Living My American Dream

Eyes Wide Open

2007-12-14T16:21:00.000+08:00

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

Before you think I am crazy, what do you think I witnessed just now? Any guesses? Haha. Before your imagination run too wild, let me give you a hint. It's something you don't find in Singapore. What's America culture like to you? Ah... so you guessed it?

I just witnessed...........................

A Nude Parade!!!!!!!!

Now, you understand my insanity? Haha. I am still engaged in disbelief what I just witnessed. Think I might not be able witness such an event again. Once in a lifetime man.

Some background information on the Nude parade. It's a tradition carried out by a group of Cal students who lived in Co-op, which is similar to the halls in NUS, just that it's not co-owned by the university and it's a smaller community style of living, a group of 30-50 people living in a big house with a common kitchen and dining room. So, every semester during the start of exam period, they will strip at the basement of Mofitt library, and run through every floor of the main stacks library , which is the underground library of Cal, a few rounds.

Guess what? I got the most shocking introduction before the actual nude parade. I was getting ready to go to the main stacks library via the elevator before I decided to take the stairways to save time, for I do not want to miss a single moment of the nude parade. And when I open the door to the stairways. POOF!!! A big bunch of half naked people greeted me, about 40-50 plus people. OH MY GOSH. Some of them got their boobs decorated with fanciful paints. I walked past them and asked them if they will run to the main stacks later. In response, they put their fingers on their mouth, "Sssssshhhhhhh." So, off I went to the main stacks in anticipation of their arrival.

When I arrived at the main stacks, the aisle was already full of people waiting to watch the parade. Wa seh man. So shiok. Most of them were ready with their cameras and some even got their SLRs. Wa kao. So I thought I should take a video of the parade too though I was initially against the idea. Hmm, at this point? I am thinking, should I continue with my description of the parade or would you rather I post the videos on my blog? Afterall, pictures speak a thousand words. But here's the issue of privacy versus excitement? Give me your feedback on my cbox. Majority wins. Polls ends on next Wednesday night, which is the last day of my exams. Haha. Create some suspense for you guys. Haha.

Trapped in Desolation

2007-12-06T17:12:00.000+08:00

I almost couldn't make it home tonight.

Before you guys make any wild guesses what happened to me. Let me inform you guys I am safe and sound now. But what happened just now was enough to freak me out, if not to the extend of traumatizing.

Today, I did something different from my usual habit. Instead of studying in my usual hideout, the Bioscience or Mofitt Library, I decided to try out the main library to gain a new experience, since it is reputed to the 3rd largest library in US and Cal is famous for that library. This library is unique in the sense, it is built four underground storey deep and the lowest storey is connected to another neighboring library, Mofitt library via an underground passage. FYI, the 2 connecting libraries closes at 2am on weekdays and Sunday even prior to exam period and the library is scarily crowded even at 1am in the morning on normal school days. This very well explains the culture here in Cal.

So back to my main story. After studying till 1230am in the morning, I was too weary to continue my revision and decided to head back to the same main entrance door where I entered the library to exit. Little did I expect or suspect the following event to happen. I was TRAPPED. So how the hell did I stupidly get myself trapped? Can't believe I was the fool again!!!! ( CS the Great, sounds familiar?)

On my way to exit, I could sense something amiss, but I choose to ignore my sixth sense. The pathway towards the main entrance was eerily quiet and spooky, but my tired mind just continue dragging my legs towards that entrance. First, I have to open the door on the inner partition wall before I can move to the main entrance. Here's the moment where I felt my world started to sink. The main entrance was locked. Damn. I turned back and try to open the door on the inner partition wall but I couldn't. WTH. How could this happen? Double whammy. Holy shit. Apparently, the door on the inner partition can only be opened on one side. I went into a frenzy and knock on the glass door frantically in the hope I can capture somebody's attention. My efforts was futile for the first few minutes until a cleaner appear on the far corner of my visual field. I was crying out to her to open the door for me. But guess what? The most ridiculous thing happened. She choose to ignore my cries, shaking her head and waving her hands, signaling to me "I can't help you.". I was pleading to her I just wanted to get home and meant no harm. I wasn't even yelling at the top of my lungs for fear of scaring her off. But she heartlessly choose to vanish off my sight. How unlucky can you get? Just when you have some faint hope, fate cruelly take it off from your weak grasp. I stopped short of cursing her as I didn't think cursing would help my situation and I thought I can only blame myself for my own plight.

At that moment, I already resigned to my possible fate of sleeping on the cold floor in the space between the main entrance and inner partition. I wanted to try calling the campus police department to free me out of this misery, but I recalled I didn't store their number in my cellphone when I should had when the advisers for international students told us to do so during our first orientation briefing. Blame myself for being so arrogant and naive. I thought of using the laptop to search for the number online, but I didn't bring my laptop battery and there's no power point to be seen in my enclosed area. Arghhh.... Bad things do not come alone. Suddenly, by a stroke of genius, I recalled I might have placed the pocket brochure for campus safety in my bag and indeed, I found it. Finally, luck is favoring me. I can be saved!!! Haha.

Just as I was about to call the campus police department, my fortune turned even better than I expected. A nice cleaner gentleman came up, opened the partition door and unlocked the main entrance door for me. Oh my god. I can't express my gratitude for letting me off the hook. Guess my Karma is not that low that I am destined for sufferings. Haha. Phew. Give praise to any lord in heaven though I am a free thinker.

What a unforgettable night or rather a night to forget.

Inspiring Lecture

2007-12-05T07:54:00.000+08:00

I thought I have to pen this down before I forget though I am racing against time to complete my revision for 18hours worth of upcoming exam papers starting next Monday. Never have I experienced such an inspiring lecture in my life. Though I have encountered lots of insightful and dedicated lecturers in NUS, however, they are no where near the passion or humor displayed by some of my lecturers here in Cal.

Today, during my General Endocrinology class, my Black lecturer, Hayes, a Harvard graduate was giving his first power point lecture on his research studies. His research topic was "The effects of pesticides on frog development." He started by saying he's a man of few heroes in his life and those heroes whom he dedicate his achievements to are his mum, grandmother, wife and children which was very heartwarming. He then moved on to share how he cultivated his interest and curiosity in frogs, his findings on his research studies and showed us majestic pictures of the different landscapes where he did his field research studies. Pictures from the sky, at ground level and all the different angles you can do with your camera. Didn't know research studies can be so fun and interesting as well. Get to explore and embark on amazing adventures while you conduct your studies. Cool.

Just as we were absorbed in his adventures of his research, he threw us a surprise out of the blue. He showed us a blank slide with just a line in the middle of the screen. He asked the class what's the thing on the screen. Somebody answered "a line" and here's where the excitement starts to buildup. "This is not just a line, but "the" line. The reason I show you guys this is because I have just crossed the line and I have good reason for it." He moved on to express his displeasure on not being able to get his papers published despite the concrete evidences he had gathered and favorable peer review he got from his fellow colleagues because of political reasons. He made a statement I still remembered, "They tell you as researchers, you just focus on your research and let the management make the decisions." Next up, he showed us the hierarchical structure in getting journal papers published for scientists, all the organizations and committees involved. Here is the stunning part. He plastered photos of the same person who was chairing in several of those organizations and committee and expressed he was the reason why he could not get his papers published. He moved on to debunk the arguments made by this person and his team of research scientists in verification of his findings on his research and contest on each of their reasons for rejection, which were very convincing. How courageous can you go. Well, this is America. Land of the free. Freedom of speech. Individual rights above anything else. But, I respect him not just because of his courage but the charisma he displayed while fighting for his cause. He wasn't degoratory or sarcastic in his rebuttal but he was a real gentleman who expressed his unhappiness in an amicable, persuasive manner.

In rounding up his lecture, he showed us why we should fight or even care about such things. He fights because he knows his research findings, which revolves around pesticide has a great impact on our environment and people. He fully utilizes the images of people and mother nature to capture the soft spot in our heart and empathize with him. And guess what happened at the end of his lecture. No prizes for the right guess. The whole class just stood up to give him a standing ovation which lasted close to a few minutes. Just amazing. You could hardly find such charismatic lecturer in NUS.

One key difference I observed between the lecturers in NUS and Cal is that Cal lecturers know how to mix fun with their work and are more eloquent or "animated" in sharing their passion, thus inspiring more students to pursue their fields of studies. Some food for thought. Hmm.

I leave you guys off with an quote I got from Hayes, "Each of us should remember that we are writing our eulogies everyday of our life."

Reno Photos

2007-11-29T14:04:00.000+08:00

Lake Tahoe Photos

2007-11-28T15:15:00.000+08:00

I can foresee this could possibly be my last entry before the start of exams in about a week plus from today. So enjoy these pictures before the next entry comes after the end of my exams.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I hereby present my princess to you

2007-11-17T02:40:00.000+08:00

Wahaha, this is absolutely amazing, magical, fantasy-like to me. I finally understood what my friends mean when they say when it comes, you just can't stop it. How true this is? When I look back at the times we first met, the path we took before we came together, I can't thank fate for playing its part in bringing us together. It's just so fleeting how everything fall in place in just a few weeks back. I am like living a double dream concurrently. Firstly, it has always been a childhood dream of mine to come to America and study in a top university. Secondly, I finally gotten my dream girl after 2 years plus of persistence and patience. All the coincidence and omen was so strong for the past few days I knew something good was going to happen. I just don't know when it would it be and I struck gold this morning, Berkeley time at 758am, 16th November 2007. Yes, my special one has said "yes" to me. For that moment, I felt I was the happiest man on Earth. I can't express my gratefulness for her acceptance though I know this is just the start of another new chapter in my and her life. As my special one is a shy girl, I promised not to reveal her identity here. But I can tell you she's currently in Singapore. So for those expecting me to bring home an US hot babe, I am sorry to disappoint you guys. But I can bring home US hot babes photos if you like. Haha. Just bug me on MSN. Below are some of my favorite love songs I like to dedicate to my new found princess.

This song is very special to me because this lyrics bring back my fond memories when we first met, have fun and have a crush for each other. In fact, she was my first crush back in NUS. It's sad we took such a long path before we rekindle those fondness again. But it doesn't matter as all good things are worth waiting. Isn't this so true? Suddenly, I felt all the waiting was worthwhile and make me want to treasure this relationship even more. The following verses struck a deep chord within me.

We were strangers starting out on our journey
Never dreaming what we'd have to go through
Now here we are and I'm suddenly standing
At the beginning with you

I do really feel we were back at the beginning. Those days when we have a crush for each other. Isn't this sweet, my dear?

This is one of my all time favorite Disney love song. I used to sing this song alot during my teenage days though I did not have any girl in mind at that time, but was just singing it in my heart to my future special one. Yep, I like to fantasize alot during my teenage days but which teenager do not fantasize? Today, I want to sing this beautiful song with my new found darling. I really wish you could be here in US cos I really want to "show you the world" and "share this whole new world with you". I will bring you to Disneyland one day. You got to believe that day will come.

