to the Last Day of School. Almost.

Two papers down, two more to go!

Mixed and torn feelings about this.
Never been so happy to finish exams. Never been so sad to finish exams.

After my Coercive Diplomacy paper, my prof (who's the associate dean for social sciences) asked if I was staying for Spring Quarter, then he proceeded to interview me when I replied in the negative. Questions like my nationality/citizenship, my future plans, the languages I speak. Basically, he asked me to keep in touch so he could recommend me to intern/work at Washington D.C.

Yay! Another objective for this exchange accomplished - found a mentor for my post-grad studies.

No mood to study for tomorrow's papers :(
No mood to pack :(
Have mood to play with Tripit.com! (Travel site that keeps all your itinerary in one place)

...and had another scary week of school.

After barely studying over the weekend, I was kinda worried that I would be dead or something, being a mugger and all. But for the Organizations class I overheard people saying they didn't do the readings cos it was too boring :| ArGH to the Orgs class. So far everything that's been covered, I've gone through in that Public Sector Organizational Behaviour module last year. What a waste of time. Though the material quite applies to RHOC.

So on Monday, Yvette and I went to visit Jason and Andrea at their house in Verano Place, right next to campus, to check out details of their small group at Saddleback. They were very nice and friendly, and had interesting stories to tell about loving Korean food and teaching English in Japan and being German. They're gonna start studies on the Purpose-driven Life so we might join them.

On Tuesday, I met Tomomi, an exchange student from Japan, for tea. [Break: Super hungry shall eat Doritos with pesto Hummus that we got from the farmers' market.]

Yum!!

Back to the story. I was wondering why she said she needed to meet me, when I figured it was cos she needed help getting a mobile phone! Her written English is very good, but I think she lost her confidence with speaking and understanding cos the Americans speak so American-ish. As in, with all the intonation and blurring of consonants it's sometimes hard to understand.

After helping get a Tmobile prepaid card with a super expensive samsung phone that's cheapo in Sg, I brought her to In N Out! It was next door and I hadn't had lunch.

Can see? I was served by Barbie! And they NEVER include the tax in the price.

Tomomi!

All the fast food and the cold gave me a sore throat though :(

Remember the scary classes I was talking about? They weren't as scary as I thought, cos I managed to pass the time without saying anything. I didn't do the readings for Coercive Diplomacy due to lack of time, I mean you should see the STACK of stuff they expect to be read, so when I got called on I blanked. Oops. We got assigned our projcet groups and I'm working on Policy options for Natural Disasters and the India-Pakistan conflict. Really good training for the future. If I survive.

For the Israel class, we got a political advisor from the Israeli consulate in LA who gave us a lecture on the conflict between Israel and Hamas. I was really affected by the video showing that Hamas uses its own people as human shields, and sends toddlers as suicide bombers. Terrible!! All the CNN reports on the war are so biased, making Israel seem like an aggressor when the real threat to the Gazans is Hamas.

Sitting on a bench passing time til class starts.

The weather's been really nice these few days, with temperatures of 17degrees at night to 25 in the daytime. Almost like Singapore. Almost. People are wearing shorts and slippers all over campus.

Riding the shuttle bus home. I do this from Mon-Wed.

The place I hung out at listening to the jazz rehearsal at the Music building. The room's down the stairs at the left .

I went home earlier today so they hadn't started their rehearsal. I did see a double-bassist warming up.

Watch out for the next post on Weekend Trip: San Diego!

(We just came back from arguing with the guys about not staying so close to Mexico, at Chula Vista. Staying at the beach instead at a hostel... hope everything works out ok...)

...and the first week of school is over!

Whoa. the first night I can truly slack and I feel like sleeping. Ok upload photos in the morning.

My phone got drowned last night and I tried my best to dry it but in the morning it just kept vibrating non-stop when I put the battery in. So in a frantic flurry of emails and free smses, I notified all the important people I had to contact about the situation, causing me to miss the bus to school. And consequently, the entire International Students' Breakfast as well. Sigh.See the weird screen? :( At least it works!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

However as I was doing my readings in the library, I decided to try the phone again, and it miraculously worked!!!! Just that half the LCD screen seems dimmer. Thank God, I knew He would come through for me!! There is virtually no repair shop in Irvine, and the nearest phone shop is somewhere not near.

