna tour ithaca tmr! whee. although it feels a bit odd to be around a prof who writes your text book. honestly.

4: painting the words

here’s a few pictures since i have nothing to do! more can be found on my facebook, although not many more! (: some of them are quite blur, i think. it’s the lack of flash, and the hurry to take pictures cos’ its so cold! oops. i’ll try take better ones.. :P

1. the first dinner i’ve had in the US (planes not counted!) and where i bought it from:

2. me, shagged after 3 plane rides and 1 short bus ride from JFK airport to LGA airport

3. my hall, and the outside of it (:

5. me and some of the other exchange students. we were heading to walmart! had to use flash cos the bus was jerky and thus patricia was like whited out :X