This is my number one Disney song though it's not as popular as the earlier Aladdin's song. I fell in love with this song while watching the movie "Pocahontas". The lyrics were so touching I almost cried listening to it when I was in primary six. I even went on to buy the Original Sound track and still have it with me till today. Here are some of the verses I want to highlight.

If I never knew you
If i never felt this love
I would have no inkling of
How precious life can be

And if I never held you
I would never have a clue
How at last I'd find in you
The missing part of me.

In this world so full of fear
Full of rage and lies
I can see the truth so clear
In your eyes
So dry your eyes

And I'm so grateful to you
I'd lived my whole life through
Lost forever
If I never knew you

Isn't these verses romantic?

This is my favorite KTV duet song. I never fail to sing this whenever I go to KTV. The melody and lyrics speak for itself.

I like to sing this song as I can sing this alone when I can't find a female partner in KTV. Haha. But, this song describes my feelings perfectly now. That's why it's here on this blog. Another thing special is this music video is shot in San Francisco, the place I stayed for 2 weeks prior to coming to Berkeley. The famous tourist attraction, the Golden Gate Bridge is still vividly imprinted on my mind.

Ok, guess you guys should think I am mushy and emotional person after reading this entry. But this is my true self which is not often displayed to my friends. Haha. I am a die-hard romantic deep in my heart, but I do not have a channel to express this side of me in my normal daily life. But now I do. Haha.

I hereby end off wishing my love story will be as beautiful as those in Disney movies.

Halloween Photos

2007-11-14T16:26:00.000+08:00

Here are the photos as promised earlier. Unfortunately, I don't have the best pictures to show you as I forgot to bring out my camera in the morning. In fact, I made a return trip back to school in the evening to capture these pictures. Enjoy.

That's all I have folks.

Outdated Photos

2007-11-06T17:20:00.000+08:00

Cal Campus

Yosemite National Park

I will upload Halloween photos in the near future. Hope you enjoy these pictures.

AML1001: Introduction to American Lingo

2007-11-06T08:29:00.000+08:00

Haha. I am not sure if I am the right person to teach you guys this course. But here are some of the terminologies I learnt and subconsciously picked during my time here in America.

Phrase 1 : "Hey, how's it going?" with a thick American Accent.

It means "How are you doing?", " How's things going for you?" or any greetings along these lines. It took quite awhile before I understand what the "it" means in this context. The "it" refers to the current issue you are pursuing or busy with. Almost nobody uses "How are you doing?" here.

Phrase 2: "Hey, no biggie." "This is a biggie."

Guess some of you could guess what they mean. Biggie in the first example refer to big deal and in the second example, it simply means big thing. Haha. Biggie sounds cool and interesting to me.

Phrase 3: "Meet you at fourish."

Ok. Even I find this absurd. I was totally taken by surprise when I first heard this term. Fourish in this context means four plus or close to four. So next time when I tell you to meet at two-ish, three-ish, five-ish, you should know what I mean k. Haha.

Phrase 4: "Jesus Christ!" - (loud exclamation)

I am not sure if most people here are Christians or Catholics, but they substitute "Oh my God." with "Jesus Christ!". So, which is more cool to you? "Oh my god" or "Jesus Christ!". You have your own take.

Americans also have their own terminologies for alot of things.

Restroom for toilet.

Napkins for serviettes.

Flip-flop for slippers.

And many others I can't recall now. If you use the latter terms instead of the former ones, they won't understand you and give you a baffled look.

And Americans pronoun alot of words very differently from British which is the way Singaporeans pronoun. Unfortunately, I can't illustrate this aspect through this platform. Tell you guys more when I am back.

Striking Resemblance?

2007-11-06T06:34:00.000+08:00

I got this surprise email from my aunt. This is what my aunt wrote.

"Do you think he looks like you?"

张敬轩获颁内地最佳男歌手

Oh gosh. This is really freaky. Ok, I think he does look abit like me when I was younger with my bunny teeth before I put on my braces. Yes. That's how toot I looked like before I put on my braces. Always afraid of exposing my awkward bunny teeth. Haha. This picture does not show his best looking side. Click on the link for his other images. Do you guys know him? I seldom keep myself updated with the latest songs, so I can ignorant when it comes to the latest music scenes. If only I have his singing talents, I wouldn't bother studying so hard right now. Haiz.

A Song Dedication

2007-11-06T06:18:00.000+08:00

This song is dedicated to someone very special in my heart. You know who you are. I yearn for the day we could sing this song together in KTV. Or is it a wishful thought on my part? Only you know.

US Pacific Time Daylight Saving

2007-11-04T23:49:00.000+08:00

The clock in the west coast of US has just turned an hour back officially this Sunday morning at 2am. That means it's a 16 hours difference here from Singapore time from now till next 9th March 2008 when the clock will move forward by an hour. Suddenly, I just felt our distance have increased due to the increase in time difference. Wonder how this is going to affect me contacting my family and friends back home in Singapore. The clock on the right has also just been adjusted for your reference.

An Unforgettable Walk with an Elf

2007-11-01T06:23:00.000+08:00

I am not dreaming. I walked with a elf this morning. Serious. I am not kidding. I really walked with an elf today. Really.

Ok, I shall stop this nonsense. It's Halloween today!!! The only day when Americans go crazy and dress up in any costume of their liking just for the sake of Halloween. It didn't strike me it's Halloween till I stepped into campus this morning and this gorgeous elf caught my eye. Woo. I really thought I was watching a movie when I first saw that elf. The elf just looked so real. This female elf was wearing a green hat with a quill feather on it, has long pleated blonde hair, wore the typical elven costume and wore long green stockings which were so sexily attractive. Drool. The only thing amiss was her school bag in place of bow and arrows. But, nonetheless, it all looks so real, with the campus setting of tall tress and lush green shrubs complementing her presence. It just looked like an elf having some adventure in the woods. Haha. I am making up some fantasy, but who doesn't like fantasy? I tailed her for a couple of minutes as we happened to walk in the same direction, but I didn't manage to capture a glimpse of her face, only her back view. While I was tailing her, I was cursing myself for not bringing my camera. Haiz. So, I don't have a photo to show you guys, or it would be wonderful for memory keepsake.

Later in class and campus plaza. I saw all kinds of characters. Cowboy, Catwomen Frankenstein, Julius Cesar, Spartan Warrior, Geisha, Joker, Superman, Batman, Harry Potter, Medusa and many interesting characters or costumes that I cannot identified. For those less elaborate, they just wear a head gear representing different characters, like bumblebee antenna, devil horns etc. It's an real eye opener for me. Just that I wished that there were more people dressing up for this occasion. I managed to take a few pictures of some costumes after I went back home to take my camera. Gotta go off and study now. Mid term exam tomorrow. Sian. Will upload those funky photos next time.

Happy Halloween!!!!!

A beautiful song

2007-10-29T13:45:00.000+08:00

Heard this from a friend's blog. I was so mesmerized by the angelic voice and beautiful lyrics that I want to share it with you guys.

Fantastic KTV session

2007-10-28T14:09:00.001+08:00

Yes. There's a karaoke lounge in Berkeley and it has all the latest Mandarin songs here. Guess what's the big deal? The whole KTV session of 7 hours were fully sponsored by Singapore International Foundation, a foundation set up to support Singaporeans in overseas colleges. Plus we get loads of free food and drinks. Yippee. Had a great time singing. We even have a singing competition at the last hour of the session and all the contestants were excellent singers. Fantastic. What a great karaoke session we had. But what I valued most was the amount of networking I accomplished through this KTV session. Not only did I interact and exchange contact with the executive director of Singapore American Business Association (SABA), who later invited me to help her in an upcoming SABA Gala Dinner in SF, I also interacted with a big bunch of NOC - NUS Overseas College program students who are currently working in Silicon Valley and studying part time in Stanford University. There was this cute girl currently in NOC who caught my eye early during the KTV session, but I didn't expect the following events to happen. I merely bumped into her outside the restroom and immediately we struck a great conversation. She was so impressed by my credentials, just because she knew it's hard to get to UCB for exchange and that set the tone for her to know me better, though I keep telling her she was flattering me. What surprised me was her eagerness to persuade me to pursue NOC after I expressed my interest in NOC and my reservation in delaying my graduation by a year. Guess she has such a strong urge to help me, she even walked into my KTV room late on and pulled me out of the room to get my contact and gave me her heartfelt personal sharing and advice to extend my graduation and come to Silicon Valley NOC upon identifying her own plight with me. It's rare I get anybody sharing so passionately with me, though I also got great advice from the rest of NOC students who similarly gave me the same encouragement to pursue NOC in SV. All these inspiring encouragement might just make up my decision to relive my American dream, i.e. pursue NOC in SV. I am still undecided at this stage, but my heart tells me to go. One reason is I so love America.

I shall leave you with a song which kinda describe my mood a few days back. I just learnt this song today and kept humming it in my head till now.

My First Ever House Party

2007-10-28T02:07:00.000+08:00

Yeah. I just went for my first house party in a big bungalow. It was free entry and free flow of drinks too. How great a deal can you get? I have never let loose myself so much that I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Girls were scantily dressed and most people were dressed up in all kind of costumes. One wore a cat costume and carried a whip. Another one wore a superman costume and so many guys crossed dressed as women. And oh my god, their boobs and long hair look so real, I almost thought they were ladies in the dark. Music was great and I had a great time dancing. The only spoiler was I didn't manage to get any girl to dance with me. Haiz. It's ok. I didn't expect much but my hot female house mate who was picked up, later give me tips on how to pick up girls. I shall try them out if I get to another house party. Haha. And I puked when I reached home this early morning. I was having a bad headache more than feeling nausea for the rest of the morning. Guess I can never be a good drinker.

From Agony to Jubilant

2007-10-26T15:06:00.000+08:00

You can experience this two extreme emotions in just a matter of minutes. All you need is a evil, melodramatic teacher who loves manipulating and toying your feelings. And those who has been following my blog closely would have easily guess who he is. Of course, he's none other than my business law lecturer.

Today was the day of verdict for our mid term. Just as everybody was waiting anxiously for our paper, he started off his class in an unusual manner. "Honestly, I really love to give everybody an A for this class. You guys are a bunch of excellent students, but unfortunately, the school doesn't allow me to do this and I am sad to say most of you guys did badly." Everybody held their breadth by his sudden niceness and reveal of the truth. "Well, it's time to face the reality, no point crying over split milk, children."

Some background information. As the mid term was base on spotting and analyzing issues found in a single case study, he didn't mention anything about the total score for that paper before or during the mid term but merely state each issue correctly spotted and analyzed is worth 10 points and we are supposed to spot as many issues as we can. I just thought this was crap as how are we supposed to know how many issues to spot since there's no total score, so basically we just scrutinize for whatever issues we can find since we have no idea of the maximum number and pray that it's enough. So, when I got back my score and saw 117, I have absolutely no idea how I fared.

