Results

Results are out, and it's dubious if I'd get into the dual degree programme or not. There's a silm chance, but then again, maybe not. I could kick myself for not having worked harder, but I guess I should be thankful that I didn't bomb given the amount of work I've done during finals week.

Highlights of Spring Semester

I'm now back at home, (more or less) missing life back in philly. Or perhaps I'm missing someone more than I thought I would. In any case, after a day back at home, I've realised that nothing much has changed. I mean, Singapore has definitely changed a bit cosmetically, but I'd say that it feels the same. Exactly the same as when I had left. Or perhaps I just didn't change much.

In any case, here's a recap of what I look fondly back on:

Winter break in LA with mar
Driving off to Lancaster county to visit the Amish
Walks to trader joe, even in the snow
Mugging in the bomb shelter (gregory's basement)- I am surprisingly a lot more productive there than in my room
Finding the perfect (almost) apt at Hamilton Court- D301, our home for 3 more years
Watching movies on yx's screen- Deathnote was really good
Spring break in New Orleans- a week of much needed R&R with great company
Getting my license
Discovering Nara (this gem of a japanese restaurant 2 minutes from where I stay) and its sashimi
Mimosa and chocolate sorbet at White Dog's- absolutely divine (I wish I knew abt it earlier)
Realising that Pattaya Grill has great non-thai desserts
Marathon Grill's ice cream brownie sundae which I've had on tooooo many occasions
Hanging out in my room
(Opps. Everything seems to be about food now..)
Magaret Kuo's xiao long baos which can rival Crystal Jade's
& dou jiang you tiao!!
Visiting siannie in Boston
Six Flags
Walking back from central philly/old city after dinner with nadia and gina
Lounging ard in White Dog/Philly Dinner after walking back to put off doing work
Having gina over for spring fling weekend- our mug fest in the bomb shelter and talk fest at night
Discovering that Chili's is actually a good place for meats
Transporting my worldly possessions to carlson's for summer storage- navigating those move-out carts is no joke..

Okie, that's about it for now. I'd add on to it when I can think of more.

Home sweet home

I'm at newark airport!!! :))) approx 21h30min till I'm back!!

I actually woke up at 6am this morning after sleeping at 3am.. My body clock's screwed up and its gonna get even worse with jet lag.. Packed everything and went to commons for breakfast myself cuz I was hungry and wanted to make a more sustained effort to finish my meal plan.. I'm still left with 3 though. XP Not that great a waste, at least..

Had lunch with gina, nadia, lala, derrick, carlson and yx at marathon grill before gg over to philip's place to pick up some stuff he didn't want anymore.

We had a talk, and everything's good.

Looking forward to being home. :D

Boohooohooo. Okay, I AM happy that I am done with finals.. BUT I still can't accept the fact that I'd be on the plane in LESS THAN 24 HOURS!! Sighs. Dinner at Vietnam Palace was good. I lurve the avocado milkshake!! :D

One last paper to go..

The last leg of this semester is here.. In four more hours I'd be done with finals-for good (until december, that is, and that sounds sufficiently far into the future for me).. ;D

30 more hours at penn before I go to newark airport. damn.

Rainy morning

It's a rainy tuesday morning and I was up at 6am. Why? Cuz stupid me didn't eat enough last night to satisfy my rumbling stomach.. It growled all night long, forcing me up to get food at 6am. Okok, it's prolly a good thing since I've managed to do laundry, thus eliminating the mad rush after finals end. I've even went to pnc bank to -uhhem- reset the online banking password I've conveniently managed to forget, resulting in a lock on my account. My, oh my, I really neeeeeeed to focus. I'm hiding out in the bookstore cafe. It's strangely comforting to observe the passing people from the huge windows. It's so comforting that I'm observing them instead of mugging for econ and stat which are in less than 3 and 6 hrs respectively. *groans*

Battle scarred

3 down, 3 to go.. and I already feel like a battle scarred warrior. It's no joke having 4 finals in the span of 44 short hrs. With 8x2 hrs for sleep, that leaves me with 28 hrs to study for the 4 finals AND take them. Taking them would take 2x4 hrs, leaving me with 20 hrs to study for 4 subjects!! Sighs. The life of a student at penn is definitely not good.

等.

Tiredness

I had a nice long talk over dinner.. I guess I'm feeling better about everything right now.. :) BUT I still need to mug mug mug like mad until 2pm wednesday. Time to hibernate!! :D

Photos!

Here are the long awaited photographs which I have had trouble uploading.. ;)

Three gals walking down towards marigold kitchen where we had a lovely 3 course dinner..
The view while walking back..
I love how the trees frame the photograph.
Bright vibrant colours scream SPRING! :D
Haha. Another photograph of tree branches.
Gina and I at Six Flags before going on the roller coasters..
Us after taking the batman and robin ride..
Nadia and I while in the queue..
El toro- a really jerky ride..
Gina and I- again. :)
On the streets of boston while visiting siannie..
Another photograph of boston streets.
Me and my huge lobster dinner..
Siannie and I..
Fire and Ice!! It really reminds me of seoul garden, but better.
Rachel and Lionel digging in at buddakan.
Our chocolate bento boxes!!
Gina and dalglish..
Rachel and I.. slightly red. XP
Random snapshot..

Die

Die. I am so not studying and this is bad bad bad bad bad. A 5 hr lunch and a 5 hr dinner basically described what I did yesterday. *groans* I am so not behaving like a gal in the middle of her finals week. In any case, I guess I'm pretty glad I went for senior farewell dinner yesterday despite not really feeling like going. It was fun hanging out and talking rubbish with the seniors whom I might not see in some time to come..