As I went to check in at the International Center, I met Ka Ho who just did the same thing, so we had lunch together. Here's the freaky part. Halfway through the meal, I blanked out on what I was saying and realised I was in the same situation as a dream that I had about a few months ago, like my view of the West food court and the blanking out. Except that I blanked out then and was thinking "what sort of weird dream is this?" while today was "I remember this scene!" poor Ka Ho just waited for me to finish my sentence :p like in the dream. I remember thinking at that time, 'poor guy why would i do such a weird thing while talking?' c'est un deja vu!

My only class today was by the same scary prof as homeland security. But somehow my mods always overlap on topics, and we discussed about the Israeli-Gaza conflict, which incidentally I just had a lecture on! Cool eh. Of course had to get into the spirit of things and volunteer to answer questions, although the prof made everyone speak a few times. This class is also very heavy and there's group work and stuff. MaNS. If I didn't really really enjoy it I'd be crying. This style (the House kind of everyone gather together and throw out ideas) wouldn't work in NUS though, cos no one would talk and we'd just sit around waiting for time to pass.

Meanwhile, the sun came out today and it was much warmer, so the Tshirt I wore was sufficient in the afternoon. By night, I was shivering like mad and my teeth were chattering. I missed the bus back again cos I wanted to finish photocopying the readings for one class and was dreading waiting at the bus stop in the cold, when I heard the offbeat rythms of a jazz band coming from the Claire Trevor School of the Arts building. Of course I had to follow the sound, and ended up standing at the door listening to the practice, the cold forgotten. Everything sounded so familiar and it felt like home. Sigh.

It's amazing, how a sucky day turned into such an enjoyable one.

3 or 4 weeks to midterms now. ARGH!!

...and finished my second day of school! (added commentary on the Arab-Israeli conflict)

I'm lazy to upload the two proper photos I took of the student groups and their tents lining the street. So no photos here.Update: Photos!!The buildings in the background are the Social Science buildings, where I have all my classes. Taken from outside the library. All the booths are manned by the student groups. My 'favourite' place - the library where I've been photocopying notes and making use of the heat. I think the chairs have heaters! Cos my legs felt very very hot after awhile.

Today school started at 11am, so I mistook the bright morning sun for a nice warm morning and wore only 2 layers. Mistake mistake mistake. It was waayyy colder today!

My first class was quite scary, but in a challenging and exciting kind of way. Homeland Security. Midterm exam, midterm paper, pop quizzes, a specialized name plate so that the prof can call people easily, plus all 3 books read and highlighted to be placed on the desk at all times. And it was 3 hours so it's lecture and tutorial together. Yvette said I looked worn out when I met her. I didn't really understand all the abbreviations of US agencies and all that, and American history is so not my forte. Blah. Plans of travelling go flying out the window in favour of studying. Studying on exchange!! Imagine that. Have the same prof for Coercive Diplomacy. Think I'll die if it's like this again.

I had my very first In N Out Burger!! Oh this must be shown with a photo!! Ok upload tomorrow when I'll take photos at the int'l student breakfast. Anyway, the burger was REAL!! and the fries were REAL!! they aren't the frozen crap Mac's sells. No wonder everyone loves it!Yvette and burger at In N Out

My meal!

We stopped by the Christian Students' Association or sth like that booth and met Debbie and Grace, from Taiwan and HK originally, and they invited us to join their welcome stuff. Since IVF is nowhere to be found I think we might join them, especially since they offered to drive and invited us to their house for dinner next week. They're very nice! and were excited about eating Singaporean food. HELP i kinda don't really know how to make chicken rice at home let alone here........

My Modern Israel class totally rocked. Like totally. My lecturer was really excited about the topic. So excited that we had a 10min break for a 3hr lecture but she couldn't finish the material. She kept going "Oh I want to tell you this story but we don't have time but nevermind I'll tell you...hey I sidetracked let's finish the other story first!" I think this might be my fave class.

Here's what I learnt:

The Jews have always had a presence in the area presently known as Israel and allegations of a disturbed Palestine homeland with Israel as a big fat bully are unfounded. Why Israel does not immediately stop its ground invasion and pull out completely of Gaza and the West Bank are because it HAS offered peace settlements from the beginning, to the point of giving up Jerusalen, all the way from 1937, and it HAS pulled out of the territories, to no avail. In fact, terrorism by the Palestinians has increased to about 2000 rocket attacks a day since the 1990s. While Palestine casualties are documented and played up by the media, the fact remains that Israeli civilians are killed almost every single day, and Israel has tried every means possible to ignore and stop these attacks through diplomatic channels. Peace is impossible in the region because the Arab nations have refused every settlement offered, and the whole objective of Hamas as an organization is to destroy Israel and put a strict Islamic nation in place.