Only after he distributed the paper to everyone did he say there's 20 issues in total
and the total score is 200. Oh my god. I merely just passed? How can anybody pull off all the 20 issues in that case study. He starting writing out the grading for the different category of scores on the whiteboard. A >160, B 140-160, C 120 - 140, D 100-120, F < 100. Damn. I got a bloody D. What the hell am I doing in Berkeley? I really hate that sinking feeling again. I thought I was on the road to recovery after a few great scores in my past few tests and now I am back in the shit hole again. Am I not suited to come to Berkeley after all? At the same time, I heard loud moans around the class.

After the reality has sunk into us, he broke the dead silence. "These gradings are before we curve it, here's how things changed after curve." A+ >160, A >130, A- 120-130, B+ 110-120, B 100-110, B- 90-100, C+ 80-90 etc. Jesus Christ. My whole heart momentarily jumped off. I just got myself a B+ close to an A-. What a dramatic change. I expected myself to do decent for this paper but maybe not as much as an B+ since I wasn't wholehearted when I do the paper and I have never been a great writer. Apparently, those outspoken whites who always fight to talk in class are less fluent in writing or they have problem spotting issues which is strange to me. Well, heck, I just wanna rejoice for now. There's even a student questioning if that grading distribution is final to which the lecturer answered, " You think I have so much time to kill and do nothing for the rest of class."

There you go. Isn't it interesting to have such a lecturer teaching you? Lots of excitement and unpredictability. You never know when he's serious or when he's joking.

My blog smile back at me

2007-10-24T08:42:00.000+08:00

Ok, apparently, my photos are back. Guess I was throwing my tantrums needlessly. =)

Even my blog pour on my sorrows

2007-10-24T07:42:00.000+08:00

I am so depressed right now after I got some news in the morning and here my blog is pouring on my sorrows by removing all my photos. How miserable can you get? Do I deserve so much shit that "somebody" even has to play pranks on me too? Life just sucks.

Do not judge a book by its cover

2007-10-22T12:23:00.000+08:00

Surprisingly, the lady whom I studied together today turned out to be a nice lady who gave me a 3 hour review on the content to be tested in the upcoming mid term. Amazing. She has pretty much turned into my personal tutor for that class. Haha. I thought I was going to sit through the session studying my own notes since I haven't done much revision, but yet she offered to summarize the important points and possible questions that could be set in the upcoming mid term. She's such a hardworking person that she attends the GSI, graduate student instrutor, office hours and obtained many tips and hints from the GSI on the possible questions that could be set and she shared them all with me unselfishly. Woo. Well, it's a norm to consult the GSI and lecturer in Berkeley, but somehow I am lazy to go for office hours, mainly due to my lack of revision, but I can't find time to revise early in the first place. Haiz. Now, I know how to get recommendation letters for your resume. Go to office hours and chat up with your instructor or lecturer.

Ambivalent Day

2007-10-19T12:12:00.000+08:00

Yep, it's a strange day for me. Both a pleasant and unwelcome surprise happened in a short space of a day. I shall start off with the unwelcome first before moving to the pleasant one.

I was picked up by a girl. Ok, before you debate with me on this statement, let me say this is subjective and you guys tell me what you think. The same girl who asked me to study together in library tucked me, yep hold my arm, to accompany her to a nearby shop house to buy a drink. Being a nice guy, I accompanied her though I wanted to rush home and get ready to buy groceries at a faraway supermart as it's getting close to dinner time and I wanted to cook. Then this absurd thing happened. When she didn't have small change for her drink, she asked me to pay for her without mentioning she's going to pay me back. Oh my goodness, is that the way to get a guy to treat you? She kept chattering away telling me how stress she was for her exams and how much she wanted to ace her studies. She kept asking me questions about that class when I haven't done any revision on that class though the exam is next week. Worse still, she told me about the new dress she bought that day and how much she likes it and asked me to accompany her to shop because I told her to relax when she shared how stressed up she was. See, it doesn't always pay to be kind. She even misunderstood I was going to the supermart straight and accompanied me to the bus stop when I wanted to go home. How miserable can you get? Wonder how's Sunday going to be like studying with her? Cross my fingers.

Now, let me share my pleasant news. I happened to know this Vietnamese girl a few days back who took 2 same classes as me. I didn't take notice of her until one of the lab session which I didn't have to take but for exam review I went for it. As there was only 8 people in that lab session, I took notice of her and realized she was also in the same class as me for another course. On the same day, coincidentally, I bumped into her outside the computer lab while waiting for our turn to use the computer terminals as there was a queue. That's when we formally introduce ourselves and chat up with each other. We didn't talk since until we bumped into each other again. And guess this time where did we bump? Even I couldn't have imagined this happening. Yes, outside my apartment. She saw me in the dim dusk light and greeted me first outside my apartment when I was back from the supermart with full of groceries on both hands. Apparently, she stayed in the same apartment as me. How small a world can you go? And she stays directly underneath me. OMG. Yet, I never saw her while walking to our common 8am classes on Monday, Wednesday or Friday. Either I have been late or been skipping too many of that class or she has been skipping classes herself. Let's see how much more will I see her in future. Come visit this blog for all the latest actions.

Why you should study alone in the library

2007-10-17T14:09:00.001+08:00

My eventful day continues into the night in a school library which opens til 2am in the morning. I didn't have the habit of studying in the library until I came over to Cal, as I do not have a bright room and the library is about 10 min walk from home. Just as I was studying in the library, guess what, a classmate whom I didn't acknowledge before today just came over and talked to me. It's a white guy and we started off dicussing about our preparations for tomorrow's mid term exam, before deviating off to chit-chats. He told me about his intention to come to NUS for exchange and gave me advices of places to tour around in America, telling me to visit him if I drop by at his hometown in San Diego. Cool. One of my objectives for exchange is to make more White friends. I will certainly show him around Singapore if he comes to NUS.

So, as you can see, it's common for people to chat up with you as everybody is pretty much alone in everything they do here, especially when it come to classes, so they make friends wherever they move to. I have spoken to alot of people while walking on the streets of Berkeley who recognise me as their classmates. So what do you think of Americans now? Friendly?

Shall come to library more often to make more new friends. Haha.

What an eventful day

2007-10-17T06:58:00.000+08:00

Well, eventful in the sense alot of shit and surprises happened in the same day.

I woke up this morning, realizing I lost my green B4 size notebook and I went around the campus searching for it, but I couldn't find it back. In Cal, your notebook is your livelihood since most classes here do not have lecture notes, but luckily just a few notes have been written on this new notebook I just bought or I will be stuck in deep depression right now.

Then, came the shocking news from my friend via MSN offline message. Not completely shocking, but I didn't like the news. Shan't divulge anything here, but it affected me my mood at a crucial time when I was about to take my business law exam in an hour.

Things didn't get better later on. When I reached the classroom for exam, I didn't know I was supposed to come prepared with a bluebook to write your answers and there was only 5 minutes to the start of exam. OMG. Good gracious, I made a friend in that class who was kind enough to show me and run with me all the way to the place to purchase the bluebook. Now I know studying in Cal carries so much hassle, you need "extra preparation" for the exam. To my relief and expectation, the paper was very manageable and I finished 5 minute before time when everybody is still scribbling.

Later in the day, somebody whom I just met and talked to just once invited me to study with her this Sunday for the next Thursday paper. (Yes, I still have 1 mid term test every week from next week till 1st week of November on top of quizzes and journal article reviews to handle.) Pretty surprising given the situation, but guess I am still very much a shy boy who feels coy when approached for such invitation by new friends.

Now, it's 4pm, wonder what else will happen tonight?

Round 2 of Photos

2007-10-09T15:37:00.000+08:00

This should be my last entry for this week before I kick off my intensive preparation for my next 3 heavyweight tests on 3 consecutive days next week. I am been fooling around, in other words having fun, every weekend so much so I have yet to touch on any of my notes for 2 of upcoming tests. Good Gracious what am I thinking? 6 weeks worth of untouched notes plus an additional week of lecture before a 40%, a 15% and a 50% worth of mid term exams. I just finished 3 mid terms and now I have to deal with another triple. Jesus Christ. American university just placed so much weightage to mid terms you can't even afford to catch your breadth during the semester, needless to say lack of break other than public holidays. But somehow everybody here can do it? Damn. What happened to my supposedly high IQ I learnt from my Mensa score? Well, I am certain I will pull through in the end, have faith in me.

Ok, enough of lamenting on academics. Here's what you guys have been waiting for. For the past 3 weekends, I have watched a college football at Cal stadium, celebrate Mid Autumn Festival with Singaporeans and Malaysians at Stanford University and spent 2 days one night at Yosemite National Park. Enjoy the pictures.

Cal Female Volleyball Team in Action Cal Pong Pong Girls

Stanford Pong Pong Girls

Cal Football Stadium

Cal vs Arizona

Stanford University

CheeseCake Factory

Ok, I am dead tired uploading all the pictures and it's 2am now. I will upload more UCB campus, Yosemite and personal photos next week if I managed to survive through the tests. I leave you guys off with my favorite photo so far. See you next Wednesday.

The Daily Californian

2007-10-05T14:54:00.000+08:00

Here's a sample of UC Berkeley daily weekday newspaper. It's written by Cal students themselves. The headlines today are more peculiar.
If you can't see the headlines clearly, here there are:
1) Freshman Found Dead in Unit 1 Dorm
2) Employees Protest I-House Conditions
3) UC Berkeley Lectures Now Available on YouTube

For the first headline, I thought it's another murder case as gunshots are pretty common in Berkeley. But on closer inspection, it's classified as natural death. Phew. I thought it was another case of bloodshed. God bless this poor dude who died at a young age of 17. His birthday is just another day long. And guess what's his first name? It's Lehmann, the same namesake as the Arsenal goalkeeper, but they are unrelated to each other.

For the second headline, protests are pretty common in UCB or America in general. That's their way of getting the attention they seek, or getting support from the public. In my short space of 1 month in UCB, I have already witnessed a few of them in the main campus plaza protesting for all kinds of funny reasons, Save the trees, Stop Discrimination against Blacks for University admission etc. People here are just more outspoken and courageous to fight for their cause. Speaking of protest, this links me to the Myanmar monk protests against the military government. I believe everybody back in Singapore should know about this, but it's oblivious to the Americans here. World news seldom reach here as Americans are pretty much in their own world.

For the third headline, I first saw this news on Yahoo Singapore news. Wonder if this news is actually so big that it has reaches Singapore too? Tell me if you guys saw this on Straits Times Newspaper. And speaking of lecture, I just can't keep laughing in my business law class. My law instructor has such cool attitude, he just keep teasing everybody with his crude jokes in class. Here's just one of the many examples of his crude jokes. My law instructor is herein known as Ross.
Ross: " Does anybody in class sings well?"
No response. So he got to arrow someone.
Ross: " Jaime, can you sing?"
Jaime: " No, I can't sing well."
Ross: "How do you know?"
Jaime: " I don't know."
Ross: "Ok, prove to me. Sing Case 3 out."
Loud roar of laughter.
Well, of course Jaime didn't sing the case out as we all know it's a joke.
I bet this lecturer would easily garnish the most hits if his lectures are placed on Youtube. If only his lessons are web casted will you guys fully understand what I mean. If not, I try tape recording them and place them on Youtube myself. Haha.

