...cos of Daylight Savings AGAIN.

I think I wrote earlier on about the effect of losing an hour, to sleep to study to do everything.

And it has happened AGAIN! in London! Argh.

Before coming on exchange I never experienced Daylight Savings. It was some far distant concept that would never affect my life.

Now, I've experienced it twice in 3 months. Ridiculous.

So where does all the time go?

After-Exchange Tour Around the World Part 1/3

(Photos and details when I get back to Singapore cos this place is freaking cold)

Finally I get to touch a computer! Candy's computer! I'm currently in her house in southeast London, and it's kinda surreal.We've never spent more than a few hours together ever since graduating from secondary school. And now we're gonna meet Michelle and spend a whole week altogether!

Yvette and Xiao Yun have gone back to their respective countries of exchange, namely Irvine, CA, USA and Grenoble, France. It's a bit weird, like the past 4 days in Paris and 4 days in London were all a dream.

Nevertheless, we had a blast! Paris was just too much to cover in 4 days alone. We did all the touristy stuff like the River Seine Cruise and the Eiffel Tower and Disneyland (Which compares BADLY to the Anaheim one), but also saw the Louvre and the Musee D'Orsay for intellectual stimulation. Tip: The Louvre is free for people under 26years on Fridays after 6pm! It was fun taking underground transport again and just walking around a city without worrying about parking. It was not fun however, converting everything in Euros to USD and then to Sing$. Heart attacks all around. And empty stomachs too cos we practically survived on bread.

We stayed in a 3 star hotel near the Gare de Lyon (Major train/RER/metro stop) so it was quite convenient and easy to find on the first day. XY arrived from Grenoble at that station too and found us severely jetlagged in the hotel room. Rats, plan to surprise her at the lobby - FAIL.

Alright, long story short for now, to be edited at a later date cos i gotta check my mail and apply for internship n special sem and whatnot.

so then we went to london and finally got our own beds (xy n i had to share in paris) then we visited all the touristy stuff in TWO days only but the markets were like awesome la. nice food!! singaporean stuff. West End on two nights. better transport. EVERYTHING IN PLAIN SIMPLE ENGLISH.

and now they're gone. and I'm still here. and the surreal world goes on.

(I miss the US. can't wait to go to Canada! all the touristy stuff's too overrated.)

...to the beginning of the end.

Live every day like it was your last.

I can happily say that we did live almost everyday here in Irvine like it was the last. 10 weeks really puts things into perspective/ I'm glad we tried to squeeze in every little thing that we could do into our weekends and treasured all the weekdays too. Even though school was such a drag sometimes.

I can't believe it's over!!!!! IT JUST HIT ME. I AM LEAVING IRVINE IN 5 HOURS!!! (and I haven't packed. joy.)

oh boo i guess the universal studios and chris tomlin posts won't get up today.

To everyone still on exchange:
GO OUT AND HAVE FUN. DON'T STAY HOME AND WATCH MOVIES. even if you do, invite tons of locals and other exchange students over!!

And so begins a new chapter - Hello Europe! (I WILL MISS YOU, IRVINE! YOU ROCK!)

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)

...to the Undie Run at UCI

I was walking to the bus stop from the SS trailer, where we had the most boring and arghh review session for finals ever (cos it was like attending another lesson, and so much stuff that wasn't covered in lectures is gonna be on the finals?! we're not foreign policy experts!!).

Then I saw a few hundred people standing in their underwear in front of the flagpoles. In 9Celsius or 48Fahrenheit. With policemen standing around. It looked fun, but the bus was coming so I couldn't join in. haha.

Turns out, it was an Undie Run! The people ran all around campus, and through the Gateway study centre where veryone was so stressed. must have been a riot!

Check out the link to the run:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1127694947/bclid1125901233/bctid16531382001

Happy studying, everyone!