At Last!!!

It’s been awhile since I last blogged. What exactly is holding me back?

Before my first semester in Drake ended, I had to attend to the siren songs of my life. Kind of corny for an excuse, but I really was struggling to keep myself afloat when those assignments and studies came crushing down on me like those lethal waves of tsunami. I swam, swam with all my might to the surface and gasped for air only to find more coming at me, which crushed me deeper into the sea. I was on the brink of giving up when the thought of getting into the President’s list was thrown to me like a huge life-saving float. I was finally, at the very least, afloat, despite having most of my energy drained. And that’s all that matters. I pushed on to sustain those grades and I’m glad to say that my efforts bore fruits, in fact, the sweetest fruits on earth I have to say. I got into the President’s list with a CGPA of 4.0. That wasn’t very hard, was it? Screw you. People get slashed along the way, bleed profusely, and were half dead when they got there. Some were long dead before they were even close enough to have a glimpse of the President’s list. It’s easier said than done.

When the semester ended, Whoosh. It’s like having tons of burden taken off your shoulders. The craziness unleashed, and all you can think of was to soar high up into that vast blue sky like a freed bird, gasping for fresh air like it were to be your last breath. At least that was how I felt. Most of my time were spent with my friends. We cooked dinner together, cramped up in a small room watching “Diary of A Sex Addict”, went shopping, gathered around a small dining table playing Dota. It was so much fun! I PPS-ed when I had nothing on my to-do list, and I was and am really into PPS. I’m watching so many movies, tons of it in fact, to compensate for those movie time my studies took up during the semester. Besides that, I drowned myself in activities and recreations. I say yes to all the activities Amy and Dan organized, activities I would talk about later on. Went to Bell Center with Ryan when he wanted to get some time off his FM preparation. I just did not want to get involved in words, as it would bring up those stressful moments I had a few weeks ago. Hence, I had to put blogging aside for a moment. Sorry I was on such a long hiatus. Bad habit for a blogger.

There goes my second reason for not blogging for such a long time. And here’s the third. Hey! I’m trying to give you reasonable and elaborated reasons instead of saying “I was busy, period”, which is so rude and short when I had you guys waited for so long! I’m being considerate here, so please bear with me. Here goes. When the time came to start blogging again, I hid and avoided. The thought of having to fill up such a huge blank in the story of my life scares me to hell. I didn’t know where to start and I didn’t want to leave my readers uninformed of those interesting days that I enjoyed so much either. It would be very unfair of me to blast your mind off with all the ramblings I had to make and not share with you even an ounce of sweetness I tasted in life. Being selfish defies the whole purpose of blogging and that’s just not what I’m going to do. So readers, you are now staring at the blog where pain and happiness are equally shared. Be loyal to it and regret you shall not.

So it’s time to put my fears and phobias behind me and embark on this adventurous journey of blogging, starting off from where I abandoned you, shall we? …

…Spring break finally came and my plans did go smoothly. Tuesday morning, Fang Kai, Chew, Ryan, and I were waiting eagerly at the GreyHound bus stop in downtown Des Moines for the very bus that will bring us to a place where all the fun begins… CHICAGO…    

Of Randomness

So the US has been treating me well, but I have some catching up to do when it comes to open-mindedness.

I remember barging into the female’s lavatory when I was still little, wanting to show people that I indeed am slightly different from the norm as I attempted things in a way that the society finds it disapproving but in someway, humorous because I was just a little kid, because as what we’ve learnt through experience in our lives is that little kids can practically get away with anything that’s wrong or crime-based to a grown up/mature individual.

Before I start digressing and going into the details of my obnoxious childhood behavior, allow me to continue. So in the US, it’s a total different thing from what I did when I was of young age, girls enter the men’s lavatory instead.

I had several encounters in the men’s lavatory that involves females. I’ve seen head of girls popping out of the cubicles through the reflection of the mirror when I was brushing my teeth. I’ve seen pink high heels instead flip-flops or shoes through that 6 inches gap beneath the cubicles. I’ve been warned by a bunch of girls not to come out from the shower cubicle without a towel wrapped around my waist because it’s going to take them about 1 minute to pee. And later on, I’ve heard them calling out to somebody outside the lavatory to help them with the door because apparently, they were being locked in. Those were fun encounters.