This really sucks

2007-10-03T03:14:00.000+08:00

I just got back one of my mid term paper. Amazingly, the GSIs here are so efficient they take only 4 days to marks our 2hour short structured questions of 130 plus students. It's my immunology paper and guess what. I failed by 1/2 a mark, yep 62/125. Suddenly just feel so lousy about myself. Not that I expected high marks, but being the competitive person I have always been, this is not the kind of result I expected. The professor showed us the bell distribution and the mean is 85/125, standard deviation is 17.5, 95/125 for an A which is only 76% for a A. My housemates have been jerking me for studying so much and not knowing how to chill and telling how dumb the students here are and how easy it is to ace more than 90% for each of their paper. What they failed to understand is different professor set different standard of paper. I have a easy paper on Monday as well but I am still holding my breadth for my 1st mid term that I took. Sad.

Round 1 of photo feasting

2007-10-02T15:10:00.000+08:00

Apologies for being away for so long. Your readership is greatly appreciated and any inconvenience caused is deeply regretted. So pardon me k? Been boiled down with mid term exams for the past one week. Finally can take a breather after one long week of mugging. I almost died. Haha. All this mugging is done in the midst of lessons with homework assignments. Gosh. Exams here are tough, all open ended questions and require you to think of experiment techniques to solve problems. I have one test which requires me to get 70% in order to get a C. WTH. I am crossing my fingers I will do fine in the end. Here's some of the outdated photos which I took in the past one and a half months when I was still staying in the backpacker hostel in San Francisco. Enjoy.

Fishermen's Wharf

Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz Island

Sausalito

So close to seeing Natalie Portman

2007-10-02T15:09:00.000+08:00

Oh my god, I can't believe I was so close to seeing Natalie Portman. She was giving a talk about poverty in one of the auditorium in Cal this evening, but because my house mates delayed in getting out of the house, we ended up at the back of the crazy long queue and couldn't get into the auditorium. Haiz. In the end, we couldn't even catch a glimpse of her and walked off reluctantly. How often do you get to see a superstar up close? Someone who has both the brains and looks. Bet it's less than once in a blue moon. FYI, she was a Harvard graduate with a degree in psychology.

Beautiful Boobs

2007-09-22T23:38:00.000+08:00

Haha, I didn't see this from porn, but I was given a free show of how to decorate your precious asset. There was this lady in campus, who wore a low cut shirt to reveal her beautifully tattooed bosom. Wow, what a cool way to flaunt your assets. Wonder what other outrageous stunt will I see in campus? 12 more weeks to discover.

Haunt of the Drunkards

2007-09-19T13:52:00.000+08:00

Damn, I made the wrong choice of going to the library alone in the late evening. I ended up having to walk back home alone down the eerily dark streets of Berkeley campus and surrounding areas at around 11pm. I thought I am a brave boy until this incident deflate my self-esteem in walking alone on the streets of Berkeley in late night again.

It's already freaky spooky once I step out of the Bio Science Library at around 1030pm. The campus is not as well-lit as NUS and you only see faint light emitting from distance from the widely spaced street lamps. As I am walking alone back home, I get stares from strangers who are also walking alone and people who are walking their dogs at this late hour. Quite creepy. As Berkeley is notorious for its high crime rate, I was extremely cautious of any people around me. Tortured by the freezing cold wind, I hastened my pace to reach a better lit shop houses district. Little did I know that worse thing is going to happen.

Along the famous Telegraph Avenue, I was approached by 2 white drunkards under brightly lighted street lamps.
White Drunkard: "Hi, how's is it going?"
Me: "I am doing fine. Thanks."
I quicken my pace to avoid being too close to them, but to my displeasure, they quicken their pace to tail me.
White Drunkard: "Hey brother, what are you doing? We' re going for fuck fest later, wanna join us?"
This was what I thought at that moment.
"Freak! What fuck fest are you talking about? I am not interested. Get lost."
I was kinda freak out that I accelerated my pace to avoid being followed by them. As I was walking away from them, I could hear the gross vomiting sound in the background and I keep looking back to ensure they are not following close behind me. My confidence grew when I saw a line of police cars in the vicinity and the thought of getting the policemen to send me home did cross my mind before I abandon the idea.

On the way back, the sight of countless homeless sleeping along the side of pavement of streets which has no effect on me on the past even daunted me a little. For I fear they might just strike out at me for disturbing their sleep though they were known to be harmless.

Better get a "Bear" or a friend to walk together next time. Good gracious nothing bad happened to me.

Interesting Scenes in SF and Berkeley

2007-09-15T13:42:00.000+08:00

Statue of Poverty

This beggar can amazingly hold his hand in that same position for hours, shaking only when you come closer to him.

Please save me, my world is topsy-turvy.

This is another amazing stunt from a beggar. He can maintain in that position using just a small water bottle to support his head in addition to his 2 incredible arms. Better don't fall, or you will kiss the cars.

Hagrid's pet dog

Haha, this dog captures my attention immediately while I am walking on the street. Look at its thick fur covering its whole body and face, remind me of the character Hagrid in Harry Potter, don't you agree? The owner told me everybody likes to take a picture of it. Haha.

Apparently, a number of people have jumped off from the famous Golden Gate Bridge. What a place to commemorate your death?

Do you still dare to stay in this place? Well, I have already experience a Richter 4 earthquake just last week in Berkeley and I am still alive.

Small, Medium, Big

Amazing Rock Artwork

No glue, no sticky tape. Sheer brilliance in positioning of rocks. The artist showed us how he did it, but I doubt I can do the same stunt as him.

Scenic photos to come in future entries.

Secruity Level at Cal

2007-09-14T09:39:00.000+08:00

This is what I saw from my Calmail.

To the campus community:                       
                                                                                                                                   
As you may be aware there were a number of armed robberies on campus and near                                     
the residence halls that occurred over the past two weeks. It's important to                                                 
realize that as with any college campus, ours is not immune from crime. While                                                
the Berkeley campus and surrounding areas are generally as safe as other urban                                                 
areas, the surge over the past two weeks in incidents of robbery, some involving                                                 
weapons, was unusual.  UC Police Department (UCPD) and the City of Berkeley                                                 
police are aware of the problem and are taking extra measures in response.                                             
These include increased uniformed and plain-clothes patrols, as well as                                                   
coordination with other local agencies to analyze the trends. UCPD recommends                                                
programming their emergency number 510-642-3333 into your cell phone, which                                                  
connects directly to the UCPD emergency desk.  For calls on a land line, dial                                                 
911.                                                                               
                                                                                                                                                                                  
We want to be sure you have accurate information about these recent incidents.                                                 
There have been nine robberies between September 1 and September 10 on and                                                    
around the Berkeley campus.  Suspects have been arrested in four of the nine                                                  
cases. We understand that these crimes have raised concerns about safety.                                                      
We share these concerns and have been working to address them.                                                                 
The robbery that occurred on campus near Haviland Hall on Monday evening,                                                      
September 10 caused the most reaction from our community.  In that case,                                                       
the victim was stuck by several pellets fired from a bb gun. The victim was                                                    
also punched and kicked after initially resisting the robbery attempt. UCPD                                                   
was called and advised that there was a robbery in progress and that shots                                                    
were fired and that the victim may be injured.  UCPD officers arrived very                                                    
soon after the call, saw the two juvenile suspects and pursued them. One was                                                 
caught quickly.  Although the other suspect eluded officers for nearly 90                                                
minutes; he was located and apprehended and found to be in possession of the                                                
bb gun.  During the search for the second suspect, our officers asked people                                                
in the area to "shelter in place" in their offices or residences. The arrests                                                
on Monday evening led to other cases being closed, and detectives from the                                                   
City of Berkeley and the UCPD are following up on other leads.                                                               
                                                                                                                                   
In the meantime, you can do the following to maximize your safety.                                                            
Use personal crime prevention strategies:                                                                              
* Be cautious and aware of your surroundings at all times, especially at night.                                                
* If you are on the campus late in the evening and you are unable to use UCPD's                                                
 Night Safety Services, try to walk with others on well-lit and well-traveled                                                 
 routes (see them on the Night Safety Map at                                                                                  
 http://police.berkeley.edu/PDFs/NightMap.pdf).                                                                               
* Do not wear earphones or talk on the phone when walking at night.                                                            
* Do not carry your laptop in an obvious laptop case.  Using a regular backpack                                                 
 or book-bag reduces the ability of criminals to pick you as a target.  Load                                                   
 tracking software, such as Computrace, onto your system to assist with                                                        
 recovering your property if it is stolen.  Record the make, model and serial                                                  
 number of your laptop in a secure location.                                      
                                                                                                                                        
Use Night Safety Services                                                
UCPD offers a few different ways to ensure the safety of you and your belongings                                               
when you're leaving campus late at night. Choose one of the following ways of                                               
getting home safely:                                         
                                                                                                                       
BearWALK                                                                           
                                              
Call (510) 642-WALK (9255) after dusk and before 1:45am, 15 minutes before you                                                
need pick up and a UCPD Community Service Officer (CSO) will meet you and walk                                                 
with you to your destination within a four to five block radius of the campus.                                                 
CSO's are uniformed, trained, and carry a police radio. Experience shows that                                                  
CSO presence makes a difference. Program boundaries are Cedar (N),                                                            
Prospect/Highland Place (E), Parker (S), and Shattuck (W.).                                                      
                                                                                                                                   
Night Safety Shuttles                                                     
                                              
Call (510) 642-WALK to find out when the next shuttle stops near you. Use the                                                 
Night Safety Shuttle to travel to BART or the southside residence halls. The                                                 
Ride To-Your-Door lines allow you to ride all the way home within service area                                                 
boundaries.                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                   
Owl Service                                                                                                             
After 3am, UCPD offers van pick up and drop off service from door to door.                                                 
Call (510) 642-6760 before 5:45am.                                                 
                                              
                                                                                                                                   
Report Suspicious Activity                                                         
                                              
Immediately report any suspicious individuals or activities to the University                                                
Police at 642-6760.  As with any emergency situation, call 9-1-1 from any                                                    
campus phone to reach the University police Department.  Program the University                                                
police emergency number into your cell phone, as well: (510) 642-3333.  This                                                   
number is treated the same as a call to 911. Although we encourage you to utilize
the Night Safety Shuttle and/or Night Escort Service (See
http://police.berkeley.edu/programsandservices/campus_safety/ index.html),                                                
there will be times when you cannot.  In those cases follow these guidelines:      
                                              
* Travel with a friend or in a group                                             
* Be alert and aware of your surroundings                                        
* Avoid dark, vacant or deserted areas; use well-lit, well traveled routes.                                                
* Dress in clothes and shoes which will not hamper movement                                                         
                                                                                                                                   
If You Sense You Are In Trouble:                                                   
                                              
* Move away from the potential threat if possible.                                             
* Join any group of people nearby; cross the street and increase your pace.                                           
* If a threatening situation is imminent, and people are close by to help, yell,                                                  
 scream or make a commotion in any way you can to get their attention.                                                      
* Go to an open business.                                                
* Call 911 from a safe location                                                    
                                                                                                                                   
We are aware that the campus community is concerned about these recent events,                                            
and we share your concerns.  If you want to contact UCPD, you can email                                                       
police@berkeley.edu or call the Crime Prevention Unit at (510) 642-9101.                                                    
You may also contact the Dean of Students at poullard@berkeley.edu.                                                           
Have a safe and healthy semester.                                                  
                                              
Victoria L. Harrison                                       
Associate Vice Chancellor &                                         
Chief of Police                                                                                                                                        
Jonathan Poullard                                                  
Dean of Students 

Now you can understand how safe Singapore is compared to America. Personally,
I haven seen any suspects being arrested in school, but I saw two blacks being
arrested near my local home on one late night. Something I only get to see
once in a blue moon back in Singapore. I would most likely call the BearWalk
service once to experience what is like to be have a "Bear" walking with you.
Haha. Tell you guys more when the day comes.