I think Israel should ignore all those international calls for peace and advice about how to control the situation, because it has to secure its own borders first and foremost. Other countries, no matter how well intentioned they are, do not have to deal with the aftermath of constant terrorism and aggression from its neighbours. The media's role has been an almost biased one, showing Israel as the aggressor, when in fact it took control of the Territories only after the 6 Day war which was started by the Arab nations! And the number of Israeli civilians that are killed is almost rarely shown while Palestinian casulaties are emphasized. In short, Israel rocks!

Ok enough. I have take home exams for the module so I can write more for those.

Can't wait for 620pm tomorrow, when my week will be finished! That's right, no school on thurs and fri. yay!!!

...and had to go for my first day of school!

Finally, the first proper blog post. I woke up at 9am today cos it was so cold, and had a whole long 4 hours til the others woke up. So I posted up all my photos, which are on facebook! And which I won't post here cos 1. there are too many 2. blogger takes very long to upload them. Too bad if we're not friends, haha. The photos don't do justice to the true magnifence and worth of the actual people and places though.

We took the UCI shuttle to school, which took 10mins! (my apartment is a 45min walk from school. impossible distance to cover at night i think). It's free the first week but costs a dollar per ride after. The cool thing about it is that it's run by students on a voluntary basis. Imagine the shuttle buses at NUS being driven by students. So fun right!

When we arrived at school we accidentally bumped into Yvette, then into Xian Cong and Ka Ho, so we just called Hafiiz to come over to the school instead of meeting at In N Out like orignally planned. The main street in school was lined with fraternities, sororities, and other student groups, with HUNDREDS of students walking around. Too embarrassed to take the camera out, I pretended to just be holding it and ended up taking crappy photos.

People walking at the main gathering area of the campus.

Nice weather today! No fog!

Another potentailly nice photo of the area.

Finally a focused photo. The building in the background is the student centre with food courts and the bookstore and other facilities.First meal at UCI! Chinese food store was the most popular. Had to eat something filling cos of the cold.

After lunch we went to the bookstore which had super long queues; if it were NUS it would be from the central forum bookstore all the way to the bus stop. ok that's a bit exaggerated but I only could see the end of the line and not the cashier. The store had all the UCI paraphernalia which was so cool!! I think I'll end up stocking up so much that I'll be wearing the shirts everywhere. The hoodies are especially cool! Though they'd be overkill in NUS, while very useful here.

We attended the Reciprocity students' orientation at 4pm, which lasted an hour and a half. Met the rest of the new international students there, about 30 of us in total. There's about 100+ exchange students in UCI now. There was this girl Claudia from Chile, whom I sat next to. And Tomomi, a girl from Japan who's an anthropology major. We also met a guy called Eddy from HK (who has a Rock Band in his dorm room so I'm so gonna be friends with him!!), and another NUS student whom we didn't know existed until then! Li Hao, or Leo did card tricks for us. very impressive.

Then the depressing part of the day - Organizations. I didn't realise it was a Sociology course cross-listed with PS, so was quite unfamiliar with the terms used. Although I'm sure what I learn will be very relevant in the near future. E.g. in RHOC. Articulated and shared values are what makes an organization a Community! So we've been doing all those objectives brainstorming stuff right all along :D The prof let us off early tonight, so instead of 3 hrs it was only 1.5 hrs. Xintian, where are you to keep me awake? haha yeah right.

While waiting for Lois and Xian Cong to finish class, cos they had a full lecture, I went to the library to photocopy my first week's readings. The textbooks are crazy expensive, so I figure I'll try to photocopy or use e-reserves as much as possible. I took an hour to figure the whole photocopying thing out, and the copiers were all spoilt! There was only one or two on each floor so had to go up and down to find a working one. Exercise man. Won't gain weight like that!

The library stacks. Social Sciences area.

Lois and Xian Cong posing.



Photos of UCI at night. Pretty! Pretty CoLD!!

The last shot was from the UCI-Parkwest shuttle. We managed to catch it in the 10mins from end of class to its departure! My monday classes end at 9.50pm, so it's gonna be like this every week. Come back late, sleep early, cos tomorrow's first class is at 11! Grr.

Is this a super long post or what. And it's about a typical day. How am I going to compete the rest of the posts???

Kaili: does this satisfy your need for entertainment for awhile? Haha.