But if those weren’t entertaining enough, I have something else to share with you guys. It was a fine Thursday night, a night where most Americans would go to the bar or clubs to get themselves drunk and all wasted because there usually won’t be any classes on Friday, when I was doing my stuff and my roommates were doing theirs although it’s way past midnight. Us Malaysians just love staying up, aren’t we?

So I was doing my stuff when suddenly the door of my dorm room slammed shut, indicating that someone just came in or went out. “Bam!” is what you’ll hear when the door shuts itself. The nosy me couldn’t help but to put a halt to what I was doing every single time that noise came beating on my eardrums, pop my head to the other side of the wall and take a peek at the door to see who was coming in or going out. It’s like every moment when that happened, I am bringing myself closer to possessing a great potential of working at front desks, registering people who’re entering or leaving any particular building.  

So as usual, I took a peek and saw a big-sized black American walking into our room without giving us any prior notice that he has an intention of entering our room by knocking at our door or whatsoever. It was weird that some stranger just barged into your room for no apparent reasons, but it’s even weirder when he started taking off his pants. I have no enthusiasm in watching a guy being bottom-less, so I turned away the moment I saw his erm.. pubic hair. He was doing it slow-mo so I get the chance to turn away before I stumbled upon little Johnson.

I sat still at my chair wondering what’s happening at the other side of the wall when I heard a sound so positively correlated to a guy peeing on a carpeted floor that without looking I was hell sure what’s actually going on. It was a long pee he took. The reason for me being a bystander is that I wasn’t sure if he’s drunk or he’s sleep-walking. In either condition, it’s a bad idea to wake him up and kindly ask him to buzz off.

First, if you failed to wake a sleep-walker, he might end up peeing on you than on the carpet, in which the latter is not that bad, just that it needs a little cleaning afterwards. Having pee on you? No thank you. Second, if he’s drunk and you’re trying your best to ask him not to pee in your room, you might end up Rihanna-fied. Or what’s worse, he might gun you down because it’s the US??! That’s the last thing that could happen to you in Unis, but who knows What fate awaits you? Third, what if he’s completely conscious of his doings and that was exactly his intention? You might as well say byebye to tomorrow’s sunlight if you acted all hero when you Asian is so tiny. So I did what I do best, nothing. And waited for the rainbows to come out.

So there he left, a puddle of pee for us. How thoughtful…

The following day, today, a Friday, I walked past my RA’s room and saw this written on the whiteboard outside her room, “No peeing on this door – 403.” I guess it wasn’t only my room that fell prey to this peeing monster that roamed the floor of GK at night.

On another note, ever wonder what it takes a person to snatch the final portion of his favorite food from someone who’s waiting in the line? So I went to Hubbell Dining Hall rather late today, few minutes before it closes to be exact.

Today’s food did not leave me much choice and it did not taste good at all, so I decided to go for the pizzas. Because Hubbell was just about to close, they weren’t making any more pizzas, and just nice, I was the forth in line when there were exactly 4 pizzas left. I was behind 3 rather small sized girls and I was pretty sure they were going to have a piece each and leave the final piece for me. So grabbed a plate and waited I did.

When my turn came, this guy came walking swiftly towards my direction, grabbed hold of the final piece of pizza with his hand and walked right past me, ignoring my presence totally. How much ruder can he be? I wonder…

The girl standing in front turned towards me, as if awaiting a dramatic reaction or some sort, but once again, I shrugged it off and showed her the what-can-i-do face. You’ll get used to meeting all sorts of people in this vastly diversified society. Well, good luck to us!

Wha’chu Say?

So the days in Drake have been mundane, almost identical to that in Malaysia. Attending classes, finishing up homework and assignments, studying for exams and quizzes, nothing none of you can’t imagine.

The obvious difference is the weather, of course. I walk shivering rather than with sweat dripping all over my face. I step on snow rather than gravelled paths. I have cold hands rather than sweaty palms. Not to mention also is the food difference. If Hubbell serves good food, I might have rice, chicken, broccoli, and sweet corns. If not, pizza is my sole and ultimate choice. If I’m lucky, I get really nice pizza with melted cheese and tasty crust. If not, I get ridiculously salty and oily pizza that made me feel like my life has been shortened by 10 years.