Culture in Cal

2007-09-14T02:26:00.000+08:00

I have wanted to write this a long time ago, but since I have some time before my next lecture starts, I shall pen this all down before I forget.

Interesting sights or scenes in Cal.

Cal students cycle, skateboard, skate scooter in campus to travel to various class venues.
Majority of Cal students walk alone in school campus. You hardly see groups of people walking together and chatting. I believe this phenomena indicates students take classes of their interest and not with friends.
Significant percentage of Cal students sit alone during lectures and discussion. You see spaces in between seats and even if they sit together, they might not be friends. Hence, if you are alone in class, you will not be condemned or rather considered the norm. Guess students here are very individualistic or independent or more focused. This doesn't mean they are anti-social, it's just that their social context is different, may be socializing is purely out of class.
You don't hear any whispers during class. Everybody is attentive during class and the only person they interact with is the lecturer or discussion instructor.
Some couples openly display their affection in lecture. There was once I saw a lady resting on her bf shoulders in the middle front row and the lecturer did nothing about it.
Cal students like to lie on the carpet grass to study in bright sunshine. Well, I can understand as weather here is very cold, but I rather stay indoors which is much warmer.
Accquitance chat up with you easily. There's a few people I just met once and say a few words, but they would walk up to you, greet you warmly, and chat up with you. You even get greetings from strangers giving you well wishes in the morning or night while walking on the streets.
This is the most intriguing phenomenan to me. American Asians here are generally shorter than Asians in Singapore. Suddenly, I just feel taller. Believe me. Haha. I thought it's just my feeling until I verify this with my full-time students from SMSA who have studied here for a few years. I can't reason this out considering the food serving here is homongous, about 1.5 to double the normal serving you would find in Singapore. Any explanations from anybody? And when I say they are shorter, doens't infer they are plump as well, but smaller built in general. Think this will make it easier for me to find a partner down here? Haha. This is just a joke and please don't spread this nonsense around.

My Revised UCB TimeTable

2007-09-13T14:53:00.001+08:00

Here's my new TimeTable. I just dropped a class and added another new one. All these done midway through the 3rd week of school. Wonder if I would be able to catch up with my newly added class. The reason I have to go through such hassle is because I got conned by the description of the module or class as it is called here. It turned out Biophysical Neurobiology is more of a physics class with lots of formula and equations than a biology class with factual content. There's just too much derivation and complex equations which I simply can't fathom. The final straw came when I look at the graded take home assignment and to my astonishment, I can't do any of the maths based question. Only then did I realize I have been a stupid fool to persevere for the 2 torturous weeks. Apparently, my maths sucks or it's not as good as I thought myself to be. I have no choice but to drop the class and find another replacement class fast. That's how I landed in my current situation. Haiz. At least, the new class, Introduction to Neurobiology, is more like a biology class or I will have to hunt for classes at the eleventh hour again.

On hindsight, I wonder if that's a signal for me to drop one of my class as everybody here is only doing 4 classes and yet I am trying to be gutsy and do 6. I have to say I am suffering badly right now, unlike others who's going out to experience activities in the school or explore around the place. I am in a dilemma whether it's worth doing extra classes here in exchange for a easier time and more flexibility in choices of modules back in NUS over more time to enjoy and absorb myself into this amazing new environment. Please give me some advice? Thanks.

Cooking Lesson in Cal

2007-09-13T12:51:00.001+08:00

Haha, believe it or not, I just went for a cooking lesson held by the Cal Cooking Club. Yep, in UCB campus. On my god, the lecture theater was so crowded, by the time I reached the place 10 min late, we got to sit on the stairways. Ok digress abit. FYI, Cal is the nickname of UCB, as it the first and oldest of University of California, so UCB took up this nick and trademark it before other UC can take it, so the next time you see a Cal shirt on the streets, it doesn't just mean California, it's UCB!!! Bet you will see me with a Cal T-shirt, sweater or cap when I am back in Singapore. Those are the must-haves man.

Ok, back to our cooking lesson. They invited an alumni graduate, who is currently a chef in one of the restaurants in SF, to teach us how to make a nice dormitory meal using just a microwave and some cutlery as most dormitories here don't have a stove. So, the meal they taught us was "Yogi". So what the hell is Yogi? It's basically a flour ball, or dumpling as the Westerners call it, made from corn flour, potato, bacon, milk plus other ingredients including flower petals. Yes, you didn't read wrongly, it's flower petals. Flower petals remind me of the flower restaurant I ate at Eden Cafe back in Singapore. Haha. In fact, flower petals is quite a common ingredient in America food as most Americans have a garden in their backyard where they grow flowers and add them as flavorings or spices for their food. I can't really recall all the steps but it's basically mixing the milk with corn flour, cook the potato and bacon using the microwave, put them altogether and knead them into balls, using black pepper sauce as topping and Vola. There you have your Yogi balls. Waited for about 20 minutes to taste the Yogi balls. Hmm, not too bad but it's unlikely I would go through the effort to prepare Yogi balls in my apartment, too much effort plus I don't have a microwave either.

Oh, the Cal Cooking Club also has weekly dinning activities where they go to different restaurants in the Bay Area to taste different cuisines, yep pretty much what you call fine dining or in a more crude term, food hunt. The Bay Area is a wonderful place for food lovers simply because it has the most diverse and balance population in US, be it Asians, Americans, Europeans and maybe Africans? Well, I don't know of any African cuisines, but at least I can even find Singapore food here, what more can you ask for? Bet the RV4e guys would have join this club long ago if there's one in NUS. Wonder why isn't there such a club in NUS? Strange. Maybe HH and HF can be the founders of NUS Fine Dinning Club and add them to your resume, wouldn't that be wonderful? I bet alot of food-lovers are also drooling while reading this. Tag me if you are. Haha.

Roundup of 2nd week in School

2007-09-09T16:06:00.000+08:00

Apologies for the lack of updates. I have been too tied down with too many stuff I hardly have any time for myself. Time seems to fly faster here and I wonder why I am left with so little time at the end of the day. Guess it's a double edge sword to be occupied. On one hand, I am learning and experiencing new things just about every other day, been moving around much more than back in Singapore, never been more independent before by doing my own laundry and cooking my own meals. Now I wish I hadn't taken my Mum for granted for washing my clothes and cooking my meals. I really wish my Mum is here to help me. Haha. Well, but it's time to grow up. Because of all these hassle, I am starting to stress out with my studies. Pace of school is much faster down here, no spoon feeding, minimal notes, no breaks in between lectures and maximum independent self study. Sharks man, I really hope I can survive this grueling torture by the end of semester, totally didn't make any contingency plan if I fail any of the classes. Please bless me everybody.

Ok, here's the list of key events or incidents I can recall that happened for the past one week.

31st August, Friday
I was supposed to contact my exchange mentor for EAP Dinner, but only realized my mistake on the day itself, so of course I didn't meet my mentor unlike what I state in my previous entry, but guess what happened. Another EAP mentor, UC Berkeley student, couldn't find his mentee and he adopted the whole bunch of mentor-less Singaporeans as his mentees. The interesting thing was this guy, David, went to NUS for exchange last semester, i.e. AY06/07 sem 2, and he stayed in Eusoff Hall, which was the same hall as Shaun, so we clicked right away sharing about our experience and perspective of Singapore. The thing that struck me most about him is he shared how he actively search for SPG, sarong party girls, high and low in Singapore but he couldn't find one, so he felt very cheated and label it as a scam. Haha. And there was once a Singapore girl in Eusoff Hall invited him to her room and chat up with him for long hours, so he expected some request for "XXX" in return. But yet again, he was so shocked and disappointed that nothing happened. Haha, it's just so funny the type of mentality and attitude those whites have, really amusing. Another interesting thing about him. He can speak Singlish amazingly well for a white, like wa lau eh, la, lor, ma etc, so damn funny and cool. He also commented local movies sucks and the jokes are bad. Well, that's your opinion dude.

1st September, Saturday
Went IKEA to shop for furniture, bed sheets, pillows and cutlery. The meals in IKEA are just as budget as those in Singapore, $4.99 for 15 meatballs plus potatoes, very cheap for a meal in US. Miss one of the most significant events in UCB calender. Yep, it's Football night, but I mean America Football. Every time there's a home match, the 72,000 seater stadium will be filled to the brim, the roadsides will be full of parking cars and there will be traffic jam on the streets. And mind you, this is just college football and UCB student population is only about 20,000 plus, while Berkeley population is about 150,000, but yet the locals are so supportive of their local football team just like the way the locals support their local football clubs in Europe. College football team is equivalent to their local football club and they staunchly support and follow their favorite football team. Good Gracious, UCB, nicknamed the Cal Bears, emerged victorious over Tennessee University and you could see the rave celebrations of the delighted fans on the streets and restaurants. The whole town is momentarily painted dark blue with the Berkeley shirts or pullovers. So do you now understand why it's so hard for Singapore to excel in sports internationally? The sporting culture is just not the same. In this upcoming notable fall fixture, the Cal Bear is going to play against UCLA and their fiercest local arch rival, Stanford University at home. My goal is to catch at least one of these football matches before I fly back home, hopefully the ticket price don't jack too high up because of the black market. Tickets here are all sold out and black market tickets are over 40USD per match. Crazy man.

2nd September, Sunday
Nothing significant except we took 1 hour of train ride to Oakland just to eat Singaporean food at Banyan Tree restaurant for dinner. The food is no way near average Singapore food standard. Bet any Singapore hawker who come over to the Bay Area will have better business than this restaurant. No idea how they manage to expand to that many chain restaurants in the Bay Area either.

