Contemplation

Another week went by, and it was so far the worst. Just got back my econ 409 results, and it was horrendously bad (it's below the mean). I don't know whether it is that my brain had turned rusty, or that it has never been shiny before; I would put more stakes on the latter one if it was a bet.

I hate to say it, but right now I think I'm a failure. Not only my academic grades is in jeopardy, things are getting out of control too. Some changes must definitely be made. I have to live strong. To do that, I have to understand myself more than ever.

Fall Break

So, I finally got my fall break. It's too short for me, but well, any extra day off is very much welcomed...

Normally, I would spend my break exploring the different areas of the States, but it seemed my aging process had been accelerated exponentially lately. Travelling didn't seem that much interesting anymore, and all I wanted to do for the break was just to get some good nights' rest and the luxury of taking everything easy. I would say that I still havn't got enough sleep though, and it's sad to say that although fall break hasn't officially ended yet, I'm looking forward to the next thanksgiving break already...

So, what have I accomplished over the break? Nothing meaningful actually. I got to watch three movies (Batman Begins, The Godfather I and 2046), finish another GuLong's novel (边城浪子) and do some shopping to stock up some supplies for winter (including a bottle of whiskey to warm up myself during the unrelentingly cold winter :P).

Besides, I managed to savor some of the food that I had been dreaming of for the past few weeks. Chye cooked an absolutely delectable Bak Kut Teh on Saturday, and Voon Seng was generous enough to share the mooncakes he brought from Malaysia. With Ren Jie's car too, I was able to drive to Hong Hua in Farmington Hills for dinner and Chocolate House in Main Street Ann Arbor for desert on Saturday night, and to Great Lakes for dim sum at Sunday noon.

Just celebrated Vivian's birthday in Pizza House. Less drinking than I had expected, but heck, that's not even a real bar. Oh yeah, and happy birthday to Wan Hong too...all that's left is memory...RIP.

Well, there's another midterm awaiting me this Thursday. Guess that means studying for the whole Tuesday and Wednesday...geez...that sucks..


Dinner at Hong Hua

Old email

When I was doing some data-cleaning chores on my computer, I came across this entry which I wrote eons ago. It was an email I wrote to my family and Malaysian friends when I first came to US:


Hi everybody, I am in the states already. Till now, everything goes on quite well and I am now in my own dorm room.

Ok, I’ll report a bit about what I have gone through since I part from you guys in the KLIA. After bidding goodbye to the close ones, we, about 22 friends along with me(among which 20 are going to umich) board the plane MH94. It’s a huge jet, with 3-4-3 seats arrangement, and the seats are quite cramped together(worse than the super VIP bus seats). There was no place to stretch out our legs properly. Luckily, there is a screen behind each seat, and we can play games, watch movie or listen to movie to kill time. My seat was on the furthermost right(right next to the window) and a few rows from the back. There were two girls sitting on my left, and it’s quite inconvenient for me to go in and out to the lavatories during the flight. After waiting for quite a while, the plane finally took off. It’s an exhilarating experience. During the whole flight, we experienced quite a few air turbulence. Unfortunate for me, the screen of mine was jammed throughout the whole 4 hours from KL to Taipei(reached there at 7-8pm, can’t really remember). Boring indeed, nothing to do except to enjoy the light meal the plane crew served…(taste ok..)

After arriving Taipei, we went toilets, and immediately rushed to another gate to board the same plane. The flight to LA took an astonishing 11 hours+, which I was thankful that my screen could be used again. We had dinner and brunch on the plane, and we reached LA at about 7pm local time. We had to go through strict custom procedure, which we felt like being ‘detained’ for a couple of hours. I was the first in my group to be interviewed, and luckily my interviewer was a Chinese. He spoke mandarin to me, and was quite friendly (fyi, American English is real hard to comprehend…they have the slang). After being fingerprinted and taken photos, I was freed. After checking in my luggage to the connecting flight, we went to stay in a hotel in LA(motel 6, a chain). Four of us shared a 57 USD room.

The next day, we took the American Airlines to Chicago, then another connecting flight to Detriot. The service is far worse than MAS airplane, as no proper meals were served. We only received a bag with energy bar, yogurt and raisins inside. We finally reached Detroit at 5-6pm. We met seniors and M’sia Student Department’s officer at the airport. After taking out all our luggage, we took cabs to Ann Arbor. It cost 40 USD for 4 people.
The whole Ann Arbor is a university. There are no walls or fences to mark the area of the uni. It is simply huge, and I did not even know I was in the vicinity of the umich because it resembled a town so much.

For the first night in Umich, we stayed in a house called Betsy Barbour. It cost around 23 USD per person, and we were paired up to stay in double rooms. The seniors, who we found very helpful, suggested that we move to our own housing the next morning, and they arranged everything for us. That night, we dined at a Chinese restaurant. I ordered steam chicken rice(5usd). Because of the last meal I had was the lousy snack on the plane, Pretzels(served at noon), I was starving badly. Even so, I didn’t manage to finish the chicken rice, because the serving was so huge. The rice looked like a mountain, and the chicken they gave was like about half-a-bird.

