cleaning the cobwebs formed in this blog
“the properties of a limit is MORE important than the definition itself”
this is what I learnt today at math lecture. Haha and I am fortunate enough to have this really good-looking Russian as my math professor! ok I’m digressing here…
the weather here in davis is awfully cold now! This morning when I woke up it was 17degrees Celsius! Boos. Imagine cycling across a long distance with chilly wind blowing right into your face. UGH. My fingers are still cold even though I’m composing this entry in my toasty dorm room. Ok my room aint that toasty. In fact they haven’t even turned on the heating system!!! :( so I’ll just pile myself with layers of clothes and wrap my toes in warm wooly socks!
Haha ok! let me update you about my previous week! Well I spent the first three days cleaning up my room, buying more supplies (water, laundry bags, more warm clothes etc.) and making friends! Yeah the people in my dorm are friendly :) though I stay in a single room, they still make the effort to knock on my door just to say hi!
On Friday night, we went to the HUGE field in the middle of the school to attend this event called the BUZZ. Haha it was like a carnival! Some frats and sororities set up games booth…hmmm there was a corndog stand (eewww) OH!! There was this gigantic rock-climbing wall and a casino! Haha I don’t know how they did it but it was impressive. Had loads of fun prancing around, taking in the “davis” culture. Bumped into Josephine and jenny!!! met these two girls from international orientation!! Unfotch, they stay off-campus!! Or else, all of us will be hanging out together in school all the time!! Hahaha! Anyway we got invited to this frat party …so after the Buzz we decided to call this Barclay guy to fetch us to this party place. Haha he’s a nice chap!! Boarded his car with these two girls from korea…I tell you arh..they were SHAMELESSLY flirting with him!! I was super amused!! Couldn’t stop laughing! Well the frat party was just BOOZE, DIRTY-DANCING….the usual clubbing stuff just that it is held in a sleazy house. Boos I’d rather go party at the posh clubs back home!!
Saturday was uber fun! Went to six flags amusement park at Vallejo!! Oh gosh the first ride I sat on was the SCARIEST one!! argh I was so woozy after that ride I couldn’t sit on another one!! OH YESH!! There was ben & jerrys ice cream and when I saw it, I was like BEN & JERRYS!!!! AAAAAHHHH!!!! The regular serving was SO HUGE!!! I was extremely happy and guilty at the same time for pigging out on ice cream :P ok!!
Ok!! I have to go have a heavy lunch!! My lessons end at 8pm today ☹
quirky chinese things....
i went to this chinese restaurant and found this. hmmm a simple manual teaching you HOW TO USE YOUR CHOPSTICKS PROPERLY!! i have to admit that i never held my chopsticks in the "correct" way. i think it was because back home we didn't have THE chopstick manual written down for us. haha you can imagine how amused i was when i found that piece of paper (picture above) sitting on my table :)
okay. another really amusing thing they do at chinese restaurants here in USA is this: the practice of giving out FORTUNE COOKIES at the end of your meal. the movies did not conjure this practice up. it does exist. haha!! every fortune i had went like this: you will experience a windfall OR your strong determination will bring you far. i was SO disappointed...i was expecting this generic message to appear when i crack open my cookie: CONFUCIUS say.....*insert appropriate phrase here* haha oh well....
oh to anyone who wants to open a restaurant in california, make sure you can whip up EXCELLENT singapore cuisine. you will DEFINITELY become UBER RICH! let me prove to you why. i went to a restaurant that specialises in singapore/malaysian/indonesian cuisine today for lunch. the food was good, the price...uh huh....EXORBITANT!! ok let me break it down for you.
dish one: roti prata USD$3 >>>> SING$4.50
dish two: mee goreng USD$8 >>>SING$12
dish three: ice kachang USD$3 >>>>SING$4.50
yes my friends back home in singapore, be thankful that our favourite local cuisines are SO BLOODY CHEAP!!! despite its steep prices, this restaurant is really popular. you know why? because customers are oblivious to that fact that the restaurant is in fact, over-charging them. haha oh well...it doesn't matter. we're in california, can't expect singapore food to be cheap cheap here right?
oh yah! i found this market at Cupertino which is STOCKED WITH CHINESE PRODUCTS! haha i was so delighted when i found out that they sold mooncakes!! yay! maybe i can still experience the mooncake festival here! anyway the more important food item i found was.......*drumroll please*...my sorely-missed dumplings (JIAO ZI!!) i was jumping up and down when i saw those dumplings on display! i bought 4 pieces and gobbled them down. hmmmm ok so the meat aint that fragrant, the skin was way too thick but WHO CARES?? it's something i'll definitely NOT get to eat in another 3 months! when i come home in december, i'm going to buy 3098439028420938 jiao zi and xiaolongbao from crystal jade! so pls! don't bother going to eat at crystal jade in december, i would have eaten ALL their jiao zi :D hahahahahaha!!!