3rd September, Monday
It's a public holiday cos it's Labor day, but I rather forget what happened on this day. Accompanied Qi Rong, a fellow Singaporean exchange mate, to San Francisco before taking a long futile trip to northern Bay Area to "Target", a super mart, only to find out the prices of the cutleries there are more expensive. So, we have to make a another rush trip down to IKEA. Wasted hell lot of time waiting for the train and buses that I got very vexed and frustrated. The schedules they displayed at the train stations and bus stops are useless if they follow them. Really make me appreciate Singapore efficient transport system after experiencing those nerve-wreaking, torturous wait for trains and buses, waited like half an hour to an hour just for the train or bus to arrive. And to make matters worse, public transport here are so exorbitant, I spend about 10 dollars merely just on all the train rides that day. Living expenses here is almost triple that of Singapore.

4th September, Tuesday
Start of 2nd week of school. Didn't submit one graded assignment for discussion cos I didn't know it's counted. Oh gosh. Students here are very outspoken. They actively answer instructor or tutor's questions and come to class prepared with questions. Instructors will answer questions in the middle of lectures and pause to look around for questions from students. In essence, students never bring their doubts back home, so unlike Singaporeans. I heard the consultation hours of the tutor and instructor are always packed with long queue and they are flooded with emails from students everyday. Culture shock man. For my law class, it's even more scary, every student fight to speak in class, I feel so timid when I am with them , plus my inability to slang like the American accent makes it hard for them to understand me too. Jesus Christ. To make matter worse, my law instructor gives no notes and write no notes on the board and whatever lesson you learn comes solely out of his mouth. This is what I call the highest order of learning. Make your own notes and read the textbook. Instructor is here just to facilitate you. Guess this is the way to groom top academia and researchers. Independent motivated self study and instructors are just here to facilitate you, not feed you. I thought Singaporeans should be the most competitive people on earth since they are renown for their kiasu-ism, but I am proven so wrong down here. Passion for learning, or what you call thirst for knowledge beats kiasu-ism in the long run. If there's a statement to distinguish students in America and Singapore, I would say Singaporeans are result-oriented while Americans are more conscientious and passionate of their work and studies.

5th September, Wednesday
I cooked my meals for the first time in overseas. Made vegetable and chicken soup and I dare say my soup taste as great as my mum's soups. Mum, I am not kidding. More home cook meals to come.

7th September, Friday
Another EAP party organized by the International Office. Finally, I get to meet my mentor, a UCB graduate, and oh my, she's a gorgeous beautiful white lady. She went to two places for exchange during her time as an UCB undergraduate, India follow by Italy. An environmental economics major graduate, she's currently working in a small environmental consulting firm. We struck up pretty good rapport and before she left, she arranged to bring me to Santa Cruz to chill this coming Sunday, so cool and exciting. My exchange mates who haven't seen their mentors till then were so jealous they keep teasing me about her, but come on, she's attached and she is bringing her bf and best friend along for this trip, don't think too much people. David, the same guy who met us last Friday joined us for dinner and come over to our apartment to chill out and have a chit-chat session. For those who uses Facebook, Facebook is very big thing in America and I always see people using it in computer labs or talking about it. Friendster is totally non-existent here now. In our apartment, David, showed us the photos of the Singaporean girls he fancy and dated using Facebook as well as the places he went in South Sea Asia, very cool dude.

8th September, Saturday
Went for SMSA, Singapore Malaysia Student Association, of UCB BBQ in a park off-campus for lunch. It's was a freezing cold afternoon and I can't stop shivering even with my jacket on. Wonder how am I going to survive in the winter. Think I need to wear thicker clothings than everyone here soon, so embarrassing. Met Ying Xim who used to be Hok Him and Liren's classmate back in Hwa Chong JC, what a small world. Talked to alot of people and realize some of the full-time students have become very Americanized and majority of them come from RJ as expected. I was pretty amazed that quite a number of them have actually seen me in campus as I took same classes with them, but I didn't notice them in class. Guess it must be me coming late for classes always which make me more "visible" than anybody. Not that I want to, but my classes are all packed together with no breaks in between and the lectures here end at the very last minute and I need time to travel to the next venue. After I talked to some of the scholars, I realize I have been pretty much overloaded and they joked the reason I am seen by so many people is because I took too many classes. Haha. Even full-time student don't take on so much workload, let alone an exchange student. Haha. What to do? I want to transfer those credits back to my home university. But I might seriously consider dropping one module which I totally don't understand what's going on but still trying hard to persevere. Haiz. That's this one cute very Americanized girl who took one same class as me and she was so glad she finally found somebody she know for this class that she requested me not to drop this class and sit with her. Haha. So flattering. But knowing America do not have the culture of exchanging cell phone numbers with new found friends easily, just like they hardly sms, I didn't ask for her number and doubt I would find her that easily in lecture, maybe discussion session is possible. We shall see.

Thanks for reading this long entry. Give yourself a pat for enduring my long-windedness. Haha.

My New Accomodation

2007-09-01T06:41:00.000+08:00

Phew, so glad I finally get to move into my new permanent accommodation yesterday. No more cramming in the backpacker hostel where 4 people squeezed into a tiny room. There's hardly space to walk or sit after we placed our big luggage on the floor. My new accommodation is about 3 blocks away from the south side of my campus, very much walking distance and convenient. UC Berkeley campus is build in the middle of a big park, everywhere you walk is green lush fields and temperate tress and shrubs, and there's groceries, cafe and shop houses everywhere outside the campus, albeit like SMU except the commercial buildings are shop houses and not shopping malls.

However, my excitement was dampened when we realised the previous tenant hasn't moved out the house because of an misunderstanding and confusion between the house manager and previous tenant. Because of this, we were forced to live together with the previous tenant for one night yesterday. Hopefully everything will be settled tonight by the time we reach home with all their furnishings cleared. Can't take any more "headaches" after all the hassle we have been through searching for accommodation and commuting from San Francisco to Berkeley everyday for early 8am classes. Our apartment is minimally furnished and won't have any Internet access at our home til we get our wireless up next Wednesday, so pardon me if you guys can't find me on MSN til then.

On the brighter note, we met some very nice people from SMSA, Singapore Malaysia Student Association, a student society in UC Berkeley. One of them happen to be Shaun's friend, Zheng Yu, who not only kindly offer his sleeping bags to us to sleep when he learned of our situation, but drove and showed us around Berkeley yesterday. He drove us to the Famous "In-and-Out" US fast food restaurant for dinner and I have to agree the fries there is very unique, contains the original raw potato crunchiness which you can never taste in any other fries from other fast food franchises. Accordingly, they are the first company who invented the drive-in order concept which are widely adopted by other fast food restaurants today. We also wanted to try the famous Krispy Kream doughouts which I heard is much more better than the doughnuts from Doughnut Factory in Singapore, but unfornately we were late by about 4 minutes when the shop closed at 11pm. Haiz. Not to worry, I am sure we still have plenty of time to try it another time. Zheng Yu later drove us to the top of Berkely hills which is on east side of UC Berkeley campus where we get see the night view of the 3 main cities on the Bay area of California. The view is so awesome we could see the all the famous landmarks of the Bay Area like the Bay bridge, Golden gate bridge, Alcatraz Island, the Campanile Tower of UCB and the sea arrounding the 3 cities. What a view, but I didn't bring my camera to capture this wonderful image.

Going for my mentor/mentee dinner assigned by the International office of UCB later tonight. Pretty much like the SP dinner we used to play in Orientation Game. Haha. Quite excited to meet and interact with her, wonder how's she like. If it's good, you guys will see my updates soon. LOL.

Amazing First Two Days of School

2007-08-29T07:13:00.001+08:00

I am writing this entry in the main library branch of UC Berkeley. So here we go.

Lessons been very fun and interesting down here in Berkeley. Getting to experience more culture shock with each passing day in school, though I love what I am seeing and experiencing everyday. Went for 2 awesome lectures earlier. So now I have been formally introduced to all my lecturers for this semester. 2 of my lecturers here are very cool and funky, something you will never find in NUS. The rest are just more formal and old school style. Generally, lecturers here make more effort to know everybody on individual level and students ask questions during lecture itself, not after lecture. There was once, the two students adjacent to my left and right keep asking questions a couple of times I felt intimidated for the first time, cos back in Singapore in seminar classes or tutorials, I am like the only person asking questions but here there's much more people who are outspoken. Different culture.

This afternoon when I went for my legal module, I saw a white man in casual wear bringing a little girl around the Haas school compound. I thought he was just a tourist bringing his kid around the famous business school of America. Little did I expect the white man that I saw is going to be my lecturer for my legal module and he even brought his kid into the class. Imagine a lecturer wearing plain polo t-shirt, shorts, not even berms and slippers teaching you in class, you will never find this in NUS. Worse still, he's babysitting his kid in the class at the same time. Oh gosh. But when words start coming out of his glib tongue, your perception of him change right away. He has such a an attitude, confidence and coolness, you just simply love and respect him for who he is. And he look handsome and decent mind you, not those kind of bad boy image. I remember a student wearing an Ambrecombie shirt and cap and he scolded him, "You showing some kind of fashion statement?" "I dun know why students pay crazy money for such shirts, they are obsencely overpriced." I absolutely agree with his opinion, never understand why fashion is so important to young adults and teenagers. Other strong statements he made, " Those who watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S and love it shouldn't be in this class, I watch 5 minutes of it and the jokes are bad." Throughout his first lecture as he's giving out the house rules and syllabus for the course, he has been playing around with his daughter. Very comical but he's still professional in his delivery. There's one time he left his seat and his daughter jumped onto it. To get his seat back, here's what he say to his daughter. " You see the big brother there? He has a candy in his hand. Go get it!" Immediately, she jumped off her seat and my lecturer get his seat. Haha. Realising she got cheated by his dad, she tried hard to push her dad off the seat but to no avail before jumping onto her daddy's lap. So my lecturer remarked, " Aren't you guys jealous I am her daddy?" The whole class just burst into a loud roar. In another incident, as he was taking class attendance, he asked me where am I from. I told him I was from Singapore and he asked me if gum is allowed in Singapore now. I told him it's still banned and guess what he did next. He turned to his daughter, " They give you a ticket for chewing in Singapore? Aren't you glad you are born in America?" The class just laugh again. Absolutely glad there's so much laughter in the class and I am going to be taught by a mean but cool lecturer. As a student sum it all up when he was questioned about the lecturer's jokes, "Mean but cool". Damn look forward to his other classes.

Then the next lecture after my legal module is taught by a black man. Initially, I have my reservation how well a black can teach since black is known to be poor academically as shown by studies over the years. He was wearing big dangling earrings on both ears and I wonder if he's making a fashion statement or here to teach. But oh man, when he talk about his background and how he made it to Harvard, my jaws almost drop. It's not always right to make too much presumptions or form prejudice of other people. So next time, dun judge a person by its cover. Another humorous and funky guy who strike the right balance between teaching and entertaining the class. Throughout the class, he strike to me as a rapper giving a lecture with his big dangling earrings capturing my attention most of the time. Haha. Whenever students ask a question, he would firstly reply, "Wassup, what's your name?" Wow, so funky ya. When he teach, he's like rapping to some tune, quite stylish. Then the stunning part comes when he announced his assessment, he's throwing 10 extra points for every CA tests for telling him why he sucks. Very Funny lecturer. So excited to be taught by such cool lecturers.

