Sunday, September 25, 2005

Blow Blue!!!

School life started again, and it's predictably boring. This semester I'm taking 4 subjects:

GeoSci 122 Extreme weather
Econ 401 Intermediate microecnomic theory
Math 316 Differential Equation
Stats 426 Introduction to Theoretical Statistics

which total up to a mere 13 credit hours. Still, I feel like there is not enough time to complete my assignments and readings...(Econ 401 is definitely a killer...tonnes of homework!!!). Hmm...maybe it's time to stop complaining and change my old cogenital habit - procrastination.

Ok..so back to topic. What's blow blue?? It's not blowing something until it turns blue...It's actually one of the activity in the Big House Event organized by our extreme weather profesor - Perry Samson. Oh yeah, the venue of this event was in the much famed Big House - a football stadium which was boasted to be the biggest in the United States. And it's the home for our varsity football team - the Wolverines. (ahem...we just lost to Wisconsin Badgers. Great.)

In this event, all the students were asked to invite friends and participate in a couple of experiments that determine the temperature and air flow in the stadium. Each person would be given credit for involving in the preperation, bringing a friend or joining an experiment. It was only then I found out that I had no friends...what a sad thing! (Hmm..should I feel sad for such petty stuff?) Anyway, if everything turned out well, a student should be able to get 10 points out of this event. Of course, the ever-smart donation collectors were there to raise funds for Katrina relief. (They were actually part of the reason this event was organized)

So, basically we had lots of fun there, tying balloons to seats, taking temperature around the stadium, and blowing of course (a fun job huh). Apparently, some friend of mine blew so hard until she felt dizzy (haha).

The event ended around 1.30pm, and I went back with an extra thing - a free T-shirt. Woohoo!!

I'm part of the M!

Blow blow blow...

Lotsa balloons...

Me in the "colossal" stadium. Blow Blue!!

The biggest stadium in the States?!? Come on US...you can do way better than this...

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Back to school...

So, after 13 weeks of struggling, i was finally emancipatetd from the most difficult chapter in my life (which i hope it holds true forever). About two days before we hit the road, nature had unleashed its fury through Katrina. New Orleans was forcibly made to Venice, and the gas price shot up as a result of the damages on oil rigs. It went up as high as 5 usd per gallon in Atlanta, and we had received rumours that the gas stations nationwide were going to strike for a week. Of course, those were just rumours, but they indeed cast an ominous shadow on our journey back to Ann Arbor.

We went to Missisipi first to check out. It was a long drive (about 13 hours), and we reached there pretty late. So, after checking out, Mr Ramesh (the boss of the internship company) invited us to spend a night in his house. We continued our journey back the next day. It was another 12 hour drive. On our way, we stopped by at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (UIUC).

In UIUC, we managed to meet up with our msian friends (Yik Han, Billy, Jing Jet). We had our lunch/dinner there at a Korean restaurant.

We reached Ann Arbor at 1.00 am that night. And that marked the end of my saga...

Atlanta

Stopping by Georgia

Duke University

During the extra week (which i practically didn't work at all, coz it's extra), we managed to take time to visit the famous Duke University located in Durham, North Carolina (which was about 2 hours drive from Roanoke Rapids). Three of us went for the trip (qi ming, renjie and i), and actually we intended to meet up with the malaysians there. But due to some reasons, qi ming couldn't contact shen ling and other friends of his which were studying there. So we ended up walking around in the huge university, not really know which part to visit.

Duke University was basically as big as the University of Michigan (which was my personal opinion but others don't think so), and they had a medical center which was equally famous. In fact, a lot of my Mrs.Jones had paid visits to the center for various illness.

Our visit to university conincided with the first day of school in Duke. We went to the bookstore, and there each of us had the chance to get a free organizer (yay!) and other freebies. That night, we had dinner at a pizza place. Thinking about it, there was indeed nothing much to say about this trip...

a chapel in the main campus...

Some random building in East Campus

Probably the founder of Duke Uni...(see that bunch of nice cirrocumulus behind me?? hahaa....)

Duke University!!!

Friday, September 16, 2005

Corolla Beach Trip

During the last few weeks, when the motivation was low and the fighting spirit was significantly lesser, there was one thing that kept us moving on - the trip. We were promised a free trip to some beach, which was not decided yet until the 9-10th week of our internship. The trip was scheduled on the end of 11th week, and the location, which we later found out, was the Corolla Beach at the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

The Outer Banks was a thin strip of land that lies in between the Atlantic Ocean and the continent of the America. Hence, it was an excellent place to have all sorts of activities: water sports (jet skiing, para-sailing, kayaking etc) on the sound (a body of water seperated from the ocean by the outer bank) and surfing on the rough waters of the Atlantic Ocean. It was in fact a famous tourist-attraction in the States.

It took us about 5 hours to drive there. To make a long story short (as i am too lazy to write everything out in detail), we had a good time there. We managed to have tonnes of seafood (blue crabs, Alaskian king crab legs, snow crabs, crab cakes, shrimps and of course, beer :D )for the first dinner. Plus, i had my first jet-skiing experience...It was exhilarting (not to mention the part i fell in the water) as we sped our way on the sound, racing to be the first to reach an imaginary line marked by buoys. I got the chance to surf too(not standing but hugging the surfing board). The waves of the Atlantic Ocean were nothing like the amiable ones that pat the shore gently in Redang or Batu Feringghi; they are marching walls that smashed ferociously on the beach. It was kind of a terifying experience just watching at the inexorable waves crashing thunderously on the shore.

Aside from that, we had a party night to on the second day. Different types of alchohol were served, and the beach house was made to a party hosue. Since partying was not my cup of tea, i didn't drink much or dance...

Oh yeah, and did i mention that something unforgettable happened on our way back? (spices up our trip further...hahaha). That's all i can say for now. I'll post some photos...

after jet skiing...

group photo

i love new york....

Corolla Beach...

Monday, September 05, 2005


a full-course soul food dinner cooked by a very kind lady! (delivery week)

another group photo...

Sunday meeting (rookies)

My housemates in Roanoke Rapids