ok i'm done sharing my interesting observations!! haha i'm moving into my dorm tmr! i shall take pics and show u how tiny my room is! :)
changing of template design
a quote from an email sent to me by my dear friend Chew Zhi Wen:
"yeah i've checked out ur blog LOL wahahahaz what's up with the lion design...~?! lyk, seriously. ahahaz. din noe u lyk lions. i tink u seriously need lyk, an xtreme blog makeover! hahaz...okok...enuf said."
so after reading his mail, i set out on a search for nice blogskins...hahah and i stumbled upon this one :) haha wen if you are reading this, yesh this particular entry is dedicated to you :)
sight-seeing!!!
ok so what have i been doing since i left smalltown davis?? simple!! i went sight-seeing!!! :)
yup my dad and i drove to san francisco and visited her famous landmark: Golden Gate Bridge!! oh gosh...it's SO beautiful! then we went to Fisherman's Wharf and had fantastic seafood dishes there!! WOON!! i tell you arh...if we visited all the super classy restaurants here, we will swoon over EVERY DISH!!! yesh. some cuisine here is really damn good. italian food here is BAGUS!!!
anyway i went SHOPPING at san fran!! woohoo!! there are SO MANY shops here!! really spoilt for choice! BUT they aren't that cheap...so i didn't exactly have a truly satisfying shopping trip...boos...nvm i shall turn to ONLINE SHOPPING instead :)
next day we drove up to Carmel. ok this is like the place where a lot of super rich pple build their retirement homes at. the town area is very quaint and uppity high class!! oh you must take the 17 mile drive because you will get to drive through GORGEOUS scenery.
imagine waking up to this coastline and fresh sea breeze! and their houses, wait i should use the word MANSIONS, are soooo beautiful!! argh we just dashed past them so i didn't get to take pictures :( oh but i took pics of wildlife!!! haha none of the animals ran away from me!! woohoo!!!
next stop was the Monterey Bay Aquarium. it's a VERY GOOD aquarium ok? come california must visit this place! i took a pic of this baby sea bass (which was HUGE!!!!!!!! it's longer than ur laptop k!). anyway it had really cloudy eyes and we found out that it had CATARACTS!! boos...thank goodness it will never be released to the wild or else it wouldn't stand a chance against all its predators! there's the sea bass picture on the bottom :( very sad....
oh the best fun i had was on this train ride through the redwood forest at Roaring Camp!! haha i took lots of really dumb pics!! hmmm and the funniest thing was trying to get my mother to understand why i do stupid poses while taking pictures..well i should have showed her my collection of WOON's UNGLAM pictures :)
ANYWAY let me share with you what i learned during the train ride!! our guide, chris, was SUPER funny!! he's probably the FIRST guide i've ever listen to...seriously...when i go for other tours i usually never pay attention to the speaker cos they are always SO boring....argh....but i listened to chris!! so i did learn something at the end of the tour!!!
REDWOODS are really awesome trees!! during the 1976 forest fire, every tree was destroyed EXCEPT for the redwoods!! they were engulfed in flames for 12 hours yet only TWO redwoods were destroyed. apparently redwoods secrete some kind of acid that act as Nature's fire extinguisher so they are EXTREMELY resistant to fire. ok end of lesson one. i'll put up more facts when i erm...can recall them :)
ok so that's how i spent the past 3 days! quite okae lah huh....haha must relax like a tourist before i start school!! argh i just received an email from my chem prof regarding lab work.
this is what it states:
Students must read the laboratory experiment, complete the pre-laboratory assignment, and complete the online pre-laboratory quiz at least 1 hour before coming to class. If you have any questions about the experiment to be performed, be prepared to ask your TA during your pre-lab introduction.
uh huh......i remember mr pang's chem lab class NOT being so complicated. oh well uni life is VERY DIFFERENT. ok now i have to wonder how i'm going to heave my luggage up a flight of stairs without spraining my back! till next time!
haha add-on!
ahahaha ok this is a really dumb pic!! me and imran look so retarded lah....what were we doing dear?? oh i know!! we were taking stupid funny pictures!! haha i guess i uploaded this picture because i miss taking lots of stupid pics with my friends back home!! boos...
i can't think of a title for this post.
hello!!!! yes i should be punished for not updating this blog...BUT i have valid reasons!!! my dad and i drove for 2plus hours from san jose to davis! haha we got lost halfway but no matter...we stayed real calm and went back onto the highway...oh in the usa..everywhere you go, you definitely have to take the highway!!! this country is SO HUGE!!!!!!!!!! and the weather here is SO weird....i'm serious!!!! yesterday it was sweltering hot (minus the sweat part lah....haha) and today, it's SOOOOOOO cold!!!