Aside from that awful food, I still have subs as my final option. But trust me, those subs are not very reliable. The best option is still the instant noodles from Walmart! =)

The day before Chinese New Year, I spent half of my day at Bell Center playing badminton. It was exhausting but enjoyable. I then went out with my roommates to the China Place again. This time the food wasn’t that bad. Maybe I have accustomed myself to the food here.

On the way there, I brought out my new N86 to a test. Took some night scenes of Drake, and not to my surprise, the pictures weren’t that clear. Oh well, it’s 8 megapixel but it’s not perfect. Sharp pictures can be taken during the day though. I’m satisfied with the performance of my new phone. Very!

So I celebrated Chinese New Year with an exam on a snowy day! Took some pictures on my way back to dorm. The exam was quite simple. My professor handed us some review questions last week and most of the questions from the review came out. I was told that the same thing will happen for every exam the professor gives. Free A!

I can’t wait to get back my test papers for ACTS 140! Hopefully Professor Kester could get all the papers marked by tomorrow.

Till Then! Happy Chinese New Year!

Let It Snow!

Sorry for the delay. It was absolutely, 100%, genuinely unintentional. Okay, maybe there was a slight intention for the delay at the beginning, but I was totally preoccupied with my homework and gatherings and some kick-ass events some Drake’s clubs organized.

Last Saturday, I was at the ISA party at Stacey’s residence hall – Morehouse. I know ISA sound intimidating as it is the acronym of the infamous Internal Security Act in Malaysia. But trust me, the party organized that night was fun Fun FUN!

We had pizzas and also some lemonade for drinks. After making sure all stomachs had been satisfied, we played games!

The first game was to pass down the message, that simple. If I’m not mistaken, there were around 40 of us? We were broken down into 2 groups, the Red and the Blue. So each group made a line and the message was passed down till the last person in line. The fun part of the game was to listen to how significant the message had been altered when the last person in line was called upon to announce the message they received.

Then came the game of popping balloons. No, it’s not the game where you race among each other to inflate the balloon and then sit your big fat ass on it in order to burst the balloon. It’s the tying the balloon on one of your legs and then try to burst other people’s balloon before they pop yours game. Of course, the Blue team won because I was in the team, cheh.

After that, we were all broken up into groups of 2 and I bet everyone of you is familiar with this game. I don’t know what it’s called but it’s the game where you have to have your feet on the newspaper that was to be folded in half each time the music stopped, at all times. I teamed up with Yin Qi and we almost won. We cheated a bit but Yin Qi’s feet were never outside the newspaper! (He was piggy-backing me).

I think after that game, they figured we were exhausted and needed something cold to quench our thirst, that’s when the ice-creams came! And while I was eating the ice-cream, I played musical chairs. Yes, musical chairs. I was never good at musical chairs so I was eliminated soon enough.

The dance floor was opened after a second round of musical chairs. Didn’t dance much because my quadriceps were too exhausted from the badminton game I had before the party. How serious was it? Whenever I stand up straight, my quadriceps cramped, that serious. I had to literally keep my legs bent for 10 minutes to give the muscles some rest.

Sunday was another boring day. I had 3 back-to-back classes today, there’s nothing much to say. But it snowed today, quite heavily. Nice! =)

And yes, as promised, I’m going to post up pictures of Drake covered in white snow! Be patient.

I shall try taking pictures of snow with a different mode next time.

Till then.

Popcorn Friday!

I know it’s Monday but this title has been moving about in my mind since Friday. Why? Last Friday, I tagged along with my friends and a few Americans after dinner at Hubbell Dining Hall (Where else even though the food is revoking) for an American board game session at Morehouse. The game is called Killer Bunnies.

Never mind the game if you’re that kind of person who doesn’t like really really slow game. But if you do, google is all yours. It’s not that I’m bad at explaining things, which unfortunately is actually quite a fact, but it’s best if you learn as you play. All I can say is that the main aim is to kill bunnies that don’t belong to you, that’s why the name killer bunnies. Make sense?

Coming back, we get to eat popcorns while we played and the smell of popcorns was really aromatic. In addition to that, there was this similar burst of aroma of popcorn blasting through the atmosphere that tingled my nose hairs when I was on my way back to my dorm room in Goodwin-Kirk (we call it GK for short). So, having popcorn smells slapped twice on my face, HARD, I pretty much think that Americans eat popcorns on Friday, and therefore, led me to the title – Popcorn Friday! Yay!