The next morning, on the 25th Aug(US time), the seniors helped us to rent a truck to load our belongings and carry them to our housing neighborhood, which is located in the north campus(Betsy Barbour is in the central campus). Before that, I and two friend of mine had breakfast in Starbucks. (3USD for muffin and coffee) We managed to move in our rooms under seniors’ help.(we were not supposed to move in so early). My house is situated in the furthermost part of the Baits houses, (they have Baits 1 and Baits 2, with a total of 10 buildings), and it’s called the Smith house. My room number is 3005, but it’s not actually on the third floor, because the first and second floor is under the ground level. My room doesn’t have a toilet, and I must go out to the common washroom situated outside my room.(not so far though, there are only 4 rooms sharing a short corridor, 2 double, 2 single, means 6 ppl sharing a bathroom) The surrounding is excellent, there are trees and grasses all around, and it is very similar to the highland resorts in Malaysia, but I think it’s too quiet. Maybe this was because that the international and American students have not yet moved in. The room door also uses the card system, which is like the hotel card in Malaysia. We need to swipe the card, press your password before you can enter your room. Very advance indeed. After moving in our luggage, we had lunch ordered by seniors. (Pizza, 2USD) We went to TCF bank to open an account later. We had dinner in seniors’ room. They prepared us Malay style chicken rice. It tasted very delicious. Our seniors seemed to have everything in their room. They had microwave, rice cooker, cordless phone, tv, PS2, radio, dvd player, computer, car and you name it.

On the 26th Aug, we went out to the central campus by bus to open another bank account.
We had brunch in Wendy’s, a fastfood chain. Here, the price of fastfood is much more cheaper than asian food. It cost me about 3 USD only. I bought a LAN cable in the Michigan Union, and it cost me 15 USD! In the afternoon, we went to the Meijers, a hypermarket like Tesco to buy bed linens and stuff like bowl, forks, and pillow. I spend about 35 USD there. Later, we came back and had dinner in a Chinese restaurant at the north campus.

Overall, I had a good time here. Hope this will last for four years, and I won’t have the time to write journal like this every week. I will try to report my important events though, and occasionally send some pics. Today(27th Aug), I just had my international orientation in central campus. I met a lot of people from around the globe(a lot of Singaporeans here, they said there are about 60 of them coming in as freshmen this year.) and it’s wonderful. I think I will just stop here. Keep in contact!!


Interesting huh?? Good to keep journals indeed :)

Gu Long

Finished two 古龙 novels in two days. I was surprise that I had the guts to indulge myself in the wuxia world the very day before my Math 520 midterm. Well, maybe I just needed a break from my studies :)

Read this, if you know how to read mandarin:

　　这个来刺杀傅红雪的人，无疑是高手中的高手，他算准了傅红雪一定能躲得过他的第一剑，也算准了傅红雪会扑向他的藏身之处，他当然算准了傅红雪一定知道他在傅红雪扑下时的一刹那间，无法将床板间的剑拔出。
　　他更算了傅红雪一定猜不到他还有另一把刀。
　　这一刀，才是真真正正的致命一刀。
　　人在空中，已无法再退。
　　刀光闪出，人必亡。
　　一刀挥出，淡淡的刀光映着刺客已有笑意的嘴角，他知道这一刀，傅红雪绝对是无法料到，也无法闪开。
　　料不到，闪不开，就得死。
　　就在这刺客准备欣赏鲜血溅出的美景时，他忽然听见了一种声音，一种仿佛很熟悉的声音。
　　一种只有在刀锋破风时，才会发出的声音。
　　他听见的是刀声。
　　当他听见刀声时，他就已感觉到泥土的冰冷，更奇怪的是，他居然看见傅红雪冷冷地站在他面前，正在用一种仿佛远山之巅上的星辰般眼睛看着他。
　　怎么可能？那一刀已是必死的一刀，傅红雪怎么可能躲得过？
　　他记得仿佛听见刀声。
　　是谁的刀声？
　　不可能是傅红雪，根本没看见他拔刀，刀未拔，又怎么可能有刀声呢？
　　他想用力撑起身子，忽然发觉右手竟然没有感觉，等到傅红雪点燃了残灯时，他才看见自己的右手居然已断了。

Now you know why 古龙's (GuLong) novel is so addictive? A lot of people think that his novels are not as good as 金庸's (JinYong), but I beg to differ. It's probably a matter of taste, because I seriously think that GuLong's style is more imaginative. Although the characters are unearthly powerful and seemingly invincible, the way the stories are depicted leaves more space of imagination. The language used is more poetry-like, to the extent that sometimes the delineation of the dueling process can be as beautiful and artistic as a poem.

For people who value logic and prefer realism over surrealism, JinYong is definitely a better choice. I personally enjoy books by JinYong a lot too. However, for a guy who likes fantasies and don't like to be bounded so much by details, GuLong is definitely more fun to read.