Pics of my room

As requested cuz i was bored and it's the beginning of the semester and i have nothing to do. well, actually not nothing, but i don't feel like doing anything else :) and LM it is snowing SO bad outside right now. piles of snow everywhere!! u don't wanna experience this. i have like 5 layers on. plus boots and scarf and hat and gloves. although it is kinda nice to see the whole campus blanketed in a beautiful layer of pure snow.


my desk. disney princess calendar, my schedule, and oooh look what's on the right! :)

my scarf and shoe collection. i have discovered a new love for scarfs. they keep me so warm! most of these are gifts from others though. i only bought like 3 of them.

our closets. all the stuff on top of the closets are mine. heh. overflowing suitcase of more clothes. i really don't know how i have so much when i don't buy that much. i guess i just can't bear to throw away old stuff. i like keeping them. memories sake

my boot collection! i love my brown ones. so cute. i know the two black ones on each side look the same. i only realized that after i bought the second one (on the right). but it has a zip and the other one doesn't! (excuses) and the one next to my brown ones are my rainboots! for rainy/snowy days (which are often) in Upland. bought them from Greece :)

our couch! we totally put the black one together ourselves. and by that i mean my roomie and my friend did it while i watched helplessly. haha. our fridge..hidden away in the corner..as u can see i brought back pineapple tarts :) not for me! for those who missed out on CNY at home. aren't i nice :)

a blurry pic of our beds. mine's the lower one. but it's still tiring to climb up onto it every night and down every morning. there's a glimpse of my overflowing drawer below my bed.

our desks! mine's the more...cluttered one on the right. i refused to take the desk by the window cuz windows are scary. u never know what kind of insect might come through there. plus we have our great big hole there.

our poster collection!!! u can see our differences in taste :)
hannah picked out the office, pirates of the caribbean and the dark knight.
i picked out high school musical 3, gossip girl and xmen.

yes, look at that big gaping hole in my wall. it's totally freezing in here.

the snowy view from my room

Coldest of the cold

It's official - this winter is the coldest EVER at Taylor. even the president of our college said that. it's snowing like CRAZY right now. there's snow like up to my knee! of course it's all shovelled off the sidewalk, but still. the ice is really scary. i feel like i'm gonna trip and fall anytime and break a bone or something. hope not. and so my room is insanely cold cuz we have a huge hole in our wall that was supposed to be fixed since last year, but guess what? it's STILL THERE. they better do something fast.

and i heard on the radio they've even CLOSED OFF the highways because it's simply too dangerous to drive. that's quite scary. there've been tons of accidents. so... i'll be staying in Upland for a while. no shopping trips anytime soon. not that i should spend any more money. i think i need to manage my finances better. money just keeps disappearing from my bank account!
NO MORE SPENDING. except on necessities. and books, which are SO expensive. sigh. good thing there's something called Amazon.com :)

classes have been good. i get tuesdays OFF! no class at all. and only one class on thursday! but then classes all the way from 11am to 9pm on wed.

gonna go clean up my room now. there's hardly space to walk.

Back safe and sound

yes, i am back. at school. feels kinda weird to be back, actually. like i'm on vacation 24/7. cuz when i'm home, i'm obviously on break, and when i'm here, i'm not home so it feels like i'm on holiday too. haha.

anyway, the travelling this time was good. smooth flight, hardly any turbulence at all, thank God. cuz whenever there's turbulence on the plane, especially bad turbulence, visions of my life flash before my eyes. it's kinda terrifying, but i'm getting more used to turbulence now that i've to travel at least twice a year.

sat next to this big sized german guy from singapore to frankfurt, and omg. totally had no space. he was in between me and another girl, and he took up his size plus half of ours. totally no leg space. but oh well, at least he got off at frankfurt, so i had a nice empty seat next to me from frankfurt to new york. surprisingly i slept a lot on the plane this time. although i still managed to squeeze in 5 movies :) so here are my reviews.

- Nights in Rodanthe (not really worth watching. really draggy and slow. would have been a normal romance story if not for the sad ending. but i guess, like all other nicholas sparks books, someone has to die at the end. his other movie adaptions like The Notebook and A walk to remember are much better. this was rather disappointing.)

- High School Musical 3 (although i saw this on its opening day, who doesn't like a good old feel-good movie once in a while?? plus i knew all the songs by heart since i heard them everyday in my hallway. haha. so i got to sing along! not out loud of course. there's just something about Disney movies that can 'stand the test of time'. people of all ages love them! it's just refreshing to see a movie that's not all about sex and violence for once.)