Well, there's a saying there's 2 sides to a coin, and it's no different in UCB. Only 2 of my modules have an accademic website, which is equivalent to IVLE in NUS, and are taught using power point slides and they are pictures mainly. The rest you guess how they are taught. You won't believe it even if I tell you though I have been forewarned by a friend. The old school method. Yes, just chalk and blackboard, no notes. Not even white board though only my business module uses white board. Notes are what you see on the black board and what you hear from the lecturer. WHAT THE HELL!!!! I am so spoon fed in NUS man. The lecturers here are pretty pro to speak and write so fast on the blackboard they just keep erasing the blackboard. Guess that's how top schools do things to achieve results and produce Nobel laureates. Better adapt fast or I will cry back in NUS. You are expected to read the textbooks here but I got no money to buy textbooks. Textbooks here are over 80 dollars minimum even for used textbooks sold in campus bookstores. Originals are more than 100 over dollars easily. My legal module is 130 for used textbook. WTF!!!!!! Where to find money to buy? Those of you kind souls who's reading this entry right now and pity my plight, please generously donate to support my education or I have to fly back to Singapore soon.

The above statement is just a joke. I will find a way to support myself.

Pre-School Semester Reflections

2007-08-27T01:47:00.002+08:00

Yep, I haven't updated for a week, but updates will get more regular when I move into my permanent accommodation next Thursday, 30th August. I have been moving around San Francisco and Berkeley for the past 12 days and tomorrow is the start of a long semester ahead. 15 weeks of continuous instructional period followed by one and a half weeks of final examinations. No mid semester break or reading week in between except for a few public holidays in the middle of semester. When I share our NUS academic calender with the existing UCB students, guess what's their comments? "Won't you forget what you study earlier during the mid semester break?" Huh? The students there must be damn brilliant to make such a comment. Dun think I going to have a easy time studying in UCB though it's on a pass/fail basis for me. They are marked on a bell curve and their system is similar to NUS cos Singapore Universities adopt US education system, the GPA, general education modules, breadth modules etc. As much I would like to travel around during the weekends, I better be careful not to be overtly complacent and later cry over split milk.

Coming on exchange has been an enriching experience for me. If I am in Singapore now, guess I would be a hermit spending time with my computer, books and newspaper. I wouldn't really understand the culture and demographics of America, not forgetting Singaporeans who are very different from me - herein referring to my exchange mates. Both my roommates-to-be are NUS students from Arts and Business faculty and they are smokers, not just social smokers. They each smoke about half a pack a day, which is about 10 cigarettes, and they go clubbing almost once a week back in Singapore. Imagine my astonishment when I learn I am going to exchange with these people. However on hindsight, I learn alot from these people about street smartness. This group of young adults whom I never mixed before, the so-called cool and hippy people. My exchange guy mate, Shaun, told me these people who drinks and smokes are the high fliers or people who have the "rich" connections and these are the people who will bring you far in life. Hmm, I am not entirely convinced but there might be some truth in it. Afterall, this guy is previously from RI and RJ and his brothers who smoke, drink and party with him are fellow Rafflesians whose parents are owners or CEOs of listed companies all over the world. I always understood the importance of networking but I didn't believe I have to go through such sleazy method to get quality contacts, kind of absurd to me. Shaun told me the RI mentality is if they can't work their way to the top, they will work their way to the bottom, why get stuck in the middle. What a attitude? Kinda interesting but ironic as well. He told me he has friends who has been or are in jail for gang fighting. Their philosophy is to lead a colourful and exciting life with no regrets. They rather lead a shorter life with lots of personal milestones than a longer life with total monotony. Hmm, I would rather strike the right balance but currently I believe I am more on the self-improvement side than the networking and exploratory side. Will try to move more to the networking side to achieve the balance I need to succeed in life. All successful people are focused and they work hard to acquire the necessary skills and network in their course to achieve their goals.

Overall, I am pretty happy to meet these exchange mates and glad I made the decision to come to US for exchange, though it's at the expense of extra financial burden on myself and parents. Without Shaun's friends in US who own a car and are currently on NOC in Silicon Valley, traveling to tourist sites would be a arduous task and renting a car is expensive here though car is freaking cheap. 3000 or less and you can get a very decent 2nd hand Toyota Corolla. Though I have been in US for 12 days, I have only been to less than half the tourist attraction sites in San Francisco city as the city is just so big and extremely hilly. We have been relying on our legs and public transport to get us to those venues, so it's slow and tiring. It's amazing how they build a city in such hilly terrain but San Francisco used to be gold mining area, so guess there's where they get their money to build on such incredible landscape. Notable places we have been around San Francisco, includes Union Square, Fisherman's Wharf, Chinatown, Alcatraz Island, Golden Gate Bridge, Bay Bridge, Sausalito. Yet to visit national parks and famous landscapes and will probably do so when shuan's friends come with their car. Impossible to tour without car as public transport is tortoise slow though they have artistic and antique value like the cable car and trams.

Other than visiting tourist attractions, the rest of the time is spent mingling with international students whom we met at orientation programs. No offense to anyone but I have to say Japanese, Koreans and Thai girls are very pretty and cute. Played soccer with the international students and when I scored, the Europeans shouted, "The Korean scored". Haha, so damn funny that my Singaporean friends just burst into laughter. They just blindly label all Asians in America Koreans or Japanese as they are the majority Asians in America. Backpacker hostel is another great place to expose yourself to different people from all over the world. Just switch to another backpacker hostel because of accommodation availability and in a short space of 12 days, we shared mixed dorm room with a Danish couple, Swiss young boy of age 18, and now a white Brazilian. The Danish lady once openly change in our room in front of us and we enjoyed a free nude show. The Swiss guy is currently on a one month tour of US and he shared with us his adventures and scenic photos he had taken so far, spurring us to visit those places during our long weekend or after semester. And our current room mate, the Brazilian guy smoke weed aka marijuana, through a pipe and he offered us to try. Of course I didn't try but my exchange mates, Shaun and Brenda did and now they are lying concussed on their bed in the middle of the afternoon as I am writing this entry. The Brazilian guy even has a friend who has a tattoo on his inner lips. I have seen studs and tattoos all over other parts of the body but this was the first time I seen anybody imprinting a tattoo in their inner lips. Yucks.

Will upload the photos soon once I move into my permanent accommodation.

Sunny cooling San Francisco

2007-08-19T15:53:00.000+08:00

Hi Guys,

I know you people are waiting patiently for all the photos I have taken, but it's hard when you are out the whole day and only back in hostel in late night. I will try to set up a photo web album using Picasso as soon as possible once I found my permanent accommodation. Everyday is a new experience and I love the weather here except for the glaring sunshine in the afternoon and sunset. You can even get sunburn while walking on the streets of San Francisco and Berkeley despite the cooling weather. Been walking miles of streets scouting for off-campus accommodation these few days. It's really inconvenient going around Berkeley without a vehicle and taxi is crazily expensive after fare plus tips, starting price is already $4. Average meal cost is between $4-6 before 8.25% tax plus tips. There's no such thing as canteen in American, everywhere is cafe or restaurants and if you wanna save on meals, the best deal is one big slice of pizza which cost about $3 plus. In conclusion, if you wanna live here, you gonna earn here or else you going to be a street beggar soon. Even rent here is expensive as well, about 500-1000 per person per month pending on the housing you are looking for. Met a group of nice friendly pretty Asian American girls who invited us to view their apartment when we are for looking for units in the same apartment. They came from Taiwanese, Japaneses and Koreans decedents. Generally, Asian Americans are nicer to their foreign Asian counterparts but they can't or hardly speak their native languages which is shame in my opinion. To those who think Singapore is a multi-racial society, it's nothing compared to American where there's lots of different immigrants from all the over the world which make up quite a sizable percentage of the country population. I can safely say Asian make up about 30% of the population in San Francisco and Berkeley, so it feels pretty much at home except these Asian Americans speak like other white and black Americans with the same accent. We can understand their English but they can't understand our English. Yep, it's quite funny and I often need to fine tune my accent to make myself better understood. Think in no time I might pick up the American accent if this continues, who knows? Going to Fisherman's Wharf and Alcatraz Island tomorrow. Yippee!!!!

Mr Berkeley Giving You Live Reporting from San Francisco

2007-08-16T15:21:00.000+08:00

Hi Fans of Mr Berkeley,

Sorry for the late updates. I would like to report to everyone I have landed safely in San Francisco. Yeah. Thanks everyone who has prayed for my safe landing, I almost thought I couldn't make it after vomiting in my transit flight to Tokyo. I felt so nausea I prayed hard I would survive another tortuous 9hrs 45min of connecting flight to San Francisco. Thank god nothing happened to me and I live to talk to you today. Haha.

I got so much things and pictures to show you guys about my adventure in San Francisco and Berkeley but right now I still stuck without permanent accommodation. Been boiled down by this concern admist the endless fun and excitement exploring the streets and people in this new land. San Francisco is a shopping paradise, whatever brands you are looking for, you will definitely find them as a single merchandise shop house. Culture shock? Well, not totally cos I know American is a different society from Asia. San Francisco is so much more cosmopolitan than Singapore, there's really a good mix of races, lots of Asians, Europeans and of course blacks and whites. Talked to lots of friendly people from all over the world in the backpacking Hostel I stayed in, people from Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, France, Denmark etc. Saw lots of interesting things, not sure if I can recall and tell them all to you. I will upload the pictures hopefully by this weekend when more things are settled and then share the settings and life in San Francisco and Berkeley. Absolutely an eye opener the things you see in San Francisco but not in Singapore.

Sorry for the lack of real substance in my content but I really dun know where to start and I have been too tied down searching my permanent accommodation that I am too weary to blog my adventure now. Will get back to you people soon. Oh I just saw a black being caught for shoplifting 4 digital cameras in a mini super mart, Walgreens, and the cashier told me such incidence happen everyday and it's always a black who do it. That explains why it's not safe to walk in the streets in American alone at night even if you are a guy. They even have a call-in security service where a police accompany you to your destination if you are traveling alone in the streets of Berkeley. Guess I can't think much of enjoying nightlife in Berkeley. Haiz.

Farewell my friends

2007-08-13T18:35:00.001+08:00

In less than 12 hours time, I will be on my way to US. Woohoo. As much I am excited to go, I am starting to miss my friends and family. Thank you so much for all the farewell gifts, cupcakes, meal treats, well wishes, and companionship for the past few weeks. They have been absolutely fantastic and memorable. Through this blog, I would like to express my appreciation to you guys for your friendship all these years and share my experience in US with you people. Take this a platform to contact me in case you guys dun find me on msn and you guys are wondering how I have been. Dun worry, I try my best to give you people up-to-date happenings in my life and do tag me or drop a comment under each post when you are free, let me feel your presence, I will reply to your comments as soon as possible. Hehe. Take care everybody. Have a great semester ahead. Look forward to seeing you guys next year when I am back. Yep, I will start semester 2 in NUS with you people. Adios.