The ribbing is getting to me, but I guess I'm getting better at ignoring it, unless its right in my face. Keeping quiet helps I suppose- at least it sorta takes the fun out of it for them since they're not getting a response. :D

Grudgings

I am depressed. Kinda. On one hand, I'm really looking forward to being home, but on the other hand, I think I'd miss life here. The freedom is unparalleled; the fun we have is not what I could have imagined before coming here. ALSO, I am NOT prepared for my last 4 finals, and I just somehow CANNOT bring myself to study. Sighs. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?

I've been rather distracted of late.. concentrating has been hard.. I SHOULD force myself to focus, but somehow I don't.. I wonder why indeed.

Pre finals stress

ARGHHHHH. Only slightly more than 24 hrs to the start of my first paper. Jiayou!!!! Sighs. I HATE being teased. They were simply merciless tonight. :( Maybe I shouldn't have gone for dinner.

End of school-soon

One more week of classes!! :D I'd be seriously happy when this week is over and done with... :))) There's so much to be done!!! and this weekend is the Spring Fling weekend, where everyone's supposed to get really high before the finals. I'm just not in the mood though. I'd rather wait till everything's over and let loose then.. Too much is at stake right now. Focus!

Never ending work

Okay, I do feel better now. :) BUT I'm seriously bogged down with work. With slightly over a week of sch left, I've still 3 midterms, a quiz, a physical chemistry lab presentation, and a chemical engineering computer project. AND after that I'd have 5 or 6 finals depending on how well I do on one of the midterms next week. 3 more weeks till I'm back in singapore!! I really can't wait. Life at penn is great; but I NEED a break. A loooong break. Haha. 4 months of summer holiday sounds waaay too long before starting sch, but now, it feels like just the right amount of time. :)

Licensed at last

I've gotten my license!! :)) That's one new year resolution taken care of. :D

Fears?

Focus, girl. What happened? Why are you afraid of ambitious people? Is it because you think you shd be more like them? Focus, and get your drive back! There's so much you can do once you put your mind to it.

I think liking someone is sorta a downfall for me. It makes me wanna just spend time with him etc and not concentrate on my work and what I'm actually here for. I'm glad that I've woken up from my blurriness. Just less than 5 more wks of pia-ness (hopefully) and I'd be home! :D

Sleepiness..

Ahhhhhh. I overslept again today!! This is becoming a really bad habit. I was supposed to have a driving lesson at 5.15am.. but I apparently went back to sleep when my alarm rang at 4.45am. SIGHs. My instructor is prolly mad at me right now. I NEED to get my license before gg back to singapore!! :(( I shdn't have agreed to lessons at ungodly hours. I tried to force myself to sleep at 10pm but cldn't fall aslepp. Was tossing and turning for a really long time.. ughhh. Sometimes I really hate myself. I've no recollection of waking up and shutting off my alarm at all!!

Work work work

Ahhhhh. I'm going crazy soon. There's tons of work to do and the musical this weekend. I'm actually cleaning up my room instead of studying, that's how sian I am. :( K lah, at least the cleaning up is for a reason. Gh's friend is coming over for the musical and I'm housing her for 2 nights. Pretty interesting. I haven't exactly housed ppl I haven't met before (other than my lovely german gals who dun realli count since they were with me for 2 weeks). Ahwell. It's probably more scary for her since it'd take a leap of faith to stay with a stranger whereas I'm just giving her a place to stay. :) Hope to be able to bring her to places despite having a take home midterm this wkend and two midterms next week.. Arghhh. I really gotta concentrate. Focus, cyn, you can do it. Ok, that does not sound very convincing, does it? I've an econ midterm in less than 5 hrs and I can't really be bothered to mug for it. I'd draw some graphs later to familiarise myself I guess. XP Anyways.. I'm visiting siannie two weeks from now!! :D Can't wait to c siannie wennie.. *crosses my fingers* I hope the make up at the musical goes well. I've bought -almost- all the neccessary stuff and the budget is shot. :( Ahwells. At most they'd come out of my own pocket. Break a leg, musical peeps!

New Orleans

New Orleans was fun!!! :D We had loads of great food, walked around lots, and generally enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. The people in New Orleans are really friendly. We get cries of hello everywhere; cars stop to let us cross first (philly drivers would more likely honk at us when the lights are in our favour); and most sales assistants are genuinely friendly. We've gotten lots of recommendations on things to do as well as places to visit while we were there.
On the streets on New Orleans..
Petunia's- it's really pretty, with pink and green decor. We had cajun catfish and lovely sparkling wine which tasted like champagne.

Me and my fizzy drink with a strawberry thrown in for extra bubbles.

A pic of a pretty lil gal with her dad, taken in the street car. It's really sweet how her dad is so tender towards her.

The view from the street car window, as taken by yx. :) Somehow all his photos look waaay better than mine. :(Yinghui and pretty wooden houses..
The bridge across Mississippi River. We took the Canal St Ferry to get to Algiers', a well preserved Creole suburb.
A really pretty blue and white house in Algiers'.
A beautiful window in Algiers. I should have taken a photo of the house's owner. XP He really stands in contrast to his beautiful and well maintained house. :X

Sophie's ice cream!! Gelato on this really cool street (Magazine St) where I bought my shoes. It's this 6 mile long street with lotsa shops along the way (which we walked the entire length of).
A pretty sprayed on drawing in Bywater, a pretty shady district which we walked to for great BBQ!! :D We had pulled pork and ribs which were the best I've ever had.Beautiful sunset by the Mississippi River.
Yinghui's deeply engrossed in her camera and me in my beef jerky bought at the farmers' market we just visited.
A beautiful stately building.
Jackson's square- the central area of the French Quater.
Yaoxiang and his Beignets. :P
A half eaten Beignet.