- The Duchess (i'm so glad i didn't waste money watching this in the theatres. it was kinda disappointing. although i love period films where the people dress up in such beautiful costumes and get to go to balls and all, this was just rather bland. keira knightley did a pretty good job portraying the long-suffering Duchess of Devonshire, but the other characters were one-dimensional and just unconvincing. and the ending was another sad one. as u can tell, i don't like sad endings! movies are supposed to take you into a world where unrealistic things happen so we can live vicariously through the happy endings that characters have! so depressing endings are just unacceptable. unless it's like a war movie or something)

- Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (i'd heard bad reviews for this one, so i wasn't expecting much. but it was actually not that bad. the awkward yet likeable pair of Michael Cera and Kat Dennings as Nick and Norah made for good chemistry. there wasn't much happening in the film, it was kinda slow-moving, but still interesting to see the relationship develop between them. although i only got to see the ending and not hear it, cuz the plane was landing and they took away our headphones.)

- Lakeview Terrace (omg this was horrid. not so much the plot or the acting, which was average, but mostly the characters. especially the main character, played by Samuel L. Jackson. he was just so.... difficult to understand! like, i didn't get what motivated his actions. he seemed racist, but there were times where he just seemed like a corrupted cop, and times where he was just psycho. it was really weird. i spend the entire movie trying to figure him out and i still don't understand him. so no. not worth watching at all.)

time to catch up on all 10 of my TV shows online!!! and also unpack and all. i'm trying to be a minimalist in terms of material possessions, but i think for me it's just impossible. i don't know why! but i just have SO much stuff! 3/4 of the stuff in the room belongs to me. heh.

so yeah. glad to see friends again, especially sungah, whom i haven't seen since 9 months ago. but mostly everyone's not back yet. but also kinda miss family and friends back home. i actually was tearing up in the plane, and it was kinda mortifying cuz people were looking at me all full of pity and i was like, this is my like 5th time leaving already i don't know why i'm still sad.
but i guess HOME is always where the HEART is :)

a picture speaks a thousand words

What kept me busy during christmas/j-term break...
(not in any order)


trying to do a paparazzi shot..but i look too happy to be running from the paparazzi

Nene!! openly chewing on a fishball. haha

prawning - the first time where i caught only 1 prawn in 4 whole hours. those prawns were really quite sad. i watched them wriggle and struggle as their last ounce of strength drained away on the bbq pit and death consumed them. and them ming, joce and clar ate them. such sad lives prawn lead!

bottle tree park! ulu place. clar insisted on taking a pic with the sign.

i sure hung out with these 3 a lot this time round :) good times.

happy times right before joce threw her whole cup of some sort of tea onto clar's lap, whereupon clar just sat there stunned and unable to move as the drink soaked her entire outfit. haha.

family christmas party. we made ryan wear jedi's present (shirt) and mine (scarf) and he looks so cute! like a mini model :)

visit to the peranakan museum after service. kinda inspired by watching the little nyonya i guess. i only saw one episode though. one really boring episode where some guy spoke really bad english.

nyonya poses. trying to be demure :)

squashed in the mrt :)

last youth service :( but actually it doesn't feel so different.

eve + e8 (mostly)

even in the toilet also must take pictures. haha. shopping dayyy

fake eyelashes. what an experience.

oh aud. u make me laugh. :) christmas, christmas time is hereeeee. love our mini christmas hats! even though it was daylight robbery at $5 a piece.

happily pushing the huge cart at ikea. why? because i have humbly and obediently accepted my fate as someone's PA forever. need someone to hold your clothes and stand in line at Topshop while you browse through more stuff? sure. :)

more pics in the toilet. this time at some hotel toilet, which was swarmed with kiasu singaporeans unwilling to use the 'more dirty' ones in the shopping centre.

haji lane shopping! (meaning joce and clar spend lots of $$ while lm and me take random pics)

at some restaurant i forgot the name. oh Ivins!! i think.

cousins! although those cousins on the right i never met before but i guess we're related since we're at a wedding dinner sitting on the bride's side.

DE retreat. good times, good times :)

ignez is seriously the cutest baby EVER!

i love this pic. everyone looks so sian/sad, except for some CMI people who are secretly smiling on the right.

happy pic!

karaoke wed night. 'lord i lift your name on high!' :)

DE run. i got a medal for being road marshall. even though kevin and i didn't see the 10k runners and let them run 20k instead :)

Dawgz waraku ladies' night outing. omg never ate so much jap food before

our visit to Play! first gay club experience ever. and a pretty interesting one at that. haha

countdown party '08 at tc!!

ben is so cute :)

awesome foursome :)

at lm's house getting ready for the countdown

liang ming - nyonya in the making; cook-er of awesome food.

The rocker and the safari ranger. who wouldn't go see a movie entitled that? :)

it's 2009... party like a rockstar!

clarke quay in the wee hours of the morning :)

cartoon's first clubbing experience. too bad zouk was playing boring music.

yello jello the retro bar. it was a little sad to admit we knew most of the songs. means we're OLD!

christmas cluster party

awwww...this pic is so... warm :)

DE24 at the christmas cluster lunch.

i kinda miss my nice long curly hair. now it's short and flat and straight. argh. nvm wait for it to grow out. again.

ice-skating escapades.