ok so after we reached the hotel, i went down to the university to check-in as an international student. okae the word check-in just simply means getting my passport photocopied...argh wasted my time!!!! :( boos...
haha oh tuesday was a fun day!! i signed up for this tour to downtown davis, hoping to meet nice pple and i did!!! haha oh my gosh!! i even found a bunch of singaporeans k!!! ok most of them are here for exchange! but i managed to find caixiu!!! hahaha yay a fellow ex-hwachongian...what are the chances of THAT in davis lah!! close to ZERO!!! ok so when we saw each other, we were like, "OMG!! what are you doing here?? i though i was the only singaporean!!!" hahaha!! k so i got introduced to her group of friends :) correction: group of international friends! i'm serious. i've met pple from ENGLAND (beckham's country!!!), australia, korea, brazil, italy, taiwan, hongkong, japan and of course, china!
haha and everytime i introduce myself, i don't bother telling them how to pronounce my name properly! i say, "oh my name! just call me YOOOOOROOOOO yup!" the way christy, a korean born in brazil (damn cool right? she can speak english korean and portugese!!), pronounces my name makes pple think i'm a true-blue japanese!! yeah and everyone seems to speak with an american accent despite the fact that most of us have never lived in the US....hmmm....
haha anyway the bottomline is...they are a super nice bunch of pple!! and thankfully some of them are living in apartments...which means they can cook...which means.....I CAN GO OVER FOR DINNER :D:D:D woohoo!!!
walking around downtown davis was erm...not very exciting lah!!! argh their downtown is like our.....heartlands. not that i have anything against our heartland area, it's just that i was hoping to find a place similar to orchard road!! :( boos....well on the bright side, i won't be able to go shopping that often, which means i will study more often!!! hey hey HEY!!! i WILL STUDY ONE!!!!!
ohoh!! my university campus is really gigantic!!! argh i thought NTU was huge..when i came here i was proven WRONG!! i think walking across the entire campus is like walking from wheelock to raffles city!!! this is a walking/cycling university...oooh and i tried the hostel food today... boos..it aint good!! oh my gosh, everything is so so so sweet. i know i have a major sweet tooth, but the food here is really way too sweeeeeeet k!!!
ok i'll try to post pictures here soon!!! now i want to get back to my TV! haha there's over 60 channels here!!! AHHH!!! i must NOT get a tv in my dorm...or else i'll just flunk my first quarter :( which reminds me....my friend told me that a hostel blk located near mine, housed a girl who committed SUICIDE!!! omg..........i'm super freaked out can!!! okokok as long as i don't think too much, i'm sure i'll be fine. i hope!!!! i'll let you know how tiny my single room is...hopefully there is enough closet space :)
in foreign soil.
hey everyone!! haha yesh i just arrived at my nice hotel in san jose after ONE hour drive from san fran airport!! omg and i took the business class seat from singapore all the way to san fran...and i tell you arh..the experience was BAGUS!!!
pls pls pls everyone, we must earn lots of money next time, so can afford to relax in a LARGE comfy seat (which can recline to nearly 180degrees) during really long flights!! and the food is SOOO good...instead of food given to you on a plastic tray (where main course dessert bread salad are all-in-one tray), the business class food is served one course after another...on nice China instead of plastic!!!
woohoo i really had a blast on the plane!!! kudos to my dad for being such an angel :D haha he had to squash himself in the tiny seat at economy while i sat on large sofa, oh WAIT i forgot to mention this, the business class floor located on the 2nd level of the plane....yesh!!
oh the weather here is quite chilly...thank goodness i have my gorgeous zara coat!! haha so woon and naifen, if you're reading this..here's a BIG HUG to both of you!! everytime i wear this coat, i'll be reminded of you two :) :) :)
ohoh i must use this opportunity to thank everyone for coming to see me off at the airport :D:D:D
yesh this entry is dedicated to you all!!!
so to: naifen, zhiwen, woon, kane, felyna, qinyou, lippy, charmaine, cynthia, wenjia, erntheng, clement, alvin, suzy, sohee, huixian, rebecca, zhiqi, benben, aravin, louis, weekuan, wenjie, kangkang, milton, xiaohui, jinyang, jocelyn....
i'm very happy that you all took the trouble to travel to changi :) and thank you for the parting gifts!!! i read the letters while the plane took off...and i just kept crying and laughing at the same time...boos like same crazy girl...
the point is...i know i'm very very very extremely incredibly lucky to have all of you as my friends :D
and to my family....thank you for coming down too!!! yumin!! you must help thank matthew and qibin they all k?? :D:D:D
ok i shall sign out now. miss you all already.
boos...