In case you’re wondering about the food in Drake, it’s awesome. Trust me. It can make someone with a huge appetite go down with diarrhoea, then make him feel like vomiting every second the thought of Hubbell food flashes through his mind and not forgetting, instilling phobia and fear into him that he never takes food in large amounts no more. That’s how AWESOME Drake’s food is.

Yes, I had diarrhoea, then fever plus a headache which lasted for 3 days? It was tormenting and in this kind of freezing weather, it was hard recuperate. For those who’re in the US currently, drink more water and don’t get sick, blizzard’s coming! It’s easy to get ill but it’s hard to get out of it. 

On Saturday, the Malaysian Student Association (MASA) at Drake held a Welcome Back Party for all MASA members, and practically, you’re a member of MASA if you’re a Malaysian. So for the sake of meeting the seniors and other Malaysians to build up my network, I slept in that day just to make sure that all my illnesses were gotten rid of. It didn’t quite work but I definitely felt better than previous days.

The party was okay. It wasn’t like any other parties where there’s ample supply of beers and alcohols for guys to down just to impress girls, who then become all drunk and wasted and start puking at every corner they swayed to. Neither was there a disco ball hanging on the ceiling, brightening the entire room with rainbow colours while sweaty people squeezed onto the dance floor and started nodding and shaking along with the rhythm of the music.

NO! Not even close. This party was way laid-back than that. We did a little bit of speed dating. Basically new students us, were arranged to be sat next to a junior or a senior and we start talking for 2 minutes, then we move to the next senior or junior, that speed dating. Then there’s the game of matching characteristics, which I will definitely bore you to death even more if I go into detail. The benefit gained from the party was that you get to know more people along the way despite the corny and lame activities implemented to achieve that objective. So yea. No comment.

I was invited by Ken Vin, one of the seniors to this Saturday Night Supper thingy, which is on Sunday (weird) at one of the American homes for some home-cook dinner after I complained to him about the food at Hubbell when we were speed dating (sounds wrong but it was what we were doing).

On Sunday, I went without any hesitation just to get away with Hubbell food for the night and of course, to gain more experience of the American culture. It was a long 20 minute journey and when I stepped into the house, there were around 20 of us cramping in that small wooden American house, eagerly waiting for dinner to be served.

Although the food was almost similar to those at Hubbell i.e. rice, chicken, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, but it tasted way better. Love it. We played a little card game called President after dinner before bidding goodbyes to them folks and heading back to Drake. It was a great night! There’ll be one every Sunday night and I sure am going to all of them if I have the time. No, I’ll find time for it. =)

It’s snowing heavily today and yes, there’ll be pictures! But not today. Hee~

Till Then.

Weather Fun!

So, yesterday I had my first class in Drake University at Aliber Hall 0006. It was Theory Of Interest, the only class I had in my schedule for the day.

It started off pretty interesting with Professor Kester joking away, then it got a tad boring as he started going through the materials on the textbook. Your mind usually start wandering away when a professor does that but he was constantly trying his best to brighten up the class. Appreciate it much.

And there’s one thing I have to say, Americans can be really really smart. Never look down on them.

On a different note, the weather yesterday was beautiful. It snowed and the bald trees were smothered with powdery snow that when the wind blows, the snow came down as if it was still snowing. I didn’t expect myself to amble across Drake with a camera in my hand and start clicking away because PLEASE, I’m a student, not a tourist. At least I will feel pretty awkward doing that. So I took a picture of the scenery from my dorm room. =) Pretty?

I know I had to show you my uni one day, so I chose this day, Jan 20, a Wednesday, a perfect day for venturing out into the cold when almost everyone is still hiding themselves under thick comforters and snoring away, to bring back some pictures of Drake especially for you.

Why? You ask. This day was supposed to be the most hectic day for me each week, but due to the weather condition in Des Moines, (I don’t know about other states) freezing rain and yada yada, all classes are cancelled today.