:)

so most of these are on facebook. ok all of them. but it's always good to have multiple backups :)
can't believe i'm leaving tomorrow already.

One thing

Just one thing i have to say - i'm SO entirely glad i stayed home this j-term.

A bunch of reasons why...
-longer break, no classes!
-catching-up time with wonderful people
-Chinese New Year! finally after 2 years. pineapple tarts, hongbaos and quality time with family :)
-tons of bonding time with you know who you are :)
-DE retreat, which was really awesome especially hearing the life journeys of everyone
-amore kickboxing/new body madness (and making full use of the facilities by bringing 'guests' every so often)
-family time!
-watching movies, karaoke-ing, ice-skating, playing arcade games, shopping, eating yummy local food, prawning, clubbing, having sleepovers.... everything upland doesn't offer! haha.

actually i have more things to say. haha.
looking back on 2008, it's been a great year. maybe not so much restful since it's always crazy busy during the semester, but fun all the same. growing to love taylor has been a big plus. really learned to appreciate my family as i've realized how blessed i am because God has always been SO GOOD to me and my family!!
i thought of writing a list of things i'm grateful for in the past year, but it's tiring so maybe another day. :)

Home sweet home

YAY finals are over and they weren't too bad... and even though i stayed up till 5am last night polishing my script, it's all good!! am pretty proud of my finished product. came up with an AWESOME ending!! hope i get an A :)
my very first script - entitled 'The Long Road Home' - about a secret that binds two estranged brothers together... i really enjoyed working on it!! wouldn't mind doing more of this kinda stuff in the future.
so. leavin soon to go to miriam's house in indy to spend the night..and my flight's at 8am fridayy. so i'll be back sat midnight! can't wait.
it's kinda sad though. so many girls in my wing are leaving! three to study abroad next semester in costa rica, hongkong and ireland...one to get married...one to another school. oh well. will miss them.
pray for journey mercy and safety! :)

Phantasmagorical - sequence of real/imaginary images like in a dream

Totally how i feel now. Everything's just... so surreal. bizarre. dreamlike.
i really, seriously, honestly CAN'T BELIEVE i'm leaving in 3 days!! it's so weird. this semester, like all the others, just flew by in the blink of an eye.

Had my first final today, after i slacked off ystdy. this Specialized Reporting final was definitely the easiest EVER. his study guide was basically all the questions on the exam. which, by the way, amounted to 50 points. WEAK! even our last assignment was worth 60 points! so i totally didn't bother studying much for this. haha.

so ok. on monday, i didn't have anything, so i slacked around in my room and didn't put on any makeup. and then my friends persuaded me to go to dinner... so i reluctantly trudged to the DC looking all plain and washed-out. and then... i was really quite self-conscious of my appearance cuz i was makeup-less and donning sweatpants and a huge First West sweatshirt (I don't know why it's so huge cuz it's M..but i'm like seriously drowning in it). that just got me thinking of how i'm more aware of my appearance than in the past. like, i pay more attention to my makeup, to what i wear on what days...
and i guess that isn't bad, it's just... different. from what i used to be. but then again, looking back at what i used to look like, i always can't help but cringe. at my hair, my glasses, my style of dressing... haha. i guess we all have embarrassing phases in our lives.

but anyway, this week... totally heck care about what i wear. sweatpants and sweatshirts all the way! so comfy and no one cares anyway. since everyone else is wearing the same thing. too busy studying to care how others look like. also, i got my first 'real' American sweatpants over Thanksgiving break, and I LOVE THEM!!! SOOOO comfortable. nothing beats it. i just wish sgp was cold enough so i could wear it at home too!

and today's Freelance Writing final was totally not what we expected. after our specialized final at 10am ended at 10.15am (that's how lame it was), we carpooled to Fort Wayne for the last time :( it's been really fun hanging out with these girls for 5hours every tuesday evening. so we studied, or attempted to, at the Starbucks at Barnes and Nobles... for like 3 hours. but actually we talked and joked around most of the time and took frequent study breaks. haha. and left early to have dinner at Flattop :) and i was glad we didn't study too hard, although we were pretty nervous about the final. the prof's pretty harsh and it's a freakin 4 hour credit class.

but THANK GOD there were only 4 questions!!! we had to write a query letter, a devotion, a movie review and answer another question! that's all! so we got outta there in an hour and a half. YAY :) goodbye fort wayne forever... the feeling's kinda bittersweet. will miss making fun of the weirdos in class. haha

and the campus-wide study break in the DC today was pretty darned lame. no pizza, cookies, guitar hero, Wii like last yr. only cereal, milk, hot chocolate and donuts. L-A-M-E!! so it's 1am and i'm procrastinating studying for my final tmr.