I walked out in the middle of a movie for the first time in my life!!!!

2007-08-11T04:00:00.001+08:00

Yes, I walked out of the theater halfway through a movie for the first time in my life, not because I am fainted hearted, but because the movie was absolutely too painful and gruesome to watch. Hear me out before you call me a chicken. I am a fanatic of horror movies and friends who have watched horror movies with me can vouch for this. Even war movies are acceptable and still watchable despite all the violence and bloodshed, but R21 gore movies are far too sickening to catch a mere glimpse of the gross scenes.

I caught my second movie, Hostel 2, within 12 hours in the same cinema as a midnight movie with my good friend, Irvin, just a few hours ago. It was rated R21, but what follows once I stepped into the theater is an experience which will deeply etch in my mind. I have watched R21 gore movie before, Apocalypto, but this movie is no where near as gruesome compared to Hostel 2. In fact, Hostel 2 is absolutely inhuman and it depicts the worst torture ideas which can ever cross your mind.

The story basically describes how innocent people were lured into this hostel in Slovakia where no one came out alive. These innocent people were then auctioned to their secret society members who are well-established rich people in their normal lives and the winning bidders get to capture and torture their respective "prizes" won. The torture camp is a highly guarded area with lots of layers of gates, cameras, ferocious hound dogs and electric wire that ensure no captives have any possibility of coming out alive even if they manage to outwit the first obstacle. Inside the torture camp, the torturers were given all kind of tools to torture their victims, ranging from chainsaw, laser burner, scythe, axes, whatever evil tools you can think of. There's one scene which was super erroneous, absolute out of my wildest imagination. One victim was first hung upside down absolutely naked. A naked female torturer then stepped in with a large scythe and lie at a convex floor directly underneath her helpless victim. Using her scythe to reach out for the victim hung above her, she started her foreplay with some mild brushing of the blade across the victim's body before scrapping hard with the sharp edge, causing blood to gush all over the victim's body whose blood bathe the naked body of the torturer. To add insult to injury, the final blow came with the slit of the throat in which the sudden spurt of blood was drank by the torturer to quench her thirst. Absolutely humiliating and inhumane. It's not just the sight of the gruesome scenes which freaks you. The helpless shrieks and cries of the paralyzed victims make it hard for anybody to enjoy the movie unless the audience is a sadistic man. Of course, there were other gruesome scenes, but my friend and I left near the end of movie when we thought it was not worth giving ourselves more goosebumps and possible nightmares for the rest of our lives. In short, this is a movie for sadistic people. I don't understand how people can enjoy such movie, is it a test of their courage to withstand horridness? Unless the movie has a good story plot or moral like that of Apocalypto, it really makes me wonder what's inside the wrapped mind of those who enjoy watching such movie. The challenge shown in the movie trailer sums it all up, "I dare you to watch it?" Unfortunately, I didn't have the courage to last ten more minutes to the end of movie. Haiz.

Movie Reviews: Secret and Rush Hour 3

2007-08-10T22:49:00.000+08:00

I watched 2 movies in the short span of 3 days, the first movie Secret on National Day eve, and the second movie, Rush Hour 3 this afternoon, both at The Cathay cineplex. Both movies are enjoyable though I think Secret has been highly over rated due to the lack of originality in its plot.

Though the movie Secret received rave reviews, the twist in the story is not original. For those who have watched the movie, Lakehouse, starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, you would understand my point. I shall not divulge the Secret so as not to kill the suspense for those who have yet to watch the movie. Overall, the lovey-dovey scenes in the movie were very sweet and makes you want to fall in love. It's a good show for boring guys to pick up a few tricks on how to "pao niu" too. Haha. The piano pieces played in the movie were splendid and mesmerizing, so piano lovers should listen out for those piano pieces played.

As for Rush Hour 3, it's one of the most hilarious movies I have watched. I can't recall the number of times I suffer stomach pain from the endless laughter I enjoyed throughout the movie. A definite delight for anybody who wants to have a good laugh to forget all your troubles and worries for a moment. I like the way the movie mocks at Asian and American stereotypes and culture and the mere humorous accent of Chris Tucker makes you laugh even before he cracks a joke. So people, go catch this movie before you get tied down with your busy schedule in the upcoming semester.

Eden Cafe - The Flower Restaurant

2007-08-08T20:44:00.000+08:00

Have you guys eaten flowers? Ever wonder how does flower petals taste like? Are they palatable in the first place? Here's one intriguing restaurant to wet your taste buds with different edible species of flowers. What's more? They brew different combination of flowers for tea which bring about different desired effects, ranging from relaxing, sensuous, radiance, dreamy etc, as described on their menu. For more information on this cafe, here's the URL, http://www.edencafe.sg/.
Below are some pictures I took on my trip to Eden restaurant last Tuesday.

This is the Yellow Vegetarian Pasta, cooked with yellow capsicum. The flowers taste sappy if eaten alone, but gives a rich taste when eaten together with the pasta. Smell like Indian food with a strong flora aroma emitted from the yellow capsicum.

This dish is the Portabello Mushroom Sandwich. I like the juiciness and tenderness of the huge Portabello Mushroom, taste heavenly as it "melts" in your mouth, better than any steak that I have eaten. Absolutely love this dish!!!! Yummy!!!! Tasted Hibiscus flower petals which is even more sappy than yellow capsicum.

Here's the tea set in which we are served. The teacups are those cups used as tea lights found in Hindu temple. And the tea is free flow once you ordered a tea set. The tea we ordered is called Uplift, which is brewed from the combination of rose, lemon verbena, lemon grass and linden. Love the fragrant aroma of the flowers diffusing from the tea. aaahhhhhh............

Last but not least, I had my hands on their hibiscus cheesecake. Taste great too. The owner even brought us to his little garden and plucked off some leaves from the candy grass for us taste. I couldn't believe its leaves can be that sweet as its name suggest after tasting all the sappy flower petals. It's really unique and I wanted to buy the seeds of the candy grass right away and grow in my home garden. Unfortunately, the owner jested that many customers have the same request as me and he doesn't keep stock of candy grass seeds. So sad, if not I can share the sweetness of candy grass with my friends.

Updates on Exchange Matters

2007-08-06T14:14:00.001+08:00

Honestly speaking, as much as I am excited to fly off for exchange, I am feeling very apprehensive right now. Other than the lingering thoughts of having to be independent and possibility of loneness, there's another more pressing issue at the moment.

"I haven gotten my permanent accommodation."

For those who suppose NUS IRO will settle most or all of your exchange matters, you guys have been very naive. Overseas University do not care too much of your welfare, or put it nicely, they expect you to be more independent. I have been placed on the waiting list for hostel application despite they guaranteeing exchange students have a priority in the assignment of rooms. Furthermore, by the time I received my offer letter from UCB, the window for hostel application has already been over, so of course, I have so no chance to apply in time even if I want to, thus i applied late. So effectively, I have to look for off-campus private accommodation.

However, off-campus private accommodation is not an easy piece of meat, especially if you are looking to rent a whole apartment. Most landlords are looking for one year lease or 6 months lease as it's difficult for them to find tenants for the winter break which falls between mid December to mid January. My initial plan is to rent a whole apartment with my exchange mates but that's seem impossible with the above restriction mentioned since we are only staying there for 4 months. So, the best alternative right now is to source for accommodation which require me to cohabit with the landlord or other students who rented the whole apartment and sublease out since they are more flexible in their rental and would allow rental on a monthly-basis.

I am crossing my fingers I get my accommodation fast before term starts or I might need to sleep in the streets or train station. This might not be a bad idea since accommodation in Berkeley is freaking exorbitant. Haha. Please bless me. =)

P.S. For those concerned about my welfare, I will be staying in temporary hostel for the first 10 days while I seek out my permanent accommodation. Temporary hostel is not cheap and ideal for their conditions though it might be my permanent accommodation in worst case scenario and it is far from my campus.

My Temporary UCB Timetable

2007-08-06T13:05:00.000+08:00

As seen from my timetable above, I have morning lessons everyday and would be free by mid-afternoon for most days except Wednesday, when I got an inconvenient lesson in the late afternoon at 4pm. So what's the significance of this timetable? The significance is that I might not get to meet my friends in sunny island on MSN since my morning lessons coincide with their most active time - night. Check the "Clocks" on my sidebar for time zone difference. Meaning, I might only see you people on MSN on weekends unless you people log onto MSN in the morning which is rare considering you guys have to go for school. Well, you guys can always drop me a message on my tag board when you are bored, let me know your presence k. =) For those who want to know what modules I am doing in UCB, here's the list.

1. Exercise Physiology - map to LSM3212 Human Physiology - Cardiopulmonary System
2. General Endocrinology - map to LSM3214 Human Physiology - Hormones and Health
3. Biophysical Neurobiology - map to LSM3213 Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology
4. Molecular Immunology - map to LSM3223 Immunology
5. Biochemistry and Physiology of Plants- map to LSM3253 Plant Physiology
6. Legal Aspects of Management - map to BSP1004 Legal Environment of Business

If you guys are thinking if that's the normal workload in UCB, you guys are wrong. These 6 modules make up 20 units in UCB while the normal workload in UCB is 14-15 units. So does this mean I am crazy? Go on exchange still take on such heavy workload. Well, it's not easy to do module mapping especially for science modules which are so university-specific rather than generic across all universities like business modules. Firstly, I want to S/U all my life science modules because I am losing interest in this subject, so to maintain my CAP, I decided to go for this strategy. Secondly, I aim to take on my interest modules, especially finance and economics modules in NUS when I am back. I am hoping I can successfully apply for my second major in management, i.e. business. If that's the case, I will extend my graduation by one semester since I would have completed about 9 modules out of the 12 modules required for a second major by year 3 sem 2.

Point to note: The above timetable is temporary since I have not officially enrolled into my 3rd and 6th module listed above. I am still placed on the waiting list for these two classes. The above timetable is my desired timetable if everything goes smoothly in the end. Really sucks! Since last semester, I have to go through the trauma of appealing and praying for the approval of my modules and now I guess I have to go through the same shit once again. Please pray hard for me that I get all the modules I want. Haha. I really dun have much back up plans considering I am planning for double major, really no room for error.

My Blog is Up!!!!

2007-08-06T11:27:00.000+08:00

Dear buddies and friends,

My blog is finally ready for viewing. Hooray!!!! This blog is specially created upon your request as well as my personal wish to archive my wonderful memories in the land of dreams. Yep, that's right, the United States, US. I promise to feast your eyes with interesting and majestic photos and provide up to date first hand experience of life in US. As much I am excited to go, I will definitely miss all of you who have played some roles in my life, be it giving me valuable advice, playing games and having fun, standing by me when I am down etc. You will all be treasured and wonderful gifts awaits you when I returned, I promise you. Wow, I think I made a lot of promises, better remember and fulfill all of them. Haha. 7 days left to departure on the 14th of August, 2007, Tuesday, 6am.

Cheerios,
Zhong Hong