You think I must be prancing around with joy. No. I had my sleep being interrupted twice and you know, waking up twice is not a fun thing to do. At first, I woke up at 7.30am to find that the earliest classes have been cancelled. I then hopped onto the bed and get on with my sleep. 3 hours later, I was awaken by the alarm and when I checked, the notice has been altered. This time round, the cancellation of classes was meant for the entire day. Are you kidding me?

Coming back on track, I covered only a few buildings but I think it’s sufficient to give you a general idea of how my uni looks like because most buildings look similar, with red bricks, windows and all. Not to worry, I will be back with more pictures, just to keep you waiting and to build up the suspense.

That’s all that I’m saying and I bet you’re swearing at me already. “SHUT UP NOW AND JUST SHOW THE PICTURES!” Sean, “OKAY OKAY!”

Olmsted Building, the place where I had my Drake ID done and where you can have Subs, Pizzas and whatever they have for lunch and dinner. Not buffet style.

This is Goodwin-Kirk, my residence hall. It’s also the place where I play pool with Hern Ee and Angus.

The black building on the right is Meredith Hall, where I’m going to have my Probability 1 class. Sorry I was taking from quite a distance.

Look how a cold weather with freezing rain can cause tree branches and every other things to be frosted up. The building on the right is Aliber Hall, where most of my classes would be at.

This is where Yi Yun and Lydia currently reside in - Morehouse. It’s right beside Aliber Hall as you can see from the above picture.

Yes! I was wearing a pair of slippers while taking those pictures.

These are the classrooms in Aliber Hall if you haven’t notice they are classrooms.

That’s all for today. Stay tuned! =)

Campus Life

It was just yesterday night I spent my first night in Goodwin-Kirk. The bed was very nice to sleep on and all the bed sheets I brought from home made my room feel very homey. It took me almost 2 hours to unpack all my things from 2 luggage and so I was tired and lazy after that. That’s why the slight delay of updating my blog.

I broke out of my daily routine of coming online after moving into the residence hall. There’s so much to do here and it is so much nearer to those places from the dorm compared to the house at Cottage Grove Avenue. For instance, there’re 2 pool tables at the ground floor of my residence hall which you can play for as long as you desire at zero cost.

Apart from that, Bell Centre which has basketball courts, badminton courts, squash courts, swimming pool, gym and so forth is less than 10 minutes walk away. If you are a sports averse person, then feel free to join the slew of clubs and societies Drake has or you could always lock yourself in the room 24/7.

As for the food part, it’s pretty much taken care of as Hubbell Dining Hall is once again opened for students. With a meal plan, you could enjoy the large variety of food HDH provides. And because it’s buffet style, you could eat as much as you can. Besides that, McDonald’s, Subway and Starbucks are now only a stone throw away. So if you were to get bored of the food in Drake, you know what to do.

This is what I did today.

I woke up at 10 in the morning and started upgrading my Operating System. Although it took me more than 2 hours to fully upgrade my lousy Vista to the awesome Windows 7, the result was satisfactory and it was worth the hassle and the waiting.

An authentic copy of the Windows 7 OS costs around $30 if you’re a student of Drake. Yes, as a Drake student, you get privileges like that. However, I didn’t pay for a single cent because Choon Hoe has a complimentary copy which I suppose came along when he bought his Dell back in Malaysia. I decided to give it a try and it worked! Boy did it feel good to have Windows 7 operating your laptop.

A little later after lunch, I went over to Bell Centre with Hern Ee for badminton. There, I met a lot of people, all Malaysians if you’re curious, and one of them was Ian. Finally get a chance to see him. I had a great time playing badminton, a game which I retired from more than half a decade ago, despite being thrashed like mad. It was fun.

Now this is something you won’t get very often. Chloe and bf came down to Des Moines from Ames for some beef noodles for dinner at this restaurant called A-Dong. So the bright shiny light bulb me tagged along. What? I haven’t seen Chloe for quite some time already okay.

So the beef noodles was really scrumptious and filling. Unlike the beef noodles you get in Malaysia, the beef noodles here are really beef noodles and not noodles with a minute amount of beef. The beefs were as much as the noodles I must say. And hell no I’m not exaggerating. I’m up for more. *hint hint*

At 10 something at night, I went down and had 7 games of pool with Hern Ee before coming back up to finally have some rest. What an exhausting day! =)

Pictures time?

That’s all. Byee.